Now, I realize that I am a newbie and have not yet played at a sanctioned airsoft field as of yet. If my question has been answered, does not make sense, is dumb, et cetera, please let me know right away.

After a while of looking around, I have found that there are thousands of CQB threads on room clearing, hallway tactics, and the like. However, despite searching for "CQB holding a room,""CQB defending a room," and "CQB barricading a room," in the search bar, I could not find a single in depth topic on defense tactics for CQB scenarios. I thought about the fact that defense scenarios may be few and far between, but for there to be so many threads on room clearing, many rooms must have been cleared (successfully or not), and there should be an equal number of groups defending those same rooms.

If anyone can point me to a thread on this topic please do so. Thanks for the help.

Somewhat related thread.

Extremely helpful link in said thread. Credit to Alpha-17 in the thread.

Thanks a lot for the link. It was quite informative. However I am looking for a guide more oriented towards movements and tactics, not the usage of equipment and erection of barricades. The link was very helpful for the latter, and just needs to be supplemented by basic movement techniques, comparable to those used to assault a room, just from the other perspective.

In regards to defensive positions in CQB, I am assuming that you may be outnumbered. Laying stagnant in a position, waiting for the enemy to pick and choose how many, in what manner, when, and where of the engagement is a mindset that can be taken advantage of by a coordinated assaulter. Tactics on defending a position vary based on the specific situational context. How many enemy, is there a time limit to hold the position (reinforcements or other forces enroute to assist you, end of match, etc), are there objectives to be reached, the list goes on and on.

Defensive tactical options are numerous and can include defense-in-depth, counter-assault, ambush, displacement, evasion, fortification, and others.

Here is a basic tactical principle which you may be able to use to fit into a CQB environment. Humans are designed with body parts oriented forward. Eyes, hands, legs are all designed to face in a forward direction. The human visual field is approximately 210 degress of vision (a mixture of color and black-and-white). Put your hands together, palms touching and extend both your arms directly in front of you. Now move your arms apart equally until you have them placed apart a TOTAL of 90 degrees. This is the same position as if you pointed your hands to the 10 and 2 positions on a clock. This is your area in front of you where your ability to react, assault, and defend are heavily favored. A target which is in this position between your hands is manageable. Targets and threats which lay outside of your hand areas are harder to react to and to engage. This is the arc area where you should position yourself so that you can defend yourself.

How this works is imagine house. Go to the first room of your house near the front door, usually a living room. Place yourself anywhere inside this room. Take a look at all of the entry points and threat areas where enemies can come from. Now place your hands out in front of you and try to find a location where ALL of the threats are between your hands. If you house is the same as most houses, you cannot find a spot where you can have all of the threats contained. Start to move within your house and look for an area where you can find all of the threats inside between your hands. You will often find youself backed into a corner of a room with only one opening.

If you have additional teammates, then you can defend additional locations of threat. If your living room has a front door and a door leading to the kitched or hallway, you will need another person to assist you in holding those threats, otherwise you may want to move.

These angles also apply to CQB. CQB is a harder environment since there are multiple angles and the enemy can move around your position. This concept is applicable in defensive and offensive engagements.

The major drawback to holding a defensive position in CQB is that a mobile enemy can pin you down and can engage you when they choose.

My other advice to doing tactics is to not rely on pictures and videos of how to shoot around cover. A LOT of pics are done for artistic reasons and actually portray poor tactics so that it looks good. Crowding of cover and exposure around barricades is often shown as these are often ads, not training videos. For example, two photos with guys with guns (lower left and upper right) both portray poor tactics. They were done strictly for advertisements and are not training pictures photos.

I hope that might give you some ideas which you were looking for. If not, post again with a question and maybe someone can help you out.

-Stay safe

Thanks a lot! At karate, we learned about the whole 90 degree/ forward thing, but I never thought of applying this to CQB, or even airsoft in general. I really learned a lot from your post. Thank you again!

http://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail?pid=29932

Although this podcast, is getting outdated, and there probably won't be any new ones soon, their's still really good information in them. Episode three is what you're looking for. He talks about offence for a while then shifts to defensive tactics.

one of my personal favorite tactics is predict where they're going to clear first and then make a back rout to it. then hide out in a place that they "remember" being safe. however this tactic has many, many cons (well worth the terrified looks on their faces though). All kidding aside, a good defense really is a good offence. As a defender, you pick the playing field, but don't let them wear you down. Push them back and take an aggressive approach to it. Because if they pin you down they can wait you're out of bullets or they have a good plan.

anyway, that's my 2/100ths of a dollar.

No problem, someone else can delete your accidental double post for you. Although it's a slight necro, at least you provided some pretty relevant information that could be useful for other readers who stumbled upon the old topic.