Op: Blood Vengeance

[AustinWolv]

Weather: It was over 100degF during the afternoon with no cloud cover. Direct sunlight always saps people's energy quickly. A slight breeze helped.
Terrain: TACPB in Harwood, which we all know well.
Starting scenario:
As a member of the green side, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, we were first tasked with patrolling in a casual, non-threatening manner from our HQ at the fuel depot to the comms station and then work back through the hooch village. With rifles slung, we made the walk and passed by USAC forces who could not engage us if we were non-threatening. We were tasked with moving to the hooch village and go active in protecting weapons caches, but were under observation. I split off from the makeshift squad we had to run as a decoy and generally walk through the USAC lines so they would have to monitor me. This also allowed me to walk through the middle of their village to gain intel on force strength. I was stopped and searched for intel, but being non-threatening, the USAC forces could not dispatch of me. Being that our side was outnumbered 3:1 on the day (we had less than 20), there wasn't a reasonable way to assault into the hooch village. Regardless, the rest of the squad rotated around the northwest side of the village and tried to get into position. I made my way to the south side of the hooch village and continued to observe and encounter USAC (tan) forces. It was too late to get to the weapons caches in the hooch village, so our forces were tasked with intercepting and killing an UN inspector being escorted to the village. With rifle slung, I walked clean through the village again towards the suspected location of the UN inspector as called in by otang. Turns out I walked up on the escort group just as they changed direction, moving towards me. They didn't see me, so I took a concealed prone position and listened to otang's comms to verify it was the correct target. As they passed by my location, otang was counting down to engage, and as soon as I heard his gun, I opened up. Turns out he was nearly parallel across their trail from me, so the two of us cut down the small escort squad and the UN inspector. The remaining few from our squad had already fallen out from the heat and a couple had gotten split from otang. With all of them, I got up and started to move towards their rear flank, but turns out the Mercenary forces were behind them, and they engaged and eliminated me. I believe they got otang also. The escort squad had a medic who RTD all of them and the inspector. A couple of them continued with him towards the village, while otang and I were captured by the USAC stragglers. We were escorted to their base, where we waited until the end of the scenario. It wasn't supposed to end, but staff called a break since people were struggling with the heat.
I went through approximately 50% of a midcap, but at least it was with high target efficiency.
Middle scenario: Due to starting late and the high temperatures, the break was extended for all players to rest and cool off, which basically nixed the second phase for the day.
Ending scenario:
50% of the IRG forces decided to not push their heat exposure and left on the day, which left us with literally about 9 guys total. The Mercenary forces were rolled over to our side, so I think we had somewhere about 15-17 guys total?
We started at the hooch village and had to get to the airfield to capture two UN personnel. USAC forces were supposed to start at the Alpha firebase and retrieve the UN personnel. A small 4man recon fireteam was sent to the airfield, while the rest of our forces were going to the city area as a blocking force. However, by the time we got rolling, as game start was a bit unclear, the USAC forces were already at the city, and by the time the recon team got to the airfield, they were matched by the USAC forces who were already there and bolstered by another 2X of forces within 30 seconds. It was simply too hot to push the assault on a larger force, so we trailed the USAC forces as they ran the UN personnel down the east field netting. We said 'screw it' in slightly more colorful terms and instead moved back to the city to engage Opfor there. The heat was intense, but we basically worked the south side of the city, fading in and out of the foliage around that field. We engaged some USAC forces near the east netting, where I was the recipient of a fun engagement violation, despite warning the guy beforehand and being in the process of pulling my pistol. Regardless, worked it out and hopefully some education was beneficial. otang, guapo, the Baylor guys, myself and I think a couple of the Infidel guys from Houston all worked to sweep that area of USAC forces and then we moved back to the south side of the city. During this time, it was literally ones and twos of guys walking off the field from the city, calling it a day due to the heat. Running out of water in my hydro pouch, I occupied a south building for a while, got some shade and rest on 'guard' duty, and then decided to leave the field as well since the water in my cooler was calling me. :)
The few remaining guys on our side and the Infidel guys from Houston then retrieved a suitcase nuke that we had and planted it in the city as the final objective.

[AustinWolv]

Overall:
It was hot. Very hot. There were a number of players who weren't ready for it. They had too much gear and not enough water. Luckily, nobody had an injury, as a number of people simply pulled themselves off the field and some left for the day. That is a positive instead of guys thinking they needed to tough it out.
However, the fundamental problem here was a schedule that was unrealistic for this time of year in Texas:
1. An all-day no-stop schedule......that quickly broke down.
2. An op in June, July, or August has to have breaks and rest periods built in. That is why you historically don't see ops in those three months of the year in Texas....and it has been that way for years. Breaks have to be forced in the schedule by the organizer.
3. The start time was much too late in the day for this time of year. First of all, the op didn't start at time, which we all somewhat are used to, known as 'airsoft time'. Fine. However, starting at noon in June? One has to know and practice better than that. The op should have started at 0900. The schedule for this op was only conducive to the cooler months of the year and would have worked fine in those months. A better schedule for a summer TX op is 0900-1100 or so with hard skirmishing, a long break, and then a toned-down 1300-1500 scenario to keep the players from pushing too hard, followed by another break, and then perhaps a very short, intense final scenario from 1530-1630 or 1600-1700 to keep guys from overheating but ending the day on a high note.

Attendance was lacking. Due to the time of the year, due to the organizer not having an established reputation, what have you.......don't know, but it was a lightly-attended op. That is ok, sometimes those are fun since you get to interface closely with a lot of people that way instead of face-time overload.

Now, keep in mind, the ROE and gamplay elements didn't fully reach their potential on the day because so much field time was cut out due to the weather and lack of attendance. Those elements looked like they had a lot of potential. The no-shoot ROE was an interesting item that would have been fun to use throughout the day, but there simply wasn't the time. The organizer was unfortunately cursed by the weather and some other things out of his control.
Thus, in terms of gameplay preparation, it appeared to be solid and interesting. It needed cooler weather and more numbers however, since one side literally had less than 20 guys and that simply isn't going to work to assault a superior force entrenched in a covered position.
The organizers should get kudos overall for the gameplay elements and storyline. It looked like a lot of work and interesting aspects were baked in, and I'm left curious what the op could have been if circumstances had worked out better for them in regards to weather, attendance, and other event things they did drop the ball on.

One of the biggest problems was that there were no COs or squad leaders nailed down beforehand. There was no planning beforehand, even if just basic squad assignments or radio channels, so there was no flow and a lack of teamwork on the field. That is not any of the players' fault on the day of, so don't take it that way. It is just one of those things where you got thrown in with others and without established CoC, people just kind of look at each other and do whatever. However, due to the weather, I don't think people were very focused on this and didn't care as much. Prior to the op, there just simply wasn't much intel or planning. People asked for it on the dedicated op website, including access to team forums, and nothing happened. I mean, the 'intel' section of the site's forums weren't touched in months?!
Instead, all the ROE info, command structure, and such had to be lashed together during the side's briefings which is a waste of time, and there are always players that don't listen during the briefings (as evidenced by pretty much op I've even been to....which I counted and is 40+). All of that should have been in place at least the week prior to the op.

The capture rules were fine. However, a problem presented itself in my opinion. The protocol called for a captured player to be escorted back to the Opfor's HQ, where they were held and intel collected until the Opfor's CO 'released' them. See a problem?
1. Making players hike all over the field in TX summer heat for no actual useful reason. Just get the intel on the spot from the 'captured' player where he was shot and then declare him KIA to go respawn. The way it was set up means a captured player has to hike to one side of the field to the Opfor's base as a prisoner, wait around to be released by the Opfor's CO, and then hike completely to the other side of the field to go respawn at their own HQ. Unnecessary and a good way to have heat casualties on your hands.
2. Wasted time. Did I really pay a registration fee to sit around at the Opfor's base as a prisoner while the Opfor's CO can't be reached on radio to release us because he was hit? Is that necessary? No.
The numbers on each side was unbalanced and silly. Again, I don't think people cared because they were there to have fun and just deal with the heat. Oh well, bigger fish to fry, but if the sides are going to be that staggered, gameplay needs to be baked well in order to make things make sense. Assaulting superior forces with cover with a smaller force is not smart and not really worth the effort in TX summer heat. Couple that with another group of players that sat in the city for the first part of the day and didn't do anything else and didn't see any targets.
I shot less than 300 rounds on the day, if even that as I think that might include the rounds I used to set my hop-up. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a trigger-dependent player and can patrol around all day happily without shooting if the mission calls for it, but I'm one of the 'outliers' in that regard, and since I heard comments of players wanting some targets, I think it worth mentioning.

My biggest worry going into the op? It was actually how chrono check would be run. See, I knew going into the event that there were some warning flags that made it look like the organizers were new to running an op, but I was fine with that, as I took the mindset of just going to have fun and hang out with friends. That occurred, and I did have some fun, especially meeting some new people and/or getting to know some familiar faces better.
However, chrono check was not done well at all. First of all, the chrono pit did not have standard BBs to use, so a player could walk up with any weight they wanted and chrono their gun. Second, nobody verified that the hopups on the guns were turned off, so someone could crank up their hopup to get a lower reading. Third, no energy sheet was present that I saw, so if someone was using a higher-mass BB, the chrono check person had no way to know if the energy conversion for the reading was correct or not.
This was pointed out to the chrono check staff, and he recognized the problem, but didn't have the provisions in place to do anything about it unfortunately. I offered to supply BBs, but turns out I didn't have the spare bag of 0.25g that I thought I had brought.
The positive thing they did do was to use color-specific tape to mark the different classes to replicas, meaning assault rifles got one color, support weapons got another color, and sniper rifles got yet another color. However, this effort was lost on the fact that a dishonest person could have easily violated field energy rules if they had chosen to.

Overall, the potential of a really good, solid, engaging op was there, but for the money and for the product delivered, it was a glorified skirmish of which part of the responsibility lies with the organizers while the other part was unfortunate circumstances.
Just my two cents.

[whiterabbit05]

"First of all, the chrono pit did not have standard BBs to use, so a player could walk up with any weight they wanted and chrono their gun."

First thing I noticed when I approached chrono.

[otang]

Same here, I made it a point to tell them my hop was off, but I don't think they worried much about what I said. I should have suggested they ask people to turn the hop off in front of them.

Personally, I took the Op for being an event for my enjoyment, and with respect to the organizers, many of the variables were stacked against them and it was more of a Mini-op or glorified skirmish after many of their plans had to be scraped. GypsyMike, General Confusion, and the rest of M.E.R.C. can use this as a learning experience, the same as our team did when we put together Midnight Rodeo. Our team knows how difficult it can be to put an event together so we can relate. I had a great time at this Op meeting new people, putting faces to aliases, and all around good time. Hopefully M.E.R.C.'s next event is in better weather, and I'm sure I can help support their effort if I have the chance.

Some suggestions for next time:
1) Find some well known commanders with experience ahead of time. I know your plans may have fell through but finding (persuading) commanders that are well known in the communities may help.

2) Begin Event at appropriate time and allot rest time for the weather at hand.

3) Keep the idea of ROE as played at the beginning, it was a good change of pace.

4) Make sure Chrono is set up down to smallest detail. Have bb's and weight charts on hand, checking hop units. Instead of colored tape, use colored zip ties or some other way to mark AEG's that are not (relatively) easy to bypass.

5) Schedule event at a better time, being sure to schedule around other events already announced.