Baz JJ
Members
- May 23, 2013
- 2,349
- 502
Hi guys, after posting about the planning and execution of the inaugural game, I promised that I would give some sort of summary and review after it happened.
I will try to be objective.
The game was a Milsim held at Westwood Country Park in Kings Langley just off J20 on the M25.
People could play for the day or weekend.
The cost was 35 pounds for the day or 60 for the weekend for early bookings and free camping was available. People started to arrive from 1600 onwards on the Friday and the camping was on a large, secure flat field. There were a few horse pats here and there but they didn't cause any trouble provided you used a torch when moving around at night. The toilets were proper, flushing, ceramic bowl toilets situated in a brick building, although it was a long walk in the middle of the night.
There was also a fresh water standpipe there although most players brought their own water with them. Some camped in tents and one pair of players even brought a touring caravan with them.
The organisers office which was a caravan and a large tent was also in the camping field and they provided charging facilities and a shop selling BBs, gas and pyro.
The game started at 0900 on Saturday and there were three forces in attendance as per the game advertisement. The principle of the Okto Eight games are eight hour games in the battlefield held over a weekend and with socialising in the evening after the cease fire at 1700. The Milsim nature of the game dictated no two tone weapons, a loadout guideline and prohibited use of highcaps.
The organiser provided two vehicles; a Russian GAZ jeep for the rebels forces to use and a Ford Ranger 4x4 pick-up which was shared between the other two forces. Once the safety brief had been carried out, weapons were chrono'd and there was a brief explanation about the game itself. The number of players was quite low compared to a skimish, about 22-24 players, but it was an inaugural game and it worked quite well in the end.
The government forces were able to walk to their base which was a large tented camp with a tower and flag as it was only a few hundred metres beyond the "Caution - Moldistan Border" sign which signified the start of the warzone. The rebels were driven to their secret village in their jeep which then stayed with them all day. The SF were inserted in the 4x4 and did what SF do.
It has to be said that the site is huge. Reputed to be about 120 acres, it is woodland with no hard permanent buildings but has a mixture of terrain from woods to open fields with plenty of dips, hollows and long grass.
There are vehicle tracks which provide 4x4 access to most of the bases and key features used.
The organiser had constructed for the purpose of the game, the two bases, an abandoned village, a mine entrance and a checkpoint.
Operation Skylight was set in the fictional eastern bloc country of Moldistan in modern times.
The game had already started some six months previously on the Facebook page where the story and game prelim had spun up around a corrupt government and a Titanium mine. Players could log on to their secret team group so they could get to know their fellow team mates and discuss tactics long before the game weekend.
Once in-country, everybody was allowed to settle in and there were three different radio nets being maintained and run by the organisers. Each force had the ability to call up a command centre for orders and advice. The main activity of Saturday revolved around the official opening of the mine. The government forces were assigned to escort the President to the mine for the opening and the rebels were instructed to assassinate him. The SF had different but mission related orders.
The President was played by an actor and turned up with his bodyguard, another actor, in a bulletproof minivan and then a 4x4 for the last part of the journey. What was good is that you could shoot at the vehicles, even though they were "armoured". The rebels attacked and used an RPG which fired, but unfortunately, the attack was a little premature and the President escaped. The government troops did a great job of protecting him. The day was peppered with battles between the factions and the MPF rebels did eventually manage to take out an armed patrol with the RPG later. A rebel pointed the RPG, it fired with a bang and there was an even larger explosion from the car, which resulted in black smoke, bodies slumped, etc. Further adventures over the weekend included all forces hunting an American journalist through the wargame area (SF managed to locate him and exfil him by a car posing as a helicopter - not as silly as it seems in practice). There was also another attempt to open the mine where the opening was finally achieved but the President escaped again. This was followed by an all out attack on the rebel stronghold with mortars and the SF rescuing a stretcher bound hostage.
All in all, a great weekend. The weather was brilliant for airsoft - dry, sunny but not too hot. Everybody played their chosen roles perfectly. There were no raised hands when hit, the rebels were dressed for the part and even talked with faked Russian accents. Some were camming up and the vehicles were fantastic. There is nothing quite like shooting at a car which is doing its best to evade you or better still a technical with armed guards firing back at you. At one point, there was a firefight between SF and rebels as they helicopter tried to evac the journalist and it was very much a hot extraction with the BBs flying around the helo, callsign HELO2.
Good Points
==========
There was enough players to let the game function and let everybody have hands on the props.
Props included the already mentioned RPG, vehicles, working pyro landmines, dynamite and timer strapped to the silencer of one of the vehicles as a car bomb and much, much more. Attention to detail was superb. Even the mines which entered the game on the back of the GAZ were in a straw filled ammo box. A real mine clearing kit was provided to the SF at one point in one of their drops and there was even a defib kit for battlefield medics seen in one of the tents.
The game was clear and communications flowed well.
Some players had flat gun batteries in the afternoon and the organiser loaned them new ones whilst charging up their knackered ones for them.
One player was loaned a PTT to enable his headset to talk to a Okto supplied radio (The Organiser supplied high power radios to all forces).
There was a good social on Saturday night with people eating their supper around campfires and enjoying a beer and a smoke together.
You could keep extra equipment and ammo at your field base - the SF received parachute drops of equipment.
Bad Points
=========
There was a bit of confusion about whether a vehicle was a moving car or flying helicopter at one point.
One of the rental guns misbehaved even though it was nearly new, but this was exchanged for another identical weapon so the player was only inconvenienced for a short time.
A few more players in the game would be good, but not too many. Okto advise max limit is 36-40 players depending on game details. Hopefully, this will be achieved in the next game. There already appears to be a loyal following keen to book for the April game.
Bandages and morphine worked well, although there was some confliction between the published rules and the briefing as to how the morphine was to be used. The morphine jab certainly saved a long walk back to regen.
A bit of confusion about respawn points. It was found that the hard points were a long way away and the legs ached after about the 10th time you died, so the organisers started using mobile ones to assist. This concept wasn't fully understood by some, so it could be explained better next time.
A couple of players were a bit hit and miss on their hit taking on the Sunday but the marshal had a word and the problem cleared up. Some of the non-milsim experienced day players used a bit too much auto on the Sunday but its only milsim experience which prevents that and its easy to get carried away.
The front gate sign on the approach road was a bit hard to spot.
You really need to be a Facebook user to get the best out of Okto games - they don't have a website.
There is only an Okto Eight game every six months...
I will try to be objective.
The game was a Milsim held at Westwood Country Park in Kings Langley just off J20 on the M25.
People could play for the day or weekend.
The cost was 35 pounds for the day or 60 for the weekend for early bookings and free camping was available. People started to arrive from 1600 onwards on the Friday and the camping was on a large, secure flat field. There were a few horse pats here and there but they didn't cause any trouble provided you used a torch when moving around at night. The toilets were proper, flushing, ceramic bowl toilets situated in a brick building, although it was a long walk in the middle of the night.
There was also a fresh water standpipe there although most players brought their own water with them. Some camped in tents and one pair of players even brought a touring caravan with them.
The organisers office which was a caravan and a large tent was also in the camping field and they provided charging facilities and a shop selling BBs, gas and pyro.
The game started at 0900 on Saturday and there were three forces in attendance as per the game advertisement. The principle of the Okto Eight games are eight hour games in the battlefield held over a weekend and with socialising in the evening after the cease fire at 1700. The Milsim nature of the game dictated no two tone weapons, a loadout guideline and prohibited use of highcaps.
The organiser provided two vehicles; a Russian GAZ jeep for the rebels forces to use and a Ford Ranger 4x4 pick-up which was shared between the other two forces. Once the safety brief had been carried out, weapons were chrono'd and there was a brief explanation about the game itself. The number of players was quite low compared to a skimish, about 22-24 players, but it was an inaugural game and it worked quite well in the end.
The government forces were able to walk to their base which was a large tented camp with a tower and flag as it was only a few hundred metres beyond the "Caution - Moldistan Border" sign which signified the start of the warzone. The rebels were driven to their secret village in their jeep which then stayed with them all day. The SF were inserted in the 4x4 and did what SF do.
It has to be said that the site is huge. Reputed to be about 120 acres, it is woodland with no hard permanent buildings but has a mixture of terrain from woods to open fields with plenty of dips, hollows and long grass.
There are vehicle tracks which provide 4x4 access to most of the bases and key features used.
The organiser had constructed for the purpose of the game, the two bases, an abandoned village, a mine entrance and a checkpoint.
Operation Skylight was set in the fictional eastern bloc country of Moldistan in modern times.
The game had already started some six months previously on the Facebook page where the story and game prelim had spun up around a corrupt government and a Titanium mine. Players could log on to their secret team group so they could get to know their fellow team mates and discuss tactics long before the game weekend.
Once in-country, everybody was allowed to settle in and there were three different radio nets being maintained and run by the organisers. Each force had the ability to call up a command centre for orders and advice. The main activity of Saturday revolved around the official opening of the mine. The government forces were assigned to escort the President to the mine for the opening and the rebels were instructed to assassinate him. The SF had different but mission related orders.
The President was played by an actor and turned up with his bodyguard, another actor, in a bulletproof minivan and then a 4x4 for the last part of the journey. What was good is that you could shoot at the vehicles, even though they were "armoured". The rebels attacked and used an RPG which fired, but unfortunately, the attack was a little premature and the President escaped. The government troops did a great job of protecting him. The day was peppered with battles between the factions and the MPF rebels did eventually manage to take out an armed patrol with the RPG later. A rebel pointed the RPG, it fired with a bang and there was an even larger explosion from the car, which resulted in black smoke, bodies slumped, etc. Further adventures over the weekend included all forces hunting an American journalist through the wargame area (SF managed to locate him and exfil him by a car posing as a helicopter - not as silly as it seems in practice). There was also another attempt to open the mine where the opening was finally achieved but the President escaped again. This was followed by an all out attack on the rebel stronghold with mortars and the SF rescuing a stretcher bound hostage.
All in all, a great weekend. The weather was brilliant for airsoft - dry, sunny but not too hot. Everybody played their chosen roles perfectly. There were no raised hands when hit, the rebels were dressed for the part and even talked with faked Russian accents. Some were camming up and the vehicles were fantastic. There is nothing quite like shooting at a car which is doing its best to evade you or better still a technical with armed guards firing back at you. At one point, there was a firefight between SF and rebels as they helicopter tried to evac the journalist and it was very much a hot extraction with the BBs flying around the helo, callsign HELO2.
Good Points
==========
There was enough players to let the game function and let everybody have hands on the props.
Props included the already mentioned RPG, vehicles, working pyro landmines, dynamite and timer strapped to the silencer of one of the vehicles as a car bomb and much, much more. Attention to detail was superb. Even the mines which entered the game on the back of the GAZ were in a straw filled ammo box. A real mine clearing kit was provided to the SF at one point in one of their drops and there was even a defib kit for battlefield medics seen in one of the tents.
The game was clear and communications flowed well.
Some players had flat gun batteries in the afternoon and the organiser loaned them new ones whilst charging up their knackered ones for them.
One player was loaned a PTT to enable his headset to talk to a Okto supplied radio (The Organiser supplied high power radios to all forces).
There was a good social on Saturday night with people eating their supper around campfires and enjoying a beer and a smoke together.
You could keep extra equipment and ammo at your field base - the SF received parachute drops of equipment.
Bad Points
=========
There was a bit of confusion about whether a vehicle was a moving car or flying helicopter at one point.
One of the rental guns misbehaved even though it was nearly new, but this was exchanged for another identical weapon so the player was only inconvenienced for a short time.
A few more players in the game would be good, but not too many. Okto advise max limit is 36-40 players depending on game details. Hopefully, this will be achieved in the next game. There already appears to be a loyal following keen to book for the April game.
Bandages and morphine worked well, although there was some confliction between the published rules and the briefing as to how the morphine was to be used. The morphine jab certainly saved a long walk back to regen.
A bit of confusion about respawn points. It was found that the hard points were a long way away and the legs ached after about the 10th time you died, so the organisers started using mobile ones to assist. This concept wasn't fully understood by some, so it could be explained better next time.
A couple of players were a bit hit and miss on their hit taking on the Sunday but the marshal had a word and the problem cleared up. Some of the non-milsim experienced day players used a bit too much auto on the Sunday but its only milsim experience which prevents that and its easy to get carried away.
The front gate sign on the approach road was a bit hard to spot.
You really need to be a Facebook user to get the best out of Okto games - they don't have a website.
There is only an Okto Eight game every six months...
Last edited by a moderator:
). At about 11, we decided to patrol the road down to the mine opening to make sure that the rebels weren't close by and had not planted any traps to destroy the vehicle that the president was travelling down in. However, on the way, we were engaged by rebel forces who were trying to get ready and lie in wait for the president which ended up in a long lasting, heated firefight as we struggled to push them back whilst trying to stay alive as you had a real sense of self-preservation so you didn't have to watch the rest of your small team die and return to base. The immersion by both teams were great as once you were hit, you would go down to the floor screaming "MEDIC!!!" watching the firefight revolve around you as the rest of the team desperately tried to reach you. As the firefight drew to a close, the amount of people who were injured, rolling around the floor shouting "MEDIC" was actually kind of scary and daunting as you notice the amount of casualties taken in on both sides who were screaming, pretending to be in pain. I felt truly immersed within the game as many of players ran around shouting out in Russian accents (which happened to be quite comedic as well).
But we managed to change a few outcomes throughout he day such as destroying a weapons cache and confiscating a bunch of M72s before having to hold off a giant ambush against the attacking MPF. But I did feel slightly outnumbered on the second day as when the MPF teamed up with the SOF, we were outnumbered 3 to 1 which felt quite demoralising as we knew we weren't going to win any engagement we had with them. The mobile spawns also proved a PITA as I don't think the rules were clear enough and the rebels would be able to spawn after we killed them in a matter of minutes, meaning that we just ran out of ammo and got overwhelmed at some points. Luckily, towards the end of the day, some of the rebels were getting tired and we managed to push the rebels out of the village and hold it until we were told to withdraw back to our FOB. During the last hour, we were tasked with taking the old cache we had secured from the rebels again which felt a bit skirmish-y for me as I had no real understanding as to why we were there and it was just a massive-ish shoot up.
).
