Milsim Badlands is a new para-milsim event in the airsoft community. Initially, it was advertised with ambitious plans, arousing mistrust among many people and also associations with the infamous Falkenhorst event. Was it so? I took a chance and got to know the answer and now I would like to share my thoughts with you.
Convoluded beginnings
Let's face it - despite several years of my presence in airsoft, for various reasons I can not say I am experienced in the subject of mil-sims. Therefore, when there was an opportunity to participate in a somewhat locally organized event, I decided to take it. Of course, rumors have come to me that you do not know who organizes the event and that this may be another Falkenhorst, but ultimately I decided to take a chance. I must admit, however, that the closer they were to the deadline, the more the actions of the event's organizers were becoming more alarming. There was no list of registered participants, or even their number, no rules, no account for payments. It really aroused (not only mine) serious doubts. This was mainly because the information noise around Badlands was huge. At event's fanpage, something new appeared every few days, but those were such things as e.g. the storyline and other not really important information. When the regulations finally appeared, it turned out that it was so extensive that basically, even in spite of a careful study, it is impossible to remember it. 22 pages of rather intricate rules are really too much.
Badlands - map of the game area.
Photo: Grzybi
When we add to it any further amendments, changes regarding HPA powered replicas, no information about registering payments for the event, registration at a public forum, not giving the password to the closed forums due to the potential transfer of teams to the opposite side of the conflict, no commander on the side of the State Liberty and finally, the biggest bomb, a questionnaire that lasted for less than a day (!) regarding a serious change of rules or change of the game area from Silesia to Włocławek (some 250 km apart in a straight line!!), a week (!!!) before the planned mil-sim date. All this is probably enough to give you the idea of the chaos created before the event.
Finally, due to the withdrawal of the local forest superintendent's consent for the organization of the event in Silesia, the organizer decided to move it to the area of Jazy near Włocławek. Some of the teams decided not to come and for many that did arrive it meant the need to add many more kilometers to reach the site. For the organizer it resulted in the necessity to organize the event from scratch, in just a few days!
Badlands - briefing
Badlands Milsim
The briefing was scheduled for 17:00 at a fairly large parking lot, with the "Baba Jaga" bar next to it (which I recommend). As it usually happens, the whole ordeal dragged significantly. A large part of the players did not arrive, it was necessary to mark the vehicles and the organizer explained the highly complicated regulations and changes that occurred as a result of changing the location of the event (mainly regarding the destruction of vehicles). Finally, at about 19:30, the State of Liberty side was the first to travel to the nearly 30km2 game area in buses rented by the organizer and two in-game cars belonging to the participants (a Land Rover Discovery of the BDSM69 team and a Honker with the 5.95 team markings). The site of the Federation of Volga was to be transported immediately after Liberty. The partisans and civilians (LARP participants) were already at the game area.
Badlands - Liberty vehicles
Photo: Leśny Bat
The account of the BDSM69 team member, the State of Liberty side
20:10 - the Liberty side has landed at a predetermined FOB location. There was a Toi-Toi toilette waiting, unfortunately placed directly next to a busy road, which, to put it mildly, was not very favorable. Also, the surrounding area, unfortunately, did not create the possibility of secretly establishing a camp. At that moment, Rogi took the actual command over the Liberty forces. The camp was set up on a hill, some 200 m north of the road, from where it was not visible. The Toi-toi was placed in the nearest ditch and masked. According to the assurances of the organizers, until 20:40 there was no risk of contact with foreign forces.
Badlands - the watch. The Toi-Toi can be see on the left.
Photo: Leśny Bat
Around 21:45, the Landroverem Discovery set off to the first task with a part of the BDSM69 team. Around 22:10, the first 2-3 men watches were set up in the following directions: North, East, South and West. In the so-called meantime, a group of beleaguered State of Liberty soldiers found their way into the already set up camp and focused on erecting their own tents, not caring for discretion, unfortunately.
Around 23:40, during the watch at the first (Northern) station, the presence of an enemy vehicle was heard. Before 1:00 am an enemy attack on FOB belonging to the State of Liberty took place. Opponents, equipped with optoelectronic devices, easily eliminated subsequent soldiers of the Liberty faction, unsuspecting an attack on the first night, in addition at such an early hour. The technological advantage and the element of surprise had devastating effects. It is worth noting that at that moment our side of the conflict had only 3 night vision devices and no thermal imaging devices (the only one was mounted on the Honker and quickly excluded from the battle, and was otherwise completely useless inside the camp). After the first wave of the attack, despite the considerable actions taken by the medics, only 8 soldiers capable of fighting remained on the Liberty side. Not without significance was the fact that of a basic shortages in supplies. There were no bandages and drips, only a very unimpressive amount of "blood for transfusion" was available. The remaining units were sent back to their posts, which unfortunately did not seem like much. The general assault lasted about 1 hour and ended with the takeover of the FOB by the NPL and the liquidation of almost all Liberty units.
Badlands - Liberty FOB
Photo: Grzybi
The next day, between 08:00 and 09:00, the Liberty forces were by reinforced allied units recruited from the local forces of the Republic of Slavia (in practice, this meant the respawn of Liberty players, but they were no longer allowed to wear patches of this faction). This was made possible by taking back the FOB's by the last two (!) Liberty soldiers who survived the night attack in accordance with the rules of simulation. A short investigation showed that the cause of the night fight failure was caused by the late arrival of participants of the Liberty forces who did not hide their lights and, thanks to a bit of luck, were noticed by the forces of the Federation. At that moment, some of the forces went using the Honker to a remote area of the game field to perform their task (unfortunately, I do not know the details).
Badlands - medical aid for a Liberty soldier badly injured during an attack on a village
Photo: Leśny Bat
Before noon, small Liberty force was directed to find a satellite transmitter. Most units divided into regular and mechanized infantry took over a civilian village, where a small opponent's resistance was encountered and neutralized, with minimal own losses. During the stay in the village, the simulation was halted locally for several minutes because of a misunderstanding with the forest ranger, fortunately, it was quickly explained.
Badlands - Federation forces attacking Liberty FOB
Photo: Leśny Bat
Then, at around 14:00, a return to the camp was ordered, where it turned out that it was again taken over by the forces of the Volga Federation, and Liberty faithful units returning to to were eliminated. However, the Federation forces had trouble finding Liberty operational plans, which should be in the headquarters, and for reasons that were not explained, they were missing.
At the express request of the staff of the Volga Federation occupying the Liberty FOB, the corpses with the destroyed offgame vehicles were headed to the civilian village, and waited for two hours wait for the arrival of reinforcements.
Badlands - the civilian village at dawn
Around 16:00, the Liberty units left the village to search for the Federation FOB. Along the way, the forces moving using one of the vehicles were shot at by an anti-tank weapons, however, due to the lack of visible traces from the inside, they decided to rush out of the vehicle, thanks to which they quickly destroyed the NPL's forces. A search of the bodies of the Federation soldiers made it possible to determine the probable location of the opponent's base. The Liberty forces in the amount of 2 vehicles, went to search for it but, unfortunately, the action was not successful. They only managed to confirm that the opponent is probably in the area, but the exact location of the base was not determined.
Badlands - Liberty patrol near the village
While returning to the base around 18:00, the Liberty forces in the vicinity of the civilian village encountered a small number of Federation soldiers, whose were broken forces in the rapid attack (though not completely eliminated) without the attackers taking any losses. Due to the counterattack on the village by the forces of the Federation, a retreat to the FOB of the Liberty troops was ordered, where after a quick regrouping of the forces, an attack on the village was carried out. The Federation carried out an ambush along the way, however, an ordinary grenade was not able to destroy the Liberty cars, and the anti-tank weapons were not hitting accurately (i.e. in the front or side windows). Due to the temporary cease of activities in the vicinity of the village (because of an issue needing to be resolved) and numerous enemy forces occupying the main road, the Liberty troops decided to withdraw using a loner but safer route. Passing the village from the opposite side, the BDSM69 team, having previously contacted the forces of the Slavi guerrillas (which was attempted several hours earlier to no effect) decided to sneak into the village. The partisans' forces present there agreed to help the Liberty forces, seeing them as an ally against the aggressors of the Volga Federation. In exchange for supplies, the partisans gave the Liberty parts of the satellite transmitter, the location of the opponent's FOB and set the time of a joint attack. It is worth noting that the partisans, several hours earlier, carried out their own successful attack on the Federation camp.
During their stay in the village, the area was taken over by the elite units of the Federation. The Liberty forces decided to escape, which due to the technological advantage of the opponent, could not be implemented in a concealed form. Escaping as quickly as they could, the faithful Liberty Slavians managed to transfer their resources to their colleagues, but died while trying to stop the enemy so that their vehicle could not be destroyed.
Around 22:00, another group of reinforcements coming from the village arrived at the Liberty FOB. There were not many Liberty soldiers able to operate in the camp, which resulted from the last battle with the forces of the Federation that had just ended. Liberty managed to fend off the attack that started around 21:30 thanks to the separation and encirclement of the attacking enemy forces, which caused chaos in their ranks, enabled the destruction of their vehicle and neutralized the technological advantage.
After joining with the reinforcements from the village, the time of the attack on the Federation FOB was set at 03:00. In the meantime, there was an unexpected change of plans and only three teams of Liberty forces left in the Honker from their FOB at 1:00 am heading towards the village, where after 2:30 Liberty units, in the amount of 2 cars, carried out a rally on the enemy camp that was just getting ready to go to sleep. The raid into the center of the Federation FOB and focused fire from the Honker caused confusion in the NPL's ranks and, despite finally breaking of the attacking forces, the abilities and morale of the Federation forces were seriously weakened.
Badlands - Honker used by the Liberty
Photo: Leśny Bat
In the morning around 6:00, the Liberty carried out another attack on the Federation camp, which was to take place together with the partisans. Unfortunately, due to communication problems, the joint attack failed. The partisans, however, proved themselves to be able to eliminate most of the enemy's living units, and the Liberty forces mopped up the rest.
Before 9:00, the Liberty forces were ordered the last task of taking over containers with chemical weapons. However, due to the lack of human and hardware resources, it was not carried out.
It was de facto the end of the mil-sim, from that moment the players began to tare down the camp and go to the parking lot. Because the briefing stretched beyond the time initially scheduled for 10:00 at the end of the event, some players, including the author of this text, decided to set for their homes.
What worked and what did not?
The players of all parties involved were great. Despite several disputable situations (most often related to the complex and not quite clear regulations, changed several times, including during the briefing) they were able to get the event going on their own. The main problem were the complicated regulations and the lack items required by it (bandages, drip, wound cards, blood for transfusion).
Badlands - donating blood for transfusion
Another downside was (at least in the initial phase of the game) the low number of participants, which meant that there were to little people compared to the tasks at hand or even to effectively secure the FOB security. A grim joke was the Toi-Toi standing in the middle of the road and indicating a mile the location of the Liberty camp (in the Federation FOB , luckily, it was placed in a more hidden area). The height of the mushroom season was also a major drawback. The number of mushroom pickers walking in the woods was simply absurd. The size of the game area was also a problem. While the sides of the triangle whose points were the Liberty FOB, the village and the Federation FOB were less than two kilometers apart, the whole area was really huge and going back to the parking lot on foot would be a very big feat. Fortunately, the drivers of the Land Rover and the Honker did not waste time and with great dedication carried the players, thus giving up participation in part of the campaign. Suffice it to say that on the Honker on Sunday morning, 19 people were loaded up. However, people who did not manage to get a ride certainly felt a bit disappointed.
Badlands - transportation with the Land Roverem
Photo: Leśny Bat
On the Liberty's side, the problem was also the lack of one commander selected before the game (instead, this function was performed jointly/in rotation by three people), which caused some confusion. From what I could find about the Federation's side, the situation was also not perfect. Fortunately, the weather was good, there was no rain and the temperatures were quite pleasant for this time of the year (especially at night) which clearly helped the participants. Moreover, it was not too hot, thanks to the water provided by the organizers. A huge plus was also the presence of the "Baba Jaga" bar at the car park, where you could eat really good food at an attractive price. If one got to the parking lot, as I have already mentioned, it was difficult due to the distance.
The verdict
Was it worth it then? From my perspective I can say that definitely yes! Of course, fanatics of more hardcore mil-sims can nag bout the respawn and the overall mechanics of the game, but nevertheless, the whole thing was quite well thought out and had a decent story behind it. There were a lot of organization shortcomings, but considering that for reasons beyond the organizer, they have created an event from scratch in just a few days, it is completely justified in my opinion. Most of the shortcomings were the fault of rushing things and changing the place of the game. It can certainly be said that comparing Badlands to the infamous Falkenhorst is extremely unfair. Intruder (the organizer) did a really great effort to make the event happen, and given the circumstances, he did an outstanding job.
Ultimately, the Badlands were supposed to be a series of events in which the rules would were to be connected between each edition. This year, for many reasons, the full potential of the event was not used, but what will happen next time? It is definitely worth observing the topic to see for yourself!
