Trainees: 4-6
Time: 10 minutes.
Trainee Difficulty: Medium
Trainer Difficulty: Medium
Required Location: Any open area
Recommended Prerequisites: None

Peeling is a reaction to taking fire whilst caught in the open. The basic principle is that the majority of the group suppresses the enemy whilst the closest fraction of the group moves away from the enemy or towards the nearest cover. Peeling is tricky and requires high amounts of awareness and initiative. By it's nature it always takes place in stressful situations.

1. Ensure you have god mode on and pick out a position you will be simulating the enemy firing from.
2. Have the trainees assume any formation in a random order and have them move in a direction through open terrain. Either pick or ask for a volunteer team leader. Tell them to take note of possible locations of cover in the area.
3. Explain how peeling works:
   1. Upon contact, the team starts to suppress the enemy
   2. The team leader will call “Peel left!”, “Peel right!” or “Peel to <location>!”. Note that the peel does NOT have to be perpendicular to the enemy and can be to the rear if that's the best position.
   3. The pair of soldiers closest to the enemy call out “Peeling!” and move to the other side of the group.
   4. As they pass the next pair they call “Last man!” to let that next pair know that they're next up.
   5. Once they reach the other side of the element they move a bit further and resume suppressing.
   6. The peel is repeated until the team leader judges that the team is safe to go firm or has evaded the enemy.
4. Teleport to the position you want to simulate the enemy firing from and begin to fire rounds over the heads of the trainees.
5. At this point the trainees should begin attempting to suppress you. Watch them as the peel whilst firing rounds over and around them. Don't worry about accidentally hitting them, it's better to create a terrifying situation for the trainees and injure a few than to go too easy on them and have them fall apart in mission. “Train hard, fight easy. Train easy, fight hard.”
6. Wait until you can no longer see the trainees or they've reached a defensible position like a building, wreck or fortification. The end the exercise.

Instead of acting as the enemy yourself, use Zeus to place down an enemy fireteam. Set their skill level to just high enough to see the trainees. We don't need their laser accuracy but it's still more realistic.

• Peeling is a desperate tactic for emergency situations. Ideally you'll never be ambushed but Murphy will poke his nose in sooner than you'd like. It will be messy and very likely you'll lose a few people but you will avoid being totally wiped out.
• It's better to have a fast, flowing peel than a perfect, pretty peel. Delays will cost lives. There are no mistakes. “Go with it.”
• Once trainees know they're next up they have to keep an eye on the currently peeling soldiers as they won't get an order to peel. Again, if they delay because they're too distracted it will cost lives.
• Trainees should be aware that they could lose their team leader in the first few shots. If the leader is dead then any of them should be prepared to start a peel on their own initiative. They can sort out who's really in charge when they get to safety.
• Sometimes peels are performed by a single soldier. This trades speed and ease for more suppression down range. It should be attempted only by more competent groups as peeling in pairs is hard enough to start with.

Dslyecxi's VTTP on this subject is great.