BIRTHDAY SURPRISES - OP 1&6!

SO, ANOTHER YEAR HAS PASSED BY FOR MIGUEL AND HIS FELLOW GHOSTS, AND IT WAS TIME TO ORGANISE THEIR TRADITIONAL BIRTHDAY EVENT! SIXTEEN YEARS OF AIRSOFT AS A TEAM IS A MASSIVE ACHIEVEMENT; THE NUMBER OF GAMES, ADVENTURES, MEETING NEW TEAMS AND PEOPLE, SEEING NEW FIELDS, YOU NAME IT, IT’S BEEN A GREAT EXPERIENCE FOR THEM, ONE THAT CONTINUES AS MIGUEL TELLS US ALL ABOUT THEIR “BIRTHDAY GAME”, OP 1&6!

As always when planning a game there is a lot of work to be done! The preparation of the game started in January, with a few teasers, setting the date of the event and contacting possible sponsors (it’s not a birthday event without good “presents” i.e. giveaways, now it it?), and as time moved on, the event gained shape; we defined a module (scenario), rules and slowly released some information to the community. Meanwhile, we contacted the teams from a list that we created; the first phase of registrations would only encompass the invited teams, then, we would fill out the remaining slots after opening the event to the public.

The game module itself resembled an RTS game; two factions would fight for the control of several resource points and “mine” them. With the collected resources, the faction commander could advance a tech-tree and choose different technologies, some were mandatory in order to reach the end game, and others were optional.

The mandatory technologies would allow the faction to acquire other resources, which were unavailable at the start of the game, and later in the game, the ability to research and purchase the endgame “device”. The secondary tech-tree gave the commander several defensive or offensive options, like the use of EMPs to disable the enemy Ares Alpha

App, a Drone to know the position of the enemy, artillery shots and a couple of others. With these, the commanders could design their tactics around different technologies, while helping the faction’s players or hindering the enemy.

Although the game was on the Sunday, our field work started Saturday. We placed most of the objectives in their respective places, checked the Ares Alpha points of interest, and, of course, welcomed the teams who came from far away, and were going to spend the night, with a good old BBQ! It’s always great to socialize with teams from other parts of the country, trade ideas, experiences and tell tall tales of the games we have attended lately.

Sunday morning we arrived early to the field, there were preparations to be made, so it was time to get to work; set up the check in, HQs with water, chairs and table, respawns and other important points. Soon after the players started to arrive, everyone was eager for another game and as tradition dictates I went from group to group to talk with the players, see how they were doing and, of course, goof around a bit. It’s always a great moment in these games, when we welcome those who travelled to be present, see their expectations and tease some parts of what’s to come. As the players geared up and got ready, they passed by the “Team Photo” area and then moved towards the briefing area. Everything was going within schedule, so we hurried those who were still in the parking lot, since the briefing was going to start at 0900, with or without them!

Now, it’s important to mention that the game was already “ongoing”, since both factions had a mission to complete during the week before. The mission was to choose a faction commander, and if they completed it within a certain time, their faction would start the game with extra money. They had two ways to complete this mission, either choosing someone from the teams that were part of the faction, or invite someone from outside just to lead. Both factions ended up choosing someone from the participating teams, in a quite funny process to be honest, and the both chosen were first time commanders. In the Basilisk Enterprise faction (Red Team) the commander was Primeira Dama from the F.O.E. team, and in the Star Wolf Industries (Blue Team) we had Caçador from Wildskulls.

Getting Rolling

At 09:00 the briefing started, since the teams already had the game rules explained in their respective WhatsApp groups and the commanders were briefed via video call, the briefing was mostly focused on safety and just the overall game.

In this game, both factions were fighting for three different minerals, with which the faction commander could develop different technologies, and the main objective was to reach the “end-game technology”. At the same time, several secondary missions were also available, which would reward the faction with money that could be used to buy minerals in a market, but at the same time, was needed for the “end-game technology” as well. This meant that the faction commanders had to decide how to manage the available resources.

At 09:30 sharp, the game started, and the teams entered the field. Both commanders had slightly different tactics, the Blue commander had divided his faction in three groups, one focused on the mines and transporting the minerals back to the HQ, one in completing the secondary missions and a small group controlling the area around a mineral that was going to be available only later on. The Red commander only had two groups working, a large group to control mines and a smaller one completing the secondary missions.

This time the mines were controlled by programmable boxes created by one of our members; in this game they were programmed to beep for one minute at designated times, and during that minute the players had to use an RFID chip, and when reading the correct RFID the mine would drop the respective mineral. It was the perfect way to control the game, everything was on schedule; if the players missed the timing they had to wait, and they couldn’t use the RFID from one mineral type in another (there was a total of three mineral types remember); this not only freed staff to control other areas, but it also reduced the chance of cheating or genuine player mistakes to almost zero.

Both factions advanced neck-and-neck, the minerals were “flowing” and with those the faction commanders started to develop the technologies they needed for the “end-game”, and others to support the players in the field; one of the technologies both factions purchased as soon as possible was the advanced respawn, which offered the players a secondary spot to Respawn closer to the action!

The secondary missions were released every thirty minutes; the commanders had to pick from a series of envelopes and see what the mission was. Each one was a retrieve mission, but the place and quantity of the items to retrieve was different from the previous one.

RUNNING TO THE END-GAME!

As we reached the last third of the game, the factions’ focused turned to the rarest of the minerals, which only had one mine available. As soon as the commanders developed the required technology to mine said resource they ordered groups to control the area, but the Blue faction already had a group in the area, as it was part of his strategy. The Red faction struggled to attack the mine, since it was located in a dense woodland area, where the defenders only had to wait for the attackers to move and show up in their sights.

With this obstacle, the Red commander decided to develop the artillery technology and used the first available shot to clear out the area around the mine! As soon as their enemy was rooted out, the Reds advanced to control the area and were able to mine the much-needed mineral, but it wasn’t for long. The Blue commander decided to counter-attack with an artillery strike of his own as soon as his forced respawned and regrouped; they were able to turn the table on their enemy, and got control of the mine again!

By this time the game was reaching the end, and both factions were trying to get as many minerals and as much money as they could. The “end- game technology” was a device that they had to defend until the clock ran out, all that remained was to see who was going to purchase it. This was decided by who had more money after developing the required technology (using minerals). As soon as we reached the designated time, both commanders acquired the technology and the staff counted the money they had; in the end it was the Blue faction, the Star Wolf Industries, who had more money and purchased the

SECONDARY TECH-TREE GAVE THE COMMANDER SEVERAL DEFENSIVE OR OFFENSIVE OPTIONS, LIKE THE USE OF EMPS TO DISABLE THE ENEMY ARES ALPHA APP, A DRONE TO KNOW THE POSITION OF THE ENEMY, ARTILLERY SHOTS AND A COUPLE OF OTHERS”

With this the final mission started, although the device was the “end-game” objective, there was a last ditch attempt by the Red faction to attack the enemy HQ and stop the clock in the device. It would be anticlimactic to end the game with just the purchase of the device, so we planned this last confrontation and let the players shoot a few more BBs! We knew that it was almost impossible for the Red faction to breach the enemy defences, and in the end the Blue faction held on to the device until the clock ran down…

With the game ending, it was time for some more BBQ! Some of my guys were already getting everything prepared, so the players didn’t have to wait long, and, as always, it was great to get feedback from the players, talk with both commanders and share a few cold ones with those present.

Like always, we like to end our events with some good giveaways. For this, we have the guys at VIPER Tactical and Specna Arms for once again sponsoring our birthday event with great gifts for some lucky ones. Our thanks to all who attended, and of course, those who sponsored the event!

Until next year… AA

“LIKE ALWAYS, WE LIKE TO END OUR EVENTS WITH SOME GOOD GIVEAWAYS. FOR THIS, WE HAVE THE GUYS AT VIPER TACTICAL AND SPECNA ARMS FOR ONCE AGAIN SPONSORING OUR BIRTHDAY EVENT WITH GREAT GIFTS FOR SOME LUCKY ONES. ” device.