Waking up at 2:00AM and walking outside with the cold windchill, I made my way to the car. I was to meet up with the "Epic Carpool", consisting of Erik Ostrom, fellow TFK member, Sean Lai, A great guy from the Rushing Russians, and Matthew Mellot, a great Military vet who has been playing locally since I have. It was a great ride, we shot the shit, had some great laughs, and I caught some flack for making the meetup confusing and complicated. But we all ended up in the same car, so success I guess!
Either way, after a "Quick" stop in Bellevue to pick up some Kit for Sean and another RR guy, we landed in Camp Relia at 1:45, just in time for registration. I got out and was immediately stressed ,I had prepping for this game for over three months, I had to take a deep breath and remember how ready I was. Registration was honestly pretty easy, stations were setup, just point A-B. Very Easy-Very Simple. I got about 150 .30s, which I wish I had known would be the last I saw of .30s the entire event.
We started prepping for our 'Jump' around 5:00, thought it is honestly hard to remember. We went over jumping procedure, and room clearing basics for when we were to take the MOUT town. Which I thought was awesome, to train for your specific job in the OP. Great idea from the Staff. The U-haul truck modded for a mock plane jump, was AWESOME. With mock static lines, a green-go light, and even complete with a crappy plane soundtrack! We even had an unnecessarily complicated line system, rubber banded to our arm, to break off when we jumped. But it was an awesome addition. All of 1st platoon piled in the back of this U-Haul and we drove off at around 9:00, it was dark already. The U-haul was so uncontrollably packed, some people had to stand, which made for people falling over on other people. After we finally got semi-situated, there was an awesome Christopher Walken impression to be had. "It seems I have to kill some...Russians.And I have a big..Ass.Gun." I laughed for the whole ride. About what seemed like ten minutes in, we stopped. After a thirty second pause, the door flung open, "There will be no jump tonight!"We all pilled out of the U-haul, with our static line connections, which were a waste of an hour honestly. The U-haul had got stuck after it swung wide in the mud, after bringing a pick-up to pull it out, our squad immediately started pulling security for our section.
The AO was AMAZING, the MOUT town was unbelievable. I really loved the place, fell for it instantly. Though the rules around it were really restricting, and a huge bummer, such as Pyro. Thank for for getting such a great AO!
It was slightly disappointing 1st did not get to jump, the part of the event that probably the most time and effort was poured into. But we got over that, and started advancing toward the MOUT town. But stopped short, at a small road where we could look down on the Town. We all packed on one side, and waited for the other platoons to jump. We literally waited for THREE hours, sadly, this would set the pace of most of the weekend for 1st platoon. We all laid there in the cold for three hours, I remember dozing off a little at one point. And eventually getting quite cold, for we all had left our Cold Weather gear in our Rucks. Finally, at around 1:00, we started moving into the town, We came from the west, where the Church and west wall was. This made it semi-easy to take. After about a 40 minute firefight, and a dead battle buddy. Rest in Peace Kevin #1. We made it to the West wall, granted, after me bleeding out in the middle of the road next to the wall. But we made it! Abe and I were the first ones to push in, and make it to the Church. I Balls-to-the-Walls cleared it, with no enemies it was quite easy. I yelled out it was clear, but over heard talk of a flank to the east. So I got prepared to fight from the easternmost door. The door burst open, and I opened fire, but it was overwhelming. I took two hits and flopped on the floor like a dead dog. Turns out, they were friendlies, deciding it was a good idea to enter gun's a blazing to a clear building. Brilliant. I was drug to the other end of the church and Medic'd. It was an awesome experience, even if I never really SAW an enemy. Just got blasted.
By this time it was around 3:00, and after a semi-short run on security for the North, we had to go get our Rucks. I and my Battle Buddy Kevin basically ran there, while the other slackers struggled to keep up. My ruck was heavy, but not as Massive or crazy heavy as some others I saw.
Either way, I made it into the church, put down my sleeping mat, cooked a meal, and crashed. No need for a sleeping bag. It was a quite night, with no troubles, though I was on duty for a 6:00am patrol. So two hours of sleep, I drug my body into gear and started walking. I honestly quite enjoyed it, a brisk morning walk with my Squad Leader. Who was a great guy.
Saturday was to be a really boring day. 1st Platoon was really neglected, with no real missions. Just running security ALL DAY. Which sucks. With the only fun being a Russian gun truck to go by every once in a while, but literally that is about 5 seconds of fun. Oh well, got to hang out with some awesome guys, in a pretty MilSim environment.
The only thing really consistent about the MilSimWest chain of command and communication was the lack thereof. I was really disappointed in the disorder and mis-communications that were constant. This is supposed to be the staple of Military Simulation, I've seen homegrown Tac-Sim events do this better. Kind of embarrassing honestly; And I'm sorry to say it MSW, but there were times Saturday I regretted spending all that time and money coming to your event. Please work on this, this is slightly player base, I get that. But you have to do something, or you will lose your reputation very quickly.
Im going to address this problem in its own paragraph, because it deserves it. Resupply of Water and Ammo. It sucked. Sorry MSW staff, but honestly if you devoted any effort at all it would've been better. I had to basically sneak in and steal a couple bottles because I did not want to die. There was NO water to be had, and when it did show up Saturday morning. It was in huge 15 gallon tubs, which are impossible to pour into any kind of bladder. Just a minor grievance, but that was the only water we received all weekend. The required 2L of water is a joke, and will last you one night. As for Munitions, resupply was non-existent. Even when we needed it, and it seems like .30s are equal to gold. Because they must have only had like a dozen little baggies. Because I didn't get a whiff of any all weekend. It was ridiculous. MSW, I believe the .25s were EF, and they kinda sucked. I know thats not what you want to hear because of the sponsorship. But less shitty .25s, more heavy BB's; my weapon was almost reduced combat ineffective due to crazy over-hop. I didn't go through very many rounds, but when I have to share my .30s with buddies because they cant use .25s, it's pretty screwed up. Especially when you ask what weight we wanted, I can guarantee most of us said .30s. Stop suckling on Evike's Tit and get some actually good BBs that we can use. I love the idea of controlling resupply, but only when the resupply makes sense.
After sitting waiting for something to happen Saturday; Spoiler, nothing did. Saturday night finally came around, the rate of gun trucks increased, and there was a pretty damn good attack in the afternoon as well. In which it was hot enough to need to take off the combat shirt and run shirtless, with the JPC on. My nipples regret this decision, as cool as it was. But I felt right out of Vietnam. Pretty fun.
Saturday night was a good time, lots of hurry up and wait. I ran security for a while again, up until about 4:00 I believe, but it is a huge blur. I got to Operate with my good buddy Khang Nguyen, which was a blessing. And eventually was forced to go to bed after I fell asleep on the wall. Though I would've been perfectly fine falling asleep here. I fell on my mat in full kit and slept for an hour, only to be awoken by a stressed individual claiming we were being invaded. I drug myself from my slumber, for some reason out of kit, to the fight. With one magazine, it was awesome! I remember being unbelievable groggy and my vision being incredibly blurred. I finally got some action I was looking for. I took out some Russians and eventually crashed for another hour.
I woke up in another shitstorm. With Russians on top of us. Being Sunday morning, everybody had pyro they wanted to set off before the event was over. So it was a crazy collage of explosions of all flavors. One of my favorite Airsoft moments of all time happened that morning, with a Russian Deuce and a 1/2 rolling down the road at a VERY slow speed, I found myself in the perfect position to apply the proper amount of force in the form of a Pea grenade given to me by Ben. After quickly reading the instructions and priming the thing, I throw it with the most accuracy I could. It must've been pure luck, because it rolled right under the deuce, which was still rolling, to the far side, killing all the Rooskies on the far side. I really like Pea grenades.
This firefight was insanity, and the amount of pyro was insane, I was being blown up constantly, causing me to need to drink 4 liters of water just in the form of medic'ing. This part of the day made the entire event worth going to, and is apparently a staple firefight in MSW history. It was a blast.
The later part of sunday was a serious struggle, lacking in Water, Ammo, and Moral.
Overall, it was a good event apart from Saturday. Will I be back? Probably, but I am will be expecting some improvements.
