[Sticky] Operation Iskra

Oops, good job I checked.

What do we want to do about command then, Tim and Kie for Germans and Russians respectively, I can do either Russian or German, but it sounds like Gareth can only do Russian?

I'm quite happy to be German again if that is what we need to do.

Cheers
Martin

Unfortunately my heart wasn't really in German kit so it's moved on to new owners.

I can do Russian; full kit from Barbarossa to Chechnya and ultra modern. I'm more than happy to go where needed though. Please, Martin, if you'd rather go Russian I'll be able to blag some German kit from someone.

Right hope those of you that went the weekend had a bit of a in the back of the mind scout at close action
Tim sorry to see about your back.
Think we need to have the game plan 80% sorted by the end of the month that way can do a site visit in august and have enough build time etc. for anything we need to do.
Any further thoughts and best foot forward and all that...

I'd forgotten how overgrown the site is. Nightmare moving through the undergrowth.

Should be able to pop up for a site visit. I think we used a small portion of the site on Sunday; there's a barracks and an old vehicle repair bay that we never even saw... much like the Germans who were shooting at us for from every angle.

Yes, it was useful to look around again and visit bits of the site I'd not seen before.

It was far more overgrown than last time I went, to such an extent that I'd say many of the wooded sections were so dense as to be ungameable (we ended up fighting over the tracks a lot of the time). It may be a bit more open in October.

The main thing is that I'd forgotten how absolutely huge it is. A few immediate thoughts from looking at the outline map and objectives for the game:

a) what exactly are the blockade CPs? The numbered points (1-8?). Or something else (points on the yellow line?) or a subset of the points?

b) where are we going to put the safe zone & cars? The main car parking and camping area is right in the middle of the game. We could always leave period-ish tents in the middle for any who stay over on Friday night (might be fun) but put the cars down the road which runs south from the left Russian CP? Seg said that was what they did sometimes, but a bit of a complication logistically.

c) the indicated playing area is very large, I'm a bit concerned that everyone is going to get completely knackered with even just a couple of trips back and forth from HQ, which I think reinforces the idea that we should only have one big 'set piece' battle during the day (the water tower), but otherwise we can just run interleaved missions at a pace to suit people. This in turn means there may be a fair bit of non-contact stuff happening, so we'll need to be clear about that in the info/briefings so people aren't disappointed. I expect it means we may have to do a fair bit of leading from the front too.

d) Hot guns. Some of the guns used at the weekend seemed a bit on the warm side, as well as a bit of lone wolfing being in evidence. The site limit is 370 for AEGs. I used to play a 370 site, and with wiggle room on the chrono they can easily top 380. That is very painful and at close range makes holes in you. So we need to be very, very clear about fps limits along with 'don't be a cock' and 'stay in your squads' in particular if some of the CA chaps come along. If they think they have a gun doing more than 330 or whatever, then it needs an MED.

e) Command. Lets settle on Tim and me taking the Germans.

f) site visit: I'm not going to be able to do a site visit in August. I'm either away or at Op Benevento. In any case it is a long round trip from up here, particularly if the traffic is like it was on Saturday evening, so realistically I think last weekend was probably it for me. I believe we are all going to Benevento though, so could we try and make an effort to spend an hour going through the game plan, looking at maps etc on Saturday evening? I know it is hard to do at a game as there are other distractions, but it is easier to sort some things out with a brief conversation than via forum posts.

OK, ttfn, other thoughts may occur in due course.

Cheers
Martin

Agree with much of what Martin says.

Once you get off the tracks it's like the land that time forgot. Plastered in Hawthorne bushes, nettles and brambles. It may have calmed down slightly in October. That said, yesterday the moment we left the tracks we spent most of our time fighting the undergrowth.

I'd be inclined to chrono all guns. One of the German players yesterday had a gun that was hotter than the surface of the sun.

Is it worth thinking about a game mechanic like you bastards had? basically have two battles going on that link up at certain times for larger engagements. That way we can maybe circle the camp/car park.

If you all feel the issue with chrono for guns then we will do it, Or do you want threat of on the spot in field for anyone dubious? just thinking of time factor to get everyone through. Think it will only be an issue of any Close action people cause obviously they are running at a 370 site max rather then the 350 we have stated in our rules.

Also with any dick lone wolf etc. we are going to get. think we need to put a 1 warning then being asked to leave statement in yes?

I don't think we need to chrono all the guns, it'll take ages and if people really want to be knobs then they'll just swap springs or keep their 'real' gun the car or load up with .4s or crank the hop right up. Seen it all a million times at open days.

Yes, we can reserve the right to chrono them in play, but I think the best way is to make sure the briefing covers what we expect in terms of behaviour and what it is all about. It isn't an open day blatfest or racking up 'kills', it is about trying to recreate a WW2 experience, and that we expect people to behave responsibly. If they think their gun is on the hot side, then have an MED. CIA always used to have good words to cover this stuff, and Josh usually covers it too. We need to keep the main briefing fairly short and sharp to stop people drifting off and focus more on the overall shape of the event, and do any specific stuff at the HQs.

I can draft some words to go on the game info pages, and I don't mind dong the 'what we expect' bit in the initial brief either, although I'm not quite as forceful as Sgt Heide and Headshot. Don't want to treat people like kids.

wrt the revolving game thing, I think that would be very hard indeed to pull off on such a large site and would need an organiser attached to each group in constant contact, which doesn't really fit in with the game plan as outlined. I reckon the options are:

1. only play half the site (I guess the top half as that is where the water towers are)
2. play the whole thing but put the cars in the alternate parking - we'd need to mark that, and leave the camp in the middle.
3. play the whole thing but rule the middle out of bounds (need to think of how we'd manage that, but it is how the site is run now)

I am quite attracted to 2. but 3. would obviously be easiest - just say it is the German railhead and far too strongly held to be attacked by the Russians.

Cheers
Martin

I think how much of the site we play can be decided on the site visit, only using half the site would still give us a large area. However simply putting it out of play as Martin suggests would be fine.

Need to push recruiting now guys. Anywhere/anyone please advertise.
If its not a good attendance or does not go ahead then I may have to think very hard about carrying on.

Lets not be too downcast, the 34th were panicking about numbers for Benevento and now it is completely full. Just need to be a bit patient, but yes, we can conduct a recruiting drive.

Given that the date is in the diary and the site is booked, I would be keen to go ahead come what may, even if we only get ten people. There are things we can do with smaller numbers, but it would be a different sort of day.

How much is the site charging for the day? (ie how much do we need to cover the site cost).

Meanwhile I'll give the Tommy Pub a kick and see if we can get some Brits to come along as Russians.

Cheers
Martin

It a per head rate buddy so don't have to worry about minimum numbers.

It a per head rate buddy so don't have to worry about minimum numbers.

Yes not so crucial but to be fair to the site owners we need to make it worthwhile, I'll send Stut a PM to see if his lads are coming. I know its 3 months to go but you would have thought people would have shown more interest.

I've printed out the current objective list, gun rules and a couple of maps of Grafton Park, so maybe we could have a an hour or so at Benevento on Saturday evening running through potential game plans?

Thinking mainly about how we want the game to run (leader based, mission based, timings etc) but we can also cover organisation options for using more or less of the site. Lets work on the basis that the radios aren't going to work so changing plan mid game may be hard:)

1800 on the Saturday OK for everyone? Time to cool down a bit, but before tea/beer/bolt action.

Cheers
Martin

Yes fine for me mate.

As of the head together session at Benevento, here is the refined missions list as I think we left it. Just the basic outlines but think they work. Its very good that I think we are always conducting the missions back to the safe area which will be the centre circle of the site. obviously areas used can be altered to suit but think the basics are finally down. Me and Gareth are going to try and aim for a site visit late August/ early September to have a walk through so we will organise that and try and if any one else to able to make that would be good.-- attachment is not available --

That looks great, it was really good to talk the through the various options, much easier than doing it by email/forum.

I'll have a go at writing up a timeline and gameplan for the missions based on the new objective list and our discussions, and I think we've solved the 'safe zone' problem.

Sadly work calls for now, but as i mentione don Saturday, several people said they were planning on coming to the game and they all seem to be assuming it will happen - I think people just leave it late to book

Cheers
Martin

That looks really good, well done Kieran Hopefully I will be able to get to the site visit.

Anyone fancy a site visit to firm up the plans? I would need to avoid the dates for the victory show and Zog.

Weekend of 12/13th good for me at this point or could do the Saturday of the weekend of Zog as its in the area etc if people are travelling up for it the day before? Failing that its 3/4th October.
Have messaged Tony to tell me if there are any dates that will be a no go.
Will be compiling the prop list for the event this week and we can all have a look over it to pass judgement.