For the second year, The #669 Pitchfork Brigade and The Foam Defense Core (FDC) hosted the E.P.I.C.B.A.T.T.L.E. 2.0 event at Audra State Park in West Virginia.
This years’ event was even larger than the previous years, doubling the number of soldiers coming together for a weekend of camping and tactical playtimes. The #669 Pitchfork Brigade members and the leader of the #688 Terminus Division went up that Thursday morning to secure the campgrounds and set up a base for the weekend event. They were joined later that evening by some soldiers from the #9001 Central and Eastern Virginia Division and the #6801 Indiana Division. The next day they were joined by soldiers from the #242 Pennsylvania Militia, the #1717 Three Mile Island Guild, and some civilian friends. Once they were all gathered the fun ensued! Spontaneous gun fire, foam sword battles, swimming and telling tales around the campfire that night.
On Saturday morning they loaded up the pickup trucks and vehicles and headed up to the battlegrounds for 3 rounds of combat, which involved projectile foam dart guns, melee foam weapons along with some impressive modified weapons and hand crafted armor. The next event at the battlegrounds was 3 rounds of Capture the flag with homemade flags from Cyrex – they were huge and fun to fight for!
They returned to break for lunch and catch their breath after a day of heated battle. Next they took turns at the target shooting event destroying the Alien Illuminati! Finally ending the events with a sword sparring competition in which MacBane took home the prize of being the Sword Sparring Master!
The day was getting very hot so most of the soldiers headed to the river to cool off after the day’s events. Water cannons provided by IvySunny were much entertainment for the soldiers in the water. After more fun and relaxing they returned to the main camp for a delicious meal. The night continued with a gathering around the campfire, glow-stick novelties, tin foil hat making, and alien sacrifices!
They had two huge banners and two large flags proudly hanging in the trees for all campers to see, which continuously drew attention to the event. The park rangers were happy to see them come back for a second year to their beautiful park. Other campers were so intrigued by the goings on that many crowds gathered throughout the day. They wanted to know when things were happening so they could come back to watch and also what Toy Soldiers were all about. A few of the younger campers joined in with them in foam boffer fights which continued off and on during the entire weekend!
Every soldier there brought gear and helped out in their own way, working together to achieve a Utopian Playland! Commander JET made foam boffers and assembled gift bags, prizes, glow-sticks and fun toys for soldiers in attendance. Marley brought homemade cookies to share. RedDrgn and Cyrex took care of the food/money gathering, cooking, videos and they were all great supportive leaders for this weekend’s events.
