What separates a group of people playing on the same field from a team taking to the field as a unit? Teamwork.
Whether there's only two of you or twenty, knowing even just a handful of tactical moves can massively improve your gameplay, increasing your survivability and making you more likely to score kills, capture objectives, and win your game. Here are five quick to learn and, with a bit of practice, easy to implement tactical moves that you can try out in the field.
FIRE AND MANOEUVRE
The bedrock of every tactic on every field. Make no mistake, every other tactic in this article, and almost every other tactic you'll find in any article, on any training course, in any video, is based on this foundation. It is tactics 101. It is Fire and Manoeuvre.
"There is no movement without fire, there is no fire without movement" is the commonly-stated maxim, and it does what it says on the tin: if you want to move somewhere, someone else should be shooting at the enemy while you move.
The reasoning is very simple: if your enemy is ducking for cover so they don't get hit themselves, they aren't looking in your direction and won't shoot at you, giving you freedom to make your own moves, be it repositioning yourself or closing in for the kill. If the enemy's not looking at you, they're not pointing their gun at you, and they're not taking you out.
WITHDRAWING
Fire and Monoeuvre, but in reverse! Being able to safely fall back is a crucial skill in any Airsoft game: if you're in a bad spot, if the enemy make a good push on the flank and you're suddenly in danger as a result, you need a solid way to get yourself out of the danger zone and back to a more defensible position.
A coordinated withdrawal is your answer, and it works very similarly to Fire and Manoeuvre: while one person keeps the enemy's head down, another dashes backwards and establishes themselves in a new position. Once there, they take up the role of suppression and allow the first player to make their own dash back to safety.
You can keep this up, swapping between shooting and scooting, for as long as you need to get out of the danger zone.
PEELING
Also very similar to Fire and Manoeuvre, is Peeling. This tactic is for sideways movement, allowing a team to reposition without stopping shooting, in an organised way. If you're in need of shifting yourselves over to the left, but are in the thick of fighting and need to keep those BBs flying towards the enemy, have your team take turns repositioning, starting from the player furthest on the right.
This player dashes along the back of your squad (don't run in front, or you risk friendly fire!) and takes up a new position at the left of your line. Everyone takes turns dashing along the back of your line and repositioning until you've moved as far over as you want to move!
ALL ROUND DEFENCE
You're moving through the Airsoft field, and you need to pause for a moment. Maybe someone needs to reload their magazines, or you need to take a look around to decide your next move, or you're waiting for additional friendly forces to catch up. You need to stop safely, as the enemy could be anywhere: enter All Round Defence.
Give your squad a direction to face, either in advance so they can adopt their position as soon as you stop, or dish out the directions when you've stopped, prioritising the most likely direction the enemy might be in. By having people dedicated to watching important directions, no one gets the drop on you: you've got someone with their weapon pointed that way, ready to immediately get that suppressive fire on the go the moment danger appears.
This gives your squad vital time to react to the enemy appearing, and makes it more likely that you'll avoid being ambushed or caught off-guard. A good All Round Defence means you're never getting taken out by an enemy player that has snuck around your flank or through your team's front line!
ACTIVE DEFENCE
Have you mastered the above four tactics? Here's one that's more advanced, an evolution of Withdrawal discussed above, but one designed to inflict maximum casualties on the enemy and slow their advance down massively!
Like Withdrawal, one player takes on the role of suppressing the enemy, while the other player makes a quick dash backwards. This time, however, make the dash longer, long enough that the enemy lose sight of you entirely. Get yourself set up in concealment, where you won't easily be spotted staying still. Now, you lie in wait.
Your partner, having given you a decent head start, then also makes their dash to safety, running right past you and even further away, to pick their own hiding spot well behind your own position.
The enemy are going to start pushing forwards, because they're not being shot at any more, and as long as you're well hidden you'll get to wait until the perfect moment to engage them again and cause some casualties.
Here's the important bit: you need to do two things simultaneously, especially if you're doing this solo. First, get some good shots off and score a kill or two, but secondly, suppress the enemy! You need to have them ducking for cover, because as soon as they do, you're running away! Straight past your partner and into your new hiding spot.
Done right, even just two people can make the enemy start advancing really slowly, wary of constantly being ambushed, and because you get to pick and choose when the shooting starts, you can score far more than your own weight in kills. This is a valuable tactic that slows the enemy down and costs them a lot of kills to advance.
MASTERED THESE SKILLS?
Have you gotten these five skills down to muscle memory, with your squad pulling them off flawlessly? Try combining them for even more tactical capability!
If you've got 4 people, divide into pairs and combine Withdrawl and Active Defence, with one pair falling back in Withdrawal mode right past the second pair, who can spring their ambush and let the first pair disengage completely and run to a new hiding spot.
Try dedicating a few of your team to being a Fire Support Team, armed with LMGs or bigger magazines, to do the suppressing role and dedicating a few of your team to being an Assault Team, armed with pyro and shorter, more easily handled rifles, and turn the Fire and Manoeuvre tactic into a squad-level tactic with a Fire Support Team and an Assault Team, each geared specially for their role for maximum effectiveness.
Try rolling a Peel straight into a Fire and Manoeuvre attack: peel yourself into the perfect position then push forward under suppressive fire.
Work on effectively transitioning from All Round Defence into a line that will allow you to launch off any of these tactics, to make your team really effective at reacting to enemy contacts no matter where they've come from!
DOMINATE THE FIELD
A squad that understands these tactics, and most importantly, can perform them smoothly without too much micromanagement, will be a massive boost to any team they're on. Not only will you last longer and score more kills, you'll be an intimidating factor to your enemy and a huge morale boost for your own side. Get these tactics mastered and see how much better your Airsoft gameplay can become!
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