Hey guys just wanted to give a report on the first scenario game I’ve played in 20+ years. I got a few buddies together and went to an old favorite, EMR paintball park in New Milford PA. Went there a couple times back in the day for “Quest for the holy grail” games. Always had a blast. So you had to pre register to play because they ordered red or blue shirts for all players depending on your team. I found this to be awesome, you know right away what team another player is on, it’s hard to see arm tape in the woods, I didn’t experience any friendly fire. The game format was cool, it was broken down into 2, 3 hour battles and also switched sides of the field. All 4 corners had a flag pole, so you had to try to keep your teams flag up for points. There was also multiple time circles across the field, a 25-50’ circle spray painted on the ground. each circle was worth a different amount of time, 5,10,15,20 minutes. A player would be designated a “time keeper” and once that player stepped in the circle and checked in with a ref that watched each cirle, that player had to stay in that circle for the given time to get the points. Naturally this is hard while you’re being shot at, so it made for a protect the president scenario in the circles. It was a lot of fun and look forward to going back, maybe for castle conquest in September. The only thing disappointing was the turn out. It couldn’t have been more than 30 players, maybe a bad idea to have it on Father’s Day weekend. Anybody been to EMR games lately? I hope other games have better turns outs, I hope they can keep this legendary place going. By the way other than a emek and a A5 I was the only guy rocking a mech that I saw, Automag baby! Cheers
-
-
I was a 10 Plus year emr pass holder with the cc. It was a blast and had some of my best big game and social paintball memories there. Unfortunately their ever lowering turnout is a big reason I am not an annual pass holder anymore. -
I'll be honest, I really didn't know EMR was still in business. I haven't heard much about them except they had one or two or three "Last Castle" games, and that's about the last I heard of them.
Found their calendar: https://emreventpark.com/season-calendar/
So looks like there is still a fall castle game.
Edited to add after Chappy: Yes, I still have all my yearly passholder cards. Good times and good memories, but the field has always failed to promote their events, and low turnouts lead to lower turnouts. I mean, I honestly didn't know they were still around.
Too bad.I am the admin...Comment
-
Carter's Commando used to call EMR home until they gave the bunkhouse to the LARPers and abandoned it. We have a lot of good memories there. I know they really went all in on LARP and airsoft in the years since Blue retired. The last event I attended there, they were going on and on ad nauseum up on stage about how many airsofters were there the week before. I mean, we're there for a paintball event and all they're doing is jerking of the LARPers and airsofters (same thing, I know). I'd love it if they refocused on paintball again, but as you found out, thirty people is a pale shadow of the numbers they used to pull in when they took us seriously.Comment
-
Thay should bring back " Pumpers Pandamonium " I had only been to EMR twice and both times were for Pumpers, it was hands down some of the most fun id had playing paintball.Comment
-
I’d love that, other than mags, I loved rocking my phantom.Comment
-
Pumpers was the best! I loved the Western Wars themed game they did with the mardi gras beeds for holding a certain section of the field. That was one of my all time favorite formats. They gave you raffle tickets for ones you collected and use to give away packages and often kids that came for the first time left with donated gear. “ arm the children “ EMR use to be a really fun place from the bunk houses to the players party’s. The games were a blast and the battles intense. I still remember taking that castle with my boys battling up that castle walls winning gun fight after gun fight to take that castle by the ramps before the walls opened up with the keys. Making the bump to the ramp like 5x getting lit up from windows but making it in that 6th time and working your way up the ramp against the never ending wave of players. That was some good paintball.
My last straw was a castle game they nerfed by requiring keys to be found before you could enter the castle. A castle defense guy went out and took one key. Completely broke the game for 2.5hr there was next to no paintball being played. People got tired of shooting dark windows all day. Went looking for the key that didn’t exist. Not being able to attack the castle by its two choke point made for a super boring game. Paint and entry got super pricy and the quality went way down hill. This is way before paint went to hell. Being a pump player this destroyed my experience. Then the selling of the donated museum of markers really turned me off. How that was handled was complete BS and a glimpse of what was to come of EMR. It was all down hill after that. They were so focused on profit they lost the experience that made EMR great. With that people stopped showing up. The never ending “Last castle game” that was never the last. When called out for it they doubled down on the lie like its customers were fools. It lost its followers because they took the fin out of the games. Then inserted formats that were just designed to burn expensive crap paint.
I get the cost of doing business goes up and with that its burden lies with the customer. But when you charge more and get less it’s a race to the bottom. It just wasn’t fun anymore and the people running it did not care. Profit over Experience is what killed EMR for me and a lot of people. Maybe it was a situation of living up to the expectations of what it once was that made such a drastic down turn. Victim of its own success. But it took a turn and anyone that played there in its hay day could see the changes there were making were all pore decisions.Comment
-
Whoa. I swear I learn as much about the paintball industry as I do about fixing markers in this website.Comment
-
I played a game there last year that was a capture the flag game with multiple flags across the whole property. Really cool idea, but again, maybe 25 people showed up due to zero promotion.Comment
-
I was an EMR regular up until about last year. Back in 2014/2015, they had Western Wars and the field was completely filled. Had to be 250 people.
The games got smaller and smaller. I went to the “final castle” game and it had a great showing. They made everyone NOT on Blue’s team buy yellow fill, even though lots of folks, including full teams, had boxes they were told they could use with blue fill from previous games.
Imagine my surprise when a week later they advertised the next castle game.
Dirty tactics like that really turned me off to the field, which really sucks because the teams and regulars that I met there were fantastic. Thankfully, for the same distance, I can go to OXCC and see MOST of those folks and the fields are the best I’ve been to.
One time I suggested that they sign up on MCB and let them know that the field appreciates everything and are trying after leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of many. I was told forums are dead and social media is the only way. Eventually, I just joined everyone else in being turned off by them and haven’t been back in a year and a half. It sucks, but they can’t get out of their own way.Comment
-
As I've said before, I don't blame EMR for branching out. Paintball peaked in 2004, and if airsoft and larping keeps the money flowing in and the gates open, then fine.
That said, a minimal effort to actually, you know, promote their own paintball events would be nice. MCB threads are free.
Along the lines of what Riot was saying: Forums are dead? OK, where are they promoting? And would it kill em to take five minutes to sign up and start a thread anyway? Sheesh. It ain't exactly a major capital investmentDulce et decorum est pro comoedia moriOriginally posted by Phantom1313Comment
-
Comment
-
Chappy (for general)Comment
-
I played that game with the Rubber Ducks. I’m pretty sure we played for you too. -
Chuck E Ducky yea We were the pirates based at ft war. The one bright spot of being the general is I stayed on the “island” and didnt use the rope boats. Pie plates swinging at junk level is the the stuff of nightmares…
-
-
Wow boys I’m sorry to hear that the place went down hill so bad, maybe I won’t bother with castle conquest this fall.it was so cool years ago. I guess once blue left he took the “Magic” with him. Hey RIOT where is this OXCC? I’m in north west NJ. All the shops and fields and brands I knew 25 years are gone. I’m re-discovering paintball all over again.Comment
-
I'm not here to kiss EMR butt but I still love the place and I still go.
My first game at EMR was when I was 15 and now I'm 40. Back then I shot a PMI Piranha... and it was Spring Castle conquest and it was Marbilizer paint. Needless to say I struggled with that gun and the paint was hard... it hurt, but I was hooked and EMR did it for me. That being said, I have a soft spot for EMR (might be a permanent welt?). The comradery of everyone there was amazing. You could walk up to almost anyone to chat and exchange stories.
When I went to college (Broome Community College in Binghamton), we started a team and Blue gave us a great deal on season passes and paint. We rolled in with ~10-15 players for most of the events and traveled for open plays. Again... hooked.
Then after I joined up and bounced around a few teams until I ended up settling with KvM (Kayahorra Valley Militia). Jim got ahold of a screen printing machine and we were a T-Shirt wearing bunch of paintball players focused on 1 thing... FUN. It wasn't about the jersey, it wasn't about the team, it was, and still is, about having a good time, taking your hits, and walking around with a smile. We weren't the best, but a gun pointing in the right direction was enough to make us a pain-in-the-ass on the field. In the end there was nothing gained by a weekend of paintball other than a great time. It's not a team, but more a family.
I mention KvM because thats the way paintball used to be. Now it seems like many players have something to prove (at ALL fields). Plenty of teams out there running uncapped-semi, lighting into people (intimidation ball) and wiping paint when the constant re-insert is 50 yards away. It's hard to police. The "peak" crowd that used to play woodsball is aging out and the new kids who play speedball are taking over. "Grow the Sport" has been in the mouths of plenty of people but I can tell you its hard to bring a new player, a child, into a game where you either have to spend a ton of money on padding or tell them to toughen up and assure them that taking 3+ hits while getting bunkered is NOT normal even though overshooting is becoming more popular. I see this first hand because I've recently gotten my daughter into paintball at 15 years old. It's rough. This happens at most paintball parks... I've learned to accept it and put up with the pain, but new players shouldn't have to deal with that. Many will likely say "Then don't go"... but that is exactly why the numbers are shrinking. You not just losing 1 new player, you're losing the father/mother of that 1 player as well. Play hard when you need to play hard, but pump the brakes a little when your working with the next generation of players before you have no one else to shoot.
Pumpers, Western Wars, Game of Bones (first 2 years), Quest... fun games, but the field didn't change much during those times. I will agree that a few years back it went a little stale which most likely caused the migration away from it as people are mentioning. It's not what it once was for sure, but I don't think many fields are what they once were. In recent years, EMR has been upgraded a bit. Parts of the old Tippman town have been moved down on field next to the Rec center. The old teepee area behind the new castle now has small buildings/bunkers. Pallets and cover have been put throughout the back field and down the Numbskull side hill, and in the pines for cover... it is progressing. I know Timmy also mentioned changes to Sgt Splatter field (with the bridge), changes to how Castle Fall will play out (might have mentioned bringing back timed insertions for 'waves' of players) and more... Not sure when this will take hold. I think EMR is trying to make a comeback. It takes time and money. Even with the smaller player count changes are happening. Slowely but surely. I know there are also plans for some turf to go down around the old Margaritaville area (Facebook post).
As for the EMR paint, I've experienced it go from Marbs->Severe->JT->Draxus->Valken->GI->Empire (with a few back and forths and I'm sure I missed some). I agree that in recent years, the Valken paint felt beyond bouncy but I went to the Beta Point game and the paint was great (Empire Paint and it was fresh). We had 5 people with us, 4/5 of us were mechanical (2 EMEKs, 1 Shocker CVO, 1 M170R) and we had 1 shooting mag-fed (Tippmann). I can't speak for my magfed friend but I do know that the 4 of us with Mechs nearly shot 3 cases (in total) over the coarse of the 6 hr game (2x 3hr blocks and then open play Sunday) and did not have a single barrel break. We did have a few bounces, but the paint was mainly on-point. I'm sure EMR was locked into paint before since Blue's Crew had sponsors... but the paint was definitely nice this last event.
I'll direct Timmy to this thread. He does love EMR and I know he will take any suggestions here into consideration, so please make them.
Last edited by iamjaredk; 07-25-2025, 12:57 PM.Comment
-
I’m pretty sure I played with you back in those days. Even did a Trip to play PRZ in Canada with Jimbo. I definitely still have a KVM long sleeve Jim Gave me. Drank a few Uncle Charlie’s after a day of outlaw ball in the snow. Good Times, Dose Jim Still Play? I seen him at an APE game maybe 4-5 years ago. Could you PM me his number I would love to catch up and chat with him. -
Yup.. that PRZ trip was a blast. Sad to see that place has closed.
Jimbo is still active last I knew. I haven't been up to Randy's field in a bit, but I'll have to make the drive soon. You can always hit him up on the KvM facebook. Sometimes a few of us get down to APE and CCZ every once in a while.Last edited by iamjaredk; 07-25-2025, 12:50 PM. -
Yeah I lost touch with him after I left social media.
-
Comment