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.