AAR: Trigger Day, Saturday, April 14, 2012.

[Jbagel21]

***I moved this post, and similar ones, to this topic.  If you want to edit or delete your transferred posts, please feel free to do so.  Joe.***


For anyone that didn't make it out, you missed a great one. Rain blew over right as we met, leaving us with perfect weather for some excellent games. Both teams performed well, with the IED objectives bringing a new but fun twist to the day. Out door play is always hard to beat, and today definitely delivered... looking forward to the next one!

[porkchop]

Copy that. I got in to Springfield just as the storm began and almost headed back home, but decided to stop by the shop. Glad I did. Met up with the D9 gang headed back to Sam's. If I'd missed that game, I never would've forgiven myself. I'm still PO'd about missing the one back in October. Perfect weather the rest of the day. Reminded me of games back home in Washington. Hope we can manage another one before the dog days of summer set in.

[Brendon]

Thoroughly enjoyed playing with everyone. It was a long hot day after the rain left, but it wasn't bad because you were still getting a little wet. One thing though, and this is toward Joe. I understand you have to chrono, it is indeed a must with all fields. I talked to Mickey about the scare with it. Him and I both had different readings at So Go. I with my M4, and he with his M14. I don't know, may want to look into that, and I'm not blaming you at all sir. Just informing. Anyways, if D9 is coming out, I might just stick to CQB. They're too good. It was fun, I didn't lose anything this time either. Not much to say except it was an extremely good day.

[Metal]

Some of us were unsure about even heading up with the storm system right over us and moving up I44 towards the direction we were headed, but things cleared up and we got to play anyway. I got to field my new gear which was great! Also I got to use my new VFC SCAR which I was quite pleased with. The EOD and bomb defusal idea was great and we had lots of fun doing it. I have to say though that I had pretty much just as good of a time getting some food at Old Chicago with some of 'the guys' as I did at the game. I'm sure I speak for all of D9 that it is always a pleasure heading up to Springfield for outdoor play or SoGo CQB play. Thumbs up! I'll for sure be coming up for the next one.

[Joe]

I'm glad to read these positive reviews. You are, all, too kind by half.

The Good:
Player attitudes and patience.  Despite the rain delay and game confusion, everyone was very positive and enthusiastic.  Magazine safety was good. 

Happily, I did not hear one complaint of hits not being called.  Great players, one and all.


The Bad:
A number of players were unprepared.  I was surprised how many forgot to bring food, water or deadrags.  I sense a money-making opportunity here for Springfield Airsoft . . .


The Ugly:
This is on me.  I did not communicate well about game boundaries, medic rules and game information. 

The games worked in theory but not in practice.  Having ofne team set up and waiting for the other team caused the attacking team no end of frustration.  This was true regardless of which team was attacking.  Starting each team at their respective spawn, while unrealistic, would have been less frustrating for all.

I am working on a general set of rules to head off future problems.

[Ghost]

I agree with Joe, but another thing was that the tan team was fairly unexperienced (including me) i played against D9 in our october game i believe and it was ok being that we had large numbers and better experience on both teams over all; but what i think would help is if for a game we put some of the D9 guys on the opposing team as squad leaders so us field noobs could learn the do's and don'ts of outdoor games, and same with the tactics, when chris was showing us the large squad tactic of chasing down the bad guys after being ambushed would've been a lot easier if we did a practice of the tactic and them have some opfor hit us on the next one so we could better understand how it works.  Other than that it was a pretty good day, thought i was getting trench foot after the first round though bcus my socks were so wet lol.  and on an ending note we never really played in the spring/summer so some of us were really suprised at the difficulty we had moving and finding the D9 guys, when the D9 guys were playing as the bad guys and planting the ieds, the D9 guys blended in so well i swore that the trees were picking up guns and shooting at me saying "Thats what you get for shooting bbs everywhere you jerk" lol other than that good day

[Jbagel21]

Michael, you are perfectly correct that we should have actually done a "run" portion to the class. Because we had a late start I wanted to get you guys on the field playing as soon as possible, so decided to skip that portion. In the future I will stick to my original plan. As far as the experience went, the first game showed that both teams were relatively even... green team did not accomplish their objectives, thanks to the excellent defense you all had set up. The second game, I actually felt sorry for you all: even with more experienced players I doubt you would have been able to do much more... the virtual jungle was not your friend that game. Overall though, everyone played well regardless of their experience and I think we all learned some new tricks for next time.

[singerson2]

Joe,
Just a suggestion for the bomb game. How about having the defending team set their "IED's" on the way out to their respawn. then have both teams start from their respawns. radios could be used to ensure that both teams are ready and start at the same time.

[Joe]

Guys,

Thank you both for the supportive words and suggestions/constructive criticisms.  I appreciate them all!

[Jbagel21]

Joe, next time we might try an objective game where each team battles to control specific zones, or do some PSD style games... just some ideas to consider.

[Joe]

"PSD"?

[netshark993]

Personel Security Detail

[Jbagel21]

For clarification, I am referring to VIP escort style games, i.e. a "football" has to be safely escorted from point A to point B. The defending team knows where the escort team starts from, but not where they end forcing them to spread out and defend the whole area.

[Metal]

Also, maybe to even out the teams, maybe we could have specific teams with X number of slots open on each side. As the game date nears if more an more people are attending the number slots on each side could adjusted accordingly. Also it might clear up on the copied confusion of who is on what team.