Cerberus site, Keighley

all rather quick

I was in bed till midday

Gah, the closest person to site was still in bed.

Doubletap and Paddy were friendly and accommodating. Good safezone for the social, camping in a flat and reasonably dry field next safezone. Loud pyro OK (with due regard to fire risk). As I Pete and I walked the site is became very easy to formulate a working gameplan making best use of natural and built features.

To make best use of this site (and playing a fraction of the total theoretical playable area) this needs to be a weekender. We propose a game on on Saturday of 1200hrs to 1800hrs giving six hours play and then safezone social. Restart on Sunday for the second half of the event. Both days play different parts of the site with completely different pace and terrain - so different there shouldn't be any flagging for the second half. Saturday would be fighting in pine forest using natural boulders & ditches and built walls and bunker. Sunday would be fighting uphill culminating in a fight up a rocky bluff to a plateau.

Pics and more fulsome info to follow but this is a cracking site that also fits the Devils Hill scenario very well.

Yes, fantastic site. Loads of features, some demanding and varied terrain, nice people and good amenities. What at first we thought may be a small site on the map, turned out to be a belter and definitely needs a weekender to do it justice. A gameplan just flowed from us as we walked it and it seemed to write itself!

Dave, I just checked my diary and I'm not working on the friday before the game either, so I can get there earlier as well to set up, etc.

Sounds great! In the past when we've run events across two days people have gotten so knackered on the Saturday, then hammered at the social, that they flaked out on the Sunday.

Any ideas how to prevent a repeat of that at this one?

BTW, Guy's living in Oxfordshire still isn't he?

Well, I can think of a couple of ways to prevent the "sunday blues". Firstly, the camping area is totally seperate from the safezone (where we will hold the social), so no moaning about noisy drunks by the lightweights wanting an early night. Second, I reckon some will be too knackered to drink for long and thirdly, we could put a curfew out.

I also think that we can play a big part in motivating players on the second day. Give them a couple of early contacts and some big bangs to wake them up and remind them of where they are!

To stop them all drifting off at the end, I suggested that we march them back down to the safezone at endex. Dave and I worked out a way of channelling them all to the same point after the final "barrage", from where we can form up and march back, like soldiers, not monging airsofters.

Good idea on the end ex bit. It's always a bit wet when people just drift off.

I imagine Webby will flake out halfway through the Sunday though!

S

Strangely the site wont be too] knackering to play. The Saturday, while played uphill, wont be physically arduous - murderous in execution though, as it will be funnelled through fairly dense (but very playable) pine forest. So slow going and there wont be any running. The Sunday will be played uphill through more open forest so will be a bit tougher and more full-on assaulting but even so, the distances aren't massive.

So, the punters shouldn't be physical wrecks at end of play on Saturday. At Husky the game was full-on on Saturday plus an extra bit on Sunday which led us to the conclusion that there would have been nothing lost had we not done Sunday at all. However, this event the climax will actually be on Sunday, even though the playing hours will be less than Saturday.

Message to Tony now sent.

Message to Tony now sent.

That was quick! I think it's for the best, because we've found somewhere far superior for this battle. Not that CA is a bad site, I hasten to add. Nowt to stop us doing something there in the future, when camping can be sorted.

With the unpleasant bit done (well done Dave!), we can focus on making Devil's Hill a real cracker.

You two do sound very enthusiastic about the site!

Regarding one of the comments earlier. Curfews are as gay as, well, as gay as PBI really. We could make some very heavy suggestions about not getting completely arseholed on the Saturday night, then beast those that do on the Sunday morning

I was thinking of an 0200hrs curfew though! None of the pbi "let's play warhammer and be in bed by 10" shit!

Yes, we are very enthusiastic about the site, you'd love it Jay - loads of potential for MG42's! Also, the chance to put mortars to good use AND the oppurtunity to use some big pyro!

Pyro, mortars, perfect for BFO Machine Guns. Sounds damn near perfect to me....

It is. Wait until you see the part with the low canopy, with the streams, ruts and huge boulders, not to mention the bunker that we almost walked into! And that's just the area for day 1! The bluffs and steep, forested incline for day 2 are amazing too.

Hi Tony

We have been working out what to do between us and we have come to the conclusion that as we always offer camping, and players come from all over the country, that not to offer camping would be a major stumbling block - after all, we wouldn't be able to hide 30 tents in the woods without risking major implications with your relationship with the FC!

So with regret we are going to pull the planned event for October at CA and replace it with a weekender at another site. What we hope to do it arrange an event at CA in 2011, if you are agreeable, at a date when we can arrange Fineshade camping and be more assured of a well-attended game.

Of course this means that your plan B for running a CA organised WW2 game is a viable option now - no conflicts!

Sorry if this messes you around Tony but we'd rather run a great game in 2011 at CA than a so-so game in 2010 - hope you understand!

cheers
David

Hi David
I thought this would be the case. Give me some dates in 2011 and I can organise the camping.
Let me know more about the weekender and I will see if I can come along
cheers
Tony

So, with the Close Action issue out of the way we need to make an announcement of the change of venue as well as change to a weekender and associated cost.

To that end: we had a conversation with Doubletap about costs. He was very upfront and said they run Cerberus as a club, not a means of income. That is to say, they aim to cover their costs and and some money into the kitty for toys and facilities. He told us that the land agents (privately owned land, not FC!) charge them £350 per day plus VAT. The farmer charges them £50 to use the field as a car park. He did say the farmer might want to charge more for camping.

So, likely cost is ((£350 x 17.5%) + (£50+£50)) x 2 = £1022.50 (assuming we get charged £50 a day for camping). £1022.50 is the cost to Cerberus to which we need to add a fair site fee. They charge £20 for members for an open day. If we were to charge £45 (as per Husky) for our weekender and we have 20-a-side we would raise £1800 gross. If we were to give £1300 as a site fee to Cerberus it would leave us with £500. This game will be light on props - if fact we can use all existing kit, assuming mortars have already been bought for Jedburgh. Expenses would be pretty much limited to pyro (plenty of mortar shells, plenty of smokes and a couple of set piece barrages.

BTW, we charge £35 for one day events (but charged £40 for Boryzyn)

£45 makes sense to me. Husky was almost 2 years ago, so, how's that for "inflation busting", to keep the same price!? It's great value and the punters will see that once they get on site.

£45 works for me.

Could put a snide comment in about charging £40 less than others do for a weekend event

Could put a snide comment in about charging £40 less than others do for a weekend event

Fantastic! CiA leading the way with "recession busting"!

The site is also far more WW2 than Sennybridge, or other similar 80's breeze block jungles .

Cool beans. I'll compose a press release today and contact Doubletap with an offer for a flat fee of £1300 for the weekend site hire.