Joe “The Emasculator” Carucci, Rob “Part 67” Carucci, and I (Doc) decided to leave a bit later than the last time we came to Liberty. We picked up Tom “Six-Four” Malone and traveled up to Liberty Paintball together, stopping for the usual good breakfast at a roadside diner before going up the mountain for the game. Despite leaving later, we still got there at about the same time as last time! Perhaps time slows down on Sunday mornings on this road. We met TJ “Crazy Legs” Hayduk and his father, Adrian “Spyda Monkie” Suarez, and Max “Bullet Time” McDermott at the parking lot and set up out new canopy for the game.
The staff had some new innovations since we were last here, including some do-it-yourself air-fill stations that never seemed to have a waiting line. They also had changed the rules a bit for the morning game, turning it into a (hopefully exciting) attack-defend scenario for both teams that would take place solely in the western town on top of the hill. The attackers would try to wrest control of a series of flags from the defenders, with the aid of tank support. The defenders were limited in their operational area, but were assisted by a minefield, a tower-mounted machine gun, and an anti-tank bazooka team. Each team would switch roles after an hour, and then after lunch the scenario would return to the whole field.
I learned from the staff that the grenade launchers I had brought would indeed be allowed in play. They also offered me the generalship of our Yellow team, but I politely declined as I wanted to stay with my team and try out the launchers.
We set up rapidly, meeting with the Un4Given Ghosts and deciding on some quick attack ideas, as Yellow would be on the offensive first. Our two teams would lead the attack from the Crypt side of the western town, while our Yellow general would lead his assault from the top of the hill in the WWII area. While setting up, we also met the Zombie Defense Force (ZDF), a great group of paintballers with whom we seemed to have much in common, not least of which was our sense of humor.
At 10:15am the horn sounded for the game. TAPs took off up the hill and began trading fire with the Blue team on the edge of the woods bordering the western town. It was difficult moving up and getting flanks on the well-dug in Blue players, and it did take us a long while, but they were receiving fire from two fronts and some holes in their defenses began to appear. With better coordination between the Yellow walk-ons and the scenario teams, we may have succeeded earlier. As it was, a rush by Lt. Em led to a surrender of several Blue players, opening up enough of the field for Yellow to begin advancing into the western town. As we pushed in, I took position on the edge of a grassy knoll out of site of the Blues, and began to rain down grenades from my launcher on them. Between that and our tank support, the Blues were pushed back further and Yellow took control of the outer perimeter of flags. We held that position for the rest of the time there, until the horn sounded for the teams to switch.
After reloading, we formed up on our general in the defensive corner. I supported his decisions to push past the flags with our fastest runners, and we took control of most of the field as the horn sounded. Em and I began hunting for tanks, and when one finally rolled around the corner, I dropped to one knee and fired the grenade launcher. The grenade burst across the top of the tank above the windshield in a direct hit, and the tank was called out.
As thrilling as that was, I suddenly found myself a distinct target whenever I began using that grenade launcher again! The Blue team seemed to zero-in on me whenever I launched another grenade, and subsequent tanks were well protected from me, although we continued to use the bazooka successfully against it as well. I was shot out twice, once while tip-toeing through our own minefield to get at another tank, but I felt the Yellow team had deployed its defenses well and Blue seemed to take a very long time to push us back on both fronts.
We stopped for lunch at about 1pm, and it was getting very hot and humid out. Em and Part 67 had brought chairs with the canopy, and the team took the time to relax underneath it and chat it up with ZDF. Mr. Hayduk had brought some very good sandwiches, and I appreciated some good conversation with him and Max. I also set up the spare launcher for Max on a Spyder Pilot for him to try out.
TAPs re-entered the game on the western town field, and began pushing forward with a few other players towards the WWII field and the ravine beyond. We met up with Blue opposition at the far corner, and a tank showed up just as we pointed out to the refs some Blue players sneaking around our flank from out-of-bounds. I tried to hit the tank again, and Em thought my second volley had fallen on it from about 25 yards, but the tank rolled in on our position and shot us out.
As Em and I walked off the field, we noticed a distinct decrease in the number of Yellow players since lunch began. We met up with the rest of TAPs and reinserted in the Crypt to attempt taking back the high ground. Despite some well-played flanks which led me and Part 67 into the woods for some well-aimed eliminations, we were once again outnumbered, surrounded, and taken out.
Reaching the staging area, the Ghosts invited me into an APC to carry a troop of Yellow players behind enemy lines. We drove back into the WWII field and found it un-occupied, and advanced to the western town fringes again. I held my position with the Ghosts for about ½ an hour, trading shots with the advancing Blues, before being taken out on a Blue rush to my left flank.
I had a break with the team and got to know ZDF better. Our own team was under the impression that not many Yellow players were left at all compared to Blue, creating a disparity that left us vastly outnumbered. We decided to give it one more go, especially as Six-Four had not yet witnessed the grenade launcher in action. We reinserted at the WWII field and advanced quickly into the western town, where Six-Four and I began giving fire support with the launcher and our markers while TAPs tried an advance. Once again, we were surrounded within minutes and taken out, most quickly from a troop of Blue players who had appeared out of nowhere behind us.
We decided to call it a day, and took a few minutes to rest before we packed up. I thanked Frank the owner of Liberty for a terrific morning game, as it was very exciting and faster paced than to what we were accustomed. We would definitely come for such an event again, and promised them another exciting game at the next Liberty outing in November. I said so-long to the Ghosts as they rolled out, and soon followed after exchanging some info with ZDF. I decided to award the Purple Target to TJ for the big candy apple on his head that he was holding an ice pack on all afternoon, and the Red Crosshair award to Lt. Em for his brave rush forward to surrender several Blue players and open up the field for us. All-in-all a pretty good paintball day with some good pay-offs and memorable moments, leaving Liberty cemented as a continued favorite field.
