MXS Ragnarok
Hopewell, VA
April 2-3, 2005 - Chronicled
by Dale "Mongo" Lloyd
What are you going to do?
What will be your
epitaph
When we come for
you?
- GWAR "Ragnarok"
For me the End of
the World as we know it began about a week ago when Mimir/Tradeguy
rolled in from the Southlands, trailed by the Fimbul Winter. Many were the
artifacts he brought, including a killer Ragnarok game magnet, a great
Mimir button, more Ragnarok CDs, and some fine add-ons for my A-5
(including a genuine A-5 barrel condom and a Ricochet hopper). Tradeguy
also brought two new 10x10 EZ-Up tents, complete with sidewalls (which
turned out to be very, VERY useful).
Other DBD
contributed as well, with the Devastator III on loan from Dr. Doom (an
item which was seldom idle) and a DBD vest on loan from Repoman (which was
destined to be used by Allan's brother Warren). And WCM
likewise helped out even before the game, with Emeril hauling
the ballista (i.e. Odin's Bane) and various tables/chairs north to
Virginia for us. Thursday night was quiet and peaceful for Tradeguy and I
(Mongolian dinner with Repo...visiting Raleigh with Chip...giving Doom a
ride home from the airport), but that peace was soon to be shattered by
RAGNAROK.....
And it
began in earnest on Friday, when Tradeguy and I traveled back to the
airport (in his mini-van of the Dead) to pick up Not Bob (Tony Jackson),
captain of the Mayberry Marauders. Little did we know that we would be
ferrying ALL of the attending Marauders north to Hopewell...or that their
entire team for this event would consist of...Not Bob. This was to be true
of a number of teams at Ragnarok...where they wound up being represented
by only a single player. But Not Bob proved to be an excellent,
informative, and highly humorous ("Go Web Go!") companion, whether it
was traveling, camping, fixing markers, or actually playing
paintball. We learned a lot about him and the
Marauders...and Not Bob learned what we all already know, namely
that DBD is one strange bunch.
The ride to
the field was quick and painless (and much better than working). But when
we reached SplatBrothers it was clear that the first storms of the Fimbul
Winter had preceeded us...and that there was more rain to come. The
camping area (which, in the previous Hopewell game, had been a nearby
farmer's field...we took the DBD team picture there) was well on it's way
to becoming a bog. But Rich Dolph was one of the first friendly faces that
we saw...and he directed us to a corner of the campground that turned out
to be an excellent site, high if not completely dry...and about as close
to the field as possible (the NE corner of the "Camping Area" on the map).
In fact, we were so close to the field that the sidewalls were pretty much
required to keep random paintballs off of us.
And Not Bob
proved to be a master of tent setup, complete with such tricks as duct
taping the two tents together to form a "gutter" of sorts (it wasn't
actively raining when we were setting them up, but we knew it was coming).
We zip-tied the tents together and put up 5 of the 6 sidewalls.
And Jammer (of Team Hardball...again the sole representative of his
team for this game) soon joined us, setting up his 10x10 as a "porch"
for our pair of the EZ-Ups. It was a good arrangement...and
did wonders in terms of getting the ground dry (and keeping the rain off
of the gear). Lot of folks came by to take advantage of the shelter from
the weather, including two who would eventually win awards during the
game: Taz (a friend of Jammer's from Poland) and Preacher (of Evil
Inc...who, unfortunately, was on the Good side for this one...but who gave
us an air tank for the ballista).
We picked
up our player packets (complete with runestones) and showed Mother the
props, eventually giving her an "Eye of Odin" to use in the game. I
ran into Booya of Old Men and Heavyweights...he was there (playing for the
other team), but, like Not Bob and Jammer, he was pretty much the sole
representative of his team. And I was very sorry to see that OMHW hadn't
turned out in force as I (and, evidently, Boo-yah) had expected them
to...they were tough oponents back at X-Com (and good
comrades at King Returns) and would have been a big asset
for the opposition. 20 or 30 OMHW would have made a major difference
in the game.
I think
Yote may have spent the night at the field, but Tradeguy and I hit the
hotel late (after a dinner at what is becoming a DBD mainstay...Cracker
Barrel)...and, as expected, found it packed with young soccer players
and their parents (there was a tourney in town). Marksman, Dr. Zox, and
Godzilla arrived even later that evening...while Conn and Warren (aka
"Zeylor") arrived (coming from opposite directions) early the next
morning.
And a wet,
wet morning it was. Think Day 2 of Avalon, but colder and a lot muddier.
Or Twin Towers at EMR, but with much smaller hills.We hauled the ballista
out onto the field and set it up (near the Hall of the Volsungs in a spot
where it would have some relatively clear shots at other structures and
bunkers)...got chrono-ed, loaded up, and ready to Ragnarokandroll. And
much of the rest of the day was a wet, soggy blur. :-) I played Demo,
partly just because it's a shame NOT to use such a device as the D-III
when one is available (although I was only a poor substitute for Dr. Doom
in that regard)...and partly because it was raining so hard at times that
I could barely see anything smaller than a bunker, barn, or tower. And
even then folks had to point out which ones had enemies in or behind them.
I also managed to miss the first DBD mission (at 12:40) completely...and
later managed to get barrel tagged while waiting to get
re-taped when the Jotun's main base got
overrun.
But the
rest of DBD (and, indeed, our whole side) did a helluva job on Saturday.
Marksman took on the NPC role of a Runeweaver...which was VERY cool.
He could identify the power granted by the individual rune each player had
gotten in their packet...and, for a price, enable that ability. Zeylor,
meanwhile, proved to be a natural at scenario paintball, although I wish
his baptism by fire could have happened in nicer weather. Warren ran with
Allan part of the time, but Conn also put in a lot of time firing Odin's
Bane...doing everything from hitting Mimir's Tower at least 4 times to
raining Nerf howlers down on the enemy main base (which sound awesome
coming down...we need more of those). Richard spent part of
his day playing Mimir (another Non Preferencial Character...in
one of the coolest costumes I've seen on a paintball field), but also had
some great moves while he was shooting the enemy as Tradeguy (one
being a major push to Asgard early on...and another later when
he took out the enemy who had overrun our base). I
think Godzilla spent most of the day running with Knightmare Tango (who
were a man or two short), doing MAJOR damage to the Aesir in typical,
fast-moving KT fashion. Yote (wearing a very cool Fenris mask) was
also very busy...I saw him standing still when he was helping Loki, but he
was otherwise mostly a blur.
In fact, I
mostly saw the rest of DBD when they were in one area of the field...and
that was because I spent about 85% of my time hanging out between
Jotunheim, Galgvd, and Asgard. The ballista turned into the
unofficial "assembly point" for some of us...and that part of the field
was ripe for demo work, a lightly wooded ravine with all kinds of
structures to shoot at. Conn and Zeylor worked that part of the field, as
did Tradeguy (and Jammer, Elf, and a lot of Santa's Rejects). And Dr. Zox
(armed with his very sweet new LAWs and that awesome Punisher pump)
and Emeril (armed with the MB and and lovely grenade launcher sight) blew
up a LOT of stuff in that area. Between those guys, the D-III, and Odin's
Bane...no structure was safe for the enemy. We killed log bunkers, tire
bunkers, concrete block buildings, wooden towers, and even a house
trailer...repeatedly. There were no tanks in the game, but we did
shoot down Odin when the Aesir tried to send a chopper across the ravine.
And it was a short route to the enemy base (which many DBD visited a
number of times). Our boys demo'd things all over the field (Zox, in
particular, taking out one key tree in Alfheim...killing, I believe, both
the medic and the enemy shooter that he'd been repeatedly
healing)...we got a barrel of nerf rockets back after the game.
Although
our side dominated most of the early game, the other side did gain ground,
pulling off some good moves (including the previously mentioned
short-lived overrun of our base). And we took the
opportunity to check out the field...at one point Zox and I found
ourselves in the deep woods at the north end of the field (two guys with
only LAW's, no markers). But it wasn't enough and, come dinner
break, two teams (Night Stalkers and RMF) were switched over from Evil to
Good. And losing those teams (and having to play against them on Saturday
night and Sunday) did make a big difference. And the dinner break itself
came early (with yet more rain and win) when the game was halted due to
thunderstorms. The wind grew so strong that most of DBD (and Jammer and
Taz and anyone else who was handy) were holding down the DBD tents while
Not Bob worked frantically to keep it all tied together. Without the new
sidewalls we would have been airborne (like several tents were, including
Yote and Little John's, which was flung high into the
trees).
Some of DBD
and WCM dined on pizza in Hopewell (at "The King of Pizza"?), but the
night game was upon us soon enough. Both Conn and Zeylor played for
several hours...and Mimir ran a higly profitable (he ended Saturday in
possesion of both the Hammer of Thor and the Fire Sword of Surt) night
mission where Loki narrowly escaped being ambushed by the now enemy
Night Stalkers. And Yote, Little John, Jammer, Taz, and company played
well into the damp, cold night of Ragnarok.... And, latter that night,
Marksman unfortunately had to deport (transported by none other then
Gunslinger) and head back north. And that left me with my "rune power"
stll unused. I think the moral here (well taught by Cootie at The Stand)
is that, if you've got an ability, don't wait forever to use it. Godzilla
wisely used his rune power early, gaining a gift of one of Mimir's "pearls
of wisdom" from the runeweaver...which allowed the user to find out the
details of the enemy's next mission.
But
Sunday dawned cold...and clear? Hmm...what is that orange ball in the
sky? Still windy (and extremely muddy...cars were getting stuck left and
right), but a HUGE improvement over Saturday. And play on Sunday was
great! The other side was doing better, but it still felt like we were
winning (most of our missions were deep in enemy territory...while many of
their missions were in their backyard). There was yet more running
(including a long range recon by Zox and Tradeguy), more gunning
(including more sweeping assualts by KT and Godzilla), and more role
playing involving Mimir and Fenris. And DBD continued to annoy the Aesir
in a big way...at one point Odin even resorted to using his special
abilities to eliminate us. Conn was stuck down by this power, as were Zox
and myself (a ref would show up with a card in his hand and declare you
eliminated...probably karmic payback for all of those nerf rockets we'd
lobbed Odin's way). The final battle was an interesting fight for Mimir's
Well (now containing a lot of the loot that Tradeguy had
collected...Hammer of Thor, the Sword of Surt, and Eye of Odin). And Yote
contributed a PILE of Atomic grenades to that particular
altercation. But it looked like the Aesir had the advantage there
(particularly with regard to starting/insertion point) and, sure enough,
we lost that fight.
But we won
the game! Final tally was 19 missions for the Odin and 22 missions
for Loki...for a final score of 474 to 432. Little John did a fine job as
general, a thankless task (as commanders and XO's like Yote, Marksman,
Conn, Swampy, and Stone Cold well know). Loki wasn't afraid to ask for
help...and Rich Dolph, Yote, and Yabo did a lot of support work. And In
Contempt (who won MVT for Evil) put in a lot of time running base
security. Prop-wise we got good use out of the Eye's of Odin, the bags of
gold coins, the Pearls of Wisdom, the fang of the Midgard Serpent, and the
ballista (which much of DBD helped haul on and off the field). And as the
sun shown brightly on the brave new (and very evil) world following
Ragnarok, about all that was left was packing up, cleaning up, digging out
of the mud, and driving home...dropping off Not Bob...and eating some of
that tasty chocolate chip bread we got from Stephanie, the MXS writer and
photographer....
But the
other players that attended should write about Ragnarok, particularly with
regard to their own exploits. And, although my own camera was toast (I
guess those little disposables go bad after a while), I hope that we got
some good pictures from the game. It was a pleasure and honor to play with
all of the DBD that attended...and it was great getting to play paintball
with Zeylor...I hope we can get him out for another game when the
weather's better!
And,
speaking of other games, what's next for DBD? I'm definitely planning on
going to NOCER's "Resident Evil Apocalypse" game down in Low Country
(Georgia) on Oct. 15-16. If you haven't tried a NOCER game...you ought
to. And I'm thinking about going to Wayne's Grand Finale this
year (Dec. 3-4), partly because Jammer is general-ing. What else leaps out
at folks?
But that's
it for now...I've got weeds to pull. Or, the words of Led
Zepplin:
We come from the land of the ice and
snow,
from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
The hammer
of the gods
Will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde,
singing and crying:
Valhalla, I am coming!
- Mongo
of Hel
|
