• Choose your weapon carefully before joining a paintball game.marqueur paintball image by RomainQu??r?? from Fotolia.com
  
  Paintball and speedball are games based not only on the pure force of a paintball gun but also on the players' strategic abilities to hide using their surroundings. Some variations of those games involve teamwork, while others challenge individuals to compete against each other without the help of fellow soldiers.
  
  

Capture the Flag

• Capturing your opponents' flag and bringing it back to your team's base before the opposing team can do the same thing with your flag is the goal of Capture the Flag. One of the first goals is to find out where your opponents' base is, which is where their flag will be. Once you find that, your team must transport the flag to your base without being hit. When a player is hit, she is out of the game. If she was carrying the flag, the flag is left where she was hit and another team member must continue carrying it towards your own base. The first team to place the other team's flag at its own base wins.
  
  

Shooting Arena

• In the Shooting Arena game, one team is dedicated as the targets and the other team as the hunters. Each member of the hunters has a different color of paintball as ammunition. Each member of the targets has a point value printed on his shirt. The hunters are given a half hour to eliminate as many targets as possible. This is not played as a team game, since each individual hunter receives the point value for each target he hits. Targets are eliminated from the game when hit.
  
  

Hostage Breakout

• In the game of Hostages, one team is the terrorists and the other the rescue team. The terrorists have five to ten minutes to choose a location within the playing area to establish a base where the hostages are held. The rescue team must attempt to locate the base and free the hostages. Hostages are freed by being tagged by a team member. Team members may equip hostages with a paintball gun after rescuing them. The group must then return to its own base without any of the hostages being shot. If a player is shot, she is eliminated from the game.
  
  

The Hunted

• In The Hunted version of speedball and paintball, the game is one person against everyone else. That one person has to try to reach a specified location without being hit by any of the other players' paintballs. The player who is being hunted must use natural barriers such as trees, rocks and other obstacles to try to stay out of the sight or aim of the hunters. He must reach the goal area within a specified time period. If he fails to reach it in that timeframe or is hit, the hunters win. If he reaches his goal within the time limit without being hit, he wins.