On Sunday October 16 we went to shoot each other. With paintballs.

October 8, 2005

Blast Camp

‘Nuff said.

OK, OK, maybe there’s more to say. Like it was a bunch of fun. But you knew that. I should say that my still camera gave up the ghost that morning, so I was unable to take regular pictures. And I am too lazy to go through the video and make still captures.

But this year we introduced the “gun cam”, a small camera placed above the barrel of our own DarthGoat’s marker. And Thom takes a header, complete with face-plant-feet-in-the-air. It’s classic.

Based on a True Story

We have been having so much fun at paintball that we decided to head out to Indiana for the second time this year. Blast Camp was once again the site of the chaos.

Players only managed to shoot the camera twice this time, both in the same game. Somehow in the Fog of War a 400-pound guy in an orange shirt looks just like the other team…

April 17, 2004 saw Chicago Force return once more to Blast Camp for a day of paintball fun. The paintball gods smiled down from on high and we had excellent weather for the third year in a row. Blast Camp is an excellent field, and Chicago Force thanks them for their courteous treatment, professional attitude, and for building a damn fine paintball field.

We didn’t have quite as many turn out this time, only 16, but everyone there had a blast, from the grizzled veterans down to newest of the newbies who had never touched a paintgun before that morning.

We were graced by representatives from the Quad City Jedi Order and the Indy Knights. Thanks for making the trip out, guys!

It was such a good time that plans are being made to turn paintball into a bi-annual event, with the next session possibly in September. Stay tuned to Chicago Forc Web for details.

Pre-Game

The Octagon

Intermission

The next game we played was “Downed Rebel Pilot”. The Rebels had to escort the downed pilot to a safe area, while the Empire tried to kill him. Getting the pilot out or keeping him safe for a set period of time won for the Rebels, eliminating the pilot won for the Empire.
As I played the role of the pilot, there are no pictures of this game. One team successfully kept me hidden in a corner, while the other team made a bold move to get me out. And it would have worked, too, if I wasn’t so fat and lazy.
Anyway, in all the rolling around on the ground, I thought I lost my car keys. So there are no pictures of the next games, as I spent an hour combing the grass for my ride home. Turns out Dave had them in his pocket the whole time.

The Berm

Balls to the Wall

Speedball

The Embassy

The Wound Gallery

On September 20, 2003, Chicago Force had it’s Second Annual Paintball Extravaganza! OK, maybe it wasn’t ‘extravagant’, but it was a great day for paintball. Not too cold, not too hot, nice and sunny.

There was a good turn-out, with 27 people showing up to shoot Hawk…er, to play a rousing game of paintball. And how about those Star Wars scenario games, eh? Boy, we really hyped those didn’t we? That was going to be a lot of fun, we’re a Star Wars group, we’re playing paintball, we should play Star Wars paintball games…

Well, they sucked. I admit it, they didn’t work at all. Not even a little bit. In retrospect, I think I was making the rules too complex, and in the heat of ‘combat’, the fewer rules you have to remember the better. Also, there was a bit of friction with the management (we don’t need to go into that now; it’s a quality field, run by professional people, but everyone has their bad days), and we were only able to try one scenario: the Geonosis Arena. It seemed that the material I chose to make the ‘impenetrable’ Jedi lightsabers out of…well, let’s just say that paintballs went right through it. The armor of the AT-ATs was the same stuff, even if we would have been able to use them. The moral of the story is either keep the rules simple, or stick to tried-and-true paintball games.

That’s not to say that we didn’t have a good time. Everyone that I talked to whole-heartedly gave the day a thumbs up. Blast Camp is a great field, and Nate was an excellent ref. He was able to keep a rowdy group in check and had some great games for us to play.

Most of the post-game talk was along the lines of “Can’t wait until next year!”, and I think it’s safe to say that Chicago Force will be back at Blast Camp on the third weekend of September, 2004. Who knows, we may even drag along some Trekkies to shoot at.

Have I talked enough? You just want to see the pictures already? OK…