Joe “The Emasculator” Carucci and I (Doc) drove up in caravan with Tom “Six-Four” Malone and his son Damon (“Scalpel”) at about 6am, and reached Liberty Paintball at 8am after stopping off for breakfast. We met up with Bobby “Diesel” Nolan, Frank “Renegade” Washer, Max “Bullet Time” McDermott, and Max’s friend William “Crazy Will” Copperman. It already looked like a good TAPs gathering for the day, and the rest of the ERSA was also pulling in to join us. We had Aaron (“Yukon”), Dave (“Tenacious D”), and Jason (“Stiffmeister”) and the rest of the Loaded Crows. Patrick (“Warhammer”), George (“Merc42”) and Brendan (“Scarecrow”) were present with more fellow Red Raiders, and Andrew ("Blade"), Jeff ("Un4Given42"), and Jermaine ("The Bronx Bomber") of the Un4given Ghosts had joined us as well. Yukon in particular was sporting a formidable Tippman 98 modded into a beautiful wooden rifle stock.
After thawing out our fingers, we registered and set up our gear. I set up Diesel and Scalpel with new radio sets too. Warhammer came over after we were finished and informed me we still needed a general for the Yellow Team against Blue today. Both of us thought of Yukon immediately, and I volunteered to be his XO so that I could still hang in front and attack the tanks and APC’s without worrying about losing points. Yukon agreed, and the three of us began walking the field, reviewing the scenario rules and forming our plans of attack and defense.
The scenario was similar to last game’s in September, with an “attack/defend” trade off in the upper town for the morning, followed by a game on the entire field in the afternoon. We would be attacking first. Yukon and I rallied the Yellow team after everyone was registered, and everyone got psyched to begin.
When the horn sounded, Yukon and I led a two-pronged attack against the Blues. The Yellow walk-on players were excellent in staying coordinated with the ERSA in their press forward. I was shot out once—Blue had quite a few talented long-ballers on their side!—but soon joined the Crypt squad in beginning their push forward. Yukon and I heard our tank were putting a lot of pressure on them as well, until the tank suddenly changed sides! I guess it was because they felt it was one-sided against the Blue team. We were soon getting pelted, and I joined a squad in attacking it with grenades. The tank shot me out during this attack, and as I joined Merc in getting ready to reinsert the horn sounded for the two teams to switch. We were up by over 800 points in holding the Blue’s flags.
It was beginning to warm up, and we took off a few layers as we got refilled on paint and air for our turn to defend the town. We rallied the Yellow team again, and I asked a group of Yellow players who had grenades to join me and Em in forming an anti-tank squad.
When the horn sounded again, Yukon’s runners took off to the end of the field while I held our squad back. We soon were dug in on the outer perimeter, and were holding the Blue team back very successfully. Whenever a tank appeared, I let loose my squad. To their credit, they always waited until the tank appeared, and then buddied up and covered each other while they tossed grenades at the tank. The rest of the Yellow team held their lines, and as a result the tank and APC were never a burden on us as we held our positions. Our defense worked perfectly with our second defense line on the Crypt side—the only drawback of the morning I could see was Yukon getting shot in the nads.
At lunch the score was Yellow 820, Blue zero. We took a quick break and got some food, then geared up for the afternoon. It looked like TAPs was having a lot of fun, and I appreciated how well they were all getting along. Tom and Damon, unfortunately, were having a few problems with their markers and were leaving early. They would be sorely missed in the afternoon game.
Our command post was in the Crypt, with the Blues opposite us on the other side of the field, and several neutral flags to capture in between. Yukon led his squad down from the Crypt towards the Blue command post while I led my squad across the town looking for Blues and tanks.
As we began the afternoon game, we learned that in order to even things up a large group of Yellow members were brought over to the Blue side, and Blue was given nearly unlimited tank support. The Yellow walk-ons were a little discouraged by this, especially after we were driven back from the town by the advancing Blue team. The tanks didn’t strike me as a problem as a quick grenade hit would usually take them out quickly, but the Blue team began to coordinate their fire and use the tanks as protection, and quickly gained the upper hand advancing up the field. Yukon was meanwhile being driven back from the Blue’s command post to our own. Soon we lost our command post, and Yellow was trapped at our insertion point, the sun in our eyes as we fired up the Crypt’s steep hill at the Blue team. Blue then boldly attacked us on two fronts, coming up on our rear and trapping us in a narrow valley about 150 yards long. Only our cover was protecting us. I joined Warhammer in his defense line where he was rallying Yellow members up the hill towards the Crypt, while the Crows organized a defense behind us. Warhammer and I kept pegging away at them until I ran out of paint, then I started launching Scepter grenades at them until I was shot out.
After I reinserted, Yukon and I conferred. We understood we would get no tank support here, but he suggested an APC run if we ever managed to get one. Scarecrow and I rounded up some ERSA and walk-on volunteers and sat on the van until it was available to us. We rode the APC about 30 yards past the Blue’s offensive line, behind their territory, and managed to ease some of the pressure off our backdoor before they took us out. I lost sight of Scarecrow as I walked back to reinsert, but joined up with him again as the sun began to set and we could finally see the Blues on top of the hill in the Crypt again.
To the Yellow team walk-on’s credit, none of them had left us or gotten too discouraged, and I had to smile as I watched them now organizing their own little offensives. Scarecrow, Bullet Time and I led one group up one side of the hill while a bunch more took the other, and the Blues were whittled down until we took back not only our own command post, but the whole town as well. We then wiped them out at the top of the ravine, taking out one of their APC runs with grenades, then Scarecrow and I began double-timing it back down the ravine behind their base, trying to take it before the horn sounded. We almost made it too, then the horn sounded the end of the game, but our last minute offensive made all the difference.
The Yellow team had come out ahead, something like 930 to 630. Blue had held quite a few flags in the afternoon, but even with the odds stacked against us, the ERSA and the walk-on players had worked very well together. Our offensive and defensive efforts in the morning and our tenacity and resolve in the afternoon added up to an exhilarating win. I felt this was one of the best bunch of walk-on players I had ever played alongside, and the ERSA was at the top of its form with its skill, teamwork, and encouragement.
A special thanks to Liberty Paintball and the Blue team for a great game, and to the Yellow team and especially to my fellow TAPs and ERSA members for a job well done and a fantastic win. I look forward to what the ERSA will continue to accomplish in the future!
