Paintballing the World, Part 7: Castle Conquest Cherry.

Part 6

Spring arrived. I'd been burning through my Bachelor's thesis a year early. I wanted it done. Over with. Out of the way. And I wanted to be free to enjoy paintball. I finished the paper a week early just so I could go to Castle Conquest with nothing hanging over me. 40 pages plus maps and appendices. The things I do for paintball. 

I emailed Blue. He sent me some DvDs and posters I could use for advertising. 

Hung em up around campus. Pitched the idea to the outdoor club. 

Drew was in again, along with 4 other kids. 

And the Eastman School of Music... 

School of Music. Total Nerds, right?  Yes. Total nerds at a school of nerdiness...  A school whose sports budget completely funds their small paintball club (comping guns, paint, travel, food, EVERYTHING).

EVERYTHING. As one of the few sporting clubs at Eastman and one with the highest expenses, the Eastman School of Music PB club got a lion's share of the budget. They were outfitted with markers, backup markers and a budget for gasoline and food. I shoulda played the cello!

 They said they would rendezvous with us at the field. 

I had wisened up to the PA liqour laws so we stopped in Binghampton to pick up supplies and then headed to the field. This time the bunkhouse was awesome. Good group of people this time. No CO poisoning threat. Everyone slept well and we woke up early to gear up.

 If you've never been to Castle it is one of those rare games that breaks the mold. The sheer scale of it, the objective, are simple in theory, but wonderful to participate in all the same. It's fairly straightforward, attack up the hill, storm the castle, win. 

No missions. 

No tanks. 

Just 1000 people hammering on each other as hard as they can for 4 hours. 

I knew there was no way we would be able to stick together so I just told everyone to have fun and to try to find eachother during the insertion windows.

Game on. 

Broke left out of the respawn at a full sprint... all the way to the tapleline and started pushing the hill. Made it up about halfway before I started taking fire. Kept crawling up that hill. 

Lesson: People will move up if someone is in front of them. I think it has to do with some misconception of Risk. Usually I am well within range of the enemy so you're not necessarily safe if you are only 10 meters or the next tree back... but if a few people can crawl forward, they can pull the rest of the line with them. It's a cool effect.

It worked. I got tagged, but the drive up the hill succeeded. Back at spawn I decided to try a bumrush straight up the road. Got tagged in the first 30 seconds and made it back to reinsertion while the window was still open. Headed right, up around the edge of Tippmann Town. The hotel was pinning people down pretty effectively. I found a blindspot, the angle from the window was blocked by a fence. Screamed for suppressive fire, jumped the fence and made it to the wall, still carrying that heavy A5 Tippmann SAW. A guy in a speedball uniform slammed in next to me. We were thinking the same thing.

"Let's do this."

We tucked up tight, taking the corners high&low. He cleared out the bottom of the hotel while I covered the stairs, finger itching on the trigger. We crept up to the very top of the stairs.... Then each broke in opposite directions. We cleared out the upstairs in seconds. 

He went to the window to wave to the rest of the people in town that the building was clear.

Breaking cardinal rule from Story #1. Never go near a window.

THWAAAACK

Not AGAIN!!!!

He got shot in the face. Such is life. I waved my armtape in the window. The line surged forwards to the hotel. Time to move on the castle. 


I ran towards the 1/2 corner, quickly getting pinned down behind the last bunker before the fort. And by pinned, I mean PINNNED. Couldn't move left or right, stick so much as a finger up, without a few hundred paintballs screaming towards me. Some kid came up with a flintlock pistol and tried to give me 'cover fire' so I could move. Nothing doing. I probably laid there for about 20 minutes until I could make a break for the town again and circle around....

Pushed back and around the Castle towards the 3/4 ramp. Made it on to the wall. I love being on that wall as an attacker. You feel like you've accomplished something. But you run the risk of longballers from your own team picking you off, so you have to tuck in real close. I peered through the cracks into the courtyard for exposed people and got a couple of the Res Dogs. Eventually I got tagged in the back of the head by friendly fire and had to take the long walk...

Hustled back to respawn and tried for the 1/4 ramp. This time we were moving well. Flooding into the castle. The boards get slippery. You could ice skate on them it feels. Fought our way down into the 1/2 tower and made it up the stairs. Defenders always fight to the bone. I like it. You have to risk every meter along the wall. Every move is a gamble. Got up in the tower. Cleared the ramp from above, but got tagged again by friendly fire from outside the fort. Frustrating. 


Lesson: If you're at CC, don't be that long balling deuchebag. Just don't. And especially don't brag later about how you sniped lots of 'defenders' in the back of their heads because if you think about that statement you'll realize how wrong you are. 

Managed to make it down to respawn and back up to the 3/4 wall ramp as time was running down. scurried across. The defenders were pinned down in their spawn point, making desperate efforts to hold us off as long as possible. 
We smuggled out the last of the props and the refs blew the whistle. Good game. 
The chaos was wild. Not a lot of tactics though, beyond small group efforts. If the attackers could ever get really organized, the game would be over much quicker, but the SOP seems to just send wave after wave until the defense cracks. It worked that year.

Found Lilly, my housemate, at the respawn, completely covered in blue paint. 
She had gotten attached to a suicidal charge that tried to run straight through the 1/2 doorway and got plastered. Lesson #76. Don't run through the main doors.

Players party was a riot. Talked with Barney, Tek, drank a bunch of jungle juice. Got pretty lit. That's all I remember. 

Lesson: Castle Conquest is a must for any serious paintball career. And your liver better bring the A-game to EMR.