I was finishing up a game of 2 vs. 3. And it was down to 2 vs. 1. My Co. and me, against our teams ghost flanker. Of course he goes off and hides with his tri-shotgun, Leaving My Team leader and I to find him. Long story short, I start clearing a large patch of sage brush. I move in fast. *POP! I hear the shotgun go off about three feet from where I was running. If I had been moving slowly and stealthily... I would have gotten hit.Stealth plays a huge roll in airsoft. We can all agree on this. But I've seen it time and time again where stealth actually hurts the player's chances of winning. So when shouldn't you use stealth?
If a player is good, He'll use his ears to find you. So don't go around talking casually to your buddy. If they don't know where you are, use stealth (duh). And you can just search for many articles on how to do that. But what If they know where you are? Well, there's not much more point in being all hush hush about it. If they see you first and shoot at you, start yelling out "Contact! Contact!" be sure to include the direction of contact and, if you know, the distance from target. Don't just crouch down and pretend it was a freak bb coming at you, then whisper to your teammates that there's someone up ahead. Let the enemy know that you are in control. Stay on top of the situation, while creating chaos for your foe. Odds are you're the pointman who usually ends up in this situation. Start giving orders to your squad mates. And, sometimes, you're enemy won't know how many of you they're facing. If someone up ahead of you yells contact, you have, basically, two options. Ghost flank, and try to sneak up on him, or let the enemy know there's more than one of you and try to bust his confidence. Most often the slower you go the quieter you'll be, this is good. But there are times when you need to be fast. Don't worry so much about not being seen. If you do it right you'll be right up in there hizzle before they have time to react. The key is: Keep moving forward. If you can't do that and be stealthy at the same time... don't. Just read Story #2.
Story #2:
It was a classic arena style cqb, 3v3. I and another guy go right up the line, trying to gain as much ground as possible, while the ghost flanker from story 1 goes along the border and tries to flank. Unfortunately my buddy gets sprayed, and I'm left there in the middle of a firefight. Where did my ghost flanker go? I'm getting flanked by their team of three and my ally is back behind me, still trying to sneak up behind them! I'm not going to finish this story because it doesn't end well. ;)There is a difference between being quite and stealthy. Being stealthy is: No talking, walking on the balls of your feet or crawling, low profile, hand signals, etc. Being quite is entirely different: Don't talk when you don't need to, shout when you do (unless you're giving an order) don't worry about stepping on twigs, and for heaven's sake! Return fire!
Now don't get me wrong, someone invented Camo for a reason. There have been times where the enemy knew where I was and I still used stealth. If you need to try and sneak away from a known position, use stealth. The best way to do that is crawl a few feet from your current position and then mad dash to a whole new position.
What about indoor cqb? Most of the time (not all, but most), you should use dynamic room clearing technique. You know the stuff; throw a 'nade into the room and then sweep it with your team, yelling all the way. Only if you're a recon squad of a scout would you majorly use stealth entries.
To sum up this long and slightly repetitive article: Remember that stealth really isn't everything. If they know where you are there's no point left. Keep moving forward. Don't always sacrifice speed and movement for stealth.
*this is my first article... And is probably not as complete as it should be. Please, any advice for future articles would be greatly appreciated.