Santa vs The Grinch '08 pictures

My personal stats for this game and my game notes/comments can be found in the Play Log section of my brigade page.

I took the first 2 pictures with my cell phone camera. The last picture was taken by Boy Scout Assassin. I was too busy playing to take more on-field picts or to be captured in an action shot myself!

How It's Made - Paintballs

I just saw this on the discovery channel. I think this is episode 6 from season 2. It's old and and I wouldn't be surprised if things were done somewhat differently now but I thought it was interesting.



Despite the "sweetener", secret combination of food ingredients and the gelatin -"the kind used to make gummy bears"- I don't recommend eating paintballs. They're not very tasty.

Here Malone and Craigo are going over some mission details.

I'm usually too busy IN ACTION to get any decent action shots but luckily Skirmish has very talented roving photographers. Hopefully they caught some nice shots of us.

This picture was snapped about 20 minutes before the game strarting Beach Assault. From left to right is Team Extreme Measures members Craigo, Sinkhole and Capt. Malone.

ION 2008

It's Sunday morning here at ION and the troops are just waking up. Yesterday's battles are still fresh in everyone's minds. Stories of mishief, mayhem and adventure were abound around the campfire last night. In a bid to re-write history, the Germans held the beach and did not let even one of the five stations fall. From my perspective, completed missions and props were streaming into German headquarters all day. Let's see what today brings...

Game On!

Looks like I will be unexpectedly attending the "Finish It" scenario at Strategy Plus this weekend. I'll try to remember to stream some photos while playing- ...not that I'd want to distract myself from any missions I may be running!

The "Finish It" scenario is based on the recently released Halo 3 game for Xbox. Aliens vs. Humans - or, if your familiar with Halo, United Nations Space Command vs the Covenant. There are some good players and teams that will be in attendance so this should be fun. And the weather is supposed to be beautiful!



I've never seen an "I'd rather be working" bumper sticker on a paintballer's car. Come out and have some fun!

Posting Game Updates?

I was playing with the idea of posting some live game updates from some upcoming games. I'm not really sure what kind of stuff is really worth posting or how those posts will fit into this site's current format! In a forum post I've seen people ask for a current update for a game that they couldn't attend personally and that sparked the idea. (Of course this is the shoestring budget version of the original idea requiring much less time, energy and capital!)

I'm actually in a 'paintball leave of absence' for a couple months, until ION. I may be around doing what I can to promote some upcoming games at Strategy Plus though. Stay tuned for more info on that front.

Btw, this post was from a mobile device and was a test as much as a means to post an update.

West Point Spring Combat Classic 08

This is the map for the Korean War Scenario in jpg format.

08 Invites

I’ve been lax in my duties of spamming all of you with invitations to join me playing paintball this year! I know a bunch of people from my invite list still check my blogs so I figured I’d leave the invites here. Though I’ve been told that my emails are not spam, I always feel funny sending mass emails. I’m the guy were all the chain letter and joke email forwards end.

Let it be known to all my ex co-workers, family and friends, you are all invited to join me at any of the games on my schedule. I’ve been to two games so far this year and have quite a number to go. Look at my schedule to see when and where I am playing.

THIS WEEKEND is the spring West Point big game. I mentioned the game to a few people already. For those that I haven’t spoke with, I know this post is short notice. The Cadets put on some of the best games I’ve been to. The people that usually turn out to play have been some of the best crowd to play with. I really can’t say enough about the West Point games or the men behind the scenes that make the game possible. From the beginner to the advanced player, I can’t imagine anyone having less than a great time. They have announced that they will have artillery sims, smoke grenades, and two machine guns (a M249 and M240B firing blanks) on the field during the game. There will be a Blackhawk helicopter doing a flyover and landing so that those interested can get a closer look at this awesome piece of machinery! It looks as though some of the top Northeast teams will be in attendance. Greg Hastings will be there. Rain or shine, this will be a great game. You can follow the pre-game chatter in this PBNation post.

After this game I have a little hiatus but I hope to see you at ION in July at Skirmish, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly in August at Strategy Plus or one of the many other games this year. If you just want to go out for a pick-up rec game, let me know and we'll schedule something in!

War of Attrition '08

WAR OF ATTRITION: ROAD TO PARIS

This was a fun game right from the start. A number of teams decided to split their members between the two sides. Consequently, there was much spy and intrigue action all over the field. I played on the German side with my team captain and the majority of my teammates. Whenever we took the field, we seemed to push the opfor around. Controlling much of the field, we had the chance to hold possession of many objectives and fly our flags over them. Unfortunately, we had a mole in our ranks that would flip many of the flags back over, signaling Allied possession, at the tops of the hour in order to have them recorded as points for the opposite team! The game was still closely fought and the victor was decided by the outcome of the final battle. The final score was Germans 44, Allies 35. I could see many people having a great time, regardless of what was going on in the game or should I say, despite any backstabbing or underhandedness by those role-playing.

I think the splitting up of teams between the sides was an interesting idea that added to the fun of the game. Teams usually do not do this for a big game and it was, if not original, then a novel idea. I not sure dividing teams up like this is a good idea to do too often, but it gave an opportunity for some fun espionage role-playing by players that may have not otherwise engaged in such underhandedness and it gave leadership roles to others that may have not had the opportunity to step up. Personally, I had the chance to lead a few squads under orders from our General and CO. Various orders included providing reinforcement to troops across the field, providing escort and leading a charge.

Strategy Plus continues to draw quality players (about 150 of them to this game). I am sure this is in no doubt due to how well the organizers run events. The Refs were in the action making calls and spot-checking for hot shooting markers. (btw, I did not hear about anyone shooting hot) The weather was sunny and beautiful and the paint shot well. The game format, with the splitting of teams to each side, made this event a memorable one. Another nice touch was the addition of an award for "most valuable scenario player". This was in addition to the more standard MVT and MVP awards. With all the great staff, terrain and players, I am happy to call Strategy Plus my home field. If you haven't played Strategy Plus yet, I highly recommend their field to anyone, whether you are a beginner or advanced player.

Stalingrad ‘08

After a few false starts, our German forces spread out from our base at Krassnaya and began taking control of territory as far as Mamayev and Orlovka. Members of Team Extreme Measures pared into squads, which were then sent off for various duties and missions across the field. This member’s squad was tasked with taking and holding the immediate area around the Swiss embassy and creating a skirmish line to keep the Russians from splitting the field north-south and cutting off missions to the north. Having made the run from our base to the swiss embassy twice and having the game start as we were returning to base the second time, we arrived at the embassy with a line already formed.

That line extended from Krasmy Factory (tippmann castle) to the Embassy (dye castle) and points north. Opposing forces were positioned on the east and west walls of the embassy. As we began eliminating Russian players and fresh German soldiers began to bolster our line, Russian Forces began flanking from the north. Our squad reinforced the left side and began repelling the flanking force. Most of the day, time was spent pushing opfor lines back, quickly resupplying and pushing back opfor in another place on the field.

While we were running support for a couple missions up in the northern parts of the field, we did find a lone enemy squad to eliminate. [insert evil laugh here] Directly afterwards, we took control of the neighboring field and earned a prop to return to our HQ.

Leading in points, we resupplied and spent the last hour or so playing base defense. During that time we had several minor attempts on our base and one final battle. For that final battle, the Russian war cries could be heard shifting left and right and progressively getting louder as the Russians pushed the skirmish line back and brought the fight to us. By the time the fight was brought to our base, there was only about 5-10 minutes of game time left and it was intense. Every Russian attempt at an advance was met with a wall of paint. As they’d try to flank right, under the cover of some pines, they would butt heads with guys we had positioned in front of them. Then they’d get shredded from the crossfire from teammates on the main firing line. The Russian Forces were trying to use smoke to cover their movements but we’d keep intercepting and throwing the smoke back at them. Admittedly, if they had chose to try to flank our left, we might have had a tougher time of repelling them. As it stands though, the opfor was stopped cold, and the Germans brought home sweet victory. I believe the final score was 30-something to 60-something, with the Germans almost doubling the Russian points.

The game was a lot of fun to play and the Skirmish refs did a great job on the field. I’m not sure how the whole false-start thing came to be in the beginning but once things were underway, all was well from my perspective. I was happy to see refs roaming with hand chronos AND using them. As a suggestion though, more than 1 or 2 chrono station at the German (or any side’s) reinsertion would go a long way towards keeping the line from backing up. If I’m on line, I’m not shooting paint and the field is not making money. While I wasn’t particularly upset at seeing safety precautions being taken, I can see were some might be annoyed at there being a line that takes any more than a couple minutes. I had not experienced any problems with paint (using the Origin paint) and my Tippmann A-5 and J&J ceramic barrel functioned flawlessly.

Stalingrad '08 Pictures

My personal stats for this game and my game notes/comments can be found in the Play Log section of my brigade page.

These pictures were taken by Skirmish Photos. Bottom photo is of SFC Dubois in action. He mentioned that he didn't have the time to pick up his photo so I snatched and scanned it for him. Go Army!

Santa vs. the Grinch '07 Pictures

My personal stats for this game and my game notes/comments can be found in the Play Log section of my brigade page.

I've had these pictures on my harddrive for some-time now. I don't remember the original source but I probably found them off a PBnation post

Site Updates

I just got back from Stalingrad and I'm slowly updating the site for 2008...
I've made some schedule changes and I have some pictures to post.
I attended a work party in January to prep for Russian Front but I never got to play due to personal obligations. I heard from others, teammates and otherwise, that it was a blast. Stalingrad was a blast, but I'll save that for another post.

Lemme dig up those pics...