Troops in Contact: The Rionegro Mandate

It's funny how I thought when the event was over my work would be done. I seem to be doing as much this week as last, gathering feedback and explaining what happened.

I need to take a few minutes though to say thanks to some people.

Probably the biggest thanks goes to Shane. I sent out a PM back on February saying "why not", but he was the one who refused to let the idea die and started to gather all the people needed to make this work (who I will come to in a minute). He had a vision of what this could be, and got the people together to make it happen. It was him that turned the talk into an actual movement towards an event. Shane was the driving force behind a lot of the great ideas we used like head gear for unit identification, and embedded marshals. They were unknowns when we tried them but they look like they were very successful. Of course the cynics have also said as he couldn't get to Berget this year, he brought a version of it to him Regardless, ladies and gentlemen please stand and thank Shane.

Thanks next to the gang at Bellurgan park. Eddie, Marko and Paul are probably familiar to everyone, but there are others like Nikki who handled a lot of the initial admin, and the other guys there who's names I have to admit I don't know. They offered us an impressive and challenging site, and they did a huge amount of work in preparation from building structures, to planning, ran the booking and registration process, organised food, first aid (the Red Cross were on stand by, they thought we were all mad), tried heroically to get a pyro licence, built and provided props, got involved in the story and unit organisation, and then ran their bollox off for two days making everything hum. A special thanks is due to Paul who was the invisible co-ordinator between the EMs in the background, and made sure all the story elements came together as planned.

Thanks to the Embedded marshals and other organisers: Thermo, Stonewolf, Lefty, Sennin, Brian, and Gerrowdat who wasn't able to make it despite all the work he did. For a few months we debated rules, story lines, and units to come up with what we thought would have a wide appeal. Then we went off to turn it into something that could actually be played. Stonewolf's work preparing props and material for his Engineers deserves a special mention (he had them actually calculating the co-ordinates for the missile launch to enter into the custom written launch program, and was going out at 0600 on Saturday to plant anti-tank mines on the roads!). Thanks as well to Unsinnig for the website and Warren for the graphical workon the money (the Rionegran pesos you were all spending) and the patch which will be the badge of those who now get to say "you weren't there man, you don't know what it was like".

There is a wider group as well who also deserve thanks for their help, advice and support as we went along. Thank you to Lemming (who came up with the stress positions if you want to know who to curse), Inari, Firekitten, and to Fingal Airsoft, Airsoft Reloaded and Danin who offered us sites before we settled on Bellurgan Park. I apologise now if I missed anyone there.

Finally one last thanks to BigGunner. He is the man who posted a message on boards back in January saying "would be any interest in organising a national event." It could have all run into the sand with the usual ****e, but some people stepped up with a few ideas, and offers of support. The idea refused to die (as it has in the past). That was the seed for what I think was a great event, and hopefully is the first of more.

Unsinnig wrote: »

Money, Poster, Patches. Yes. Website. Nope. Can't claim that one.
And, at the end of the day, it should be me thanking you guys for allowing me a small part in this.
And to everyone else for allowing me to act the mickey over a weekend.
A special thanks to the Penitents for only brapping me in the ass twice (as an aside, I only got shot twice in the full 27 hours). You do the math

Salute!

Ah crap. Apologies. I should have run that past Shane before I posted. Changed now!

Now go back and re-add your thanks

sliabh wrote: »

Probably the biggest thanks goes to Shane. I sent out a PM back on February saying "why not", but he was the one who refused to let the idea die and started to gather all the people needed to make this work (who I will come to in a minute). He had a vision of what this could be, and got the people together to make it happen. It was him that turned the talk into an actual movement towards an event. Shane was the driving force behind a lot of the great ideas we used like head gear for unit identification, and embedded marshals. They were unknowns when we tried them but they look like they were very successful. Of course the cynics have also said as he couldn't get to Berget this year, he brought a version of it to him Regardless, ladies and gentlemen please stand and thank Shane.

+1 on that Seamus - I sent him a text yesterday saying as much. I wasn't sure what I was expecting heading up to Bellurgan on Saturday morning, but it surpassed my every expectation. Though this was far from a one man show, for simply taking the ball and running with it, Shane - fair play.

Sure, there were some issues from certain peoples perspective - but to actually get this game to happen (let alone turn out the way it did) was an achievement. For it to satisfy most people (overwhelming feedback on here seems to be positive) is a miracle.

I know quite a few people who regularly travel across to milsim games abroad who didn't travel up for this (despite it being both cheap and close) as they had very low expectations - lads, you missed out. I hope there will be another game before too long so that you can get involved in Troops in Contact #2!

I am sure that any of the niggles can be worked out - for feck sake, this was the first run/draft!! It would be criminal not to do this again - if you're looking for people to give a dig out in the organisation next time round give me a call, I'll be there (now that I'm finally drawing my 'commute' between Ireland and Switzerland to a close).

Unsinnig wrote: »

Great change. Now to point out that Warren and Unsinnig are me. Ahem.

Right, Shane has corrected me, but I should have remembered anway, Thanks to Cian for the website!

Hold your horses friend, I'm still recovering from the last one ...

IF we do more it's more likely to be yearly than otherwise. I'd like to see other people encouraged by our example to run more games like this. Firstly to advance the hobby in the country and secondly so I can actually play.

ASI Casper wrote: »

with 3 of our squad being from the North and having no mobile Internet access on our phones in the South, and not knowing if there was even a good mobile signal in the forest anyway,

My bloody phone told me I was in a different country at one stage and that roaming was active :pac:
I just thought "jaysus they've gone all out on this to have the park registering a differerent country".

Actually phones were by far the most reliable form of communication on site, the EMs and marshalls made a decision before the game to swap numbers and use phones for our comms net.

Okay, time for a few personal and my final words on this event.

I think the Rionegro Mandate it was a big success. We did have some problems, and I apologise in particular to people who felt the issues took away from them having fun over the weekend. To me that is the most important thing, not who won, or some daft nonsense about "Airsoft" winning. I wanted people to enjoy themselves, and for the most part I think they did.

Personally I had a blast. It was great to be an EM and be able to mix organising the event (which I enjoyed a lot) with being able to get down into the action and even fire a gun from time to time (I think I fired off about 100 bbs for no hits, and got shot twice).

Something like this is made up of moments that fuel pub stories for years to come. Among my three favourites were

• On the hill with my PMC escort, driving them spare as I insisted I needed to get to the top through all the hostiles to make a phone call. We had Penitents behind us, Heavies in front and it was tense as people didn't know whether this was going to turn into a huge shooting match, when suddenly my pistol went off by "accident"
• Sitting in the command tent with Danin on Saturday night after dark, in radio contact with a PMC team who had surrounded a group of 8 Heavies who didn't know they were there. Our team asked for instructions on what to do. Officially we had a ceasefire, but out of sheer badness I gave Danin the nod to order them to take the lot out, provided we could do it without getting identified. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you were a Heavy) a civilian bumped into our guys so we had to call it off, but it just gave this amazing feeling to be the man in control at a distance giving the nod to a squad to go in and do a hit.
• On Sunday going out to meet a delegation of civilians at the edge of our camp and asking them if they had any contact with Subcommandante Marko, and to pass on a message that we had no argument with him and wanted to meet for a chat. Meanwhile 30m behind me my PMCs had finished interrogating the man, and were figuring out how to execute him and stage a photo with his body in such a way to make it look like he had sold out "the people" for a huge amount of cash.

Last thing, will there be another one? I can confirm the team are discussing it. We got a lot of great feedback (keep it coming), and people are certainly asking us to do it again. We had a few problems, which is to be expected when you try out something like this for the first time. But I believe there is nothing that can't be fixed. However there are a few bigger issues like key people moving on, and trying to decide when (this year or next), and even where to do it again. But we will have chat, and see what people think is possible, and what they can sign up for. Hopefully you will hear from the team soon.

Sliabh (call sign "Del Monte") out.


Picture from Jericho and Co.

jeawan wrote: »

Lads would it be possible to a story as to where this leaves Rionegro ? the aftermath etc .

Yes.

What, you want a longer response than that? We are debriefing each other on how each unit did, and will put that into a final report. Which will of course form the start point for Rionegro 2 (if it happens).

sliabh wrote: »

Okay, time for a few personal and my final words on this event.

I think the Rionegro Mandate it was a big success. We did have some problems, and I apologise in particular to people who felt the issues took away from them having fun over the weekend. To me that is the most important thing, not who won, or some daft nonsense about "Airsoft" winning. I wanted people to enjoy themselves, and for the most part I think they did.

Personally I had a blast. It was great to be an EM and be able to mix organising the event (which I enjoyed a lot) with being able to get down into the action and even fire a gun from time to time (I think I fired off about 100 bbs for no hits, and got shot twice).

Something like this is made up of moments that fuel pub stories for years to come. Among my three favourites were

• On the hill with my PMC escort, driving them spare as I insisted I needed to get to the top through all the hostiles to make a phone call. We had Penitents behind us, Heavies in front and it was tense as people didn't know whether this was going to turn into a huge shooting match, when suddenly my pistol went off by "accident"
• Sitting in the command tent with Danin on Saturday night after dark, in radio contact with a PMC team who had surrounded a group of 8 Heavies who didn't know they were there. Our team asked for instructions on what to do. Officially we had a ceasefire, but out of sheer badness I gave Danin the nod to order them to take the lot out, provided we could do it without getting identified. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you were a Heavy) a civilian bumped into our guys so we had to call it off, but it just gave this amazing feeling to be the man in control at a distance giving the nod to a squad to go in and do a hit.
• On Sunday going out to meet a delegation of civilians at the edge of our camp and asking them if they had any contact with Subcommandante Marko, and to pass on a message that we had no argument with him and wanted to meet for a chat. Meanwhile 30m behind me my PMCs had finished interrogating the man, and were figuring out how to execute him and stage a photo with his body in such a way to make it look like he had sold out "the people" for a huge amount of cash.

Last thing, will there be another one? I can confirm the team are discussing it. We got a lot of great feedback (keep it coming), and people are certainly asking us to do it again. We had a few problems, which is to be expected when you try out something like this for the first time. But I believe there is nothing that can't be fixed. However there are a few bigger issues like key people moving on, and trying to decide when (this year or next), and even where to do it again. But we will have chat, and see what people think is possible, and what they can sign up for. Hopefully you will hear from the team soon.

Sliabh (call sign "Del Monte") out.


Picture from Jericho and Co.

Are you really tall or did you bring an army of little people.

..

Deleted - cos I'm feeling nice - that's the only reason though. Otherwise cop the fúck on and grow up.

Leftyflip wrote: »

say it to my face.

This is the interwebs, we are safe on the interwebs

And yeah any word on photos, love checking myself out, I'm supercool like that

The_ChiefDUB wrote: »

Seeing how this has been repeated on the Milsim forum and I am still none the wiser as to what it's about I would like to suggest that if you are going to air your dirty laundry in public, to please do so properly.
I want background, a protagonist that I can relate to, a villain and a challenge that has to be overcome.

The comments are to do a dispute related to the game organisation.

This is between individuals, and I don't think there is anything to be gained (other than further bad blood) from airing it in public. Not that I think it would get settled here anyway.

To the parties concerned, can you discuss this between yourselves, and if you do manage to settle it then you can decide if you want to make some sort of public statement. Otherwise this is not the forum to thrash this out.

And apologies to the mods if this is stepping onto your turf.

<snip. not on topic>