MILSIM: Operation East Wind VI (MAR09-MAR16, 2013)

[Impulse]

Oct 9, 2012 23:26:18 GMT -5 Myers said:

Knowing that I'm not 1337 enough to attend East Wind makes me want to commit suicide.

Seriously though, can't wait until I can finally attend one of these games. Definitely will be a life changing event!

I'm pretty sure you're cool enough We do try to maintain an even attitude with players who aren't too into the milsim approach we take. We also only feature line units - radio relay, armored infantry, motor rifle reconnaissance, border guards - so by some measure we're actually less 1337 than the majority of teams in their high-speed kits and tac'd out M4's.

Getting the time off can certainly be an issue, I'm not even 100% certain that I'll be able to go for that very reason. While the event does have options for playing less than the entire time - reduced price to play 1-5 days, as well as the day player option - these aren't as reasonable options for someone who is traveling from this far away. I have known people to consider playing the entire event as a day player simply because the equipment requirements are much lower (to explain, day players are allowed to play for $20 a day and are attached to other squads for their daily missions. They only have to have a day's worth of kit - LBV, uniform, and a less-specific weapon). Certainly a strong choice for local players, but for those who travel it just isn't worth it to skip the full experience.

[caseycordray]

im going to be 17 by than and and i have questions. do i have to have the gear as in the suit and boots. if it said it i didnt catch it.

[caseycordray]

do you have to have a certain gun and can u charge batteries or get bbs

[Gimpalong]

Casey,

We appreciate the use of correct grammar and spelling on this forum.

As for your questions, please go to www.operationeastwind.com.

You will find the answers to many of your questions there.

Yes, you do need the correct boots and other period correct equipment including PASGT helmet and body armor, as well as ALICE LBE.

Yes, you do need a certain type of gun, an M16A2. You will need to supply your own bbs. You should be able to charge your batteries from time to time, but you will probably want to have (and are required to have) more than one battery.

Again, please go to the Operation East Wind website for more information about the requirements of the event.

edit: 800th post!

[Impulse]

Casey: Take a short glance at the photos on the prior page. It should be evident that there are certain requirements for weapons and gear.

In addition, the minimum required age to attend is 18 (with administrative exceptions, which are rare).

There are, of course, chargers available. BB's not so much, but you don't go through all that many either.

[aswayze]

Since Impulse already pointed out that we do not use bbs at the usual rate I'll post up a story that illustrates why that is:


Night raid on Colleville from the perspective of a single US private:

13:00 hours. With unit sitting on border in peacetime. High Soviet activity level on opposite side of border. Command does not have effective comms with higher.

13:07 hours. Soviets push across border en masse. Your unit, backed up by British armored infantry are holding the line but just barely.

13:15 hours. Local commander decides to commit his armored scout car to the fight. Knowing that by doing so he's potentially loosing his only effective runner to higher HQ.

13:20 Hours. Ratelo finally gets through to higher. Word is reinforcements are coming.

13:35 hours. Your unit is down to 40% You've lost contact with the Brits but things don't sound so good over there. An RPG just took out the Ferret so you're only wheels are now a burning wreck. Ammo is getting critical.

13:37 hours. You hear the familiar roar of a deuce rolling up behind town. Troops dismount and begin to sweep forward.

13:40 hours. The situation is not advantageous, Reinforcements push up to the Brits and get them then everyone hastily withdraws from town. It was a bad fight but managed to break contact pretty well and at least you're not leaving anyone behind.

14:00. You're back at camp and after grabbing a pile of ammo and making good your reloading, you grab some lunch. All the leaders are in the TOC, something is up.

15:00 Two other squads push off to probe the enemies defenses and look things over. Your squad, who's been up since 0:200 hits the rack for some sleep.

20:00 You get up from bed and grab a quick meal. An oporder is being issued at 22:00 and you are told to prepare for a night raid. You check your rig for jingly things and tape over anything that shines then wait...

22:00 Oporder is issued. It will be a full company raid on the town we left earlier today. Recon says that the enemy is set up primarily in two main buildings. Estimated 2 full sections of Soviet troops, no vehicles present. One squad's got near security to make sure the doors open to get back out, the Brits have got far security to make sure that no help gets to the towns garrison once we hit. Another squad's got the church, your squad gets the larger of the buildings. You'll be going in hard and fast. Zip in, kill some Ruskies, pick up priority intel, grab any important prisoners and zip out. Mission will kick off at 02:00.

23:00 You draw a set of nods, camo up your face and go through your rehersals with your squad. Who's on our left? Who's on our right? What's the recognition signal when we head back out through our near side security? How far can we advance? What buildings are ours and which ones do the other squads have? What's our rally point if things go haywire? Information is pouring at you and you are working hard to digest it all.

24:00 the entire company gathers for a rehearsal. Mini glow sticks show the layout of the town and you run through each step so you understand how it's all supposed to go down. You're squad leader is concerned about the 75 meters of open ground you'll be crossing to get to your building. If the Soviet's are up and lively that's going to be pure murder. The CO hopes that you'll be across that ground before the Soviets can react. You dearly hope so...

01:00 final checks. Nod batteries are good. Mount is straight right? Have you shot with nods before? No? Crap get with Gallion over there and have him walk you through the basics! You double check your mags, double check your gear, double check your everything. Everything is dark dark dark now, the whole unit is lights out right now so eyes can adjust. Tension is really high. The single German blurts out a quote from the movie Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. "Master Blaster rules bordertown" Morale is high.

01:15 3rd squad pushes out to sweep the road ahead and link up with the recon team that's been keeping eyes on the Soviets for the last 6 hours. You are jamming as much coffee down your throat as you can stand. You're beat, you did not get enough rest and you know you've got a hard night ahead.

02:00 everyones on the trucks for the movement forward. Slowly, the trucks grind their way into the blackness, the moon is not yet up and it is seriously dark out.

02:25 the truck slows to a halt at your drop off point. A member of 3rd squad is there to act as your guide to get your squad up to your assault position. The units break up and disappear into the inky blackness. You move forward adjusting yourself to the green glow of the nods and the feeling that every stick that snaps, every stumble, every breath sounds like the loudest rock concert. How are we supposed to sneak up on this place?

02:50 You're guide got you lost and you're coming up on show time but your unit is not to your assault position yet. If they kick off the attack with us not there, we're screwed! There's no way we'll cover that ground!

02:59 You reach assault position with little to no time to spare. Your SL waits for the signal to move out...

03:07 No signal but you hear a volley of fire from another squad and see in your nods as the race forward. SHIT! You know you're screwed now but your squad leader yells "let's go!" and over the berm you go running forward with all your might watching the distance close to your objective. Almost immediately, you find yourself running into an enemy position. Silhouettes move in the blackness, waking and stirring, grabbing weapons, reloading. You fire as you move killing several but knowing that you cannot afford to get bogged down here. A machine gun opens up from the upper floor of the building you're headed for. Rounds zip through the night you hear some of your squad mates go down. Forward... Forward you run, nothing but death here, you've got to get to that building.

03:08 grenades flash in the night (pea grenades) there's a lot of yelling and violence. You make it to the building and race in finding yourself face to face with a room full of guys. You rifle cracks and you clear them out one by one. About the time you've got the last one down you notice the familiar shadow of a PASGT helmet and realize you just wiped out a good portion of the US squad that was supposed to be taking the church across the street. They had heard the fighting over here and had raced over to help disregarding the plan. You're pissed that this happened but the flash and boom of a grenade just outside the door reminds you that you've not got time to focus on that crap now. The machine gun upstairs starts hammering away again. The one guy left that you did not kill screams in your ear that we need to get up there and get that machine gun or we'll never get out of here. You nod and the pair of you round the corner heading towards the stairs. Suddenly, almost in slow motion a grenade arches down the stair well. You grab the lead guys Y harness and pull him hard back towards the door but just end up pivoting him into the doorway where the grenade detonates right in front of him. In a flash he is gone and you are alone.

Alone... There is firing everywhere rounds are impacting the building and zinging through the windows, the machine gun upstairs hammers away again and some unseen target and all you can think of is two words that seemed so foreign to you when the operations officer mentioned them in training just a few days ago. Combat Isolation....

03:10. This is a mess. You're whole squad is gone, you killed the squad that's supposed to be holding the church across the street and you can see that the squad that supposed to be covering your way out is engaged in a fierce firefight with the guys who are upstairs. It's time to get the F out of here while hopefully everyone is looking another direction. You crouch and peek out the door eyeing the woods that long 75 yards away. You take a breath and sprint for all your worth. Running, running, running... The machine gun hammers and you’re just waiting for the rounds to stitch you the back but they don't come. You bust into the wood line and dive over a low berm.

03:15. You catch your breath and peer over the berm across the battlefield. The firing from the near side security team has ceased and you hear Russians yelling back and forth to each other. The woods crunch and pop with movement and you know you are in serious trouble. You slowly begin to make your way south to the rally point.

03:22. You stop suddenly when you hear the familar "Click-pop" of squelch breaking on a PRC-68 radio. You scan and spot a shadow in the darkness. You challenge the shadow and get the correct reply. It's your squads ratelo. He's working his way back as well. He tells you he thinks there's a sizable Soviet force moving through the woods just north of here and you guys need to make tracks.

03:45. Slowly you ease your way into the rally point. Nothing much to see... Creeping forward slowly, looking. Suddenly a quiet voice with a British accent comes out from the darkness. "Over here mate" You close up meet with the supply sgt who hearing the fracas on the radio decided to move a truck up to help evacuate everyone. He sets you off on the perimeter to pull security for a while till we get everyone gathered up.

04:15. Nobody else comes... The supply sgt gathers up all who are present and loads everyone in the truck. The engine cranks and the truck creeps back home.

04:45. You are back. Tired and dejected. You know that raid was a disaster. The Brit guy next to you in the truck referred to it as a "dick dance".

05:15 More units return on foot. Many tell stories just like yours, darkness, violence, confusion. You are exhausted. You meet up with some other members of your squad including your squad leader who finally tells you to go get some sleep.

05:20 you are fast asleep.

The next morning, a recon team clears the town. The Soviets obviously cleared out in a hurry just before dawn, mags are strewn about here and there as well as the odd bits of East German and Soviet equipment.

Once the event is over you learn the whole story of the disastrous raid. Turns out that most of the NATO force got out ok. In fact your friendly fire rampage killed almost as many NATO guys as enemy action. The guys that were just up that stairwell turned out to be the last remaining Soviet troops in the town. All that crunching and scary noises you heard in the woods was just other NATO troops heading back. All the Russian yelling was just the Soviet guys calling out to see if any of their other positions had survived the attack. (they hadn't). The guy upstairs, a combat veteran of the Russian Army who was wounded in Chechnya says of that battle: "McClane and I were ready to fight to the last BB! That was one of the most memorable moments at EW for me."

So... Out of the 16.3 hours tracked here. 40 minutes involved fighting. The rest was spent doing other activities leading up to the fight or supporting the fight. Our protagonist was lucky that he actually even got to catch some z's even. The point here is that East Wind is not a high action event. We don't just Yosemite Sam charge the enemy without a plan, respawn 5 minutes later and do it again. When you head out on mission, there's a lot involved. All of that "lot" requires attention to detail and interest in what's happening. If this is your thing, you are going to LOVE East Wind. If it's not, than you probably are not. It's important to us to make sure that we convey that to people looking at the event since we want the people to attend to have a great experience and a big part of that is making sure that we are up front and honest about what we are providing so that guys can make the decision as to whether East Wind is something that they are going to enjoy.

[Impulse]

The Canadian unit from EW:V has just uploaded a actual book detailing the events of their Eastwind experience!

Check it out here.

Current Michigan detachment is looking to be myself (NVA), ATS x2, auzzie, and Guts 'n' Glory... although the last may not know that he's going until shortly before the game starts

[Phantom G3]

I'm really thinking about heading up to this event. I already have almost all the U.S. requirements already from being a 1980's-1990's gear whore. If anyone within Michigan is looking to go, let me know so we can get a Michigan carpool going.

[fracture]

Within the next few months I should be getting the gear together to go, will stay updated.

[Phantom G3]

I know that this event is far away for us to attend the Trainings effectively. Anyone want to meet up sometime during the Winter to go over the Training that they would like us to know?

[Gimpalong]

I'd be willing to attend a training event. We'd need a place to host us.

[Phantom G3]

Did you have anything specific place in mind? I don't mind to drive a little ways if it is for Training .

[Impulse]

I had sent out a PM a about a week ago to see who would be interested in doing some training, but didn't get a lot of responses. Certainly, though, if there's at least five people including myself willing to do it, then it shall be done!

I'll talk with Swayze and Coop about getting a little bit more reference material - I'm no expert, but we should be able to pull off a reasonable exercise.

Required equipment would be:

• Rucksack or Veshmeshok
• Sleeping gear or blanket
• Sleeping pad (optional)
• Shelter half, plasch or bivy bag or Zelt
• Rain gear
• Properly fitted boots
• Properly fitted uniform
• compass
• Red filtered flashlight or standard flashlight
• Mess kit and silverware
• Capacity to carry a minimum of 2 liters of water on your person
• Boo boo kit (Bandaids, ibuprofen, antacids, allergy meds, whatever)
• Spare pair of socks
• Clothing appropriate to the weather
• Pen and paper (suggest waterproof pad and a pencil)
• Battle Rattle (minus AEG)

This wouldn't necessarily need to be Eastwind appropriate gear, as we'll certainly have people who aren't geared up to play. Just needs to be as good as the real deal.

Also it'll likely be cold, most EW training events are overnight patrols and overnights are about to drop below freezing. There's only so much you can do with a few shelter halves to keep warm, but I know a few tricks.

Let me know what you guys think is appropriate for a date, I had been considering Dec. 1-2 but the sooner, the better; I'm currently available Nov. 17-18 if we can get everything together in two weeks.

Awesome guys

[Phantom G3]

I still need to get a few of the requirements before I can do that training. I have a lot of it though!

[Columbus]

I prefer December 1-2, but sooner is still a possibility. I just know buying all my Christmas gifts on black Friday is going to make a small dent in my finances. Seeing as I basically only purchased most of my uniform sets and AEG for West Germans, I still need to nab most of the important items needed for this training.
Either way, I am going to attend the training. I just prefer to be a little less broke when I do.

Edit: I decided to just buy some necessities right now to avoid sweating over the shipping times of last minute orders. I just ordered:

20 pyropac fuel gels
One 1,280-cu. in. capacity backpack
One waterproof clothing bag
One -15 degrees sleeping bag
A full polypropylene set
And lastly, 2 jacket liners for my German parkas

Who needs money anyway!


I'll pick up the remaining equipment at a sporting goods store such as the mess kit, sleeping pad, rain gear, medical kit, and canteen.

I'm having trouble finding an appropriately priced and suitable shelter half though. Any ideas?