Best way to start MilSiming

[ImTriggerHappy]

Weird thing is I have been playing private games with a bunch of ex forces guys and most of them wont even go to to a normal skirmish and to a man they all hate milsims. When I asked about ex soldiers playing milsims I got one those dont be stupid looks.

Which does make me wonder how many were actual combat soldiers and how many were just admin staff.

 

[jcheeseright]

Because in an army which has just been down-sized to 90,000 people everyone knows everyone. As an example, one of the regular players at Stirling was SAS, several others are serving and ex Royal Marines. Combat Airsoft Group is run by an ex member of 4/73 special operations battery royal artillery, 100% not admin staff. Tier1 is run by an ex Royal Marine, you don't get 'admin staff' Royals, they're all commandos.

You're trying to argue against my first hand experience from a position of 'one of my mates said....'.

Edited for clarity.

 

[Okto Eight Milsim]

Thanks for the mention.

The loadouts are designed to make it visually clear which side is which and make logical sense i.e. NATO wear MTP with western weapons, the local government troops wear Flecktarn or DPM and so on. However, they are loose enough that players don't have to spend a fortune on a specific Gucci look.

Age-wise, we really structure the games towards adults and set a minimum age of 16. Parent players can bring mature children of 13 and above but we warn parents that the games are pretty adult in nature and there are not necessarily suitable content-wise.

I wouldn't take my children as the guys don't hold back. A couple of players have brought their fifteen year old sons and it's been fine.

We invented the Okto idea because not everybody wanted to live in the battle all weekend and all night. Somebody described what we do as like being in a war movie where the script hasn't been written yet. For 8 hours, its like living in a real battle (hence the milsim in the titile) but at the end, you can eat your MRE's with a spork under a basha or go back to a soft hotel room. We don't judge and its about a little bit of escapism and having some fun with a group of guys who want a weekend away from work. families and the general pressures of life.

In all other respects, we follow full milsim rules in terms of medic rules, ammo limits, no high caps, no two tones, etc.

I have started okto's milsim events. Go camping for a few days, and play two 8 hours stints of airsoft day after day. There are uniform requirements for different teams (dont need to be expensive at all, all gear is basically preference) and a limit to how many rounds you can have in midcap mags on your person. Pretty sure any age can go so long as they have an adult with them. Mate or parent.

Gotta say, they are great. Very friendly people on the whole. Alot of milsims are like skirmishing but with a focus on more realism and tactics, and avoiding running around with bright green guns and highcaps like its call of duty lol things like tier one are very much for the wiah i was a soldeir type/actual ex soldeirs. They are very exclusive and i imagine, full of bellends.

 

[ImTriggerHappy]

Because in an army which has just been down-sized to 90,000 people everyone knows everyone. As an example, one of the regular players at Stirling was SAS, several others are serving and ex Royal Marines. Combat Airsoft Group is run by an ex member of 4/73 special operations battery royal artillery, 100% not admin staff. Tier1 is run by an ex Royal Marine, you don't get 'admin staff' Royals, they're all commandos.

You're trying to argue against my first hand experience from a position of 'one of my mates said....'.

Edited for clarity.

No I am not trying to argue anything I was just pointing that all the ex forces I know from before airsoft and those I have met playing all seem to have no interest in milsim.The general consensus I get when talking to them is why do I want pretend to do what I used to do for a living, got very much the same answer from an exforces guy who is also a forum member.

I am sure some the of people who play milsim are ex combat soldiers as you say but I would lay money on that being a minority.

The whole milsim scenario you described in an earlier post to my mind sounds boring and about as much fun as getting your ass crack waxed. I think thats the problem what you described will sound so fantasist to most people that its on the same level as wearing furry feet and running round a field in Sussex with a wooden sword screaming for the shire.

While I appreciate you enjoy it and when I saw a post you put up a while ago about using a boat to assault somewhere I thought that sounded like great fun you must surely see how it can come across to other people.

I still feel that some sort of milsim/structured game is the way forward but the whole tier1 thing is elitist and a bit much.

 

[jcheeseright]

Horses for courses, the only elitism I have ever encountered in airsoft is of the reverse kind; people saying things like "night vision, more money than sense, hahahaha" who then go on to get into their £40K BMWs to drive home. So much so that at my first ever weekend milsim game I was taken on by one of the better known UK teams and played with them all weekend as an equal, my kit wasn't as good as theirs, I didn't have a £2,000 PTW, I didn't have gen3 night vision, I only just had a working radio setup... didn't matter. Nor would it matter if someone else was to turn up, it's all about attitude, if you're willing to get stuck in and play milsim rather than airsoft skirmish then there's no issue.

The only people I ever hear talking about elitism in the UK milsim scene are those who have never tried to get involved.

 

[ImTriggerHappy]

You say there is no elitism but agree that tier1 were right to go invite only because 80% of people who turned up wasn't good enough?

Elitism isnt just about kit its about the belief your in some way better.

A lot of milsimers do tend to come across that way. As you pointed out earlier though that might just be the ones who talk it more than do it.

Maybe one day I will come and join you on a tier1 day, if I am special enough to get an invite ?

Edit; Night vision is nothing to do with elitism, I want it and I know I am crap.

 

[jcheeseright]

Tier1 went invite only because a lot of the players they had turning up wanted an airsoft game, and what tier1 do is milsim with airsoft as the stand-in for real guns... They don't want to run a weekend long skirmish with a dress code, they want to do the stuff that doesn't appeal to most. Unfortunately because 'milsim' is such a catch-all term they had people turning up expecting it to be just a weekend long version of a gunman or ambush adventures game and generally ruining it for those who'd turned up for the more hardcore experience; where people take note of ROE etc.

It's a sliding scale I guess, there needs to be some kind of 'milsim-scale' devised like the bristol stool chart;
1 is no arm bands, no 2-tones... tan vs green with flags,

all the way up to

7 which is period correct loadouts, stag rotations, correct military RT, scheme of manoeuvre, NATO sequence of orders etc.

If everyone could agree to label their events accordingly, people would know what they were getting right from the off

 

[Esoterick]

If everyone could agree to label their events accordingly, people would know what they were getting right from the off

This would be great if it happened, but then this is a community that can't reliably use the correct existing words to describe/define things. Good examples are things like clips, instead of magazine, sniper, instead of sniper rifle and mechbox instead of gearbox. If we all just use whatever words we feel like to converse things would get very confusing very quickly.

 

[Okto Eight Milsim]

We agree it would be a good idea to grade milsims so that people know what they are getting. Another issue is that although there are many general milsim pages and groups, no-one actually runs a calendar of all the different events so its very difficult to know what is going on and where.

 

[ImTriggerHappy]

If we all just use whatever words we feel like to converse things would get very confusing very quickly.

It would work out alright in the end look at the Aussies a whole language based on nonsense words.What is a f*ckin billabong.