I apologize for the length...

So I'm going to try and get in a new habit of writing my game reviews here of events that I attended. We'll see how this goes.

Attendees: Saint, Bush, Mountain, Otto, Grendel, GG, Otto's Sister, and our young friend Gogg

AAR: Started about a week prior to game on, when I found that our long lost friend and teammate Mounatin (in Iraq for a year and a half) would be coming home and making this game. Not wanting anyone else to know, we began scheming for the big suprise. Originally, he was to arrive at the field friday night, along the same time as the Kannapolis contingent, however that plan was foiled by my wonderful boss who gave me some last minute things to get done Friday night before the game. So instead of a field rendezvous, Mountain swung into Kannapolis looking to stay the night. However even this plan was doomed for failure. After arriving and much ado when Bush arrived at my house Otto began his plot to convince us to make the trip to Sanford that night so the Saturday morning trip would not be quite so hard on us. Finally, after offering a promise of omelets for all, we gave in and headed out Friday night, only to arrive at Otto's around 3am Saturday morning. And thus is the day and night leading to the game.
     Saturday started early with a wakeup call around 7 am, followed shortly by an amazing omelet and a much needed cup of coffee (which I would pay for multiple times during the game as coffee is after all a diuretic). We arrived to BR around 9am and commenced setting up for the day.While we packed light for us, we still had a rather substantial amount of gear so this took a little longer than expected. As we set up a contingent of RATS set up shop in front of us, and although playing for the other side, we had a great time talking, goofing off, and all those other things which we do when we are together. We finally set up shop, got our registration and paint taken care of and hit the field, howbeit we were around 15 minutes late to do so, but we made it none the less.
     Upon arriving at our CP on the fort field, we found a young man who I would come to respect greatly as the game went on. I believe his name is David but goes by "Bunker". He was organizing missions and getting them sent out with quite a bit of effectiveness. We started by exploring into the woods along the far tape line. Finding both teams at a standstill on adjacent sides of a thicket, we decided we could be more effective by pushing into the then occupied fort field and making a push back into the woods past the briary mess that was then laid before us. We worked across to the fort field, laid Bush just inside the woods to watch our left flank and began pushing for our life. Led by our own bunker monkey, Gogg, we were able to push the Advancing American army back into the woods from which they came.
     The second half of the day proved to be a bit more adventurous. To start off, we decided a demo crew was needed (seeing as how the German army did not have a single LAW on the field during the first half of the game. We spent a lot of time traipsing through the woods to find random props that were not always where they said to be. This was fun but the highlight of the day came when we were assigned the mission to escort a high ranking German officer to a central objective then held by the American forces. While Gogg ran back to retrieve the officer, the remainder of Krisis began rallying the players and pushing towards the looming objective. Shortly after returning with the officer, we pushed close enough to send Gogg in (told you he was our bunker monkey) to the objective and then escorted the officer in safely. We then began the task of holding ground against an again advancing American force. We spread our players out in a skirmish line and told them to hunker down for a fight. Shortly after, Krisis was called away to begin another mission, however we received word that our forces were able to fend off the Americans and complete the mission. The second phase of the game ended on our final mission of trying to blow up a satellite station. By the time we arrived a throng of American players and an apparently unstoppable tank had already pushed back a handful of Germans and were heavily dug in. After finally getting a ref to call the tank out (3 shots and 100 eliminated Germans later) we began pushing back to the objective. Although we fought for almost an hour, we were unable to get a clean shot in on the base to complete the mission.
     Finally, the final battle began. It was catastrophic. The Germans began behind the fort and the Americans Began advancing from the far side. The Germans held the fort for a large portion of the 20 minutes (while I waded in sewage smelling water trying to flank a nasty american force) however lost it in the final minutes giving the Americans a victory in both the final battle and the day.

Pros:
- Good player integrity on both sides.
-Paint that busted, though not the straightest shooting, it did bust when it finally hit it's target. That's a lot to ask in chilly weather.
-A couple of good refs.
-Some different mission types.

Cons:
-Sides seemed to be heavily weighted. Heard rumors of walk-on players all ending up German, however that has not been spoken to by the powers that be.
-Dimpled paint, and I've heard it said that paint was too fresh and had not had time to set up. My suggestion would be that Kee either makes the paint a little earlier or send us paint that is ready to be used. I don't serve dinner to people while it's still cooking, and I don't expect to pay 50 for paint that is "almost ready" to shoot.
-By in large the reffing left a lot to be desired. While the large turnout could have been a factor, it does not affect the refs ability to not clump together and talk or hangout when there are paint checks to be done and calls to be made. Also, it is imperative that ALL refs know ALL the game rules. It is ridiculous that I had to explain the rules (and even provide copies to a couple) multiple times to someone who is seeing over a game. They seem to forget that it is a job and they are (for lack of better terms) serving those paying customers who are there for a day of paintball.
-Lines everywhere. I'll start with reg/paint sales. Preregistered players should not stand in line with everyone else. That's why you preregister, so you can get your stuff and get ready to roll. Second, the chronograph lines. A player (namely me) should not have to stand in the station for 45 minutes checking players because there is a line 100 players deep with only a single referee punching cards. Especially after asking 2 other referees and a staff member to get someone over there to help move things along. I do not mind helping out, but the general sentiment is that those paying to play want to be on the field, not waiting in a line.
-Player numbers should never exceed what the field is able to fill 4500psi for the entire event. Worst case scenario, get a company like PEA to come in. They do a great job for a small cost.
-Missions need to be staged properly. There were quite a few missions we were sent on where the props that we placed, were never placed. I am not a fan of prewritten missions, never have been. Always felt that "live" missions can help the flow of a game. You are able to redirect forces to keep thing interesting instead of a stagnant line for the majority of the game.
-Lastly, 500 is too many players for that field. There needs to be a cutoff. Now I know that those people making a living off of these games do not want to limit the number of players, however in my opinion, for a proper game to be ran, that field can not support more than 350 max. I would suggest putting some sort of guarantee that the games will be more fluid or I know a lot of players who will not return for the same ol' skirmish line.


Final note, had a great time with all the people of both the American and German sides. Danny, thank you for the MVT, we humbly appreciate it. And finally to Bunker. Excellent job again man, we will play for you any time.

Good review saint it was pretty much dead on. I was with u guys most of the game and your review is exactly what I remembered happened, besides our target practice break. I was the kid bugging Grendel, the one with the red mask and playing with a stock automag.

Ahh awesome lol. Yea, I forgot about the target practice. That was fun. Make sure you introduce yourself next time.

Ya, probally shoulda. Thanks

great AAR. that game defenatly had some things it needed to improve on. i know i have been gone for a while but it was a nice site to see walk on's and newer/younger players have a ton of heart and almost no fear during that game. that was a big one for me. and the best thing about these kind of games is that it can get better next time.

DITTO!!! Good AAR Saint. Thats how I saw things. The biggest complaint i had was the paint! I used the tippman the first half of the day with my 16" carbon fiber barrel. It usually shoots straight as an arrow, but i was having to GUESS its curving just to hit a player. Second half of the day I switched to my Mag with a 16" powerlyte barrel. It was shooting better than my tippy, but i think it was better because the barrel has bore inserts to fit the ball. It still was having major curving issues.

Nice after-action report Saint, gave me a view of the field that i didn't get from behind the CP's barrier.