Far from being limited to a simple point-and-shoot game, airsoft can come in many different forms with various modes and styles that suit a range of preferences and skill levels.
Whether you just want a casual game with simple objectives or are up for a fully immersive experience, there’s a game mode for you. Here we break down some of the most popular.
Skirmish
While not a particular mode, skirmish is still a useful word for beginners to understand. This is the umbrella term for regular, casual airsoft matches – i.e. the day- or afternoon-long sessions your local airsoft site runs on a Sunday. A typical skirmish will consist of shorter, action-packed rounds of several game modes like Team Deathmatch, which the marshals will cycle through to keep things fast-paced.
Most airsoft sites run skirmishes with inclusivity at the forefront, allowing players of all abilities and experience levels to join. This means anyone can give it a go – you don’t have to be a tactical expert in your first session!
Team Deathmatch
This is one of the most common game modes that even new players will instantly be familiar with. Here, two teams compete against each other to secure more ‘kills’ than the opposition. Once a player is hit, they will go to the designated respawn location, where they must wait to reenter the game. Players can respawn after a time limit, upon a new round or up until a certain number of eliminations occur, depending on the established rules of the session.
MilSim
Another popular style of gameplay is milsim, which stands for military simulation. This offers an incredibly immersive experience that allows players to replicate real-life military scenarios on the airsoft field. Players will wear accurate uniforms and use the corresponding airsoft guns to re-enact highly tactical manoeuvres according to historical operations or fictional scenarios inspired by real-world campaigns.
Milsim games are usually longer than more casual deathmatch games, sometimes lasting several days, depending on the simulation. Players will typically follow a particular mission in line with the history or story at play. Modes like this may also limit ammo or respawns to add to the realism.
BattleSim
Battlesim lies somewhere between a deathmatch skirmish and a milsim game. It features a longer, immersive, story-based game without requiring the full commitment of military simulation. Again, you’ll likely follow objective-driven scenarios, but with more restrictions than in an open skirmish. Unlike milsim, however, you may not have to wear specific costumes or be subject to ammo limits, but this will depend on the particular game or group.
Milsim has the reputation of being slightly more serious about the role-play element, whereas battle sim is generally faster-paced and more action-heavy.
Capture the Flag
For the majority of the gameplay here, your objective will be to capture a flag from the opposing team, as well as to protect your own flag.
Each team begins on opposite sides of the site, where they have a base with a flag. The teams must bring their opponent’s flag safely back to their base, while ensuring their flags are not taken by the other team, eliminating as many opponents as possible along the way. It is a fun, tactical mode, driven by a deceptively simple objective.
There are different variations of capture the flag, including live flag and dead flag. The former allows players to drop the flag if they are eliminated, meaning team members can pick it up and continue the mission. As opposed to a dead flag, which means that eliminated flag holders must return the flag to the enemy base, essentially starting the mission all over again.
Domination
In domination, the objective is control. Before the game, marshals will highlight a number of areas across the site as control points – all your team has to do is get to those points and control them by fending off the enemies.
Different sites score this mode differently, with some offering up points for teams that have controlled for the longest time, whereas others will give out points for teams in control at the end of the game.
Waypoint Game or Rolling Domination
This progressive attack-and-defend game mode combines tactics and speed. Here, you’re split into an attacking team and a defending team. The attacking team pushes through a series of waypoints under infinite respawns, with the goal of reaching the final waypoint as quickly as possible.
The defining team must defend the waypoints but will only have one respawn per location. When the attacking team secures a waypoint, the defending team falls back to the next defensive position.
Once the attacking team reaches the final waypoint, the time is stopped, and the teams switch roles. Whoever completes the route in the quickest time wins. It’s an ammo-heavy game, so make sure to stock up.
Zombies or Virus
There are loads of ways you can play this game, but the basic premise starts with a fairly large group of players with a small team within this designation as zombies – the ratio should be about 4 ‘humans’ for every ‘zombie’.
Zombies have infinite respawn and can ‘infect’ humans by shooting you, meaning players shot by zombies will respawn as zombies, turning on their former teammates! Some games may be a simple case of lasting as long as you can against the zombies, while others may require the human team to secure objects across the map to find a zombie cure.
Hostage Rescue
This is sort of similar to capture the flag, but the teams play more one-sided roles. One team holds a hostage or multiple hostages, while the other team is the rescue squad that must safely extract the hostages from the hostile team.
Once rescued, the rescue team must take the hostage to a designated safe point to win. The hostage taking team wins if they eliminate the rescue team or take out the hostage during a rescue attempt. It’s a game that combines strategy with teamwork as each player will likely have a very specific role to play.
Bomb
Again, this works on a similar premise to capture the flag or hostage rescue, but inverted - here players are putting something in the opposition’s camp rather than taking it. In bomb games, attackers must plant a ‘bomb’ in the defender's base without being killed. The defenders must prevent the attackers from launching their bomb attack or, if the bomb is planted, defuse it before the timer runs out.
If the bomb goes off (i.e. the timer runs out) before it is dismantled, the attacking team wins. If the defending team takes out the attackers before they plant the bomb, or they manage to defuse it before the timer runs out, they win.
President or VIP
Here, you have one team of bodyguards guarding the person designated as ‘President’, the other team plays as assassins. The aim of the game is for the bodyguards to safely escort the president to a specific safe zone without being hurt by the assassins. The assassins win if they can take out the president before they reach safety.
The concept is pretty simple, but there’s a lot of strategy involved if you want to win!
Free-for-All
While everything else we’ve mentioned is team-based, in a free-for-all you’re on your own. All players play as individuals, competing against everyone else in the game. It’s basically last man standing – players must aim to eliminate all other players first if they want to win. Unlike other games, this is a test of individual skill alone.
No matter which game mode you play, they’re all brilliant tests of skill, communication and strategy – plus great fun, of course! Here we’ve covered just a few of the most common modes, but many of these are frequently adapted to suit the needs of the site and the players. There are also plenty more we haven’t covered, or, if you’re feeling creative, there’s plenty of scope to come up with your own game.
From pistols to airsoft sniper rifles and a whole host of accessories, we stock everything you need to dominate the field on your first (or fiftieth) game!
To find out more about the different styles of airsoft gameplay available, check out our guide on CQB below.
