Fulda Gap 2022

[KingxSlinky666]

I'll be heading down tomorrow morning, traffic cone gotta traffic cone.

[Redragoon]

See everyone there!

[SuperAtomic]

I'll be heading out there tomorrow. Warsaw 120th and I'll be wearing my Carter's Commando jersey; say hi if you spot me! I think we're all going to get pretty soaked on Saturday, it looks like rain all day.

[Lotus]

Ugh. So this is my first time doing this, and I feel like I'm definitely not the target audience. I'm really hoping tomorrow is better, but today was genuinely terrible. This opinion will probably get me crucified, and no it wasn't the rain that led to this, but I'll write out a more detailed experience later once I've finished tomorrow. So far the general gist is at no point was I really playing paintball. Everything was stupid long range where first strike is king and the strategy/tactics all centered on things I could not participate in because I am not a tank, AT, or have a FS capable marker. I am cannon fodder who can't meaningfully contribute with the way the game worked.

[SuperAtomic]

That's a bummer, dude. It was only my second time playing around first strikes and they are tough to deal with.

What part of the field were you playing today? If you were in one of the wide open areas I can see how that would be a problem.

I was working out of Warsaw DZ5 fighting for Meiningen and Holiday. I was shooting roundball and felt like I was making meaningful contributions. Pretty much all of it was in the woods though so the ranges were much shorter. There were plenty of times today where we had too many first strikers during an attack and we needed more players who could lay down paint and get into close range. First strikes were good for picking people off at a distance but to take objectives I think roundball is still the way to go.

[Lotus]

I'm Nato and ping ponged between a few places. I was at OP alpha until a random FS took me out. Didn't even see anyone. Then just tried to retake it from fulda, which again I randomly got shot by FS from someone I couldn't even see. After that I tried to take OP alpha back from the other angle (to Warsaw's left, our right) and it was either I stay back and do nothing, or get shot before I'm even in range. I'm hoping with us being on the attack tomorrow things will go differently, but defending with regular paintballs against FS is just pointless.

[superman]

I have played 3 other fulda events and i can say i felt similar about this one. I felt like this was a fsr and tank battle. I ended up skipping sunday altogether mostly due to the mud/parking situation. The others with me felt the same. Bummed as well.

[Elo160]

I too felt The same, i was stuck out in the field between Rex and Bravo Most of the weekend. didnt quite love that

[Tippster]

Ran my phantom stock class the whole weekend, spent a lot of time on the far end of the DMZ by Meiningen. Didn't get to see alot, some snap shooting at long distances, was wild though when the 82nd dropped. Spent Sunday morning around OP Alpha, spent Saturday and Sunday afternoon in the field by Gotha, not sure how effective I was out there, but I had a blast throwing smoke and making pushes. Will probably go again next year, wouldn't mind trying out AT one of these events!

Edit: Anyone know who all was taking photos there? I think they got me a few times!

[Redragoon]

There's a NATO Open Talk group on FB that had some pics.

[superman]

I know this guy was there.

https://www.facebook.com/eaglescoutpb/

[Tippster]

Appreciate it!

[Redragoon]

The open areas were definitely FSR and tank fighting. We moved deeper into the woods and got better action. FSR has no brush penetration, so volume of fire is needed to break through bushes. Cleared out stuff up past Duckett and around the creek.

[Nish]

Yes, many areas are ruled by the long ball and the tank vs AT battle. That was all pretty stagnant most of the day. So you had to look for opportunities to get into good gun fights but I did find some good ones. I think next year I will spend more time messing with an Apex barrel.

[cfos00]

The paint this year was absolutely brutal, and honestly completely unusable for me and half of my team. My team ended up not using/giving away 10 cases, and I dumped at least a case on the field. It was jamming our rotors/box rotors (as in almost every single time I tried to unload a string) to a level I have absolutely never experienced. I couldn't get through a string of shots without a jam at any point, which was just fantastic when I was in Fulda itself completely surrounded doing trench fighting. Literally had let go of a string until it jammed, hope I could unjam, have that fail, dump the R2, clear it with my hand, then rebuild and reload the R2. Over and over. It was also impossible for me to get a usable velocity without 60+ FPS swings with the midgrade because it was sub-675, or get 30+ with the fild grade. It was beyond frustrating. The only guys on our team that could shoot this weekend were those using open bolt spires and FSR. Five of us that ran rotors and box rotors either had to try (and fail) of powering through it or completely abandoning their set ups. Two guys gave up by midday Saturday and stopped playing. Two more switched to FSR. I tried to play and wanted to punt my loaders across the field. Worst paint I've ever experienced in 20+ years of scenario paintball, and neck and neck with the worst I've ever used.

UPDATE: Had a teammate size out a bag of paint yesterday. Average size was .674, with a small size of .668. That's ridiculous.

[SuperAtomic]

Good, it wasn't just me. I had my rotor jam as well using the midgrade paint.

People were saying it was a combination of the winter grade paint with the non-winter temps and 100% humidity we were having. I had to rely on spray and pray to hit anything but I did hit some stuff.

Nothing was breaking either, I can't count the number of bounces I took that day.

[superman]

I can promise you no one took more bounces than me. lol I spent like 45 mins in one spot catching bounces. I had my own personal ref and then they sent the head ref to pull me out on a technicality as they stormed the hill...... I was in at least 1 live video and was growing a crowd. lol
with my ccm s6.5 mind you.

[Redragoon]

The mid-grade definitely did not like the warmer wet weather. Pods I had packed Friday were sticking together. Rotor didn't like feeding them and they bounced off of most things. By the end of Saturday, the shells were too thick and rubbery to be much good.

I mostly just shot at targets until they called out, whether it broke or not.