Paintball Big Game

Lets talk about big games, those huge paintball games that gather hundreds of players at the same place for a day pure fun and adventure. This is the best way you will find to learn everything you can about recreational paintball, there are lots of teams that go and are whiling to give guidance to the new players and even let them try out their markers so that later on, when they decide to buy equipment they are better informed about what suits them better.

How can you find them? Simple type “paintball big game” in any search engine and you will get lots of information about several games. I honestly advise (if you are from Portugal or can come for a game here) the Paintugal big games.

Paintugal makes free (sometimes low fee 5-10€) big games and allows everyone to participate. In the last year they hosted the biggest game ever made in the Iberian Peninsula with 660 players in a terrain with several acres and a mix of scenario and wild forest with several objectives to conquer.

Just search in any search engine for Paintugal and you will find the best paintball corner i know.

In this kind of games there are usually many different objectives that go from protecting a base or a general to capturing persons, objects or even conquering enemy well defended bases.

In most games 2 players are denominated leaders or generals (or whatever they call them in that game), and they are the ones who create the game strategy for their team. You can make a part of this strategy or just play the way you want, but I would recommend play as a part of the main strategy and talk with the team leader about your experience in paintball, the equipment you will take, your physical condition and all you may think of any use, because like that he can give you a proper role that suits your personal qualities.

In the end you are the one who choose what to do, and that’s the way it is supposed to be, you will never be forced to do a role you don’t want to.

The biggest advice I can give you is, whatever game you go, talk with the persons around you, in paintball most of the players are very… lets call it “friendly” because they know what is to start without good equipment or start without a regular team to play.

I hope you liked this small post and even if you are not thinking of participating of a big game, visit their web sites because some of them (like paintugal) have forums with players whiling to teach you and answer your questions.

Paintball rules and game types.

The paintball rules are the most important thing, and the reason for this is because if you follow them you won’t get hurt.
When a paintball comes out of the barrel it useually comes with a velocity of about 300 Km/h wich is a lot, but also drops very fast, therefore making it safe, but hurting just a litlle bit when you are hit, a pain like someone pinching you in the harm, and believe me, with all the adrenaline that pain will be unnoticed fast.

So, first rule and the most important has I already said in the last post… THE MASK… you don’t want a paintball hitting your eyes because that will get you blind, and also if it hits the face it will hurt a lot. Most newcomers say “no problem I’ll use protection glasses that I use in chemistry”… don’t, the paintball will make them fly away and it’s the same as using nothing, therefore use a mask, you have no excuses to say no.
Another important rule is that you don’t shoot your friends (or anyone) if you are at less than 5 meters from him, how can you do this? Simple, just tell him a loud “surrender” or “you are dead piss off”, just let him know in any way you want that you are behind and that if he turns around to fire he will get hit easily, usually this is told in every briefing before any game you play.
Now a common sense rule, be careful with the terrain, most injuries that don’t come from removing the mask come from falls, putting your foot in a hole and snap a bone, running like crazy and eating dirt… if you see well, hats the injuries you also see in sports like football, or even walking on the street (amazing sport this last one), so no need to be afraid paintball has a injury rating of 4 injuries per 10.000 players, and that’s less than golf.

Still to improve the security there is the soo called barrel plug to prevent you from shooting accidentally, because event though a marker has a safety there are still chances (minimal) that it fails in the needed moment, there for a barrel plug (not a squeegies or barrel cleaner) is also one of the best ways to prevent accidents.


Now about the games, you can play airball or woodsball (there are others like big games, but we will cover them in the next time).
Airball is the most common competition case and it is played in a inflatable obstacles field that is most usually symmetric for both teams. In this kind of field the game consists of just catching the flag that is in the middle and taking it to the base or eliminating the opposing team, it’s a faster game and usually a more expensive one, because even though you can play with rented kits if you want to play with your material you will need the real stuff, marker kits that cost at least 400$ being this uncommon and also you will waste lots of paintballs.
Woodsball has the name says its wood/urban side of paintball, usually played in asymmetric fields like a forest or a abandoned factory whose owner allows paintball games inside, it is the best place to start because it is usually cheaper and easier to play with more experience players from who you are going to learn a lot (remember, in this game you will never know everything) and hopefully they will also learn some things, because every player differs from each other. Honestly talking this is the kind of paintball I play, I don’t have much experience in the airball side.
In woodsball you can play lots of games, like “capture the flag” (same as in airball), “kill the president” (where you must hit the opposing team president to win the game), “to the other side” (in this one you need to infiltrate the opposing team base), and many others, you just need imagination and make new games with new winning rules.

Now it’s up to you, talk to friends, choose what games you want to play and remember FOLLOW THE SAFETY RULES!