I'll describe my personal views from Oscar Coy, 3rd PLT, 3rd squad perspective. Simply put: I had a blast, and will be back next year for sure! I was the guy with the motorcycle.
My objective with this event was to gain experience with multi-day events and gather info on my own performance in this airsoft genre. I'm a 50 years young pharte, have played airsoft since october 2007 and besides Norwegian draft service 1977-78 as LMG (MG3) infantry-dude I served for a year in UNIFIL NORMAINTCOY XIV/XV (1984-85) Lebanon, as a radio operator. Nuff said - i.e. for me airsoft is a means of moving my interests for PC wargames away from the computer screen. I've got a complete Norwegian kit with PRR/PMR radios and simply want to have fun. I did!
I knew beforehand I was not much physically trained, but reckoned I'd have a fair chance since one of my clubmates would provide a buggy. Unfortunately this project was abandonded a few days before Berget due a malfunctioning carburetor. So much for getting away from tabbing. Anyway, Berget-vets from my own club and Østfold Milsim assured this could be handled, so I went along on that info with a big smile.
I also knew beforehand that I had a torn right knee ligament, that occasionally would give pains after extended walks under load. This can be handled by occasional breaks and controlled tempo. ( Courtesy of an offroad motorcycle incident two years ago ) I still reckoned I could tab along with the rest of the squad as long as they knew these limitations.
Nuff said. I thought: "This is just another airsoft-game". I proved both right and wrong.
Good stuff:
- The NATO-armbands from STUNTMAN! Excellent quality. I lost mine during attack last day, but that's another story.
- Meals Ready To Eat - or HeaterMeals :
http://www.heatermeals.com/ These worked very well. Just stuff that wrapped food into a bag - pour some saltwater and let boil for 12 minutes - Yummie
Bought at
www.magasinet.no
- Meeting and cooperating with other nations' airsofters
- My personal expectations regarding balance between action, missions and guard duty were met in all regards.
- Our platoon CO Trygve and my Squadleader Arne - kudos to them for excellent leadership and behaviour
- My platoon mates! An excellent bunch of crazy guys with a cracking humour!
- Oscar COY! I'm amazed how well we cooperated with the Italians
- Mixmaster, Oscar COY CO deserves kudos for patient and good leadership
- The game area - perfect
- 6 hour tab searching for a mortar and flask of virus antidote; I learned a lot about myself, my new kit and my own performance. Although the props never were put at our target coordinates the tab itself was a major success for me personally. I learned a lot and will prepare thereafter!
- The NATO base - completely adequate for my stay there. Those complaining over base facilities have some valid points about emptying toilets more often, but I was lucky and found the shithouse "compatible" when needed
- My weapons worked flawlessly all days
- My kit needs minor adjustments - but mostly more appropriate pre-mission briefs to function better (more about that)
- I have no idea what went wrong concerning BN command and won't comment on that. I had a good time with our command structure - period.
- Kudos to mr.Lexa at SRP who helped me getting much needed water from the SRP-base. I was in much pain from my ankle, was shot out of game and in respawn at that time. My jaw dropped to the floor when some sneeky SRP-dude tried to buy me with Berget-dollars. This little episode made my day and I'm still giggling over it. Cool game feature. I'm not much familiar with LARP like this and this fascinated me.
- The time spent with Kvisvik and his platoon guarding our base at friday when recouperating my knee after that failed 6hr tab thursday.
- Our PRR&PMR radios worked very well throughout the game
- From my perspective Brujo and Oberlix worked like heroes with what they got - but we must always remember that canned missions and scripted gameplay have many controversies. Nuff said.
Bad stuff:
- The maps given at check-in where inadequate and I'm glad I brought my own GPS with friluftskartan Pro for that area and my own maps printed in colour
- The food at beerparty was a bad joke with cold potatoes not worth 100 SEK - better shape up next year about this BE - at least the beer was excellent and cool (Pripps Sommarøl)
- Lack of speeches and debrief from BE Crew and the respective BN Commanders at beerparty
- NATO BE Mission control seemed too unstructured and laidback. I have no idea if this is BE, NATO BN command or Oscar Coy's faults. My Coy CO and PCO should have been given mission orders at least an hour in advance of missions. To my squad it seemed mission orders/briefs were given minutes before execution - putting our PCO in unwanted situations
- My platoon tabbed too much compared to others while unused trucks stood passive - BE and BN HQ must always remember that airsofters are rarely trained for multi-hour tabs in rough terrain - As a minimum people should be trucked out a couple of times to a rally point before major attacks or long missions. Same offer for the return to base after long patrols or fights - that way BN HQ have more motivated resources available when they want.
- We were sent out on a 6 hour tab on thursday to search for an enemy mortar and a flask of virus antidote - which proved not to have been placed at the proper coordinates - in fact they were never put there in the first place. Despite excuses from BE & BN command this is too plain stupid.
- That tabbing caused my mentioned knee to suffer - and without further ado I had to recouperate and seek base defense duties the whole friday to be of any use for my PCO the last day of Berget. No complaints from me though ( I was aware this could happen ). I'm more sorry for my squad loosing firepower since some dudes decided to leave early on friday.
- From my perspective we got insufficient and wrong info about mission length the last day - leading to me donning too much kit and spraining my right ankle during our attack on Red base. We were told to kit up for 7-8 hours and be prepared for field duty off-base until game end at 2000.
Naturally I filled up my camelpak and an additional 1 litre field flask and appropriate rain clothing and FR put into my rucksack. To my amazement the walk to Red base (mercs) took only less than half an hour and I was heavily over-kitted for the attack in progress. Bummer. I slipped on rain-moisted ground and fell heavily, spraining my ankle and now have a sick-leave while recouperating. I'm OK and won't complain wildly since this could just as well have happened on a hiking trip with a full rucksack on wet ground - but in regards to Berget operations it could have been avoided with better and more realistic info pre-mission.
As we know, real soldiers drop their bergens/rucksacks at certain points before an attack to have better survival chances. I don't think real infantry would push through an attack with a rucksack laden with kit/food/water for 8-hour ops in possible rain.
- My platoon got too little RR & sleep time while others got more and could visit the famous Safe-Zone. My mates hardly had a chance to this.
- Some dude at Conrad Mercs had a high-fps sniper gun with interesting bullets that makes me very curious. I was taken out by a shower of normal BB's downhill by the SRP base at saturday and was reaching for my death rag while falling to the ground when "PLAKK!" something hit my forehead just above the cap beak and nearly sent me spinning backwards. All 5 people around me heard that BB hit loud and clear.
Kudos for an extraordinary good shot from my opponent, but I fear for my teeth at next game since this projectile was a heavy hitter. I still got a small wound behind that cap and wonder what rifle was used.
- For me as a former UN-soldier it was laughable when we were told that UN CO had gone rogue and NATO should send out misions against UN. Daft - but hey, this is LARP. haha
Summary:
This may seem like much negatives, but in the whole I'm a happy camper and will definitely come to another Berget event. Most things were described well in advance on the Berget website and I got much input from Berget-vets beforehand. My own physical status is not my heaviest concern - I'll be hiking with a rucksack here before next event and train my lower extremities to usable status again. No worries.
And if necessary I'll volunteer for base defense without a blink. That way I might even learn about other nations airsofters and get fresh perspectives
Ideas:
A) What about dropping all officially named game-fraction names (NATO, UN etc.) in favour of other codes next time? I still have my blue beret from UN-service and may be taking this too seriously, but I feel NATO versus Red Mercs with russians is a cold dinosaur breath from the cold war and that we may put ourselves in unwanted and outdated mindsets.
I'd rather erase those politics and preferrably get that out of my head in favour of better cameraderie between our neighbour countries. Just a thought.
B) What about true freeplay next time? Many of my fellow players hated the scripted gameplay this year and wanted to see more consequence-oriented freeplay - i.e. that their intel and suggestions of follow-up attacks/missions was taken more seriously instead of "that flank was supposed to fall today" and such crap.
Seniority.
I talked with Oberlix at HQ while hobblin' around in the camp and he concluded with a smile that I was not the most senior Berget-dude being there - he easily blew me away with another 13 years
Any more senior contenders - step forward please!
Thanks to BE, NATO, Conrad Mercs, SRP and UN for a great experience!
I'll most definitely be back. See ya!