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

[Gimpalong]

The way to think about EW is not simply as an in-depth, long duration milsim event, but as a re-enactment.

That is to say that EW is more akin to a Battle of Gettysburg re-enactment than it is to a traditional direct-action airsoft milsim game.

From my understanding of how the EW event works, you should, ideally, be spending a lot more time patrolling, observing, planning, etc than actually engaging the enemy in direct action.

Having spoken with a few participants, it isn't uncommon for them to have only fired their weapons a handful of times, gotten no kills or only gotten one kill.

Engagements in EW tend to be, by design of one team or the other, sharply one sided. A lot of time is spent planning patrols, patrolling, planning ambushes, waiting, ambushing, so that casualties are maximized on one side and minimized on the other.

EW is unlike any other airsoft even out there in that it isn't necessarily geared towards creating a situation in which continual direct action is the goal. EW is about experiencing what the Cold War gone hot would have been like - sheer boredom with moments of [airsoft] terror.

[Impulse]

Feb 13, 2013 11:59:34 GMT -5 Gimpalong said:

sheer boredom with moments of [airsoft] terror.

It's real terror.

[steelfallenangel]

Yea that site was where I was getting the information. I can imagine that C7s with Elcans look quite out of place too. SA80s with susats not so much though.

I figured as much about the level of engagment. Can definitly see the allure but putting 100$ (at least from estimates I've read) into a new gear setup not counting a new primary (since no M4 and my G36 would need heavy tweaking to be legal (full length barrel, handguard, standard skeleton stock) not even counting transportation and event fee I'd be well into the neighborhood of 1000$.

Curious, has any footage from EW even been used for documentery shots? Like how civil war and roman reinactors often get called by the history channel for live footage. Since nearly all your gear is period correct it didn't seem to far fetched.

[Gimpalong]

C7s with Elcans are period correct for the Canadian contingent. SA80s with SUSATS are period correct for the British contingent.

There's no doubt that EW is an expensive event to prepare for. Fortunately, the required gear is actually fairly cheap and easy to find. As has been mentioned previously, the PASGT helmet, PASGT vest, Goretex and M16A2 replica are the most expensive pieces of kit.

When you factor in transportation to and from the event, yes, costs do go up.

You've also got to consider that if you attend the event for the entire duration, your $200 gets you three meals a day and a (relatively) warm place to sleep for 9 days.

Nobody has suggested that EW is cheap. Nobody has suggested that Berget or even Operation Irene or Operation Northern Light are cheap events.

If you want to attend a high-quality milsim event, you can expect to pay out some cash.

There is some footage taken by participants of EW, but that is about it. Search google or youtube for it.

[Impulse]

Eastwind is incredibly cheap. For $200 at, say, Northern Lights, you can play for 12 hours over three days and cut out a place to put up a tent. You'll have $40 that can be spent on food - how many cooked meals can you get for $40? Maybe 5 if you're madly charismatic.

Eastwind - your $200 nets 9 days of uninterrupted play. I'll discount the first two days as there isn't any shooting. as well as half of the last day - that's still over 150 hours of playtime. Even though you can't use all that time playing due to biological concerns, when you're getting 12 times more field time for the same money it's hard to argue with. Plus, you get three meals a day between A-rats in camp and a few MRE's (or equivalent) - you couldn't feed yourself at this quality for $200, our cooks are excellent. And that's not counting NVG's, vehicles, radios, the tent that you're provided in camp, and the million other bits and pieces of period-correct hardware that ensure the accuracy of the event down to the nth detail.

$100 for a gear rig is maybe enough to get the webgear and uniform; depending on what side you take, assembling the entire ensemble can cost closer to $700+ including weapons. Maybe closer to $600 if you're East German. IF I compile together travel (via carpool), gear, and registration fee for the event for an estimate of $1000 (a bit on the high side), it's still roughly half the cost per hour of game time - plus you get a closet full of surplus hunting/camping gear out of the deal, which you can use next year or sell back at about the same cost - that gear doesn't lose value easily.

EW's Soviet side was actually used in Chris Larsen's book Red Team Armies, a field manual for various Opfor tactical doctrines on the squad level.

[Impulse]

I just found out there is a Soviet training event taking place this weekend in Chicago; short notice I know, but anyone interested in working out a carpool and making our way down there?