Baz JJ

Are you sure you need one ? My ACOG uses Tritium. I think only the 4x32 LED model needs a battery which is an Alkaline AA battery. I guess Chinese Clones can be anything ?

The playable area is about 75 acres I believe, although the total area is closer 200. It is very different to the J20 site in that it has less roads, denser coniferous forest and a lot more undulations and features. There is also an in-play village although its not FIBUA. My colleagues at Okto tell me it is a great site and I have no reason to disbelieve that. I will go there in the next few weeks for a recce and I will post up what I can. Of course, the site is not everything in an Okto game !!

The last game, Op Tailspin which was held last weekend was great fun. There is a detailed review on the Op.Tailspin thread here on AFUK together with some photos. Now onwards to Firestorm which is at a different site and will have different opportunities and challenges.

P.S ETA Keep the faith guys !!! Gretsky knows what he's about. He hasn't survived two assasinations by being a dullard !! He will see the MDF right - they saved his bacon..

Glad you both enjoyed it. Of course although I tend to be the mouthpiece for these games, we had a team of five guys working the strings behind the game, so its very much down to all their combined skills and they are Okto Eight. Milsim is very different to skirmish and its not for everyone. Its not non-stop action but neither is real life combat. I think the worst thing you can get is dyed in the wool skirmishers being pushed into doing milsim - they hate it. We try to make it very clear what you're getting. We don't want unhappy people at our games. In terms of the MDF being outnumbered, I have received various comments from players about this. One player even said that he doesn't expect to spend £60 to be outnumbered in this way. Without exception all these comments came from players who were either doing milsim for the first time or didn't play the previous op with us. While we do our best to maintain customer satisfaction, these things do happen in real life. As to the comment that the government should have the best equipment and troop numbers, in the story leading up to Op Tailspin, the research establishment was a forward operating base which was both isolated because of the nature of its work and low key. The government believed the camp to be a secret and only had a minimal guard covering it. Big assets draw big attention. The SF destroyed the Early Warning Radar very early in the game and employed a jammer to cut off the government troops from calling for reinforcements. Furthermore, four government soldiers, demoralised and beaten decided to defect to the rebels, again not uncommon in the real world. This did leave the MDF with a smaller side on the Sunday afternoon. Calls for artillery barrages were responded to, but there is always a lag and the artillery were told to stand down as it was too late. A Moldistan helicopter did respond and made it to the MDF FOB where it was destroyed by rebel ground fire (the vehicle still has the burn marks on the paintwork). A QRF in DPM also made a mobile rocket attack on the village just before ENDEX to assist the MDF, but alas to no avail. Its never nice to lose due to an imbalance in forces, but those players that played both ops will testify that its a long game played over a series rather than one weekend and there are peaks and troughs in the fortunes of all engaged forces. At Op Skylight for example, the MDF were victorious - they protected the President from assassination twice and the rebels were forced to maintain a running, harrying battle of ambushes and sabotage. At the end of this OP, The CO of the MDF, a two game veteran, just shrugged, shook hands and is now looking forward to the next game. You might lose the battle, but you can still win the war. BB - your suggestion of reduced ammo limits for one side is a good one. We can use that if there are ever unequal sides on a level footing and WE WILL. BC - in terms of hay bales, we supplied your camp with sandbags and the CO knew we could arrange a delivery of sand or aggregate to allow you to fill those and construct fortifications. Just like real conflicts, there is a lot that goes on that the average squaddie doesn't see or know about. For example, did you know about the jammer or the fact that the rebels were using a satphone to coordinate with an unseen secret western intelligence agency ? Things will be different again in the next game - different site, different challenges, new players and four forces instead of three. The only real continuity is the storyline. Newspaper articles are already springing up on the Okto Eight Facebook page. These stories are a direct result of the actions you fought in !! Lastly, you both fought with the MDF. I received several comments from the directing staff concerning how disciplined and professional the MDF seemed, particularly in their convoy escort. I was driving in that convoy and was impressed. One of your number is a pilot in real life and I was further impressed when he waved the helicopter in with the appropriate arm signals. Just what you would expect from a regular army. In contrast, the rebels, although successful and large in number, fought like, well REBELS. One word: AWESOME

Well we were lucky with the weather. It didnt rain during either of the weekends 8 hour battles. We had an SF team who attacked the main objective on the wrong day, with dire consequences which involved HAZ teams having to be flown in. They did achieve it in the end, with the successful extraction of the scientist and the capture of the liquid explosives. We had one government squad defect to the rebels on the Sunday and the government troops managed to recover the aircraft black box from the crashed spyplane, even though the SF and rebels had found the ejection seat first and whisked the pilot to safety. An action packed weekend with lots of planned and unplanned curved balls - the guys are still raving about it on the Facebook groups. It was certainly an orgy of vehicles, firefights, camps (some that moved) and mission objectives, some planned and a few surprises. Many of our players are new to milsim and although some struggled to get their heads round the difference, the others helped them to adjust. One player commented that Okto Eight have ruined skirmish for him, for ever. There are a few photos on the Okto Eight Milsim Facebook page.

I dont think it matters about pins. I have both radios with one and two pins. For PMR446 I would use Motorola, but they are all built to a budget to some extent. If Im playing in a fire team where we are manoeuvring together, I use my Motorola T8 on PMR446. Binatone used to have bad rep but I havent used them recently. The only problem with PMR446 is they are useless if you are working with team members and you are more than 100m or so apart in woodland or where there are buildings..

I'm not the radio police, but if you dont know much about radios, I think its only fair to point out that you are breaking the law if you run these Baofengs on PMR446 frequencies which I think is what you are referring to. They are good radios and we use them at our milsims on licenced frequencies, but they are too powerful (even on low power) for PMR446 licence-free channels where the maximum permissable power is 0.5W. OFCOM govern all this in the UK and if they choose to, they can fine you a lot of money. They probably have better things to do, but they have the kit to find you and if the licence coffers are a bit empty, they might just have an airsofting purge one day. Lot of airsofters using Baofengs on an advertised skirmish day - easy pickings for them I would imagine.

Booking now open for those that played at the Tailspin game over the weekend. Open booking will commence in two weeks time.

Like this

Wow what a game ! Plenty of surprises and curved balls along the way. What would you do if you were on stag and a local Russian speaking farmer riding a tractor and trailer approached you ? No big deal ? but what about the bomb waistcoat he is wearing ? The forecasted rain held off during game hours, people got over their hangovers from Friday evening and Operation Tailspin was one roller coaster of a ride - aptly named !

I didnt test it that comprehensively and had no detailed control of the listener to be able to do such tests. However, I used it in anger today and it worked well. Its great being able to hold a radio conversation and listen to other direct cnversations going on around you.

The Early Warning Radar Station (successfully neutralised by a special forces unit) and the MDF Research Facility.

The audio was very low. I doubt if somebody ten feet away in the same room would be able to hear me normally.

Look forward to seeing all of you players later on. Forecast is a bit wet on Sunday so pack your ponchos but at least we get a decent day to set up and for those camping over to be able to erect their tents. Safe journeys, especially those of you coming in from further away.

Have now tested it on transmit. Only tested in quiet ambient conditions but at a low speaking voice its still crystal clear. You can whisper and the person receiving can make out the meaning providing you annunciate. Tested by sending random three digit numbers at a whisper and the receiving/copying rate was about 60-70%

TM if you accept an all plastic version of a metal gun. Failing that KWA or third, WE. Umarex are worth looking at as some of their guns are made by KWA anyway.

Also if the transmission side is pants, you wont have wasted your money !!

Received today. Good service from Code Red - 4 days door to door. They also sent me one of their patches because they were out of stock and I had to wait a couple of weeks for despatch. Have only had the chance to test it in receive, but IT WORKS !! quite strange to hear radio with your ears uncovered so you hear normal ambient sounds as well. It seems that the radio audio is coming from both transducers which is not what I expected. Will try the transmit side later ! doesn't seem to interfere with spectacles or shooting glasses but the chunky frame behind your ears do make them poke out more than normal..

Ive only ever used these Plano cases for rifles and pistols. Never had a problem with quality and they have hasps for padlocks to be put on. The foam is the egg shell kind and wont hold the weapons in place if you pick them up by the handle. I tend to keep mine flat anyway, You might need to cut out the foam top and bottom if you need vertical retention. I use four different sizes for different weapons. Some are large enough for two rifles, some for two pistols. I tend to get them from a UK supplier which I find cheaper than Amazon.

Vehicles - hoping to have the GMC army truck at the weekend to supplement the GAZ Russian jeep and the Ranger 4x4.

Never mind - another in August