What makes a good bunker?
by Ian "Lo" Ebersole on Nov 02, 2009
At a recent scenario game, I was pushing the front lines with my team in heavy woods. We could see reinforcements moving up from the opponents side, and were making a push to gain as much ground as we could before they arrived at our position. Just before the enemy reinforcements arrived, with their tank in tow, I slid into a pile of brush a few yards forward of the rest of my team. At first, it seemed like a horrible position. The bunker consisted entirely of sticks no larger than 3 inches in diameter, piled willy-nilly into a slight L shape. It seemed that whatever direction I looked, there was a massive hole just waiting for a paintball to fly through. I was in a bad place. Little did I know, it would be just what I needed.
As the opponents pressed forward, and the opposing tank poured paint into our ranks, the bunker turned out to be better than I could have ever hoped. By pressing myself against the bottom edge of the bunker, I was protected and mostly unseen by my opponents. The few who had seen me make the move were unable to drop any paint over the top, and the twigs were just enough to keep any paint from coming through. And most importantly of all, the visibility I gained allowed me to make several quick eliminations by being able to see just when to pop out and take a few shots on players moving between bunkers.
In the end, a ball snuck through one of the same holes I was looking through, and caught me in the shoulder. I wouldn’t have lasted much longer anyhow, with the enemy tank coming around behind us. And there is no way I would have picked that bunker any other day of the week. But for this instance, as luck would have it, it allowed me to help stem an enemy surge. Looking back, I began to wonder, how do you decide what makes a good bunker?
The first criteria is cover. Whenever you’re in a gunfight, you typically want the bunker to provide plenty of protection from incoming paint. Even if you’re not taking fire at the moment, it’s always good to be behind or near something solid in case you’re just on the verge of ambush. Cover can take various forms. Man-made bunkers are often solid, which is excellent at catching paint, but will cut down on the next criteria—visibility. Natural cover may or may not protect you from every single ball that gets fired your way, and will also have the disadvantage of letting splatter through.
Visibility is the counterpart to cover, in most cases. This is a tradeoff to be made for each specific situation. If your opponents are still far away, visibility will generally be the better call. Knowing where your opponents are and what they are up to can be crucial. If you’re in the thick of it, any bit of solid cover you can find will be vital, and you’ll want to rely on your teammates to keep an eye on the wider scope of the game. But, as mentioned in the example above, this is subjective. Bunkers with some sort of netting or small holes which allow you to see through portions while still protected are ideal, until your opponent gets the idea to spray you with splatter. That can cut down on visibility in no time flat.
Another consideration is the shape of the bunker. Large, tall bunkers, or trees, will allow you to stand and look around either side. Smaller bunkers and shrubs may require kneeling, crouching, or laying down to be effectively protected. The shape of the bunker will also determine how easy it is to get behind if you’re taking fire. Some small bunkers may require crawling or sliding to get behind.
Once you’re in that bunker, what angles can you see? What angles will you be exposed to? What options will you have once there? Can you retreat easily if necessary? Can you press directly forward, or will you need to flank? In short, how many options does the bunker give you? Sometimes, flexibility is your best asset.
Especially if the bunker is smaller and will require crawling or laying prone, what sort of hazards exist in the area? If the best bunker on the field is in the middle of a giant cactus patch or a stand of poison ivy, will it really be worth crawling into? While the car might be a great bunker any other month of the year, the large rain puddle may cause an issue in April. And while that small set of logs is a great defensive position, if you have to slide into it under fire, the sharp rocks probably won’t agree well with your knees.
A final consideration is camoflauge, although not in the traditional sense. If an opponent is coming through your area, especially when setting an ambush, how likely is he to think you’re behind that bright blue barrel, or the “perfect” log fort? Sometimes the advantage that otherwise great bunkers can present is negated by the fact that your opponent will “know” you are there. You can use this to your advantage. If you pick a slightly less obvious bunker to the side, while your opponents are concentrating on flanking an empty bunker, you can get the drop on their exposed side angles.
As it turns out, there is no hard and fast criteria for choosing the perfect bunker. It all boils down to the situation at hand. But by keeping these criteria in mind, it will be easy to become a master of cover, movement and planning.