Advertising

And on UKAZ
http://www.ukairsoftzone.co.uk/forums/t ... july-2011/

Feck me. Oddball's game has more German and Russian bookings than ours. I think we may need to do a little recruiting.

Thoughts?

Not sure what we can do at the moment, until we have done a recce and amended the gameplan? We won't have many Russians by the looks of it, nor vehicles.

To be honest, I think Drakelow sells the game alone, regardless of its content.

Sad but, true. A bit like Sennybridge.

and UCAP .....

2 days of soggy gritty CiA or a walt in with Oddball.

We need to build up the star ness of the event .

Perhaps some video shortage on the site visit

I'll bring some Russian kit along to the recce. Get some "crawling out of the woods" or "cutting the throat of the sentry" footage or something like that.

i'll bring some kit as well and a camera tripod:) we should get some threads going to re vitalise interest in the mean time.

Happy to start new threads but, I think we need to make a decision fairly soon on how we are going to adapt to the low numbers of Russians. I, for one, am in favour of making this an 8 man maximum (could work with less) Russian side, who are all scouts (camo suits NOT required!), tasked with finding, recording and harassing German activities, like "the Star". The Germans could have unrestricted numbers and be tasked with securing the area, setting up defences and stockpiling supplies for the coming offensive. This way, we would also avoid the risk of a prolonged pitched battle over the "bridge" area but, set up a final set piece like "The Star" for the end if needed. We should not reliant on vehicles either, they are nice if we have them but, we should assume we won't have many (if any).

Once we have a firm idea of how we will adapt things, we can ramp up the publicity and excitement, using "the Star" as a selling point. We will need to make a decision on whether we have a "go-er" or not by the end of June, latest.

My only concern with that is how effective an attack would be with 8 unfit airsofters at the end of a weekend of slogging around one of the toughest sites in the country. I can imagine them flaking pretty quickly.

I'm at Ai's WW2 Tour of Duty bash at FreeFireZone this weekend (probably be crap, but its free, and its the last weekend of me not having to revise for the next 8 weeks, so im going for it) so i'll do some on-site PR with the players

Had a PM from Steiner asking if we were going to push it more and pad out the game plan.

Replied thusly:

Hi Stephen, hope you are well. I was just wondering if you guys have got any plans to raise the profile of the Schaulen event? I'm dead keen for it to go ahead, but there's not an awful lot in the event section to get folks enthused.
Andy

Hi Andy

Yes. Pete and Guy a going on a site visit next week and will post up more after that.

Unfortunately it's the earliest opportunity we've had to get there and we can't create a plan before we know whether there's been any further deforestation.

I'm a little surprised more people haven't booked given our decent reputation. Oddball's game seems to be booking up well, but I suspect that has more to do with the site.

S

We could do a JED 2 with Russians instrad, however if we can only muster 8 Russians.....puts a bit of a downer on doing more Eastern Front , we'd need 30 or so for a good Stalingrad or Berlin ?
Stephen point is also well made, Ceri is a killer of a site, hence the help that vehicles gives.

Steiner bless him , has pm'd 20 odd people drumming up support for this game . Can we ALL please keep posting in the game forum to get interest re kindled ?

Looks like our efforts aren't paying off at the moment. Just had a chat with Stu, who is definitely coming but, money is tight and, he can't pay just yet. Also, he doesn't want to struggle to pay, only to have a refund if the game is canned, in spite of his enthusiasm. I can see where he's coming from on this.

I am personally very disheartened by the lack of players for this game and it also makes me wonder if it's worth the bother even trying to do Stalingrad. If we do find ourselves in the position of cancelling Schaulen, I will have to question my motivation for carrying on with the whole WW2 thing, as our games are the only ones I really get any satisfaction from and, what's the point of organising them if we are left looking like idiots with low, unviable numbers? I could get the same kind of gameplay and grittiness at IED games, without the heartache and stress.

Interestingly, Gunman's booking list doesn't include any of the "CiA crowd" (apart from Boshman who can't do Schaulen date) so he hasn't pinched any customers although it could be argued that some of those might have given CiA a try (but I doubt it).

As far as I can see, there is no point publicly complaining about low numbers (as if it is their fault) but rather the emphasis should be on enthusing players - half the 'old school' have gone and new bods have no idea what makes CiA events special, it's just another date on the calendar. Lots of pictures and a cohesive game plan after the recce should do the trick. Hell, punters don't even know when they are expected to turn up yet!

Josh's offer of uniforms may be worthwhile but I don't think kit is the issue necessarily. And in any case, do you really want a load of half-hearted attendees?

In a sense this is CIA's problem. The games are explicitly sold as 'not for everyone'. Even Yith is bottling out as he perceives it as 'too tough'. Maybe the image hasn't been 'friendly' enough to tempt newbies? Couple that with old school and friends dying off, the numbers will be low. Bryansk was low numbers too remember!

I'd say that MORE than half of the old school are gone! I've been looking through the old booking threads and, it's absolutely staggering how many of them have disappeared!

As for half hearted attendees, I'd rather run no event than a compromised, half hearted event just for the sake of it.

As for Yith, well, we know that he's big on dressing up as a soldier but, totally lacking in knowledge, ability and willingness to actually try and THINK like one, the same as many players out there. Looking back to the CiA "raison d'etre", I think that lowering our standards will just make us another run of the mill game organising group, of which there are (too) many.

I'm not making any decision on what I do airsoft wise until a) after the site recce and, b) seeing how the bookings go for a few more days yet. I'm also very conscious of the fact that any bad press, so close to your departure Dave, will look bad.

Craig's game had only 16 players + 2 organisers. Josh's game isn't even at 40 players including marshals etc. AGS's game is nearly at 40 players but this is down south and a large contingent from Jimbo's site.

'Groups' makes a big difference - Craig's gang, blaggers, Barrie & Anne plus family, etc - one of those goes and it is really noticeable , two go and it's a relatively big hit.

So, I don't think it is doom and gloom but sure as hell a game needs to be sold well, CiA can't trade on its legacy any more, it has to compete.

I doubt me leaving has anything to do with anything - it might have been a surprise to some, unsurprising to others, but in any case soon forgotten and it's not as if I have disappeared in a cloud of ill will or stroppyness, I'm still around the scene. Heh, you can't get rid of me that easily!
And should CiA come to an end it will be of sadness to some, of no consequence to many. As long as it is done with good grace and humour then everyone will say 'a good job well done - thanks for the memories'.

Anyhoo, that's looking at Schaulen the wrong way. I'm sure numbers will pick up over the coming weeks - but punters definitely need some clarity, the days of blind trust are behind us!
(Oh, and you are right - don't lower the standards just to get a few numpties to attend, that would be a real pisser. )

I carried out a fair bit of canvassing on behalf of CiA at the Airsoft Arms Fair last weekend (and the rest of the time was spent chatting to the seriously cute PR lass from Level Peaks Associates. I can assure you that her peaks were very level. And large. )

Anyway, quite a few of the players I chatted to have heard of CiA, and it would appear that the problem is that what people are afraid of is kit standards. There is a perception that CiA is hardcore re-enactment, with all the stitch counting that goes with it. That leaves a question, how can that perception be confronted?