The New Bastogne WW2 Combat Roleplay Celebrates Five Years

By Bixyl Shuftan

On March Friday the 13th, the New Bastogne World War Two Combat Roleplay officially turned five years old. The occasion was marked with a hunt with a dozen crates hidden around the area for people to fine, each containing a vehicle. Plus there was a party at the "Sporthalle" in the Caen sim. The event began at 5PM SL time.

The building itself was drapped with flags with both the German cross, and the double-lighting bolt "SS" symbol. The three German teams, Heer (army), Luftwaffe, and SS, were the majority of those attending, but there were some from the Italian and Russian groups. A German band performed "Big Band" music and other tunes for the crowd.

Most of the people there were in uniform, though some chose formal civilian wear instead. Vickster Khun, the head of the combat roleplay, was there in a red gown. The people danced, chatting about old times.

At one point, Vickster had an announcement concerning one of the Heer officers, Sunra Saenz, whom while one of the leading officers simply had the tag of "officer" up. Vickster told him in front of everyone, "I actually have an honor I wish to bestow on you on behalf of Oberbefehlshaber West at the command of Oberkommando der Wehrmacht and officially promote you to the rank of Generalmajor." Sunra was at a loss for words, "I am speachless Generalleutnant, and very honoured indeed." Others toased and saluted him. One joked, "It's a custom that new generals have to buy a round of beers."

Vickster continued, "You deserve it very much, more than any member of this command I've served with, you've kept the faith and served as a model soldier for all branches." After some more talk, she turned to the others, "let me now tell you a little story about Sunra, and its something you don't know about him unless you were there, and you weren't (laughs), how Sunra got fired from First Armee by Octavian, who was commanding, remember? It was the second D-Day battle we had." Sunra Saenz answered, "Yes when I previously served with the Heer as Hauptman." "That's right, and you were executive officer as well. One of the best officers."

"And what happened? I can tell the story, it's funny. Well, funny and not funny. Sunra wasn't having fun. It's more complicated. What happened was we had our second big D-Day battle. It was sort of an annual even then. Sunra had been training with the Luftwaffe the night before. So the invasion starts, Sunra shows up in time, the battle goes great. He was doing panzers, but he still had his Luftwaffe uniform and title on. So octavian fired him. And Sunra had basically repelled the Allied armor after they landed. He won us the battle but Octavian fired him." Sunra mused, "I was all over the place. That battle lasted around 7 hours flat out (laughter)."

"Well, it always bothered me," Vickster told him, "Then I wasn't Oberkommando.  But I kept you in the Luftwaffe and recognized your awards. I don't think octavian really thought about what he was doing. Perhaps he was a frustrated. You say yourself he was a good commander." "I always wondered why he was so hard on me, yes," Sunra admitteded. "Anyway," Vickster continued, "what impressed me was you didn't give up or really demand anything. You just carried on like a real soldier, and did everything I ever asked you to, and took good care of the people you were placed over." She then chuckled, "Okay enough embarrassing you. ... I just wanted people to understand you paid your dues, you earned that rank and then some. You might meet a lot of group owners who are generals, but how many do you know who earned their rank from enlisted to officers in three branches?" One other German combatant commented, "I knew Allied fighters who when they saw that Sunra was participating....just left...out of fear of his prowess."

Vickster commented, "This is the first time we celebrated since the 1st anniversary. It's been so crazy all these years. It is till crazy after all these years." Sunra commented, "I miss the weekly dances Angus used to put on. Maybe this should become a weekly or monthly event." Vickster added, "Yes, I miss those too. We had a lot of fun even if we were sometimes bombed (laughs). That was in Seaone's sims." Sunra thought back, "Yes yes, so it was. That was another beautiful sim. But we saved the cathedral to use in New Bastogne at least. Heh heh." Vickster agreed, "We had a lot of fun there. It was a blow when those sims closed. But I understood."

Vickster concluded, "I'm really proud to have lasted this long when so many people said they would see us fail. Guys like Sunra who put up with a lot of crap and still kept at it, it really made the difference."

Vickster had to take care of something, and she bade everyone farewell and left the party, leaving Sunra and the others to continue on the celebration.

For those interested in the New Bastogne Combat RP, contact Vickter Khun, or the other team leaders. Besides the three German teams, Luftwaffe, Army, and Waffen SS, there is an Italian team, and several Allied teams, including Soviet. The Luftwaffe also has been having weekly scraps with an Allied air group.

Bixyl Shuftan

New Bastogne: WW2 in Second Life

By Grease Coakes

 

Second Life has endless ways to make use of a sim. You can have a rocking dance club, or others use a sim to hold prayers and build an ashram or church. Native Americans use a sim just to hang out at and express their culture and heritage. Another way to use a sim is for fun filled combat. Had a bad day at work? Blast your friend’s head off with a submachine gun, or even better use a bazooka.

 

Vickster Khun created a combat area in a sim owned by her, New Bastogne, which recreates a World War II environment based in France during German occupation in 1944. Nydia Tungsten and JessicaBelle Dayafter gave me a tour of the sim in a 1940’s armored car. When I first warped into the sim I saw a realistic room like a 1940’s office. Walking out, I was in an underground bunker. Jessica was a Lt. Colonel and Nydia was an under officer as a 1st Sergeant. Nydia played as her attaché being the driver while Jessica explained everything.

 

As I was in the back seat I saw destroyed buildings and old posters and cafes in giving the player or myself a historically accurate and terrible war like environment. The builders behind the sim did a great job in creating a realistic World War II recreation. In fact Nydia ran into an old style lamppost on purpose and it actually fell over and the same with chairs and table on an outside café.

 

 There are also sewers to go underground if you wanted to be sneaky and not be in direct combat. The goal of the sim, or rather the combat, was to capture flags and change them to your faction or nation. But of course as a combat sim you need firepower to overwhelm those nasty Germans, or you could be playing as the Germans trying to take control of Europe.

 

Nydia and JessicaBelle showed me where to pick up weaponry and a uniform so I’d be ready for battle. When I got the hang of it, I shot Nydia "killing" her by surprise. Sadly for me she came back and killed me several times going around the sim in fun filled combat. The combat scripts you put on only give you 25 hit points and allow you to put a flag above your head to show you’re an American or another allied nation. The low hit points add realism to the combat sim. Instead of taking 20 bullets before you die you can only take a shot or two before you die and respawn. To not be offensive the German sign is a red field with a cross, not the infamous Swastika used in Nazi propaganda.

 

A SMG isn’t for you? Well good news, there’s more. Unlike the first person shooter "Team Fortress 2" where you can pick a class to use certain weapons you stick with the basic rifle, however you can still use bazookas you just don’t start with full ammo like the solider in TF2. You have to pick up ammo crates to load your bazooka. That way not everyone is going around German occupied France with a bazooka you have to earn it by grabbing the ammo crates.

 

There are also vehicles to use as well to blast other players. You can grab a tank or even a fighter plane to blast away with. The tank gun made holes in the ground with a fiery after-effect and a sound effect of voices yelling German commands to fire. The plane itself was tricky to fly and I crashed into the sim next door. I had to laugh at myself in good fun.

 

JessicaBelle Dayafter wanted to show off the sim she likes roleplaying in and she wanted to vent some frustration at a group of people abusing the sim by bending the rules and not playing fair. Like Blizzard’s game "World of Warcraft," lots of players picked one side overwhelming the other faction. The game loses fun when this happens, in Jessica’s words. In fact when I brought up WoW she mentioned a lot of these unfair players may be also WoW players.

 

JessicaBelle Dayafter: “And all too often people would not use common sense of fairness. Like if you are fighting 3 enemies, coming over with 12 soldiers and 2 tanks is wayyy overkill, and totally unfair.”

 

Also people can become abusive getting too seriously involved in the sim. JessicaBelle Dayafter told me,  “Going back to the topic at hand of insults (sort of), another thing that drove many people off, is certain people take their RP waayy too serious, and bordering on being down right offensive/breaking rules of conduct set in place by LL.” 

 

As an officer, a Lt. Colonel, JessicaBelle tries giving orders, however her orders are often ignored by the other players. So by those upset by the cheating players she suggests going to LL to complain. Part of the problem is however is the managers and owner of the sim aren’t always sure what to do and her suggestions fall on deaf ears. I used the analogy of the NFL how when refs make bad calls against the home team you’ll hear boos resounding from the stands.

 

JessicaBelle Dayafter, "Some examples of shenanigans: spawn camping gathering large a large amount of troops, and waiting within line of sight or right outside the spawn areas, so anyone trying to re-enter battle gets massacred. A lot of it too was slinging insults to each other in combat, and not in a playful/meaningless way."

 

Sounds like some people want to ruin the game for others and bend the game to their will beyond reason and cheat. Which is sad when instead of enjoying the WW II sim in a fair way, they made the sim not fun anymore. This is just common sense or something you learn as a kid that other people do not like it if someone else cheats or plays a game whether a video game or a board game in an unfair way. Or if someone is winning by roll of the dice or just good shooting not to take offense and be a sore loser. That’s something to be reminded of in the holiday season when fairness and kindness show good holiday spirit. 

 

Check out the WW II sim when you get the chance readers of the Second Life Newser I had a fun time goofing off with Nydia and JessicaBelle.  That’s certainly part of the Christmas season just having fun.

 

Grease Coakes

Changes at the New Bastogne WW2 RP

This year, there have been some changes going on at the New Bastogne WW2 Combat Roleplay area.

For one, the layout of the region has been changed, as well as the number of sims increased. Last year, there had been three sims in a reverse north/south arrangement, with the German teams in New Bastogne, the Allies in the bottom edge of the southern sim, and the land in-between as open territory. This simulated the situation with the Allies still in England, making raids into France.

Early this year, the arrangement of the lands was changed with the south sim moved west of Bastogne and renamed “Allied sim,” later changed to Perrone Airport. The German teams moved their bases to a sim east of Bastogne named Schloss Burg Eltz, with the airport to the south. North of Perrone Airport is Saint Quentin. North of New Bastogne and east of Saint Quentin is Huertgenwald, which is still being worked on.

To the south of New Bastogne is the New Fallout sim, which seems to be made into an Eastern European region. Then there’s Tataria to the southeast, which is new. For now, the action remains in New Bastogne, with the two teams staying out of each other’s “home” sim. Across the sims, some railroad track has been laid out, with a trolley occasionally moving along.

Saint Quentin has a club, the Saint Quentin Ballroom, which has two dance parties a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 PM SL time. The club plays 1940’s “big band” music the WW2 RP is known for, on occasion mixed in with other music from earlier times. The club is neutral ground, and players from both sides, and visitors, are welcome. People are requested to wear clothes appropriate for the time period, and visitors are asked not to disturb any players in combat outside the club.

Saint Quentin also has a small weapons store, next the the train station, Saint Quentin Importers, “No need to worry about oil or fuel prices,” joked Allied leader AngusGraham Ceawlin when he announced it’s opening. Then there is the Saint Quentin Cathedral. There are plans for a priest, Father Kravyn, to hold brief services every Sunday, “in addition to weddings, blessings or other types of services upon request.” The blessing of the cathedral and it’s first service is scheduled for April 3rd.

The northern part of the German sim has a large dark castle, with numerous rooms, and a dungeon. Work on furnishing the interior is still in progress (the rumors that the dungeon is not used for interrogations by the Germans but rather hot dates have been neither confirmed or denied).

New Bastogne continues to use two combat systems. The Vice system is used for most of the week, with the newer Blitz in play for Friday and Saturday. This had meant that for these two days aircraft couldn’t do more than scare ground targets, their bombs being unable to damage. More recently, a couple Blitz aircraft were offered to the pilots. For some pilots, however, the changes with the sims have posed a problem. Possibly because of the extra sim crossings, some pilots have found it difficult to stay in the air very long without crashing. Fortunately for them, the weekend raids on the Flying Tiger’s WW2 Pacific sims are still going on.

For the Germans, there has been some changes in the leadership. The leader of the Armee group had to leave New Bastogne. Vickster Khun, whom was in charge of the Luftwaffe group, assumed command. Duarte Koray was placed in command of the Richthofens. Some new players have also risen to prominence. Nohime Runner quickly rose from an entry level pilot to one of leading officers, taking charge of projects such as the construction of the German castle.

Besides the combat, there have also been some races. Last month, there was a horse race in the Saint Quentin sim, with a track set up around the cathedral. There were several contestants, including one Russian Cossack. A few warm-up laps were held, followed by a serious race, which was ran again when it was clear lag was causing some people to miss a turn. The winner was a lady from the German teams. Following the horse race, March has been the scene of tank races every Saturday from 3 to 5:30 PM at New Bastogne (71, 199, 3001).

On Tuesday March 15th, the Saint Quentin Club hosted a party in honor of the one year anniversary of the Bastogne combat RP, “Come Celebrate With Vickster Kuhn, our founder, the vision and continued growth of these wonderful sims.” About two dozen players and visitors attended, with Big Band music played, and a few prizes given out.

At one point, Allied commander AngusGraham Ceawlin spoke up, “I would like to thank all of you for coming in honor of the 1st anniversary of Bastogne. We owe much to Vickster Kuhn for her vision as well as countless others who have contributed their time and talents towards the continued success of New Bastogne and the Bastogne Project.” He asked all to raise a toast to her, and all at the party did, "Prost!" “Congratulations!" “Grats.”

Vickster responded with a smile, “Thank you all. ... Project Bastogne is a success due to the efforts of so many people! Not just our great sim owners Like Zewe Major, Seaone Bunyip, Joe Sparrow, Nohime Runner and Miss Ichi Yazimoto! Our admin team makes it happen! People like Miss Deusen Marx, Angus, Aeryn.... so many others! I'm so happy with the results of all our efforts!”

And so New Bastogne marches into it’s second year. Not completely without problems, but bigger and better than ever.

Bixyl Shuftan