Thanks for an excellent game this year, BE! This only gets better and better, and I will most certainly be back next year in some role.
This game concept simply grows on you, and it's a bonus to be able to create a cocooon of satisfaction and pure delight just by being there and doing the airsoft roleplay one actually signs up for. I loved being there.
As already mentioned in some other threads I ran the HQ COM-section with 4 excellent dudes from Sweden. However, being the S6 in an airsoft event is quite different from real mil ditto. Here we have only 4 days to make things work, with less than perfect equipment and challenging terrain making radio com a factor in itself.
My thanks goes to many persons. I'll name a few, the rest know who you are
Kris - it's been a pleasure to work with you. Anytime, mate.
The months of preparation and effort you've put into this is simply outstanding. Our weekly Skype conferences leading up to B7 were very educating and contributed to our success in running that OPS.
Tiger_1 As usual - you give airsoft a special flair and it was a pleasure to work with you - again.
HQ staff Without you the game would never have worked so well.
You were the backbone and nervecentre of our operations and made things work. Excellent improvisations and you grew with the tasks at hand. The good, friendly atmosphere, the good jokes and coop you provided was essential for our HQ operations. You excelled.
Thinker, Landie, Exomorph and Zsaar
You were simply awesome and made my whole B7-experience come together. Without you the whole COM-section would not have worked - given the fact that we didn't get a real base-station and the BE-provided repeater went down due to generator failure. You were the backbone of our COM ops this year and I loved every minute with you guys. Damn proud to have you with me. Anytime, mates.
COY commanders A true pleasure to work with you and hope to see you around in other games. Running a batallion size airsoft operation needs dedicated leaders like you and you did extremely well - given the circumstances with partially failing radio equipment, hot weather and challenging ingame conditions.
India-5-Zero
When that unit worked as our relay station when the repeater failed - com worked geniously well and we could relax and focus on our message flow. We owe India COY a big thank for that asset. Kudos!
MP squad You guys are just insanely creative airsofters. Kudos!
NATO troops from all COY's You folks gave me the airsoft-event of my lifetime with your activities and radio communication. In many ways those four days reminded me of the tension and excitement one feels in a real operation. Intensely rewarding and very challenging.
The negatives:
As already mentioned by Tiger_1 - when one signs up for roleplaying in an airsoft event - there are codes of honour and rules of conduct. As NATO roleplayers we should be careful to respect Rules Of Engagement (ROE) and the mandates we're given. If this is not the case - game dynamics are negatively affected.
When operating in a batallion size airsoft unit (NATO roleplay) the very least to be expected is unit coherency and loyalty towards the game storyline and the mandates given. Some of us have invested months of planning, many days of setting up detailed plans, invested money in equipment and building up our own and others exepectations and motivation. This is were milsim takes over due to the sheer size and logistics of Berget as airsoft events. There must be some kind of structure.
When individual airsofters step out of their respective units, form their own radio net callsigns and swarm uncoordinated down to Bashir city and loots civilians, robs banks and shoots indiscriminately - the ingame mandate for our game party (roleplayed NATO) fails miserably and rapes the whole game concept. Shame on you. In a real war situation you'd been court martialled and summonly executed under certain regimes.
You may have had your moments of short-term BB-showering skirmish fun - but in the same moment you absolutely ruined the gameplay for those NATO-players who followed Berget rules, respected the storyline and you tarnished the whole big style airsoft-game concept.
The positives:
Berget is more than a "shoot-on-sight" weekend skirm. Its an experience in operating through several layers of logistics, tactics and LARP (Live Action Roleplay). The whole game concept requires a structured approach from all participants - and a healthy dose of self-dicipline and understanding of basic military operations.
If you approach Berget with the classical speedball attitude of "having paid for 24h BB'showering fun factors" you've failed miserably before coming here. That's were milsim elements like unit coherence, chain-of-command and tactical understanding comes in. Without that structure the big-airsoft-event will fail, and game dynamics suffer.
Given a pragmatic and realistic approach to the biggest airsoft-event in the world - this is by far the most challenging and satisfactory game event one can participate in as an airsofter. As long as people pay respect to the storyline, ingame parties mandates and make the game work.
Rogue ingame NATO-elements aside ( out of my hands, sadly ) - this game concept was for me a very satisfactory challenge and a pleasure to be in. One learns a lot about oneself, teamwork challenges rule and I'll most definetly be back next year.
The beer party was a downright success. Dead simple and down-to-earth in-the-field. And that band Musikpolisen made that night top itself even more.
BE improvement potential?
- A BE crew rep should always be present for elementary logistics and practical tasks handling. Kris had more than enough managing and running an airsoft batallion.
- The issued handhelt radios were OK, but gameplayer safety mandates a functioning repeater (CH12) and seriously; a 40w basestation for HQ ops was requested and could have improved player safety and ops.
- and hey dudes; what about monophones with 3,5mm earphone outlets next time? It doesn't make much sense trying to operate stealthy & tactical when that soddin' monophone broadcasts your presence to the enemy.
- The repeater should be battery-driven and not require refuelling by ingame players or more or less casually absent BE-crew. This failed miserably this year and should be improved.
But anyway, Berget Events: Thanks for for an excellent and gradually evolving game concept.