ESR 4 OFFICAL AAR

[TheJP 3,301]

Space reserved

[VIRUS 45]

With the forecast of high winds and heavy rain, packing for ESR19-4 took a little more planning and a LOT more space than normal. I arrived early enough to check in, chrono, and attend a safety briefing well before StartEX. Due to the MMX class going longer than planned (my AAR for the MMX class will be posted in that thread), I missed the briefing for the beginning of the Friday Night Fights. I entered the AO and joined the fight shortly after 2300 hours, but by then Camp 3’s personnel had dispersed through the AO. So I ran solo until I teamed up with a group that seemed to be made up of guys from all three camps. We had a few skirmishes over the next three hours, and around 0200 I had to call it a night due to my gun going down. All in all, a very busy and long day, but a lot of fun. 

 

Saturday started out with the threat of rain that didn’t materialize until just before Endex, but the wind was definitely making its presence known. UFS forces seemed to push immediately against all camps, but for the next hour or so we held our ground protecting Camp 3 and the Still. Monkey and Whisper were putting together a group to go around the right flank and attack the UFS TOC. We fought our way to the far boundary and then played tag with a sniper for the next 15 minutes. Once he was finally taken out, that’s where the real fun began. We advanced a few hundred yards until we skirmished with a small group that had SSW support. I got the most memorable shot of my airsoft career when I got a kill I never expected… through two sets of car windows and into a third at well over 250ft. Then in one hard fast push we moved to within 50 feet of the TOC before meeting heavy resistance. UFS forces managed to keep us just out of range from killing the doctor and collecting his intel for the next 20 minutes. A second small group of CDF joined in at that time, but we were still unable to breech the TOC. UFS Command must have called for reinforcements because minutes later we were taking fire from three sides. Five minutes after that we were all taking the long walk back to Camp 3. Kudos to UFS for holding their ground until backup could arrive!! 

 

After respawning, me and a group of five others crossed the tracks to engage a small group of UFS coming around our right flank. A 30 minute game of hide-n-seek ensued until we were able to clear the last hostiles in the area. While we were doing this, UFS made a hard push against Camp 3. We had advanced so far to clear the right flank that we were now behind UFS lines. We were able to quickly circle around and get multiple kills before the last of us were hit. Unfortunately, even with our superior position, we were too few in number to prevent UFS from overrunning the camp. 

 

I picked a poor time to grab something to eat and re-outfit for the night game as the anticipated rain finally arrived. I returned to Camp 3 to find it empty, and after spending fifteen minutes of looking for someone to team up with I called it a night. Unbeknownst to me, a few of my teammates from Camp 3 were trying that same end-around move on the right flank that we failed in earlier. I missed all the fun of rolling around in the mud and tossing grenades into the UFS TOC. 

 

We all know it poured all night and flooded the AO. Vehicles were covered up to their windows in flood water. AMS Staff did a great job of handling a bad situation. They did all they could to recover lost gear and stranded players, even calling in the Roosevelt Navy. By 11am the raffle was on and everyone seemed to be in good spirits. Despite the weather and inevitable cancellation on Sunday, it was another great American Milsim Event. I look forward to seeing everyone, friend and foe, at Broken Home next month. 

[Looney 18]

Well this was my first Ams event so i dont have mutch to go off, but i will say this this was the best time i have had in my airsoft career. from haveing to completly disasembel my m4s gear box a hour and a half before start on friday, haveing my own penske truck story, to trying to stay awake on car seats at 3 in the morning to trying to not get struck by lighting and sweped away by rain it was fantastic.

 

Friday was great ,  although it could have started a hour earlier and ended a hour later it was fun. I had two moments that made my event that night. first was having to retreat from the penske truck undetected with cdf like 10 feet from us. the second was being one of the like 10 guys that stayed all night that night.

 

Saturday started of great being actually able to see what was going on helped a lot. the start was slightly ruff but after a hour the game  smoothed out and became every thing I ever dreamed. again two thing that will stick with me are walking though knee deep water in the creek past cdf and again being one of the last guys during the rain storm and having to be the runner between the TOC and PB as coms stopped working

 

so that wraps up my AAR  I just want to thank you all for the good times and I cant wait to play again at Rebel Yell

[RoninKiros 27]

This was my third event for AMS and my first ESR-19.  So, to start off this AAR, let me backtrack all the way back to Thursday when I first arrived.

 

Thursday:

​Arrived early with my brother to the event and got with some of the AMS staff.  Being support staff, we (my brother and I) decided to go ahead and help AMS set up their stuff until we could get confirmation where we'd be camping out on the A/O.  We put in quite a bit of work, got to hang out with Alex and the admins, and helped get a lot of stuff done.  Honestly, I never realized how much work goes into getting an event ready. I can only imagine how hectic it is at larger events like Broken Home.  By the time we finished up, it was getting late and my brother and I decided not to set up our giant MGPTS tent.

​Friday:

​Woke up at 0630 and screwed around until about 0900 and begun to help AMS finish up getting ready for the event.  Did a lot of work but geared up and played the Friday night game.  The Friday Night game was the first night game I have ever played at an AMS event.  I was a bit skeptical at first but decided it could be fun once I saw all the light towers go up.

​The first part of the game, I tagged along with another group (since my group hadn't fully arrived) and we had a pretty fun time.  I think the best part of the night game was the role play I got to experience with the ATF (UFS) group.  It put a spin on the game I wasn't expecting but I fully enjoyed.  Anyways, about an hour and a half to two hours into the game, I finally got taken out by what I believe was friendly fire but could have been UFS.  With how dark it was, it was hard to tell.  I went back to base and met up with a good friend of mine who was also at camp.  Since I hadn't seen him in a while, I decided to go ahead and bunk in for the night and catch up with him since the last time we met.  We sealed off our tent and began having a good time.  A UFS guy decided it would be fun to attack people in a sealed up tent and opened our door and threw in a grenade.  This essentially threw us back into the game and ultimately, to make a long story short, we played for the last two hours of the game.

​While we were out playing, some people in our camp reported to us that people were constantly in and out of our tent.  At one point, I came back to the tent to find my gun case opened and thrown on the ground, my cot rummaged through as if someone was looking for something, and my bag of clothes just laying on the ground.  It really upset me that I felt that my belongings weren't safe from players since our tent (according to some) looked like a CDF FOB tent and it was just okay to attack it, scour it for whatever they were looking for, etc.

​Saturday

​Saturday morning started with tearing down our tent at 0830.  With concern for potential storms to hit during the day and the fact that we didn't feel that our stuff was safe from other players, we packed up our tent and moved all of our stuff out of the AO.  Once the game started, we were tasked with scouting and defending an area to the north of our camp.  An hour into the game is when we started experiencing what was probably the most disappointing game I've played at AMS.  To start off, we got into some intense firefights with the UFS from across the creek.  There was two individuals in particular who four of us had shot multiple times and they both refused to call their hits.  We were probably less than 50 feet from them and you could see bb's bouncing off their helmets.  We just kept shooting them until they got us and many of us bled out and went to respawn.  After about a 30 minute skirmish, we could hear people asking "hey, you got a speed loader?" and shortly behind it you could here the distinct sound of someone speedloading their mags.  We called them out on it but they just laughed and continued to do it.

​After quite a bit of fighting, we ended up getting pushed back to our camp.  We had some seriously intense firefighting, and I began to see CDF people using speedloaders and shrugging off hits.  I even called one of the CDF guys out and he said "there is no admin around.  The UFS are doing it, we might as well do it too."  I was quite disappointed and ended up having to walk away.  We finally made a push back across the road and on the way to the cars parked on the north side of the road, I stopped and searched a dead UFS guy.  He began to search himself for his kill card, opened up his pouch and pulled his kill card half way out before looking at me dead in the eyes and said "Oh, I just bled out.  Sorry man."  The put his card back in his sleeve and walked away.  So, I proceeded to continue to the North side of the street where three of us were taking refuge behind the cars from the CDF (sorry to the owners).  A UFS person charged our position and I proceeded to shoot him 3 times in the legs.  He shot me at super close range in the face (couldn't have been more than 3 feet away from the end of his barrel) and proceeded to run around the corner and shoot our other two guys.  As soon as our two guys called hit, he drew his dead rag and laughed.  The other guys asked him why he didn't call his hit until after we were all three taken out and he said, "I had to make sure all three of you were out first."

​I pretty much decided it was time for a break and returned to the registration area.  I was getting pretty irritated at the cheating and the pure disrespectful behavior coming from both CDF and UFS.  I sat out for about an hour before returning to the field and going out to a different camp.  My squad and I tried our best to push up and hold position but it seemed like it was in vain.  We had a lot of people sitting at our camp talking, laughing, and having a good time while only a handful of us were actually trying to hold off the UFS.  Once we started getting spawn camped, I called it a day and went back to registration just before the storms rolled in.

​Sunday:

​Helped the AMS guys get everything tore down and packed up and left Roosevelt around 5pm.

​

I loved the AO even though it seems to be prone to the most extreme weather nature has to offer (ice/snow/flood).  I hated being able to see people cheat on both sides and I didn't see an admin until almost the end of Saturday's game.  Had I not stumbled across a few UFS guys who were cool and playing by the rules, I probably would have said this would be my last big event.

​So, to finalize my AAR, I will list the pros/cons that I saw while there.

​PROS:

​Awesome AO, the ambient light idea for the night game, comms actually worked well for the first half of Saturday

​CONS:

​A LOT of cheating on both sides, camping in the AO

 

Overall, I have to admit I enjoyed my weekend, even with all the negative stuff I experienced.  My favorite part was being a part of the AMS Support Staff.  I now see how much work goes into getting these events set up and I must say thank you to all the AMS guys as well as those who volunteer for Support Staff.  If it wasn't for all of your hard work and dedication, we wouldn't be able to go out, make friends, and have a good time (most of the time).

[HighGround_Austin 4]

My second event in two years. Unfortunately did not get to play much since I fell and injured my shoulder trying to medic my squad.

 

The AO was great from what I have seen, lots of fun and enjoyed the scenarios of attacking camps and finding stills. Unfortunately there were several things that detracted from the experience.

 

1. A section of the AO was declared out of play (even though it was clearly marked in play on the map). UFS was pushing around an area where there is an old Bar in an attempt to flank CDF in a swift motion. Before we get half way past the attempt, we are told that area is out of play and we have to move back. Forcing us into a bottle neck of nope... Now the thing is, that would have been fine; if only it was not used later for some reason by CDF. Felt like it was purposefully put out of play because somebody figured CDF was about to be destroyed by that flank, and decided to change that...

 

2. The Night OP (while a total blast!) ended up a free fire and team killing slaughtering grounds. There should have been some form of challenge word giving by UFS command while we were sitting in the dirt for an hour... The fun thing about the night op, my squad was tasked with seeking out a still, well after we roll up on what we suspected as one; we started noticing a BUNCH of lights. Little did we know that is was an actual camp full of armed CDF.Luckily they didnt spot us, and we hauled ass out of there.

 

3. Its friday night. My squad is on UFS, we have been out patrolling for CDF stills on the east side of the AO by the rail road. Once we discovered one we head back to out PB for reassignment.

Now, right when we get onto a road that has a fenced area that leads into the junkyard, we start taking fire from Alpha. At the time, we didn't know it was our own team shooting us... After falling back, and the shooting calmed a little. One of my team pops a guy out in the open. He has no red light on to indicate that he is dead, has no colored clothing to say he was Staff. He was armed, and walking in from the direction we were taking fire.

Not once has he ID'd himself to us. However, after my guy shoots him he proceeds to have an outburst at him, saying he has been shot 4 times. (Again, no red light on, no admin clothing)

He asked his name and then walked away, like there will be some form of consequence.

____________________________________________________________

 

Those were the only problems I had in an otherwise good time. When I hurt myself, my squad and I were about to storm and take a house. We smoked up our cross, made our way over. One my my guys goes down; I run over to medic him-done. Then I hear on my comms that my squad leader needs a medic too. I am on the outside right of the house, lots of tall grass and limbs to trip over. And thats exactly what happens. Fall flat on my right shoulder, totally takes me out of the game.

[KaleemS 7]

ESR19-IV was my first AMS event. When I had to talk to my grandma about letting me go and giving me money to go my option was either using the $150 to buy new skate shoes or go to this..... I totally chose this event over some shoes and I HAVE ZERO REGRETS!!!!! It was totally worth it anyways I was really sad that I didn't get to use my Tokyo Marui Vsr 10 the entire weekend I had bought a whole new bucking to use that weekend and I didn't event get to zero my rifle cause of the wind.

The night evolution game Friday night was AMAZING! best night game ive ever played (and ive played quite a few night games with some friends) they were no where near as awesome compared to this night. We were being so super sneaky sneak that I wish I had my sniper that night but I had to use my friends SPR for the whole weekend, later than night we encountered CDF patrol and had to return fire. Next thing I new there were three CDF guys retreating and my platoon commander (Nels) told my friend and I to chase them......anyways we ran like 8-15 rows of cars ahead of everyone else and lost sight of them. next thing I new we were getting bum rushed from behind right of us. I got one guy then got lit up in my right ear 3 times in the same spot. (I also had a problem with some guys without lights who were dead, I shot them a few times each only to be yelled at with "we're dead stop F****** shooting us".... they had NO dead rags out and NO dead light.)

      Saturday was my favorite day (lol) I got quite a few kills early in the day my goggles fogged up bad cause there was no wind and I somehow still managed to kill a guy behind a lifted up hood about 175ft away (don't ask how it was luck I swear) then I got so fogged that I had to call out cause I was taking heavy amounts of fire and I had no idea where from. I respawned and followed ATF with my battle budd and platoon commander for a while. we ended up assaulting the cdf camp and while that happened I got the sickest pistol headshot through about 5 cars. that was the best shot of my day. later on I pistol killed two guys that rushed m friends and killed them but failed to notice me cause I was legitimately inside an suv lol. if I could redo that whole weekend I wouldn't change anything about it........except maybe remove the wind factor so I could of used my vsr 10. I cant wait to make it to Copperhead 2.

       Sunday wasn't as good because of all the rain but I won a G&G Xtreme 45 co2 "blowback" pistol. its actually a fairly good gun for being $90. I was also excited to grab those tracer bbs (I totally didn't dive on the floor for them...ssssssshhhhhhhhh) also those patches are awesome  I got so many of the....................... BEST airsoft event of my year! Keep it up AMS!

[skip 10]

Austin,

 

How is your shoulder?

 

--skip

 

My second event in two years. Unfortunately did not get to play much since I fell and injured my shoulder trying to medic my squad.

 

The AO was great from what I have seen, lots of fun and enjoyed the scenarios of attacking camps and finding stills. Unfortunately there were several things that detracted from the experience.

 

1. A section of the AO was declared out of play (even though it was clearly marked in play on the map). UFS was pushing around an area where there is an old Bar in an attempt to flank CDF in a swift motion. Before we get half way past the attempt, we are told that area is out of play and we have to move back. Forcing us into a bottle neck of nope... Now the thing is, that would have been fine; if only it was not used later for some reason by CDF. Felt like it was purposefully put out of play because somebody figured CDF was about to be destroyed by that flank, and decided to change that...

 

2. The Night OP (while a total blast!) ended up a free fire and team killing slaughtering grounds. There should have been some form of challenge word giving by UFS command while we were sitting in the dirt for an hour... The fun thing about the night op, my squad was tasked with seeking out a still, well after we roll up on what we suspected as one; we started noticing a BUNCH of lights. Little did we know that is was an actual camp full of armed CDF.Luckily they didnt spot us, and we hauled ass out of there.

 

3. Its friday night. My squad is on UFS, we have been out patrolling for CDF stills on the east side of the AO by the rail road. Once we discovered one we head back to out PB for reassignment.

Now, right when we get onto a road that has a fenced area that leads into the junkyard, we start taking fire from Alpha. At the time, we didn't know it was our own team shooting us... After falling back, and the shooting calmed a little. One of my team pops a guy out in the open. He has no red light on to indicate that he is dead, has no colored clothing to say he was Staff. He was armed, and walking in from the direction we were taking fire.

Not once has he ID'd himself to us. However, after my guy shoots him he proceeds to have an outburst at him, saying he has been shot 4 times. (Again, no red light on, no admin clothing)

He asked his name and then walked away, like there will be some form of consequence.

____________________________________________________________

 

Those were the only problems I had in an otherwise good time. When I hurt myself, my squad and I were about to storm and take a house. We smoked up our cross, made our way over. One my my guys goes down; I run over to medic him-done. Then I hear on my comms that my squad leader needs a medic too. I am on the outside right of the house, lots of tall grass and limbs to trip over. And thats exactly what happens. Fall flat on my right shoulder, totally takes me out of the game.

[Guest Specs]

ESR19-4 AAR / UFS Alpha 2-2 / Ozark Mountain Milsim / Specs / OM-01

 

As always, I'll try and keep my AAR as quick and to the point as possible.

 

 

Friday:

OMM arrived Friday evening around 7 and didn't participate in Friday's game overnight, so we don't have much feedback to give on that portion of the event. Opinion-wise, I do think the concept is still interesting and the 2 mag limit was fine. Perhaps the hours of play could be tweaked a little however to end a bit earlier for those that do want to invest their time, yet not wake exhausted the next morning for startex. 

 

Registration and chrono was incredibly fast as always. Thanks JP and staff! Gives us more time to settle in and check out venders on site. Venders were well stocked and awesome to have as always! 

 

Schoolhouse was pleasantly open this year and gave us plenty of room for our group to set up together. 

 

 

Saturday:

As usual, we loved the new gametime hours. Gave us some time to get last minute preparations done, and meet with our faction. 

 

Gameplay was fantastic. Great firefights and sportsmanship from all involved, and the new game layout and faction specific objectives and structure definitely gave this event something special. CDF did have a hard time keeping up with us UFS, so I do wonder if that might be in some part due to new CDF rules they had to follow. (Can't comment there, but would be interested in hearing their grievances with new rule additions.) 

 

Admins did their job perfectly and I didn't see any issues beyond CDF constantly misplacing dead rags or not visually showing their death. That's a player issue however. 

 

We loved the new ammo restrictions, and never had an issue in getting our resupplies. I do think this is in part due to the smaller AO however and we did once fall back to the FOB to reload from our emergency stashes due to lack of contact with our PL. That however, was our issue and not AMS's. I'll be interested to hear how well it works at BH due to the much larger distances for people and comms. I would add that the lowest I came on ammo as a rifleman (actively shooting) was about 300 rounds of my 1200. The 1500 limit is still fairly generous for smaller AO's where resupply might be more frequent. Thanks overall however for changing that limitation to overall ammo rather than mags. Super considerate for gas gun users. 

 

Missions were varied and we enjoyed the field expansion.

 

Saturday night was just a tad rainier than I would have liked, but we all know ESR's tendency for bad weather. Schoolhouse kept us nice and dry. (Sorry CDF guys. Major respect to you all that stayed.)

 

 

Sunday:

Wish we could have played this day, but what can you do? Saturday itself was way more than enough fun to make up for it. 

 

Raffle was expertly ran this time, and even though we didn't come away with anything major, we had a great time. Thanks for keeping it somewhat short. 

 

The drive home was just fine. No roads we needed were blocked due to the flooding.

 

 

Thanks and follow-up:

Thanks to Roosavelt. You are always amazing hosts.

 

Thanks to AMS staff. We really appreciate the efforts and thought into mixing things up this year. Not everyone might like it, but big praise from us on making each faction feel unique in their own way.

 

Thanks to UFS. We always love rolling with you all and leadership never lets us down! We'll be back for more. 

 

Thanks to Alpha Platoon. Seriously, you all are the best to work with. We got shit done, even if we didn't get too much time with the liquor still objectives. 

 

Thanks to CDF. You guys put up one hell of a fight, and you've all earned our respect for sticking it out in the bad weather conditions. Hope you all made it home safe and with most of your belongings.

 

Thanks to the combat medics in the schoolhouse. You really came through for those guys that came in with dehydration and shock issues later Saturday night.

[Guest Specs]

A LOT of cheating on both sides, camping in the AO

Honestly really surprised to hear all the negatives since my guys didn't encounter any of it. Hopefully you just came across some of the newer players and that won't persist into your future events. I can personally say that all of us in UFS Alpha platoon take our hit calling very seriously and were policing that all throughout the weekend. 

 

Apologies on the tent as well, that shouldn't have been a situation that occurred. Especially once you see cloths and personals inside.

[HighGround_Austin 4]

Austin,

 

How is your shoulder?

 

--skip

A lot better. It was just a bad sprain. 

[smokingpancake 25]

As a UFS player, cheating was definitely more prominent at this event (on our side anyway). I saw several instances of blatant multiple hit shrugging, MGs firing within 15 feet, and a medic calling for hit guys to crawl over to him to get revived. Yes, I called them out on it.

 

Hopefully we pull our act together for Broken Home.

[Longsword 74]

Longsword's AAR for ESR-19 4

Intro: This has been my fourth AMS event and as it was hailed at the 5 year celebration for the organization I was really looking forward to it! That being said, while there were some awesome things to take away from the event I was ultimately left disappointed. Let me clarify before I break down the different days that AMS and it's staff were once again stellar! The new rule changes didn't bother me at all, staff were on the ball at all times and you could tell they were giving it their all as always.

Friday:
We arrive at the AO Friday afternoon and set up our tents at Camp 2 (We camped in field as CDF). We're excited to try the new night game and see how it runs. It's game on, eye pro equipped and not soon before the ATF agents show us and start questioning us. I loved this little addition to the game, even if brief. We were also told before the game starts that we'd be mostly just hanging out and relaxing til after 11 PM. We still had to wait on getting our still so as it stood we were completely non-hostile. It wasn't 10 minutes before ATF had left that we were eating hotdogs and grenades started getting tossed in our camp. Naturally we all take cover and begin to shoot back but it left us confused. It was nowhere near the time we were told to expect action, and I could even be okay with that, but we still had not even been given a still yet. As I understood, UFS were supposed to attack us if they had confirmation of us holding a still and they would take us out and apprehend it. I couldn't tell if it was miscommunication or just a squad of some trigger happy guys, but it wasn't the best way to start off the event. 

Later on, as we are out in the field trying to avoid friendly-fire (which was happening to both sides), we are hearing that the UFS soldiers were throwing grenades into people's tents. Really? There's nothing immersive or fun about that, it's just a plain low move. Went to bed later that night, zipped up my tent and hoped for a better Saturday event.

Saturday:
The game starts off fun enough. We begin to push up on a UFS advance and secure ourselves a battle line. For the first few hours there is a lot of back and forth and it was great! It got even better when we were tasked with smuggling some 'shine to Camp 1. We had an intense moment in a ravine, all bunkered down as a UFS patrol walked by us no more than 10 feet away. It was a miracle he didn't see us but the pulse-pounding nature of that moment so much fun. It took us a bit but then we get to the riverbed seperating us from camp 1 and have a bit of back and forth between some UFS soldiers stationed there. While the gunner yelling "get some!" over and over as he shot at us got annoying after a while, I'm sure he was just getting in the spirit of things. Eventually we hide the 'shine and Viking and myself help The JP in an epic, yet ultimately futile death charge against the UFS camp that was worth it just to say I was there. I noticed some hit shrugging during that battle from the UFS, but I just "shrugged it off" (I know, lame jokes )

Walking back to camp 2, I link up with the rest of my squad, Drunken Rebels, who managed to get the 'shine to camp 1, successfully completing our frago. My younger brother's gun goes down so I loan him my MTC-3 and stay behind with my pistol. It wasn't long after they left that a whole swarm of UFS rushed camp 2. I was taken out and stood there with a dead rag, trying to figure out what I should do for respawn. And here is where it began to get bad for me.

As more UFS roll in, I see one guy spit on a bag when he notices the CoST symbol on it and one other guy forcibly kick my tent over as he passed by. For real, folks, smack talk is one thing and friendly rivalry is all well and good... but we come out to these events to have fun, not act immaturely and start damaging people's personal property. It's even more heartbreaking to see that this wasn't just happening to me and others at my camp but to RoninKiros as well. In general, most of the UFS players I encountered were snarky, aggressive and a little too overboard on the faction rivalry. If it hadn't been for a few UFS who came up to me after and were kind, I probably would've just walked off the field so I didn't lose my cool. 

That being said, UFS isn't all to blame. I heard a lot of needless complaining, speedloading on the field and hit shrugging from the CDF as well. I get a lot of CDF were frustrated by the brazen attitude and cheating from the opposing force but it shouldn't be an excuse to do the wrong thing as well. 

I later linked up with my squad at camp 1, who were already out and waiting to respawn and ran into the Ozark Mountain Milsim guys there. Great players with a awesome sense of sportsmanship and remembering that's its just a game. In my opinion they are the coolest bunch on the UFS side We go back to camp 2, I fix up my tent, we grab some gear and we head to Camp 3 which is currently being overrun by the whole of the UFS army. Already we are hearing that half of our guys are gone and we are outnumbered 2 to 1, which was disheartening but I was okay with it. Nowhere did we agree to a fair fight But it was especially encouraging to hear that while we were outnumbered, the UFS were hours behind schedule meaning that we were doing our jobs. 

After being pushed completely out of camp 3 despite our best efforts, my squad and I made our way back to Camp 2. The sun had gone down and we decided we'd rest and eat. We were under the impression that we were out of play. One group of UFS came up on us while we were in our tents and were decent fellas. They didn't shoot at us and figured we weren't play. Cue to later on in the night when we were all around our fire, cooking spam in the pouring rain. None of us had gear on, guns around; we were just about to enjoy some dinner. Well, a squad of UFS light us up around the fire. They did apologize to us, not realizing that camp 2 was out of play and that they had been told by Top to secure it. I'll chalk that one to a communication breakdown. Was it aggravating to be attacked while trying to eat a second time, especially when it was clear we were out of play? Sure. But mistakes happen, I got over it and the squad who ambushed us were more than cool and were were laughing it off in seconds with them. 

After the game ended was when we had to make the mad evacuation from camp 2 and to the schoolhouse as the flood hit us hard.

Sunday:
Stayed around for the raffle, a couple of our members won guns so it was all good

Final Thoughts:
It was pretty obvious AMS had big things planned for this event. They were wanting a good 5-year anniversary event to commemorate. I thought they did a bang up job of giving us changes in gameplay, immersion and a spectacular use of the field. 
Where it really fell flat this year was the player base, on both sides. To the UFS, I don't know where the charged aggression and spiteful attitude came from please... tone it down. It's a game. We are here to have fun. No one wants to deal with damaged property because someone took themselves too seriously. To the CDF, whining constantly and cheating in return offers nothing. I bring up these points so we can improve on them, so we can have an amazing next AMS event. Let's not stoop to the level of returning bad with bad. It just makes us look even worse. 

For real though, folks, it is just a game. A good majority of us are grown men and women, playing dress up and shooting plastic BBs at each other. 99% aren't spec-ops or badasses. We pay to take time away from our personal lives and come out to a weekend where we expect to have fun. It's a shame really because in past events, I've hive-fived and fist-bumped guys on the opposing side, shared laughs and really felt like we were all just coming together to enjoy ourselves, that the rivalry ended as soon as someone yelled hit. I'm really, really hoping this was just a fluke because I can't help walking away from ESR 4 feeling bittersweeet. I had some truly awesome moments I will never forget but the very poor sportsmanship all around me soured the whole experience.

So, let's step it up next event huh? Let's be the cool and fun players we've been known to be. We will only damage the sport and drive people away if everyone sees us as players who take ourselves way to seriously and only contribute toxicity to the environment.

But thank you again to the AMS staff for your hard work, a shoutout to players on all sides who kept it cool and were fun to play with or against and hopefully I'll see you at Broken Home (where you can feel free to tell me exactly what you think of me and my opinions if you so choose   )

-Longsword, Drunken Rebels

[Guest Specs]

I later linked up with my squad at camp 1, who were already out and waiting to respawn and ran into the Ozark Mountain Milsim guys there. Great players with a awesome sense of sportsmanship and remembering that's its just a game. In my opinion they are the coolest bunch on the UFS side

Awe you!   If we snagged a photo with you guys at your camp, I think we may have it up on our instagram. 

 

Interested in gameplay from the CDF side! 

 

-How did the 1 bandage, all medics rule work out? Seemed like a fun but perhaps limiting feature. (Though I guess you had more respawn locations for convenience.)

 

-How did CDF structure change over the event? (Secrets withholding of course.) I know you were all told to remain rag-tag like an insurgency, but were groups or squadlike attitudes still kept be that naturally or spontaniously?

 

-Any other unique CDF gameplay features that weren't mentioned at safety briefing? 

 

-Any frustrations from the insurgency side of an armed conflict with a structured fighting force?

 

I ask primarily for balance understanding of course, but I did roll CDF at my first event for RY2. So there's always that chance I may turncoat for an event or two. 

[VIRUS 45]

Awe you! If we snagged a photo with you guys at your camp, I think we may have it up on our instagram.

 

Interested in gameplay from the CDF side!

 

-How did the 1 bandage, all medics rule work out? Seemed like a fun but perhaps limiting feature. (Though I guess you had more respawn locations for convenience.)

 

-How did CDF structure change over the event? (Secrets withholding of course.) I know you were all told to remain rag-tag like an insurgency, but were groups or squadlike attitudes still kept be that naturally or spontaniously?

 

-Any other unique CDF gameplay features that weren't mentioned at safety briefing?

 

-Any frustrations from the insurgency side of an armed conflict with a structured fighting force?

 

I ask primarily for balance understanding of course, but I did roll CDF at my first event for RY2. So there's always that chance I may turncoat for an event or two.

The one bandage rule had a big advantage and a huge disadvantage that seemed for the most part to balance it out. Advantage was the ability to be medic'd by anyone, so no need to place special emphasis on protecting your medic or waiting around for a medic to show up. The disadvantage of not having that second bandage was obvious, it made it tough to push deep into UFS territory. More than once I had to make the long walk back to camp 3 instead of getting medic'd a second time and being able to stay in the fight longer.

 

As for being rag-tag that seemed to be hit and miss. At times we formed up fire teams from camp 3 and headed out to do work but there was a lot of joining other random CDF guys and getting into whatever trouble we could find. Honestly I enjoyed both but felt like with a little more organized team work we could have got a lot more done.

 

I can't speak on any unique gameplay features as I missed both Friday 's and Saturday 's briefing (MMX class on Friday night and traveling plus playing till 2AM Friday made getting up on Saturday a lot tougher than I like to admit).

 

As for facing an organized fighting force we did face a few challenges. More than once it would have been nice to be able to call in reinforcements or have a second squad to help flank a position. To me the bigger problem was being split into 3 separate groups from the start, UFS was able to hit each camp individually with a huge numbers advantage.

[BOOMER kane 0]

 ESR4 was my second AMS event- After RY3 I had the bug!

As a member of Alpha Co UFS, 2nd Platoon, Division Zero squad I had a great time- granted the entire team was there so how could I not!!!!

 

Friday night game- enjoyed the new rules certainly made me be more aware of fire discipline, would like to see it end earlier (midnight) and maybe go 1000-2200 the following day. Had some good engagements with CDF, they had good positioning and trying to move with those huge lights made it challenging ( my night goggles were scratched up so it was hard to see)

 

Saturday was just AWESOME, there was A LOT of good fire fights with CDF, not ONCE did I see CDF cheating, dead rag usage is always an issue- but hey if you don't pull it out fast enough you're gonna get shot more! Missions with ATF were cool. Locating and securing stills was awesome and escorting ATF safely back was fun. Final push through the houses and that section of the salvage yard was the best part of the day!  The Reaper rounds I bought from Xtreme Airsoft worked great and got me many kills- even got banana man (been hunting him since RY3)

 

Austin- glad your shoulder wasn't dislocated hope the sling and ice  made for a more bearable ride

While the rain did put a damper on things it was still a great time slinging plastic with my team and others. Looking forward to Rebel Yell 4

[The Rick 238]

Thank you for the feedback.  This is the only way we evolve is by hearing your thoughts.  

[DaRooster 122]

Rooster's AAR

 

Ok I took some time to think about this report because this was one hell of a weekend.

 

I will break it down.

 

Friday: Arrived at the AO and rubbed elbows with Bo and JP for a bit while we checked in. After a little chatting and BSing I asked Bo about being a traitor and he said he seen the light and come back over to CDF. It turns out it had to do with the fact that CDF was crazy short on numbers...something like 20-30 fewer. I thought to myself...hell yeah...the fight will be more epic for us

Got checked in, guns chrono-ed, and did the safety brief which thankfully for previous players we didn't have to sit through the hour long brief while the new guys asked the same questions they do every time. Props on AMS for doing a very complete safety brief while also realizing that the veterans only need to know the new stuff. Thank you.

 

Friday Night: I showed up a little after startex due to the late running MMX class. Nothing had really started up yet and there was only some chatter on the command net for CDF. So I reported in..changed into my hill billy style, got the night vision setup on the new VSR 10 and broke out the shine and got the Camp 1 party started. Met up with the brave souls who would also attempt camping onsite. I was hoping for a little more going on...have our firepit burning, more crazy folks with the backwoods flavor, etc. But the wind was high and the fire wouldn't catch. 

Later on some investigator types rolled up and asked us questions RP style. We played along in spades and both sides got a good laugh out of all of it. I thought this was going to be a ton of fun. 

Night game started and there was confusion and craziness. We hid our stills and crept through the night and took it to some bad guys. There was a feeling of discombobulation for the 1st hour or so but Noe brought us all together and we got after some bad guys. Not a whole lot happened on the western side and everything really focused on the the central area in the junk yard. We kept it simply and I stayed on the fringes using the VSR10 and Night scope to the full advantage. Things sort of wound down a little after midnight, some of my guys had turned in so I called it a night. 

While getting my gear off and getting ready for bed I heard a commotion and someone yell "Shut your eyes!". I grabbed my rifle and headed out to see what was what. 

 

Some UFS guys had rolled up on Camp 1, opened up a large tent (referenced above) tossed in a R2B while the guys inside were done for the night and didn't have on any eyepro. So I called it in over the Command Net as a safety issue and some sort of war crime thing that needs to be passed on that YOU SHOULD NOT DO THIS ANYMORE! 

 

Turned up now, I grabbed a few guys and did a little night patrolling and picked up another UFS varmint kill. Upon heading back to the camp again it turns out the big tent got raided a second time and people's personal belongings got rummaged through. This irked me and I decided to turn in for the evening.

 

Saturday: Started off great. I had a bunch of folks ready to rock and roll. I assigned channels to team leaders, set down a strategy, built some walls out of car parts, and got out the shine. We also had a can of spray paint in a beautiful shade of green that was put to use on the white bus at our camp. My warriors were happy, armed, and ready to lay down some backwoods justice. 

 

I sent a team to the North in the woods, I sent another to patrol the East by the river and bridges, I sent one North West to cover a weak flank and left a group in the camp to help build fortifications and traps. Well it started up pretty quick. It wasn't 10 minutes after startex that we were in a full fledged gun fight. It started as a bit of a trickle and escalated to a full blown assault. We held off an attack from the bridges, and one from the north fairly quickly. Eventually some UFS made it through the ravine on our east side and clammed up into the woods. I went over a gave my SR-25 DMR a workout and widdled out 8 guys from the trees and cars just south of the middle bridge.

 

During this time UFS had begun to form a veritable ring of whup-ass around camp 1 and began an assault of epic proportions. I got on the comms every 5 minutes asking for support from friendlies that never came. It started to look hopeless. Around 1630 (4:30pm) we had become completely surrounded on all sides. There was no escape and we at Camp 1 dug in and fought to the last man. When it was clear that we were over run and admins declared that we could no longer respawn there I took my final hit, packed up what I could, and headed to camp 2 for a regroup. When I walked away from Camp 1 a took an account of UFS Forces. For every single car in the rows there was at least 1 UFS soldier...and usually 2 or 3....and that was just on the east side...there were equally as much from the south in the cars and about 10-15 that came out of the North and North West...if I had to guess there were anywhere from 75-100 blood thirsty UFS warriors that assaulted camp 1. 75-100 vs 20-25 that had pulled back to defend. Welcome to the Alamo part 2

 

Round about this time several things had happened on the field, there was a MASH unit, a doctor to kill to prevent respawns, a mobile reloading station to take out, and a whole mess to clean up... and our CO turned over command to the XO as he had to head back home early. I regrouped with Slab, JP, Bo, and the folks at camp 2 and made an attempt at the center of the Junk Yard past the Penske Truck and assault the MASH. Had to medic JP, got shot in the face and in short we overestimated our position and underestimated the numbers UFS had there...apparently the warmachine had shifted guys back out of camp 1 to reinforce the center of the field...then JP went and got caught.

 

We pulled back to Camp 2 and held off several UFS attempts. Once we got our act together I was able to re-establish comms with several Camp 1 TLs and I sent them to recon Camp 1. I got good intel that it had minimal resistance and I headed back to find my guys had secured it before I even got back. From there we re-distributed our moonshine and stills to make sure they stayed safe from Federalists dogs and took a quick breather to re-arm, re-assess, get some grub and get back in the fight. Unfortunately Camp 2 was over run soon after. The action shifted mostly towards Camp 3 and Camp 2 was a bit of a staging area. We made a plan, I took a hand full of guys to recon and we took back Camp 2 an hour later.

 

From here the weather started to roll in a little and it started to get dark.  I grabbed what was left of Camp 1 forces and headed back to formulate a new devious plot. I started with 9 guys and we would split into 2 teams. 1 would head north and push east as it seemed UFS had forgotten about that round about avenue and we would cut them off before they got to the road. The 2nd team would move a little north cross east and move south to assault the MASH unit out of the North to confuse the enemy. As both teams moved across the north field...visibility dropped...and the rain got heavy. I decided to pull the guys together and do a safety check and risk assessment. A few guys decided that because of the low light, eyepro fogging, and the weather that they were going to call it a day. With those that remained we decided that it was best if we stayed together and just assault the MASH unit.

 

We moved back to the road and moved east. We came upon the North entrance of the area which held the MASH. We took out two guards and moved in. Several guys get a little over zealous and went in guns blazing and got overwhelmed. Our forces down to half and our position given away it was not long until most of us were done. By now the thunderstorm was in full effect and it was dark. I used this to my advantage and myself and 2 others snuck ever closer to the MASH unit. 

 

Suddenly, like an angel on my shoulder I hear "Rooster, JP what's your position?" over the command net. I relayed where I was...North East of the MASH. He came back telling me he was going to get some guys out there and assault it. In the mean time I used the cover of darkness to move as close as I could and would shoot as the thunder crashed and reposition immediately and harassed the UFS. 

 

After about 10 minutes of this I hear "Rooster, JP assaulting out of the South." I call back "JP, Rooster, out of the East." Next thing I hear all kinds of hootin and hallorin out of the south. That was my que. Well we didn't ever get the MASH, but I got within 10 yards at one point before coming under fire and retreated back into the junk yard. I used the last 10 minutes to move and shoot.

 

Saturday late night: Storm came rolling in, bunch of my team said it might be a good idea for you to stay at the hotel tonight. I went back to the camp to find a ton of stuff still laying out and unsecured. The flood water at this time was not even ankle deep and my tent inside wasn't even wet. So I decided to tell them dudes to go on and I would stay behind to make sure all the gear was properly stowed. It took about an hour to get everything situated inside the big white bus and I went back out to my tent for some tasty MRE and some shut eye. 

 

About half way through my meal the severe part of the thunderstorm came rolling through and I thought to myself I should probably seek better shelter. I got myself up into the bus, dried myself off, finished my grub and stretched out with a blanket, towel, makeshift pillow on top of some gun cases and passed out. 

 

Sunday: I woke up to the sound of trickling water and thought it was still raining...well it wasn't raining. It was the flood water that I was hearing. It had flooded so bad that water had gotten passed the first step of the bus door. I looked out to see where some cars had even disappeared under the water...my tent had migrated south of the bus and was demolished. 

 

I went into survival mood and took stock of gear, food and water. I also took the time to retrieve my inflatable mattress which was still in the remains of my tent. I got some 550 cord and tied it off to my wrist and it became not only a great tool for moving stuff, but an awesome ride in the flood waters and the basis for legends apparently being told at the registration area.

I met the folks from Arch Angel Airsoft who had also braved the weather and were in their truck...stuck of course. 

The remainder of the day was spent, BSing with new friends, drinking beer and whiskey, shooting spiders with our various airsoft sidearms, riding my air mattress in the currents, off loading the bus with a little skiff boat, getting the truck unstuck and onto dry land, getting yelled at and punished by Rick with his cold-icy glare for spray painting the Bus, and finally re-painting the bus with white spray paint in an effort to pay for our crimes.

 

In closing: New rules for CDF were challenging but fun with the medic rules. The missions were fun and appropriate (hiding moonshine) and added a lot of depth. Some rule breaking and assholery went down...check yourself guys...there is no reason to be jerk. Being under manned on CDF made it tough for us to hold ground and presented new challenges for us...it sucked...but it was a fun kind of suck for me. **Sorry AMS staff for being such a hooligan and spray painting the bus..I hope the white paint over worked out and I didn't get you guys yelled at too much. I will submit myself for some form of exciting corporeal punishment if you like**

 

In short, fun game, great old friends, great new friends, broke my guns, broke the law (got a speeding ticket on the way up), and got some memories that will last a life time. Best damn camping trip ever.

 

Rooster loves ya'll.