Stonebreaker 2018
The last four years have seen a series of epic battles in the long war between the Western Coalition and Eastern Empire. 2015 saw Western Forces take victories at STORM EAST, DRAGON ROGUE 1 & 2, and STONEBREAKER. Their partners, the Allied Forces, took a victory at STARBURST VII. 2016 saw a shift with the Eastern Imperials winning victories at DRAGON ROGUE 3, BROKEN DAGGER, and SERIOUS VIKING. The Eastern's partners in Texas, the KFORCEs, won the 8th annual STARBURST. Western Troops managed a solid victory at STONEBREAKER 2016 and 2017. Eastern Empire bounced back with wins at Dragon Rogue 4, Broken Dagger 2 and Trench Knife. The Western Coalition achieved a victory at Bone Strike but barely. This May 2018, the West and East continue their war back at GTI in Barnwell, South Carolina, at STONEBREAKER 2018.
The area of operations provided at the Government Training Institute will continue to challenge players in terms of staying on mission versus getting bogged down in a dense urban setting. We have seen whole companies of players be devoured by the multi-level JOC building, troops fighting over the infamous Devil's Intersection, close quarters battle in the pipe yard, and gun trucks destroyed by grenades thrown from 8 stories down on them.
The staff still gets asked "What is Stonebreaker going to be like this year? is it going to be the same as last year?" The answers to those questions are simple, No, it isn't going to be like last time. We are constantly looking to bring more to the events, bring in more in terms of realism, more in terms of teamwork, applying strategy and tactics.
First, the Little Bird is back! This was a game changer at Serious Viking 2. If you have the opportunity, get a ticket, the chance to do some air to ground engagements in order to help your side on the ground is awesome.
Second, we are adding more complexity on the ground with FRAGOs, destroyable battlefield nodes, Time Sensitive Targets, in addition to the digital terrain OBJs.
"Is there only action in the building areas or are you going to use the woods as well? And are vehicles going to be there again this year? What are their rules?" We are planning to use the entire AO to include the wooded areas to the West, not all combat occurs in built up areas. Concerning vehicles, yes, like last year, we will be allowing a limited number of combat vehicles per side. Provided they meet the look and feel for a MILSIM event. Concerning ROE for vehicles, we allow for 40mm TAGGIN rounds, foam rounds, nerf type rockets, or a hand grenade landing within 10 ft of the vehicle for vehicle kills, no BB fire will kill the vehicle, to include the gunner. Although we have seen plenty of launchers, RPGs, and AT4s at our events, the majority of vehicle kills have come about from hand grenades due to the vehicles operating with no dismounted infantry support nearby.
What are the TIER 1s going to be like this time? Well, all Coach and his TIER 1 Team can say is that it will be challenging and hands on. For those that did the TIER 1 at BoneStrike, he took their suggestions and is adding in more dynamic breaching, hands on with props, and alot more.
Camping, like always will be allowed, and there will be a food vendor on site. Porta Potties will be on site, and the city of Barnwell is not that far away.
Tickets are on sale and like most of our events, we expect to sell out well before the mid April ticket close out. You can find the link here: https://www.thirdcoastairsoft.com/stonebreaker And see the FB event page at
https://www.facebook.com/events/902050169953414/