Plan for Oklahoma D-Day

The Woodland Reapers will be storming Utah Beach at Oklahoma D-Day this year. Utah is known as one of the most action-packed and most filmed areas of the playing field.

Oklahoma D-Day draws in over 4,000 paintball players from all over the world to re-enact the Invasion of Normandy that took place on June 6th, 1944.

D-Day Adventure Park offers trench works, firebases, villages, HQ bunkers, gun emplacements, tanks, landing craft, armored personnel carriers, and smoke grenades.

Drew will be heading up earlier in the week to play in all the mini-scenarios the field has to offer. The rest of the team's plan is to carpool from Mark's house at 8:30am (sharp) on Friday, June 12th.

Here is a bare-minimum list of what we need to do on Friday:

• Check-in at the registration building (pay [if you haven't already], get armband, player's packet, and buy paint tickets)


• Watch the safety video at the orientation tent (to get hopper cover)


• Get air tanks filled (where they'll be inspected for a current hydrotest date)


• Walk the field around Utah Beach and our objectives


• Get paint


• Chronograph our markers to 285 FPS or less


• Check-in at the hotel in Miami, OK

If you're wondering what it's like to take on Utah Beach, check out these videos:
Utah Beach in 2006 from the German Side
Utah Beach in 2007 from the German Side
Utah Beach in 2007 from the Allied Side

Look for us if you're attending the game this year. Find us at the 517th campsite or join us Saturday morning on Utah Beach where we'll be fighting alongside the 4th Infantry Division.

We'll post pictures and a follow-up when we return...

Sniper Challenge at Mark's House

The Woodland Reapers got together at Mark's house to talk about the team's game plan for D-Day and to see who had the best shot.

We setup a plastic yellow plate at about 150 feet away, which you can barely see on top of the red truckbed in the picture to the right as Scott Lewis lines up his shot.

Seven of us went through 10 rounds and no one could hit it. The combination of the distance plus the cross-wind made it too hard to hit. So we moved up by about 25 feet.












We each took turns taking one shot at a time. Finally Chris Harell, seen above (shooting Dustin's gun) with Drew Purdin in the background, hits the plate. Not only did he show everyone that it was do-able, but as of that moment the $35 was his.

After 10 rounds, Chris took first place (and $35) with two hits, Scott and Drew tied for second with one hit apiece. So we had a 5-round tie-breaker for second place. Scott went first and missed all 5 shots. Drew went next, only needing one hit to secure second place. Drew hit the target once and won the OpsGear pods.

The prizes were $35 for first, 5 OpsGear pods for second, and Splatter Paintball Supply stickers for the rest of the shooters.

Everyone had a great time at the competition. We'd like to thank Mark for hosting the Sniper's Challenge, his Mom and Dad for the food, OpsGear for the pods, and Splatter Paintball Supply for the stickers. The next post will cover the D-Day discussion we had after we finished the Sniper Challenge.

Upcoming Events

06/14/09: Oklahoma D-Day / D-Day Adventure Park / Wyandotte, OK
09/13/09: Call To Duty / Paintball Land / Collinsville, OK
10/17/09: Sands of Iwo Jima / Adventure Zone / Guthrie, OK
11/__/09: Operation Turkey / The Paintball Field / Newcastle, OK
02/__/10: Stalingrad / Adventure Zone / Guthrie, OK
04/__/10: Blackhawk Down / D-Day Adventure Park / Wyandotte, OK

More events to come...

Next Meeting at Mark's House

The Woodland Reapers are attending Oklahoma D-Day for the first time as a team. We'll be playing on the Allied side, but are unsure as to what unit we'll be joining. We're probably only going to be there on Friday and Saturday, but it's definitely worth it. Where else can you go for a beach landing, a field with trenches, or to get shot at by a tank?

We're having a meeting sometime in May to get together for some grub and talk about who wants to go to D-Day, who can go, what our game plan is, carpooling, and sleeping arrangements. You should come to the meeting even if you're unsure if you can go because of financial reasons. Here's why:

Mark and I have talked about having a sniper contest to raise money for going to D-Day. One idea is to have everyone in the contest put $5 (or more) in the pot. Each contestant will shoot one shot at a pie pan setup at about 150 feet away. After so many rounds, the person with the most hits wins the pot. The only stipulation is: if you win the contest you must go to D-Day. More details to come...

Oklahoma D-Day is the world's largest paintball game, hosted every year in Wyandotte, OK. This WWII re-enactment of the invasion at Normandy draws players from all over the world. It's a week-long event, with the main D-Day game kicking off at 9:00am on Saturday, June 13th.

Registration: $70.00 (You can register online or fax or mail it in.) You must also complete the waiver and fax or mail it in after you pay (no matter what method you use to register). Registration includes entry fees for the entire week, air, and entry into the prize drawings.

Paint: $65.00 per case

Driving Directions: 3 hours 15 minutes NE of Luther, OK (see map)

Accomodations: $5.00 per person to camp (for the entire week) or we'll probably squeeze into a hotel (price to be determined)

04/18/09: Border Wars Recap

I-40 Paintball hosted Border Wars, a scenario paintball game similar to Stalingrad (Polish vs. Germans) on Saturday, April 18th. Roughly 30 players attended the scenario on what started out as a cool and overcast day, which soon turned into a hot and sunny one.

We divided the teams into two teams of 15, the Woodland Reapers on one side and the Devil's Brigade on the other.

Game 1 had the Polish (Woodland Reapers) defending the Hilton base and the 3 flags while the German's (Devil's Brigade) were on the offensive. Various props (V2 rocket, medic gear, etc.) were laid about the field in briefcases. One briefcase would (artificially) explode and essentially eliminate all players within 25 feet of where the case was opened.

Game 1 started out very slow for us. After exiting a respawn, a group of about 8 of us walked into a trap and were completely wiped out by the other team. But we quickly bounced back by getting flag points and killing their general. We also blew up the other team's base with the V2 rocket.

Game 2 was essentially the same missions, except we switched sides and added a general's meeting. The respawn points were also moved back to the far side of each team's home base. Mark Zimmerman barrel-tagged 2 people and made 3 others surrender.

Game 3 started with a smoke bomb (deployed by the I-40 staff) and had the Woodland Reapers defending the satellite area. We defended the area the entire game. Curtis Hurst flanked around half of the opposing team and took them all out. We also pushed the Germans back to their respawn and held them back.

The final score was Germans 510 to Polish 505.

We had another great day out at I-40 Paintball Field. Thanks to Le and the staff out there for hosting a great game. We'd also like to thank the players who were on the German side with us (Wolfguard and others), as well as the Devil's Brigade for putting up a great fight.