Drills, Training, or Wing-It Free for all?

[Vitalis]

The title says it all....

What type of training stuff does everyone out there use?

Do you read tactics, practice or try to implement tactics?  Rifle Buddy teams?  Floating support groups w/ scout patrol?  Coordinated movement with suppression fire?  Running cover drills?  Base-of-fire drills?

Or do you use the wing-it and adapt to the situation as it develops mode?

How many of you practice your aimed shooting skills?  Your snap shooting skills?  Or is it spray and pray???  

Just wondering how the experienced guys do stuff?  

And of course, looking for an excuse to get conversation rolling out here...

Vitalis

[Blorfo]

personally, i run around in circles screaming and shooting at anything that moves. but dont listen to me.  

[Newman]

Vitalis, as much as I'd like for people to use real-world tactics, most don't. ;D  I'd say the majority (over 90%) of people just stand and shoot a crapload of bb's...  If you've ever played paintball with guys with a chunk a' change and noticed their playing style of "shoot anything that moves, AND shoot it multiple times", basically most people in Airsoft are like that, except that they use 300-600 round magazines and their guns are full-auto...

One of my gripes, aye, is hi-caps and the "paintball" aspect.  It's the exact same as paintball in my opinion...just more shooting, less range, and the shape of the guns.  Hehe, why do I even play?  Oh yeah, the cost is 10-12x cheaper.

Baaaack on topic, I base all of my tactics on the SWAT series of computer games, no kidding.  Although I'm into the Army aspect and not the SWAT aspect at all, I still base my team communication and tactics on that.  Movement, however, is influenced by paintball and the real-world Army...I like to make some mad dashes for the flag for the "fun factor". ;D

[Hadoken]

I try to keep things as realistic as I can, but it's not always possible.

I don't think I ever spray and pray. In fact I'm probably one of the few people I've played with that uses the actual weapon sights and I think I happen to be a pretty good shot with my trusty MP5.

I only shoot when I know there's a chance I'll hit the enemy, or to keep some heads down as my team makes a move.

Sure the hi-caps might not be too realistic, but...since I'm but a poor poor lad it's way cheaper than buying a ton of standard magazines. Also with my short MP5K hi-cap it's a lot easier to go prone than with standard size magazines.

I'd really like to have a game though where standard mags would be filled to real steel capacity, so uber bb hosers like Bigmack would be forced to adopt a different playing style and magazine changes would be waaaay more frequent.

[Ed]

A lot of the guys from LK Airsoft wing it on the field.  There is a plan, but pretty loose.  Like Newman said, no one really has tactics.  We try to "cover" each other and play as a team...thats what I think is the best approach.

A lot of places on the net have really stupid tactics that cannot be used in airsoft in any way.  However, airsoftzone accually has some interesting tips that I think could be used in an airsoft situation.  I suggest you spend about 30 mins and read all through it.

www.airsoftzone.com/tactics_article.cfm?Title=CQB+Tactics+Chapter+1&Tactics=cqb_1

[DragginBlazer]

Spray and Pray!  ;D

[Viking]

Well I am totally in airsoft for the milsim aspect, I try to play realistically but there have been times (in the past) where I tend to get a little trigger-happy. And that’s do to the fact that airsoft isn’t as realistic as some people say it is. For one your bbs have lousy range. Two, you cant really fire threw brush all that well, so it takes a lot more ammo to kill that guy crouched behind the bush. And finally 700 rounds and full auto is very very addictive.

As for Semtex my dream is to have a leet team who uses real world tactics to slaughter their opponents. I try to teach at least two or three different tactics each time we meet. Last game (last Saturday) we went over the controlled retreat and the proper way to reload your weapon under fire (bigmack won btw, great speed and he didn’t almost fall over twice like me). But moral within the team on actually practicing and putting our skills to the test is kinda tipsy topsy. The Semtex team is made up of pretty much the original MiA guys, back at MiA skirmish 1 there was 5 of us. Me, Hado, Ballista, Newman and Retraw. The following few skirmish has added on the other members: Minky, Bigmack, Ammo, Trooper, Havok. When we first started playing we didn’t really have anything down and it really showed, we were very unorganized and it was pretty much every man for them selves. Over the months and events I have noticed a considerable change, we now play much more like a team, covering each other, coordinating between groups etc. Radios help a lot, btw.

So pretty much airsoft tactics just kind of … mmm… adopt into your team. Outside real life tactics just don’t work, I mean some do, if used right but do to range and power limitations it never goes as planned, that’s where your team has to see what works for them and work on it to perfection.

CQB is another story, swat style tactics are king. I haven’t the chance to play much CQB out here but back in Arizona it was played on a regular basis. Back then I was team leader of the Legionaries, man what a leet team, anyway.

Just go and have fun, your team will naturally adopt tactics and so forth.  

[Ed]

Right, go with what works.

If you were at any of the LKA games (Snow Fox/Rapid Response) then you know a tactic that we use ALL THE TIME!  One team goes right, one team goes left.  If one side can't cover themselves then the other side helps...wait, it's 2AM and I need to sleep (9AM start time? Viking we need to talk).

[DUNCAN]

My way of training is practice.  All of us LKA players play against eachother each time, and every time, we try some daring moves and rushing methods, and we eventually use it if it works or not, getting better and better every time we play I guess.

I remember in the beginning it was a lot of hiding and waiting til someone runs up to you so you can shoot them, but now, once we learn how to use cover well (while being shot at), we give small suppression fire while we rush our asses off to the next set of cover.  I think we just do what comes natural, tactics may just be a bi-product.

I don't think that many of us really use a great deal of tactics, especially ones you would find in a manual or what not, but we do try to keep it as realistic as possible, we don't want it to be like paintball.  Also, those hi-caps, damn, I hate hi-caps and I'll never use them. they are not realistic at all, especially knowing that if I had one I could have 600 shots in one clip, that just takes the fun out of having a back-up, or conserving ammo.

[Vitalis]

Thanks for the answers guys, I really appreciate it.  I was asking this question just as a tool to get some discussion going here, and of course, to find out how everyone else enjoys this game.

Personally, I am a fan of tactics.  Tactics are very very real.  And the principles behind them are the same whether you are trying to balance archers, cavalry, and shieldwall movements; advancing and eliminating an enemy with real steal; shooting with paintballs; or firing airsoft BBs.

I personally think the difference lies in the fact of knowing your tools.  There are many *specific* real steel tactics that just plain won't work with airsoft.  Like Viking said, BBs don't chew throug foliage.  In addition, in airsoft, no one is actually afraid of dying.  It just will not happen with an airsoft shot.

But, the principles are there.  Creating a base of fire is real.  Seeking cover is real.  Using mobile units to move on your opponants flanks is very real.  This stuff hasn't changed in 2000 years, and isn't likely to change in 2000 more.

And of course, adaptability.  That one key componant is very necessary.

We spent all day Saturday practicing.  What will work, what won't work.  How the range of the weapons effect what we are doing.  How easy it is to blow through ammo... etc.  And most of all, we practiced communication.

We had a blast, cooked off about 12,000 rounds of ammo, and practiced until it started fricken raining.  So, 2:00 till about 8:00....  It was a pretty good day.

Vitalis