Paintball x3

As the dates for the Battle for Heartbreak Ridge approached, players grew excited, the field and promotions staff prepared and travel plans were finalized. Unfortunately, the weather decided to throw the game and its attendees a curve ball and a front moved across the Northeast during the day Friday, bringing with it a low pressure zone and thick, foreboding clouds. By Friday night the rain was falling across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions and had settled in, with even the most optimistic forecasts calling for a dark, windy, cool and rainy Saturday for day one of the game, which pitted the forces of the United Nations against the Korean People’s Army for control of a critical ridgeline. While Sunday was forecast to be a gorgeous fall day with temperatures near sixty and a healthy dose of bright sunshine, the game and its players would have to slog through a muddy Saturday to earn it.

Several companies and a long list of well-known personalities came to support Barney’s latest scenario game. Famous longtime paintball players like “Mooner” and Robert “Rosie” Rose of ten-man professional team Ground Zero came to play and made their presence known along with professional player and video game legend Greg Hastings, who broke out the tiger stripe camouflage and his Autococker for the occasion. Evan Estrate, the owner of Pinokio Hoppers, brought both a vendor display and his gear and played both Saturday and Sunday using his signature high-capacity loader and, more importantly, his new 180 round pods that were the hit product of the event. Blue, of EMR Paintball fame, brought his son Deuce and a platoon of Blue’s Crew players to make their presence known at the game along with a trailer of their own. Other vendors at the game included PBSponsor.com, aiming to match players in search of sponsors with companies in search of players, and a new company to hit the scene, Skull Armor, who brought their new protective headgear and other products to the game. Chris “Doobie” DuBois of West Point brought his paintball-playing cadets to the event to handle officiating duties alongside the Paintball Sports referee staff. All of the referees at the event handled their duties with professionalism and skill.

Generals for the Battle for Heartbreak Ridge were both experienced veterans with skill sets equal to the tasks at-hand. The Korean forces were led by Sean Scott of the Smart Corps, while Eric Engler, purveyor or fine, hand-crafted mil-sim paintball markers that closely resemble some of the most popular and well-known firearms in the world, led the United Nations forces. The game began on the windy, rainy Saturday morning with an epic battle as the United Nations forces attempted, for two hours, to dislodge the Koreans from the top of their heavily defended ridgeline. As the rain had been falling for some time, the already-difficult task of taking a hill packed with enemy forces was made much worse by the mud and the difficulty of seeing clearly and shooting straight in the rain. Luckily, the paint for the game was the ever-popular and consistently high-quality Marbalizer brand with a bright yellow fill, provided by KEE Action Sports. The paint shot perfectly, flying straight and breaking consistently on targets near and far.

After probing for some time, with attacks all along the line of the ridge, the UN forces, led by Blue’s Crew, chose their right flank, nearest the staging area, to launch a major, concentrated attack. Korean General Sean Scott realized that the majority of his forces were on the far end of the ridge and quickly shifted several key players to the opposite side to meet the surging UN forces. An hour-long battle ensued, with UN forces first being pushed back, then breaking through onto the ridge, then being pushed back again. By the time the rest of the field was opened up for a more traditional game, the Koreans had jumped out to an early lead. All the while, the black market was hard at work bargaining for props and selling the skills of mercenaries to whichever side was the highest bidder. Unfortunately, the day did not end without some scary moments, as a seat malfunction caused a player riding in a tank to tumble out the back of the vehicle, where he smashed his shoulder into the rocky ground. Before long, players and referees surrounded him and emergency services were called, lining the road to the field with ambulances and police vehicles. Thankfully, the player was not seriously injured and returned to the field the next day, sore but in good spirits.

By Saturday evening the rain was coming down steadily and the Korean forces were holding onto a substantial lead. As the night progressed, the weather began to clear and the meteorologist kept his promises. Sunday morning saw the clouds blowing through, the rain long gone and the sun out, sparkling through the radiant fall leaves and boosting everyone’s spirits. While most of the players were still damp from Saturday’s festivities, they geared up with renewed vigor and took to the field. By midday, the temperature had climbed well into the fifties and the day was absolutely gorgeous. This time, the shoe was on the other foot and Sean Scott and his KPA forces stood at the bottom of the hill looking up at entrenched UN defenders. Eric Engler and Blue’s Crew were bolstered by the addition of Greg Hastings, who helped hold the hill as the first batch of KPA forces attempted to force their way up the more gently sloping left side, further away from the insertion area. Eventually though, the KPA’s strategy of using overwhelming numbers to force their way up the hill paid off, as the defenders were whittled down and pushed back from the ridgeline. It didn’t help that the UN forces had a spy in their ranks. Hercules Papadogiannis had taken on the role of a spy and, though playing for the KPA, was wearing the blue armbands of a UN player. He roamed the top of the ridge, tagging opponents, switching flags in key bases from blue to red unnoticed and even assassinating Eric Engler.

While the game appeared to be well in-hand for Sean Scott and his KPA forces for some time, it was not to be. Team-on-team showdowns on other fields on the property, most of which were won by the KPA, drew precious manpower away from Scott’s forces, allowing the UN forces still playing across the road to roam the field practically at will, seizing the KPA’s base and capturing their flag on multiple occasions. It was these battles and the capture of several critical props that turned the tide in favor of Eric Engler and his UN forces, who, by Sunday afternoon, won the game by a five hundred-point margin. After prizes and awards were given out, the attendees broke down their campsites and staging areas and headed home. Black Market War’s Battle for Heartbreak Ridge was nothing short of an outstanding game with plenty of intense action on the field marching hand-in-hand with friendship and good times in the staging area. For more information on Black Market Wars and their future games, visit their website online at www.BlackMarketWar.com

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