This report is part of my ultimate flashaholic camping trip (year III, part 1- if the weather allows us to go a second time)
I promised a second report on tactical use of strobes, but not having remotes for strobe lights, this will be a mix of tactical flashlight and strobe use – but for the best, trust me.
SO, having gone back to the regular park I take my flashaholic cousin to have fun in the woods at night, we had some fun with modified Nerf guns and one of the park's observation tower.
This was the defender's fort. I don't have a picture of the surrounding area, but the tower is surrounded by trees at an average distance of 10 to 20 yards all around and I was standing right in front of the main trail when I took this picture.
Intro
I planned my attack almost 3 months ahead and it really paid off! To be honest, I had unfair advantage; some new secret weapons and tactical planning my cousin did not have or even suspect.
SETUP
As agreed, for the first round, my cousin was to defend the tower and I was to attack. We did not set any other rule than how high we could legally defend the tower from, so the game would be fair to the attacker.
I was convinced that a secondary tree covered path lead to the tower, and I had planned a surprise attack from there, since we always –I mean ALWAYS- used the main path to get to the tower. (Just to be clear, the main paths are gravel covered and wide enough for a pick-up truck, while the other paths are either hiking or biking trails.)
While doing a daytime recon, I questioned my cousin on how he got lost 2 years ago and was interested on retracing his steps. This small covered path that ended on one of the tower's side opening was the first way he took before getting totally lost and I was pleasantly surprised he wanted to go through it just for fun. I thought to myself "Oh, god thank you so much! I won't need to guess my way through", although I already had a fairly accurate idea on the path. I was afraid he might figure out what I was up to, but apparently he did not have a clue.
GETTING TO THE WAR ZONE
We left camp past sunset and had to carry each a full backpack of tactical gear, 2 bottles of water each and had to share the load of a hockey bag full of Nerf equipment and my secret weapons (total estimated at 40 pounds, but possibly more) up a relatively steep hill for about 20 minutes, not counting breaks.
ROUND 1 ATTACK PHASE
I left all my weapons and ammo –including my secret weapons- at the junction leading to the tower and accompanied my cousin to the tower. I then went back to get the now MUCH lighter equipment bag to take the secondary route for my surprise attack. I called my cousin on the walkie-talkie to touch bases before getting there, making sure he wasn't quite ready yet and that I wasn't suspiciously late.
THE INTRIGUE: OH NO!
Once I got into position he then called me, but to my surprise, I could actually hear him in stereo and was sure he heard the communication end beep (stupid walkie-talkie!). I had to stay put a bit, could see his TK30 beam scanning around through the trees and even thought he might be patrolling on the ground rather than stay in the tower! I laid low, talked low and he even asked if it was possible I might attack from a different opening! OH NO! Months of planning down the drain!!!!!!!! I was now convinced he was standing right next to my attack opening, waiting for me to execute his own surprise attack. I moved back with no lighting at all, hearing a twig or two snap, opened the bag so slow even I had a hard time hearing the Velcro come apart. Even that wasn't enough... The light was so close I could almost see my shadow! I moved behind a tree and waited for a minute. I couldn't let him come down the path while all my weapons where in a bag he could hear me unzip, so picked it up and moved straight away from the opening (good thing we explored that path during daytime.)
I moved as fast and stealthily as it is possible without a flashlight, putting my feet down as slow as I could on the soft ground, but still cracked 2 twigs again and kept my foot down to muffle the sound. I literally felt like Rambo. Went behind a tree and proceeded to load up while using my IFE2 at lowest possible setting (slightly more than 0.03 lumens... not quite enough with the full moon on top of the trees, but sooo much better than nothing while still stealthy. I could see the "great eye's" beam hitting the ground of my secret covered trail 20 feet away from my new position and my mind could hear him breathe!
No Time To Go Back
I could not change plans now. At worst, I would have to start shooting fast as soon as I hit the opening, but I kicked myself hard in the butt and put one foot in front of the other slower than ever before, listening for any clues, watching for any movement or shadow. I had fully night-adapted vision and had a good idea that the enemy's silhouette should be recognizable in front of the opening. Once I got near the opening, I could finally see the bars from the tower rails in front of the TK30's beam. I crouched behind a bush to stay out of the light and waited for the scanning to stop for a second and then turn off. I then knew I had to act fast.
THE JUICE: Plan In Motion
I had my hands and shoulders full: one modified Raider and two modified Mega Missiles hanging around my shoulders, almost clanking together as I moved within ear's shot from the enemy, HID in one hand, two Howlers (whistling Nerf footballs) in the other hand, not counting my side arms: modified Night Finders in my cargos side pockets. I slowly crouched into the opening, set the HID down, turned it on, stretched the loud cracking support at the proper angle, then moved diagonally to the right quickly about 5 steps out of the light, while pulling up one of my Mega Missiles (we could say bazooka if you're not familiar with these). I stopped and shot a missile at the now visible face, dumped that gun and quickly moved again diagonally to the right, staying out of the HID's beam the whole time (I did my homework, man!) I repeated that maneuver once more, hit my cousin smack on the right cheek with a loud POP and OUCH (don't worry, it didn't hurt) and repeated the move, to throw the now only howler left in my hands (which must have landed close to his feet). Another diagonal bunch of steps while struggling to get one of my side arms out of the pocket and laughing madly at the loud "POP... OUCH!" put me right in front of the stairs and staring at enemy right in the eye.
I had to move back (diagonally) while still unholstering my gun, which I had forgotten to ****, so had to move twice to shoot once. Miss. (who cares when the enemy's head has already been blown off by a bazooka, but no rule stated what counted as a kill, so game on!) I holstered the single-shot weapon and pulled the Raider strap over my head, armed it and proceeded into the stairs while shooting, making the enemy retreat to the second floor. I shot twice around the corner, quickly retreating behind the stairs to **** my gun for the next shot and remembered about the remote switch taped to the handle right under my fingers. I didn't really need my weapon mounted light to see, since the HID could light my target fine from 50 feet behind me, but remembered the daze and confuse principle. I then shot 4-5 single shots with brief momentary on taps and retreated behind cover each time. I then realized I had to take full advantage of my tactical shock-and-awe tactic and ran up the stairs, holding my tape switch on real hard, while shooting in full-auto mode straight at my target and a full 337 lumen in his face. The defender took at least 5-6 bullets in the chest, while I took one to the side and all was done. No rules needed, I won with full-on strategic and tactical advantage.
End Of Round 1: LESSONS
Winner's side
I was huffing and puffing like I was about to die. I thought one minute more and no bullets would be needed to kill me. Yea, I need to quit smoking; understand that you NEED to be in GREAT shape to give a good fight, and this is coming from someone who never even considered the army or the police an option in his life. The other side of the medal, is proper planning (and execution) can make all the difference in the world.
ROUND 2: Strategic defence without proper counter-attack.
THE SETUP
So, my cousin was now supposed to go back to the junction. Once he left out of sight and hearing range, I put my weapons down in position and started placing my other secret weapons. MAN I had a ball at the store when I saw these! Took all my will not to mention any of these discoveries over the phone for more than 2 months!
THE INTRIGUE
While setting up, I heard a noise and lit the ground with my Predator, suspecting the attacker might have decided to cheat and hide rather than head back as far as agreed. I didn't see anything and figured that with all the wind, it could be anything. I then placed my first motion sensor light in the corner behind me and then proceeded down to the first floor to place the second motion sensing light (at 4$ each on special, I should have bought a dozen!) and saw or heard something suspicious. Being lower than the tree cover now, I pointed my Predator at the main path to reveal a suspiciously reflecting object and 2 white running shoes sticking out from each side of a tree - not to mention some orange object on the ground I knew to be a Nerf gun. I called him on it (cheater!) but he only moved sideways, hiding one shoe while showing more of his T-shirt on the other side of the tree. My weapons were a floor away and I felt really vulnerable.
The mistake of leaving my weapons behind was not revealed by my tone while calling my attacker on his bluff. Why didn't I use the CALL option on the walkie-talkie to call the bluff totally off... oh! Right! Too obvious already! I bluffed my own way back up after setting the motion sensor on, although he might have been abiding by the only other rule of no attacking until the defender says he's ready. At this point, I saw the weapons being retrieved behind the small tree. I was now halfway back to my weapon station, with my eyes trained at the ground.
ACTION: ARE YOU REALLY PATIENT???
My cheating attacker must have seen something about me setting up lights in the tower, but they were off by now. He did not see me set my third secret weapon and I had to attract him past third level to really set my plan in full motion. Now, I had to get him moving. I tried to taunt him, with no results, so I shot 2 bullets in the dark and saw him move real slow. Moving now and meet the enemy on his own ground most certainly would have meant victory, but that would have been unfair (Hey, wait... he was already being more unfair than I was on the previous round! OK, I was a slacker right there, but I didn't want my precious secret gadgets to be useless either. After all, I planned this for months.)
He took his time coming out into the light, but no one can blame him for it... the ground was as bright as daylight already, thanks to the TK15. I let it off a few seconds at a time, just to attract him and had to dodge a dart that would have whizzed by my right ear if it had been a real bullet. He then retreated under the cover of the trees... Coward!
THE JUICE PART II
Very long story short is that I had to let him come out of the cover by going to the next floor (highest floor allowed to defend the tower) and he took that moment to run under the tower. Then the patience game was started. He didn't know a thing about my motion lights so far and I couldn't do much about him being underneath the tower, aside watching the main stairs. All I could do is scan everywhere else around the tower, knowing he might wait the hell out of me before trying the stairs, and he did retreat twice from the stairs when I shot at him, even though I was out of reach from the first floor. A real patience game: I had to get him out from underneath the tower or simply attract him into the tower...
I tried different ways to get him out from under the tower: Shoot around his feet when I could see them, run up out of reach and stop moving for a while, or just stay put as a target he could have shot between the bars, while watching for any suspicious movement (we had an almost full moon overhead that I used to spot him and that he could use to spot me). I could not leave my last ultimate secret tactical advantage out of the loop (not after all the effort it took to get there), especially that we didn't mention a thing about the right to leave the tower (next time might be different, though and god forbids I take rappelling lessons and buy the basic equipment, because I WILL DO IT!)
IS FLASHAHOLIC FUN OVER YET: NOPE!
This war had come from a move-and-kill-first shock-and-awe war to a gutsy wait-for-the-right-moment-in-the-dark patience war. In the end, I got him to come into the tower at least 3 times, attracted him at least twice past the third level and used my last weapon: a remote-activated tent light that looks like a land-mine!!!!!!!! OK... I have nothing to do with the fact that it looks like a land-mine and he's the one who admitted he thought it looked like something that might detonate. I just took advantage of the fact that he froze when I first turned it on while he was shooting at me (I'm pretty sure that if first bullet was a kill, I would have won right there.) I had to move it while he was off the tower, but by then he figured that flipping my sensor lights and moving my remote light upside-down or behind posts would defeat the purpose.
THE END OF THE ROUND?
In the end, I shot more bullets than he did (and almost got him right in the eye once), but I ran out of ammo while driving him out of the tower after almost a full hour of play. Who won? No one's really counting, but he still had some rounds left while I was standing in front of the main entrance to the tower and he was right at the bottom, so we agreed that treachery paid off for the attacker.
CONCLUSION
You win some, you lose some, but who cares if it's only a game! It might be argued that I made a real basic error: not fight patience with patience: guilty. It could be also argued that my first error was not to meet the enemy on his own ground when it was time: guilty as well. The only rule set was maximum floor-to-ground defence height, so I did not really think about the option of meeting my attacker on the ground. The reality is that we were having fun, not evaluating strategic advantage, but experimenting with flashlights (the whole point here.)
TACTICAL FLASHLIGHT/STROBE USE
Oh, right, the flashaholic's want-to-know part!
While we only had our TK15's on a tape switch, we did use our Predators and his M1X on strobe. That was annoying as hell, but in the end, I feel that any strong light used in momentary gets the job done. To be quite honest, a full-on light helps to see the target better than a strobe, especially when the opponent is holding a strobe light, so strobes have a limited usefulness if your attacker has a good light of his own. I would certainly not recommend to fight a constant strong light with a strobe; you will be easier to spot than your opponent.
I promised a second report on tactical use of strobes, but not having remotes for strobe lights, this will be a mix of tactical flashlight and strobe use – but for the best, trust me.
SO, having gone back to the regular park I take my flashaholic cousin to have fun in the woods at night, we had some fun with modified Nerf guns and one of the park's observation tower.
This was the defender's fort. I don't have a picture of the surrounding area, but the tower is surrounded by trees at an average distance of 10 to 20 yards all around and I was standing right in front of the main trail when I took this picture.
Intro
I planned my attack almost 3 months ahead and it really paid off! To be honest, I had unfair advantage; some new secret weapons and tactical planning my cousin did not have or even suspect.
SETUP
As agreed, for the first round, my cousin was to defend the tower and I was to attack. We did not set any other rule than how high we could legally defend the tower from, so the game would be fair to the attacker.
I was convinced that a secondary tree covered path lead to the tower, and I had planned a surprise attack from there, since we always –I mean ALWAYS- used the main path to get to the tower. (Just to be clear, the main paths are gravel covered and wide enough for a pick-up truck, while the other paths are either hiking or biking trails.)
While doing a daytime recon, I questioned my cousin on how he got lost 2 years ago and was interested on retracing his steps. This small covered path that ended on one of the tower's side opening was the first way he took before getting totally lost and I was pleasantly surprised he wanted to go through it just for fun. I thought to myself "Oh, god thank you so much! I won't need to guess my way through", although I already had a fairly accurate idea on the path. I was afraid he might figure out what I was up to, but apparently he did not have a clue.
GETTING TO THE WAR ZONE
We left camp past sunset and had to carry each a full backpack of tactical gear, 2 bottles of water each and had to share the load of a hockey bag full of Nerf equipment and my secret weapons (total estimated at 40 pounds, but possibly more) up a relatively steep hill for about 20 minutes, not counting breaks.
ROUND 1 ATTACK PHASE
I left all my weapons and ammo –including my secret weapons- at the junction leading to the tower and accompanied my cousin to the tower. I then went back to get the now MUCH lighter equipment bag to take the secondary route for my surprise attack. I called my cousin on the walkie-talkie to touch bases before getting there, making sure he wasn't quite ready yet and that I wasn't suspiciously late.
THE INTRIGUE: OH NO!
Once I got into position he then called me, but to my surprise, I could actually hear him in stereo and was sure he heard the communication end beep (stupid walkie-talkie!). I had to stay put a bit, could see his TK30 beam scanning around through the trees and even thought he might be patrolling on the ground rather than stay in the tower! I laid low, talked low and he even asked if it was possible I might attack from a different opening! OH NO! Months of planning down the drain!!!!!!!! I was now convinced he was standing right next to my attack opening, waiting for me to execute his own surprise attack. I moved back with no lighting at all, hearing a twig or two snap, opened the bag so slow even I had a hard time hearing the Velcro come apart. Even that wasn't enough... The light was so close I could almost see my shadow! I moved behind a tree and waited for a minute. I couldn't let him come down the path while all my weapons where in a bag he could hear me unzip, so picked it up and moved straight away from the opening (good thing we explored that path during daytime.)
I moved as fast and stealthily as it is possible without a flashlight, putting my feet down as slow as I could on the soft ground, but still cracked 2 twigs again and kept my foot down to muffle the sound. I literally felt like Rambo. Went behind a tree and proceeded to load up while using my IFE2 at lowest possible setting (slightly more than 0.03 lumens... not quite enough with the full moon on top of the trees, but sooo much better than nothing while still stealthy. I could see the "great eye's" beam hitting the ground of my secret covered trail 20 feet away from my new position and my mind could hear him breathe!
No Time To Go Back
I could not change plans now. At worst, I would have to start shooting fast as soon as I hit the opening, but I kicked myself hard in the butt and put one foot in front of the other slower than ever before, listening for any clues, watching for any movement or shadow. I had fully night-adapted vision and had a good idea that the enemy's silhouette should be recognizable in front of the opening. Once I got near the opening, I could finally see the bars from the tower rails in front of the TK30's beam. I crouched behind a bush to stay out of the light and waited for the scanning to stop for a second and then turn off. I then knew I had to act fast.
THE JUICE: Plan In Motion
I had my hands and shoulders full: one modified Raider and two modified Mega Missiles hanging around my shoulders, almost clanking together as I moved within ear's shot from the enemy, HID in one hand, two Howlers (whistling Nerf footballs) in the other hand, not counting my side arms: modified Night Finders in my cargos side pockets. I slowly crouched into the opening, set the HID down, turned it on, stretched the loud cracking support at the proper angle, then moved diagonally to the right quickly about 5 steps out of the light, while pulling up one of my Mega Missiles (we could say bazooka if you're not familiar with these). I stopped and shot a missile at the now visible face, dumped that gun and quickly moved again diagonally to the right, staying out of the HID's beam the whole time (I did my homework, man!) I repeated that maneuver once more, hit my cousin smack on the right cheek with a loud POP and OUCH (don't worry, it didn't hurt) and repeated the move, to throw the now only howler left in my hands (which must have landed close to his feet). Another diagonal bunch of steps while struggling to get one of my side arms out of the pocket and laughing madly at the loud "POP... OUCH!" put me right in front of the stairs and staring at enemy right in the eye.
I had to move back (diagonally) while still unholstering my gun, which I had forgotten to ****, so had to move twice to shoot once. Miss. (who cares when the enemy's head has already been blown off by a bazooka, but no rule stated what counted as a kill, so game on!) I holstered the single-shot weapon and pulled the Raider strap over my head, armed it and proceeded into the stairs while shooting, making the enemy retreat to the second floor. I shot twice around the corner, quickly retreating behind the stairs to **** my gun for the next shot and remembered about the remote switch taped to the handle right under my fingers. I didn't really need my weapon mounted light to see, since the HID could light my target fine from 50 feet behind me, but remembered the daze and confuse principle. I then shot 4-5 single shots with brief momentary on taps and retreated behind cover each time. I then realized I had to take full advantage of my tactical shock-and-awe tactic and ran up the stairs, holding my tape switch on real hard, while shooting in full-auto mode straight at my target and a full 337 lumen in his face. The defender took at least 5-6 bullets in the chest, while I took one to the side and all was done. No rules needed, I won with full-on strategic and tactical advantage.
End Of Round 1: LESSONS
Winner's side
I was huffing and puffing like I was about to die. I thought one minute more and no bullets would be needed to kill me. Yea, I need to quit smoking; understand that you NEED to be in GREAT shape to give a good fight, and this is coming from someone who never even considered the army or the police an option in his life. The other side of the medal, is proper planning (and execution) can make all the difference in the world.
ROUND 2: Strategic defence without proper counter-attack.
THE SETUP
So, my cousin was now supposed to go back to the junction. Once he left out of sight and hearing range, I put my weapons down in position and started placing my other secret weapons. MAN I had a ball at the store when I saw these! Took all my will not to mention any of these discoveries over the phone for more than 2 months!
THE INTRIGUE
While setting up, I heard a noise and lit the ground with my Predator, suspecting the attacker might have decided to cheat and hide rather than head back as far as agreed. I didn't see anything and figured that with all the wind, it could be anything. I then placed my first motion sensor light in the corner behind me and then proceeded down to the first floor to place the second motion sensing light (at 4$ each on special, I should have bought a dozen!) and saw or heard something suspicious. Being lower than the tree cover now, I pointed my Predator at the main path to reveal a suspiciously reflecting object and 2 white running shoes sticking out from each side of a tree - not to mention some orange object on the ground I knew to be a Nerf gun. I called him on it (cheater!) but he only moved sideways, hiding one shoe while showing more of his T-shirt on the other side of the tree. My weapons were a floor away and I felt really vulnerable.
The mistake of leaving my weapons behind was not revealed by my tone while calling my attacker on his bluff. Why didn't I use the CALL option on the walkie-talkie to call the bluff totally off... oh! Right! Too obvious already! I bluffed my own way back up after setting the motion sensor on, although he might have been abiding by the only other rule of no attacking until the defender says he's ready. At this point, I saw the weapons being retrieved behind the small tree. I was now halfway back to my weapon station, with my eyes trained at the ground.
ACTION: ARE YOU REALLY PATIENT???
My cheating attacker must have seen something about me setting up lights in the tower, but they were off by now. He did not see me set my third secret weapon and I had to attract him past third level to really set my plan in full motion. Now, I had to get him moving. I tried to taunt him, with no results, so I shot 2 bullets in the dark and saw him move real slow. Moving now and meet the enemy on his own ground most certainly would have meant victory, but that would have been unfair (Hey, wait... he was already being more unfair than I was on the previous round! OK, I was a slacker right there, but I didn't want my precious secret gadgets to be useless either. After all, I planned this for months.)
He took his time coming out into the light, but no one can blame him for it... the ground was as bright as daylight already, thanks to the TK15. I let it off a few seconds at a time, just to attract him and had to dodge a dart that would have whizzed by my right ear if it had been a real bullet. He then retreated under the cover of the trees... Coward!
THE JUICE PART II
Very long story short is that I had to let him come out of the cover by going to the next floor (highest floor allowed to defend the tower) and he took that moment to run under the tower. Then the patience game was started. He didn't know a thing about my motion lights so far and I couldn't do much about him being underneath the tower, aside watching the main stairs. All I could do is scan everywhere else around the tower, knowing he might wait the hell out of me before trying the stairs, and he did retreat twice from the stairs when I shot at him, even though I was out of reach from the first floor. A real patience game: I had to get him out from underneath the tower or simply attract him into the tower...
I tried different ways to get him out from under the tower: Shoot around his feet when I could see them, run up out of reach and stop moving for a while, or just stay put as a target he could have shot between the bars, while watching for any suspicious movement (we had an almost full moon overhead that I used to spot him and that he could use to spot me). I could not leave my last ultimate secret tactical advantage out of the loop (not after all the effort it took to get there), especially that we didn't mention a thing about the right to leave the tower (next time might be different, though and god forbids I take rappelling lessons and buy the basic equipment, because I WILL DO IT!)
IS FLASHAHOLIC FUN OVER YET: NOPE!
This war had come from a move-and-kill-first shock-and-awe war to a gutsy wait-for-the-right-moment-in-the-dark patience war. In the end, I got him to come into the tower at least 3 times, attracted him at least twice past the third level and used my last weapon: a remote-activated tent light that looks like a land-mine!!!!!!!! OK... I have nothing to do with the fact that it looks like a land-mine and he's the one who admitted he thought it looked like something that might detonate. I just took advantage of the fact that he froze when I first turned it on while he was shooting at me (I'm pretty sure that if first bullet was a kill, I would have won right there.) I had to move it while he was off the tower, but by then he figured that flipping my sensor lights and moving my remote light upside-down or behind posts would defeat the purpose.
THE END OF THE ROUND?
In the end, I shot more bullets than he did (and almost got him right in the eye once), but I ran out of ammo while driving him out of the tower after almost a full hour of play. Who won? No one's really counting, but he still had some rounds left while I was standing in front of the main entrance to the tower and he was right at the bottom, so we agreed that treachery paid off for the attacker.
CONCLUSION
You win some, you lose some, but who cares if it's only a game! It might be argued that I made a real basic error: not fight patience with patience: guilty. It could be also argued that my first error was not to meet the enemy on his own ground when it was time: guilty as well. The only rule set was maximum floor-to-ground defence height, so I did not really think about the option of meeting my attacker on the ground. The reality is that we were having fun, not evaluating strategic advantage, but experimenting with flashlights (the whole point here.)
TACTICAL FLASHLIGHT/STROBE USE
Oh, right, the flashaholic's want-to-know part!
While we only had our TK15's on a tape switch, we did use our Predators and his M1X on strobe. That was annoying as hell, but in the end, I feel that any strong light used in momentary gets the job done. To be quite honest, a full-on light helps to see the target better than a strobe, especially when the opponent is holding a strobe light, so strobes have a limited usefulness if your attacker has a good light of his own. I would certainly not recommend to fight a constant strong light with a strobe; you will be easier to spot than your opponent.
