The cold harsh reality of the alarm clock sounded at 0730 and I forced myself into the shower. Once resembling a some what human entity I threw myself into the car and proceeded over to Fleet to pick up Neil. Lucky for me I could relax as he decided to drive (somewhat like a maniac) over to Andover and to the Ministry of Paintball. Once kitted up we headed out to the first game of “Speed Ball” which basically involves a small playing field and both teams on either end facing each other with one mission on our minds……eliminate the enemy. Several hundred shots later I survived unscathed unlike many of my fallen comrades……
Playing Paintball hurts, not only from the physical excursion but from the paint balls themselves hitting you! 🙂 I was slightly disappointed for the first few game’s as I was let down by the guns themselves (Damm, I should have kept my Promaster Paintball Gun) so running into an ambush with a malfunctioning gun and no paint wasn’t the best way forward. Still the best moment is always when you take a member of the opposition out with a couple of rounds of paint. I think playing in teams is always a good thing although in our case the teams were too big and too many chiefs trying to run the game play. When I play again I think I’ll suggest playing with people I all know and then promote members to be the General.
My last memory of the day was the “Bridge over the river mud” and as it’s name suggests it involved a wooden bridge complex which had to be taken by a team. In the center of the bridge was a missile container which we have to retrieve and deliver to the enemy’s base however each team had around 30 -> 40 players and several thousand rounds of paint. The game started well with a ambush down the left hand side. Neil and I held them off for a while before Neil ran out of paint and I took out a couple of the b*****rds before retreating. Even if you do run out of paint you can still fire co2 at the opposition as it’ll give the impression that your still in the game. Hey, it’s all strategy! 🙂 Once I’d retreated I assessed the situation…….mmmmm 30 rounds of paint left ( and I wasn’t going to buy anymore!) so I made my way up onto the bridge for the final push. I had a couple of team mates holding the bridge but not pushing forward so I attempted to help moral and get them to move forward…. ok so far so good…… in a last minute of madness I made my final push to the other side of the bridge to take out the last remaining enemy forces but wasn’t backed up so got taken out…..bugger……
Still a fantastic day and can’t wait for the next paint ball mission….. 🙂