Attack the Fort

Today turned into a great day for paintball - we'd been a bit worried about it after the rain on Saturday, but by late afternoon, the clouds broke and a cold night turned into a wonderful day.

Our defense strategy was going to be pretty basic. We knew we would have about 40-50 players on our side, so we figured to keep the bulk of our group in the fort, sending out a couple of strike teams. I almost missed my opportunity to get on one of the strike teams, but Raptor gladly made a spot for me when I volunteered. I knew I didn't want to sit in the Fort and wait for the action, I wanted to get out and meet it head on. A decision I almost came to regret later.

Lynx, one of our best runners was given a radio and at the start of the game was to head straight for the archery trail. Alpha and Bravo teams, 5 men each, headed for the tommy-gun bunker to wait for intel. Our job was to search out any advance groups from Farmland and hit them head on.

We didn't have to wait long, Lynx radioed that Farmland had indeed sent a group down the back trail towards the deer stand as we figured they would. Her orders were clear, do not engage unless engaged. The closer we could get them towards the deer stand, the better we would be. That corner is a natural bottleneck, perfect for an ambush.

Raptor led Alpha, along with myself, Snake, Viper and Wolverine. Raptor and Snake took point, Viper and Wolverine rear, with me at mid… as we approached the deer stand, Raptor and Snake rounded the back corner, immediately engaging about 25-30 Farmland players, and a tank. Viper and Wolverine took to the top of the black powder ridge. I was working my way through the brush at the bottom of ridge the trying to get into position to get a clear shot when suddenly the rest of my squad started going down… and before I knew it, all four of them were hit.

More than a few expletives ran through my mind as I debated on what to do. I figured there were at least a dozen men with a tank about to come around the corner, ready to just light me up. Ok, I had some success just a couple nights ago taking up sniper position under some pine trees in a small game we played, I could fall back down the trail towards Horseshoe lake, there's lots of pines there, I'll find one with a view of the trail and try and pick a few off before I'm over-run. Suicide, sure, but I should be able to take a couple with me. Right?

I dashed back the trail, looking for a good vantage spot… and that's when a bit of sanity came back to me. If I could find a spot to hide, let them get past me before engaging them, maybe I would have a better chance of actually taking a couple out. Unfortunately, by this time I was spotted. Dashing into the trees I started working South and West, backing my way through the grass, trying to keep as many trees between them and myself as I could. I started to run out of cover, coming up on the dried bed of Horseshoe Lake, so I turned north again, heading for the blackpowder ridge. I tried to radio as much info as I could about the force about to over-run me when I lucked into the perfect hiding spot. At the base of a ridge there was a small dip, a sort of trench that snaked it's way up from the lake bed up into the crook of the ridge. This trench, like the rest of the ground was lush with dried grass about 3 feet tall. I was able to lay back in this trench and virtually disappear from anyone coming out of the trees.

I could hear the voices approaching, so I rolled to my right, leaning away from the base of the ridge and slowly came up on one knee, my 98 at the ready… and I got lucky, there not 30 feet from me was an opponent coming around one of the trees. Two quick pulls of the trigger and his right thigh was painted a very nice green. As I dropped back into the grass, I could see him looking around as if searching for where the shot came from. The seconds were ticking by like minutes as I heard more voices… but now they were coming from above me as well. They had sent some men up along the top of the ridge. I was sure they would see me from where they were. I mean let's face it, I'm not exactly a small guy, in green camo laying on his back against all this brown grass.

The next few minutes became a blur. I was pushing with my legs, moving further up this trench I was in, coming up out of the grass I was able to take first one, than another guy from the top of the ridge. I had no idea how many were up there. Then there was another hit over near where I got the first guy, followed by accidentally shooting one of the ridge guys again as he was making his way off the field. By this time I had popped off maybe 15 rounds, and that was enough for the rest of this group to get a bead on my location. Some of them had circled down to the dry lake bed and to where the trench I was in emptied into it, leaving me in wide-open view. I took one more out before another popped around the corner down there and started spraying at me. It wasn't long before I felt that familiar smack of a hit on my shin.

As I got up and put my barrel plug in, I could see the tank and about half a dozen or so guys heading up the main trail making their way towards the fort, and there over on the shotgun ridge was a couple of the refs and observers. From their vantage point they had seen the whole thing, even being able to see me as I crawled up that trench. I guess I gave them quite the show.

I found out later that between the 6 of us (Alpha squad and Lynx), we had eliminated about 20 Farmlanders from that attack group, including a couple of hands-on 20-footers by Lynx as she lay under cover on the back trail.

I got back to the reinsertion point just in time… we had a large enough group that we were able to sweep up from the south and east, coming behind many of the group attacking the Forts east wall. I didn't get any more hits during that run, but was able to provide some good cover fire for some of the others as we leapfrogged and crawled our way back to the Fort. Some of the best teamwork we've ever had was displayed in that push. The entire group worked together, keeping in communication as we rushed to the aid of the rest of our group still inside the Fort.

We had just about made it back to the safety of the Fort when I got eliminated, taking a hit from behind me somewhere. All in all though, I think that was probably my finest hour of paintball that I've ever played. Faced with some nasty odds, I was able to keep my cool and put some hurt on the opponents as well as fall right in with the rest of the team in going on the offensive. After all, isn't this what it's all about?

October 12, 2003 - Attack the Fort
Fort Ahlman - Morristown
As told by "Panther" - Sergeant