The Wild World of TB!

By Lawrence ‘TB’ Wright

Today I am going to talk about something that is really important to me and hopefully to some of you. Being that this is an opinion piece, let me just go ahead and say that this is my opinion and if you would like to debate it, please feel free to email me at tb@worldoftb.com. However, at least read it through and you might enjoy it or even agree with it.

Suck it up and deal with it! How many times have some of you heard that? If you are like I am more then you can count. Suck it up has become at times in my life the mantra of my existence. Suck it up can be defined as: Military slang meaning to just deal with it and quit complaining. It is something that most people don’t even consider these days. In a land of ‘feel good’ psychology and pop culture endorsing that you are owed a good time and everything to always be ‘fair’, fun and interesting or you shouldn’t do it. Suck it up is the bane of that thought process. Where this fits into scenario paintball is the intentional ‘dumbing down’ of the sport to try and make the weakest links happy because they can’t get ahead.

Now I know what you are thinking, that sounded so elitist and who are you to think you are better then me? Well in that case it is simple, I am the one willing to suck it up and move on with it. Now, stay with me for a few more minutes and think about this. In the beginning was Wayne Dollack, who created scenario paintball with the help of a few others. And from that time the game began to morph. People started adding more and more things to the game for ‘realism’ or aesthetics such as ‘helicopters’ (Thanks Viper) or snipers, demo players and medics. Things like that. But there was also a movement in the realm of equalizing everything now that may not sound too bad to some of you. But let’s look at this quantatively.

The real world is a place of things not always being fair, life has a way of dealing out success and failure and you can’t always direct which end of that stick you are going to get. But in life, normally, people who strive to be better then what they started out with will succeed more then people who have things handed to them. People who seek out excellence and try to turn lemons into lemonade seem to rise to the top and those that incessantly whine and complain don’t. But there is something in life that it seems quite a few people in this sport now-a-days is trying to introduce and that is the new age thought that peer exclusion is always a bad thing.

Schools are doing away with such life teaching games like Dodge ball, Tag and Kickball in favor of a game where all are equal. While that is true in civil rights, reality says that there is no way that a 180 pound in shape, non-smoking guy is equal to a guy who is 240 pounds and smokes 2 packs a day in a mile run. So to make the guy who is in shape and taking care of himself to suffer so that the guy who refuses to do better doesn’t feel bad about himself is ludicrous. But that is what some would want and have gotten promoters and teams to acquiesce to in scenario paintball.

But TB, you may exclaim, I work hard all week and I’ll be darned if I have to go out and work hard at this thing I pay to enjoy. That’s ok it is your right as a paying consumer to do that. But to try and put me and players like me in that category is as unfair as trying to make you conform to my idea of fun. But here is what I see, most of the time and I am not picking on any one team, player or promoter. Team A wants to be known as the team to be wanted feared what have you. And they work hard to develop that reputation; they attend games and play hard. You never see them off the field, you never see them lollygagging around and they have all the neat toys, Gen 3 NVG, high end markers, VHF radios and they play to not only win but to try and dominate the opposition.

Team B comes into the scene or they have been there awhile and they either want that kind of respect or they haven’t gotten it, but they don’t want to put in the work, buy the gear or adopt the ethic required of Team A to get that level of respect. So to ‘even’ the playing field they whine about night vision, or high end markers, or ROF issues, and there are some promoters and field owners out there that then eliminate or seriously hamper the use of these objects. For no reason other then some players complained about fairness. Rather then encourage them to suck it up and adapt and overcome, they coddle these players with the easy way out of things. You want this, more then 10 people say the same thing, let’s give it to you. And in the short run, most people will seem happy, but in the long run it leads to a loss of skill and a reinforcement of whining to get what you want.

And then when Team B has seen success at these events with all these things given to them to ‘even’ the playing field, they then turn to Team A and say we are a good as you are. Team A of course has adapted to the new rules and then goes and destroys Team B and Team B then resorts to whining back to the promoter/field owner and Team A is once again handicapped to try and make Team B happy. And we arrive at where scenario paintball is for a lot of people all over the country, sub-standard teams wanting respect and to be known as one of the best teams in the game but not wanting to work hard to get that rep. It is owed to them for some reason, and if they don’t get it the old standard is used. ‘This is all about the fun’ or ‘You need to go play speedball if you want competition’ or even ‘That isn’t a good attitude to think you are better then someone else, we are all equals here’, all the while they put themselves out there as being better then the average person, they just don’t call it that.

They call it words like ‘helping you out’, or ‘letting you taste some success’ to try and help make you a better player. But it really is patronization at the basic level. I prefer you come at me with all you got, I will play with all I have and whoever wins … wins. And the winner can shake the loser’s hand and both can say good game and mean it. I hate patronization, from anyone about anything. Yes things are going to be unfair sometimes, sometimes they may have more players, more experienced teams, more toys, more tanks, what have you.

But I have also taken the underdogs and together we have sucked it up and tasted success against those adversities. And in every case that has been done, those players have to me and win or lose tell me thank you for not giving up and teaching me and others to suck it up and do what you can with what you have. That is the attitude that scenario players need to develop. That scenario paintball is not some social experiment to implement change to make everyone feel good and give everyone a blue ribbon. People rank things even unconsciously and that is ok as well. And if you are ranked at the bottom you need to emulate the team you want to be like and work hard and you know what, you too will succeed. And if you happen to be ranked at the top, take a hard look at yourself and take stock if that is truly the case or have you just fooled people. Have you put yourself into a microcosm where your success is assured because you have manipulated the system to your favor? Want to find out if you are truly one of the best teams? Travel to other fields across the country, not in the region you play and test you.

Be true to yourself and don’t allow yourself to fall into the easy trap of whining to promoters and field owners. If you have an issue take it to them, state your case but leave out the words fairness and make it fun for everyone. By their very job they are trying to do that, all you are doing is using the ‘harm words’ to get what you want and manipulate the situation. Enjoy the game, enjoy the challenge and when you overcome, you will be a better player for it. You will be able to adapt and overcome just about any deficiency you may get at a game. So to end this blog, I’ll say this: Suck it up and get out there and play hard core scenario paintball, and I will see you out there.

©2007, Lawrence ‘TB’ Wright. This may not be copied, linked or used without permission.

So here it is the final installment of What It Takes to Command. We’ve talked about the teams, we’ve talked about the planning and we’ve talked about the work behind the scenes. This month we start at game on, and I give you an inside look at commanding a scenario game. So are you ready? Let’s go!

So it’s Saturday morning and the game is in a few hours. You’ve planned all that you can and now it is time for action. You’ve talked to the team captains, the field commanders, got the radios ready, and everything else. You need to go pick up your command radio and commander’s box from the game director. In it you will find the things that will help you out. Some directors will give you everything you need to start the game, others will give you the first mission and it will be to go get your supplies.

If they get given to you, then that is gravy as you can assign them out right then. It is good to find someone to handle that for you if you know the teams. You send them to that team’s camp site and they tape the OS’s and the team’s tape. Give them the cards needed and express that it is imperative that they get on the field ASAP. While you are at it, give some of the team tape to your XO and have them go through the camps checking cards and taping players. This will allow you to get the rally points (remember them) set up faster and you get a slight advantage at game on.

If they don’t get given then you have to set your recovery teams to recover every drop box. You also need to have them looking out for the other team’s as well since this will handicap them from the get go. Your first priority though is still the plan, just tell your field commanders to be on the lookout for the drop boxes or other items needed

At the mandatory player orientation, you should be proud of all the players standing with your team color on. The commander’s box and all that go with it should be ready to be taken to the field as soon as the orientation is over. Get on the field and get set up. You should load all the LAW’s, spend a little bit of time with them and talk about how to use them, not everyone is the demo expert, yet. Go over your overall plan, since this is at your base, everyone except maybe one or two are on your side. Give them the pep talk, get them fired up and ready to go. Your command staff should have the radio to the game director up and ready, you should have your command net up and everybody at their rally points. You give each color their directions and make sure they have no questions. You should be done with time to spare for the bird banger.

At the bird banger, your plan will go into effect. And guess what? It will probably get all messed up in the first few minutes of contact with the enemy and you will have to be flexible enough to put the alternative plans into action; if you have them that is. If not, then you need to stop and analyze the battle. Get real time intelligence from your field commanders and try to figure out what went wrong. Are your guys out of position? Are they not communicating with each other? Are they outgunned or outplayed? With this kind of examination along with your map of the battle field you should be able to figure out what to do to get back on track.

One of the things I like to do is examine the battle field. I look at the strong points for each side. I look at how I would want to take a base down, or an objective. I look at how many people would be needed to take a fortified objective, and I look for movement points. If you have planned well enough you should know how you are going to be attacked and how to attack your enemy. Say the field has a narrowing field of fire on it or a choke point as it may be called. You set up your guys to hold that and you send team after team to reinforce it. If you do that well enough, then you will need little to no base security. Your mission teams will be just enough to do missions and your interdiction teams can be rolled into your base assault teams. You keep his guys bottled up in the base and they will not be causing problems all over the field. You keep hitting them where it hurts; mission production and you will see results. Morale will sink and you will see your team’s morale rise.

But here is the deal; in effect someone’s fun is going to suffer because morale equals fun in this game. So for you guys, that are in the base getting hit constantly here is what you do; or if your plans really screw up and you have people inside your base perimeter. Secure your base: that means be prepared to retake your base. If you need to plant satchel charges and pre-prep them then you do so. You stash helicopters near your insertion point as the forces are falling. You make sure that you have your demo guys and medics ready to go in the hospital. Now, the simple fact is according to the GSRP, the base can only be held for 2 insertions then they must move at least 100 yards back to give the base back. If you can’t take it back by force, then when you get it back fortify the heck out of it. Expect them to be back out there. Make securing your base and everything around it your number one priority. You have the advantage since they have to take the long walk and chances are they are low on paint and air. So take the territory. Take all you can, because they will be back. Move the lines past a choke-point if there is one working against you and then repeat the above tactic. Send reinforcements to keep the lines up and have your mission squads up and running. Use your brain, if they start pushing you back down the hill, and then use your demolitions. Blow bunkers as you leave and leave satchel charges to blow as large groups move into bunkers. This will allow you to make the enemy pay for anything that they take from you.

So say that the choke point isn’t working and the field is even steven on the tactical advantage. Then you will need to plan on fighting for the missions. That means, if the mission calls for 10 to 15 then you send 20 to 30. You look at the mission and figure out the counter-mission. Say you have a defend mission, and then chances are the bad guys will have a take and hold mission. You are to take 10 to 15; you can bet they will be given the same numbers if not more. This is where your interdiction squads come into play. You send out your mission squad, you reinforce them with the reserve players you have. Then you send your interdiction squad out to find the mission squad and assault it. If it goes according to plan, then if they make it through the interdiction squad then they are greatly out numbered when they reach the objective. This can only be done effectively with radio communications.

Another thing I have done is use zones as offense and defense. This requires dedicated scenario teams and dedicated field commanders. What you do is divide the field into zones. You include a major objective in each zone. And then you assign forces to them based by field commander. Their objective is to hold that zone. They don’t leave the zone, they don’t leave the objective. And you send them their teams back to them when they re-insert so that they never have to leave. This is where a sub-FC comes in handy. If your FC has to leave for paint or air then your sub-FC takes over. What this does is give you the advantage of having troops all over the field, in objectives and ready to fight. They aren’t just slinging paint and it allows for you to dictate to the enemy the fight for anything. You still use your interdiction squads to hit the enemy as you see them and your objective squads call them in to where the bad guys are. Your mission squads take the mission cards and move out to the objectives. So for example, say you have a 25 man group holding the Castle in Zone Green. You have 3 10 man interdiction squads and you have 3 15 man mission squads. You get a take and hold mission to the castle. You already hold it with the 25 man group. You get a call that they see the bad guys, you then send your interdiction squad to hit them before they get to the objective. They can flank or whatever. You send the mission squad out with the mission card and they set up the way they are coming into the objective. If this works out as I have described you will have over 30 guys in the objective while your 15 man interdiction squad is fighting the bad guys. Say they get through your interdiction squad, and then they are facing a huge number of troops in a fortified position. It would be very hard for them to take this objective now and they will soon learn that.

With zones you have great freedom, you can fill as necessary any gaps that may appear as people come and go on the field. You can do the same for defense positions as well. But you never give the zone to the enemy. If you lose it, then you send in the resources needed to take it back. As you can see, zones require not only a dedicated group of players, but a large number of players as well. Remember this before you start to use zones as they can be used against you if you don’t have the man-power to back it up.

And finally you have the old fashioned slobber knocker. This is where you will fight for each mission on the field. You can’t run zones; you don’t have mission teams, or any other organized teams. You do it the old fashioned way then, you train people to lead groups to get the jobs done. You find the advantages you do have. If you have helicopters then you use them for photo recons, recon and reports or even vertical envelopment (moving troops). Use your infantry to support your tanks, if you have them. Or divide the group up and talk about how to flank and take things down. If you don’t have anyone with a basic knowledge of tactics then you may have to lead from the front. This means getting that radio operator in and up, so that you can take it to the bad guys.

All of the above strategies have strengths and weaknesses and I could go into each of them. But that would ruin the fun; if you take the whole article (all three parts) and read it together you will be able to understand how to lead troops in a paintball game. You will know the basics of how to do this, you still have to play and learn how to do it better. Be sure to pay attention to other generals when you play. See how they interact with teams, see how they plan and see what they do. You will see that lot’s of things go into making a great commander at these games. If you disagree with anything you’ve read, and then please email me and we can discuss it more.

©2007, Lawrence 'TB' Wright. This may not be copied, linked or used without permission.

Ok guys, last month we talked about what makes a leader. And what you need to do to prepare the overall plan. We talked about deciding which teams go where and how to build a competent command staff. This month we will move into more of the planning missions, resource management, dealing with role players and props and other essential information. The last article will be about actual leading the troops during the game. I hope you enjoy this expose into commanding scenario games.

Another keyword to remember in commanding is called the six troop leading steps. IT breaks down as follows:

B Begin the Planning
A Arrange Reconnaissance
M Make Reconnaissance
C Complete the Planning
I Issue Orders
S Supervise

Using the above stated steps, you can conquer any objective or item. You get faced with a new problem; you diagram it with the above steps. You will see that you get a bigger picture of the game field then you ever did.

So starting with begin the planning. We started that last month with the separation of teams and building the command staff. You go more into that now with game maps, intelligence agents, photo intelligence, previous games, talking to previous commanders, talking to the field owner. You need to secure communications devices, by either providing secure radios or setting up a command net with FRS or GMRS. These should be written down on your battle sheet. You assign squads colors and then if you are rotating mission squads you assign them mission times. We will get into that more, but the thing to remember is get everything you can to start planning.

Commander’s intent should be more then just winning. You need to set the tone of the game with the plan. You want to own 75% of the field and keep them in their base then develop the plan for that. You want to fight for the objectives you need and then deny them theirs while hitting their base constantly then you develop another plan. Have several plans because after you meet with the game director, things may change. And NEVER share your plan with anyone till the day of the game. There are spies both official and unofficial and if you can’t trust people then you don’t need to be emailing them every battle plan. I could tell you a story that would set you on fire about that one, but I digress.

Second and third part, arrange and make the reconnaissance of the field. Gathering intelligence is paramount to the campaign. If you have never played the field you need to find out all you can about it. If you have played the field which end did you play? How well do you know it? Can you get a copy of an old game map? What objectives have been added? If you can get a home team on your side so much the better, and being able to get out and walk the field is about the best intel you can get. What is the field name for the objectives? Take your camera along and take pictures of the objectives. Get pictures of different approaches to them. Take pictures of potential ambush sites or choke points. Do your research on the field. These pictures will be used during your captain’s meeting to show people what they are looking at and for.

Now you complete the planning. If you can get a copy of the game map before the game then you are set, if not then a previous one works most of the time. You take the map and using your editing software you divide the field into quadrants. It would help if you know which base you will be out of but it isn’t necessary. You set the quadrants and you assign a color to each. The color is important because you will be assigning areas of responsibility based on them. You also rename all the bunkers based on the quadrants. This is done in case there are not secure communications on the field and you can bet that unless you have a scrambler built into your radio that people are listening to it. So say you are in the black quadrant and you are at the major objective, you may radio in that you are at Black Alpha One (BA1). Black to denote the quadrant, Alpha to denote a major objective and then the number that coincides with the map.

I have taken a map and printed the actual map on one side and the modified map on the other to allow for quick deciphering of symbols. And I can tell you, that you need several maps since invariably one of your command staff will lose his map. As soon as he notifies you, you implement the new map and under penalty of death (joke) you issue it back to him. There are several ways to do this and I have seen quite a few, if you can bring a laptop, printer and laminator to the field even better since you can do it on the fly.

If you have a lot of new players, or people who haven’t walked the field then you can make what I call the ‘big picture’. You find the bunker at your base and you take the pictures of the objective that you took earlier. You name them what they are on the field map and your code names. You put the game map in the middle and you staple them around the map in order. You place stick pins in the map and pull yarn out to the pictures you took. So say you have a picture of The Old Fort (BA1) but most people have no idea of what that is. You have a picture of it with those two names (and the field name for it, if you have it) with a string that connects to its point on the map. Now this seems like a lot of work, but if people understand the lay of the land or what a bunker is then they can get to it. This cuts down on mistaken bunkers since not all the promoters label the real bunkers to match the map.

So you have your teams divided into squads that have certain objectives to be met. This is a good thing, but the next step is how do you add to that? Well the answer is simple; you must supplement them with walk-ons and smaller teams. You do this by setting rally points and putting the team colors to work. How do you ask? You get several tomato stakes and you place them around your base in the ground (or you can use trees). Using surveyor’s tape of various colors you tie them to the stakes and then you assign those colors to teams. You do this by tying them to the back of their masks. So say your base assault team is yellow surveyors tape, you tie two yellow stringers to the team leader’s mask and a single stringer to everyone else’s. You tell these guys that if they get separated or when they insert, they are to head to the yellow rally point. Using the secure radio transmission that you have with the field commander, you let him know how many you have at his rally point and ask him where he wants them. You do this and they will never run out of troops at an area you are holding.

What is a field commander? Well that is the individual that you get to handle the squads in the field. Normally the team captain of a large team, it can also be someone that you know can lead troops effectively in the field. He/She is responsible for the area you give them. Say they are in charge of holding a zone, then they are the last ones to die giving you up to date Intel up until they buy it and before they cut off the radio, it should be a call of I am dead. And now you know that the zone has fallen and move resources to it as needed. Field commanders do not try to take objectives or act all brave, that isn’t their job. Sometimes you may need to have more then one or even have assistant field commanders; it just depends on how much your FC’s will be on the field. Without competent FC’s then you cannot dictate the battle to the enemy they will dictate it to you.

Another thing to do is have mission runners available, what these individuals do is carry the mission cards to the teams in the field. With proper radio channels, as soon as the mission is un-coded you are on the horn the field commander in that area. They should be moving to secure that objective as quick as possible. If you have assigned them one of every OS as per previous instruction then you can whatever needs to be done to that objective. The mission runner should be given a radio that can communicate with the field commander so that he can be brought in through the areas to meet the team the quickest way.

There are several forms to have in your base. One is the mission master, what is that? It is a sheet of paper that when you send out a mission card, you write it down on the sheet. You write the time it came in, the time it went out, who took it (team and individual), time is was finished and who the signing ref was. This will be important when you compare notes with the game directors during the breaks to make sure the missions got turned in and the points are right. You also need a role player’s sheet. This is a sheet that has the game character’s name, the player’s real name and what they are looking for in the game. Or if they have personal missions, when are they? Where are they? Who are they with? You need to know all of your role players, be sure to ask the game director to tell you who they are and seek them out. One of the final forms is the actual breakdown of who is who. Who is a field commander, what is their zone, when will their down times be and so forth. This will allow for you and your XO to understand the battle plan. And you must have that. Your command staff has to be on the same page with you. They have to understand what you are wanting to do and how you want to do it. These forms are easy to make or you can get them from me, just email me.

Now you issue the orders, this is easy. You set your captains’ meeting for Friday night with the commanders’ meeting to immediately follow. You encourage everyone to walk the field to get a feel for it. You make to set up security for the meeting. Everyone should be known or have their cards with them. Never trust anyone you don’t know. If someone doesn’t vouch for them then verify with the game director. At the captains meeting you explain the plan, you give them details, you tell them where they will be and who they will be reporting to. Make you tell them they need to be ready at orientation to walk onto the field. This will give you plenty of time to get everyone at their rally points and pumped up. Then you meet with your commander’s. You give them your intent, you give them the backup plans and you give them the radios or channels and field maps. You have to be sure they understand the plan since one of them may have to fill in for you if you are taken out of the game. Answer any questions and set rules of engagement for role players. Some games may require them to not be dealt with while others may require that they are. Always look at it to your best advantage, if you don’t see one then take them out. I advocate role playing, but role players need to learn to have something to say not just expect to get into my base.

And now you supervise. The game will start on time and you will be ready, your guys should move out and the plan should flow. If there are problems, don’t sweat it. No plan survives first contact. This is where the great commander is elevated above the good commander. How you react to issues and problems that you face. Always keep the game face on, the troops should always feel like you know what is going on and you have planned for every contingency. This is the key to the game, morale. If morale is high then you are almost unstoppable, if moral sinks you can hang it up.

We will get more into that next month as we continue with this expose into commanding a scenario game. I hope you enjoy this article and please contact me if you agree or disagree.

©2007, Lawrence 'TB' Wright. This may not be copied, linked or used without permission.

Here is an article that was written and printed by PB2X, however since it appears that the other 2 pieces are not going to be printed, I figured I would post them here. So enjoy, this is part of the Book of TB as some have taken to calling it, so enjoy.

By Lawrence ‘TB’ Wright

I thought for this month’s column I would write about something that isn’t covered in any of the many rules or any where else online for that matter...and that is the subject of command. This is by far the most important position in the game and one that seems to have been relegated to fill-in’s and people who should not command scenario games. I am all for new blood to hit the field, but they should have certain qualifications. While this isn’t real combat, there is a fair amount of tactical and strategical understanding one must have in order to be successful (or then again, you can always get a great XO and some power teams to push you through to victory). But, if you want to be able to fly to another state without the need of a huge base team or even organized teams, then this article is for you. So, let’s get started with the basics of command.

Command is the most central of all the roles. The commander is the person who is the ‘head’ of his side. He is the person who makes the decisions and decides what can and should be done. He takes the objectives in the game and develops a battle plan, he secures the teams and assembles the command staff. It is an job full of great opportunities for success and just as many for failure. Command is something that can be learned, but leadership is a little different. Leadership is a trait people either have or they don’t. But without leadership, command is wasted...that is the honest truth. Leadership is defined by the following traits:

J Justice
J Judgment
D Discernment
I Integrity
D Discipline
T Tact
I Initiave
E Endurance
B Bearing
U Unselfishness
C Conduct
K Knowledge
L Loyalty
E Enthusiasm

So look into yourself and see if you represent these traits when you deal with people. You will need all of them to successfully lead people. Since we are not in the military, you cannot depend on the enforcement of these values by military discipline. That also means people will not blindly follow you just because you are the commander or because you say so. You have to lead them and if you have the above mentioned traits and use them, you will likely be successful. You would be amazed at what people will do for true leaders...even without the threat of military discipline.

We’ll start with the question a lot of people ask themselves: Should I command a scenario game? That is entirely up to you. What I mean is you can be a effective commander without the need for a large team, tons of scenario games under your belt or even with popular teams playing for you. You have to decide if you want to lead troops in this game. If you want to be the ‘go to’ man for 26 hours. You will have to answer all manner of questions from everyone and you will have to always be in control of yourself. Commanding is not for everyone, and when you shouldn’t realize that is during a 26 hour game. That is what can cause people to leave the game, to change sides or even go ‘3rd faction’ (play for neither side). There have been many games done where poor choice of commanders resulted in disaster on the field. So be careful, and consider asking your peers if you would make a good commander. Once you’ve made the decision, move forward and make plans.

The first thing to do after you have been confirmed as the commander is secure the command staff and your base teams. If you are a member of a team, then you have a core team to start with. If not, then you must secure one...one that will be with you from game on to game off. These are not easy to find, but they are out there (even if they don’t know it yet). One of the most overlooked positions is the one of radio operator. Having a radio operator allows the commander to move around and lead his troops from outside the command bunker. This is good for morale and allows the commander to make real time decisions. But you can’t just assign anybody to be radio operator. They have to understand how the game works. They need to know how to fill out mission cards, and what the codes mean. They may need to keep the missions going in case the commander is eliminated. Continuity of command is one of the most important things in this game.

Speaking of that, picking your XO is the next biggest thing. You should never pick an XO because of what they do on the field. You should pick an XO like the President picks the Vice-President. You would want your troops to follow them on the field if for some reason you were not there to do it. Plus, it helps if that person can ‘fill in’ the holes of your leadership (i.e., your weak points). For example, say you aren’t very good at getting people to move from point to point on your command; get an XO who can lead from the front. They can drive troops to the objective and effectively determine when and where troops need to go. With a good XO and radio communications, there is much you can do on the field.

If the game is large enough, you have other positions to fill as well. Once again we will apply a military use to these roles. Feel free to use this and/or make up others:

S-1 Admin (Command staff)
S-2 Intelligence (Role Players, Props and so forth) S-3 Operations and Communications (Organizing teams, implementing plan, radio)
S-4 Supply (Helicopter, LAW Rounds, supplies from game director)

The positions may or may not be filled or even important to you. But if you utilize them, it makes it difficult for the other side to overcome the fact you have a command staff to back your play, where they may only have one or two people. A command structure also allows you to disseminate information down to the troops...and the troops like to be kept ‘in the know.’ If you can tell them why they need to do something, usually they will do it. If you can’t, chances are they are going to tell you to stuff it and go play their own game. And that is something as a commander you do not want to happen. Players (and their paint) are your most valuable resources, but they are not un-ending. Never use someone to just burn up paint; you will need them later. Keep in mind, everyone is important.

Now you can secure your teams. You can divide these teams into several groups based on what the team captain has told you they like to do. Some teams like to run missions; others like to run in demolitions support roles; others like base security; and even others are thrilled by mission interdiction and base harassment. Consider setting it up like this:

Mission Squads: These teams live for the mission. You can depend on them to pick up missions and run them no matter how bleak. But remember this: these players and/or teams must be good at running missions. They need to be able to take the mission and do it right...from getting the base ref to sign it out to getting the ref at the site to sign it. Make sure they have pens and all mission squads should sport at least one of all four OS’s: Pilot, Demo, Medic and Engineer. This will allow them to do anything needing to be done on the field without having to return to base multiple times. The team captain should have secure communications with you. If you have a separate radio to give them, so much the better since it won’t affect their team net. If not then you will need a command channel, and with that you may not be secure (we will cover that in a later article).

Mission Interdiction Squads: These teams live to shut down the enemy’s life’s blood. That is their mission. They specialize in the total destruction of the objective to be met. They look for the person carrying the mission card, they look for the leader of the sqaud, the person with the radio, the medic or even the guy with the demo props. They have to be smart and determine what the mission is they are trying to shut down. Is the enemy staying put in a named objective? Then chances are it is a take and hold or a defend...wipe them out with air strikes, helicopters or overwheleming brute force. See them walking from point to point? Then it is probably a patrol..bust the mission by shooting the guy with the card or once again overwhelming them. These teams will also need secure communications: they will be your true eyes and ears on the field and should know it fowards and backwards.

Base Security: This isn’t as important to the commander whose overall battle plan is working. If you have the enemy in their base or trying to catch up on missions, they won’t be hitting your base. If this is the case, keeping people on base security becomes a tremedous waste of resources. Base security should be made up of people who want to stay at the base. Never use your hardest hitting teams or large teams for this. I’ve seen some generals require their own team to stay and guard them. A true waste of resources, as most of your team will be familar with you and have com to you. Worse case, if you are in a game with people who don’t or can’t understand the game, send a member of your team out with them to make sure effective communication is the order of the day. If you do use base security, then by all means make good use of them...use the base security as a reserve force, and use them if you need to. Is the mission about to fail? Then send twenty guys from your base security detail up to help them. A reserve force is one of the best things to have in this game and if you have one, be sure you use it.

Base Assault Squad: If the enemy is worried about getting losing their base (or can’t get into it) they will make their base a priority. That is a fact of the game. The Command Post (CP) is by far the most imprtant objective in the game; the actual command position being second only to this. If you can secure the enemy’s CP, he can’t get missions in. No missions in, mean no missions out and no missions out means you have the advantage. It is also a huge blow to morale. Let’s face it, you want to destoy morale of enemy troops. If they don’t want to fight you win. Base assault squads should be able to traverse the field with ease and be fast movers; they cannot be used to reinforce mission and other sqauds. They have one purpose: to destroy the enemy CP and all the troops around it. Take and hold the CP and make the enemy take it back. It requires guts and skill (not to mention some paint) but there are teams out there that love to do this at every game.

Specialist Teams: These are special ops style teams who like to ‘sneak and peek’ or run deep missions. These are usually two to four man teams who play together all the time. They rehearse moves and know sometimes not being seen is better than taking out a few bad guys. These teams will run your recon and report, snipe and photo recon missions. These will be the eyes and ears of your whole plan, so it has to be someone who is dedicated to being on the field all the time and have the abilities to hack it out there (one of the teams most famous for this...and probably the most successful...is Team Knightmare Tango. They make a good Base Assault Squad too).

Heavy Weapons Squads: With the advent of the LAWs Rocket and Nerf rounds, there are teams out there who solely support one or two demoltions players. These are the guys who take out the enemy armor and destroy the objectives when your troops can’t move forward. They are also the guys who can shut down the helicopter assaults some generals love to use. With a engineer or two on the squad and using the GSRP rules, you can quickly secure all the enemy’s air assets and move pretty much at will over the field.

Role Playing Support Squads: This is a new and upcoming squad. Role playing has become basically running mini-missions on the field. While for the most part they count for little point-wise, realize you need all the points you can get in a game. These squads protect the role players, help them secure the props and support them in their min-missions. For example, there may be a mission for a role player to take five players and recon a trail. While there, they notice a prop. It is always a good thing for your role players to arrive with backup at any role-playing meetings. If things go bad, make sure the opposing side doesn’t get the points either.

This sums up the first part of our article on Command. Next month we will continue with leading troops, planning missions, resource management, props, rally points and other essential info. Be sure you come back and give it a read (it isn’t every day we are going to give you an inside look into how ‘we’ do things...).

©2007, Lawrence 'TB' Wright. This may not be copied, linked or used without permission.

Well here it is guys, my website. This has been a thought of mine for almost 2 years now as I have been asked time and time again about my opinions on things. Only to be censured, banned, and taken to task about the very opinion that people wanted to know. No more, however. From now on, this will be the one place where I can be, well, me.

This will not just be a random blog site that spews forth hate and rhetoric, although there will be some of that for sure. This will also be a news site for Scenario Paintball. I will post the news that I know about, the news I am not supposed to know about and more. In the future, I will be offering the old issues of Scenario News for free download and will probably put some of the better articles up here for online review.

On top of that, I will be posting tips, secrets and more as I write them. I thought about going to another magazine but after the PB2X debacle, figured it would be better to just have my own site where I can be the one who makes the rules. So if you want shit told straight and from the hip then welcome, if you want to hate then welcome, I just love haters.