With frame 4 nearly upon the masses, I wanted to say a few words.
This event has been simply fantastic to work on. When Fencer approached me mid summer about running this event, one look told me it was going to be one of the great ones.
Personally, I'd like to thank Fencer for an unbelievable amount of time he put into this creating it in the first place, along with a commendable separation of "Designer Hat" and "Allied CO Hat" during the development of the rules.
It's difficult to both create and lead an event, as you inevitably have a vision of what it "could be" and generally experience some disappointment's as you begin to allow others to come in and fiddle with things. Fencer has done a remarkable job balancing this.
The drive from the onset was for just a bit better than the usual. I think between the design and the leadership on both sides, it has achieved that goal. Granted, the Axis had some difficulty during the event, but the Allied had their share as well. The thing about a good scenario is that things are going to go wrong, people are going to be involved, and often times the frustration and debates add to the realism of the stress that they must have felt back then. It's not always a bad thing. One of the most important things to remember through it all, however, is that we all come out as a closer and stronger community because of the clashes. We are closer to Fester and wish him well even though he was beat up a bit. We admire and respect Stampf and I personally have gotten to know an individual far better than I think I ever would have before the scenario, and am a much richer individual for the experience. I've seen old friends gather that haven't flown together in years, new friends made and a whole new group of people that now have the experience of what a really great event can do for a few hours in a weekend.
We tried a few new things this time out. One of my biggest issues has been how to keep people flying through 4 frames, especially if they are losing. The point of the scenario is totally lost on "points" when, in retrospect, wars have winners and losers, someone has to lose. The thing that we needed to renew was the desire to continue in spite of the situation, inspire people to drive forward despite the odds, despite the conditions, to actually drive people to want to return and try again. It's difficult to inspire that when logs and scoreboards constantly show defeat. So, no logs throughout this event. No one really knows for sure how they are doing. It creates a strong need for communication. Those pesky AARs have a whole new meaning when you really have to think about what occured, and what you might have shot down. The whole process of communicating to your group leaders, and gl's to the CO, creates an environment where each persons AAR matters, and if their AARs matter that much, clearly their attendance and involvement matter. It justifies the overall event far greater than a simple walk on free for all.
Weather that may or may not obscure a target. Recon over the target, calling out conditions, scouts calling out clear or cluttered areas, all things that contribute to a very complex orchestrated fight, and again shows how relevant each persons view, perspective and effort is.
I've been involved in scenarios for quite a few years, and have had the privilege of flying alongside people like Fencer, Guppy, Jordi, Culero (bite me) Filth, GB, Tilt, Flossy and countless others. Quite some time ago, some of the Air Warrior guys didn't have the eye candy graphics we have now. The graphics were pretty sad. I was thrilled with any graphics, as it was a far cry better than rolling the dice in D&D, or typing out commands. But the era that evolved from text games and cheesy graphics had to have a great deal of imagination. That imagination inspired some of the best scenarios I have experienced. The communications, the order of battle, the missions, the strategic maps, the ton of effort that went on behind the scenes to pull off an event, always dreaming "what if" we had the graphics to really pull this off. This event has done that for me. It has pulled together the great imaginations of the old events and coupled it with the incredible graphics of HTCs product. This is the one I've been waiting for, this is the one that has kept me thinking it's worth it to continue working towards better and better scenarios.
So Thank You Fencer for a fantastic design.
Thank you HTC for allowing this volunteer team to play in your sandbox.
Thank you Brooke for running the show.
Thanks to All the Axis COs for hanging in there and keeping things going.
Thanks to the Design Team for hashing out the rules and getting beat up over a thankless job.
But mostly, thanks all the players that have participated in any of the frames and enjoyed it. You are the target audience. You are the reason the CM Team keeps spending our free time on these things.
Enjoy frame 4, put all you got into it, either side can take it.
