AAR: Operation Stormfront

[Cochesse]

Hey all just wanted to say that we had a great time at the game. Good job Kerrik for putting on a great game and thanks to Jason and Judy for letting us use your field. I thought the game was great and I liked the use of the Jeep as a technical. I really liked having the Airstrikes and Carpet Bombing avalible it gave the game that extra bit. I have no complaints. I thought it went off with out a hich and I hope everyone had a good time. If you want to see pics from the game please feel free to stop off at http://www.ironcrosselite.com/Photoalbum/ I will have the pics up as soon as I upload them.

[Kerrik13]

I'll be writing up a lengthy AAR when I get home from work, but thanks everyone for coming out and playing in the game! :)

[79TransAm]

here is my mini AAR

1st 1/2: This in my opinion was the low point of the game. The objectives were and it was really awesome taking the shacks with hans and one other person. We took down a superior number entrenced force and soon heard that the IDF had taken out the communication tower. Sounds good right, well yes except that this all happened within 20 mikes of the game starting so there was really nothing left for us to do but shoot the other team untill lunch. Which we did. Overall id rate the first 1/2 a 7/10

2nd 1/2: This is where IMO the game got really fun. The marines had to hand over the diplomat to the IDF and a CD of somesort which we got done right away. We then had to go find the weapons caches. Well after some searching we all returned to base and Me, Hans, and Lucas decided to go on a recon mission to find the weapons. And boy was it a recon mission. We made our way to the truck and belly crawled up to the objective, all the while we were taking and giving fire. Hans got the weapons cache and destroyed it and we hauled A$$ back to the UN base. We were then told that we had to take our clipboard back to the marine starting base. We started off with a group of about 10 but we ran into contact at the IDF base and got bogged down. After a few medic revives hans and I met up with lucas and took the primiter back to the Marine base to deliever the clipboard. We only took fire once, from one guy but it was scary because lucas ran out of rounds and I had a mag misfeed on me, we got the guy down and delivered the package. Then after trying to find the 2nd weapon cache we got called back to base bcause it was being attacked. When we got near the base we came down the hill to find pretty much 1/2 of the baddies sitting at the bottom. This is where my only acuasation of cheating would come in. Me, Hans, Lucas, and one other all opened up on this group from about 50ft away and I am 99.5& sure we hit every one but a few people didnt call their hits and we were eventually killed. We were mediced back at the idf base and we went on another assault. once we got near the base an we were greated by a hole full of dead baddies and jason lying on his stomach. Being the crazed man he is he eventually stood up, shouldered his SAW and took out lucas so I returned the favor and sent a 10 round bust to his groin(unintentional and poor muzzle/shot control on my part but it happened so fast and I was just trying to hit him.) We then restablished base camp and tried to find the 2nd weapons cache while the IDF defended. I aquired a m203 and me and hans went to destroy the jeep(armored car) We snuk up on the jeep and in a move that would go down in airsoft history I leaped onto the trail on my stomach and went to fire my m203, only to find that the previous user had left me with an empty grenade. I was shot and hans played marytar and set off his m203 shell by hand killing him and the jeep. In the end the IDF got all their objectives done and the marines got all theirs done except we only found 1 of 2 weapons caches
overall id rate phase 2 a 9.5/10
and id give the overall game a rating of 8.5 out of 10.


EVERYONE MAKE SURE TO CHECK FOR TICKS I HAD 3

[Cochesse]

For pics of the event please go to http://www.ironcrosselite.com/Photoalbum/.

[Kerrik13]

Storyline
Fighting escalated to new heights yesterday as Hezbollah and Israeli forces clashed near the city of Naqoura. Fighting continued throughout the day, with heavy casualties on both sides.

The morning’s hostilities started when an Israeli helicopter was shot down. The pilot survived and was trying to hide in order to evade capture. He was eventually rescued by the Israeli Defense Force and was not captured by Hezbollah. A nearby communications tower was bombed by Israeli soldiers; it is suspected that this will help disrupt communication between Hezbollah guerillas in the future. Israeli forces met with and escorted a Lebanese diplomat and political talks took place between an Israeli commander and the diplomat. The talks were cut short as Hezbollah fighters and rocket barrages began to fire on an Irsaeli staging base and the diplomat was moved to the UN base in Naqoura. Eventually, the diplomat was escorted to safety.

Hezbollah guerillas attacked UN personnel in the morning and took control of the UNIFIL base in Naqoura. After moving all the supplies outside, a Hezbollah militant suicide bomber destroyed the entire base. Most of the supplies were scattered among the ground as the guerillas responsible for the looting were attacked on their way back to their base, but some of the UN supplies were stolen. Later on, the visionary Ahmed Abdul Jafar led a massive assault on the Israeli base and forced the Israeli’s to move the Lebanese diplomat. Several Katyushu rockets destroyed more buildings in the area and even dealt heavy casualties to Israeli soldiers. Once the fighting was shifted to just outside the UN base, Ahmed Abdul Jafar was killed along with all of his followers. Ahmed’s martyrdom has stirred up hate and the ranks of the Hezbollah militants continue to swell.

USMC soldiers in the area of operations were too late in saving the base and some UN personnel, but were able to escort a few battered UN peacekeepers to safety. Directly aligning themselves with frontline Israeli troops, the Marines helped tip the odds in favor of the IDF and pushed the guerillas back and dealt heavy casualties to militants in the area. Marines in the area were then ordered to help clear away rubble and protect the remainder of the UNIFIL base while performing raids on Hezbollah supplies. A munitions convoy vehicle was destroyed, but a rumored hidden weapons cache remained untouched throughout the fighting. No further supplies were looted from the base and further damage was prevented.

News of the fighting spread quickly and several Middle Eastern nations are condemning Israel for bringing such violence into Lebanon. Critics and several anti-US nations are directly blaming the US for instigating the war, claiming that USMC “peacekeepers” in the area were busy fueling the fight instead of assisting UN personnel. Numerous media obtained from the battle proves without a doubt the direct military assistance the USMC in the area gave to the IDF troops. US joint task force commander Major John Gorlan refused to comment on the heated criticism. Since then, riots and violent anti-US protests have sprung up in Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Iraq.


Event Comments / Feedback / OC Perspective
From an OC standpoint, this game was a lot of fun to watch. Everyone seemed to be having a good time and the amount of integrity on the field was commendable. Any and all complaints/concerns brought to me (there were a few minor and one major one) I tried to handle quickly and decisively; a few people were pulled to the side and reminded and/or reprimanded for actions/conduct on the field. I have a lot of good pictures and will hopefully get them loaded sometime soon; I tried to get right into the action with some good photos. I got some good feedback and even learned that an event with in-depth rules could be followed fairly well and have it move along rather smoothly. Everyone seemed to enjoy the medic rules, the body armor rules were used and worked really well (3 USMC and 2 IDF soldiers had armor on during the event), and the respawn guidelines were followed by the majority to the best of my knowledge, although I know for a fact a few people decided to ignore them.
The way that the action shifted to the corner/sandpit/UN base was spectacular to watch. All three teams, two Hezbollah rocket strikes, one Israeli carpet bomb, one armored vehicle, and tons of frantic combat took place in a window of about 15-25 minutes. When the smoke cleared, all that was left was a handful of USMC and IDF forces, at least 15-20 dead people, and a destroyed Jeep. It was quite the drastic change from the slower paced combat of the morning and it was really neat to see unfold. Due to the tense situation, there were a few close range shots and some heated comments, but it was something I did address to some of the people involved. One comment I would like to make is that if a player is 20 feet away from another and takes a few semi auto shots at them, it is not against the rules; a few people seem to forget that. Not trying to defend the close range shooting (because it did happen and I addressed it as soon as it was brought to me) but just making the comment that everyone pay attention to the shooting ranges.
The two main points of feedback I’ve gotten were the missions and the vehicle. Each team had a certain number of missions before lunch (Phase 1) and a certain number of missions after lunch (Phase 2). Teams seemed to breeze through the missions very early and then asked me if there was more to do. The main focus of this event were military style missions instead of scratching everyone’s itchy trigger finger, but some people didn’t enjoy it as much as others. Finishing a mission in 20 minutes or 2 hours ended in the same result… an accomplished mission. The idea behind the Stormfront storyline is to force people to look at the big picture and this was a perfect example. Players who finished the missions super fast and then ran off to shoot at the other team ended up using valuable first aid supplies that were not replenished or were replenished lightly during the second half of the game. Also, teams focusing on quick, little, secondary missions ended up losing their primary objectives because of it. For future reference, the Operation Stormfront series will continue to be run like this because situations like these are more realistic. The second point of feedback was the jeep, or armored vehicle, for the Hezbollah team. The gunner, passenger (a second set of eyes), and the driver were all invincible and couldn’t be killed; it was supposed to be an armored vehicle so small arms fire was useless against it. The only way to deal with the jeep was to get out of the way or hit it with an M203/rocket launcher/grenade. I used the feedback from Operation Vigilance 1 and made the gunner invincible so the vehicle could actually shoot (a guy in the back of an open top jeep parked or moving 2 MPH is an easy target) and then players commented that the gunner should be able to be shot. It was interesting to see that during Op Vig when the gunner could be shot, players wanted to make him invincible and when the gunner was invincible, players wanted him to be able to be shot… :P I’m glad that the jeep was powerful in the game and people that came prepared with anti-tank weapons were the only ones able to destroy it. It had to stick to the road so infantry could just move into the woods and avoid the jeep entirely. I will not issue RPGs to teams or let everyone know ahead of time because it was nice to see that the people who came prepared could deal with the jeep; the people that didn’t had to get out of the way. I hope nobody feels that I am being too harsh, but Stormfront is styled after realistic warlike conditions instead of an even playing field. Missions and storyline reign supreme in this series of events, so I hope that helps clarify a few questions/comments brought to me about the game.

Overall, I was pleased at how easy this game was to OC. One of the best parts is that there was no winning team and no losing team… just a series of missions and battles that had certain outcomes that will effect the next game in the series. I tried to make myself available to everyone all the time (which is why I was constantly running and answering questions) and I commend all the players on coming out and playing in this game. I hope everyone enjoyed it… stay tuned for Operation Stormfront II!

[Cochesse]

can't wait it was worth the 3.5 hour drive.

[79TransAm]

can't wait it was worth the 3.5 hour drive.
and that there is better then any game rating. 3.5 hour drive at 3.39 a gallon gas FTW

[Cochesse]

dont forget 12.5 mpg

[Python890]

Haha, I had to drive 3 hours and 40 minutes. It sucked, and the gas prices did, but it sure was worth it. The game was awesome, I had a ton of fun. Hopefully I'll actually get a dump pouch soon (as I await my paycheck) so I don't forget to pick up a dropped mag (thanks Kerrik).

The second phase was definitely more action-packed than the first. I loved the field and will be back for another game as soon as I can repack my wallet of the gas money I spent.:cry:

[79TransAm]

dont forget 12.5 mpg

Look at my name, 12.5 MPG on a good day ;)

[Jakael]

I had an awsome time. Kerrik, I dont know how you managed to be everywhere at once but it was nice to have you around. I have to say, as much as I hated thet fing jeep, I think it preformed exactly as it should've. I will be bringing rockets from now on;) Great game thanks for the work put into the planning and for all the good sports that showed up.

[Cochesse]

Look at my name, 12.5 MPG on a good day ;)

Nice. got to love America we really don't care about gas mileage.

[phirephly]

It was a great time. My first airsoft scenario and it was a blast. Thanks to Judy and Jason for all their help, bad harnesses and a crappy magazine would have turned it into a short day.

That technical was a bi&*%, no doubt about it. Makes me want to buy an M203. Artillery was spot on, great effect with the mortar rounds, first one scared me ****less. Scared everyone else in the IDF tent as well.

Go Israel!

[armsdealer]

Thanks to all who came out and played and thanks to Kerrick13 for organizing and running this event. BIG Thanks to the technical crew....those guys took A-lot of BB's for the Hezbollah team. I think the "pit of pain" was one of the highlights of this game. TA...OUCH but at that distance I would rather have you shoot my groin than my head and I knew it was gonna be painful when I grabbed the saw and started firing. Also not sure if you were aware but I could regen people in that pit by touching them for 30 seconds. Cochesse, thanks for crossing the state to play and great pics Freya team ICE is welcome out anytime. The Z100 hummZ driver for clear channel radio reported that we took him out and shot him and looted the hummer of all the Mountain Dew...he loved it! They would like to know if anyone has pics of the HummZ or driver at the game they could use for some free game publicity :D If anyone has any pics to forward, PM me and I will tell you where to forward them to.

Hope the free MD and Pepsi added some mileage back in your tanks.

Thanks for all the feedback we will continue to evolve the field and games around this. Heads up to all you aspiring event organizers out there, you are welcome to run your game on our field just contact me for the rules and guidelines.


Please keep in mind that we will be requiring players to have graduated a WAA basic AEC by September on this field. A-ron and the AEC committee are doing a great job of hosting these across the state so there are no excuses.