Phx Idiots Array's Birthday Bash in the Pines...Complete with PAINTBALL!!

So, after a fun-filled day of paintballing in the desert, IA and I started talking about my experiences paintballing in the forest!

The fantastic thing about paintballing in the forest is that if everyone wears camo, people simply DISAPPEAR! The games are more intense because you spend quite a bit of your time stalking your prey and then BAM suddenly your on them and all pucky breaks loose! It's FANTASTIC!

SO here's the plan for Idiots Array's birthday party:

Idiots Array's birthday is April 25th which is most conviently a FRIDAY!

I will be hosting a weekend bash for him up in Flagstaff from Friday to Sunday.

Friday Afternoon/Evening: Those who want to come up then can and we'll party at my house etc...

Saturday: Everyone planning to attend the festivities is to meet (at a place to be determined later) by 9 am. We will then caravan to the forest. We will set up camp (yes this is an overnighter) and get everyone decked out in paintball gear.

Saturday will be a day of paintball in the pines. We'll break for lunch...most likely BBQ style...and then continue the paintball until we A.) run out of ammo B.) run out of air/CO2.

Thoughts on the paintball: We will not only be doing some elimination games (Two teams battle to the death) and double elimination games, but I have come up with some other games as well, which I'll post about below.

Paintball Game Rules: We will be playing by the rules learned at the PFF Paintball trip which will be explained to everyone before game play. These include Paint Checks, no Blind Firing, the Surrender Rule, and no Point Blank Firing. You are dead when you recieve a paint mark the size of a quarter or bigger on your person, your gun or your gear. Splatters do not count as a death.

We will be able to rent equipment for those who do not own paintball equipment so not having any paintball stuff is NO excuse for not coming!

Other Paintball stuff:

We will have at least two people act as refs for each game, everyone will rotate being a ref at least once.

Ammuniton: Everyone who comes to play is asked to bring a box of at least 1000-2000 rounds. All ammuniton will be SHARED. No hoarding is allowed. Everyone will start each game with a full hopper on their gun and can take up to 2 ammuntion tubes of paintballs with them into the game. This will ensure that everyone gets to play for a LONG time! Before the start of each game you are allowed to fill up your Hopper and your ammo tubes.

When IA, Mr. Wench, me, Ion Control and Mobius played yesterday, the five of us went through 4000-5000 plus rounds in about 4 hours. This is roughly 1000 rounds per person. This is why we're asking that everyone bring at least 1000 rounds, but preferably 2000 because we expect (assuming that a good number show up) that we'll be playing for much longer than 4 hours.

Saturday Night: Dinner and BIRTHDAY PARTY for Idiots Array!!! We'll bring music, start a camp fire, and it is bring your own drinks should you choose to drink. We'll be camping in the woods that night so no one is leaving once the sun goes down.

Sunday: Breakfast and then more paintball (if there is any ammo and air/CO2 left over) or we will be shooting (real guns) for the day.

We'll work out the details of food, gear, etc...over the next little while.

When I put the idea before Void he asked if other non-lethal weapons could be included in the games....I assume he means boffers. Sure Void but if you get hit by a paintball you're still dead.

We will be making every effort to make this as affordable as possible so that every member of the PFF can potentially come. We'll also include other things for those of you who simply don't want to paintball, but we all think you're crazy!

 

Here are some of the thoughts I came up with for paintball games.

Scenario games:

Terrorist vs. Special Ops:
A hostage will be picked at random and blindfolded. Two teams will be created, one to be the terrorist group and one to be the Special Ops force. The terrorist group will be given 5-10 minutes to whisk the hostage off to a hinding place in the woods. At the 5-10 minute mark, the Special Ops forces will be let loose. The game from that point will last a maximum of 30 minutes. The game ends when either all of the terrorists have been killed, the Special Ops forces manage to rescue the hostage, or time runs out with some terrorist standing and the hostage is then eliminated.

Aliens vs. Humans (Mobius' idea):
Two teams, one alien, one human. This is an elimination game but with a twist. If you are Alien and you get marked by a human, you're dead. If you're Human and you get marked by an Alien, you become an Alien and hunt down the remaining humans. This one has no time limit, it ends when only one team either Humans or Aliens remains.

Star Wars vs. Star Trek:
Mobius will have to explain this one.

Other Games:

Double Elimination:
Once you are marked by someone from the other team you can go to your teams home base touch the flag and reenter the game. As soon as your hand leaves the flag, you're open game once again. If you get marked a second time, you're out.

Scavenging:
This is an elimination game as well but this time, if you are marked you must lay on the ground for three minutes. (Count to 180 slowly) During this time ANY player who comes upon you can either leave you for dead or scavenge you for gun and ammuntion. You are not allowed to refuse, you MUST lay there quietly and allow the person to take either your gun, your paintballs, or both. The person is required to return your gun and ammuntion tubes at the end of the game. So remember who took it from you and if you are the scavenger, who you took it from. At the end of three minutes or if the game is called, you get up and can leave the area. This is cool because if you run out of ammo, you find a dead person and reload. It is also cool because you can take on another gun if you like. But it does leave you somewhat vulnerable to crossfire or being shot while you are scavenging.

Night game:
We are planning on doing a night game which will rock because it will be dark. We will allow people to use flashlights if they wish but they make you vulnerable AND if you have nightvision you may use that as well, however the other team will be given more members to compensate.

Any other games we come up with between now and then will also be included.

 

This sounds like a great time. May I make a few warning/suggestions. I just want to clarify that I'm not trying to take charge or discourage this trip. It sounds awesome. However, I was a dispatcher for 8 years in the Mountains. There was nothing worse than "flatlanders" who came up to the mountains un-prepared, and ended up with people, lost or injured etc etc etc. I just don't want us to be any of those "flatlanders". So, with just a few precautions, we should have a really really awesome time.

1st Suggestions. I know a few great camping spots on the Forest Higway three (mormon lake road) There are some great camp spots between Apache Maid and Stoneman's lake we can get into. Also there are some real campgrounds at Lake Mary,and or mormon lake. (For those who don't know these locations are just south and east of Flagstaff. Ohh there's also an awesome campground towards Williams, on the south side of I40,k back in near Whitehorse resavor. I'll look up the name. Those were some good campgrounds in there I think they even had running water and toilets.

2 Now for the warnings. That time of the year is going to be prime for bear and or Mtn Lion season. With the weather being the way it was, and the fact that there was little to no food for them to get a good winter supply the bear are going to be up and moving about that time. They will mostlikely not come into camp. but having people runing around alone at night, may not be the best, as they are very nocturnal. I will not be participating in the Paintball so I have no problem brining live firearms for protection.

3rd. All of the forest area up there is very densly forested. It's very easy to get lost and turned around, especially if you are not familuar with where you are at. If everyone would bring a whistle and a compass and a watch, that would be great. Maybe we can do a scavanger hunt in groups by orienteering. If you have GPS, that's great, but please, still bring the other three items.

Additionally. This time of the year it potentially could still be droping down into the 20's and 30's at night and there is always a posibility of snow in the high country. I've seen the weather turn from an 80 degree day to having it start snowing within 3 hours, and end up with over a foot of snow on the ground within 8 hours. So, as such, Bring clothes you can layer on that are for cold weather.

Thank you all for taking the time to listen.

 

I have another interesting game concept: Terminator. You have uneven teams, 10-5, for example. One of the team members on the smaller team is the "Terminator". He has a target on his back (his power cell), and can only die by getting hit there. His teammates are defending him. The goal is to get the terminator into the enemy base and secure it by eliminating all the oponents.

 

unless your useing a previously used area as a matter of safty youll need to make sure you have a set area to play in. you need markers to show the boundrys and ways for the players to find the central meeting area and emergency areas. as well as haveing someone scout the area for hidden dangers potential dangers etc. the suggestion of whistles are a excellent way for you to call for help prolly also a good way to scare off any predators. also I would also agree on hav a couple of ppl be the wardens for the game, preferable ppl with very good skills with firearms. I would also encourage that someone notify the authoritys if we do this cause ive had some runins playing paintball in the desert where we ran into DPS and borderpatrol that started off being a little intense cause they didnt know we were out there.

I would love to play but not sure of my situation finacially. hopefully ill know more by then.

 

Ohhh...that sounds like A LOT of fun Mobius!!! We'll have to do that one too.

ChoadsGirl: Not to worry, the site we've chosen is not that far out of town and we actually don't see many bears or mountain lions that close to city limits. The are acutally more common farther south of Flag than where we'll be. The place we have chosen to host this at will not be an official camp ground, but it is a very popular spot and is frequented quite often. There is a dirt road that goes out to it and ranchers surround the area. It would be VERY difficult to get lost for any length of time.

However, that said, we will be sure to do role call after every game and games will be played within a designated area, most likely with the road as the middle ground so no one wanders off.

 

Booo booo pouty lip. Area 6A is my old stomping grounds. I know the place pretty darn well from hunting trips. Ohh well, if you guys decide you want mor secluded let me know. I know some wonderful spots.

 

This sounds fantastic, and I hope (crosses fingers) that this will happen, and that I can have leave for the weekend.

Here is one thing that we will want to get: A Chronograph.


Keeping your markers chrony'd under 300fps (preferrably <285) is the best way to minimize the chances of anyone getting seriously hurt. masks are designed for <300fps, and after a day or two of playing, it is entirely possible that marker speeds can fluctuate quite a bit. Plus, they can change with altitude, so if you chrony in PHX, it may be different up there.

We might also want to make provision for refills as well. I'm sure Moe, or one of the other people here can, or will know how to do fills safely.




The whole goal is to make it safe, but I can see this being an absolutely fantastic trip and want to go.

 

Oh! I hope you can come to OH-DUB! I'm sure this will be a lot of fun!

I'll look into getting/renting a chronograph. We did use a chronograph on Saturday and it was cool.

Also, about refills on air/CO2, most 12 oz tanks of CO2 seem to be good for at least 600 rounds. If people use CO2, bringing 2-3 tanks with them should suffice. Mobius, IA, Mr. Wench and I talked about how to handle refills. We came up with some ideas, but I'm gonna call the resident Paintball guru up here in Flag and see what can be arranged.

I'll let you know what I find out about the chronograph and the CO2/compressed air refills.

 

We can also come up with some ways to demark our gamre area to keep people from getting lost. Reflective tape, chemlites, etc. Things that can be easily retrieved as we go home.

Wench, keep in mind that I don't know Rachel's exact schedule yet. She has the previous week off for Spring Break, but she hasn't purchased plane tickets yet. It's very probable that I'll have to take her to the airport either late on Saturday or sometime on Friday. I'll have to get that info before I can make any definite plans for that weekend. She is looking forward to the trip, though.

 

Can't she stay though Sunday night and go camping with us?

 

Unfortunately probably not. She has to be back to school on Monday.

 

I'll look into some other options on refills, too. One thing I have seen done is using an old fire extinguisher as the fill station. It's a whole lot more portable than the full size tanks.


BTW, what are we going to do about equipment rentals? Does the Command Post do off-site rentals for the weekend?

 

Master of Time and Space: We can adjust the schedule as fits your needs, we'd love to have Rachel be a part of this. Its still a ways off so we can hone and adjust things as we go along.

I'll be looking into rentals up here as well OH-DUB and I'll let you know what I find out.

 

Paintball...

 

Oh yes...running around in the trees again. Sounds like fun. Used to play 'Werewolf' out there...LOVED IT!!!

Hmmmm, she said looking at the calendar.

 

OH Sistine!!! You simply MUST come for this!!!! It's gonna be a riot! We would for you to join us!!!

Pretty Please?!!!

 

Command post rents gun packages off site. It's $20 for the weekend, plus a $200 deposite per gun. No big deal. Put it on a credit card, and it gets refunded when you return the gun.

Also, worst case scenario for fills. We find a place in Flag that does it, then take a lunch break to go into town to fill up. We can then do another dinner trip if necessary. Based on where Wench said we'd be camping, it shouldn't be too bad. I'd rather not, though.

 

I doubt I can come, but OOHH, FUN!

 

Sweet! That's not a bad deal for guns and equipment! I've been PSYCHO busy up here so I haven't had a chance to look into guns, fills, etc...but don't worry, I will!

 

Just wanted to let everyone know that this is still a go...just need a little input about scheduling from the Master of Time and Space and we'll be set after I look into a few more details.

 

Hey, Wench is back. Long time no see. I'll let you know as soon as Rachel (the other one) buys some plane tickets. I'm definitely looking forward to this one.

 

Yes, its true, I have come back to torment...er...participate in the group!

*Runs over to IA and gives him a crushing Wenchy Hug!*

I've missed you Master of Time and Space!!!! Can't wait for your birthday!

 

OK, I missed you too, but breathing is becoming a slight problem here.

sidenote: Does anyone know where I can buy some cheap scrap burlap?

 

Ok, fine wuss!

*Lets go*

There! SHEESH! You'd think the Master of Time and Space could live without a mortal concern like breathing.

Hmmm...burlap...

Sorry, dunno.