Bad Karma @ Burning Front

Our fourth game of the year placed us in the middle of an Alabama National Guard MOUT (Military Operations in Urban Terrain) Training Facility Fort McClellan in Anniston, Alabama.  The game was Burning Front : Taking Back Kabalah from Urban Scenarios.  While checking in we were able to do some pre-game warm-ups with 9mm and M-4 weapons simulations that the National Guard had set up.  Some of us did better than others.   

With there being a majority of our team in attendance being new to this site, we were ready to get to see the site.  After loading all of our gear into a bus to be taken to the site, we talked strategy with a few of our fellow Red teammates.  Game on started with 102 degree temperatures and the firefighting was just as hot.  We had a great game plan – take and hold the building called the Condo and slowly start pushing up.  Throughout the first hour of the game, that is just what we did.  Never did we have equipment problems, but alas, eventually you run out of paint.  After reloading at our camp and taking a much needed hydration break, we continued back to the Condo and held it, but the enemy started flanking us.

Later on in the day there was a special mission that the general asked us and other teammates to take an objective (after being inserted deep into the enemy lines).  Thirty of us were walked past the opposition with refs guiding the way as we were not live.  Even though the opposition knew where we were, we held our positions for 30 minutes, but did not get the objective.  Day one ended in the Red team being significantly behind the Blue team.

Day two began with us having to even the teams out due to losing some teams to the extreme heat of the previous day (it topped out at 105).  Game on put us at Blue team’s starting position yesterday, and what they say it true – location, location, location - it matters.  We headed to the Apartments and held this location and started pushing the flanks of the Blue team.  We eventually went to the Bank to place fire directly on Blue team’s base.  This pinned them down while other members of the Red team took out different sections of their base with rocket launchers.  After blowing their base, the Alabama National Guard took the field as a third team and did condemnably against a larger force of a combined Red and Blue attack.

The final battle started after a short rain storm.  The main objective was capturing and holding as many buildings as possible at the end of the game.  We headed directly towards our enemy’s flanks and held them at bay between the woods and the Apartment building.  There were many fierce pushes by both sides throughout this timeframe, but in the end, the Red team was victorious. 

A special thank you goes out to Planet Eclipse for providing us with great gear and Kelly Chavers Brennan from Pistol Photography (Pistolbrennan@gmail.com)  for the wonderful photos she took of the event and braving the extreme heat with the rest of us.  We have not made plans for our next event before October just yet, so you if you have some suggestions be sure and leave a message on our Facebook page.  Come by and say hi.  We always like meeting new teams and people.

Be sure to check out our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/blackkarmapaintball) and our team website (www.blackkarma.org) and on Twitter (www.twitter.com/BlackKarmaPB).