Scenario
NOCER Productions' "38th Parallel: The Korean Line"
By Dale Ford
May 8, 2007, 21:16

Larry Graham, Korean War Veteran

NOCER Productions presentation of "38th Parallel:  The Korean Line" was a deeply personal game for owners Kristie and Andy Graham, because Andy chose this game as a way to honor and recognize his father's service during the Korean War.  The American public largely overlooks the Korean War, even though the long-running hit TV series "M.A.S.H." was set during the Korean War.  In a lot of ways, the Vietnam War overshadows Korea because of the massive media exposure that Vietnam got.  While the Korean War is often overlooked in the minds of the American public, the war itself was an extremely important turning point in American history, as the U.S. Military evolved technologically and strategically to deal with the conflict that would eventually split the Korean peninsula as well as fighting the Cold War, which pitted Communists against the West.

Today Larry Graham is a happily retired father of 7, and he's enjoying life with his wife Mattie, who he married at the ripe old age of 19 (she was 16!).  He doesn't talk about his time in Korea very much, but he felt the need to talk about it in order to make this game an accurate representation of not only the Korean War, but his own experiences during the war, some of which made their way into the game.

The game was held at Old River Paintball in Ocklawaha, Florida May 5th and 6th, 2007.  FNF Dark Army and Rabid Woodpeckers had worked tirelessly improving and clearing Old River's 58 Acres in anticipation of this game.  The generals for this game were portrayed by Mike Skinner as the American General, and General Chester playing as the North Korean General.  Chester had a distinct advantage in experience for this game, but Skinner is a natural player and leader, which offset Chester's ample experience as a scenario player.  Teams from Florida and Georgia like Rogue Warriors, Ghost Corps, Cat 5, and GST all lined up to do battle for their generals.

General Chester

At game on, General Chester sent the bulk of his North Korean Army to the American base, complete with tank support in an attempt take down the American base and demoralize Skinner and the Americans.  The attack was eventually repulsed, and both teams settled into the game, completing missions and following the storyline of the game.  The American side sent members of Cat 5, Orlando Panther Elite and others to keep pressure on the Korean base, but despite this Chester was able to keep running missions and used his tank to clear out attacking players.   His luck did run out several times during the course of the day, resulting in the Korean base being blown, but Chester himself was never eliminated during a base blow.  Andy and Head Referee Allen Smith got to get into the action in this game by playing roles that included an American soldier who'd become seperated from his unit, downed American pilots, and North Korean Pilot "Bed Check Charlie", but rather than just sitting around and waiting for the opposing team to come and get them, they instead ran into Andy or Allen in character armed with a marker and willing to fight it out. 

As the day wore on both teams attempted to run and complete missions, with the North Koreans completing more missions while the Americans kept pressure on the NK base, blowing it several times.  At 5:00, the generals were handed a mission to stand down their troops, have them paint up and air up, then report back to their bases in anticipation of dinner battle.  At 5:20, the mission was called, and both sides rushed out of their bases towards Suwon, which was represented by a small white building at the center point of the field.  The fight roared on until 6:00, at which time the Americans were holding Suwon and won the dinner battle, which closed up the lead that Chester’s North Koreans had opened up during the day.  At the end of Saturday's play, the North Koreans had 1565 points to the American's 1430 points.

Tank action!

Players came off field, ate and rehydrated, then chronographed their markers down to 250 fps for night play.  Both sides took advantage of the added cover night brings and completed missions and racked up points.  During the night, the Americans were able to catch up and pass the North Koreans, taking the lead.  At the end of night play, the Americans had 2230 points to the North Koreans' 1665 points.   This was due mainly to the American's ability to keep the North Koreans held up in their base for a majority of the night.

As morning broke at Old River, Chester decided it’d be fun to give Mike a nice wakeup call by sending a major assault to his base in an attempt to blow it.  After several minutes of vicious fighting, the Americans were able to repulse Chester's attack and in retaliation they sent Daytona Posse player Craig Grindle to his base in disguise to blow the base.  Grindle was acting as a player ref, so reffing staff and players alike were used to seeing him in ref-like attire chronographing players. While Grindle didn't violate the letter of the rules, his base blow was ruled not to count because of his deceptive practices.  However, this reporter has to give Mr. Grindle credit for not only the base blow, but for the extremely creative way he went about it by looking and acting like a ref without being a ref per the rules of the game. 

Morning moved into late morning, and at 12:00 the generals were again given the mission to stand down their players in order for them to paint up and air up for the final battle of the game.  The mission for both sides was to take and hold Seoul, and everyone on the field let it all hang out for this final battle of the game.  At 1:00 when the game ended, the Americans had held Seoul and pushed the North Koreans back to the 38th parallel. 

Players came off the field and got ready to hear the scores and wait for the prize drawing.  The Generals were busy figuring out what awards to give to players that made a difference on the field for them.

For the Americans, Mike Skinner:

Young Gun:  Nick
Sportsmanship:  Roger from DFI
MVP:  Rush from Orlando Panther Elite
MVR:  Craig Grindle
MVT: Ghost Corps

For the North Koreans, General Chester:

Young Gun:  Josh Lee, Marvin, and Tran
Sportsmanship:  Ghost Corps
MVP: Little Chris
MVR: Jesse Elliot
MVT: XGST

Big Pimpin' on the move

NOCER Productions started a new award this game, with the Media Award.  The paintball media heavily covers NOCER Games, including 68Caliber.Com, Rag Top Video, and Paintball World TV News.  Since I was playing in this game, I recused myself from voting for the Media Award.  The media representatives voted Cat 5 for the American Side, and XGST for the North Korean side.

With that Andy and Kristie Graham of NOCER Productions stepped up to give away the prizes donated by NOCER's sponsors 68Caliber.Com, American Paintball Supply, Gen-X Global Inc., RAP 4, SpecOps, Flurry Industries, SPO Gear, Murder, Inc., Knight's Crossing, D&D Designs,  Redz Comfort Gear, and Black Point Engineering. 

NOCER Productions will be returning to Old River Paintball during the Halloween season for their game "Bloodlines:  The Beginning" set to go off October 20th and 21st, 2007.

www.nocerproductions.com

www.oldriverpaintball.com

Click HERE to see the pictures from this event.