Rhino 2012

This year's location, in the early morning.

Finally, having missed last year's epic game, I was finally able to attend this year's Operation Rhino.  This was not my first 24 hour military simulation event, but this one was by far the hardest.  Due to various circumstances, I ended up leaving early.  I wished that I was able to stay until the end, but there will be other events in the future for me to redeem myself.

Morning fresh!

 

I signed up for the US side and was assigned to the Rangers along with my Ghosts teammates.  I must say, the US side had it all together.  With a clearly defined and effective chain of command, we engaged tasks as one cohesive fighting unit.  For this game, I was able to game a few newly acquired pieces of equipment, mainly my new set of 5.11 MultiCam top and bottom.  The combat shirt, a life saver as it kept me cool when daytime temperatures got too hot for my taste.  The pants on the other hand, though really nice, is Teflon coated and I find it very thick and hot.  So hot in fact that I had to take my pants off just to air my legs at one point.

Stephen

 

 Earlier, I had said that this was the toughest 24 hour milsim I attended and it was because of the searing hot temperature during the daytime.  After coming back from a month long vacation, I was having a hard time readjusting to my normal physical exercise routine.  Throughout the week, I was constantly exhausted at the end of the day after my attempts to do my normal exercises after I finished work.  Add to that one of the the hottest July on record and I felt my stamina drained quickly during the day.  I managed to keep myself hydrated and fed throughout the day but by night time, I still felt quite hot and my thigh muscles were starting to lock up.  A pounding headache did not help matters either.

Eddy, the future creator of SkyNet and his death machine.
 

As for my opinion of the field itself, I find that this new Belleville location is not as fun as the Picton one.  While the building is large, it does not have the diversity and the cool factor of the abandoned hospital of the previous event's location.  It did present a new set of tactical challenge for us but I thought that it falls short of a truly amazing field.  Keep in mind, the office portion of the location was not utilized at all.  All action took place around the three vehicle doors and the side door.

Victor unit deployed first.
 

As for the game itself, although I had fun, I felt it was lacking a little something that usually made a milsim special for me.  After much thought, the one things I would change would the the ammo rules.

For the ammo rule, even though players were allowed a 300 round maximum carry per sortie, they were free to reload at their spawn points.  This meant that a player never really have to worry about running out of ammo.  This was also why I think many players complained that the game felt more like a skirmish.  I would have made it so that ammo could only me resupplied at certain times during the operation.

This would give a sense of caution to the players as the spray and pray mentality of many would have been curbed.  This would also mean a more difficult task for commanders as every decision could mean a gamble if a mission had failed and they had nothing to show for other than spent valuable ammo and resources.

Alpha 1 unit under fire.
 

Despite all the drama on ASC, I would like to give a hand of applause to the organizer and the volunteers of this game.  Many do not know how much work was put in to make this game happen.  I definitely had fun and it was a pleasure to serve along side my unit.

Our fearless leader in action.
 

Minigun
 

Alpha 1 relaxing before the game.
 

Jason, the Leroy Jenkins of Team Ghosts.