Tactical Notes From the Field

'Not Hiding In Bunkers'

Eric Koske - 1st GA

The field manuals are awesome. I just sit and read them for fun, and I always learn something new each time I pick them up.

Something I've gotten used to while playing paintball that I don't think I've found in the manuals yet is the concept of not hiding in bunkers, but maintaining a respectful distance behind them. This is for the following reasons:

1. The enemy doesn't know your exact position behind the bunker since you're not in it.
2. The bunker obscures a smaller field of vision when you're farther from it. This lets you see the enemy's movements much earlier and clearer than if you were inside the bunker.
3. Since you're slightly more distant from the bunker, you provide a smaller target. If you look around the side or top of the bunker, the enemy sees a much smaller body part.
4. If you are looking around or over the bunker from a distance, you have more time to react when the paint starts flying, and less distance to move to get fully behind cover. Enemy fire has to be far more accurate to clear the bunker and still hit you.
5. If the enemy rushes the bunker and tries to shoot into it, you are not only not as likely to be where he expects, but he'll provide a huge target as he comes around the bunker, and he'll be facing the wrong way. If he attempts to 'bunker' you, he'll be the one bunkered.
6. If you're distanced from the bunker, tree, building, or vehicle when it's taken out with an RPG or air cannon, you're not counted as a casualty.

Hiding directly inside the bunker puts you in a very predictable position, gives the enemy a larger target, and obscures a greater area of your field of vision.

'Camouflage' Clothing

Eric Koske - 1st GA

Have you ever looked at your camouflage clothing under a black light? Chances are you wash your camo with the rest of your laundry and use the same detergent you use for everything else.

That detergent is loaded with phosphorous or other 'whiteners' which serve to reflect under UV radiation, thus giving the appearance of brighter colors. Brighter colors and reflectivity to UV isn't that beneficial for camouflage clothing, however. The idea here is NOT to be seen. Night vision equipment takes that reflected UV and amPLIfies it as visible light.

I've been told (though I haven't had a chance to look into it) that there are detergents intended for use by hunters that clean clothing without bleaching or adding whiteners. Such detergents can be purchased at hunting supply stores, I'm told. I'll have to check into this and see if it's possible to wash the phosphorous/phosphorous replacement out of clothing previously washed with normal detergents. If I get desperate, I might even try adding dirt instead of detergent to the laundry while washing my camos to dull the reflectivity. I've seen shirts that were dyed using nothing but dirt and clean up nicely. That might just work for fading or bleached camo.

Now, for enemy players who haven't taken steps to preserve their camo, I have a few ideas for base defense:

I'm assuming it's likely we'll be using some form of lighting in the vicinity of our base trained on the surrounding woods (as was the case at Battle for Earth in Ocala), and that we won't have access to any source of AC power (It'd be nice if we had extension cords we could drag our to the base to power lighting).

One can find tinted plastic 'gels' intended for coloring theatrical lighting easily enough. It's quite simple to find a dark violet filter that'll transform any normal light into a blacklight. Enough of this material apPLIed to each of the lights in use around our base will allow us to train the black lights on the woods surrounding our base and selectively light up intruders' clothing without lighting up the foliage they're hiding in. If this lighting is placed near the walls of our base, the glare of the lights pointed toward the woods, even the dark purple of a black light, will keep the base itself in shadow, hiding the movements and positions of players inside the base from attackers.

With inexpensive, portable blacklights constructed from normal battery-powered flashlights, "Q-beams" and fluorescent lanterns equipped with filters, we'll have a greater ability to reveal the position of the enemy in the nighttime phase of the game.

'Give a man a fish and you have fed him for a day, but give him a case of dynamite and soon the village will be showered with mud and seaweed and unidentifiable chunks of fish.'

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