Game Play AAR

[Makatta]

Here is my assessment from the Admin side:

The game started off very slowly as there were some communication issues; it seemed the US team wasn't allowed to use the vehicles during the first attack (I don't know why that was the case as I didn't find that out until after the game was over). Also, insurgent forces were not in the FOB like they were supposed to be. Once they did show, it was virtually the whole team- which made the 45 min battle run for over 1.5 hrs.
Official start time was 1200 hrs, and it began at 1205.

The first US Team commander did his best with what he had. Some US players didn't come fully prepared either. There were some problems with the admin staff handling the humvees as well, but we corrected that later on.

The game stoppage was related to players not eating at all throughout the day and the heat (we had 6 heat casualties in under 20 min). This was enough to get the game restarted and the players back into game playing state- which made for better battles.

The second day was amazing and the battles awesome! The vehicle wreck caused us to change the game as not having them affected everything. This allowed the US team to better deal with the battle in Fallujah.

The Insurgent players- you guys were amazing and played hard and you all about demoralized the US Team. There were some players were did some rather dubious actions, overall you guys did well.

Thieving is NOT honorable. Thieving has no integrity. Thieving was done at this event. I hope to never hear of it again because it was done at a charity event. That is low. That person will not be my brother.

As for the admins, there were problems, and I too got caught in some of those issues as well. We chatted too much (which we corrected), we weren't paying attention in some places (we corrected some of it, but we are human and can't see everything). As for the attitude, I did see it and it will not happen again; such as an admin shooting his pistol in the middle of a battle and telling the players, "I can do what I want." Or an admin in the middle of an avenue of battle- which can happen, yet that admin does need to move.

There were many claims of no hit calling on both sides- it happens and I will not go into it.

This event was my first BIG event to help plan. I have planned smaller ones in the past, but this was the biggest for me. I did make some mistakes and they were corrected later. I did everything in my power to make the game even and balanced as much as I could. I hoped the in game changes made the event better. I am sorry the Chicago players didn't allow us to fix the game for them and I hope they had a safe drive home. They missed out on a great game in the end.

You ALL helped make this the best Phoenix event ever and many soldier's lives will be changed because of your contributions to the charity and game! Thank you Brothers and Sister!

[demoman85]

makatta i cant express how great this event was as for team airsoft nebraska we had a blast we shall return next year and hopfully in bigger numbers

[Kilroy]

Official Long AAR:

Friday Night:
We arrived around 6:30 at the TAC, requested permission and drove into Fallujah to setup camp for the night. We stayed there that night and just hung out.

Saturday Morning:
I woke to what I thought was going to be an intense stormy start to the day but the front missed us. MAKO geared up and met with the rest of the Mike 1-1 Squad WELL before formations.

After brief we all climbed aboard the LMTV and deployed into the AO. Our first Mission was to take the FOB. Command ordered QRF to hit the left side of the town. EOD went Right. Army Squads went straight up the middle with Us Marines backing them up the whole way.

Due to the uphill nature of our US assualt on all side, insurgents had superior range on there side. Command ordered MIKE 1-1 to go right with EOD and take that side of the town. After a small fight in the tall grass, we got on line. We performed a simple bounding/overwatch to get a majority of the way to the Town then I gave the order to RUSH using VoA. Apparently, such a tactic is not as common as I assumed (assuming bad for SQL :/ ) because there were only a few of us that got anywhere and then promptly sprayed with BBs.

After respawn, we rejoined the assault that was knocking hard at the Insurgents front door. We soon made it into the town. We eventually flushed every insurgent out and the FOB was ours'.

The rest of the day, MAKO, TAB and the rest of the Marine units garrisoned the FOB. From time to time Command would piece together a rag tag unit for a mission and roll out. MAKO ended its day IN the FOB.

That night all of our gear was bussed to the FOB for catching rack with the assistance of a BAMF named Valko. Thanks man! LA and I slept on the balcony of a CONNEX and woke up wetter than a "bus loud of fat chicks headed to see the Ricky Martin". Thanks to the dew point that night. Hitman was the smart one and slept inside the CONNEX.

Sunday:
I decided to go DMR Sunday and limited myself to 1 hi-cap for the day. Reloaded 3 or 4 times but only left Semi-Auto 1 time.

Grim took over US Command for the morning. It was funny to here KILROY!! or MAKO!! any time crap was about to hit the fan. we promptly showed to the beck and call of command and snuffed the OPFOR assault. Got into a disagreement with a particular individual who challenged me on a safety kill and complained to admins. I yelled out "I GOT IT ON CAMERA B****!!" as I truely did. Caught the entire incident. No hard feelings from this end, just don't BS the BSer with the camera.

Shortly after, Command sent Mike 1-1 to take a small farm village which had been reported to be housing an AA Gun. We reached the compound with NO resistance. We promptly began the search of the compound for intel and talked with the admins for the command freq as we could not raise command.

During our search, not only did we locate the AA Gun but we located an IED. Frustrated with comms, I pulled out the trusty Blackberry and phoned Commander Grim. I informed him we located the AA Gun and we needed EOD to defuse the IED. Command confirmed he would send EOD. I then ordered Mike 1-1 to garrison the town and establish check points on the road.

EOD arrived, disarmed the IED, consequently killing 4 of my men (wtf?) and dismantled the AA Gun. AA dismanlting provided the US Forces 2 airstrikes taking 2 buildings out of play to ease their advance into Faulljah. I was then bussed via POV (helmet strap busted and I had no field remedy available) to the CP outside Fallujah. We rallied together and formulated a battle plan and attempted to employ it. However, once again most people feel the need to stop and kneel in order to accurately fire their weapon. So, VoA/Rushing was ineffective without the full force practicing the same tactics.

After my batteries died, and a rather unpleasant experience with a particular cheater with a dead rag pointing out the living to his team, I packed up and retired from the OP.

Final Thoughts:
For some reason, there was a lot of unsportmans-like conduct (flipping the bird, breaking engagement issues, unnecessary use of full auto, and just backyard type playing styles). This was designed to be a Mil-Sim but I didn't get that vibe. I like the addition of the vehicles, ammo restrictions etc. I guess I got spoiled by OKI6 but I felt like something was lacking. However, I can't think for the life of me what could be added.

I have to say the schmage (sp?) idea was good BUT many times the Red/White Schmage looked like a dead rag from the distance and resulted in a many deaths by approaching US to secure/clear an area. I could see it having the opposite effect of a dead player being lit up thinking the dead rag was a schmage.

There was a particular instance during the Fallujah attack where admins kept walking through my line of fire during my attempt to provide cover fire for advancing troops. While attempting to address the situation to tell them to move, another admin (that I could not see around the corner) told me that I should be the one to move. Admin's should be doing their utmost to stay OUT of the line of fire. If a player mentions you are in the way, you should move and not be an @$$ and tell them to move from cover to get his shot. It ruins the flow of the game and is not cool. I talked with Mak afterwards and addressed my concerns.

Overall, I enjoyed fighting next to my MAKO Brothers, Stiki, Thumper, TAB Team, Red?(5 color desert sniper), Serving under Stagg, Thumper, and Grim. You all did what you could with what you had. I didn't serve under Metalman (I think) but I heard positive things.

I'm happy we could all contribute to such and great charity, by shooting at our friends, to support those that took real bullets from our enemies. I simply cannot express my gratitude.

Until our next engagement,

Kilroy Out.

[ringo]

I appreciate the hospitality and effort of FRAT and CMA, without it I would not arrived back home exhausted from too much fun. It is the best $65 I have spent all summer!

The event was extremely well run, the Admins were great, all events have glitches so they are not worth mentioning. The FRAT EMT service was on top of the heat causalities.

Recommendations for next time:

1. Use of Blowout packs/IFAKs in addition to Medics

2. Safety Kills can only be used from behind. I don't know anyone that intends on injuring anyone, but crap happens and someone always gets F-up playing peek-a-boo frontal safety kill (as mentioned in the other thread).

[shadow]

Well now what can I say about this event?

First and foremost, Thank you.

I personally went around and tried to shake hands and thank each admin and staff member for doing what they did for us so we could play army man.

Also thanks goes out to the gate guards who checked our weapons when we came back in. While this took about 20 min I appreciate the fact that they were diligent in doing their jobs and not just letting anyone in driving a car full of who knows what.

I laughed a bit when the guard pulled out my M4 and said "Holy Sh*t!" Looks like we may have a future airsofter there

Anyway on the the meat and potatoes. I had a great time besides getting overheated and napping the latter part of saturday. I'd rather miss a few hours and not end up in the hospital.
The messed up thing is I'm in very good shape, I'm active, I run and bike, I hydrate, yet the heat still hit me, so I know it must've been bad for guys not in my physical condition. Also on a side note I has a tub of polishing compound in my tool box which is usually hard, that melted all over my tools. That's how hot it was.

For the record I was on romeo 1-2 QRF.

I was told that we couldn't get on base until 5 am sat so we left STL at 11 pm and drove all night with hopes of sleeping a few before the event started.
NOPE! We got there in enough time to find out we could've gotten there friday night. Oh well I've played on no sleep before. I do feel this had something to do with me crashing out sat though.

On the opening fight we were told to flank the cluster of connex boxes and wait until the army main force attacked then we were to hit them from the side/behind. That never happened. We were told then that WE were the main assault force, all 12 of us. WTF?

Well we got mostly hosed as you might have guessed. We were lucky we had a medic and I was fast enough to leave him in a ditch and "drag" wounded to him. I think I evac'd 6 or 7.

We finally got a foothold on the cluster and cleared some real estate and entrenched a bit. I then started taking fire from a friendly who must've assumed I was opfor because I was in a building. After multiple attempts to contact him I had to shoot him.
Sadly it was my best shot of the game. 1 single round between his full auto bursts. The shot went straight at his chest where I had aimed it but the hop pulled it up last second and hit him in the face. I felt bad and I do apologize for that despite him cussing me to no end.
Dude if you are reading this I am sorry and I really didn't mean for that to hit you in the face.

So after all that we ran around a bit in a daze until I stopped for more water and lunch. Passed out in the car's AC and that pretty much ended Saturday for me.

Sunday I was rested and ready to rock. We had done some small assaults on various places and had mixed luck until we attempted falluja. We had planned to airstrike the school because it had at least 25 tangos in it that we could see from the road. We then planned to move into that corner and gain a foothold all while the marines were assaulting from the other side.

Well by the time the airstrike happened the school was magically empty and it killed no one. Plus right about then we had the LMTV hit the Humvee causing a delay for us. Then we got randomly dropped off in the field near the staging area when we asked to be taken to the school.
We promptly had more than a dozen insurgents headed our way and they killed all but 3 of us. As we got pushed back against the edge of play I saw an opening to get a lone sniper. I had my SAW gunner suppress him and I moved around him, I popped up just on the other side of the old truck, less than 10 ft from him and shouted "safety kill" I had to yell it twice because he had no idea I was there. After that we decided to quit for lunch and re evaluate the plans.

We linked up with 4 marines and headed back into falluja just walking down the road. We made it all the way into town and just opened up. We had the corner gas station in less than a minute and linked up with more US forces. It was then that we were informed no more full auto at all. After which I was promptly railed in the face with a full auto burst. YAY BLOOD!!!
At least my teeth are all ok. Shortly thereafter the game was called.

Overall I had a good time and there would only be a few things I would change.
Command seemed to be lost out there and communication was almost nil.
We would get an orchestrated set of plans and the timing would be all off, Causing us to loose the initiative.

Being in your 3rd year I can see this is headed in a good direction and with time and experience will come excellence. I run a small OP in MO and I remember my second and 3rd years being terrible to the point that I considered packing it in and killing the OP for good but it has taken on a new life and is flying high in it's 6th year now!

As I think of things I'll attempt to contribute as much as possible.

[thumper69]

I would like to say to EVERYONE I Played with shot at and worked on this. THANK YOU!!!!. Every Op in the past had bigger issues. This was run by FAR better than any Op and I include last years Invasion. I am PROUD to have gone, amazed and humbled by the Op and t AO was top notch. Only suggestion for improvment would be hold this in either spring or fall, when we won't have as many heat issues. Makkata, Mack, EVERYONE, thank you. Just tell me when the next Op is, I Will drive myself up.

[suspence]

I greatly enjoyed this op, even though it had a very slow start (as I was stuck in Fallujah the first few hours). Anyway, I had a lot of fun at this event and can't wait for the next large event to be hosted at Fort Riley.

Personally, I think the one thing that would have helped this game would have been a different balance to the teams. With the teams being close to even in numbers, the advantage to the insurgent force was far superior to that of the US. I was insurgent forces and I thought we had a massive advantage with a highly covered and fortified high ground. We could easily have been evenly matched with 2:1 against or even 3:1 numbers. But that's just for holding the Fallujah base. That's just what I thought could be changed to improve the next game if there is a defending force entrenched as heavily as we were. Overall though, I had so much fun at this op and can't wait for the next one.

[Makatta]

Since this event was many players first Milsim, more will have a chance to get gear and to be ready for the next one. This game set the formula for future events and hopefully will allow players to enjoy them.

And that's our plan: Have a beginner Milsim event and then have a mid-level Milsim later.

Once you have the gear, you can use it for the next event.

We want to grow Milsim and grow the players into mature, integrity filled leaders. The next one will have uniform restrictions, ammo restrictions, etc. All with an intent to make it an awesome experience.

The previous Phoenix events was ran by a guy that didn't transfer his experience to us, so we learned a lot and will use the AARs to make these better events in the future.