Welcome back to our tactical airsoft section, today we will be explaining the meaning of particular terms used commonly between teams during game play which are very standard and common in most areas around the world where one would be playing airsoft, especially when it comes to a competitive level.
Leadership
Leadership should be well known and common for all airsoft players, leaders are those personal/members that are usually looked up upon from other members to tell them what to do or how to react in certain situations. Leadership is a very important skill and also necessary during game play because if no one takes the responsibility of this position the team will definitely loose both in a tactical way and the airsoft game it self, due to most probability a better lead enemy force. Being a leader is not easy and not everyone likes to be a leader, but we at Malta Tactical Airsoft Club try to encourage all our members to gain such experience and confidence in order to improve our level as a club and to improve the players ability and capabilities.
Over-watch
Over-watch is exactly as it is defined, over-watch means having a unit covering a particular area in this case the airsoft playing field section whilst the other teams move up through that area, the team doing the over-watch usually has a very good area were they can easily observe the airsoft field or section the other team will be moving in and if necessary provide them with support or covering fire.
Bounding Over-watch (Leap frogging)
The difference between bounding over-watch and over-watch is very very simple, bounding over-watch is also known as leap frogging, this is usually done by the same unit or by units that are in the same area. Bounding over-watch will allow one time to provide covering/suppressing fire whilst the other team will maneuver to the next location. Once the team maneuvering reaches the new cover, they will provide the covering/suppressing fire and the other team will maneuver to its new cover. This tactic can be both used as an assault method and as a retreat method.
Maneuver
Maneuvers are simply the movements made by the airsoft teams to gain a position of advantage during an assault, or it can also mean a good way to retreat without getting a lot of hits. Maneuvering is quite complicated technique since it implies to have the ability to attack the enemy from different directions whilst at the same time keeping a good advantage on the enemy especially when it comes to cover. When maneuvering the enemy will have to counter attack your movement if they want to stay in the game so be sure to set up a fast, aggressive maneuver to catch the enemy by surprise and spread him out.
Firepower
This is one of the few terms that does not really need any introduction, as the term implies meaning using everything you got to out power the enemy with fire power, this can simply be done by using all the resources you have to your advantage and putting as many rounds (BB's in our case) on the opposing airsoft team as much as possible in order to prevent him from doing any movement. Remember though having a lot of AEG's does not mean that you have the most fire power, 4 AEG's can be easily out gunned by 2 support weapons. Unless the 4 AEG's spread out efficiently on the airsoft field.
Protection
Protection is defined with two different words, but in the case of airsoft only one applies to us, security:
This refers to the ability of the team or squad to effectively disperse when they come under the opposing airsoft team and to use other effective measures like: camouflage, suppression, cover and last both not least deception. Not bothering about any of these will at the end of the day result in your team being eliminated. Please note that disperse does not mean running away from your team but having a good distance between you and the next member in order to avoid a whole team from being suppressed or hit all at once. Remember this is airsoft and a magazine will have at minimum 100 rounds, so it will not be so hard to hit 5 people next to each other.
Stay tuned for more tactical airsoft tips, the next article will be talking about hand signals, due to some requests being made by members.
