By Rick Wloch

It was a crisp October morning as I waited for the rest of my team to show for our three hour drive to EMR Paintball Park for the Castle Conquest XX scenario event. Although most of us have been to EMR for 26 hour games, only one of us has ever experienced a Castle Conquest. My first teammate showed up around 5:45 am, and the other two wondered in between 6 and 6:30. Finally, we hit the road.

If you have never been to a Castle Conquest this is how it works. The Castle is 32,000 square feet with two stories and a couple of three story towers. The odds are stacked in the attackers’ favor, 4 to 1, and they have to capture six objectives. The objectives are Princess Zeuss, Excalibur, Royal Platter, Ale keg, Kings Ransom, and the E.M.R. Coat of Arms. The attackers have to recover at least two objectives within the first three hours or the defenders are declared the winners. All dead attackers are reinserted
into the game every 20 minutes and the defenders are reinserted every 10 minutes. The game is played on a
total of eight fields (Castle AAARRGH, Tippmann Town,
Forced Entry, Margaritaville, Purple Circles, Deuces Wild, Fort RTD, and Iroquois Invasion).

When we arrived at the field, I was a little surprised by all the people in attendance. I hadn’t even seen EMR this crowded during 26-hour games. I later discovered that 615 players participated in Castle Conquest XX.

The New Jersey Titans led the defense of the castle this year. Some of the supporting teams included the Disciples of the Watch, Ferrymen, and Gobs. The attackers were lead by Strategic Paintball and team Riot Squad.

The first game started right on time – 11:00 am. The attackers rushed up the hills and soon had the castle surrounded on all four sides. The defenders were making good use of the fairly new three story towers that were installed in the front of the castle. My team and I worked around to the backside of the castle and onto the speedball court that overlooks the fortress. From this vantage point we were able to look down into the castle, giving us clear shots at the defenders on the second floor. We worked with some other players who had joined us, and starting picking off the surprised shooters in the castle.

After about 40 minutes and one trip to the dead zone, the attackers were able to secure a foot hold on the second floor rear of the castle. (Let me tell you that you can get a feel for how it might have been for the soldiers of old to attack a real castle and how many must have died in such an attempt.) Once the attackers had the all-important foothold, it was only a matter of time before we wore down the defending forces. It took the attackers 1 hour and 40 minutes to secure all six objects.

After the game had ended all players were given a 11⁄2 hour lunch break to clean up and get some chow. With about 30 minutes left in our break a ref announced that the castle defenders for the next game would be chosen on a "first come, first served" basis. We decided we liked attacking better so we stayed away until the defenders were selected; then we headed over to the staging area.

This time when the whistle blew we ran towards the hill just below Tippmann Town, where we started taking fire. Apparently, the defenders had skirmishers outside the castle. This little annoyance slowed us down a little, but after about 15 minutes the attackers were back on track, surrounding the castle. Our general strategy remained the same as in the first game: establish a foothold at the back of the castle. This was accomplished in due course. Slowly the attackers where able to push the defenders off the walls and through the lower corridors until they only controlled one tower. This tower was near impossible to take since it designated where the defenders reinsert. We needed to find all the props, which proved difficult because every time we ventured into the courtyard in search of one, we took harassing fire from the remaining tower.

Ultimately, the game lasted a total of 1 hour and 45 minutes. Overall, the game was a great time and I look forward to next year. My hat goes off to Blue and all the refs for running a fun and safe game. Special thanks to the sponsors for all the great prizes they donated. (Tippmann, Hoffman Jerseys, Engler, Flurry Industries, Paintball Sports, PMI, Allen Paintball Products and Team Pubcrawling and their sponsors.) Until next time have fun and play safe.