Wasaga Beach: Gulf War
Written By: Liz "Wolfie" Miller
Wasaga Beach Paintball Adventure was the home of
the largest scenario game held in Canada. The game was put on by Wayne Dollack,
and was based on the Gulf War of 1991. With 550 people showing up for the game,
it proved that paintball is a growing sport. Whether rain or shine everyone was
there to have fun. The parking lot was full by 9am forcing cars to park across
the road at the arena.
Registration started at 8am that Saturday
morning of August 18, 2001. With Wayne holding a briefing at 9:30am, he made it
very clear as to what the rules and regulations were. Anyone that was caught by
a ref not following the rules would have his/her id card punched and would be
out of the game for the day with no refund. These rules are set in place for everyone's
safety and enjoyment.
The game started at 10am and went to 10pm, with
a supper break from 4pm to 6pm. This is when Wayne held the raffle draw and
handed out some of the prizes. The prizes that were handed out included: 1
Minimag, 4 ZXS 600 (Zaps new eletronic markers), 3 Tippmann Model 98's, 4 Scott
thermal Strikes, 4 PMI Xray Masks,
4 Zap Coolers, 4 Spikes buttpacks with pods, 100 Zap and ZXS T-Shirts, 50 Zap
hats, 50 Squeegee Holders, and 5 entries to DMZ Big Game.
Once Wayne was done holding his briefing it was
time for the players to chrono their guns. Once chronoed they were on their way
to their headquarters, either for the Allies or Iraq, to where their General was
waiting for them. Once they got to their headquarters they then split into their
platoons. I should mention that at registration time they received their
packages with their ids in it to say who they were playing for and what platoon
they were on. Each platoon consisted of 50 people with the number increasing as
the day went on and more and more people showed up for the game. The teams had
two demolitions, two engineers, and two medics per platoon.
If a player was wounded he/she could call for
the team medic to come over and heal them. In order for this to work the player
had to stay were they were hit and yell for the medic. The medic had two minutes
in which to reach the wounded player for him/her to be healed. The medic then
would write down the players id number on a card. However if the player received
a hit to the head they were dead, and had to leave the field and wait for the
next insertion. The demolition teams either carried RPG's or Law Rockets with
both sides carrying Satchel charges. The engineers were the only ones who could
rebuild a building after it had been demolished by the demolition team.
MISSIONS
Each team would receive a mission from Wayne.
Each mission was assigned to a certain platoon. That platoon would have to go
the designated area that Wayne had chosen and they would have to hold, attack,
or recon that position for 30 minutes or go and find a prop and bring it back to
the headquarters, secure it, or take it back to Wayne. Once each mission was
completed points were rewarded with taking in consideration the difficulty and
importance.
Teams could receive help on their missions from
Air Reconence (Air Recce) or Helicopter insertions. I was out on one of these
many missions to take pictures, and the Allies dropped in by helicopter
insertion. It was both a surprise for the Iraqis and myself. Fortunately at this
point I did not get hit, however during the whole time I was out on the field I
did receive two hits which neither one broke. By the way one hit came from the
Allies and the other from the Iraqis. No hard feelings troops.
THE
COUP
In the morning at the briefing it was brought up
that they needed a couple of volunteers for the Allied side for a General and an
Executive Officer. Two guys had volunteered for this duty, and it should be
mention that the Iraqis already had a General and Executive Officer in place.
The one that choose to be the General for the Allied side didn't really stand up
to his job. He had left his team for about two hours, in which their side was
loosing a lot of points. Wayne at the end of the day said that he was getting
worried about the Allies side, until they start to pull together and completed
the mission assigned to them. It was at this point that the team started to get
together by one guy (who later became the new General) and came to the decision
to overthrow their General. Once overthrown they assassinated their own General
and received the credit for it, sorry Iraqis no points for you.
Once the new General took his rightful place in
the top rank, the team started to pull together and work as a team. This new
General gave his men/women hope that they could come back and start to win this
game.
SPECIAL
THANKS
There are a lot of people that should be recognized
for the day to be successful. First of all we should thank Wayne & Jackie
Dollack for making the trip up from Florida, after a very serious car accident.
Next we need to thank Steve & Donna Langman for the use of their field for
the day. If it was not for these four individuals the day would not of been as
successful as it was.
We also need to thank Christine in the pro shop
and everyone else that was up there working with her. The players kept them all
busy with needing air, paint, parts, etc. Special thanks also goes to the
referees for the day. If there were no referees the game would not of been
played as well as it went. Last buy not least, we need to thank the ones who
played the Generals and Executive Officers.
RESULTS
Finally at the end of the day after all the
awards were given out we found out who the winners were. The Allies received
3300 points and the Iraqis received 2780 points. Wayne summed up the end of the
day by saying to the players, "Go home and get on the internet and go to
places like WarPig and tell everyone how much fun it was here today, and get
more out for next year."