Sven Hassell Obsession and the reasons why I think its bad..

With Rich here to be honest.

I love Sven hassle, I read bits of one of the books every week but you've got to see the point.

If one or two players want to do it then i see no problem with it really as long as it doenst become a 'thing', actively encouraging it isnt the way to go IMO.

I think another thing that bother s me is having sig files between us that show disharmony within the group outwardly.

Main point of contention is the stitch counter sig you have Guy

We havnt *seen * stitch counting here the nearest we have got to it is a few of poachers early posts.

Now i looked at our 'raising the bar thread' and we were all (with the exception of Dave ) up for banning flecktarn, strichtarn etc as it wasnt realistic, we need to be consistant here...

Now perhaps im being paranoid but i see it as a dig and Rich and I and I'd rather not se that dig every time i use the forum, i've refrained by putting something along the lines of

'asking not to fight the Afrika Korp in the arctic isnt stich counting its sanity'

O al;so have to heartily agree that usernames really shouldnt be changed on a whim/

Changing lewis was a very bad idea, the boy simply cannot hold a consistant idea for ten minutes let alone th elife of a hobby.

In two days time he'll want to be a falschrimjager or whatever else he sees a big group doing.

I know hes young but he hasnt even been to a game yet, hes bound to want to change , surely his post history made it obvious this is a flash in the pan.

Some folk have ben on about quitting

Yeha me too

Im annoyed that if i do small things on the forum i'm told to stop doing this or that while other folk decide to delete, move or chop stuff as they see fit.

I also feel like im ridiculed for having an opinion that we're doing WWII *themed* days and wanting to make that theme a little tighter than 'it happend between 1939 and 1945' at each battle.

Sorry been annoyed for while now and i thught i'd discuss it with you all publically.

Im not very well at the mo and the physical side is grinding me down so much that its making my mental health suffer, im snappy and inratable at times becasue of the fact my pain killers dont work and they wont up the dose.
Last thing i want when i log on to a forum that is an important to me as this is pretty ness about something i thought we all agreed on at the start.

Yith's post: It was Gadge who suggested the Wolfenstein thing!

I'm not overly bothered about the yellow topper thing but I take the point - we could always ask that he uses his field cap in game and the topper out of game?

Gadge's post: Oh dear, I'm struggling to make sense of this - all seems a bit random!

I haven't read the books, don't know what the hell you have been on about Gadge/Guy but let you get on with it - sounds fun but I can't be arsed to read stuff just to be 'in' on the fun!

I assumed Guys sig was a dig at the goings on last week (and perhaps has now had it's time ) - which I was horrified to read after 24 hours away from the forum. Guy and me set to with personal contact afterwards with players (on and off-line) who had raised concerns and were robustly rebuffed. Any damage has now been largely repaired as far as I am aware - but the consequence was that the entirely opposite view prevailed for a while as iritations were soothed, so much so that even Gadge and Yith were putting qualifying statements at the end of their posts. Helga played a part too, sensing all was not well and jumped in to lighten things up, bless her.

I don't recal any thread suggesting the banning of Flectarn - it was brought up at the last meeting and appeared to be a joint Gadge/Yith statement, not endorsed by me, OS, HS or Kermit. We are nowhere near the position of being stricter with clothing - actually very few do go for looks-like kit but the fact you can is a big attraction to potential players. When there is a pool of 200+ players with kit of some sort (a critical mass) and other sites offering WW2 games then we can tighten up a bit and make out games more distintive. Way too early to be doing that yet - let Gunman take over the mass market and we can specialise! Now there is a motive to encourage him!

I thought Lewis was your mate Gadge, I certainly haven't given him the time of day!

Gadge, I understand you aren't feeling well but being sharp or irritable with the punters isn't a good idea - I delete half of the posts I write before I hit the Submit button . Maybe it might be an idea to step back a bit and let the other forum users get on with it?

Now then 'stich-counting'. Largely a confused area I feel. We need to separate the 'kit for our games' from 'kit that you want to collect'. The term 'stitch-counting' was used inappropriately, that much is true. And the points about Webby wearing his USMC kit to Wotan wasn't unreasonable but the way it was put across was iritable and undiplomatic. Some things are best left to personal PMs. The problem Neill was refering to was largely, I feel, about tone rather than content. Prescriptive and pedantic posts don't help - very often chaps are just looking for comforting words not a diatribe!

And quiting? Yes, I've thought about it as I look at the accounts left undone, the bedroom undecorated, the kids running ferral while fellow CiA members act like stuffed shirts. I've put a hell of a lot of time and money into this venture and I want it to succeed. For that to continue to happen we have to pull together, not apart. If it all collapsed tomorrow it wouldn't be a disgrace but it would be a shame. We have done OK so far, probably despite the odds. Pleasing six people is hard, very hard - especialy for me who answers to no one! Oh, wait the wifes calling, I'll have to leave it there...

And there goes another bloody hour of my time, composing the above missive!

Right there was conversation on it, it was in the' kit discussion' under 'raising the bar'

All but you were up for banning fleckie Dave.

http://www.ww2airsoft.org.uk/php/phpBB2 ... .php?t=840

I suggested a player vote, you said it had nothing to do with them.

Lewis isnt my mate, i stopped being my normal posting myself and went for 'stupidly nice' day to try and prove a point.

For the record i was very diplomatic to Webby via PM , ive only been sharp with those persistently trying to make it an issue

Neil & Heb mainly

Ah yes, thank you. If reads as our usual inconclusivness to me! And no, it has nothing to do with the punters

I have persoanlly taken up the sport of baiting Lewis - well, it passes the time of day...

I've no idea what all this Sven Hassel nonsense is about and want nothing to do with it, however I can see people enjoy it and are very enthusiastic about it which is great.

Hehe, Major offered to lend me his books on Saturday - er... no thanks Andy!

I've no idea what all this Sven Hassel nonsense is about and want nothing to do with it, however I can see people enjoy it and are very enthusiastic about it which is great.

Yep I think thats the point of it really . Anything that adds to people feeling a sense of belonging has ot be good within limits.

There is nothing to stop anyone doing a generic impression , I have done since I started and always quoted 27th Pzrs when asked. This is partly to avoid any debate about which German unit commited atrocities ( the main reason I shunned the SS thing) , or which unit fought where and when . People like ot quote some unit , and the minute they tried GD they were told "they didn't fight on the Western Front". I would suggest most of our players are not as dedicated to the authenticity as we are, getting a set of correct clothing and guns is a significant "buy in" to our aims, we should be careful about pushing them too far with specific units etc which at the end of the day probably add little to our games . Did it matter at Arnhem that the Germans had Hohenstaufen cuff titles?, I was more worried about the lack of movement in the PM that led ot a stalled game and attendant cheat calling personally . I'll also point out that 2 out of 4 of our events have been wholly ficticious and none the worse for it .

The forming of these units is going along way to building a hard core of dedicated CiA players, it's something I'd suggest you need ot foster on the Allied side as well TBH .

Re SH - If you don't know the books then you're probably at a disadvantage. The odd headwear sending officers into paroxisms of hate - yep thats the reason they wore them in the book , and it works in real life too. The rest of the characters have little identifying features that would neccesssarily upset the look of any of our games, Barcelona carries an orange, the Old Un a lidded pipe , the rest are pretty much invisible, so as long as we don't get 15 Portas turning up it'll make little difference long term .

I've dropped the sig, as I think the mood has been sufficiently lightened, although I reserve the right to use such devices again where I think we are in danger of loosing the plot, as I believe we came close to last week .

Gadge, I understand you aren't feeling well but being sharp or irritable with the punters isn't a good idea - I delete half of the posts I write before I hit the Submit button . Maybe it might be an idea to step back a bit and let the other forum users get on with it?

Sadly I agree with this comment , although you seem to have not taken such an agressive line this week , so cheers for that mate .

This forum is our only window to the world, we all have to think carefully how our posts will be read especially when they have "organiser" attached ot them , as people assume everything you say is Gospel from the organisation.

Re quitting , well I think we've all thought of that one , although there is a paying public out there who would hate to see CiA go to the wall .

We started a debate a while ago about getting this on a more formal footing , perhaps now is the time to do this again ?. I also think we need to consider are we "organisers" or "players" ? I started this off a long time ago when we first started and still believe we need ot fully define this .
My contention is that you can't do both .

If we are organising , then our main responsibility is to ensure players have a damn good time . Not that our side wins the war , but that people who have given us their cash have a good game even if it means we do not. This is the role I took at Arnhem and CR and probably will at Wotan too , and TBH I don't mind . By definition it's is a "non player" role

If we are players then we are the same as the general public. The thoughts behind having six was to allow us to rotate these roles, so we could all play and organise.

Truly not meant as criticism , I have noticed a reluctance ot fully embrace the "organiser" role by some, and TBH I can see where it's coming from . You'll miss out on playing the great games we put on , and spend your day chasing players and making sure thing run as smoothly as they can in airsoft. !

I would suggest if anyone feels that they can't commit or don't particularily want ot organise and would prefer to play more and organise less, then I suggest they say now. It would be an honest display of intent , and probably better expressed now than later. Stepping down from CiA might mean a whole less stress regarding your WWII playing .

Just my thoughts.

As for units being in the wrong place for themedness... I had no idea that the GD should not have been at Arnhem... the cuff title means nothing to me. However if there'd been people in Afrika Corps uniform then that would be a different matter.

Really insignia doesn't matter a toss... Its the big obvious bits of uniforms that stand out. For instance, fhe fact that Gadge wants to do No2 Commando for Wotan even though I know they weren't in the area doesn't matter a toss. The fact is they're Brits with green berets and that's fine. They'll look "right".

You see head wear matters a lot to a look and that's the reason why I don't like the toppers and bowlers and really don't want to encourage them. I don't really see it as my place to tell the Gregorys "No!" as I don't really want anything to do with the Germans. I really rather hoped that someone with a bit of responsibility over them would "have a word". They do in fact break our dress code rules! Instead I thought I saw some encouragement going on, which disappointed me and prompted my post.

Thanks Guy for taking the comments in the manner they were intended. I really was concerned that my post could cause a major rift.

Personally I have no intention of standing down from CiA. I am happy to organise rather than play even though I do have the habit of ending up on my own at times during a game...

On the posting on the forums... yes I'm fairly happy with how things are going (I've not read last night's posts yet). In particular I can see why you Germans get on so well with Helga... we had a short interchange of posts yesterday and yes, she's a cracking character!

I quite like the idea of us telling the Gregories ot remove their obnoxious headgear during the games, it mirrors the books perfectly as I'm sure they would be aware.

Good good... thats pretty much the main thing I'm asking for... heh!

(Though to have the damn things burnt would be better )

Just for you Rich:

That warms the cockles of my heart it really does...

Just been reading Wheels of Terror , when asked by an apoplectic General what he is wearing on his head, Tiny answers "an elephants pessary" , not knowing what that is .
Happy days , i can see a subplot developing everytime those jokers turn up .

To be honest I'd rather not...

To be honest I'd rather not...

Wait till you get a dearth of kilt wearers or tam o shanter officianados in the Allied camp , it's not easy being a German you know

at least there really were kilts and tam-o-shanters worn by british troops!

Probably not at Stalingrad though

true... very true...

Did you hear of the re-enactor who donned a kilt and glengarry with german jacket and created the 1st SS Highland division?

Helped by a large amount of Scotch the night before no doubt !