A place for me to review the various rugged, nifty and needful kit that I've accumulated, for every-day preparedness in the event of accident, disaster or world-shifting end-times Apocalypse, be it zombies, triffids or Mayan divide-by-zero errors.
Here’s a piece I thought might be of interest to some, that I wrote for Breach Bang & Clear. Training is a key element both for honing existing skills, but also good training requires you to try out new situations and learn new skills sets. You really want to practice as realistically as you can, but no one wants to damage their training partners. When that happens you get a lot less volunteers, and since we don’t have a Running Man style “volunteer” program and want reproducible scenarios, we turn to simulation. But we wish we could use prisoners like in the movies.
AirSoft type equipment, paintball and MILES gear have all brought different tools to the table, as have the minds behind the iCOMBAT technology and training systems. My contacts recently put me in touch with SBTactical, a veteran owned and operated business out of Santa Barbara, California. As the National Law Enforcement and Professional distributors of iCOMBAT equipment, they are 100% committed to serving those who serve.
“With over 40+ combined years of planning, resourcing, and conducting training, we are confident that we are the right team to meet your needs,” SBTactical says. SBT’s experience plus iCOMBAT’s technology leave no training question unanswered. “With SBTactical you will replicate, not simulate, the situations your officers will encounter. Every day we strive to advance your organizations training to the next level. SBTactical’s mission is to Replicate real world scenarios, reduce training costs, and maximize training time,” SBT says.
So how do they deliver?
The iCOMBAT technology is a weapon, sensor and control system. It currently offers an M4 style weapon and a Glock style weapon, to better replicate weapons common among police and military units.
I previously offered my review of the Oz Apocalypse : Zombie Apocalypse lasertag event as a topic near and dear to my heart, but they also offered to take me and some friends along for one of their Battle Apocalypse events too.
This wasn't a scripted "make it through the maze" event, but rather a totally open-plan player- verses -player event. The connecting walls, closed by hurricane fencing for the Zombie Apocalypse event to make for a pretty linear dungeon-bash were opened up, such that all the areas were available, including the previously hidden "staff-access" areas, in between sets.
I've played a number of lazer-tag type games, and paintball, as well as the NERF-based LRP events, such as "After the Fall" but the realistic weapons, both in size and weight and in operation and action were a step ahead than anything I'd done previously.
We combined two times slots of teams, and got double-time in-game as a result (thanks everyone) and broke into two pretty evenly numbered teams. Initially we had a couple of people opt to wear the pain-belts (myself being one) but it turned out that an unfortunate glitch in the system would have seen me getting a shock not only anytime _I_ took a hit, but also anytime someone used the re-spawn transmitter in my line of sight, which also operated over IR much like the guns and targeting belts. We all opted out after a few false-shocks.
Given the frequency of deaths in every game, that was a wise move. We were all initially set up as a two-hit kill, with approximately 150 shots per magazine, with unlimited refills available, but back at the re-spawn site. I opted to go semi-auto for much of the first few bouts, gaugeing how effective I was with the taggers. I flipped over to 3-round burst later on, to be more effective.
It was a good example of seeing how different people act under pressure. The broken light, noise and tension was quite effective, and some people, communicated well, others didn't at all. We all suffered from "dead-men-tell-no-tales" violations, myself included, but I like to think I also backed up, and notified my team pretty well.
We were set up NOT to have friendly-fire count, which was a two-edged sword, but it meant for "safer" gameplay. I had adjusted my rig from the previous event slightly, and I also wore my Propper Multicam and Platatac CUS Punisher shirt combo, which kept me cool and pretty dry, though I did work up a sweat from stress and the activity in my plate-carrier and pads.
I had a blast, again, and we had a good time, as well as dong "better" than our opponents. My three friends and I worked pretty well together,
in so much as that we all had done this kind of thing before, some more professionally than others, I must say, be we certainly benefited from -his- experience, I would have to say.
Unfortunately the Oz Apocalypse season is over, I hope some of you managed to get a go in, and if not, get to have a similar experience soon, because it was a lot of fun.
I had the opportunity to go and run through the Oz Apocalypse Zombie Experience over the weekend, and wanted to give you my thoughts on it.
There has been quite a bit of controversy around the event, primarily as it changed hands very late in the piece and there was quite a disparity between what the original promoters/organisers (IRL Shooter, who ran Patient 0 in 2013) and the Zombie
Apocalypse Survival Experience: LAZARUS event being put on by OzApocalypse and
Horror Corp Entertainment. This mostly stems from OzApocalypse "buying up" the Pozible Campaign that for whatever reason IRL Shooter found itself unable to present.
This was NOT the sequel that IRL Shooter had promised, this was an event put on by OzApocalypse that drew on that event, its fanbase, and premise. I think that in several aspects it was not as impressive as IRL Shooter's Patient 0 (it wasn't nearly as large or sprawling, and didn't have the embedded story).
However, it was also superior in several ways. The technology for one, I felt was significantly better.
The irM4's from iCombat sync wirelessly to the smart bandoleer
we all wore, which recorded shot data, accuracy, and more. The irM4's
were fitted with a 150 round SmartMag and additional magazine kits can
be purchased. If a player is eliminated, their gun shuts off for a period of time
preventing cheating!
The best thing about the new weapons were that they had CO2 powered
sound and recoil. you could feel every shot, hear every rapport.
I knew
if my teammates were firing, even over the din of the event space, and
that was a crucial improvement in the experience.
The bandoleers were tied to our irM4's wirelessly, and reported back to a central computer, and more importantly, they tied into the headbands worn by the Zombies, these were similar to the bandoleers we wore, and acted as emitters to make proximity to the zombies damaging. Get too close, and they "bite".
Shoot the sensors and they flash and go solid with a kill, and the actors dropped. All this data was fed back through to the behind-the scenes control and scored were generated, and passed against the membership cards we were given at registration, giving you reciprocal rights at other iCombat sites, and the ability to accrue rank in the network.
The OzApocalypse website made mention that there was the ability to customise your irM4, but this is a bit of a misnomer, in that there were a second set of weapons, the short barreled, and Picatinny rail mounted short barreled "Commando" irM4's in their armory, fitted with vertical grips, there wasn't really the facility during the Zombie Apocalypse event to do any customization other than adjusting the buttstock and in my case, fitting my own sling, the trusty 215Gear sling.
Other than this it replicates one of the most known assault rifles in the world, the M16/M4,
and is used by law enforcement and militaries all over the world.
It
has the same form, fit, and function as the real thing and brings the
word realism up to a whole new level. I really enjoyed the "Tap, Rack, Bang" functionality. Removable clips, internal sensors and fully functional parts, from mag-release to selector switches . The weapons and sensors made the event for me. No more reload button or hard to hear electronic sounds. You hear and feel every round, in a longer engagement, if you were kitted out with spare mags you could drop your mag and slam a new one home. They bypassed this by assigning everyone a cylume glowstick, and had a reloading station where we were restocked by a technician, but you can see how it could be easily enough facilitated in a more longterm event.
And that's all before we even get to set dressing, gameplay and the actors! I was really happy with what we faced when we passed through the containment doorways.
When OzApocalypse took the event over, they brought on Horror Corp Entertainment from the US, engineers who specialized in Haunted House and Zombie Apocalypse Experience "in real life" gaming environments. They have three decades of experience in
visual, sound, event and multimedia production, creating theatrically-based, interactive horror and
genre projects. The event at the Melbourne Showgrounds takes place in a
blackened-out, light-controlled battle zone, it doesn’t matter what
time of day it is, – players will step into an ominous world to fight
ravenous zombies. The Prop and Set Designers as well as Makeup Artists create a film set style environment that immerses players in the
Zombie Apocalypse survival experience.
Combinations of lighting, (and lack of lighting), selected use of smoke, as well as a really harrowing and oppressive sound-scape really put pressure on the player as they navigate a maze or debris and horrific scenes.
I had the good fortune to get to go backstage and saw the interconnected
passageways the actors could take to move from area to area, where they
would emerge and lay in wait for the passing players, in and around the
sets. The hospital area bugged me the most, as I work in them, and have done the graveyard shift...
The maze was a CQB nightmare, with blind corners, concealed alcoves and all manner of cover for the zombies to lurch from and come at us. Importantly though, for all its twists and turns, it was a "safe" environment, from an OH&S perspective and you could easily cope with the 6-8 person teams recommended. We ran it in a team of three, and were like a well oiled machine. I didn't have to worry about anyone actually getting hurt for real during even an intense simulated combat.
We weren't rushed along as we had been in the Patient 0 event, and even though the maze was relatively small, much more in line with a Haunted House event rather than the sprawling warehouse/factory sit utilised for Patient 0, and we went through the maze twice, as a part of the gameplay, I certainly didn't feel any less fearful of my life when zombies came at us from dark corners, or rattled on us from behind chainlink walls as we faced more direct threats.
Back in the registration area, the stark lighting, clean floors and all too living other players was a more jarring experience. I wanted back in to my comforting darkness, screaming and sirens. The one upside of the "real-world" was that I got to fool around with both the Glock training weapons. The Glocks had the same "real features" as the irM4's, removable clips, wireless targeting and scoring, and ammo-counts. Unfortunately due to limited battery capacity, and high accuracy, they weren't really suited to the spray-and-pray zombie hoard threats the game presented with.
A regrettable technical difficulty, but one the organisers preferred to keep it out of the game, but available for range use! I also got to use the notorious pain-belt! It was a really, really unpleasant experience and I heartily recommend it for all gamers. Again, it apparently was not suited to use in the zombie game, but us perfect for PvP shooting. I tried it on the low setting, which was startling and also all the way up at high, which was curse-making, but didn't hamper me as soon as it stopped. Incentive not to get shot, for sure.
So, all in all I was really pleased with the OzApocalypse Zombie Apocalypse event. I was a Pozible campaign ticket holder, and I feel it was pretty amazing that they would offer to honour the IRL Shooter LAZARUS ticket holders at all, which was super generous. It certainly is NOT a sequel to the Patient 0 game, and its really hard to compare the two events as apples and apples. I really enjoyed it, and really look forwards to going back for more.
The Zombie Apocalypse Experience is running for two more weekends, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays while weekdays and weeknights
give those who love games like Call of Duty the chance to combat team vs
team combat in the BATTLE APOCALYPSE arena, which is the same area as the Zombie Apocalypse event, but with the connecting areas opened up, some walls opened up, and more personal threats, with pain belts available on request, I believe. I'd really recommend you get along and enjoy it, in either its Zombie Apocalypse, Battle Apocalypse or even the kid-friendly FAMILY versions, before it finishes.
AND, thanks to the organisers, I can offer all my readers a whopping 35% discount with the code "COYOTE0415" (thats charlie-oscar-yankee-oscar-tango-echo-zero-four-one-five).
TICKETS: Lazarus www.flavorus.com/ozapocalypse
Battle Apocalypse www.flavorus.com/battleapocalypse
Group Bookings (minimum of eight players) email tickets@ozapocalypse.com
Facebook and Twitter OzApocalypse
Instagram ozapocalypse.com.au
To supplement that, and on top of my exemption by the Governor in Council as a bona fide collector, I also joined the Victorian Historical Edged Weapons Collectors Guild . I also signed up for my Paintball Marker License, after my run in with customs whilst trying to get parts to build a super cool looking lazer-tagger for the Stargate LARP I am involved in.
Then there are the more fun and exciting memberships. I've been a member of Immanent Threat Solutions Tactical for a couple of years now. They specialise in information, training and equipment to deal with, as the name suggests, Immanent Threats. From knot-work, to lock picking, survival navigation to urban threat assessment, as well as working with several groups of makers to produce some cool kit and reviews. I'm very pleased to be a part of their community, in my small way.
Zombease is a lot like my own writing, but specialising in Zombie Apocalypse scenarios. I really enjoy reading their content, Jake Sepulveda is a great guy, and I have enjoyed getting behind his line, and backing his projects.Try out the "Choose your own adventure" section and see how you go. Read all the guides first, and mentally equip yourself.
Zombie Squad is a philanthropic organisation dedicated to first response and support for ALL disasters, zombie or otherwise. They pride themselves on their mission to "educate the public about the importance of personal preparedness and community service, to increase its readiness to respond to disasters such as earthquakes, floods or zombie outbreaks."
I have been proud to help in their efforts to support the Hurricane Sandy relief drive (2012) and the Oklahoma Tornado relief drive (2013). Like Zombease, they also offer "zombie apocalypse" training and guides, but also apply these lessons to more mundane situations, for the benefit of their communities.
Lastly, and most recently added to my list of "professional associations" in the field of Apocalypse Survival, is the Zombie Eradication Response Team. Who also offer real-world training for disaster preparedness, from a more martial perspective, that is an "organization that uses the Zombie as a metaphor for any one of
numerous natural or man made disasters that have and will occur in our
lives." I signed up and got some cool patches from them as well. I look forwards to connecting with other folks from "Squadron Q" (Australia) and maybe see you at an event.
The guys behind them are willing to ship me a box of 12 of them, at around $15 a case, plus $60 or so for shipping to Australia, for a total of about $20 a pop. (They are not offering international shipping as part of their bid, so are doing me a solid favour).
Designed to fit any standard magazine pouch (like the FUP, SCAR chest rig, 60 rnd Pouch, or the like), whilst being slightly too large for the magazine well of a rifle (to avoid that kind of accidental loading). Enough room to hold all your standard rifle cleaning needs, but also a great size for a bunch of other items...
I would love to get a few for myself for use in lasertag MilSim and costuming, as well as the cool factor, but I can't really justify getting a dozen of them, so I am putting it out to you my Aussie readers ... fancy one, willing to chip in and/or buy one when they come i, later in the year? You'd be one of the only Australians with one, as they don't think they'd ship any others over the Pacific.
Message me on apocalypseequipped@gmail.com and I'll let Pete and Trevor know. Help me help a couple of Texan lads out with their cool idea.
As I posted recently, I had a surprise delivery arrive, and wanted to let you know all about it. A "restricted export" item, I feel very privileged to be able to play with it, hard to get out of the US.
This 30x20x20mm (1.2x0.75x0.75") block of acrylic weighs only 8.5g (0.3oz) and has a 9v battery attachment point on the bottom, slightly covered by a lip. Inside the acrylic you can see the three IR LEDs and the simple controlling circuit board. Simplicity in design!
The 9V battery will provide 200 hours of strobing, according to CE Jay Engineering, and even after draining the battery of its primary charge, they suggest that giving it a2-3 hour rest can eek out a short while of extra strobing, in a pinch. The flash rate of 20 milliseconds every 1.3 seconds was specifically chosen to prevent confusion with small arms fire, which is a VERY good thing, to my thinking.
The clear case, and design allows for a 360 degree viewing angle, from around the beacon, and a 240 degree viewing angle from the vertical( due to the battery, obviously).
Whilst not "waterproof" the beacon is purported to function whilst immersed until the contacts fail due to electrolytic corrosion. That's pretty impressive. No switches, no moving parts, just the 9v connectors. Plug in a batter, and it's on. Pull battery off, and it is off.
I tested it with my Yukon 3x42 NVG, placing the beacon on my car and walking down the street until I lost line of sight, and I have no doubts that this beacon would be visible for hundreds of meters more. To get a decent photo, I took it inside, and with my iPhone, took a couple of "down the relief" shots.
Unlike some IR LEDs, those used in the Phoenix Jr are totally invisible to the human eye, with no tell-tale red pulse. This means for covert use, either in static positioning, or secreted on your person, and even through clothes, you can signal to NVG equipped observers.
I am throughly impressed with this piece, and am going to see a out placing an order for the non-export restricted waterproof carry case for it. I think this kind of item that would be ideal for assisting Search And Rescue teams finding me in the event that I have a misadventure. That or IFF when I am out laser tagging.
I really enjoyed the event, and thought I would give you all a heads up on what was all about, how it ran, how it worked and most importantly how it tested me.
Before going in, I met up with my team and laid out several sets of vests, webbing and plate carrier sets. Five sets in all, in various levels of hooah, to give them all a chance to suit up in "the real gear" so we all matched and looked like a unit, of sorts. My collection of coyote-brown and khaki gear really would have looked good, but all but one of them opted out. So much for my dreams of a bad-assed looking team of operators. I wore a heavily de-tooled version of my Apocalypse Equipped loadout, as IRL Shooter have a strict no-weapon/lights/electronics rule. (yes, I know... I'm the mayor of POG central ...)
Arriving at the facility we were greeted by a cheerfully brusque NCO in Grey Area Protective Services (GAPS) blacks, and signed us in. Prior to the event each member of our six person team had been mailed a RFID card, and documentation regarding our mission and service duties. We signed in with the NCO, I stepped up as the team leader, and we were shuttled into the main facility. we were asked if we wanted the PG language version or the R-rated, extra salty. We unanimously chose extra-salty, much to the delight of all the GAPS staff. Sr Drill Instructor Hartman would have been proud of the creative use of language.
We were greeted by a second, far less cheerful NCO, who gave us all a fairly resounding chewing out for being late, and called out one of us for being the latest, with a "drop and give me 10" pushup penalty. They were, at least, impressed with my rig, and the rig the other guy wore. Yelling.
We were loudly ushered through the comms-hut, where several workstations of controllers sat, with multiple low-light security camera feeds and communication boards were set up. Frog-marched through this area to the armory, we were fitted out with helmets, and standard black-SWAT vests for those who didn't have them already. I had booked in to have a helmet cam, so my helmet had a mounted Contour cam. More yelling.
Through to the armory proper, we were issued with our lasertaggers, very realistic M4/M203 mockups. These pieces were movie-prop quality, and each weighed around 4kg. The M203 barrel housed the lens system, much like the ones we use for Stargate LRP, but had a built in single/auto selector switch included on the electrics housing, built into the right side of the M203. A reload button was indicated, and the speaker was built in to the left side. Holographic red/green sights were minuted and we were instructed in reload, fire selection and sight lighting settings. The M4s also had a weapon light mounted. More yelling and "how to shoot and clear rooms" instruction. Being team leader I was fitted with the teams single push-to-talk Motorola, which I mounted in one of my many pouches. Always good to have the right tool for the job... Likewise, I put my own sling on my M4, which came in very handy later on. We were told we had 30 round magazines, with "unlimited reloads" so to go to town. I opted for single fire anyways.
We were instructed in the correct anti-zombie safety: we take damage incrementally if within 3m of the zombies, from a mixture of toxins and contagion. Head shots are the only true stoppers. Just because they go down doesn't mean they will stay down. Then came the safety briefing. No touching the actors. No hand-to-hand. No breaking down doors or walls. No using the M4's as pry-bars or sledgehammers.
The mission was simple: kill all the zombies we found, find the missing "Team Alpha" (we were "Team Delta") and determine what had become of the mad scientist responsible for the outbreak in the first place, in the labyrinthine medical-research facility that had been sealed off. More yelling, on the ready line, and..... GO!
The facility used for the game was a disused boot factory complex in one of the Northern suburbs of Melbourne, only a couple of streets away from my partner Anastasia's place. The weather had been quite hot, although a cool change had come through, but it was still hot on Australia Day as we entered a dark, smokey, noisy and destroyed facility. The set dressings were really good. We passed through infirmaries with rows of curtained beds, cafeterias, kitchens, toilet and office blocks, or multiple floors and levels.
The radio connection to the comms center provided instruction as to our route, local objectives and always, always "hurry-up, hurry-up". Every radio signal was expect to be followed up with a reply, and produced a sense of constant pressure. Each order needed to be relayed to my team, whilst we encountered random zombies, reanimating bodies, blinking, flashing and swinging debris to work through and around and all the while, in poor lighting. It was great.
Photo swiped from the website
I broke our six person team into three 2-person fire teams, and we swept-and-cleared with quote good efficiency for a scratch team who had never really worked together in this fashion (two of the people were work colleagues from IT, one was one of the guys I did my first Tough Mudder with, a friend from kendo, and their friend. That last team-mate was the only one of us with actual military experience, but at least all of us had some some kind of Lasertag, paintballing or actual shooting. We kept pretty good communication up between us, and the fairly linear nature of "Patient Zero" made it easy for us, as "go forwards, consider anyone you come across to be infected, kill all the zombies" is a pretty easy SOP and Rule of Engagement to follow. I bolster that with an additional proviso, in that as there was the suggestion that there might be a second , hostile organisation present, we would "kill everything we found, unless otherwise ordered" this led to a couple of "I wasn't finished with that survivor yet" moments, but all in all we made a ruthless, efficient and effective sweep-team.
The RFID cards opened doors along the way, (plot allowing) and the radio worked (even if the storyline was occasionally verbose, but totally entertaining). Technically, a couple of elements I found might need a little work. The M4's lacked any force-feedback, but that would be a cherry on the cake of an otherwise excellent prop, but it was the gun-lights and speakers that I would recommending improving. The gunshot-sound effect, and health feedback grunts were quite soft, especially over the ambient sound effects and radio calls. This meant knowing how many shots were going off around you, your own shots, injuries to yourself and team-mates was difficult. Even of distorted, volume over quality would have been an improvement. I understand the need not to blind the actors too, so a 600Lumen tactical light from SureFire mighty overkill, but the lights we had were very hard to pick up on the helmet camera. Perhaps a compromise of boosting the levels on the camera might suffice. Again, the darkness was great for the atmosphere.
From an operations point of view, I was pleased how I managed my team, we were a surprisingly cohesive force, I think most of my instructions were easily understood and tactically sound (even the part where we went "off map" by pushing through some cardboard boxes to get to a door I spotted through a barricade). We achieved our mission objective of locating the missing Alpha Team, interrogating them (but perhaps being to thorough with our "kill everyone" policy, before all information could be extracted, due to some motivated trigger fingers in our team. I located and collected the "origin virus" sample, and although my secret contact had been killed, (yes, ere are secrets between teams and Command) was able to successfully pass this on.
The gameplay was fast and frenetic, the game world was rich and wide (check out the masses of in-game web links to parent, competitor and whistle blowing entities related to GAPS). Here is a lot more to this than "shoot the zombies" Lasertag. The prosthesis on the actors were awesome, they looks the part, for sure, and all had creepy mannerisms to really bring the fear. The biggest issue we had was the intricate "all or nothing" booking, which was difficult to navigate and coordinate, but in the end, totally worthwhile.
I found it really challenging, enjoyable and certainly a test of nerves under pressure. I'll be back for more, for sure!
Here’s a piece I thought might be of interest to some, that I wrote for Breach Bang & Clear. Training is a key element both for honing existing skills, but also good training requires you to try out new situations and learn new skills sets. You really want to practice as realistically as you can, but no one wants to damage their training partners. When that happens you get a lot less volunteers, and since we don’t have a Running Man style “volunteer” program and want reproducible scenarios, we turn to simulation. But we wish we could use prisoners like in the movies.
AirSoft type equipment, paintball and MILES gear have all brought different tools to the table, as have the minds behind the iCOMBAT technology and training systems. My contacts recently put me in touch with SBTactical, a veteran owned and operated business out of Santa Barbara, California. As the National Law Enforcement and Professional distributors of iCOMBAT equipment, they are 100% committed to serving those who serve.
“With over 40+ combined years of planning, resourcing, and conducting training, we are confident that we are the right team to meet your needs,” SBTactical says. SBT’s experience plus iCOMBAT’s technology leave no training question unanswered. “With SBTactical you will replicate, not simulate, the situations your officers will encounter. Every day we strive to advance your organizations training to the next level. SBTactical’s mission is to Replicate real world scenarios, reduce training costs, and maximize training time,” SBT says.
The iCOMBAT technology is a weapon, sensor and control system. It currently offers an M4 style weapon and a Glock style weapon, to better replicate weapons common among police and military units.
