Airsoft Teams

So you want to organize a team or squad?  The effective teams have more than just a bunch of riflemen who think they are awesome.  A team is composed of different people with different specialties, led by a leader who understands the teams strengths and weaknesses.

There are several important factors a team must take into account if they want to be successful and dominate the field in Airsoft.  Perhaps one of the most important ones is staying together!  You have to stay together because that lets you mass your firepower against specific opponents.  If one or two people are shooting at a target sometimes that target can fight back.  If four or more people are concentrating on the target then there is unlikely to be effective resistance and soon that group will be looking for another target to concentrate on.  Also, if a team stays together they can heal each other (if the rules allow) and watch each other’s back.  The more time a team spends together the better they will understand how everyone thinks and what everyone expects.  SOP's (Standard Operating Procedures) will be developed intentionally or unintentionally and the effectiveness of the team will increase dramatically since the team will spend less time communicating plans and more time implementing them.

In most cases an Airsoft team will be a squad in strength.  From four to twelve team members, with at least one member as the leader.  A Fireteam is only four members on average.  There are many ways to organize a team and these examples are based on real world military units.  The Soviets and Chinese would have squads of 8-14 with only a single leader, the squad leader.  They would not break into smaller elements.  Army Infantry units are usually eight soldiers, broken up into two fireteams.  Marine Infantry squads have 13 Marines, broken up into three fireteams of four, with a squad leader.  In Britain and some other countries squads are called Sections.

There are several advantages to breaking up a squad into smaller fireteams.  One of the primary strengths of breaking up a squad into fireteams is the increase in the number of designated Team Leaders.  A team leader is someone designated to lead a team, someone responsible for the 2+ people under him.  When someone is designated to take responsibility chances are that they do and this increases the aggressiveness and initiative of the smaller elements.  If the squad leader becomes a casualty the next senior team leader takes charge, keeping the mission going instead of everyone just looking at each other wondering what to do next.

Another important factor is that breaking a squad up into teams allows for better and more effective Fire and Movement.  While one team lays down a base of fire, or otherwise engages the enemy, the other team can sneak around and flank the enemy who is concentrating on the first team.  In an assault one team can fire and the other team can move.  If there are more fireteams in a squad then the flexibility increases and the squad leader can use one team as a ready reserve to reinforce another team.

Each fireteam should have an automatic weapon as well, which is usually the backbone of the fireteam.  The SAW is a weapon that fires LOTS of BB's and has a very big magazine (M249, M60, RPK, etc).  While in Airsoft almost all weapons have automatic and larger magazines, a dedicated SAW can fire much longer without having to reload, hi-caps don't cut it because of all the winding required.  The best SAW gunner is one that likes to fire hundreds of rounds at the enemy and use lots of ammo.  They have drums with one to four thousand rounds and reload often.

With the SAW gunner pouring fire onto the enemy the other riflemen can maneuver, get closer and place well aimed shots where they can do the most damage.  A SAW gunner without riflemen becomes an easy target because he can't look in every direction and someone is going to sneak up and take him out.



So keep your head on a swivel and do unto others before they do unto you.

For more information, tactics and techniques see The Airsoft Bible: Book of Tacticshttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1466449098/warcatslair

Warcat Out.

-Bill Frisbee Aka Warcat

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Books:

The Airsoft Bible: Book of Comm
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B005LG16NI/warcatslair

The Airsoft Bible: Book of Tactics
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1466449098/warcatslair