I want to thank everyone for coming to the first of the Chernarus Conflict series of games.

Despite the poor weather on the Saturday, it was good to see so many players leaving with big grins on their faces after enjoying themselves so much throughout the weekend.

From an organisers point of view it was certainly one of the most challenging events I have been faced with. From up to a week before the event my luck turned bad; firstly with losing the hostages and having to swiftly find replacements, then learning of the potential Pyro ban on the site, through to discovering that I would not have an in game mortar, large command tents and key personal, such as some of the marshals, admin staff and HQ staff.

But I thought that I had used up all my bad luck until I got stopped on the Friday, travelling to site, unknown to me, carrying access weight. A swift £200 fine and I was then told I could not continue until I got another van to share the load. Not an easy thing to pull off in the middle of nowhere. But we found a van and finally arrived on site 4 hours later than planned.

Of course it did not stop there as my number 2 guy, Brett, had to then take the van back the next day, a four hour round trip. So he was gone from 8am until midday, which caused all kinds of administration challenges. So I apologise if you felt the briefings were a little rushed, but at that point we were seriously under strength.

But by midday we were ready to rock and roll.

And where we had been basking in sunshine most the week, sods law, and on the day of the event, it rains. Some have said how much of a shame it was that we did not have the tanks on fire during the night. We did try, but the wood was far too wet to light.

But as I said during the briefing, if we did not have the rain then the pyro ban would have still been in effect and then we would have not been able to use ANY pyro. I know which one I preferred!

We had some technical issues with BATCOM during the weekend. It was unfortunate that we could not have it set up and ready for game on, but this was one of the jobs for my techie and organiser 2ic but alas he was offsite returning the hire van.

We did find an issue with the Kill Counter, but after some discussions we decided not to spend the time fixing the issue as it would of distracted us from the game. Most unfortunate, but we are confident we made the right decision.

But BATCOM has great potential, and the issues will be ironed out in time for the September game.

The sole purpose of the Chedaki attack was to get to the gold in the bank. The use of the hostages during the day was for the purpose of having human shields to prevent an all out CDF/USMC wipe out.

As it was, all three hostages were killed within a couple of hours when a fragmentation grenade ripped through one of the rooms that held the hostages and killed them all outright.

The gold fell in to the Chedaki’s hands during the early hours of the morning and was kept on the move in the north of the town during the morning until it was extracted at midday.

So because of this, the Chedaki commander achieved his objective and victory goes to the Chedaki. But with the gold only holding a value of £750k, it’s disputable whether the result was worth the loss in life.

I am very alarmed to hear that there was a number of players that did not read the event literature or the rules. A lot of effort has been made to create a set of rules that are simple enough to understand, whilst creating realism within the game. The rules and game scenario are easy to find on the website and should be read by all players before booking for the event. These weekend events are heavily structured and scenario based games, they are not a 24 hour long skirmish games. Our events require you as a player to immerse yourself in the scenario for it to work and that requires you to understand the background to the scenario and the rules we use to implement our scenarios and simulations.

As well as this, BattleSim might be a faster paced game than our TacOps games, but it still endeavours to hold true to the core elements of MilSim. This means that team work is still one of the core elements, and for this reason we have an “Order of Battle” and section commanders with comms that allow communications through to the next level of command. Without this most basic element then the whole backbone of the faction you are fighting for disintegrates and it becomes every man for himself. This goes against everything that BattleSim stands for, and players that cause this to happen can potentially ruin the weekend experience for those players that do try and embrace the spirit of the game.

TA Events will be stamping down hard at future games, as we won’t stand by and let a minority ruin the weekend experience for the majority because of some selfish behaviour.

But on a more positive note, there were a great many players that did play in the spirit of the game and to those, I thank you!

So much as been learned from this experience and measures are already in place to address the short fall of resources and the weighting issues of the transportation to site.

So it was an event full of challenges that were beyond our control, and could never have been planned for. But for the most part, we rose to the challenge and overcame.

But hey, at TA Events, we thrive on challenges and are absolutely determined to make Part 2 of the series absolutely brilliant!

So if you want an end of summer game then look no further – The Chernarus Conflict – Part II

A massive thank you goes out to my number 2, Brett Evans. If it was not for Brett then we might not have been able to make it to the event in the first place. And after being on the road for 9 hours and then spending all evening checking players in, he then did the 4 hour round trip to take the hire van back the next day. All that before carrying out his usual number two support role across the weekend. And then finally enduring the pain of clean up, and keeping me awake during the long journey home.

Steve Hisket & co for excellent marshalls and their dedication to their role during the weekend. A particular thank you goes to Steve for taken on the role of head marshals and for overseeing his duties so professionally. A pleasure to work with, as were all of his guys.

Carl from Sector-6 for the great sound effects and photography. Plus thanks for helping out with all the bits in between.

Team HWM, a special thanks goes to HWM for their handling of the site handover in my absence, their help with the check-in the following morning and attempts at chrono’ing in the wet weather, plus for all the support during the weekend.

Mike Harrison for handling the packaging of the pre-orders and the selling of the pyro before game on. It was a crap task but he quietly got on with it in a very efficient manner.

For Lex and Team Delta Alpha, for the first aid support and the providing of marshals during the late evening and early hours of the morning.

Dave Golik for escorting Brett back with the hire van and then bringing him back to the site afterwards.

To the two main commanders, Mike and Dave, along with all the command elements that supported the main commanders during the weekend.

Dave Manning for providing the command tents and for providing an onsite shop for Airsoft consumables.

Don’t forget to keep an eye on the website for updates about future games.

Until the next time, I wish you happy gaming!

Ian Wermerling