Battlefield Blanding '08

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Battlefield Blanding '08 - Red Vs Blue

Written by Administrator

Monday, 29 December 2008 10:21

By Dale Ford/ Photos by Dale Ford, Jamie Ford, and Christina Carmona

Camp Blanding's MOUT Facility near Keystone Heights, FL is one of the US Army's facilities used for training soldiers how to fight in a city setting. The Army regularly leases out the facility to paintball producers who want to put on a game at a premier facility. MXS, Viper, Andy Van Der Plaats, and Billy Smith of LCP Scenarios have all put games on at the storied facilty.

The game's primary purpose was as a fundraiser for Juliana Wetmore, a child born in 2003 with Treacher Collins Syndrome, which means little Juliana was born missing 30-40% of the bones in her face, including eye sockets and upper jaw. Now 5 years old, Juliana has undergone over 20 surgeries in an effort to build a face for her. Proceeds from Battlefield Blanding were earmarked to go to a fund set up for the child.

Battlefield Blanding was a cooperative effort between NAWL's Joe Moffo and LCP's Billy Smith. The game was a mix of Big Game and Scenario play, with special missions handed out at random to the generals on either side. Another change from the norm is that the Red and Blue sides were both 'good' guys, competing against each other to crown their general the “King of Blanding”. The winner would hold the title for a year, with the option to defend his title in 2009.

Teams Red and Blue are both paramilitary, counter-terrorist groups charged with defending their countries against terrorists. This made for a relatively simple storyline, but with the mix of Big Game and true Scenario Play in the game, players could do whatever they liked and still contribute to their side's progress in winning the game. 15 flags were placed on buildings in MOUT City, and the side holding that particular building would move their flag into position to indicate they had control of it. Referees would check every hour to determine who controlled which buildings in town and award points to the opposing sides. For those who want to get into MOUT City and fight tooth-and-nail all day long, controlling buildings was the way to get points for their team.

Every hour a mission was called out to the opposing Generals, which gave scenario players a chance to complete them and move the storyline along as well as get crucial points for their side. Missions included talking to bad guys like Obama YoMama and Achmed the Dead Terrorist, and getting props put out on the field like explosives and money, while avoiding R.I.S.U. Guns, which are Remote Infrared Sentry Units.

The R.I.S.U. Guns as well as the rest of the props for this game were provided by Jacksonville, FL-based Paintball Props Store (www.paintballpropsstore.com). These remotely controlled sentry guns used either one or two paintball markers mounted on stands that gave the operator control of the marker (s) to shoot at players or they could be put into a fully automatic mode that had the R.I.S.U. Guns (nicknamed AutoGuns by players) engage targets as they were detected by it's IR sensor. Paintball Props Store also supplied Achmed's Suicide Vest as well as IED's and a Nuclear Missile.

Paint for this event was provided by Low Country Paintball's Billy Smith. Manufactured by ProCaps to the specific Blanding Standards, the concrete gray paint is a requirement for putting a game on at Blanding. The game was written by “Georgia” Joe Hamilton.

The safety briefing was handled by Billy Smith, starting at 10AM with an introduction to why this game was being put on. Then game specific rules were announced. There were several tanks in attendance, which required tank walkers to be with them at all times. At the beginning of the game, 2 LAW Rocket cards are given to the generals to issue to LAW Rocketeers. During the course of the game, the commanders have the option to buy three more LAW cards using game points. There were no medics in this game.

At 11:00AM the game started, and the Red Team made a massive push into MOUT City and through the woods portion of the field. The Blue side was lagging a bit in getting players on the field, but mounted a credible defense of their base, preventing Red from blowing their base within a few minutes of game start.

As the day wore on, both sides started getting their mission teams on the field to complete the various missions given to them, including defusing bombs, talking to terrorists like Obama Yomomma and Achmed the suicide vest wearing terrorist, and dealing with diplomats and bankers, who had the habit of showing up right in the middle of a firefight and encouraging players to come and talk to them or get them for a meeting.

At 5:30 PM, the dinner battle was called. This mission had both teams fighting for control of a pole with both a red and blue light on it. The team that had the light turned to their color by 6PM would win the final battle. Red won this battle, giving them a slight lead going into night play. During the dinner break, everyone got some food, re-hydrated, and re-chronographed their markers down to 250 feet per second. During night play, all hits count, whether or not the paintball broke. No tanks were on-field, nor were LAW rockets.

Night play started at 7:00 PM, and one of the first missions was for Red to rescue a downed pilot and his RIO (radar intercept officer) out in the woods. By this time it had gotten dark, which made the Blue team's job of killing the pilot and his RIO a bit easier, until they came to the disagreeable discovery that the pilot was heavily armed and willing to fight tooth-and-nail to protect himself and his RIO. Despite taking relatively heavy losses from one opposing player, one of the more stealthy members of the Blue team got behind the pilot and took him out, giving them the mission points.

Night play ended around midnight, and at the end of night play Blue had taken the lead back from Red.

Sunday play started at 8 AM, and both teams hit the field running, continuing the fight for control of MOUT City. While Red enjoyed an early lead for control of the town on Saturday, by Sunday morning both sides had about the same amount of territory in MOUT City, but that didn't stop them from fighting over every square foot of the town to the last man. Buildings had to be cleared room by room and the fighting was vicious.

The mission teams still were hard at work, rescuing a 'wounded' player (represented by a dummy) using a stretcher right in the middle of the urban fighting in MOUT City. The Bankers were back out, using the promise of cash money to lure Pro Players Bea Youngs and Mike Paxson to come and get the money, all the while fighting off buildings teeming with opposing players. Several run-throughs later, the building was cleared, and Paxson got the cash from the banker, who as a bit worse for wear for standing in the middle of a firefight.

At 11AM, the game was stood down again, so that players and command staff could prepare for the final battle. The final battle was the same as the previous day's dinner battle, but instead of being only a half hour long, it'd be a full hour long. Again, no tanks nor LAW rockets were allowed, this would be a marker-and-player only final battle. The light pole was again set up in a clearing equidistant between the two bases and far enough away from MOUT City that holding buildings would do the players no good.

A typical scenario game player uses 1.7 cases of paint during the course of an event. At this event, the final number was 2.9. The final battle in particular was an amazing show of flying paintballs, with literal clouds of paint flying in the air between the opposing sides as they sent runners forward to switch the light to their color. Blue got to the pole early and switched it to their color, and never allowed a red player forward to change it. Blue won the final battle handily. While several red players braved the storm of paint to get to the pole, none actually ever made it to the pole as a live player. The referees did an amazing job officiating one of the more chaotic final battles in history.

After the final horn, everyone came off field and gathered their camp chairs to participate in the auction for Juliana and to hear “Georgia” Joe Hamilton's verdict on who won the game. First the commanders for both sides came up to make their awards for deserving players on their side:

For Red, Todd Coulter of TechT Paintball

X.O.: Russel Brinson

Most Valuable Player: Gary Hallam

Most Valuable Team: Gun Kings

Young Gun: John Edens, Jr.

Best Demolitions: Glen Weldon

Best Tank: Southern Discomfort

Sportsmanship: Kris Bradley

For Blue, Joseph :Sideshow” Holleran of Team IYAOYAS

X.O.: Dale "Rattpack" Surratt of IYAOYAS

Most Valuable Player: Clay Wells

Most Valuable Team: Anti Heroes

Young Gun: Rayburn Molkey

Best Demolitions: Brian Owens

Best Tank: Team Pain

Sportsmanship: The Little Girls

After the commanders were finished, the winner of the DYE DM8 Raffle was announced, and special mention was given to Mr. Howard Gilbert, a MOUT Veteran and at 82 years old, the WWII veteran was the oldest player at the game.

Battlefield Blanding was thrown to help out a Juliana Wetmore, a wonderful little girl fighting deformities. With the money raised over the weekend, it's hoped that it'll be put to good use helping her lead a normal life.

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