Before 2011 I had not played much milsim, now… well I recently laid in a puddle from 1am, freezing cold and surrounded by poisonous mushrooms, for 8 hours to spring an ambush!

I fell asleep and started snoring.

Moments later I was awoken by a wet weight crashing down on my back. Team commander Trip had thrown a log at me, missed, hit a tree and it had collapsed a rotten limb across my sprawled form. Had the opposition walked past at that particular moment then they would have heard the rest of the concealed team completely failing to stop laughing.

At 6 am a stag deer came into the forest, only yards from me. It nibbled the leaves and then it sensed something was wrong. It couldn’t see us, but it could now smell us. Then someone moved and I saw its face as it realised that it was standing amongst 15 humans disguised as forest floor, buried under leaves and mud. With two hurried bounds it was gone.

Milsim is great fun, I recommend it. If you are worried if you can “hack” it, don’t be. You can, physically – it’s mentally you have to be ready for. After 24 hours in game (with 12 to go) you will be tired, frayed, frazzled and still in combat.

And it will be raining.

It’s at this point you will be ready to curse everyone around you. Your teammate with the better kit, your team leader sending YOU out on stag, the world for putting you in this place and especially the opposition who WILL attack you during the night… sometime during the night. So no sleeping without your eye protection on and a firearm to hand.

Photo’s taken during milsim show tough men turning to jelly. That is your challenge, can you stay mentally strong? Enough to work as a team? After all team play means sacrifice…

So why do it? Because, the harder the game and the more realistic the mission then all the more rewards are there to enjoy. Sure, the lows in milsim can be tough, but the highs… the highs are simply the best airsoft in the world.

It was our side who attacked the enemy camp in the dark. Unleashing a battle of epic proportions as we had surprise but, like cornered rats, the enemy had nowhere to go and so turned and fought. This was followed the next day with a counter ambush on our troops that led to a 2.5 hour long contact.

2.5 hours of unrelenting, balls-deep airsoft action.

So much can be done with 2 hours, tactics… hell, strategy as the teams probe each other. flank, flank back, rush, fall back and lay up. It’s incredible. Players acting together as a team in ways never seen in airsoft, all commanded smoothly and everyone gets their oats. Eventually one side withdraws after running out of troops, this was my side and the opposition followed us only to walk straight into our IED’s laid behind us by our pyro expert (an army EOD).

Milsim is worth the cold, the wet and the mentally brutal. It’s one of the best ways to release stress and tension I know. It is also the best way to meet new and interesting people (and shoot them) that I can imagine.

You will look back at your weekend, you will see your moment of glory in a film (of mine perhaps?) and you will smile as you remember the feeling of achievement that only comes from playing at this level.

We call it Tier 1. It’s the way I play airsoft.

Happy Christmas,

Basho

Tier 1 – Year 1 from Basho Matsuo on Vimeo.

I have put this together at the request of a friend, this isn’t the official film — I am doing an “end of year special” — this is just to wet your appetites!

Rolling Thunder was a 36 hour combat mission created and run by Tier One Military Simulations. They are the cutting edge of airsoft in the UK and for two select teams on the US side this included a dawn assault from the air!

Their objective? To capture the Taliban leader known as “Panther” hiding in an Afghan village.

Did they succeed?

You will have to wait to find out!

Comments welcome!

Regards,

Basho

Here is the YouTube description for the film:

At TIER 1 we are totally and entirely dedicated to providing you the player with a 100% “as real as it gets outside the military” experience.
There follows a declassified film about our SUB OPERATION – BLADERUNNER.

EVENT OUTLINE:
These events encompass the highest level of Military Simulation and Attendees were tested to a level unprecedented in airsoft, sustaining — hardship, duress, a lack of sleep and a lack of food for 36hours.
Attendees received initial orders prior to the operation and were required to begin the event outside of an airsoft environment. Tasks included professional training in surveillance, followed by going to a designated place and identifying a group of Targets. Surveillance of those Targets then commenced using covert communication equipment and vehicles, following on foot when required.

But then something they didn’t expect happened!

Late at night the Target’s turned the tables and captured two of the Attendees in a well-planned road stop. They were taken to the Target’s compound and tested for resistance to interrogation. Upon the discovery of this the Attendees then planned, practiced and executed a rescue operation in the early hours of the morning calling on all they had learned in the training and previous day’s play. Could they rescue their teammates alive and capture the Target leader?

ABOUT US:
TIER 1 MILITARY SIMULATION Ltd is a military simulation training company owned and managed by former-Royal Marine Commando Non-Commissioned Officers and a former UKSF 22 SAS Regiment Operator with over 57 years regular service between them.

ABOUT THE FILM:
Tier 1 partnered with the well known airsoft filmmaker and blogger, Basho (www.outsidecontext.com), in making this film. Basho followed the day’s events as a silent observer capturing the main events of the event on camera.

When Ed from Tier 1 asked me to attend the event as a filmmaker I was not ready for what I was about to witness. Tier 1 is about as far from a normal airsoft skirmish that you could get and the “Sub Operations” take this even further. The entire event had a story through which the clients were playing. The idea was that a “terrorist” cell had been discovered and that their leader was coming in to Heathrow. The clients mission was to follow these targets and intercept them in the morning. However, unknown to them Ed had other ideas and one of the squads vehicles was stopped and the clients captured, which involved me hiding in a bush with a load of masked gunmen waiting for the right car to pass! There followed a couple of hours of interrogation followed by a rescue by the other, remaining, players.

It all felt so real, so very real. Nothing was forgotten, nothing was not part of the story unfolding.

It was very clever.

It did have challenges for the filmmaker however. I was not “in” on the story so I was forced to film everything and ended up with 60Gb of footage! I had to improvise filming ideas at short notice and tag along with the teams as they played out their different missions. I also had to go without much sleep for 36 hours! the tired faces you see in the film are really tired. It was incredible how everyone was able to keep going through the event at all.

After the filming the long process began of making the film. I had the idea of a voice over “interview” with Ed as a sort of debrief, which we would use to pull the sections of the film together. eventually the film went up to the limit (on YouTube) of 15 minutes and I realised we had no chance of fitting this in. So I replaced that idea with a “text” over”. Building this so it looked typed was quite a challenge. I achieved it in the following way:

1. Have one 3 second clip of a Green Bar on the far left side of the screen.
2. Use the “Push” transition to move the green line from left to right.
3. This reveals the text clip next in line.
4. Use a “digital typing” noise to make it sound like it is being typed.

All in all the film has the following effects:

• Split screen: vertically, horizontally and “3 screen”.

• Digital matting.
• Pixilation of certain faces.
• Digital stabilisation.
• Slow motion.
• Professional Colour balancing software applied (which almost killed my computer!)

And the following special effect shots:

• The “wake them up” scene where I had to build the idea that the GCHQ was searching out and waking up the players via text message.

• The “matching” shot where the “terrorist” was “face mapped” and identified (during the briefing).

• The Flashbang, which didn’t go off so I had to create it.

Taking number 3, this one I was very happy with. I doubled the scene layer and matted out a grenade  exploding. I then filled that layer with an explosion and set the transition to be a “Sony Flash”. In order to make it sound convincing I went and found a sound of a real US Military Grenade going off and a sound of “ringing in the ears” to simulate the tinnitus one gets when around explosions.

That leads us to sound and music.

For sounds I raided Freesound.org for suitable sounds and ended up using something like 20 in places such as the tires screeching during “The Grab” scene (they did screech but my camera mike didn’t make enough of it) and “clanking” noises during “The Question” interrogation scene. I can’t recommend this site enough. Good sound effects makes a huge difference. For music I went to my friends at Audionetwork.com. They are truly fantastic, enabling the small filmmaker to use music created by seriously high-end orchestra for a mere pittance. Wonderful.

It has been a very long road to get this film finished, but it feels great to have been involved with the Tier 1 team who are all consummate professionals. Their product is a little different from what people may be used to, but it is excellently run and great fun to watch.

Here is the film:

**WARNING** This film is rated 15 and NOT SAFE FOR WORK due to swearing and violence

If you are on an iPad or iPhone try the Vimeo version:

Tier 1 Military Simulation – Operation BladeRunner from Basho Matsuo on Vimeo.

Regards,

Basho

I have often remarked that the challenge of making an airsoft film – when you are also playing in the game – is that you can only edit what you film. In other words: all the events and action is “live” and you cannot simply stop filming, back everyone up, and take a different angle! I have tried many approaches to defeating this problem such as using multiple camera’s, being an extra slice of awesome and filming everything that happens.

However, milsim proved a stronger challenge.

How can I make a film about a shooting event where for the first 10 hours I fired not more than a handful of BBs? In fact only one burst! I decided to focus on the story and one particular incident that happened to me on the Sunday morning when on sentry duty. Unfortunately, my part in the large battle that followed (see the awesome comment above) was entirely too dark to use as was the tunnels section at the end of the day. So, what we have is my filming as a dead player. I think the guys in the footage played very well indeed and were excellently commanded by Ed (the guy with the beard).

I am working hard at ways of defeating low light issues for the next film, but for now – here is Operation Snakebite.

Regards,

Basho

I again cursed the idea that I was the only sentry.

My team leader, Trip, had listened to our single-sentry concerns and then laid out what we were going to do, “Well,” he began, “we can leave, but if we do the AQT will turn on us. Or we can stay. The opposition will probably attack in the early morning, so I will make sure that we have the last sentry watches. I will go first. Basho, you will take the last watch.”

I didn’t sleep very well as what if the enemy sent in a silent unit to take out the sentry? We wouldn’t know we were under attack until we were all murdered in our sleeping bags! Consequently I kept my boots and fighting rig on when in my sleeping bag, with a drawn pistol next to my leg. I was determined not to be captured without a fight.

Four hours later it was my turn and here I stood, alone in the darkness, straining my ears to hear any noises and feeling the tension in the air. I was on the last watch, so I knew they would be coming any moment. I leaned over a barrel to get a better look at a suspicious tree and then, satisfied, turned away to walk on. Suddenly, there was the unmistakable crack of a stick being stood on – someone was right behind me! My heart beat in my ears as I flicked the selector switch on my M4 to full auto. I thought to myself: I must be fast and smooth, I must get off a burst in an arc to be sure of a hit then I have to shout the alert to the sleeping base. As my eyes strained to my left I suddenly saw a flash of unmistakable movement in my peripheral vision. He was coming low and left for a knife kill! I planted my foot forwards and span, pulling the trigger as I turned. The AEG motor kicked into life and started spitting high-speed BBs. I was sure that I was going to get at best a 50/50. My arm strained to draw the arc of fire as fast as possible and the opposition shape started to resolve, raising itself up in alarm of its own. The white BBs flew through the air between us and rattled into the –

- into the deer!

I released the trigger, but it was too late and the deer took a scything burst across the haunches. It brayed in fear, reared-up its legs high in the air and then bounded off into the night. Gone. Just as suddenly as it began it was over and I was alone again with only the sound of my heart pumping in my ears and my face flush with cold embarrassment.

A whispered voice came from one of the huts, “What was that? Is it a stand to?”

I pushed the selector to safe. “No mate, false alarm”.

“Right,” the voice said, tired, and went away.

I walked on, continuing my vigil. I knew that they were out there – probably laughing.

Operation Snakebite was the first game designed by Tier 1 Military Simulations; the ex-Royal Marine Commando run company specialising in “high end” milsim. The action was spread over 2 days at the sites of Dorking and Epsom run by Elite Action Games. The level of detail and effort that had gone into creating a believable roleplay environment was really impressive. For example, a couple of days before the event, I had been emailed a 26 page long PowerPoint briefing customised for my team. It included maps of the area, intelligence reports, “intercepted” communications and our orders.

I remember thinking that if the event was run with anywhere near the same level of passion that went into creating this document then I was in for a wild ride.

I was playing for a small team of Pakistani CIA types called the ISI.

Our mission was complicated and woven into the fabric of the storyline Tier 1 had designed for the event. It seemed that we had placed a spy in the AQT forces to keep an eye on them. This man was suspected to wanting to defect to the UK forces moving into the area. It was our job to monitor this defection. We could do it almost any way we wanted. The easiest way was to go under cover as AQT and watch him, but we could have similarly gone under cover with the UK forces or even struck out on our own. Once we chose, the die was cast and any action against the sheltering side would lead to conflict.

We drove down to Dorking at about 5pm and setup our gear. I had a lot of camera equipment to strap to myself, but we had lots of time. The briefings for the AQT team were at 2am in the morning.

By then I was already really tired after a week commuting into London, and so afterwards we grabbed a little sleep before the AQT hiked the 40 minutes into the game zone at 5am.

The thing that struck me immediately was that the players who had attended the Tier 1 training days had quite an advantage in the field. It showed in the way they moved, communicated and took cover as well in how they laid up a harbour position. My little four man team were all eyeing the bushes with great care.

Would the enemy attack us openly? I was expecting so. However, I was to find that the enemy had other orders and would only engage and fade. The large open-grass battles I had expected were replaced by much more realistic Special Forces type incursions. The resulting feeling that “eyes were always on us” (which they were) was palpable among the team.

This tension is the core part of milsim as there was the possibility of contact at any moment.

For me this sent my, already tired from London commuting, body into sleep mode. Whenever I found an hour to rest I laid back and slept. However, I always kept my pistol cocked and locked on my chest ready to leap into action at the shout of a stand to. Trip filmed me snoring away and Keith commented that if we did get attacked they could just stand me up as I was in combat position already. To see my reaction, Trip did indeed shout “Stand to!” and was happily laughing to see that I immediately sprung to my feet, pistol at the ready, and calling for targets.

About half-way through the day a patrol returned with a hostage and the next phase of the roleplay kicked in. I wasn’t sure if the guy had “volunteered” to be captured, but he played the hostage stoically as he was put into stress positions and (mock) tortured. Personally speaking this was a part of the event I was not too interested in and I stayed well away from the fellow and his tormentors. The prospect of being captured filled me with dread and such a possibility only added to the “realism” of the event, which meant that our patrols were even more nervous than before.

Then our “agent” finally attempted to sneak out of the base and Trip gave the nod to our four man unit to follow him. As we ventured out into the treeline, and out of sight of the base, the danger we were putting ourselves in hit home.

If there is one thing that this event managed to convey to me about “real” soldiering then it was the slice of fear I felt being out so unmanned, which was probably only a tiny percentage of how our troops must feel at times like this. How much courage they must display to prevail despite this feeling amazes me. We tracked the Agent through the trees and up a large bank. I was sure that he had spotted us and even more so that we were being led into a trap. Eventually the Agent disappeared into some scrub and we followed him to only land straight on top of him. His attempts to lose us had failed! I wanted to cap him there and then, but Trip instead gave him a talking-to and we all led back to the firebase.

I hadn’t fired a shot in that patrol, but it doesn’t go unnoticed that it was one of the most fun things I have ever done in airsoft.

An hour after we got back, the news went around that a prisoner exchange was on the cards. The brief was that we would only take 3 men to an agreed area and swap our guy for theirs. The AQT commander led a group out into the forest and we tracked through in lines using a large arc to ensure we had no surprises. Eventually we came across the small village where the exchange was to take place and setup an all-around defence.

The opposition approached, but the AQT commander didn’t like the look of it and ordered an assault. I am pleased to report that this was absolutely text-book. The opposition was caught flat-footed and went down hard with the AQT pushing forwards, killing the guards, fighting off the response and retreating in good order right back to where I was standing (I guarded the prisoner). It was a stunning performance.

Flush with our victory, we executed their prisoner (allowing him to bleed out and respawn) and went back to the firebase in great spirits. It was dinner time.

My dinner – a self-heating MRE – prompted the need for the toilet. I dug into my pack for my wetwipes and toilet roll and headed out of the base to find a suitable tree. I was very aware that I was alone, something that Stewart from Tier 1 had cautioned against in the training, so I took my pistol belt and a grenade. I picked my way over a little swampy stream and selected a suitable tree overlooking a ditch. I put my belt across my shoulders and started undoing my trousers as this was going to be as quick as I could make it. I came up to the tree and looked over the roots into the ditch. To my shock and horror, sitting in the ditch – their eyes wide with fear that I was about to poo on them – were three opposition players! I jumped back and their first shot went over my head. I scrambled to my feet and ran, but my boots slipped on the muddy ground and I slid onto my side. The grenade! I fumbled in my pocket and dug out the grenade, but it wouldn’t light and I was desperately scratching the striker when a BB thumped into my chest.

“Medic!” I shouted.

Immediately the base came to life with shouts of alarm and orders being flung around. A large group of the AQT thundered out of the base and down the bank towards our tableau. The opposition took one look at the numbers and fled up the hillside pursued by the AQT commander. So, that’s how the Taliban saved me from literally having my shit pushed back in!

I held that toilet until the end of the game.

As the evening drew in my unit went out and planted 10 pressure sensitive mines to the north of the base. My teammates were sure that these would help in the coming night, because clearly the opposition were building up to a strike against the base itself.

Many hours later…

The horror of my near capture and embarrassment at having shot up a harmless woodland creature was still on my mind as I trudged around the base on watch. The sun was finally starting to make an appearance and I was able to put the NVG away as it offered no improvement on my eyesight.  When to the north of the base I suddenly heard the absolute unmistakable sound of approaching forces.

They were crunching the trees underfoot, but rather than giving themselves away it was only reinforcing the rising excitement and adrenaline flooding into my body and I came instantly awake.

“STAND TO!”

The moment I sounded those words the opposition went loud and started firing at the base. I could clearly hear their commander (Tier 1’s Ed Denson) shouting orders to the sections and then all hell broke loose. My ISI unit mates (ready in moments) and I formed up and fought back, but the opposition rate of fire was immense. I wondered why there were so few defenders until I looked around and could see the AQT team running away (which I later discovered was their orders). Stoically my ISI brothers and I fought on like only the DAs can. Once the perimeter fire came too much the surviving members retreated into the hut and I posted Keith upstairs to fire down on the cover now taken by the opposition. I took a look out of a window and the opposition’s day spent hiding in ditches and setting up on the AQT was paying off as they were moving very well in the low light and obviously had this planned. Five men took cover in front of the hut and I threw a grenade to their side and then retreated further into the hut. I drew my pistol and took out the first three units who tried to dynamically enter on me and I am pleased to report that they all took it. The next guy to come in however was more used to CQB and I got taken out on a 50/50. All the tension left my body and we shared a gentlemen’s handshake. Fair play!

I later found out that AQT retreat was all part of the roleplay plan for the day and setup the next part of the event at Epsom Tunnels. The idea was that the AQT had retreated into their underground base and the opposition had to weed them out with a frontal assault. We quickly relocated. Epsom tunnels are huge, almost beyond belief, and exceedingly dark.

They are perfect for a CQB skirmish, but not perhaps best suited for milsim without marshals. What happened was that as soon as grenades went off the whole environment became completely smoked out. After and hour or so of some very hard fighting, and having lost the ability to see, the ISI called it a day.

If I was to critique the game I would always try to stay away from simply nit-picking. I have had a hand in running airsoft events and I know how it is impossible for everything to go perfectly to plan. I think that Tier 1 should be highly congratulated in what they have achieved with this format and I can’t fault their dedication, intelligence and resolve.

What issues I saw were really to do with milsim more than T1.

The main thing I would counsel someone to consider when thinking of coming to a milsim event like this for the first time is the slight lack of open endedness. What I mean is: there is a story that we are playing through and certain people have orders. For example, if I had been given total freedom then I would have attacked the opposition in the night, rather than have them attack us as they would not have expected it. I love doing what the opposition don’t expect. Here that freedom is slightly constrained and stepping totally outside of the chain of command will only get you sent off. This is, of course, not something “wrong” with milsim, just different and in fact far more realistic to “real” soldiering. Frankly, in an event run this well you hardly notice it at all and that is the best compliment I can give T1 for Operation Snakebite; it was as slick as snake shit.  I had real moments of fear and heart pumping excitement and yet mostly without firing a single shot.

I loved the event and I will be back for more!

Regards

Basho

Basho and the DAs went to the Tier 1 Military Simulations’ Operation Snakebite at Elite Action Games in Dorking & Epsom

Basho (the author) has been playing airsoft for 10 years. He is a committee member of Team Delta Alpha (the DAs) and was the senior marshal at their (now closed) home site of Electrowerkz in London. Basho is now the senior marshal for Tier 1 Military Simulations.

The film of this adventure is here:

http://www.outsidecontext.com/2011/04/27/operation-snakebite-a-basho-airsoftmilsim-film/

They don’t have commanders at all.

I don’t blame them for this; as it is the commonly held consensus that leading airsofters is like” herding cats” and not worth the effort. Consequently, while airsoft players often dress like the most elite of Special Forces, in battle they lack the most fundamental structure that every unit in the armed forces learns from day one. It can be quite funny to watch players wearing thousands of pounds of kit get laced up by mongrel teams in jeans and toting AEPs because they are acting only as individuals not as a cohesive unit. I often refer to such “team’s” airsoft tactics as a Barbarian Horde approach, but actually this is an insult to the great Hordes of antiquity that worked well together. No the actual playing style of the average airsoft “team” is best illustrated by allusion to the teamwork shown in the movie Black Hawk Down…

…and I don’t mean by the US.

So, despite the impression shown in airsoft team photos, many of these people have no clue how to act together. No wonder the real army boys call airsofters “walts” – as you may be able to buy the kit, but you can’t fake the brotherhood. As my friend Trip puts it,

“All the gear, no idea.”

If Tier One has an objective then it is perhaps their mission to change this often sad display of teamwork shown on the skirmish field. All the drills I have learned, at the two training days I have now attended, have been focussed – absolutely focussed – on teamwork. Making it natural, making it fit and making it flow like water going down a hill rather than gardening up one. Like I said, “Criticism is easy”.

Analysis is not.

Before Christmas, team Delta Alpha visited Catterick for a Milsim game run by Stirling airsoft. The scenario was simple; one team were the Yanks, dropped into a favela and charged with capturing two gang leaders. The other team was the aforementioned gang and their objective was to annihilate the American presence. We played on the US side and we ordered to hold a house in a strategic location on the map and provide simple area denial. Taking the house took ten minutes, but since High Command couldn’t come up with anything else for us to do that wasn’t an ego fantasy on their part, we left the comms’ and went house storming. Now the DAs are not too bad at taking houses, indeed “door kicking” is our speciality as we all have had training from the Met Police fire arms unit SO19 (a benefit of having police officers in the team). However, it took many lives to achieve control of each house and moreover when were caught outside we got to bickering about “who should do what” and we were quickly surrounded and slaughtered. Since that day I have been trying to work out what went wrong.

Thanks to this course I now know what went wrong, why I was a part of the failure and, even better, I know how to fix it.

We arrived at Copehill Down FIBUA site, nestled in the hills surrounding Stone Henge in Wiltshire, at 9:30am. We were in a hurry as we had gone the wrong way and wanted to be “ready by ten” – it is very much our team ethos to not be the ones slowing the day down. As we pulled into the car park I could see all the Tier One boys had the same idea and they were all ready to rock on time as well. In their case this is probably due to the years of military discipline each possesses. Unfortunately we couldn’t get into the site for over an hour. This seriously held us up as the site had to be thoroughly checked for un-exploded ordinance (UXO). There were about 60 people in total, mostly regular players for the other organisation, and I could see that they were what I would call “skirmishers” more than Milsim players. No bad thing of course, airsoft is a game played by all sorts of people.

When we finally got going we were first given an introduction into the Tier One instructors together with some funny images of their service history, which relaxed the audience for the short classroom session that followed. This, like in the previous woodland training, was excellently presented by Stewart, who had no problems dealing with the class size. He started by showing us a short clip of the battle at the end of Saving Private Ryan, which he explained showed clearly how the advantage in a FIBUA assault was with the defenders and teamwork and tactics was the only way to prevail without enormous numerical superiority (something unlikely in airsoft). He then outlined the way the Commandos would capture Copehill. This explanation involved a birds-eye view of the site provided by Google Maps all highlighted and coloured as well as an outline of the stages of an assault and what to do in each stage. He also outlined how the team should be split up to achieve these objectives and how that provided for the best use of cover and support. One major difference from what I was used to was that most of the team is in a covering position with only one assault unit taking a room in the first house and the commanders feeding men into that “break in” point.

Then we all went outside and he showed us the Tier One boys doing it for real. This really put it in perspective and his explanation vividly demonstrated how each unit worked and supported the others. One of the major benefits of doing this training at Copehill is that the village is designed especially for the teaching of these very techniques and provides special “cut away” buildings to clearly show how to fight in a house. The Commando way of taking a house is cautiously, much more cautiously than most airsoft assaults I have been in, and I will be interested to put this training into practice when I next play in a FIBUA battle.

Then it was our turn.

Splitting into teams and then assigning roles, Team 1, Team 2, Cover Unit, Commander and Linkman, we drilled what we had learned under the watchful eye of the assigned Tier One instructor. After each run through he evaluated our performance and we switched the roles around and tried again. Stacking up outside doors in large groups is definitely out, and most of us were providing cover to the building before being moved up by the commander through the “linkman” role. We mostly attacked via windows and “mouse holes”. This was again new for me as I tend to avoid windows due to my size and have found that all the windows in a game will be defended. Inside the house we stayed in teams and moved through each other one corridor/room at a time, bursting into rooms as we went. Of course, the Commando way also includes a large amount of grenades used to clear each room and entering the room a split second later firing on full auto. In airsoft, this will often be expensive in grenade costs and full auto is mostly banned in houses, but Tier One has made the commitment to teach it as it really is. It is up to the player to fit the tactics to the potential rules of their site. Over six or seven attempts we actually started to work well as a team and there was lots of fun as we dived in windows and “fragged” rooms before bursting in and shooting up the targets. Given that most of the team had never played together before this was a real achievement. If only the “pick up” groups I had operated in during battles had been lucky enough to get this training I may have lived longer!

Then it started raining in earnest, but that didn’t stop us from the final challenge of the day: a Hogan’s Alley run against the clock for prizes! I partnered with Mike and we were tasked with the clearing of one side of a street using the tactics we had learned in the day and being assessed by the Tier One instructor. Mike, who is our latest recruit to the DAs, is a natural airsofter and I was honoured to partner him through the challenge. Even the Instructor was impressed by his ability and he missed winning “player of the day” by a tiny margin (as I found out later in the pub).

After the runs had all completed Tier One handed out the prizes, which included a hilarious moment when one player was tricked into thinking he had won a Gen-3 Night vision kit (worth £2000!) when in fact he had actually won something a lot better: The Fairburn-Sikes commando dagger is a classic of military design, but more than that it means a lot to the Marines who have had the honour of carrying it in the field. Its no-nonsense design and clean lines epitomizes the philosophy of the Commandos and the lucky guy being presented one was duly impressed (I heard he is going to mount it).

After that it was pub time, a fun chat with the Tier One crew and the ladies & gents on the course. Then a 3 hour drive back to Essex carried out by the ever reliable Keith and his large estate car nicknamed “Red October”. We arrived back home around 3am and immediately went to bed.

Since then I have had the odd twinge of soreness in the knees and these have reminded me of the day. Tier One remain new to running airsoft events, but they are consummate professionals with a real fresh vision for the game. I have often talked (usually drunkenly) about the DAs starting up an airsoft company, but these guys are not just players; they are all experts in what they know and very good at passing it on. Overall, despite the delays, this makes the training of the highest quality and worth the investment. The first Tier One game is coming in just a weeks’ time and I personally can’t wait!

Regards,

Basho

The rest of the photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/outsidecontext/sets/72157626276802189/
Please note that they are copyright Keith Silk.

Basho (the author) has been playing airsoft for 10 years. He is a committee member of Team Delta Alpha (the DAs) and was the senior marshal at their (now closed) home site of Electrowerkz in London. Basho in no way affiliated with Tier 1 Military Simulations, but Trip is as an airsoft consultant.

Basho now works for Tier 1 as senior marshal

Staffed almost entirely by Ex-Royal Marine Commandos, Tier 1 Military Simulations has taken the mission to bring the fun back into milsim while keeping the “experience”. Their first 3-day event, “Operation Snakebite”, is coming in April, attendance at which my team mates have talked me into. I am not a natural milsim player, being more of an urban and CQB regular at such sites as The Mall in Reading and Longmoor Urban Training Complex, but recently I have been trying my hand at a little realism. Last year my team and I played as the “scripted enemy” in Operation Zulu by TA Events, which involved getting “very muddy” with the best of them and I enjoyed that immensely. So, when I found out that Tier 1 Military Simulations was putting on a “Training Day” at Elite Action Games in Dorking, I signed up as it offered me the chance to “ease into it”.

We arrived early on Saturday to meet with the Tier 1 crew; a four man team of instructors led by the smart looking and straight backed Stewart and his business partner Eddie. After dropping my bergen (holding all my camping gear and packed for the field with rations, a bivi and my roll mat) we were invited into a small hut. It was then that I realised that Tier 1 were not your normal airsoft instructors. In the hut were five tables all laid out with pencils, print outs and paper pads. As we sat down I also noticed that there was a large plasma flat screen to the front displaying what surely must be a PowerPoint screen. Stewart came in with the others and introduced themselves. In an airsoft world where many people have “served” in one form or another, but more importantly where there are a ton of fakers and exaggerators who claim undue respect through fictional exploits; 1000 yard stares and “issue” gear, these guys stood up and told us where they had served. The entire group had over 50 years’ service in the Royal Marine Commandos between them including decades as instructors. If there is such a thing as getting the “real deal” in airsoft, this is it.

Once the lesson started, and the PowerPoint started moving, I relaxed. Stewart was clearly a professional at teaching. I detected that this was no ego trip for these guys and they had the serious aim of teaching us real Marine tactics straight out of the manual. He had a well laid out day planned with short classroom sessions to discuss the tactics and answer any questions, split by practical tuition in the woods and finally culminating in performing the drills learned under fire at night in a test to see if we have picked any of it up. Despite being extremely tired from London commuting, I found it all clear and well presented.

The lesson started and I took notes. We learned that Operation Snakebite would be “Patrol Warfare” with orders given to platoons to patrol between GPS coordinates with certain orders when contacting the enemy (who have been given orders to patrol a dissecting path) and it would be in this way that they would introduce some form of control to the event that will be otherwise unscripted. But first, we needed to learn what different types of patrol there were.

Soon we were out in the field putting the lessons to good use in three groups. Our first jaunt was patrolling with Bergans in a line formation with the Team Leader at the front. We practiced halting and finding cover, crossing obstacles, how to reccy a village and the use of silent signals to communicate. All led by our short and stoic instructor who very quickly corrected mistakes and offered advice. I asked him what he had done in the Commando’s. He replied that had been a sniper mainly and had never played airsoft or even been shot by an AEG. We immediately offered to rectify that, but he declined with a smile, reminding us that the night event will include “live” fire. I could immediately tell that this night event was going to involved my being shot at by an ex-Commando sniper!

At the end of this patrol we met up with the others and were taught how to lay up a harbour. Harbours are how Commandos form a defensive position in the field. This can be for many reasons, but the most obvious is to be able to sleep. We were shown how to peel into a triangle of one group per side with a command element in the middle with support weapons at the points. Then how to recy the area in front and lay out sentries and communication string. This was particularly interesting stuff as I have never heard of harbours before and it was all explained expertly and made perfect sense.

After a late-lunch of hotdogs we went into a lesson of laying up an Observation Post, something the instructors were all experts in. After taking copious notes we were invited outside to see one for real. Stewart gave us a 30 meter area of trees and asked us to spot the OP. I must admit that I couldn’t see any possibility that people were hiding in that area but, after being led around the rear of the copse, I saw that the other three ex-Commandos were layed up in a smart OP mere yards from where my feet had been. It had a guarded entrance, sleeping/cooking area and front Observation Post all draped in cammo netting. Very impressive and something I would need to know when on ops.

After this we went for a lesson in defensive contact drills. This was more familiar territory, but I still learned a lot of new things. We were taught how to form a tunnel formation on a “contact front” and then peel back while firing, how to form a “gatepost” leading to a “baseline” formation and then retreat by sections. How to manage a man down while providing fire support to the men dragging the casualty from the field. This was all practical and useful stuff that enabled my small team to learn to work together and put down impressive levels of fire onto the enemy.

As the sun dipped down and the night fell the already cold day became freezing and the test was upon us. We had to patrol in the pitch-black night through the wood, following chemical lights tied to trees at 50 meter intervals. We were going to come under fire along the way and we had to react with the drills we had just learned, all under the watchful eye of Stewart who was wearing high end night optics. I wish I had been, as in my mesh mask I couldn’t see hardly a thing. I could just make out the man in front and would be performing the drills basically with my eyes closed. As we picked our way through the wood we suddenly had fire from the left.

“Contact left!” Screamed Trip.

I spun left and went down on one knee and started laying down aggressive and large amounts of fire towards the sound of an AEG firing at me. I had loaded my P-Mags as “Real Caps” and so I was soon performing a mag change (many long hours of practicing in front of the Magpul DVDs paying off).

“Peel right!” Shouted Trip.

It was then it all went to pieces. After a minute of everyone running in different directions, shooting each other and bumping into trees, Stewart called a halt and brought us in. He then took us through the contact and our reaction. It was very impressive, even with the NVG, that he had a total grasp of what happened. He gently led us through it and promised that the other teams had also messed up the first one; we would get better he told us. It was a bit embarrassing for us and Trip in particular took it all to heart as we were a team of very experienced players and used to being together. Only two months ago we executed a perfect peel drill to an aggressive contact when playing at Stirling Airsoft. That had left jaws on the floor, but that had been during the day; this was at night. I was suddenly reminded that Operation Snakebite was to be a three-day event and night ops was to be expected.

We were determined to get better and I am glad to say that we did. Of course the chaos of the contacts, which came from all directions along our route, lent a realistic element to the training that practice can never give. I ran out of ammo and had to transition mid fight, Trip ran into a load of wire hanging from a tree and had to cut himself free (winning our argument about knives in milsim in the process), guns went down, men tripped up. It was marvellous chaos and pressure like all good training should be. By the end we were doing it very well and Stewart announced that our last contact was “75 to 80%” of perfect. That was good enough for me.

After the event we dropped off our gear, ready to camp overnight, and went to the pub with the Instructors. They were very interesting and good company as we drank like only airsofters and Commandos know how.

I asked our team what they thought of the event. Trip has been in airsoft as long as I and is leading the DA Team’s transition to playing more milsim. He and Keith (who has passed Stirling Selection) loved it and are looking forwards to our special role in the event.

“How about you Simon?” I asked our other team member, a stocky Ex-Paratrooper.

“How many jumps did you do?” Asked Trip.

“Oh more than I can count mate,” he answered smoothly, “I used to be 6ft 6!”

I laughed so much I spat out my beer on the table.

“I think its excellent training,” he said, “these guys really know how to teach this stuff.”

I had to agree, Tier 1 don’t teach watered down airsoft versions of real tactics, it is all the real deal. The philosophy is that if we learn the real Commando way of doing things then we will naturally perform better under fire in airsoft. It’s a great idea. Most teams are little more than a barbarian horde in combat or, like myself, unused to woodland. This training has enabled me to react like an element in a larger team. As far as I am concerned the argument about the value of training is dead; if the training is of the quality of that provided by Tier 1 it is worth every penny paid and every effort put in.

Regards,

Basho

Basho and the DAs went to the Tier 1 Military Simulations Woodland Training day at Elite Action Games in Dorking. They paid £50 for a full day of training with food and drink provided as well as overnight camping at the event. This was training given in advance of Tier 1 Military Simulations’ first game coming in April.

Basho (the author) has been playing airsoft for 10 years. He is a committee member of Team Delta Alpha (the DAs) and was the senior marshal at their (now closed) home site of Electrowerkz in London. Basho in no way affiliated with Tier 1 Military Simulations, but Trip is as an airsoft consultant.

It was when I was sitting in the steam room at Virgin Active with 20 sweaty men all dressed in the same set of bright beach shorts, and making jokes about their penises, that something struck me as odd,

“This has to be,” I announced into the cloud of steam, which was being jetted into the room at an alarming rate and temperature, “the most surreal Ground Zero Weekender I have ever been to.”

The member of team Delta Alpha to my right leant in and said,

“Do you feel better now, though?” He asked.

I considered the question.

The Ground Zero Weekender is a large airsoft event in the latter part of the year in the deepest parts of the New Forest. My team, Delta Alpha known as the “DAs”, had been attending it for 5 years or so and we had come to the conclusion that attendance was mandatory for a team member to retain his number and only top excuses were allowed. Such excuses as “my wife is in labour” (the baby kind – not the political affiliation) or “It’s Ramadan, and I can’t come,” are the level of acceptable. “I don’t feel like it” wasn’t good enough for the DA committee (of which I am happy to be a member). The thing is, as much as the event is a “must attend” (and I’ll give you an example: TA Events offered me a free ticket to their event the weekend after and the chance to be the official cameraman and I turned them down) it is not that we take the airsoft too seriously or even seriously at all.

The DAs are an odd bunch of airsofters with wide ranging experience. Some DAs still only play the urban based, Electrowerkz style, of CQB for which the team is justly infamous – although our home is now “The Mall” in Reading. Other DAs only play high end Stirling Airsoft 3 day Mill Sim events where being captured can actually lead to being REALLY water boarded. One thing we have all decided is that, as good a ground as GZ is, the sheer numbers of players means that serious airsoft is almost impossible. That is for us. I am sure that for other teams it is different. Some definitely take it too seriously, as we shall see.

No, for us GZ is all about the camping, hanging out with our friends and the “Posse” of London teams that attend. In fact, it is nice to be anonymous amongst the great crowd of players. We drove down on the Friday morning to find that some DAs had wormed special permission to arrive Thursday night and had setup “The Moonbase Alpha”. A giant collection of popup tents all linked together to create a space bigger than some airsoft grounds. It had rooms, chambers, cavernous corridors. It was complex, you could almost get lost in it.

“Wow!” I exclaimed to Charlie.

He laughed, “Next year we plan to have enough to create a complete loop with a space for the party in the middle.”

I don’t doubt it. All the DAs are working men and GZ is a chance to show off new kit. At GZ people bring out their new guns and those secret projects that they have been working on all year. At GZ, they try out new tactics and silly toys for the first time. Here people swap roles with our normally SAW pumping commanders taking a breather and all “going sniper” for a few days. In fact the command structure we work so hard on the rest of the year is totally dropped at GZ. It affects me too: I have found myself leading a group who want to go out and move about, whereas normally I am known as a bit of a lone wolf on the field.

So, Friday night we had the traditional DA party, and there is very little I can repeat here as my wife is reading this! Suffice to say, this was a “boys weekend” away (our wives are probably glad we can get it all out of our system). There were a few announcements: a new expectant father, someone was getting baptised soon, someone else was changing jobs – that sort of thing. Each was greeted with the normal DA rousing cheer and many a raised pint pot.

Saturday, we woke early and I broke out the coffee grinder and hob boiler to make some real coffee. Then we ate, tooled up and went into game.

Sure enough, the normal field commanders were having none of it on this event and so we wandered around until we got into contact. Not being natural woodland players, the DAs struggle a little to beat local players and after half a dozen lives lost we came back for lunch and then split into two teams, going at different paces, to suit taste.

It was about only 10 minutes into that when it all went horribly wrong.

The way I see it is that anyone who plays woodland must be prepared to take a few hits at once. Woodland is often at range and people are only shooting at what they can see. Bits of arms and legs; whatever is visible between the trees and bushes. When I get hit at GZ, I am almost always hit by multiple rounds and often clipped a few more times as I walk out of play. Shit happens as far as I am concerned. I don’t let it get to me, as I am sure it is not on purpose.

Some people see it differently.

My small unit, of 8 or so, were making their way through the bush when a target presented itself. We were spread out along a ridge, fighting up a steep hill. Vince and I saw the target and both fired a small burst. I heard a “hit”. The player then stood where they were. I could only see the legs of the player, but I quickly realised that it was an “Intel holder”. That is a player who has been given an Intel Card to present when shot as a capture objective. They have to stand where they are and wait capture, rescue or a timeout. Of all the players who are going to get shot too many times, this is that role as, by not moving away, other players will naturally consider you still alive.

One of the team (not Vince or I, but further down the ridge) took another shot.

Then all hell broke loose.

The Intel Holder turned out to be a feisty red headed girl from a well known team based on a British Island. And she was not happy. With a scream is rage she pulled up her gun and on full auto ran into the bush firing at us. My shout of, “Dead players don’t move or shoot!” was drowned out by a 6 gun barrage of returning fire from the DAs down the ridge – all of which had no idea that this was the Intel Holder. After a few seconds of Vince and I shouting to cease fire, they did. The damage had already been done. The Intel Holder was now livid and out of control. She was screaming at us that being shot was wrong and that she was angry about it. At first I wondered why her being angry was anything to do with us, I wondered if something else was going to be in her argument, but no that was it “I’m angry and so I am having a self serving fit” was all she wrote.

On the other hand, my team were of the opinion that, while we were very sorry about the overkill, it happens and could we all just calm down please.

After 3 minutes of this, I suggested that perhaps she should just forget it and return to her dead zone. I was going to continue to say that she could raise this with a marshal if she liked, and we could deal with it through him. The DAs have no issue with authority. Many of us used to marshal atElectrowerkz, a site that REALLY had a problem with overkill, and are quite used to talking it out rationally. I myself was a senior marshal there for 3 years.

I didn’t get to say anything after the words “you’re a dead player”.

With a scream the girl launched herself at me and started attempting to beat me up. I say attempting as I was in full body armour and helmet so I could not feel anything. I turned away and hunched my shoulder and made no attempt to defend myself. Suddenly two arms grabbed me from behind. Soon she was dragged off me and our friends separated us. At the time, I wondered why my team was holding me back as I was absolutely fine. She was still desperately trying to claw her way through her friends towards me. There was one of those large group tussles as all sorts of people on both sides tried to get between us. The volume increased as everyone started shouting at each other. Eventually the girl was restrained enough to be dragged away.

As quick as that it was over. The groups split up and went their own way. The DAs stopped and replayed the situation in our heads.

“What the fuck just happened?” I asked.

The general opinion was that she had gone mental and was a danger to players.

“Are you going to report this Bash?” I was asked.

I thought for a second. “I should. She might hurt someone, she was bloody mental.”

“Or she may start on someone else who might smack her head in next time,” offered a DA.

“We were all worried you would fight back and kick them all in. Especially the guy who shouted at you,” said another.

I get this all the time, once people find out about my black belt in taekwondo and European tournament win.

Sam patted me on the back, “We acted the right way brov’, don’t worry.”

Then suddenly something occurred to me; the head camera!

“I have the entire thing on tape!” I exclaimed.

The general feeling was that this was awesome news. About ten minutes later we all got shot and so walked out. I went up to the nearest marshal and spoke to him. It turned out that the other group had already made a complaint about me. We all agreed to go speak to the organisers regarding it.

Back at the command tent, the site owner “H” took me to one side.

“Tell what you say happened,” he said. I felt that he clearly suspected me in this. I told him, leaving nothing out, but he didn’t look particularly convinced.

“…and,” I said, “I probably have the entire thing recorded on head camera.”

“Right,” he said, “let’s see it.”

Soon we were viewing the footage. It was very high quality.

It showed everything. It showed the DAs calling for calm before the attack, DAs saying we will walk away (this is a team rule), basically: the DAs trying their best to do the right thing and clearly saying they were sorry for the overkill. It also showed that this simply made the girl more mental until she attacked me in a rage.

It was the most convincing piece of footage I had ever recorded; I was totally cleared by it.

“Right, she is in trouble!” H said in anger and stomped out of the room, presumably to deal with her.

I went to rejoin my fellows standing by the entrance to the safe zone. Soon Lex and Trip (the other team leaders) arrived and after we had watched the footage again, we went to talk to H about what he was going to do.

This conversation had four points of view:

1. H wanted me to decide what should happen.

2. Lex offered to arrest her if I said so (many DAs are policemen).

3. Trip wanted to have her ejected as well as the guy with her.

4. However, I thought that it’s not for me, a player, to enforce the rules of a site.

I am not taking responsibility for the appropriate punishment a player should get for assault. When I was a marshal, I took little notice of the victim’s wishes as violence has no place in the game AT ALL. If a victim said to “leave it”, then that was nice, but the marshals decide if someone is to be ejected. It is for the marshals to enforce this at GZ, not I!

Also, my religious beliefs are founded on being compassionate (seriously), so I decided to drop it and go and have a beer.

H offered that perhaps a hand shake would suffice. Frankly, I found that ridiculous. This wasn’t a punch up or half my fault, this was an unprovoked attack. You don’t ask someone who has been mugged to shake hands with the muggers do you? I told H that a handshake wouldn’t work for me and I would not want shake the hand of someone like that ever. Hate filled, self obsessed, stupid, psychotic people are not friends of mine.

So we walked away. As we do.

However, I did agree not to post the footage on the net, I said nothing about stills.

Back at the camp, we were having real troubles letting the event go. The entire DAs were up in arms about it and all sort of rubbish was being offered. Some were saying I should have hit her back, others that I should post the entire thing to the net, others still that I should insist she be ejected and her name blackened all around every site we know. Some just wanted to go and have it out with them now. Some even saw it my way (mainly the ex marshal crowd). After about an hour of discussing it I wanted a break. It was then that Vince had a brain wave:

“You know,” he said to the group, “I am a member of Virgin Active and this weekend all their branches are free to use.”

The team considered this in silence.

“That is bloody brilliant,” I said. “But we will need shorts right?”

“Let stop off at Tesco and buy some,” suggested Trip.

Suddenly we had something fun to do and a mission. Laughing, we jumped in our cars and went. It was great fun running around Tesco trying to find shorts and then zooming to the closest Virgin Active. Sure enough it was free, but the staff was shocked to have us all turn up at once. The place was basically empty and we swam, played volleyball in the pool, sauna and enjoyed the steam room. It was there that Vince said,

“Do you feel better now, though?” He asked.

“Oh yes. Thanks mate.”

And after that we forgot about it and after a very one sided vote we drove off to Nando’s for dinner.

The next day’s airsoft was fun and the chaotic kind we all know and love at GZ. I did see the girl again – so she hadn’t been banned – but we didn’t acknowledge each other.

On the way home I thought of the promise I had made about the footage. Sure, I agreed not to post the footage, it shows a crime after all, but I have kept it just in case I need to make a complaint to the police regarding this event in the future. I did however decide to do something in my film of the Weekender – a subtle revenge – you will have to watch it to find out what.

So, yes, it was a surreal airsofting event. I have never actually seen someone properly attack another at an airsoft event – not in three years of marshalling at EW or in 10 years of playing – and I hope to never see it again, let alone be the victim of that attack. Airsoft is thought to be violent, but it actually isn’t. From the outside, we may look like we are serious people, but in general we are not. Sure, I have had my anger flare up before, but I have always walked away. Any serious complaint I have taken to a marshal. I think that people who can’t walk, who are so up themselves that they must “have a go” or –worse still – actually attack someone, should never get to step foot on an airsoft field again. I would be interested to hear your viewpoint.

However, as usual, it was the brilliant group of team mates – my friends – who made the event for me. The Ground Zero Weekender and airsoft in general is about making new friends and not counting your kills.

Regards,

Basho

The film:

Vimeo HD version:

The DA Team – Ground Zero 2010 from Basho Matsuo on Vimeo.

You Tube version:

To those of you who play computer games, the country of Chernarus may ring a few bells. As anyone who loves the Arma series of games from Bohemia Interactive will tell you Chernarus, or Black Russia, is a fictional post-USSR country somewhere in the East that is used as the main game location. TA Events have licensed the entire storyline from Bohemia meaning that players at the event could sign up to the various factions found in the series. When someone says that you should get out from behind the keyboard and get some exercise, these events enable you to re live the brilliant, in-depth storyline for (almost) real. A detailed account of the factions and background to the event can be found here and it has a very professional depth to it not usually available to airsofters.

.The real-life location was no less impressive. The Army FIBUA site of Sennybridge in Wales is a complete “fake” English village in which generations of UK warriors have trained in FIBUA (Fighting In Built Up Areas). The level of detail in the village is very impressive. Not only is the village replete with gardens, walls and buildings, but it also has a church with gravestones! Even more than this, the houses have built-in speakers hooked up to a centralised system that can be used to deliver synchronised sounds to the player. So, when the Marines call in an airstrike the sound of the helicopters can be heard in all the houses surrounding the target. This turns up the immersion to the max.

Another attempt to keep the realism high was the game rules themselves. BattleSim is a strange beast. Not quite as ultra-real as the Milsim games at Stirling Airsoft, but definitely miles more involved than normal skirmishes. The teams were all structured with roles and responsibilities. There was designated snipers and support gunners and normal riflemen could only carry 600 rounds into combat. What weapons you could use was also mandated. Not here will you find some of the more “speedball” over the top M4 Patriots with dual box mags, and even secondary weapons had to be in keeping with the role. For example, a sniper had a pistol backup, not an AEG.

A complex medical system was in place that meant that when a player got hit he had to refer to a randomly drawn medic card and read the instructions therein. It was a great idea in principle, but it did have a few drawbacks.

For example, a player could (card permitting) be “medic’ed” by anyone. Thus in the film where I took out 8 out of 9 players in a house, I had effectively achieved nothing. That last player, medic’ed the “injured” players and the house was back up to operational. It is an unfortunate fact that mechanics that appear a good idea in theory and on paper, rarely work in the heat of combat. Similarly, players naturally find way around complex rules. In my  opinion, and as a creator of more than a few airsoft games myself at the late Electrowerkz, rules in airsoft should be like water flowing down hill. A golden rule to ask oneself when devising game is, “is it easier to follow this rule than not?” If not, then don’t be surprised to find that people will not follow them clearly. I certainly saw quite a few people not playing the medic rule correctly, but this was mainly due to them not understanding it as we only had a very short briefing on it.

For us DAs: we followed the rules as best we could, but when we found a player of ours who’s card mandated a medical evacuation that would have exposed the position to being overrun, well… we just shot him and saved the call. The chaos of battle was all around us all day. Something that many players were not used to and reacted against, but this was their problem, not the event’s. TA did have a few hiccups with the collecting of deaths as they had not provided a large number of players with “tags” and so their deaths were never logged and the marshal in our command tent had no idea of our objectives, but all in all the event was quite well run. I saw only one player not taking his hits all event and that is to be applauded.

Part of Team Delta Alpha marshalled overnight in exchange for a free game and I was part of a small band selected to role-play the part of “NAPA” villagers for the first hour or so. We had a lot of fun dressing up as moustached locals, with Keith really getting into the spirit with a brilliant costume resplendent with comedy beard; you can see him in the film dancing to Trip’s Russian ringtone. Also the team leaders of Delta Alpha were invited to become “Commanders” and run the US Marine team. The commanders had a lot of fun with this, doing impressions of R. Lee Ermey (the drill instructor in Full Metal Jacket) crossed with General Patton. The night before I helped DA1 write his speech to the troops using Patton’s famous address to the third army and the beginning of Arma II. Under the commanders we setup out the traditional two units of DAs, led by a Section Leader and Deputy (should the leader be killed). This structure worked quite well in play, but we may change things around a little next time.

USMC deployment in Chernarus consists of 27th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable), which is supposed to overturn the balance in the civil war in the favour of Chernarussian government. Marines are skilled in asymmetrical warfare and are backed up by superior weapons and technology.

The DA faction: the US Marines

The game niggles, together with the ugly weather on Saturday, meant that the fighting spirit flagged in the latter part of the first day.

This was good.

Good?

Sure, Milsim is milsim. In real life, do you think that the troops are pumped all the time? No. They learn to pace themselves or they suffer tiredness and moral lapses too. This wasn’t a quick shunt around Electrowerkz before having a beer, this was fighting all day with no relenting. Even having lunch meant setting up a perimeter and eating with eye protection on. On this day all the DAs were made to Man-Up and fight on. Personally, when I found events confusing, I relied on something I once read in a Flashman novel,

“When you are tired and unsure whether to walk or run, look to your officers and march to the sound of the guns.”

Thus I let others worry about the storyline and I charged when told, held when commanded and slotted anyone dressed in green. One of the problems in house to house fighting is that people tend to not want to assault and you end up with with people in windows just plinking at each other all day. The DAs were having none of this and would always ask for permission to assault forwards. A few times this led to all of us being hit and killed, but for the times it worked – it really worked. For example, on Sunday morning, we assaulted a key house, slotted all 6 defenders, and consequently dominated the entire village for the second day of play.

I, personally, loved this event. I enjoyed the challenge and I hope this comes across in the film. I salute TA for attempting such a complex event and I could tell that they worked very hard. I think there is still some way to go with the rules and a print out of the objectives wouldn’t go amiss (after all we paid over £80 for the event.)

Was it worth it?

Yes definitely, I am sure the problems will be smoothed out through constructive feedback and TA Events listening to their client base.

About the film

For a while now I have been trying to find a way to add “context” to the filming of airsoft play. It is often very hard to tell what is going on, who was shooting who and where the enemy are on the screen. I have been trying to think of an answer to this for weeks. Finally I hit on the idea of us being “spied” on by a US Satellite who could act on behalf of the viewer and provide an overlay to bring the “tactical view” into the film.

I hope it worked.

Airsoft is not scripted. Everything you see is as it is. Often situations don’t pan out how you would like (as a filmmaker), and you cant cut what you didn’t film. My answer, at the moment, is to saturate the event with cameras and hope to catch some gold nuggets. On this event I got one shot I absolutely love, that of DA1 firing his Support Gun over my head. I love that shot, not least because he was shooting at someone who had just slotted me! The BB’s streaming out of the barrel look great. I hope to capture many more like that in the future.

Anyway, here is my film of the event. I have had fun making it, although it was a lot of work to cut the 20GB(!) of footage down– a one moment it was over 24 minutes long! – In order to upload it I have had to split the YouTube version into two. Of course the Vimeo version is full length (I love those guys).

Please leave any comments at the bottom here.

Regards,

Basho.

Vimeo Version:

Sennybridge, a Basho film about “The Chernarus Conflict” from Basho Matsuo on Vimeo.

YouTube Part 1:

YouTube Part 2:

• This Is India podcast 2. We already have this one mapped out and it includes the Shiva temples of Hampi, the tech capital of Bangalore, the majestic palaces of Mysore and the high mountains of Ooty, where we meet up with one of our top travelling companions for the rest of southern India: Gweny.
• Kerala. Enough said. This is a wonder.
• A review of Robin Hood – should it provoke one?
• A Basho film of the Mall.
• A Basho film of the forthcoming 3 day milsim event at TA, Sennybridge, including our Magpul send-up!
• A Basho film of the Malvern garden.

Anyway, before all that:

The Airsoft Adventures Podcast!

This podcast is not on our travels, rather it is about the sport I play with my team mates, the sport of airsoft.

I have been playing airsoft now for 7 years, which is an easy date for me to remember as I started my first proper skirmish on my stag night. I went on from there to play regularly at the old London site of Electrowerkz and was soon drafted into the Dark Angels (as they were then known); a 30 strong team of serious CQB players. Soon after that I was asked to join the marshalling team at Electrowerkz and rose to become a senior marshal and even ran the venue on my own a few times. Unfortunately, Electrowerkz closed on the day I left to go travelling and the Dark Angels became team Delta-Alpha. They have gone from strength to strength since then and have successfully branched out into playing military simulation games as well as appearing on TV, a music video and as “resistance security” for the Sarah Connor Chronicles London launch party. This year, a vote was taken to reduce the “publicity” side of the team and focus on the airsoft and I was raised to become of the 5 committee members. We now prowl around the airsoft circuit, sometimes being hired as a scripted enemy, but always reminding people that Team DA plays a very committed game at a very high standard of fairness and honour.

If you have an airsoft ground, if you need 30 very well equipped and motivated players to come down and kick your local boy’s asses, and if you can find our website, then maybe you can hire: The DA Team.

Today’s podcast takes a look at the differences between playing at the Mall in Reading, which is a CQB venue in 250,000 square feet of disserted shopping mall, and a Stirling Combat mission, which is a serious roleplay milsim event run by ex SAS members and not for the faint hearted.

In this episode we cover:

• What is playing the Mall really like?
• Do Stirling players really torture each other?
• Will villager Trip fight for the Taliban team of oppressors, or the American team handing out biscuits?
• Is the Mall’s safety brief really 50 minutes long?

All will be revealed right here, so please click to play!

If the above doesn’t work try the direct link: http://www.outsidecontext.com/wordpress/wp-content/podcast/TheMall.mp3

Supporting Media

During the podcast, reference is made to the following 12 man kill streak caught on camera by Basho:

This is the first podcast on this subject and we hope to be able to do many more. If you would like to appear as a guest in the next one (over Skype) then please let me know via the comments form below.