The Team generals were announced during the big safety meeting that is standard procedure at EMR, leading the red team was the SCP Player known as Cargo, while the blue team leader was Alan "Shaggy" Mendel. After the safety meeting the game was on, with the blue team in the first game getting the high ground and having their dead zone and base at Castle Numbskull. Meanwhile the red team got their base placed downhill within the pine forest. For the first game the weather held with just a few clouds extensive humidity and lots of sunshine and with such reasonable weather some great fights ensued, blue team took Fort Worr and held it for a decent amount of time before red fought hard to take it back. Blue also ended up holding the trading post which was little more then some light fortification-bunker type structures in a loose ring and garrisoned the area with five players including yours truly. The stationing of so many blue players in the post led to one of the more humorous fights of the day and it would be the first time yours truly would end up there out of three total times during the entire game. The small post would serve as a reinsertion launching point for blue teams own downhill skirmishing line attacks which paved inroads into the red team�s attempts to gain some higher ground. After traveling just beyond the rock wall midline on the field I was sent back to re-garrison the post since no one was left there. The re-garrisoning of the post led to the first �duel� with an SCP player I had during the day. In the end the post ended up lost to the red team after a five minute duel with an attacking red player.
Meanwhile Fort Worr was securely in red team�s hands and fights were still going on at the speed ball field, which oddly enough was the field that would end up seeing the most action short of the individual bases and the far ends of the midline. There were a few tense moments as blue teams dead zone began to fill up as we waited for a timed reinsertion and a number of red team players crept off the speedball field to try and score some reinsertion kills versus blue teams massing reinforcements. In the end the fighting died down as the midway point got nearer. Across the referee�s radios word of the game being extended to 2:30 pm instead of breaking at 2:00pm for a lunch break was murmured but by 2pm about two third of either side stepped off the field thinking there was no chance of reinsertion.
An hour raced by fairly fast and the battle was rejoined, the teams swapped bases and now blue was downhill with their base in the pines and red got castle numbskull. Of course red did what blue had done when they held the high ground and went to take the trading post and put defenders in both the speedball fields and Fort Worr. Inevitably the game was delayed by rain, and yours truly was holed up in the mining town just below fort Worr with several others of blue team just trying to stay somewhat dry. After the fifteen minute rain showers some of which were just a notch below torrential ended. Fighting was resumed with some odd wet ammo results as players found their ammunition making odd curves loops and spirals in the air. At the current time battle was on going around the Fort Worr area while red team tried to send a raiding party down to take the blue flag and encountered a blue team force moving out to try and sweep the left flank. Eventually I found myself re-garrisoning the outpost again after sneaking in with Jim Masse and playing distraction for the post�s defender while Jim snuck around on the right and neutralized the solo defender. My posting there lasted all of twenty minutes before a red team skirmish line was launched to clear opposition which unfortunately was only me. After a short firefight with about seven red attackers I ended up loosing the post but not before inflicting one confirmed elimination on the encroaching red team. As the fighting continued and I languished at the dead box, the red team took the circle shaped fortress on our right side and harassed our right flank we counter fired but due to the range and the presence of a deep marshy area we couldn�t rush the position. After a while the goons in the bush were sniped out and we took the circle fort and cleared the area. We lost it and had an unwanted encounter with a player shooting both hot and who wiped twice but there were no referees to be found to call it in so myself and the other player garrisoning the circle-fort rather unhappily trudged back to the dead zone and reported it to the other players there who were in and ready to go. In an odd fit of agitation I told two of them to give the guy hell and they went off and steamrolled the guy. Shortly there after one of the more infamous moments in the game occurred, as the blue team dead box swelled to about eight or more players, the red team attacked shooting everyone in sight in the attempt to get the flag. Despite the fact the dead players for the most part were utterly unarmed having put their guns down prior the reds kept shooting despite more then one already dead blue team player yelling �I�m out stop shooting!�. Admittedly I didn�t have a barrel condom on my gun at the time and I was one of two players still holding a gun, but even so I�d just arrived about a minute or two ago and no ref was present to stop the shooting or at least move the dead zone over. When the reinsertion came the blue team went out for blood after that attack with a fury that hadn�t been seen all day. A mass of about twelve players rushed out to take on blue�s best and charged up the hills of the left flank smashing opposition at the midline the out post and it was about there I lost track of their aggressive assault I do know the red team flag was brought back not to long after the fact. Three of the attack team remained behind after spotting a red team raiding group cutting around on the far left and using a natural outcropping of the pines as a sort of natural shooting blind we stationed ourselves with the role of intercepting snipers to great effect. About five red team players; four in the woods and one in the fields stretching between the pine forest and the midline rock wall attempted to make their way in waiting for a redelivery of the blue flag. The Red team player out in the fields found him self being raked with accurate fire from I and another blue player effectively cross firing the player. The third blue player caused undue agitation for the raiding team when he shot out two of them before being shot himself. A number of skirmishes occurred on the left flank while major battles continued to be fought on the speed ball field. At 7pm the ref�s whistles blew signaling the end of the game and shortly thereafter the final scores were announced. The Blue team long keeping the lead or staying tied with red had lost the game with 1950 points while the red team had won with a final score of 2350. This put an end to a decent game at Pump Pandemonium 3, as I was to find out after the fact, the player numbers sagged greatly since PP2, as there were only 115 players as opposed to the 185 at PP2.
This section tells the full details of events that involved me in the game in the detail not possible in a regular article.
First Half
-Within Fort Worr:
Myself and another player were defending a third blue team player who was sharp shooting through port holes in the side of the fortress, when a red team member tried to take shots on us and the sharp shooter by popping in and out through a doorway at the end of the hall. Well we don�t take to kindly to sneaks so the two of us defenders waited for him to pop back out while I took position at the corner of the hall with little of me showing and the other defender remained towards the outside wall I had accidentally chambered four balls in my bushmaster by now because of holding the gun with the muzzle pointed skyward sow hen the red team player popped out to try and take another pot shot us defenders fired at the same time. Needless to say the bushmaster is loud already but when the gun spat out a shotgun formation that would make most hunting enthusiasts tear up with one ball hitting the red player right in the mask and the other three landing around his head it was a pretty thing and my first elimination of the game.
-Within the Trading Post:
About five of us were stationed in the trading post and we were having one heck of a time keeping the mosquitoes away while joking about what the game might hold, this was after my second insertion by the way so it was perhaps an hour in. Well were all there joking and having fun when one of the guys spots Brimstone from the Red team trying to sneak by. Now I don�t know about you but brimstone is not a person who should be trying to sneak by anything, not only is he not quiet but he's an easily spotted target at all times. Of course as you can figure we all started pumping out rounds at him like there�s no tomorrow, hell we were shooting away so much he probably thought it was raining, but that�s not the key detail you see we heckled the guy the whole way out which made it funny as hell in it's own way because it was of course good natured ribbing. In case you�re wondering what was said it was like this.
"Who does he think he is bob long?!"
"Maybe he things the fat can deflect some rounds."
"Run big man Run!"
"It was all Just a dream Fat boy!"
Yeah I admit I yelled the last two myself what can I say, I was very much in a full metal jacket frame of mind at the time.
Second Half
-Within the Trading Post Part Two
So shortly after our comical over blasting of brimstone a large number of blue team folks comes through and takes goes with the entire garrison to do a down hill skirmish line so we might clear resistance and make a flag assault. About half way down at the midline rock wall Shaggy the blue team general looks at me and says. "Hey uh KG We're gonna need someone to hold the fort" Needless to say I don�t even question it, I was already leery of leaving that small prize unguarded so back up the hill I went with an absolute intention of doing my job as best as possible. They moved on and I was there at the fort telling jokes with the referee who was also stationed there to monitor flag operations. It didn't take long before one of the SCP players, who was on the red team showed up at first trying to be stealthy. Well I put an end to his stealth by firing a shot that zipped right over his shoulder. From there it was on, that�s right we dodged darted and blasted away it sure was one hell of a duel, the expected duel of a Lone Marshal versus a lone SCP player. It was what you'd expect from a game like this, I had him dead in ammo capacity but he had me in accuracy my paint was damp his was shooting straight and dry. We pounded away anyway, Finally at about a range of about ten feet he pulled the trigger and like before I tried to bust out a matrix move and almost pulled it off for about the third time that match, but tripped over a root on the tree I was using for part cover his shot tagged the lower cheek of my mask and I spun about having lost balance and went down like a ton of bricks landing flat on my back. Of course Red had won the post then but being the wise ass I was when the ref asked if I was ok my response was "Mommy Please I need the beers they make the hurt go away!" Before leaving the fort and bagging my gun I shook the hand of the SCP player and exited stage dead zone.
-Within the Trading Post Part Three
Yeah I got stationed there a third time, but that was after I left the dead zone trailing Jim Masse, we crept up on the post real quiet like. He went right I crept left and was attracting a reasonable amount of enemy fire. Granted only one person garrisoned the post they were not liking me well anyway Jim gets the elimination on whoever it was and I got the job of holding the position. Well don�t you know it; watching the spot was the same ref as before who saw me fall over and not more then perhaps ten minutes later after some funny jokes a red team skirmish like was coming my way. It's not that I saw them I heard them I heard brimstone yakking away long before I saw them so I hit the deck and crouched behind a barrier listening for the sounds of them getting closer. Of course they no doubt saw the blue flag and expected major resistance...well they got it I waited looking through one of the sides of the barrier and sure enough a red team member walked into my line of sight. I cranked out two shots and watched one explode on his leg the other doing it's Hi I'm a wet round dance in the air before hitting the dirt somewhere. Well the guy yelled out 'He's in there!' and walked out of my line of sight, I fired a few more rounds to make some token resistance because the number of voices told me I'd hit one guy out of perhaps seven or more players, no matter how it got diced I was pretty screwed. One of their players some how got a shot in on my arm a Kennedy shot if there ever was one I still don�t know how he did it but I promptly found myself giving up the fort to red again and exiting stage dead box!
-The Daytime Run of KG Revere
Yeah you never thought I could run did you? Well I did. I ran like a man with his ass on fire, but that�s not the entire story you see, I'd went out with a team of two other guys on the left flank trying to retake the post. No I didn't garrison it again I'm thankful for that, that post is a mosquito-laden boredom fest I might as well pretended it was the civil war to make it even more remotely interesting. Well anyway we were creeping up the hill taking three distinct trails in sight of each other when the guys on my left and right got taken out by red team members occupying the post, so I fell back to the midline rock wall to serve as an advance scout. I kept my eyes and ears open scanning for so much as murmur of red team communications, no more then five minutes after I'd taken post I heard the telltale myriad snaps of trigs underfoot. The reds were coming, and I was the only one hew knew so early I didn't see them but the large number of twigs snapping meant a fair number were inbound, perhaps six or seven no more though since fighting was still going on at the speedball court, and let me tell you, red team seemed to have a hard-on for that area they fought there the most. But anyway, I waited a few more seconds saw some movement and moved fast, Hauling ass from the midline to the pine forest tree line where I found a bunch of reds starting to cross the field by the long bridge. They saw me and hesitated to I changed their minds by auto-triggering a number of rounds at them in what might have been the world's first run-by pump strafing. I didn't bother to check to see if they were out but the volume of return fire signaled that I'd been had, and so I hauled ass through the pines like a bull in a china shop smashing branches out of the way, and making a lot of noise while yelling "The reds are coming!" over and over again. It took a few moments to get to the dead zone but I warned our team of the flag raid and told them to take up positions for defense, all six of us did what we could, but I ended up as the last player standing. Literally it was just me standing behind a little three window square bunker and no one knew I was there. My team knew I was the last man standing but they didn't So I snap shot around the left side and nailed one red player in the gut but the return fire got me in the knee, needless to say one of their players came about the other side and asked for a surrender I simply pointed to the blue splat on my knee and said" Well I appreciate the gesture but your a bit late." This was the last play of the game and the end of PP3.
- Lots of space on varying terrain to play.
- Teams swapped base locations at the midpoint altering game tactics.
- Unlike normal games swampy areas played a major role in hindering player movement.
- The game went on despite rain humidity and periods of rain.
- Good tactics were used on both sides with more then a few noteworthy players on either side doing their best.
- The New flag capture format was a bit easier to digest for new players.
The Bad parts of the game.
- Players chronographed themselves and were held to an honor system which got broken.
- Not nearly enough referees to properly monitor the 115 or so players.
- The lack of referee presence in the large playing area made it impossible to call for paintchecks or rulings.
- Referees were not aggressive enough in calling chronochecks on players.
- The locations of deadzones right on top of base objective flags caused more then one dead player to be shot by incoming players from the other team.
-The long walk to dead zones only contributed to player fatigue.
- No safe netted areas to clear ones goggles could be found on the feild, as such many players did complain about fogging.
