There are over half a dozen kinds of ways to play paintball. Woodsball, Tournament or Tourneyball, Scenario Paintball, and Speedball, which can be broken down into a couple of sub-categories: Airball and Hyperball.
· Woodsball:
Woodsball is the original method of playing paintball and is generally played in a forest or wooded area that is large enough to allow room for dozens of players. In this form of paintball, players tend to stalk their opponents, and the game takes more time altogether.
Accuracy is key when you are playing paintball woodsball style. Stealth is an issue in this version of the game. The paintball players will do all they can to keep their locations unknown. Paintball marks are very loud when fired, and can possibly reveal a player's location. So many woodsballers will try to purchase quiet marks so that there is less chance of giving away their position to opponents when they fire.
Woodsball players also fire less, because it is harder to know where the other players are – and therefore these paintballers do not waste as much ammo. Of course, when you fire less often and your targets are more hidden, a player requires more patience and better aim than those who fire quickly.
Many different versions of woodsball have emerged: such as center flag, capture the flag, total elimination, protect the president, hopperball, 21, civil war, and the list goes on and on, woodsball players can legally invent their own game and custom design their own objectives.
· Speedball:
Speedball, as the name of the game would indicate, is a much faster kind of paintball. Speedball is played in close quarters. The size of a speedball field is approximately the size of a large basketball court. Bunkers, which are often inflatable rafting material, plastic tubing, wood pallets or tires, are placed all over the field – players use the bunkers to help them maneuver and most importantly, to take cover. The bunkers are placed symmetrically, so that either side has more of an advantage than the other.
The paintball players shoot more quickly and sometimes at closer range in speedball than in woodsball, shooting way more paint this way. Most paintball tournaments and competitions are built around the speedball concept. Thus, leagues will practice this style of paintballing, as opposed to other methods.
Speedball can further be broken down into several popular different varieties.
Airball, which is the most common and probably the most popular way to play, is played on a rectangular field the bunkers are air inflated and made of Nylon.
Hyperball is another popular form using Corrugated Piping of different sizes and shapes on a Rectangular field.
· Scenario paintball
The last kind of paintball I will mention is scenario paintball, though there are many more kinds of paintball games.
Scenario paintball is essentially just what it sounds like it is, based on a specific scenario or theme – determined by the teams playing. Typically these are historical, science fiction etc., and scenario paintball can involve hundreds of players.
Like woodsball, the paintball scenario games take longer than speedball, they can last hours or even days. Depending on the group and / or scenario set up for this kind of paintball, the teams may have to take certain breaks at intervals and continue later. Scenario paintball may perhaps prove to be a challenge to orchestrate, but once you get going it is a game you can really enjoy – you get lost in the fantasy and with scenario paintball, players can enjoy the most imaginative aspect of the sport.