Armies - Airsoft Force Tracking

In Airsoft Force Tracking, everything starts with armies. They are the core organizational concept that brings order, clarity, and realism to every game session – from small skirmishes to large-scale milsim events.

Table of Contents

Color-coded by design

Each army has its own dedicated color.

Players belonging to a blue army are displayed with blue icons, and all markers created by those players automatically inherit the same army color. The same applies to every other army in the session – yellow, red, green, or any custom color chosen by the organizer.

This color system is intentional. It mirrors real-world airsoft practices, where teams are identified using colored armbands, patches, or tape on their arms. By keeping digital colors aligned with physical identifiers, AFT ensures instant recognition both on the field and on the map.

In the screenshot above, there are two markers of the orange army and two markers of the green army.

One player, one army

A player can belong to only one army at a time.
This rule guarantees clear allegiance, prevents ambiguity, and keeps command structures clean and predictable throughout the session.

At the same time, a single game session can include multiple armies, allowing organizers to model complex scenarios such as:

two-sided conflicts,
multi-faction operations,
asymmetric forces,
or coalition-based gameplay.

Administrative army

Every session also includes a dedicated administrative army.

This special army is reserved for organizers and referees and comes with extended permissions. Its purpose is to supervise the game, manage structures, and maintain balance – without interfering directly with player-side mechanics.

When creating a new session, the organizer defines an administrator password.
This password grants access to the administrative army and is required to log in as an administrator.

While logged in as an administrator, you can:

create any number of armies within the session,
assign each army its own unique password,
and use those passwords to invite players into the correct army.

This approach keeps access control simple, secure, and fully under the organizer’s control – without the need for accounts, external tools, or manual moderation during the game.

Teams within armies

Within each army, administrators can create teams (squads, fireteams, platoons – depending on the scenario).

The joining logic is flexible:

a player joins an army first,
then may optionally join a team within that army,
or remain unassigned, operating independently while still being part of the army.

This allows AFT to support both highly structured milsim chains of command and more casual, free-form gameplay.

Visibility and information flow

Armies also play a key role in map visibility and information sharing.
Who sees whom, which markers are visible, and how information propagates across the battlefield are all influenced by army membership.

A deliberate, scalable system

The army system in AFT is not an afterthought.
It is a deliberately designed foundation that scales with the size of the event, supports real-world airsoft conventions, and enables clear command, coordination, and situational awareness – without overwhelming players or organizers.