After some advice about starting a new site! :D

[Baz JJ]

The Afghan village was probably Stanta in Norfolk ?

[WAH64_Man]

This is all great info. Thanks a lot Nick M! You're right Baz, their is a large Afghan Style Village on STANTA. We used to work it when they were training the new JTACS ready for Afghanistan.

 

Interesting about the MoD being wilco with their TA's! This is something we'll defo look at. We would aim to go for more of a mil sim package rather than the skirmish type. Our scenarios would be full on and packed with realism based events that we've been involved with. Because of this we could keep changing them on a regular basis to keep things interesting.

 

I suppose we'd have to see how well it took off before ruling out running smaller exercises. Interesting on the price though, if we could run a couple of mil sim events each month and get a good reputation then it could be something that we could fully focus on!

 

Anybody else care to list what they think makes or breaks a great event? How clued up on tactics are the people that compete in the events or would you say it's normally a good split? I suppose when we advertise the event we could mention the level it's being pitched at?

[Baz JJ]

It will vary. Unlike the military where you get a similar level, Airsoft will yield everything from ex military with a higher level of expectation to skirmishers with little understanding of drills looking to try something different.

 

How clued up on tactics are the people that compete in the events or would you say it's normally a good split? I suppose when we advertise the event we could mention the level it's being pitched at?

Stanta

 

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/military-sites/59231-stanta-battle-area-norfolk.html

[Mike636]

I think what makes it good for me is : -

 

• Different game types/objectives
• All the marshals singing of the same sheet in regards to boundaries, rules, out of play areas that sort of thing
• Friendly Marshals
• Somewhere between MilSim and a normal skirmish, so a plot that makes use of the site
• Long games don't bother me unless its every player going for the same objective and ending in a big ol' boring stalemate/war of attrition/who has the most ammo slug fest
• Small teams going after lots of objectives
• Never had vehicles but if they were involved they would have to be vulnerable in a way that made it fair
• uniform requirements in a way that its easy to identify teams such as Green Vs Tan/Black/Hawaiian Shirt
• Accessible to all players of any budget/experience/age
• Free Tea
• Free Coffee
• Biscuits? G'wan then

 

That's my 2p for ya, though if its making use of a unique site like the Afghan Villiage maybe hold it over two days with a break at night for a few beers and a BBQ!

[WAH64_Man]

Like the evening break for beers and BBQ idea! Then crack on again at first light! I'm leaning towards the Full Mil Sim experience. Maybe run 1 a month but make it big! Especially now I know theirs scope to run it on MOD Training Areas! We're planning on visiting a few different sites over the next month or so to have a chat and see how things are run.

 

Taking on other bits of advice, it's key that we advertise it well! What are the most popular magazines that people buy? Also noticed that theirs the occasional program on TV! I've just been letting my mate now the feedback we've received so far and reckon we need to give it a good few months of advertising before the event. If we were to focus our attentions on running one a month as a full mil sim I reckon we could make some great, challenging and realistic weekends! If we could recruit 100+ players we could run real time Company attacks etc with numerous objectives

[Baz JJ]

I never buy the magazines, so don't know what kind of local (driving distance) readership you would get in return for your money. Also many mags run the same ads each issue so readers get blind to them. If you go ahead, let me know as I have a milsim group on Facebook and through Flipboard and would happily give you some publicity for free.

[Mike636]

Airsoft Action and Airsoft International are the biggest I think, but to be honest you could do most of it yourself via Facebook and a few of the groups on there and hold it when there are no other events going on and I'm sure you could save yourself a big expense. Try not to get too involved with large unit tactics as sometimes it'll be like herding cats. A solution would to have a commander for each team and have them direct small units to capture various key points, like a huge game of risk!

[Russe11]

Consider themed airsoft as well. Theres a big WW2 airsoft community out there http://www.ww2airsoft.org.uk/ that way you can repeat a scenario by adding the ww2 twist and appeal to a different market without having to come up with anything new

[WAH64_Man]

Thanks for the offer of help Baz, much appreciated!

 

Mike 636, that's the kind of thing we hd in mind, just allocate different jobs within the teams and let them figure out how to achieve the objectives!

 

Russe11 I love the sound of that! I was just chatting to my mate about adding realism and looking at Helo's via a few of our friends for inserts and casevac etc! I remember taking a cab down to a Mil Vehicle Convention one weekend and there were loads of vehicles there! No doubt those guys would love to come and thrash their vehicles around

[AirsoftTed]

No doubt those guys would love to come and thrash their vehicles around

 

 

Tier 1 (I believe) who are a well established mil-sim company pay collectors to drive their vehicles around for the weekend I think. Don't quote me on it though, it may have been another company.

 

I think you could do with looking up the Berget events, something like that in the UK would have people travelling from all over!

 

I also think a good realism feature would be securing rights for players to dig foxholes, build up their own little emplacements within reason, and have them filled in after the event. There is a site in wales somewhere which allows this IIRC, would allow you to allocate field engineers into the teams, perhaps even have a few .50 cal's made up and allocated per team but this would be expensive.

 

Would you be able to get your hands on Comms? Tier one signs out raidos to sections I think, giving each section a radio man which helps with the immersion.

[WAH64_Man]

 

Would you be able to get your hands on Comms? Tier one signs out raidos to sections I think, giving each section a radio man which helps with the immersion.

We should be able to get Comms without too many issues! These are one of the must haves to add to the realism as far as we're concerned. Obviously it will be dependant on the size of the exercise area and numbers involved!

 

I'd love to be able to offer the option to allow people to dig in, but I know that a lot of the Training Areas have restrictions on it. This obviously won't be a problem if we don't use MOD land

[AirsoftTed]

Yeah I was thinking about the MOD restrictions putting a hold on that.

 

I think one key thing will be getting cover and firing positions set up well, my local site is absoulutely shocking as far as thats concerned, everything thats meant to be defended has no firing points that are of any use and it just makes play frustrating, basically if you go inside a building you will end up dead because you cant react to contacts lol.

 

You'll have to find a balance between cover/firing postions being useful and realistic but also (as unlogical as it would be in combat) balanced which is the hardest part. Theres a fine line between them being useful to the occupier, and impossible for the attacker to take .

[WAH64_Man]

We've got an idea of a training area, and are planning on speaking to the Range Warden at the beginning of the week. It's not on the same scale as Salisbury Plain, with Copehill Down, or Eastmere Village on STANTA, but it has a good variety of bunkers, ammo compounds, open fields and woodlands which would be amazing!

 

I've just looked on the Tier1 website and it looks really impressive. That's exactly the kind of thing were looking at doing but obviously on the other side of the country! We'd like to concentrate fully on MilSim as they do. Obviously the Pre Event training would be tricky for us!

[WAH64_Man]

Well things are starting to take shape. We've started to think about a few different scenarios, we've looked into Public Liability Insurance, and registering with the UKARA. We've got some ideas in mind for locations and will make enquiries when in work on Monday. We've decided to attend the Air Soft Show in two weeks time to take a look around and talk to people, and then start trying to bring everything together!

 

[AirsoftTed]

Just a heads up about the airsoft show, I bought my ticket before I knew better so will see you there on the sunday, but I hear its full of idiots such as JustBBguns who are trying to impress the neighbouring shooting show, who are all in tweed and flatcaps, so take anything you hear from the stallholders with a pinch of salt.

[Russe11]

Any of the locations got water features? River crossings, bridge building under fire or amphibious landings would be really cool scenarios that would mark you out as different.

[WAH64_Man]

Well the exercise we're considering does have quite a significant river flowing through it. I'd have to check about river crossings as no doubt this would affect the insurance, and people would need to be properly trained. Their is the option to do bridge building I suppose if we could manage to get our hands on some kit. I like the idea of an amphibious assault and this is something we could look at doing after running a few events. There's certainly enough training areas out there where it would be possible. I think for the first few it's going to be a case of not trying to run before we can walk! Once we've a better idea of how things are panning out and started to hopefully gain a bit of a reputation then we can consider more exciting scenarios.

 

Teddybhoy, we'll bare that in mind about the airsoft show! It's really a case of getting down to see what's available and discuss some supply ideas with different companies.

[WAH64_Man]

What's people's opinions on Comms? For a full on Mil Sim, I'd like every player wired up, so they can speak within their team, and then one individual within the team acting as a signaller who can speak higher up the chain with Main (ExCon). What's people's experience, good and bad, with working two way Comms during a scenario? Any thoughts on what are good radios? I'm looking at Ex Mil Clansman radios but these can be heavy and cumbersome! Their are some very capable civilian Motorola type radios available for a decent price with remote presses and headsets! After some advice on what you would like to see used?

[Russe11]

I would expect most players interested in milsims to have their own radio. If you get a licence and use military radios 1 per squad it will however add a second tier of communication and force them to think about who carries the extra heavy kit. Keeping a radio operator alive would then become important to some scenarios as you can deem the radio destroyed if the operator is shot. Personal radios will allow coms within individual teams but if they have to talk to commanders or other teams and request help or deliver intelligence etc then they should use the radios provided.

[WAH64_Man]

Yeah that's the kind of thing we're looking at. Inter Fire Team/Section Comms to enable teams to communicate, but then each Section/ Platoon has a dedicated signaller to speak to Zero for any Contact Reports, Requests for Resupply, Casevac etc! The people who have their own radios, are they completely compatible with each other? So can one persons radio talk to another even if they're not the same? I've looked at Radio licences which aren't to expensive and I can get hold of the Mil Clansman stuff complete with all the ancillaries and elevating kits for a reasonable price. Things are looking really good at the moment and we're extremely close to going live! We've had great news back from the MoD so things are coming along well

What radio is that Baz JJ?

[Baz JJ]

Its a mock up of the Harris PRC-152

[Russe11]

Yeah that's the kind of thing we're looking at. Inter Fire Team/Section Comms to enable teams to communicate, but then each Section/ Platoon has a dedicated signaller to speak to Zero for any Contact Reports, Requests for Resupply, Casevac etc! The people who have their own radios, are they completely compatible with each other? So can one persons radio talk to another even if they're not the same? I've looked at Radio licences which aren't to expensive and I can get hold of the Mil Clansman stuff complete with all the ancillaries and elevating kits for a reasonable price. Things are looking really good at the moment and we're extremely close to going live! We've had great news back from the MoD so things are coming along well

What radio is that Baz JJ?

Most people will have PMR446 radios, they are able to use the same 8 frequencies and require no licence. To use Military radios you will require a licence and will have certain frequencies assigned to you. The PMR radios will not be able to use these frequencies.

[AirsoftTed]

Well the exercise we're considering does have quite a significant river flowing through it. I'd have to check about river crossings as no doubt this would affect the insurance, and people would need to be properly trained. Their is the option to do bridge building I suppose if we could manage to get our hands on some kit. I like the idea of an amphibious assault and this is something we could look at doing after running a few events. There's certainly enough training areas out there where it would be possible. I think for the first few it's going to be a case of not trying to run before we can walk! Once we've a better idea of how things are panning out and started to hopefully gain a bit of a reputation then we can consider more exciting scenarios.

 

Teddybhoy, we'll bare that in mind about the airsoft show! It's really a case of getting down to see what's available and discuss some supply ideas with different companies.

Youtube "UCAP Sandpit Amphibious assault" , they sometimes run milsims and have had an amphibious insertion before ( the site has a lake in it ) which was pretty cool.

 

What's people's opinions on Comms? For a full on Mil Sim, I'd like every player wired up, so they can speak within their team, and then one individual within the team acting as a signaller who can speak higher up the chain with Main (ExCon). What's people's experience, good and bad, with working two way Comms during a scenario? Any thoughts on what are good radios? I'm looking at Ex Mil Clansman radios but these can be heavy and cumbersome! Their are some very capable civilian Motorola type radios available for a decent price with remote presses and headsets! After some advice on what you would like to see used?

I've seen sites that offer air, mortar or arty support via radio, the idea being you radio command, then this is passed onto marshal I am presuming, who then either pop smoke, or wait for targets to be designated via smoke before setting off pyrotechnics and declaring everyone within a certain radius or not behind certain cover dead, dependent on the support used or if they decide something was a direct hit on a bunker.

[WAH64_Man]

Yeah well that's our plan too. We would accept calls for fire over a " Tac Net" with dems already in situ.

[jcheeseright]

The standard PMR446 walky talkies that most people have are quite limited for a bigger event, they've only got 8 available channels so if you've got more than 60 odd people attending then sections are gonna have to start sharing channels! Often one of those channels will be reserved for emergencies too, so that reduces things further.

However, every mil-sim organiser in the UK insists that players provide their own intra-section radios and some will provide a radio per section for chatting to Zero/other sections etc. I personally wouldn't want to lug a clansman around (not even a diddy 349) as those things are f*cking heavy lumps!