Operation Silent Vigil

The air was thick, and the sun was blazing down upon us in the Vermont highlands, but we didn’t care. We had a war to fight.

I have to say, I had an absolute blast. GMSOG definitely a GREAT field. The crew is great, real friendly. There’s Tiger, his wife Cate (GREAT FOOD CATE!), Bear, and so many other great guys running the show.

Since there were only 37 players, we only played on the northern half of the field, which was more than enough space, let me tell you.

Now, obviously, as their first op, there were a few rough spots to iron out, and I’ll cover some suggestions later, but all in all, it was well done. Initially, it was going to be a story driven op, with two sides and a bit of scripting here and there. Now I have to say, Fearless Leader (the leader of my side of the op, the Borovians (Green Team)… sort of a russian satellite nation spin off) was hilarious, that execution scene was PRICELESS…

As the game went on, it devolved into an all out-no-holds-barred forest battle. West of the Borovian CP was a hill. The most intense fighting occurred here as the other side, the Republic of Vergeland (Tan Team) flanked around a large open field, and that was the easiest way to our CP. It was a long, arduous climbing battle, and many other skirmishes broke out as we vied for control of the high ground.

And then, something even more epic occurred. We had lunch. Cate, I have to say, is an amazing cook. For five bucks, you got to choose 2 out of three options, Cheeseburger, Chili, or a Hotdog. I’m going back just for the food

I had to bug out after lunch, I had some things to attend to, so I missed the last half of the op. But what I was there for was fantastic.

The terrain was really cool. The part of the field we played on was very hilly, with plenty of brush and trees for cover. There were also large clearings LOADED with tall grass, which makes for some excellent gameplay. There were 2 creeks in the area which also created some nice terrain breaks. Creating the southern border of the game area was a small river. This river divides the field in half, and I can only imagine what kind of game elements it would introduce if we were using the whole field. Also, I did like Green’s Command Post. It was made up of five or six foxholes and a few large dugouts. It could use some more fortification, but it was good for a first time.

As I mentioned earlier, there were a few problems, but they were minor, and mostly of a technical nature, nothing that interfered with game play. That impressed me, since usually, the first time in ANYTHING has something major go wrong. So I have only a few suggestions. My first is timing. We inserted into our CP and had really no time to break up into squads and familiarize ourselves with each other and the area. I’d plan in some extra time to set up next time around. Also, there was no real mission brief, we kinda went in blind and watched the ‘story’ unfold from the field. I, personally, would have liked an actual brief of mission, with a map and where exactly we were going and what we were doing, instead of being led around for the first bit of the op. This will be even more important once the whole field is used, since it is HUGE. There was a noticeable lack of coordination during the whole op, since we had no overall plan. It was still a great op, there were just those few things I thought that could be improved upon.

There was also one other thing that I thought was great. GMSOG has full rental packages and is not too strict about uniforms. They have proper color tops that they hand out for free, to make it easier to bring new players into the fold. My bud got a rental package to supplement his spring sniper, and I took a look at it. It was a SOLID package for $45. He got a web gear, 4 high cap mags, 3000rds, and an M16A4 with Sight. He also could have chosen a Suppressed M4. The rental guns were all of the Classic Army Sportline series, so they performed rather well. It’s a great way to get new players into the game with out having them break their wallets right off the bat.

All in all, a great op, a great field, and great people. I had a great time, and so did my bud. We will definitely go back for other ops, and we will bring more people. I highly recommend this field for both newcomers and experienced pros. 8.5 stars out of 10