08.04.08

I would like to start off this article with a hello; hello to everyone that is reading this, hello to all those that play at the S.O.T games. Now as some of you may know, we took June off from hosting games and we traveled around the state to a couple different games. Some of you may have been at either of these games, some were not. Anyway, we thought we would share what the games were like and how they played out.

Now then S.O.T had been traveling around the state to two different big games. The first game that we traveled to was the Giant Big Game out at Splat Tag Paintball in Hudson, WI, and the second was the Indiana Jones Scenario at Commando Paintball in Abrams, WI. Both games were a lot of fun and I would definitely recommend them. Here's a breakdown of the premise of each game and how the game played out based on everything from the field to the gameplay.

The first game that we played on 06.07.08 was the Giant Big Game out in Hudson, WI. Splat Tag hosts this game every year and always adjusts the theme slightyly, however the basic premise is that Wisconsin and Minnesota are at war over border disputes. This years reitteration not only has a war between Wisconsin and Minnesota, but also between each rival's coalition of states. Minnesota's band of states was known as The Midwest Alliance, or for those playing in the game, the red team. Wisconsin's army of states was of course the blue team or the Great Lakes Crusaders. At this game S.O.T played on the blue team, the Great Lakes Crusaders. This game was fought out by just over 700 people, so obviously there was a lot of paint getting thrown back and forth. The game lasted from about 10:00 in the morning until 5:00 or so that evening. The day consisted of numerous battles all across the field. These battles were not simply to eliminate the enemy, but rather to hold specific bases on the field, which earned points for each individual team.

The day consisted of many heated battles for these fire bases. Throughout the game the bases traded hands many times and the scores stayed fairly close throughout the day. At about 4:00 the big game closed and the final battle commenced. This battle was played out on one of the largest open fields at Splat Tag, and had the singular objective of capturing the two towers on the field. There was one difficulty in this though. Not only were the opposing teams firing at each other, but both towers had neutral gunners defending the towers. Once a team captured the tower and raised their team's colors the tower's gunners started gunning for that team. The final battle was filled with many casualties from the firefight and none of those tagged were shot out by the tank, which simply tried to take out the towers and keep neutrality. Overall the battles were vicious, but not nearly as much as the terrain.

Splat Tag in Hudson is a great field, however it is some of the most brutal terrain we've encountered. The field there consists of many hills and  a lot of dense foliage. Now this worked out to be some great cover in the heat of battle and in sneaking around. However, when the terrain is coupled with the high temperatures and humidity at the game, a dangerous combination is formed. The field and weather thoroughly abused the players and many suffered from at least minor dehydration. The humidity in some of the valleys also caused a good amount of condensation to build in even anti-fog masks. Despite the challenging terrain and heat, the game was fantastic and I would recomend this game to most anyone. 

As I stated earlier, the game consisted of the main war and the final battle, and went from about 10:00 until about 5:00. The day was filled with many intense battles and interesting moments, and all through the day the scores were pretty evenly matched between the Great Lake Crusaders and the Midwest Alliance. Ultimately though, the game closed and the final score was 29000 points to 26000 points in favor of the Midwest Alliance.

We also played the scenario game at Commando paintball in Abrams, WI. This game was substatially smaller than the Giant Big Game. The time frame for the Commando scenario was roughly the same as that for Splat Tag. The Commando scenario was based off of the Indiana Jones films, specifically Raiders of the Lost Ark. At the game, one team played as the Indiana Jones style archaeologists, and the other team obviously played as the devious Ark-seeking nazis. At this game, S.O.T played as the nazis.

 In this game, there were three ways to score points. The first was only an option at the start of the game, and that was to collect the gold in the downed airplane in the center of the field. The nazis were able to collect this right away due to some eager sprinting. This gave a 10000 point lead straight off the bat. The second method of scoring was to collect the hidden skulls scattered throughout the field. Each skull was worth 5000 points. The third method was to get within shooting range of the enemy's base and shoot the sacred idol housed in each base. This method gained 1000 points per hit, however any given individual could only shoot the idol once.

The game was fairly quick paced due to the smaller size of the field, as well as the fact that the terrain wasn't overly aggresive. Their were many heated battles as each team pushed to make it to the opposing teams base. Each team excelled in their own way throughout the game. The nazis succeded in collecting almost every skull on the field, while the archaeologists pushed into the nazis' base on more than one occasion. The battles for control and advancement lasted until the final battle of the game, which was much less a battle than a recovery. The objective of the final battle was to carry the idol from each respective base to a fire base in the rear of the field. This firebase was equal distance from each base, so as to be fair. In this battle the nazis took hold of the fire base as the idol carrier brought it to the base. Much to the dismay of the nazi team, their carrier arrived moments before the other team came into firing range, so the final battle ended without a single shot being fired.

The game was very good overall despite the downpouring rain once or twice during the game. Throughout the day the archaeologist held an advantage over the nazi's pointwise. However the final battle was a determing factor in the game. The nazis won by one thousand points with the final score being 46000 to 45000.

Both the games that we went to were great fun, and would be recommended by any member of S.O.T. If you have any specific questions about the games we went to or playing at our games or anything in general you can ask us at sotpaintball@hotmail.com.