The Airsoft Tactics Guide: Part 3

Firekitten

The Airsoft Tactics Guide: Part 3

Basic Tactics: Sir! the enemy are firing at us!’

A guide to the ground level basics of shooting at someone, while avoiding their gift of return fire.

Tactics are as much an unconscious reaction to ‘combat’ in the skirmish sense, as a conscious planning and organisation process. To suggest one behave in a tactical manner, is not to say, Joe blogs skirmisher, has decided to get Google earth images of his local skirmish site, and glue a camera to his dad’s remote control helicopter to make a UAV… no, tactics are involved in everything we do: From the most simple act of walking, scanning for a target, to advance to contact drills, we use tactical processes, and thought pathways in our actions. No tactic is wrong, and no tactic is right. There are many variations, and interpretations, and what works for the individual, is most important. We are not all the same, we do not have the same goals. Our goal dictates our method of achievement and approach to the task. I hope this instalment of the Airsoft tactics guide will build on what you now know about your equipment, the vital prerequisite for applying tactics to your Airsoft skirmish experience.


Purpose or Objective
Before we bother looking at how to achieve your objective, we need to really establish what it is. This can range from killing the enemy team, to a complex multi layered milsim objective, but can also include having fun… What you hope to achieve by your actions, dictates your actions, and as such, its rather important to know what it is you want out of your game.
A lot of airsofters, (and I expect these will not be the ones that read this guide or others like it) simply wish to engage in therapy for their unfortunate condition… ADLS. (Attention Deficit… Look Shiny! Syndrome). They will run around screaming and spraying rounds like toddlers on a sugar high, with next to no regard for any sense of tactics or final objective. Fair enough; we all play for different reasons. I suspect those reading this guide, will be orientated towards a more objective based gameplay. As such, you must establish first, before the game starts, or at the beginning, what it is you want to do? How do you want to do it? This can be considered planning, but it can be as simple as a quick chat, or thinking to yourself how you might do something. We all plan actions: Many are so familiar they become unconscious processes, and perhaps an element of practice with regards to airsoft can mentally condition the player in the tactical mindset. It’s not a hard thing to do, and can come easily from experience, but an element can be learned.


What do I want to do?

This can be anything from simply having fun, exercise, killing the enemy team, or capturing the flag, or kicking the enemy out of their hut. Your objective, is what you want to do.

How do I decide what to do?

Imagine making a bolognaise. First, one browns the mince, then adds the onion and herbs, then you add vegetables and sauce… it’s a stepped process, that doesn’t really require that much thought for someone familiar with cooking the dish. This is how a tactical approach to an objective works.

What do I need to do? Example: Capture the rubber chicken being held hostage by the enemy…

Goals:

Free the rubber chicken.

Don’t get killed.

Killing the enemy in this case, does not directly form an element of your objective. If the objective was to clear a bunker, it would be. Once one starts seeing airsoft weapons as a tool for objective achievement, you can start to see the airsoft battlefield from a different perspective. If you wish to apply tactics in this manner, you can.

The point I’m making here, is that regardless of what you do, it has an objective… an Aim if you will. Knowing that aim will help you achieve it, even if you don’t think about it.


Awareness

Awareness seems a ‘well duh’ subject to discuss, but you’d be surprised how vacant some airsofters can be. I’ve seen airsofters sneaking at night, with some, walking blindly down the middle of a road, and across a well moon lit sheet of corrugated steel…. Needless to say, those behaving in a tactical manner were the only ones that made it to the deck before the enemy hosed the location down… Being aware of your surroundings is key.

The biggest advantage in airsoft is seeing the enemy before they see you. It takes the human brain roughly 0.2 seconds to process sound, and understand what it is; in this case, a bb being fired. At 1j muzzle energy, a bb travels at 100 metres a second, with an average engagement range of 30 metres in a skirmish, this distance is covered in 0.3 seconds. Factor in spotting a target and processing that, and aiming, and an enemy can spot you, and take a shot, and hit you, in roughly one second. Seeing the enemy first, gives you the largest advantage to not getting shot by them: Arguably Airsoft’s main central objective. Being aware of your surroundings gives you that chance to see the enemy first, and engage if that is what is required, or hide (more on that later).

Whether you are defending a location, or attacking, or simply recconing an area, actively detecting movement, and human shapes is of vital importance. This can be applied in active and passive methods. There are 7 factors that will give away an enemy:

Shape

Shine

Silhouette

Spacing

Shadow

Surface

Movement


Understanding how these work, and applying them to yourself, can allow you to detect enemy forces, and yourself remain undetected, and achieve that primary objective… shoot them, and don’t get shot yourself.



Camouflage and Concealment

For this section, I’m going to plagiarise my own sniper serial. Some of this may not be relevant to the average skirmisher, but understanding how they work, and selective application can improve your game.

“The human eye is a simple device, as much as we lord its viewing properties. It can overlook things, miss things, and misinterpret a scene; this is what we play on. Stop considering the target a person, and consider it an animal… for sake of argument, we shall refer to the animal as the Meerkat. After all, they share a lot of common behavioural similarities with Homo Airsofticus

For the large part, the Meerkat will hop along happy as Larry with a severe case of tunnel vision; their objective is ahead, as is any potential threat, and the extent of any flank observation is cursory at best. Should you remain still, there is a significant chance you will not be seen, regardless of camouflage. Secondly, the more ‘aware’ of the meerkats will be looking all around themselves, and trying to spot the slightest thing… That is, however, a bad idea. The human eyeball has strong peripheral vision. The more you LOOK for a target, the less likely you are to see it. Slight movement in our peripheral vision is one of the key ways we can spot the enemy in such an environment as a forest or dense foliage, where only extended careful observation would pick up signs of human presence through direct searching.

The key points to camouflage and concealment are as follows… While all are basic infantry skills, that is what the sniper is to an extent. They are the pinnacle of infantry fieldcraft and it starts with seven simple points:


- Shape

- Shine

- Silhouette

- Surface

- Shadow

- Spacing

- Movement


To be effective, you will come to know all of these words. In fact no… To truly excel, you will obsess over these words, because to do so, means you will blend seamlessly with the environment about you. While by themselves, these words mean very little to the overall picture, but just like the members of a finely oiled team, they make a significant impact.


Shape
No, not the yoghurt… Shape refers to the distinctive ‘figure 11’ human outline of a soldier against the natural environment. Through an unfortunately bad wardrobe choice, nearly everyone turned up to the party of life, with a head, arms, legs, and a torso. This combination forms a distinctive image that we, humans are very adept at picking out. Combine that with webbing, helmet, and rifle, and we start to look very alike, and that isn’t a good thing. Also, shape can refer to the specifics of the word. An example being straight edges; these are very rare in nature and rifles and gear are full of them.

How is it applied? Break up the distinctive shapes that appear unnatural by using a combination of natural and unnatural materials. For webbing, helmets, or clothing, natural foliage may be added to change the shape to something one would expect to find in that environment: key principal to the ghillie suit. Rifles and equipment offer a different challenge. Straight edges on a rifle can be broken up with camouflage tape, or even plain fabric tape. Spray paint can be used to affect the same result… an uneven, uninteresting shape that does not draw the eye anymore than the surrounding environment. Rifle ghillies also play a key role here in changing the shape of a weapon to something more natural. A useful idea that I often apply, is to shroud the objective lens of my optics. A triangle of card around the lens with scrim over changes a distinctive black circle into something that could easily be a gap between leaves.

Note, it’s also perfectly possible to apply tape over most of the lens, while leaving a small slit around 1cm deep open. It will still operate perfectly well, but be warned… it will hamper your ability to use the optic in dusk, and night time due to the reduced ability to gather light.


Shine
Brilliant if you’re a disco ball, but rather unhelpful if you’re hiding carefully in a bush: That lovely Casio watch your mother bought you for Christmas might just prove to be the end of you. The same goes for buttons, buckles, karabiners, and anything that could possibly aid your disco career… Flashes of light are very obvious to the human eye, and the sun is adept at shining off things.

Often, the best ways to solve this is to fully assemble your equipment, then go outside at night and get someone to shine a light at you. If it twinkles to them, sort it. ( While this night time method seems odd, artificial light will make more things shine… and gives you a chance to catch things the naked eye won’t see close up, making you less likely to twinkle in the day time.) Fabric tape over buckles and buttons, electrical tape, spray paint… anything to remove shine. If you simply must wear a watch, invert the face so that it’s facing inside your arm, and make sure it’s covered by your sleeve unless you’re reading it. Personally, I keep an old watch (minus the straps) inside my shirt pocket with a Para cord lanyard.


Silhouette
Now depending on the prevalence of ridge tops at your Airsoft site, this can be a dual meaning. Silhouetting ones self, is to stand exposed against the sky, usually when walking along the crest of a hill. A soldier walking along a hilltop will be ten times more visible than one walking ten meters down from the crest, regardless of camouflage. Secondly, this applies to foliage and surfaces in an environment, and is especially relevant to the sniper. In the natural environment, you will find foliage of different colours, and patterns at different heights. Standing against a tree blossoming with white flowers, in a green based ghillie suit or camouflage will make you very obvious, just as wearing a ghillie suited to dry grass in front of a green tree line… you get the picture right? This also works in urban environments…. A soldier against a wall is very obvious, as general issue military camouflage isn’t brick coloured. As much as I hate to admit it, ACU is rather effective against concrete and brick patterns. The principal here class, is that the more similarity between yourself and your background, the higher the likelihood of not being seen.

A note here for the Airsoft Tactics guide, When taking cover around structures, one can silhouette ones self against the surface. Where possible, use similar colours to yourself, to hide. This can seem rather exposed, but can be more effective than your original location. In an example… light sand coloured wooden hut: Standing in front of this, in green camouflage, will highlight you. Standing to one side, backed by green trees, you will blend in.


If you intend to operate in environments with specific obvious colours that are different from the main environment, take spare camouflage… the top half of a painters paper boiler suit with hood stuffed in a pouch makes an excellent camouflage to throw over yourself when indoors to reduce the chance of being silhouetted against a light wall. The same can work for areas with sandy colours, is easily prepared for with a little forethought and research.

An example for this is in my kit for events at Sennybridge training area’s OBUA village in South Wales (Operations in Built Up Areas). The buildings are predominantly concrete, and when possible, I’ll carry an ACU gortex jacket with hood that I’ll put on when indoors. The pattern blends quite seamlessly with the wall behind me, allowing a greater degree of concealment. However… at Winney Hill OBUA village in North Yorkshire, the interiors of buildings are more often darker, requiring a different camouflage to remain undetected. Things like this are easily found out for the would-be sniper. Visiting a site’s website and photo galleries can give tips on the environment without having to physically visit before hand. Some of the differences I mentioned above will become immediately obvious.


Surface
The surface of you… Most of the other principals are aids to camouflage, but the surface is the key. One can successfully apply of the other principals with regimented precision, but if you’re wearing a pink neon windbreaker, you will most likely fail at your task short of skirmishing in a rave club… This is where a careful choice of base camouflage applies… different bdu pattens suit different environments, and a good selection will aid your concealment. This is also where camouflage paint comes in… a big pink face is a bit obvious against a woodland backdrop. I remember that I was told a very fetching lie back when I didn’t know better: A very astute instructor told us that camouflage cream was produced by max factor for the army… that it would come off easily and be good for my skin. They lied… but more on that another time. A key consideration here is to avoid the stylised American camouflage paint look… The object is not to make yourself look ‘scary’ or ‘warlike’ or ‘special farces’… the regimented patterns of lines and shapes or even symbols are frankly a crock of ****. The more random and close to nature the finished article, the more likely it is to be effective. This goes well with camouflage clothing too… some may look pretty, some may claim all year round, any location concealment, but in truth,. Nothing is perfect, and nothing will do what it says on the tin. Try things for yourself, and find out what works for you, I’m not about to advise what I use, or prefer, because individual opinion and experience counts above all here.


Shadow
Very important in urban conditions, shadow is an unfortunate side effect of light operating in straight lines. When you stand between the sun and the ground, it has an awkward habit of creating a dark patch. Be aware of your position relative to the sun, and the effect this will have on your camouflage. Don’t forget… a patch of ground in shadow makes excellent cover, but be aware that in roughly two hours, it won’t be in shadow anymore.


Spacing
More relevant to squads than pairs, but the distance between yourself, and others around you is a very easy way to spot soldiers in an environment. Make it irregular… objects with regular spacing are rare in nature, and even rarer, are tight groups of even spacing. God bless Airsofters for making our job easier... Even homo Milsimus gets this one wrong.

Naturally, as a sniper team or individual, this is less of an issue to you, but a helpful consideration when searching for targets. For the marksman however… a useful consideration is to make their eyes work for you. An even spaced squad, with a marksman 20m away will draw the eye to the gaggle, not the lone individual out of sync… you will have longer to react, and more chance of remaining concealed and effective.


Movement
As I mentioned earlier, movement is the most visible thing in nature. Be it waving treetops, or a camouflaged individual adjusting their position too quickly. Due to the nature of the human eye, we can sense movement easily. That means that any movement you undertake must be relative to the threat level. As you get closer to the enemy, move slower, and move more deliberately and more smoothly. Movement draws the eye, at the end of the day, it may not give you away, but it will draw attention to your general area, and attention has a good friend called suspicion. Both generally hang out with their mutual acquaintance full-auto.” (Firekitten, Airsoft sniper serial Part 3, 2010)


Hopefully this section from my Sniper Serial will give you an appreciation of camouflage and concealment. While this does refer in many cases to the sniper, it is boils down to general infantry skills and drills, and is applicable for the individual player, as well as the sniper. Even a cursory understanding can increase your chances of success.



Stance

While airsoft guns do not recoil, how you are positioned can have a great effect on your accuracy. With our projectile’s inherent inaccuracy, and range, differences in aim are magnified. Stable firing positions are key, and three basics are key.


Standing
Pretty much everyone’s default position: Stand, raise gun, shoot gun. Airsofters love this one, it involves least effort, and for those covered in so much molle kit they look like relatives of the Super Mutant Ninja turtles, it is the only one they can realistically manage without flopping around with their legs in the air.

Offensive factors: It’s the most unstable firing position, offering most variability, but its also quick.

Defensive factors: large target presented to the enemy.



Kneeling

You don’t need to swear allegiance to a king, or lord, or forum personality, but kneeling provides a very stable, quick firing position allowing the player to shoot more accurately, and remain in position for longer.

Offensive factors: More accurate firing position, and easier to maintain for longer periods.

Defensive factors: Far smaller target presented to the enemy.



Prone

The prone position means lying flat on your belt buckle. It provides the most stable unsupported firing position, and allows the player to remain in location the longest.

Offensive factors: Most stable, and most comfortable.

Defensive factors: Very small target presented to the enemy.



Gear must be considered when taking firing positions. If you’re wearing chest rigs, or assault vests, accessing ones pouches can be difficult when prone, and accessing leg rigs can be difficult in the kneeling position. As with my molle turtle analogy, a lot of equipment on the players’ front can make the prone position impossible, or uncomfortable. If you do have pouches on your front, consider that you will need to roll onto your side to access them, increasing the amount of time taken to reload. If you expect to do this often, consider different load carrying equipment.



Cover

Invariably, the best part of airsoft sites, is that naturally occurring, and manmade objects in the game zone can stop bbs hitting you. No, this isn’t Dave, the guy that just got hit, or Bob the marshal; these are not examples of cover. Cover allows you to move towards an enemy, or prevent the enemy advancing towards you, by selecting a firing position that affords you a modicum of protection from the 6mm plastic death. While the use of cover can seem obvious, many airsofters utterly bugger it up. To examine this, I’ll split it into two sections; offensive cover, and defensive cover.

Offensive Cover
Offensive cover provides a shield to the player, as they move towards an enemy location during contact. Selecting cover before you move to it is vital to increase speed, and decrease time spent exposed to fire. Know where you want to move to, and decide if it has appropriate cover.

Anecdotal crap: British Army trained, and user of an Sa80 in airsoft too, I’m conditioned to go for cover that allows me to fire on a target right handed (around the right side of the cover) due to the function of the weapon. My brain spots positions that fit this criteria… This is a fairly good example of selecting cover. Know what you need, before you move, and know where the enemy is firing from.


Defensive Cover
Defensive cover provides a defender with protection from advancing enemy forces. Typically with an open ground in front, this allows a ‘killing area’ to be formed by well covered defenders against exposed attackers.

A well selected defensive location will have positions to the rear, allowing the defender to fall back as required, to extend the length of defence. Note; always have somewhere to fall back to. If you get trapped, you get hit.



Well this is it I’m afraid for the basics of airsoft tactics. I hope the above can provide some assistance if small, to your airsoft play. While a large amount of the information may seem trivial, its application can make a difference. Above all, Think about what you are doing, and most importantly… Have fun.


Next…

‘Advanced Tactics: Sir! Where the hell did that tank come from?’ A guide to being a sneaky so and so, and other such polite behaviour.


Thanks for reading

Firekitten

ronan keane

I tried reading this but then you mentioned "ADLS. (Attention Deficit… Look Shiny! Syndrome)" and I had to go on a hunt for spoons.....
:cool: