Debrief

Yes thats myro.

He's a nice kid... I'm sure if its politely commented on he'll take note!

CW... I beleive you know him better than me??

I'll just bulletpoint my thoughts:

1: Lots of tempers getting frayed in the PM. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people were getting tetchy due to the effects of dehydration.
2: Steve, you did a cracking job with the Dutchies. Really made the Germans do some work there!
3: Medic rules need to be clearer. Was getting quite a few questions from players during the game - should we hand medic bands out when booking in?
4: Sniper engagement ranges need to be hammered home. I got walloped on the bonce from less than 10M. I was fookin' glad i had the tin lid on at the time.
5: Players need reminding that you WILL get lit up big time in urban, and headshots WILL happen.
6: In buildings the size of the ones at Phoenix, the "objective markers" could do with being a bit more obvious. Stick em on a pole in the ground?

Thats all that i can think of for the moment. Doubtless i'll think of more.

All I can say is congrats on putting on a fantastic event - muchos kudos to you all.

Agree with your point five Jay, although some people's fingers appeared a little heavy for them to be able to control on occassion.

I got a good 5 second burst in the back in open ground from about 5 metres. A double-tap would have done!

Myro - don't really know him and is very new to airsoft.

Haven't received anything adverse about the Axis, but have against Spiers, Oddball, Actionman. Oddball I have found in the past is rather teflon coated and gets the prize for the most ridiculous airbourne beret of the day! Actionman I suspect was the route cause of a lot of the problems in the afternoon - obnoxious guy (supposedly ex-marine or para - have you seen his face-paint?). He was the one who tried to avoid payment at started shouting at me at the end of lunch when I collared him (and got a bit of kudos off my son when he overheard me say to him 'If you raise your voice to me once more I'll escort you off the premises'!!) I hadn't realised who he was but I do remember him playing at Phoenix. And it turns out he was the chap refered to in-game (Gucci mentioned it) when it was said 'oh, he never takes his hits'. And he is the one I mention in the public post about not being allowed back - in the hope that it will appear that we are being active about concerns.

Players were absolutely knackered in the afternoon. I'm afraid this is exactly as I predicted - unfit players, trudging backwards and forwards to regen, captured players having to be marched from one side of the site to another. They managed a morning but that was it.

Players got demoralised by not appearing to make progress, made worse by frayed tempers. You might well say that players ought to organise themselves (or allow themselves to be organised), they should drink more, they should shift out of the shooting shit to tactical gameplay, and that they got the game they deserved and it's their own fault. Which all may be true. But, while we expect that players will be an upper echelon the reality falls very short of that.

Cock up on the medic bands - a lot of our side didn't have them but resorting to the 30 sec rule worked just as well. One bloke with a medic bag was rubbish - spread over such a large fighting area he might as well have not been there. Indeed, I'm not at all sure that many realised he could remove a bandage.

I spent the whole friggin day moving from front line to regen then back out to another front line, pushing people together and trying to gee them up. Huge amount of 'resting' (chatting) at the regen's, much bollicking to get them to move out. I used one pistol magazine the whole day (and that was at Gadge when I caught him making a dash out of cover). Axis NCO's failed (generally) to take charge, conceive a plan of action, muster men and carry the job through. To be fair man folk wouldn't have taken any notice anyway. On the Hospital assault I tried to hold a bunch of men in one place while we waited for transport - good job it necver came 'cos they all wandered off because the could see an enemy in the distance and wanted to shoot him.

Not really surprised about chaps getting lit up, if players think one BB isn't doing the job they are going to squeeze a bit longer. Ernie complained to me that his single shots wern't doing the trick so switched to auto and then got abuse from a recipient for his troubles! Sadly, you can't win.

I was never in the thick of it so was rarely in a position to witness cheating (whether intentional or not) but I didn't see any at all.

Final thought (hoorah!) why the hell were the Gregory's shooting from the shower block upper windows in the hospital direction. Whether optimistic or huge springs in the Thompsons, that's no way to clear a building!

It's strange, everything you mention about the difficulties with the Axis I don't even begin to recognise with the DRWs.

I was anticipating problems with the Dutch thinking they would be less into it than those who had shelled out so much on kit. But they were excellent, organised and passionate about playing. And they were a fit bunch too, no problems with walking almost the entire site early on in the game to spec out the enemy then walking all the way to the dropzone and repeatedly attacking the bank.

We only started using our doctor as a medic in the last half-hour of the morning too.

I'm not sure whether it was just luck or what, but I really enjoyed playing with them and they seemed to enjoy being led too. They all told me how much they'd enjoyed the day.

The Axis and Brits seemed to have a lot of 'wannabes' in the ranks, if I heard another sentence starting "when I was doing basic training/in Basra/in the Falklands/in the TA" I'd have screamed.

I've never been in the army, never been in the TA or any form of combatant force. The closest I've got to being in disciplined ranks was when I was in the Scouts! Yet my ethos towards airsoft seems to be more militaristic and organised than most others. Maybe this is because my job is in project and people management so I see things from a different perspective.

What I'm trying to say is, why do so many people, who have apparently got experience of being something close to a soldier, act and move like drunk teenagers when playing? Whilst those who do normal jobs act and react more effectively in-game? I don't know the answer, but I suspect that some of those who say they are ex-military might be thinking about their online life rather then their actual life. Who knows?

In my limited experience, those who have been in combat environment tend not to boast about it too much.

Oh, and the guy in the face paint who Chomley ejected? Yes, I told him to take a hit in the afternoon. I've no idea whether he did.

Just my perspective.

Okay... I'll drop myro a quick pm. As said he's new to airsoft... a gentle nudge should sort him out!

As for the rest.

I've watched the video and there is a guy in it a LOT that acts a bit of a nob. I think he must be a best mate of the cameraman as he seems to get a lot of footage taken of him. A shame as his impression is SHIT. I thought he was Actionman/Wayne, but I'm not so sure now. His sniper wasn't a L96 like actionman's.

BTW, Actionman was the last minute guy who got into the game via Dave Grogan. I guess this may say something? Dunno.

As for cheating... I had a couple of people not feel their hits or think they were ricochets, a quick and polite word with them and any problem was immediately resolved... There really wasn't any cheating that I saw!

As for cheat calling. I saw some frayed tempers (though thinking back, maybe that was only Wayne). But in general everyone was perfectly happy! One thing I did notice was that people didn't make it clear enough that they were hit. For instance a guy would pop his head out, I'd shoot him... hit him, but he them wouldn't make it clear to me that he had been hit. What they need to do is make it clear by sticking their hands around the corner to let the shooter know. Not doing this makes those who are less experienced think that something untoward has happened... Very, very rarely is that ever the case!

At the pub after the game I was chatting to Gucci about cheat calling. The conclusion I have is that it is endemic at most sites unless those sites spend a lot of time stamping it out. In my experience the only place it was completely eradicated was at F&O... and that was because it was so small, with such small numbers that Gucci and Co. could sort it out. I think with any larger site the site owners would have to spend ages getting it into the player's mindset that its not acceptable. Its not something we can do in CiA and as we move from site to site we are bound to pick up the regulars at those sites, some who will think it is acceptable behavior.

Anyway, I had a wonderful day. Probably the hardest event I've ever been to, but the most fun by far.

We did do a number of screw ups.... medic bandages probably being the worst one. I'll put up my hand and say it was my fault that they didn't get handed out at the right time. SORRY! I think we need to ensure that the briefings in future are close to our stash of props and our cars, so that we can get stuff if we forget it next time.

The company medic thing did work once people remembered it. At the end of the morning it was used to MASSIVE effect at the top bridge building and also then again in the defense of the bridge first thing in the afternoon. The only way to knock me out there was to run me out of ammunition, as each time I was hit I cried for a medic and then when mediced I went and saw Ben around the corner and had the bandage removed.

In the afternoon the Germans should have assaulted en-mass down the scree slope and not bothered with the bank at all until later... I've done the assault down the scree slope several times now and always succeeded in taking the building we designated as the hotel. But I can understand why they wouldn't want to do that as it does look a little steep!

post to myro:

Myro,

Sorry to have to post this... I've been asked to just have a quick word.

There were a couple of complaints about you not taking hits on Sunday. Now whether they were completely valid complaints, who knows! I certainly didn't see anything! But since you're pretty new to airsoft I thought I may as well give you a quick note to let you know its happened.

I'll not be doing anything about it as I you played a blinder on Sunday and had a great attitude throughout the game... to me a player with a bad temper is a LOT more of a problem than anyone who "maybe" doesn't feel a hit. Perhaps you didn't make your hits clear to the enemy? Who knows!?

One other little complaint was about point blank shots with your shottie. One guy has complained a little about being shot in the head at very close range. All I ask is that you're a little more careful to ensure that close up shots don't happen too much... I feel like a right hypocrit saying this as I have personally drilled one site owner in the head from less than 2inches away... We are still good friends as he knows that sort of thing can happen... its the nature of the game!

This thing happens with airsoft... don't let it worry you in the slightest, just remember it and continue to enjoy airsoft as you have been doing so far!

Anyway hope see you at a future CiA event... sorry it can't be at IED. It's not us, but the site/insurer that sets the age restrictions!

Yith

Thats a fair pm

I think we do have to stress yo need to shout hit and hold your hand up.

Twice i pegged dead germans as they were just standing there lookng 'active' but werre actualy hit.

And i knwo hes a bugger for it but i shot adi and he did his usual trick of pulling back but not saying anything so you never know if you've hit him or not.

The more I think of it the more convinced I am about Wayne being the primary cause of cheat calling - no idea what weapon he was carrying but he cammo'd his face in the afternoon. At times he was with Dan Carter and Eddy (Dan had cammo'd face and I see from the photos was wearing PLCE webbing and was using a Thompson, Eddy had an M14) who are a silly pair. Not cheaters that I have ever seen else I wouldn't have let them sign up but it's possible they were under Wayne's influence. Wayne is has a very aggressive attitude and James tells me he was hurling abuse at the Germans during the day.

Glad the Allied and Dutch had a generally good time but believe me the mood was really bad on the Axis side as the afternoon progressed and an early endex was a blessing.

BTW, what happened to the Allied dash for the river at 3.30? That would have changed the dynamics completly!

The dash to the river was only if they were losing and had no bridge.

It was the 'historical' end.

Made no sense to evacuate to the river if you are winning.

We perhaps could have had the germans attempt a similar thing with hindsite.

Ah yes. Thinking about it as things were all we could have done was chase you but it might have ended as a battle for the hill which would have put some life back in the game if historically meaningless.

BTW, we were never attacking the bank in the afternoon - the only way to get to the bridge was to cut across the inside of the warehouse bearing to our left to reach the other side, mown down at every attempt so it just ended up as exchange of fire from the bank end to the german regen end of the warehouse.

Why were you going for the bridge in the afternoon?

It wasn't an objective....

OBJECTIVES:

Key buildings include: Bank, Hotel,Church/radio tower, marshalling yard
ALLIED
Major Objective: Hold at least three key buildings in the perimeter
Secondary Objective: Hold at least one key building
Tertiary Objectives: Operation Berlin

 

The more I think of it the more convinced I am about Wayne being the primary cause of cheat calling - no idea what weapon he was carrying but he cammo'd his face in the afternoon.

He walked past me later in the afternoon and made a comment about teflon players.

Full face camo and some long barrelled gun with a silencer on it which caught my attention but I was too involved in my own game to do anything about it.

It was after that comment that I reported some apparent non-hit taking over the radio. Apologies that I didn't recognise that the source of the complaint was a bit of a knob!

Had this from my friend Ed... He said he was going to put it up on the forums... no sign yet, so I thought I'd post it here.

Hi Richard,

Sunday was wonderful - really - up there with the most memorable
Sterling weekends

Things I especially liked:

1) Large squad sizes
I thought the objective focused 10-15 man squads worked really well -
they were big enough to survive combat attrition
so that deadmen had a place to return to when they came out of regen -
and the remaining squad was usually large enough to hold its position
most of the time
Having fireteam sized squads doesn't in work airsoft games because they
collapse on first contact and seldom reform under battle conditions. So
large informatl teams was a sound decision. Keep it!

2) Loved the sense of a 'front line' with sound of gunfire getting
louder as one approached the combat zone. Fab.
and plenty of room at the site for flanking and sneaking up behind
defenders etc.

3) I have learned to love limited ammo restrictions - it makes you play
in a much more concentrated and tactical fashion.
Of course it only works if everyone does it. Its nice to get away from
the indescriminate hosing of 'normal' play. It also makes the
the unrestricted use of support weapons much more realistic/frightening.
I'm a convert!

4) Appreciated the trick of swapping axese (axises?) after lunch to
shake up the bottle-necks.

5) Having all the brits in identical uniform was wonderful/inspiring -
I'm sure it helped us all bond instantly into a team
I experienced wonderful collaboration and supportive play from complete
strangers - quite up to the sense of team spirit we used to get when
Team Lightfighter was 'on form' - I was really impressed by this aspect
of the day.

6) I heard various groups of German players congratulate the Paras on
their tenacity etc - which says a lot for the general standard of play
AND the sense of sportsmanship the day engendered.

7) I really really like the one-day themed event format - much more
enjoyable (for me) than the grand weekend away style of game.
With the 'Bulge and Arnhem I think you've hit a winning formula.

All in the all the day was full of memorable personal incidents - fun
patrols - sneaky ambushes - inspired assaults, heart-stopping counter
attacks etc all adding up to a very fine Airsofting event. My congrats
to all the CIA folks for making it happen - and making it happen so
well.

A Brilliant day out

Thanks

-- Ed --