Private reenactment battles - where have they gone?

I don't think Wladek has announced units for Cassino yet but I don't believe he is limiting to FJ only so you may have jumped the gun a little.

I think you will find that me useing FJ as a example of what kit may be requred for a game named MONTE CASSINO requres the jumping of any gun i asure you.
My main interest is SS tropical kit which i have and still collecting.
I also have Hermann Goring Div uniform tropical
And now i have a 1st Fallschirmjager Divsion rig out..so if one of these arnt any of the "units to be announced " it wont be the end of the world.. just that i will be doing some thing eles that weekend.

I thought you stated that players wanting to play at Wladeks Monte Cassino game have to go out and get FJ kit to take part. However I miss read that and realise it was a question not a statement. My appologie, and if you want to play as FJ however then all power to you, I know I be.

Hi, re the Monte Cassino game, a rather drunk Wladek OK'd in writing that I can go in my new DAK kit so I think it is more of a "please try and all come FJ if you possibly can else we will look at other options once people have had a chance to book"

Hi, re the Monte Cassino game, a rather drunk Wladek OK'd in writing that I can go in my new DAK kit so I think it is more of a "please try and all come FJ if you possibly can else we will look at other options once people have had a chance to book"

Quite right, slap my lazy distracted face a bit. It is about time that I realise that i am never going to learn enough to be a bonefide epert in German stuff in a month and go ahead and give you guys some pointers. I have put a German forces bit up.

Interesting question and comment on the PST forum:
http://www.panzergrenadier.net/forum/vi ... 53&t=12688

meyer: Private battles - where have they gone?
Pug42: Where to start!?
1) A thankless task to organise one - lots of bureaucracy theses days (H&S, Risk assessments, Insurance, permissions etc)
2) A financial risk to take, attendances have got lower over past few years
3) Disagreements as to what type of event to put on - a full blown tactical 'living history' weekend or at the other end of the scale an out-and-out blatfest? The two 'camps' do not see eye to eye!
4) WW2 Airsoft seems to have made a lot of progress and I'm sure has diverted a lot of folk who would formerly have done these reenactment jollies...

Pug42 is right - we have taken up the mantle to a degree. From the neo 'living history' that Comrades in Arms steers close to through to the blastfest (in reenactment terms) of a few other events - one way or another the spectrum seems to be complete. Or would have done had PD's planned December event gone ahead.

And I think this reinforces my feelings that this 'new way reenacting' Comrades in Arms has been spearheading for the last three years is the way forward. Trying to persuade hard core 'traditional' reenactors to give airsoft WW2 battles a go is a lost cause. BUT, by osmosis, by word of mouth, by greater awareness, many of the traditional the-gun-has-to-go-bang-to-make-it-real are coming to the view that that isn't necessarily the case. You don't need guns to go bang to get an adrenaline rush or feel you are 'there'. Many 'traditional' reenactors are coming round to the idea of our type of WW2 private battles. Sad to say they aren't particularly vocal about it on forums (for fear of ridicule?) but it is happening and can only grow.

Looking at how the diary is filling up I'd say 2010 will have the greatest variety of private battle styles and scenarios seen to date. They ALL need your support. That the country is gripped by recession isn't helping - that's true. But I would make the plea to players that, when cash is short, attending games should be the priority - not the endless kit collecting all too evident. Game organisers WILL make compromises if it means the success or failure of an event. Most games have minimal kit requirements that can be begged or borrowed. And a note to all new players or those thinking of dipping your toe in the water - despite what you might read on the forum with chaps going a bit bonkers over 'correct' kit levels (heh, we all do it ), these are not and never have been required standards of dress to attend games. No one is looked down on for wearing minimal kit nor slagged off - for it is you who has made the event possible. Everyone has to start somewhere and there are no awards for the best dressed player - they get killed just the same as everyone else.

Anyhoo - discuss!

Re-opening this topic post Boryszyn as I posted B&H's video and got told that what "we" are doing is simply a game. Then I go on to read the forthcoming "Proper private battle" at Pippingford Park has a 30 min timeout for wounded and is scenario led........ And I had a short PM exchange with a detractor as to "How just because I (sic PD) say something is so it doesn't necessarily make it so." Now it's not ME saying anything - It's "You guys and girls" making it so! And my opinion is as good as the next man's thank you very much. Having been around or a number of years and attended Private battles of all flavours, organised a few and then gravitated towards this medium I feel rather well qualified to add comment and think in this case my opinion carries some weight.

Traditional Private Battles rely heavily on the machismo of "men" toting real firearms. Plain and simple. Strip them back to their bare component parts and what do we have? A group of people (almost exclusively male) gathering on private land to run around in some kind of team environment firing blanks at each other, cheating, running away and pretending to be soldiers.

New Gen Private Battles - Stripped back to basics - A group of people including females gathering together on private land to run around in some kind of team environment shooting each other with low powered air weapons, cheating reduced, going back to regen and pretending to be soldiers.

I'm not going to preach to the converted but I just want to convey two things.

1 - I am angry at the attitude displayed towards this sector of the Re-enacting Community which in effect is what you who read and use this forum regularly are.

2 - The events being organised on these pages are in every sense and aspect, the same format, operation, feeling and running as traditional private battles. They are deficient in as much as no real firearms are present and therefore the noise component is not there. One also has to wear non authentic eye protection (which is one item which, when compared with some of the shite trad re-enactors lug around is NOTHING) They are superior in as much as the tools used to replace firearms fire a projectile with which to strike an opponent and thus ensure the two sides KNOW who is hit and who is not. BY not having the firearms component, the range of venues is wider. The legalities and the costs are reduced and the risks are greatly reduced.

Folks - Chommers hits the nail. Osmosis is the way forward. "We" will slowly hoover up more and more people wanting to come in and join this facet. What must be guarded against is entering the pitfalls that befall trad privates...... Machismo being the main poison.

Boryszyn did it for me. I have not enjoyed a private battle for 5 years truth be known........ I only wish Boryszyn has started on Saturday Morning and gone two days....... with some added duties such as doing stag and probing patrols during the night (night and day didn't exist down there) I look forwards to a proper 36 hour event and then it will be complete........ i will be at Freshman in Feb and I have a renewed interest in private battles. Which however we dress them up are simply sophisticated games played around a scenario based in historical fact (or fantasy)......... Thanks for reading - I just wanted CiA/PBI and all who follow this genre to know where I stand........

I'm quite sanguine about it to be honest. If people don't 'get it' then no worries - I'm quite sure they are content doing what they are doing, so good for them.

I did have a chuckle over the PST comment that 30mins when 'dead' was too much to be away from blank fire shooting so best reduce it to 15 minutes when there is us in CiA who get more out of an event the LESS we shoot at people!

We will be pushing the boundaries again in July and we will see where that takes us - best not to worry about shite that's going on around and just get on with what WE want to do. Its just a hobby after all!

Onwards and upwards!

(Edited for clarity)

I fully agree with CW. You should only do WW2 airsoft if you WANT to do WW2 airsoft. I can see no percentage in persuading those who don't want to be persuaded. We have a nice little thing going on here and if others like to snicker at it, then let them. It affects me not one bit

Having greater numbers adds to the authenticity and makes it more cost-effective to run ambitious games like Boryszyn. However if the price is having to share the field with a bunch of people moaning about safety glasses and whatnot then it sort of defies the point of having more people.

It's a sad truth that some folk are never happier unless they're complaining about something. Fine - but they can do it in their own free time, not in mine.

Private reenactment battles - where have they gone?

They've gone deep underground.......

In a not very secret location near Kidderminster

Looking forward to the IED site Jedburgh game if I can swing it. German all the way, lots of standing around on stag opportunities for PD!

Just off to have a fiddle with me pole..... keeps the Zelt up y'know!

I've always thought that we all just play in different parts of the same yard.

Whether we call what we do Living History, Reenactment (never fully got the difference myself but hey ho!), Airsoft, LARPing, Wargaming, SCA or anything associated with combat/military/history that means getting involved with other people and doing stuff rather than reading about it (not that I've anything against that). None of it strikes me as majorly different from any other part.

There are things in that list that don't appeal to me but I'd never say that what I do is 'better' because of that. Nor would I say I'd never try them because, you never know, I might actually like it.

I enjoy the history, the getting away for the weekend, the camaraderie, the camping, using the kit and last but not least gassing to the public about a subject I'm a self-confessed anorak on. OK they probably forget 99% of it as soon as the next epsiode of the X Factor comes on but that doesn't worry me.

Your Mileage May Vary.

On the Kit Quality vs Friendliness section of this thread, I have to say thanks to you guys for welcoming me with open arms last year. While I've reenacted, airsofted and live roleplayed for years, I am new to WW2 and I have to say I did approach your events with sense of trepidation, worrying about just how hardcore you would be. I worried about my post war pattern webbing and the fact that my battledress trouser pocket was in the worng place. Oh the shame of being wrong !

But I am happy to say while you have room for the hardcore, you also have room for the people who are just starting out and haven't invested loads of time and effort in fine tuning their kit yet. You have all been encouraging, entertainign and engaging of someone new, so thanks. And please keep it up because I am spreading the WW2 message and am slowly converting my Vietnam loving mates

My vote...more story, more plot, more being "in character". But that's the LARP side of me coming out.

My vote...more story, more plot, more being "in character". But that's the LARP side of me coming out.

Gets my vote.

Mind you I'm off to the scurvy scum pirate larp event in May Though my kit for that is less johnny depp, more the dockside ruffian just off camera or in the background!

My vote...more story, more plot, more being "in character". But that's the LARP side of me coming out.

Interesting you mention "in character". One of the things that most impressed me about those at the Loop event was how much they got into it. Shit, at one point I was fully prepared to grab the fighting knife when the MG was about to run out of ammo

The more immersive an event is, the more that people will naturally go into character for it. When I was down in those tunnels, i wasn't thinking "those are airsofters" over there, i was thinking "those are Russians over there - and I want to kill every bloody one of them"

Even though we're only firing bits of plastic at each other, it doesnt mean that I have to think nice thoughts whilst shooting at the enemy.