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Post by Tank on Aug 20, 2014 0:41:44 GMT -5
I would just like to say, christianc , you are a real stand up guy. Our squad A2-4 (MiA-Team) saw you several times in the field. You always had a smile on your face, a good story, an encouraging message, and you fought by our side. I agree with the briefing duration, but the duration of time between end game and debrief, and the length of debrief was just painful. I honestly found myself nearly a sleep several times during the giveaways. If there was some sort of heads up that it would be a lengthier time before debrief, we could have at least slept during that time in our cars or barrics. I for one did a number on my leg, and found sitting on the ground previous to briefing nearly unbearable. I had an x-ray done on Monday, don't worry, nothing was broken. What lead up to that was being in the church, having it get fogged, then the lights being turned off, right as I walked to the front. I didn't notice the step up at the front and came full force down on the corner of the step with my shin, just below the knee. All I have to say is I have a new appreciation for my knee pads, because I think they allowed me to hobble around the field for the next 14 hours, instead of being carried off with a broken leg.
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Post by Mirage on Aug 20, 2014 6:49:20 GMT -5
First off I want to say thank you to Blacksheep for making the trip to Michigan. We appreciate having an event in our state and try to support whenever that happens. We have a strong player base here and all are glad to hear that you are working out Grayling 2.
I agree with most of the criticisms and won't repeat, however please keep in mind that these guys had 2-3 months to plan this. An event of this scale isn't easy to plan, harder with time constraints, and even harder when at a new facility with no past experience to aide in game planning. I think that the game wasn't all that bad considering the above and leaves room for improvement next year.
RAGE was squad 2-1 with Vmax and Zdybel rounding out our ranks. It was great to see the MIA community out there in force and shoot alongside a lot of you at once.
Most of us didn't hit our wall until the ride home. We were riding the adrenaline the entire event and didn't start feeling the effects until close to game end.
Our favorite part if the event was getting our FRAGO at 2:30 am, coordinating our exfil with numerous squads, and of course the huge firefight for the helipad. Christian shooting off those flares really added to the coolness factor. To top it all off, at the end I was sitting there with most of 2-1 and a couple of the last guys alive and we decided that there was enough red lights on the ridge to make a run for it. I took point with g-biz and Mosin/Relarz grabbed the downed pilot and we made our run for it, got the pilot to the helipad, and securing Alpha the lead.
We had other memorable engagements, from taking our a squad that had 3 night vision sets when we had none, only to have them come back with another squad that had more nods and people. We stood strong almost taking those guys out as well but fell short just at the end. We also took 4 guys with pistols only, crawled through the AO with our gear off, to recon building 18. We let many Bravo walk right by us, some within 15 yards, so that we could get close to 18 and scout. We hit the building at 530am or so and raised hell with pistols through the murder holes.
All in all, we had a blast playing at this facility and I know for a fact I'll be back out there next year. For those of you that nominated us as squad if the battle, both in person and on here, thank you for the kind words and consideration. Having the recognition from our peers holds a lot more weight than the patch would have.
It was great to meet the leaders of Blacksheep as well. Again, we appreciate you coming to Michigan and look forward to the improvements made next year.
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Cam
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SK19
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Post by Cam on Aug 20, 2014 8:50:37 GMT -5
I think we should all thank the staff for taking the time to create accounts and address our concerns about the event. That goes a long way here.
Please don't feel as we are bashing on the event at all. Many of us on this forum plan MILSIM events, so we understand how hectic it can be around here, and on such short notice. We're just providing the input we get and have amounted in our times planning events.
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Post by bnagley on Aug 20, 2014 9:07:48 GMT -5
Christianc Are you the one I gave half my dead rag to?
If so you were a very good sport and I saw you on the field with your guys more often then not and I applaud that.
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Post by X on Aug 20, 2014 9:37:42 GMT -5
I think we should all thank the staff for taking the time to create accounts and address our concerns about the event. That goes a long way here. Please don't feel as we are bashing on the event at all. Many of us on this forum plan MILSIM events, so we understand how hectic it can be around here, and on such short notice. We're just providing the input we get and have amounted in our times planning events. Absolutely. Thanks are in order for actively seeking feedback from us. Even if things aren't necessarily changed to suit our desires it's nice to know our thoughts are heard and considered.
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Post by eagledriver on Aug 20, 2014 9:53:35 GMT -5
Thanks to all of the players that came out for this event. 24 hours is not an easy length of time to play, and as it was previously pointed out, depending on when you got up it can be more like 30 to 34 hours. I myself had flown back from a few weeks in Germany the day before and I hit my wall for the first time at a MILSIM event. I think some of the things were already covered, but I wanted to add a few things. First of all, thank you to all of the MIA community. This opportunity came up and I really hoped it would go as it is close to where I come from. Even though I live in Baltimore now I am still a Michigander! Thank you Mosin, Pagan, Legionnaire, and all of the others that came out. It is unfortunate that you chose Alpha, but what can I say--there is something about good old woodland camo that still has an appeal. About the Penske trucks - Understand that I have unlimited access to a deuce and a half truck that I can bring to any game. However the deck height is an issue with people getting on and off of the back. The Penske rental trucks allow people to jump on and off quickly and safely. What I would like to do is get two of these fitted out with benches and grab bars and paint them. A vehicle with some combination of the low deck height, 4x4, and green/tan color would be ideal. By the way, anyone on Bravo who had to ride with Ryan as the driver should get some sort of "I survived" patch! Holding buildings - You all have experienced the long duration MILSIM event at one time or another (here or another game.) But long duration MILSIM games are some times like that. Hours of boredom interspersed with moments of excitement. I know that several Bravo squads did 3+ hour stints holding one building or another. But for the overall picture, I was trying to hold the right makeup of buildings so that there was the smallest front to defend. That way we could concentrate our efforts on holding what we had, attacking in concentrated areas, and quickly reacting to incursions. What it would have looked like, for one example, would have been a line from the top left corner of the CACTF map to the bottom right. We held this for about 1/2 of the game, but if we diverted forces to take the southern residential area that caused us to spread our forces and made a weak point that the enemy could exploit. It also draws defending units and thins out each building's defense. We then would make our own incursions to probe and disrupt Alpha. That way Alpha had to take units waiting to assault and react to our attack. This is effective if we have units that comply, but remember, this is MILSIM. The first thing I asked was that squad leaders just keep me informed. If I asked you to hold a building for a time and you decided to up and go somewhere else, then I just wanted to know so I could plan for that. I know that orders are given in MILSIM games but they don't really have to be followed. You aren't in the military (at least for this game) but doing so goes a long way to the success of the game. I am just trying to let you know what my train of thought was on the game strategy. MRE's - I know I will get sh#t from the Major, but I agree that a better MRE is needed. I will be researching this. One a similar note, if any of you went to the first Red Storm East Lion Claws game, you know that I like GOOD meals. I arranged catering there and wanted to do so here. But I did not know how the Army would want that handled. I can say that after just going through Range Safety Officer training and hearing about how much crap had to be handled just to get us onto the CACTF I doubt we could have had it that way (warm meal catered onsite or food truck.) Comms - I am sorry that the Alpha comms were not up to what you would have liked. To me, this is a CO/XO function, and on Bravo we had this nailed down more than a month in advanced. I alluded to this in the other comms thread--not to bash on Alpha but I believe the biggest part of command is prep when you can. Not really knowing how we were to be deployed I could not formulate a starting strategy. But comms were only dictated by the number of players we had. So money out of my pocket went to getting that FCC license that I have droned on about in the other thread. We had 36 separate frequencies to use on our comm plan. Each type of radio (except one Toy Soldier FRS type) had a programming file so we could just plug into the laptop and program away. I do this at every game. It was a real advantage to have Rick Craft on my team because he is also a big radio head -- almost a Baofeng snob!!! But we also had a Bravo facebook group which we also do for every game so that we could share ideas, the comm plan, or just make fun of each other. I am not trying to make people mad because one side or another had a comm plan, but rather illustrate that as a volunteer (no I do not get paid) I try to go out of my way to make sure the logistics work well. OC (refs) - We only had two ref's for the game, which we call OCs - Observer Controllers. Since Grayling is so far up there we did not have an established base of staff to pick from. Zac and Chris were worked to death for sure--at least Zac looked like it at the end. If anyone would like to be an OC for the next event please let Blacksheep2 or Blacksheep6 know. OPFOR - We did not have an OPFOR to take care of additional FRAGO missions. Although I do not plan the FRAGO missions I do know the some of them are run with an OPFOR. Any team that wishes to put their name in the hat for next year's OPFOR let the major know. Be advised that there are uniform requirements so you might have to buy black uniforms or something like that. Well I had a good game and am glad that most people had fun. I know there were issues and at the beginning I even told everyone that the game would suck! But big MILSIM games can be like that. Berget, for example, is a huge four day game in Sweden with 2,000+ players from around the world. If you did not like holding a building for 4 to 6 hours you probably would not like being a spotter for 18 hours during one game (which I have done before.) Each player has different interests and I hope that we can build on this first event to make it much more enjoyable!
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Post by eagledriver on Aug 20, 2014 10:19:08 GMT -5
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Post by Relarz on Aug 20, 2014 14:28:36 GMT -5
Honestly, Mosin posted almost word for word what I had typed up, so I'm not going to bother rehashing his incredible valid points. Here is one thing I would like to add: 20 hours of capture and defend with four hours of fragos thrown in during the dead of night doesn't make for the most memorable game play. I understand that this event is about pushing the limits of your endurance, but it's contrived when done just for the fact. Put some fragos in while players are still fresh and leave some of the 5+ hours building security shifts for the midnight hours when it's possible to get the so called " battle rest". I do understand that this is how real life can happen, but in real life you don't get re-spawns, so let's acknowledge that we're dealing with something other than real life. The facility was phenomenal and the sportsmanship from 95% of the players was the best I've ever encountered. I'm glad I had the opportunity to attend. I know I'm a bit late to the party here, but I believe the FRAGOs were so few and far between due to the other training schedules occurring at Grayling that weekend.
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Post by Gimpalong on Aug 20, 2014 15:07:48 GMT -5
Maybe someone can clarify this for me, but if all of the FRAGOs were conducted on the grounds of the CACTF and the CACTF was being used solely by airsofters for the weekend, then how would other training activities elsewhere have interfered or been interfered with?
My impression of what a FRAGO is from past events is that it's just a sort of brief side mission. So one specific squad being directed to, say, retrieve the missionary hiding in the church steeple, would be carrying out a FRAGO.
As at Lightning Strike V and Northern Light IV, it would be cool to have a distinctly separate area to carry out a FRAGO, but it doesn't seem absolutely necessary. Had training not been occurring at Grayling would FRAGOs have taken airsofters off of the CACTF to some other area of the base or other nearby location?
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Post by Ogre on Aug 20, 2014 15:18:02 GMT -5
I believe that was the intention.
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TICK
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Post by TICK on Aug 20, 2014 15:56:22 GMT -5
Maybe someone can clarify this for me, but if all of the FRAGOs were conducted on the grounds of the CACTF and the CACTF was being used solely by airsofters for the weekend, then how would other training activities elsewhere have interfered or been interfered with? My impression of what a FRAGO is from past events is that it's just a sort of brief side mission. So one specific squad being directed to, say, retrieve the missionary hiding in the church steeple, would be carrying out a FRAGO. As at Lightning Strike V and Northern Light IV, it would be cool to have a distinctly separate area to carry out a FRAGO, but it doesn't seem absolutely necessary. Had training not been occurring at Grayling would FRAGOs have taken airsofters off of the CACTF to some other area of the base or other nearby location? At Shelby the FRAGO took place in another area away from the CACTAF.
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TICK
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Post by TICK on Aug 20, 2014 16:47:20 GMT -5
TICK, I didn't mean to sound like I was complaining. I was just saying that I didn't believe the chrono was reading accurately. It's not like you could possibly know what my gun normally shoots. I didn't bother saying anything because it was erring on the side of safety (reading high) and I was still under the limit. It's all good!
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Post by Mosin on Aug 20, 2014 17:51:40 GMT -5
To anyone from Bravo that called a long range hit from my Maruzen while I was on top of building 18 (Mainly looking at the dudes in the suburb area or on top of the school). You have no idea how much that is appreciated. My scope is able to track them for the majority of the flight path, and in most instances I can see them bounce off of plate carriers, but as I test shot one of my own dudes over that same distance he said it was comparable to a spring pistol at 20 feet, so I can understand if it wasn't felt.
When you Bravo dudes were on top of building 18, I was hitting you from that murder hole in the attic on building 8. I know some of you returned fire in the hole, but I was sitting way back at that time so I figured it was just some guess shooting.
Great sportsmanship in that regard, truly.
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Post by Combat Junkies Airsoft on Aug 20, 2014 18:04:10 GMT -5
I believe it was you who tagged two of my guys in the face while we were holding building 11. They weren't to pleased at the time but it was one hell of a shot.
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Post by Legionnaire on Aug 20, 2014 18:52:25 GMT -5
You tagged me in the left shoulder (or I think it was you) while I was on top of building 18 standing in a corner. You also tagged me in the finger through a window in the prison.
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