News Updates: August 1, 2010
Thanks for coming to Splatmandu for our Fifth Scenario of the Season! A total of 17 more waivers were signed today. Keeping up the break-up of the 110er list, today we honored Jason H. for spear-heading the task of getting us new Splatmandu stickers. Thank you so much - we know you took this task very seriously and your hard work was definitely appreciated. Cost of these stickers: $5.00 each, with all proceeds benefiting the Domestic Assault Shelter.
For the fifth installment of the War Games Scenario, we ran GUESS WHO! The Blue (Roughnecks) had 39 players and Gray (Last Chancers) had 38. After Ted gave the Splatmandu Safety briefing, Ted’s Reds Specialty Characters (15 of them) were released onto the field of play. Both Captains rolled their die to determine which side of the field they would start/reinsert at between either end of the road. Captain Scotty of the Gray Team and Captain Jason of the Blue team each rolled, and ended in a tie, which resulted in a re-roll, to which Jason had the highest roll. He selected the East side of the property (behind the Alamo, by the Pines), which left Captain Scotty of the Gray team with the West side, nearest the corner of the road. Ted then went over the game day rules, designed by Jen this month.
The 90 minute max time, winner-take-all game kicked off at 2:00pm. Both teams quickly ran down the road towards the Hornet’s Nest, each leaving some rear guards and small squads to protect their flanks. This month’s goal was simple: Secure your half of the Hornet’s Nest (at minimum) to provide safe passage for your teammates to run up to the GUESS WHO BOARD with 24 character photos, each positioned on the back-side of each entrance to the Den. Every three minutes an eliminated player in the Neutral Zone would be handed a clue card by either Amy or Donna, for the players to take back on to the field of play via the reinsertion line.
The players had to make their way to their designated game board, read their clue, and remove the characters it was NOT. Example, “This person is not wearing glasses” - the player would have to remove all characters that WERE wearing glasses from the board.
The Blue team broke out with an early lead, securing the Nest and surrounding territory. Two clue cards were already used, with two characters removed from their game board. Shortly after this, an injury to a Blue player halted play within the Nest via Paint Check while he was safely taken to the Neutral Zone by his teammates. (Thank you to each and every one of you for checking your fire to allow this process to happen as quickly and smoothly as possible. It was greatly appreciated. Also, the Blue player was ok and later able to reenter the game.)
Once play resumed, several Gray players who had snuck into the Hornet’s Nest prior to the paint check took advantage of temporarily smaller numbers of the Blue team and secured the field. Gray then sent most of their team in to support the territory, keeping the Nest, edge of the Mine Field, and Knight’s Tower line for most of the game. This allowed many more Characters to be removed from the Gray board. The Blue team was successfully held to a line behind the Alamo.
The Ted’s Reds were roaming the field - with four designated reinsertion zones plus the Neutral Zone. Two of the Reds were carrying the final clue card needed by each team to help remove the final characters from the team board. They systematically made their way around the field enticing battles and moving to the next reinsertion line on the field when they were eliminated. By the conclusion of the game, the Reds had made a complete loop.
With about a half hour to go in the Game, the Gray team was down to only three Characters left on their board - having successfully deduced the characters it was NOT from the 17 cards released from the Neutral Zone. This left only the single Gray card left, held by Nate of the Ted’s Reds, which was unknown to the Gray team at this time.
Blue rallied their team and made several valiant pushes to take back their portion of the nest. With about 10 minutes left in the game, in an effort to give his clue card up to the Gray, Nate of the Reds entered the field armed with only two “Mohawk Grenades” and charged Aaron of the Gray team, who was guarding the game board, eliminating him. Nate then ran a lap of the Hornet’s Nest in an effort to be shot by a Gray player, but was not eliminated. Not to be deterred and with only a few minutes remaining, Nate then borrowed a gun from a Blue player waiting to reinsert and ran at Captain Scotty of Gray and bayoneted him in the rear as he was jumping the wall of the Nest. Although still not eliminated, an unarmed Nate reinserted on the Gray line and gave tunic-wearer Chad his clue card anyway, which was quickly returned to the game board to eliminate the final two characters, leaving the solution.
While this was all going on, Blue rallied another push and secured their half of the Nest and their game board, and eliminated as many characters from their board as clue cards were nearby.
With only one minute remaining in the max time available for the game, Captain Scotty of the Gray ran to the Neutral Zone and told Amy the correct answer to their board, ARNOLD, winning the game and sounding the horn.
This was a hard-fought game on all fronts and we were really proud of the sportsmanship and honor everyone showed on the field today.
Totals through August:
Gray (Last Chancers) - 4
Blue (Roughnecks) - 1
