Have you ever tuned into espn2 late at night and come across a game of paintball? A handful of guys in bright colored jerseys running at full speed around inflatable obstacles, sliding on astroturf, and shooting at insane rates of fire? Well, that's not Mil-Sim paintball. Mil-Sim, or Military Simulation paintball, is played typically on fields with a more "natural" setting, or sometimes in an urban enviornment. The pace of the games can be fast at times, but typically the players attempt to play at a more "realistic" speed of simulated combat. Military Simulation paintballers focus on trying to

play with a sense of realism to their play. Mil-Sim differs from speedball in that winning and a high kill count aren't all that matter. The Mil-Sim style of play is all about taking care of business while trying to move, fight, and communicate as a squad, and also maintaining a code of conduct and

honor. Much in the same way that real life military and law enforcement professionals do. True Mil-Sim players try to maintain a standard of integrity that most most other forms of paintball do not typically adhere too. Mil-Simmers typically are extremely helpful to new players, and treat them with the same respect as they do seasoned players. They are the future of our sport, and that new player may just end up watching your 6 in the next game.

Most players tend to wear camo or other military style gear, as it adds to the realism of play.They typically try to modify their markers to look more realistic, and to an extent, they limit the rate of fire of their markers to keep them closer to a real world rifles rate. Certain players also prefer using "tac-cap's" instead of regular hoppers so that they limit their rounds of paint to 30, rather than the hundreds that can be held in a typical paintball marker.

Occasionally, teams will utilize radios/headsets and hand signals to communicate among their team during games. And some even go so far as to print out overhead satellite images of the fields, and mark out coordinates so they can give precise intel to the rest of their team during games. (see Google Earth)

Mil-Sim players shine during what are called "Scenario Games. These large scale paintball games can span an entire weekend, 24 hours per day, and may have upwards of a few hundred players. Or in the case of the yearly D-Day game in Oklahoma, a few thousand players from all across the world.

Teams that attend are assigned to different "armies" during these games, each army having it's own general who is in command of the troops, and is following a scripted storyline with missions that have been agreed too by the game promoters.

Different teams on either side of the "war", are given different missions running the gambit from capturing enemy officers, taking key objectives, destroying enemy artillery and tanks, or rescuing POW's.

Willingness to stick to the storylines and missions to help out the games promoters at these scenario games, rather than just showing up with the walk-on's to get as high of a kill count as possible, is one of the ways in which Mil-Simmers stand out from the crowd.

Adhering to Honor, Integrity, Sportsmanship, and Realism at all times before, during, and after games is what sets apart a typical Mil-Sim player from othery types of paintballers. Not saying that those types of paintball do not have those qualities, but merely stating that upholding them from the time we arrive at the field to the time we leave at the end of the day, is a primary focus for a mil-sim paintball player. No matter what adversity we might face during the day.

CheckYer 6 - OCMI

Nismo - x7og

FantasticDamage - milsimempire.com

Members of Team CKD

Sandman Brovo - x7og