Post by 2nd Bat on Nov 16, 2006 19:16:28 GMT -5
I attended Hac Bao (The last one I attended two years ago literally got rained out) It was last weekend and it was excellent. It was held at a Movie Ranch in Southern California. The venue is nestled in a steep canyon along side a nature preserve. The location features meandering trails, some canyons, lots of streams and extensive groves of bamboo. There were also a number of waist high ponds. It set the table very nicely for a well run game.
The US Force was in decent impressions with limits on period specific weapons and era correct clothing and web gear. They adhered well to the rules but there were far too many LRRPs and spec ops players and too few regular line doggies to be even remotely authentic. The US was lead and instructed by ret Army Colonel Paul Longgrear who survived and later wrote about his experience at lang Vei Special Forces Camp when it was overun by about a dozen Soviet PT 76 light amphibius tanks. His book is titled "Night of the Silver Stars. He is in his 60s now but in amazing shape and was clearly having a great time playing army.
The NVA was led by me and Kenn Miller author of several books on Vietnam including a couple of the Six Silent Men series. He survived 84 actual LRRP missions during his 3 tours in Vietnam. he is without a doubt the LRRP of LRRPs. Between the three of us and the cool location the 20 somethings must have thought they'd fallen into Jurassic park
In addition there was a decent contingent of VC and role players as villagers. The event ran Friday night through mid day on Sunday. there was lots of action and wonderfully intense patrolling by both sides. Great sportsmanship, wonderful camraderie around the camp fires at night and a great time had by all.
The US had a vintage Dodge 3/4 ton and 5 PRC 25 functional radios. My favorite part of the game was running with the NVA in small 4 to five man groups ambushing patrol leadership elements. The US tended to take the trails and we pretty much used the streams. At no time did the US seem to catch onto that! As a result our ambushes went well. I especially relished taking over their RTOs and calling Col Longgrear on the radio to let him know I had killed another of his platoon leaders.
This is a small game relative to most Lion Claws series with under 80 players typically. It is an absolute must for Vietnam airsofters.
It is the one game where John Lu puts on his ARVN Ranger uniform and plays all weekend. I enjoyed taking him out twice.
there was strict low cap requirements and ammo limits and activities for both sides that gave both a sense that they were accomplishing their missions while the opposition mearly provided friction to those tasks. In my opinion that's the way an op should be run. I love at the end of a game when no one seems concerned about who "Won!" Everyone wins when you have fun and play safe.
We old guys made a good showing of ourselves and gave more then we got as well as sharing what we know with others. Fun Fun time!
The US Force was in decent impressions with limits on period specific weapons and era correct clothing and web gear. They adhered well to the rules but there were far too many LRRPs and spec ops players and too few regular line doggies to be even remotely authentic. The US was lead and instructed by ret Army Colonel Paul Longgrear who survived and later wrote about his experience at lang Vei Special Forces Camp when it was overun by about a dozen Soviet PT 76 light amphibius tanks. His book is titled "Night of the Silver Stars. He is in his 60s now but in amazing shape and was clearly having a great time playing army.
The NVA was led by me and Kenn Miller author of several books on Vietnam including a couple of the Six Silent Men series. He survived 84 actual LRRP missions during his 3 tours in Vietnam. he is without a doubt the LRRP of LRRPs. Between the three of us and the cool location the 20 somethings must have thought they'd fallen into Jurassic park
In addition there was a decent contingent of VC and role players as villagers. The event ran Friday night through mid day on Sunday. there was lots of action and wonderfully intense patrolling by both sides. Great sportsmanship, wonderful camraderie around the camp fires at night and a great time had by all.
The US had a vintage Dodge 3/4 ton and 5 PRC 25 functional radios. My favorite part of the game was running with the NVA in small 4 to five man groups ambushing patrol leadership elements. The US tended to take the trails and we pretty much used the streams. At no time did the US seem to catch onto that! As a result our ambushes went well. I especially relished taking over their RTOs and calling Col Longgrear on the radio to let him know I had killed another of his platoon leaders.
This is a small game relative to most Lion Claws series with under 80 players typically. It is an absolute must for Vietnam airsofters.
It is the one game where John Lu puts on his ARVN Ranger uniform and plays all weekend. I enjoyed taking him out twice.
there was strict low cap requirements and ammo limits and activities for both sides that gave both a sense that they were accomplishing their missions while the opposition mearly provided friction to those tasks. In my opinion that's the way an op should be run. I love at the end of a game when no one seems concerned about who "Won!" Everyone wins when you have fun and play safe.
We old guys made a good showing of ourselves and gave more then we got as well as sharing what we know with others. Fun Fun time!