Jan 18th Battle of the Bulge

[2nd Bat]

A flight from Seattle, and well worth it. Great meeting so many people and putting people together with so many posts. wonderfully appropriate and cooperative weather, fabulous impressions, gracious hosts, well organized and set up very nicely. Without exception really nice nice people. More to follow as I need to think through all the things I want to say and people I want to thank but what a great weekend. Brownian as I said to you multiple times at the field, great job!

For Shifty and "Scott Collins". Be sure to let us know when you get back safely to Chicago.

[LϟϟAH1944]

Definitely worth the 4 hour drive, wonderful event!

[insterburger]

This was a truly incredible event. Brownien outdid himself in the setup, logistics, and gameplay management. The presence and input of 2nd Bat really upped the game in so many ways (with the amazing conversations an added bonus!). And Jerry-ADK really took things to another level in his hospitality, and helped create an atmosphere of true cameraderie. Also, Shifty and Scott Collins rolling all the way from MI-- that's dedication! This was my first winter game, and the entire experience was just off the charts great. Plenty more will be coming in the AAR I'm sure, but I want to thank everyone-- not just those specifically named above-- for coming together to make this event a really profound evocation of the Ardennes Offensive.

PS-- Clash, I haven't stowed gear yet, but apart from the couple of buttons that popped nothing seems at all amiss. Far from sending you a bill, I want to thank you for your efforts on the German side. Looking forward to fighting alongside you (or depending on the balance of forces, against you) again in the future.

[clashatdemonhed]

do we have the pictures somewhere? id love to take a look through them!

[LϟϟAH1944]

I see you've already uploaded your profile pic, mark! lol. Where'd ya get it from, like who has them?

[clashatdemonhed]

if i recall correctly mark had his own camera which he had the "journalist" take a ton of pictures on. cant wait to see em

[insterburger]

I have them. Some are better than others. Quite a few autofocused on nearby trees and left the more distant players as an indistinct blur. But there are some real gems (like that avatar shot).

The best of the best will be put up on the forum as soon as I can sort and process them, and the others I can make available to participants.

[clashatdemonhed]

cant wait! keep us updated

[LϟϟAH1944]

OK, Danke!

[Jerry-ADK]

I must say,  this event was the most awesome thing I have done in quite a while! Thanks everyone for all your effort making this event so spectacular.  And thanks especially to Brownian for getting this to happen and doing all the hard work ths it takes to pull something like this off. Great job!  My only regret was not inviting Nate and Pat and thier dad over to Schenectady for Dinner Saturday night, very sorry I should have been thinking to do that, my apologies.  Hopefully very soon we will get a chance to do this again in better weather for an encampment.  Because the comoradery was great, you all feel like my family now.  The impressions were top notch and the team play amazing thanks to all the cooperation and the preasance of 2nd Bat getting us up to speed with little bit of Recondo training in tactics.  And hats off to Our Gruppefürer and the Ami Captain for such a top notch job on the battle field.  I'm sure they will earn their countries highest honers.  I looking forward to reading the AAR and getting to work on editing some video.  I'll make copies of the raw footage for anyone who wants A copy and mail it to them, just PM me your address.  I also have a few pics too I can put on there.  Now, off to start researching Jagpanzers...alle gutt nach!

[ScottCollins]

Ill post a bit longer message when I get on my computer but 2ndbat, we're both home safe and sound. Thank you so much for your input at this event everybody!

[Jerry-ADK]

Jan 20, 2014 1:44:30 GMT -5 ScottCollins said:

Ill post a bit longer message when I get on my computer but 2ndbat, we're both home safe and sound. Thank you so much for your input at this event everybody!

Sounds like you made good time on your way back, was the driving better?  

[ScottCollins]

Yeah, only took 10 hours instead of 14! haha!

[2nd Bat]

If you haven't already done so thank Jeremys dad for enduring 24 hours of fairly stressful Winter Driving. Matt, Thank you mom for the great breakfast treats. YUM! And of course Jeremy ADK the Hostel setting was an incredibly significant part of the event for a bunch of us. Troops in mass spralled on floors, sofas etc, gear stacked everywhere communal meals and discussions and just the warmth of a winter house and good company contributed a lot to the weekend. PM me with your inlaws name and address so I can send them a proper thank you.

In the Ardennes the warmth of a farm house and protection of stone walls and a cellar were often the things Germans and Americans fought over. Browniens Mother ixed a fabulous stew and breakfast and made sure we had lots of hot chocolate, biscuits and muffins and his dad kept the fire going and husttled supplies back and forth. He also joined into the fighting for a few engagement and showed that when it comes to tactical skill Browniens talent is clearly genetic. Pat inspite of recovering from apendicytis surgery kept the battle effects sound loop going (which was amazingly cool I might add) and served as field photographer. Can't wait to see those pictures.

i have quite a few pictures and if anyone PMs me with a description of your impression and your direct email I'll look through them and can send you what I have of you. iApologize as I didn't get everyones name and contact info. I am still playing the weekend through in my head and had a great time. it was hard to focus at work today.

Hopefully I will figure out how to post some of these pictures.

[SfcMigs]

Sounds like it was a great event. Very upset I had to sit this one out. Can't wait to see pictures and video.

BTW, how many players?

[ScottCollins]

We had quite a bit more the first day than the second but the turnout was actually really good!

[shiftysgarand]

I had an incredible time, and the most fun I had had in a long time, even though I got hit in the face by insterburger's potato masher

[ScottCollins]

I think we can all agree that insterburger won the Iron Cross by screaming while his head was steaming

[shiftysgarand]

Can someone upload that video?

[2nd Bat]

We were back at the warming tent between tactical phases and everyone was excitedly telling war stories and he took off his hat while talking. The cold was such that you could of course see his breath but steam was emanating from his head like a chimney and it was so extreme as to not look real. it was positively hillareous. i think someone got out a camera and filmed it. If so, I'd love to see the clip. In his mixed English and German it was really fun. Incidently the fact that two of the Germans actually speak pretty good German and most of the others made the effort in the field was really neat. Things like that add so much to the emmersive aspects.

[shiftysgarand]

My AAR:
This was my second event, and it was really a stretch to get there. I really want to thank my dad for driving Matt and I. I would also like to thank Jerry-ADK for giving us a place to sleep and assemble, and John (2nd Bat) for the gear and tactical advice.
The first game was a German offensive, with the Americans supposed to hold them from the river. This we failed to do, though we caused extremely high casualties among the Germans that were trying to dislodge us from our firebase. I got the final American kills of the game by getting two Germans with a grenade. Unfortunately, as I was taking cover, I was hit in the face by a Kraut potato masher grenade.
The second game was an opposing patrol scenario, with both sides trying to make contact and eliminate the other side. I got several kills with my M1. In the first game the batteries kept dying, so I had to revert to a CYMA M1 carbine springer. That was basically the first day.
The second day was another German offensive to start off. I got several kills and we fought bravely, but the Germans took our respawn.
The second game was another opposing patrol game, and this was hard-fought. Patrick got every kill I believe, and I did not fire a single shot. The Americans won.
The third game (the last unfortunately) was an American offensive, with unlimited American respawns. I got a couple kills this game, and the Germans gave us some smoke grenades to use. We captured our objective with one minute to spare. This was my favorite game. Everyone fought hard, and lots of tactics were employed. Nobody went Rambo, we used leapfrogs and fire and maneuver.
We had a pretty good turnout, and with everyone using semi-auto it really added to the atmosphere. Kudos to Nate for organizing such a great event.
-Jeremy

[2nd Bat]

to Scott Collins Wow I love what you did with the picture of you and Jeremy firing the carbines. The black and white treatment is very cool looking.

[ScottCollins]

Thanks, just finished this one as well. If you could send me some of the German pictures, I could work on them as well

[2nd Bat]

Done! Very cool.

[LϟϟAH1944]

If anyone has the pics, they can email me at panzerfaust60m @ yahoo.com

[shiftysgarand]

[LϟϟAH1944]

And of course, everyone smiling except Patrick, lol.

[insterburger]

Great work on the photos! They look like the kinds of WWII pictures from the books I grew up on in the 70's and 80's... a reprint of a reprint of a reprint. Highly effective. I'm going for a slightly cleaner look, more like archival negative reprints. It's great to have a variety of different takes on the event.

PS-- If anyone who was a participant wants a full set of my pics (the ones that worked out, anyway), just let me know. I will have more than I could ever post on the boards, so there will be some that won't be seen elsewhere. I can either email you the versions I will be reducing for posting here, or I can send the high-res ones by burning them to a CD and mailing them out. Either way, just PM me, either with your email or your snail mail address depending on what you want.

Also, if anyone does not want their pictures from the event distributed publicly, or specific pics of themselves withheld, just let me know and your request will be honored.

So be patient with me, in a few days I should have somewhere close to 100 pics ready to roll. I will choose the most evocative to post on the boards, hopefully as a combined event/historical narrative. Pat's photos from the thick of combat are just incredible, I can't wait to share some of them here.

[LϟϟAH1944]

I'd be interested in the full set! I put my email a few comments back I believe.

[insterburger]

Jan 20, 2014 18:35:52 GMT -5 LϟϟAH1944 said:

I'd be interested in the full set! I put my email a few comments back I believe.

Yup, sounds good.