“It’s Bob Hunting Season”
Originally published at The Apochrypha. You can comment here or there.
18th January 2004
The day started at Mark’s as Willie had came down badly with the flu and so couldn’t make it. Marks family turned up on time and as usual Stu was running slightly late. Road works on the M8 meant that we ended up going through Uddingston to get on to the M8 in the first place!
With the weather being bad the turn out was pretty poor for the day. With 20 folk playing and 10 of them being us it meant the sides were a little uneven but they had most of the experienced players so it evened itself out a little bit.
As usual the first two games was were played at the base to the right of the safezone. Mark’s family were quickly shown how fast you can be taken out in airsoft and Mark was already waiting for them back at the safezone! Whilst trying to support Bob on the right flank he was taken out by fire that was meant for Bob’s head. This left Bob and Dave to eventually take out the remaining attackers but not before Dave ended up being the only one left standing on that flank.
The return game had the boundaries changed as the first game got bogged down in the trees to the left. It didn’t stop Bob being taken out within 30 seconds of the game starting without firing a shot. We just about managed to win that one though in the end but it was through numbers rather than skill I think.
The 3rd game of the day was new to us and in a ‘new’ part of the site as well. The game is called predator and the rules of the game are basically everyone is on one team except for one person, they are the predator and run off into the forest. Everyone gets a bit of tape which they rip off their arm when the predator shoots them and they then join the predators side. It was played in the area to the rear of the base area. The trees are a lot closer and darker than virtually anywhere else on the site which makes it that bit different, at points you would have thought it was night time! It took a while to to find the predator but within 5 minutes of first contact Bob had been converted and ended up being stuck waiting for a medic as he was shot as soon as he spawned in as a predator. The radio waves then became full of “It’s Bob Hunting Season” patter.
The fourth game was a capture the flag game at the trench area behind the farm. This went surprisingly well considering. The radios worked a treat and until the opposition managed to get a couple of sneaky folk in behind our trench we were making good progress. The only problem with this game though was that there was no way to capture the flag as it was also the spawn point. As soon as you killed someone they spawn back in using one of their unlimited lives. Either moving the spawn or limiting the lives would have made it possible but it was good fun none the less. This game seen Bob almost break his shin as he ran through a fallen tree trunk and the opposition marshals wearing their day-glo jackets for the fun of it.
After lunch the next game was around the farmhouse. Mark and Stoo quickly dominated the courtyard from the treeline and Bob and Dave secured the rear of the farm with the help of Steve. Mark’s family ran up the outside of the treeline to the rear of the farm and soon started making headway into the trees. Just as Bob and Dave went to advance on the enemy Bob managed to collapse the side of a burn landing his knee on a rock..5 mins of screaming later he managed to walk away but was hobbling for the rest of the day almost. Gordon and Bob then decided to help out at the courtyard and managed to push the red team back from the corner over looking the courtyard back up to their spawn point. The game will be remembered however for the guy on the red team that forgot it wasn’t a CTF game and stole our spawn point marker!
As time was running out we went straight to a King Of The Hill game on the bridge. As a team captain Bob picked who he thought were the quickest and most likely to get stuck in..Mark, Stoo, Dez and George . Marks dad and Dave were on the team on the opposite side of the valley and Gordon and Stoo’s mate were on the alamo corner. A long hard campaign was fought for the alamo during which Steve checked that we knew we were supposed to be aiming for the bridge. The two teams on the alamo side decided to join sides and flush out the team on the bridge and see if a combined effort would work. It all went swimmingly until Gordon decided that he wanted to claim the time on the bridge for his team and killed Mark and Dez. In the end Dave and Mark’s Dad’s team won.
The Kings of the Hill then had to escape in there helicopter, craftily played by the concrete rollers, from the alamo. By the end of the 25 minute game they had to be within touching distance of the rollers to win. The sun had went down 20 mins before this game started so it started to get dark very quickly. One of the marshals was given a high powered torch to act as a search light to blind everyone that was supposed to attack the King’s. Stoo managed to make it over the bridge and get behind the alamo at one point and quickly joined up with Bob and a couple of members of Mark’s family. As the time was counted down everyone opened up on the opposition and it seems only one guy remained alive and that was only because Graham, who was the medic for that game, was lying on top of him to try and get within touching distance of the helicopter!
A successful if wet and sore day out for everyone.
Participants - Myself, Dave, Gordon Mark and Stoo
