I went out to Gunman Eversley Alpha this weekend for a weekend of shooting GIs in the 'Nam. We set off on the Friday to get there nice and early and set up our
camp compound. The guy who drives us all up there and introduced us to 'Namsoft loves his glamping, so we are always very well stocked. A bit of a squeeze this time as his grandson was with us as well, so we were four people instead of three and therefore needed a 2nd tent as we couldn't all fit in the one. We managed to get everything packed in and got there 2nd out of everyone. Another pair was there when we arrived and were setting up, but were setting up away from where we usually like to camp, so we claimed our corner and set up the tents, gazebo, literal kitchen etc. I was a little worried, as my heart was playing up a lot a few weeks ago, but it had been quiet since the Tuesday before last, so I made the decision to go along. Also, the guy driving couldn't play due to tendonitis in his hips (but he still wanted to go as he loves his camping and wanted to see the familiar faces), so we were down to three during the gameplay. He did get out there though as a civilian to help Josh with some objective placements and stuff. Friday night I found it difficult getting to sleep due to anxiety around my heart, but eventually got to sleep without any issues.
Anyway, first day was... slow. I headed out with my new PPS Kar98 set up for 1J on .32s and we were put with the main squads to go and put up some observation posts. It's not usually how we play, as our little group does our best work when we're a bit more independent and just focus on making the lives of the GIs hell, but we went along with it to avoid conflict and also help show our new addition around and get him used to the 'Nam. He's only 12 and only started playing airsoft recently, so it was a very different experience for him from normal skirmish and we wanted to make sure he didn't get overwhelmed.
Our first little sortie went... pretty poorly. I think part of this was that Josh said it would be game on in 5 mins after the brief, but it probably took closer to 20 - 25 mins for the NVA/VC team to get out to our respawn and go through our objectives and how we wanted to do them. We didn't get too far outside of our base before we got attacked by two separate groups of Americans (well, one was the Aussies, one was the Americans). My friend tried to sneak into one of the many thick bushes just ahead of us, but as he did so a third American team popped around the corner and him also being armed with a Kar98 was not the best weapon to engage a whole squad, so he dived for cover but got hit. He managed to crawl over to me (as you can crawl to a teammate in these filmsim events), so I medic'd him back in. We took a couple of the Americans down, but there were way too many of them and the firepower was overwhelming. I managed to take a few out with the Kar98 and as it's fairly silent they couldn't pinpoint my location. One guy definitely ignored the hit I put on him, but outside of that I put non-hit taking down to them being fairly long distance shots while they were moving and I think we've all been there; a single shot at long distance so the impact isn't massive is easy to not feel when you're moving about. The rest of the group tried to move on the flank and my friend eventually got hit again by the m60 on the hill that had been medic'd back in as well. I held down in the bushes until my friend's bleedout, as the dogtags I hated from last year's game made a return and I didn't want to abandon his to be collected by the US for a free point. I think that the US thought it was just him there and were trying to mop up the other squad to our left before coming to collect the dogtag, as I managed to scoot out of there and link up with the other squad higher up in the valley without much trouble. We kept going around until we got to the first observation point and set up to defend it as we had to hold them for 15 mins to score. We held our ground, but eventually got attacked by one US unit who managed to sneak through the ferns onto a flank. We managed to repel them though and eventually got reinforcements to push them back and around to the other side of the valley. I got left behind somewhat, but linked up with a few others and we also pushed up, however only four of us (me, my friend, my other friend's grandson and another VC guy) went to the next observation post. However, it was fairly quiet around the mortar pit, so we placed it down and dug into the bushes. No US forces came across us, so it was an easy 15 minute hold to set it up. We then lost the other VC guy (no idea where he went!) so the three of us pushed to the fort as it was a central location and we thought we could do some damage from there. It was fairly quiet, but one of the special forces teams did walk right by us while we hid in the bushes; one of them even looked directly at us and my friend's grandson was standing up! Either he didn't want to get shot as we all had guns trained on them, or they actually didn't see us because their whole team walked past us. In hindsight, we should've shot them all as they passed, but we let them pass instead to stay undetected.
We then discussed our next plan of action and when I left the bushes to go do that... they didn't follow, so I was left by myself. Apparently they had gone to the gate of the fort and held there, while I went around the back and had to Metal Gear Solid my way through another three whole US teams; one of 5, one of 10(!) and one of 4, as with the Kar98 there was no way in hell I could engage. Well, I could, but I'd probably just give the US troops a free point as they'd likely take me out with BB spam into the bushes and take my dogtag. Managed to sneak by all three teams undetected, despite wearing all black and sticking out like a sore thumb; who needs a ghillie to stay hidden, eh?
I finally made it back to our base and called it a day there. It was about 2:30pm, so another 1hr 30 mins left of Saturday's game, but I was exhausted after having to sneak my way across half the site. The results of the Saturday was 58 points to the NVA/VC against the 42 points to the US/ARVN, so a win for the NVA on the first day put us in a good place. Saturday night I also managed to sleep decently well, though I did wake up in the middle of the night and was short of breath, but when I put my little heart rate monitor on it was reading very normal so it was purely anxiety around it acting up and not actually acting up.
Didn't play on the Sunday. My friend had a chest infection and a really bad back so he couldn't move much and my other friend still had tendonitis in his hips as that doesn't just go away over night. His grandson was too tired to play and I really wasn't feeling it, so we instead had breakfast and then took a couple of hours to dismantle the compound. NVA/VC handled business on Sunday and won handily, culminating in a battle that pushed the Americans out of their base and had the NVA/VC closing in on them on all sides. The NVA managed to set up their anti-tank weapons, which was their main objective, and Josh said to us it was probably better that we didn't play as it could've been very oppressive for the US/ARVN players if our group of 4 was also out there causing mayhem.
So, what was good? Everyone there was playing in the spirit of the game. Lots of banter and bad acting on both sides! Also, a new rule where if the US/ARVN harassed a civilian and that civilian doesn't have any contraband like intel, a radio or a hidden weapon, then the civilian got a token to give to NVA command. 5 of these tokens was a point for the NVA/VC, so it adds something to disincentivise the US forces from interrogating every civilian player as before there were no negative consequences for them stopping and searching every civilian they found at gunpoint. Also, as usual, peoples kit was great. I'm no stitch counter, so I'm generally fine with inaccurate kit, but everyone at least looked the part which made for some great cinema. It was also good to see
@Tactical Pith Helmet (and Mrs. TPH!) again; what a lovely chap that guy is!
However, I didn't enjoy it as much as usual. So, why didn't I? Well, the Saturday was incredibly slow for us and we were folded into squads. I felt like I was playing PAVN in black, not VC, and I didn't enjoy that; it definitely felt more on the milsim side of filmsim and I don't enjoy that; I like a bit of silly BB wars in the woods in fancy dress. Also, the dogtag mechanic singlehandedly kills my enjoyment. My usual tactics would just be free points for the US forces, as it's a high risk harassment campaign all weekend that sees me getting shot and every time I get hit there's either nobody or only 1 other person around to stop them getting my dogtag; it's very easy to get overwhelmed, especially with a 1J bolt action. I don't want to be the reason the NVA/VC side loses because my tactics don't tend to score points; it's more indirect scoring as I try to make the US troops fearful and wary of moving about as they could get jumped by a crazy villager with a rifle at any moment! The dogtags very much hamper those efforts, but at least this time it was only one dogtag. Last year it was one dogtag per life which absolutely crippled my way of playing, but one dogtag was enough to dissuade me from my usual harassment tactics. Thirdly, it was the sniper ban. Gunman do a sniper ban during the summer as the ferns grow quite high, but me being a veteran of the sniper hell that is summertime Worthing Airsoft was constantly finding locations where I had great line of sight and wished I had my 2.3J m700 with me. Yes, there are locations that are close in, but that's what my upgraded pistols are for and compared to Worthing Airsoft, Eversley Alpha is incredibly viable for sniping with a 30m MED.
I probably won't make the next one in September, as I've got a hospital appointment in a few weeks with cardiology, so I'm likely getting my heart sorted soon (probably in August with the timing of this appointment). This means I'll be on blood thinners in September (as I have to be for a few months afterwards) which will mean no airsoft for me for those months, which will include September if I'm correct about the timings. Got a year to think about how I want to go ahead with Vietnam games in the future, and one potential avenue that we're exploring as a group is putting together an ARVN kit and then asking Josh where he wants us, as we'd have sets for both teams. US/ARVN have been getting hammered for the past 3 years, so it might be time to try and redress the balance by playing a bit of imperialist gameplay. Give the NVA/VC team a real sniper threat to worry about
