Intro
Last month I went on an end of summer paintball excursion at TNT Paintball. This was my first time at TNT Paintball. A bunch of people said they were going to come, but it ended up being just me and Tyler. In either case, it was still a lot of fun. Lucky us, we went on the day that rained the most that summer.
The morning was great because it was cloudy and cool which is ideal; however, it started coming down pretty hard in the afternoon. My googles were fogging up quite a bit, and the rain started affecting the gun's accuracy. We played 10 games I think, and I ended up using about 400 rounds of paint which is typical for me. My battle wounds are fairly superficial compared to other battles I've had. I could still walk properly the next day, so that's a good sign.
We worked pretty darn well as a team. Tyler's my trusty tail gunner. Usually I run up front and draw fire, while Tyler responds in kind to enemies. If an enemy is bunkered down real well, usually Tyler will give suppression fire while I sneak around for the kill. It worked really well.
Play of the Day
In either case, a bunch of my friends asked how paintballing went, so instead of retelling the story a billion times over e-mail, I made a Flash movie that tells our tales of valour and glory.
This movie clip highlights the play of the day that Tyler and I had. The mission was to deliver a backpack bomb to the enemy base. So, Tyler and I being a special ops unit was given the task to neutralize the enemy base's defences. (For those who can't play Flash movies, I'll summarize it by this: Tyler and I managed to sneak into the enemy base and took out 6 of their defenders.)
Use the
buttons in the
lower right corner to control movie.
Review
Their field was amazingly large as they had four different fields. They had a bush ball course, a speed ball course, an attack and defend hill, and an urban field. I enjoyed the bush ball field a lot as there was a good mix of buildings, trees, and brush. Very handy as I use stealth rather than sheer firepower to win.
I've heard rave reviews about their urban field which had buildings and cars scattered across the field, but it was okay in my opinion. They had this main building in the center of the field that I thought was unbalanced. It was a two story building which allowed enemies to engage targets over a large area.
The problem was that the building was extremely dark, and you couldn't see the people inside shooting at you. On one of the games, the owner of the field was in the building shooting at us. He was taking more friendly fire than enemy fire because you just couldn't see the person inside.
Paintball Guns
Another interesting thing were the paintball guns that some people brought. There were these two
big guys who had $600 guns with electronic paintball feeders. They were bragging about how elite they were, and they had fancy blue jerseys and what not. In one game, I managed to sneak up in
front of them and took both of them out. I have a feeling they use expensive guns to compensate for their lack of skills.
There were also two guys who worked for TNT Paintball that played, and they were using pump action paintball guns. My general understanding was that pump guns sucked, but they were doing pretty good out there. They explained that the pump guns had more range, the paintballs broke easier, and they were more accurate. On average, they only brought about 50 paintballs with them per game.
I'm interested in trying out a decent pump gun, as it seems to fit my style of play. I tend to use very little ammo, and rely on stealth/range to take out my targets. Having paintballs break easier is also a big factor, because if you hit someone, but the paintball doesn't splatter, the enemy is still in play. I had a lot of instances where paintballs did not break on opponents. Tyler was testing out his gun, and was shooting a piece of metal siding at point blanke range, and some of the paintballs were just bouncing right off, intact!
Capture The Flag
One game I really liked was capture the flag. They had a new twist to the game though; whoever captured the flag got 100 rounds of free paintballs! Tyler is awesome at capturing flags, so he managed to get free paintballs.
Pros
- Nice facilities - they had plenty of covered rest areas, good fields with plenty of bunkers, brush, and trees
- Good rental package- came with camo top, semi-automatic gun, goggles, and lunch
Cons
- Referees - One of the refs were power tripping on the field. Sometimes he'd start the game before we were ready. He'd bicker with the other referees as well. He made a few unfair calls in my opinion.
- Some of the fields can be a bit more balanced.
- Safety - One safety thing that I observed was their shooting range. Some people didn't want to wait in line in the booth, and they were shooting while away from the booth. While they were shooting, some people were walking through their line of fire. The referees didn't seem to mind. It's not fun getting shot in the back of the head from a few feet away.
Summary
Overall, my experience with TNT Paintball was very positive. I wouldn't mind going again. They're probably tied with Stormin' Norman's Paintball Adventure as my favourite paintball field.
Thus completes my quest in trying all the paintball fields in Greater Victoria. I'll be writing a review of all the fields later.
One thing I wanted to point out to our viewers about the paintball flash video is the bomb. Notice that it's right by the base. The bomb didn't actually start there, a bomb runner unsuccessfully tried to deliver the package previously and dropped it. When Tyler and I got into the enemy base, we started shooting and never saw the bomb. I felt kinda stupid when our reinforcements found the bomb and won the game. I mean, the thing was right in front of me for crying out loud (granted I was on the top level of a two story structure). We didn't actually have to shoot up everyone, but hey, our way is more fun!