News — Paintball

Paintball is a fun way to blow off steam and use your body and your brain at the same time. Lots of adults as well as kids engage in this outdoor activity, enjoying the mess as well as the different ways to play. Paintball was originally a military training activity that simulated possible strategic assaults in wartime, but has since grown to be an equally fun activity for civilians.

If you have never played paintball and you are interested in learning more about it, the first thing you should do is learn about the equipment, the different types of paintball games and the paintball rules that go with each different game. Then you can start looking for a good paintball field and business near you. They will tell you what their individual rates are for various games and what they offer.

As a general rule, you only need two things to play paintball. The first is a full face mask, since the paintballs explode and splatter on contact and the speed at which they are ejected from the paintball air gun is powerful enough to cause an eye injury. It should have a shatter-resistant eye shield and cover your nose and mouth.

The hard plastic used to make this masks can take the hits of the paintballs, although most paintball business owners insist that head shots are not allowed. The mask is typically meant to protect you against a volley of paintballs that may stray from their marks and not any paintballs that are illegally shot at your head. However, the mask protects you no matter what or the number of paintballs that hit you in the head/face.

The second and certainly equally important piece of equipment is the air gun. There is an attached hopper into which you can load paintballs. From the hopper, the balls automatically load themselves into the barrel of the gun. An attached compressed air tank releases an intense puff of air to eject the paintballs out the short barrel of the air gun at your target.

Do not let the simplicity of the gun's design and function fool you! People often leave a paintball game with a couple of bruises because of how hard these little balls of paint hit. The closer your target is to you when you shoot, the more likely it will leave a bruise. (People with hemophilia or clotting disorders are discouraged from playing these games because of bruising factor.) A big part of paintball rules is that you are never allowed to shoot point-blank and/or shoot point-blank above the waist.

The really good news is that you usually do not have to buy any guns or face masks. They are provided at a rental price from the owner of a paintball playing field. You may, however, have to purchase a bag of paintballs, and the cost ranges from a nickel a ball to under a dollar per ball, depending on where you live, where the paintball business is, and what the owner decides to charge. It is common to sell players bags of fifty or a hundred paintballs at a time. If you buy paintballs from a store to take with you, make sure there are no paintball rules against bringing in your own bag or container of paintballs to play.

There are some general paintball rules every paintball player has to follow, or they (i.e., you) cannot play. The rules are for everyone's safety. They are very common-sense.

Those paintball rules are:

• ALWAYS wear the mask. Do NOT take it off while playing or near a field where there are flying paintballs.
• If you are hit, you are OUT. It doesn't matter if the shot is intentional or accidental or even a stray paintball. A hit is a hit, and you are out.
• If you run out of paintballs and there are no rules for hand-to-hand "combat", you have to surrender and exit the game. That is why you have to make every shot count and not just go crazy firing off your "ammo" like you are firing off a machine gun.
• If you bring your own paintball air gun, check with the owner of the paintball property to make sure it is certified safe to use on his/her field. He/she has a license to operate, and violations in equipment can shut his/her business down.
• You can surrender at any time if you want out of the game, but then you can't go back in the game either. You will have to wait for the next round.
• Most paintball field owners do not allow anyone under the age of 12 to play for safety and liability reasons. Check with your paintball field owners to see what paintball rules and restrictions they have.

It is also a good idea to wear clothes that you don't mind getting splattered with paint and covered in dirt or mud. Unless your intent is to walk away with a souvenir t-shirt covered in paintball colors/stains, avoid white. This are just some of the understood paintball rules that are rarely mentioned. A lot of people get really psyched about this activity and show up in full military camo. You can do that so long as you are not sporting any insignia or pretending to be soldiers and officers.

The title of this paintball game is pretty self-explanatory, but we'll dive into it and its paintball rules a little more. Essentially, two teams of at least four players each (although six or more players to a team make it more fun!) take the field. One team guards a flag and fires down on the opposing team to keep the opposing team members from grabbing the flag and running safely away. 

It's an elimination game to get rid of team members on both sides until no one is left or the opposing team has absconded with the flag. Then it's game over. The paintball rules here state that every one that is hit with a single paintball is out and has to leave the game area.

In this game's paintball rules, a flag is placed somewhere in the middle of the playing field. It may or may not be visible to everyone playing, depending on how challenging the teams have agreed to play the game and or the variant on the paintball rules. The flag is not defended, but rather both teams attempt to fight and shoot their way to the flag until someone grabs it and runs off. The team whose player manages to grab the flag and take it back to the team's "base" wins.

This game has also been called "predator vs. prey," but the idea and the paintball rules are the same. One person or one team is/are the target(s). The other team has to hunt down the target(s) and shoot the target(s) until the target(s) is/are gone. The target(s) on the other hand, have to avoid being shot while picking off the hunters. The game is often played in the woods, although various and unusual objects to hide behind in an open field may do just as well. The target(s) are often given a few minutes head start to find cover before the hunt begins.

This paintball game has quite the set of paintball rules. Everyone's name is written on small strips of paper and dropped in a hat. Everyone draws a name and does not reveal who they have drawn. If you draw your own name, you have to put it back and draw again. The secrecy of who has who is half the fun. Then you have to do all you can to avoid "dying" before you have "killed" your target. The person left standing and not "dead" at the end wins.

Imagine if you were a member of the Secret Service. It's your job to protect the leader or diplomat from the assassins. That is what this game and its paintball rules are all about. Someone is elected to go without a gun and not be allowed to shoot. A small team is assigned to protect the "leader" and get the "leader" to a designated spot. The other team works to shoot the "leader" either by working their way around to a weakness in the defenses or picking off the protection detail team. If the "leader" gets to the spot alive, that team wins. If the "leader" is killed, the assassins win.

Special Ops is the theme here, with just a couple of players taking out a very large group to grab the "missile" or other imagined prizes. The paintball rules here are simple. If the two or three players successfully pick off all of the other team, they win. If they are killed trying to take on the convoy, the convoy wins.

So that's about it in terms of paintball rules in general, paintball rules as they are applied to each game, and how to play. If you are even more excited about playing now, it's time to start looking for where to play and when you can play. Most paintball field owners operate on weekends as a side business, but some do this all year round to offer players a variety of seasons, ground and overhead cover, different weather conditions (because it is a very different game playing in pouring rain or snow!) and party packages.

Sometimes these field owners will sell off their older equipment too, allowing you to buy the equipment that is both safe and allowed on these fields. It can become a really good deal if you plan to play a lot of paintball. Otherwise, there is a very big market out there of paintball equipment and supplies from suppliers who know and love the game. A lot of suppliers are now online too, making it really easy to get whatever you want or need to play games.