The Art of War (Battlefields)

As an artist who builds Sandcastles and studies fortifications... I have taken the time to go beyond the architecture and study the effectiveness of Building Fortifications, bunkers and trench warfare.

Given any plot of land we have had and are even now currentlly using it is always good to review and study where forts , towers and pillboxes are placed.

Here is a List of reviewed strategic structures:

Sand bag pill box:
This structure can be even made up with logs and woodland camo...it will do well if this structure is made and moved around a lot but if it is already known by the enemy then it may change hands many times!

Small bunker fort:
May be surrounded by pill boxes and is usually not at the front... mostly placed on a hill or at the rear of a trench system.

Sniper tower:
This is designed to be well camoed and should not be too well known by opposition...It may be in a well vegitated area that may help or hinder the sniper!

Gun Tower platform:
This tall structure is an observation platform and utilizes it for strategic attack and defense...If surrounded by too much vegitation it's occupants will not effectivelly see anything at all!

The Castle:
Usually a structure that has concentetic walls, a moat, may be high on a hill and can rain down a hail of arrows but can fail under cannon fire and a long siege!
these structures are offten situated in a way that they can perfectlly see 360 degrees all around the fort so no vegitation is allowed to grow near it nor any villager buildings may rise too close!... A set of Castles possitioned nearby may be built in such a way that if one were to fail that the others may have defending walls and defenses facing there respective directions.

Castle wall palacade:
Really a fence that divides the battlefield, may or may not block an attack of what ever is tossed over the top but the enemy will definately have to go around it- Lets discard the airsoft possibility of blowing right through it!

Trench warefare:
This battlefield is a head to head area involving a NO MANS LAND in the center... consider the fact that the battle will rage from pill box to pill box and from Crater to Crater!...since the Trenches on both sides are historically infinate, Flanking the Enemy is not going to be possible unless you are able to take the enemys trench.
In Airsoft this kind of battle should have a rear most bunker to conquer in a quest to take the trenches...simulated Barbed wire will also add to the effect of slowing any attacks!... Since casualtys are quite high there must always be a timed respawn unless one of the bunkers are conqured in the rear!

Bridges and bottle necks:
areas that facilatate the access of troops can often be controlled at these points and bridges are well guarded or often blown up as well as rebuilt by engineers.
In the airsoft version...a Bridge may be watched over by refferees who may determin if the bridge is valid or out of action...as the Enemy may have placed detonators and remote detonated the structure...anyone present on the bridge during a detonation is considered dead!....The Bridge of course is not really blown up but lets say that it will not be Valid unless an Engineer arrives and the set time is past before it is allowed as a restored structure!

Hills:
Just like pill boxes, only its important to always capture the high ground!

Forest and Jungles:
Follow the laws of the Jungle my friend!...This is where you may Encounter LIONS, TIGERS, And BEARS!....Those who Enter here must rely on absolute Stealth and speeds, of either slow or Fast!...This is a Snipers paradise as well as his nightmare!...It will be hard to fight anyone who can just disapear and the reapear!... Worst yet you accidently stumble upon the enemy or even accidently team kill your own guys!

Urban Citys, towns and Villages:
Not designed for actual combat but just like the jungle, only better!
Watch out when crossing the street or searching buildings....In airsoft applications, there may be civilians as well as guerilla warfare situations.

The Hidden tunnels of HO CHI MINH TRAIL:
tunnel systems if any built are going to be rare in airsoft!
historically these tunnels were used to connect small bases and pill boxes and were perfect transit points to resuppy troops and supplys.
Historically these were often noticed when previously conquerd bases were suddenly retaken....Action in the Japanese Island of Iwo Jima meant that a flame thrower had to be used to clear out all tunnels and caves!

Roads:
Last time I checked, walking down a street could be dangerious, due to hidden IEG explosives as well as road side skirmishes if there is provided cover for an enemy!... Only go down a road if your Army has truely taken control of the battle space!... watchout for Snipers!

Wreckage and ruins:
May provide little or alot of cover as well as the same for any camo- look up Urban settings.

Rivers, lakes if any:
may provide a definate water barrier that may either be crossed or flanked if possible...only good in the hands of the best snipers!
Please use Bio BBs!

Desert or Snow Conditions:
May or may not be a fully open battle space with little or no cover. Digging up trenches in the sand is a must as well as dressing in the proper desert or alpine snow woodland camo... do not forget you canteen!

Ships and other moving battle wagons:
Defense and attack will be purely based on moving around and since this is such a hole in the water, it may not even be concievablly possible to host it in an airsoft version unless you got a few old surplus boats on your own private lake!

OLD SCHOOL! Civil War Style!
Rather a lack of fortifications, generally it was most important to send ranks of troops and cannon fire as well as take important hills and towns.
The armys lined up in ranks and loaded there muskets and duked it out head to head in mostly open fields... if this is done there will have to be a few installed rules.
More respawns at the rear and timed!...weapons will all have to be set on semi and everyone must promise to fire once ever 6 seconds!....since this is more or less a reenactment situation , Refrain from head shots if possible!... Please be nice to the Flag guys!

Fictional Zombie Scenarios!
Yes The undead rise again and will March as a moving fortress of Hell....These guys are only dangerious if you are not on there side and best represent killer animals in the wild who kill and eat soldiers in the battlefield....In Reality such cases were Head hunters caught in the middle of battles as well as killer sharks and crocadiles!... maybe the occational BEAR!.... I am sure there is somthing that could be worked out in airsoft simulations.

Booby traps and Landmines!
Need I say more!...will kill anyone on either side.
Airsoft versions must be made safe as well as well honored!
In reality-Many weapons still go off long after the war is over!... In The United Kingdom There are still many areas that have still live unexploded bombs left by NAZI GERMANY during the battle of Britian. many areas simply build over or around the munitians as it is too risky and expensive to remove them!....Occationally though, one will accidently be found and go off!
- Today mines are made to auto degrade and are properly mapped.
I too am Setting up some booby traps myself, some with real boobs so I will be most delayed!... There will be an exposion and yes this will be messy and cruel!

Airsoft Venue Battlefield Notes and guidelines:

Trails can be bad for airsoft if made wrong:

Trails are sometimes disfunctional airsoft areas because if only one or a few are cut out in a field and that the area is too thickly vegitated to penetrate well... this would create a bad bottle neck for the gamers as one punk may just shoot down the trail hitting anyone who wants to try and enter.
Unfortanatelly this stratagy can get old real fast and is bad for even the campers who may lay and wait guarding a trail...its actually may lead to a long camp fest so this must be remedied buy making all trails much wider or providing players with many flanking trails.



"The CQB effect":

trails that are winding like a snake can create a CQB effect in which just turning a corner can instantlly expose you to enemy fire which may be closer than you expected to duel!
remedy this by trying to eliminate this if possible.
Also several small bunkers created closely together can create the CQB effect!

The Corner of airsoft maps:

Probablly the most wasteful usage of property is the border boundry of airsoft maps, mainly the corners are often left as unused spaces which could have squeezed out extra floor area for airsoft venues.
Best usage of corners for airsoft venues are best applyed by placing attack and defend structures or spawn points in these corners to represent untakable forts or some thing to force a battle without allowing the enemy to be able to flank it!
Corner locations are also great if rules impose that it be a respawn point and that the center of the map must be hence forth won by force!

Center of an airsoft field:

Good for a center bunker like a king of the hill situation.
If it is and empty field, it will most likelly remain empty of action as players are allergic to staying out in the open!
Best if a fort here is also relativelly in an open field as vegitation actually kills its ability to be deffended or attacked!

Deeply wooded Center Field:

Actually may be very bad for a true attack and defend scenario.
Deep forest jungle situations may create too much stealth or snapping twig and leaves force all players to slow to a crawl!...If it is a wooded area that allows good running, a rear case in which it may yet still be good.
this will require some ninja skills!

Hilly map:

the High ground will always attract interest but if there is no fort on top of any hill, the guy standing on top can easily get shot off!
hills are only great if the spotter on top can see his potential kills... may or may not offer any cover on which it is based. hills are great when a flag is placed upon them for which they must be catured , placed or secured... great for other objective games!
Only bad if the hill is way too steep or even dangerious!

Airsoft Maps with lakes, rivers, streams and ponds:

may yet be rare to see a place that has these, The location of these are most probablly not going to be suited for airsoft action unless you can shoot a guy on the other side!...It is beautiful but also wasted property surface area for the sport!

Great post SandDragon , I remember years ago I tried to developing some trails in a field my friends and I had scouted but we would keep running into problems with bottleneck trails, dead ends , not enough cover . We later tried making bunkers and making the trails wider which helped . Ultimately had to give up the place , partly because atv riders would demolish our bunkers to make ramps for jumps and mainly because an atv rider had a near fatal accident , so they put up gates and kept an eye on the place , so it made it near impossible for us to keep playing there.

SoldierXDefcon wrote:

Great post SandDragon , I remember years ago I tried to developing some trails in a field my friends and I had scouted but we would keep running into problems with bottleneck trails, dead ends , not enough cover . We later tried making bunkers and making the trails wider which helped . Ultimately had to give up the place , partly because atv riders would demolish our bunkers to make ramps for jumps and mainly because an atv rider had a near fatal accident , so they put up gates and kept an eye on the place , so it made it near impossible for us to keep playing there.

Thanks for the Feedback!

This is merely an analysis of observations I have seen and studied on of various airsoft fields and conditions.

I am hoping that by unloading this and adding more data on it will help improve our airsoft fields and venues.

I think of those trails and dead ends we built and often wonder why?

The three biggest issues you will have with field design for a wargame field are:

1)Proper spread of advantagous points in the map: This is best described as a field in which no one goes "Oh man we have the crap side again." Basically a field in which neither side starts with a advantage of terrain unless the individual game requires it.

2) Apathetic Design: A field in which there is only one advantagous route to get to certain parts of the field will cause apathy tword playing there as people learn the paths to "camp" that have no way to get through and the only paths that can't be "camped." One of the biggest problems with woodsfields is because of the static nature of the play area.

3) Intuitive design: The best FPS games have a flow to the game to where there is little "dead space" where there is no point to go bear because the action will never center there. The small amount of "dead space" in a FPS is usually saved as a respawn location to give a player a chance to enter the action without being instantly killed.

With the new field Desert Fox being made of modular containers (I believe they opted to permenant construction) shows a trend to a more modular design. With the cost of these structures lowering in cost you will start to see more of these around the country.

Yea SandDragon I too have wondered why the heck we made some of the random bunkers and trails at my old field, which seemed like a great idea at the moment to find out later in a game I did not want to be there while I was being shot at haha.
Repo is right , I remember the rebel field I played at having these issues ,we would be constantly trying to figure out ways to improve the field . Hopefully with the Matrix field we can keep improving it and make it as well balanced as possible . SandDragon and anyone else whos worked on the place has greatly improved it. I hadnt been there in a long time and this past saturday was the first time being back , the bunkers are well place from what I expirienced . Btw if you need any help doing building, clean up or anything at the field dont hesitate to ask me SandDragon . Im more then willing to come out anytime to help out.

SoldierXDefcon wrote:

Yea SandDragon I too have wondered why the heck we made some of the random bunkers and trails at my old field, which seemed like a great idea at the moment to find out later in a game I did not want to be there while I was being shot at haha.
Repo is right , I remember the rebel field I played at having these issues ,we would be constantly trying to figure out ways to improve the field . Hopefully with the Matrix field we can keep improving it and make it as well balanced as possible . SandDragon and anyone else whos worked on the place has greatly improved it. I hadnt been there in a long time and this past saturday was the first time being back , the bunkers are well place from what I expirienced . Btw if you need any help doing building, clean up or anything at the field dont hesitate to ask me SandDragon . Im more then willing to come out anytime to help out.

I am currentlly having trouble cutting lumber with my puny hand saw!... I need power but there is niether power or tools to do the cutting!

I am trying to build a great bunker base located at the entrance of the field in the great open space near the parked trailer...bunker will have several simular designed pillbox walls and maybe an obervatory lookout placed high on a mult built hill!

Also wanted to gather these heavy ass logs as me and Leo cut them we are building a log cabin and widdening that stupid tunnel trail with a chain saw!

It was too rainy to continue this sunday Oct 16th 2011 to keep working... we have several partial finished projects but we had to cut and run!

Pardon the mess - you will be seeing some lumber at the entrance!

Also greatlly needing more tires... the owner hates them and I like them... if you see any in the field we gotta roll them to the proper bases to make them bigger!

Tire bases of course can be moved around easily and reshaped...This has been battle tested at the fox hole and they kick ass!!!

I am intending to force some objective action over to the otherwise wasted land by the entrance...this spot is almost twice as big as the space the central bunker sits on and should make an interesting spot to set up another attack and defend castle bunker!

building this will make the field battle space appear to me more stretched and will practically lengthen an otherwise inactive section of field.

Hey guys, even though I am new to the game and to the field I am down to help out in anything. SandDragon I have plenty of power tools and I think i can get a chain saw too. Let me know when you guys are going to work on the field and i'll take the van with all the power tools.

Im in with xTwiiisteDx just need to know with time so I can find a babysitter . I have a some tools as well

305PB wrote:

Im in with xTwiiisteDx just need to know with time so I can find a babysitter . I have a some tools as well

Wanna build the place even better so that games become epic, and it draws even more players?

Contact PB matrix and let RON or LEO know that you wanna go... they will contact me and we can all assemble to build or be a wrecking crew!

Sharpen yere Machetes and gas up yer Chain saws!

Sounds good , Ill contact them and I can bring tires with no problem . My dad is a mechanic and he said hell bring me 4 each time I ask him to . So let me know how many you would like and Im pretty sure we can make it happen.

ok perfect i will do that

Hey guys look up on craig list for people trying to get rid of plywood, 2x4 ect. I know we can get free stuff to build better things only if we look. and sanddragon let us know when you want to start, i am eager to go and work on it so that it becomes a better playing field. Also i was thinking how about we make a cqb space in the middle of the map? it be cool cause we can play games like king of the hill, or to hold off the building the longest and it also adds an intensive battle zone let me know SandDragon if this sounds ok and i will start looking for lumber, concrete and other things that i know people want to dispose off.

xTwiiisteDx wrote:

Hey guys look up on craig list for people trying to get rid of plywood, 2x4 ect. I know we can get free stuff to build better things only if we look. and sanddragon let us know when you want to start, i am eager to go and work on it so that it becomes a better playing field. Also i was thinking how about we make a cqb space in the middle of the map? it be cool cause we can play games like king of the hill, or to hold off the building the longest and it also adds an intensive battle zone let me know SandDragon if this sounds ok and i will start looking for lumber, concrete and other things that i know people want to dispose off.

I am mostly available on Thursdays and I often work on the weekends on the field after the airsoft games... I even stay late after the games so I can save a trip and gas to do work or touch up the field.

Many times I will observe games in play and see how players interact with the field structures...yes, I also write down notes!

I have a shit list of shit to build or take out!

I am readily available if you wish to set off and do any work in the field we can all hold a meeting about an all out work day if you all can make yourself available to go over to the field.

We can start with basic hand tools and available gear or resources to do any builds.

Pipe bunkers can be enhanced and made larger and sturder... I have logs to move out and they can be turned into cabin structures.

The open field areas are complicated in the way that all those structures need to be free standing and sturdy... so far I only have built structures that are held togther by there own wieght!

Log bunkers were secured or lashed to a tree but in open spaces where there is no structure to lash to requires a bit of heavy duty structure building.

Ok thursday i am available all day until 5:30. and only on the weekends is when i can take the van. but let me know of power tools that you need and i can take them if i have

I can make it thursday too , Im planing on going this sat to play so Im going to stay after and help out . the more people the better.

Forest Battlefields

I noticed that some players simply hated fighting in CQB urban settings and much preferred to actuall camp out deep in the thick of the woods.

Unfortunatelly this kind of tactic may actually take too long to do in a timed game...and could make scenario games be dysfunctional.

The Deep vegitation would provide the players who like to be sneaky the best cover in their game to fight.

Unfortunatelly after eliminating most of oposition it takes much longer because Campers fighting Campers tend to not come out of hiding...a whole 20 minutes could go by in some cases....In an airsoft Deathmatch this may prove to be quite an agonizingly long wait for those who were just cut down minutes into the game.

Forest jungle Battlefields should feature a respawning base or a time limit to minimize camping....of course camping is a good tactic if you can win!

Spawn base camping.....Not good!...If there is a Referee present the offending player cannot spawn camp unless the objective is to take the base and prevent further spawns.

Spawn bases should have a hoistable flag that can be changed to indicate its condition to both warring parties.
this will help in capture the base situations or rescue the base situations....referees should be present to observe base turnovers.