Operation Reaper Review

[ElZer0]

Operation Reaper was the airsoft equivalent of Jar head....

I had be rather excitied about this since i booked my ticket well over a month ago...

I now really wish I hadnt, it was a boring day, waiting around, doing... well waiting

I had bought a ticket for the Black Shepard Team (Rebels), So I was expecting a exciting day, blowing stuff up, smuggling drugs(not real) and people to places, taking captives, some voodoo, and crazy rebel $h1t.

The other teams where , Reapers (UN Sniper teams)

Watchtower??!?! (Mercs that could be bought)

First part of the game, We had to hold the permeter of the base...

Sat in the bushes for well over a hour, not allowed to shoot until fired upon (as the rebels are we meant to be blowing stuff up)

basically all we did was wait around

instructions where not clear what so ever... no games seemed to be played apart from hold our base..

at 2.30 ish was ready to go home ( this was the first time id seen any action and been shot) and when I say action i mean, i got shot...

Which meant a ten min walk back to safe point, waity 10mins so the team regen point was open, then walk 10 mins back to our base, to find hardly any team, or idea what was going on

the people I was with left well over 1.30 hours before it finished, which really says it all....

On the plus side, Apocylpse Airsfot site, looks like it will be very very good!

site is huge, lots of cool places ( not that we used any today).


The guys from AA did not seem impressed with how it was run...

Very bad showing by platoon, there normally have well organised games, but this rolling gameplay just doesnt work... with two teams it would be hard... 3 almost impossible

also no lunch break!!!

you where meant to take what you wanna eat with you...eat in game...so unlucky all you with full face masks...

what we wasnt told , was AA actually have a place where they sell warm food and good prices, and its quite nice!! esp compared to my cold sausage sandwhiches

[HairySteve]

Re: Operation Reaper Review!!!

Hi there,
I'm sorry to hear you didn't have a good day, as you say there was a lot of standing around - I didn't fire a shot (apart from testing my gun) until well after mid day. I can only assume that the Platoon guys might have inadvertantly bitten off more than they could chew, even running 2-team games on a site the size of Apocalypse does require a fair amount of planning (having said that I know Jim has been working on this for about 3 months). Having written most of our games so far I know from experience that complex, multi-objective games, and games involving more than two teams, don't always work. One of our best games so far was a single 5 hour game with an hour lunch break, the sole objecive for the whole day was to find and retrieve 5 items and a downed pilot scattered around the site, and it worked really well.

I'm all in favour of constructive criticism, so let's try and turn this round to something positive that the Platoon guys can learn from. In my opinion, one life then return to the safe zone was a poor system, we have four regen poles around the site and usually run a 3 life tag system, which keeps the games flowing. If Platoon had wanted two extra regen poles installing for the third team then we would have done so. A better system than the one in use today would have been 3 life tag then regen at the safe zone, the main issue being that by the time you return to our base, most of the team have wandered off on a mission and/or the base has been over-run.

No definite lunch break was a problem for the lads in the safe zone doing the burgers as they had to keep the hot plate running all day. A game that runs from 9am til 4.30pm would benefit from a set lunch break to allow the lads to prepare plenty of freshly cooked burgers and bacon. However I can see why Platoon decided on a single continuous game as an hour lunch break rapidly turns into 1 1/2 hours by the time everyone has walked to and from the safe zone. In the end most people had a burger or tea when they returned to regen and just re-joined the game when they were ready.

Communication was a bit of a issue, some of the team commanders at times didn't seem to know what was going on, or couldn't communicate the relevant information to the rest of us. Towards the end of the day Martin and I took control of the Shepherds and attempted to launch an attack on the village, wthout much success as our numbers were somewhat depleted by that stage, and we found ourselves up against not just the Reapers and their sniper rifles, but the Watchguard team as well. I personally think briefing sheets for the missions should be handed out to squad leaders, we were all given excellent maps with grid references but I didn't hear a single mention of grid references being used in game.

Also most of the action seemed to be concentrated around the stockade, while the other 40-something acres of the site (including the village which we toiled on for three weeks to get ready for this event) barely got a look-in. While the stockade is certainly a focal point, even the woodland itself can be challenging to work through, being as varied a it is. I suppose infamiliarity with the site didn't help in this respect. It took us a few games to work out what does and does not work for our games, and as the site develops I'm sure other types of game which currently don't work will become more practical.

One final comment, it was a bit unclear as to exactly what type of game this was supposed to have been, in some ways it resembled a milsim (eg long peiods with nothing going on), but in others it resembled a normal "sunday shoot" with high-cap mags and confusion. If it was supposed to be a milsim, it should have been advertised as such and a "no high-caps" rule enforced. If it was a "sunday shoot" on a larger scale, it should have been less complex, and had more action and a lunch break.

Overall, a good concept, but unfortunately poorly executed due to a number of factors. Fingers crossed the next one will be better. Don't let this one put you off, we run games all the time there so if you fancy coming along some time then feel free.
-Steve
(the hairy guy on the Shepherds team with the goatie and the blowback AK74)

[ElZer0]

Re: Operation Reaper Review!!!

Oh don't think it's anything to do with the site... The site was great


We just didn't seem to do anything apart from defend our base...

Therevseemed to be nothing clear to do... Once i just got told to go out there and "Fu** shit up", the person i'n charge of team had no clue.....

As you said the site was not used well at all, we had a map... Which i had no reference points to...

We should of been i'n our bases, told there was a downed pilot i'n such and such ref...


I'll try the site when the real guys are running it!!!



Like i said, I'm not knocking the guys from aa or the site... There both great...

Just operation reaper sucked!

I will not be going on one again

Very poor show

[ElZer0]

Re: Operation Reaper Review

Ermmm not sure how.

But this has be mo ed to guns other..... Can someone please move it to the correct part please

[Mercenary]

Re: Operation Reaper Review

Uhmmmm I am sorry but what has this got to do with selling of RIFS????

[ElZer0]

Re: Operation Reaper Review

someone must of moved it there by mistake.... seems to be in the correct pladce now lol

[Spagley]

Re: Operation Reaper Review

I can't comment on the experiences of players from the other teams, but from my perspective on the Reapers, the day worked pretty well.

Although slow initially, the atmosphere for the missions felt pretty good, creeping about, not knowing what to expect or where the allegiances of the other teams was.

The first couple of missions were about gathering intel then tracking a convoy and retrieving a package from them at a secret rendezvous. Me, on my own, approaching the watchguard convoy, not knowing if the exchange was going to work out, or if it was a trap etc... My sniper buddy hiding in the undergrowth 30 or 40m away was a small consolation while having 10 or so AEGs pointing my way !

With only a few Reaper pairs in the field, and a couple of commanders in the Village it all felt quite pressured given the amount of ground that needed to be covered, so having 3 successive missions that involved 'surrounding the stockade' meant we all had to work hard.

We were issued with radios though, so was quite cool to be hearing chatter from other pairs as they fed intel back to HQ, and if necessary the teams were redirected, or called back to base.

On at least 2 occasions though, my team hit trouble and arrived at our target area a bit late, meaning it was a bit frustrating to then have to escape at speed when called home again - but that was the nature of the missions as they seemed to have quite specific time windows.

The first time we made it to the stockade, we set up between the checkpoint and the tower, nicely concealed 10m back into the woods, just as some of our friendlies started hitting the stockade from the direction of the safe zone.

We opened up and picked off 4 or 5 targets without having any fire returned, so would have been better if we had been given the order to disengage and lay low observing rather than bugging out, only to have to return again.

I was very pleased with my cheapy sniper as I got 2 good kills from that location which isn't bad range for a low power jobby.

My total kill count for the day was 9 or 10, and I was killed twice, so not a bad ratio. The other guy in my pair was hit twice too.

Seems like the Reapers were able to create quite a lot of trouble for a small team - which I guess is how it is supposed to be for 'special forces' !


I had a really good day and so did the other guys I spoke to on the Reaper team, so it's a shame if other people didn't feel the day went so well.

Platoon put a lot of time and effort into the prep for the scenario and from what I saw did a great job of making the day run as smoothly as possible.

But, do bear in mind this was the first event using Apocalypse Airsoft, so it will have presented some new challenges which are less of a problem when running games on a familiar site.

Also, with a more 'milsim' scenario day where key plot events have to happen in the right order and within a designated time. Any delays with teams getting into start positions, or difficult briefings due to people chatting etc all have knock on effects which then have to be absorbed or worked around to get things back on track.

I am sure that Platoon will have taken on board any teething issues that occurred on the day, so hopefully their next game at the site will be even better.

Bring on more Reapings I say


Ian (Spag)