McV correctly identifies some of the pitfalls of an E&E, none of which were to feature in the Jedburgh game plan! 7 to 10 evaders for a 700 acre site, set objectives so no holing up until 3am and sneaking out to do the business then hiding again, tight military discipline of hunters - no freelancing tolerated along with duties to perform, meaning no free-for-all. Oh, and evaders don't 'escape', they are free from the start - otherwise they would be captured straight away with a mechanised 30 strong hunter force. Hence the Jedburgh scenario.
Anyway, this is by-the-by and going over old ground somewhat.
Having taken part in several real E&E exercises and lots of training, I'll add that all of them were designed to "funnel" the evaders into a narrower area. This was to give the HF a chance to capture some if not all and for the evaders to be subjected to tactical questioning. They were also on a "point to point" format, where the evaders had to contact friendly "agents" or find caches, so going to ground was pointless, or you'd never get your next RV. McV, where I suspect the E&E games you've been to have gone wrong is when people have started to act like mongs and reverted to being airsofters, looking for trigger time rather than getting into it properly.
When I want your opinion - I'll tell you what it is!
lest we forget im trying to get people to be honest with there thoughts so we know if we have sutible numbers for such a game .yes his experence might of not been good but aleast he has let us know one way or the other .and that helps for planing future games.yes we have had lots of positive replys but so far not enough to run a ww2 E&E game.
theres nowt so Permanent as temporary
I fully respect the opinions of everyone Che. Perhaps the term "combat survival" may be more appropriate than "escape & evasion"?
When I want your opinion - I'll tell you what it is!
I fully respect the opinions of everyone Che. Perhaps the term "combat survival" may be more appropriate than "escape & evasion"?
i like it . do you think you break it down to a few easy explainable points so peps know exactly what on the offing.
theres nowt so Permanent as temporary
Well, put simply, combat survival puts people in the situation where they are either a) Just escaped from imprisonment of some sort, or b) They are in a "prone to capture" situation. It's a much more accurate description of the situation players should find themselves in, with limited or no equipment and surrounded by enemy troops intent on finding them and wiring their nipples to the mains. Making contact with friendly locals who can help, securing supplies and a line of escape are the goals involved.
Jedburghs were a slightly different kettle of fish. Well prepared, well trained, well motivated, well armed/equipped and with pre-arranged contacts when they were inserted, some even with full SAS squadrons with them. However, a lot of Jed teams' plans went tits up due to informants, bad luck or bad judgement, so they found themselves in combat survival situations as well.
When I want your opinion - I'll tell you what it is!
Sounds like a lot of fun for the evaders....
A lot of the details for the previous Jedburgh game seemed to be kept under wraps. Maybe more details need to be given away in order to make it an appealing proposition for the HF. Just a thought.
Which is the conclusion we reached about a week ago! 
It's just as much fun and equally challenging for the hunter force in my experience. Trying to second guess the evaders, setting out OP's and standing patrols and also sending out fighting patrols really brings out your primitive caveman side, hunting down an enemy that may be in hiding, watching you from just a few metres away. Plus, you get to have some real fun if you capture one of the buggers! 
Couple this with being relatively comfortable in a secure harbour area with hot food and proper shelter, vehicles and strength in numbers and you're onto a winner, making sure the hunters are not just there to make up the numbers.
When I want your opinion - I'll tell you what it is!
This might have already been covered. But what happens if you get caught. Is that Game Over for you?
These games generally dont appeal to me.
In the interest of positive constructive criticism/feedback i'll give you my personal thoughts and some general observations
Firstly I play airsoft to engage in the combat skirmishing side of things... i exhibit and do living history at shows to immerser myself in the culture and feel of the 40s. I'm not really interested in blank battles but want to take part in wwii combat and using RIFs works for me.
I get enough of the 'living in the field as a soldier in wet socks and with a rumbling tummy' both having been a limited capacity soldier for real and with re-enactment. While in re-enactment/living history we often cheat with a modern sleeping bag under the blanket its cos i've done my share of waking up shivering in a ditch at 4am.
So for me its like the worst bit s of living history and the worst bits of an airsoft skirmish rolled into one. On the weekend we did a 'dry' tactical exercise against the US unit... we put on full kit *everything* a 40s soldier would carry, into the field with real weight weapons, went on an hours route march with aggressive tactical advances sprung in now and then and then went to ground on the target while the US hunter force tried to find us (which took hours). It was great but something i'd rather do for free at a show than spend an skirmish weekend doing.
I think for me if it were to work you have to go down the LARP route.
Evaders have a lot of free will and a real task to accomplish and its fair to ask them £20 - £40 to experience that. For the hunter force and any NPCs i think its more reasonable to tell them they have to follow a patrol route, obey orders, undertake sentry duties etc and script their movement and behaviour - but only charge them a tenner for it.
That way IMO you'e more likely to get 5 evaders and 35 hunters and you're revenue to cover your overheads should not be massively affected.
As Pete says a real E&E takes place in a cone shaped area (objective at the sharp end) and evaders are ping ponged back and fourth between contacts... as the hunter force line moves down the cone it gets progressively harder to evade.
A real E&E *needs* you to get captured so you can take part in the resistance to interogation phase. You *know* you['re going to get captured... the dilemma is take longer in the wet woods and have a shorter resistance phase or get captured early and be in stress postitons until the rest get bagged.
Blatantly its very stupid to run an army type resistance to questioning phase, and only an idiot woudl risk the legal implications of doing one* so you have to make the evasion phase capable of supporting an evader who has paid potentially 45 quid getting killed or captured in the first 30 minutes.
what do you do, put them in the hunter force... re-insert them and if so where, in front of the force? etc
Personally I think its the sort of thing best left to Stirling services and the rambo wannabe fraternity than a workable WWII game.
I've tried not to be negative there unnecessarily but explain why i feel its not a very easy game to do effectivley and why i feel not everyone wants to do one... please do not flame me for this guys its just my opinion.
*namely in that the government frown severly on civvies doing htis sort of thing and that legally you *cannot* consent to an assault (and an 'assault' in law is 'words or behavior likely to cause alram or distress' stones justice manual its section 5), it only takes one person to take offence and a prosection could go in that you *cannot* stop even if you said "but officer i wanted him to spit in my face and shout at me while i was dragged along blindfold" and exactly the sort of thing the media woudl have a fecking field day on if it got out. Imagine the headline 'WWII Nazis re-enact torture camps!' , great eh?
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
I just think it needs rebranding from "Escape and Evasion" to "combat survival" or "behind the lines". That is a far more accurate description, as I've already said.
As for what happens when you get captured, well, that's up to people to decide. There have to be consequences but I'm not suggesting the kind of treatment I once received at the hands of 2 Para, which was, basically, torture. Most don't have the appropriate kit to join the hunter force after capture. I'd suggest a "safe" word to be used when they crack and then they are reinserted, alone and with zero kit to try and link up with their comrades via friendly agents. The result of their capture for the hunters is the gaining of intelligence, allowing them to home in on the evaders just that little bit more.
How long between capture and reinsertion is down to the individual and noone has ever died from a couple of stress positions and having water chucked over them. Plus, anyone choosing the evader side should be fully aware of what they're letting themselves in for in the first place. This type of event is designed to push people and is not for the walter mitty types or blat fest seekers.
When I want your opinion - I'll tell you what it is!
No but as said Pete, in a WWII context its incredibly thin ice to be 're-enacting'.
I personally wouldn't want to be associated with it or try and justify it to a tabloid journalist when our sport/scene/hobby is already under enough threat.
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
not for the walter mitty types or blat fest seekers.
Awww...but I've got the badge and everything. Plus I've read Bravo-Two-Zero and I play a lot of CoD so I know pretty much everything about being behind the lines 
I'm going to change my avatar to Ross Kemp now.
Note i only think a WWII interrogation of commandos by Germans scenario is short-sighted given that in general the orders were to execute them.
The combat survival bit i have no issue with its the potential of an expose of guys in ss kit* 'interrogating' people that i think is exactly what we *dont* need in the WWII scene.
*Or any German kit given the medias inability to differentiate between branches and that any German is a nazi...
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
This might have already been covered. But what happens if you get caught. Is that Game Over for you?
Perhaps evaders have to take a set of 'civvy' kit and when caught are re-inserted later as resistance contacts or an armed band sent by london to cause distraction?
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
There are ways round the "interrogation" bit. A captured player could just be held for, say, an hour and then reinserted as I already described, maybe to simulate an escape. The hunter force would gain more information to simulate to extraction of it. Noone gets hurt, pissed on, or filled in and noones' sensitivities get offended.
I fully accept that airsofters aren't squaddies, because not even all squaddies are E&E trained. BUT, I can't believe there aren't an awful lot out there who wouldn't want to push themselves a bit further and get a small taste of what real tension in a combat environment is like, rather than just use WW2 as an excuse to dress up and blast the hell out of a site somewhere. I thought that's what most of us took up WW2 airsoft to avoid.
When I want your opinion - I'll tell you what it is!
I'd be up for more realism in battle, but E&E or combat survival just ain't it for me.
It's far too "special forces". I'm just a lot more interested in what the average tommy had to put up with.
It's far too "special forces".
But that's exactly what the Jedburghs were! 
When I want your opinion - I'll tell you what it is!
Yup... and why I don't portray them.
