Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Red Dawn at Battlefront OH

RED DAWN Recap from the US General (Sloppy Joe from Hand of Fate)…
 
Red Dawn based on the movie Red Dawn played at Battlefront in Hubbard Ohio on 9-18-2010. The story starts out with the a small town in the US being invaded by the Soviet and Cuban armies. A small group of teens from the town escape and start guerrilla warfare attacks to help the US defeat the Soviet and Cuban forces and take back their land. Both the US and teens (known as the Wolverines) form one team fighting against the Soviet and Cubans forces which formed the second team. All four forces (each having separate leaders) had to work together with their counter part to gain the most points throughout the game to be considered victors. Communication, using your abilities to their fullest, and helping your allies were the keys to success.
 
I (Sloppy Joe) was the US General. "I have no clue what was actually going on. Thanks." That is how I felt a lot of the time during the game. I spent a lot of time the two weeks prior to the game preparing for this scenario. Sending emails to The Great Equalizer (from 1st Strike, the master mind behind the scenario) to confirm what was and was not allowed… This was my first time as a General at any game, so finding loopholes was a priority for me before the game. I had some good ideas and made some strategic plans to catch spies and some other cool stuff…
 
Come game day everything went out the window. I left the bands for marking my players (to identify spies) in my car. The HUGE map that one of my teammates made for this game was an older version of the filed map and not the same one that was being used for this scenario… AND I left all the regular 8.5x11 maps at the car. Things just didn't seem to be going my way.
 
After the first half hour I finally got a map and was able to getting organized. I had 4+ radios running most of the day. If anyone thinks that being a general is a boring job I must say that it is most definitely NOT BORING! Our tank finally came into play late in the first part of the game, and I was grateful to see it. Our troops were taking some heavy fire from the enemy tank and it was a good thing to finally be able to return the favor. They did a great job (Thanks Lightening Force)!
 
Working with an ally… luckily we had an ally in the beginning of the game who was actually accomplishing their missions. The Wolverines (headed up by Achilles and Shav from the Immortals) were the ones that helped to carry the US team through the first half of the game. One of the missions, that the US was able to accomplish, was to hold an objective outside of the city… as a reward, I had the option to make 5 of the Wolverines head shot only players or take 50 points. Believe it or not, it was a difficult choice for me… I chose the 50 points. After the totals were tallied for all teams the US/Wolverines  (with some major help from the Wolverines and choosing the 50 points) were only down by 10 points at lunch.
 
Directly after lunch I was asked to provide 5 "Brave" volunteers for a mission. I had no idea what the mission would be but, I found 5 guys who were willing (somewhat reluctant, but willing). The volunteers ended up being part of a reenactment of a scene from the movie. The US players were not allowed to shoot but were to stand in a line where they were to sing the National Anthem as loudly as they could… they were about to be executed by a Soviet Firing Squad. The Firing Squad was not allowed to look until the Americans were done singing but, they did have a lookout that was supposed to be watching for any attacking players (Wolverines).  Just about the time the Americans were finished singing the Wolverines made their way to them and ambushed the soviets… Paint went flying and only one of the Americans was shot during this reenactment (thanks again to the Wolverines). The reward was head shot only for the 5 volunteers (which they used and enjoyed to the fullest).   
 
After lunch seemed to be a turning point for the US team. Possibly due to the great ham provided by Gateway Farm and Freezer Meats, a HoF sponsor… or due to better communications with the Wolverines and the rest of the US players (thanks partially to Grizzly and his guys). The team really started to pull through and complete the missions. There was still a LOT of opposition but the guys held out and received support/reinforcements from their teammates. I know there was plenty of friendly fire going on from time to time but because of better radio communication we had a lot less than there would have been.
 
We had several rocket launchers up and running during the game which provided much support to the Wolverines and to the rest of the troops. Just before 4 o'clock I headed out from HQ (for the first time other than lunch time) to chase after the Soviet tank with my rocket launcher but, I was too slow to catch up with it. I continued on and as I was approaching the city I was shot out. I had left one of my HoF teammates in charge while I was out just in case I didn't make it back for the new Intel at 4 o'clock. Since I was shot out, I was able to make it back to the re spawn and, when the rocket went off letting me back into the game, I arrived at the HQ just in time to receive the new Intel.
 
4 o'clock Intel…Four flags in and around the city needed to be captured and defended… and I was to assist! There was also a bomb that the Wolverines were working on that needed to be delivered to the landing craft… We were able to secure all 4 flag at the city and I believe, once captured, we held them the entire time. The Wolverines were also able to be escorted to the landing craft with their package and it was a success. We had a tank on tank battle at the beach which landed our tank dead… but a US rocket launcher was able to take out the Soviet tank before it could do any more damage. Shortly after that the horn blew to end the game. I am not sure the "final score" but at the end of the game the US/Wolverines were deemed victorious!
 
Thanks to all who made this a great day of paintball!
 
 Sloppy Joe 
 
 

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Fort Blanding Florida in February 2011

Hello all,
 
It's been a while since we had an official update, but things are still moving/shaking. Coming up next are an impromptu gathering at the Titusville EPZ game in 2 days. In a week and two days we have the Red Dawn Scenario at Battlefront. And of course, October 2nd we'll be hosting our own Black Hawk Down scenario at Pentagon.
 
It has come to my attention through the interwebs that Blues Crews is bringing paintball back to Fort Blanding in Florida. Banding MOUT Training Site is a is a "FULL-SIZE" Town, complete with a multitude of 1-4 story buildings constructed of concrete block with doorways, windows, and stairways.  The Town features 16 different building complexes bordered by a large drainage ditch and woods. If you still don't comprehend the awesomeness of this game, then follow the following link and check out the details. If you're a fan of paintball then this is an experience you should do at least once in your lifetime.
 
 
What I'd like to do is guage some interest in who amongst the team would be interested in doing this next February. Obviously, the more people we get to go, the less the expenses will be. I have started a thread on our forum so that we can discuss who'd be interested, and the logistics of such a trip.
 
 
So go and throw in your two cents. I'll see you guys on the field soon.
 
-Meaty