Since demands for a review of this event are flying left and right, I'll share my experience.
After-Action Review: Operation Lightning Strike V, May 16-18, 2014
1. The AOThe Area of Operations (AO) for this event was the
Scioto Juvenile Correctional Facility on the banks of the Scioto River outside of Delaware, OH.
The AO contained roughly 11 buildings including several cell-blocks, a cafeteria, high school with auditorium, medical facilities and a recreational center with pool. The cell-blocks featured roughly similar interiors that consisted of administrative areas and living quarters including in-mate cells with bunks and individual toilets all equipped with heavy, locking doors. Wrecked cars were scattered across the outdoor spaces between buildings to provide extra cover and add to the "feel" of the event. Fog generators and fake flame devices were activated in some of these vehicles.
Roof access was available via a stairwell in the recreational center, but roof access to other structures required ladders or the impromptu use of picnic tables turned on their sides.
In comparison to the Northern Light AO, the Scioto AO was fairly small. The entire playing area of the AO was confined to the fenced area of the correctional compound with access being through the main admin building at E4 on the map. Inside this building was the main Lion Claws staff HQ as well as the vendor area.
One major difference from the Northern Light AO was that this facility had only been closed for about two weeks prior to the game. Staff were still removing files, equipment and furniture when touring of the site began on Friday. The electricity, water, computer systems, video cameras and electronic door-locks in many of the buildings were still functional. Inside the highschool the water fountains and bathrooms still worked, which was a nice surprise.
2. Opening ceremonyAll Lion Claws events begin with an opening ceremony where participants are organized into their platoons and briefed on the safety and facility rules. John Liu and the VIPs/Commanders usually give brief speeches. Frankly, I was dreading this part of the game. At both Northern Light events the opening ceremony took a very long time as John Liu and the VIPs droned on about this or that while we players stood in formation wearing all of gear, carrying rifles in the June heat. Happily, the opening ceremony at Lightning Strike V was brief and to the point. John Liu, as usual, told the story of how he got involved with airsoft and started the Lion Claws venture. MSgt Mullins and "Bubba" Moore gave brief talks to fire up the troops.
3. Game on!During the first day, the green (Russian Renegade) team, of which most MiA players were a part, started the game on the northern side of the AO. This is the left side of the map above. Green quickly gained control of the recreational center and the high school before fanning out to contest the cafeteria (D7/8) and the cell block at F8/F9. While the green team managed to get several players (including Taishi and Squirrel) onto the roof of the cell-block, the tan team fairly rapidly pushed down the length of the F- and G- lines.
I played mostly on the river side of the event and can't really speak for what happened on the western or road side of the AO.
On the river side, the game bogged into a snap shooting battle of attrition as the tan team tried to force their way along the river side of the cell block at G8/G9 while simultaneously fanning out into the field that ran along the fence line. Along this fence was a gully with a dirt road running along it (basically the very bottom of the H line on the map) that offered some cover to the approaches to the high school. Green players were barred from shooting out of the upper windows of the highschool and so the tan team was able to exploit this avenue to push in closer. A sliding garage door at the southern end of the lower level of the highschool gave the green team a spot to rally and a point where reinforcements could be brought into play without being exposed to fire while advancing.
The primary difficulty in seizing control of the cell-block at G8/G9 was that moving from the highschool to the actual cell-block required an uphill sprint of about 75 meters. This entire stretch was dominated by the northern end of the cell-block building from which tan players could lay down substantial plunging fire. Successful advances on this position required an advance through the center and the river side of the AO in order to push the tan defenders back to the centerline of the building.
The second half of the first day continued the trend of each team trying to push the other off specific buildings. In general, the AO was really split in two along the E line. This central part of the campus was relatively devoid of cover except for some wrecked vehicles, trees and a small wooden pavilion. Anyone moving through this area was exposed to flanking shots from the adjacent structures on the D and G/F line making it a difficult line of advance to exploit.
Control of the roof-tops seemed to be a critical requirement for advancing from building to building. And a tan SAW gunner managed to hose me down quite well from the top of the cell-block at G8 while I was concentrating on holding the back corner of the cell-block.
At one point, I was in a position at the northern, rear edge of the G8/G9 cell-block as tan tried to advance en-masse along the fence line. The tan team managed to advance as far as a pile of rocks while myself and several others engaged them from a position above them. During this period I actually ran out of ammunition and was being handed M4 magazines by a medic who was only using his pistol. Over the radio, Squirrel and several others spotted targets from the roof of the rec center. After eventually running out of ammunition (7 magazines, a whole lot shooting for me), I retreated to join them on the roof.
By the end of the first day, it was fairly clear that the green (MiA) team was in a dominant position and controlled much of the AO.
The weather for the day game was cool with intermittent periods of rain and strong winds that made precision shooting difficult from time to time.
4. Night Game
Gunny, Hunter and I chose to stay for the night game. For this portion of the event, the green team started on the opposite (southern) end of the AO from the day game.
The tan team, which at this point was fairly small in comparison to the green side, dispersed through the northern end of the AO. At the start, the green team made a concerted push down the G line encountering significant resistance between the highschool and the G8/G9 cell block. By spreading out into the field and pushing along the river side of the cell-block green was able to make the leap to the highschool and start eliminating tan players from the interior.
At this point, I was able to advance without resistance to the G5 area. We encountered some tan players firing from the rec center roof-top which had previously been deemed off limits for the night game.
Overall, the night game was fairly unexceptional. The game basically ended at dusk and it was never dark enough to warrant the use of NVG/NODs although there was significant use of laser sighting devices especially during a tan advance along the western side of the highschool at one point.
5. The Second DayThe second day of the event was beautiful and sunny. The green team started on the southern end of the field.
Early in the gaming, green advanced to and began to contest the buildings along the D line. Sniper fire from the roof-top at D7/D8 require putting green troopers on the roof of D8/D9.
Gunny and I spent a significant amount of time defending the F8/F9 side of one of the cell-blocks early on Day 2. With Gunny at the F8 rear corner of the building and with myself pushing out into the center, tree-ed area of the campus, we could prevent tan players from pushing up the E line side of the building. We could also put flanking shots into players at the D line buildings. At one point, I moved to a wrecked car in the center of the E line and was putting fire into tan troopers at the back edge of the cafeteria and the back edge of the F8/F9 cell block.
Overall, I enjoyed the second day more than the first. It was a warmer, clearer day and the game play seemed more dynamic with more flanking and pushing from building to building.
6. CommsDuring the first Northern Light event, the Michigan team suffered from poor communications due to many people having lower quality (i.e. bubble-pack, Motorola Talkabout) type radios. The AO was just too large with too many structures to have effective communications. During the second Northern Light event many of us upgraded to ICOM F4011 (or similar) radios. The result was generally better communications across the entirety of the AO. Many of us, however, were dissatisfied with various aspects of the ICOM platform (lack of programming software, difficulty of programming, etc). As a result, a bunch of us acquire BaoFeng UVR+ radios. Externally programmable, powerful, similar in capability to the ICOM models and super cheap, the BaoFengs have seemed to become a MiA favorite.
Scott specially programmed many of our radios for the day to include all the basic GMRS/FRS channels as well as a special MERS (?) channel for squad use.
In general, I felt that our communications for this event fell short. The usual problems (hot miccing, VOX activation, jamming?) seemed to occur a lot. I rarely heard anyone talking over the two channels that I was monitoring, although it is possible I wasn't using my radio correctly since it was my first time fielding it. Let that be a lesson to you! Test your gear before using it at a major OP!
7. LeadershipOur leadership for this event on the squad and platoon level was excellent. Pagan as the leader of First Platoon laid out basic objectives at the start and we pushed to achieve those. Our briefings from Moose (our XO) and "Bubba" Moore were succinct and basically consisted of a "we want to hold this area/these buildings, now go and do it."
Some of the best strategic advice of the weekend came from Moose who basically told us that the team that stays out of the parking lot wins. By the second half of the first day there were a lot of discouraged tan players in the parking lot.
8. The "milsim" experienceLion Claws events always bill themselves as the most real, most immersive, most "milsim" type events that you can play.
Frankly, I find this laughable. Aside from being told to take certain buildings or hold certain areas, I never received a specific game-related objective. I saw some guys moving fake artillery shells around, but never found out what that was about. Again, this could have been because my radio was functioning incorrectly due to user error.
9. Final Thoughts (because I'm tired of writing)The bottom line for Lion Claws events, is that you attend to enjoy a new and fascinating AO and to play with your friends.
Overall, the game play at this event was on par with any large Michigan scenario/milsim game. What made it special was the fantastic AO and the group of people that I had the pleasure of attending with.
Photo gallery:
Link to all my photos for the event.