Axis vs Allies Recap

Sherwood Forest in La Porte, Indiana held their inaugural in-house produced scenario game, Axis & Allies (based on the popular board game) the weekend of April 30th and May 1st, and SPECTRE was in attendance. The registration numbers were at around 500 players including several teams from around the area such as Team WOW, Steel Reserve, Hellions, Rage in Paint, Team ESP, Region Rats, Great Lakes Rangers, Praetorian Guard, Thunderstruck, Chicago WolfPack, The PBNation Mod Squad, PTM, FUBAR, In Contempt, and Tango including a few others.

Death Dancer from Team WOW was the general for the Allies with Honu from the Hellions as his XO and Bear from Steel Reserve was the general for the Axis with Lefty from Rage in Paint as his XO. We were recruited to the Allied side soon after we decided to attend the event and were happy to play alongside Honu and Sky once again.

The game was an all out slugfest all weekend, with both sides continually pushing each other out of vital control points on the field. With the newly added elements to the scenario like the requirement to have keys to unlock and lock structures on the field, having to take a fuel depot and transport fuel (five gallon jugs full of water) back to your headquarters to use bombers or tanks, the ability to destroy and rebuild power stations to turn of the newly installed lights around the castle and town area of the field during the night portion of play, and the implementation of the Swedish Trader, with whom you had to deal with to get money and props for missions, it made for an excellent, intriguing, and extremely fun game.

SPECTRE was tasked with many missions of the “take and hold” variety. On several occasions we would be given the order to assault as far into the enemy territory as possible and hold there until the opposing reinsert closed, which we accomplished multiple times. A majority of our area of operation for the weekend was centered around the southwest area of the field. Most of our fighting took place near Damascus, Ardennes (the castle), Nanos, Rome, Buna-Gona, Manila, and Berlin (the fuel depot), with occasional missions to other areas of the field. Additionally, we were given the task to run anti-tank missions on numerous occasions as we were equipped with a Metadyne Havoc launcher (manned mostly by Ken and for a short time by Randy) and were able to stay in the fight longer because of the deft maneuvering of our squad medic, Brendan, who had 178 medic actions during the course of the weekend.

The night game provided a new experience for most of us. We have played night games prior to this event, however, we were assigned to protect Ardennes and then attack to Rome during the night game. Most of the area surrounding Ardennes was lit up with torches and overhead lighting. Our assault on Rome from Ardennes was successful, although it was very poorly lit. Additionally, our team played a major part in completing the Allied mission of locating and activating an air raid siren in the castle.

After everything was said and done, and even though the game was very close all weekend, the Axis side edged out the Allies with a score of 1892-1819. SPECTRE was recognized by the Allied general and XO as the Most Valuable Team (our first official scenario award) and also recognized by the Axis general and XO as the Most Formidable Opponent. We were incredibly honored and extremely surprised at our recipience of both awards.

Sherwood’s Axis & Allies was an extraordinarily fun experience and SPECTRE would like to thank Joe, Kathy, Patty, the Discipline Lords and Darksyde (the awesome ref crew), and all the great players and teams that came out in addition to our sponsors, Tippmann Sports, Pinokio Hoppers, and our home field Landing Zone Paintball.

Members in attendance:

Bryan “Poorwolf” Peckham – Commander

Chris “Splat” Campbell

Randy “Fox” Ark

Ken “Projectile” Gocha

Brendan “Striker” Lane

Kevin “Karnage” Bush

SPECTRE MVP:

Kevin “Karnage” Bush

Runner-up:

Brendan “Striker” Lane

Writeup submitted by Corey Lougheed,  TEAM SPECTRE

Photo credits to Rennie Cook of Gather Photography.
http://www.shop.gatherphotography.net/