[Sticky] for 2015

Regards possible June day.

Right spoke to Chris yesterday at fireball to get latest about possible of mid year thing.

He said he was thinking of something like a private battle day, basically between the Russian and Stut's lads. Is this something we can take on instead as it will be more about the guys getting used to being a unit together etc. and trying to get a few more over to the Russian loadouts which is apparently happening within the 34th already.

Was thinking we could just advertise the game through the Facebook page rather than on the forum that way bit less visible to those who feel we may be treading on toes etc.

I know martin is booked weekend 13/14th so if there are any other days un available can you let me know asap and we can get ball rolling.

cheers guys.

Spoke with porta tonight, he is not doing anything in June. So have we a plan as need to come up with something soonish.

And liaised with Chris last night too, said preferable date for them would be Saturday 20th.

June 20th is fine by me, ideal in fact.

I'm not sure i want to spend the entire day chasing Stuts boys around the Rhododendrons, so maybe we could work up some sort of training/ops stuff in the morning and do some battling in the afternoon. Depends on numbers what is practical for training, some things just won't work with a ton of people. Any thoughts Tim?

Cheers
Martin

What I was considering was rather than doing a morning doing training, better do a section e.g. movement and hand signals and then run a timed game where skills would be put to use. That way you wont get people being bored if they are not into the whole training thing.

Could tailor the games as well to have some impact on the event in October.

First I was thinking of is we have a number of supply crates around the site. and the side who has the most back at their base/HQ at the end gets a supply advantage in October, extra initial ammo or extra medic bandages etc.

Will that way for a full day only require four missions and four sections of training.

Need to decide what do we do about ammo? go 300 or keep to our low ammo limits and bring out the cards again for the reloads. that way don't have to spend any time or money doing that again for this one.

Yes, I was thinking of getting people to actually do stuff rather than a bunch of tedious lectures! It is easy enough to set up even non shooty type exercises as games.

Cheers
Martin

Anybody got first aid cert? For June this one.

Right I don't know what is happening with Lardy but cant really sit on this too much longer and for some reason am getting no responses back. Is everything OK buddy or what?

Right June training/recruitment/operations day whatever we are going to call it. Will be Saturday 20th June at fireball.

Cost to us is tenner a head so was thinking of charging fifteen and that way can make a little to go into pot for October.

Was thinking of numbers of 20 a side max.

Games will be based around this engagement:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevsky_Pyatachok so a real link up between Nordlicht and next event. Will even be having each mission have a roll on effect into the main event.

Will sort out four missions for the day, can Martin or Tim look at what training you want to do. Have had chat back to me that anything too involved or long winded may put some off but still I think its something we need to visit so get your thinking caps on.

Will be getting onto Chommers and get sections up and running to be filled in once we agree on the following.

June Game title is to be: 'Five Kopecs'

October Game title is to be: Operation Iskra (Spark)

These are unless of course anyone has had any other ideas?

There is one other thing, when I spoke to Porta the other week he has offered his site for events going forward. Now I have a bit of a concern that going forward the guys at close action are jumping on the bandwagon of getting events on and it may saturate the site for people wanting to go. What do we think is it worth looking at Porta's site? will be tenner a head game fee so gives us the same margin for addition of costs into props etc. The site is Manchester so I don't know how you would all feel about the travel to it.

Please discuss and I will get some snaps off Porta so we can have a look at least. He also says that he has local interested parties who want a go at the ww2 events so may be good for all concerned.

With 40 players it is more like a regular game day, off the top of my head I can't think of much useful I can do with a group that size as most of the things we had in mind would only really work for a section or so.

There might be one or two things which would work, and it would be good to tie it in to the missions - did you have an outline idea what the missions might be? We could maybe pick up three big themes like movement, concealment and fire & movement interspersed with the missions. I need to have a think.

Personally I reckon you'll get more people at Grafton Park than hauling up to Rochdale or wherever, I find it very hard to figure from the new FB pages where Portas sites actually are these days.

If we are essentially going to end up running two Eastern Front games this year, then can get my Russian fix in June and reprise Lt Fricke in October if needs be.

Cheers
Martin

Yes those numbers are more than our training plan allowed for, perhaps it could be changed to something like the exercise plan you posted up a while back by reenactors for using squad level tactics?

Does Porta mean his Quarry site? the section he uses regularly is not that big I think and the cost of the whole quarry is huge as you have to compensate the owner for his off road users. I looked into using this site with Oddball for a Tunisian game but decided that the site cost fore the whole quarry and the distance oop north would put off too many players

Porta's site is not the Quarry one, has a new woodland site just outside Manchester. It was just a thought anyway but if your happy to continue with grafton then we shall do that.

Think the basis for the June event was that a lot of people still wont go out and source kit unless there is more than one game a year etc. so we was going to go for this as a bonus event with aim to raise numbers.

Didn't want to limit it too much as if you did then pretty much you will get the 34th lads on one side and stut's germans on the other and pretty much no one else. Don't get me wrong there are 20+ players in each group so to get them all into the events would be a great bonus but it may end up a more private battle feel if you know what I mean.

Will be drawing up plans over the next few days for June, But as we are happy with the titles then I will get sections sorted on the forum through chommers.

Cheers all

perhaps it could be changed to something like the exercise plan you posted up a while back by reenactors for using squad level tactics?

Yes, I just had another look at that (it is on the Training Day thread), those sorts of things would work better for bigger numbers. We could maybe still do some stuff on movement, formations, concealment etc but it gives it a bit more context.

Cheers
Martin

Sections up on the forum. will be filling in today for June.

Big question are we going to issue ammo for this one? as we need to factor into price if we do. Tim can you have a look see what was left over if anything was. May give an indication of what is needed if we are. Its either that our we go for honor rule our what?

I don't think you need to issue ammo, people seem pretty honest about ammo limits. For June you could just limit the ammo per mission, as it is mission based.

Cheers
Martin

Yeah I know what you mean but just want to try and get everyone used to the lower limits and then we have no confusion going into October. Can even bring the card tokens from Luga out instead think that may be the other option.

Am thinking as we move the games forward the availability of other units into the mix for both sides increases so are we at the point where we can include for these in this event? was thinking an SS unit for the Germans on top of the Heer and Gebirgs that are already available, and Naval Infantry for the Russians? with regards the Naval infantry it s a bit easier of a load out to get together too.

Here is my idea for the game mechanic. going to be a cross over between Josh's games where there are a certain number of objectives that can be fought over during the day. added into that will be a selective number of missions for each side to complete will be up to either side command as to how many people hey assigns to each mission but would like for everyone of the players to get on at least one each.

Each of these missions will carry penalties or bonuses into the main October event. so could be with the land rovers that are on site these are part of the halted convoy so the Russians have to unload the supplies on them and store them at a point ready for them to be taken back to the Russian held areas, where as the Germans are to go round and blow up these trucks to stop the supplies reaching the city.

Think this also clears up the waiting for something to happen problem with Nordlicht as the set objectives will always be being fought over.

What you think. If it works may carry the format forward to October.

Well unfortunately chommers has opened the molecular section already for some reason. Looks like we will have to roll with it as is, hopefully nothing missing. Another little niggle not a happy boy.
Oh well best foot forward guys.

Hells teeth, people complain when game threads are locked, they complain when they are unlocked.

EVERYONE has seen what you have posted already, it has been visible to the world, registered users or not, since the 9th. I unlocked it because you had all the required elements in place and time is belting along and people are keen to book.

Have messaged you CW.

Right on another note have spoken with Lardy. He is feeling the need to have a break from the WW2 scene for a bit and wouldn't want to commit to anything that he couldn't give his full efforts to, So fair play hopefully he may return for future events.

Had a message from Gadge, he has seen the event invite through Facebook and wanted to come down to maybe do another report for the game but would not play an active roll in actually playing. But thought that he could be a great bonus for coming in to help out with the command for the event, Have sounded him out about it and he says he is up for it so how's about as we stand Martin you come over to Russian command and Gadge goes into German? Will be another wealth of knowledge to add to the organizing group even if it is just on a temporary basis.

Let me know what you think.

As above, I think once the game threads hit the event forum they are visible to all, whether they are locked or not. We have a date and a site, so hell, get the threads up there.

Sorry about Lardy, but yes, I'd assumed I'd be doing Russian for this one. I can bodge up a Russian officers outfit easily enough, I just need to make some collar rank pins

As I said above, I think this has morphed from a training day into a full on game and it is entirely likely we'll get all 40 slots filled so we need to come up with a game plan pdq. I'm not entirely sure what you mean about assigned missions, it sounds a bit like the things the 34th guys do?? Yes, that is one possibility although it will take some work to come up with the mission cards. Another option would be to go with Craig/Lipton style 'combat missions' on a set schedule, say one an hour, everyone back to base at the end of each. We'd have more chance of keeping things in synch then.

Either would be fine, although they need different leadership styles to make them work.

Cheers
Martin