Woodsball specialists are players who fulfill various specialized roles in woodsball or scenarioball teams in the sport of paintball. Some of the most common specialists are gunners, heavy weapons specialists, and marksmen.
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General
There are a number of different specialties that can develop in woodsball and scenarioball, due to the wide range of possible equipment configurations and the different needs that come about in play. Thus, specialists are quite often more diverse than general player positions. Specialists are usually integral to a team's strategy, especially if there are a large number of specialists present within that team. This effect is doubly apparent in scenario games, when a particular class of specialists may be assigned to a team to better forward that team's designed purpose. For example, a given scenario has team Alpha playing as guerrilla insurgents, and team Beta as a mechanized force attempting to destroy them. It is probable that Alpha will have a concentration of accomplished ambush players, often marksmen (see below), and anti-armor infantry. Beta will probably have a concentration of riflemen, perhaps gunners, and mech pilots to operate the tanks, armored personnel carriers, et cetera.
Gunner
Players with the fastest-shooting markers are almost always gunners. They tend to hang back and 'longball' the opposition, letting scouts and riflemen move up alongside the other team. Gunners are responsible for providing heavy suppressive fire, and they will often rush up and down the front line, providing cover for other elements of the team as they advance.
Heavy Weapons or Anti-Armor
Advanced teams will often have heavy weapons to combat opposing tanks, boats, and aircraft. However, such players will rarely be seen anywhere except 'Big Games' (games where sometimes hundreds if not thousands of paintballers will play) and Scenarioball. Heavy weapons specialists may carry paintball grenade launchers, paintball rocket launchers, paintball mortars, and operate mounted paintball machine markers. If there is a tank assigned to a team, it is common that heavy weapons specialists will be reassigned as tank pilots, also referred to as mech pilots. This can add an interesting twist, as the recently appointed mech pilots will often know 'tricks of the trade' in how to destroy mechs, and thus will bring that knowledge - and knowledge of counter-moves which can benefit the mechs - to their new position.
Marksmen or Snipers
Paintball Marksmen/Snipers are arguably the largest, most commonly seen, and most controversial specialist group. And many consider it to be its own group separate from paintball specialists. Marksmen are players who are dedicated to unparalleled accuracy on the paintball field. They are also known for their arguably unparalleled emphasis upon stealth. These two abilities allow the marksman to move to a position, lay in ambush and strike quickly then leave, often confusing the enemy, slowing them down and slowly eliminating their forces. Because of these and other reasons it is not uncommon for paintball marksmen to spend much more than ordinary players on equipment, sometimes even spending $800-$2000 US dollars just on the marker itself. However, over time, this increased cost in equipment may be mitigated by the use of a lesser number of paintballs when compared to other players. Woodsball marksmen are often incorrectly known for their ability to sit back from the front line and longball the enemy positions from afar. This is because it is difficult for a player to build a marker to perform this task because ball velocities are regulated. Assuming that a rifleman, with a 12" barrel, shooting 280ft/sec is put against a sniper, with an 18" barrel, shooting at the same speed, then the sniper's ball will on average travel 6" further from the gun breach than the rifleman's. This is only because the ball velocity is measured from the tip of the barrel. Apex and Flatline barrel systems allow for longer distances, but it should be noted that the ball velocity at these longer ranges is often insufficient to produce a break. Snipers/marksman are generally more useful for longballing only because of their increased accuracy which translates into more hits at any range. The term 'paintball sniper' is the cause of much controversy. Indeed, it may arguably be the most controversial issue in paintball today. Critics of paintball snipers argue that the very nature of military snipers contradicts that of paintball snipers. Along with this subject there are many other debates going on as to whether there is or is not a paintball sniper. As a kind of unwritten compromise, the term 'paintball marksman' is emerging in various areas throughout the world, which is more widely accepted than the original term. In military terms the 'paintball sniper' would more accurately be called a Designated marksman since they perform much of the same duties as that squad member.
See also
- Paintball
- Woodsball
- Scenario paintball
- Paintball strategy
- Woodsball strategy
- Player positions (paintball)
