AAR OPN RIPTIDE

Turnout: 103 (41 Insurgents, 62 Allies/ISAF)
Teams and Communities present

Jaguar12Airsoft
Blackwater
Maruaders
ODA 105
Albany Airsoft
Columbus Airsoft
Alabama TAC Team
Black Heart 6 Airsoft

If I left out anyone, please let me know, I am doing the write up for the magazine.



Round 1

Weather was perfect, the first round started off with ISAF Forces moving out of their start point into the Province, the insurgents had field position and had positioned themselves throughout the province not knowing how the ISAF would deploy or conduct the offense. Leadership on the ISAF chose to attack to seize the City Govt Center and the Mayor's Villa as the first two objectives, with locating and destroying any insurgent camps in the area. Blackwater and Andy struckout on the Western flank attacking north along the boundary while a large ISAF force went into the Village center, the Insurgents didn't have the numbers to hold the ISAF back due to being spread out throughout the province, at the 20 minute mark , the City Gov't Center had been retaken by the ISAF, and at the 30 minute mark one of the many insurgent camps had been destroyed causing the Insurgents to spawn elsewhere further east in the district. By now Insurgents were rushing to the sound of the fighting. A hard fight for the mayor's house by both sides caused its ownership to change multiple times, but at the 1 hour and 15 minute mark it was seized, and a tactical pause for ten minutes was announced so that the ISAF could receive new objective orders, the insurgents used the time to consolidate their positions by their last remaining camp and key defense position in a trenchline. The pause ended and forces moved out, during this phase, the mayor's house was retaken by the insurgents and the ISAF had to used valuable forces to retake it, the ISAF assaults were pushing up on the insurgent camp and trenchline position but were being flanked by hit and run flank attacks by small groups of insurgents, a Predator Missile strike was called in by ISAF HQ, destroying the Insurgent Camp, denying any future insurgents forces from spawning for the rest of the round, Team Blackwater which had taken their time and fought their way along the south boundary took the trenchline from the rear, losing a man to an IED on the OBJ. The round ended and the stage was set for the assault into the Ghan Valley.

Round 2
The Insurgents having been pushed out of the western province, attempted to lure a ISAF Commander and his force into a coordinated ambush at a meeting at the opening of the Ghan Valley, the ISAF CDR and team leaders knew that they were walking into a planned ambush and planned accordingly. Two Teams were used to secure the road into the valley, one was used to secure the meeting house, and Blackwater was the ISAF CDR personal security detachment, as planned the meeting went bad, and Blackwater extracted the CDR back to the US FOB just outside the Eastern Valley. The 3 ISAF teams held the road and the meeting house, with Andy and other 3/3 ID Soldiers helping the teams to hold the road, as Blackwater got the CDR back to the FOB, word over the radio reported a Blackhawk had crashed in the Valley and the ISAF needed to secure it. The rest of the round, the ISAF tried their best to secure the crash site, but the Insurgents, despite losing a Camp early on, managed to hold the crash site even after two F-15E guided bomb strikes support the ISAF near the crash site.

Round 3
Intelligence reports of an Insurgent large scale assault on the Provincial Capital were flooding the ISAF HQ, an Insurgent cell had already had a safehouse in the town, Insurgents had seized the Gov't Center Building and Blackwater was stationed at the ISAF Combat Outpost at the beginning of the round, at the beginning of the round ISAF Forces rushed to link up with Blackwater, with Andy and others attacking to seize the Insurgent Safehouse, with 45 minutes for either side to win, 2 of 3 points had to be held, the insurgents lost the safehouse twice, losing it to Andy and others a third and final time. The Combat Outpost was nearly taken by insurgents in the last minute of the round, but time ran out for them.

It was a great day of airsoft here at Fort Benning, thanks to everyone that came out and played their best.
Hippie, your Namsoft impression is the best I have seen,
Andy, even now I am getting texts on your marksmanship!

man i hate i missed this one
worked 'til 10:30 sat night
sounds like it was a great game

good to hear you guys had a good turn out and a good time.....alot of folks for a good cause...

Yea. When my rifle was working....it was AWESOME!!! Many many 1 shot kills at distance. My best part of the of the day was being in the prone during the first round and getting around 8-12 kills, one shot at a time, and the ACF (Anti Coalition Forces-Insurgents) only having a vague idea of where it was coming from.

Other highlites were hitting the ACF that I couldn't see, through the barrier wall, and the 2 ACF I engaged at the very end of the day.

Me : shoots 1 shot
ACF 1 : OWE! Hit!
ACF 2 : Where did THAT come from?
ACF 1 : I don't know
Me : shoots 1 shot
ACF 2 : OWE! Hit!
ACF 3 : comes up and heals #1.
I can't see #3. #2 tosses...his dead rag to #1 who ties a knot in it and tosses....it back to #2.
ACF 1 : Moves out from behind cover, takes a knee...OWE! HIT!!! Deadman walking!

I think the Medic rules really helped keep the action going. Just a great day of Airsoft. I highly recommend(sp?) this field to others. Wooded, with some spots super thick with veg and others much more open. Rolling Hills. Several bunkers spaced around the field. Boundaries well marked.

Thanks for a great day Z and the 2 other Majors that came out on a Saturday to ref.

It was a really fun game; great field and great players. Even though the coalition outnumbered the insurgents, they still put up a fierce fight. I found myself, on several occasions, surrounded on three sides. At one point, all of the team I had been following had pulled back to the forward respawn while I had crawled over to another guy to medic him back into the game. At this point, we became completely surrounded. Quite scary. I think my favorite part of the whole OP, from when I was there, was when we moved through the trench line and reinforced another team who were pinned down on a hill. That was when the enemy team flanked us using the trenches. They shot at us from the trenches and moved out onto the hill. I think all of us had to fall back to the foward respawn.

I think the two most valuable lessons I learned were: 1) Never leave home without a towel. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy was right; that field towel was the most valuable part of my kit. It padded my shoulders, it de-fogged my goggles, it dried me off and adsorbed my sweat. In a pinch I probably could have strung it between two trees to make cover for my self. 2) I need better eye protection. I accept that my eye protection can't be period correct and suit my particular needs. I found my goggles fogging up so bad that I accidentally shot a ref because all I saw was movement. I need eye-pro that wont fog up, and will either accept prescription lenses or fit over glasses. I stopped by Ranger Joes before we left and they showed my some ESS glasses that I liked. They accept prescription lenses too. I also looked at the Revision's like my dad has. He warned me that the optical insert flops around when he runs and sweat gets trapped between the two lenses. I'm saving up my money now, and I'm probably pick up those ESS glasses. They were pretty sweet.

Also, no offense, but WAFFLES was stupid. There was no response. Usually, when you set up a code you have a challenge and a response. WAFFLES was too easy for the insurgents to decipher and they could have easily turned it against us. Something I learned from reading up on LRRP tactics is, instead of a challenge word and response word, use basic math and use a set number as the end goal. Say the set number is 17. If I yell 6, the response should be 11, since that equals 17. With this, your challenges/responses can change, and the enemy won't pick up your challenge. Unfortunately, this works best when the enemy doesn't know English or math. But, the greater the number, the greater the amount of challenges/responses you can have!

Hippie

You are on it with the WAFFLES running password, it is a quick measure, the ACF figured it out and started repeating it, a challenge and password word have worked better and also the number combination. Even with that issue for the CF, you guys did great considering alot of the CF had not worked together.

Thanks for keeping that part of the trail open during the 2d round, that really allowed the CF to maintain a footprint in the EAstern Valley.


Andy,

Your legend is going out here, 5 messages from different players of the ACF "Who was that guy in MC with the awesome, accurate, M4" "He was destroying us"
At one point in the last round, Andy held up and deterred a major counterattack that was going to focus on the ACF Safehouse, they instead went to attempt to seize the harder point (the CF COP).

it was a great game.

round one: i had a team of 5 hidden at the north outskirt. the plan was to stay hidden and let the allies pass by. that plan failed when a large group of allies ran into our position. i watched 5 go pass me then someone in my team panicked and started the attacked. i counted around 15 allies but my 300fps cqb zombat didn't get their attention too well (within 50 feet). we held them off for a good 10 minutes until they healed and over-ran us.

the last half of first round was a bit confusing, i got lost a few times and couldn't find the rest of my group. insurgents had a slight disadvantage, civi clothing stood out easily in the woods. i had to look really hard to spot the ally's MC. the ghillie suits didn't match the environment and they were easy to spot. my 300 fps zombat wasn't effective in the dense woods, but my DMR tavor did fine. each time i shot at shadows behind thick foliage, i heard "owe", hit confirmed. because of the environment, i adjusted my DMR to ~150 feet (using .40g).

the last half of the second round had me running around. insurgent leadership fell apart at that point and i couldn't get a rush wave together to push the allies back. there were two fronts that i was protecting. the east was the main attack from allies and another group was attacking from the north east. after driving off the north east attack, i concentrated on the east. after managing to make my way into their line, i was greeted by single shot from a sniper. i was just about ready to let loose with a full mag into their main group.

after the air strike, i ran up the front line and managed to hold off the allies. the insurgents fell back into the tree line and were unable to protect the objective. i had a good spot with an open line of fire at allies trying to get the objective. after taking one out, they slowed their advance. after holding the line for awhile, i spotted a sniper zeroing in on me. by the time i swung my rifle with a few short burst, i got hit by a single shot. i was in good cover and was hit while moving. thumbs up to that sniper. fortunately, the game ended before the allies figured out i was no longer holding the line... LoL

for the last round, i switched to my heavier JG with a scope. it was a slow game for me, taking my time, looking for good spots to snipe. i wasn't able to do headshots but i still managed a number of kills without being spotted. at the end, i started the attack (with Joe Bishop) into the last objective. i safety killed an ally but was eventually shot in the buttocks by a mysterious blackwater behind a crate. more insurgents joined in the assault but the game ended.

it would have helped to have landmarks that identified the field. getting lost sucked. the medic rule was confusing. i thought you can be healed once then you needed to respawn afterwards. i was watching players on both sides getting healed numerous times to avoid walking by to respawn. i made it a point to go after medics... LoL. my apology to dead guy getting healed, i was trying to shoot his medic (using a dead guy as a meat shield doesn't work with me, i like to shoot through the dead guy until he moves out of the way).

Agree on the medic rule, some people were tired and didnt want to walk back to the respawn after the second hit is my guess, the ones that the refs and I caught, we sent them off to the spawns.

The field is deceptive in its size, and spots where the brush is thick can turn a player around.

isn't the game suppose to be 9:00am - 8:00 pm but is only lasted til 6:00pm

Between the crowd being beat (rightly so after a great day of intense action) and batteries being dead, the hosts stayed until 2000, but the last game ended at 1900.

-a|ex wrote:it was a great game.

round one: i had a team of 5 hidden at the north outskirt. the plan was to stay hidden and let the allies pass by. that plan failed when a large group of allies ran into our position. i watched 5 go pass me then someone in my team panicked and started the attacked. i counted around 15 allies but my 300fps cqb zombat didn't get their attention too well (within 50 feet). we held them off for a good 10 minutes until they healed and over-ran us.

the last half of first round was a bit confusing, i got lost a few times and couldn't find the rest of my group. insurgents had a slight disadvantage, civi clothing stood out easily in the woods. i had to look really hard to spot the ally's MC. the ghillie suits didn't match the environment and they were easy to spot. my 300 fps zombat wasn't effective in the dense woods, but my DMR tavor did fine. each time i shot at shadows behind thick foliage, i heard "owe", hit confirmed. because of the environment, i adjusted my DMR to ~150 feet (using .40g).

the last half of the second round had me running around. insurgent leadership fell apart at that point and i couldn't get a rush wave together to push the allies back. there were two fronts that i was protecting. the east was the main attack from allies and another group was attacking from the north east. after driving off the north east attack, i concentrated on the east. after managing to make my way into their line, i was greeted by single shot from a sniper. i was just about ready to let loose with a full mag into their main group.

after the air strike, i ran up the front line and managed to hold off the allies. the insurgents fell back into the tree line and were unable to protect the objective. i had a good spot with an open line of fire at allies trying to get the objective. after taking one out, they slowed their advance. after holding the line for awhile, i spotted a sniper zeroing in on me. by the time i swung my rifle with a few short burst, i got hit by a single shot. i was in good cover and was hit while moving. thumbs up to that sniper. fortunately, the game ended before the allies figured out i was no longer holding the line... LoL

for the last round, i switched to my heavier JG with a scope. it was a slow game for me, taking my time, looking for good spots to snipe. i wasn't able to do headshots but i still managed a number of kills without being spotted. at the end, i started the attack (with Joe Bishop) into the last objective. i safety killed an ally but was eventually shot in the buttocks by a mysterious blackwater behind a crate. more insurgents joined in the assault but the game ended.

it would have helped to have landmarks that identified the field. getting lost sucked. the medic rule was confusing. i thought you can be healed once then you needed to respawn afterwards. i was watching players on both sides getting healed numerous times to avoid walking by to respawn. i made it a point to go after medics... LoL. my apology to dead guy getting healed, i was trying to shoot his medic (using a dead guy as a meat shield doesn't work with me, i like to shoot through the dead guy until he moves out of the way).

For the next op, we are going to add "road signs" as per your suggestion, plus it will add to the feel of the field.
The next op in the "Battleground" Series will be more of a 101st at Normandy feel.
Will post up later the time for it.

Guys, I just wanted to take the time to thank everyone that came out. Great times were had all around! Alex, man, watching you running time and time again right into the thick of it despite the apparent hesitation from the rest of the insurgents was inspiring. If they had all followed your lead, the Coalition wouldn't have stood a chance!
To the guy with the sick sniper rifle, I can't tell you how hilarious it was to watch people getting pegged from out of nowhere. I'll forever remember you getting the ACF leader from your perch on that mound. Andy, watching you bark orders as the Commander went into his meeting was awesome. The atmosphere was really there for that mission.

Andy helped to keep that route open, too bad that frag went off.

I never heard it land and not a single person yelled GRENADE!!! Oh well.

zmonster wrote:Hippie

You are on it with the WAFFLES running password, it is a quick measure, the ACF figured it out and started repeating it, a challenge and password word have worked better and also the number combination. Even with that issue for the CF, you guys did great considering alot of the CF had not worked together.

Thanks for keeping that part of the trail open during the 2d round, that really allowed the CF to maintain a footprint in the EAstern Valley.


Andy,

Your legend is going out here, 5 messages from different players of the ACF "Who was that guy in MC with the awesome, accurate, M4" "He was destroying us"
At one point in the last round, Andy held up and deterred a major counterattack that was going to focus on the ACF Safehouse, they instead went to attempt to seize the harder point (the CF COP).

Sal, thanks for a great time, team Blackwater appreciates the great game and the insurgent's reluctant counter attacks (you especially Alex). Andy's, Matt's and the PolarStar guns had unreal range and accuracy which made it difficult for the insurgents to advance! Love running with Andy, a true legend. Hope to see you guys at the next Op.