Portugal Big Games - Paintugal

Well, you now know a little bit of everything you need to start and to choose how to do it, so what I’m going to do in this post is to give you a brief description on where to find the best Portugal recreational paintball games.In Portugal when you talk about big games it is unavoidable to speak o the name Paintugal, since that is the great association that organizes at least 4 big games per year, plus a woodsball tournament with limited paint rules.They organize a big game every year in September to celebrate their birthday as an association and 3 additional big games (called the Mega Campaign) that have an innovating format of 1 vs. 1 vs. 1, that’s it, 3 teams competing in the same field against each other for the same objectives and with interesting themes (this year the thematic is the matrix, humans vs. machines vs. viruses).In these games, the objective is not to go and spray paint, the games are organized with timed objectives, bases for each team, and special characters, like the team generals, the medics and the engineers and that’s what makes the game so fun, because you know that it isn’t just a bunch of people shooting at the bushes.
In the last September 18th took place in Mafra the biggest game ever made in the Iberian Peninsula, the Paintugal anniversary game “Band of Brothers” that gathered a total of 660 players from many countries, like Spain, France, U.K., and also we shall not forget that beyond those 660 there were the organization, referees, shop sellers, and the families from players.
Also as I already stated there is the Paintugal Challenge which allows 1 team of not associated members for each competition, and has 2 different set of games.
The arena which is a team versus team game and the Coquest which is like a mini big game, where all the teams compete against each other for a big amount of objectives.

In the current year they started a big beneficence action for the reforestation and a fund recollection for a handicapped people association, so in every game you participate you will be contributing to these causes.



Finally I want to state here that this blog offers full support to the Paintugal association and therefore when they organize games you may come here to know about them.

Check their website and forum for any doubts you may have.

What marker to buy?

Much probably you have all seen persons asking what the best marker for them to buy is. I’m going to try and explain a bit on how you can choose, I will not say this is a better marker or that one is, no, what I’m going to do is explaining you what kind of markers suits each case.
Let me just tell you first that the most important thing for a paintball player is never the marker… it is the mask, because a bad mask will prevent you from seeing the adversaries and therefore making you play worse.
But lets just go and talk about the markers first.

When you ask which marker is better everyone will ask you, what kind of paintball you are going to play, because you won’t use a recreational paintball marker in an airball field (even though you can you will be in disadvantage).
So if you are going to play recreational paintball I’m going to advise you what most players advise: Tippmann 98 custom or the BT-4. They are both cheap markers that can survive about everything they eat dirt and still shoot, they can shoot from underwater, and you can drop them on the ground and they will still shoot. Now you ask “if that’s so good why do persons use others markers instead?”, well all this survivability capacity comes at a cost, first of all they are heavy, you can do a big game with them without stopping (I did and I’m alive), but when you compare it to a 1kg marker, there is a real difference. Also, they shoot less balls per seconds, which makes you have les ire power than the adversary if they have others (better) equipment.
Well but that’s not all there is, if you want you can instead buy a Tippmann X7 for example, which comes with a good loader, it is heavier, but it shoots more, and besides, it looks like a military gun (lots of players like this), BT also have very good markers like the Delta Elite, that looks like a MP5 and the most recent BT tm-15 which in my opinion is just amazing.
If you decide you are a real big man, you will obviously going for a Tiberius or MILSIG marker, and both have the advantage that you can use a normal loader (200 balls capacity) or use magazines like in real guns, and make it more realistic.

On the other side if you want to go for airball… you must know it will cost more money, and the better solution for a cheap start is the Ion XE, because you can buy it new, or just buy it from someone at low price and hopefully with upgrades. Still I won’t tell to buy new or used, that has to be something you decide on your own and do at your own risk.
In airball, big men most common choice is the EGO, every players has already heard the sentence “EGO is ego”, because these markers are high end markers, very light and with an high capacity to shoot several balls per second (15+ at least). Of course those are not the only choices you can go for a DLX, which is also an amazing marker, or maybe you want to get a Mini Invert, a very small marker but with very good rate of fire.

One thing to remember is that if you buy a “recreational marker” you won’t be playing airball championships with it, on the other side with an airball marker you can play whatever you want to, because you are not limited by weight or balls per second capacity.


Remember that whatever everyone say to you it’s what you like that counts (unless you like slingshots that doesn’t count), I’ve seen airball teams playing big games with their 1000$ markers and shooting many players, as well as players with pump markers (pumps are marker in which you must manually reload air shot by shot) dominating objectives alone.

Remember, play for fun and play safe.

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!

What is Paintball?

The first post in this Blog is going to be to all the newcomers to paintball, and also to all the experts (never forget the basics). Rules, equipments, expenses and what to expect from your first paintball game is going to be the theme.

Well, paintball isn't (and many persons think this way) a war game. Its not even close, we don't use guns, we don't use bullets and we don't get injured (if we follow the rules of course).
In paintball what most people call "gun", we give the name of MARKER and that’s the name we are going to give it from now on, the marker is a system that uses compressed air to shoot a ball made of biodegradable matter trough the air, and the intention is to hit the opposing team member.

Your basic equipment (usually the one you rent) won’t be amazing, it won’t surpass 200$, which is good, it makes it affordable and easier to start (not exactly cheap but not a skyrocket price). It will be a marker, a compressed air tank, a ball deposit (VL) and THE MASK.

The mask is what protect your eyes, keep it in your face and you will never get injured, take it off in the middle of a game and prepare for medical costs.

Now the good part what you will experience in your first game is lots of adrenaline, you will run a lot and never get tired and you will mostly always be under paint fire and shooting back at you opponents (oh yeah, that’s the good stuff).

So you now know, rent a kit (less than 35$ usually) with some paintballs included and invite friends to join you, have a nice day painting each other and then go home wishing for the next game.

In the next article I’m going to talk about rules and game types (some photos to come), and I hope you likes this article, every constructive critic is welcome.