what attracts you to portray certain units?

I just went German due to the fact that the lads I play with went to a WW2 game first and they were short on German players, so they went German and I followed suit the next time round. Well some one has to be the other side plus the kit at the time was alot more available in my price range. But I'm queit happy to jump to another side if loan kit is available if it evens up the numbers to make a better game.

My only complete impression is Heer
I orginally inteded on getting russian first off, but i just love the field Grau, it will fit into most if not all events so i thought it would be the most cost effective option. (and can double up for a controversial suit at a highschool prom )

Will probably get some Yank kit in the new year as im getting a Garand at christmas.

I would have preferred to start with British but my pals wanted to do German and we started off with Lufwaffe Field Div (be the best!). I always wanted to get the British impression right and it is just an extension of my various Cold War and Modern British airsoft loadouts.

It is fairly easy to extend German impressions, so LWFD easily became regular Heer and Gebirgsjaeger as well as a step up in 'eliteness' to FJ, although I suspect my particular unit would consist of redundant airfield ground crew handed helmets and rifles. SS has too much baggage for me. A German impression usually means you are going to get a game.

Finally getting there with the Brit look, although obviously more stuff to get to extend into the less common looks. I've been painting wargames figures of British soldiers for over 40 years, so it just seems a natural thing to do.

Soviets is a cheap and cheerful impression and gives you an excuse to do hammy Russian accents, die heroically for the motherland etc. It also appears to be one of the more socially acceptable impressions out in the wide world, for whatever bizarre reasons.

I am generally interested in average or mediocre units rather than eliteness, which is generally the case for my wargames stuff too.

As for 'teams', between my regular airsoft pals we have a number of people with Sov uniforms and a number with FJ, so I suppose we could be considered a team, although I prefer to pitch up at games and tag along with people I know. It takes too much organising to roll up at an event with a big group, certainly at my time of life.

Cheers
Martin

i think we can leave who we wouldent do to the existing thread but i'll just add that most soldiers had little choise about fighting but are conscripted and only a minority are responsible for genoside or ethnic cleansing and many of those were so indoctrinated that they generally thought it as acceeptable (see the results for the migram experiment before you judge anybody who is ordered to do something) or they had been exposed to sutch atrocitys that they themselves were unhinged mentaly by what they had been through.

i think we can leave who we wouldent do to the existing thread but i'll just add that most soldiers had little choise about fighting but are conscripted and only a minority are responsible for genoside or ethnic cleansing and many of those were so indoctrinated that they generally thought it as acceptable (see the results for the migram experiment before you judge anybody who is ordered to do something) or they had been exposed to such atrocitys that they themselves were unhinged mentally by what they had been through.

actually I think every one of your points is Directly contradicted by the historiography.

Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning is study book 101 (no pun intended) on the subject.

I started with us infantry because I brought a Thompson at a very reasonable price
Then British gunner as it was my 40th birthday and I had a 1940's themed party and I had just brought a Sten
With some of my birthday money I brought a MP40 soooooooooo I got an SS loadout

My motivation is either the weapons or uniforms or how much cash I have and what I can afford next

Cad

German for me as I liked the uniforms, equipment and weapons they produced, thats it, nothing else.

German Heer is my favorite impression, always been interested in the German war machine but never thought I could really pass of an elite impression ( well 50 short and fat doesnt scream out elite ).

My girlfriend and mates find this strange so I tried to explain that if your interested in Ancient history your probably interested in the Romans as the main protagonists, that doesnt mean you agree with there religions or politics.

That doesnt stop them goose stepping when we leave the pub for a smoke though

we decided FJ was the least questionable Axis impression.

As long as you don't pick the regiments involved at Kondomari or Vercors, I had a similar problem with the Gebirgsjager

Which is true for any period in history such as US 23rd Div in vietnam

Cad

every country has its historical sceletons in its millitary cupboard ,the dutch in africa ,british in australia(and in fact mutch of the empire)etc etc..
its in the nature of war,whats also the nature of war is that the history is recorded by the winners and usually with a healthy dose of spin.

For airsoft I keep it all generic.
No cuff titles, no SSI, wear a smock to cover up.
Without these things you cant be wrong.

I chose British because I already had some of the British kit and wanted to put it to some use and of course welcomed the excuse to buy even more. That and years of indoctrination from Commando and Warlord. For me Brit kit is “cool” the rest simply isn’t.

When I started I thought that would be it but as British games are not as frequent as I would like I thought I’d get US and Russian kit despite having been mentally opposed for varying reasons to either of those options. I used the latter for the first time at Fist of Dust and it was fine though a different feeling - an enjoyable game but not the feeling of an intimate connection with history that I get with the Brit stuff.

As I said while initially not feeling comfortable with US and particularly Stalinist Soviet Union I did succumb. However I’m afraid Nazi Germany would just be a no-no for me. Obviously an opposition is needed unless we are going to play out a, perhaps not totally unrealistic, friendly fire incident every time so I am grateful that people do play “Nazis” but I couldn’t.

I'm not defending the British empire or anyone else, one attrocity is too many, but there are many reasons why the SS has the reputation it does – not least it had a far higher proportion of rotten apples in the barrel. There is far more to it than stress.

I don't think anyone plays as 'Nazi's', rather a fighting man of the German Armed Forces...playing as a 'Nazi' is a whole different ball game...

I am grateful that people do play “Nazis” but I couldn’t.

I think you will find most of them play German rather than Nazi.
Do you play tory, coalition or labour depending on the period of the war? Or Just British?

Snap!

Oh really, for heaven's sake - hence the quotation marks.

I think it is generally acknowledged in these politically correct times that the Second World War was against Nazi Germany as opposed to Germany. Certainly that is the way my German friends see it. They actually find it quite uncomfortable when no distinction is made.

However the Waffen-SS was the military wing of the Nazi Party and as such kept under the ultimate control of Himmler. Believe me I am not meaning to offend anyone or start up a slanging match, I am far too busy for that right now. While we can all get carried away with immersion and the "Living History" side of WW2 Airsoft I try not to lose sight of why there was actually a european/med theatre in WW2 to provide the scenarios for our "games".

Wasn't trying to rile you my friend, just wanted to point out to anyone unaware that politics doesnt come into what we do (which is dressing up in silly clothes and playing with toy guys). Some peoples work wouldnt take too kindly to thinking that employees are playing as 'Nazi's', thats why calling them Germans knocks that risk on the head

I spent a while today hunting for a serious historical study on the Waffen-SS, but all I could find was in German (curse my English Education!). So once again I have failed in this task - as I have tried before.

Until I can find these works I remain unconvinced by anyone's arguments on the motivations of the Waffen-SS, and find most arguments reeking of either patriotic judgmentalism, or wishful apologism.

One thing I remember was an interview on here actually, that Martin conducted with a relative in which he mentions his reaction to being approached by an 'SS recruiter' in 1945? It is a while back but, brief a mention as it got, I showed both lack of selectiveness of the SS recruiters during this period, and the sense of their being a clear distinction between them and the Heer in the mind of the recruit. That was interesting I thought.

Anyway, it doesn't matter. If people don't want to think about it, then they don't have to at all.

Anyway, in answer - nothing really attracts me.

I portray what the games need me to portray. if I have a chance to portray Polish, French, Dutch or something else small and neglected I will leap at the chance. And I like the US infantry too as it is, generally, rather ridiculously maligned.

I tend to drift away from, but still do go as, Soviets - because like all crazy new fads I have got kinda sick to the back teeth of hearing about 'em. And British too - mainly because it can come with so much Patriotic BS as baggage, which I find tedious at best.