Post by deeno on Mar 11, 2008 14:57:30 GMT -8
’m pretty beat, so this is going to be the cliff’s notes version of the event for those who missed it.
I guess I'll just start off by saying that the field at Travis AFB didn't dissappoint and all of the hype is well deserved. We had around 200 players in attendance and that seemed to be the right number for the size of the field. There was a good mix of long, mid, and close range battles and unlike Ft. Ord, an organized group could still move around if an avenue was locked down. There was chainlinked fencing in many areas that were covered with netting and players were not allowed to shoot through the netting unless there was a pre-existing hole in the netting. These netted off fences created some choke points and while those fences were somewhat of a love/hate relationship, they helped to break up some of the wide open areas to promote movement and allow players to get up close and personal. All in all, it was exactly what I was hoping for; an urban environment where it would be possible to move, flank, and battle it out up close. My only major complaint of the field is that we we couldn’t camp there. This didn’t seem like too big a deal on paper, but having to pack and unpack our gear at home, then at the hotel, then at the field, then at the hotel, then at the field, then at home again (get the picture?) really wore us down. If there is a next time, I’m going to pack extremely light as if packing for an airline trip.
The Russians had 2 vehicles on their side and most times a third musketeer (golf cart) joined the fray to battle it out against our lone LV-1. I can’t tell you how many times I heard people heckling us about getting a motor in it, but honestly Yeti crushed the opfor so bad 2v1 I almost felt bad for them. Almost. Another unfortunate point for the commies was that we had some extremely talented LAW operators (in the other teams also) and our crews worked quite well with our tank rather than as separate elements. This paid off in spades IMO as we really had an uphill battle, but it didn’t show for the most part. Keeping 3 tanks down at all times when they could just go back and respawn quickly (it felt like instant reinsertion as those tanks were always up and running) was more work than I could have imagined and while our LAW operators were surgical and did the job admirably, it was painfully clear when they were out getting supplies or out of rockets as the Russian armor would run about unchecked and we were forced to battle guerilla style in the alleyways between buildings as the main streets were continually patrolled. I have never attended a game where there were so many vehicles and this coupled with the easy road access and urban environment made for a killer event that I know I will always remember.
As for the game itself, the Russians put up a good fight Saturday. We pushed on them a few times and managed to blow their CP on a number of occasions and they returned the favor towards the end of Saturday when we just did not have enough rockets to keep their armor from punching through the skirmish line. Saturday night, our commander decided to pull out early after completing our first objective as the long trip and having to pack and unpack so much gear really took it’s toll. From the small amount of time I spent on the field after sundown, it was pretty clear that the night play at Travis was phenomenal. I would definitely like to have another crack at running night ops there someday. SC took the reins for the night ops when Virus had to tend to an injured teammate and I was pleasantly surprised to see that he lead us to victory when I checked the scoreboard Sunday morning.
Sunday we arrived at the field and were a bit surprised to find ourselves down by nearly 300 points even after taking the night ops. I guess the Russians must have really capitalized on those times when they ran the field as I thought we would be ahead by a small margin. In a way this was a blessing in disguise as the whole crew which had been rubbing the sleep from their eyes lazily was suddenly extremely motivated and the feeling didn’t fade all day long. Even Viper didn’t sit around in the parking lot at all which I was told has not happened since 1989. I think the other crews we were lucky enough to battle together with felt the same way as I saw them really humping it too and storming the upper road like madmen while we took the lower. We took the final battle with the same enthusiasm and ended up turning the red tide back around and not only making up the 300 point deficit, but pulling ahead by around 400 points and in so doing, successfully kicked the commies off of our home turf. OCMI earned Most Valuable Team in the process.
There were so many crazy up close battles to mention and recall, but I got to really run with some folks who I have not run with before and it is good to know there are some more crazies on the team who like to be up front too and flank deep behind enemy lines. One theme that I saw all weekend long was that people were moving well together and not getting distracted. I especially appreciate the effort Zulu put in early on Sunday to run the whole FT tightly. It made a huge difference and almost made up for the fact that he “blew up the Russian base”, but accidentally blew the wrong building instead.
One thing I also noticed is that the player composition and attitude is markedly different in Northern California versus Southern California. The majority of the players were scenario players. Folks actually wore cammies and packed milsim hardware! Speedball equip was not the vast majority and the players were honorable and had great attitudes. I only heard of a couple instances where players would wipe and play on, but never had any of these problems myself. It was just a full weekend of stand up paintball.
I guess I should close this out here, but before I do, I just want to say that it was an absolute pleasure to take the field with you all again. We had some very talented teams on our side and being able to hang with my Walkons from Oregon and SC again really made this event for me. For those who missed it, this was an epic adventure, definitely one for the OCMI history books. Especially if you rode in the Yeti mobile lol
----
Playing against the armor in an urban environment was unreal. One of the vehicles was more like an open topped APC where two or three gunners would pop out of the top and shoot at people. The TAW rules were a little weird in that you were not supposed to shoot at the tanks, but we'd pull into the carport boxes and wait for them to pass and put some rounds on them from both sides. Invincible or not, those guys stayed down when you blind sided them from 10' away and put 2 on their heads.
There were a couple times where a few of us were way in over our heads past the skirmishline and ended up getting surrounded on all sides. It really sucked to be stuck in a rat trap and hear a tank pulling up onto the driveway lol
The carports had about 4 different entry ways and so many boxes on the sides and storage units. They were a rush to go through. This field really was a lot of fun to play on. There is rumor of one final game in May/April before it's all demo'd.
[edit] I almost forgot to mention this, but for the final battle, we had to surround a center flag with bodies (each body within a certain radius of the flag counted) rather than making it across an invisible 50' line. Our group had pushed the commies back just far enough to where we could run out into position when the countdown began. I didn't witness this myself, but it was reported that Shrek ran headlong all the way into the enemy side right up the middle by himself and then performed the most graceful belly flop behind a bunker and somehow survived. I was probably one of those most forward on the top side (somebody from Triad right next to me) and by the time I noticed Shrek, he was a good 15' forward of us
----
Some videos taken by the Marauders
pt.1
youtube.com/watch?v=A7eXj7W3CQw
pt.2
youtube.com/watch?v=TJ8VpMk2UnA
pt.3
youtube.com/watch?v=eIvqQlP8kUk
Pt.4
youtube.com/watch?v=VyJybwc__GQ
I still haven't reviewed any of ours yet.
I guess I'll just start off by saying that the field at Travis AFB didn't dissappoint and all of the hype is well deserved. We had around 200 players in attendance and that seemed to be the right number for the size of the field. There was a good mix of long, mid, and close range battles and unlike Ft. Ord, an organized group could still move around if an avenue was locked down. There was chainlinked fencing in many areas that were covered with netting and players were not allowed to shoot through the netting unless there was a pre-existing hole in the netting. These netted off fences created some choke points and while those fences were somewhat of a love/hate relationship, they helped to break up some of the wide open areas to promote movement and allow players to get up close and personal. All in all, it was exactly what I was hoping for; an urban environment where it would be possible to move, flank, and battle it out up close. My only major complaint of the field is that we we couldn’t camp there. This didn’t seem like too big a deal on paper, but having to pack and unpack our gear at home, then at the hotel, then at the field, then at the hotel, then at the field, then at home again (get the picture?) really wore us down. If there is a next time, I’m going to pack extremely light as if packing for an airline trip.
The Russians had 2 vehicles on their side and most times a third musketeer (golf cart) joined the fray to battle it out against our lone LV-1. I can’t tell you how many times I heard people heckling us about getting a motor in it, but honestly Yeti crushed the opfor so bad 2v1 I almost felt bad for them. Almost. Another unfortunate point for the commies was that we had some extremely talented LAW operators (in the other teams also) and our crews worked quite well with our tank rather than as separate elements. This paid off in spades IMO as we really had an uphill battle, but it didn’t show for the most part. Keeping 3 tanks down at all times when they could just go back and respawn quickly (it felt like instant reinsertion as those tanks were always up and running) was more work than I could have imagined and while our LAW operators were surgical and did the job admirably, it was painfully clear when they were out getting supplies or out of rockets as the Russian armor would run about unchecked and we were forced to battle guerilla style in the alleyways between buildings as the main streets were continually patrolled. I have never attended a game where there were so many vehicles and this coupled with the easy road access and urban environment made for a killer event that I know I will always remember.
As for the game itself, the Russians put up a good fight Saturday. We pushed on them a few times and managed to blow their CP on a number of occasions and they returned the favor towards the end of Saturday when we just did not have enough rockets to keep their armor from punching through the skirmish line. Saturday night, our commander decided to pull out early after completing our first objective as the long trip and having to pack and unpack so much gear really took it’s toll. From the small amount of time I spent on the field after sundown, it was pretty clear that the night play at Travis was phenomenal. I would definitely like to have another crack at running night ops there someday. SC took the reins for the night ops when Virus had to tend to an injured teammate and I was pleasantly surprised to see that he lead us to victory when I checked the scoreboard Sunday morning.
Sunday we arrived at the field and were a bit surprised to find ourselves down by nearly 300 points even after taking the night ops. I guess the Russians must have really capitalized on those times when they ran the field as I thought we would be ahead by a small margin. In a way this was a blessing in disguise as the whole crew which had been rubbing the sleep from their eyes lazily was suddenly extremely motivated and the feeling didn’t fade all day long. Even Viper didn’t sit around in the parking lot at all which I was told has not happened since 1989. I think the other crews we were lucky enough to battle together with felt the same way as I saw them really humping it too and storming the upper road like madmen while we took the lower. We took the final battle with the same enthusiasm and ended up turning the red tide back around and not only making up the 300 point deficit, but pulling ahead by around 400 points and in so doing, successfully kicked the commies off of our home turf. OCMI earned Most Valuable Team in the process.
There were so many crazy up close battles to mention and recall, but I got to really run with some folks who I have not run with before and it is good to know there are some more crazies on the team who like to be up front too and flank deep behind enemy lines. One theme that I saw all weekend long was that people were moving well together and not getting distracted. I especially appreciate the effort Zulu put in early on Sunday to run the whole FT tightly. It made a huge difference and almost made up for the fact that he “blew up the Russian base”, but accidentally blew the wrong building instead.
One thing I also noticed is that the player composition and attitude is markedly different in Northern California versus Southern California. The majority of the players were scenario players. Folks actually wore cammies and packed milsim hardware! Speedball equip was not the vast majority and the players were honorable and had great attitudes. I only heard of a couple instances where players would wipe and play on, but never had any of these problems myself. It was just a full weekend of stand up paintball.
I guess I should close this out here, but before I do, I just want to say that it was an absolute pleasure to take the field with you all again. We had some very talented teams on our side and being able to hang with my Walkons from Oregon and SC again really made this event for me. For those who missed it, this was an epic adventure, definitely one for the OCMI history books. Especially if you rode in the Yeti mobile lol
----
Playing against the armor in an urban environment was unreal. One of the vehicles was more like an open topped APC where two or three gunners would pop out of the top and shoot at people. The TAW rules were a little weird in that you were not supposed to shoot at the tanks, but we'd pull into the carport boxes and wait for them to pass and put some rounds on them from both sides. Invincible or not, those guys stayed down when you blind sided them from 10' away and put 2 on their heads.
There were a couple times where a few of us were way in over our heads past the skirmishline and ended up getting surrounded on all sides. It really sucked to be stuck in a rat trap and hear a tank pulling up onto the driveway lol
The carports had about 4 different entry ways and so many boxes on the sides and storage units. They were a rush to go through. This field really was a lot of fun to play on. There is rumor of one final game in May/April before it's all demo'd.
[edit] I almost forgot to mention this, but for the final battle, we had to surround a center flag with bodies (each body within a certain radius of the flag counted) rather than making it across an invisible 50' line. Our group had pushed the commies back just far enough to where we could run out into position when the countdown began. I didn't witness this myself, but it was reported that Shrek ran headlong all the way into the enemy side right up the middle by himself and then performed the most graceful belly flop behind a bunker and somehow survived. I was probably one of those most forward on the top side (somebody from Triad right next to me) and by the time I noticed Shrek, he was a good 15' forward of us
----
Some videos taken by the Marauders
pt.1
youtube.com/watch?v=A7eXj7W3CQw
pt.2
youtube.com/watch?v=TJ8VpMk2UnA
pt.3
youtube.com/watch?v=eIvqQlP8kUk
Pt.4
youtube.com/watch?v=VyJybwc__GQ
I still haven't reviewed any of ours yet.