The three factions each have their own requirements, but the first principle is that they are uniforms, and allow identification so you avoid fratricide.
The rules we have are specifically to avoid even accidentally thinking the enemy is a friendly — or vice versa — sometimes based on experience. While mistakes happen and you are under no obligation to tell your opponents who don't shoot at you that they really should be, deliberately looking like the enemy is not an allowed tactic, and is grounds for dismissal.
Ardea
We've started to clarify what uniforms the armies prefer, vs allow. For Ardea the "gold standard" is French CE. That's their current-issue Woodland-like pattern and many clothing items are made, both surplus French issue and commercially. Nice modern stuff.
As an alternative, you can wear anything visually similar or easily confused for CE, including US M81 Woodland, Russian LES, or various commercial clones. That gives you a chance to have dirt cheap USGI surplus, and any of the resurgent cool Woodland stuff available now commercially, or for Marine Raiders, etc.
We also still permit British Woodland Pattern DPM, or any very close copies of it. If not sure of any pattern, ask us but very different shapes in similar colors (like Multicam Tropic) are not permitted.
That's it! As far as strict rules, nothing else. But do remember to not ruin your uniform impression or you may be perceived as cheating, or become fodder for fratricide. For example, if you want to wear a plate carrier, and it's Multicam... that's probably a bad idea. It may even escalate to prohibited because you are covering too much of your body with the color of the enemy.
Different members of that same team in a different situation. The far troop is wearing French CE, but you have to know to look for the difference. Note how there's a coyote brown ruck and OD green LBE. Doesn't matter as the overall impression is Woodland. The pack is, when carried, covered with a CE pack cover to make double sure they are hidden, though.
If not sure, try it all on, get a photo, and ask your chain of command, or just us directly. We'll advise if it is fine, you can get away with it with caveats (e.g. for the plate carrier: only if you keep the LBE on over the top), or is simply No Go. We do this a lot, and often it's easy to shift the impression with some tape, spray paint, or changing a pouch or two only.
GDL
The basic summary of what you can wear as a GDL insurgent is: almost anything you want. You can show up in a clown hat, polka dotted shirt and red pants for all we care. Your chain of command may tell you to go change and certainly no one will want to be anywhere near you but it's not illegal.
You can't however wear a red jumpsuit, because suitability and sanity aside, there are really only two rules:
No matching tops and bottoms.
One piece must be a solid color, non-patterned.
The solid color cannot be OD Green as the Kitoy permits that as a uniform color. All these rules, and if you played GDL before, the changes, are from experience. We don't want you to be un-camouflaged, but when clearly visible we also don't want you to be confused with other forces in a way that seems unfair.
This should still give huge leeway as there are many very good camouflage patterns and colors not issued to the Areans and Kitoy, which this gives you a chance to wear. A common solution is something strange you like on top (tiger stripe, MARPAT, Flectarn...), and solid range or work pants on the bottom.
That means two piece uniforms are also required, though we're pretty loose on what "two piece" means. A camoflaged poncho like a zeltbahn is fine, as long as the pants are different. All in all this is designed to allow you to buy few or no pieces of clothing.
Some typical mismatched example insurgents, but no green pants now sorry.
Grab your favorite outdoorsy clothing, camouflages or not and wear that. I could wear my gray Vertx "jeans," the cheap Italian Vegetato combat shirt, and probably get away with an OD green plate carrier. Non-matching, pretty clearly not Kitoy or Ardean, and I am comfortable with modern technical gear.
Hats? We don't care about hats. Hats are most identifiable by shape. By the second CWG event we realized there was so much helmet use that attempting to differentiate by shape (one side used to be patrol caps, one boonies) was pointless.
I'd wear better shoes, but activewear bottoms, military issue jacket, camouflaged LBE, muted color keffiyeh / shemagh
Camouflage pattern on hats and helmets is not terribly important so for the GDL: wear what you want on your head, or nothing at all. You don't even have to be consistent, and can have your favorite comfortably worn tan baseball hat with the Surefire logo, but switch to a USGI boonie for sun or rain.
Kitoy
Kitoy also has clarifications to preferred patterns, and their "gold standard" is Scorpion W2, or yes OCP, since that's the US issue variant since about 2014 so there's tons of it around here.
As an alternative, Crye® MultiCam™ and related patterns or close copies such as US-issue OEFCP and Scorpion W1, UK-issue MTP, Australian-issue AMCU, Polish-issue Suez, and others with the same basic pattern and color scheme.
We also still permit OD Green or similar solid green colors, partly as we want to allow LFSG to wear their favorite stuff. Any muted greenish color darker than khaki is permitted.
We're not picky about what we mean by "OD Green" so any muted greenish color darker than khaki is permitted.
Three different OD greens (uniform, boonie, LBE) and it looks fine. Everyone would say he's wearing OD green.
Same as for the Ardeans — but assuming you didn't read that if going Kitoy — That's it! As far as strict rules, nothing else. But do remember to not ruin your uniform impression or you may be perceived as cheating, or become fodder for fratricide. For example, if you want to wear a ballistic vest, and it's an old Woodland IBA, that's probably a bad idea. It may even escalate to prohibited because you are covering too much of your body with the color of the enemy.
We don't generally care much about accessory equipment like assault packs. Here is khaki/CB and Pencott Greenzone, and... that's fine. The overall impression is still OD Green.
If not sure, try it all on, get a photo, and ask your chain of command, or just us directly. We'll advise if it is fine, you can get away with it with caveats (e.g. for the plate carrier: only if you keep the LBE on over the top), or is simply No Go. We do this a lot, and often it's easy to shift the impression with some tape, spray paint, or changing a pouch or two only.
From the CWG point of view, we added Multicam a few years ago because hardly anyone incidentally had an OD green uniform, but nearly everyone now has some Multicam; at least some people have showed up with their work uniforms and equipment, just switched to airsoft. From the Kitoy, in character, point of view the army is a third world army in a somewhat eternal transition period, so individual units may have a mix of both uniform types.
Since OD green is official Kitoy uniform, insignia, and brassards are still green, and LBE in green works well with Multicam uniforms as well.
We also have been deliberately loose on mixing these as long as there's a good faith effort to wear matching uniforms. But if you want to wear ODG but your only GoreTex is Multicam, that's permitted. But with the identifier for GDL being mismatch, be very careful if you do this. Think about stuff like MultiCam GoreTex overpants, for example
Dress for the Weather
Much of the plains around here, and especially north-east Oklahoma, is great for training because the weather should see a doctor and take some mood stabilizers. You might see 70's, sunny and humid during the day and freezing rain that very night. Literally.
Operation Swift Fox 2321 - 23 April 2023Force-on-Force FTX, AirsoftD-Day Adventure Park Oklahoma
