June 25, 2011--Operation Blackwater

[Felix]

I'm very new to the whole airsoft scene and this might be the reason why I didn't understand the mechanics of this game very well. This was actually my first large scale game and to be honest I left with a sour taste in my mouth. My only issue was the mercenary team being so fickle. I know with the way the media today it can be very hard for some people to understand what a mercenary company really operates like. They simply cannot jump from one side to the next on a whim because they need a bigger military force to protect them. In the real world if a mercenary company betrayed countries back and forth it would be eradicated immediately by both countries.

I agree with these statements, but what the game thread said was that we, mercenaries, were to be hired by either side for the money. If we played for Bravo the entire game then wouldnt that be just a massive landslide victory? Thats why we jumped from side to side, and never really for protection either. We can hold our own, and we actually did a few times XD

Which is what my team (bravo) wanted to do after the first time we were betrayed. But our CO was told by the admin to try and work with charlie. There was no way to win the game without charlie's help which makes me think the entire game was based around them and that is incredibly unfair. how exactly were we supposed to win when the people we are supposed to work with are calling themselves friendly one second and safety killing us the next?

This game is Operation Blackwater.. One of the first games ever tryed with a third faction.. and the thread itself even said that you wound need charlies help to win.. And you get us to help by paying more than the other side. I mean seriously, Blackwater was payed 1 stack to fight alpha, where as alpha payed 4 stacks to fight bravo. Had bravo payed more, which they had like 1.5 million, we would have overrun alpha for you. Its all on the payment for this game.

Also I was very aggravated when we took over the airfield and a single member of charlie just waltzed in (which I have to admit looked pretty awesome) and shot 3 or 4 of my teammates before we mutually eliminated each other, which is a grey area because he got me before I got him but he was nice enough to call himself out. Immediately after that though the admin starts going off about how the bomb was two feet away from us and we never picked it up and whatnot while the same member that came in and took almost all of us out is being healed while we had our backs to him and kills all of us... again... while we were distracted by the admin... while he was showing us for the first time in the whole game what the bomb looked like.

That was me, and now that u explained it, it does seem a little unfair. But technically you are in play, and if your in play you need to understand what is going on. If you talk to an admin and think your safe then your mistaken. Ive been killed when talking to an admin before myself. It was no attempt to distract you, it was just informing about a mistake. When ym team ever talked to Mojo I had only a few guys watching Mojo, the rest watching all around. And hey, at least I didnt full auto on you gentlemen, I just said safety kill. And trutfully no one was supposed to know what the bomb looked like, i was given it at like 7 before anyone was there.

I just think the game leaned too much on charlie team to help either side to be successful and it was almost impossible to win because we never really knew if they were on our side. Eventually my team got tired of getting stabbed in the back and ended up shooting charlie on sight. which inevitably ended up backfiring on use because charlie joined up with alpha and outnumbered us.

Again, game based around us so it was supposed to be with our help, and money would buy us out. I do agree that Charlie will need to identify more easily what team they are assigned to in the future. And both teams started shooting on sight XD which i fully expected by the end. But that wasnt what backfired, it was the stingyness with the cash. Towards the end I let Dom broker our deals because he wanted to, and he told me that Bravo wouldnt agree to any deals. Thats why we joined alpha.

I have to say it wasn't all bad though. we had some really good moments which ultimately outweighed the bad ones and I definitely want to play a large scale game such as this again. just without a nebulous faction and hopefully no last minute changes which also threw me off considerably. Which like I said I'm relatively new to the airsoft scene so that might have happened regardless. I congratulate everyone on a good effort to make a broken game work and we ended up having rolling with the punches.

Dont worry, this game is one of the only ones of its kind. There are plenty of big games with great gamework and even better storys. But I wouldnt jump to say that this game was broken.. just needs a little tweaking.

[Mr. Marauder]

The entire scenario had a different feel to it. Running 3 factions, one available to the highest bidder, monetary based system, etc, gave this game a level of uniqueness that isn't always present at games. And even though many had their qualms with some of the actions of the Blackwater team, (and at times myself included), I can appreciate the idea and game play behind it, which allowed for everyone to always stay attentive and alert. This game allowed little room for relaxation, which I find adds to game play.

In regards to the players, I have not attended many games where everyone played so well. It appeared all egos were left at home, and everybody was there to have a good time.
I commend Alpha on a job well done, but I especially applaud all Bravo members. Cooperation and determination, matched with an overall collective desire to win but have fun while doing it, made this scenario truly enjoyable, and it was an honor and a privilege to play with you. I look forward to many a skirmish with you in the foxhole

Props to those that designed the scenario. It's not always an easy task to create something and make it enjoyable.

[GARRETT]

I had a good time yesterday, and from what I saw of BA everything was legit. There were many times during the game where we could have caused a ton of havoc for either or both teams. After lunch team Aircross ended up on a mission where we were actually 20 ft from a bunch of players from both factions. We did what we were told though and remained in stealth. As far as us being back stabbers or whatever I say this. Constant communication. A lot if not all of our easy takeovers could have been easily avoided had you guys stayed in contact with your CO's. If the merc team was approaching and your CO hasn't paid us for a mission then you know the other team has. Simple as that. Get radios if you don't already heave em, and make sure you stay in contact with your leadership. Set body guards for players in roll positions, keep them constantly moving, and never give them guard duty or on the front lines. Also when you read a game thread that says be creative, or read between the lines then do it. Always have a back up plan, cause the unexpected will almost always happen. There were a few deals made after lunch with BW where we expected to get double crossed, so BW planned accordingly. Maybe our over planning was a waiste of time, but we were ready for whatever went down. One more thing I noticed a lot of yesterday was squads never having anyone watching there 6 or there flanks. On two seperate acassions yesterday we advanced along the lower creekline all the way to Alphas HQ without being seen, and all the while watching players on the upper part of the hill.

I still had a blast thought, even though it was hard for me to not shoot all Tan on site as I have always rolled Alpha.

[stuckmojo]

thanks for all the kind replys gents. i did work hard to try and make this a fun game for everyone. garrett brought out alot of good points. and the new players should remember these for future games. i really appreciate the fact that everyone played so honorablly it made my job so much easier. i saw epic moments on both alpha and bravo and cant remember a game were alpha and bravo were so close to each other as far as who won. of course there always has to be a winner but my goal in this game was for everyone to have a good time and i think that happened. im on my way to take the golf cart back and pick up the dvd's from the photographer so i will have a few picks up tonite

[cripto]

[/quote]I KNOW!! Dude you and I had the bomb in our hands and basically asked our selves, "What the heck are all these cords? Whats with this blue thing? Is this trash?" These things mainly being asked because we found it in the middle of no where. But imagine how different the game would have turned out if we had just grabbed it and ran seeing as how alpha had no idea that we were there xD[/quote]
Yeah, we would have probably single handedly won the game.

[Rev]

I found this game great. There were a few things that need to be worked out but this was the first time this game was ever tried and I think it went well. Garret made great points the biggest problem was lack of communication that is how we were able to walk from base to base and no one shot or challenged us. Mojo I think you did a great job of running this game and it was a lot of fun. Even when we had to take our prisoner to the edge of nowhere and wait until the double cross was over. I would be glad to play in a game like this again.

[Skywalker]

Skywalker ... just kind of roamed the field, joining in on which ever battle that would give him more targets

Wow its like we're married you know me so well....call me later....honey...no homo...

I was on Blackwater for this game, and I had a couple issues with it, but I feel like it was equaled by people who probably had issues with me taking my own liberties with the idea of the faction, as mentioned by Star_Folder

Maybe I get too much of a kick out of stalking and sniping people, but, if I've worked my way into a good position or firefight, I'm not about to just quit because Felix (and no offense to him at all) has been playing monopoly with the other CO. I'm going to try and kill you! I don't think many people had a real issue with me doing this. But I just wish there had been more of that with a supposed specialized faction, rather then just being a 15 person sway to either side.

I'm there to play airsoft, I was disappointed how many people were more interested in the money part than the firefight part. Those that I talked to that I know I basically cheated (such as shooting at Bravo while Bravo was paired with Blackwater, AKA SWAT (screw you buddy lol)) said that they had plenty of fun with engaging me, and didn't mind that Blackwater may or may not have been working with them at the time. But I still feel the need to apologize; if everyone had acted as I did, it really would've sabotaged Felix and Mojo's hard work.

I think that in the future, as most people have said, the team needs to be smaller. And a team should be able to win with or without Blackwater's support. But I was surprised at how well it did work.

Kory I'm just mad I never did get that headshot on you . But you never got one on me either I guess, and considering our 2 guns, that is probably more of an accomplishment. Sorry to you and your other gold boys if I was out of bounds down in the swamp area... I guess we will never know for sure.

Also to Kory, and Steevo and Dom..... we need to do that 4 person team sometime.

And hey to all the random people who know me/my name. I'll slowly be adding names to faces etc.... Just give me time

[Star_folder]

Kory I'm just mad I never did get that headshot on you . But you never got one on me either I guess, and considering our 2 guns, that is probably more of an accomplishment. Sorry to you and your other gold boys if I was out of bounds down in the swamp area... I guess we will never know for sure.

lol, yeah, that would have been ugly on both parts. That part when you ran around into the questionable out of bounds area, and started shooting at me, you and those bravo players had me pinned, but I moved so they would hit me before you would , lol.

And it's fine, the boundaries at triggertyme really need to be redone. The only maintenance I had seen from 6 months ago was they put some plywood over the holes in the tower, that place is a great field, but could use some cleaning up.

Also to Kory, and Steevo and Dom..... we need to do that 4 person team sometime.

^THIS

But in all honesty Skywalker, you where one of the few people on blackwater that I trusted, or that I was able to easily tell what was going on. If I saw you walking, you weren't a threat, if I saw your gun, you were, if I saw your back, you were friendly, it was rather easy actually. I agree that if all the mercs did that, it wouldn't have worked, but I still think it added to the game that you did this. Personally, I never had any trouble finding people to shoot at, money was money, but there where always targets.

@JeremyC24, I kind of figured as much. I don't know about bravo, but alpha didn't do so well with communication, I was able to keep in touch with my guys pretty well during the day, which helped a lot, but for the most part it wasn't the case. More radios and better communication would have been great, we'll just need to practice more.

[Skywalker]

Well that's easier when everyone within 375 feet qualifies as someone to shoot at lol. I guess you convinced me, as im messing with hop up right now; normally Sunday is my day off from Airsoft.

Also, that's good that you could always tell what my intentions were, but not every player is as sharp as you

[Felix]

Walker no offense taken. Heck when I figured out what you were doing I was like, yeaahhh! Haha if you can come up with a scenario for something like a 3 way war, that would be great.

[Hotspur93]

I KNOW!! Dude you and I had the bomb in our hands and basically asked our selves, "What the heck are all these cords? Whats with this blue thing? Is this trash?" These things mainly being asked because we found it in the middle of no where. But imagine how different the game would have turned out if we had just grabbed it and ran seeing as how alpha had no idea that we were there xD[/quote]
Yeah, we would have probably single handedly won the game. [/quote]
Haha imagine the chaos had we done that XD everyone would have been like who the hell are these two ragamuffins and how the f*** did they get the bomb?? At that point we should have made our own team and said we are neither alpha or bravo, and certainly not the back stabbing charlie but team Awsome! At that point we would proceed to either hide the bomb in a unknown location except to us and get paid to reveal it or just pick a side and blow it up xD ugh the idea that we had the bomb in our hands and tossed it aside cause we thought it was trash pains me soooooo much. I declare from now own anything that looks like expensive trash I will keep until i find out exactly if it is trash or the game winning objective XD

[Felix]

I found a cup looking for the bomb in the village, you can have that on yourelf until you find out if its worth something XD

A cup as in protective cup XD

[Hotspur93]

Haha ok that maybe trash but its not expensive looking trash besides who ever decides to use that as a bomb has some sanitary issues

[cripto]

that would have been glorious! OOhhhhh what could have been...

[Hotspur93]

Cripto you and i definitely need to hook up at the next game for some behind enemy lines action but first we would need to be well informed on what the objectives look like xD or atleast consider radioing in to get a description of what they look like