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Sunday, May 13. 2007
Operation Steam Roller
Well, yesterday I was out paintballing with my youth group at Stormin Norman's. Before the day started, I was having a few second thoughts like.... man, its been a few years since I've last played, what if I'm not as good anymore. There was also a noobie that everyone was wanting to hunt down to settle some scores, and I thought, it would be really embarassing to get shot down by this person.
When we got to the paintball field, we surveyed our potential competition. We had a group of 10, and there was another party consisting mostly of kids and a few parents. There was also one pro paintballer who had his own gear and uniform. We got out to the field, and it was going to be a 10 vs 10 battle for the afternoon. The teams were divided and from my church group, we had myself, Pastor Doug Slack, and my brother. We also got the pro paintballer, one parent, and the rest kids. The other team had seven people from the church group, and the rest kids plus a parent. Originally, I thought the teams were going to be unbalanced because the other team had more able bodied men and women; this didn't prove to be a problem.
The scenario of the day was attack and defend. The attacker's objective is to attack the defender's base, and take down the base flag. The defender's objective is to prevent the attackers from obtaining the flag for 10 or 15 minutes.
Game 1
My team started as the defender. Our strategy was to send three people outside of the base to harass the enemy and buy everyone some time. Everyone else was tasked to defend the base. When the game started, I dashed out of the right side of the base. I stealthily got behind enemy lines, and started my attack run up a hill and took out four attackers. They never saw it coming because I was shooting them from behind. By midgame, I took out another two attackers on a hill, but then another three attackers showed up. I take another one out, but the ref tells us to stop firing. Apparently I was shooting at my own team mates. I thought this was an enemy because he was facing our base like an attacker.
This friendly fire confusion happened because by the time I took out the two attackers on the hill, they were the last of the attacking force. The rest of the defenders rushed up the hill that I was shooting at. We were shooting each other because there were no enemies left, and the referees didn't realize this, and they hadn't stopped the game. The referees are supposed to end the game when one side runs out of players. We completely dominated that game.
Play of the Day
The play of the day comes from Game 4 where Doug and I were attacking the enemy base. This is the play of the day not because of how many kills we got, but it's the strategy that was in play.
At the beginning of the game, we cleared the right side of the enemy base, and we were going to the center of the field to prepare to capture their flag.
As we went to the center of the field, I noticed that all of our attackers to the left had been eliminated, and the defenders were rushing up from the left hand side. If we didn't take them out, we would have been encircled and they'd have clear shots at us from behind. So, I rushed to the left side to hold off the enemy while Doug took on the base defenders. I managed to eliminate two defenders immediately, because they weren't expecting me. I moved further down to the left, I found another two defenders huddled behind a bunker. I couldn't pick them off, but I was keeping them pinned down, and they couldn't move against Doug.
Meanwhile, Doug entered the enemy base and neutralized the guards in the tower fort, and blew away all of the defenders, and bagged the flag for the win. The crazy thing is, the tower guys didn't even warn their teammates that someone had entered the base, and that's how Doug managed to get the element of surprise.
Anyway, the strategy was great because two of us were able to handle eight defenders. That is some serious force multipliers there.
When we got to the paintball field, we surveyed our potential competition. We had a group of 10, and there was another party consisting mostly of kids and a few parents. There was also one pro paintballer who had his own gear and uniform. We got out to the field, and it was going to be a 10 vs 10 battle for the afternoon. The teams were divided and from my church group, we had myself, Pastor Doug Slack, and my brother. We also got the pro paintballer, one parent, and the rest kids. The other team had seven people from the church group, and the rest kids plus a parent. Originally, I thought the teams were going to be unbalanced because the other team had more able bodied men and women; this didn't prove to be a problem.
The scenario of the day was attack and defend. The attacker's objective is to attack the defender's base, and take down the base flag. The defender's objective is to prevent the attackers from obtaining the flag for 10 or 15 minutes.
Game 1
My team started as the defender. Our strategy was to send three people outside of the base to harass the enemy and buy everyone some time. Everyone else was tasked to defend the base. When the game started, I dashed out of the right side of the base. I stealthily got behind enemy lines, and started my attack run up a hill and took out four attackers. They never saw it coming because I was shooting them from behind. By midgame, I took out another two attackers on a hill, but then another three attackers showed up. I take another one out, but the ref tells us to stop firing. Apparently I was shooting at my own team mates. I thought this was an enemy because he was facing our base like an attacker.
This friendly fire confusion happened because by the time I took out the two attackers on the hill, they were the last of the attacking force. The rest of the defenders rushed up the hill that I was shooting at. We were shooting each other because there were no enemies left, and the referees didn't realize this, and they hadn't stopped the game. The referees are supposed to end the game when one side runs out of players. We completely dominated that game.
Play of the Day
The play of the day comes from Game 4 where Doug and I were attacking the enemy base. This is the play of the day not because of how many kills we got, but it's the strategy that was in play.
At the beginning of the game, we cleared the right side of the enemy base, and we were going to the center of the field to prepare to capture their flag.
As we went to the center of the field, I noticed that all of our attackers to the left had been eliminated, and the defenders were rushing up from the left hand side. If we didn't take them out, we would have been encircled and they'd have clear shots at us from behind. So, I rushed to the left side to hold off the enemy while Doug took on the base defenders. I managed to eliminate two defenders immediately, because they weren't expecting me. I moved further down to the left, I found another two defenders huddled behind a bunker. I couldn't pick them off, but I was keeping them pinned down, and they couldn't move against Doug.
Meanwhile, Doug entered the enemy base and neutralized the guards in the tower fort, and blew away all of the defenders, and bagged the flag for the win. The crazy thing is, the tower guys didn't even warn their teammates that someone had entered the base, and that's how Doug managed to get the element of surprise.
Anyway, the strategy was great because two of us were able to handle eight defenders. That is some serious force multipliers there.
Strategy & Communication
After the day was over, we won 5/6 games. Our team absolutely dominated. We asked the other team what their strategy was, and they didn't have any. At the beginning of every round, we would split everyone up into groups of 3s, and tell people where to go. During the game, we constantly communicated with each other and shared enemy positions and friendly positions. The other team lost because they didn't have any plans. People just went where ever they wanted, and they weren't talking to each other. I found some of their players just randomly wandering the field alone, and that makes for easy prey.
That paintball strategy guide that I posted came in really handy. We used the Strong Side tactic and the Reactive tactic with great effect. I also used Spooking quite a bit, where I present myself to the enemy as a bad target (because I was really far away), and they started firing furiously at me. But since I'm out of their range, nothing's going to hit me, and they're just wasting precious ammo. Then, I taunt them by waving at them asking for more. The result was enemies walking off the field because they ran out of ammo, or they were furious and they tried to rush me, only to be taken out. Remember kids, the optimal range of a Tippmann 98 Custom is approximately 85-100ft.
Pairing up with someone that complements your fighting style also really helped. I do long range sniping. My objective was to pick off defenders, keep enemy heads down, and coordinate team mates. Having Doug was really handy because he does close quarter combat very well. It was a perfect combination, I did the long range attacks, while he did the close range attacks. We also play the video game Ghost Recon (a realistic strategy shooter game) together, so we're able to communicate implicitly. We understand our roles in a squad.
Honourable Mentions
Conclusion
The number of kills a player gets doesn't truly reflect how good the player is, since the team has a lot to do with it, and the player's role. For example, stalling enemies and killing time is very valuable to the team overall, but it's hard to keep track of that. Nevertheless, I think Doug probably ranked first with 35-40 kills using about 350 paintballs. I took second place with 25-30 kills using 550 paintballs. Adam and Paul probably would take third place, but I'm not sure how many kills they scored.
On average, I use about 350 paintballs a game, so using 550 paintballs might make me look like a trigger happy maniac. However, I was taking out targets at very far ranges behind bunkers. So, it could take 15-20 paintballs before taking out a defender inside base defences. In addition, I was keeping enemy heads down, so the rest of my team could move closer. In addition, I usually don't survive for entire games; however this time, I only got eliminated three times, so my survivability went up which equals more paintballs being used. We were also using only 3/4 of Norm's field which means higher chances of finding targets. In some games of the past, I could literally be out there without every coming across someone.
In the first three rounds, Doug used less than 100 paintballs, and already had a ton of kills. It's probably because of close range combat, which means accuracy goes up, and less paintballs are used.
I feel kind of bad for the other team. Even the referees were poking fun at them like, "Hey, I thought you guys were the attacking team, if you are, the base is over there." The referees should have given them hints or at least give them a battle plan. Strategy and communication was definitely our most valuable asset. Uhh.... that, and Doug's a heartless man hunter.... yet he's a pastor.
Anyway, I had a great time paintballing. I walk away without bleeding which rarely happens. I only have one welt on my thigh. Everything else either hit me in the mask, or it bounced off my lucky green sweatshirt.
Good hunting all. People who were there, please leave your paintball stories in the comments.
After the day was over, we won 5/6 games. Our team absolutely dominated. We asked the other team what their strategy was, and they didn't have any. At the beginning of every round, we would split everyone up into groups of 3s, and tell people where to go. During the game, we constantly communicated with each other and shared enemy positions and friendly positions. The other team lost because they didn't have any plans. People just went where ever they wanted, and they weren't talking to each other. I found some of their players just randomly wandering the field alone, and that makes for easy prey.
That paintball strategy guide that I posted came in really handy. We used the Strong Side tactic and the Reactive tactic with great effect. I also used Spooking quite a bit, where I present myself to the enemy as a bad target (because I was really far away), and they started firing furiously at me. But since I'm out of their range, nothing's going to hit me, and they're just wasting precious ammo. Then, I taunt them by waving at them asking for more. The result was enemies walking off the field because they ran out of ammo, or they were furious and they tried to rush me, only to be taken out. Remember kids, the optimal range of a Tippmann 98 Custom is approximately 85-100ft.
Pairing up with someone that complements your fighting style also really helped. I do long range sniping. My objective was to pick off defenders, keep enemy heads down, and coordinate team mates. Having Doug was really handy because he does close quarter combat very well. It was a perfect combination, I did the long range attacks, while he did the close range attacks. We also play the video game Ghost Recon (a realistic strategy shooter game) together, so we're able to communicate implicitly. We understand our roles in a squad.
Honourable Mentions
- There was one match where Doug rushed up a hill, and he came to a log. Adam was hiding behind the log, and took his gun under the log and shot Doug. The referee screamed, "Man! That was AWESOME!"
- Doug managed to score 4 mercy kills. That's when you sneak up right behind someone, and you force them to surrender without firing a shot. Always watch your back!
- I managed to shoot both Trotters! I mercy killed Peter once, and shot him up twice. I also eliminated him twice.
- Two people tried to mercy kill me, but I managed to blow them away before they could react. It was bizzarre. I had the high ground, lots of cover, and my gun drawn with a clear shot at the guy. The other guy looks up at me without pointing his gun at me, and yells mercy kill. I actually paused for a second thinking, is this guy joking? I have the tactical advantage here. So, I took him out. It happened a second time with similar circumstances.
- I ran out of ammo, so I decided to be useful, and made a kamakazie run. I managed to make it all the way into the enemy base and grabbed the enemy flag with three defenders firing at me. Unfortunately, I was hit once; the referees couldn't determine if I was shot before or after grabbing the flag, so I returned the flag and gave them the benefit of the doubt. I want clean decisive wins. Anyway, this was the only game that we lost that day. Good job defenders for winning a game.
- Everyone kept falling off of this unexpected 7 foot cliff that they didn't see while attacking the enemy base. It wasn't fun going over, but it's something that you'll look back on and laugh at.
Conclusion
The number of kills a player gets doesn't truly reflect how good the player is, since the team has a lot to do with it, and the player's role. For example, stalling enemies and killing time is very valuable to the team overall, but it's hard to keep track of that. Nevertheless, I think Doug probably ranked first with 35-40 kills using about 350 paintballs. I took second place with 25-30 kills using 550 paintballs. Adam and Paul probably would take third place, but I'm not sure how many kills they scored.
On average, I use about 350 paintballs a game, so using 550 paintballs might make me look like a trigger happy maniac. However, I was taking out targets at very far ranges behind bunkers. So, it could take 15-20 paintballs before taking out a defender inside base defences. In addition, I was keeping enemy heads down, so the rest of my team could move closer. In addition, I usually don't survive for entire games; however this time, I only got eliminated three times, so my survivability went up which equals more paintballs being used. We were also using only 3/4 of Norm's field which means higher chances of finding targets. In some games of the past, I could literally be out there without every coming across someone.
In the first three rounds, Doug used less than 100 paintballs, and already had a ton of kills. It's probably because of close range combat, which means accuracy goes up, and less paintballs are used.
I feel kind of bad for the other team. Even the referees were poking fun at them like, "Hey, I thought you guys were the attacking team, if you are, the base is over there." The referees should have given them hints or at least give them a battle plan. Strategy and communication was definitely our most valuable asset. Uhh.... that, and Doug's a heartless man hunter.... yet he's a pastor.
Anyway, I had a great time paintballing. I walk away without bleeding which rarely happens. I only have one welt on my thigh. Everything else either hit me in the mask, or it bounced off my lucky green sweatshirt.
Good hunting all. People who were there, please leave your paintball stories in the comments.
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--Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British Prime Minister