Haven't found any photos from this, so if anyone has any, please let us know. But, here's a good write-up by Jayce of Desert Edge and and after-action by Hammer of the Regiment. Also, a couple of other comments from DE's forum.

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Team DesertEdge returns victorious, after changing history in the Hamburger Hill scenario game hosted by the Rangerball Regiment.

Rangerball is an extreme scenario style, based on military strategy and extreme fields. This scenario pushed DesertEdge to their limits by pitting them against some of Utah's best scenario players in a rolling battle to defend our hill.

DesertEdge players were assigned the part of being the North Vietnamese, attempting to defend a single position against superior numbers. From the beginning DE and local Rangerball Regiment members worked together to keep the American advance as tripped up as possible. This featured smart work by snipers, and sneaking flanking tactics.

The morning was spent keeping an impressive offensive by groups such as Bad Karma locked out of reach of the infamous hill. But word did come in that another part of the Rangerball Regiment had swept in from an extreme flank (remember, Rangerball favors the athletic) and was assaulting the hill. The assault was stopped, the Americans were feeling the pain of advancing, but impressive numbers brought the game increasingly close to the hill. At noon everybody recieved a brief respite for lunch, and a time to reload.

But such happy times were not to last, as the game was soon back on. This time things were tight, as the Americans started closer to the hill, ready to assault. With the heavy gunners helping direct fire on the hill, the rest of DesertEdge led sneak attacks on the bottom of the beautiful red rock formation that was Hamburger Hill, forming a veritable windshield wiper.

After several passes of death and destruction, DE was pulled to the hilltop for a final series of assaults. From our vantage we could see the impressive numbers arrayed against us. What followed was a series of amazing coordinated assaults that were fended off by amazing feats from the defenders. DE members were seen jumping from boulders to attack squads below. Running assaults on flanks to destroy fixed positions, and well-placed grenades against squads.

Through the afternoon, only a single American reached the summit of the hill, via a back route, only to be gunned down within seconds by a DE charge from the opposite slope. His seeming victory stolen in mid-cheer. At the end of the day, DE had helped changed history. Hamburger Hill remained in NVA hands.

The battle was hard fought, and the combatants were tired. One-hundred degree temperatures, miles of sand and rock, all add up to tiredness when operating a running battle for so long. But it's all worth the fun that can only be had in such an alternative play style.

Desert Edge would like to thank the developers of Rangerball, and we will most surely be part of more events in the future.

-- Jayce

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AAR from Hammer

I was team leader for the Red Team (NVA). The morning started out by moving up to the pump house staging area. From there I assembled fire teams. The Ghillie (sniper) team was led by Badfinch and a couple of his boys, along with a DE guy or two. The south flanking team was made up of the Ghost Echo team from Kanab, and led by Chaos. And the north flank team, was made up of Desert Edge guys and led by T-Bone. The Command Team was a mix of DE and Rangerball guys, led by yours truly.

Anyhow, the Command team headed for the hill straight off and got into position to watch the start. From our high vantage point we could communicate with all of the teams via radio and watch the action with a pair of binoculars. The Ghilie team slowed the advance greatly, constantly popping up and ambushing the Blue team. At one point in the ambushes, a three-man team from Blue managed to outdistance the Ghilie team and made a wide arch to the far south end of the valley and circled back on the south of the hill.

About an hour into the game, I spotted these three coming our way from the south, and sent the Double Trouble, my son and another DE guy to fortify the south end. A heavy firefight ensued, and the three Blues made it midway across the hill, before we stopped them cold with a heavy barrage of paint and grenades. My first kill of the day was with a grenade. I hucked it over a tree, splattering the Blue. They tried to regroup at the regeneration point and make another push for the high ground, but the North flank team (Team DE) pushed up the east slope of the hill effectively cutting them apart, and ending their early assault on Hamburger Hill.

After that battle it would be a couple of hours before any sizeable force got into range. Finally after the lunch break, I pulled back my ambush teams to the base of the hill. Heavy battles ensued at the base of the hill, with grenades being hurled at advancing Blue forces, and seemingly endless streams of paintballs whizzing down on Blue.

Late into the afternoon, all Red forces were pulled up onto the hill, for a last-ditch stand. A single Blue sniper (Soul Man) snuck up on the north side and was able to shoot several of us on top (Including yours truly in the back of the neck) before being justly dispatched. Blue continued their assault in force, trying different approaches to gain an advantage, but to no avail. The hilltop defenders held tight.

After several heavy firefights, Blue pulled back to regroup. They then assaulted in a massive wave against the southeast side of the hill. While we were distracted by this massive attack, once again a single sniper snuck around, and past sentries up the hillside and once again shot me. It was Deadeye, Commander of the Blue team (man, and after all my trash talk about him never getting on top of my hill...). He was also able to shoot several Reds.

Upon reaching the top he began whooping and calling his team to push to the top. Unfortunately, his glory was short lived, as heavy fire brought his short-lived victory to an end before he could hardly climb the highest point. After that, Blue was shut down. We began a wide open hail of paint from the top of the hill in all directions.

All in all, it was a good day of paintball.

-- Hammer

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A fun event. Good attendance (yet, I'm sad that we get more JR than SR players out to scenarios these days). I think most of us used suprisingly less paint than we intended. I'm super sore. I think that was the most physically taxing thing I have done all my life. Up and down hills on sandy ground is tough. Mark Barrett played the best I have ever seen him play. Everyone played really well. I was impressed by everyone there, especially when we stayed back near the hill, the second half of the game.

-- T-Bone

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Hey Guys, great Game. As always I am pleased to play alongside Desert Edge. Your sportsmanship and team minded play really make you all Grade-A Players in my book. It was great to have you guys down here for another of our events. Later,

-- Hammer

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This was a really cool event. The first half was a little tiring cause as, blue team, we got lead astray off somewere near a mountain and had to walk a long time to even find the hill. But the second half was better we fought very hard trying to claim the hill but in the end we were defeated. Very good game overall.

-- Flyboy.