2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Nov 24, 2014 21:52:21 GMT -5
My fourth annual Losheim Gap Event is once again going to be held the Saturday after Thanksgiving in the Community Commons. There are 24 wooded acres and a couple small meadows with a series of hiking trails. This event is a Community Father /Son. (Moms and daughters welcome as well althugh thus far that hasn't happened). The Theme is WW2 early phases of the Battle of the Bulge. I rent out uniforms and weapons and all proceeds go to charity. I have sufficient uniforms and gear for 35 plus players (mostly US) but this year players depicting German troops will have my loaner helmets and smocks or wear Grey or OD. This will be my first year trying that.
I charge $65.00 per player and $35.00 for those with their own gear. Half of my loaner weapons are the CYMA Springers and most of my other weapons are set on semi auto so the event is quite different than a normal airsoft event. Players as young as 12 are allowed but all players under 18 must be with a participating Parent. I fudge a little and allows up to three buddies if supervised by a willing dad and a notarized waiver from each minors parent or guardian. Personal airsoft weapons must Chrono under 400 FPS, be WW2 vintage weapons or have some wood in their design. (M14s, AKs, bolt Action rifles etc.). I allow one full auto for every six weapons. Eye pro is provided by me or pre approved by me. I require full face masks for players under 16. Bio BBs are required. ( I provide them)
Grenades are the TOY grenades that go boom with a ten foot elimination range. There is a flowing series of tactical phases with specific objectives. Leadership postions are limited to the young players. Dads by agreement from past events are privates. several dads don't actually play but help me facilitate the event or act as role players. We always have a lot of fun. The event has set up on Friday with some players spending the night Friday night. (Not mandatory) Sign in is 0900 on Saturday and gameplay usually ends around 1600 hours. Weather is expected to be cold and wet so we'll see how it goes.
I have asked a local FJ reenacting group and a local US reenacting group to come and set up a US and German camp and display and they have committed to do so. That is new this year. For props I have my Jeep, tentage, my pseudo sand bags and my nerf weapons. (Mortar and 57mm recoiless rifle). These will primarily be objectives. I will not be allowed to do pyro due to the proximity to neighborhood homes.
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2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Nov 30, 2014 0:38:08 GMT -5
Awesome weekend. Great weather. A dozen players and three brave dads slept in the tents Friday night and woke up to light snow in the morning. It was quite cold but mostly blue skys and no wind. Since it was 90% folks from the neighborhood almost everyone was there by 9:30 and just about everyone had already picked up gear before hand. The FJ group showed up with eight members and looked great. Most had never attended an airsoft game but said they had a great time. Only two of the US reenactors came but they had a long drive from the Olympia area so I wasn't surprised. I had more than enough US so that was NOT an issue. We ended up with 22 active US Players and 17 German. There were another six staff personnel including me. Two were dressed as civilian role players. Great turnout for a winter game.
I target father and sons but there were three delightful young ladies in attendance who by all appearances had a great time. The first mission phase didn't start until almost 11:00 which was disappointing but with so many non airsofters there was a lot of finagling and fiddling with gear. The cold weather took its toll as the day wore on both for player and battery attrition. Guns held up well. By 5:30 PM it was getting too dark to play but there were still seven US but only three German still eager to continue.
We did a German E&E scenario and played until 7:00 PM in the dark. It was supposed to last 45 minutes but it took a while rounding everyone up. I basically loaded up weapons and radios in my car and will break camp and be cleaning up all week. My feet are blocks of ice. We had a tactical lunch and the flow from mission to mission was fairly seamless. The dads once again seemed to be more into it than a lot of the kids. There were a few Zombies especially among the under 14 set but overall sportsmanship was real real good. No tempers whatsoever and the only gameplay issues were boundary concerns where some of the players got closer to homes than they were supposed to. Also fires were not supposed to be allowed but there was a campfire all night Friday and throughout most of the day today. The fellow who started it is the neighborhood community Vice President so hopefully that won't be an issue!
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2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Nov 30, 2014 15:17:51 GMT -5
The first mission had the US receive a briefing at the main base explaining the situation on 17 Dec 1944. For most of the young players this was essentially a history lesson. They moved out to a Bunker line at the West end of the field which I had created using the dummy sandbags. Once in place the Germans probed the positions trying to locate weak points and infiltrate. The US forces held fast and the Axis suffered many casualties. They (The Germans) had liberal regen rules (as they were outnumbered and on offense) while the US had strict medic rules. After three regens I gathered the Germans and using mini vans had them driven around to the extreme East end of the field where they assembled.
As the Germans were staging, radio reports were received by the US units that their supporting elements on either side had been overrun and German armor and Infantry had encircled them. Their orders were to fight their way east to a new assembly area. (The campsite, main base). The Germans orders were to patrol the area to the US frontline and prevent them from getting through. For the US a casualty collection point was back at their bunker line for regen. The Germans did a great job and their were numerous ambushes and fierce firefights. The two US patrols that traverse the dense woods on the ridgeline did a great job and made it through intact. The only eight players to do so without having to regen.
The next mission had a force on force movement to contact. Following this intense mission phase both sides established defensive positions and ate a tactical lunch. There were light probes by both sides during this phase. Radio traffic and input from civilian roleplayers set up the next mission phase. While all of this was going on my staff and I recovered the sandbags and created two German roadblocks on the two main trails. With mine warnings. The Third US mission was to locate the roadblock positions clear the mines and blow the roadblocks with fake demolitions. I would normally have Pyro for this mission but even smoke was not allowed at this event. The German mission was to prevent it. The Germans were free to conduct the defense however they wanted and surprisingly sent a significant portion of their force to actively and aggressively patrol the approaches to the roadblocks. This prevented the US from organizing a good attack on one of the roadblocks which essentially created a tie.
By this time the cold and elements were dwindling our numbers and it was beginning to get dark. Since we had a small number of players and few Germans (The FJ group left after the roadblock mission) we setup an escape and evade scenario for the Germans. A reverse mission from the initial phase. There was just one German patrol and once contact was made they scattered. It was quite dark by this time and as time ran out many players were scattered and unaccounted for. It took whistles and flood lights to gather them all. I loaded my main stuff which was mostly stacked back at the base camp and hauled it to my garage. Huge stacks of wet clothes and web gear. Staff members from outside the area slept over and we had a fun, communal gathering and nice meal of leftovers. My wife duitifully pretended to be amused (perhaps she was)
this morning early we went back, broke camp and did a thorough police call. I will sort through everything, take a final accounting and put everything away. I am exhausted and my extremities are still a little numb but what a great event! several of the dads and participants had cameras so I expect there will be lots of pictures. This is the fourth year that we have run the event and each year it gets better and better.
As always there are always lesson learned and this year was no different.
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2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Dec 1, 2014 13:55:00 GMT -5
Things that went well, things that are definite sustains and lessons learned.
Attendance was very good which I attribute to the fact that this game has been an ongoing series always held on the same date. The location although small and not ideal is close in (literally the neighborhood commons area with community authorization). The Father son approach is very sound. The loaner/ rental gear aspect works well. It enables players to participate who otherwise wouldn't and shows value for their event fee. It also allows me to somewhat control the stndards and create a sense of ambiance. (still have a long way to go with my German stuff) It also allows me to control ammo, weapons types and gameplay to insure its different for the players than a normal airsoft game. Lots (though certainly not universal) praise for the high number of single shot and semi auto weapons.
The camp was a big hit with the military tentage and props. One of the dads brought a Flag and flag pole and while not a 48star flag it was a nice touch. Next year a seperate German camp would be nice. I am a little fearful that the campfire will be trouble as we weren't supposed to have one. given the extremely cold temperatures ( For the Pacific Northwest) I was surprised at hearing how many folks slept over (I did not). i live literally three minutes away as do 85% of the participants. I guess they wanted the experience. I just asked for someone to guard the camp set up on Friday night and it kind of grew! temperatures got down to the high 20s. One of the dads years ago made sandwich signs to inform every passerby what was going on and these were on the main trail heads. We do however need to make more as there are some additional trails that lead into the commons. I also want to make some European looking road signs for some of the trails. These are formalized hiking trails. inspite of the warnings (or maybe because of them). Several people walked through which required cease fires and pauses in the action. I wish we could announce the area closed for the weekend. Because the kids know the area very very well the control aspects of the event are very good but the downside is everyone knows the area too well. I wish we could have done smoke and pyro as it adds a lot and is something that typically sets my events apart. I also would have loved to have had the speaker, battle sounds effects Brownien does. I did have period music and news reports playing in the camp area.
i have three BC1000 radios which we used to good effect but needed more false traffic to set the mood and keep the live action feel going. I need speakers for these radios so everyone around can hear the traffic (except during the tactical phases). Vehicles were supposed to be allowed into the commons but we never got the gate keys until Sunday (which only helped to break camp). We had two Jeeps but they only got limited use which was disappointing. Issuing out uniforms in the days before the event worked well but a couple guys who got them never showed and several participants still didn't arrive in costume. I need to put bigger emphasis on this. I also needed to have someone assigned to work the weapons range and help with weapons operation training although most folks did fine. I had cotton white socks as barrel plugs and this was a nice safety and control idea. Socks were on during the admin periods. It was visually distracting but put my mind ( and the parents minds )greatly at ease. Gameplay was too slow getting started (which always seems to be the case) but once initiated flowed nicely with very little breaks between mission phases. German forces and US forces were kept seperate so there was a continual live action mentality throughout the day. saturdays play extended after dark and I wish I had more lights on hand when we had to go find folks. Staff assistants were sent home to gather some. We had a formal sign in and sign out list so we could keep track of who was still playing but this was not followed as well as it should have been. It makes it rough to adjust missions and while the area (24 acres) surrounded almost entirely by the neighborhood is too small to get lost in I was worried about someone hurt that we didn't know about.
my garage is a pile of wet uniforms, gear and tentage and I will be weeks sorting through it all. the community organizers were a huge help especially the Spencers, MacCulleys and williams families.
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Dracul
Master sergeant
Posts: 1,341
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Post by Dracul on Dec 7, 2014 19:39:56 GMT -5
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stuka
Sergeant
The one and only
Posts: 1,205
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Post by stuka on Dec 7, 2014 19:51:36 GMT -5
nice jeep
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Post by aldrich on Dec 7, 2014 22:25:22 GMT -5
Great photos! The trees and overall atmosphere really give it a "battle of the bulge" look and feel.
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2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Dec 8, 2014 19:47:22 GMT -5
i have owned my Jeep for 20 years! the Northwest is very much like Northern Europe. Sadly all too often it is perfect for the Huertegan Forest! Damp and depressing!
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