How was it?

Top notch day. My first rifles only event and can now thoroughly back up previous comments about how enjoyable it us.
Thanks to all the crew for their hard work. Thanks to all the players for the outstanding level of gamesmanship. And especially thanks to the rest of the gebirgsjager it's always fun to play alongside you all.
Only one down point I think I must have been stung by every nettle on the site
Roll on the next one will deffo be back for more rifles only action.

Mirroring what has been said already, thanks for a brilliant game guys and to all the other players for putting so much effort in to the sportsmanship and their uniforms. Everyone looked fantastic and as the first game I fought with the Axis it was fab!

The site was great also and thanks for your comments on my Italian uniform, its always nice. As I said though everyone looked fantastic, having a array of GJ, FJ, Heer, Australian, Brit, Polish and two sets of French, one a bit more drunk than the other! The game was very interesting, loved fighting over the villages for the documents only for the drunk french man to grab a load and walk off to the HQ demanding to see our Commandant!

Looking forward to the next one you guys put on

Totally knackered but what a day ,a big thank you to both the organizers and players .I managed 2 sucsessfull bayonet charges ,that made the day for me even if it was a short lived victory as I was then shot by the German officer shortly after ,we had attempted a bayonet charge or two earlier but they ended in disaster .All the different kit was fun to see and I was most impressed by the Italian soldier ,only down side of all the different kit was that I think I took a pot shot at one of our Polish allies by mistake (thankfully missed ),hey ho .Looking forward to the next one already .

First of all I want to say a very big thank you to everyone who came. Your level of enthusiasm for the game was outstanding which was clearly shown in the level everyone went to with their kit. But no only that but also the way you all engrossed yourselves in the spirit of the day. Not one grumble or complaint about gamesmanship ever made it's way back to me. As all it takes is one and it can really bring a days game down.

even if it was a short lived victory as I was then shot by the German officer shortly after

Well done dadio for taking that kill as it was a none 'shooty' pistol which I was only using for show. It's moments like that which validates may previous statement about enthusiasm for and engrossment of the hobby.

I think we are all in agreement that dcheetham's bersaglieri uniform was bloody outstanding, although it is not a competition (it really isn't) it's safe to say that in my mind you won. well...bloody..done.

Just to echo the comments above really, another great rifles only event with an excellent storyline and enthusiasm and sportsmanship all around. That is my fourth rifles game, and it such an enjoyable format that I'm looking forward to many more. Having to actually read the 'secret documents' and figure out the important bits was far more interesting than a simple grab, and Headshots subterfuge caused us a degree of headscratching. Someone had clearly enjoyed typing all those forms out, I can't imagine who....

Dans Italian uniform was indeed top notch, but hats off to Charlie for wearing a kilt among all those nettles and brambles. Only disappointment of the day was the early flat front tyre so my bike was out of action.

Although I understand the intention of the more free flowing mission style, I found it hard to keep track of when I'd 'survived' a mission sufficient to warrant keeping a bandage. Not sure how to manage that better apart from reverting to the previous 'combat mission' style which worked fine and had the added bonus of giving everyone a breather.

Eating in the field was fun, although both sides seem to have the same idea of pushing up then eating, with the amusing consequence that the greedy Germans managed to bounce the slow eating Brits while they were still eating their sandwiches. We could even hear them chomping away happily just over the next berm.

Sad to see Dave go too, but his zelt tent and P37 British uniform will live on with me. Many thanks to the Zonderverband for putting up with my bungling leadership, and nice to see Paul again after all these years.

Thanks very much to Wladeck and co for organising it, looking forward to the next one.

Cheers
Martin

The only thing I can add is rifle games rock

Thanks to all involved
Cheers Russell

I can also only agree to the things mentioned. Really enjoyed the different style being able to charge forward without immediately being faced with a wall of BBC. Impressive bayonet charges by the enemy where every shoot counts. I had to abandon my position twice because I could not put enough fire onto the approach enemy.
I also enjoyed the role play. People acted out their roles especially Leutnant von Lieb and the French spy. This encouraged me to do the same. Good fun.
Thanks for organising. Hope to see more of this.

Tim, your howitzer is brilliant. Looking forward to seeing it in action again at Nordlicht. Normandy game should be ideal as I expect open field of fire behind dunes.

BIG Thank you to Craig and Dean. An excellent day indeed. I have a love-hate relationship with my rifles and these games are a great experience as they allow them to become competitive and the site is excellent too for the same reason, the burns and trees don't allow too much long range shooting but enough distance so that it's not in anyway CQB.

Everyone played extremely fairly and the kit levels were fantastic. The Poles looked very smart and Ranj played the Frenchman to perfection, appearing briefly at the beginning and again briefly at the end! Steve's roleplay was brilliant fun and he was most pimpernel like, here one minute and gone the next.

And what better way to finish a marvelous day than being bayoneted by a mad cockerel. Dan's outfit (it is so much more than a uniform!) was superb.

hats off to Charlie for wearing a kilt among all those nettles and brambles.

It wasn't as bad as I feared and all through yesterday I still had a warm tingling in my knees, thoroughly recommended.

A brilliant day all round with that one previously mentioned note of sadness; thank you Dave for all you have done. It has been a pleasure and I hope you won't be a total stranger. I for one have a mountain of kit that all your hard work in the past has given me the excuse to buy and I'm more than happy to lend it out.

Cheers
Charlie

PS Ribbon?

OK Day of recuperating done - my legs should not be in as much pain as they are.

Many thanks to all for all the great play and effort on the day.

Although I understand the intention of the more free flowing mission style, I found it hard to keep track of when I'd 'survived' a mission sufficient to warrant keeping a bandage. Not sure how to manage that better apart from reverting to the previous 'combat mission' style which worked fine and had the added bonus of giving everyone a breather.

Completely agree with your analysis there Martin. I always concern myself that people will be displeased if they are 'out of action' for 40 minutes due be being taken out early, but it is a concern I am repeatedly show to be unwarranted. For specific periods where there is more of a general attack, like the Allied advance, then there are better ways to work through it.
I like the "combat Mission" system, and should stop treating it like some 'red headed step child' that needs fixing.

I am also glad that someone liked playing with the documents , although the Allies had little chance to to be fair (another post to self, should have been located them elsewhere, but hindsight and all that once more).

So thank you all, and I do hope/am glad you enjoyed it. I'll upload the medal now.

photos , come on must have taken a couple, i want to see all these uniforms well ok i want to see the italian

We had a fashion parade at the end . I imagine/hope that people were generally too busy during the day, but I am sure there will be a few (I forgot my camera, like an idiot).

I am also glad that someone liked playing with the documents

I was a little disheartened to have to go through that ton of bumph to pick out the stuff we were interested in. At least I didn't have to copy it all out by hand, which was the original plan, as I had my camera. Even photographing it all took ages, and I kept waiting for half a dozen burly Allied troops to come and kick the door down.

Great stuff!

I took a few photos, but normally there was too much going on, but as Wladeck says, we had a fashion parade at the end.

Cheers
Martin

It was very brilliant again.

People had made serious efforts with their kit to make for good looking early war units and this helped with imaging what we were involved in. I watched an early war episode of WWII in colour when I got home and was impressed with how close the Heer soldiers looked to our players for this event.
The rifle only equipment makes for a faster flowing game once combat has started. Fire and manoeuvre working as it should with charges to take a position. Combat missions seem to be the effective way to go. The possible addition might be to have a total pool of lives for the day. As the game is about limited size units that may be a way to limit overly aggressive tactics as you run out of bodies to complete a task later in the day.
The scenario and document props were excellent. You might think about getting us to do more with them. If we are specialist units having linguists, signallers and maybe even cryptographers to process intelligence may give us more thinking stuff to do in the HQ. It would give us a reason to keep our colleagues alive in a "oh no they just shot our last French speaker" sort of way. I know this is heading towards making the events more "larpy" but with the experience you have from Flying Lead this may be no bad thing. I have some ideas for how we could help with this but will ask via pm as the risk of spoilers creeps in.

I promise to be a good soldier for our captain at the next one and bring him a bucket of the hearts and minds he keeps going on about.

Lastly goodbye to Dave, thanks for all you have done in getting this hobby to exist over the years and I hope you enjoy whatever you decide to be doing for relaxation in the future.

I hope you enjoy whatever you decide to be doing for relaxation in the future.

It's best not to ask for details...

I have a load of pictures. I will try to get them onto one of those web thingies so you can see them all, but that will take me a couple of days. I've tried adding a couple but the files are too big. Give me a day or two...

And I had a splendid time, thanks. I liked the way the tension built up to sharp and violent fire fights. Bloomin's brilliant. I struggled to remember if I had a 'bandage' available after the first time I got shot, but I then assumed I had not and was careful. I liked it, it felt right, or put another way, it felt that getting shot was bad!
I also think you were crazy generous with the ammo. 50 rounds for the day and the possibility of limited resupply? I got an extra 10 rounds... which I then did not use. I say try it with some smg's in the game on those limits and see what happens to them.

Right, try this...
http://s36.photobucket.com/user/Seanebabes/library/

So sad that I could not make this in the end

ditto

everyone looked great

Suffice to say I had great fun hamming it up for most of the day. My highlight was convincing most of the Germans that I was a useless drunk before knifing their commander and nicking all their intel.

Oh, and apparently doing a good impression of De Niro in The Godfather II: