Eliminated Russian players were overwhelmed by the Americans during the hostage defense scenario
Here is an excerpt from an article which appears in the January, 2005 issue of Action Pursuit Games Magazine (along with lots of cool photos)...
"APL SCEN-OPS... A NEW DIMENSION IN SCENARIO GAMES"
by
Don Dennis
A sudden blaze of paintballs, and the enemy was scattered. The ambush had been successful, and not a single defender had been eliminated. It quickly became apparent that at least one opponent was down, so the clock was on! "Can you get to him? Does he have the map?" shouting and shooting, the defenders scrambled to secure their prize. Before the opposing troops could regroup around their “dying” comrade, the defenders had secured the location, and were desperately interrogating the downed enemy.
“Do you have a map or any other materials of importance?” the soldiers were yelling at the captured dying enemy. Unfortunately, there was no intelligence officer present. “No, I have nothing of importance,” was the reply. However, the dying soldier was lying. Only one person in the opposing army was capable of extracting his secret.
Abruptly, about five minutes later, the defenders' intelligence officer arrived, and immediately asked, "How much time?" "Almost ten minutes," was the answer.
Producing his military ID, the intelligence officer asked the same question of the dying enemy soldier: "Do you have a map?" Reluctantly, the enemy soldier was required to surrender his top-secret map, and so the scenario developed...
None of these paintballers had been prepared for the realism or detail of this scenario. This was a special event, and all of the participants were having the times of their lives. Special roles and missions electrified the playing field’s atmosphere. A great scenario plot and serious missions with a special twist offered opportunities for clever strategies. All of these elements came together in mid-July on over fifty acres of rolling mountainous terrain near Piney Flats, Tennessee.
The storyline for this 24-hour event involved the loss of the American "nuclear football". This top secret American briefcase contained launch codes and details of a new American "star wars" orbiting nuclear missile launch system.
Both the American and Russian Presidents know that their military ranks have been infiltrated by terrorist elements. It is known that these elements are leaching materials and support from within the ranks of each army. While the top leaders are meeting, the armies are face to face in the field and the terrorist elements are threatening to sever the fragile relationship between these powerful countries. Nuclear war threatened the horizon of hope.
There were two generals for this scenario, both of which were members of the Pukin’ Dog Scenario Paintball Team (www.pukindogspaintball.com) based out of middle Tennessee. The American general, Tony Claude with his Russian counterpart, Charles “Mothman” Cole were set into the field of action with their respective armies. Each general was given a set of orders issued by their respective supreme commander-in chief, which included an overall command order and a series of missions which were to be executed without breaks. The only time a stand down occurred was for dinner and for retirement that evening.
The command orders that were issued by both Presidents stated the best intelligence available to their respective nations. As is typical in the real world, the intelligence was somewhat flawed, so the generals did not share all of the same details. However, both generals knew that there was a double agent who was attempting to deliver the missing American nuclear football and the launch codes for the new star wars weaponry from the American side to the Russian side. The Russians were to locate and defend this agent while the Americans were trying to eliminate the threat and secure the nuclear device. All of the action was embodied into eight major missions, with points being awarded to the armies for successful completion of missions and other general objectives. The orders for each team resulted in missions that embroiled contradictory and incomplete directives.
Each general had player assignments to issue prior to the game. There needed to be at least one intelligence officer, at least one cartographer, and only one assigned sniper on each team. Each team had in their possession a partial map of the playing field. When a combatant was “killed” on the field of action, they remained still and in place for up to ten minutes, in order to be available for interrogation by an intelligence officer. After ten minutes, if an intelligence officer did not present himself, the eliminated player then moved to the rear staging area for a timed reinsertion. During the “dieing” timeframe, only the intelligence officer of the opposing army could successfully interrogate them. If the intelligence officer, during the on-field interrogation, were given a portion of the missing map, the cartographer must be found before the pieces could be assembled and deciphered.
Let’s put this into real time with an example. If a Russian soldier were shot and the hit confirmed by a nearby referee, the referee would start the ten-minute clock. The American team begins to converge on the downed combatant with their intelligence officer (this officer has to be alive and in the right position on the field to be useful). At the same time the Russian team is moving in to protect their dead or dieing, keeping the Americans away from any intelligence. Should the intelligence officer be successful in reaching the dieing soldier and displaying the proper identification, then the dieing must surrender any and all information requested by the intelligence officer. With this action complete, the eliminated soldier returns to the rear for the next opportunity of reinsertion into the game. If the intelligence officer acquires a piece of the map, then there is a need to find the cartographer. Once located, the cartographer will take the newly acquired map piece to the general for the referee to replace the old map with a more complete map of the battleground and objectives. As you can tell, the generals have a great deal of strategy and logistical concerns in coordinating all of this action. The team radios were buzzing all day long! Scenario details like these require extra work and staff, but inject an unbelievable realism into the game.
One of the Russian members arrive a little bit late to the opening game mission and the Russian general, Charles Cole, gave the latecomer, Ben Green, an open ticket to go out and create mayhem. Ben had joined the mission in its later stages and sprinted up the mountainside to try and catch up with the main body of his army. The Russian front line had stalled and Ben found himself well beyond the line when he realized that his position was nearly even with the American command center. Using stealth and high ground, he found the American general and several other American soldiers standing on the trail. His attack took out the American general and his fast retreat kept him from what would have been a certain death event. Ben later confided that he had not known that the general was his victim, “I just laid down fire, he said. I had no idea I took out the general.” Well, it was extra points for the Russians, and earned most valuable player honors for Ben!
The team member that was given the ID card as the sniper was in reality a protector and spotter for the real sniper. The real sniper was a referee! The spotter had to move the referee into position to make a visual sighting of an assigned operative within the command bunker of the opposing team. Let’s face it! It is difficult enough for a sniper and spotter who know each other to meet such an objective without thinking of taking a “noncombatant” with whom you have never worked with before into enemy territory undetected. The Russians assigned this position to Josh Fair who with his referee didn’t make much headway before taking shots due to a noisy brush area giving away their position. The Americans fared better and almost reached the Russian command bunker. Darren Clark had been assigned the sniper task for the Americans and with his referee in tow; they took a turn in the trail, running smack-dab into the remaining Russian army. The resulting firefight was short-lived, leaving the operative in the Russian command bunker alive and well. Points were scored, however, for the American team since this firefight did take out the Russian general. This turned out to be a truly wild mission exercise, which everyone enjoyed immensely. In APL scenarios, if a sniper-referee visually sights the objective, he fades away and then radios the confirmed kill to the referee nearest the objective. Without hearing any "silenced shot" the objective player is told to lie down, and the kill is announced loudly by the nearest referee.
Another favorite mission dealt with dummies dressed up for a hostage plot. Two white suits stuffed with straw were set out at each end of a very narrow valley that was covered in foliage. Each army took up positions at their respective end of the valley. The missions were to protect their hostage while concurrently converging and eliminating the hostage on the other end. The valley became covered in paint as the teams came to a choke point in the valley’s center. A stalemate ensued for a short period of time until small flanking movements from both sides allowed for improved shooting vantage points. Suddenly the Russians began to lose too many soldiers and the stalemate ended with a swarming of the American troops as they moved down the valley taking out all of the opponents and killing the dummy-dude dressed in white!
The entire scenario was just outstanding! Missions included defending roads, the location of ammunition sites, sniper penetrations, undercover operatives, hostages, tanks operated by terrorist factions (yes, there were actually three teams at times), anti-tank missile launchers, satchel charges, double agents with passwords and hidden locations, and there was even a final assault for overall body count. What more could anyone want? Towards the closing ceremony for the game, the American general, Tony Claude, was overheard saying, “…The intricacy of this scenario event has been awesome!”
The players were genuinely pleased at the conclusion of this weekend event. It is very easy to see why scenario paintball is becoming so popular. The camaraderie found in the overnight camping, the laid back atmosphere, the diverse playing fields all give a family feel to the events. The prizes are not the reason for the participation. The prizes are small in comparison to tournament events. The participation is due to the sheer fun of the event. It is the fun of playing out a creative format that has been well developed through the imaginative resources of the game’s producer. This event was promoted and produced by the American Paintball League, and was the first in a continuing APL scenario game series "Strangers Among Us."
Information about future APL scenario events will be posted on the field website:
www.paintballxs.com.
Eliminated Russian players were overwhelmed by the Americans during the hostage defense scenario
Defending American soldier, member of Pukin' Dogs Scenario Team
Scenario team Pukin' Dogs won most valuable team honors, and provided the winning cohesive energy for the Americans.
McGuire (white shirt) congratulates most valuable players (L to R) Charles Cole, Ben Green, Jordan Luckett, and Gary Webb
Bob McGuire (white shirt) with Sportsmanship winners (L to R)
Bill Graham, Scott Bowers, and Jon Clark.
LOCATION
PAINTBALL-XS
50 Acre wooded area near
Piney Flats, Tennessee
800-541-9169