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Adventure Games Weare NH After Action Report by Ralph Gero -
May 27th, 2008 - Edit
Seven of us journeyed to Adventure Games Paintball in Weare, NH on Memorial Day. We played three games. In the first game we kicked butt clearing a town, then a castle before time expired. In the second game we were annihilated early and often and the third game wasn’t much better. I should go into greater detail about each of these games but I will limit that discussion to congratulating Bob on one of the most productive games I’ve ever seen. I lost count of his kill total in our first game. But, it was prodigious!
Unfortunately this was without question the worst day of paintball I have had since I got back into the sport three years ago.
First the good; AG Paintball has great fields. I played there several times fifteen years ago. The fields were good then and they are better now. The fields are large and varied.
The staging area is large and well equipped. It boasts ample table space all under cover. They have a nice pro shop with an air smith on duty. They have CO2 and multiple pig tails for air fills at both 3000 psi and 4500 psi. The physical plant at AG Paintball is very nice, one of the best I have seen.
My only complaint about the facilities at AG Paintball was that they had one set of hex keys for three chronographs. What message does that send to the players? Bring your own tools to the chrono and consequently onto the field. And as you will learn later in this piece some players cannot be trusted to have the ability to adjust their marker’s velocity on the field.
Now the bad; the paintball culture at AG Paintball is toxic. Cheating is rampant and the refereeing is horrible. I won’t presume to suggest how AG should correct their faults nor will I compare AG to any of the several other fields I have played at lately. I will relate my experiences on the day and let you decide for yourself.
On any given day of paintball players are apt to complain that their opponents are cheating when in fact, they are not. Shooting a hundred paintballs at a guy behind a tree then saying, “I must have got him,” is just wishful thinking, not a cheating opponent. But, on this day we were plagued with more than our own wishful thinking.
Suspicion – Shooting hot. I was not an eye witness to this transgression but several of our players were. One opponent’s marker was shooting dangerously fast. Several players complained and after much screaming and hollering forced a referee out of his lethargy and into checking the marker. He made him dial it down to the recommended 280 feet per second.
Shooting Hot Suspicion confirmed.
Suspicion – Playing on. Bob, Kevin, Rob, Matt and I advanced into a fairly large castle structure and after a few minutes had reduced the enemy force to a single opponent. He was trapped in a small structure in the castle and I had an easy shot on him from about 30 feet away. He stepped into the doorway and I shot him. He didn’t call himself out so I shot him again. He turned and shot me four times. I immediately walked up to him and said, “Hey, when you get shot you should call yourself out, not play on.”
He responded, “ I got you on a good hit.”
I said, “I hit you twice before you even saw me.”
He then said, “Well, it was my reaction, man. I couldn’t stop.”
I then told him that he could probably sell that crap to his speedball buddies but if he was going to play woods ball he needed to play honestly. He hung his head and walked off.
Playing On Suspicion confirmed.
Suspicion – Overshooting. I moved forward to a dangerously exposed position. An opponent moved up onto my flank and took me out with a nice couple of shots. Hit twice, I immediately called myself out. Stepping from behind the tree with my marker above my head, the same opponent plowed eight more shots into me. I took a step toward him and said, “You know, the first six were enough.” His demeanor immediately changed as he said, “Sorry, man.”
Overshooting Suspicion confirmed.
Circumstantial Evidence I. It’s easy to look like a wonderfully skilled paintball player if you ignore being hit. And on the paintball field it is difficult to confirm each hit. Paintballs fly funny and often bounce off of our intended targets. But, there are times when although you can’t prove that someone is cheating, if he’s not it’s a one in a million situation.
During our second game a group of opponents advanced to a point near our recycle station. In the initial assault they did well and pushed us back but at one point there were only about four of them and several of us. On our extreme left flank there was one young man dressed in sup air jammies that was invincible. As he moved forward I determined that he was likely to shoot from the right side of a particular big tree. I shot into that area and when he leaned out I had paintballs there waiting for him. He immediately snapped back behind the tree. He turned to leave by running back the way he came but I had paintballs waiting for him there as well and again he jerked back behind the tree. At this point I’m fairly confident that I have hit him at least twice but you never know. In the next ten minutes he was able to shoot out five of us in spite of the torrent of paintball we all directed onto him. This guy never did admit to being hit. I finally gave up on him and went elsewhere to find an opponent a little less invincible.
Circumstantial Evidence II. In one section of the field a stone wall marks the field boundary. We watched two bunker monkey’s jump the wall and move into a wonderful flanking position and eliminate the players on our extreme flank. Not expecting fire from out of bounds our guys had no idea where the hits were coming from. The bunker monkeys would then run back to the legal side of the boundary and a few minutes later repeat the maneuver. You have to ask yourself, “If they didn’t know they shouldn’t be out there, why would they leave their wonderful flanking position to return to a much worse position?
More good. Between the second and third game we were relaxing near the pro shop and grousing about the problems at this field. A gentleman named Adam, who I assume is the head referee at AG, heard our complaints and came over to accept them as constructive criticism. I have to give Adam great credit. He genuinely wants to improve the way AG Paintball is run and it wasn’t just lip service. He came to us later and gave each in a our group a free pass for a future visit. When he realized that we had one more person than free passes he went and got another, then walked out to find us to give it to us. Commendable.
More bad. As much as I approved of Adam’s performance I cannot give the field administration high marks. The safety briefing was nothing more than perfunctory. The 280 feet per second velocity was mandated and very little else. Blind fire was not discussed. A surrender rule was absent and players were not cautioned that dead men don’t talk. There was no mention of fair play or proper on-field behavior This lackadaisical first official contact with the players did nothing to encourage playing with integrity or creating a convivial environment.
Chaos. Each game was little more than wind ‘em up and let ‘em shoot each other. During the “safely briefing” there was a mention of flags and points for controlling them at fifteen minute intervals but no one I spoke to had a suspicion of what was really going on and I spoke to as many referees as players. There was no tally board and no announcement of who won or lost on the day.
Each of the first two games started before our team fully reached the start point.
Our team had no captain and consequently no cohesive plan.
Referees.
Dear God…
Referees.
Let me try again. There were plenty of referees. At least there could have been plenty if they did anything. Often they stood around in groups of three to five talking. But, mostly they wandered around the field taking in a nice day to be in the woods.
I can’t imagine how, if at all, referees are trained at AG Paintball. I spoke with several on the day. As a group, excluding Adam, they were universally incompetent. Most didn’t even know enough to be embarrassed by their ignorance and uselessness.
That sounds harsh, doesn’t it? …Good. They could have helped themselves by contributing to or at least listening to the safety briefing. But, none did.
In each of the five examples of bad player behavior that I discussed above each could have been and should have been addressed and corrected by a referee. I understand that conflict and confrontation can be unpleasant, but you’re a referee! It’s your job! That’s why they let you play for free those other days.
Will I be apt to use my Adventure Games paintball free pass? I can’t imagine.
Last Post By Ralph Gero on May 27th, 2008 at 05:17:20
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Field 51 2008 Pre-opening After Action Report by Ralph Gero -
May 4th, 2008 - Edit
Rob, Adrian and I played a rain-abbreviated day at Field 51 in Gorham, ME on Saturday. There were more than thirty players there for the day, a very nice collection of old and new friends.
Field 51 is rapidly becoming my favorite place to play. It’s strictly woodsball here and though I hate to add to the whole woodsball vs. speedball argument, I think “woodsball only” makes a difference. It’s more than just that speedball players come from a culture in which it’s okay to bunker, play on and overshoot because of the nature of the field they play on. At other paintball fields that purposely separate tournament players from new players there is a natural division of skills. The avid players gravitate to the tournament field to get a true challenge. That leaves the less skilled players for the woodsball field and the perception that skilled woodsball players are there to “pwn the noobs.” At field 51 everyone is there to play woodsball together, consequently the median skill level is pretty high. Field 51 has their own team and they play well as a unit.
For a day in which we only played for about 2 or 3 hours a lot happened. The first game was a “Defend the Church” scenario. The church is a walled compound with a tall and a short tower. Our team was charged with defending the church. This is one of those games during which there is so much paint splashing against the walls that the defenders emerge covered in paint without ever being hit. It was very intense. At one point I moved up into the tallest tower and attracted way too many paintballs. As I looked through the firing port I saw a beehive full of paintballs coming right at me. Two hit my gun and splashed onto my mask. We were able to hold the church until the time limit but I was surprised to see just how many of us in the church were eliminated in a game in which the opponents never got to within fifty feet of us. I think most of the hits came from paintballs arching over the walls and hitting players in the back.
For our last game we were charged with assaulting a radar station deep in the woods. The radar station is situated such that there is a fairly large clearing to one side. Although this is the quickest path to the radar station it is also the most easily defended. Nevertheless if your team is assigned to assault you must engage your opponents in this area. Rob, Adrian and I pushed into this area along with most of the rest of our team and met with surprising success. We had advanced almost to the woodline with the radar station just beyond but respawning opponents were able to halt our advance. Nevertheless during that advance Rob was knocking them down like ducks at a shooting gallery. Returning to our respawn point Adrian left to get more air and I walked across an open area. Just as I entered the dense woods I saw an opponent walking down the path straight towards me. I wasn’t sure but I thought he may be heading back to the staging area for air or paint so I asked, “Hey! You dead or what?” He immediately crouched and brought his marker up. We proceeded to fill the path with flying paintballs but my having seen him first must have helped because he missed and I hit. I moved off into the woods to catch my breath and saw Rob moving back to the respawn point.
I joined Rob and we decided to circle around on our far left and come in at the Radar Station from the rear. About a hundred feet into the thick woods Rob located two opponents. He hit one and chased the other away. I advanced past Rob and set up an ambush position to the left of the path. Presently two opponents came creeping down the path. I waited. I had a clear shot at the first one but I was greedy and wanted to get them both. But, I foolishly developed tunnel vision and didn’t keep checking my flanks. Suddenly, my goggles and my arm were painted a nice bright, orange. I congratulated the shooter on a nice shot but as I trudged back a quote from one of my favorite war movies, The Siege of Firebase Gloria came into my head.
Hafner: [Sgt. Hafner carries two severed American heads] “Anyone know who these belong to? This is Corporal Miller. He's dead. Hell, the whole gun crew's dead. And to add insult to injury, Charlie took the fifty-f***ing caliber machine gun with him. I don't have any respect for Corporal Miller anymore, because he allowed his troops to relax. They let their guard down for five f***ing minutes, and Charlie took advantage of it. Look at 'em, G**d**mit! Pay attention. Stay alert! Stay alive! It's as simple as that!”
And I’m Corporal Miller.
Fortunately, Rob was more like Sgt. Hafner and took out both of the guys on the path giving Rob a total of five kills in one game!
Shortly after that, the game's time limit expired and with no end in sight for the rain, we called it a day.
Last Post By Ted Darling on May 5th, 2008 at 04:42:21
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HPA tanks by Ted Darling -
April 30th, 2008 - Edit
Here is a good deal on new PMI tanks. If anyone plans to get one, just make sure that they hydro date isn't about to expire. linky here
Last Post By Ted Darling on May 5th, 2008 at 04:51:18
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OSG BYOP 27 April After Action Report by Ralph Gero -
April 30th, 2008 - Edit
Ted, Rob, Bob, Mat and I made our way to OSG for April’s BYOP day. As always there was a solid crowd there and plenty of action. We played Western Town, The Village, The Castle and Hamburger Hill fields. We engineered it so that we only attacked the castle and never defended it. As a result the castle games weren’t that bad. We never won but the attackers always lose. We did however get through the gate. At least Rob, Bob and Ted did. I was long gone by that time. We played The Castle three different times and are beginning to understand it better. It’s still impossible but we’re learning to prolong the inevitable.
Our first game was in the Western Town and we got a little too ambitious and chose to defend the indefensible left flank on the Hotel end of the field. I lasted about 3 minutes and the rest of us streamed off before 10 minutes had elapsed. Not a great warm up.
For the game in The Village Bob and Mat were getting air and ended up on the wrong team. Rob missed this one altogether. What a shame! This game kicked butt. Ted and I advanced up the ridge and occupied postitions close to the highest point of the field and just wore out the competition. Ted was shooting down into the town and sent a steady stream of dead guys down the road to the staging area. I was shooting straight ahead along the tape line. I knew there was a bunker ahead but I couldn’t see it over the crest of the hill. But, at one point one of the guys in that bunker shot a random three round burst my way and that gave me an idea of where the bunker was so I returned fire. The other guy must not have been using the bunker very well because the referee at the crest of the hill told me to stop shooting because I got him. Lucky or what? I never saw him until he stood up to leave. He was the second guy I had shot up on that ridge so I thought it might be safe to advance over the crest but just as I came up over the crest the guy advancing with me got hit. Fortunately the shooter stood up to shoot and I got him before he could get me. That cleared the ridge of bad guys.
By then Ted had pretty much single-handedly shot everyone in the village and one of our guys ran in, grabbed the flag and ran up to where we were. We formed up and started to advance to the opposing flag station and a win. I ran out into the open shooting everywhere like a crazy person and drawing fire from everywhere. But, as the bad guys were busy painting me a couple different colors Ted and the other guy ran the flag in for the win. …I bet Rob wishes he was there.
Our last game of the day was on a field I had never played before. It is called Hamburger Hill. It is a sandbagged fortification built on a hill with a cliff, a wall and a tower protecting the right half and that same tower and two sets of walls protecting the left. The object of the game is for the attackers to get up to the outer wall and turn a double-ended flag stick so that their flag is flying. We were inside the fort this time and it was pretty much just Bollocks Boys doing the hard fighting in this one as we were all along the vulnerable left wall. Rob and I held the far left flank until we were taken out by crossing fire coming through a gap in the wall to our right. Bob, Mat and Ted lasted longer. But, Bob really shone in this game. He positoned himself not far from the flag objective and was laying down fire in two directions. When one of the attackers made a bold assault run Bob kept right on him and took him out. It helped that as the attacker slid in behind a stockade bunker he gave it a kick and it fell over completely exposing him to Bob’s whithering fire from only thirty feet away. Talk about an "Oh shit" moment. The crowd went wild.
The day had started out rainy. So we hung out in our vehicles for almost an hour until the rain stopped. Bob expected the day to end sunny. In fact he guaranteed it. When we left at 4 PM with the sun remaining absent we all left with a nice, refreshing, cold beverage courtesy of Bob’s over optimistic and faulty meteorological prediction/guarantee.
Last Post By Ted Darling on April 30th, 2008 at 10:34:04
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2008 Nelson Hemorrhage Paintballs Review by Ralph Gero -
April 25th, 2008 - Edit
Last Sunday I used three different kinds of paintballs. Frostbite which flew where IT wanted, Polar Ice that flew pretty straight and Nelson Hemorrhage that flew really straight.
The Hemorrhage paintballs that I had were sporting solid color orange shells and orange fill. I dropped several onto concrete from 3 feet, 4 feet and 6 feet high. None broke so I would say Hemorrhage has a durable shell rather than a brittle shell.
I dropped several through my ball-sizer and the result was an average of .685 diameter. I followed that up by dropping some through my various size barrels. Many fell through my .689 barrel. None fell through my .686 barrel but were pretty easily blown through. I would classify Hemorrhage as a small paintball but not tiny like some of the Empire and Nightmare that I have shot in previous years. Last Sunday I shot Hemorrhage through my standard .689 barrel and it flew really straight.
The fill is a terrible looking transparent orange slime. But, it is fairly thick. I think Nelson does a good job of filling these paintballs because I had none with dimples or flat spots. Hemorrhage paintballs are only as round as any other quality paintball. Think kickball rather than cue ball or gulp, football. The only paintball that I found to be more round was some Marballizer that I used last year and I had some trouble with those breaking in the barrel of my high pressure marker.
Hemorrhage has a distincly visible seam but it is small and regular. Both hemispheres of the paintball appear to be exactly the same size. Contrast this to the Big Ball paintballs that I bought last year. The Big Ball was shaped sort of like a gorilla head and they flew terrible.
Bottom line: who knows? Last Sunday they were great. But, with paintballs so much can happen to them after they leave the factory. Age, handling and storage can all effect the product that we finally end up purchasing. I won’t hesitate to use these paintballs again. They can be purchased from Plaistow Army and Navy for $40 a case.
Last Post By Ted Darling on May 5th, 2008 at 04:53:09
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BYOP at OSG by Ted Darling -
April 21st, 2008 - Edit
Remember that this coming Sunday is BYOP at OSG, so sign up ASAP. . .OMG. . . you down with OPP?
Last Post By Ralph Gero on April 22nd, 2008 at 10:22:06
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BOLP Grand Opening After Action Report by Ralph Gero -
April 20th, 2008 - Edit
This was pretty close to a perfect day of paintball. The weather was perfect. No, I mean perfect, sunny yet cool enough to be comfortable. We’re going to remember this day’s weather for a long time.
The single element of this day that stood out for me was the friendliness of the players. I know BOLP is a mostly Speedball facility and I was prepared to encounter the unpleasantness that comes with tournament players. There was none of that. I did not see players overshooting or playing on. Nor did I hear any intimidating, abusive language. It was refreshing and made for a relaxed and fun day.
BOLP runs their field in a very professional manner. The field lay out promotes safe play. Much of the boundary areas are protected by safety netting including all of the Xball field. I don’t believe they currently have rental equipment but the owner told me some will be available this year.
BOLP offers Nelson paintballs. I used the Hemmorage paint and was very pleased with it. I shot three different brands of paintballs on this day and the Hemmorage flew straighter than the others. They also offer Nel Splat and I didn’t hear any complaints about that paint.
We played woods ball all day. Next time we’re going to try at least one game of Speedball/Airball/Xball. Each of the woodsball games saw about 30 players. All of the games we played were fun. We played two games of elimination then the rest of the day we played One Flag Football. That is to say there was one flag in the center of the field and to win a team had to get the flag and advance it to the opponent’s base. The games were fun but, in the future we should encourage the staff to host some more inventive contests. Most of the players at BOLP are Speedball players so they host Speedball style woods ball. I imagine that if we brought along some props etc. to create a more inventive scenario that the owner would allow us to make the change.
The Bollocks Boys are starting to play better as a team. We are learning all of our individual strengths and weakenesses. And without question we are making each other better players. Part of our improvement is from developing trust in one another. Individually we are elevating our game and as a result each player can trust his teammate to provide effective cover fire and to move well. The most noticeable area of improvement was in our communication. On this day we not only effectively communicated opponent’s locations we also took time to develop and share on-field plan revisions. Consequently, we had some really effective games. Two games in particular stand out in my mind because we were able to wrest the initiative from the other team and dominate them.
BOLP is going to be open on two or three Sundays each month this year. I plan to play here again.
Last Post By Ted Darling on April 21st, 2008 at 08:34:40
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BOLP Opening April 20 by Ralph Gero -
April 1st, 2008 - Edit
BOLP is located in Lee, NH. The guys that run it are really nice. They have a large speedball field and an acceptably large woodsball field. Here is a message that was posted on the BOLP forum.
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Join us on our opening day for some great paintball, the way the game should be played!
April 20th - 9am-4pm
OMG Crazy Prices!
$5 entry
$10 air
BYOP
Free giveaways throughout the day - over $500 in prizes just for showing up.
Field paint available at $35-$45/case.
X-Ball field and woods will both be open.
Regulation size X-Ball field and over 4 acres of woods!
For more info keep an eye on the webpage: www.bolppaintball.com
Last Post By Ralph Gero on April 5th, 2008 at 11:09:24
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Airsports After Action Report by Ralph Gero -
March 11th, 2008 - Edit
Originally Ted and I planned to go to Fox 4 for their Ice Station Zebra scenario. Last year we did and it was great. But this year, the rain kept us away. Instead we chose to go to Airpsorts paintball in Ludlow, MA one day later. This turned out to be a good decision. A torrential, cold rain soaked them at Fox4. We enjoyed a dry, brisk day at Ludlow. That’s a euphemism for it was freakin’ cold and windy.
Airsports is an established field that is under new ownership. They have all of the essentials and none of the extras. They seem to suffer from a lack of experience. Nevertheless, we got plenty of paintball in and if they were really bad we would have spent too much time standing around and that didn’t happen.
The field is pretty good. No dominating, giant castle. Instead, they have several interesting but not impregnable smaller structures. But, Ludlow is a long way away. It is a little more than two hours from Dover, NH. And on this day the field was covered in about two inches of very slippery ice. Everyone was walking around like they had something lodged in their butt.
Their prices are very reasonable; $15 to get in and $10 for a ten-fill air card that is good for both N2 and CO2. They sell paint there but allow players to bring their own.
Safety fell short of what I like to see but, no one got hurt. Nevertheless, I would hope to see them put the chronograph station on the proper side of the “goggles on” sign.
The day was billed as an American Revolution Scenario game. And it was, sort of. The first game was interesting. The two teams lined up opposite one another in an open field about 80 feet apart. Each team was aligned in two ranks, the first kneeling and the back rank standing.
The game organizer would shout ready, aim, fire! Immediately every marker would fire and anyone that was hit had to lie down. Then the back rank would step past the front rank and kneel while the kneeling rank would stand. And the process began anew.
As it turned out, the first volley dropped about half of them and almost none of us. So immediately their fate was sealed. About five volleys later it was all over with our Colonist’s side victorious over the Redcoats.
At no point during this open field part of the day did I see any polar bears. I can only assume it was too cold for them. Once we moved into the cover of the woods it was much more comfortable, though.
The next two events were Capture the Flag games. Ted got long-balled early in the first one so I linked up with a guy named Scott and we moved on the enemy flag station. We took the flag bearer in a cross fire and flushed him from his hideout. One of my teammates shot me in the back just as Scott shot the flag bearer to win the game.
The next Capture the Flag game saw Ted and I move through a very open area and into contact. Unfortunately there was one really good player in a dominating solid bunker. This guy was one of the best paintball marksmen I’ve played against. He also knew the field. When I congratulated him on taking me out with a good shot he explained how he was able to see everyone moving behind their stick bunkers and knew when they were going to take a shot. It doesn’t seem fair that he would be both good and clever.
The final two games were attack/defend scenarios against a pretty large structure. Ted and I started in the “fort” and foolishly decided to crawl up into a tower. It took them a few minutes to surround the fort but once they did, good night, nurse. It was like being in a hailstorm of paintballs. I took three to the head. But, they were all clean shots impacting within one second, so no foul.
I should comment briefly about the referees. They were terrible. But, at least there weren’t many of them. As I tried to exit the fort I could have held my hat out and in about two seconds have caught enough paintballs to play the next game. There were about a half dozen of us dead guys waiting for a chance to get out of harm’s way. So, I called for the referee to cease-fire and let us out. The referee looked at me like I was crazy. He was clearly not going to take a chance of getting hit. Consequently, when we did exit the fort we all got bonus-balled multiple times. Unacceptable.
In the final game we attacked the same fort and killed ‘em up real good. I should also talk about the paint Ted and I used. We chose to go with winter formula paint. We got a case of Polar Ice and case of Frostbite. Verdict: Polar Ice - good, Frostbite – bad. I had both types mixed in my hopper. At about 70 feet from the fort I had a clear shot through the trees to a large window behind which opposing players were visible moving around. As I fired through the window the Polar Ice was flying in and emptying the room. The Frostbite was painting the fort wall yellow.
Would I go back and play at Airsports? Sure. But, will I? Probably not. Only because there are several other excellent paintball fields closer to my house. Nevertheless, I’m glad I went and if they have something special going on I may return to use up some more of my air card.
Last Post By Rob Zwiercan on March 11th, 2008 at 03:25:15
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Scenario Games this Weekend by Ted Darling -
March 5th, 2008 - Edit
So we MAY, and I repeat may since I am staying positive, get rained out of our game on Saturday at Fox4, so Ralph and I have come up with a backup plan. There is a game called "Boston Massacre" at Airsports Paintball in Ludlow, MA on Sunday the 9th (the next day), and we plan to go if the weather is nice on Sunday as opposed to Saturday.
You can view the site at www.airsportspb.com
It is $15 admission and BYOP so that is pretty good.
No one has been there so it will be a new experience.
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