I came 2,200 miles for this Op, AMA

[ZeroX54321 10]

I'd like to start with My squad was majorly responsible for the This new AMS Tradition http://i.imgur.com/4Thhvbq.jpg

 

Hello, My name is Zero, or R-00, and this was my first AMS Event. And it will probably be my last Broken Home event. While I had a good time, and the AO was beautiful, It was just too much of a hassle to get to and the rain made it incredibly hard to traverse. There are 0 hard feelings towards the staff of this massive amazing field, or towards the staff from AMS of the event. I might try to make Rebel Yell or something with higher odds of combat, but that's neither here nor there.

 

My only Pre-OP concern was that the troop organization was not handled very well, while my platoon, CoST Bravo 2 was handled great, the other two platoons either had no organization as of 5-17-2015.

 

During the Op:

Let me preface this with a few things. I have been actively reading the forums for the past few months, making sure that this investment would be worth it, as I live so damn far away, As I ended up spending about 1,000 dollars and travelling 2,200 miles, from Washington to prepare and get down to this event, I understand that not everyone will get to have a super memorable time, and I understand that not everyone was guaranteed to see action, and I know what a "Milsim Experience" is versus a "Spec-Ops Experience" is.

 

Day one of the OP, my platoon (Half of which VANISHED immediately, by the way) was ordered to travel from the FOB to point 9, and then proceed to point 1 (Those numbers might be backwards) and meet up with command for our orders. we got lost, and ended up with a beautiful view of what looked like the best, least flat part of Oklahoma. during this 8 mile hike, one of our men tripped on a branch and landed on his bad knee, so we had to get him med-evac'd, after we finally made it to where we needed to be, we were ordered by Slab (Great guy by the way, super nice and caring) to watch a ravine that the enemy had been SUPPOSEDLY retreating through, this was at about noon, so we perched up and waited for the enemy that we were promised we would see. Only for them to not show up for at least 2 hours. By that time our troops had been cycled around for various recon missions and overwatch positions, so we had a bunch of new people to hang out with in our little ravine, but we were getting antsy, we wanted to shoot things. Our Platoon leader convinced the majority of us to stay, while a squadmate of mine and I decided we would go tell Slab we were bored and wanted in on the action. before we could even do that, a Deuce and a half rolled up and asked if we wanted to go on suicide runs through the enemy encampment around Coleville, and so we did, and they were a blast.

 

That's where the Airsoft experience started and the Milsim Experience ends. I now believe that it's important to have a good mix of the two in order to have the best time, and Honestly, Bravo Company Platoon 2, for the most part, only had a Milsim experience. I acknowledge that the military does stuff that is extremely similar to what my platoon had done, and I acknowledge that I got the Milsim experience that I paid for. I have no complaints other than our land nav pair sucked, and needed to be replaced, but that's no fault of AMS'.

 

On day two, the majority of our team was too beat from our unnecessarily long hike to play, and we had ticks crawling through our gear from sitting in that ravine for 2 hours, so only like 3 RATs went in to play. They claimed to have a good time, So I'll assume there was a "net fun profit" and that all of them had a good time.

During the Raffle: The Raffle was great, lots of good merch thrown out, I regretfully didn't win anything with my ticket, but I got a whole bunch of other cool things.

 

However, at the end, when AMS Threw the Elite Force Walther PPQ out to the crowd, one of my then teammates, and two of the members of a different team, FROT, I believe, got their hands on it, and then another member of the other team (http://i.imgur.com/x1dzDxO.png) started to act incredibly aggressively towards him, when a different teammate stepped in to calm him down, he turned and threatened violence to us, and looked like he was on the verge of throwing a punch. It is my recommendation that FROT talks to him or something, since That type of behavior is a good way to get your team booted from events, and no one wants to be the guy that gets a bunch of people banned. Attached is a picture of him, taken from his instagram account that someone found and linked to me.

 

All in all, I had a good time, and the huge investment was well worth it, as I got to spend a bunch of time with a bunch of my best friends, and I got to shoot BB's at people.

[Guest Specs]

I'll agree with a good deal of this post, but do want to bring up the fact that compared to past BH events, this was a out of the ordinary. 

 

It was commonly agreed among almost ALL UFS members on the field that we never saw any more than 24 CoST members at any one given time. Perhaps this was because CoST was spreading its teams into smaller organized Fragos, or that you woodland guys blend in like crazy, hard to say. But all the same, it felt like for that reason that attendance was completely off balance, and that there were far more UFS members on the field throughout the event. Was that the case? It doesn't sound like it. But I think that the way things worked out made this event in particular very anti-action throughout the event. 

 

Now I will admit, that there was a high milsim aspect to this event. I heard numerous times from many people comments like "Guard duty sucks, but this is what it is." I think this is very true, and these are very needed parts of the milsim experience. However, BH normally results in a massive weekend long push to take Coleville, and sporadic fighting around it at Pegasus bridge and the Airfield. Usually this effort takes a lot of time, and might not be the best use of personel for point value in the end game. And that's why I think this event was different.

 

Seeing how last year went, I think that both factions' leadership sent their numbers out further into the field for other objectives to seek out other point opportunities. And for that reason we were all probably spread too thin. Would a higher number of people in attendance possibly solve that issue? Perhaps, but it's hard to say. Ultimately, I come away from this event valuing that menoteny of patrols and guarding target areas, but also appreciating other smaller scale AO's like Rebel Yell for better capturing that AMS ratio of milsim and action gameplay. 

 

Also, weather is what it is. Weird that AMS events like BH and ESR seem to be bad weather magnets.

[ZeroX54321 10]

Also, weather is what it is. Weird that AMS events like BH and ESR seem to be bad weather magnets.

Oh the weather was great, Only time it was raining hard, we were off the field, and in our hotel, and I love Thunderstorms, so I had a great time while that was happening anyway. No complaints at all about the weather on my part.

[Guest Specs]

in our hotel

Haha well, I suppose it would be nice in that setting.

[meerkatmogs 9]

ZEROX54321, it's good to read about your experience. You were probably one of those guys who came down from FOB to CP9 close to noon on 24May2015. Let me tell you how glad we were to see all of you come down since there were only 4 of us at CP9 and we could have been overrun quickly. Past noon we had a UFS 4-gun POV showing up and raining us with BBs until it was disabled, ran out of ammo, rockets and neutralized by guys who came down from FOB.

 

The rest of my day on Day 1 was spent securing the perimeter around CP9 watching the road up to FOB by myself. I got separated from my squad by accident and left by myself in the woods still staring at that road like a hawk. Good thing I stayed as I later found myself watching a UFS POV crew manipulate the timer and flag which could have left CoST believing that CP9 was still under CoST control. I wasn't aware of my patience and deeply ingrained military discipline until the end of the day. Never leave your post until relieved. I could have stood under that CoST flag with a bolt-action rifle, bayonet and stood stiffly Civil War style  Day 2 was even rougher hauling that mobile respawn unit in rain and mud. There was even tiny fish on the water running along the ruts on the road. Fight near Pegasus Bridge was awesome. I ran out of ammo, grenades and my bucking failed.

 

Sincerely, I hope you make it back to Rebel Yell. It's usually held at Camp Gruber also here in OK and it's a military base. If you need a place to stay just post here. By the way, love your state especially Seattle, Bellingham and Spokane.

[jazzman 223]

First let me say, thanks for coming. I know it is a time and a money sink to go to the events, and worse the farther away they are. This is the first time AMS has had as many flags (9!?) in play at one time, along side frag missions. It is clear they did not want us to run out of things to do. However this does result in exactly what happened to you - guys being stuck guarding the "points" and not doing any actual activity. I am sure if your command staff reads this post they will commend you with accolades for the good you did for your team watching that valley. It is unfortunately just part of the game and AMS really forced us to make sure we had guys cover the ENTIRE field this event. Trust me we had our share of bored soldiers on saturday on TAN side as well, and I even know one large group of 30+ LEFT THE GAME due to just this (for shame! you know who you are)

 

The reality of it is, the game is what you make of it. I bet if you'd gotten in radio contact or actually sent a runner to the FOB, told your command staff that you had 20 guys sitting bored for the last 3 hours, he'd happily have tried to rotate you out and get you into some action. I know that we on tan side do that regularly, if we can. In addition, this is also the responsibility of your company/platoon leadership staff to know where his guys are and direct them - give them things to do. patrol, or just send one squad at a time up to where the action is with instructions to come back when they are bled out of medic ropes.

 

In the end it comes down to the breakdown of command (which you talked about, half your platoon straight disappearing at the beginning of the game is a legit issue and why solid leadership at the squad and platoon and company level is so important) and the breakdown of the discipline of the individual soldier.

 

Command level - If you think about it, if I don't know where half my guys in my squad or platoon are, how do I have any hope of telling them where they should be or where the action actually is? On the same token, even if I know where I sent my guys if I can't reach across the field to talk to them via some communication medium (Radio, texting, runners, carrier pigeon, etc) then there is no hope of putting together a cohesive fighting force. Definitely an issue we contend with on TAN side at each game endlessly.

 

Soldier level - If a soldier hears gunfire and runs toward it, instead of continuing on objective like he's been told (he has been told what to do and why he's doing it, right, leadership team?) then the breakdown continues. This is of course highly varying between different players of different styles. Some guys will get a kick out of patrolling the woods for 3 hours chasing ghosts, some players will curse the game designers because they didn't get to run through their 8 box mags of ammo. Really you can't please everybody and individual discipline is always going to be an issue because different folks want different things out of the game. (Don't get me started about the guy who comes to jawjack at respawn the entire weekend)

 

 

Anyway sorry to rant for so long. I think you see the gold that lies underneath the problems this event had, regardless of weather, new terrain used, a TON of new players to AMS (thanks for coming all you new people!), and the normal problems that each side undoubtedly has, AMS puts out a great product and one you can't really capture anywhere else, at least that I've seen. Do hope to see you at another event someday and thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[jdelbs18 97]

ESR was crazy with the snow and 10 degree weather this year. BH4 was something different this year. I'm not sure if it was the numbers, the AO East to West fighting, or the weather but it was different and I can't say I enjoyed it as much as the previous years but I did enjoy it. BH tends to be a hit or miss with people only because if you aren't in the right place at the right time, you may miss actions because the AO is so large. At ESR, my squad did more recon and sneaking than fighting and it really was a blast. BH tends to be a lot of shooting for us but it seemed to not be the case this year. Overall, I was glad to read your experience and I hope you make it to another AMS event as they are some of the best!

[Kolt1911 75]

Hey man, you're handling this really maturely and it is appreciated. Look, a little over a year ago I was a scared dumb kid at my first milsim at the same AO. I didn't know how to do anything and I got yelled at a lot and I didn't kill anyone. You know who I blame for that? SWAYZE, MERCY, DIRTPRO, AND EVERYONE ELSE! - Me. Now, is it my fault for not knowing jackdick about milsim at 18 years old with no experience, training, or guidance? Absolutely not. It is my fault for being a baby. Looking back, I made it suck. I made it hard. Had I picked my nuts up and carried on like I should have, my time would have been better and I would have been respected for it. Believe me, I spent a hell of a lot more money on East Wind than you did on Broken Home. 

I'm not saying you made it suck - I wasn't there, I don't know you (although I did hear about Exel, he's my dude and I hate it for him that he fell on his knee). But man, don't throw the baby out with the bath water. You had a bad year. It happens. Come back next time, do what you can to fix the issues you had last year, trust that most others will do the same thing, and use your experience to help the new guys not make your mistakes. As time goes on, both you and the event will improve, and eventually you'll go every year and things will be fine. I urge you to please return next year and I promise you will have a wonderful time knowing what you know now. If I am able, I will be there in case you get bored and need to hear all about the Civil Air Patrol and the Great Love Rhombus of 2014. 

(also, you EW guys know I literally wouldn't have made it without you, next time I see you you get a big old hug or maybe a small stuffed horse from a gas station as a token of my appreciation for you)

[Bob_IRL 74]

My only issue was being put on guard duty for the mash in caen all day saturday. it kinda sapped morale.

I know it's milsim and it was important and all that stuff, but it kinda felt like it was a "stay out of the way and don't touch anything" assignment and did nothing to impress my first time attending pals that broken home was really awesome... also that damn propane cannon...

I didn't get to fight sunday cause we couldn't find a non-flooded road to come in on (i just found out about one today)

all in all despite the shortcomings this year it was enjoyable and I look forward to the next op I can attend (broke college student problems) and whatever major issues were noted this year will more than likely be corrected next year making for an even greater experience than years past

[ZeroX54321 10]

Kolt1911, dont let my post lead you to believe that i had a bad time. I enjoyed it all. I just feel that there were different types of fun at play, and the ratio of one to another wasnt quite high enough, but i still had a load of fun. If i had played on day two i would have been a part of the assault on Coleville and i would have had even more airsoft fun than milsim fun, but i was exhausted and satisfied with my experience from day one so i spent the second day walking around the campground chatting with people.

[stagg 34]

Is that distance round trip, or one way?  A couple of us Kansas/Oklahoma guys are considering an airsoft road trip to the North West.

 

 

(also, you EW guys know I literally wouldn't have made it without you, next time I see you you get a big old hug or maybe a small stuffed horse from a gas station as a token of my appreciation for you)

 

Kolt, you are more likely to get stuffed into the trunk of a nearby car. 

[ZeroX54321 10]

Is that distance round trip, or one way?  A couple of us Kansas/Oklahoma guys are considering an airsoft road trip to the North West.

 

 

 

Kolt, you are more likely to get stuffed into the trunk of a nearby car. 

Nah that was one way. It was about 1900 miles to KC, where I met up with my team, and then it was another 200 or so down to the AO.

[Kolt1911 75]

Kolt, you are more likely to get stuffed into the trunk of a nearby car. 

Sounds like someone knows how to party. 

 

Just stay with it, Zero. One year you spend all day watching a valley for ultimately nothing, the next year you wind up being the reason they didn't get through that valley because you let higher know that half the OpFor is coming through it like a McDonald's drive-thru. 

[Bob_IRL 74]

One year you spend all day watching a valley for ultimately nothing, the next year you wind up being the reason they didn't get through that valley because you let higher know that half the OpFor is coming through it like a McDonald's drive-thru. 

Would you like some fries with that ambush?

[TimmyHorton 72]

My only issue was being put on guard duty for the mash in caen all day saturday. it kinda sapped morale.

 

same here and being buzzed by the helo every 20 freaking minutes, then when patrolled that huge hillside...... right into a UFS ambush, but I must say that as on hell of a sneaky set up. they had 4-6 guys walk down the middle of the road and the rest of them walked in the forest so when when got into it with the guys on the road we got 110% encircled and REKTD mate. 

next year I hope to go to BH5 if I dont go to border wars while I come back from visiting family Russia. maybe I pick up an AEG SVD or PKM if I come next year