Training day

I'll have to see if I'm free for this, however it should be possible to include some very basic fieldcraft:

1. in the first section on movement - counting steps, silence on the march, periodic 'soak time' to stop and listen. You could even do a short exercise on silent movement splitting the group in two, one lot listen, the others try and move silently.

2. The other thing of value is concealment, particularly use of shadow and background. Again, you could use a variant of Petes exercise - half the squad hides in a patch of ground with clear LOS to a target, the other half try and spot them then swap over and try it the other way around.

For the fire and movement thing you could do advancing by alternate groups, but also the individual rush (up, ten steps forward, down and shoot, rinse & repeat).

Anyway, just a few thoughts.

Cheer
Martin

Some good idea's Martin

I also liked Pete's Jungle lane, good fun and a good way to get people working as a pair and communicating.

I think the jungle lane would be beyond our ability to set up, but I thought about more team based versions of the movement and hiding thing.

I have various fieldcraft exercises in my March 1944 'Infantry Fieldcraft and Tactics' and 1942 'Battle School' manuals, as well as tactical exercises.

Cheers
Martin

Some interesting bits there guys. I am happy to leave this to you guys to see what you decide on as its more the german guys that have been together at events will benefit maybe a bit more where as for the russian guys who will be left its more about getting that first stage of a group together so maybe more see them as a bit of an 'opfor' and get them get a bit more shooting time together to see if something gels.
Think it would be nice to have the first hour or so going through whatever points you want to cover then we can have some set up of objectives to work against.

I am sure we can come up with stuff which everyone can take part in, we don't necessarily need to focus on building up two groups or whatever.

I need to discuss with SWMBO about the Sunday, but assuming I can do it:

What are the training day numbers looking like? What do we think about doing something Saturday night (before everyone gets pissed up!) - the Red Hang Gang night evasion thing we did with CiA was great and might be replicable. Did we have an end time for Sunday in mind (I was thinking around 2, maybe earlier if we've been up late).

Cheers
Martin

I know whatever you guys come up with will be great but just stumbled across this Gebrigs re enactment group training manual so thought I would share.

http://www.2ndgebirgsjager.com/uploads/ ... _final.pdf

Thanks Kie.

Having had a chat about it at the weekend I've had a go at working up a 'lesson plan' (I used to be a teacher back in the dim mists of time) with tasks, key learning points, timings, required terrain and suggested props and see what we think. I was thinking a fairly early kick off.

Either 9am or if we are feeling hardcore, up at dawn, do some stuff for an hour or so, then back for breakfast. What do we think? Civilised or hardcore?

I've edited the top post to keep it simple. How does that look as a first cut?

A few things we need to sort out - which signals? I've had a guess at timings and they aren't set in stone but I don't want to be going much past 2pm. We have alot to get through and if we extend some things, others may slip (which is why defence is last!). I'm a bit vague about what we want to do about defence

Cheers
Martin

Hi Martin

I take for ever in the morning to wake up so my tendency is to less hardcore, however I dont want to be a party pooper so let us know what your thinking I will post up some idea's for a schedule etc later tonight or tomorrow, just got a busy day ahead feel free to incorporate or reject my idea's as you see fit.

On a non training point, before the game begins I was thinking of mustering the German troops and having a church service as per the film Stalingrad, would anyone object?

Kieran were you supposed to give me a CD of intel documents?

Hi Tim,

in the suggested timings in the edited first post, I've suggested a 9am start, which on reflection I think will be fine. We'll be knackered from Saturday, especially if we have to spend some time Saturday evening doing some setup.

I'll have a think about hand signals and formations, as this stuff can get really complicated and confusing.

Cheers
Martin

I had not realised you had edited the first post, thats really good work Martin, it already incorporates my idea's so saves me a job

I will be walking the dogs on site today but will primarily be looking at points for the batteries etc. I will do another visit next week to look for places to carry out the training

Thanks Tim, I thought I'd try and work both our ideas in. The timings are a bit of a guess, we may be trying to fit too much in, but we can always slip the end back if we overrun.

The main extra props we need are some mine tape and targets for the jungle lane (plus, are you thinking of targets for the range estimate thing?). I've sorted out some cards and binos for the spotting/concealment exercise.

I reckon most of the stuff is covered in the Alte Hasen manual, including the hand signals. The modern versions of 'on me' and 'enemy in sight' are a lot more sensible than the WW2 German ones, but we can use either. As discussed, we should probably only do half a dozen signals. It is really hard to remember this stuff without a ton of practice.

For formations we should probably just stick to two truppen rather than worrying about MG and rifle truppe - the evolutions for the rifle truppe are quite complex depending what they are doing. Two truppe will be fine for F&M, flank attacks and also for F&M by pairs or even individuals

Shall I put the brief itinerary up on the live game thread with estimated start/stop times?

Cheers
Martin

Shall I put the brief itinerary up on the live game thread with estimated start/stop times?

Cheers
Martin

Yes that would be good mate, who knows we might get a couple more interested as well

Guys I know you have put a lot of effort into the training session for the Sunday. but by the looks of it there are only going to be a small handful of participants I am just being devils advocate here and wondering if it is worth holding the training for future.

Of course if you get a lot of people on the Saturday saying they are coming back on the Sunday then all good (Such as Stut and his local boys) but just a thought.

Don't wan to be harbinger of doom etc. but would rather everyone's hard work will be worth it. Also if the weather reports are as they are and people get drenched Saturday then it may give rise to people wanting to go home etc.

I know negative waves and all that

Kie, are you thinking we should cancel it and give a refund?

I've slightly lost track of who we have left for it now.

Cheers
Martin

I know from the bookings that there are three people who said they definitely were going to be attending the Sunday, with two possibles. I am just trying to gauge whether it is viable for this event?
Its you two who have put the work into this and I just want to make sure its all worth it and not something we should have available for the future.
I will go with whatever the consensus is but just thought its something to be discussed.

Hmm, three definites is certainly getting a bit light, we'll have more umpires than players! It will make running the jungle run/spotting thing simultaneously difficult.

Not sure we'll ever get huge numbers for a training event, but tacking it onto a game event was always going to be a bit tricky. My personal preference would be to run the whole thing as a short weekend event (so Saturday lunchtime to Sunday lunchtime) so we can get an evening/night activity in as well as the other stuff.

I think some of the stuff we've got lined up will still be viable with the numbers we've got, and a lot of it is re-runnable in future as there is benefit in practice. otoh if all we end up with is a couple of drenched and frozen people on Sunday, it isn't going to be much fun.

Any thoughts Tim? I'll be out of touch most of tomorrow.

Cheers
Martin

To be honest I would say 6 was a minimum number to make it work, 3 probable and 2 possible does not really cut it. As Martin say's if its just a handful of sodden people its not going to be much fun. I'm not worried about the planning time as Martin has again said that can be re-used some other time its begining to not look viable, is it best to cancel the training?

OK, unless anyone has a strong objection. lets cancel it for this time. It is a shame, but we can re-use the stuff we've already done in future.

We need to let the attendees know asap as it may affect their travel plans etc.

Cheers
Martin

Ok, are all agreed?