[Sticky] Now renamed the general conversation thread

Nope, not a SISK at all! There were quite a few new players there who needed a bit of educating but other than that it was pretty good (Josh reiterated time and again it wasn't a skirimish and the experience mattered not winning at all costs) and I enjoyed myself. It was played out on Saturday as a continuous scenario with shit happening all over the place - all unscripted and fluid with C&C done on the fly - and could very well have been a CiA game plan . I was planning on just tootling about with Keith in the kuble but instead I took command of the entire mechanised section (two combos, kuble and GAS) and had great fun driving the GAS around the site ferrying troops and controlling areas.The site was pretty good too - very mixed woodland, ups and downs and pretty big with spacious flat car park/camping area. Access and location was excellent - down the M1, M25 one junction and the site is right next to the M25. The only negative I can think of was the small horse jumps all over the place as the site is used for cross-country eventing.

I woke up at 5am on Sunday with frost on the inside of the tent. I had to get up at 6 for a piss and thought it pointless getting back into bed cold so I got dressed and as Keith was also up and packing (he had planned to get home for something on Sunday) I decided I wasn't going to hang around for another four hours freezing by bollocks off waiting for people to get up and start play at 10am so I packed and left too.

It seems the Sunday play was more objective focussed and so followed a more linear pattern and that would have been a good plan as the numbers were much lower with many playing for only one day.

All in all, pretty good - I don't think either of you would have been hacked off with it. Much more fun that Craig's last game I have to say - much more demanding and more things to do than advance, engage, retreat to HQ, have a biscuit and breather (and repeat).

(Oh, and some 'news' - Martin invited Gadge and Evo into the organising team of AGS as Sandy and Jimbo have left. That's seven organisers for their Crete game on May 11th)

Additional thought. For weekenders can we make the Sunday morning operational ASAP? It wastes so much time waiting for people to wake up at 10am, or at 9am and bimble about for and hour and a half. It would have been SO awesome this weekend to have had operations start at daybreak and prepare to start work in the gloom, frost and mist. Four hours of that would be quite sufficient for a Sunday skirmish - they can get back to camp to eat (or a nap) and everyone off site by noon and have had a great experience. I don't think there have ever been WW2 dawn operations so far and yet it is the norm for the events we are depicting!

I'm glad that you had a good time but, still glad that I didn't go, as the very sight of gadge makes me want to physically assault him and some of gunman's clique are too arrogant for words. That many players in a WW2 game is not my idea of tightly focussed enjoyment as you're guaranteed a high number of airsofters who just want to dress up. Josh's briefings are always way too long, never on time and, boring for those who have bothered to read the rules beforehand.

I've been advocating earlier sunday starts for ages and, we managed it at Jedburgh and Schaulen (where we would have started even earlier if I could have woken up Yith and his gang after they'd had an all night bender). So, in full agreement with you on that one. I'm all for the "proper" social being on friday night and keeping saturday to a "few beers around the fire", to ensure sunday's aren't an afterthought.

Josh is planning on written rules only next time leaving just the necessity of safety brief only which is much more sensible. But if it takes too long to spell out rules in a briefing you have too many rules (especially for me as I can barely remember my name and have no clue what the kids birthdays are )

Really annoying how players just refuse to get their shit together for game-on - and this only gets worse the more players there are (and the less experienced they are) so yes, I'll leave Josh to organising large player base games so we can concentrate of quality

Totally agree with the earlier starts for the Sundays.

It was Schaulen where we agreed to be in position by 8.30am I think. Not quite sunrise, but enough for people to sort their shit out. I'd happily go for an earlier finish on the Saturday to prep for a 6am Sunday start!

Josh's games don't appeal to me either. Just before the weekend someone posted "100 players, this is going to be epic", to which I composed a reply, but never clicked submit, of, "100 players, this is going to be a clusterfuck".

Heh, it definitely wasn't a clusterfuck else I'd have walked! In terms of gameplay it was a CiA game, but some of the players weren't of the CiA calibre. With smaller numbers of players each player becomes more accountable, for example it would have been impossible for a player at Craig's last game to be a knob.

Having vehicles all over the place really made this event, quite thrilling sometimes. I doubt I'll experience that again for a good while!

Perhaps Pete's 'training' event could include something about how to get ready for action quickly. Anti-bimble training.

Perhaps Pete's 'training' event could include something about how to get ready for action quickly. Anti-bimble training.

Easily done, it's called "preparation for battle" and simple to put a WW2 twist to. Something that worked very well at the Redditch training day was having Stu as a live enemy, stalking their every move and putting in ambushes. This is definitely something I want to do at the next one and we could work it in that Stu "bumps" them at camp.

By the way, lots of questions about what the CiA events are going to be (stock answer was they will be something different to other's games and we are still trying to firm up dates...)

Go on then Dave, what did you say to Josh to calm him down and stop him asking people to stop posting on an open part of the forum??

That cptnight guy really doesn't get it does he?

Nothing, he was referring to my mocking teacher/pupil post I think...

Ah right. Quite why he continues to allow these dicks to his events is beyond me.

Oh no, that's right, it's for the money.

Taken from gumans sisk thread...

,brave first use of armoured vehicles

With his VAST experience of WW2 airsoft , I'd have thought he'd have read the Boryszyn thread? I have found this bloke increasingly annoying, with his know it all comments (the "hop off" idea springs to mind ). He was also an arrogant dick at Wladek's last game. Is it just me?

Hhe, I picked him up on it! I'm not sure whether I have ever spoken to him - is he one of those pudgy people that just looks like many others?

Pretty much, yes. He stands out because he has a gob on him and, is president of his own fan club.

I like Craig's comment on the lone wold thread:
Do not think of it as paying for something, think of it is clubbing together to cover costs... Think of it as contributing to petrol money if someone gives you a lift - just because you are doing so does not give you the right to demand to change the route if you are bored, or ask the driver to not stop for a coffee because you want to get home.
View it as the organisers doing you a favour putting the work in for there to be games for you to attend, your little payment towards the costs is a tiny thank you for their effort.
If you don't like what they put together, and you had not gathered that from the information present, then you simply don't attend again.

I think I'll add something along those lines on the next bit of game publicity - making it clear that they aren't paying to attend the event, they are contributing to the cost of a game which is run by their fellow players. And by attending they are contributing their time for the entertainment of others as well as themselves. It's what differentiates community games from commercial games - Josh freely admits he has to accommodate all types to earn a living, even though it isn't necessarily the game he wants to play. We have a USP and we need to exploit it (and no, I'm not advocating argy-bargy but I am advocating spelling out player's responsibilities as well as their value to the success of the game).

Good idea. And I like the phrase, 'community games' why haven't we thought of that before?!

(Oh, and some 'news' - Martin invited Gadge and Evo into the organising team of AGS as Sandy and Jimbo have left. That's seven organisers for their Crete game on May 11th)

And, guess who is "commanding" the Brit's at the Crete game? Fucking typical. In several pm's to Steiner, he's denied any responsibility and just said that the other AGS organisers "just want to play as FJ". Hardly justification for having the walt and his little bitch on board? How are they supposed to organise, if they all want to hold hands as FJ?

And, while I'm at it....

Summer date TBC but is more than likely Aug 30-Sept 1 and will be a 36hr full live action weekend with real steel limits and full role-play in the seperate camps.

I might be able to get STANTA for a weekend and would like to put forward a multi joint WW2 Africa weekend if all can be involved? This wont be a Gunman weekend but a WW2 joint operations (all of us) weekend with all the main organisers taking on a command role.

So, in the summer, he's going to rip off the Jedburgh concept and then, wants us all to run a game (read "sisk") together,holding hands all the way I assume? From which I assume he'll take all of the profits and credit and, in return, let us do all of the work?

Yeah, I'm not sure how the urge to invite Gadge (and therefore Evo) to the team came about but Gadge was spazzed off the reenacting forum recently, no one seems to be interested in the Cold War games, Craig has pushed Gadge from the central focus of the cowboy games plus the Gunman forum was down so I think Gadge was casting about for something to do. Hence the splurge of posting on this forum the past week or so! (BTW, Gadge's role seems to be that of 'assisting' AGS not decision making/planning.)

Still, that doesn't much matter to us , I'm not even sure I'll be going to that game yet - the last one was linear and uber-scripted and so not a great deal of fun even though the site is pretty good.

I don't know what to make of Josh's post. It seems to be rather garbled and bits missed out - I think he meant to inform us of the date of his March game but omitted it! As for a joint game, well I don't think we have the time. In any case, the game last weekend was full of other organisers all taking an active part in ensuring his game ran OK!

Having said that, realistically the only way to have games at MoD sites is via Josh (unless others have a prior arrangement such as at Nescliffe).

I'm not repeating that mistake again. It's better that we start to put some space between other organisers and hammer home our USP rather than muddying further. Plus you're right, I don't have time.

I've never genuinely enjoyed any other organisers' games. PBI ones (and thus Wladek ones I guess) were just a bit of a laugh (my abiding memory being Pete's drunk meerkat impression), Gunman ones are just overbearingly SISKish.

I've not done an AGS one yet, but they come across as a bit dull.

From the gunman forum, from our favourite walt....

Found out today that the crippling pain in my ribs i've been having for about a month is Costochondritis so until it's gone i'm unlikely to be out at any games.

All I can say is - Oh dear, how sad, never mind! (I wonder when he'll post on this forum, garnering sympathy?).