For those of you who missed it, from July 15th through the 18th KISM attended Skirmish's Invasion of Normandy. The three of us who made the trip were: Myself, Yeti, and Token. We tried something new this event. We rented a pop up camper. You guys have no idea how well this worked out. Set up and break down was minutes, not hours. Had we had a working generator, we would've had AC as well. It worked out very well.

Let me continue by first saying that Skirmish is an expensive field to attend. To get to the field was very expensive. To register for the game was $65 a player. To buy a case of paint was $80. Food was expensive everywhere we went. Whether we bought the food at the field, or sought out a restaurant or grocery store it was expensive. If we go back, it will be one that people truly have to save for.

We arrived at the field on thursday in the late afternoon, early evening. Got set up in minutes. Had more of an issue finding a spot that wasn't "Super-secret reserved" than we had setting up camp. We actually lucked out. We ended up 4 tents down from our General and in the best spot logistically on the entire premesis. We were right up against our insertion point, we had the porto potties right behind us, paint was not a terrible hike away and we were the second closest group to where the air fills were. Trust me, the air fills were a rediculous distance away.

we were able to catch the vendors setting up the trade show before it was open. Let me tell you, the trade show here was better than DC USPL. The paint was okay. But it was $80 for a case of paint that normally cost $23. Not happy with that at all.

The original plan for us was to hook up with a group of individuals to work on the Atlantic Wall defense, but we were recruited by the PLR and ERSA to hunt down the 101st Airborne and eliminate all threats from the German rear. In less than 20 minutes, the 101st were exterminated from the field. We did an awesome job. From there we moved to the atlantic wall to reinforce our flanks. The game was awesome. Over 1000 players coming at us. It was something you can only fathom if you actually come out to these events to see for yourself.

From there we moved all around the field tearing up the Allies. The Axis controlled the field the entire game. Late Saturday evening, there was an incident that made us decide to not take the field again and not come back to Skirmish until they change their rules.

A player was injured, and the refs called a cease-fire. Not the first one we've seen in our careers. We took a knee, and barrel bagged our guns, and waited. The Allies had someone scream "fornication this Bullshit! CHARGE!!!" and the Allies proceeded to do a HB style run through on the Axis players. The refs did nothing. When asked the ref said he couldn't do anything. At this point the refs lost control of the game. The safety of an injured player was compromised. Our concerns were forwarded to the management through our general. The general offered for us to do base defense during the night game. Token took him up on that offer and had a blast. Yeti and I stayed at the camp site and BS'd around the camp fire. We packed up sunday morning and left.

The final score was the Allies won by 7 points. Even though we had them cornered the whole game in their base, they got more mission points by buying props from the french. go figure.

I've been approached by multiple people about what side we will be playing for this event. After careful consideration and doing my own research into the event and the inner workings of the beach landings, I have decided we will be playing on the German side of this Invasion of Normandy scenario.

My reasons to come to this were for two big ones. First, look at the dynamics of the beach landings. There are hundreds or thousands of people pouring into the beach landing area on the allied side. If you're in front, the people behind you are pushing you forward. You will inevitably get shot. It's how the beach landings work. to get out you can't just walk straight back. too many people moving up. you have to walk laterally and around to find an opening to move back. you will be walking perpendicular to every firing lane on the beach landing area. you will get lit the fornication up. Tempers will flare, and people could get hurt. Not a terribly great idea. I wouldn't be looking out for my players if I didn't consider that. Second, looking at the internet threads that are floating around, all of the immature teams are playing on the allied side. The more mature and honorable teams are going German. Anyone remember NJ Nam 09? or how about Stalingrad this year? The immature teams will do as they do and cheat. I don't want that to be even a question of association for our team. We will play on the German side with better teams and start in a defensive position. I will be working on borrowing a FD air cylinder or two with regs hooked up like when we had it at NJ Nam 08. We can make that happen easily. We can really work this well.

We will be traveling up either two days or the day before the event starts and setting up camp. We will be camping. There are no motels/hotels within a reasonable driving distance. It's in BFE PA. There are no shower facilities on site. There is food on site though.

24-hour scenario game.  $59.95 per person, pre-registered by 6/23/10 .  If you bring 20+ players, the group discount is $54.95 per person pre-registered. Late Registration is  $80.00 per person for those that register after June 23rd!  FREE N2 air fills!

our newest member joined with the intent to provide an RC helicopter to utilize wireless cameras. I still don't know about the choppers though. That's an expensive investment for him if it gets broke running our recon missions, but would be pretty kick bum. He's a good 4-6 months away from being confident enough with this larger chopper to fly it based off what he would be seeing by camera. and of course we'd have a camera pointed straight down. I'm still convinced that we should have an RC blimp. The loiter time is where we want it, if the bladder fails it doesn't just drop from the sky like a chopper would. but we're looking at all options. without building the blimp ourselves it's lots of money to buy one that will work outdoors. Like I said though, I'm gonna take the trip out to OACC and the other fields in the area that run scenarios and plot them out with my GPS to put on the map. So at least we have an accurate map of the fields we play. I'll have to wing it when we go to NJ Nam and wander the field boundaries the day before and try to upload to a laptop then. We'll have a kick bum map not this nam, but maybe this year's russian front for that field. I foresee us playing OACC more often than not though.

that is kick bum… dude… let me know if you need me to do anything… I can get into this and the UAV lol… if, no one else wants to, I don't want to take someones job

the coolest part about this mapping program is it's ability to connect to the internet and update it every three seconds. this was done with the intention that people would have smart phones on them somewhere that have a downloadable program provided by the map maker. it sends a GPS "ping" every three seconds. this registers on the map and shows the players location and updates it every three seconds. only downfall is not everyone on the field is carrying a smart phone, nor would they want to if they're gonna crawl through some nasty mecrob. but it's not a bad idea for tanks, anti-tank crews, engineers, medics and other special players so we know where our specific assets are. This guy even has a web-based page/program that he put together that allows multiple cameras to be streamed at once. This was intended for helmet cams. he even went out and found the cameras. Not only could you track them on the field, but if they carry the heavy camera set-ups you can see what they're seeing.

darn… combine that with the UAV and both sides will be wantin KISM to come out and team up

I have purchased a GPS unit that I can plot the field with. Along with the software provided by a resource I have found, we can map out the field with +/- 2 ft accuracy. We can take that and make large prints of the field map or we can grab a cheap laptop to use. We're one step closer to having a decked out logistical solution for our Generals.

I wasn't knocking you, you did a really awesome job and I'm looking forward to seeing you and B on the field at the same time. If a group of us can make Westpoint, that would be an awesome event to take pics/video.