[Tribs]

This is in response to a few of the threads about pumping in woodsball fields.

Alright, so you want to play pump, but most of where you play is in the woods. I know what you're thinking, "Won't the branches and underbrush get in the way of any shots I take, while the semi's I'm playing against will be able to cut through and hit me?" Well, yes, that's true, but only if you play like you have a semi. Unless you started your paintball career with a pump, you'll play woodsball with a pump as if you are having a semi. That's something you can't do, and will end in you getting slaughtered. I'm here to make sure that doesn't happen.

First things first, know how to use your pump. It doesn't matter how good of a player you are, if you don't know the limits and strengths of your gun, then you won't be able to play to your potential. Practice practice practice. You should spend a large amount of time practicing with your gun. Learn how to shoot in multiple positions, like crouching or lying prone. Learn how to shoot equally well with both hands. Snapshooting is something you need to master. You won't have a chance to have a followup shot on someone if they remain out of their bunker while you're shooting at them, you have to hit them on the first shot and duck back into your bunker, or you'll get lit up. Those things aren't just for the airball field, they are equally effective on the woodsball field.

Camouflage and stealth will be your best friend. You don't have the luxury of a fast shooting marker to get you out of whatever shit you wind up in, so you'll want any encounter to be on your terms. Just because you see someone walking out of cover doesn't mean you should shoot them. Pay attention and use your thinker. Could they be the point man for a much larger squad of players behind him, trying to draw an ambush out, or could it just be a random player. More then likely, it's the former. Weigh the risks and beneifts of taking the first shot. If there's a risk it could draw attention to you from more then the person you're shooting, and you don't have the resources of a faster shooting marker or teammates, then more then likely you shouldn't take the risk. If you're on your way up the field and a squad of players enter your sight, go low and don't move until they go past. No point in getting involved in a firefight you can't win. Who knows, if the group is small enough, you can fall in behind them and take them out in a couple seconds without them firing a single shot.

More then likely, you have the lightest setup of your entire group. USE THAT! Be the guy who takes the flank on the opposing force. Trail the sides or tail of your group, and the instant they start in a firefight with an opposite squad, run your ass off to the sides and try to get an angle on the other team. Use the distraction that the larger amount of firepower your teammates are dishing out to move to the sides or back of the enemy. If the other team isn't too experienced, they probably got tunnel-vision the instant the balls started flying. A single player at their peripheral won't draw attention, and the occasional shot from that player will go unnoticed. I can't mention the amount of times that I've been completely ignored in situations like that, until it was too late.

My favorite benefit of playing pump, along with the lightness of the gear, is the smallness of the gear. You don't have a massive hopper sticking out of your gun begging to be shot, or pods that stick out of your back. That means you can hide behind things that normally would have equipment sticking out of. That stump that looked small for a toddler now offers quite a bit of protection, doesn't it? That might not sound important now, but when you read the next paragraph, you'll understand the importance of having a large amount of things to take cover behind.

Move! If you are not moving, you damn well better be kept in your bunker by a large amount of paint, or the game is over. A stagnant pumper is a dead pumper. Every second that you aren't moving around is another second that the other team can be getting a flank on you. If you notice that the person who is shooting at you occasionally dips back in his bunker to either reload or shoot at one of your teammates, time it to figure out when he does so, so that you can use the opportunity to take another bunker. If you can manage to do that without him knowing, congratulations! You are now hidden from the other player! He'll have no idea that you are in a different bunker, and continue to shoot the one that you used to be at. If you were able to take a bunker even slightly closer to the edge of his bunker, you now have a larger target to shoot whenever he sticks out to shoot the previous bunker. Remember when I said you can hide behind smaller bunkers? I bet that stump a few meters to your front right looks like a tasty bunker with quite a few target opportunities. Who would expect someone to hide behind a bunker that small? Use that to your advantage.

Pump in the woods is a fantastic experience, and something that any real pumper should experience at least once. Once you learn the pump way to play in the woods, you'll dominate those who rely on rates of fire to compensate for skill. Just remember, sneak, flank, and shoot.

[urban ninja]

Nice post Tribs! Considering I play in the woods a lot, I can agree with pretty much all of it. Some of my favorite parts are using your lightness and smallness(well, at least for me, I'm 5'10" and weigh 140 lbs, so im skinny) to my advantage. And like Tribs said, MOVEMENT IS ESSENTIAL!!! Even technically if you arent playing pump, you want to move, but considering pumps are lighter, we better be moving our asses to better positions every chance we get. And as for sneaking up on people, you won't believe what you can do with a lighter, smaller, setup and some camouflage. You will scare the crap out of some people.

[BOOM]

good job I also only play in the woods(I'd like to play some speedball but it's too far). 'cept the camo bit I personally play in a red jersey, blue goggles, and camo pants(hence the colour blind ballin), but to each his own.

[Corrupted355]

I prefer to pump in the woods. In general, there's just so much more cover to work with. And that thing about making the best of having the light setup is absolutely true. I always find myself in much better position to make a key play when I'm carrying a pump. And it's not just because you're running light, either. There's always that idea in the back of your mind that if you reveal your position by taking a shot, and you miss... chances are that you're going to have a maelstrom of paint raining down on you. That alone is incentive to get close enough to make the shot count.

[Tor]

Great guide. Any mod reading this, Pin it!

[SGP]

Too many pinned things already. Could we just have a tips thread pinned that links to all of these? I hate hate hate having to scroll past the 7 pinned items, especially with the new forum format that doesn't set them apart.

[Tribs]

Corrupted355, on 27 September 2009 - 01:03 AM, said:

I prefer to pump in the woods. In general, there's just so much more cover to work with. And that thing about making the best of having the light setup is absolutely true. I always find myself in much better position to make a key play when I'm carrying a pump. And it's not just because you're running light, either. There's always that idea in the back of your mind that if you reveal your position by taking a shot, and you miss... chances are that you're going to have a maelstrom of paint raining down on you. That alone is incentive to get close enough to make the shot count.

It was a great day of paintball when I finally realized that part out

[Cheap-o]

it's all patience, 13 on 3, i didn't quite win, but I slowed them down, even though the teams sucked that day. i just waited for that shot, and the guy was like "there is a big hole in this bunker" *WHAP* "ouch! this bunker sucks!"

10 on 1, i didn't quite win, but I never got hit. playing with my stock class phantom at a stick pile.

This post has been edited by Cheap-o: 28 September 2009 - 02:50 PM

[bigBUBBA]

definite pin, very nice tribs!

[p8ntballkiller]

nice

[The-Phantom]

can i add to this, or add this to the pump tips thread? I have a lot of experience in this field, actually the most of my 10 years in paintball is the 6 i have been playing pump woodsball

im gonna write something up here soon when i have time, gotta eat first, then get icecream (i know it's not twitter, ill stfu

[Leafy]

I like pumping in the woods, its nice to make the other teams 40 on the break and then have a second to collect yourself before the other team start running towards you without cover, having that revy on top (grav feed it never would have happened) makes getting 4 people out in seconds possible.

[Tribs]

The-Phantom, on 30 September 2009 - 04:21 PM, said:

can i add to this, or add this to the pump tips thread? I have a lot of experience in this field, actually the most of my 10 years in paintball is the 6 i have been playing pump woodsball

im gonna write something up here soon when i have time, gotta eat first, then get icecream (i know it's not twitter, ill stfu

As long as you cite me.

[The-Phantom]

I'm not worried about revival of this because i feel it is a guide worthy of being seen again/pinned so here we go

Continuing off what tribs said. If there is branches and brush that you can't squeeze one ball through you usually should not go for it because a high rate of fire semi will shoot 40 shots and get 1 or 2 through that can hit you while your hopelessly trying but just getting a small mist that is lost on the path to the target. A tip Tyger uses as a just rule of thumb, if you can't hit some one on the first 4 shots then your not going to hit them from the spot your in with where they are, so stop trying and move! If your too far or theres an object you can't get around in 4 shots you most likely won't in the 5th, 6th 7th and 8th but what you may do is expose yourself while you try and get shot out, or noticed by more people on the enemy team which is also bad

This seems like the most obvious tip in the book but you'd be surprised the amount of times people ask me how i hit them from "so far away" because "my gun can't shoot that far" well people it's called aiming up. A simple arch of the barrel towards the sky will send the ball up to ranges of 200+ feet with ability to take some one out who's aiming straight at you and watching as their paintballs fall to the ground at about 125 foot mark. I have taken out groups of 10+ people from 250 feet away from the respawn point where they are standing around waiting to get a plan together on the field and as they enter in i am off where they can't even see me laying rounds of paint taking out person after person causing mass confusion because at these ranges they don't hear the shots coming, they just see the balls hitting their teammates or landing dangerously close to them, so people use this tip trust me.

Another tip for you longballers out there and those who want to try, if you don't have a field paint that has to be a certain color, i recommend very bright oranges, and yellows, lime greens for paints, because your usually gonna miss your first shot... But the trick is you follow that ball all the way till it hits then the rest you know how to judge wind from that and distance, do i need to push more right, and farther etc... So it's a good idea to get the brightest paint you can find, because trust me one time i needed to use a field paint that was brown and in the woods i'd lose every other shot and wasn't as good at zeroing in and being effective from a distance

If you don't believe that longballing can be effective just watch this video, at 200 feet tyger is able to hit a mask on a bucket in 2 SHOTS! now that's pretty good for a range some people would have never before dreamed of when they saw some one they'd just keep on moving up to get "in range" and never gave it a shot


On the reverse end of this, longballing is nice and good and it is an art that can truly be mastered but you can't try and fall into just doing this. Is it a great skill to have in your skillset? Yes it is a great one... but should you hide off 250 feet away and never get into the action? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Tribs made good point of the fact with pumps (mainly stock class) your the lightest set up player on the field and you have little if anything to lug with you up the field, so you can run freely as if you have no gear on you almost, use this to advantage. It not only helps move farther and further but you can move in a hot situation some times in a short distance. The faster you can get to a bunker even if it's close to you the less cover fire your team mate needs to give you, and the less chance the enemy will pop out in that time and get a good shot and a fast moving target.

Another one of tygers tips, he calls the golden rule is... If your not getting shot at, chances are the enemy doesn't see you and you can move. So unless your behind cover if your in some what open looking around and don't immediately have a few paint balls come flying at you, the fact of the matter is that the other team probably doesn't know your there, so it's always a good idea to move. And when you move you can use this rule to get further and further until you get into a range where you can get good shots. If you are within 100 feet that's most peoples mid range, you get most of your eliminations from this distance, so if you can get inside this range and are still not getting shot at, look for a decent amount of cover like tribs said... you've got no bulky pack so that tree that's only maybe a foot wide can be used as a brilliant bunker. you get close to it, turn your body and stand straight up... from my chest to my back is about 8-10 inches from a side view, so these trees can cover you completely and people never would expect your that close, so when you hear them shoot see how much of them you can see and get a feeling for there pattern because most players have a pattern, shoot go in wait x amount of seconds and change sides or come back out the same side what ever, every one is different but look for it

When you've got that pattern down, load find a spot where they are exposed as much as possible and when they come out get a shot off on them they won't see it coming and you will most likely hit them or have a chance to either shoot the 2nd and 3rd shots that guarantee the elimination before they even realize you are there and are able to react.

I've learned a lot of things in playing pump in the woods 6 years, and seeing the 4 seasons in the most stereotypical fashions. We get the cold snowy winters, the leaves turn and fall in autumn, spring rains with high grass, summer hot and dry with normal looking trees and shrubs. So things you have to learn just from playing where you live are, What can and can't i shoot through? There are thickets of soft brush that won't break paint, and if your close enough you can shoot through and get a break, but anything at 65+ feet the ball will stop and get caught in this grassy thickness and stop inches before hitting the target. Some heavy leafy trees can be shot through with great sucess because it's mostly leaves but then others have thin branches that will shred up your paint shot after shot that you should avoid. In the winter what you see is what you get... pay attention to your 12 grams running out a little sooner but other then that around where i'm at everything is dead and bare, most small twigs are frozen and snapped off trees so you can shoot through anything that's not solid wood, because there is nothing else really but snow.

I completely agree with tribs that camo can be very helpful. Personally from my experience i like to go "ninja" and wear all black all the time


I have a lot of reasons, i like the way it looks and all the gear i have is comfortable to play in and it's not to heavy not to light. One of the reasons i went with black instead of camo leafy patterns or digi or ghillie, is black plain out works. Black is a color that we as a species tend to look past all the time, optically we are drawn to colors and might pick up on a clear mask lense that's sitting still in a large area of woods that will pop right out at us even more so then a all black object even if it's moving it is usually looked over when trying to focus on everything else.

All of this has worked very well for me, because i always hear "I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW YOU WHERE THERE?!" and "i did NOT see that coming at all, i saw you at the beginning and then a few minutes later BAM, your right behind us taking pot shots"

It's hard to really add to this tribs did a great job of covering all the good points, i just thought i'd add anything that might help

This post has been edited by The-Phantom: 20 January 2010 - 11:22 PM

[Leafy]

I as well wear the nija, only thing that sticks out on me is the yellow lens, and really that lens makes a huges difference in being able to pick stuff up. I dont know if its just the color filter making my brain process the images different or if it actually makes the shadows less dark but it works.

[urban ninja]

Something I enjoy about the woods, is that there isn't always a firefight everywhere. Unlike in speedball, sometimes people are quietly advancing up some backroad and aren'y under attack at all. Now, as much as I love being sneaky and doing that, the only thing better is popping those guys. What I have a habit of doing is not firing at all, and being somewhat off from the rest of my unit. They draw a bunch of fire and maybe fall back. Now, sometimes people get careless. They start thinking they can walk between cover. Well, this is generally when I fire off a shot, and one of them ends up with orange all over their mask. I don't see too many other people doing this, as a lot of people get caught up in their big firefights, but like I said, I enjoy waiting for when people think they're safe to shoot.

The lesson from this? Pumpers are sneaky little bastards that will shoot you when you least expect it, especially on bigger fields. Also, like people up above said, if you're not being shot at, they most likely don't know you're there. Please, push up, around, wherever and move forward. BUT! For pete's sake, don't make stupid mistakes and get shot because you think you're invisible. They might not see you, but it might be a good idea to move as if they do. Cause then, even if they do see you, you can get away. Basically, don't walk to bunkers. Just saying, I've seen it happen too many times. Not that I mind when my opponents do it...

[War0411]

Very helpful stuff, though this is probably geared to the newer pump players.

While out in the woods I used to prefer wearing the full camo approach, playing semi, and that worked if not for me spamming shots through the tinniest thickets. I am trying to break myself of the camo thing by wearing grey and red Tanked gear, and with a pump I find myself at a massive disadvantage, but it is more comfortable and only slightly heavier. The main thing with what you wear is dependant on your play style to me. I would rather be able to move across the field faster, and not be camoflauged than being stuck sitting in the small zone that you blend in with waiting for others to come to you.

[Tor]

alot of this stuff applies in speedball too.

[Leafy]

i get weird looks, you see dye c8 jersey, dye c7 pants, jt pro flex, some crappy 40 dollar pump with a 70/45 on it. like wtf, yes I paid more for my jersey than the pump. of course my 40 dollar trracer has been relegated to being the back up to my sniper.

[Bob Long Vice]

the one problem w/ is that this is more of a scenario guide i dont know how your local woodsball field is set up my mine has no teams at all if yours does and is big enough to longball (mine isn't i can hit a pair of googles on the other side easy) then this guide would work damn i wish there was a bigger woodsball field in the bay area nice guide tho

This post has been edited by Bob Long Vice: 20 January 2010 - 11:42 PM