Time Wars

Scenario

Location: Campaign Paintball, Surrey, Earth, Western Arm of the Milky Way, Galactic Co-ordinates 63555947 24662371

After the climactic battle at the end of the last Time Wars encounter, you’d have thought that Fate would have allowed the poor battered forces of good and evil a breather, but that’s just too easy in a Universe as complicated as this one.

Just as the combatants were bandaging wounds, collecting trophies (don’t ask) and preparing to get good and drunk, their chunk of the War World was caught up in another of those cosmic coincidences that make for good sci-fi stories. The Ringmaster of a passing Showman vessel on its way to Hedonia decided that the fighters would make a good exhibit to go with this year’s theme of “The Multiverse’s Most Extreme Wars” and used their compression field to grab both armies and a patch of surrounding real estate including the Dark Tower. Reduced to miniature size, the luckless warriors are doomed to re-enact their battles over and over again in an endless Time Loop as one of many exhibits enjoyed by anyone prepared to pop a plastoon in the slot of the fiendishly clever Miniscope. Will our plucky fighters be forced to spend their remaining days as alien Sky TV or can they break free and finally go home for tea and medals?

Luckily the voyeuristic aliens haven’t reckoned on a couple of factors; firstly the genius of the Doctor and the Master, two Time Lords with a respectable track record of heroic breakouts and narrow escapes from the forces of righteousness respectively. They also haven’t reckoned on the one weapon that can crack open the Miniscope from the inside, the DeMat Gun, being caught up in their compression field and transported into the battle zone along with both forces.

While breaking the dimensional barriers between the war zones stored in the Miniscope and allowing travel between zones along the Circuit Paths is an easy task for the Time Lords, the DeMat guns have been badly affected by the compressional flux and split into pieces that have scattered across the exhibits, with their power crystals scattered over the original battlefield that holds the Dark Tower. If a force of plucky fighters were able to reassemble one of the guns and get it to the Dark Tower which handily has ended up sitting over a crucial Power Node in the Miniscope’s Compression Generator, they could blast the machine’s inner workings and escape.

It all sounds easy enough, but unfortunately this year’s exhibition theme will work against the already battered forces. Last year’s theme was “Large Bosomed Beings of the Nubile Galaxy looking for their underwear in pools of hyper-jelly” but we couldn’t be that lucky and this year each of the exhibits in the Miniscope displays a different battle zone, with the combatants doomed to repeat their struggles over and over in self-sustaining time loops until the punters get bored. The only way to break these eternal stalemates is to interfere with the outcome of the battles and tip the balance one way or another, destroying the time loops and weakening the Miniscope’s power source enough to allow the DeMat guns to attack the inner workings and return the fighters to the full sized world outside. Things are further complicated by the fact the Showmen have learned from witnessing the end of the last battle how deadly the DeMat guns can be and have managed to steal one vital component from each gun which are now locked safely away by a Controlled Holding Access Inhibited Negator (CHAIN) which can only be opened using the combination to be found and assembled from tiles which the scrambling process has spread across the zones. Once again the stage is set for a battle of Good and Evil, but this time the object is escape and the losing team faces the horror of spending the next few years fighting themselves over and over again until the novelty wears off, then sold to UK Gold to be repeated for all eternity.

The Game

So, both our teams are caught up in an alien peepshow as one of several exhibits where warriors fight their battles over and over again in endless time loops. The combined brains of our two Time Lords have managed to destabilise the compression fields that contain the zones enough to allow limited travel between them on the Circuit Paths inside the machine, and the resulting Time Portals, while unstable and prone to opening and closing, will allow fighters to invade the battle exhibits and try and interfere with the course of the fights going on inside. Every successful intervention will help to destabilise the main power core a little further, allowing the DeMat guns to attack the power node under the Dark Tower. The DeMat guns must be assembled from pieces found around the exhibits, save for the main assemblies which can only be released from the CHAIN by finding the pieces scatted about the battles and assembling the combination. Once assembled, the fighters must return to their original battle exhibit around the Dark Tower and find the Power Crystals that can activate the DeMat guns. The first team to get their fully assembled and powered-up DeMat gun to the Dark Tower will destroy the Power Node and escape, leaving the losers trapped as alien repeats for ever.

Ok, so that’s the idea. This is how it’s going to work:

The game fields can all be reached via the Circuit Path marked on your map and will open and close at the times shown. Whilst a field is open it can be played, with the objective of taking flags from the other side’s base and returning them to yours for points. If at any point one team gains decisive control of the other’s Time Portal then a referee will interfere to move the victors back and also award 200 points to their team, in order to keep the games moving. At a set time each field will have a Nexus Event, where special features, monsters and victory conditions apply, with the first side completing their mission gaining some serious points. Once this Nexus Event has finished, either by one team winning or the time expiring, the zone will return to flags at each end until it closes at the time shown. This will continue throughout the day, with zones opening and closing and Nexus Events taking place, until all warriors gather for the Final Battle and try and seize the Dark Tower using the DeMat guns, the components for which have been scattered across the zones and must be collected throughout the day. Please note that the main assemblies will be secured by a combination lock and must be released via the combination; any damage to the guns with destabilise the boss’s Temper Matrix causing massive loss of points and appendages. The combination can be assembled from pieces found across the game zones which must be brought back to the safe area and handed in for points.

Game 1: Do You Take Plastic?

Location: Earth, 3050AD (Jungle Field)

The Ringmaster has decided to play with fire and scooped up a chunk of Earth from a distant future where things are very different. The aftermath of global conflict has left a blasted shell that over the centuries has regained huge tracts of jungle if little else, leaving a few human survivors to eke out a simpler more pastoral existence swinging through the trees. This leaves the door wide open for the marauding Nestene Consciousness and its Autons to invade and set up a terraforming plant to turn the Earth’s atmosphere into the soup of toxins and complex hydrocarbons they need to survive. The Ringmaster has picked up the desperate humans’ last attempt to destroy this plant, capturing one of the two reactors that balance the main Matter Conversion unit in a suicide mission to destroy the invaders completely. By adding extra fuel to the Matrix that controls the reactor’s power output they can overload it, blowing the installation to bits, while the Auton forces know that their only hope of remaining on top is to add fuel cells to their own Reactor to supercharge the magnetic containment field that will prevent the explosion from denying them their nice new home free from pesky apes. Easy enough, if it weren’t for human resistance efforts ambushing transport convoys and scattering the fuel cells across a large area of jungle. Whichever force manages to collect and place the most fuel will tip the battle one way or the other and break the time loop, beginning the process that will lead to their escape.

This is the first game so teams must assemble at their bases for a 10am start, after which they must take and hold ground until containers of fuel are added to the field. Each side must collect their containers until a signal will be given for the Nexus Event at 10:30 at which point players must start to place as many containers as possible into their Fuel Matrixes. The Nexus Event will finish at 11:30 or when one or other team fills their Fuel Matrix and wins 500 points, with points awarded to the losing team for the number of containers they collect.

Once victory has been achieved or the clock reaches 11:30 the zone reverts to flags end to end, with 100 points for each flag hung, and play continues until the Time Portal closes at 12:00.

Game 2: Dalek Development

Location: Skaro, 4120AD (Ridge/Congo Field)

It just wouldn’t be a Time Wars without Daleks and luckily the Showman knows the kiddies love ‘em so has scooped up a chunk of Skaro to put on a good show. The Thals and Kaleds are still battling away with no end in sight, but on the Kaled side a rather ugly but brainy type called Davros has devised a new battle machine that will turn the tide of the war. With a crunchy bonded polycarbide armour hiding a squishy centre of pure evil the Daleks can turn the tide of the war once their safety locks are released. The Showman is exhibiting the debut of the Daleks in battle but in order to avoid a rather short and one-sided show he has snatched them at a time just prior to their activation. With the prototypes assembled for the their first devastating attack but still in a safely dormant state, the Dalek base is attacked by a Thal suicide squad who manage to plant a Binary Initiated Gamma bomb and scatter the snoozing death machines all over the battlefield. The teams must seek out these prototypes and assemble them at their own base, in order to tip the balance of power between Thals and Kaleds one way or another and break the Time Loop.

The Time Portal will open at 11:00 until the Nexus Event at 11:30, with teams looking for the Dalek Prototypes (big inflatable Daleks) in the mean time. When the signal goes for the start of the Nexus Event the first side to seize three of these prototypes, which must be inflated to count as undamaged, return them to their base and hold them there for five minutes will win 500 points. Once this has happened or the time reaches 12:00 the field will revert to flags in each base, with each enemy flag hung in the friendly base gaining 100 points for the side concerned. This will continue until the Portal closes at 13:00 and the field is no longer in play.

Game 3: Cybermen need your parts

Location: Telos, 2673AD (Convoy Field)

Cybermen are always a big draw for the kiddies but again their battles tend to be a little one-sided, so the Ringmaster has cleverly chosen a period at the beginning of their transformation from sickly Mondasians to deadly machine organisms. The conversion process is still being developed but has been hindered by a Cryon raid stealing many of the vat-grown organic parts intended to supplement the huge computer brain of the first Cybercontroller. The need to match the DNA of the Controller’s existing organic parts and the already unbreakable bonds between its computer and organic components mean the Mondasians must recover the original body parts to finish building their future leader. If the Cryons can destroy enough of these parts then they will leave the future Cybermen’s plans in ruins, but if the Mondasians recover enough bits they will be able to take to the field not only clad in cybernetic armour but led by one of the most powerful tactical and strategic brains ever devised. The body parts have ended up hidden across a wide area of an old Telosian settlement and must be collected as swiftly as possible before their soft bits start to get smelly.

The Time Portal will open at 12:30, with flags end to end until the the Nexus event starts at 13:00 when teams must then concentrate on finding body parts and getting them to the central refrigeration zone for safe storage with from 30 to 100 points given for every box handed to the marshal posted there. The parts will be respawning on the field so keep looking until 13:30 when the points will be counted and the field will revert to flags end to end for 100 points apiece until the Time Portal closes at 14:30.

Game 4: That’s one big sucker

Location: Somewhere in E-space, time uncertain (Dodge City field)

A peaceful town with a sleepy and inbred populace hides and terrible secret; one of the ancient and most dreadful enemies of the Time Lords hides under the ground, waiting for the right time to ravage across the Universe. That’s right, one of the Giant Vampires has rested for centuries under the village with its human servants collecting the right type of blood to keep it nourished and gradually build its strength. Finally the time of awakening is at hand, and believe me this isn’t one of those willowy Twilight vamps that sparkle in the sun but the dawning of a new age of blood and horror for any worlds that stand it its path. A small force of villagers are resisting the castle guards and desperately trying to destroy the evil creature, but can they succeed in time? The guards seek to collect enough blood to fill their transfusion device and deliver one last meal that will render the Vampire powerful enough to break free and begin the real feast, whilst the plucky yokels seek to collect and deliver enough of their secretly prepared and hidden anticoagulant they have been squeezing the right fruits to obtain for months and deliver it to a device they have built in secret from stolen parts. Can they succeed in giving the Great Vampire a fatal vegetarian option or will the guards manage to deliver enough of the red stuff to fill the big guy’s tank and start the rampage?

The Time Portal will open at 13:30, with bottles of ‘blood’ and ‘poison’ already hidden on the field for collection. Teams must collect the right colour bottles and then use the liquid to fill their respective transfusion injectors until one is full or the time hits 14:00 at which point the side with the most fluid in place will win 500 points for their team. The field will then switch to flags end to end for 100 points each until the Time Portal closes at 15:00.

The Final Battle

Location: The Phantom Zone, outside time and space (Top field).

The forces of Good and Evil must gather for the final decisive conflict. The Phantom Zone is an eerie wasteland dominated by the imposing sight of the Dark Tower, which coincidentally is placed over the circuit node that must be destroyed to free the teams. Both sides must seek to find the Time Crystals and power up their newly-assembled DeMat guns, before trying to use the gun’s unlimited destructive power to breach the Dark Tower and destroy the node for final victory. It will be the battle to decide who escapes the Ringmaster’s captivity and who remains trapped in a Time Loop forever.

The Time Portal will open at 15:00 with flags running end to end for 100 points each, until at 15:30 the Time Crystals will be added to the field and players must try and collect enough to power their DeMat guns. Both sides must try and get their assembled and powered up DeMat guns to the Dark Tower, with the first team to do so winning 2000 points. At 16:00 the Time Portal will close whether this has been achieved or not, and play will end for the day.

Conclusion

So there you have it, simple really. Teams can gain points for flags run and Nexus Event victories, and also 5 points will be given per elimination, with the team with the most points at the end of the day the winners.

Getting to the fields; we’ll explain again during the briefing, but the Circuit Paths will be marked with signs that indicate the zones that will be updated through the day. PLEASE STAY OFF CLOSED ZONES and leave the zone when told to do so by a marshal. Each zone will have two coloured entry points, one for each team, and one exit, which must be used by everyone eliminated.

Once eliminated you can choose to return to the safe area and rejoin the battle when you like, or if still laden with paint and air then feel free to return to your team’s entry point to chrono and return to the fray. Anyone caught returning to the battle without passing through the exit and re-entering will earn 500 penalty points for their team, so don’t do that.

Summary

Objectives for the day; Find the DeMat gun pieces and keep them for your team, and find the combination tiles and bring them back to the safe area for points. Remember to enter each field through your coloured Time Portal and leave only through the central exit.