Crouching Lizard, Hidden Tortoise.: Painballin' in Barbados

Set up a paintball game for my department at work that went off yesterday. A blast was had by all. Ended up with 20 people in total, a mixture of people from work and their friends, and that made for a wicked 10 v 10 ctf match on "Mongoose Island" up at Kendal Sporting. This arena is literally an island with ridges and bushes and lots of long grass, making for a great set of games.

The other team had an early lead after my group failed to get good cover points early on, and they quickly monopolized on this by taking out our advance squads and getting the flag back to their base for a quick win. We learned from our mistakes, however, and after a quick strategy session we developed a solid base strategy which we used to capture the next two wins in a row. We had about half the team set up a back row and laying down covering fire from the very beginning as they crested the first ridge, with myself as runner heading straight down the middle to take up a good spot close to the flag to assess the situation and then run in during a break in fire to grab the flag and fall back quickly. One of the others worked his way to the flag position by combat crawling around the side of the main path and taking up position where I could drop the flag off to him if I got shot (which I did... repeatedly...) and from which he could sneak back around to our base without the other team realising. The others took up covering positions closer in on the second ridge to protect us on the retreat.

This plan worked well on both occasions, but we suffered major casualties at the hands of a good friend of mine (and professional paintballer...) who formed the backbone of the other

squad. Unfortunately, this was not enough and we managed to take the day with a 2-1 win over the others. All in fun!

The free-for-all final run was another highlight, with everyone taking up tactical positions for an all-out war on one another. A few of us took up a position deep in the grass and were doing quite well. Myself and one other combat crawled into the high grass and managed to take out a few people before I had to fall back to a group position in a small cleared area with a tree. My ninja friend from earlier had set up next to the tree picking off people behind barrels and such. I joined him there, along with another latecomer, and we formed a solid defensive point until one of the IT guys from work made his way all the way around the island and came up on us from behind. He got a few shots off on us before we all pivoted on him and sprayed him in orange.

All-in-all, everyone had a blast, and I would recommend this sport to anyone. Working on setting up a competition team with a few of the guys from work, and hoping to convince the company they should give us money to do it too!!! My only wish? Get an urban setting made and fast! I want sniper positions!!!

Tha Winnaaaas!