BARNEY'S BLOG

---

[05/31/2011]
The West Point Combat Classic was held this year on the weekend of April 9th and 10th. I was looking forward to playing the famous Hill again or as it is now called Mr. M (Mountain). The game always starts out playing on the Hill but after about 90 minutes it turns into a Mountain! Every spring thegame is set up with one team on top and the other at the bottom (North & South). The fighting is done up and down the mountain. For the Fall game the fighting is done side to side (East & West). This year they did a little twist where the sides get swtiched on Sunday. Where last year it wasn't switched and they added transportation for the team on top.

As some people know I'm a member of Blues Crew. I do have my own team the RT's Raiders which is also compiled of former members of the Master Blasters. This year Kevin Donaldson, captain of the Blasters has formed the team again. So we have combined both team players where the Raiders play Scenario and the Blasters woodsball tournaments. But we will play both with all the players having an option. So far it's been working out very well.

With that being said it was also a part that I was looking forward to. With Kevin inviting some very well known players to come out and play with us. Former Ground Zero and NY Extreme players. I had and enjoyed the opportunity to play with players like Greg Hasting, Nicky Cuba, Peter U, Chris Cole, Bobby Rose (Rosie), Dennis Mooner, the Hefferele's, Rob Navas, Rich Martinez, Steve Cusano, Noah Harper, Chris DuBois, Carmen Borgia and many more.

We had a different group on Saturday and Sunday over 24 players each day. Most played both days some played 1 day. It was an outstanding group of players. Needless to say that everytime we hit the field we moved the lines and actually made the top of the mountain the first day. We were suppose to be on the Red team and before the game started, like last year, we were asked to move over to the Blue side to help balance the game and numbers. Which we did with no problem.

The game played as it always does. Good, Hard and Fun. Going up that mountain is in itself a challenge. Even though both the Red and Blue teams are playing against each other. The real opponent is that mountain. You want a challenge come and play the West Point Spring game when it's a up and downhill battle. It's a great feeling when you finally end up holding and flipping the flag station that's on top.

Both sides fought hard all day Saturday. At one point I found out that Blue was up by 500 points around 1:30pm - 2:30pm. But Red pushed back hard and was able to finish the day with a General elimination which I think, in itself is worth 500 points. Sunday we switched side and had the advantage of being on top and had the transports to help drive us back to the top and reinsert in the back road. Once you got off the truck you went to the base tagged up and you was in. The other advantage was while driving up you can see the right side of the field and get intel on troops, flags and player positions. We fought hard and managed to get the score close enough that the final battle would decide the winner.

Now the final battle also had a new twist or more like "Twisted". Blue starts at the bottom on the East side of the field and Red would start at the bottom on the West side of the field. We would fight for one flag that would be in the middle of the field. The twist was that this flag was on top of the Mountain. (note: flag was a stick half Blue and half Red stuck into a hay stack). After fighting all weekend up and down that mountain and with everyone with rubber legs. The final battle would start with a race to the top.

In the end the Red team won but we all on the Blue team felt good with what we had managed to do. We won last year when I was the XO and Sabo of OMM was the General. But I walked away from this game with the same feeling of accomplishment. As a commander of games myself. I felt that the advantage or disadvantage, depending on which side you was on. Were the transport that was given for the team the was on top (Red on Saturday and Blue on Sunday) and the two tanks that Red had. Blue didn't have any tanks and those tanks were what kept stopping us when we were attacking down from the Mountain. Must say "Well planned and played Doug".

I would like to thank Eric Engler for leading the Blue team and for Doug Decker for leading the Red Team. They as always did a great job and lead as well as they always do. Next up for me is another "Challenge" and my 8th game of the year. The Castle Conquest at EMR with Blue and the Crew leading the attackers against the Unholy Alliance and their hand picked, invite only teams. See you there on April 30th Weekend.

Barney