Operations and Logistics

Let's start talking about some of the things that really differentiate CWG events, and how working with them can help you be successful — and improve the immersion of your squad – throughout the event.

So far we've been talking a lot about the guns, uniforms, load bearing gear, and packs you'll be carrying in the field. But there's one piece of gear that's almost unique to CWG events, and is so important you'll spend a lot of time figuring out how to get and move them around. Ammo cans.

Like many MilSim events these days, we issue ammunition. But after you load the mags on your body, the rest has to be carried in realistic-sized ammo containers. That little spare bag of 750 BBs is going to sit in a steel ammo can until you stick them in magazines. You cannot carry many of those on a pack, and probably won't want to carry even one of them with you all the time.

We also issue different weights of pellets. But you don't get to simply choose which one you shoot. Instead, different guns get different ammo. The Ardean 7.62 rifles will be issued heavier pellets, so can slightly out-range the lighter-weight pellets in the Kitoy M16s and M4s. While rifles use dark pellets so you have to actually aim the gun with sights, machine guns all use "tracer" (white and glow-in-the-dark) heavy pellets, so have better range and can be driven onto the target more realistically.

What this means is you cannot switch ammo around or steal enemy ammo (by rules, as well as the annoyance of re-hopping each time) and have to resupply your squad with the proper ammunition for each of their weapons. This takes time, weight, volume and people to move, cache and distribute. Just like a real army has to do.

This is the sort of thing we mean when we talk about how our war gaming events are a bit different from conventional milsim. You have to pay attention to these operational details to be successful.

You can easily loose battles by not being resupplied right, or miss them entirely while you run around resupplying when you should be patrolling, or defending. The battlefield isn't going to be safe, so you won't be able to send one guy off with a pack for more ammo, as he might get ambushed. The few vehicle drivers know this, so won't just happily send you supplies without an armed escort. You will need to plan for all movement very carefully.

Don't think it's just BBs. Everything is like this, really. If you want a reload for your rocket launcher -- and it can be reloaded in the field at all, single shot weapons are single shot! -- then you have to carry something as large as a rocket reload with you all the way from the resupply depot at the Casualty Collection Point. If you run out of medical supplies, need more water, or simply need to get your people resurrected from the CCP you need to take the time to arrange that, so you remain combat effective.

And don't forget that everyone else has the same problems, so if you watch the enemy carefully, you'll see them withdraw when they get low on ammo, or split their force to send soldiers back for more supplies. Thinking how you can take advantage of that — or sharing with HQ so everyone and use the info — is how you can defeat the enemy. Intelligence, information, planning, coordinating and logistics win wars much more than simply shooting well, or shooting more.

If you want to carry around the little bag of BBs in the photos, you have to carry it in the steel ammo can we will provide. For 7.62 rifles and all machine guns, 750 pellets go into a .30 caliber ammo can, and for 5.56 rifles 2,500 fit in the much larger .50 caliber can.

You also cannot carry around spare 40 mm projectiles, but you can carry all the complete, loaded 40 mm shells you want. And you can only carry 4 or 6 mags on your load bearing gear, but can move and carry as many loaded rifle magazines (loose in your pack or in bandoliers) as you want.