Basic Strategy
There are many different strategies in paintball. They differ depending on the game you are playing.
Flanking: this paintball strategy has one or more players providing cover fire into a bunker while teammates get to a point where the bunker is no longer hiding their target. They then proceed to dominate their opponent with paintballs, paintballs, and more paintballs. When it is done in close proximity to the bunker it is also called bunkering.
Pairing: This is usually more effective in woodsball where the pace is a bit slower. Two players are grouped together in order to make them better and hide weaknesses. It is usually one experienced player (for using paintballs) and one inexperienced player (for getting hit with paintballs). This also allows the inexperienced player to learn from the one who’s been playing longer.
Movement: KEEP MOVING! In paintball if you are standing still you will be pelted with more paintballs than you can handle. You need to make aggressive moves without being reckless. If you pop your head out to shoot and your opponent hides it gives you a second or two to move to a new position. Then when they pop out again and you are some place else you can hit him with as many paintballs as you can unleash.
For Woodsball: Remain Unseen. Try to keep from being noticed and find out where your opponents are. That gives you the ultimate advantage because while they are looking for you, you are raining paintballs, paintballs, and more paintballs on them.
Know the Field: It will make you more comfortable with your surroundings and allow smoother movement.
The Run-Through: This is a mad dash (assumed to be eventual suicide) where you try to just run past bunkers and land as many paintballs as possible before being shot. Usually you get hit but a good run-through can make it a trade-off in your team’s favor.
Leap-Frogging: Two players work together in order to advance in the field. One is always prepared to, or currently, lay down covering fire with as many paintballs as he can shoot. The other is moving. Once the next bunker or cover is reached the player who was moving begins to lay the cover fire for the other player’s move. It allows easier movement from cover to cover. Usually you don’t want to go to the cover your partner is behind. You want to go to a more advanced cover, past him.
Lane Denial: This is called many different things but it is essentially a movement denial strategy. It is a strategy used almost entirely in arena type games. You fire paintballs in between two bunkers. The more paintballs the better; you want to make it so that if the player tries to go along that path he will get blasted by paintballs until he can’t move. Eliminating the lane forces a player to stay in one place. Staying in one place, like I said before, usually means you get covered in paintballs.