Nov 7th, Command Decisions Wargame Center (www.cdpaintball.com) in Taylorsville, NC hosted the Platoon Leader Mil-Sim Invitational. If the blog seems to be the CDWC newsletter lately… well, you throw your line in where the fish are biting! Early November belongs to Command Decisions in the Carolinas. The Platoon Leader Invitational just helped reinforce that this year.

Originally the game was scheduled in August, but CDWC moved it to the day before Fulda Gap to keep the out of state players from having to chose between two major events and to avoid the heat. The only problem is… he made it on a work day. This, above all, probably hurt attendance as did the cost of the two day Fulda Gap event piled on top of it. Ferg assures me next year the two events will be separate and the Mil-Sim event may even be a two day event. About 40 players took to the field whereas the original concept was to cap it at 100. Hmph! Some bosses have no concept of what “sick days” entail!

Don’t Make Contact with the Enemy!

Between Fulda Gap and the Platoon Leader Invitational, I would have to honestly say that I enjoyed the mil-sim event more. It lacked the numbers, chaos and firefights of Fulda, but the point was to make it a thinking soldiers simulation, not a constant fire fight. The whole point of PLIMS (Platoon Leader Invitation Military Simulation, for those of you off your medication) was to simulate real world conditions, use only what you can carry into the field, and evade and avoid enemy while accomplishing your objectives. Read that again slowly, Bunky. Avoid and Evade. Paintballers don’t avoid. They run into the middle of a pack of bad guys and pretend they Al Pacino from Scarface. Not at the PLIMS. This was about survival and success. Not about glory and death. OKay, maybe a little about glory, but really trying to avoid the whole death thing. The average age of mil-sim players tends to be older and a little less geared toward run and gun than out-think and out-maneuver. It’s easier on our old joints!

Those aren’t rules… THESE are rules!

CDWC provided very definite parameters in order to simulate real world conditions and situations. The entire simulation was based on Ferg’s special forces training he provides real military troops. The rules and OPORDERS were about 30 pages long.  It paid to do your homework. Finally! Mrs. Morey was right! (See my Third grade blog many many years ago!)

No Chiefs, Just Indians

Like real special ops forces, there was no general managing the troops in the field. Since Team: Tango Alpha2 had a pretty sizable contingent, we were elected to coordinate communications and general outlines for the Green army, but the individual squads ran themselves and acted as independent forces for the most part. One of my squad leaders, John “Reklis” Brinsfield, started off the day as unit leader and I ran as point. Where we came up with the idea to put the fat guy on point (especially in CDWC’s hills), I will never know. But it seemed to work out and it was a relief for me not to have to command for once. The Green team included members from Recon-1, Rogue Cell, Men of Valor, several walk-ons and Team: Tango Alpha2. The Tan side included Mil-Sim empire, MIl-Sig, the ProCaps VIPs and various walk-ons. The Green side did out number the Tan team, but at the end of the event there very few Tanmembers left for some reason. As the Green team, we didn’t know we out numbered them.

Objectives

Our Green team objective was to locate and secure a hidden defector from ”Tanistan”. The role player in this role didin’t make it easy, He stayed on the move and at one time a recon party walked within yards of him. We separated our team into 4 squads and covered the field in zones, setting up rally points as we moved. With satellite intel (from CDWC) we were given hints about the defectors location and enemy troop movements.

Whose Side is Central Command on?

Team: Tango Alpha’s usual pointman, “Rotty” Motley acted as Ferg’s intel and game coordinator as Ferg continued to prepare for Fulda Gap. Once we located the contact, he held us hostage for a cookie. Don’t even ask why I carry cookies in my tac vest, but I did. (Explains the trim figure, huh?) At this point, Ferg decided that we were  a little too secure with our contact, that we weren’t moving enough, and radioed the Tan team with our location. Remind me to thank him for that. Repeatedly. As crazy as this seems, war sometimes takes bizarre twists. How you handle them is what’s important. SO! As the Tan team advanced on our location, we “attacked in a different direction” as fast as we could. Okay. We ran like little girls! On our way out of there, we did manage to overrun Firebase Alpha and capture their extra ammunition, water and even their command radio. After a brief attempt at trying to trick Ferg and Rotty that we were the Tan team, we gave them back their radio.  Who says we can’t be good sports? It didn’t help that Rotty recognized our voices.

Three Stooges Go Tactical

Our next objective was to get our contacts airlifted out of there in about an hour. That means moving on Firebase Rex and holding it for an hour. We brought in all our various teams and converged on Rex and managed to hold it. This was when Ferg, discuised as The Whims of War, decides we are still doing too well and sends in a tank, which he thought we had anti-tank weapons. We didn’t. Reality strikes again. What we did was evac our defector to the safety of the woods and I and a half dozen others protected our pilot at the helicopter. Thinking back on it, using ourselves as decoys for a tank wasn’t all  that smart!

What we did was whatever side of the helicopter the tank was on, we ran around to the other side. Larry, Curly and Moe do evade and annoy. I guess the Tan tank team was laughing so hard they couldn’t shoot straight. All a part of my plan. Afte about three or four laps, they ran out of ammo. I might have lasted another few laps, but my pride couldn’t.

Keeping It Real

The Platoon Leader Invitation Mil-Sim event was probably one of the most fun events of the year (I know I say that every game, but they just keep getting better!)  It provided us with real world limitations and gave us a taste of operating as special forces. CDWC provided 50 round hoppers and tac caps for our guns so we had limited firepower. The hoppers unintentionally provided life-like gun jams further making the sim more realistic. At a given point, Command air dropped military MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) and supplies just like the real military. And just like the real military, it was at the wrong spot. While the object was to search and evade, there was still plenty of firefights. For example, Tan had us pinned down at Apache and were trading fire like they were manufacturing paintballs. All while we were being attacked from behind. Several Green team players kept fire up on Apache while I snuck all the way around it and single shot-sniped the entrenched Apache snipers from behind. Out-think.

One of the posters on the Mil-Sim Empire forum suggested civilian role players in sim-city to add to the realism as well as some CQB throughout Sim City. While the green team outnumbered the tan team, Ferg kept throwing unexpected advanatges to tehir side to even it up, tanks, intel, etc. Again, like real life.

If you want to play beyond the typical shoot em up hgame and move up to uusing your head for more than a mask holder, you want to pre-register for the next mil-sim event you can get your hands on. See you there.