Quest for the Holy Grail

Gainesville, FL

April 3-4, 2004 - Chronicled by Dale "Mongo" Lloyd

On Saturday morning we hauled the Fist to the prow of the hill on which stood Camelot (with help from the refs and a pair of ATVs), a lovely spot that Tradeguy and Stone had identified on their earlier recon of the field. It stood next to the main path to our base and became the effective DBD rally point, but, as has been mentioned, never so much as smelled a Frenchmen due to the English domination of that end of the field. Our base was at least twice as far from the entry point as the French Castle Aggh and we could have wound up being bottled up in our little corner of the field, but that didn't happen....

The field itself was very interesting, with a lot more variation than Wildfire. Some speedball fields (like Saint Ives and the Dung Village), some wide open areas (like the Frozen Land of Nador), some lightly wooded, park-like areas (Woods of the Knights That Say Nee), and some more heavily wooded areas (like the Dead Forest). There were no huge stretches of solid woods (unlike Wildfire), but there was a lot of elevation differences for a Florida field. First Strike also has a SERIOUS ravine (the Dark Forest of Ewing) and another area of densely wooded hillocks, narrow gullies, and twisty little paths (the Gorge of Eternal Peril). Both appear to be left over from the field's days as a limestone quarry...and Swamp Thing would have been at home in either....

The actual structures on the field were not overly impressive individually (i.e. there was nothing like CPX's Armageddon or EMR's castle or Ellis' town), but there were a lot of different structures on the field and they did a great job of tying virtually everything to the Grail scenario. There were Scales of Justice, a cave for the Killer Rabbit, a Castle Anthrax, a Bridge of Death, a Swamp Castle, and even a Anarcho Syndicalist Commune. These folks went whole hog in terms of the story...complete with a Book of Armaments, a Trojan rabbit (a one man-powered tank), a three headed giant, and even a Grail. And, while I didn't actually locate the "eight score young blondes and brunettes, all between sixteen and nineteen-and-a-half", even the nice ladies working the registration and beverage counters off field were dressed in proper Grail fashion. When you were off-field it felt like half paintball game and half Medieval Faire.

The pre-game ceremonies were short and sweet, and included King Arthur actually knighting the English knights, one of them our own Dr. Doom. Before the start of the game our side was WAY behind on troops...so much so that the producers asked for volunteers to switch over to the English side. A team called the Rogue Warriors nobly obliged, but that still left our side outnumbered (even with late arriving walk-ons added to our side)...and facing the winning general from last year's game.

Our guys rocked on the field. Doom was everywhere and, without tanks or helicopters to shoot at, focused his efforts on nerf rocketing bunkers into submission (and sending dozens of bunnies, duckies, and rats over the French walls into their castle). Doom's destruction of enemy bunkers turned the tide of MANY battles and cries of "Rocket Man" were heard all over the field. Stone Cold spent much of the first day holding down the Fist and working base defense, while Tradeguy and I (the former armed sometimes only with his new pistol) did the same for shorter periods of time...but the enemy never came. Stone Cold did, however, do quite a bit of damage to the opposition later on, including surrendering two Frenchmen in one little skirmish and putting the A-5 to good use. And Tradeguy likewise added injury to insult, wielding the A-5 very effectively in several assaults on French territory, right up to the walls of Castle Aaagh. And the incident he mentioned on Sunday (his defense of the Swamp Castle with the Imp) gave the rest of our team a chance to re-establish a line and stop the advancing French in their tracks. Digital Dave, meanwhile, was ALL over the field...I lost track of the times I saw him in the thick of things. I think he may have actually gotten shot more than the rest of us...and Dave may well have covered more ground than any other DBD member.

I, who had never shot an electro before, tried the A-5 in one battle at Castle Nocer late Saturday afternoon. Dang thing shoots like a house on fire (esp. compared to a pump)...but it worked VERY well. And I borrowed it again for the final battle (which was more of a whole field thing than a speedball fight), along with Stone Cold's air tank, and all of DBD's the leftover paint....

King Arthur himself did a good job (and even visited our campsite twice). Heck, he even mentioned Dead By Dawn as one of the teams in a post game "thank you" note on warpig. And we played with a lot of good teams on our side...in more than one firefight I could hear other players yelling "On me! On me!". Folks took direction well and shared intel...and when we had a DBD player holding down the Fist they often served to gather recon info from the other DBD guys on the field...and could share that with the folks dispatching missions and/or reinforcements.

Not sure what else to mention...and this tome has likely gone on more than long enough. But the hot tub at Castle Mark was a BIG win on both Saturday and Sunday night...and the cookout there on Sunday was likewise an awesome way of relaxing after the game (with much thanks to both Tradeguy and Maid Marion, not to mentiont the princesses). Both John and Dave likewise contributed provisions (and ale) for the feast. And Digital Dave surprised us all on Sunday with CD's (including great cover art of the Fist of Antioch) of the stills that he'd taken during the game. And did I mention the ribs at Newberry Backyard BBQ on Saturday night...EXTREMELY tasty.

I'd definitely be game to play the First Strike field again...and to play another Nocer Production, whether at that field or a different one. In fact, I think we ought to mention Nocer to Ellis...they could run a nice game at Adventure Beach Paintball. I was also very pleased to hear (from King Arthur, who runs Old River) that Old River's Halloween game this year will be based on Dog Soldiers...a military versus werewolves yarn that could have excellent DBD potential....

To all who were able to attend...it was a BLAST. And to those DBD who couldn't...you were, as usual, much missed and much mentioned.

- Mongo