Hi and this is a guide on how to ambush an enemy effectively. All of these tactics are tested and used to win easily. If you have anymore information please post it in this thread to add on to anything.

First, take notice of where the enemy will be infiltrating into your area. I play at a creek and I've found that it is very helpful to set up a sniper in the water or on the coastline. Have another sniper look at the entrance from far away. Using radios will also help. Then, have to assault or riflemen (or 1 assault and 1 rifleman) or you can have more, set up so that they can go full auto as soon as the enemy comes out.
Second, have your walkie-talkies on the same channel. When the snipers see the enemy coming out, they will radio you in. When they tell you the enemy is coming, open fire as soon as you have a clear shot.

Sometimes, the enemy sees this coming and will try to go around the ambush with seperate men. Make sure you have snipers near every little secret entrance you can think of. Then have an assault troop wait at the main infiltration point. If the enemy goes around it, follow them silently but quickly and fire on them while their back is turned. If you see an enemy going in a certain direction, don't just go firing into the bushes. Try to go around and take them out from behind.

Any other ideas will be very helpful. Post them in this thread.

That's ok, unless you get blindsided. And it all depends on who you see. If it's a single recon, and you fire you pretty much just botched that deal. I live in Cali so I only play on fields (no real creeks/rivers etc.), but I'm sure after using that ambush once, they'll be looking for it, which in turn could work out for another ambush.

what you want to do is set up a perimiter around an area that you beleve (and hope) that the enemy will come through that way when they do come througt you have them completly surranded and can pik them off easily

This is somewhat true. The real key to an ambush is picking a spot where you KNOW the enemy will be. Guessing is bad and can leave you wide open if your enemy *accidentally* flanks you.

Instead, you want to have your scout or snipers radio in enemy contact such as direction traveled and speed, blah dee blah. You know the drill. Once you have those facts and your sniper/scout keeps a constant bead or sight on them you can effectively structure your flank/ambush to have them walk straight into it.

This post has been edited by lettuc3: Oct 21 2006, 08:57 PM

Your plan relies a lot on highly effective recon and more then 1 decent sniper, which most teams simply don’t have. In fact, even if they do, ambushing is a highly ineffective tactic for wiping out teams.

First off, it is extremely hard to lure the enemy into an area without them figuring it out. Most people are fairly observant, and lets not forget about that “I’m being watched” sense. It’s not hard to avoid potential ambush locations, and people are usually extra alert when entering a potential ambush zone.

Secondly, it is difficult if not impossible to have concentrated fire right from the beginning of the ambush. As your ambush circle gets tighter, the chance the enemy will walk into it goes down, and the risk of you or your teammates being seen goes up. This means you should have a fairly large circle for this to be effective at all, and then you have people running to join in once the firefight starts. And once the fight starts, they will be scrambling for cover.

Third, after the ambush begins, you have no main attack force. Everyone is scattered to all sides. More then likely, they WILL break free and leave from one side. After this, you have two options. 1: Wait, regroup, go after them as a main force, or 2: charge after them. Of these options, 1 is undoubtedly the better choice, but it allows them to get away. 2 is just stupid, it is just asking to get your whole team killed.

Now, don’t get me wrong, ambushing can be highly effective, but not if your whole team is doing it. A simple one or two man ambush to slow and harass the enemy, or to get them hiding in the wrong type of cover can be magnificent, but only if there is a main fire team ready to attack.

My advice: avoid using ambushes. Squad warfare is more effective. Plus, you don’t need snipers, which are a waste in most stand up firefights. I would much rather have two extra assault members on my team then two snipers, especially if I'm doing an ambush/assault tactic.

Well Cap'n Wright, Im geussing that youre thinking they wont have any snipers? Plus, they could always go as a group down one side, causing at least 1 of your snipers to be unable to see them. Then, with 4+ assault riflemen on there team against 1-2 of yours, chances are theyll get through. After that you guys will have to quickly come up with a new plan, before they get a good spot and empty clips on you.

I would also set up a perimeter around the whole area and try to have some sneak around and get them when they are going across the creek or wherever you play at then you can attack from every direction

Actually, good recon may be able to spot them, and be able to tell where they're going as well, as well as how many there are. (Unlikely still.) You have got a brilliant point, though, in that by haven taken 2 snipers on your team, you have allowed the enemy 2 more assault riflemen to fight off the ambush.



As I have already stated, an attack from all sides is a bad idea. If you really want to ambush and press them, use terrain to box them in, (the aformentioned river?) and use a main assault force to take them out. Assaulting from all sides is easy to escape, since you only need to kill one person and escape from the hole. After that, the ambushing team is in no position to fight your main force, they are, at best, scattered.

Use your head, people! Always assume the enemy knows what you're doing, whether they walk into a trap or not. Any plan that relies so much on chance, (excellent recon, the enemy coming to an exact spot,) is a bad plan! Ambushes are extreamly risky. I would never use a full force ambush, it is asking to be killed.

Remember, there is power in your group. You are not a group if you are a bunch of people acting alone, each assaulting from a different side, away from the others.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=g_I-rTWPOsY

Well... I can't claim to have had a good view of the video, as my computer is so slow it goes frame by fricken frame without sound, but it looks like some people were ambushed and they fought their way out. Like I said. Could you please post what happens in video links so we can all know what's going on? Thanks for the video, I love it when people know their resources.

Well, it was just a training video, so I think it was just acted out, but the Ambushing team hid in some tall grass and behind some trees over a small hill. They waited while the other team slowly walked over the wide open field towards the small hill. As soon as they were about 50 ft. away, they noticed the ambush. They spreaded out a little, while still sticking together. They took cover and started firing.

You don't want to fully surround them, because then you have an issue with friendly fire. I have never had ff become an issue in airsoft but I have been hit by friendly fire in paintball many times before. You need to engage the enemy so they know they are flanked and will fall back accordingly while your enagging force follows up after them and then you have a second force that will engage them from the side(s). Done it with paintball but it took about 10-15 people on each team to work ok.

I think that the snipers shouldn't have walkie- talkies
because its gonna give them away easily. The snipers should be on a bushy
tree and when the enemy goes past them they should shoot at the enemys back.
That will kill two players and the rest of the opposing players will run away.
and ahead of them you should have 3-5 riflemen awaiting them. When the paniced
enemy run from the snipers they'll run into the awaiting riflemen who will easily
finish the enemy. see the pictures to see this stratagy.





This post has been edited by Johny Rambo: Jul 17 2007, 05:41 PM

Necropostification.

Radios are an excellent asset for any player. If your worried about being "given away", use an ear bud.

And you assume that by simply taking shots (and assuming the snipers actually hit) at the enemies back that the OpForce players will automatically run away. What if the OpForce simply takes cover? Or disengages to the left or right, rather down the road? Any player should know to never turn your back on the enemy especially when they are shooting at you.

And then theres the possibility of friendly fire. You have snipers and a rifle team firing at each other from opposite ends of their firing lines.

And that the snipers have no security of their own.

good point


They wont turn their backs and run unless they're newbies. But if they're
experienced they will try to take cover. The only cover is the tall grass. But
in the tall grass the riflemen are hiding. And if the snipers have the earphones they
can hear what others are saying but they cannot reply without risking being given away.
I am a sniper and I hit 29/30 of my shots. There is a very low % that I'll miss. Same with
my friend who is a sniper as well. The riflemen and the snipers aren't exactly pointing at
each other their is a very low chance that one of the riflemen's bullet hits the sniper. and when
I say low chance I mean veryyyyy low chance like 1/1000. And it is a chance I'm willing to take.
plus it worked every 5 times that I did it

I prefer a 1 or 2 man ambush to a huge ambush. A single person can take down several of the other team if he is hidden in a good spot. I've hidden myself well before, and managed to ambush a large patrol, they never saw it coming, and never found out where the bb's came from.

I see alot of folks share strategies and tactics that refer to use of terrain elements sometimes particular to the area they play in. Which is fine and completely understandable. But I'd like to see general tactics that work in any (within reason) setting. Reading specific tactics that includes trees, thickets, roads, trails, etc, etc, etc is fine for the writer but they obviously can't apply to every situation or even more than a few. Not saying they couldn't work fine in that particular situation (and certainly gives you something to think about) but they are designed around specific elements specific to that situation.

This post has been edited by The Mad Bomber: Jul 18 2007, 07:38 PM

Well, then here's a general strategy for ambushing:

Try to find an area that your enemy is likely to cross, and find some good, but not too obvious cover. Assuming it is a regular sized game, maybe 15 on each side, then 4 is about the most you can spare for a single ambush. Set up fields of fire, and make sure that the ambushers aren't too close, I'd say that any closer than 10ft is too close, but definitely no less than 5ft.


Now, one thing that I feel is necessary, is to have a signal. B/c if you all fire at once, when they are close, it creates a "shock" effect, and makes them panic. Now, assuming everyone has radios, pushing the call button works, but only if you have earpieces. My favorite way of doing it, is to find what station the enemy is on, and hitting the call button. That really freaks them out.

Now, assuming you picked a good place to hide, you should be able to let them get at most 15 or 20ft away before you fire. If you're playing against exp. players, they won't ever bunch up, so you'll have to be quick to get more than 1 or 2.

Now, since there are only 1, 2, or 3 of you, you won't have much of a chance against a large force. So after you spring your trap, do your best to retreat. If you planned it well, it won't matter if they pursue, b/c there will be a second ambush a short distance behind you. If they are inexperienced, they will often give chase, which is very foolish.

So this is how it will hopefully work. You set up a small ambush, 1 or 2 people. A squad of 4 walks into it. If they are stupid, then they're probably all dead, if not then expect survivors. You send the remaining 2 enemies dodging into cover, and you retreat. If they aren't thinking, they may give chase, if they do, then have a 2nd ambush, which should probably have at least 2 people, take them down. Now, assuming they're smart, and don't run blindly after you, then you'll have time to escape, and you've fulfilled your mission, a few enemies are dead, and you get to go kill more.