After Action Report: Black Intel Event news

Greetings Troopers!
It has been a long while since our last news update, as is always the case sometimes life gets in the way and priorities have to be adjusted. However we're still here, and are still aiming to bring you plenty of new First Strike action to enjoy.

Before the next update showing the work we've been doing on the mod, especially work on the long awaited Hoth map, we thought we'd do a somewhat belated review of the Black Intel Farewell Gaming Event. Held back in June, this event marked the end of a long relationship with the clan Black Intel who have been with First Strike since the beginning, with members of the clan performing duties as mod developers, testers and key community members. With the Black Intel server hosting the popular Community Games amongst other First Strike events for some years.

With the disbanding of the First Strike division and the decision to shut down their First Strike server, they decided they wanted to go out with a bang rather than a whimper. And that is just what they did with this event. In addition to putting the band back together by collecting a lot of old veteran FS players back to the fold for this event, a special game mode was also adopted for this night only. Inspired by the Star Wars novel Death Troopers and the First Strike SW fan fic Null Spectre Station written by FSDev Twigs, the Null Sensor Station map was turned into a Zombie wonderland, with the Imperial faction playing as Zombies, and the Rebels as suvivors/the hunted. Rebels could only use pistols, and the Zombies could only attack with stun batons. This made for thrilling and tense gaming action, especially as when a Rebel was killed he would then switch to the Imperial side as he arose a Zombie. As the Rebel forces were thinned out it became epic as Imperial Stormtrooper Zombie hordes chased down the last Rebel, who saw fit to take his own life by leaping from Imperial landing platform rather than joining the ranks of the undead.
(Below are some priceless pictures of the Zombie surge)

The Zombie round proved so popular that a second round of this was played in addition to standard maps of First Strike. In the end there were two Rebels who managed to survive against the odds. Blind and Benu_Kenobi, and to these hardy warriors I take great pleasure in presenting the Ash Boomstick & Chainsaw Survivalists Award.

Hail to the Kings baby!

All the games that night were great and a fantastic time was had by all. If you didn't make it here is some footage from the event taken by community member CAAM, including some Zombie round footage (where is that Benny Hill music when I need it?).

Unfortunately now the regular Community Games held on most Sundays just don't seem to cut it, and the numbers attending these are getting increasingly small. What is really needed is an organised campaign event similar to the ones we've had in the past. These really bring people out of the woodwork to play, with focused objectives and something to work towards, these styles of games really play to First Strike's strengths with it's focus on good teamwork.

So seeing as the mod development team really needs to focus all their efforts on producing new content for the mod, we're looking for an individual, or team of individuals who are interested in organising this kind of event. A campaign would be ideal, run over a number of weeks with match statistics and organisation done over the First Strike forums. Assistance could come from the FS Dev team where needed, but whoever takes this on would be in charge of the event, and would become a First Strike public relations officer of sorts, running the event and posting news of the results. The Rebel Defiance FS server could be used for the event, but if this person or organisation has their own server either way would work for us. So if anyone is interested in the role, or would like to look at running a First Strike Campaign on their own server, get in touch with us on our forums recruitment board:

FS Recruitment

Finally, one last thank you to Gwynzer and the members of the clan Black Intel for all their support of the mod over the years, and for having one helluva blast of a send off.

Best of luck with whatever games you're playing here on out, and still we expect to see you for the odd round of First Strike every now and then. Until next time when we'll have some news regarding Hoth.

See you on the Battlefield Troopers!