Wolf Creek, Star, NC  - March 22, 2008 

Wolf Creek Paintball (http://www.wolfcreekpaintball.com) is ‘presenting’ a scenario based on the 1994 Harrison Ford movie (oh yeah, it may have been a book too for those of you who do that whole reading thing. Paper books! How quaint!). What were we talking about? Oh yeah, Clear and Present Danger at Wolf Creek, 1 mile east of I-73/ hwy 220  in Star, NC. Star, NC is almost dead center of the state, so depending on where you are, there you go. The field only allows field paint, so get ready to pony up. There are no directions on the web site  to speak of (a few maps) and no information, at this time, on the scenario. There is a registration page. They were having a bit of technical difficulty with their site at the time of this writing but you could still pre-register. I interviewed field owner, Barry Lamonds, and he was very excited about the upcoming event, the new changes to the field and how they were continually improving the bunkers, buildings and experience. He expects 200-250 participants for Clear and Present Danger and given the response other fields have had with scenarios lately, they may very well get that many. I suggest you register early and show up early. You can also see their forum at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wolfcreekpaintball/

Details: 

• Fee: $25 prior to March 19th, $35 after that, registration includes all day air/CO2 and field fee
• Paintballs: $40 and up
• Game Starts: 10am
• Field Opens: 8:30am
• Phone: 910-576-1990 or 910-220-7184

I played at Children of Men at Wolf Creek last year and I have to tell you this is great field. It’s 80 some acres, heavily wooded,  has one of the best forts I’ve ever seen, a house to clear and a village. But it’s the woods that make it. The organizers last year handled the 80-100 players well, kept things organized, and even a had a medic tent  set up with a real doctor to handle real world injuries. Bring your own chairs and I would even suggest your own food and be prepared to have a great time.

New Domain Name!

We are now located at TangoAlpha².com! Originally, this blog was (and still is) at http://paintball.metheney.com, but that was a problem to spell out on the paintball field for players. Pass the word!

NC Tactical, Clemmons NC   - Mar. 1 2008

In the early 1940’s just before Battle of the Bulge the Nazi’s New their reign was coming to an end soon, some of the gold that was looted from the countries the Nazi’s concurred suddenly disappeared, along with some 3 billion counterfeited British and US notes. One of the high ranking Nazi’s ordered the gold and money to be hidden in small cache’s along with the counterfeit printing presses, when the allies got wind of this they new it was time to act and deal the Nazi’s a financial blow to help end the war.

Phase one:

• 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM
• Establish a base to house the gold and other riches
• Find the gold
• Defend your stronghold and the contents

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I was playing at X-Treme Tactical Paintball in Waxhaw this weekend (2-23-08) and learned a hard lesson of checking my equipment just before the game. Ow.

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Feb 23, 2008 -If the last few weeks at X-treme Tactical Paintball in Waxhaw was a little slow with 16-20 some players, this week made up for it. The closest field, Palmetto Hills Paintball, in Rock Hill, SC has temporarily lost their air compressor due to malfunction, so their field team and others migrated for the Waxhaw. By my count there was 30-40 players on the field at any given point. The surprise influx and constantly changing numbers of people arriving and leaving made for some longer than usual down times between games, especially if you were taken out early.

See pictures below…

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Apr. 26 - Stargate Atlantis Theme Day at Line of Fire Paintball in Mills River, NC (http://www.lofpb.com/).

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 Mar. 15 - St. Patrick / Easter Special (Easter Bunny Vs. Leprechaun) at Line of Fire Paintball in Mills River, NC (http://www.lofpb.com/).

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 X-treme Tactical Paintball located in Waxhaw, NC (http://www.woodsballgames.com) is off the beaten path to say the least, even for a paintball field. After a while, the GPS on my car told me to just go back home. But once found, I think you will really enjoy this field and its  players. X-treme Tactical boasts 24 acres of solid scenario play. No puffy inflatable X’s here guys. This is all about tricks and trees. (PLEASE wear your bright red and nylon black jump suit. I BEG you.) The field offers snacks, drinks and hot dogs for sale as well as full rental set-ups and CO2 and high pressure air. That I know of, there is no equipment store at the field, but the owner, Dan, can help you with equipment malfunctions. The field is open 10am-5pm on Saturdays and they say they are opening up now on Sundays from 1pm to 5pm. The prices are very reasonable, high pressure air is free, and you do NOT have to use field paint.

More than a business… 

 The Waxhaw field is a natural extension of their Indian Trail store. The owner, Dan, and his family are out there every Saturday and you can tell this is not just a business, but they genuinely love the game because Dan is almost always playing and hangs out and chats with players between games. Dan is a big smiling bear of guy dressed in ACU (digital army combat uniform) and he and his family clearly set the tone of field. While safety and fair play are strictly enforced, the refs are as likely to be joking with you as they are to remind you to replace your barrel cover. During a game, when my position was blown and Dan was firing at me from an impossible distance, I jokingly yelled down how he was “shooting like a little girl” and you could hear even his own team chuckle. On the other hand, he would repeatedly charge fearlessly through a storm of paintballs by himself toward a enemy bunker firing and loading and laughing.

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Why not have anything here about speedball?

Because speedballers are punks! I’m just kidding. Some of the best woodsballers I’ve seen are also speedballers. This site is about woodsball because I play woodsball, So you might say, “Paul, is that because you’re old and fat and speedball is geared more for the fast and young?” And to that I might say “Bite me.” Okay, you COULD be right. Actually that is part of it. The main reason I play woodsball is the difference between the two types of paintball. Speedball has some strategy and a lot of teamwork, but is focus on running (ergo the name “Speedball”, Captain Obvious!) and throwing tons of paint in a very short time at the other guys. Woodsball (or scenario paintball) is has running and can occasionally involve high rates of fire, but I believe it should be less about high speed and shooting fast than speedball. There is a lot of crossover. Then again it could just be that I’m fat and don’t like to run.

Key Features of SUCCESSFUL Scenario Paintball

• Strategy - planning, enemy information, execution of plan, psychological warfare
• Teamwork - communication, communication, communication, mutual respect and chain of command
• Tactics - how you assault a bunker, team formations, how you move, etc.
• Stealth - part of tactics, but important enough to rate its own category, camouflage, stalking, patience, etc.
• Aggression - fearlessness, outrageousness, keeping the enemy on the defensive, doing the unexpected, moving, moving, moving
• Firepower - not nearly as important as gun manufacturers would like you to believe but there are times when hammering the hell out of the enemy with a sustained high rate of fire doesn’t suck.

Here’s how to win at scenario paintball:    do the unexpected.

You laugh. Sounds like common sense doesn’t it. You’d be amazed at how doing something completely off the wall can impact the outcome of a game. I’ll give you an example.

Unexpected Ambush #1

This week, one of the first games we played was an ambush style game. The Green team (mine) was supposed to go out into the woods, anywhere we wanted, and lay in wait. The Blue team would then search and destroy. Or so they thought. I hate playing ambush. I would much rather be on the move and hunting than sitting still and waiting for the enemy to come to me. But it’s part of the game. I had been thinking about this particular field during the week and how much I hated to ambush and came up with a plan that was so crazy and suicidal that I volunteered myself to try it and if it didn’t work, I would be the one to take the pummeling from the other team.

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