Hooked from the moment you pull the trigger! (Paintball in General)

Member Name: ross88guy

Product:	Paintball in General
Date:	28/06/05 (344 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun, Tactical, Great Rush!

Disadvantages: Can be costly to newbees, Hurts if you are hit anywhere but the stomach!

Overview
Paintball is the fastest growing sport in the Uk and is now classed as an extreme sport.
The basic idea of the game is to run around with your team shooting the opposition team with paintballs while trying not to get shot yourself and aiming to complete a predetermined game objective.

Target Consumers
Paintball appeals to many different target consumers due to several reasons. Firstly there are those among us who are want-to-be Rambo’s but lack the motivation or courage to joint the armed forces. Paintball is a way for these types to show off their shooting skills and try to win the day single handily so they can show off their bruises to their mates in the pub that evening.
The second type of consumer the sport appeals to, is in the world of business. A surprising amount of companies are willing to send their employees to paintball centres in the hope that the day will improve teamwork and communication within the group, of which they will use in the company to create a more efficient and enjoyable working environment. The day will also act to motivate the group as they will have a thoroughly enjoyable time with which they can relate to for weeks after.
The final group of people the sport particularly applies to is the younger generation (and some of the so called more mature members of society) which all at heart relish the chance of playing soldiers and just want to have a good time with their mates.

Venues
You can play paintball at any of the 300sites around the Uk, in so called paintball parks. The largest chain of these venues is “Splat Paintball” but there are many independently owned sites which in many cases are just as good or better, as they can accommodate for individual needs.
The majority of venues are located around the London and Birmingham area, as due to the expensive nature of paintballing the sites require a high threshold population to ensure their business survival.

Booking
For all venues you are required to book in advance as this allows the park to sort our staffing issues and any extra supplies or material they may need. You are required to pay a £10 deposit per person, which can either be done over the phone, by post, or increasingly commonly using the Internet. However, this s not necessarily a bad thing, as you will find that most will give you free paintballs when you book, or will allow you a free place if you book over a certain number. This is to provide some incentive to the organiser, as in my experience it can be very hectic trying to organise 20+ teenagers into getting deposits and sorting out lifts to these places. More than once I have paid the deposits, only to find that “Joe Bloggs” has to work or “Jenny Smith” has an unavoidable hair appointment, leaving you with 2 people down on your booking and hence £20 out of pocket!

Cost
Most parties wish to have the whole day at thee places as it works out cheaper and lets you build up a stiff rivalry with the opposing teams. I will not go into the intricacies of the prices as this would be terribly boring, instead here are the packages that I find the best as there is a compromise between paintballs and cost.

Adult All inclusive, Full day package
· 500 Free Paintballs
· All Equipment
· Hot Lunch
· Free Tea & Coffee All Day
· £35.00 Per Person
· Additional Paintballs £5 per 100


Junior (up to the age of 18 or full time student)
· 300 Free Paintballs
· All Equipment
· Hot Lunch
· Free Tea & Coffee All Day
· £25.00 Per Person
· Additional Paintballs £6 per 100

Extra paintballs cost between £5 and £7 per 100 depending on where you go

Day Plan
You will usually arrive at the site at around 9am, where you will be asked to sign a disclaimer and contact sheet in the event of you being injured. Don’t worry these places have public liability insurance!
You will be given your equipment, which consists of a:
· Full face mask
· Balaclava
· Semi automatic paintball marker (gun) which is usually a “Tippman 98”
· Camouflaged overalls
· Battle Pack
· Paintballs
If you wish you can buy chest protectors (for the ladies), boxes and gloves.
As let me assure you. A paintball travelling at over 100fps hitting you in the groin is a very very very bad thing!
You will be briefed by your marshals as to safety regulations and your day plan.

Game types:
All games start with each teams in designated areas and will be started with a whistle blow.
Capture the flag: this is where you have to get a flag or object from the centre of the pitch to the enemies base without getting shot. You get points for possession or completing the mission
Take and hold: One of the most realistic scenarios, where you have to fight over key areas in order to accumulate points for your team.
Hostage: woe betide the guy who has to run for the coat, put it on and then either get to a building or stay alive during this game, as rest assured, everyone on the opposing team will be after you!
King of the hill: The most fun game you can have. It involves someone having to stand on top of a bunker or objective for a certain length of time, usually singing some kind of nursery rhyme! Not only do they look ridiculous, they will also be the target of an incredible amount of paintballs (some from your own team! You know who your mates are!)
There are many additional scenarios but these are the most common. You find that the marshals make it up as they go along most of the time, but whatever they decide it usually revolves around these game types.

Strategy
The single most important factor in deciding who goes away the looses and who goes away the winners is teamwork. A team who communicate with each other will be much more effective on the battlefield.
· Try to outflank your enemies by advancing along your own flank. 80% of games are won by this as you are then in a position to shoot diagonally at enemies who will suddenly find themselves frightfully exposed, to your fire!
· Always spread out and push as far ahead as you can. If you group together with a group of mates all behind the same bunker you will die! It is too easy for a stray ball to whip round and catch one of you on the foot or battle pack. You need to spread out as this makes it much harder for your enemies to hit you, and when the try to, someone further down the field can have a shot at them when they expose themselves.
· When make runs, get your team mates to cover you, if they shoot of a few shots at a bunker hiding an enemy then that enemy is going to keep his head down. This may also mean he doesn’t know where you are running to and so you may be able to surprise him!
· Know when to give ground. Most people feel they have to stay forward even when facing overwhelming odds. You are not useful to your team if you are out! If you pull back it may make the opposition team think you are finished, in which case they will become arrogant and make mistakes, where you can take your revenge!
· Oh and team work!

Further developments in the sport.
Paintball has recently taken off as a competitive sport in the past 5 years. Now there is rarely a weekend where you will no find some kind of tournament, whether it be a professional “masters tournament” or a walk on day for enthusiasts with their own equipment.

Some useful links to check out if you are interested in paintball is the UKPS website, which is the regulatory body of the Uk scene http://www.ukpsf.com/

Also “just paintball” has the cheapest prices around, and has free postage and packaging to all mainland UK homes. Also they have a list of paintball venues in your area. www.justpaintball.co.uk

The Uk tournament scene is based around the Motorola Paintball Association National League which can be found at http://www.thepaintballassociation.biz/


Tips
· Get your mates to pitch in and buy extra paintballs n bulk as it works out cheaper. You can usually buy 500 for cheaper than 5x100paintballs and 1000 cheaper than 2x500paintballs.
· If you are planning to got often, it is worth buying your own mask and if you need to, your own gloves, as the masks at the parks often become scratched and steam up easily. Trust me nothing will ruin your day more than your mask fogging up. You can pick up a “JT Elite” off ebay for around £5 or off www.justpaintball.co.uk for £12.50 (free post and packaging) which is the same as the ones they use at the parks. I have a “JT Proteus 2” which I can recommend as it has a thermal lens (to stop fogging) and is very close fitting.
· Be wary on the day of how much paint you are shooting. Especially for newcomers to the sport. You get around 400 paintballs in the average package and you typically get 8 games. This means if you didn’t want to buy any more paint you would only be able to shoot 50balls per game! The markers (guns) you will be using can fire over up to 12balls per second which means (if you had a fast enough finger) you could blow your games allowance of balls in 5-10 seconds! The paintball venues will deliberately pat newcomers in games called “speed ball” where you are playing in an area the size of half a football pitch, and you cannot help firing off round after round. They do this in the hope you will buy more paint as this is their largest profit maker (60% profit on the cost of paintballs)
· Wear old clothes and suitable foot ware as it is incredibly easy to get a twisted ankle or cuts and grazes.
· Be polite to the marshals as they will be more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt if they like you!

Hope I have been some use to you, and I hope you enjoy the sport as a much as I have! Oh one last thing, getting shot doesn’t hurt (honest) well unless you get hit in the groin, on a bone, in the head, at point blank range……..

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