By Matt Palmer
The teams, however, were near even; we had 8, they had 9. My team was defending, and each of us were assigned an area to guard (with one man as a floater); mine was the window facing the river. Apparently, the more devious locals will sometimes wade up the river (about 50 feet from my window) to attack from the wall that ran along it. As the game began, things were slow for about 10 minutes or so, until I heard a loud yell.
"Contact! Top left, towards Campsite!". Our floater (Rob the Gun-Guru) calmy walked up to the window facing that direction and eliminated him. After about 20 minutes, we had taken out 3 of theirs, and they had gotten one of ours, who happened to be the one assigned to the window opposite where I was. I was then covering two windows, but while my back was turned looking at one window, I was shot from almost point blank by a bold enemy who had come up to The Castle and was walking along the walls, calmly eliminating our team from point blank.
I walked back to the prep area, to find that there were about 20 people there. More had shown up while we were playing, and from what I later gathered, they weren't well liked by the ACF locals.
These new arrivals apparently had stolen things from the ACFers once, and this was the first time the ACFer's had seen them since. These new arrivals had top of the line guns, like the ACFer's, one even had an Angel, and I saw an Autococker or two. Things were getting a little heated once the locals finished the game of Attack and Defend. Before the fists could start flying, an ACF local who had managed to keep his cool intervened, and it was decided that we should just play another game of Attack and Defend. ACF locals vs. Petty Theives. Luckily, the locals liked Eric, Garrrett, and myself, and they wanted us on their team. We were to defend The Castle, where we had all taken our gear to prevent further theft.
The game started slow. After 20 minutes, we hadn't caught a glimpse of even one of them. It was then that the local (who had kept a cool head and arranged the game) decided that we needed to provoke them a little.
He chose Garrett and I to go with him along the river to their starting area (right near the prep area) to see what they were doing. Slowly moving up the bank, we arrived at their starting area to find 5 of them camped out on the hill over the tunnel entrance. At that point, the
concept of Attack and Defend was all but gone.
The ACFer with Garrett and I (whose name escapes me at the time) had us flank the campers along the river bank at two different points. I was the farthest point, and thus when I arrived, the action had already begun. They had eliminated three with the element of surprise, but there were two who they could not get a shot on.
As I crawled up the bank, I saw this, and saw that I had a shot on them. I took out one, and chased the other one out of his spot before a hail of paintballs lit up the spot that I was just in. The last man made a desperate Rambo charge at the ACF-er and Garrett, who consequently shot him no less than 30 times before he stopped and ran away. With the other team yelling about how we were cheaters, the three of us calmly walked back to the Castle. That game pretty much fizzled out after that, as our defenders had taken out around six
themselves and there were just a few stragglers left after that who quickly gave up. We played another game of Attack and Defend that ended up much like the last, however I cannot give details as I was defending with five other players, and we saw no action at all. That was the last game of the day, as it was nearing 3:00 and we had been playing since 9:30.
Overall, the thing that stood out to me as the best part of playing at the ACF were the local players. It may sound rather corny, but they are really what made the day fun. In the beginning tour, we were shown every nook and cranny of the field and had every spot that was potentially dangerous in any way, and not just pointed out to us, shown first hand (with the exception of the tunnel). All of the locals were helpful before and during the game, being more than willing to show exactly what to do for newer players like Eric, Garrett, and myself. When the Petty Theives showed up, they warned us and allowed us to be on their team so we wouldn't get utterly destroyed. At the end of the day, one ACFer gave me paintballs (Diablo Blaze, no less) for free because he stole them from Skirmish. Before the last game, Garrett was running out of CO2, and he was given a new full tank to use, free of charge.
Their generosity is unlike anything I'd ever seen amongst Dark Forest players. We could learn a lot from these players.
In conclusion, the Abandoned Cement Factory really puts the Dark Forest to shame, both its local players, and the field itself. If we ever want to face these players and seriously contend, we need to work on many things, communication and accuracy being just the beginning. However, the next time the ACFer's are playing, I would expect every Dark Forest player to be going, because I guarantee you will learn a lot from these players. After one day at the ACF, I felt like I was twice the player I was from the day before.
It was expected that there would be another game at the ACF before the end of summer, but with that deadline rapidly approaching, expect a game sometime towards the end of September/beginning of October. Part of this delay is because Rob the Gun-Guru (who seems like the Dave Salazar of the Dark Forest, organizer and leader) was in a motorcycle accident and will not be able to play for a few weeks. Keep checking the Dark Forest website for game dates, and news concerning the ACF.