Invercargill Big Game 2005

Jamie Innes - 06/02/2005
(Recordkeeping thanks to Naps, Marty & the refs)

Well I can't believe it's been a whole year, Time for the BIGGY again. Well like last year, I got a ride down from Dunners to Giggle with B2, but unlike last year... the road between the two southern cities showed a peek into what must be a bit of "high country pastime"... driving Tractors. Think Duelling Banjos by Charlie Daniel's Band, tractors... and MORE tractors. We even saw two tractors racing eachother... AND we saw the tractors on the way back too.

Anyway- enough with the tractors. There could have been a bit of a hiccup this year if the paint hadn't finally arrived. Game-on was around 10:30 on saturday, and the paint arrived about 9:00 on saturday. Do you think that's a close one? Scruff sure did :) Apart from the paint, which was Ink'd and Powerball, we had plenty of CO2 and air.

Playerwise... anything beating last year's turnout of around 25 players would be good. This year, we had 34 on saturday, and a few less on sunday. But regardless... there were more from Dunedin and more from Giggle, alas- can't say the same for cities north of Dunedin.

Organisationally, this year Scruff took a backseat and let Marty & Naps organise the games. These guys, Marty, Naps, Nemo, Jason & Tony, would be our orange vested refs... (Who STILL got shot at- you culprits know who you are) ...while we were out playing. They dispensed missions to the team leaders, and kept times and records of how the teams were doing. They also provided us this year with a well drawn up field diagram... which came in handy, and put's last year's high-tech diagram to shame.

As far as how the games went, below is a compilation of what I know happened, and what happened according to the refs. Kudos for the record keeping.

SUMMARY OF DAY ONE.

We started with 2 teams on Day 1. Vietnam scenario, the South (Silver armbands) vs the North (No armbands). The first mission of the day was to build a base (Out of provided materials), and then build a bridge and recon area. Now I must say... this was amusing. All Scruff wanted to use was use the windbreak netting and the pallet, but the instructions said we MUST use at least 10 tyres. So everybody grabbed something, and then we tramped 150m or so into the woods to build our base. We then find we only have NINE tyres... so off go the guys to get some more. By the time it was finished, it was a pretty respectable looking base, albiet small. We used a lot of felled branches to build up the walls a bit.

After both teams lost points for not building thier bridges, the next mission involved capturing a big plastic basket full of sand into your base, while this was happening... Myself, Pirate Ben and one other were defending our base against an absolute barrage of paint. Ben got the bulk of the hosing, but successfully held off the attack because he was shielded by the windbreak veil. Nevertheless it was impressive to watch, as he was getting hosed by at least 3 people firing at the same time. Elsewhere on the field firefights erupted with a LOT of paint shot.

Later, in the nest mission, we'd be told we would have to find 5 sets if "secret documents" out in the forest. Turns out they were all phone books!. Halfway through this game I was hit, and upon returning I volunteered for defending our base from a *possible* attack. Well I was there for 45 minutes with 2 other guys when finally the attack came. It was a much bigger and better conceived attack than before and wiped the 3 of us out.

The last game of the day was a chance to do some hosing into the trenches. The south had to take thier "explosives" to destroy the north's "radio equipment". The south was unsucessful. Refferees yelling "Don't shoot into the deadbox!" could be heard. This game was over fairly quick.

BEACH ROAD MOTORCAMP.

Staying here was definitely deja-vu. In a completely coincidenal twise of fate, I was assigned the exact same room I had last year, along with Brooksie and Riv. I was also one of the first of the paintballers to be assigned a cabin key, so this makes me wonder if perhaps cabin #23 is actually the worst cabin at the motorcamp... Anyway, we qued for the showers... and after that it was fish, chips and beer. Right into the evening... which meant "Big bunch of paintballers sitting outside on the cabin steps, with cabin lights on and doors open, allowing big bunch of large sized moths, dragonflys and sandflys to enter cabins and bite players".

Yes I'm itchy as hell right now because I have sustained many many bites. Oddly this wasn't much of an issue last year, however last year it was in february, and colder. NOTE TO SELF: Bring insect repellant next year. And one more thing, don't fill your drink bottle with Beach Road Motorcamp water. It's a nice muddy-brown and tastes like it too.

So after everybody finally went to bed, people were up surprisingly early for Day 2.

SUMMARY OF DAY TWO.

Day 2 started with the North defending the trenches, "The Rogue Element" were supposed to assit in assaulting the South attacking, but were fired on. At the time it seemed like a breakdown in communication.

Next, the silver team got the opportunity to defend the ho-chi-minh trail. The "Rogue Element" were again present. The Silver team (South) last year had attacked it. This time however, as the North team had to cross over the bridges (marked sections on the fenceline) in order to capture the designated trail "center-point". For the most part, the south was too well fortified for the north to get over the fence and attack, but the spanner in the works was the Rogue Element team who could go anywhere... vaulting over the fence and attacking the south from the sides and behind.

This game gave me the opportunity to show-off the distance of the flatline barrel, while shooting from the trail, and from the corner of the field- shooting over the corner of the MOAT field. My complacency was my undoing however by a single rogue longball which clippped me on my kneecap which was sticking out from the tree I was hiding behind. This is by far the luckiest shot I have ever seen... and the shooter should be proud. It was a distance of about 50-60 meters, and it was a single shot (the kind you shoot just to use as a tracer round) through some tree branches, which hit a tiny target (my kneecap sticking out). It goes to show you ARE NEVER safe.

This game was also when Scruff brought out two "master mines", activated by a tripwire and powered by a 12gram. One was detonated, the other wasn't. Both were placed on either side of one of the bridges. Definitely a nifty gadget to have placed in a key position. The only other thing really worth mentioning was the quantity of stinging nettle around certain parts of the field. Several players got caught up in it, and it proved nasty to move through. Much worse than gorse.

After lunch the Rogue Element was disbanded, and joined the other teams (along with the Refs) for another trench war. There was another game planned, which was cancelled because some "construction guy" was out on the ho-chi-minh with a digger. Anyway... the south defended while the North attacked. A good old fashioned attack and defend which was a solid hour of firefights. The treebark changed colour from brown to blue. This marked the end of the games with the South slightly ahead on points, 440-400. Not that that matters :) a few played speedball afterwards to use up thier paint.

PARTING THOUGHTS.

Well what can I say, some more great games. Damn those trenches ROCK. Organisationally, things were a bit different this year, which for the mostpart was excellent... but no big game is ever perfect. The maps were a fantastic addition and the the Rogue Element was a novel idea.

The refs were a great on-field presence. They administrated the game (on-field) without much interference... the players could ask them questions, and the players didn't shoot at them, much... Also, on both days Donella & the ladies cooked up a BBQ! Let me just say, the steak was awesome, I had a steak sandwich both days. Alas Scruffy the dog couldnt get any despite his consistent begging.

Jamie Innes