Right... so far I have had one booking, so with that in mind I got a list of dates later in the year from Alex:
Nothing available in October. Nov 6th-7th, Dec 4th-5th, Dec 18th-19th are pretty much all we have. Everything else is pre-booked for the shooters, open-days, MilSims or external events.
All these look like goers from the point of view of the WWII airsoft events list and also my personal calendar.
What do you guys think?
Dawn/dusk times:
Date Dawn Dusk 6 Nov 2010 07:16 16:23 7 Nov 2010 07:18 16:22 4 Dec 2010 08:05 15:48 5 Dec 2010 08:06 15:47 18 Dec 2010 08:20 15:45 19 Dec 2010 08:21 15:46
We could try and email some of the preferred ruskie players to get an idea on numbers.
I'd say the last date is too close to Christmas, and is also the worst weekend of the year light wise. Can't really comment on the remainder other than they look ok right now.
However does it have to be FSA? There are plenty of other options that may be more suitable. I know FSA is handy for Craig & Dean but not harm in looking.
I doesn't have to be FSA, no... but it would seem a shame to not use Alex when we're already in communication with him and it is a good site.
BTW, the first date is pretty much exactly what I had in mind...
A few weeks off Operation Shingle though
I do see the number of Russian players as still being a potential problem, not being sure how many people do in fact have kit to make use of.
November and December are 'good' as it will be colder, so people with only Telogrikas and greatcoats can play, but asking people is always going to be tricky, as no one answers properly.
Is it a good idea to keep it at FSA? as we have had a game there this year already, and it is 'up north' is that putting some people off?
However a date outside of 're-enactment and holidays season' should increase numbers, and if we are OK with 10 a side the hopefully we can make those with any of these dates - which personally I am OK with any of.
And people replied during my post addressing the same FSA question, what about the St Lo site? that was pretty 'central' to the country?
We certainly could try Grange Farm... Adz would probably do it damn cheap as well... no need for the minimum numbers (We had the TFSS training weekend there and he charged us just £50!)
But there's been two events there already as well... and does the terrain suit us? Remember there be bugger all cover there in the winter!
A few weeks off Operation Shingle though
Well that's going to be the case whatever... the beginning of Nov gap is the largest I can see!
The terrain 'could' be used for a kind of Crimea/Caucuses plains type thing - Russia being a big place we could make any site pretend to be some part of it.
Though there has been two events there, there have been two at FSA since we had any there, plus it is central so easy etc etc.
Shingle, yeah, but it is unlikely there will be a huge crossover of players, looking at Shingle's booking list.
Shingle, yeah, but it is unlikely there will be a huge crossover of players, looking at Shingle's booking list.
My thoughts entirely.
I'll contact Adz at Grange Farm.
Done...
Also looking at their website they already have an event booked for 7th November. Though from experience that doesn't mean we can't do it on the 6th, just that we'll not be able to stay over onto the 7th...
Heh... We could use Matlock Combat Games... 
think that one has been done
BTW... We've been organising an open day trip to MCG on July 31st... So far it's me, Ranj and Craig going.
And Mindham
Grange Farm dates... I specified "end of october, beginning of november" and got...
30th/31st Oct or 6th/7th November...
All possible...
The colder weather kit and it being outside the summer reenactor/holiday season should make it a bit easier for people to get to.
I don't think we should limit ourselves to a limited/open day style game like we had planned for Dukla either. Hopefully we should have some more interest and with more time to plan (and build enthusiasm which we're all clearly lacking for Dukla) we can come up with something a bit more audacious. I was thinking along the lines of a relief of Leningrad for a theme. Ticks all the right boxes I think (other than needing snow)
Site wise FSA is a nice site and there hasn't been a winter game there but with 2 games there already we don't want to over do it.
Grange Farm is quite good but is rather limited, especially in winter and again two games having been played there already.
Close action is an option now that CiA aren't using it. Of course we still have the same issue of no camping.
John at FFZ is keen to do more WWII but I don't know if he will want a 3rd party who may be in competition with his own games. I know he is ok with 3rd party games though as long as they have decent numbers.
Sorry to but in.
Close Action does have camping available but the camp area was booked on the dates we tried and we couldn't do any others, so still a possible option. The site wardens at that place are very fussy and Tony/Chris are ultra cautious about incurring their wrath, so we couldn't do ad-hoc camping, unlike the FC site we used last weekend! Tony is very enthusiastic about running another WW2 game game, but it just didn't happen to work out for us.
Cheers for clearing that up Dave. Sounds like a good possibility.