Operation: Iron Marches - SQA- Jan. 4

[Hotspur93]

Hey all I hope everyone who attended this game had a great time. The turn out was really good and made for a great day of some larger firefights. I was granted the opportunity to be Alpha CO. Just a thanks to all those who played under my command I hope you all had fun because that is the most important factor for me at the end of the day. I also want to throw a shout out to Chad for doing a great job at being the Bravo CO and playing a rather large game of cat and mouse for most of the day. It made the day interesting and fun. It seemed every time we were about to take you down you found a way out. I also would like to add that once again the owners of SQA have really made today fun for allowing us to use their field and keep the fun going even after the game at the raffle.

[D.Smitty]

I had quite a fun time today.

Lines were drawn
Gunfire rained
Promises of grenades were made (then fulfilled)

[Hotspur93]

Ha I believe it I could hear your grenades from clear across the field

[SteevoLS]

Imma letcha finish but I think Steevo had the best killstreak of the year

[Felix]

Video or it didn't happen.

Game was a little shaky at first and came out perfect after that. I spent a lot of time trying to keep everything balanced and firefights running, and I hope I did a good job. Let me know what I did wrong, what you didn't like, what I did right, and what you did like. Helps make a better game!

I have to go to work at the moment, but I will post back up tonight the full Chieftain storyline view and you can decide who won. Who knows, if the mechanic is liked there could be a Iron Marches II.....

[Jeremy314]

What a game! Now that I'm somewhat thawed out, I can talk about it.

Obviously it was cold, but what do you expect for a game in January? I'm just happy there wasn't rain, standing puddles of water, or very muddy. There was an awesome turn out even with how chilly it was.

I only got to interact with Felix once, so I can't tell how that whole mechanic worked out from a personal point of view, though I did get to engage his bravo handlers several times I just couldn't get to him and capture him.

There was a point where we just could not get you on the radio Hotspur, even on the channel you asked us to use, and that caused a bit of confusion that ended up spreading us extremely thin at the trenches, 2 people defending that entire zone was slightly nerve racking with such a large area to cover.

I went from a 2 man team to a fire team/squad commander in about 10 minutes and that was fun until some of my guys just ran off when we were supposed to be holding rear security on the hill over looking the trenches, leaving us with the 2 people that took over the trenches. After that I ended up with about 8-10 guys under SOCOM's command and we split up into two fire teams and worked a lot of bravo over after that had pinned my steam down at a cross road near the trenches. The other fireteam came in from the woods and evened the odds and we took out a good chuck of the bravo forces that were coming towards the trenches.

Only thing that I noticed that some what sucked was that no one wanted to move up and take advantage of openings in the enemy lines. Again just myself and the guy that ended up in the trenches with me were the only two that made a push up the road near the field boundary at the trenches, and about 4-5 minutes later we got some more guys come up the road to reinforce us and after that some more popped out of the wood line. Come on guys.. KDR doesn't matter in Airsoft... sometimes you just have to die to help get your team where they need to go.

Had a great time playing, just wish I had gotten foot/hand warmers and maybe a different pair of socks just to fend off the cold in the phalanges.

[von_lounger]

...sometimes you just have to die to help get your team where they need to go.

Da, da komrade! Rodina Mat' Zovyot!

[Felix]

Ok, off work. Time for the full day rundown.

Game started a little on the later side due to some QRT deployment problems. Alpha started their forces at the Roadhouse, and their FOB (Valley). They quickly overran the Trenches and resupplied both QRT's with 0 casualties. So that was over in all of 20 minutes. Reason why? Turns out that out of the 40ish Bravo players at the safety brief, only 20ish actually made it to the field at the beginning of the game. Guys, seriously. The reasons games start late is because no one is ready. If the game starts at 10, then be ready to go by 930. Meaning, chrono'd, reg'd, and gear'd up. Is it seriously that hard?!

So, Two alpha players found me, Chieftain Felix, and led me to Hotspur, Alpha's CO. Alpha had taken the Trenches and had created a good security around it. Bravo was no where to be seen at the time. I gave them the first objective, which was retrieve my plate carrier from the Radar Station. They sent a team, got in a few firefights, but made it back no problem. Then next objective then was to take me to the Crossroads to retrieve my gold and silver bullion. First a small team of about 7 lead me up the main road and was ambushed. The 3 Bravo players (who's names I did not catch) then took me, and attempted to bring me back to Bravo HQ at Rocky Top, but ran right into an Alpha squad.

Alpha then continued forward down the road right infront of Rocky Top to get to the Crossroads. However, there was a large Bravo force waiting for them. They were able to take them out but I was shot too many times and was in need of medical supplies. Bravo pushed down from their HQ, medic dragged me all the way back up to the top, and defended me as they sent a team to retrieve the medical supply objective on the road behind the Trenches. Alpha, after some intense fighting, overtook the hill and took me back. The bullion objective was put on hold until I could get my medical supplies, so Alpha was forced to medic drag me all the way back to the Trenches to go look for the medic objective. Unfortunately for them, Bravo had possession of it.

So about this time, I started to get a lot of questions about two things. 1) Whens lunch break, and 2) Is the black box the medic box. There is none, and No. The black box was the box that carried my plate carrier, and also was used to pick up the gold and silver and when I was shot, I left it there. The medic box was a massive grey crate with 4 handles on it that required normally two people to carry it. Apparently some players could not understand the differences in the two boxes. So please pay attention to how things are described as the RTO radios out.. Also, since Alpha thought they were winning, a large majority of their forces left for lunch. Leaving myself and about 3 other Alpha players in the trenches.

We sat there for about 30 minutes before some other Alpha players joined us, making the number about 10 or so. Then Bravo leaps out from the brush and trees and charges the Trenches, knocking out the Alpha players and grabbing me, medic dragging me up the road behind the trenches. We cut back through the trees to the Lumber Mill where Bravo had hidden the Medic crate. Finally able to walk without being dragged, I told Bravo the same objective that Alpha had got me killed trying to complete. So we go to sneak back towards the Trenches..

About 10 Bravo players are in the brush overlooking a much larger Alpha force in the Trenches, when suddenly a secondary Alpha force attacks us from behind where the Lumber Mill was. We cut hard right out into the road the run our way up that road to the Bravo FOB in the corner of the property. The Alpha forces follow us, and get into the woods, cutting our escape down the main road, and the back road. We held them off until the back road Alpha players moved farther in the woods. Far enough that Chad, myself, Mives, and a few others thought we would be safe running away. We left Skywalker and some other bravo players behind to distract Alpha as we ran. Made it into the trenches only to find Ghost and another Bravo holding the area. So we continued up the road to the Crossroads, picked up the case, and then the gold and silver, and made our way back to the Trenches.

I gave them the next objective which was a green gas can at Bunker Hill. So Chad and one or two others led a scout mission to find the tank, leaving me under Mives and the Bravo players at the Trenches. Alpha made the same move as Bravo had before and swept in, knocking out all of Bravo. But not before Mives took me and ran down the road towards Bunker Hill. We met up with Chad who had the objective, and swung into Lumber Mill to rest and get the next objective. Which was where we met a dead Hotspur, who overheard that the next objective was a black propane tank somewhere in the trenches! (Chad was maaaad about that one )

So we started back down the road to the Trenches where some Alpha players shot me out. Luckily Bravo medic dragged me out again and regrouped at Lumber Mill, which is where the medic box was still hiding. So then we decided that the best way to get back was to swing up around HQ and come back down on the Trenches. Which worked. They swung in and took the trenches, found the propane tank which Hotspur had just moved, and was about to recieve the next objective. But. They did not flip the respawn flag. So Dom and a few others respawned, shot them all, and grabbed the two objectives and tore out with me. With an hour left in the game, I told them that the final objective was to find a weapons crate hidden on the hill behind Rocky Top, and with all three objectives we could bomb the enemy FOB. I had required, however, the captured CO of Bravo to be present as we blew up the FOB.

So Dom, myself and a few others took the back path to Rocky top, eliminated a few Bravo, and accidentally found the case (by stepping on it) Turns out Bravo moved and covered it up. Props to them on that. So with all three parts we set out to blow up the FOB on the other side of the map, but could not make it in time.

So in the end, the Rebels were close to victory before the UN forces took everything they had, scattering the Rebel forces and forcing the leader to flee. But the UN forces also failed to eliminate the Rebel footing in the location.

All in all, I give victory to Alpha. They held me for the majority of the time, and came back in the last hour to take me and did a good job of fighting to the end.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Quick personal notes:

> BE READY BEFORE THE SAFETY BRIEF. Is it seriously that hard?!

> Double check flipped flags and current objectives, could be the difference in winning and loosing.

> If you get frustrated with teammates or how the game is going, work harder. Complaining solves nothing.

Thank you C Taylor and Hotspur93 for being our CO's, it was a great game from both sides with amazing leadership, no matter the outcome. I would like to also thank the two teams that did the QRT mission, even if it wasn't that exciting, and also SQA for letting us hold such a good game.

Total player count: 86 (if I remember correctly) with Safety Brief count at A:36 B:37

[Star_folder]

Lovely recap, Felix.

The final count for the day was 91.

Thanks everyone for coming out, I hope everyone had a good time and enjoyed the field. That new parking area was just that, new, it had been finished Wednesday before the game. With the rain on Thursday, and the cold/wind on Friday, we didn't get a chance to clean it up as nicely as we had hoped to clean it up before the game. Good news is we have room for LOTS of more people, having that parking lot not even half full.

As for the game, I didn't get to see much. We were very busy up at the house. Once I was finally able to join in the play, I played for bravo due to them needing help. I don't think I helped all that much in the end, it was much too late in the day, and due to other circumstances, I wasn't able to be on the field all that much anyway.

[Frost]

Okay so what Felix said about the trenches seemed a lil confusing to me. The trenches started off with 2 Qrt alpha teams in place about 14 players. We were the. Engaged from the rear first from about 7-10 bravo and shortly after engaged from the road coming from rocky top, we kept bravo at bay and then received a flood of alpha reinforcements and were able to completely lock down the trenches shortly after. I will say that was some of the most fun I have had at the trenches. The rest of the game I was a lil confused about some objectives and resplendent but were given clear order and allowed to engage in several fire fights. I had a blast, I did get temporarily separated from my team to give medical attention, and while gone heard about several fun exploits from the . I liked the idea, I liked the trench fight and had a lot of fun. Hats off to Felix he put on a good game. Ty chad and Hotspur for stepping up to co!

[Iam_Hoss]

Great day slinging BBs. I was on the QRT that started in the Lumber Mill. We received no resistance from Bravo so the reinforcements were able to get to us quickly. Once they arrived we were able to move towards the Trenches and came upon Bravo forces in the woods and on the hill above the trenches. We were able to come in and flank them and took out quite a few. Had quite a few good fire fights. The weather was not too bad At least no rain. Saw little to no issues of hit calling or any other issues. Bravo did a great job always kept us on our toes. I think the game mechanics worked well. Got to see some people I hadn't seen in a while and I got a awesome new patch. All in all a fun day.

[Skywalker]

Major point of critique: on a game of this scale, the one who designed the game play should not be involved in the playing. VIP, active player.. It doesn't matter. .. This day was fun for those with radios who could keep track of the constantly changing objectives, which honestly seemed to change on any whim whenever Felix wanted to. For all the guys who didn't have radios, that sucked. Bravo was constantly dealing with alpha spawn camping rocky top because they didn't even realize that was the respawn. ... That should've been corrected within 30 mins... Rather than the 2 hours it took for word to get passed around that bravo had captured a respawn point finally. I even saw people with coms who had turned them off because there was too much chatter and they couldn't figure out what was going on. Objectives should always be outlined before the game starts. I understand the benefit of changing objectives, keeps the game some what balanced... But there should be 3 variables dictated beforehand so everyone knows what would be happening. As I said, for people who didn't have coms ... There was a lot of confusion and frustration. Probably people who don't get online and post in this thread.

That's my main complaint, I would say overall the game was a success, and I had a lot of fun... Especially holding off alpha at a capture point for a half hour pretty much single handedly.

[Felix]

I should have put more warning up on comms and things. That is my fault. You aren't the only person to tell me that the designer shouldn't be playing. I should have gotten someone else to play the chieftain. However for this one, the swapping objectives did change by the chieftain's whim for the reason that this was supposed to keep players on their toes. The other reason It was done that way was to continue firefights. Had I made a set path of objectives, then a lot of firefights would not have happened. But I should have kept it better written for all to have, and easier to understand how objectives are run.

I'll have to make some adjustments and try another game sometime later, if you guys would like to see another main character giving objectives that lead to multiple firefights like this one.

[Star_folder]

I think that the whole thing worked out quite well. The only problem was that the first initial objective was really supposed to last longer than 20mins, more like an hour or two. That threw the game a bit in fast forward.

While I am one of the first to say that a game designer/admin should not be running the game, I think this case was a tad bit different. No one was more prepared for the job than Felix was.

Perhaps a second dedicated admin should have been available, but, I was on channel 1 all day, and hardly heard a thing asking for help/clarification, anything.

[marpat96]

My turn!

We all had a great time being the QRT at the trenches for Alpha. The game started off with us setting up a perimeter around the trenches, with 0ft MED guns controlling the actual trenches, and we had a series of spotters and DMRs and PDMRs controlling the outside part of the trenches. I believe it was Chad and some fellows who came in through the back road to get into the trenches, but we kept them away, not by actually killing them, but by keeping them out of range. Once Alpha reinforcements came in and relieved us, the rest of our guys got their weapons, and we proceeded to hold the trenches.

After all that jazz, we went to go on some mission or something to retrieve something, I don't actually remember but at the time we knew what it was, a box or something. Well on the way to get that objective, we saw a a black figure sticking out in the woods. A bb then wizzed past our heads, and we were slowed down majorly but who I'm almost certain but could be wrong was Luke. It may have no been him but it was all black, and he had range on us by far. We moved to the left side of the woods, followed up, and ran into Ghost and Smitty. After that fiasco everyone moved up, and I decided to talk to Ghost…………….


What happened next is hilarious, Steevols came behind me, with a 0ft MED gun, and kindly called safety kill. I accepted, didn't say anything, moved to the side (got moved in front of Ghost so he could not be shot -_- ) and Steevols proceeded to kill about 15 people before finally dying due to empty mag. Hilarious.

After that we kinda did a cat and mouse game, then due to my team running low on batteries and being whiny, we left for Mcdonalds at 3:18 p.m.

Came back for the raffle, and my brother won the G&G Combat Machine -_-

Pros:
Good gameplay
Good turnout
Utterly feeling of not being challenged as much as we're used to (See NATO Fulda Gap 2013)
Got a great PDMR (KORY!!!!!)
Brother won raffle -_-
Felix made the game awesome, as every game he's had since Second Sun has been pretty great. That game was great too
Glad that I helped someone on Frost's team with a gun

Cons:
Cold? Warmed up later on
Finding Bravo when they had Felix
My teammates being useless by have 4 NICD batteries and them all dying
Ate way too much hahaha