This last Saturday, I went paintballing at TNT Paintball with my church. We brought a group of 18 people, and another group of 10 people fought alongside. When we arrived to the paintball field, we saw a lot of pro paintballers who brought a lot of their own equipment. We're talking about modified guns with improved accuracy and range, body armour, elaborate air systems, etc. When the teams were divided, our side had two people with their own guns, while the other team had at least five. This was going to be a battle of the pros vs joes. Looks like we were going to be outgunned, but I love being the underdog. Naturally, a few people were a bit intimidated by our competition, but that quickly got disspelled when you show that the enemy is not invincible.
By the way, if you were there paintballing, please leave comments on this blog entry.
On the first game, we played on the urban assault field, and we got slaughtered simply because we didn't know the field. We had a rematch on the field, and we won.
Bunker To Bunker
The next field we played on was the
Grog's Nest which consists of forts linked by bridges, and 60 man-made bunkers. I thought I was going to hate this field because it reminded me of speedball courses with the man-made bunkers, but I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. The objective was to take a flag from the center fort, and deliver it to the enemy base.
The strategy we had was to grab as much real estate as possible in the first minute of the battle, in order to capture strategic locations. Doug ran to center immediately, grabbed the flag, and hid the flag behind me. I ran up the left flank of the map. My objective was to be the tip of the spear which leads the assault. I had to pave the way clear for our flag runner, so he could safely deliver the flag to the enemy base. I picked off 8 people who were unfortunate enough to get in my way. Eventually, I was eliminated, but Adam, our trusty flag runner was able to make it to the other end with barely any resistence. Adam made a great flag runner because he was able to hang back and survive through entire games. Doug and I were usually the shock forces who aggressively rushed against the enemy. Lucas also was a trusty last line of defence. He was able to survive long enough to launch a late game offensive. He was our rock. Anyway, on this field, both sides were able to pick up a point, so we were still tied.
Attack and Defend
The next field we went to was Thunder Hill which is an attack/defend map. There's a fort at the top of the hill which the attackers had to capture. I didn't really like this field because the odds are stacked in favour of the defenders. The pace of the attack is pretty slow because you have to slowly work your way up the hill. The funny thing is, even at the 10 minute mark, the attackers had people at the bottom of the hill which is where they started, because they were too scared to move. In either case, both teams were able to successfully defend, so both sides were still tied.
Assassinate The VIP
Finally, we moved to the forest field, Broken Hills which is my favourite field. We played a game of escort the VIP. One side has to try to assassinate the VIP, while the other side has to escort the VIP to the enemy base. We got slaughtered trying to escort the VIP. A lot of our forces got surrounded by large packs of hunters. Each hunting party had 8 people in it which made any engagement fairly difficult because we were outgunned.
When it was our turn to assassinate the VIP, we formed a solid line across the field, and waited for the VIP. Doug and I took center, and I shadowed Doug as a stealthy sniper. Every time he was engaged by someone, I would try to snipe them off. Once I controlled center, I helped my right flank defenders which consisted of Adam, Lucas, Chad, and Keith. They were getting a lot of fire which hinted that the VIP was coming through there. Wave after wave came through the right side, and the line held steady. Ultimately, the VIP emerged from that side, and stood out in the open. Chad picked him off with no remorse. Good for him because this was Chad's first time paintballing.
Bomb Run
We returned to the urban assault field, and the goal was to deliver a backpack (the bomb) to the enemy base. Our team handily smashed through their lines. I broke left, and headed into the hills which oversaw the entire urban field below. The enemy made a huge mistake, they set up a three man fire team, shooting down at people below. However, they didn't put anyone in front of their team to watch for other people in the hill. I heard their gun fire which gave away their position, so I crawled my way to them, and saw them all lying there. Two of the guys had custom guns, so I took them out first. One guy survived the surprised attack, and fled. I was hot on his heels, and Chad caught up with me. We cooperatively took out the last guy by pinching his position. The bomb was delivered, and we won.
The teams switched sides, and we were at it again. I took a four man team up the hill again, but we were outmatched. They sent eight people up that side, so I told two of my guys to retreat. Chad stayed with me, but got eliminated. They didn't see that I was up there, so I decided to setup a trap. I hid low, and waited for the enemy to pass me. My adrenaline was pumping because there were enemies that were a few feet away from me, and I could hear everything they said, like, "Move up, the coast is clear." When they entered my killzone, I took out their pointman, and hid again. I had the people in the hill scared, and firing randomly. I ultimately got taken out, but I bought my team a lot of time by tying up their forces in the hills, far away from our base.
After I got taken out, I went to the spectator area, and I saw Adam grab the bomb, and moving towards the enemy base. He had two escorts who were guys that worked at TNT Paintball. As they approached the enemy base, they were being shot at from the hill by enemies with custom guns with extra range. The worst part was that the enemies were inside bushes, which made it impossible for our guys to take them out. The referees were pretty angry that the enemy was camping in the hills, being cheap. Adam made a valiant bomb run, and made it inside the enemy base, but he got hit. On top of that, he slipped and the hopper came off his gun, and he broke his toe. That's taking one for the team! I dub this the play of the day.
This round put us in the lead because we were able to deliver the bomb.
Summary
All in all, it was a great day to paintball. The temperature was only 20C, so it didn't get too hot. I'm glad our team won even though we were up against more experienced paintball players with their superior equipment. I got around 25 kills, and used about 600 paintballs which is 100 more than usual. My injuries this time around are extremely minimal, only one bruise. My survivability is definitely improving.
This battle was more fun than last time I went paintballing because the teams were more fair, and we didn't absolutely dominate. It was a close game until the end.
Anyway, this was my last paintball battle in Victoria, and I will definitely miss it.
