Wasaga Beach, well known as a favorite holiday destination for many here in the province of Ontario. Multitudes enjoy miles of beautiful beaches, fishing, boating and tourism at its best. For us here in the paintball community it has become so much more, THE destination of choice for Canada’s biggest annual paintball games at Wasaga Beach Paintball, a world class paintball facility.
This year surprisingly enough actually fell short of the record setting game of 2011 with 1760 players that came out to enjoy a terrific day of paintball (versus the 1980 players that appeared last year). Terrific being quite the understatement! Naturally this reporter can only report on what was experienced through the day from the “Alien perspective”. Serving as the “Alien General” this year was something of a new experience for this cat. Over the years I have played more scenario games than I can count, administrated games, promoted games but have never served as a General on such a grand epic scale. Needless to say it was an exciting and hugely rewarding experience I will never forget.
To share some of the pre game planning. Ultimately control of the high ground was a priority for the Alien High Command. Further still the Aliens were allowed to field 25 advanced troops on the battlefield at game start, 5 on each flag station. Our plan involved abandoning the flag stations and have all 25 players meet at a pre determined point on the field and move forward as a group to wreak more havoc than smaller groups of 5 might. Last but not least, access to flag stations for the hourly water drops were primary goals.
As the day began this General lead the charge from the Alien base to the ridge scrambling up the hill on the tape line nearest the staging area in an effort to gain real estate and field supremacy. According to sources our Aliens took the ridge in this area in the shortest ever recorded time in Wasaga history. The first hour saw the other half of Alien forces lead massive forays to take the MIA town as well as the Air Assault parts of the field. Gaining all 5 objectives the first hour was a great start.
What a battle! I have been to battles all over the map but this years Alien Aggression II was right up there as one of the most fiercely contested games I have ever played. No sooner were ridges and objectives taken, Human forces would gain ground to seize other areas of the field. In a discussion with Wolf the Human General it amounted to a fantastic game of chess. Around the noon hour Alien forces went on a massive rampage knocking the Humans clean into their home base leaving them with little to no breathing space. Totally surrounded from both the ridge and the Hillbilly Hills the Humans were in a panic being completely over run by very hostile Alien forces. As with any paintball battle, as Human reinforcements arrived and Alien troops either eliminated or running out of air or paint, soon the advantage was lost and the Humans burst out of their base with a vengeance.
Air strikes, Helicopter and Tank Assaults were ordered and utilized all day long to help maintain control of various areas on the field “Out of all the people on the field today, you are the only one that really scares me” myself as General did mention when speaking to Mr U, Peter Utschig pro player with the LA Ironmen (and a paintball ninja) in attendance as part of the Human troops for the day. Peter laughed as he recounted how an Alien Tank had cut him in two on the field. Not to mention the likes of a true survivor also present to play the game, celebrity “Survivorman Les Stroud, often at my side as an Alien and battling hard alongside other members of the 1st CAN PARA Maroon Goons, all D Day Oklahoma veterans.
As the final battle finally arrived another of our “pre game battle plans” paid off in a very big way. To explain fully, Ms Sarah Ball of the 1st CAN PARA crew had volunteered to act as one of the two allotted Alien spies. We had Sara contact the Human General offering her services having participated as a Human Sergeant in the 2011 game last year. General Wolf welcomed the offer of assistance and Sarah was brought on board as a “Sergeant” for the day. I have said it once and will say it again, if you are going to lock horns with Tomcat, expect the unexpected. Sara Ball proved herself a Master Spy delivering precious intel throughout the day. As the last battle arrived, she feigned a foot injury and a very sympathetic Base Commander had her stay in the base to guard the reactor core material while he joined forces on the field. No sooner was he gone, so to were a majority of the Human objectives, quickly finding there way into the Alien Generals hands which were then quickly whisked away under armed escort to the staging area.
Needless to say both Wolf and his Base Commander Mike Stanley soon joined myself as Alien General and Wasaga field management in the staging area to discuss the matter fully. At this point this single act of paintball espionage had technically clinched the game and victory for the Aliens. HOWEVER, after careful thought and deliberation by all parties involved, Wasaga management ruled that Sara could not legally perform two roles as both Spy AND Sergeant. As General for the Aliens it was decided no contest and further stated that both sides had fought so hard, I could not in good conscience see victory this way, thus all Human objectives were returned to their rightful owners. No argument, no drama, in this case I believe we did the correct thing. Make no mistake however as I continue to laugh even as I write this at what was certainly THE greatest spy espionage in Canadian paintball big game history, my hat is off to Sara on going above and beyond to perform her assigned role, as of right now, she is second to none and a Master Spy!
I must state for the record, General Wolfs reaction to the shocking news regarding the stolen objectives was nothing short of a true gentlemen, while obviously disappointed, he maintained his composure … something I personally and in all honesty could not say would be the case for me should the situation have been reversed.
As for the final battle, the Humans required a full 45 vials of the core reactor material to stay alive and another 4 vials to blow the Alien home world to smithereens, being in possession of only 47 vials (2 short) the Humans failed to blow the Aliens up. So to the Aliens failed to gain entrance to the Human base as we were tasked with, to take the bomb and send it through the worm hole and destroy the Human pesties once and for all. Grudge match?? …. I’m game!!!
Another great year for a fantastic trade show, even a couple of years ago such trade shows were non existent here like they are at US games. Its great to see them here and Wasaga Paintball pulled off the best in the country with Tippmann Sports, Valken Sports, Badlands Paintball, AzTek, Original SWAT Boots, MentalActs Tees and Jerseys, Erins Army, Ripple Industries, Recon Paintball, Tier One Tactical, Wolfs Den, Flagswipe Paintball, Paintball HQ and Pinnacle Paintball Supplies all present.
Big thanks to my Base Commander Dave Kratky without whose assistance, things would have been far less organized as well as my top Sergeants Josh “Orange” Saumure of Citrus Connection and Tyler Yeti Batstone of CQB both of whom proved invaluable soldiers in this epic battle 2012. Special thanks to all of Wasaga Staff who worked tirelessly to create THE Canadian game of the year. A great big nod to my adversary General Wolf and his forces, I did not honestly think they would bring it such as they did, I stand corrected. Last but not least hats off to the many Alien players who fought hard, followed direction and did what they could to try and achieve an Alien win …. the battle was so close, it was Cats and Dogs all day long out there! I truly appreciate everyone’s support!
Special thanks to Tippmann Sports allowing the use of a Tippmann Crossover for the day, that little marker performed excellent and I had a great day employing it on the field.
It certainly can be said that this game not only translated into shooting more paint than any other scenario game … it also translated into being on the field far more than usual directing and motivating troops, no rest for the wicked. Acting General is certainly no easy task, yet it was a job I will always cherish as a memorable game that saw such even back and forth battles …. excuse me but WOW, that is all!
Photos courtesy of Wasaga Beach Paintball www.wasagapaintball.on.ca
3 Responses to “Wasaga “Alien Aggression II””
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tom from what i understand you cheated to win, show some respect
Hi Brad, on the contrary, we did not win as outlined in the article. We utilized all of our resources given us including spies, had we understood that assigning our spy in the capacity of Sergeant was outside the rules, it would not have happened. The rules such as they were did leave room for interpretation thus I do not think anything stated in the article was being disrespectful. Thanks
It does not matter to me who won. In the end it was a good day, action on the field was hot and i truly believe we all won in the game. the humans actually won but we were all winners in the outstanding game