How to Set Up a Woodsball Field

Woodsball is what most people imagine when they think of paintball: the military-style game that simulates infantry combat in fields and woodlots. What sets the woodball game apart from another paintball game, such as speedball, is the terrain. A good game area makes or breaks a woodball field. Nature provides the raw materials for a good woodsball field, but there are steps that can be taken to improve upon these. Follow these guidelines.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Mattock
• Shovel
• Scrap lumber
• Post-hole digger
• Hammer
• Nails

1. Take a look at the size and shape of your proposed woodsball field. If it is at least not a few acres, don't bother. The shape is also important. If a small woodsball field is shaped like a narrow rectangle, it will shape the course of every game so that they are mostly the same. Generally speaking, the bigger the space, the more variety you have for woodball games.

2. 
    
   Paintball fort

   Study the terrain. The best woodsball fields will offer a variety of terrain: woodlots and open fields, slopes and flat ground, and maybe even a creek. There is nothing you can do to create this kind of terrain--it is either there or it isn't--but you need to take a close look around and see what you have to work with for this project.

3. Eliminate undesired obstacles. If your woodlot is second growth forest, for example, it might be a tangle of thick underbrush. Rather than provide interesting cover for a woodsball game, this is simply an obstacle, and needs to be removed. If there are any old wire fences that criss-cross the property, remove these as well, especially if they run through a woodlot. They offer no cover, and might be difficult to see in the heat of a game, providing a constant source of nuisance and injury. Clearing brush and old fencing will require a mattock and shovel.

4. 
    
   Pallets have been used to create obstacles in this clearing.

   Decide where to build your own obstacles, such as walls, bunkers, ditches and forts. Be creative: even fallen trees can be piled into barricades. Paintball forts in particular offer a whole new range of possible games, but they need to be carefully sited. If your field is mostly open, with few trees and rocks, then you will need more man-made obstacles to provide game cover. This construction will require a hand saw, hammer, nails, scrap lumber, fence posts, post-hole digger, mattock and shovel.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are setting up a commercial woodsball field, and not just a field for private use, it is strongly advised that you get insurance. It may even be required, depending on local law.

Resources

• The Art of Woodsball for more about field set-up

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