Tippinators Assault Castle Aaarrgh

Ten members of the Tippinators paintball team piled into two cars for a 16 hour drive to attend one of the largest paintball events in eastern North America which is held in New Milford PA. The event commonly referred to as "pure paintball insanity" was Castle Conquest XXIII, held at EMR Paintball Park in New Milford PA April 27th - 28th. This year marks the 10th anniversary of Castle Conquest, run by Michael "Blue" Hanse, owner of EMR and head of "Blue's Crew".

From humble beginning, with only 65 players at the first game, Castle Conquest has grown to being not just the largest castle battle in paintball, drawing 1300+ players from the US and Canada, for a full weekend of paintball related events plus a large vendor area.


The Tippinators along with the Midnight Raiders, Tri State Special Operations Group team Voo Doo and hundreds of other players rushed down slippery, rain soaked, hills to assault the Castle Aaarrgh while Team Joint Fury anchored the well coordinated defense.

Despite the team's best efforts, intense battles, countless individual attempts to breech the walls and numerous human wave attacks proved futile as the defenders remained undaunted and controlled Castle Aaarrgh when the four hour time limit expired. This marked one of the few times in the history of the game the defenders have prevailed. Failure at Castle Conquest XXIII has made the attackers even more determined to succeed when next the two meet.

Although the Tippinators were unable to wrestle control of the castle away from the defenders the weekend was not a total loss. The team was able to meet numerous other scenario players from around the country and spend time with their sponsors; Erich Garbers of Tippmann Sports and Chris Serfustini of Special Ops Paintball.

Planning is already underway for Castle Conquest XXIV to be held September 29-30. Blue, wife Sue and Son Duce look forward to an even bigger and better event in the fall.