General
Any controlled movement away from the opposition is considered a retreat or withdrawal operation. If the movement is made voluntarily it is a withdrawal, retirement or a delaying action. If it is forced by the opposition it is a retreat.

Units conduct retreat and withdrawal operations to delay, resist, exhaust or harass the opposition. These actions can avoid engagement under unfavorable conditions or draw the opposition into an unfavorable situation. Time can be bought by the use of retreat and withdrawal operations. They can also be used to reposition forces or allow the use of them elsewhere.

Withdrawal

a withdrawal is the disengagement of all or part of a force from the opposition in order to free itself use elsewhere. Withdrawals can be ordered at anytime, with or without opposition pressure.


Delay

In a delaying operation, forces give up space to gain time. They will not lose the freedom to maneuver by avoiding decisive engagements. The delaying force must maintain contact with the opposition to avoid being outmaneuvered. Fire resulting in friendly eliminations can be avoided by following proper procedures regarding.....

Delaying operations are conducted when sufficient forces are not available to attack or defend or when the game plan demands drawing the opposition into an unfavorable position. They can also be used to gain time in order to reestablish a defensive line, cover a withdrawing unit or to protect a friendly unit’s flank.

The leader may order that the opposition is to be held beyond a certain point or line until a specified time or event occurs.

Forcing the opposition to deploy repeatedly against successive defensive positions will invariably wear him down. As the opposition begins to deploy for the next attack, the delaying force withdraws to new defensive positions to the rear.

The bounding overwatch movement technique is suggested unless friendly units have a mobility advantage or the opposition’s advance is over cautious and slow. As soon as friendly players leave their defensive positions of cover they are vulnerable to opposition fire. This vulnerability is increased if the opposition is not suppressed. This can be very time consuming and frustrating for the attacking opposition. These tactics combined with limited attacks and ambushes can increase the effect. This further slows the opposition’s forward momentum, causes eliminations, and drains the opposition’s morale and strength. Add in snipers and paint mines to the scenario and the opposition will be quickly discouraged.


Retreat

During a retreat the maximum price must exacted from the opposition. To avoid decisive engagement paintball players need not race from defensive position to defensive position.


Stay behind Operations

During a retreat or withdrawal often a player or unit will be bypassed. This presents a golden opportunity to attack one of the opposition’s weakest points, his rear area. On accession this may actually be part of the plan. Either way, it is called a stay behind operation. The initial phase of a stay behind operation is the positioning of units or players.

Units that stay behind may have a unique opportunity to take out key command, control and communication elements. Players involved in the stay behind operation must be capable of exercising a great amount of initiative while conducting small, independent missions.

Another type of stay behind operation is one in which the designated defensive unit remains in place while other friendly units withdraw. Concealment is important during the withdrawal to prevent the opposition from launching an immediate assault, overrunning the players staying behind, and attacking the withdrawing forces. This technique should be attempted only if the remaining units have sufficient strength to repel repeated attacks.

In a covert deployment the stay behind unit allows the opposition to bypass, avoiding detection or contact until it is ready to begin attacking targets of opportunity. Techniques for accomplishing this is limited only by the leader’s imagination. A false withdrawal could be staged to deceive and draw the opposition forward only to allow the stay behind units to emerge suddenly well within the opposition’s rear areas, ready to strike at high priority targets.

A deception plan presents a selection of indicators to the opposition which causes him to react in a favorable and predictable manner. This may be a plan to lead the opposition to believe that all friendly players have been withdrawn or that there are many more friendly players operating in their rear areas than actually exist. It is not feasible for the stay behind forces to attempt to hold key terrain or territory for any length of time. This would offer the opposition a identifiable target to mass his numerically superior forces against.

Part of the stay behind plan may include a link up with friendly forces to end the operation. The stay behind forces can wait in place until friendly forces counter attack and the defensive line moves to their position or the can move toward friendly forces and link up.
Stay behind units must be able to move through restrictive terrain, remain hidden and provide their own security.

Withdrawal/ Disengagement
The leader’s decision of which players or units will withdraw first depends on how heavily each unit is engaged. The method to be used depends on how closely the opposition follows and the amount of pressure he applies.

Usually, the least heavily engaged unit will withdraw first to a position where they are still in range to provide supporting fire to the most heavily engaged unit to allow them to break contact and move to the rear where they, in turn, will provide supporting fire to the next unit to disengage. All units or players will then use the bounding overwatch movement technique to complete the withdrawal. The rate of suppression fire increases while the bounding element has left their positions to move back and are vulnerable to opposition fire.

The disengagement can be made by thinning the lines or by pulling back entire squads. The bounding overwatch fire and movement technique should be used in either case to maintain security and protection.

In the thinning of the lines technique, individual players move to the rear where each player takes up a firing position to cover the remaining players as they, in turn, move rearward.
If opposition pressure is light enough that thinning of the lines is not necessary, or after moving back far enough that the opposition fire becomes ineffective, movement to the rear can be made by entire squads. They will alternate as one covers as the other moves. The team may use this method to move safely while moving quickly as possible.

Disengaging and breaking contact do so in order to retain the freedom of maneuver, to avoid decisive engagement or to switch to a game mission not related to the portion of opposition engaging them at the moment.

When traveling in a file formation and contact must be broken, the point man runs to the rear of the file, passing information as he goes. Each player, in turn, peels off and moves rearward. The peel off is continued until contact is broken or the leader orders a different course of action.