Troops in Contact: The Rionegro Mandate

Lemming

Hande hoche! wrote: »

Well done to the first Patriota we captured. Your ability to maintain a stress position while the rain was pissing down and surrounded by armed enemy was very impressive.

How did you enjoy your stress positions lads (and ladies?). My apologies for drafting up the list for the organisers .... :pac:

if it makes you feel any better, I endured every single one of them under timed conditions to gauge their effectiveness.


Incidentally, how did the organisers find the use of stress positions and what ones did they opt for out of the list I gave (ranging from "physically easy- mentally boring", to physically sadistic)

Damo 2k9

They were effective, we captured a patriota heavie and he wouldnt answer questions so made him do the stress position, he caved and had to answer them

Lemming

Damo 2k9 wrote: »

They were effective, we captured a patriota heavie and he wouldnt answer questions so made him do the stress position, he caved and had to answer them

Which one did you give him?

Damo 2k9

The plank

Tomazas

Hande hoche! wrote: »

Thanks for the information lads. Made of stern stuff those two. Out of interest did he get hurt bringing up the radio antennae? Went down that route following the line, must have been hellish going up. Glad to hear they weren't badly hurt. The engineers did the Republicano side proud.

Due to bad comms between me and my EM we have rushed first time on the hill with out antenna and it was a nightmare. first a friendly granade took one of our engineers out and second getaway with minor injuries, 2 min later the rock struck another bloke. so at the time we were down to -3 men (I've send another chap with an injured fella), once we reached top of the hill been ambushed and 4 engineers have been killed, had to retreat come back to the base and learn that we are going to climb again and this time with antenna and cable.
hooah engineers all the way
echo 3-1 out

Hande hoche!

Lad that sounds like some endeavour. I was in the second squad that went up the hill. We made it up the hill only running into some mercs. We radioed back to camp and dug in. We then had a fire fight with some of our own men before we realised what was going on. On the second attempt did you have some of the 25th with you?

Private Snafu

Lads, what can I say, the weekend was epic:pac:

Playing alongside the other engineers was a fantastic experience. The treks up the hill were a nightmare, made more so by a tangled mess of cable that went up with our comms dish. Unfortunately we were told our dish was stolen shortly after we left :rolleyes: The rest of day one consisted of patrols, IED sweeps and making the SF's lives difficult for an hour or so:p

We began day two at 8am (minus our EM though). Carrying object 76, launchpad, laptop, warhead and 80 liters of fuel was probably the most back breaking work of the weekend (only to be told later by our EM there was a convoy available for us:(). The root we took kept us off, but parallel to the road, allowing us to bypass friendlies and civilians. Our chosen launch location could not have been better, all down to echo 3-1's scout parties and forward planning. Our location was easily defended and after a brief scuffle with SF we were sat pretty, with myself calling in support from Penitents and Infantry. At roughly 14:45 we launched object 76 and struck a regional support base, completing our main objective :cool:

As all above have said it was an honor to have played with you all. We encountered no messing and I had no complaints after all was said and done. I'll definitely be back for the next one lads.

Echo 1-1 (Luca) Out.

TheDoc

Lemming wrote: »

How did you enjoy your stress positions lads (and ladies?). My apologies for drafting up the list for the organisers .... :pac:

if it makes you feel any better, I endured every single one of them under timed conditions to gauge their effectiveness.


Incidentally, how did the organisers find the use of stress positions and what ones did they opt for out of the list I gave (ranging from "physically easy- mentally boring", to physically sadistic)

Very good, most guys we captured went for the plank and fell out, was interesting interrogation methods, much better then just " here is two questions"

jeawan

TheDoc wrote: »

Very good, most guys we captured went for the plank and fell out, was interesting interrogation methods, much better then just " here is two questions"

Being one of these guys have to say interrogation was good and effective , weird the ESS lads where quite worried we might leg it with the amount of guns trained on us when we where captured

Tomazas

Hande hoche! wrote: »

Lad that sounds like some endeavour. I was in the second squad that went up the hill. We made it up the hill only running into some mercs. We radioed back to camp and dug in. We then had a fire fight with some of our own men before we realised what was going on. On the second attempt did you have some of the 25th with you?

correct, we had 25th babysitting us on a second attempt to build a comms tower.

Echo 3-1 out

tadcan

Saturday morning
Munoz came to the village, they were nervous, with fighting in mind. The village was searched, names were taken. They wanted to know about the mine and the mercenaries. A few minutes later we had to run to church becuase they had spotted an enemy. It seems they had a fight with the Guerrillas and then left. The road down to Callentas also had soldiers from Munoz. We had to explain we were from the village and we traveled on the main road out. Once they were concerned they were anxious for our safety. For most of the journey it was quiet, almost surreal, knowing nearby people want to kill other people.

The first day of war is like the first day of school, with nerves and danger.
A resident of cocoma

Saturday evening
Just hours after the fighting started soldiers form all four sides came through the village. Each asking their own set of questions, each eager to find information to help their cause. I see the men who fight and unlike the cliché of the boy who wants to be a powerful man by holding a gun. To not hold a gun and cling to a normal one holds a certain peace. The kind of peace a priest has, the kind our priest, Father Ashcraft had. During the heaviest combat so far, while the civilians hid in the church, the building was raked with gunfire. These penitents had no concept of a civilian in the heat of battle. When the call went out for a medic, Father Ashcraft, who is also a doctor opened the door to do the good work. I volunteered to help and was shot in the leg. After healing me, with the fight still raging he opened the door again and was cruelly gunned down. There on his church floor where he had said mass for the good people of cocoma, his blood merged with the holy soil and he went with God.

It seems trivial now to say I was later taken at gunpoint from the village by a penitent for questioning. Luckily he was not in a barbaric mood and took me back. A member of the PMC then talked with, hiding information gathering behind the veneer of a casual conversation. I am have had and foresee many such conversations over the coming war.

The first battle and I have nothing smart to say. How can you when little points of death fill the air.
A resident of cocoma


Sunday mid-morning
Spread the news, like, tweet, reddit, stumbleupon, what ever you have to. The forces of Munoz have a nuclear weapon and a missile launching system. They also have an alliance with the merc's who are also on high alert and are defiantly doing more then just mining operations. In fact they are camped away from the mine. Forces loyal to Rionegro, who support Vernon are doing all they can to stop this device and restore peace to our country. I am told by sources that the Munoz forces are being supplied with weapons from outside the country who are trying to manipulate things as puppets of nearby Sao Tome Spread the news, tell the UN etc.

We don't need nukes in Rionegro
A resident of cocoma

Danin

Firstly I'd like to say thanks to the airsoft community hats off to those who made the effort to take part and what an achievement to get a game like this off the ground. Also a big thank you to Bellurgan park and the organisers and people working in the background tirelessly to coordinate the whole thing well done lads.
As for the game itself I think you get out of it what you put in.
I was 1IC for the ESS and accepted the fact early on that due to our location and some restrictions, I would never leave our camp which I didn’t for the entire game. I think people have to assume the fact that if you put yourself forward for a position like 1IC certain sacrifices to your normal gaming will take place and your fundamental role is to ensure that the lads under your command are enjoying themselves as best you can and therefore when possible rotate them in and out to ensure they get the opportunity to at least partake in one key objective.
I fired my rifle possibly twice in the whole game but still would never contemplate that I didn’t get my monies worth.
I think what I’m trying to get at is, if you have what you personally perceive as a game negative you need to recognise it and reallocate it to yourself as an additional challenge.
Lastly a big thanks to Sliabh who was a credit to the game and acted out both the part of our VIP to perfection (although you did break my balls with your sightseeing trips LOL) and also as a marshal only donning the high vis when absolutely necessary.
To everyone who took part thanks for a great weekend and I for one sincerely hope there is a second instalment.

sliabh

jeawan wrote: »

Being one of these guys have to say interrogation was good and effective , weird the ESS lads where quite worried we might leg it with the amount of guns trained on us when we where captured

We had an "incident" at one stage with a captive, and 3 guys got knifed. People were jumpy and wanted to make sure it didn't happen again (especially after Danin read the riot act to his PMCs for not properly searching and securing prisoners)!

Unsinnig

sliabh wrote: »

We had an "incident" at one stage with a captive, and 3 guys got knifed. People were jumpy and wanted to make sure it didn't happen again (especially after Danin read the riot act to his PMCs for not properly searching and securing prisoners)!

He fully deserved that third kill, diving through the air shouting "kniiiifffffeeee kiiilllll", before being gunned down mid-air by Mark. It was a sight to behold

Danin

sliabh wrote: »

We had an "incident" at one stage with a captive, and 3 guys got knifed. People were jumpy and wanted to make sure it didn't happen again (especially after Danin read the riot act to his PMCs for not properly searching and securing prisoners)!

We actually knew the lad had the knife but we had explained to everyone that due to the fact that some people where carrying real pocket knifes that we would clearly identify the knife was in a pocket but then would leave it on the person for safety purposes, but in this case that lad waited a few minutes and produced the same knife and jumped at our lads poking them with the wooden handle shouting knife kill LOL and kept saying you seen it but you didnt take it off me so hence after that misunderstanding I decided to make sure everyone taken prisoner was clearly watched and that our knife rule was clearly explained and understood.

Lemming I have to say the plank seemed most effective for us when interrogating prisoners especially when I had 2 lads down right beside the prisoners ears whispering little nothings like "their is no dishonour here if you give up" or "that pain in your legs is the lactic acid forming in your muscles and your brain telling you your body is so tired" or " you're doing so well but your legs are shaking and you've such a lonnng way to go"

needless to say we had a lot of fun with it

sliabh

I will write one of the first of my proper responses later, but for the moment we have opened some "official" feedback threads on the game site as well. Come over and tell us what we need to stop, start, and continue to make this a better game. Assuming of course we are crazy enough to organise this again...

richieffff

Hello lads,
I've just basically woken up

That was without a doubt the best game of airsoft I have ever played.
I was playing with the heavies and was never without something to do. Our EM was always asking people standing around if we were taking a break or had nothing to do, if we had nothing we were given something to do.

Had to problems in game anyway, except for that bloody hill, it really took the energy out of me.

Got some truly memorable moments out of the game, like just happening to be right at the village as the replicanos attacked and the mad rush to defend the village with the gurillas with the civillians yelling abuse at the presidentical forces when they shot and killed the priest.

I don't think I've ever been so tired and sore in my life, but it was well worth it.
Well done to the lads for a great game IMO.

The rionegero patch was a really nice momento, I really hope there is another game, will hope to see ye all again.

mr moo

Feedback report

Operator: mr moo

Unit: Penitent

Squad: Alpha

First of all thanks to the organisers for the event and everyone else who turned up. I had a great weekend overall.

The Good points:

• The site is massive with interesting hilly forested terrain. Exploring it was half the fun.

• The roleplaying was excellent and i really enjoyed playing my role in the penitent brigade... me and 2 other guys stealing all the money from the pmcs and hightailing it out of there in pursuit by a squad lol was brilliant craic.

• Getting to scream at and interrogate civilians, putting prisoners in stress postions was realistic and great fun. Hats of to the guys who remained in character even when things sometimes decended into madness.

• The uniform rules were simple straightforward and effective in practice, Identifying teams in this way should be the norm for all airsoft games.

• The 27 hr time of the game and the playing in the night ninja element.

• The general attitude of everyone that was there.

The bad points

• The location of the penitent brigades base was atrocious. It was set basically in a bog and zapped morale when regening. The penitents were also at a disadvantage because of the physical exertion needed to get up the hill to the action on a repeated basis.

• The command structure of the penitent brigade fell apart after a couple of missions during the first day. After talking to ALPHA BRAVO and DELTA squads i summised they disobeyed orders due to low confidence in the command structure due to bogus missions that were issued in the first hours of the game.

• I didnt see any concerted effort to try to regroup the penitents back into a cohesive fighting force or install new squad leaders.

• Being sent out on missions with no medic and a general lack of medics throughout the weekend. ( i personally wasnt medic'd once i bled out on every occasion of being hit despite calling out several times and being in the vicinity of the penitents basecamp)

• Transport... where was it? Lack of access to parts of the site due to the sheer distance and elevation to traverse. (i personally didnt travel in any vehicles and when i did see them they were not being used effectively).

• Communications fell apart, people were holding the call button down all the time blocking comms, squads decided to use whatever radio channel they could hear their mates on. No attempts where made to remedy the matter by regrouping and briefing people on channels and subchannels.

Recommendations

• Dont use the boggy area at the foot of the hill for future base camps.

• More face time and brief time before the game to integrate squads, assess comms with radio checks etc. ( a lot of guys who played for penitent are not on any forums so they dont have the benefit of planning with anyone before hand) maybe have an hour before the game starts where everyone has to be strictly assembled into their squads. People can use this time to gauge personalitys and introduce themselves so other players can have confidence in who they are playing with. I would make it an essential component of the game.

• Dedicated Command briefings before the game given to the Commanders, Squad leaders and Fireteam Leaders who then decimate it down to the operators.(More time before the game)

• Dedicated Vehicles purely for the movement of troops. One at least per faction.

• A way to implement the use of vehicles in simulated paradrops, heli inserts, and mrap inserts etc where the movement of troops can safely move to a practical rallypoint to their objective. Maybe have a ring road round the site for a out of bounds safe corridor for vehicle troop movement or use designated spots of the site for corridors.

• The medic rules need to be more strictly enforced.

• More emphasis on better squad integration online before the games.

Like everything you gota take the rough with the smooth the site is still in its infancy and has a lot of potential. Thanks to all for a great weekend I look forward to playing future games at Bellurgan.

scooby2011

Hande hoche! wrote: »

Haven't a clue who it was that attacked the Republicano base at two o'clock in the morning with those strange flashy lights but kudos to them. We fired an incredible amount of rounds without hitting one of you and you disappeared into the night..

that would have been the guerillas ..we spent 1hour walking the whole way around to do so and on the way we met a jeep moving up the road so we ran back and ambushed it at the gate lucky for them we didnt have the time to get a guy over the right hand side of it to hit the driver but was serious craic...ya them strobe lights where serios the lads had with them you actualy hit our leader marko down the bottem had to run down to medic him but that attack was more to make sure ye didnt get a good nights sleep lol

jeawan

scooby2011 wrote: »

that would have been the guerillas ..we spent 1hour walking the whole way around to do so and on the way we met a jeep moving up the road so we ran back and ambushed it at the gate lucky for them we didnt have the time to get a guy over the right hand side of it to hit the driver but was serious craic...ya them strobe lights where serios the lads had with them you actualy hit our leader marko down the bottem had to run down to medic him but that attack was more to make sure ye didnt get a good nights sleep lol

It worked well in are favor ( special forces ) as we had a guy in there camp at the time pretending to be asleep in there command tent when the attack came he legged it with there Intel .

TheDoc

Cant help noticing the underlining tone for the negative comments.

Its mostly from one side, and its mostly about stuff that isnt down to the organisers or marshalls, but down to the players and command structure : /

Tomazas

jeawan wrote: »

It worked well in are favor ( special forces ) as we had a guy in there camp at the time pretending to be asleep in there command tent when the attack came he legged it with there Intel .

I am wondering how special forces guy missed the most important intel he could get? object 76 was resting at the base, and no one stole it from us at nite or in the morning, the base was empty than I came around 0815, and all the parts were exactly at the same place I left them.
ECHO 3-1 out

Player of Games

First off I'd obviously like to thank the organisers and venue for an excellent game I really enjoyed myself.

I was IC of the Heavies, I had no experience before of doing anything like this and in fact this marks about my 10 game of airsoft!

One thing I was really lucky with though was that the Heavies was filled with groups of 4-5. This way I was easily able to divide the group into 6 teams. I had really dedicated team leaders and excellent soldiers willing to take orders (though some were still trigger happy :P ) This made team coordination very easy and Gareth our EM did an amazing job keeping us focused. I took my job as it came and stayed in the base most of the time sending out teams, rotating and keeping in contact. Comms were an issue but that is to be expected with so many people, I was lucky that the stars seemed to align at perfect moments and I was able to communicate.

I can not speak for the republicano's but it seems that they had more numbers but few groups and with a weak command and control, weak moral got the better of them. I would not blame the terrain as although the heavies base was nicer, it was 30-40 minute walk from the safezone, and much further from the interesting action in the village since there was no main road linking it, and the most direct route passed straight through another faction.

If I had one advice for next time, is that people should not pick side but styles of play. Group books can then be evenly distributed across sides closer to the start date (enough time for people to source a hat).

Also I think part of the appeal of the event was the attempt to support a range of players from Sunday skirmish to full mil-sim. This insures the mil simmers have a fully populated event and the rest do not need to take it so seriously as to have to bring a poop shovel :P This blend I thought was the best part, as it grows the community without excluding people. I think this is far better then organising events for either or.

All around I had a great time.
VIVA LOS ROCHAS!!

fayer

TheDoc wrote: »

Its mostly from one side, and its mostly about stuff that isnt down to the organisers or marshalls, but down to the players and command structure : /

Have to agree, for my team of 12 people we had 158 posts in our private thread to organised ourselves prior to the game from that we had a well setup unit (not all the team even posted).

The game was very good, I have payed many Milsims in Ireland and UK and it stands out. Lessons are learned from every game even by the longest operating organizers, and I'm sure the small issues highlighted will be talked on board for the next installment.

From reading the thread, playing the game and comparing the comments to other international games something stands out for me on the infrastructure side and roles.

Key roles - usually chosen offline by the organizers and are players of wide experience that can take charge and manage a mixed group of young and not so young adults that may have different expectations. I commend anyone that stands up for such a position, but the operators need to be able to say "no thanks" and insure good commanders and key roles are filled correctly, this is the single largest factor that will separate a good game form a ****e game for players under them or depending on them. I note my section was left to select its own commander internally, we were a small group and had a very experienced person to fill the role so were lucky but from what I saw and have read not everyone was.

Infrastructure - The site is amazing, but far too large to command forces with PMR radios, 4W radios and relay stations can be rented at small cost are are a must have for commanders to be effective. We were split into 2 sections and lost contact with Charlie company for nearly all of the game due to the terrain.

Changing alliances - I understand this is a normal thing for LARP players... Were Airsofters When one side becomes friends or enemies with another it is nearly impossible to get this info down or up the chain of command to avoid very frustrating "blue on blue" incidents. Before any of the large milsims in the UK, despite a back story building where alliances may not be clear, every player enters the field knowing who to shoot and who not to. For me there is no practical way to change this without bringing in all the unit for briefings.

Excellent job by the organizers for something of this scale.

Steve

ASI Casper

Tomazas wrote: »

I am wondering how special forces guy missed the most important intel he could get? object 76 was resting at the base, and no one stole it from us at nite or in the morning, the base was empty than I came around 0815, and all the parts there exactly at the same place I left them.
ECHO 3-1 out

Assuming we're talking about the Republicano base at gridref 127,235:

1) As those were essential ingame objective items and as there was nobody in that base at that time guarding them, I'd say it's safe to assume you didn't have them sitting there in the middle of your camp with a neon sign on them.
I think it's reasonable to assume they were very well hidden / camouflaged, perhaps in the middle of a bush or somesuch?

2) It was pitch black in there at that time. He only stumbled upon the base by accident and spent the first few minutes trying to examine the layout and structures in the dark.

3) He only had 5 - 10 mins in the base before a load of Republicanos arrived back whilst he was in one of the tents and had to curl up in the corner and pretend to be asleep.

4) Very shortly after that, that base came under attack ( presumably by Heavies or Guerrillas ) and he had to bug out.

So I'd say the reason the SF guy missed object 76 ( assuming it was actually there ), was due to a combination of the above.

3 guys went into the tent with him. They didn't ID him ( despite him having a boonie on ), just assumed he was a friendly asleep in the tent. And then he managed to escape that base full of people with intel during the firefight.
He essentially slept with the enemy! XD

I think you should give credit where credit is due rather than trying to deflect. ;-p

Tomazas

ASI Casper wrote: »

Assuming we're talking about the Republicano base at gridref 127,235:

1) As those were essential ingame objective items and as there was nobody in that base at that time guarding them, I'd say it's safe to assume you didn't have them sitting there in the middle of your camp with a neon sign on them.
I think it's reasonable to assume they were very well hidden / camouflaged, perhaps in the middle of a bush or somesuch?

2) It was pitch black in there at that time. He only stumbled upon the base by accident and spent the first few minutes trying to examine the layout and structures in the dark.

3) He only had 5 - 10 mins in the base before a load of Republicanos arrived back whilst he was in one of the tents and had to curl up in the corner and pretend to be asleep.

4) Very shortly after that, that base came under attack ( presumably by Heavies or Guerrillas ) and he had to bug out.

So I'd say the reason the SF guy missed object 76 ( assuming it was actually there ), was due to a combination of the above.

3 guys went into the tent with him. They didn't ID him ( despite him having a boonie on ), just assumed he was a friendly asleep in the tent. And then he managed to escape that base full of people with intel during the firefight.
He essentially slept with the enemy! XD

I think you should give credit where credit is due rather than trying to deflect. ;-p

Dont get me wrong, and i do understand a person who was at our base didnt have a lot of time to explore a whole base. few parts of object 76 were hidden before i went to sleep around 0100.

sliabh

Not many shots up so far, so here is one of the two I took. Some of the PMCs wait to deploy. Doc minds my briefcase which contained $500,000 and an MP7 at that time.

Now, anyone get a shot of me in my suit and panama?

- "Del Monte"

sliabh

I am just having a look at the whole site again on Google Earth. You see it in a totally different light after a weekend fighting through every bush and field.

MerryDespot

Did the same today Seamus - didn't really anticipate such a hill before I arrived (stayed off the faction forum due to being away and ... well, busy). Aching muscles confirm it was a fecker of a hill!

Stonewolf

I'm not sure what basis the other units used but I chose my commander a week out from the game from two people who'd volunteered after I asked. I gave him his briefing when he accepted the role (on the Monday before the game I believe) and when he approached me for info on Friday evening, even though I was tired and busy I got him his answers.

I should probably have chosen him a week earlier to give more time to organise with his unit but as it was most of the unit at least knew who he was online. I stayed in the camp early on to get set up and get my stuff off the truck while the guys cleared a path for the vehicle. A miscommunication due to radio problems sent them up the hill with me standing beside the props wondering where they were. After that I spent as much of the event sticking close to the UC as possible and conferring with EMs and 'HQ' (much kudos to Paul btw) to keep him up to date with (occasionally incorrect, but I smiled inside and told him anyway) intel.

I can only offer my sincerest apologies for Sunday morning, the convoy mission went on for ages (and failed to drive over the minefield I went out on Saturday morning with an entrenching tool to plant). After that I ended up going over the hill to hit the heavies camp and not getting back to my tent until five at which point I'd been awake for 44 of the previous 48 hours and needed to crash. The engineers knew their Sunday objectives though and were all set for me when I did finally shamble forth in search of brains.

Apart from pushing myself too hard physically I think the big problem for me was coordination, my missions didn't integrate well enough with the other stuff that was going on (the second convoy for instance was delayed nearly 2 hours resulting in the tangos getting bored and going home).

BigGunner

Hey guys great weekend.

I spent the event at HQ and witnessed the massive effort that the lads from Bel-park put into this event. From the tow lads driving the jeeps both in missions and helping tried and weary lads back to their camps to dealing with the major problem that arose on sat.

We tried to mix things up abit by doing the un aid/equipment convoy which seemed to have worked out pretty good.

Oh before i forget sliabh when you were on top of that hill/mountain t to see if a chopper could land priceless eddie from the park has a few vids of that on his phone i think.

Thanks to everyone for making it a great weekend.

*DOBBY*

First off, Well done to everyone involved in composing this story and game and to the lads at Bellurgan for hosting it and having such a great site (poxy mountains:D). I was sooo looking forward to this since booking it and did it live up to my hopes.... absolutely yes it did.
Not once in the lead up to this event did anyone tell me of the serious elevation....why why why, its not something you'd overlook.;)
I think for the most part everything went off quite well, but as with any event of this size and nature there will always be little things that either didn't work or maybe should have been done a little different.
I thoroughly enjoyed our role as Special forces and was blessed to be playing alongside such great guys, thanks guys.Loved all the covert stuff and teamwork involved with it. We kept going right thru the event only returning to our base for some grub at 7pm and again for coffee at about 6am.Wasn't a fan of the mountain climb(we could have done with a machette to cut our way thru) but good war stories for the pub.
As has been said before you generally only get out of things what you put in and this is no exception. I, from the start, applauded the fact that the game had catered for all levels of experience and emersion levels. People should choose which suits them best. It was a big risk from the organisers to try something like this and I hope those that played this style of game for their first time will have enjoyed it and took something away from it. Next time out I feel the game would benift more from universal rules for everyone, but a truely great event.
Thanks again for a great weekend

sliabh

BigGunner wrote: »

Oh before i forget sliabh when you were on top of that hill/mountain t to see if a chopper could land priceless eddie from the park has a few vids of that on his phone.

That was pretty funny all right. According to to the plot I (field operations manager for the PMCs, dressed in a linen suit, wearing a panama, and carrying a briefcase with huge amounts of cash and an MP7) was to go up the hill to make a satellite phone call, but I was to be captured by the Heavies. I drove my escort mad (doc, Jericho and some of his guys, and 2 snipers from the tigers), but it turned out I wasn't quite at the top. Improvising (as a good Embedded Marshal should) I told the lads next we were doing a favour for the CIA and checking out whether Blackhawks could land on top of the mountain if the US was going to get involved in the war. So I had to get on top (over Doc and Danin's objections). There I was pacing out the clearing, being watched by the Heavies (who I had told that I was planning on buying the site for a holiday home when the war was over) when the REAL coast guard Sikorsky flew into the area!

Stonewolf

*DOBBY* wrote: »

we could have done with a machette to cut our way thru

Nah, that'd make you easier to track.

DisasterIRL

I would like to say first off that the organisation, location and set up of the event was great! Amazing even, fair f**ks to the lads

I had a ok experience, perhaps even a bad one, but if I had the chance to do it all again I would, all be it with two pairs of socks on. But that was very little down to the organisers.

Set up at the start of the game was shady at best, a good few units didn't have call signs nor did they have any definite squad leader or secondary squad leader. Once again not down to organisers, more to lads wanting to get going and unrest

The Republicanos didn't really have any set radio channels for each squad or team making it difficult to communicate or find out what was going on. My suggestion would be that each squad has a subchannel with one squad member on a general channel for HQ commands. A list of what channel each squad was on would avoid confusion.

I was on the 25th and didn't have a great time, but it was mainly the luck of the draw, I was quite annoyed after spending quite a bit of time setting up a animal pen in the village and making friends with the ESS that some republicanos has ruined that by shooting both factions.

The Republicanos base had good points and bad, it was very marshy, but the location was geographically quite good. We did have quite a hill to climb but it was also closest to the safe zone and was down hill if you died. The other point is that because it was marshy it was a lot more difficult to attack, as far as I know there wasn't really any successful attacks, most scared the **** out of us as we had very little look outs, but this was sorted after the attack during the night. This separated it from the rest as as far as I know everyone else did, bar the SF of course. What was annoying is that it was quite common for us to get to the village and then have to bug out due to enemy inbound or because we got intel.

Another thing I would have liked, would be transparency of what was done with the intel, the 25th picked up bar code on the inside of a cabin in the village as well as a list of names off some dodgy villagers and a gold brick(which nearly killed me on the tactical excursion from the village). It also seemed that on very few occasions where we ever challenged at any of our objectives.

While saying all that the night time was amazing, the convoy heading up the hill and a HUGE fire fight ensuing, the two jeeps getting stuck in the fire, then lining up beside each other and turning on the full lights on to light up the enemies, only for one of the jeep batteries to die(real life, not in game).
After a few minutes of this we decided that the working jeep should bug out and try a different route, which involved the jeep rolling down the hill with little brakes in the darkness with the engine off while the rest of us stayed and pinned down and eventually took out all of the heavies.

The attack on the Republicanos base was also very tense and a little surreal.
Everyone had gone back to base and reload and we where all a bit excited from the above when all we hear is auto fire and lights illuminating our position. Cue everyone running for cover and firing back, after what had to be about 30 mins the attackers retreated without any of us seeing them.

I have to give it up big time to the SF, I didn't once see you guys knowingly and I'd love to know what you where up to out there.

Even with all the walking I did I didn't get to see the full site, probably not even half of it.

I'd love to see another instalment of this and I'd be confident that any kinks would be worked out

Harveey

For me this event was a good experience. The site in my opinion was well too big took a long time walking back to my base(Guerrilla Camp) when I was a dead man. The walk back took everything out of me. When I was told it was on a hill I didn't think it was an actual mountain like.

I had a great time being a Guerrilla, whenever I wasn't out ambushing unit's or doing raid's on camp's I was in the village with the local civilian's. I thought that was nice element to the game. Being able to chat to the civilian's asking if they were being treated badly by anyone. Then blending in with them. I remember 3 penitent came into the village at night, they knife-killed one of the Guerrilla's and I went to the bar to get a drink and when asked who i was I just replied I'm getting a drink. They walked off splitting up to search the village and quickly and silently I took them all out;) The lads shook my hand after as they were convinced I wasn't a threat to them:p

I would play it again if I could, but it seemed like there was too much going on at once, and when there was very little alot of people were not doing much.

As it being the first big event in Ireland I would like to say fairplay to all involved and the all the players who made it and I hope that everyone's points that are being made are being listened to and if there is another installment a few issues will be resolved for it.

Oh and I believe the Guerrilla's managed to get their families safely out of Rionegro with thanks to that shiny briefcase full of money

sliabh

I am making a big list of all the comments and feedback (good and bad) and after digesting it a bit expect to see some stuff fed back to the community (even if that is just "ye are all a shower of whinging ba$tards").

One question I do have is around the headgear rule. It was a bit of a new thing to differentiate units by head gear. Do you feel that worked?

Harveey

sliabh wrote: »

even if that is just "ye are all a shower of whinging ba$tards

Wouldn't expect any less we can be moany b*stards most of the time:p

sliabh wrote: »

One question I do have is around the headgear rule. It was a bit of a new thing to differentiate units by head gear. Do you feel that worked?

I feel it worked well I could easily tell people apart, In one instance we were pushing past the radio tower and got engaged by penitent's wearing bandana's and as we fell back in to cover literally on top of a group of Heavies we knew not to engage as they had boonies on:)

Hande hoche!

sliabh wrote: »

I am making a big list of all the comments and feedback (good and bad) and after digesting it a bit expect to see some stuff fed back to the community (even if that is just "ye are all a shower of whinging ba$tards").

One question I do have is around the headgear rule. It was a bit of a new thing to differentiate units by head gear. Do you feel that worked?

Found it worked extremely well. It helped that we had a sniper in our team. Still anyone I talked to thought it was a great idea.

ASI Casper

I definitely feel the headgear worked. Brilliant idea.
Especially at night. It was still very difficult to tell what unit / faction a player was on at night, but it would have been totally impossible if we had just been using camo or armbands.
Brightly coloured armbands are one of my pet hates at big airsoft events!

richieffff

Headgear was deffinatly a brilliant idea, a lot easier than needing to buy a camo and having a team in desert vs woodland or similar.

mr moo

I agree too, the headgear was a brilliant idea, very easy to distinguish whos who.

plaguefist

well where to start.
i showed up late to the game on the fisrt day(i think i missed an hour) due to me staying up all night to make the I.E.D.S which only one of which worked well enough to use:mad: my ****en soldering iron crapped out on me.

If any of you guys were wondering who the civilian going around with a shotgun looking for wild boar to hunt that would have been me.

i had great fun and found the site was awesome.
the things i got up to.

getting arrested and then exectued by like 20 minutes into the game for me (i actually knew nothing at that point).

building the pen for the animals in the village using rocks and brute force the drive stakes into the ground.

setting up my little canteen area in one of the sheds/houses of the village.
sure whats a village if you can stick the kettle on every 5 minutes.

going for walk abouts with preacher and angry dave(by walkabouts i mean we found that blue wire leading up the moutain and thought it would be a great idea to see what was at the end, it was a tree by the way)

finding the special forces

talking to nearly all the factions

selling information

buying and then smuggling reprogramming chips for the nuke:cool:

going hunting for wild boar (basicly i would just wonder about watching fire fights and talking to people gathering intel and then selling it on or telling people to get the game progressing some what)

walking into the mercinarys base near the end of the game to find no one there ,me and the guy who joined the civilians because of his injured knee then proceeded to plant a listening device in the black flag pole and stumbled across a paper bag which contained a bucket load of cash(well we could'nt just leave it there:D)

finding people bleeding to death on roadsides

duck taping shotguns in various parts of the village, such as the underside of the bar and the rafters of a few of the buildings in the village.oh yes the villagers were packing bitches:cool:, you were just not looking hard enough for the weapons

i brought 4 shotguns and a pistol to this event and i did'nt fire a SINGLE bb, and yet i had the most fun i have had at an airsoft event to date(i had the oppertunity more than once though to brapp some *****)

going to sleep in the village while there was a firefight going on, waking up 8 hours later to the sounds of a firefight in the village(for all i know you mad ****ers were killing each other for 8 hours)

sleeping with my pistol on my chest expecting some **** nut to kick the door in at any minute.

being asked why i was carrying a gun, it would go something like this.
me:hello
Grunt:you have a shotgun
Me:well what do you expect me to hunt wild boar with, ****en bows and arrows.

sorry for the long post but basicly this event was made of awesome sauce.
there better be another one, or heads will roll:D.

Unsinnig

plaguefist wrote: »

finding people bleeding to death on roadsides

Or, while having a bit of a quick boar hunt down towards the prison, us two running across a dead body with blipping red light, and that moment of terror where we're both like, "Is this an important objective? Or is it a booby trap? Or has someone tripped, fallen, and smashed their face in and is now actually dead?"... Kevin didn't help by just lying there motionless thinking to himself, "I can't see if these bastards are the enemy, so I'm just going to lie here saying nothing".

Class

sliabh

To: ESS Director of Latin America Operations.
From: Sliabh - Field Operations Manager Rionegro.
Subject: MOST CONFIDENTIAL - Status Report

Hi John,

I will get what's left of the the hired help to write up and send on their formal after action reports. But in the mean time I thought I should drop you a quick update on what happened around Cacoma over the last few days. By the way this one is totally off the record. When you have seen it, delete it and make sure that bimbo secretary of yours doesn't accidentally forward it to the press.

First off, that squad you sent me were good. Bloody good. HR did well there, with no muppets for a change. As soon as I met them and they formed up to get us to the camp I knew I was in good hands. They knew their ****, and were well organised.

On site they took one look at the surveyors camp in some ruined buildings and decided on the spot to move to a nearby field. It was a good location other than it turned out to be in the middle of a triangle made of up the bases for the two main opposing factions, and the god-damn guerillas.

It was like a train station with different groups tramping by to get places, have a chat, take pot shots, or just plain out try to scrub us off the map.

Anyway the guys established patrols, and we did that little survey job on the top of the Trompeta Collina for the boys in Langley. I know my former employers do favours for us, but tell them next time to get their own people down to do dangerous **** like this. For what it's worth - Yes. It should be a suitable location for Blackhawk insertions. But you would want to send in a military type to confirm that.

We spend much of the rest of our time focused on trying to find info about Marko and his mob. And let me set the story straight on this crap about “misappropriating company resources” by sending a squad into the village for a bottle of rum. They were there on a reconnaissance mission right, and they ended up running into a huge fire fight between the Guerillas and some of the Republicano Light Infantry. Shame about not getting any intel but they did manage to get the bottle for me.

As per instructions we did our best to disperse the “goodwill fund” to buy hearts and minds around us. But you wouldn't believe how hard it was to get people to take the cash. 15 years working a Latin American desk with the CIA before I joined you guys and I never met anyone who didn't like getting a little something for their trouble or just for the cause. Now all of sudden the place was full of people spouting “we cannot be bought”. Ironically only the padre seemed happy to take my our cash. One thing that hasn't changed is you can't trust anyone down here. If I had a buck for every time someone from a faction we were on ceasefire with took a shot at us I'd be living a yacht in the Caribbean now. Once you got us the vehicles our guys executed an excellent grab on that surveying equipment left behind in the village. They got it back to our place and ran a text book extraction in the vehicle afterwards.

Overnight we kept up the search for Marko, as well as doing a second favour our Langley friends. It was as much of a surprise to us as to the boys in Washington that some country had given the Republicanos a decent surface to surface missile. But even though we had one of our best guys on the case, and he got right into the Republicano camp he couldn't find the thing, or find out what nation had supplied it to them. You can pass on our apologies for that one, as well as a complaint for their dodgy intel that sent us through impassable terrain behind the Heavies base on Sunday afternoon. After bushwacking through the thorns and vegetation for about an hour my legs and arms look like I spent a very special hour with Mrs Whiplash back in San Soles. During the night we were heavily assaulted and practically over run at one stage. If you are going to send people out here you need to make sure we are well enough supplied to be able to hold our own.

Anyway on Sunday morning our hard work chasing Marko paid off. We had kept up good relations with the civilians who were sheltering him. There were rumours going around that they or someone else was planning to betray him. For whatever reason he he made a run at our camp round about the same time we nailed a few lads who turned out to be from the “Royal Domiguan Special Commandos” (pass that one on to Langley for follow-up, but make them pay – at least two cases of decent stuff this time). A couple of our lads were on the ball and spotted him. We took him in and made him comfortable. But the tough bugger wouldn't say anything under interrogation, a first as everyone else talked when "encouraged". I had the lads take him away and they set up something nice that should shaft his “man of the people” image when the photos hit the street. As for Marko himself. He sleeps wth the fishes. And the pigs. And the monkeys. And the goats. And a load of the rest of the Cacoma wildlife. Best of all no one knows it was us that nailed him. It was two of our employees who got the reward money and they will keep quiet.

After that, in line with company orders we fell in with the Republicanos. I know we go where the Company sends us but could we have found better allies? The lying, back stabbing s.o.b.s ransacked our base when we got bogged down trying to manoeuvre on the Heavy base. Still word has it the ones who made it back to Cacoma with the half mil in cash didn't live very long. Serves them right. And the money ended up in the civilians hands where you wanted us to put it anyway. Whether it buys hearts and minds or just rents them we shall have to see.

As for how things finished up, well you told us we had to get a VIP from the Heavy Infantry base. So in a display of gung-ho macho b.s. the likes of which you have not seen since the jar heads went in at Iwo Jima, I sent my guys, unsupported, against the biggest group of infantry in the area, dug into the most secure defensive position in the area. I felt bad about sending them into that situation, so I grabbed a gun and went with them. And that is why I am now in the San Soles hospital with a bullet hole through a lung, and why HR needs to see can they recruit another 20 guys for the local operation. On the bright side we don't have to pay out mission bonuses to widows, and other next of kin.

Still we managed to retrieve, protect and extract the company equipment, and we nailed Marko. So that made it all a success from our perspective. Everything else was a nice to have.

When I get out of the hospital we must have that game of golf.

- Sliabh

TheDoc

Agreed on the headgear.

Was skeptical at the start but worked out brilliantly in fairness, was so easy to relay targets and quickly ID friend or foe

The_ChiefDUB

I found the headgear confusing at times, but looking back on it I think this was perhaps down to the range of headgear being used. For example, the 25th could wear bandanas, berets or helmets. This was okay when you saw a mixed group but when you could only identify the headgear of individuals it could slow down identification for a valuable few seconds - especially when you were starting to get a bit tired.
But overall, I'm thinking that the headgear rule did work pretty well.

tadcan

I had a great time at the event and would like to thank the organisers for their hard work in pulling it all together. Esp. Shane for ignoring the nay-sayers and getting such a big event off the ground. Having a big event is a big bonus to the game. Maybe people will come from abroad for our games like we do so for the big ones.

It was fun being a civilian with no gun and the freedom of movement. The terror of being caught in a huge fire fight. Being questioned, searched, treated with suspicion and using our non-combatant status to work against our enemies.

From a roleplaying perspective I didn't really know how the event would role and found the most fun was to be found just doing stuff and not be concerned with logical story consistency. There was a concern we would just be target practice for the other groups and it was like that at the start. However as the game went on the players got the point of the village and played into it. The fire really helped as soldiers from all sides wanted to get warm and relax.

My biggest complaint was that my characters blogging was ignored by the game as a whole. This was an information source of bad news for one side and propaganda potential for other sides. Like DisasterIRL said above me the their was no co-ordination of the plot by the organisers. Their needed to be an organiser/GM taking in the information and passing out new espionage/intelligence missions. Maybe have junior intelligence staff (not EM's) who battle is on this front.

If the goal is to attract roleplayers, these kinds of roles could be played by them. It is easy for someone like me to make up stuff on the spot and most airsofters take it at face value. Another roleplayer would look into things more and ask better questions.

Anything for sale in the gamer area should be only sold for in game money and the cost worked into the price of the ticket. Also have a range of goods from 5 peso's to 100 so people can get the worth of money.

The headgear was a great idea, but at first I was confused between the Munoz's men and the rebels because they both had different types of head gear. The 25th etc should have had one type of head gear.

The civilians should have met up with the rebels before the game and established we are related by family. You are my brother/married to my sister etc. The first meeting was a little tense until they understood what was going on.

Damo 2k9

plaguefist wrote: »

well where to start.
i showed up late to the game on the fisrt day(i think i missed an hour) due to me staying up all night to make the I.E.D.S which only one of which worked well enough to use:mad: my ****en soldering iron crapped out on me.

If any of you guys were wondering who the civilian going around with a shotgun looking for wild boar to hunt that would have been me.

i had great fun and found the site was awesome.
the things i got up to.

getting arrested and then exectued by like 20 minutes into the game for me (i actually knew nothing at that point).

building the pen for the animals in the village using rocks and brute force the drive stakes into the ground.

setting up my little canteen area in one of the sheds/houses of the village.
sure whats a village if you can stick the kettle on every 5 minutes.

going for walk abouts with preacher and angry dave(by walkabouts i mean we found that blue wire leading up the moutain and thought it would be a great idea to see what was at the end, it was a tree by the way)

finding the special forces

talking to nearly all the factions

selling information

buying and then smuggling reprogramming chips for the nuke:cool:

going hunting for wild boar (basicly i would just wonder about watching fire fights and talking to people gathering intel and then selling it on or telling people to get the game progressing some what)

walking into the mercinarys base near the end of the game to find no one there ,me and the guy who joined the civilians because of his injured knee then proceeded to plant a listening device in the black flag pole and stumbled across a paper bag which contained a bucket load of cash(well we could'nt just leave it there:D)

finding people bleeding to death on roadsides

duck taping shotguns in various parts of the village, such as the underside of the bar and the rafters of a few of the buildings in the village.oh yes the villagers were packing bitches:cool:, you were just not looking hard enough for the weapons

i brought 4 shotguns and a pistol to this event and i did'nt fire a SINGLE bb, and yet i had the most fun i have had at an airsoft event to date(i had the oppertunity more than once though to brapp some *****)

going to sleep in the village while there was a firefight going on, waking up 8 hours later to the sounds of a firefight in the village(for all i know you mad ****ers were killing each other for 8 hours)

sleeping with my pistol on my chest expecting some **** nut to kick the door in at any minute.

being asked why i was carrying a gun, it would go something like this.
me:hello
Grunt:you have a shotgun
Me:well what do you expect me to hunt wild boar with, ****en bows and arrows.

sorry for the long post but basicly this event was made of awesome sauce.
there better be another one, or heads will roll:D.

So you were the guy that was going to visit your cousins in the next town over, and his name was gonzalo ?
That interragation was funny, "does he own a chipper?" i was in stitches :P

Did you get your guns in the end, they must have been some guns for that price :eek::p

jeawan

I found the headgear worked great you could easily identify units at a long enough range with a scope or binos and avoid them or engage them