Tochi's Hut

Inter-team paintball battle at Wasaga Beach on Friday afternoon.  The numerous scrimmages over the year have boiled down to this... one... final... showdown.  A shootout till the last man standing.  Whose standard will remain flying at day's end?

The last time I went paintballing was back in Cornell.  That time, I had a really bad experience where someone snuck up on me while I was sniping in the prone position; I had no claymores.

This time, we were at one of Canada's largest outdoor paintball centers, so I was really looking forward to checking out their facilities.  Our special forces infantry unit totaled seven members.  Intel briefed us that the hostile team numbered six.  We were the only teams doing battle at the center today, so we were able to relax some of the gas mask rules and could pick any field we wanted.

The first map was fittingly named Junkyard.  Each team had a school bus.  The objective was to cross the junkyard, reach the enemy school bus to neutralize and cap it.  We decided to have one person guard the bus, while the remaining six split up into three teams to attack left, right and middle.  KS and I took the right.  Five minutes into the battle, I came into the following scenario. 

Essentially, I was exchanging fire with hostile 1, while my partner was exchanging fire with Hostile 2.   After a few minutes of attrition, I signaled to my partner I was going to sneak up onto hostile 1,  who was behind a waist high wall.  My partner provided some cover fire while I made my move.  I got to my target position, reached up and over.  I yelled "Mercy!", since he was only a foot away.  Hostile 1 was so shocked to see me, he turned around to duck.  Out of instinct, I pegged him 3 shots on the arse.  (Some funny conversations ensued after the battle).  Unfortunately, hostile 2 had noticed my movement.  As I got back down behind the wall, he nailed me with a shot right in the chest.  I was a bit stunned.  I NEED A MEDIC!!!!!! MEDIC!!!!!  Good thing we were each given a camouflage jacket to wear, which took the blunt of the blow.  I slowly crawled my way off the field.   In hindsight, I should have never made such a risky move up the middle.  However, the coolness factor of pulling it off was too enticing that I had to try.  Eventually, my team managed to get to enemy school bus and take the match.  During the match, CK exclaimed after getting hit in the forehead (on the helmet), "Did I get any in my hair?!?!?!"  He was sooo serious too.   The rest of us just dropped down laughing.

Second map was (Dragon) Valley.  Each team controlled a bunker with the valley in between.  Goal was capture enemy flag.  I was in charge of guarding the bunker and our flag.  My team was so good that I did not get to shoot at anyone the entire game.  In five minutes, we were able to take out all the enemy forces.   I just took target practice on some trees to pass time.

Third map was pretty interesting.  Scenario is that a friendly chopper was shot down in hostile territory.  Our team was deployed to rescue our chopper pilot, who landed close to an enemy bunker!!  We had to rescue our chopper pilot (i.e. walk up and touch him), and deliver him safely to a rendezvous point, without getting him killed.

We were scratching our heads for a bit as we planned our rescue mission.  If we get into a fire fight with the enemy around the chopper, it would be really difficult to extract our pilot.  The cockpit was essentially a shell with wide loading bays, which exposed it to open fire.  We ended up deciding that the enemy bunker (top left) was about the same distance to the chopper as our drop zone (bottom left).  We would send two guys sprinting to the chopper to perform the extraction, while the rest of the team will set up a perimeter on the rendezvous side to provide cover after extraction.  Needless to say, the enemy was not expecting such quick action, and by the time we got engaged, our pilot was safely behind our line of defense.  It was still a bit dangerous having our pilot dodge between the houses, but mission was a success.

Fourth map involved a Wild Wild West setting.  Two lines of houses with a center avenue through, which led up to a Church.  One team started at water tower on the top right.  Yes, you can snipe from the top of water tower.   Other team started on the bottom left in a mini house.  This field was smaller than all the previous ones, which fitted better with our numbers.  Ended up playing this one a few times.  Now, with houses on both sides, it would be really reckless if you traveled up the main street, taking potential fire from both sides.  So the battles on this field were mainly fought behind the houses, away from the street.  In one of the rounds, we had the following scenario.  Three enemy forces were spotted - one in the water tower and two in the top house.  My team of three was stuck behind the bottom house.  We couldn't move up given the heavy fire.   So, we made a quick plan.  My two teammates would draw their fire, while I sneak up the main street to the top house, and flank them through the windows.   The four F's in action.  The plan worked perfectly!!  When the two guys in the house were engaging my comrades, I popped up through the window and pegged them both with a few shots.  It felt awesome hearing "Who the F*k got us?!?!".  Then came the part with the water tower.  There wasn't anything we could do to take out the guy at the top.  Only one way up the tower and that would be suicide.  We couldn't get a good shot at the guy from below.  What I won't do for a GRENADE right now.  The three of us had no idea how to get the guy down. All of a sudden, we hear "I'm dead! I'm dead!" from the tower.  We were like... wtf.  He yells down, "I'm out of ammo!!!" lol.

Speaking of ammo, paintball ammo is so expensive. $140 for 2000 "bullets".  We each spent $30 just on ammo.  Some people tend to have poor accuracy and waste more ammo than others.  sigh.

Fifth map we played on was a Warlords map, where one team had to defend a two story mansion, while the other team attacked.  Objective for attacking team is to knock over a big blue barrel in front of the house (it was out in the open).  We were the attackers this time.  Man, trying to take a fortified enemy position is tough.  We managed to get 5 of us up to the closest set of barricades before the barrel.  The enemy knew where we were, and we knew where they were.  We picked one guy to attempt the barrel run, while the other four provided cover fire.  As we popped up over the barricades, three of us were gunned down almost immediately, including our runner, who didn't even make it halfway to the barrel.  One of our remaining guys decided to dash for the barrel, managed to draw some intense fire but was able to knock down the barrel all in one go.  We did not know if he got hit before the barrel or after.  But the story is, these brave barrel tippers were subjected to open fire from 5 enemy troops.  Paintball on naked flesh does not look or feel good at all.  You get a ring-like bullet wound just the size of one paintball.  The wounds were bleeding too.  >_<

Sixth map was called Ridge Runner.  Two hills were separated by a valley.  Each team had a bunker on the back side of the hills.  Object is Capture the Flag.  My team had no idea where the enemy bunker was.  All we were told is to go over the hill and head north.  We were also down a man now, since two of my teammates had to leave early.  5 vs 6.  We decided to split into 2 and 3, and go on the offense.  We climbed over our hill, and couldn't see anyone in the valley or opposite hill.   We raced down to the bottom of the valley and climbed halfway up before the enemy came over the top of their hill.  The situation was rather bad.   I was in the team of three, and we were fixed by heavy fire coming up from the top.  Since the situation was so dire, I decided to retreat back down to the valley, run east for twenty feet before cutting back uphill.  There were some big trees there for cover, so hopefully, the enemy won't be able to spot me.  As it turns out, the enemy was so pre-occupied with fixing my two partners, that I managed to sneak up behind them to within 10 feet.  Two easy kills for me.   Our team of three continued up the hill, and saw that there were two guys guarding the back of the bunker.  Since we had the optimal vantage position from the top, we sneaked along the ridge till we got behind the bunker.  From that point, it was just simple, aim and spray!  I ended up with 4 kills, and our team didn't take a single death!  Pure Ownage.

Last map was tank warfare.  Essentially, you had to race to the center of the map to get a stick of dynamite , which you then had to toss into the enemy tanks to "destroy them".  Each side gets two tanks (actually an APC and a tank).  It ended up being trench warfare and we just forgot about the stupid dynamite and made it a free-for-all, to waste our remaining ammo.  One great moment was when PT and I were advancing up the field, this enemy jumped out of his tank.  PT and I both nailed him in the head, one on the goggles, one through the mouth guard.  He had chunks of paintball in his mouth!  Lol, he told us it did not taste good.

Overall, a very fun afternoon off.  Aside from the shot in the chest, I escaped with just a few shots in the tights and arms.  Nothing serious.  Bunny hopping doesn't work too well, but flanking definitely does.  The lack of mini maps and communication between teammates make it uber simple to sneak up on people.  Finished up with some dinner at Moose Winooski's and some drinks afterwards in Barrie.