MSW Shali Front 2024 AAR

I had the awesome opportunity to attend Milsim West's Shali Front at this MUTC urban training area, and I thought I'd take a minute to outline some of the lessons I learned for those of you that may be interested in going.

Quick over view of what Milsim West is for those of you that are unfamiliar. MSW is a 40-hour uninterrupted military simulation game that uses airsoft rifles to simulate a fictitious war against NATO and Russia. Players must ruck in everything they need to fight and survive for the duration of the event. Players are not allowed to leave to get more supplies at any point during the event. MSW puts veterans in all leadership positions to help with the structure of the event and to also help new players understand exactly what is going on, and what is expected of them.

I attended the event as a nato m240 gunner with a group of guys who call themselves "Doom Platoon". First off i can't say enough good things about these guys. Doom Platoon typically focuses on bringing new players into MSW. They help them with pre-event planning so that they have a better idea of what to expect and what they need. It was an awesome experience working with them.

I also had the opportunity to run some nalgene and plate bag prototypes with great success. Be looking out more for those.

Event Overview:

Friday afternoon you arrive at the event and after cadre checks over your ruck to make sure you have everything, you have the option to do some quick overviews of small unit tactics, room clearing and other SUT related things.

Friday night around 2100 we dawned rucks and got into formation for the infil. Our infil for this event was about 1 mile. We rucked in under nods and took contact from Rusfor towards the end of our infil. From there we established a defensive line and pretty much dug in for night.

First light saturday we got into position to conduct a raid on our primary objective. After a successful raid we fended off a few rusfor attacks throughout the day and night but we successfully held out objective until endex Sunday morning.

5 lessons learned:

1. Don't pack everything on the tacsop packing list. I way overpacked on food, but this is probably something you only learn from experience.

2. Be comfortable being uncomfortable. Night 1 I spent sleeping in a hole and night 2 I spent sleeping in an unheated block building. There's no guarantee you'll be able to sleep, let alone in a warm building. I was wet and cold most of the event.

3. Establish comms and comms plans before the event. We had to make some last minute changes to our squad roles and not everyone had a working radio. This made swapping people around hard, as well as getting information up and down the chain of command hard.

4. Good boots and changing your socks will make or break the event for you.

5. Cardio and conditioning. Don't just show up to the event expecting to be able to lug 60-100 pounds of kit around all weekend. Maintain a healthy lifestyle and be in shape.

6. Little bonus lesson here. Learn how to properly layer while moving. If you put all of your warming layers on and expect to ruck any distance under load you’re going to have a bad time. Learn how to layer and be comfortable being comfortably cold.

All things considered it was an awesome event and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to get out and try out their kit or who is just interested in trying something new and having a good time.