English
The oldest variant of playing paintball is woodsball – also called woodland paintball. In Germany, this way of playing paintball has the largest number of followers. Over time, Woodland has evolved into various forms of play, such as Speedball. Speedball, in turn, evolved into sub air paintball, today's tournament paintball. As the name suggests, Woodland Paintball is mainly played outdoors or in the forest. However, they must be secured and approved fields. Playing in the woods around the corner is strictly forbidden and will result in hefty fines and possibly imprisonment. The game is played under the supervision of a referee, the so-called Marshall. As with other sports, there are a few basic rules of the game in paintball that must be observed in all variations of the game, no matter where in the world. Each variant has its own specially tailored rules for this.
There are no uniform woodland playing fields, because playing fields in this type of paintball can be completely different. It can be a small fenced piece of forest as well as a twenty-hectare playing field that includes houses and roads. Unlike speedball fields, woodland fields rarely have a symmetrical shape. In addition, the distribution of coverage is not always even. This is exactly what makes Woodland Paintball so appealing.
Basically, paintball is a team sport. In Woodland Paintball, previously assembled teams compete against each other. There are different variants that can be played. The teams should have approximately the same number of players. Fairness is very important in paintball. For example, Multiflag, Center Flag or Capture the flag are played at Woodland.
Known from many computer games. Capture the flag is about capturing the opposing team's flag from their base and bringing it into your own base.
At Center Flag, the paintball team that captured the center flag and brought it to their base won.
A certain number of flags are hidden on the Woodland paintball field. The team that captured the most flags won. Comparable to capture and hold from e.g. B.Call of Duty.
If a player is hit in Woodland Paintball, they must leave the field immediately and are eliminated from the round. The game length of Woodland is usually much longer than that of Sub Air. While games in Sub Air paintball are decided after an average of 8 minutes, the round in Woodland game can last up to several hours. However, this varies from event to event.
During the early days of the American sport in Germany, around the late 1980s and early 1990s, all paintball games were played on woodland fields. At that time there were only these playing fields. Today, the Woodland community is largely made up of so-called rec players. How often is played is completely different. While some only play a few times a year, others go and play paintball every weekend. Many Woodys are organized into teams, while others go to Woodland game days alone. As a rule, you can find friends quite quickly even on your own, because Woodland players are also extremely open to beginners. For most Woodland players, the sport is just a balance to a stressful job and is just for entertainment and relaxation.
Since Woodland is increasingly being played in forested areas, the player clothing is of course clearly different from tournament sport. As a rule, paintballers wear sturdy shoes when playing, such as trekking or military boots. Especially in the field of paintball clothing, the player has a large number of different pieces of clothing to choose from. As a rule, paintballers wear rather dark colors in order not to attract attention in the forest or greenery, such as hunting and/or military clothing. If only for the reason that most military trousers already have integrated knee pads as standard. Absolutely practical for paintballers, because a knee fall on stones or roots can be extremely painful.
Battlepacks are also popular so that paintball accessories such as pots and other items can be carried with you. Battlepacks and military vests with built-in hydration systems are extremely popular with Woodland players, especially in summer. In recent years, the paintball industry has developed rapidly and also offers more and more apparel that is geared towards woodland.
