Mix 220+ testosterone-filled combatants, high tech weapons and a drug-running, politically-charged scenario and what do you get? Well, it ain’t exactly an episode of American Idol! You get a fun-filled day of role playing paintball at Wolf Creek Paintball field for their first independent scenario, Clear and Present Danger. Based on the Harrison Ford movie and Tom Clancy book, Saturday, March 22nd, saw most of the North Carolina paintball teams descend on Star, NC for one of the best local area games around. Click “Read More” below to read a review of the scenario, a recap of Temporary Team Tango Alpha2’s experience, and suggestions on how we would have improved this already great day of paintball.

Pre-Pre-Registration
The actual game play started at about 10:30am (a half hour later than the published time, but not unusual for a competition this size).  The field officially opened at 8:30, but when the Tango Alpha Temporary Team arrived at 8:15, the parking lot was already pretty well filled up and to their credit, the organizers were already processing players.  A team or two had actually camped at the field overnight and given the upper 30’s/low-40’s temperature at 8am, this showed more intestinal fortitude than good sense. More power to them. I love this game, but waking up on the ice cold ground as a Camo-sicle is not my idea of fun. I saw some these guys and “spooning for warmth” was out of the question!

 What Do You Mean “TOO Successful?”
According to the owners of Wolf Creek, they had pre-registered almost two thirds of the players in the 72 hours just prior to the game, far exceeding their (and our) expectations for their  first independently produced game (especially given it was on a holiday weekend). This meant some very last minute assistance from friends and business associates to beg and borrow additional CO²tanks and help to accommodate the extra players and from an outside perspective everything went off seemlessly and without a hitch.

The presence and support of Ferg and company from Command Decisions Paintball (in Taylorsville) was felt and appreciated, while kept understated and behind the scenes. Ferg did manage to play the role of Top Spy and dressed as a CIA/DEA/Blues Brother and strolled around in a sea of camouflage providing disinformation to anyone who would trust him.

In an interview (all while he helped fill compressed air tanks, supervise referees and coordinate customer service), one of the owners, Barry Lamonds, said that unknown to most customers, that the field, game and their expansion plans had to also overcome the additional issue of the recent killer storms that had ripped through central NC tearing down buildings, structures and their new construction. Again to the credit of Wolf Creek and their staff, the storm damage and its effects on the scenario were almost completely transparent.

Line Up, Sign Up and Chrono!
 While there was a pretty good line to pick up your registration, the sign up and chronograph process went amazingly quickly and was well organized. The scenario was to be organized into three “armies”; U.S. Special Forces, the Colombian Government, and the Colombian Drug Cartel.  Of course, Temp Team Tango signed up for the Drug Cartel. “Better living through Chemistry” has always been our motto. A scary moment was when we signed in, the U.S. Specials Forces and Colombian Govt teams were full pages long, and we were the only three names on the Drug Cartel list. Hey! we are always up for a challenge! Our list filled up quickly as registration proceeded (you expected drug dealers to be early risers?!?) Again, Wolf Creek stepped up to make the experience better by providing full color field maps to everyone.

 Intense!
Throughout the day, the battles were fierce and easy to find. You never quite knew which team you were in league with and that actually added to some of the fun. The field is so big that you can wear yourself out humping from one mission to the next, but firefights were never hard to find. In fact, the action was so constantly intense I never had time to get many action photos. Check out Jason’s Strictly Scenario blog at http://splatmagazine.com/strictly-scenario-blog/ for some great action photos of the event. Teams involved at the game (I only got some of the names, so if we missed you or misnamed you, let me know) were: Phantom Recon Ops (P.R.O), Rogue Cell, Boxer team, Black River Wolverines (where can I can get some of those red shoes?), Black Knights, O.D.X. from Command Decisions, SeaBees (great masks guys!) and others.

The End Game
The final battle started about 4pm and consisted of the U.S. Special Forces and the Colombian Army attacking our hill top Cartel headquarters. But not together. The U.S. troops overran the lightly guarded Colombian HQ and then proceeded to pinthe Colombians between their troops and our defensive perimeter. All I know is that the 140+ troops surging toward our position looked like a waterfall of camouflage flowing off the opposing hill as it rushed toward us in a torrent of paint, orange smoke and more paint. I had taken a forward defensive position with the members of Phantom Recon Ops (whom I had played with a great deal before) and we were eventually overrun in what I can only describe as a solid wall of paintballs.  The rest of Team Tango had taken various positions  at key positions in order to maintain better radio communications with each section. They lasted longer than we did and successfully held the hill long enough to win the entire scenario. According to “Sarge” (of Wolf Creek), had the battle lasted another 30 seconds, it would have gone entirely differently. Thank God for his stopwatch. We won on points, mostly by completing every one of our ‘drug-running’ missions and defending our HQ to the last possible second. No one was more surpised than us!

Barry, Sarge and the staff ended the day with the customary raffle of door prizes. Typically, pod harnesses, helmets bags and generally nice prizes. Two notable ones were the grand prize of a tactical vest and the award for the youngest player wen to 8-year-old Aaron who picked up a brand new BT marker that the box was almost bigger than he was. I think he was a little overwhelmed and in shock with winning and the accompanying pohotos, but you can bet he will be a paintball player for life now!

Wrap Up
 All in all, I thought it was a great scenario game. I think everyone had a great time. The weather was fantastic and the entire production ran smoothly and efficiently. Barry and company went out of their way to make sure everyone had a fun and safe adventure and at the end of the day, that’s what counts.  Check out some of our other articles related to this scenario and stay tuned for a review of the Wolf Creek field in detail in the coming days.