AAR: Codename Thunder 4

[Triple F]

I posted this up in other regional forums and with your permision I'd like to put it up here as well. This event occurred at CT4. While my post isnt really an After Action Review I thought it best to put it in an AAR thread (mods please move at your discretion):


I would like to mention an incident that occurred before the final battle which I think is grievous and of the utmost seriousness. While walking out to the US start position, a member of the River Rats squad was shot in the back from a range of approximately 3 feet by another US player who experienced an accidental discharge while loading his magazine. The shot was a prolonged burst with all rounds hitting squarely in the torso. If the individual responsible for this happens to read this post, I hope you realize the magnitude of your misdeed; it's only blind luck that kept your blunder from causing serious injury or worse. The casual attitude you displayed after the incident makes me think you dont "get it", however. There's no reason why 1) your weapon should be flagging a teammate in the back, 2) your finger should be in the trigger guard while walking to the insertion point 3) your magazine should be inserted while your finger is on the trigger and 4) your fire selector was not in the 'safe' position before the start of the game. For everyone's sake, stop participating in activities that center around shooting until you LEARN HOW TO HANDLE A WEAPON SAFELY. At this rate it's only a matter of time BEFORE YOU HURT SOMEONE.

If any of you reading this are the sort to go out and play airsoft without first educating yourself about gun safety, I urge you to do a search online and learn the fundamentals. If you're too irresponsible to trouble yourself even that much, I'm glad to help you out:

http://www.riverratsairsoft.smugmug.com/photos/144352988-L.jpg

That more or less sums it up, though I would add that in airsoft there is no reason to load your weapon or take it off 'safe' until the game actually starts. There is never a reason to point your weapon at anything or anyone you're not willing to shoot.

Occurrences like this pretty much make the argument for attending invite-only games exclusively.

FFF

[A-Ron]

Well said FFF, and thanks for the heads up.
Hope everything else was cool at the game.
Any pictures?

[Maple]

3F,
It's a shame that this happened.
This seems to be a more common occurance these days, which I attribute to lack of knowledge in regards to safety and a basic lack of common sense.
More often than not, these type of occurances put a dark cloud over a game, and can ruin the fun for those folks that are there to have a safe, fun time.

Hopefully this will not disuade ECRR from attending future public games. I am looking forward to seeing you guys at Round Up 2 (I won't be playing, but I will be there) and I would hate to see this incident keep you guys away.
-mat

[Jun Wen]

Hey Triple F. It was nice meeting you and a few of the other River Rats out there in Indiana. Hopefully I'll get to work with you all again.

Safety was a surprising concern at this event. There were multiple incidents where I had to tell players to put their goggles/masks back on or head to one of the safe zones and deal with the fogging off the field. The referees called players out on it when they could, but it was happening far too often. Last year the referees only had to tell players to cover up their nose or mouth, but I had never seen a warning about goggles. Yes, humidity was an issue, but that really is no excuse. Like trigger safety and barrel awareness - eye protection should be a fundamental part of airsofting. While it wasn't a rampant problem, the fact that I had seen it more than once [I]and[I] overheard the referees discussing it makes me wonder how bad it really was.

Enough of the negative, though. Here's my experience.

On Friday night at about 11PM, August 10th my friend (nightwalker) and I packed up the Camry and began the long trip to La Porte. The directions were clear enough, but I had spent the day hiking at Devil's Lake which made for a pretty tiring drive down to our neighboring states. We kept off the tollways - constantly reminding ourselves of how nice it is that Wisconsin freeways are free - and expected to pull over at a rest stop between Chicago and La Porte instead of making the whole trip in one night. We found no rest stops.

We arrived onto the field at 3AM and immediately fell asleep, only to be awoken by early bird airsofters at 6AM. A quick trip to McDonalds left us with a stomach full of mediocre food and just under 4 hours of rest. We began to unpack the car and gear up.

Chronographing is a critical part of any airsoft event and the CT4 staff did its best to keep the lines moving along. Last year, I recall that they only had 2 or 3 chronographs available and it seemed like they learned their lesson. Magazines were strictly loaded with .2g BBs and players were urged to keep moving after the chronograph. Still, it was pretty slow going, but far better than last year.
(I did note a safety concern as one player exited the chronograph site with his magazine still in his AEG, no barrel blocking device, and his finger on the trigger. He vanished into the parking lot/campsite shortly after.)

We started a little bit late, which wasn't exactly great in the heat and humidity. US forces were marched out to our base and the Cartel vanished into the woods. The US base was fairly impressive, albeit a bit small for our size. At least much of it was in the shade, which made it tolerable compared to the open fort at CPX. The medic ropes were handed out as players wandered around and stared at their maps. We awaited for the game to begin. Actually, I spent a good amount of time screaming, "Delta!" in hopes that someone other than my friend would respond. I knew Cleric was on Delta, but he was nowhere to be seen. Instead, some of the Deltas from CT3 approached me and said hello to their former (and oh-so-terrible) squad leader.

The game began and squad leaders eagerly moved to get their orders from the commander. Nightwalker and I watched as troops started moving out, so we tagged along for the fight. That was essentially what we did all day. The group I followed had some issues getting to know the layout as we had occupied and defended the wrong fort for a few minutes at the start. I had returned to the commander a few times to request for an update, but only learned that there was nothing really new and that we were looking for a number posted on a tower. The vague description left me confused, so I just wandered about to learn the field and talk with other squads.

In the confusion, some of the US forces decided to attack a two story tower in a clearing nearby our base. As far as I knew, it was not a mission. However, the Cartel was inside, so we decided to have some fun. US forces kept at a safe range and peppered the tower, amassing kills but not advancing. I got tired of the long-range game, so off went the Weesatch and the AEG. With Hi-Capa in hand, I charged the building along with a few other US soldiers. The ground level was clear, but we could hear a lot of noise above us. I took the lead and carefully clambered up the stairs, past a wounded Cartel member, and then popped out to "bang kill" the noisemaker. At least 3 "bodies" and only one brave Cartel fighter, who graciously accepted his death. Within minutes, the Cartel launched a counter attack, which was made all the more easy by the fact that US forces did not move to protect all sides of the tower. I was now the lone survivor on the upper level. One Cartel fighter went up the stairs and was "bang" killed, but there were obviously more. Going prone, I crawled toward the stairway, carefully trying to keep silent. Suddenly I heard three sharp snaps and felt BBs popping into my back. I turned and saw a Cartel member above me with his GBB no more than 3 feet away. It wasn't a pleasant moment, but the dead Cartel member gave his comrade a warning and we all parted on fairly good terms. At the least I saw that the US forces could coordinate on some level to attack a position.

At one point on Saturday, the Cartel launched a significant assault on our fort, complete with armor. BBs filled the air and I just laid on the ground to wait for some respite from the chaos. Eventually I fell asleep. Long story short, I woke up, stumbled around, and decided to call it a day at 4PM. We checked into the hotel where I passed out for about 6 hours.

Sunday coming up...

Edit: By the way, please do not interpret this as total confusion on the US side. I was wandering away from the squads that actually knew what was going on.

[Cleric]

My apologies, Jun Wen. I had to attend a funeral on Saturday and could not make it to the game. I did get there on Sunday as you know, but at the start of the game, I simply hooked up with the guys from Wolf Recon. I should have searched harder for Delta squad personnel.

I had a great time. The field has tons of big trees both living and dead for cover in addition to the man made structures, which includes a very cool castle (smaller than APOC's though). The humidity was killer, which certainly contributed to the amount of goggle removing on the field. I have to give credit to the judges though. They did appear to be trying to get around the entire field and watch for infractions.

The Columbian team definitely had their act together, and that's why they won. The US side did much better on Sunday than Saturday from what I heard.

I'm hoping to make it out to Thunder V next year.

[DKruse]

The US side did much better on Sunday than Saturday from what I heard.

That's how it went last year though... but the US had won last year, so, eh.

[Triple F]

I've had a chance to debrief with my teammates a bit more. Come to find out one of our guys was shot by an opposing player while heading to the exit a good 10 seconds AFTER the blast sounded to signify the end of the game on Sunday. Couple this with the incident I posted about earlier and I am just shaking my head in disbelief.

I personally asked two seperate individuals to remove magazines from their weapons while in the safe zone, neither of whom were using barrel blockers at the time (both these incidents were during the event on Sunday, but before the final battle). I also saw one of these very same individuals before the safety brief as he walked to the chrono with a magazine loaded, no barrel blocker on, finger in the trigger guard, while holding his rifle AT THE LOW READY! He flagged approx. 50 people in the 100 or so feet he travelled to the chrono.

I assure you, I dont go looking for these kinds of infractions. I'm at events to enjoy myself. But when your guys are getting shot before and after the event itself, you have to wonder just what the hell is going on out there.


Well said FFF, and thanks for the heads up.
Hope everything else was cool at the game.
Any pictures?

Hey A-Ron. I took a few pics, but they turned out piss-poor. They'll be up in our gallery in a couple days if you want to see for yourself.


More often than not, these types of occurances put a dark cloud over a game, and can ruin the fun for those folks that are there to have a safe, fun time.

Well said, Maple. In retrospect I know there were positive moments, but the safety issues seem to eclipse all of that.

BTW, we looked for you at the event until Jun Wen told us you didnt make it down (would have been a definite check in the plus column to be able to hook up with you at this one.) Hopefully our schedules will allow us to run with you at Op Round Up 2.

Jun- good meeting you too.

[Jun Wen]

Cleric, you have absolutely no reason to apologize for Saturday. I was just perplexed how nobody responded to me on the field that morning.

Sunday was a marked improvement for the US side, though we were significantly down in points. Commands came off a bit more clear and I knew I was working on actual missions rather than fighting just for kills. I had more or less given up on using my radio and tried to work by word of mouth.

My highlight of the day was fighting over a small, but point-generating bunker, charging it with the Hi-Capa, and then occupying it for points. It ended on a bit of a sour note when I got in a heated debate on a simultaneous bang kill that left me dead.

The final mission was an all out assault on the castle, defended by Cartel forces. The US side would attack from two sides and have to occupy all of the structures to take a victory in points for the weekend. I was amazed to see Kerrik hobbling about with gun in hand and barking out orders on his injured ankle. After the final US respawn I joined in on the charge only to be pegged by a burst of BBs in the face. The last ten minutes of the game was spent playing the role of a corpse.

Cons:
Multiple safety infractions.

Long wait times at the chronographs.

Not a lot of communication across the entirety US team. (Although squads seemed to communicate well enough between their members)

Never really felt as immersed in the storyline as I did last year.

Pros:
Excellent field. It was one of the first I've been to with soft hills in the terrain. There was plenty of cover in the woods and the bunkers were well placed. The castle was smaller than Apoc's, but a bit more intricate. Oh, also there weren't that many mosquitoes out as I'm used ti,

Referees noticed and called out players who were not wearing their goggles or removed their face coverings.

Interesting medic and prisoner rules.

Free stuff.

As always, we got play against and alongside with other airsofters in the country.

[Kerrik13]

Here is a quick AAR I did on the MAA boards.


Hey guys! I thought I'd hop on and give you a bit of the US perspective considering how most/all of the MAA were on the Cartel side. The game was awesome and everyone I came into contact with seemed to be a good sport and enjoying the event. When it comes down to it, everybody who played was a winner due to the heat and crazy humidity!

Here were a couple of hiccups for the US side that hindered us quite a bit...

- Armor: Julius was US, Natasha was Cartel, and the third vehicle was Cartel. During a majority of Saturday, Julius was out of commission and being fixed due to mechanical problems. So for a good chunk of the day the US had no armor and the cartel had 2 tanks and a motorcycle (which was later switched to help even the odds). Then, the Julius tank went down again on Sunday! That was rough!

- RPGs: During a good portion of the event, the US side had no rocket launchers. The ones provided were non-functional (Justin explained that at the briefing before the second day) so the armor advantage the Cartel had became unkillable. Sure, US troops should have had some M203s and nerf footballs extra, but we didn't... and we paid the price.

- Commander: During the second part of the first day, the commander vanished... had no idea where he went, but everyone was unsure of what to do because the US command and any info on missions were gone. There was also a good portion of the event where the commander had no radio and runners had to be sent back to base for mission info.

Now please don't take this as a "We would have won but..." because I believe that even if all three of those hiccups were corrected, we still would have lost. The Cartel had awesome leadership, their coordination was good, and the players fought hard. I think you won the day because of those positive qualities, but the hiccups mentioned above contributed to the total beatdown!

Again, fun event, even though we did lose. Would definitely be back next year to have another jab at Chiro!

Heh, guess I was sort of noticeable with a gimpy leg, a M249 SAW, and a loud mouth! :P I sprained my ankle pretty bad during the first hour of gameplay on Sunday, but after sitting in the staging area bored to death and icing it for 2 hours, I decided I wasn't going to miss the final battle. We broke through the castle twice, but if we could have kept up our momentum we could have gotten in even further. Kudos to all the guys on the eastern side of the castle during the final battle that listened to me yelling and screaming! :P

Although there were some safety infractions, I find no fault to Justin or the Refs. They seemed Johnny-on-the-spot with any issues that needed to be handled and took care of them accordingly. There were a few times when some newer players took their goggles off on the field (most of the times it was that real quick "I'm sweating and need to wipe my face" kind of goggle removal) and I had no problem yelling at them to put their goggles on. Everyone I told that to did so right away and didn't have any attitude about it, which was good. I tried to help and do my part, but it is a player's responsibility to make sure he is safe at events.

[Maple]

BTW, we looked for you at the event until Jun Wen told us you didnt make it down (would have been a definite check in the plus column to be able to hook up with you at this one.) Hopefully our schedules will allow us to run with you at Op Round Up 2.

I'll be at Round Up 2, but I won't be playing. I am taking an extended break from palying airsoft..... possibly permanent, but I will still be involved on the OC/ Role playing side of things.
I have become too flustered with the dangerous play and the general bad attitudes (mine included) at a lot of the airsoft games. Decided that I will take the remainder of 2007 off from playing and rethink my position in 2008.

[Agent J]

Aww Maple! I miss you even more now.

[Triple F]

Maple- pm inbound!

[DFSM]

Jun, I witnessed incidents of no goggles on at all during Thunder 3. Last year I was defending an objective and the Julius tank rolls up and three guys dump out, two of which weren't wearing any sort of eye protection. The only time I personally saw it this year was when a US player was taken prisoner and seemed to think that a place marked with police tape was goggles free.

If you really want to talk about a safety issue you should have seen the Cartel's "goggle free" zone on Sunday. The Julius tank parked outside our base when I was in there, opened fire on the netting and I was struck with a BB (with my goggles off, in a supposedly safe area). Now, the netting should probably have been stronger, but there was no reason the tank should have been firing at use there.

As for the US being without rockets, Justin explained how to use them without breaking them, so I don't really feel for the US side on this issue a whole lot. When Digital and I rolled into the US base we were trying to die, but we ended up leaving on our own will because we never got killed.

[DFSM]

Oh, and there are multiple albums of pictures already up on the MAA's media page.

[Jun Wen]

The on-field safe (goggle free) areas were a nice idea, but it was pretty clear that the netting consisted of holes big enough for the 6mm BBs. While they did double up on the netting, it wasn't as safe of an area as an airsofter could hope for.

I can't really complain about the rockets. Poor communications made it almost worthless to even have a functional one since it was so hard to request for anti-armor support. Nobody knew where it was or how to get it. The only time I really knew where it was located was when I hand delivered it from an OC to the base commander. When we needed it, I had to send a runner back to base because nobody knew how to radio HQ. We got the anti-armor gun, the tank threat had moved on. I have no idea what happened to the weapon after that.

[DFSM]

Like Justin said on the Midwest Airsofters board, there will probably be lots of people next year with their own rockets (hell, I'll probably rig something up).