Training Excerises for Noob Day - Forested area

[Oborous]

Built up area thread

So... I drank the koolaid and now got "suckered" into running several of noob days.

We ran the first one, sixty people turned out. This is planning for the third day, in forests. The format it Safety Briefing, Training Exercises, Safety Briefing, Mini-Milsim (We're really stressing the safety, and some people are going to show up just for the mini-milsim).

I'm wondering what exercises people have experienced or ran for noob days? We are building up complete noobs here, so nothing is too basic, however yelling and screaming at them isn't going to work. We need to have them understand that they want to do things a proper way rather than just tell them. We need them to get that "Ah, I get it" moment.

In discussions, we've come up with four core skills.
1) How to Move
2) How to Shoot
3) How to Work in a Team
4) How to use a Radio.
(Really, three, that using a radio is apart of teamwork, but it's large enough that it needs to be on it's own... Disable VOX!!)

I/We want exercises that start showing the value of combining two or more of these core skills at once. Exercises that also show more advanced usages of these core skills are also welcome (such as proper positioning from shooting behind cover). We're looking at multiple simultatenous exercises running so we can run everyone through them while still having decent supervision.

I/We do -not- want ambush/counter-ambush exercises. In Edmonton that was commonly what a training day was... 8 hours of it. We also don't want exercises that take an hour or two to complete each, we want mulitple exercises for everyone so that one might not be the 'ah, I get it' but something else might do that.

[grantmac]

Some things you may want to incorporate:
-Cover vs. concealment as it relates to BBs punching through foliage. Can combine this with the "no mans land" scenario in your other thread.
-Using topography. This can just be stressed throughout your training day with no specific exercise.
-Use of heavier BBs. We did this by playing a skirmish where everybody used only .2g BBs. Many new people wonder why everyone else's rounds seem to have greater effective range and penetrate cover better. After you are on the receiving end of light BBs you never want to use them again.
-Judging effective range. Most new folks try for shots well beyond their effective range and only alert the enemy. Holding my fire was one of the hardest lessons for when I started.

Thats all I can think of for now.
-Grant

[Con Murder]

Make sure they learn how to properly use a dead rag and get out of the way without interrupting/distracting the game play. Thats one thing I find is never really covered and I am always shooting guys who say "I'M DEAD!" and then show me the dead rag they had in thier pocket... :[

[mills0]

Originally Posted by Con Murder

Make sure they learn how to properly use a dead rag and get out of the way without interrupting/distracting the game play. Thats one thing I find is never really covered and I am always shooting guys who say "I'M DEAD!" and then show me the dead rag they had in thier pocket... :[

yeah... Last year at noob day I had to tell a pair of FNG's to cease fire as they were opening up on someone with a kill rag on their head =/

[optix]

Originally Posted by Oborous

In discussions, we've come up with four core skills.
1) How to Move
2) How to Shoot
3) How to Work in a Team
4) How to use a Radio.
(Really, three, that using a radio is apart of teamwork, but it's large enough that it needs to be on it's own... Disable VOX!!)

hey
out here in bc, myself and ox (main ds) run some simulated exercises
the first one which incorporates 1,2, & 3.

in a group of 8, they are split into 4 pairs. they start in a corner and are sent into a area a pair at a time. They proceed into a area and to locate a enemy. Engages from good cover. The pair then works together in order to kill the enemy. One condition to this, they must kill him within 60 seconds. If not, they fail and the next pair goes in.
Basis of this exercise is communication, firing (suppression), yelling, moving, & best of all making sure when you're moving,not to cross over fire in resulting doing a teammate kill :P

the second one, incorporates all 4.

in a group of 8, 4 will be posted to guard a entrance/bridge. the other 4 will be split into 2's. they will be inserted on opposite ends of the entrance/bridge away from the view of the guards. their job is to secure the bridge, by eliminating the guards, and to make sure none of the guards, when they threatened, not able to call in to their radio for reinforcements. if they do, the spec ops fail.
Basis of this exercise is communication, when and to move, taking up position(if sniper applicable) initiating the order & best of all compromising.

best story i have is 3 guards vs 4 spec ops. 1 guard was on the other side while the 2 maintained the front. 1 spec was going observer/recon of the view area. their plan is to set up a sniper to take out the guard on the other side. 1 spec will standby to the front. the last spec was the distraction. Problem came around when the sniper was spotted and taken in for suspicion for 5 minutes. one guards takes his main gun away and puts it on the ground. the order went ahead for the distraction, he came down. the front and the other side guard looked at the distraction. the guard disarming the sniper asked for his hand gun. sniper slowly remove his handgun from his holster, in 2 sec or less, he killed all 3 guards with his handgun.
the time window for this exercise is 1 hour.
bare in mind, this exercise is not about shooting and its a slow pace game but requires team work. radio coms was a big factor in this as well

in regards to your core skills, since you're asking for tips, i have to ask what specific parts of would you like? both exercises i state above have both the core skills but different environments and situation. best question i always ask myself, as a ds, what do i want a new player to walk away with to help him become a better player for himself and a sharper killer to his enemies that reflects on the game styles that you would run on your field, example run & gun; milsim; swat indoors; etc...

hope my post isnt too long, apologies on that :P
if you want to hook up more info, send me a pm
got lots more

[Dirtbag]

You can have them hunt down a number of snipers. It requires teamwork and good communications to locate and take down good sniper teams.

All the skills you want to stress, are part of it for the hunters.

If you do this have a specific area set out, and a decent number of sniper teams, 1 per 10 people is not a bad start.

Snipers start in the field prep'd and ready to go after that send in the hunter groups.

Vip escort also works well, the VIP need to wear a basic vest in tan or black and is unarmed. As well the VIP can only walk. Gets real interesting real fast if the escorting team can not function as a team.

[Jbone 11 11]

I like what optix is sayin'... sounds like good skills. Personally I go for the "Jungle lane" approach for practising Patrol fire and movement.

You set up targets along a lane in the bush...(they should be visable, but not too easy to see) dosent need to be a well trodden path, but should be well defined by tape or what ever for the exercise. Then teams of 2 - 4 go up the lane "patrolling" and when they see a target, they call out Contact and direction related to the team and hoses em down. Advance to contact... All the while instructors watch and rate. after, they go over targets missed and accuracy checked and mistakes made. then you do it again.

It touches on a lot of key elements when done right: Moving as a team, covering your arcs, reaction time and hitting your targets... and also, if structured like a mil-sim team, gives the patrol commander a good work out in controlling his/her team.

[Pvt Night Fury]

Try to teach them how to cover themselves using the trees/boulders or whatever, and especially teach them how to conserve BB's especially if they plan on being in the middle of it all, it sucks being in the "Hot Zone" when you have no ammunition.

[Point_Man]

Safe weapon manipulation and muzzle control. Operating in an unfarmiliar environment is also something you wanted to watch out for. Make sure when you run the drills they're not going all out and as fast as they can right off the start. Start slow so they can learn fully and so your staff can watch closely. Get it right first, then go faster.

[redzaku]

tell them what gun hit means as well
teach them dont bunch up too much, cant let them all get hit