"Give them the Bayonet" General JEB Stuart

[m0rp]

I had a blast in the final game we played at the last airsoft OP I attended (at "The Benches" play area). Didn't use my gun once. It was fast, vicious, and very very personal.....(que combat dream sequence music)

Half a dozen or so airsofters sitting around after the last planned scenario is probably a bad thing, and I HAVE PROOF!! There were a few guys playing around with rubber training knives after the last benches scenario and it took me back to my counterstrike days.

Every now and then on a "good" counterstrike server you'd run into a bunch of honorable players and you could call "KNIVES ONLY!" and if everybody was in the mood then the slashing commenced. Inevitably somebody would haul out a DE and cap everybody else but it was always fun while it lasted.

So I called "KNIVES ONLY!"...everybody considered this for a moment. "YEAH!!" somebody said and we all started begging borrowing and/or stealing rubber knives for the game. Actually I was begging for a "bring a knife to a gun fight" game where Andy went out with my tanaka revolver and we hunted him down with "knives". That was taking too much lobbying though.

It wound up being Germany (our airsoft group uses a "country" system instead of teams www.tac4airsoft.com) against the world (must it ALWAYS be this way?). The other team had israel, merc, and ummm...some other. I guess we shoulda called this one "Axis and Allies".

So we go about 200 yards apart and yell "GAME ON!" It was an interesting experience. I wasn't aware of how little attention I paid to close cover until I had to wonder if some guy was gonna pop out and ambush me with a rubber knife. I guess I've got the '50 yard stare' going on.

We met each other head on and two of us watched in confusion as one of our wingmen mounted a singlehanded charge that scattered the "Allies" with our boy in screaming hot pursuit. I recognised the tactical error in chasing down three knife wielding guys on your own and yelled a belated warning. I think I said something like..."dude!", then he was gone. He came wandering back down the trail with a "kill" in tow, but had paid the price I suspected he would and was headed back to the safezone hisself.

A brief whispered discussion as he passed led to the sudden discovery of an extra knife on the trail! Imagine that! Suddenly I was ambidextrously deadly, though still slow and fat.

I still can't figure out why the first guy our team came up on was

a.) By himself.

b.) Looking away from the direction we were coming from.

But we took advantage of that and started a slow rush taking advantage of cover as much as we could. Seeing us before it was too late, he bolted...AND THE CHASE WAS ON! I'm fat and slow so my wingman was way ahead. I tossed one at him from ten freaking feet away as he cut across my path and only managed to get a piece of his shirt (did I mention that I suck at this? yeah I guess I just did) well we were both running and crossing at an angle and there was a LOT of sunspot activity that day and...and...*sigh*.

The usual discussion ensued...

"You're hit!"

"Am not!" (I was really tempted to say "ARE TOO!" and stomp my foot)

"It hit your shirt dude, thats an equipment hit and it counts."

"Oh."

(By this time he and my wingman were circling and looking for openings)

"Ahhh what the heck, go ahead and have your knife fight."
( I hate to see people "die" dissapointed.)

I started walking past them to sit down and watch when I suddenly realised I was standing immediately behind our opponent. I couldn't resist the urge to "slip him a shiv" and tagged him with the point in his right kidney. He said something like "Doh!" near as I can reacall. Ok I'm not fast on whats left of my feet, but I am a sneaky, coniving, opportunistic bastich. YAY!! Sneaky coniving opportunistic bastich YAY!!

It was now down to us two and Paul "elderspy". Now HE led us on a merry chase and made excellent use of cover to try to split us up but my wingman was just a little too fast and I was just a little too smart and we both knew to stick together. A "deadly" combination in this instance that would only end in tears for Paul. Well...I guess it helped that we had him outnumbered two to one...and that I had two knives...ummm...a little. But it was REALLY about how smart and fast we were.........yeah.

He was being hard to find so we resorted to a vicious taunting. "Hey Paul come on out! You can't win! We'll cut you up real nice and serve you with fries!! It's barbecue time!!" That started to make me hungry which somehow seemed wrong so we went back to old fashioned footwork.

We spotted him and gave chase. Well...my team mate gave chase and I gave....support...yeah thats the ticket...support see...until we both wound up standing next to some cover that looked a lot like an elderspy hidey hole to both of us.

After a quick whispered conference we decided to blitzkrieg (we can do that...we're germany) him from two directions. He was right where we thought he was and then ran right where we were hoping he would, into a dead end of thick new growth that used to be a trail. Score one for the benches!! By the time I got there Paul had managed to wing my fellow german who was now forced to fight goofy handed.

They were faced off trying to figure out what was next. I got there and "flipped him off" ( a euphemism I'm coining relative to a regen causing hit using the "flipping" technique I prefer when throwing a rubber knife) and it was all over.

Everybody that participated seemed to enjoy that game!


RESULT: What seemed to work from this "game test" as far as knife rules.


A hit to an extremity: You can't use that extremity. Be it an arm leg whatever.

A hit to the torso: YOU'RE OUTTA THERE!!!

A hit to the head: So far we're calling that a regen. But that doesn't seem terribly realistic. Maybe you could like close one eye or something. Then a second hit means you're blind ergo "dead". Ummm...yeah.

Throwing: Works but make it a "toss" (like underhanded and softish). Same hit scheme as above.

We didn't actually get to try this but it would make sense that somebody should go down without calling a hit if you can tap them on the back with a rubber training knife. this would introduce an element where EXTREME stealth would be rewarded.


Comments?

m

[ThePUNISHER]

wow your first post...and im sooo confused at what youre posting this for? is this an after action report? in which case wrong section

[lt_poncho]

Cool spin on spending some downtime, m0rp - sounds like a lot of fun. Kind of like pistols only in the forest.

[Tankdude]

Nice. Had lots of drama and action in it. I like your idea of the 'silent kill'. Not 'calling' (yelling) out your hit is kinda neat. Don't think too many people yell out that they are dead.......

[Lisa]

Originally Posted by ThePUNISHER

wow your first post...and im sooo confused at what youre posting this for? is this an after action report? in which case wrong section

m0rp is also m0rp84 http://www.airsoftcanada.com/member.php?userid=4362

[ThePUNISHER]

Roger...maybe i dont get the post because im not fond of knives...mainly cause im too big and dumb to use one effectivly

[m0rp]

Oops, sorry about the multiple users. I recall that one wouldn't log in for some reason and I made the other. I'll go back to using the other so as to avoid confusing Punisher.

To answer your ummm....question punisher. I posted it here because I mainly wanted to get comments and suggestions about the use of rubber training knives as game tools. As I wasn't sure how many of the good readers had tried using them, I used the story as a means of conveying the action that was possible.

I can understand your confusion though as it's a long post where the full meaning is attained at the end. Sorry about that.

m

p.s. Shouldn't a "PUNisher" use puns instead of sarcasm? I'm just saying.....

[Lisa]

Originally Posted by ThePUNISHER

Roger...maybe i dont get the post because im not fond of knives...mainly cause im too big and dumb to use one effectivly

Size has nothing to do with it. Basicly it's similar to mercying some one with a few slight modifications.

[swatt13]

hmm, that pretty cool that youve got a bunch of player willing to have fun like that. i like the idea of the rules where you dont use limb that was struck. we use to play paintball way back like that, thats the most fun I can recall having while playing ball.
But the idea of mercy kill with a knive is really cool. that would be a good rule for even sanctioned as events. You cant mercy without a knife (in the case where you have no ammo left), if you dont have a knife and are out of ammo, then you cant engage, you must stealth around. that would be a cool element.

[m0rp]

An interesting idea swatt, thanks. We actually still use our mercy rule though we allow pistols under 20 feet. Eliminating the mercy entirely....hmmm.

EDIT: OOP sorry misread that. OK just no mercying without having the ability to get a hit. Got it.

m