Below are accounts by Hammer, Brent Blanchard and Mark Barrett. Hammer was the "Master Controller"--since he came up with the scenario idea and backstory--and was one of the Green team players. Brent was also on Green. Mark was one of the Desert Edge guys on Red. At the very bottom are some more comments by Desert Edge.

Initial manuevers.

Hammer: As Controller, I finally got Yellow/Green moving out of the admin area, after a fast drive up the hill to insert the last three red players. Yellow/Green did not waste any time once we started moving, they quickly took control of the tanzanite jewels and began pushing for the central pump house. At the pump house they reformed and began pushing due west after some gentle nudging that they needed to go that direction. Victor and myself took up a flanking advance scout position along with a couple of yellow players to the north of us. Upon cresting a small hill, I spotted several players moving from the west. Using my scope I was able to tell they were the Red team, and reported the info to Kimo, the Green team leader. He made a push with the main force up the valley towards the red team.

Brent: I took my assignment with Green to "escort" and was with a squad of Yellow as they advanced south near the hills. I recovered the jewels and turned them over to Kimo, the Green leader.

Hammer: Within moments of watching the Red team come out of the trees, I soon spotted Blue players flanking Red's postion from the SE. Within a few moments I watched a firefight erupt between Red and Blue on the hill. Red was eager to meet up with Yellow/Green and get moving down the valley. [Note: after Red brought the nuke to the combined Yellow/Green teams, they merged into Green.] Victor and I stayed on the southern flank to cover the team and also so that I could watch to see how the engagements were going to the West. We encountered no resistance traveling down to the waypoint [objective], however we could hear the firefights well enough to keep moving.

Brent: The portion of Yellow I was with [Danger Dan's squad] was unable to re-establish radio contact, and continued to press south [along the eastern ridge] even after I told them we had recovered the nuke and I had received radio instructions to return north. This part of Yellow later decided to head northwest to the pump house area after I consulted with their map and squad leader. Lesson learned--we needed to have better instructions on where to go when X, Y and Z happened. Having a plan is a good thing.

We contacted elements of the Blue team down by the road/gully west of the pump house and in the hills north of that road. Visual signals with a member of the Yellow team guided me up the hill to where I could take out one Blue who had some of us pinned down on the road. Lesson learned--Better understanding of hand signals, like distance to the enemy, would have helped there. And I can see how signals could make a huge difference in more difficult circumstances.

Mark: After respawning we headed southwest and came upon some Blue which were coming over the same hill we started from. Tim had them on the run in seconds and we headed over about 3 or 4 hills tracking them and attempting to come in contact with the rest of our team, which had the nuke. We had lost communication with all the Red team for about 30 minutes. Tim and I ended up attempting to counter the blue forces which were closing on us from every angle. Tim told me to run up the side of this hill and he would wait for the smaller group of blue so we could hit them from top and bottom. Well that failed and Tim decided to make a run for it and that was the last I saw of him for 3 hours. I ended up getting hit and headed out to refill and whatnot.

After regeneration, I walked down the road where I met up with Aaron, Jayce and a few others. We continued to pop shots at blue while they were moving around. I noticed a couple blue head up to the road way trying to get behind us. I ran up to the road and signled to the blue guys to come down. they paused and looked really confused for a moment I then fired a few shots at them and ran to the other side to the road. the same two followed to a bush I got to a bush close enough where I tagged both of them. Right after I tagged the two other blue headed over the hill looking and firing away from me. I hit 3 others from the side. I think they were suprised because in moments they were being hit from all angles.. After this I met up with Aaron and headed down to the the objective, where we ended up betraying Yellow team.

Hammer: Upon taking control of the nuke, and reaching the Yellow/Green objective point, we set a defensive perimeter for several minutes. When I saw that only Green/Red players were there, I decided to implement the double-cross of Yellow. [Note: this was one of the pre-arranged scenario "wild cards"]. At this point we picked up the nuke and began traveling towards the redrock formation (rocky knoll) in the northeast corner of the AO. After moving for a couple of minutes, a rear scout informed Kimo that we had a Blue tail of undetermined size (this was Soulman and two other blue players). Man, that thing got heavy quick! We didnt dare set it down for more that a couple of seconds to switch hands. Every available player we had we sent back to give Blue opposition, in order to buy us more time.

Finally, we arrived at the redrock knoll, and about died of exhaustion. We all sat down for a minute to regain our composure and rehydrate. Our rear scouts did their job well, and bought us time to get the weapon to a safe point, and held the blue players on the far side of the wash bisecting the valley. From there I moved on top of the rocky knoll and gave locations of advancing blue players to the Green/Red force below me (our eyes in the sky), and also used the high point to transmit better to the other controllers. That is about the time that I started receiving Ajax's transmitions well enough to understand. The location made it easy to signal regenerate cycles to everyone in the vicinity. Right before the midway break, several Blue players were pushing their way towards me, as I was being a particular thorn in their side vs. their efforts to advance on the bomb's position.

At the 1030 break, a bunch of us met in the admin area, and chatted some about the events up to that point and scarfed down granola bars and water. After I sent Blue to the central pump house and we started up again, I was determined to get some action before it was all over.

Phase 2 Engagements.

Brent: In the last defensive action for Green, it appeared to me that the entire team just vanished into the rocks and took up defensive positions. I was delayed as I waited for a team member to get water from the admin area, and was unaware of any overall plan. So I just "cowboyed" it on my own. Tried to use radio to announce locations of elements I saw approaching, but heard no return transmissions and heard no radio traffic to coordinate our defense. I was pasted by a 3-man fire team from Blue, after spotting one of them on the north side of the redrock hill, but was unable to shoot because of the bushes in the way.

Hammer: I stayed down in the wash bottom with several of the Red Team (Desert Edge guys) to engage anyone trying to flank. Yellow was the first wave that came at us. I pulled to the south and flanked around to their rear and began picking off yellow players as they advanced on the nuke's postion. After getting four kills, the 3 Red players (DE) started moving abreast of me pushing up the hill against the remaining Yellow players at the ridge. I tell you it was classic, those Yellow players didn't know what to do, they just kept falling back and calling for help.

After we eliminated the main force of Yellow, and were pulling back to regroup, one of the DE guys spotted a player trying to hide in a tree to our south, we all swept around towards him and began engaging. After beginning to move against this additional sneaky Yellow, I spotted an additional Yellow 50 feet behind him. The guy in the tree was quickly eliminated, and we continued our advance against the remaining Yellow. I moved hard against his position putting down heavy fire, while the DE guys flanked up for the kill, right after I was shot (the one time that I was shot all day).

While walking back I noticed that it was time for regeneration, and signaled it. Within minutes the Blue force began advancing hard against us and we had to pull back hard. Once I was able to get back past the road between the big knoll and the little one in the middle of the valley, I was reinforced by a large number of Red/Green players that put the hammer on the Blue force. I pulled back to the Big Rocky knoll, as I was running low on air and paint. From there I signaled regeneration, and occasionally took shots with what I had remaining. Until finally my Co2 ran out completly, and I slung my gun and just watched the firefights until "game over" was called at 1245.

Wow, what a day of paintball! And man, am I still sore from all that hiking/running/climbing/etc. Also the debriefing session was great, it was good to hear everyone's input and how their day went.

Brent: At the end, when the action was centered on the nuke's location at the south base of the redrock hill, elements of Green appeared to be working very well together to cover each other and watch out for blindside attacks. I was able to pin down a few while teammates took them out from better positions. Watching my sides and back let me avoid a couple of ambushes and take one or two out in the process. Lesson learned--While going to the deadzone once, I was reprimanded by an opposing team member who said "dead men don't talk" So I realized that even saying "go get 'em!" to my team without divulging tactical info is against ROE. Dead men don't talk.

Overall, a great scenario! Lesson learned--teams/squads need to review maps together and agree on landmarks so we can have something better than "go to the hill." In my case, the Yellow squad I was escorting initially went so far south we were between two hills--one north and one south! I tried to get more specific information from the Green radio net, but the guy with the best info came in so faintly I almost never understood him. So, knowing pre-briefed points, like "objective A" or "Waypoint 3" would help in a large area like this.

Comments from Team Desert Edge:

Brad Oakley: After starting out with the nuke - and helping drag/carry it for over a mile (my left sholder is still sore!) we finally got it into a 'secure' location. The 10:30 break came, so I wandered down to see if I could get my Double-Trouble working (it was only firing on one barrel.) After a frustrating hour which still left the marker incapacitated, I decided to return to the action. I came over the hill - right into a group of the Blue team dragging the nuke. Things had really changed while I was away! I managed to take out four of the other team which left me in control of the nuke. Of course, that meant that I had to start dragging the thing AGAIN! Other teammates came up and we were able to maintain control of the 'weapon' until the end of the game. Rangerball is something I really want to participate in again. My hat is off to Ajax and his crew for pulling off a great event!!!

That was a really cool event. It really gave us a good opportunity to work as a team and to see the kind of havoc a well organized team can do. For those that didnt go you really missed out. But for those that did you guys made it a blast. Brad really came through for me with a vest and muffins, Garret helped my strike force, Dan and Tim provided the comic relief, and Jayce just helped me with my movement. Even Mark showed up. Over all I had a really good time and look forward to future Rangerball events.
-- Aaron Ferre

Finally a different format, that has more than a one-dimensional field. I had a blast and I will do it again. Props to Ajax and his crew for a great game, good sportsmanship, and just an all-around good time.
-- Dan Saunders