Is Canada ready for games like these?

[basho]

An interesting read guys!

Is Canada ready for milsim? Of course, you are as "ready" as we in the UK were. All you need is the organisation to set them up.

T1 are lucky, we have ex and serving military players working with long term airsofters with other skills (such as filmmaking!). We are heading for our first abroad mission in Feb and I for one would LOVE to come over to you guys and setup a "mission" sometime this year. I will mention this thread to Ed.

Thanks for linking my films and blog. I did a "special best of" film for the end of year, here is the blurb from it and a link:

This film is a compilation of clips and unseen footage from the games I attended run by Tier 1 Military Simulation.

Before 2011 I had not played much milsim, now… well I recently laid in a puddle from 1am, freezing cold and surrounded by poisonous mushrooms, for 8 hours to spring an ambush!

I fell asleep and started snoring.

Moments later I was awoken by a wet weight crashing down on my back. Team commander Trip had thrown a log at me, missed, hit a tree and it had collapsed a rotten limb across my sprawled form. Had the opposition walked past at that particular moment then they would have heard the rest of the concealed team completely failing to stop laughing.

At 6 am a stag deer came into the forest, only yards from me. It nibbled the leaves and then it sensed something was wrong. It couldn’t see us, but it could now smell us. Then someone moved and I saw its face as it realised that it was standing amongst 15 humans disguised as forest floor, buried under leaves and mud. With two hurried bounds it was gone.

Milsim is great fun, I recommend it. If you are worried if you can “hack” it, don’t be. You can, physically – it’s mentally you have to be ready for. After 24 hours in game (with 12 to go) you will be tired, frayed, frazzled and still in combat.

And it will be raining.

It’s at this point you will be ready to curse everyone around you. Your teammate with the better kit, your team leader sending YOU out on stag, the world for putting you in this place and especially the opposition who WILL attack you during the night… sometime during the night. So no sleeping without your eye protection on and a firearm to hand.

Photo’s taken during milsim show tough men turning to jelly. That is your challenge, can you stay mentally strong? Enough to work as a team? After all team play means sacrifice…

So why do it? Because, the harder the game and the more realistic the mission then all the more rewards are there to enjoy. Sure, the lows in milsim can be tough, but the highs… the highs are simply the best airsoft in the world.

It was our side who attacked the enemy camp in the dark. Unleashing a battle of epic proportions as we had surprise but, like cornered rats, the enemy had nowhere to go and so turned and fought. This was followed the next day with a counter ambush on our troops that led to a 2.5 hour long contact.

2.5 hours of unrelenting, balls-deep airsoft action.

So much can be done with 2 hours, tactics… hell, strategy as the teams probe each other. flank, flank back, rush, fall back and lay up. It’s incredible. Players acting together as a team in ways never seen in airsoft, all commanded smoothly and everyone gets their oats. Eventually one side withdraws after running out of troops, this was my side and the opposition followed us only to walk straight into our IED’s laid behind us by our pyro expert (an army EOD).

Milsim is worth the cold, the wet and the mentally brutal. It’s one of the best ways to release stress and tension I know. It is also the best way to meet new and interesting people (and shoot them) that I can imagine.

You will look back at your weekend, you will see your moment of glory in a film (of mine perhaps?) and you will smile as you remember the feeling of achievement that only comes from playing at this level.

We call it Tier 1. It’s the way I play airsoft.

Happy Christmas,

Basho

Film is at the bottom of this page:
http://www.outsidecontext.com/2012/01/06/tier-1-year-1/

Regards,

Basho
Senior Marshal @ Tier 1

[Curo]

I love how you are challenging us questioning our manhood, our drive. It's what we all need that push, that goal to be better, never give up. It's not that we need more camera's filming us, more crap We need to be motivated.

I for one will getting this stashed on a piece of paper or something and when ever I feel like I wana give up. I'll read this. and get my ass back in the fight.

[delendam_pandion]

Basho: you're welcome! The OpFor are waiting for you.

[Cortex]

Originally Posted by Brian McIlmoyle

I Have played several 24 hour games and shot less than 100 rounds..

One of the best ones I went to .. I shot not a round for 22 of the 24 hours

Shooting is not always the best means to achieve objectives.

Many of the 24 hour games I design and run.. if done 100% right.. many objectives can be met without shooting at all

Originally Posted by apparition

if your gun cant make it over 6 hours on 1 battery during a milsim with minimal shooting, your battery either wasnt charged fully or is an extremely shitty battery. Ive had a 1600mah run all day skirmishes shooting a few hundred rounds and never died ever. During milsims i typically shoot 1-2 mags the entire day and even in the 17hour sim we had here in calgary during the summer my battery didnt die.

Originally Posted by TaroBear

I've never run out of juice on any type of battery during a game. Ever.

I'd love if you guys could explain to me how I've had 5-6 batteries just crap out and die on me at games then. I always make sure to fully charge before I leave, using a charger that will indicate as much. I've had batteries that end up dead by the time I drive an hour to the field, or batteries that only last for 50 rounds before showing signs of drain (slower fire rates, unable to pull the spring, etc). As a matter of fact, the only battery I've ever had that seemed to last a decent amount of time was a 9.6v large type that was something like 4500mah. This has been the case on a variety of guns as well, so I doubt its some issue with the guns causing fast drainage.

I've been using good quality batteries as well, could the chargers be the issue? Never had an exceptional charger, just the $30-$50 variety.

As for my play-style, I don't seem to go through that many rounds. I usually use 120rd midcaps (8-10), but I hardly ever use more than 3 or 4 in an entire day of scrim fighting. I've never had the opportunity to play an extended MilSim (just a few MiniSim games), due to my battery issues, but given ammo restrictions I would likely have no issues only taking the shots that need to be taken. I rarely go full-auto since I find semi-automatic to be more accurate, even though there's no recoil to these guns.

Anyhow, in order to keep this post mostly on-topic I'd request that if any of you have some battery advice for me, please PM it.

I'd love to get out to a multi-day game at some point, I'm used to driving out to an area and then packing in a tent and supplies for a weekend of hunting. I don't really see much of a difference in the two when it comes to endurance, though when we're hunting we usually stick close to camp and we probably aren't as physically active. And the fact that I can't just shoot a few birds for fresh diner that night...