Twin Towers, or Twin Showers as it had quickly become known by was the second of three games bringing the Tolkien trilogy to paintballers. The weekend started for me Thursday around midnight when my ride showed up in my drive way and from there, we began the 10-12 hour drive to New Milford, Pennsylvania. The ride, nothing special, as it was dark for most of our trip. We arrived late Friday morning to EMR (Endless Mud and Rain) Paintball park. There, we were greeted by many friendly faces including Mike Hanse, owner of EMR and several of the MXS vendors, including Styles from Atomic Needles. Friday was here, and then went, as the Zeus top gun contest capped off my first Friday at EMR in Castle AARGH!
Being the procrastinating paintball player that I am, I hadn’t pre-registered so that needed doing early Saturday morning before the dose of pre-game Pacman. Great, have my marker loaded up with my PMI event paint, and I am ready for the rule briefing.
It had been raining from when I woke up to the time I put my stuff up for the night Saturday. But the soggy grounds didn’t soak the players’ spirits as more than five-hundred players enjoyed this fantasy-based game. I noticed a great variety of ages as I chronographed my ‘cocker and walked out to the stronghold of Isengard.
The day seemed to progress slowly, although I feel this is attribute to the rain. Much of my day meant wandering around near Helms Deep (Castle AARGH!) or behind near Fort RTD causing much confusion as one of the Nazgul. As for the rest of the field, it was a safe bet that if you were on the side of good, there weren’t many places you could go safely, as Sauron’s Forces held much of the field. Both teams were running missions, some successful, some not. Most of the firefighting occurred near Castle AARGH! and the road leading up to it.
By the end of the first session, I’d only shot about half a case, not quite even that, but was rather tired, and not looking forward to night play. So at dinner break, I packed my things away and mingled with some of the other players.
During the night, something happened that had never happened in all of paintball’s colorful history. Some members of Joint Fury convinced Mother to let them park a tank outside of Castle AARGH and verbally taunt the other team all night with a megaphone. Those inside the tank had strategically placed an engineer just inside Joint Fury Town, so that if the Rohirrim had destroyed their tank, the engineer would rebuild it again. So all night the psychological warfare endured. From singing songs to eating potato chips over the loud speaker, I think that Joint Fury succeeded on this mission of annoying the life from the people of Rohan. I think that Sauron’s forces should be awarded points for creativity on this one!
Finally the game was called due to a lack of conscious players on the field (who weren’t being kept awake by the megaphone) and all around fatigue.
BANG!!! Must be 6am, time to wake up and get ready for morning briefing and re-chrono. As I emerged from the Damage Inc. bunkhouse, I cleared the sleep from my eyes to a sunny and bright morning. The rain had passed. It was to be nice for the remainder of the day. The had moved our base to Castle Numbskull, so that it was a bit closer to where the action was and moved the other base to Castle AARGH, as it had previously been Fort RTD. With the smaller field, there were more firefights, which made for a more enjoyable Sunday. Not to mention a dryer one.
I continued my flights around Castle AARGH, as I had not yet been informed that it was the new location for the enemy stronghold. I was reminded of this when I saw the Fist of Gondor aimed at myself and my unsuspecting passenger (unsuspecting that I was about to leave him at Helm’s Gate- poor kid). When asked to take the hit, I pondered briefly and then replied with a quick, “Um, no.” as I turned and attempted to flee the scene. Well in the excitement, I dropped my symbolic steed and was shot in the back, so I called my self out. Meanwhile, my passenger had not faired any better. After socking my barrel, I retrieved my fallen steed, and mingled briefly with those responsible for my walk back to the staging area. We had a couple good laughs, and still do regarding this incident. I thanked them for only shooting me once, and then was on my merry way.
The whistle blows for everyone to get ready for final battle. Battle over Helm’s Deep (Castle AARGH). Blue started in Joint Fury Town, and Red (my team) started at Fort RTD. As the whistle blew, both teams sprinted to gain control of the center tower that the walls of Castle AARGH protected so well. In the beginning, we had difficulty passing the outer walls. But eventually, I got fed up with running back and forth between the insertion point and the same place I kept getting shot, and ran straight to the center tower, followed closely by two of my teammates. The three of us held the center until paint and air dwindled, and we were joined by much of our team, controlling the inside of the castle, preventing the blue team from even coming close to its walls.
When the end of the game came, the Forces of Sauron held the castle and kept the Riders of Rohan at bay. As far as the eye could see, were Orcs and Uruk-hai cheering as if there weren’t a care to be had in all of Middle Earth. Both sides retreated to the staging area for another round of free stuff and more Pacman. What’s better than Pacman? Not much, but good fried chicken and cookies AND Pacman would be on that list. The local fire department had chicken dinners going for $6 and they were good! Anyways, Pac did his usual post game speech, and then brought Mother out to announce the game, and (drum roll please) in a record setting event, Evil defeated Good, 765 to a measly 485.
All things considered (mainly, Rick’s infamous fun vs cost ratio) this was the best event I have ever had the pleasure of attending. The people were all very friendly (even the dwarf maiden whom I tried to surrender with a grenade). As far as sportsmanship is concerned, I’ve never seen a better bunch. Not once did I hear any complaints (that weren’t weather related) about the event.
To make a great event even better, I had the distinct pleasure of finally meeting Kevin Wilkes and the rest of his family. For those who aren’t familiar with his story, Kevin’s seven (now eight) year old daughter Kayleigh, was just diagnosed with having a Wilm’s Tumor, a disease affecting adolescent kidneys, in April. Since her diagnosis, the tumor has been removed, and Kayleigh undergone weekly Chemo treatments. At the Towers event, Karl “Dragon” Wolff brought several replica swords from the Two Towers movie to be raffled off, benefiting Kayleigh.
I think I have taken up quite enough of your time, I would like to thank all who made this event as enjoyable as it was, especially thanks to Mother and Pacman of Mackz Xtreme Sports.
Author’s Note: If you would like to give to Kayleigh, please make checks payable to Kayleigh Wilkes
Send to: Kayleigh Wilkes
125 Blough Road
Fairless Hills, PA 19030
Paypal donations for Kayleigh to: Kwilkes@princeton.edu
If you are a blood donor, please donate in the name of Kayleigh Wilkes, c/o Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Pediatric Oncology