Proven Airsoft Tactics and Strategies for Woodland Engagements
Today we cover the best-proven strategies, tactics and tips for airsofting in the woods.
If you are serious about getting as good at Airsoft as humanly possible, you’re going to need to embrace the fact that the “run and gun” strategies that might work in something like paintball or video games aren’t going to translate well when you step into the woods with your team.
No, there are a handful of Airsoft strategies engagements that you are going to want to embrace ASAP – the kinds of strategies that can make or break the success of your engagements, turn the tide in your direction, and help you dominate on the Airsoft field individually.
Below we dig a little deeper into the kinds of Airsoft strategies forward engagements that may seem common sense on the surface, but are anything but once you really start to put them into action.
Let’s dig right in!
Understand Your Terrain
More than anything else, the way that you use the terrain that you are fighting on for fighting over in the world of Airsoft is going to influence the outcome of each engagement.
People that ignore the terrain around them are going to be doomed to failure whereas players that recognize, analyze, and make the best use of the terrain that they are fighting on will be able to beat back more experienced teams, larger teams, and teams with more firepower more often than not.
If possible, it’s a good idea to Google Earth the area that you are going to be playing on.
You want to identify the terrain that is most advantageous for you and your team (high ground with lots of concealment and cover), you want to identify terrain that you feel the opposing team is going to try and lock up as quickly as possible, and you want to identify the most likely avenues of approach that the opposite team is going to take to come to your base – or the approaches you should take to reach theirs.
High ground is key, but you also need to find places to set up ambushes, safe places to run controls, and “fallback positions” to identify that you and your team can rally to should you overrun.
Recon is a huge piece of the puzzle to success in these kinds of engagements. The more intel you have (with tools like Google Earth, for example) the better off you are going to be.
Team Movement Must be Coordinated
Depending on the type of Airsoft tournament you are playing in you may have coordinated teams that always stay in constant communication with one another or you might have nothing but a band of “free agents” looking to just have a good time.
Most of the time you’ll have a mix of both groups, though.
No matter what, it’s incredibly important that you coordinate with your team right out of the gate – and as often during the actual tournament as possible – about team movements.
There’s nothing worse than sending multiple squads out on the same patrol routes to get hammered by ambushes, except for having your entire team push against your opposing forces headquarters leaving no one to defend your own.
Team movements need to be strategized, need to be coordinated, and need to be times as best they can be.
Modern communication technology is so much more affordable today than ever before that shouldn’t be all that hard to get a bunch of people (even if it’s just squad leaders) online with one another, keeping in constant communication with the offense of and defensive squads you have on your side.
Setup and Commit to Fire Lanes
As far as squad Airsoft strategies woods engagements are concerned, it’s important that every person in your squad understands their role in the squad when it comes to fire lanes.
Whether you have a squad of four, a squad of six, or a squad of eight everyone needs to have an idea of where they should be looking, where they should be scanning, and where they should be firing if you find yourself in an engagement.
A lot of rookie squads and upcoming under fire without any preplanning whatsoever, with everyone on the line swiveling to the initial contact and unloading their Airsoft ammunition only to find themselves caught in the middle of a reload with the other team pushing in from a different direction than they weren’t watching altogether – wiping the squad effortlessly.
The Pointman should be responsible for a 180° view out in front of the squad as it moves through the woods.
Each successive squad member should be assigned a lane of fire that branches left or right out from the center, with the next squad member behind them watching the opposite side. At the back end of the squad, you have the Tail End Charlie plays the reverse point man role, covering the rear 180° view to make sure that you aren’t getting doubled back on.
Ambush vs Patrolling
Finally, it’s important that you adapt your Airsoft strategies forward engagements based on whether or not you are ambushing or patrolling – and whether or not you are running an offensive style squad or running a defensive style squad at that particular point in the tournament.
The strategies that work for setting up an ambush are not at all going to be effective when you are patrolling, and patrolling strategies definitely aren’t going to work if it’s your job to hold the line and set up an ambush.
Consider your personal role not only in your squad but also the role that your squad is playing in the greater scheme of things. A lot of this comes down to communication with whoever is the CO at that particular time, as well as communication with the rest of the squads and the rest of the team.
As long as you stay laser-focused on your mission at hand, however, you really shouldn’t have all that much trouble mastering the ins and outs of woodland strategies for success in the world of Airsoft today!