u/Brax5636

First off, I want to say thank you to everyone who puts events like this together. It takes a lot of effort, and it’s something the community genuinely looks forward to, especially for people like us who enjoy this kind of experience.

That being said, my personal experience was not what I expected.

Going into this, I fully understood I signed up for a tough 40 hours, rucking, moving, fighting, little sleep, etc. That part wasn’t the issue. The issue was that the majority of our time was spent rucking, walking, carrying other people’s gear, and sitting in one place waiting for instructions, rather than actually engaging in gameplay.

When my buddy and I arrived, we geared up and headed to the barn to check in. Once there, we had no clear direction on where to go or who to talk to. After asking around, we were told to find our platoon leader, but when we got to our platoon line, multiple people said he wasn’t there yet. This was around 17:00. After about 30 minutes of waiting and asking again, we finally located him and got checked in.

After the initial briefing, we rucked out to a temporary camp. About 45 minutes later, we moved to our first “fight,” where we were told to hold and wait. We sat there for roughly an hour and a half before finally being told the opposing force was pushing. Within about 2 minutes of contact, we were hit and out, and then went right back to waiting again, this time for about another hour before being picked up and sent back to camp.

We chose to get some rest instead of participating in the night raid, knowing Saturday would be a full day. After about 4 hours of sleep, we were up at 6am, only to spend another 2 hours waiting for orders before moving out. When we finally reached the next objective, we were again told to hold position while another team engaged. After more waiting, we pushed in, got about 10 minutes of action, and then the game was paused due to an emergency.

We were told to head back to CP and wait. After sitting there for about 30 minutes, we heard gunfire again and were told to move back into the fight since no clear instructions were given. After re-engaging for a short period, we took a strong position closer to the parking area. At that point, we were told we might relocate our rucks there to shorten the next day’s movement. After waiting nearly 2 hours for confirmation, that plan was denied, and instead we were told to go all the way back to camp, grab our rucks, and move them to a new location.

To make things worse, another team had already moved out early and left their gear behind, so we ended up carrying their equipment back for them as well.

Once back at camp, we were told we had less than 10 minutes to pack up, yet we didn’t move out for another 45 minutes. At that point, my buddy and I were already pretty frustrated with the lack of organization, constant delays, and how things were being handled.

Throughout the event, we were also told we needed to be more “involved” with the group, even though we were staying close and engaged when it mattered. A lot of the downtime was spent with others talking about personal things, which is fine, but we came to experience the event together, not to sit around in extended idle time.

After finally moving to another position around 15:00, we were again told to wait while leadership scoped the area. After another hour and a half, we were told we might move again depending on how things played out. At that point, we decided to call it and head home.

The biggest issue wasn’t the physical demand, we were prepared for that. It was the excessive waiting, lack of clear direction, and constant changes that made the experience frustrating rather than enjoyable.

On our way out, we spoke to players from other NATO platoons, and their experiences sounded completely different, more consistent movement, more engagement, and more actual gameplay. We also ran into two other players from our own platoon who were leaving early for the exact same reasons.

Overall, I appreciate the effort that goes into organizing these events, but our experience fell short due to poor coordination and too much downtime.