These general strategies for the game of paintball are designed to be used in friendly play where the players are not professional paintballers. Keep in mind that these strategies work best when the other player is not an expert paintballer. Many of the techniques listed are often rooted in basic military tactics.

Basic shooting
A paintball marker fires a projectile around roughly 100 m/s (300 ft/s). Because the barrel is usually smooth-bore and the paint is not a solid slug, getting any amount of consistent accuracy from a gun is fairly difficult and takes not only tuned equipment, but honed skill. As such, a common technique is to use a marker to 'pin' your enemy, an act which entails shooting quickly and steadily at his/her position. This encourages him/her to hide behind their cover completely, giving you the opportunity to advance without fear of being shot. Ultimately, this brings you close enough to get an accurate shot and eliminate your opponent. To fire for best effect fire 2-4 rounds 'aiming' (really just pointing, as with a shotgun) at the desired target. If you don't hit them, you should be able to establish the direction your shots are drifting (the rounds should be relatively consistent in their inaccuracy). You can then simply compensate for the natural inaccuracy and "walk" your fire toward your opponent. If your opponent is hiding behind a large, hard object (tree, rock, etc), it is sensible to err on the side of shooting wide of the object (and the opponent), and walk the fire *toward* the opponent, as opposed to splattering the cover object with paint, alerting the opponent to your attempts at shooting them (use the silence of the missing rounds passing wide to your advantage).

Cover
Utilizing cover is one of the most important aspects of paintballing. "Cover" can be anything from a tree, to a bunker, to a steep embankment. Different fields have different kinds of uses for cover. Every form of cover provides basic protection, but in woodsball, cover is often used for concealment and camouflage. Such stealth is a far rarer luxury in speedball fields where objects can only be used for very short amounts of time and only for basic protection.

Flanking
Flanking is a very important tactical maneuver in paintballing, as it negates the effects of cover. Essentially, it entails one 'flank', or side of a position, being overrun by another team. This allows them to attack their opponents from the side, preventing them from taking effective cover and most likely eliminating them. It is usually difficult to repel a dedicated flank charge, provided it is done quickly and skillfully. Flanking is one of the most important strategies in paintball because it can be applied to almost any situation involving a firefight. Any time a team, or even a single player, is under fire flanking, or moving around one side, is very important to ensure success.

Snapshooting
One of the core skills for all players is 'Snap Shooting'. This is basic in theory, complex in practice; much like the perfect golf swing, it is something that is practiced but never quite perfected. The idea is to be able to lean out of a bunker, shoot paint at someone, and duck back into your bunker without getting shot. The whole process lasts only a split second. A high rate-of-fire allows a player to shoot more balls in the brief moments during his snap. Tournament players can shoot up to 17-20 balls per second, making this tactic highly effective.

Paintball Tactics
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