Events - Feb 9 2008 Black River Paintball
I was XO of the American forces during the Battle of The
Buldge II game. I spent a lot of time planning for this and
I hope it showed. I was given the MVP award for the American
forces. He are my thoughts on the event the day after.
Reasoning
I like change. I have played most other positions over the
last few years in scenario paintball, except a good leadership
position. I also know how hard it is for producers to recruit
good generals. With Jet running this game, I knew it would
go smoothly and I could plan accordingly. I also was sick
and it happened to work out great for me, to be there, but
not play. I respect Allen a lot and was very proud to serve
under him at this game. Finally, I wanted to present leadership
in paintball as not something to be taken lightly. If a player
volunteers for a position, they should know they have to work
harder than the normal players and be accountable. I deep
down hope, that I could set a new level for leadership at
these games.
Pre-game
A few weeks before the game, I spoke with Jet about how unbalanced
the teams looked. I thought Otto was doing one hell of a job
recruiting teams. Severe sent me some contacts he had with
other Carolina teams. I told Jet we would take the hit and
accept the majority of walk-ons. It was just a game. Just
a few days before the game, I began a dialog with Kevin Shimmel
from Shadow Group. I really enjoyed playing with those guys
at Adventure beach, and expressed to him my desire to get
Shadow over to our side. With teams lopsided enough, he agreed
to change. I am not sure how much pressure he also received
from Jet or others, but I was pleased to gain his team’s
support. This was a great point to push on Otto, how I stole
his largest organized team.
Morning Setup
The morning of the game, I swung by home depot to acquire
more caution tape and string to supplement my diversion plans.
Severe and I walked the Southern Swamp around the second German
insertion point. We found some main trails and set up decoy
boundaries and signs to slow the Germans down. I shopped around
my ideas on spies, and met with many of the BR forum regulars
who were there to help. I specifically hunted down Shadow
Group to meet and pass out role cards. Lew, from Black Knights
found me and I relayed to him what information I had at the
time. The initial meeting with BKs was good. Lew and others
presented themselves with not questions of how things were
going to run, or questions about the game, but more specifically
stated – where do you need us? It was the first of many
surprises I received from their team in total dedication to
helping us win.
Pregame announcements
I explained my plan of defining the field as A/B/C zones.
A zone represented the middle woods area just to the north
of the fort field, covering the dry pond area and just before
the large pond by the barn/German insertion area. The Black
Knights would be the core team to take this area.
Zone B was the largest area, and had less objectives in it.
It was the North tape line that ran the back of the Amazon
and also covered the German Command Post. Shadow Group was
the largest and best suited for controlling this area in my
mind. I believed they would be able to rally up all the walk
ons and be able to push all the way to the enemy CP.
Zone C was the area to the south of the fort field. We knew
there would be a limited amount of Germans who would be able
to insert there. I thought RATS would be the smallest of the
organized teams. I know the RATS play very independent of
the other team-mates, and with the thickness of the terrain
back there, I thought it work out perfect.
I explained the need for players to reinsert quickly, and
return to base to be reassigned a location to go to.
10:00 Mission 1 defend Ardennes – the heart
of our A zone.
Once I heard the mission, I knew we had it. BK took the ground
quickly and called in that they could hold it. It happened
quickly. I heard reports that B zone was being hit hard and
that A could hold, but not advance. C was being covered and
they were advancing towards the insertion point.
10:30 Mission 2 patrol back field – far end
of our B zone
B group was being chewed up and it was hard replacing them.
I occasionally heard cries for help in the C zone, but again
A was locked up with no advancing, but maintaining postions.
I really had my doubts on the ability of team to accomplish
this. We failed this mission, but I got a better understanding
of how much more support B zone needed.
11:00 Mission 2 destroy South swamp entry C zone
I was unprepared to receive this mission when it was called
in. I really messed this up as general. I ended up telling
people they had to hit the German base at the far end of the
pond. I figured out as Allen and others told me, I should
have sent players to C-zone to eliminate the base there. I
misinterpreted the call in and limited the players in C zone,
while heavily reinforcing the A zone. B zone was being pounded
and players in A were getting pissed about not moving up.
It was a real low point.
11:30
I don’t remember this mission, but we got hit hard.
A kept telling players to go to the end of the fort field
and head into the woodline there, going north to the far north
tapeline the head back to the German CP. Players got pounded.
Soon, since the C zone was not being reinforced, they got
past the Chrono area for the only time int eh day and starting
hitting the back of our players. This soon caused a general
retreat back to the fort field. I tried hard to rally the
players.
12:00 defend satellite dish
I knew we could get this mission after several failed missions
if we could just push the players off the fort field. At this
time I picked up my gun and tried to force our team to move
forward. With some screaming and shouting and limited shooting
we got them on the run. With 20 minutes left, I had the whole
fort field to myself, with no Germans in sight. This was easy,
too easy. I was opening walking the whole of the fort field
with no gun fire around. I started commenting on the lack
of new insertions, but did not think too much off it.
12:30 keep flag raised fort
We got the prior mission and this seemed to just be another
bonus mission. Then I learned that Germans had not been dieing,
but just massing for the next attack on my base. I saw players
swarming out of both sides of the woodline and it appeared
to me we only had about 10 players alive on the field. I heard
people yelling about lunchtime and I believed our force was
really limited. I grabbed both artillery strikes and passed
them to Vitum for bombing the two back corners of the fort
field. It was too late and many of the Germans were already
in the fort. I tried rushing the fort, but was shot. As I
was walking back in, I was with the German line advancing
on the American CP. I was about 20 yards behind the German
team as they yelled “all dead” on the base. Static
quickly grabbed all my resupply ammo cans. I walked over and
said to him that he could not take them. He politely handed
them back to me. I then placed them back on the ground outside
the CP. Not sure why he listened to me. I had tagged the base,
then asked Victum was I allowed to reinsert or was there a
hold on that action. He did not give me a direct answer, except
that the CP was blown and Germans had to pull back. He then
started yelling at the Germans to move back. Then explained
that the CP was blown up, therefore all Germans around it
were dead. I said if they are not dead I will begin shooting
them. I then walked from player to player shooting them in
the feet, ankles or knees. Some shouting happened, but we
eventually got the Germans to move back to the end of the
fort field, but mission was over, so most Americans quit for
lunch. Some Americans decided to walk with retreating Germans
and try to sneak to the German CP.
1:00 lunchbreak
2:00 Blow the German CP
Yeah, we never even came close to their CP and now they want
us to blow it up. I saw no hope in this mission, but gave
the troops the same positions as earlier that morning. Shadow
Group (B-Zone) had almost no players present. They also had
one of my satchel charges.
2:30 knock out German base by insertion area
I had A group push hard, but I knew this wasn’t going
to happen
3:00 defend the southern swamp bridge
I really thought the RATS could handle this, but was down
on points, so I reallocated as many BK players as I could
from A zone to C zone. We doubled the amount of players in
C zone and held the bridge. I think Mars from Bebop got stuck
with the mission card and literally stood on the middle of
the bridge for close to 20 minutes, surrounded by about 10
other players. I actually walked out there at one point with
my gun to see if I could help. I pushed way past the bridge
with the goal of closing down the insertion point. I only
shot a few rounds before I knocked in the head and left the
field.
Some issues came up, as I heard Ken and others screaming about
player integrity. I called in to Jet, who allocated more and
more refs to that side of the field. I tried to do my part,
by keeping Ken and some other loud players from that area
after they came back to reinsert at the CP. I knew there were
problems and I wanted to keep them away from it before they
exploded. Ken did an excellent job of guarding the back Swamp
area by my CP for about 45 minutes, before he asked to be
sent somewhere else.
3:30 destroy southern German entry
We were pushing the Germans hard on the south side and I thought
this would be simple. I got all two LAWS over there and both
satchel charges into that area. I thought it would be a quick
and easy fight. We would close the insertion point, then re-allocate
all C-zone players into B-zone to push on their CP. I figured
5-10 minutes and this mission would be over. In the real world,
the Germans pushed hard and drove us out. I didn’t get
it. I kept dropping more and more players into C-zone and
they were still getting pushed. My A and B zones were nearly
gone, and I was not reinforcing it with any strength. I knew
this was not going my way and I really was starting to feel
that the entire game was going to b lost for us in the next
30 minutes.
4:00 stop German resupply
We were struggling just to hold the fort field again. I grabbed
my gun again and shot some paint, but it was no use. We had
too few players and they were getting in all the right places
to defend. Once they solidified there position in the Fort
itself, I knew it was over. I started packing things up. Some
Americans still rallied and played on, but we were getting
hit from all sides. I grabbed Kyle Klein and cleared out the
southern woodline, then pushed hard past the fort. I did my
best to cheer up the Americans that were stuck in bad places.
Near the end, Severe took the command radio and called in
some unknown to me command of air strike on the fort. Just
as he called it in, the whole fort cleared out and the Germans
ran. We were pissed. Had they been listening to our secure
command frequency? How did they know to clear out all players
from an area that was about to be bombed? It sounded fishy
and Severe spent the next 20 minutes discussing this with
Jet and trying to blame someone.
4:30 get to the barn
This was fun. Most of my team had given up by this point and
was out in the parking lot awaiting the final battle. I could
not count more than a few players. I knew we were barely holding
the fort field and there was no way to make it to the Barn.
I pulled off my camo shirt, exposing my bright white t-shirt,
put green tape all over my mask, broke down my gun and paint
into a backpack and pulled out my camera. I abandoned the
CP and hike straight in with the German troops back to the
barn. No one questioned me. When ever I got an odd glance
I would shout “let me take your picture!” “look
for your picture in the forum Monday!” Many times my
camera was not even on. I got within 50 feet of the barn and
was confronted by Foolybear. He knew me and didn’t trust
me. He said, just to make sure, he would barrel tag me. I
said that’s fine and wanted to go take some pictures
elsewhere. I asked for his advice on where to go, then I walked
off the field – but to him I was hoping he would assume
I was just moving to another area for pictures. I am not sure
of the legality, but I did stall for a few seconds before
walking off the field, but it was less than a minute, then
I took the most direct path off the field. I walked right
past Jet and Severe, and headed right back to reinsert and
try it again. This time I stayed away from Fooleybear. I came
up behind the barn then invited Otto into the barn to talk
with me. We spoke for a while, I was just stalling to see
if I could judge how many Germans were in and around the barn.
It was far too many. With about a minute left, I left the
barn to go back, hide, and re-assemble my gun. I hope to do
a mad rush into the barn with just seconds left. My watch
was not synched with Jet and the game ended with me outside
the barn and only half a gun completed. Otto and his long
winded conversations slowed me enough to prevent my assault.
I told Jet what had happened, and we both thought it was amusing.
5:00 end break for final battle
I left at this point, as I had other commitments. I told Allen
I highly recommended Jag (I think) for MVP as he was the one
that brought the satchel charge into the enemy cp after lunchtime.
We both heavily agreed on Black Knights for MVT.
5:30 final battle
I heard later on the forums that we one the final battle.
I had my doubts and felt bad about leaving, but I am so glad
we pulled it out. I think this was really Allan’s doing.
He makes a great presence on the field and knows how to direct
and push people.
Finally
I just want to say thanks to Allen for helping me when needed.
Thanks Meghan for helping at the CP – for those of you
who did not meet her, she was my base ref that ended the day
helping me draw on my board. Thanks to Black Knights for making
my life a whole lot easier on the field. Thanks to RATS for
giving me support and never asking why, that kind of trust
really improves a general’s morale. Thanks to the BR
regulars for supporting me, Paintslinger, Jag, Fix, Captain
Guavara and others. Also, Scarface, you can be a medic on
my team anytime.
As always Jet, you ran a great game, I will be back.
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