We had a blast at this year's event, which included a huge AO, tracked APCs, Deuce Transports, a helicopter, explosives and smoke... as well as over 400 players across 35 squads!

Shadow Pack - Oklahoma Invasion, May 2010

(left to right) Cougar, Brewer, Dracx, Gringo, Rio, Bearclaw

SHADOW PACK AAR
IFOK - Quick Response Force, Chalk 3
Squad Leader: Dracx
Heavy Weapons: Bearclaw
EOD / Medic: Brewer
Rifleman: Cougar, Rio, Gringo, Petro
Shadow Pack Guests: Loki (Rifleman), Monty (Rifleman), Gunfighters (Rear guard)

First, let me put this all into perspective for you. 400+ players on the field:

The Enemy
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Oklahoma Peoples Army (OKPA or "Green Team"): Command Squad of 7 players, 2 Platoons of 4 Squads, each squad with 10-13 players.
OKPA - Quick Reaction Force: 4 squads of 10-11 players
OKPA - Special Operations Group: 1 squad of 20 players
OKPA Political Group - 5 players
OKPA Special Police - 21 players
OKPA Capitol City Police - 8 players
Civilians (armed or otherwise) - 20 players
Some guy dumping bags of BBs out of a helicopter!

The Friendlies
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International Force in Oklahoma (IFOK or "Tan Team"): Command Squad of 5 players, 2 Platoons of 4 squads, each squad with 10-11 players.
IFOK - Quick Reaction Force: 5 squads of 10-13 players
IFOK - Special Operations Group: 1 squad of 16 players

Teams who's allegiance could go either way
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United Nations - Allegiance depended on wartime conduct - 16 players
Control Group 18 - Mercenaries for hire, allegiance depends on cash - 8 players



Mission 1: Escort convoy (2 tracked APCs, 2 Deuces, 1 UN armored car) along valley road to objective. Along the way, clear 3 towns of (possibly armed) civilians. QRF3 was tasked with patrolling and clearing the left valley hillside ahead of the convoy while providing flanking fire support for the main army on the road. QRF3 was successful in clearing our area but terrain prevented us from providing fire support for the main army on the first and second towns. QRF3 was also instrumental in motivating and spearheading movement for other support squads in our area. Upon reaching the final objective town, we provided fire support for the main army as the civilian police moved in to try to bolster the final position. IFOK successfully completed all objectives though it was heavily stalled at the first town and moderately stalled in the last town.

Mission 2: Load some oil drums and escort them along with the convoy through the airport to an awaiting cargo plane. QRF3 was tasked with providing side and rear flanking guerrilla-style attacks to drawn enemy fire. QRF3 was hot-inserted by Deuce transport to the AO where we began our move into the woods on the left flank. We found it was already filled with entrenched enemy so we moved further left and down onto a valley road to get behind the enemy. While pushing along the road and hillsides we encountered many small squads and cleared one town with minimal troop defense. We continued flanking along the rear of the enemy, drawing fire from many fortified bunkers and trenches on higher ground. QRF3 took heavy casualties but regrouped and continued around the enemy defense lines, drawing fire and distracting them while the main army completed their objectives. While QRF3 never did penetrate any of the defensive lines, we completed our job of harassing the enemy.

Mission 3: Night game cancelled due to heavy rain

Mission 4 (Day 2): Infiltrate the town of Caen, capture the Mayor and Governor. Load into troop transports to move to the city of Coleville and hold that location. At this time, all command orders from the platoon leader were either FRAGO or non-existent, so we were left with fulfilling our role as we saw fit for a QRF team supporting an army. This was another hot insert by Deuce and we were taking fire before we even got to our destination. QRF3 provided fire support from our truck until we were told to disembark in the middle of enemy fire. QRF3 moved away from the main city toward the path of least resistance to clear the enemy from one side of their ambush. After clearing that area and healing wounded from other squads there, we saw the SOG squad (Wildcards and RMCT) was further along our side and had taken about 80% casualties. QRF3 swept the area, allowing the SOG Medic to move in and revive the team. From there, we left SOG to their objectives and moved in to provide fire support for the main army's left flank. We were able to advance the army only a short way before we took several casualties. After recovering and healing our wounded, our CO instructed us to help bolster the opposite flank. Moving to the right flank, we provided fire support for another QRF and army squad where the last of the city's defenses were making their stand. QRF3 spearheaded an assault around their position, allowing the army squads to clear the last building. Meanwhile, QRF3 pushed through the surrounding woods, clearing the last enemy out of the area. The IFOK army was then loaded on to transports and moved to the city of Coleville.

En route to the city, a bomb was found on one of the transports in the middle of the convoy. Troops were disembarked and chaos ensued. QRF3 was on foot and providing rear flank guard when this all happened. With the army in disarray and looking around for enemy the bomb was cleared but the CO, despite all of his screaming, could not get the convoy rolling again. QRF3 jumped to the task and took point in clearing the road and surrounding woods for the convoy to move. Once we were in front, the convoy was able to move and the remaining army slowly made it in to town.

From there, QRF3 was tasked with providing forward guard with retreating defense lines to slow the enemy attack toward the main town. With QRF3 on one side of the road and QRF4 (Drew Dudley's team) on the other, we were able to hold off the enemy's frontal assault, forcing them to spread their squads further left and right while the main army had plenty of time to set up defenses along the embankments and walls surrounding the city. QRF3 successfully held 3 lines of defense before we took 40% casualties and had to retreat to the city's hospital. From there QRF3 was ordered to support our front-line defenses for the rest of the day. The battle was brutal and we used more ammo at this defensive line than we had in all the previous missions combined. Near the end, the enemy made a great, concentrated push with all of their forces and we lost most of our army but the enemy was never able to get past our outer ring of embankments.

Overall, Shadow Pack had an amazing time. This AO is the best I've ever seen and we've only touched on a very small percentage of it. I've read some of the other AARs on the organizers forums, some of which are quite negative. But, considering trying to organize all of this, with 400+ players, I still think the hosts did an amazing job. They will have another OP in September and November and I hope to attend one of those as well.