Paintball fun

I went paintballing yesterday with some church folk. It was a lot different than the family/friends experience. It was also uber expensive.



The first game was awful. We played on this extremely phalic field. The teams were so mismatched. There were about 19-20 people on each team. In the first game we went down hard. We didn't shoot a single person on their team. The game was over in a few minutes. I didn't even get a shot off before one hit me right on the glasses.

Second went a little better. We last 10 minutes and at least shot a few. Third game, we went to the woods. That's where I have some experience so I was more comfortable there. We played capture the flag (just one in the middle) where you had to return it to the other side. I started strategizing. Back when we played at the Arthur's i would occasionally leave my gun behind (it was useless anyhow) and just sprint all out for the flag in the middle. So we had someone do exactly that. He got the flag and didn't even come close to getting shot. Unfortunately the team didn't have a plan after that. I got bogged down with a bunch of people when we tried to do a strongarm right. Everyone was afraid to move because the other team had such better guns and such.
This game taught me a lot.
1) Never get bogged down. Paint is expensive (5 cents a shot) and it's hard to get them from a distance with the standard guns (Tipman 98s). Plus your glasses fog up.
2) Shout a lot and tell people what to do. The people on my team were clueless.
3) Get the angle, especially if you have someone you can work with. If someone is stationary behind a tree, just keep circling around. Your buddy doesn't even have to move. If he can force them to stay where they are, trees can only provide so much cover.
4) Let thing develop before you jump into the fray. I'm more of an on my own player. Not good with the group thing. Since there was no way I could just run really fast and flank them that way, I decided to run up a good clip and hide. Then I just stayed there for a few minutes after I heard people start firing. When they start firing they stay where they are, which gives me a huge informational advantage, especially since they aren't looking behind themselves.
5) Use the refs. They stand out like a sore thumb and they go where they think the action will be. It's hard for anyone to sneak up with a ref in tow, and yet they try. If you just by yourself, refs won't hang out by you.
6) Don't wear your glasses because that's just one more thing that can fog up.

So i took these lessons and applied them. The next game i got at least 4 people (+1 but he cheated and didn't go out). That approx 1/4 of their team. The next game, pretty much the same thing. I got three people but ran out of time before we could get the last 4.

The last game was in this massive castle. That was crazy. Paint was EVERYwhere. we started off on the attacking side. If you got shot you could go to the perimeter, ring a bell, and rejoin. All the defenders are in the castle attempting to defend it. As an attacker, if you peg a defender, that person joins the attacking side. In other words the attackers always win and the last defender get screwed up.

The problem is that they don't have a good system for identifying the defenders. Me and my team were the first to get in the castle. The thing is, once you're in there everyone gets trigger happy and shoots no matter what team you're on. I went up for the flag with one of my teammates. he made a mad dash for the flag and got it out of the castle. What we didn't know was that mean we were the defenders in the next game.


Holy crap. Defending is freaky. there's about 30 defenders and at least 50 attackers. And they just keep coming. If you poke you head out of one of the nice little windows for just a second. Someone will shoot through it for the next three minutes just waiting for you to poke your little head out again. So i just kept on switching windows. Then i got shot (paintballs taste so good) and that was that.