Team III: Knowledge and Strategy

I’m sure there’s one thing nobody really thinks about in paintball: critical thinking. That annoying thing from High School where they had you sit and discuss and figure out what the hell’s going on in a very cryptic, misleading or strange set of events. Your answers there were based on prior knowledge and your ability to put the pieces together.
Cryptic, misleading and strange? Sounds like paintball to me. At any given point in an engagement, how much do we really know about what’s going on? How much do we know about the equipment the other team is carrying and how that changes things? How do we know what the other team is going to do? These are answered through the use of two of the most important command skills: Research and Synthesis.
Easily put, research is the act of finding information about a given topic and sorting it for use later. For paintball, this definition changes. Here, Research becomes the act of using and practicing with different equipment and talking to other players in order to form an idea of how that person plays and how players with the same kind of equipment will play. Research is the base way of improving a teams’ Knowledge.
Synthesis, the active version of Research, is the act of taking a given set of information and drawing conclusions and new knowledge from that information. With paintball, that stays the same. You’re going to take what you know and put it together in order to find out exactly what is going on and what you can do about it.
Research, compared to Synthesis, is a very easy act to engage in. Hanging around marker-specific forums and reading on those markers that you’ve never seen before is a quick way to research them and gain field knowledge. Field knowledge of something means that if you see it on the field, you can identify it and know what it is, not the specifics. Continued research leads to active knowledge, from which you’ve used or seen a given thing so many times you can identify it with no trouble or just from sound, and know how the thing works in a given situation. User’s knowledge is when the person can actively use the equipment and learns the item from the user’s perspective. Finally, full knowledge comes from using the product as a “Main” and the act of upkeep and use over time. This knowledge usually will bring the item or tactic to its full potential (This is how Autococker owners are able to ‘time’ their cockers and Tippmann owners can overclock their marker’s cyclone feeds.)
With research, the goal is to form a broad base of knowledge about everything you can encounter on the field. Let’s take, for example, going to a scenario game for the first time. Research begins by learning the scenario’s specifics in terms of special rules and units, prices, if you can BYOP or not, where the place is and stuff like that. This is the equivalent of field knowledge. The next step, active knowledge, means that you begin, through whatever means, learning the ins and outs of a specific field, like who the owner is, where the bases are located on the field, where the camping is compared to the rest of the field, the chain of command and who the major teams coming to that scenario are. User’s knowledge, with the example of the scenario game, means that you’ve met and spoke with a few players that have been there before, or are camping with those people immediately preceding the game. Finally, Owner’s Knowledge will stem from participation in the game and use of the field over the course of time. That, is how research develops Knowledge.
Knowledge carries a specific on field benefit, that of identification. An advanced knowledge of tactics leads to the ability to identify the enemy’s tactic. An advanced knowledge of the equipment gives you, if you care for eliminating firepower first, a hit list of sorts on who being out will make your life on the field easier. Knowledge of the field leads to finding bunkers and hiding spots that aren’t obvious. Knowledge of all of this generally leads to a distinct advantage on the field.
Synthesis on the other hand, can take the Knowledge advantage and blow it out of the water. Synthesis leads to Strategy because of the fact that you draw from the knowledge that you have and draw ideas and themes from that to create a tactic to take advantage of a given situation.
This skill, however, is something that is learned and practiced under fire. There is a post floating around right now that discusses my own skills and background and players were asked to synthesize the information into a field-profile of myself and how this works. Let’s discuss this.
A field profile of someone is the basics. Their Callsign, approximate age, Position, used marker, approximate time playing, notes on how they move on the field, off-field occupation and specialized training.
For myself, the Field Profile looks something like this:

Gramps, 19
Command/Broadsword
Tippmann A5RP (Remote and Progressive Barrel), Tippman M98FRT (Flatline/Response Trigger)
1.5 Years of Experience
Back player, is timid and hangs back.
Writer/Fry Cook
Leadership Training at Drury University, Brief Army ROTC Experience

From this, people nailed quite a few of my habits and such. Due to the command position, they discerned my treatment of Daggers (Letting them get the glory and still demanding respect from them), my actual playstyle, how being a Writer and a Fry Cook play into paintball and further on.
How did this work? I don’t know how their particular thought processes went, which is something that changes from player to player, but I can estimate this is what each thing signaled:
Callsign: This determines how a player is referred to on the field by his teammates. Often, this has to do with some kind of experience or event that happened on or off the field that gave the player this nickname. For me, the nickname is derived, hopefully, from my sluggish on-field movement and weak physical attributes.
Age: Age determines the maximum years of experience as well as a relative estimate of a player’s maturity. The older the player, the more mature that player should be. Maturity relates to Command habits as well as how well the player takes order. It’s not a rule, but the younger a player is, the less they tend to listen to orders. Usually, a person can garner command of players within two to three years of their own age. This also gives a view of how that person’s team is aged and skilled.
Position/BMF: Player’s position helps determine their most prominent on-field habits and responsibilities. The Positions are used for other SpecOps members, while a Back/Mid/Front designation can be used for non-SpecOps members. From this alone, you can predict where a player will be and how they will choose their bunkers. Hammer/Broadsword/Javelin (Back) Players will choose more solid and higher things to shoot from. Ambush/Sabre (Mid) players pick medium sized bunkers with some protection on level ground usually while Dagger/Halberd (Front) Players tend to be up close and personal with the enemy.
Marker Used: Markers are purchased, usually for their applicability to a person’s play style. You can assume that the upgrades are not for show usually. Watching for particular upgrades like Flatline and Apex barrels can give a hint as to what the player will be doing. Hearing and seeing things like Halo B’s can give off a direct hint to a front or mid player.
Years of Experience: The years of experience that a player has is roughly equivalent to a level in a role-playing game. I say roughly because it’s not an exact estimate because a player with 1 year of experience can be highly advanced compared to other people with the same amount of experience. Thus, it’s not a good indicator of play skill, but of the knowledge that player has. Generally, the longer the person’s been into the sport, the more knowledge a player has. Thus, you can use the years of experience to guess at how much they know, about how many different markers they’ve used (Remember: a marker lasts about two to three years, less if the player does tourneys a lot)and how long they’ve used their gear. Simple, and effective.
On-Field Notes: this is self explanatory. Notes on how the player moves and acts on the field. The notes can also include treatment of different positions and BMF for Command Units. Also what can come into play here is specific gear that the player has beyond their marker like an improved Hopper or Vest.
Civilian Occupation: Two big things here: The amount of paint that the player has and convertible skills that the player can draw from on field from the real world. Examples of occupations with major Paintball advantages include Military Personnel (Conditioning and Tactics), Firemen (Conditioning and Endurance), Police Officers (Conditioning and Charisma), Civic Leaders (Charisma and Delegation), Any job requiring substantial physical strength (Conditioning and Endurance), Managers (Leadership and Charisma) and Technology jobs (Critical Thinking and Leadership). The occupations that pay more, such as a Lawyer, will be able to throw more paint because they have more money available to them. Jobs with less funds available like a Student or a Sales Associate, will have less paint and therefore more effective with it. Second, players can draw on skills from their civilian job on the field to give them an advantage. It isn’t really a conscious thing, but it does happen. People, drawing off my named occupations of Writer and Fry Cook, spoke about the ability to give and receive orders as well as create different ideas to accomplish a goal. Also, the ability to interact favorably with different people. Being a fry cook also gives the advantage of being able to get dirty and not minding it. How do you use this with younger players that don’t have jobs though? Simple. You look at their parent or guardian’s job and substitute it for them.
Specialized Training: This is mostly tied to the Occupation, but does have some extra things attached. Specialized training is anything that relates directly to paintball from the civilian world. I.E. Leadership training, a position of Leadership on a team that has been held for a while, that sort of thing. Also things like having a Firearms License, martial arts training and such come into this section. Martial arts is something that people generally don’t think about giving a paintball advantage, but it improves a person’s endurance and agility rapidly, as well as their confidence and stress management on the field. It is a BIG advantage that you should know if your players have.

Now, obviously, you won’t know all of these things about all the opposing players. That’s all right, you don’t have to unless there’s specific ones that are getting on your nerves. As the commander, you’re concerned about the other commander(s). Nail down their information in this order: Callsign (Gotta know who you’re shooting, yeah?), Experience, Occupation and Marker are the four top priorities. They play in the most to how they’ll be handling things. These four grant you the base knowledge to think about an opponent’s possible thought process and tactics. Paintball in a team v. team format, essentially comes down to the two commanders battling it out in a fight of Luck and Skill, so having a basic knowledge of your opponent can really help out.
How do you use this? Well, that is an exercise best left for the reader, but here are some guidelines to help you think through everything:
1.) Always look at things with an open mind. The littlest thing in a person’s field profile can give them the biggest advantage.
2.) Don’t get hung up on a particular advantage someone has. Having Military Training or the best marker doesn’t meant that the person can necessarily use it. (though in the case of the former, for their sake, you’d better hope they can.)
3.) Watch the person and their team. The Team has to act as a unit, even though there is a head. The team is just as much a part of the team as the commander, and that is how the commander “Sees” the field is through their players.
4.) Watch for where a person’s profile opens to a weakness. If a Front player is particularly young, they’ll be jumpy and will be an easy target for Post shooting. If a back player is older, then its’ almost safe to assume they won’t be doing any dives or sudden charges forward.
5.) Mind the Callsign. Callsigns, like my own, can be particularly misleading, especially if they are tied to an inside joke.

Having a command of both Strategy and Knowledge leads to a very effective, strong team due to the fact that they are able to predict and identify the opponent’s movements and skills. This pair is perhaps one of the most powerful pairs because of its versatility and advantages given to the team. However, remember that power carries responsibility. This pair is responsible for breaking up teams because it can become a contest of who knows more and feels they should be in command due to that. This argument is very hard to smooth over. A lot of times, it comes with the loss of a teammate because they don’t want to be a part of a team that can’t do anything or they feel it doesn’t work well or the rest of the team is stupid. This is something that the team as a whole should address, and work with to figure out.