I'll try to get through this recap without too much fluff. I've done alot of thinking about PP2's Saturday Game, and I could probably start 5 different threads about various ways of looking at it. But for the sake of everyone's sanity, this is how I saw things happen on Game Day. However, having been on the inside of the planning for PP2 I will be very critical and overly harsh. But this should not be construded as a overall negative report of the entire event. If we don't point out what was wrong, no matter how trivial, we won't know how to improve.
I apologize in advance for names I don't remember or people I don't properly regonize.
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The morning started well with everyone brushing thier teeth, drinking coffee, and eating the super-fine chow serverd up by their Holiness of Cooks Damage Inc. A general quite excitement ran through the air has paint was packed, weapons readied, and garments donned. By 9am the chrony range and players brief/staging area was alive with players and characters. It was during the next 30 minutes that I had my first worries. It took too long to assemble for the Safety Brief, players were slow to get out of the chrony line (20-40 people deep) and assemble, a general whos'in'charge? scene seemed to develp and control was slow to materilize. But alas, the safety brief was read and even with stuff that had no bearing on our event (ramping/overshooting/etc) was over in 10'ish minutes. Next came a brief introduction to the Pyrate/Milita Command Targets. Then the main course, the Pyrates Revenge Scenario description. As the scenario and it's various pieces were being told, the look on the assembled crowd's faces was my second big hint. It took around 15 minutes for this portion of the Brief and I caught myself several times chin down and shaking my head in disbelief and dismay. A murmur in paticular arose when it was mentioned about the rule book that everyone should have and the primary rule book that each general would have at thier base. I sensed that 80-90percent of the players standing in front of me all at once went "Uhh?". In then end, a noted rushed feeling was growing as I saw one watch read 9:53am and a large number of players still had not chronoed, including myself. Game On at 10am was not going to happen, no way.

The general brief over, players quickly went back about getting ready, still I felt unaware of what EXACTLY was supposed to happen next. Whatever, I needed to chrono if I wanted to do anything. So off I went. Chrono was painless once I got to the front, 2-3 adjustments and I was on way back out to find my command partners and figure out what was happening. It was right about this time, 10:25 I guess, that I heard from someone, "Game On in 5 Minutes!!". And there it was, the poop was now firmly smacking the fan. Half the field wasnt' ready, some were on the way up to the field, others milled about just becuase. Things began to blurr. A quick 'you grab this', 'tell them this', 'I've got this', 'what was that', 'I don't know let's go' ensued. Commander Andy was grabbing people and himself to get the Cannon off the Brief Platform to bring it up to the Castle. Golden, Maverick, others, and I gathered up and started the trek up to the Castle. We were 2/3'rds the way when I heard the first call of Game On.(?!?!) Poop was now flinging off the spinning blades. I had no idea where the Pyrates were, how many were out there, or much of anything else. I had to assume the worse, which was an attacking force inbound.

I got inside the castle and most were trigger ready but unsure that the game was on. I went to the left entrance and did some traffic directing. Our planning from the previous night was helping. We had two teams already on advance with more following up as they arrived (CanCon, Assasians, PubCrawling). Back inside, Tape had arrived and a mad tape-fest began. Someone was pulling tape, Golden, others and I were grabbing arms and people to make sure everyone was taped up, after they were taped, people were either going forward or taking look outs. At this point our team was looking good, people were being very helpful, taking intiatives, and communicating. By 1045 the first pop-pop-pop could be heard in the distance. Andy and the cannon had arrived in the Castle. Andy quickly went about doing more then everything, handing missions, giving orders, taking information, and being just a damn good Leader. Golden had gone forward with more people by now and around 10 of us were left in the Castle expecting some Pyrates to attack soon. It looked well enough in the Castle and I decided to move forward to see what was going on. I was a little trigger happy myself and wanted to mix it up, but not get shot needlessly and cost points to the team. Where was the fight?

I left the north-east corner of the castle and crept up to the tree line on the ridge. Two Militia were sitting to the far right watching for movement in the "water way". A trickle of Militia intermittenly crossed the open field of Fort Nelson into Pyrate land. Reports were coming in, the firefight that could be heard grew very intense at times. From my position I could watch the water way on my right, Fort Nelson on my left, and the rock wall far forward. Golden and Maverick radioed several reports. Approaching Fort Tracer, falling back, send backup, attacking Traccer, Traccer taken. By this time, the Milita were essentially forward deployed to the Pyrate base. The only Red I saw were dead men walking back to some dead zone or scoring table. (Which I never did find out where the scoring table was). My excitement disappeared and I began to wonder what the heck was going on. My phantom had been laying on the ground for at least 20 minutes.

Still more silence and finally I saw movement at the rock wall. Two militia were strolling back up the hill towards the rock wall and were unware. I got thier attention and tried to signal them to watch out. Finally they saw each other. And FINALLY, some action. I let the small skirmish progress a little and kept Andy informed of what was happening. Three or 4 pyrates drove the two milita men back and took position inside Fort Nelson. I decided to the join the fun, I wasn't helping anyone watching from 75 yards away. My first battle of the day was so damn fun it made up for the past 1.5 hours of nothingness. I rained 40rounds on the autotrigger from 50 yards out with no breaks and just to let out some frustration. Then I moved up and helped clear Fort Nelson. By this time a Milita reinsert brought another 10 or so players to our side and the remaining few Pyrates that tried to counter attack were easily routed with only one or two losses on our side. Silence again. Was that it?? My co2 was empty and I needed to refit so I headed back to the castle.

...to be continued

Just to add a few points, Cargo.

1 chrono, 1 chrono ref, 200 players... You do the math.

Did I rip tape for the entire Militia? I saw the ref just standing there with two rolls of tape and it didn't take long for me to just grab one and start ripping. To be honest, it reminded me of that scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom where Indy has one set of keys and there's hundreds of shackled hands reaching out to be unlocked... I credit the command staff for lining players up, looking for empty arms and getting the strips of tape where it needed to be. I can't imagine the Pirates did it quite as efficiently.

When everyone was taped, Maverick and my squad hit the left "tape" (in quotes because there was, in fact, no tape) and pushed towards Pirate territory. Eventually we were told that we were, unfortunately, out of bounds. Walking past the Pirate insertion tent, we saw a huge group of people just waiting for the next insertion time because they had missed the start. Meanwhile, their teammates had to hold off almost all the Militia.

The game started too early, yes. I think in the future, BOTH team's generals should need to give the OK before the game can begin. This is an easy way to improve the game.


I want to try to be constructive, however. Maybe we as a forum can come up with a list of easy, quick suggestions to improve things? I wouldn't be opposed to typing it up (let me know if you need help, guys - I'm happy to lend some time), but we need to have constructive feedback with the organizers if we want to improve things.

Great game overall, but we can work out the kinks for next time.

The chrono was supposed to open at 8 AM. It was opened sometime after 8 and well before the safety briefing. Several of my team mates and I chroned as soon as it opened. (Several also got their air tanks inspected around 8 as well).

I need to think some more about my observations before I place any down as critique.

-Rath

Yea I was chroned around or before 9:00


The game did start kind of unexpectidly though.

Thanks for the kind words my friend. I was trying to do the best I could with what we had to work with. Our pre-battle planning the night before seemed to at least help get things rolling.

we did a restart last year didnt we?

I didnt hit the field till the second reinsertion. Again I had last minute gun problems but I was able to sort them out in time.

Chem-X
Thank you for the tank Sheazer.

yea they should have done a restart after we took there base 15 min into the game

The base was not controlled until 11:30. We gained full control at about 11:45, and continued to recieve attackes until about 12:15-12:30 when we received the order to pillage the fort and return to the castle, because of the reports of boats moving around the castle and closing in on Tippy Town. I'll get the full play by play up soon.

Rule #1 - Time is NEVER on your side.
(I've barely been able to scrape up a few mintues to get stuff typed out. The return to 'normal' life continues. I apologize again in advance if I don't reply directly yet. I'm pretty sure of the times I'm stating even though it seemed everytime I was around people, I was asking "anybody got a watch". :) )

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Yes, it was HOT. A breeze would roll around every once in a while, and if not for that, far more would most likely have suffered. On a day like that, in the mist of the full specturm of online Pump/Stock/OldSchool members and gear, my head could've been on fire and I still wouldn't have missed it for the world. But what was happening? The radio chatter came and went in fits. Walking back to the castle I started to think of lunch and water. And changing to my Phantom Vertical Lever Changer. Andy had begun to suffer from the direct sun and constant managment in the Castle Courtyard. Water was an unknown for some time (hours) and he took a near medically required break to get rid of some shakes. I dropped my pod belt, stapped on the stock gear, swaped the Microshot, and was ready to go. A quick hop in the deadbox to get the gear out of the sun, pull down a liter of gatorade, and get my bearings. The Milita were many in the Castle.

The atmosphere in the Castle was laid back. Groups of players loosely held positions at several points. Ready and watching, but not too terrible worried. Many quesions about what was happening were being fielded, but only guesses and possibilities could be offered back. I spent 10-15 mintues turning down my TPC to keep from breaking 280fps in the hot weather. (Hot CO2 affected a lot of people, a small factiod could be written on this topic alone. I bet quite a few would be enlighted. I was). I had seen ActionBob a couple times now has he roamed the field on his ATV. Driving every which way, up down, and over yonder, into the Castle and back again. :P A few changes were made, the Pyrates were shipbound with out a base and they would have to adjust, we should expect incoming soon. Many players were still marking finds, and retrieving props. Despite the downward presence of Red players, there still seemed to always be something going on.

The first Pyrate ship was spotted only after they had walked past the main entrance to the left (facing the castle entrance left). I saw a flag and at least 2-3 heads. A few other players nearer had seen them as well. It was deer in headlights for what seemed like 5 minutes. Looks were being exchanged but feet weren't moving. I slowly stepped into the middle of the open. I didn't even hear the shot that smartly splatted me dead on my right chest. It was so surprising, I surprised myself by nearly screaming "OWWW!!!!. A quick touch with the hand confirmed the break. I still didn't see the shooter, and apparently niether did anyone else. I stood there amazed for at least a minute. It was has if a paintball fell from the sky, and no one saw it. Finally the dogs of war loosed and a full skirmish commenced. I started to walk to the safety box in the courtyard, but then forgot if that was a dead box at all, or if I had to go to some other deadbox, or scoring table to register my death, or what time was it. I was damn mad that I got shot. Mad at myself 99%. As I left the Castle for a hot march back to staging (with Damage Inc Chefery, shade, water, and bathrooms I went back to wondering just what was going on.

...to be continued