In total, throughout the two days, forty-eight teams will be putting in an appearance on this temporary battlefield. Each battle lasts twenty minutes, and will involve two eight-strong teams competing for the highest honor. Each individual player will be armed at the start with eighty paintballs, an air pistol, facial protection, and overalls.

It should be said that the game involves more than just shooting off your ammo as close to the target as possible, explains co-organizer Marit Kroese of Japie; while doing that players have to steal as many items as possible from the opposition (each one being worth a certain number of points). These are then placed in the team's storage box and guarded. Incidentally, the theft of a study association's valuable items is a traditional Dutch student activity known as brassen. If a player is 'shot' during a raid, he or she must take a short time-out.

Nets will be hung between the trees on the site in an effort to catch most of the paint splatters. In any event, the paint used will be biodegradable and water-soluble, so that - if all goes according to plan - no trace of the activity will be left. For a while now Japie's lustrum committee has been scouring the campus for old furniture and other items with which to furnish the battlefield.

This two-day paintball event is the first of Japie's lustrum activities, the overall theme of which, appropriately for a diamond jubilee, is 'Scatter your light'. Later events planned include a pub crawl in Maastricht (the birthplace of Japie's namesake, chemist Jan Pieter Minckelers), a ball and a reunion. The jubilee year will conclude at the end of May with a sports tournament and barbecue for the whole department.

The paintball competitions will be held on Tuesday 26 and Wednesday 27 September from 10.00 to 16.00 hrs. Participation is free to everyone at TU/e aged eighteen and over. Advance registration is advised via Japie's lustrum website. If any time slots are still available on the day, they will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.