Berget 8 - 2010

evilrobotshane

Wow; we were lateish getting to the airport and probably the last airsofters to check in and it was smooth as silk, despite around 5 guns to a case - obviously we have Nigel to thanks, so nice one mate, find us at the beer party and we'll... well, probably fall asleep in your lap, but in an appreciative way. Many thanks also to OzCam for showing up to smooth things over.

We've spent the evening knocking around Stockholm, including the medieval-style restaurant Jinko recommended to me. The locals are extraordinarily friendly (one started a nice conversation with us while we were peering into the window of a shop stocking 5.11 kit at around midnight), hot where appropriate, and as Dave 2000 put it, their English is better than ours after we've had a couple of pints.

The reasons we were late were twofold - firstly, Liam who owns the car had to go into town to buy trousers in DPM in gigantic pie-guzzling fatso size, which he couldn't find anywhere else because they don't exist as surplus because British soldiers aren't yet gigantic pie-guzzling fatsos. Secondly, after we'd left my house and were packing the car, the postman turned up with my F2000 I'd written off as a no-show, so some excited unpacking and re-packing had to be done. Still haven't had a chance to get a BB through it, although I switched out the barrel and hop-up bucking in the time afforded me by not having a shower.

Some photos of non-airsoft-related touristing up at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/evilrobotshane/

It'll be some time before airsofty stuff gets there, but I love touristing.

OzCam

Good old Dolph. He was always ok with sending up his image. He kinda has to, with that photo.

(I'm just getting in and saying that before someone else does.)

jinko

i see you found the restaurant how was the food and the mead ?

evilrobotshane

jinko wrote: »

i see you found the restaurant how was the food and the mead ?

We did by coincidence; we were about to wander into the next decent-looking restaurant we came to, and somebody said "boy that's an ostentatious entrance, I wonder what that is" and there it was. They were out of mead but we're going to be back to fill our faces after the game.

We're heading up to the game area today in a rented car, so will be offline for ages now.

Photos are tagged for convenience.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/evilrobotshane/tags/berget8/

sliabh

evilrobotshane wrote: »

Irish contingent for Berget, calling themselves "The Wild Geese", arrive with their muskets and cause extreme confusion to the organisers...

mafiaboy

http://www.tv4play.se/nyheter/lokala_nyheter/sundsvall?videoId=1.1685331#player

evilrobotshane

This was an incredible event. The amount of stuff going on - the missions, plots and sub-plots, politics and intrigue - was staggering. We have many stories, but for now I'll confine myself to our best.

On the drive up from Stockholm we'd mentioned the idea of adapting a colour-based code system some of us had used in table-top role-playing games - "orange" means "get your weapons ready and prepare for trouble", "green" means "abort the plan", "red" means "flick to full auto and start doing pirouettes while holding down the trigger" and so on, incorporated into a sentence like "Did I ever tell you the one about the girl in the yellow dress?".

A news crew for Euronews, we started out in the Poldavian PsyOps prison, where we got to meet many fellow civilians, including doctors, mercenaries and rebels. Eventually we each escaped and found our ways to the civilian camp, where we plied our trade by interviewing people and trying to get stories together to get the real truth about what's happening in Poldavia into the international spotlight. People got to like us and trust us, and we'd be approached with information, asked to record announcements people considered important, and asked for advice.

One person asking us for advice was a drug dealer, who'd found himself in possession of an antidote to a disease running rampant in the area. Calling a secret meeting with us and the elected civilian leader, he asked for ideas on what should be done with it. We suggested finding some scientists to replicate it so it could be distributed, and the civilian leader suggested selling it to the NAF for much-needed funds.

Some time later two of the drug dealers called us and the leader away from the campfire for another secret meeting. One of them said he had the antidote and was going to hand it over to the leader, but we'd need to make a decision on what would be done with it. He produces a syringe of bright red liquid and places it in her hand.

Of course, we were undercover Poldavian PsyOps agents from the start, and this seemed like as good an opportunity as we were going to get. I (cameraman) turned to Dave (producer) and said "Wow, that's a really red antidote." He looked at me curiously, and I stared him in the eye and nodded saying "Have you seen how RED that thing is?". He said "...maybe..." and started shuffling about. I turned then to Dizzy (reporter) and Liam (private security, eating a can of beans during the meeting) and said "That's the reddest antidote I've ever seen!" By this point Dave had strolled behind the drug dealers. I saw his hand go up to be placed on the shoulder of one, so I looked the leader in the eye, poked her in the chest and quietly said "knife kill", giving her a second to realise what had happened. A look of horrified realisation crept across her face and I plucked the syringe and ran as fast as I could out of the camp.

Dave and Dizzy made it out behind me; Liam did too with his beans but due to a dodgy leg and slow start was separated. We trundled past a NAF patrol who ignored us (oh, those wacky civilians, always running around and chasing each other and hastily hiding things in their pockets) and met some mercs we knew, who warned us about a Poldavian position up ahead. We put on the act of "oh dear, we'd better be careful then", waited until they were gone and ran up to the Poldavian-held Strategic Point yelling "Poldavians! Help!".

This was where the scope of the game really hit me. These guys had just signed up for airsoft, not LARP intrigue, but this kind of thing can just happen organically - some crazy guys come running up to you with a dangerous-looking syringe, a far-fetched story, no proof, and demands for an escort with threats that everybody's in a lot of trouble if you don't do what they say, and you find yourself having to make the difficult decision of whether to abandon the points-earning area you're holding and bring them in.

They didn't allow us draw weapons (for all the good two concealed pistols would have done) but they decided something big was happening and brought us in, meeting other Poldavian infantry units on the way until we were being escorted up the main road by practically a full platoon's worth of troops. Holy crap, we thought, but we are the badass super-spies.

First thing the next day we're in uniform, standing guard on the gate in the rain for six hours. Easy come, easy go.

Damo 2k9

That sounds epic!
Any pics ? :P

evilrobotshane

Unfortunately the auto-focus on my little camera crapped out somewhere between Stockholm and Berget, so the only pics of us were taken by other people at my request and I'm waiting for them to get posted to the Berget web-forum. You can bet your ass I'll be showing them here when they're available though, to further educate everyone on how cool I am.

We did shoot a fair amount of interview footage in-character though, which'll be edited into a grossly unbalanced propaganda video. That'll take ages however.

evilrobotshane

sliabh wrote: »

Irish contingent for Berget, calling themselves "The Wild Geese", arrive with their muskets and cause extreme confusion to the organisers...

Three rounds a minute in any weather, baby.

OzCam

Bodyguard fail.

I can promise you if I was playing CPE you wouldn't have got in to see the principal without being searched.

Your choice as to whether you want a "virtual" in-game search, or the full-fat ElAl. :cool:

fasterkayote

arrivee



berget admin and registration tent



berget were here




vehicles






recon photo
rangers base rear




approach to rangers base




sentry duty



platoon leader briefing a mujahedin rangers style



more pics to come as soon as recon intel available..


many thanks to the cork group and the atf, as always very helpful and gentlemen........

Damo 2k9

Sentry duty, on the phone
Deadly pictures, hope to see some more
So jealous i cant go to these events

Ayrtonf7

Is Berget 18+ ?

Lemming

Ayrtonf7 wrote: »

Is Berget 18+ ?

Yes.

ASI Casper

All Swedish airsoft is 18+ due to the laws there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_issues_in_airsoft#Sweden

Ayrtonf7

Maybe its good I have to wait till after my Lc then :rolleyes:

evilrobotshane

The PsyOps undercover team in greens and PsyOps t-shirts in front of the prison camp after the end of the game, with Red Barn's traveling tricolour 2010. From left to right me, Liam, Dave 2000 and Dizzy.

evilrobotshane

There's millions of great photos on the Berget discussion forum, but these are the last two I was waiting for of us - in civvies as the Euronews investigation team, and in greens as PsyOps.

Tomazas

Weel done Shane, was really nice to read your report

evilrobotshane

Because the four of us are involved in a weekly audio podcast about gaming called The Adventuring Party, we recorded a two-parter on our adventures at Berget. Part one is here, part two will be out next Wednesday.

http://theadventuringparty.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=630949

evilrobotshane

The official vid from Berget 8 is up, at last. It's got a bit of our Filipino lads in the NAF 3rd Rangers. The surge of patriotic pride that comes over me when the Poldavians are on the move is mildly concerning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHBRCXXlWnI