TG Minicamp AAR

[ABRA]

First thanks to the inaugural guinea pigs: Skullcrack, James315, and Percu were the ones there at 8. Thanks to Strikefear for leading his excellent tutorial on the Air Support SOP. And thanks to the others who showed up later, strag, whiskeysix and anyone I'm forgetting.

The first minicamp was wildly successful in that it didn't really run as smoothly as I'd like and illuminated to me some areas that need improvement. That was my intention for this dry run and it worked even if it didn't provide the most exciting and instructive experience for our little guinea piggies. I hope they have faith to give it another try and aren't scared off by this under-whelming first minicamp.

If you participated tonight could you give your most brutally honest feedback, what you'd like to see improved, and what NEEDS to be improved for you to keep coming back to the minicamp.

In the meanwhile here are the things I took away from the first minicamp. With 20/20 hindsight obviously some should've been anticipated but I got the admin status on the scrim server only a few hours before we went live so hopefully the impromptu nature of this first run won't be the norm.

-Design practice and drill plans with the EXACT number of participants in mind. Have drill plans for ever possible number of players.

-server setting tweaks: quick respawn time, no map timelimit

-have a more specific script for what I need to say for between-drill explanations

-only spend time practicing topics that the players will learn better in an artificial practice rather than in a live game on the public server. I.e. time spent practicing infantry point-and-shoot is better spent on the pubbie server than in minicamp. Time sorting our your airstrike SOP binds is time better spent in the minicamp.

-There is the issue that this is a game, a thing which is usually fun, whereas study and practice are generally not considered such. That's the nature of working to improve our game to a level we enjoy more. I wrote a big long explanation about why I think that that was basically me convincing myself so I'll spare you. But suffice to say, if you show up at the minicamp, you desire to work toward a higher level of play. That being the case I'm going to let myself off the hook for not making it as fun as the game itself as long as I am providing a minicamp that enables you to improve your game as both a player and a teammate.

-Counter-intuitively to that last point on making the camp fun I think it needs more structure and discipline. Not to say my guineas were undisciplined. Quite the opposite, as an instructor I felt undisciplined. So from now on I think I'll run it more like a sports practice or a military bootcamp. Line up and run this drill until I say stop. All the players run a generic warm-up drill while we wait until more players arrive. That sort of thing.

-Another issue is that the instructors aren't necessarily any better players than the participants. I wanted to combat this by having the drills themselves do the teaching through practice and learning from past mistakes and such. But I realized that would only really teach the fundamentals. So to go beyond that, I think what the minicamp needs to focus on is improving player's macro-play. Teaching players to react to the movements of their teammates in the most advantageous way possible in the absence of SL orders.

Example: Right now a medic sees a squadmate take damage he drops him a medpack. Simple, no SL involvement, it's just what you do. Ideally with practice more sophisticated squadmate interactions could take place along similar, instinctive lines. For instance something that is not commonly automatic right now is for a support kit to resupply an assault kit after he uses his smoke grenade. I'd like to see support kits flock to smokers like medics to corpses.

Example 2: Right now when a player's squadmate fires, the common reaction we see is that the player looks where his mate is firing and drops prone and fires in the same direction. Through practice we could develop the instinct to sprint to the flank of the target and THEN engage(as some of our members already have) . More elaborately this could evolve into ad hoc squadmate field pairings, formations, and reflex contact formation maneuvers.

-There exists a tension between the 1337 and the 1355 1337 in the minicamp. Drills need to be designed asymmetrically so that the 1337 can fulfill a role in the drill that allows them to grow instead of being bored doing the same basic thing that the 1355 1337 find challenging. This is perhaps the greatest challenge in designing drills. Drills need to be self-sustaining anyway and allow for participants to cycle between roles to ensure they all attain the lessons taught in each role. But when using participants of different skill levels, when they cycle the drill breaks down because a drill design that before had their skills in balance now suddenly becomes imbalanced.

I've got a lot of work to do and look forward to hearing your suggestions.

[munchkin]

I feel so bad for missing this! Curse ye, school! I'm especially interested to see how the new instinctive methods will develop.

Also, will this continue to take place on a Monday? If it stays as is, I'll probably miss the next one

[Strag]

For the time I was present, I thought things went pretty darn well. StrikeFear did a tutorial on his Airstrike SOP, and then gave us all the opportunity to practice using it (on ABRA ), both with dry runs and with live runs. Things like this, IMO, are what the minicamp is ideal for. These are things that involve cooperation and coordination across the various groups within TG (air squads and ground squads, for example), and the minicamp provides an opportunity for instruction and practice across these groups. If StrikeFear was willing, maybe Airstrike SOP tutorials could be done once a month at the minicamps so that more players could become familiar and comfortable with it.

In general, I think one of the minicamp's main strengths would be in getting various squads together for intersquad practices. IMO, it's really time that we started doing this. We could incorporate multiple facets, from doing tutorials and run-throughs of intersquad comms, to coordinating armor and transportation between squads, to discussing and practicing multi-squad attack and defense of objectives. In short, we could have true discussion and practice of combined squad maneuvers.

Perhaps the minicamps could even be scheduled so that two different squads would show up on a given week. For example, the 42nd and the 7th could show up one week and practice together. Another week, the 1stMIP and the 2nd could practice together. This could help squads to become much more familiar with one another, which will make us stronger as an overall team. As time went on, maybe the minicamps could be expanded to include more (or all) squads, so that we could have multi-squad wargames. Just some thoughts....


Anyway, thanks for putting on the first minicamp. I wasn't planning on attending because I thought it was filled, but when I saw an open spot I hopped on. I'm glad I did!

[Steel_Penguin]

Sorry i couldn't be there.I signed up but I caught a cold and had to lie down. I'll be there next time.

[Drizzid]

First off thanks Abra for taking this monumental task head on. But, something I would like to say is.....This minicamp is for ALL of TG. If this becomes, what it has the potential to be, it will make TG even stronger as a gaming communtiy. People have been talking a lot about burn out in BF2 and saying it's because of the maps. I don't think that's entirely true, I think it's also because the influx of newbs like myself and others that are not up to speed on TG tactics has taken some of enjoyment out of the game for the veteran TG'ers. Essentially what I am getting at is paticipating in the minicamp whether you know everything or not can benefit everybody. If your a guinea pig or student do your best to help Abra make this thing work with some participation and patience.

ok now on topic sorry. Abra I wasn't there for the actual minicamp but was there just before RL had to happen so I had to miss it. We did some one on one stuff and you gave me some grest tips and advice which paid off. I was kicked for a SM and when I got back on later in Oilfields I had one of my best games. My accuarcy improved and my overall points improved. I was playing AT and had more kills with horrible machine gun than the rocket launcher. Even got my first knife kill wooo-hooo. So I just wanted to say thanks for the time and help. You did great!

[Strag]

Originally Posted by Drizzid

.....This minicamp is for ALL of TG. If this becomes, what it has the potential to be, it will make TG even stronger as a gaming communtiy. People have been talking a lot about burn out in BF2 and saying it's because of the maps. I don't think that's entirely true, I think it's also because the influx of newbs like myself and others that are not up to speed on TG tactics has taken some of enjoyment out of the game for the veteran TG'ers. Essentially what I am getting at is paticipating in the minicamp whether you know everything or not can benefit everybody.

Great points, Drizzid. Maybe there could be a "TG Learn" portion of the camp every week as well, perhaps at the beginning of the evening. Then, some in-house squads could come on for the second half of the camp for their discussion and practice, and the newer folks could stay on (if they wanted) to learn and participate. (This would also be a good way for the in-house squads to observe prospective recruits.)

[James315]

Originally Posted by Strag

In general, I think one of the minicamp's main strengths would be in getting various squads together for intersquad practices. IMO, it's really time that we started doing this. We could incorporate multiple facets, from doing tutorials and run-throughs of intersquad comms, to coordinating armor and transportation between squads, to discussing and practicing multi-squad attack and defense of objectives. In short, we could have true discussion and practice of combined squad maneuvers.

Good idea. I think the minicamp would benefit from having a larger number of players so we could practice things like rapid deployment from the SL and massing ATs against enemy armor. We did a good job on an exercise handling how to deal with enemy jeeps zipping through but I'd also like to see a mix of armor and infantry on defense.

We should do practices like this until it becomes instinctive for defenders to sweep through and hunt down the enemy SL. I've noticed lately that people are doing the SL-stay-behind tactic more on Server #1 where before the SL did more to lead the charge. On a number of occasions our defenders have been surprised by multiple waves showing up even after recognizable SL names have been killed.

On the attack side, I'd like to see it become more of a reflex to delay spawning and rapidly deploy, ATs dogpiling on the enemy armor and everyone jumping on the flag ASAP without as much fear.

[StrikeFear]

TG squads should come up with something that they do that they are willing to share with the rest of TG - and then share it at the camp.

The 531st wants to make it easy for everyone to request air strikes, for example. We can demonstrate how to request, and for pilots that want to be more involved, we can instruct on the technical issues of receiving them, and give tips on executing them on time and under fire.

The 42nd has done some excellent work with creating a vocabulary and a set of basic maneuvers (flank, bracket, break) which we could demonstrate. Other squads could observe this and take away from it whatever they want to incorporate in their own tactics.

If each squad can bring one tactic and a few instructors/participants to the table, we can "share the love."

Here's my AAR, reposted from this thread
http://www.tacticalgamer.com/battlef...nea-pig-2.html

Originally Posted by me

This was a great camp tonight!

I was late due to RL stuff - so I don't know what they covered before.

But when I popped on, the guys were practicing defense against a vehicle blitz attack on the flag - the sort of thing we saw MA do pretty effectively with fast, small vehicles.
The emphasis was on the defenders taking the vehicle out before it could reach the flag; keeping a solid perimeter.

Following that, we got everyone set up with the TS binds for airstrike requests (easy, right guys?), familiarized them with the protocol, and offered some live demonstrations so they can see how it plays out. Now to do this during battle...

From what I saw, this camp could be a great benefit to players wanting to get a little more out of the game.

[ABRA]

Excellent ideas everyone. I really want to see the minicamp move in a more squad-based direction both in teaching squad tactics and in having the inhouse squads be more involved. While I'd love to see them provide some instruction like StrikeFear has mentioned, just having multiple squads show up to practice their tactics on each other like Strag said will be a boon to the TG community.

I had wanted to also do more of a remedial Learn TG session in the minicamps as well but I've identified a problem with that I think. Such a session would be targeted at the player who stumbles onto our pub server, but rarely if ever checks the forums and/or doesn't speak into their mic. These are two key ingredients to participating in the minicamp. Honestly though players who like TG and want to learn it can pick it up pretty quick on our servers I think. This would be one of those things that I don't think the minicamp could necessarily teach better than what the same time spend ingame on the public server could provide. Of course I think mic use is the biggest hurdle to newbs in truly integrating into TG.

So I'm fine doing the remedial stuff if newbs show up, it's just that right now it seems like more experienced TGers are interested in the minicamp.

Something I'd like to talk about though is how we as a community can get things we practice to be adopted more often in public and scrim play? For instance we've had a perfectly viable and effective airstrike SOP for as long as I've been at TG and I can still count on one hand the number of times I've seen someone logging onto TS as USMCPilot1. Seems to me that as things are now we could develop some great tactics. Whoever attends minicamp and squad practices enough could even get them to be second-nature.

But when I join a random squad on Server #1, what are the odds my SL or squadmates will be using those tactics? More importantly as the minicamp moves to the army-level inter-squad coordination drills, how on Server #1 does a SL not only get his squaddies to use the tactics but also coordinate with other squads? Most times SLs aren't on TS which is understandable if they are a non-SM as they don't have access to it. Even if the other SLs are on Teamspeak though, we don't have a protocol for SL communication.

I think the TG squads sought to overcome this hurdle but because of scheduling conflicts and auto-balance, it's rare for a squad to be able to operate together in pub play. And while the efforts of some TGers to organize play beyond the pub server in scrims is awesome, the frequency of that play still leaves something to be desired.

[percu]

Tnx to you ABRA for making this happen. We all know that the would be a bit trying in the first session

We began with some fundamentals of defending and attacking. Where to be effective in defending but not to expose your self to much for the attacking force. Take cover to take out the nearest forces.

The next session we tried to stop fast attackers with AT weapons. It is not so simple to do as it sounds. Buggies are fast devils. Perhaps this could be a single lesson in one other mini camp. Shooting practice. When a buggy was taken out, we would swap to let the defenders be the attackers. We also tried to use assault grenades, but I think we all found out that using C4 and mines was the best in stopping fast movers.

So StrikeFear joined and we began our "Requesting air strike session". First setting up all TS bindings and try to use the protocol. It is not so difficult, you only need some traing to do it. I will try to use it when I have the opportunity to do this in game.


Suggestions:
* KISS - Keep it smiling simple.
* As you suggested you must make plans for different amounts of people (5,10 and 20 people)
* In game VOIP is a must (It did not work on the scrim server)
* Always send out information about the lessons that should be taught (PM, forum)
* When people are on assault/defence, make shure that they are on different teams

But overall you are a good instructor. I am seeing forwards to a new camp.


I have had a lot of practical lessons and I use the set up below as a skeleton for a lesson (In quite a different setting, but could be applied here).

How could a lesson be set up?
Before lesson:
* Send relevant information to participants.
- A short info about the theme
- Link to forum threads where it has been discussed.
Practical lesson
* Present and motivate (Why and what for does we train for this?)
Present and motivate the participants for the theme.

* Show how it could be done
Show how this could be done in practice. Instructors make a demo.
* Instruct in the theme
Make instructions on how to archive what we just saw.
* Training
Let the people train what they have been instructed to.
* Control / discussion
Verify that people has understood the instructions or/and discuss the theme.

I will be giving out +reps to the people that are instructors when I participate. So one for Strike and one for ABRA

[BaneII]

Originally Posted by Percu

The next session we tried to stop fast attackers with AT weapons. It is not so simple to do as it sounds. Buggies are fast devils. Perhaps this could be a single lesson in one other mini camp. Shooting practice. When a buggy was taken out, we would swap to let the defenders be the attackers. We also tried to use assault grenades, but I think we all found out that using C4 and mines was the best in stopping fast movers.

Hallelujah. If you taught folks that grenade launchers arent effective anti-buggies it was worth it.

[James315]

Originally Posted by BaneII

Hallelujah. If you taught folks that grenade launchers arent effective anti-buggies it was worth it.

I only use a GL against a buggy if it's coming toward me.

However, there was one fun moment when the buggy zipped through the main road of the construction site. I was on top of the construction area and jumped down. In mid-air, I shot randomly down the street and ended up nailing the buggy.

[StrikeFear]

If you can teach that at a mini-camp, I'll sign up for it.