Frequently
Asked Questions
1. What time-frame is Odessa?
Taking into account both the landscape of Odessa, NY,
and the majority of reenacting units that attend, Odessa was
chosen as a non-timed event. The Event Staff have always felt
the stress should be placed on the execution of the battle as to
when it takes place. This allows units that were not
historically present during the entire war to be present in the
field.
This
also allows development of a scenario where the slug-fest was at
its highest. German troops were able to win a tactical battalion
level engagement on any given day against the Soviet forces. But
as the war progressed Soviet advances could have easily beaten
back the German lines, the possibilities are endless.
2. What
is the history of Odessa?
Odessa
started over 14 years ago at the States Farms site it currently
is held at. The Commander of the 272 Füsiliers at the time,
Eric Tobey, initiated the event and made all the arrangements.
It was
very small the first few years, with no more than 50-60
participants. There were several battles throughout the day,
with the Germans attacking, then reversing the roles and having
the Allies attacking.
After
a couple more years with the unit, when Eric Tobey stepped down
as commander and Scott Thompson became the C.O. of the 272
Füsiliers, a decision was made to grow the event and to make it
a re-enactor friendly experience.
At that
point, everything was then geared toward allowing each
re-enactor to have a good time for the weekend. Vendors were
approached and secured, armored vehicles and historical
airplanes were welcomed, reenactor campsites were encouraged to
keep historically accurate bearings, a Saturday evening meal was
included, and all the reliable and authentically rigorous Allied
and Axis units were invited. Slowly and over the years the
participation has now grown to having over 600 reenactors
present for Odessa ’06.
Each
year the Odessa Event Staff aims to introduce new and
challenging scenarios for the reenactors to experience.
Night maneuvers were added several years ago for the Friday
evening before the main tactical, and a Friday afternoon
tactical was added last year for die-hards wishing to obtain
even more trigger time.
Odessa
has always strived to lead the way for a total reenacting
experience.
3.
What happened to the point system?
In the
early days of Odessa, all that was required to determine a
winner was who held what cross-road or what building at the end
of the day.
Odessa’s
size and amount of participants allowed the event to spread out
over the whole site. This created opportunities for more and
more objectives and more variations for determining a victor.
Thusly, a point system was initiated to sort out all the
different locations and varying importance to the overall
tactical.
With the
addition of Judges several years ago, it was now possible to
rate certain tactics and individual acts of exemplary
soldiering. So, Judges added points for anything they saw that
was a credit to the unit or the re-enactor. Conversely, whenever
the Judges witnessed something that should not be seen in the
hobby, drinking out of plastic Pepsi bottles or yelling “I
gotcha!” caused points to be deducted.
These
points were instituted in a manner that would hopefully cause
re-enactors to always endeavor acting the way we all want, and
to keep down even further the dreaded Farby actions and
units. Units are invited to Odessa because they have
either been given the chance or have already shown their
potential to perform as the best quality of WWII reenactor; the
points system was designed toward holding high value for that
tradition.
At
Odessa ’07, the point system for the tactical objectives was
pared down to the basics; there will be an overall reduced
emphasis on points with fewer territorial objectives, though
some points will still be collected and taken into account as
one factor that impacts the decision of which side will be
declared the victors.