Just Go For It: Because Big Plans Don’t Work

One of the things I notice more and more as I airsoft is that set-in-stone plans don’t work.  This is due to a lot of factors.  The best laid plan can be brought down by a single move of the enemy team or when some of your team members are in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Sometimes you just have to go with a plan, even if it’s not completely thought out.  Otherwise you risk the enemy making a move, getting ahead of you, and winning the game.  Just doing something can make the difference.  Here are a couple of stories from one of my outdoor battles to illustrate this point:

 

Rushing Is Better Than BB Swapping

The scenario was to transport our team’s box (loaded with smoke bombs that would be triggered upon opening) to a location across the field and deploy it.  A group of 4-6 players decided to transport the box while the rest of the team attempted to assault the enemy stronghold (a large, building-like complex), a mere 200 feet from our respawn.  After a half hour of shooting and respawning, I was ready to do something besides swap BBs with the enemies shooting through all the tiny windows.

I moved to the flank of the building and got myself psyched up for charge.  I scanned over the rest of my team and saw some players who seemed to be preparing for a frontal assault on the building.  I waited a few more seconds and timed my charge with theirs.  We rushed the building, cleared it, and move forward.

I tried to continue to move up and figure out what had happened to the squad that had headed off with our box, when a column of smoke rose from the building we had just cleared!  Turns out our team had deployed the enemy’s box of smoke that had been left behind, making a technical win for the enemy!

Due to a lot of factors (including a lack of communication), the game didn’t go as planned.  Although by doing something besides sit and swap BBs, we accomplished our secondary mission of clearing the enemy stronghold.

On to the second story…

 

The Enemy Is Not As He Appears

In this scenario, an expansive field with a large number of bunkers (properly named “Bunker Hill”) gave us a chance for a fun game of “capture the water bottles”.  😉

With a few other players, I moved up the left flank and attempted to approach the enemy, undetected.  The field was bigger than we anticipated putting us in a head on head battle on the left flank.  After coming under heavy enemy fire, we engaged and dug in (notice the sit-and-wait mentality here).  After a while, I decided that someone needed to move up if we were going to get anywhere.

I cautiously moved up the left flank with my battle buddy covering me.  Then, I rushed up to a piece of cover, spotted an enemy player behind a wall before he saw me, lined up my sights, and took him out when he tried to fire! After a quick look around, I realized he was the ONLY player there, and had held down the entire flank!  I quickly called for my team to move up the flank and we started an advance.

Again, the point is that you sometime just have to do something to get ahead in an airsoft game.

 

This doesn’t mean that planning is useless and you should go to every game having done zero research and preparation.  Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces on D-Day and former President of the United States, said “When preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”  I think this quote sums up the purpose of plans in airsoft very nicely.  Plans have a place in the preparation stage of games and are very helpful in making sure everyone understands the mission at hand.  But they are useless if you don’t adapt them to the changing battlefield.

By simply moving forward, you can make things happen in an airsoft battle.  Pre-game plans allow you to form a cohesive team that works together to accomplish the overall mission.  Small in-game plans (like moving to a flank, or working with your battle buddy) are a great way to get things done during a game.  Try to make an easy plan, act on it, then make a new one.  Here is a quote by General Patton that sums up the overall point of this post nicely :

“A good plan violently executed right now is far better than a perfect plan executed next week.”

Thanks for reading this AirsoftWarrior.net post.  If you enjoyed it, be sure to share it with your battle buddies!  As always, comment your thoughts on the post and let me know how you “Just Go For It” during a game!