Another awesome weekend in Sacramento!!!  POG Weekend turned out even better than 2008.  And this year, two friends came with me: Bob and Josh.  If you don't own a Palmer's marker yet, then I have just one question:  What are you waiting for?!  We started out at the shop again this year.  The Palmer family has been cooking up some new projects this year, including the super new Pyre pump.  We got a glimpse of how they make it in the shop.

There are a couple long, narrow benches that are adjacent to the Blazer assembly area: and these are what they use for the Pyre assembly area!  At first, I didn't think the Pyre was that cool, in fact I even thought it was highly overpriced.  Then I took a step back and considered what you get for the price.  A Pyre is not just a pump marker.  It's a pump marker with a quality-machined Aluminum body w/choice-of-anodizing, built-in Stabilizer regulator, .45 frame, auto-trigger, velocity adjuster, clamping feedneck, and legendary Palmer brass barrel.  Some models even have a T-handle on the pump and extra modifications to the barrel, such as spiral venting and an anodized aluminum sleeve.  Now, at over $500 for the base marker (which does not come with a barrel!), that's a hefty price to pay for a new pump paintball marker, but it's not unheard of.  You can easily spend that much on a custom Carter pump or even a highly upgraded Phantom.

Also while we were in the shop, Glenn took a moment to fondle the MacMurray Marauder bolt-action.  The previous owner is shown on the right in the black shirt w/flames, that's Pete.  When he sold it to me, the marker was disassembled and needed some work.  I took it on as a project and managed to get it integrated into the stock and fully functioning.  In fact, the marker turned out to be supremely accurate!  It was so much fun that Bob used it the whole weekend!

What a great weekend, I haven't had that much fun on (and off) the paintball field in years!

First, I would like to thank Palmers Pursuit Shop for hosting us.  They really are as great as we know them to be!  Thank you to Glenn and Craig for treating us to dinner Friday and bringing some of the supplies for the BBQ Saturday.  Big thanks to Peter (Wharf Rat) as well for hosting us at his house for some pump paintball and one awesome BBQ!

On Friday, we all showed up to the shop at random times to hang out and 'schmooze' while oogling the goodies on the wall.  Some of us were in the mood to buy things, others were eager for the weekend of paintball ahead.  We went on a tour of the shop as well, which was probably one of my favorite parts of the weekend!  For those of you who have never been there, it's unlike any other paintball shop you've seen.  Most shops are merely a storefront, they can only support retail sales and some basic repair functions with a workbench.  Palmers has a storefront and a major operation going on behind the scenes!  They have drill presses, powdercoating, machines, you name it.  It's really impressive to see their setup.  And the work in progress, my goodness!  Let's just say that I now have some even crazier ideas for some future PPS custom-work!  Here's a photo of Craig Palmer [L], Tim (FirePro84) [C], and me [R] at the storefront of the shop:

While we were hanging out in the front area on lawn chairs (in the shop) we saw "the Wall" that has become so famous.  As PaintJunque noted, Lori and Amanda began taking down the wall, Freedom bought the whole lot once again!  (For those of you who don't know who Freedom is, check him out on MCarterBrown.com, search by name and then check out his website.  He owns... quite a lot of stuff...).  Here's a shot of them beginning to post some more markers back up on the wall after his recent purchase.  I missed the opportune moment when it was empty. <--

Brewtt [red hat and same shirt as I'm wearing -->] and I talked Hurricanes for a while, and we managed to snag a photo of an awesome little Hurc built for a very special associate of PPS, it's got some really nice little milling done on the side of the ram and on the feedport.  Additionally, the stock is hollowed in the back, this thing is really lightweight for a Hurc:

One more shot, this is Lori and I just taking a quick arm's length shot.  It was the first time I met Lori (and everyone else for that matter), so I just figured a photo proving I was there was good.  See below, it's just her and I for that picture.  Lori is really the Shop Mom, she has been there since damn near the beginning of PPS and she knows just about everything there is to know about the history of PPS and the way their paintball markers work.  She also got a chance to play some paintball with us on Saturday, and she has one gorgeous blazer!  In fact, it's called a "Lori Blazer" and you can order one from PPS to have it set up like hers.  It puts "pool-bottom anodize" scheme to shame!

On Friday evening, we enjoyed a fabulous dinner at The Olde Spaghetti Factory.  I had no idea that Glenn and Craig treated us to dinner until the end of the meal, when there were no checks.  It was a pleasant surprise, and a little humbling at the same time.  Thanks for treating your customers like royalty, we really appreciate it!

Saturday we played paintball at Wild Adventure Paintball (WAP).  Our area consisted of 3 different fields: one large spool/bunker field, one medium sized speedball field, and another medium sized speedball field.  We had a great day out there, many games were played and much paint was slung.  We each shot some of each other's markers, and shot the breeze quite a bit.  Thanks to Hurt_Cow and Vivian for providing the most-excellent burritos and secret dessert stash!  As for the games, I remember a few distinct moments.  In the first game, I used the Tempest on the speedball field.  I got saddled up against the snake on our left hand side of the field, up near the 50.  I held that position for quite some time, and even worked through an unfortunate barrel break (wasn't ready to use a quick trigger finger at that early in the morning!).  Later in the day, we played on a humongous spool field, and I pulled out the Blazer.  Having never used it before, I have to say I did quite well.  I worked from one corner of the field and worked my way around in one big loop, eliminating about 6-7 enemy players before coming back around to my original position, where I squared off against Craig Palmer himself, we were the last 2 bandidos on the field...  It was a showdown: I had 2 paintballs left and he had a leaky reg (he kept turning the on/off valve on and then off when he wanted to fire, it wasn't very cool).  Eventually he gogged me with a single ball, I was yet again humbled in the face of one of the great players in this game!  We had a great time though, playing on the open field of WAP was like playing out in a huge open wheat field, and it was great.

On Saturday evening, we headed over to Wharf Rat's house for a BBQ and some more paintball.  We played some pump games on his personal field, and it was really a lot of fun.  I even learned that one of the bunkers is dubbed "Tim's Bunker" as FirePro84 is a monster eliminator from that one.  I really enjoyed the courageous standoff against the lone gunman, thanks to Devilhead and a really great pump player named Edison for playing a great game.  Here's a quick snapshot just outside Pete's field, Glenn Palmer is standing on the left, Tim and Lori in the chairs and who's that sneaking a snapshot on the right side?!  (Cameo, of course):

The BBQ was fantastic, big thank you to Wharf Rat, his wife, and the others who helped make the BBQ awesome.  You are very kind to have hosted us, and it was really a great experience.

On Sunday, we woke up a little later, shook off our soreness and headed for Nfinite Edge, a little to the SouthEast of Sacramento.  We played some woodsball games in a large ravine as well as some speedball games.  Playing alongside fellow POGers was really something else.  POG people are just different (in a good way of course!).  You get a crowd of people who just 'get it' and don't fall into the normal riff-raff of paintball players we know.  We had some really fun games, even if climbing the hills of the ravine was a bit challenging!  I had pre-loaded my Q-Loader pods the night before, which turned out to cause a problem: In the morning they wouldn't work!  I decided to pull off the Q-Loader and use a hopper on my Hurricane for the rest of the day, which worked fine.  Playing speedball with the Tempest was quite a feat!  In one particular game, we had eliminated most of the opposition, but couldn't seem to hit WharfRat in his rear bunker.  There were 5 or 6 of us that kept trying to approach him, but one by one he picked us off with his Typhoon.  I even fell victim to his accurate fire when I got a little too cocky and tried to lay down one continuous lane of paint on him.  Needless to say, it was kind of embarrassing but I learned another valuable lesson, and from a great player!

Thank you again to Glenn, Craig, Lori, Judy, Tim, Amanda, and the other dude at the shop for showing us around.  Thanks also for treating us to dinner both nights!  Thanks to Peter for hosting the BBQ.  And thank you most of all to the entire group, it was truly an honor to meet you all and play on the field with fellow Palmer owners.  I look forward to future get-togethers, POG 2007 rocked.

I've returned home from Oklahoma D-Day 2006. I flew into Oklahoma City and had some Air Force buddies that picked me up from the airport. We then drove up to Wyandotte, (in the middle of nowhere, of course), to get to the field. Overall, I had a great time at the game. It was hotter than hell (  102° and over 80% humidity), and I had about 15-20 ticks stuck to me by the end of the day, but I had a great time playing in the game, and I could not have been happier with my Hurricane!

My buddies Jay (nickname: Wedge) and Greg (nickname: Hobbes) and I have played together all throughout our time at the Air Force Academy, and this was a sort of reunion, as we hadn't played a scenario together in over 2 yrs. We joined up with the Muddy Water Boys, a team from North Carolina. All of us were assigned to the 82nd Airborne for this scenario. I was shooting my Hurricane with a 68ci/4500psi tank connected to a remote hose, a Halo B on top, and using Combat 68 (I think it's either a PMI or RP Scherer paint). The paint shot pretty well, I didn't have any rollouts, and accuracy was generally acceptable. I was REALLY happy with compressed air. I had been having some difficulties and complaints using CO2 (only getting about 600 shots off of a tank, and having several broken paintballs per fill). Switching to HPA for this game was incredible. Not only did I get 6x 140 rd. pods and a hopper out of 2000 psi, I didn't break a single ball. The Hurc sipped on the tank like a fine glass of Silver Patron. I had a 4200 psi fill and after shooting that half-case of paint, I still had 2000+ psi remaining. I couldn't believe how efficient it had become! Now for some of the game details:

On Saturday morning, D-Day started at 0700, we loaded up on the buses and moved out. This was nothing short of a miracle, as according to most previous D-Day participants, all the previous events have had a 1 & 1/2 hour wait before they ever shipped out. However, once we arrived at our 'drop zone' we waited 1 & 1/2 hours before the game ever started. That disappointed me a little, since when we loaded up on the buses, it really immersed you in the game feel. The smell of diesel, the rumble of both the buses and the deuce-and-a-halfs, the smelly guys sitting next to you and standing in all the aisles, everyone dressed in camo, even the little red 'no-jump' light at the front of the bus... It was all very exciting and got your heart pumping! We arrived at the drop zone and knew that we would be 'mis-dropped,' to provide a bit of realism and to make it more difficult for us to steamroll over the Germans, as the Allies usually do. However, we were 'mis-dropped' more than 2-3 miles from our objective, and in the hot Oklahoma heat with 50 lbs of gear on you, that's no fun. Our unit started out with a quick jog to get ahead of the 101st airborne, and then we crawled over hill and valley until many of us were out of steam. Now, I'm used to this type of environment, as I have performed many military exercises and training events and workout on a regular basis... but man I was exhausted. It kind of sucked to be so tired before we even encountered enemy forces. I mean, all the Germans had to do was sit in their little strongholds waiting for us to waltz in on them, exhausted like.

During our first encounter, we got waxed, most of our group was eliminated, and I didn't even fire a shot! We ended up walking to the nearest dead zone, by the main German airfield, and the 'Guns at Brecourt Manor.' During the next re-insertion, we were sent to the south side of the airfield, down into a valley and around a German 'mine-field.' We couldn't go through the minefield, but of course the Germans did, and they fired from on top of the hill down on us in the valley. I was one of two guys who survived that attack and ended up going further down the valley to the southeast side of the airfield. Here begins my account of the best gameplay I had all day:

This guy, Slider, and I continued down the valley. We got far away from the spot where our folks got ambushed, and I'm surprised no one followed us. I had managed to take out one or two players from long range while I was down in the valley earlier, so maybe they got scared and ran! Oh well, Slider was laying on the hillside, not moving, and I decided to swing around the right flank and further up the hill. I have him a sort of 'bird-call' whistle when I reached the top, and he proceeded up the hill once we determined it was safe. Once we were on flat ground, we proceeded through the medium-density forest to the southern border of the airfield. On the south side of the airfield, there was a tank trail, and we were mindful of the activity going on. Both tanks and Germans who were reinserting made this sort of ant-trail along the airfield. We crept up to within 50 ft of the treeline ending, and that was as close as we dared so as not to announce our presence. At this point, I felt totally immersed in the environment, the tank were searching for us in the woods, the walking players were scanning the edges of their views, and Slider and I were laying flat and trying to avoid detection. We could see the Germans and had a great ambush spot, we just needed some cover. That came to us in two forms: 1) the 101st airborned had finally made a push around the northeast side of the airfield and were creating a distraction; 2) both a busload of players and a tank rumbled down the road one after the other, and created a massive dust cloud. When this happened, I shouted to Slider "go now, we have cover from the enemy bunkers! We already had a plan on which bunkers to attack and made it to the very edge of the road, behind some short trees. We then laid fire into everything we could see! Out of the half-case of paint I shot that day, I unloaded at least a hopper and two pods on those positions. I eliminated 1 or 2 players in the woods to our west, as well as 2-3 players in the trenches next to the German bunkers. I was finally taken out by a player in a small tower directly in front of me, I couldn't see him due to some tree branches obstructing my view. But man, what an awesome firefight. Several of the players in the bunkers and trenches shouted to us as we walked to the dead zone "great ambush guys!," and "man, we didn't even see you guys, that was crazy!" It felt good, as it had already been 2-3 hours without action, and it really pumped me up for the rest of the day.

Later on, Wedge and I were still together, although Hobbes had returned to camp (unbeknownst to us). Wedge and I decided to go to the Omaha Beach dead zone and try some beach landings, since he had never done one in all 4 of his D-Day years. That was hard, I made 4 re-insertions, and just kept getting pasted, the hillside was much too steep, and the Germans had us pinned down like it was going out of style.  Since it was so late in the day, the main Allied attack had been thwarted so many times that people began to give up...  That was extremely frustrating, as we could have done a lot of damage had we actually been able to take the hill!

After having 'fun' there, we decided to attempt to help take Vierville. Climbing a hillside to the south of Vierville, we stumbled on a group of 8 Germans walking non-chalantly up a path. Our group of 5 Allies walked just as nonchalantly right behind them, and upon closing the gap to 30 feet, we opened fire. I took out 2 players directly in the path, and Wedge took out one in the woods. The other 5 Germans had walked further up a bend in the road and came back just as some of us were reloading. I got taken out for not paying attention, and that was the end of that attack.

The rest of the day saw less action for us, as were really being drained by the heat and the weight of the equipment. I had my harness loaded with 6 pods, 68/4500 tank, Sydarm in holster, 10 rd tubes, 12 grams, cameras, camelback, gatorades, food, and on top of that I carried my Hurc with Halo on top... Seriously, way too much junk.  At one point, we were hunkered down in a revine, getting hit from the hillsides, and I just sat down right next to a building which was in the line of fire.  I just couldn't bring myself to carry on, it was too hot, and I had a massive headache.  RULE-OF-THUMB: DRINK LOTS OF WATER.  Just when you thought you've drunken enough... you haven't.  Next time I go into a game like that, I'm bringing my main gun with 3 pods, and some extra food and water. I didn't touch the Sydarm until we went to the firing range later, and when I need more paint in-game, I can redeem my little paint tickets in the dead zone.

All-in-all, I really enjoyed my D-Day experience.  The best times I've had paintballing are when I've been with friends, and Jay and Greg are two great friends!  If you're in the mood for a road-trip, and you can afford a flight to Oklahoma City (and a 4-hour drive to the field), then Oklahoma D-Day is the challenge for you!

 
caption:  These are two tanks: the German 'airplane' tank (that was allowed the strafe the field at higher speed than most tanks, but couldn't stop on the side to fire) and the British Commonwealth tank (three paintball markers pointing out the turret!).  Needless to say, these things kicked ass.

caption:  The NIGHT game.  We didn't play in this, but I took plenty of pictures, and even some video!  In my mind, the night game is really stupid, but it's awesome to be walking around in the near-darkness with paint being fired, shots being popped off, and the occasional smoke grenade clouding the already dim area!  The D-Day staff hoisted huge crane lights to at least make the field walkable.

This is my second major event in California.  This one was a little different, it was Pump-only!  I love this style of play and it's nice to have almost 100 other players on the same field with similar equipment.  The highlight of the games are the major movements and advances that many experienced players make during the games.  There was plenty of action throughout the day, and many players from out of town, hailing from places as far as Michigan and Minnesota.  I used both my MiniMag pump and my Phantom during the day, but I primarily used the MiniMag.  The Phantom needs re-springing, as the shots are straight, but the velocity is not high enough.  In fact, during one game I hit a player three times.  None of them broke.  I started off a little rocky, as I haven't played paintball in quite some time, but soon I was making eliminations left and right!  I managed to get some photos taken by PaintballPhotography dot com.  They take awesome photos and allow you to download them for non-profit, personal use.  I've also posted a bunch of some other guys that attended the event.  Enjoy!

Since moving to California, I've been able to take part in the large growing pump scene.  There is a neat tournament series called the Old School Challenge, or OSC (www.oldschoolchallenge.com).  They play in limited pump format, where you can use any pump gun with any air source and any hopper type, but you are limited to 40 rounds per game (it goes fast, believe me).  I decided to take part in the OSC Padiwan Event on 22 January 2005, which was a tournament for beginner pump players who have never played an OSC tournament before.  It was a great opportunity to see how I stacked up against other pump players.  I gathered two friends from the Air Force Base, one who was an old roommate, and we headed out to Tombstone Paintball Park in Corona, CA (1 hour east of Los Angeles) with only one evening of team practice under our belt.  That was ok with us though, since our team name was "The Biggest Losers," there was no where to go but up!  The first photo shows (from L) Rob Thompson, Sean Temple, and Jason Spindler (Spin Doc).

We started the day by showing up to the field (which smelled like cow manure, apparently, Corona always smells like that), and we filled our air tanks.  I would be using the Phantom today, my buddy Rob was using a Sniper III which I picked up for $100 (consequently I sold it a week later for $160), and Sean would be using the trusty old Sniper I.  We organized our equipment so that we had about 50x 10-round tubes of paint ready to go, and chronographed before the games started.  I think preparation for a tournament is the most crucial element of competition for most teams.  Other players may be leaps and bounds beyond my ability to play paintball, but they usually have equipment problems, something I pride myself on eliminating.  All the games would be held on the hyperball/concrete bunker field.  The field was well laid out, and each side had some obvious advantages to exploit.  The games were all center flag, and the flag was placed on the eastern edge of the field on top of a 2-ft high concrete tube.  Most games started with a mad dash for the flag and several quick shootouts and eliminations.  Rob volunteered to be the flag runner for most games.

Our first game was interesting, to say the least.  The other team seemed to be having trouble getting their markers to fire within regulation chrono speeds, and it seemed we may have gotten a default win, but alas, they finally got it adjusted correctly.  When the game first started, Rob ran directly for the flag, and got the pull, but he was eliminated by an over-the-top shot in the next few seconds.  Sean was his back cover, and was about 15 feet behind him in a stand-up bunker.  I took the left side of the field, calling out enemy positions and trying to fire a few covering shots for Rob.  After about 2 minutes in, an opposing player and I were trading shots from his position at the 50 to my position behind two spools.  I was eliminated with a real decent shot on my gun/hand.  Sean was the only one left against 2 players.  One of the opposing players made a mad bunkering move on Sean, but his velocity was almost nothing, and none of the balls would break.  The funny part was, Sean was having trouble loading paintballs into his gun, so they both stood there trying to unload on one another, and nothing would happen.  Finally, Sean chambered a ball and gave him a good welt in the chest.  He also managed to eliminate the remaining enemy player and run the flag in for the win.  Here's Sean with the flag in his hand, lining up for another shot <--  This was an exciting first game, and many of the other middle games would result in losses.  But keep in mind, our team name was "The Biggest Losers."

One game upset me, and it was due to a bad referee call.  During the opening parts of the day, no one bothered to explain the boundaries, and the tape marking the field was fairly clear, except for a small ravine on the western half.  During one game, I crouched beneath the visible area of some bunkers and crept in the 50-yd area.  I ran up on a player at the 50 looking completely to my right, with no hope of seeing my approach.  I aimed and fired, but the Phantom let me down (one of the few times).  As mentioned in my review, the Phantom has trouble with velocity adjustment due to small paint in large barrel match.  I have been unable to shoot more than 250 fps lately, and usually it fires around 240 fps.  The ball bounced, and after attempting to fire another, I knew I was plain sight.  I had to move, so I ran towards the western end of the field.  As I spun around the end of a concrete tube, I started to haul up the western tapeline and charge the enemy backlines, but my great move would end with the call of the ref, "player eliminated, out of bounds."  As I stood there, I examined my footsteps, and looked at the tapeline (which I hadn't crossed), the ref came running up to me.  As the team captain I said, "I'm not out, there's the tape" to my left, at which point I was hit by a ball or two by the other team, who didn't know what was going on.  After a few seconds of discussion, the ref called me out for being hit on the hand.  I kept my calm, and after the game I discussed the matter with the head ref.  I know reffing is a hard job, and nothing pisses me off more than a paintball player who makes a huge scene on the field when they are upset.  The call was not overturned, and we lost that game, but the refs learned a good lesson from me.  As a ref, it's your job to establish all the rules beforehand, and be SURE of the call you make during the game, as the ref who called me out was NOT.  I respectfully told them they should make all players aware of the boundary on that edge of the field, so that future calls would not harm a team's run.

The last game of the day had to be the most exciting.  We were easily in last place, and were just having fun by this point in time.  We were up against the number 1 or 2 team for the tournament, and decided to pursue some crazy moves.  The first game against them, we had out favored southern end of the field.  This was the side we seemed to perform the best on.  Off the break, Rob ran for the flag, but 2 of their players also ran for the flag.  Rob was eliminated, but no one had the flag.  I was in a decent position from the western half and laid down some nice crossfire on those 2 players, who were now stuck at the 50.  Sean maintained his position on the eastern half of the field and eliminated the player closest to him.  Shortly after that, the 3rd player on their team ran up to meet me, and I eliminated him after some tight snapshooting.  All that was left was the final player on their team, and Sean and I managed to squeeze him backwards some, and eliminate him.  Sean ran the flag in for the win, and now it was time to switch sides.  By this point in time, our adrenaline was high.  We knew this was for fun, but we still wanted to win.  So, we tried something a little crazier...

We all loaded up on the left (eastern) side of the field.  We were going to make a mad dash for the flag, but we would have our guns blazing the whole way.  Now, guns blazing is normally a hailstorm of paint, but with pump guns, this means about 2 balls per second vs. 1 ball per second, still not exactly intimidating.  But, factor in the accuracy inherent with aiming a pump, and that means some intense running would be necessary to avoid our paintballs.  In the first ten seconds of the game, I shot a near miss past the leading running on the opposite team.  The second shot however, found its mark beautifully.  Without bragging, I have a knack for shooting people on the run with a pump gun.  I don't do it very well with my GZ Intimidator, but with the Phantom I have repeatedly gotten eliminations off of shots where I lead the runner.  Rob managed to snag the second runner with a great shot from his Sniper III.  Finally, after we had the flag, Sean kept the pressure on the remaining player, and we all massacred him together.

We ended up coming in 7th out of 8th place, but we had a great day.  We scored some neat System X hats and some stickers, and got some firsthand pump tournament experience.  Unfortunately, I won't be able to compete in many tournaments, as my Air Force career requires a lot of time, and I'm also applying to UCLA for my MBA, which may take up some Saturday mornings.  All of those things are prohibitive to paintball, but I've managed to have fun playing tournaments without a lot of practice.  I would highly recommend pump tournaments to anyone evenly remotely interested in tourney ball.  They are a great way to learn how tournament play works, without ending up with a billion welts from the hyper-fast electro markers which dominate traditional tourney play.

Border Wars 2004 was a sequel to the previous year’s Border Wars.  In 2003, paintball players from Colorado and Wyoming challenged each other to a game to see which state had the best players.  In 2004, the game was more organized and took the form of an MXS-style scenario game.  Spindoc, Hobbes and Wedge would all be graduating from USAFA in a few days, and it was the last time that all of us would be able to play in a scenario game together and say goodbye to a lot of good players from Colorado.  I don't have hardly any pictures from this game, unfortunately.  Even without pictures though, this was one of my absolute favorite games I've ever played!

There were so many memorable moments, it's hard to bring them all together in a couple paragraphs!  Insertions were every 20 minutes from a deadzone near your team’s headquarters.  The CWC started on the same wooded side we had during the Matrix game, while the Outers started closer to the spool field.  The CWC was commanded by Knightowl, who probably would have rather played, but was invaluable as a general due to his many years of playing scenario games.  The Outers, on the other hand, were commanded by Sgt Dan, a member of the new team “Dirt Hogs.”  This was his first scenario ever, and many of the red players were not experienced scenario players, which would have a huge impact on the game.  In this game, there were five “pump stations throughout the field.  Four began in Colorado’s possession while only one was controlled by the Outers.  A piece of PVC pipe with red tape on one end and blue on the other was used to designate who had control.  Whichever color was sticking up, had control of the pump station and could earn points.  If an opposing player reached the pump, he simply turned the PVC pipe over, exposing his color on top and earned points for his team.  Players would continually fight over the pump stations throughout the day.  In addition, props were hidden throughout the field.  The most numerous were water credits, in the form of water containers.  A one liter water bottle had a label taped to it which read “5 Water Credits”, while a large bucket would be worth 25 credits.  Also hidden throughout the field were pieces of the CWC computer.  If one team found all of the pieces, they would be able to reconstruct the computer and control ALL the water pumps.  This meant that the team with the computer could turn off the enemy’s pumps and deny them points.  Players would have to keep an eye out for these valuable props while fighting each other.

Props were not the only way to get points.  At the beginning of each half of play, the generals would get an envelope of mission cards.  The missions were split into two groups.  Group A would be harder to achieve, but worth more points, while group B were easier and only worth half as much.  Giving the generals all the missions to accomplish for the entire morning gave commanders more flexibility.  One of the keys to our success was that Knightowl stressed the importance of finding and returning props and gaining an early control of the water pumps.  He also re-emphasized how important the river on our right flank would be in order to flank the Outers.  His words were absolutely correct, yet many of the veteran players already knew how to play and knew the strong points on the field.  All the same, a good player always listens because there is always something you didn’t know or had forgotten.  We then went off to the front lines to find ourselves some Wyoming militiamen to paint up.

This scenario was very well-played, and we all had an incredible finale to our Academy paintball careers, with only 3 days to go until Graduation.  I will miss these days and will surely long to play paintball with my fellow cadets again.

The USAFA Paintball Club tournament, held on Saturday May 1st (on our own inflatable field) was a HUGE success!  We had 11 teams competing in 3 v. 3 action.  The day kicked off a little slow, we got started approximately 1.5 hours late.  That didn't hamper the players though, they still helped with the setup!

Club members instrumental in setup and running the tournament:  C1C Jason Spindler, C1C Jay Fullmer, C1C Greg Weigel, C2C Dan Therrien, C2C Scott Haslup, C2C Jason Bracich, C3C Jeremy Bower, C4C Adam Cross, C4C Peter Gac, and C4C Robert Madson.

We played this tournament on our 19-piece Inflate-A-Bunker system from Splatmasters Paintball, LLC, in Colorado Springs, CO [www.splatmasters.com].  It took approximately 1 hour to setup, and play started around 9:30 AM.  The club recently purchased 10x new Spyder Extra markers, to complement our 10x Tippmann Model 98's.  We also purchased 20x new masks, 20x 47ci/3000psi air tanks, 20x barrel socks, a few ref jerseys and ref masks, as well as a scuba fill station.  We borrowed 4x 80 cu. ft. scuba tanks for our fill source.  Throughout the day we experienced nearly zero equipment problems and had plenty of air.  Paint supplied by Splatmasters was Nitroball, and it worked well in everyone's marker!  The fees were $5 to play and $40/case of paint (dirt cheap!)

The competition was fierce, we had 4 rounds of play, with each team getting to play at least 4 matches on the field.  The players ranged from "never played before" to "I've seen a tournament or two."  Some equipment was borrowed, and some was owned by the players.  One thing was the same though, none of them had played in quite some time, and most were going to win prizes.  This was good since the fee was so low.  We didn't make any profit on this event, we took all of the entrance money, paid for the paint, and turned most of it around to prizes.  1st place was 3x $20 cash and 3x $20 gift certs. to Best Buy.  2nd place was 3x $10 cash and 3x $15 gift certs. to Best Buy.  the rest of the teams each got a $10 or $5 certificate to Chipotle [burrito shop], Noodles & company, Barnes & Noble, or Cold Stone Creamery [ice cream].  Since most people didn't own any p-ball equipment, we figured that paintball prizes wouldn't be the best thing for everyone!

The play was fierce, the competition was fun, and everyone had a great time.  There were no conflicts (heck, we're cadets, we get along with each other!).  Everyone got something out of it, including their playing skill and the prizes!  Final standings placed S2T in 1st place and Beavers & Ducks in 2nd place.  These teams played consistently all day and made an outstanding impression on the points board!  Overall, the 1st Academy Paintball Club tournament went off with a resounding bang, and we look forward to many more future events.

Operator... I NEED AN EXIT!!!

[Note: This article written primarily by my friend Wedge.  He keeps an amazing log of stories about our scenario games, and I shamelessly borrowed excerpts from his story bible to place here.  Any references to "I" are referring to him, and this is also why I (SpinDoc) appear in the 3rd person in the story.]

After an apocalyptic war between human beings and artificially intelligent machines, mankind became the unknowing slaves of the machines. An artificial reality, known as the Matrix, was created to control the minds of people in order to harvest their energy for power in the machine world. A small group of freedom fighters, living in the last human city, Zion, started a resistance against the machines. They found a man named Neo, who was prophesized to be the chosen one and lead human kind to victory. If the events of Matrix Revolutions did not occur, and a peace was not negotiated between humans and machines, the war would be fought in both the Matrix and the real world. This is the setting for the scenario game “Matrix 01,” Neo and the humans have to fight against the machines and try to bring the fight to the machine home city. They could emerge victorious if they set off an electromagnetic pulse inside the city and wipe out the machine civilization. But first they must fight their way into the most heavily guarded place the planet has ever seen.

This game was played on a windy day in Action Pursuit Paintball.  The human base would be represented by a bunker at the end of the spool field. The airball field would represent Zion, the last human city and main objective of the coming machine assault. The river, bunker field and tall grass would be the most heavily fought over area as it was in the center of the field. The machine base was located all the way to the opposite side of the field, near a large fallen tree. There were two special characters in the game, both of which could be eliminated only with a head shot. Neo would lead the humans, designated by yellow armbands, while Agent Smith led the machines, wearing red. The person playing Neo could not have been a better choice for the role. He was dressed in all black gear including many products from Cops911, a black trench coat and dark sunglasses. He was armed with dual semi-auto paintball pistols and a fully upgraded AT-4. The special character for the machines was Agent Smith, played by Spindoc. He, Hobbes and I were all dressed as agents, with black suits, white dress shirts, black ties, sunglasses and pieces of curled telephone chord as earpieces. Each one of us went to the Goodwill store to buy our outfits, and spent only about $12 a piece. It was a small price compared to the amount of paint we would buy, but greatly increased our level of enjoyment. After Halo, Spindoc and Hobbes were very excited about the whole idea of scenarios and wanted to get involved as much as possible. After the briefing, Anthony from APP took pictures of the agents then of Neo. Then he took a picture of all of us posed in a hand-to-hand fight.  Unfortunately, the photo opportunity coupled with the fact that we got to the field late meant that we did not have time to get chronographed in before the opening of the game. The drive from the Academy to APP was two hours and we left much later than we needed to. Always make sure that you leave plenty of time before the game so that you can get ready.

The Matrix 01 (Zero-One) scenario was based off of the popular movie trilogy, The Matrix.  There were two sides, the Humans and the Machines.  The Academy cadets present were Spin Doc "Agent Smith" (Jason), Wedge, agent (Jay), Hobbes, agent (Greg), and 3 others.  We all played the Machine side.  Agent Smith was a 'special character' and could only be eliminated with a headshot, Neo had the same advantage on the Human side.  Dressed in business suits, sunglasses, and earpiece communicators, the agents ruled the day!  The event basically a fight between the two sides, and lacked a bit of a main objective.  There were many side missions including:  Players were told to look for CDs on the field that could be turned in all day for points (these data discs provided valuable information on a wide range of topics such as defense networks, programs in the Matrix, locations of influential entities, etc.).  The more data discs an army had, the more prepared they would be for the upcoming invasion.  During the first round, the machines found two data disks, each worth 20 points, while the humans recovered none.  However, the humans used the river to flank the machine army and wipe them out.  The humans, rejoiced in their local victory but knew this would be a long, bitter war and more machines were coming.  The next insertion was about to begin.

Wave after wave of fresh players rejoined the game during 30 minute re-insertions.  More missions abounded:  The machines learned from their general that their mission was to destroy the human base.  The humans had gained the initiative early, but if the machines could break the human lines and destroy their main base, it would disrupt their plans for an early invasion of 01.  The next mission was to find the Oracle, the rogue program who could foresee the future and was helping the humans to defeat the Matrix.  This mission would be a race, as the first army to reach the Oracle, represented by a character named Fryar, would receive the points.  The next mission would place the machine army on the defensive as the human army tried to rescue one of their players who we held captured. Much like what happened earlier in the war to Morpheus, the captain of the Nebuchadnezer, who was taken prisoner by agents but rescued by Neo, the agents captured one of the human captains of a hover craft in order to gain the access codes into Zion.  Like all minds, his would crack and he would give up the codes if the human army could not break him out from the clutches of the machines.  If the human players could reach the captured player in 30 minutes, the codes would be safe and they would accomplish their mission.  However, if the humans could not rescue him, the Agents would learn valuable information and the machine players would be awarded the points.  On another mission, play revolved around one of the most important programs in the Matrix, the key-maker (he literally holds the key to the Matrix core which the humans could use to destroy the Matrix).  Both teams were given keys which they had to deliver to Fyrar, who was standing somewhere in the middle of the field. If the humans got there first they could reach the matrix core, but if the machines got the key to him first they would ensure the core was secure.

We also had some crazy run-ins on the field!

Excerpts of note:

Neo... Matrix-style:  I grabbed Hobbes and as I was telling him that I wanted to make a move towards the river, we heard a large amount of firing from the people around us.  At that moment, Neo jumped over the log we were hiding behind, firing in mid air.  Like a scene from the movie, with his trench coat flowing behind him, he popped off a stream of paintballs at us, eliminating two or three players including Hobbes, who was right next to me.  Every machine who was in range fired at Neo, desperately trying to hit him in the head.  I fired and saw yellow paint explode on the side of his mask right as he was turning towards me. The whole move was over in a few seconds, but it seemed as if it were in slow motion and really looked like something straight out of the movies.  However, the One was eliminated this time.

Agents on the loose:  I was determined this time to either eliminate the humans and break open the center of the field or be eliminated in the process.  Like the Spartan soldiers serving under Leonidas, for whom my PGP is named, I would return either with my shield or on it. I told Hobbes to prepare to provide cover fire while I moved further up the fallen tree we were taking cover behind.  Right then, one of the three human players defending the center moved against our left flank, trying to get a shot on a machine player.  He was out of range of Hobbes, but not for long.  Hobbes moved to a tree to our left, where he had a clear shot of both the advancing human and the center bunkers.  He fired a few shots, eliminating the human and then again turned his attention on the center.  Hobbes and I took advantage of the experience playing speedball with the academy club.  He understood how to use cover fire to cover a teammate’s advance.  He popped out from behind his tree and fired a stream of paint onto the first bunker where a human was taking cover.  While providing covering fire, hitting the bunker itself is usually more important than firing to the side and hoping to hit a player who sticks out his head.  The rapid SPLATSPLATSPLAT of the paintballs hitting the bunker usually makes a player pull in tight for cover against the wave of paint.  This in turn leaves him vulnerable as he is not looking out or returning fire.  I left my Impulse in the leaves and grabbed my PGP. As Hobbes was firing, I charged out towards the bunker.  I felt as though I was moving incredibly slow even though my legs wouldn’t pump any faster.  I swore that a human player would see me and eliminate me as I ran, but thanks to Hobbes’ continuous covering fire, not a single paintball was shot at me.  As I approached the first bunker, I ran to the right of it and saw a human player crouched down.  On the run, I fired the one paintball in the chamber and saw it explode on the player’s leg before he even knew I was there.  I did not stop there, but instead continued running to the next bunker that had a human behind it.  I “rocked and cocked” my PGP and slid into the right side of the bunker.  There a human player was looking out the left side while reloading his hopper.  I grabbed him by the shoulder from behind and said “you’re dead!”  The player, who turned out to be Volt from Oddball’s Heroes, was pretty surprised that I was in his bunker with him and called himself out.  Meanwhile, the referees who were standing nearby had seen the whole thing.  They later congratulated me on an amazing move.  With Hobbes’ support, I eliminated two human players and opened up the center of the field with only one paintball.  It was the best move I made all day and I was energized by it for the rest of the game.  With the center wide open, Hobbes and I flanked and eliminated the few remaining humans on our left flank.  Later, Volt congratulated me and said it was a great move on my part. The players in the Matrix again demonstrated the sportsmanship of scenario paintballers.

A few key scenarion lessons:  No matter how many games I play, it always seems that I miss insertions for either paint or air. I can not overstress the importance of making sure you are always fully supplied and ready to go.

...After everyone refilled with paint and air, we prepared to move onto the field for the final battle.  The setting was the machine city of 01, where the two armies would fight an apocalyptic battle.  The humans, with the loss of Zion, were making a last desperate gamble with the remainder of their army.  They were armed with a bomb which would set off an electromagnetic pulse, which could fry the circuits of any machine in the area while not harming human beings.  If they could set it off inside the city, they could wipe out the machine threat once and for all.  At the same time, if the humans lost the battle, the last of the human race would lay slain in the machine city.  To make matters worse, rumors were spreading that the machines had developed biological weapons which could wipe out the human army.  Going into the battle, the human army had the lead by one mission, but since the final battle was worth more than any single mission, whichever team won the final battle would win the game.  We would play with constant reinsertions on the bunker field, but played sideways so that the humans had the river to their back while we had the tall grass area.  Since the battle was taking place outside of the Matrix, there were no more special characters.  Neo and Agent Smith were just as vulnerable as every other player.  On top of the largest bunker in the center of the field, was a lighter and a smoke grenade attached to a prop that looked like a bomb. Whichever team managed to reach the smoke grenade and set it off would win the final battle by unleashing their weapon of mass destruction...

Both armies crammed into their respective starting positions.  At the sound of the horn, both armies charged towards each other.  The human army rushed into 01 as the machines counterattacked to defend their home city.  Paintballs flew through the air and many players were hit before they took even a few steps.  One brave human soldier immediately rushed to the center bunker and jumped onto the roof.  He was hit with a barrage of paintballs, but not before he knocked the smoke grenade off of the bunker.  The humans now controlled the center bunker with the smoke grenade laying only a few feet in front of them.  But a constant stream of paintballs ensured that no human would be able to reach those few feet and detonate their EMP.  Meanwhile, the players from the academy and I pushed the right side.  I noticed that Volt, Knightowl and Diesel (who had joined as a player for just the final battle) opposed us.  Our groups exchanged paint eliminating each other and forcing players to go back and touch their starting point.  Within a few minutes, the cycle continued three or four times.  Anyone who tried to advance was immediately beaten back by waves of paint.  After a few minutes, in which probably dozens of cases of paintballs had flown through the air, the humans made a successful push and grabbed the smoke grenade.  In the midst of the battle and fierce firing, smoke began to rise up from the center bunker.  The humans had managed to push far enough into 01 to detonate the electromagnetic pulse.  The EMP surged outward, scrambling the circuits of all of the machines.  In seconds, every machine in the blast radius lay motionless on the city floor.  A cheer rose up from the human army.  Celebrating their victory over the machine army, human soldiers stood on top of bunkers waving their weapons in the air.  Although they suffered heavy casualties and had lost their home city of Zion, the last few remnants of the human race had managed to fight their way into the most heavily defended city the planet has ever seen and wipe out the machine civilization.

As we exited the field, everyone was talking about the great time they had.  Spindoc, Hobbes, and I stayed in our suits, which were now covered in paint, sweat and dirt.  We packed up the rest of our gear so that we could leave as soon as Anthony was done with the post-game brief.  Anthony thanked everyone for coming out and we thanked him and Fryar for a fun game.  Anthony also mentioned how much he enjoyed players such as us Agents and Neo, who dressed up and gave the game atmosphere.  Although he didn’t plan it this way, he ended up rewarding all of us characters since Neo and the three Agents all won prizes in his random give-away.  The Academy guys, the Renegades, and I all got in our cars and headed for the nearby Wendy’s for a much needed after game meal.  When we got on the highway, I put Hobbes’ Matrix soundtrack in my CD player.  As we listened to the song from the highway chase scene in the second movie, I visualized one of us dressed as an agent jumping onto the car next to us, crushing the hood while firing paintballs.

The Academy sends 2 teams to the Frosty Ball Tournament, Legion in the Novice division, and The Penguin Slayers in the rookie division.  Legion fought hard through several shady referee calls.  Spectators gasped in shock as an opponent was eliminated by a ref (pulled armband) and was then re-instated.  This resulted in the re-generated player waxing Legion's Jeremy "B" Bower when he turned the other way, after Jeremy saw the elimination.  Dan Therrien tried to hold off the opponent after Jeremy was removed, unsuccessfully, since even the back man needs some front support!  A bunker move on the far side of the field left Nate "V-squared Van Vliet" with no choice but to shoot back for a mutual elimination.  One more tough break came when the team made a flag run and an eliminated Legion player cheered them on from their dead box (aka flag station).  The result was another armband pull and loss of the flag points.  In light of these events, they finished with a very respectable 3rd place in Novice against Novice teams and several Amateur teams.

The Penguin Slayers played together for the first time the Saturday directly before this Sunday tournament.  They played through equipment difficulties and team "breaking-in" syndrome.  With several maxes opposed by several complete losses, the Slayers finished 3rd overall in the Rookie division.  Both teams' markers had become salad-shooters by the afternoon due to the crappy paint provided and the cold weather.  This didn't help the finale performance of the Slayers.  However, even with broken paint in their equipment, Jason "Spin Doctor" Spindler managed to eliminate 2 of 3 players in the first semi-final game, with Jason "Wedge" Fullmer picking up the 3rd elimination.  William "Will" Davis provided cover fire as the back man through out the entire tournament.  Overall, the team used this as the building blocks for a bright future in tournament paintball!

SpinDoctor1515@hotmail.com