Any spring games coming

there s still butt loads of snow here.. You guys hosting a game in the next few weeks.

Hey, you beat me to the punch.

I am pleased to announce we just ran our first sunday game signaling the REAL start of spring.

We did capture the tower, defend the tower, defend the tower against zombies.

It was 7C outside which everyone agreed was sweet, almost TOO warm for all us out of shape hibernating types.

We discussed wanting to get more mid caps on the field, and doing some games requiring radios.

We had zero equipment failure, including the helmet cam (ya!). A short youtube raw clip is going up shortly.

WOO HOO! Spring is here.

Game on here next sunday as well.

You guys still have a decent amount of snow in the bush. Love the blow back on that gun.

Do you guys play every sunday?

Here is the full game of one of the defend the towers scenarios:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xgTt_rklgM

Yeah, every Sunday. Usually we switch tween 2 differant fields..but mine is less snowed in. So next sunday is here.

I have minimal snow around the tower and deeper ( about 12" )in the heavier forested area. So right now its more of a added flavor to the game, not an obstacle.

At one point the blow back was giving me ringing in my ears after I stopped...cool...my first Airsoft related hearing damage! Ha!

what are your start and end times?

Start times are around 1.

https://pgairsoft.forumotion.com/t1884-regular-game-days

People show up around noon and we play till we have had enough...4:30-6-ish I would guess.

So this past Sunday was 100 Mile's second game of the season. Once again it was at our field here, as the other field is still REALLY snowed in (unlike us, who only have knee-deep snow-- okay, okay, I admit it: most of the trails have been packed down with snowmobiles so really the snow isn't too much of a hinderance. Just don't be stupid enough to cut cross-country unless you've got really long legs. Apparently, mine aren't really long, but Josh, who has legs like a moose, seemed to manage okay).

We had a really good turn-out. A couple of players came a bit late, having work to finish first; once they joined us we had I think about thirteen or so. I know Red Team had six, and I think they were even; a player who had an annoying combination of equipment failure and an injury (torn muscle, poor guy) played neutral third parties (a civilian for an escort mission and later a downed pilot).

We had a couple of straight-forward pick-up games to start: assault the tower, no respawns. The snow certainly does add an extra dimension: it drags at your feet, slowing you down, and it's chilly to kneel in! Forget about sitting unless you've got long underwear on, haha. We were all pretty soggy by the end of the day, and I was wishing the hot tub was functional...

But I digress. We had a couple of warm-up games, as I said, then our last two players came by, and we went into a longer scenario. Boy, was that fun. Generally, I'd say that a snow game might not be the ideal first exposure to Airsoft, but the two new players we had on the field both said they loved it.

We have been discussing the use of radios for games, and of trying to equip everyone with one. Sure, they're nice so you don't have to yell "Are you ready?" across the field, but there's some really exciting possibilities for longer scenarios and more interactive milsim gameplay with them, as I think Mike demonstrated quite ably. Sounds like everyone's gonna try and have one for this weekend; last weekend enough radios were scrounged up that each team got three, plus two for Mike as the game admin (one set to each team's channel).

We have maps drawn up for the field (Mike and I did a trail survey last year) and Mike handed out a stack, we split into teams, and then each team was led aside for briefing.

We were to patrol the trail from our base to just shy of the main intersection (which is more or less in the centre of the field). If we came across the enemy we could engage, but our main objective was the patrol. Off we went to get to it while Blue Team got their briefing.

One of the really cool things about the game (and what I think really made it) was that it wasn't a straight-forward capture-the-flag/base/kill the enemy game. We had objectives, and points were awarded for meeting those objectives; respawns were radioed in and lost the team a point each time. That meant that players were a bit more cautious about spending their lives-- aside from the hike back to base to respawn, it lost the team points, so there was some additional incentive to not get shot. And the really, really cool thing was that the two teams did not necessarily have the same objectives. While our objective was to patrol the trail, Blue Team's objective was to capture a member of Red Team and get them back to Blue base.

Another aside: When shot, you didn't immediately hike off to respawn; first you had two minutes sitting in place (while you "bled out") during which you could fully communicate, but not use your weapon. If a healthy comrade was at hand they could escort you back to base for respawn with a hand on the shoulder and then you didn't have to wait for two minutes; but otherwise you had to wait for two minutes. This was, Mike explained later, to give the opposing team a chance to capture you: if they could shoot you and get to you in that two minutes they could capture you.

So we had had a second objective added, guarding Red perimetre, which was what I and my partner (with only three radios for a six-man team we split up into two-man fire teams, each team with a radio) were doing when the call came in from the guys patrolling the trail that the Blues had grabbed one of our guys!

Consternation. Confusion. What do we do? Well, we've only got six (now five) guys, and have two objectives already, so we have no choice but to let him go. We did radio back to "Red command" (i.e. Mike, who was doing the Red vs Blue thing of playing command to both teams) that he had been captured ("Oh, really?") so arrangements for a rescue could be made if needed. Meanwhile, though, we had a new objective: meet a civilian at the base of the tower and escort him "wherever he wants to go." In practise, this meant the far corner of the ten-acre field.

Here, let me show you the map to clarify the game:



That tall triangle at 407102 is the tower. Red Base is at 606503; Blue Base is at 107309; and the main intersection is at 306507. We were patrolling the trail marked 313 feet long.

So, okay, we made our way from Red Base to the tower, taking the back trail around the perimeter rather than straight through the main intersection, which held hostiles. On edge, expecting an ambush, we made our way to the tower and picked up the civilian. Where did he want to go? 102702. In other words, see that little dead-end trail at the extreme upper left? Yeah. The end of that.

Well, fine. Off we go. One man on point, then two, then the civilian, then two rear guard. We get to the intersection at 05060404 (next to the chicken coop), intending to bear right (east) and take the perimeter trails all the way (less chance of running into the Blues; of course the mission would be a failure if the civilian bought it). So we get to the intersection when our man on point calls in a Blue guy on the trail ahead of him.

This is a problem, because we don't want to lose anyone in a skirmish, we can't sneak by, we can't cut across country (because of the snow), and we can't go left because that takes us straight back to the main intersection where we left a bunch more Blues. However, while we're pondering our options, word comes back from Command that the civilian has forgotten something important back at the tower, and we need to return there. "His smokes," we joke, and head back. What the hell, we're moving away from the Blues at least, but now we're REALLY expecting an ambush.

But we make it back to the tower with no problems, call it in, and are told to continue. And at the same intersection, just as more Blues are spotted, we are told that we have to return again; the civilian (who was instructed to be as noisy and clueless as possible-- just like a real civilian ) has forgotten to turn off the stove. "Oh, what the hell," we go, and start to try and extract ourselves from the exchange we're finding ourselves in, when the word comes back on the radio: "On reflection, he says it doesn't matter. Continue." So we did. One guy covered the Blues while the rest of us headed off down the trail, and without any further drama, we actually safely escorted the civilian to his destination.

We were told to return to our previous objective (patrol & guard the base) and were just returning to that when we got word of a downed foreign pilot at 305507. We were to try and grab him and bring him back to base. "The main intersection!" I shout, and a team heads out to find him. Oh, and to try and capture a Blue; that new objective was added as well.

He hid himself really well. We didn't know where he was until we got the word that the Blues had him. Also, a helicopter was flying around in the vicinity of the tower.

First one, then the second fire teams headed off to the tower to see what was up. I, being less mobile (bad knee) stayed to guard the base. One of our guys climbed to the second floor of the tower and was able to identify the helicopter as an enemy one. Did we want to fire upon it? Upon reflection, we found that we did.

Things seemed to be heating up at the tower, so my partner and I headed out there too. On the way we came across Josh escorting a Blue to our base.

Blues were in the area near the tower. We fought a brief skirmish, and then the word came over the radio: "We have the pilot!" Right. All hands, escort mission back to base! We pulled out and despite some tense moments, got the pilot (who was most copoperative-- possibly because, unlike the Blues, we weren't shoving him around and saying things like "March, prisoner!" lol) safely back to base. Objective completed!

Continued!!

To continue:

We all made it safely back to base (including our captured guy, who had been released somewhere in the intervening time) and were congratulating ourselves on a job well done when command called us: There were fighter planes seen in the area. No, they were not friendlies.

Oh, shit. The pilot had mentioned something about airstrikes on the way back to our base, and that it affected a radius of thirty feet from the target, so-- "Abandon base!" We headed out a little ways down the path (the one to the southeast of the base that connects to the eastern perimeter path) and discussed possible targets for a retaliatory airstrike.

And then we got another call from Command. There were some pretty heavy explosions in the vicinity of the tower.

"Oh, really? Okay, thanks for letting us know!" we laughed. Ten minutes earlier and they would have wiped out the whole team; as it was we had no one anywhere near there. We were all back at our base.

And a friendly helicopter was on its way to extract the pilot. We needed to escort him to the same point as where we had dropped off the civilian.

Okay, sure, fine, let's go, and we turned around and were slaughtered almost to a man by the Blues, who had crept up that south-east path behind us. Aargh.

Oh, well, at least we didn't have far to respawn, and enough of us were left alive to hold them off while the rest did so. So once the team was reassembled, we hiked cross-country across our clearing to the perimeter trail (so as to avoid any remaining Blues), and off we went.

Once again, objective completed, and the pilot was safely extracted. Having no further role to play, though, and having been armed with an MP9 (his own weapon having suffered catastrophic failure during one of the pick-up games), the pilot (Dustin) stuck with us, and was instrumental in helping us retake our base a few minutes later.

How were we for ammo and energy, we were asked? We were doing okay, I guess, we replied. We were up for more playing, but we were beginning to notice how wet and cold our feet were getting. I don't think one of us had actual snow boots on; we were all in either combats, hikers, or runners. But we looked good.

We knew that the shortest way back, diagonally through the main intersection, was also the way most likely to get our asses shot up, but that perimeter trail across the north end of the property hadn't been flattened down with a snowmobile (or rather, when Mike had run it along there, the snow was too frozen to compact; meanwhile it had thawed into a nice granular crust that wouldn't quite support one's weight) and I, at least, just wasn't up for another hike along it. The rest of the team followed me.

We were just approaching the intersection when Red Command called us. "Why is there a Blue guy in our base?" he asked.

"Because he's gay and he sucks," I reply, clambering up the hill using my AK for a crutch.

"But is it true that Blue Team is occupying our base?"

"No, sir; enemy propaganda," I gasp, falling over the snow.

"I have an email here, all caps, from the Blue commander, saying that they definitely are in possession of our base."

Well, of course there was nothing to be done but to take it back again. Two Blues in the V-shaped fortification. One of our guys on point gets taken down right at the edge of the clearing. He can't fight, but he can (and does) relay their positions. Two more peel off and continue south from the main intersection, to go past the chicken coop and come up behind them from the south-east path. Two more try to flank to the north of the clearing, and I think Dustin (the pilot) was with them, because when the two guys flanking south came up and engaged from behind, he came up on the east side of our base and wiped them out. Yay!

Let this be a lesson to you: Always treat your captured pilots well.

And where was I? Oh, well, being pretty tired I tried to come up the main path but failed to stay behind cover effectively (or at all, looking at the welt pattern), so I spent the last two minutes of the game resting in the snow. I was just staggering up to our base to respawn, and in fact was just reaching out my hand to tag myself back in, when the game was called.

Wow, that was a lot of fun. It was pretty much unanimous: that game scenario, where various objectives were called in (and reported on) over the radio added a fantastic new element to the game and really made it fun. Without radios, it would pretty much have devolved into just a "hunt the Blues" type thingie; this way, we all felt very strongly part of a team.

We staggered back to the staging area (aka our lawn), where we had so much fun discussing the game that most of us continued on to Smitty's to keep socializing there.

Next week, everyone's bringing radios.

Oh yeah, air strikes. Blue team got one on us because we fired on their helicopter and pissed off their air force; they, however, let our helicopter alone so our air force wasn't concerned enough to feel air strikes were warranted.

But it really was pretty nerve-wracking having it flying around like that.