The following is an After-Action report taken from the Red Raiders Paintball Site, and written by Mercenary42.  The Red Raiders were company commanders for the Red Team at the High Velocity Scenario Game “We Were Soldiers”, in which Stitch and Doc took part as members of Charlie Company against the Blue Team.  We look forward to our next game, “Operation Frostfire” at the High Velocity outdoor field on January 21st, 2007!

 
This event at HV II had one major change; the Western Town was now in play.  Considering that there was over 500 paintball players at this event, it was a very good thing.  If you were at or read about HV II When Trumps Fade, then you know that the Red team did not do very well.  The Red Raiders were there, but with only four of us, there was little we could do to help overall.

With three months to prepare some members of the Red Raiders worked with the Loaded Crows to help turn things around.  We came up with three plans called "Plan A", "Plan B" and "Plan C".  I am not at liberty to discus these plans, but they all did help in our final victory.

I arrived at 7:30 am to find almost no one there except Dave from the Loaded Crows.  He was the General of the Red Team for this event.  He asked me what I thought.  I said, "Dave, our plans are sound, it all now comes down to the execution."  I left him and started to walk the field.  I did not get a chance to do this the last time I was here and I did not want to make the same mistake.

In our planning I was asked to co-lead a small group of walk-on players.  At When Trumps Fade, we had a lot of new players walk off the field due to heat and interference.  The longer we could keep them on, the better it would go for the Reds.  My secondary role was to keep control of the woods.  In short, both tasks went very well.

I spent the whole morning fighting in the woods. IDF and I lead up the 15 man crew of Charlie Company which included 3 of Evan’s kids. When the horn sounded, Alpha Company blazed a path in front of us and I just told Charlie Company to fill in behind.  Once we got into position I saw that we held the X flag near the Air Field and the one in the Woods and never lost them in the morning.  We also held the hill in the woods that overlooked the trenches.  With the hill, it enabled us to hold the flag in the trenches for most of the morning.  Holding three of the four flags in the morning gave us a lot of points.  The only Flag that we never got was the WW II flag.

I saw that the Red line stalled near the hill in the woods. We made repeated attempts to move up to and beyond a berm that was in front of us but to avail. There were just too many Blue reserves to go beyond that point.  In the end it did not matter because we held  three of the flags and that was all we needed to do.  The Blue team held most of the Western Town in the morning, but since it had no flag, it did not matter much.  The rest of the Red Raiders either helped hold the trench flag or kept the Blues from getting the whole Western Town.

In the afternoon we all started in the Western Town, but this time we started off with the WW II flag and the Blue team started with the X flag near the Air Field. I started with Charlie Company, but soon lost them. I had one thought in mind, get to the hill in the woods, but it was not to be. By the time I got near the hill I got shot and had to reinsert. By the time I got back, we did not have the hill. I rallied troops near the berm, and started them snap shooting. I decided to jump over the berm to see if I could get to a jeep and move forward. I was met by a hail of paint and of course need to reinsert. At this point, Blue held the X and Woods flags.  We the Reds had the WW II flag and the trenches were neutral. Most of the afternoon was spent trying to get that hill. Even with the Red Raiders in the woods, the hill was just too tough to crack.

In one of my many trips from the reinsertion point to the Woods, I could see a ray of hope.  The Red team had such a good hold on the Western Town, that they were able to pour fire into the trenches.  This led us to getting and holding the trench flag for a good amount of time.  If we could just hold two flags, then victory would be ours.  

The battle went back and forth and in the late afternoon, things began to look bad.  During one of my insertions, I found out that we lost the trenches and most of the woods.  We tried to take back the trenches, but without the woods (and its hill overlooking the trenches), it was hopeless.  A small band of Reds finally stopped the Blue advance in the woods.  Elements of the Red Raiders and other good scenario teams showed up in the woods and started pushing back.  It was a long hard fight, but we finally got the hill.

With the hill captured, it was easy to push the remaining Blue players out of the trenches.  With only 10 minutes left in the event, the Red team made a bold move to capture the woods and the X flags beyond.  Just before the Reds were able to take both flags, the horn sounded.

So in the end, the Red Raiders helped the Red team at HV II WWS win a victory over the Blues.  It was a lot of fun and we hope to see more of you at one of these events next year.