The largest airsoft events in the world in our records ever since Popular Airsoft started monitoring airsoft events are mainly in Europe with Berget Events of Sweden and the Groundzero Weekender of the UK always vying for the top spot each year, with the difference each year almost negligible. But recently another large airsoft event which is organised in the Czech Republic, Border War 4: The Newcomer, can lay claim to be the largest event with 1,850 players from 27 European countries attending this event, beating Berget 9's 1,500 and Groundzero 2011's over 1,600 as of this writing. We'll still have to see if Border War can maintain this record for this year as Groundzero 2012 and Berget 10 will still have to be held this summer.

Border War is already on its 4th iteration, with Border War 4: The Newcomer being the latest one. The scenario being the Sultanate of Eram's Mercenary Army (S.E.L.A.) went into an offensive to capture an important oil pipeline and find a biochemical weapon. The S.E.L.A. have lost territory in the Mershak Peninsula in the war of independence waged by the people of San Marco whilst the Sultanate was waging war against Umria. With the new leadership of the Sultanate having taken an even more radical orientation, they were looking back into influencing San Marco, which is a new state that was formed by lost territory of the Eram and Umria. But a neighbouring country, Minacua, would rather not have their neighbours be left at the mercy of an a radicalised Sultanate.

Border War 4 was held last 26th to the 29th April in Ralsko, a former military area north of Prague, and almost near the German and Polish borders. In their After Action Report, the organizers put forward a very detailed report which we rarely see in AARs from other events which show the level of organisation. The number of players are growing and being able to manage these numbers of geared-up players in the woodlands of the Czech Republic, would require a lot of planning and logistics.

Fierce fighting happened among the battling factions, with airmobile troops ferried around in a chopper available, making them able to respond quickly to troop movements. The S.E.L.A invasion came in strong but elite troops from the Task Force 359 were able to defend the territory and pushed them back. At the strategic objectives, the battles always turn into stalemate. With the intelligence of the biochemical Newcomer Project came in, the counteroffensive of TF359 became complicated as the task of hunting down the Newcomer also formed part of their mission. Chemical experts were embedded on both sides. An assault on the S.E.L.A resulted into casualties of some of the S.E.L.A elite units, but they held the fort and repelled attempts to destroy their headquarters.

What's interesting is the civilian component in the fighting, where there were civilian casualties that were caused by indiscriminate but unauthorised firing by some TF members. With this said, civilians held demonstrations to penetrate the TF base and get their hands of chemical samples. With the confusion of the battle with more units of other factions being poured in, the Newcomer weapon was finally finished and deployed.  The story gets a complicated as the chemical scientist who put the weapon together sent these weapons to both TF359 and the S.E.L.A. as revenge for the killing of her people by the TF and the killing of her brother by the S.E.L.A.. The S.E.L.A suffered casualties whilst the TF managed to escape mass casualties as the weapon failed to function. Both the S.E.L.A. and TF359 failed in their mission to recover the Newcomer.

The campaign ended in a stalemate as the S.E.L.A were able to maintain territory they captured but the TF359 were still able to mount counterattacks that would become a see-saw battle. However, the S.E.L.A. were not able to capture the whole territory.

There were various awards for the players in their conduct of their operations such as leadership and support. Apart from that Gunfire held a Border War Milsim Contest which was a photo contest to find the best photos of the event. Prior to the game itself, they also held a player poster competition in which players submitted morale and propaganda posters of their units.

You can read the organisers' full After Action Report at the Border War website. There are loads of photos and you can check out the posters submitted by the players. Indeed it's an immersive milsim game as players became involved prior to coming to the event itself, where they created posters to "inspire" their co-players . As for videos of the event, you can watch two videos made by the German and French teams.

A job well done by the Mike and the rest of the Border War team.