I've just sent this pm to chris/stubblehopper as I'm finding it increasingly hard to liase with him on events when he just makes stuff up on the spot and runs with it despite and regardless of any prior planning.
Just putting it here so its all in the open from day one.
" Chris
Could we possibly chat about stuff on pm before going public re the training day.
Like the 'ending on a mortar barrage twilight attack' but that wasnt really part of any plan we'd spoke of.
i was hoping to end on a 'milsim skirmish' rather than expecting one side to be dug in so we could let folk unwind a bit.
However putting it on a public post sort of makes it a fait accompli and hard to change.
Same for the Russians bit, i totally see where you're coming from but it potentially causes a bit of bad blood with the US guys.
When we first put up UK training day i had to reassure the US players we were not excluding them and this was purely to promote UK drills they were a bit disgruntled and set up their own training day as they were put out they couldn't be part of an 'allied one'.
Now as we've now invited Russians along it means they are actually excluded and for no good reason, they can now argue that they may as well have provided enemy.
May seem like over re-acting but we have some incredibly over sensitive players in the US camp and they *will* take umbridge.
I also ask are we expecting russian players to pay the 15 quid day fee and if so what will they be doing during the UK/Axis live fire exercises? Do we expect them to sit around and watch having paid and if they are not paying themselves who is covering their day fee?
Hope you see my point.
I just think if we could discuss stuff before going public it would be a bit better for looking like we know what were doing as a 'training day'.
As it is it frankly makes me look a bit stupid when things go up i know *nothing* about, i mean i sent you an itinerary of everything we expected to do before telling anybody else outside of PBI organisers.
Hope you see my point Chris, not trying to be arsy just want us to look 'tight and professional' about organising stuff."
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
That sounds fine Gadge, he does seem to take over everything!
Much the same discussion I had with CW . His call for "a few grenadiers" to provide opponents has morphed into a full 28 man platoon with Stuka Support.
I uspect he'll get frustrated before too long however, as I feel he won't get out of airsoft what he is looking for.
As usual, he don't seem to be thinking much. Just gets an idea and it snowballs from there. Problem is, he's over sensitive to ANY form or constructive criticism.
When we were a Kingdom it was run by a King
When we were an Empire it was run by an Empress
Now we're a country we're run by a..........
This is the reply i get, looks liek we narrowly avoided the 'UK training day' (at whihc i suggested he might want to play opfor) turning into 'lets shoot up the brits'
" I don't think we'll have any takers from the Russians anyway, and the three Russian uniforms we'll be taking are for us to use as opfor amongst ourselves whilst you are doing your own lesson plans, which are quite lengthy and exclude us.
You want, as far as I can see it only one skirmish at the end of the day, which I'm more than happy to provide opfor for.
However, my approach is very different from yours, I want to teach using walk through talk through and live enemy demonstrations, I would have prefered to use your Brits to trigger ambushes ect, but looking at your programme you would seem to be too busy to help us out, hence the need for our own opfor.
Plus, and this is quite important, I want to use correct ww2 tactics and drills on this and this calls for a ten man section, which is what we'll have when we get the spare guys to wear the ww2 Russian kit.
There's no hard feelings here, just get on with what you want to do and we'll do the same, when you want opfor just ask and you'll have it in any form you like.
As for a barrage you're not involved in it as we'll be using our own opfor for it.
As for US sensitivity, don't worry about it, they are more than happy with their own TD.
Finally, let not argue here, its not worth it, lets just have a fun day out, yo train your guys and I'll train mine.
regards
Chris"
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
Christ, if he starts to usurp the US day like that and use it as his own training day I'll have a few words to say.
Yeah i cant say im eager to work with him again.
All he wants to do is take pics of germans ambushing allies.
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
Yeah i cant say im eager to work with him again.
All he wants to do is take pics of germans ambushing allies.
Looks that way . 
Mind you he kept Teddy in the cot this time 
I'm still puzzled why he piled in with us when we were getting naked at D-Day - most disturbing (well, not as disturbing at S's pot-belly 
)
Perhaps it's a Para thing? (Or marines, or whatever he was...)
NAKED BAR!
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
Whose pot belly?!?!?!!?
Whose pot belly?!?!?!!?
Gah, my bad - I meant fat arse.
I'm still puzzled why he piled in with us when we were getting naked at D-Day - most disturbing (well, not as disturbing at S's pot-belly
Perhaps it's a Para thing? (Or marines, or whatever he was...)
Once you've trained with the Paras you never forget it . Once a naked man's arse is visible the training takes over automatically , and before you know it ......
Meh, he'll do half a day on each then leave because he has to watch his son playing football, or ruby or summat.
That's the Brit/Axis training day - FJ's has yet to happen (though Major is working on it!)
And as a member of PBI i was hoping Major would be in brit kit for us but hey ho.. all are trampled beneath the steamrolling juggernaut that is SH's vision of an new whermacht...
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
Read the thread in the FJ bit and assumed it was Majors.
Perhaps they ought to reame KGSS as the 4th (Geordie) Reich
And as a member of PBI i was hoping Major would be in brit kit for us but hey ho.. all are trampled beneath the steamrolling juggernaut that is SH's vision of an new whermacht...
Meh... we'll just steal germans off him quicker than he can recruit them...
We've already got steiner and chommers... 
Guy was looking shiftily at how nice Brit kit can look as well...
hehe
It just amazes me how
'chris would you be interested in having a *few* of your lads come to our training day to provide opposition' becomes..
Chris plan and un every training day so its an excuse to shoot up allies in an ambush and take more pics than David Bailey.
Original pm:
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Message subject: TEAM TRAINING - joint effort?
From: Gadge
Sent at: Thu Oct 18, 2007 10:07 am
To: stubblehopper
Message
Hey chris i'm planning a training day for my PBI guys.
It will be a little different from the ones you've done as in were going to teach 40s battle drill, 40s foot drill and have small tlak on the history and traditions of our regiments were replicating.
HOWEVER I'd like to end with an 'exercise' for the last hour or so.
I was wondering if you'd be interested in having your hohenstaufen lads turn up on the same day to trian (whatever you do with their training ois yor call as you'llbe far on form us you might want to do some more advanced stuff as most of them have been to two days) and we both train on the same site but at the end of the day we have in kit private re-enactment type battle.
Ideally a section and HQ element per side in a meeting engagement...
Or we drag our vickers, you drag your MG 42 up and both sides havea go at attacking an enemy position using both frontal attack and a flanking attack?
What do you think?
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."