EVENT REPORT COUNTRY: PORTUGAL
LOCATION: MAÇÃO
Operation Iron St orm III
COUNTRY: PORTUGAL. LOCATION: ENVENDOS,
NEAR CASTELO BRANCO WORDS JOSÉ MACEDO PHOTOS JOSÉ MACEDO AND TEAM SHADOW OPS
O
n the 27th and 28th
of October a 24-hour
airsoft game was run at
the ‘Purgatory’ woodland site,
organized by team Shadow Ops.
SETTING THE SCENE
The storyline was a fairly simple one:
two opposing armies, The Green
Army and The Yellow Army were
separated by a neutral buffer zone
along their mutual frontier. This
frontier buffer zone was secured by
a UN contingent - portrayed by the
organisers. A Green Army player
writes this article so the point-of-view
20 FEBRUARY 2008
will relate to their ops.
The overall scenario for the
opposing armies was simple – attack
across the frontier and destroy key
enemy targets – nonetheless, the
UN forces had to verify that players
followed the rules and that the teams’
specific objectives were achieved. As
for the basic rules:
✪ No-one was permitted to carry
a ‘gun’ except the UN’s border
elements
✪ If an armed player was caught
in the field by the UN forces, they
were imprisoned for one hour and
their weapon(s) were confiscated.
✪ All the missions were specified
and marshalled by the organizers
and no other missions were allowed
At 10:00hrs the briefing was
given by the Shadow Ops team
leader ‘Lock’, and it was the kind
everybody likes – simple and
concise. Briefing over, our heavy
stuff was loaded onto a Unimog for
the journey to our base, which was a
long way away.
MISSION UNDERWAY
Our first mission was to recover a
box containing the money necessary
to buy weapons. Without this
money our forces would not have
the firepower we needed. So at
12:00hrs the Silent Wolves team
sent out a patrol armed with only
two GBB pistols to grab the box.
After a long and arduous hill climb
we managed to get the ammo box
and return to base with no enemy
contact.
After a short rest, a UN inspection
team arrived at our base to give
us our next mission. This was
to recover a missile installed on
a high hill, and again the Silent
Wolves were given the honour of
accomplishing the mission. We left
our base at 14:00hrs and started the
hike to the top – taking the long
‘We left our base at 14:00hrs and started the
hike to the top – taking the long way as we
thought the enemy was expecting us.’
way as we thought the enemy was
expecting us. When we reached
the top, we detected a patrol from
the DELTA team setting up to
ambush us. After a short skirmish
we eliminated two of their elements
then regrouped in the cover of a
small wood. We then advanced
again and discovered more DELTAs
camouflaging the missile. A short
but fierce firefight took place, and
in less than one minute two more
DELTAs were down and we were
able to grab the missile and run
back down the hill. We then spent
the rest of the afternoon fighting off
a series of (unsuccessful) attacks on
our base.
RECCE MISSION
At 18:00hrs a recce mission was
given to the Silent Wolves to check
for enemy activity around the south
side of our base. After patrolling for
almost an hour we found ourselves
on top of the previous hill, and to
our surprise we saw a twin missile
system had been installed. Contacting
the base we were informed that the
weapon was supposed to be collected
by the Yellow forces, so we set up an
ambush position and waited for them
to arrive. However, after an hour’s
wait they still had not arrived, so we
decided to grab the missiles ourselves.
NIGHT GAMES
At 20:00hrs the game was halted as
the organisers had prepared a free
dinner. Once dinner was finished,
we returned to our bases to restart
the hostilities at 22:00hrs with night
patrols.
First up, a five-man recce patrol
from the GOFE was given the
mission to infiltrate and establish an
OP near an enemy base and monitor
their activities through the night
in support of a morning assault – a
mission they performed very well ➼
FEBRUARY 2008 21
 EVENT REPORT COUNTRY: PORTUGAL
LOCATION: MAÇÃO
indeed. Another mission given to
the Silent Wolves’ four-man patrol
was to establish a missile firing
point on a hill next to the Yellow
base by 02:00hrs. At 01:50hrs we
deployed the missile and then held
the position – undetected – until
04:00hrs. The temperature during
the night dropped a lot, and as
we were only lightly clothed we
suffered a bit – I found myself
trembling and rattling my teeth like
Spanish Castanholas.
THE EARLY HOURS
At 04:40hrs we arrived back at our
base to get some rest. A little after
06:00hrs it was waking time, as
the GOFE team was preparing the
morning assault on the Yellow base
and we needed all the squads available
to conduct this assault. At 07:07hrs
‘The first thing we stole was their flag and
then we proceeded to the barracks where a
number of the enemy were sleeping.’
22 FEBRUARY 2008
the first elements of the assault forces
were inside the enemy base – which
was, as it turned out, unguarded. The
first thing we stole was their flag and
then we proceeded to the barracks
where a number of the enemy were
sleeping. On our way in, someone
from the Greens accidentally awoke
one of the Yellow players – who was
quickly recognized as the Yellow
Army’s commanding general,
‘Charlie’ from team HOT. He was
immediately taken prisoner, as this
was one of our primary objectives,
and taken back to our base.
FINALLY
The end of the game was fast
approaching, so as the final action
for a short TV channel film the UN
forces attacked the Green base. Then
at 10:00hrs the game officially ended.
I am a MilSim enthusiast, and
like these kinds of games, they
involve more planning and tactical
manoeuvring than just shooting
lots of BBs. As MilSim events go,
this one was a first rate game, the
site was probably the best one I’ve
played at, the players were among
the friendliest I have ever met,
and the organizers were second to
none. I think I can say on behalf of
everyone who was present - mission
accomplished!
I can’t wait until Iron Storm IV
comes along!