Bastitch Wrote: Had a great time. Wore my butt ragged, but it was worth it. Used radios as a team this time – mixed results but worth it when it worked. Preacher showed up at my place 0515, and we proceeded to Mustang’s. Arrived about 1 minute before Balrahg, and moved on to Steel’s. Arrived at the park 0645, met up with Giggles, his buddy and his two kids, and one of the SMS guys. Base camp was set up, registration done, paint acquired, tanks gassed up, gear climbed into, and festivities commenced about 0900. Registration was a little rough – one line, one person, 300 (approximately) shooters. As best as I recall the blur of events for the next 7 hours went something like this: Our “general” gave us a 2 minute tactical review – hardly enough, but we got by. On the mark we took off. Some of us at an ass hauling pace, some (like me) at an old fart trot. Shooting started almost immediately – the Ranger side seemed to be a little closer to the wild west village than we were, or just faster. The Ghostwalkers opted out of the village fight and instead volunteered to push to the bridges and hold them. We didn’t get there first and got bogged down trying to get past an open field with Rangers on the far side. Cover fire and charges didn’t work very well, and sneaking through brush and grass wasn’t working well either. I “died” 3 times just getting past this section. Once cleared, we kept the Rangers on a steady retreat, through the brush and down a road. Balrahg, Mustang, and I participated in a series of forward movements with some other Somalis, using cover fire to advance. I “died” again after several minutes of this. I ended up caught in West village coming back on, fighting house to house to repel them pesky Rangers. Died again. Made it back in to the bridges, and spent some time with Balrahg, Steel, Mustang, and Preacher standing watch over a dummy. We repelled a few minor attacks. I died again, came back in. We finally pushed in and forced the Rangers back to old fort and beyond, taking their base. I died again. Coming back in I spent some time in west village – several times. Lost track of the number of times I died trying to shoo Rangers out of the damn village. Met up with various Ghostwalkers during this, even shot at Shane once by mistake – just before he shot me. Spent some time with Mustang guarding the new fort, dodging tanks (damn thing tried to come into the fort, and there I was, at the door crouched down getting diesel smoke belched all over me. Kinda cool in a crap your pants scary sort of way), and waiting for a suicide charge by the Rangers that never happened, and watching for a rear flank attack that also never happened. Whistle blew and we walked out, ahead of the rangers in points 180 to 60, with only the big final chopper fight left. The final battle was a one-hour non-stop full assault on our fairly open bunker field from the thick tree line. I died three more times, and have decided that in the future I will not be charging across open ground and up a flight of stairs to reach a tower just 100 feet from the OpFor main line. When the whistle blew, the Rangers had never set foot into the Chopper, while we had guys in it, under it, and around it almost the whole time. Giggles, in fact, didn’t even have paint and was up there guarding it and drawing fire to allow people with paint to get up there. We took the last game in points too – no idea what the final score was, but it wasn’t a Ranger victory. Go Skinnies! While we seemed to lack steady (or much of any, for that matter) command from our volunteer general, we got by. Giggles and a few others gave some field directions, we improvised, adapted, and overcame. I even had to take command a couple of times – mostly in the west village when I would get pinned down in with three or four pre-teen shooters – I died anyway. From what I understand, most of our missions were pretty much secure and hold assignments. Ghostwalkers seemed to be better coordinated than most of the Somali side, but outside of the Ninja Turtles (don’t ask – but they were some pretty good players, if you could get past them shells) I don’t think there were any other teams there, just groups of friends and single stragglers. I didn’t see a lot of strategic movement from the rangers either. Lots of very well executed assaults and takeovers, especially in west village. Some very good sniping from cover, some excellent flanking, but not a lot of mass coordinated movement. The assault on the bridges, for instance, only really got minor attention; maybe 15 – 20 shooters trying to sneak up and being repelled by the 20 – 25 shooters we had guarding the bridges. It looked like they were putting most of their efforts throughout most of the day into taking west village. Since I don’t know what their mission cards called for – I can’t say, just an opinion on what it looked like, to me. Giggle’s buddy won some pods, the SMS guy an e-trigger for a Tippmann 98, and Preacher a BT marker. Had to scam some paint off Steel and Preacher to keep going at the end, ended up walking off the field with only about 20 rounds left. Burned through about 2500 rounds total, and 4 tank refills. Overall – I enjoyed myself immensely. My feet hurt. My legs hurt. I have a dozen bruises from the waist up - haven’t counted lower. I fell asleep last nigh watching TV, and I wasn’t even drinking. Well worth it – I would do this again, just not real soon. Silencer / Giggles Wrote: Well me and my Korean group got there at about 0640 and waited for the others to show they were there about 0650 From the Ghostwalkers we had Mustang, Steel, Preacher Balragh, Bastich, and Silencer (Giggles,Joker what ever) Bastitch brung everyone a Tshirt and Overlays of the Park. After registration and chronoing we started play at about 0830 a wall of skinnys ran to the woods with the Rangers led by the Roughnecks heading toward West Town and as we formed a skirmish line the battle started. The first mission was to get Abdeed and hold him for one hour we didnt the Rangers found him first in the back tower and put up a strong defense. The second mission i have no ideal what it was but we won that one and by lunch the score was Rangers 50 Somalies 40. After lunch the Rangers were worn down and we pushed them all the way back to the wood were there reconstitutin point was (when it started me and some others were on the far side holding the line and i had a great sniper spot where i could shoot at long range and picked off 12 before we advanced and i got shot) One of the Missions was for us to hold the New Fort and about 40 of us stayed in the for and the rest of us went to look for the Rangers They (Rangers) never even seen the New Fort we ended up the day with the score Somalies 160 and the Rangers 60 as we headed for the last battle at 1630 - 1730 which was the rescue of the Rangers (dummys) from the Helicopter which was in Mogadishu our Res. point was about 80 yards from the Helicopter and the Rangers was in West World about 100 Yards the other direction and the battle was on 3 smoke grenades were thrown into the Chopper and the (Dummys) were out within about 5 minutes but they let us play anyway. I wore the joker mask and expected to get shot many more times than i did but all in all I had a fairly good day. and by evening everybody was so tired and walking bow legged from all the equipment they had been carring all day I just had to laugh (again). and after the Prizes in which the PREACHER Won a BT-4 and a Todie from Bastich we left at about 1900.. Balrahg Wrote: Date: 01 May 2006 Subject: BlackHawk Down Debrief (De-classified) Reporting: Balrahg After the standard transport (see briefing by Bastitch) then the looooong wait to register as well as base camp placement, we commenced. The PB field staff selected our General, we being the skinnies, and the Ranger commander, then got the ball rolling to get us on the field. Mission 1: Multiple Op's to be completed throughout the first 3 hour mission. Bastitch, Mustang, and I went "hold the bridge" mission and when we arrived the Rangers were already there trying to assault the entire area. We traded shots back and forth, I got dead once, and when I returned from the Rez' point, the push was underway to get the Infidel Rangers back to their own turf. It went well, myself and a few of the skinnies started pushing the back road for Rangers and started a long firefight that I know stayed on for the rest of the mission 1. I partook of a few skirmishes in the village as well, and the covered bridges after that. After being made dead yet again, I hooked up with Mustang and we went on a recon for mission objectives which were the red gas cans. While searching the back area, and Mustang was covering my six, I flipped a large obstacle over and to my dismay, Stang' shouted, "Rahg, SKUNK!!!". I was looking up and didn't see the obvious trap that the Rangers laid for us, but when I looked down at the trap turning its backside at me, I slammed the board back down and did a very rapid tactical retreat. We then engaged the Rangers at the back road again and stayed back there until the game was called out of time. =====Lunch===== Mission 2: This whole mission was a blur of activity, I just did a lot of running and shooting. At one point I had to stop and go to the base camp and rest my girthy, tired ass. After propping my feet up for a few, drank some water and shot the shyte with Bastitch when he got there as well for a breather. When I went back out, I stayed in the village area and traded a lot of paint with the Ranger infidels. I got dead a few times and took at least 2 with me, so I felt good about that. I did eventually run out of paint and had to sideline with 45 minutes left in mission 2. I cleaned up my gear a little and was pretty much prepping to be a non-combatant for the rest of the day. Final mission: Steel, being the great guy he is, gave me some paint to complete the day. I have to say that I did have a butt-load of fun on this op. I found myself a pretty good spot that looked right down the pipe of the OPFOR's avenue of approach. I then, for the entire game, stayed there and did nothing but lob rounds at them as they came onto the field. I took a couple out as well, so again, warm fuzzies. I did get some serious looks from the OPFOR as a few looked out, pointed at me, and tried to lob a few rounds back at me. Good thing was, we had the wind to our backs, so they fell way short. With five minutes left, I had a serious mechanical failure on my marker and had to fall back to the rez' point and watch the rest of the game. I will say that I did watch Giggles throughout the game as he rushed back and forth, laughing maniacally, while engaging the OPFOR with nothing but a smile on his face (mask?). Big koodo's. And finally, I was honored to play with the great guys on the Ghostwalker team. They are good guys that I am proud to be on a team with. And for future events, we will get better and take it to the OPFOR, more and more. After cleanup and the PB field staff giving out free stuff (Preacher, you lucky so and so) we packed up, toasted our relative good fortune at play and headed back to the world. Again, I cant wait to play some more events like this one, it was a good time all the way around. Next time, I will leave my inserts in my boots so I can actually walk when the games are over. Steel Wrote: I think that it is safe to say that BHD was a big hit with the Ghost Walkers and that all 6 of us greatly enjoyed ourselves. I think that we did well overall, shot a lot of trees, bushes, bunkers and people, but most importantly we (I anyways) had fun. In the last game I took a position and held it for 35 minutes eliminated 8-12 Infidels (I mean Rangers {CHAIR-BORNE!!!}) and expended all but 5 rounds from my A-5. I got dead once and the other time I had no paint and so i call myself dead and walked off the field. I rearmed just in time to have the game called For my part I have played better, far better. In the last game I did well but the 1st two were exercises in futility Notes for self improvement (2 items)... Patience: the lack of it killed me on more than one occasion. Situational Awareness: Simple observation and common sense would have done me a lot of good. I have the bruises to show for it and Mustang got a .68 Cal enema. Notes for Team Improvement (one item)... "2 is 1, 1 is none" The one area that I see that we can improve is that we need to band together more so that we can exercise hammer and anvil tactics and that if we are in a Res type game move out in groups... the radios help for that but to often we got separated it to 1's and 2's and "Salt and Peppered" our opponent. Other times we linked up and handed the enemy their backside in a sling. Over all, Not bad Ghost Walkers. Mustang Wrote: Those .68 cal enemas you were talking about. Yeah, they "helped" relieve some pressure and waste. The pressure of being watched in the trees and waste alot of paint at trees and other shrubbery. I wish I had a Herring to cut some trees down. Steel you might appreciate that comment. hint hint wink wink say no more. But you do bring a valid point up Steel. We do need to work on 2-1 teams instead of these 1-0 tactics. That is what got me killed. One time I was alone I got shot in the rear just because I had no back up to watch for enemy movement. All in all it was fun. shot a crap load of paint. It was Pegasus Bridge all over again. Right Giggles. (insert your laugh here). The radios helped also but if we had comms with the entire group ( the skinnies) so we could call up some back up and get a status check on missions and team advancement. I think the commander for our group was good but communication and knowing where the hell he was at would have been good. I had a good time trying to get rid of the poison ivy that I got while being out there. The ivy wasn't as bad as the sms field's ivy. All in all I say we kicked butt but could use some improvement on radio chatter, hand signals, and observations.