It's (almost) that time of year again: our Birthday Anniversary Shindig Extravaganza Special! We'll be five! We're going to kindergarten! Snack time and finger paints and - oh we're so excited!

Anyway, before we head off make popsicle stick-houses and drawings of turkeys shaped suspiciously like our hands, we need to have our celebratory Shindig. And while we know it'll be in January, we try to be flexible with the exact date so as to accommodate as many of you as possible.

In previous years we've done it on the first non-New Year's weekend of January - that would be the Saturday Jan. 6 this coming year - so if you've only got limited availability but are looking to plan ahead we'd recommend probably that one, but use the survey to give us the best info you can.

Also keep in mind that Shindig, by its very nature, is not a standard three hour session: it is our big celebration and usually we have enough content to go for 5 or more hours. Plan ahead.

So! If you would be so kind:

Please fill out our attendance survey here!

We realize it is a long ways off yet, but just give us your best guess as of now. If your schedule firms up later, please come back and update it, and shoot us a message in Discord so we know.

Now, for those of you who haven't had the, ahem, experience that is a CBB Shindig and are wondering what all the fuss is about, boy howdy are you in for a treat! It is our yearly birthday celebration, and we go ham. Like, all the ham. Every ham. Even the vegetarians throw down with some ham. It's... kind of a weird thing actually.

Really though, it's when we as a community come together to celebrate how special this place is thanks to all of you. Our mission makers take it as a challenge and matter of honor to go crazy providing you with special things to play, video folk make amazing videos looking back over a year of fun, and we play Arma until we drop, then recover and keep playing more games together long into the wee hours.

But if you're still not convinced, here are some highlights of Shindigs and other Shindig-like events previously, to wet your whistle!

The very first Shindig was Broken Wing, an absolute mad dash to beat an armored response force to a crashed helicopter, rescue the crew and demo the wreck, and then get out again before the enemy could steamroll us. A few of those things even happened! Not... not all of the good parts. Later on in that video you'll see our CO Quex bravely abandon the mission and bravely flee for his life. Hoozin is still living in that desert in his home made of bunkers and broken wheels. Good enough yeah? (From here. Not pictured in this album are the piles of body bags full of us that were abandoned in the retreat.). Really, this one sort of set the pace for all future Shindigs. (I'm so sorry.) ((I'm not.))

Shindig Two was in fact a re-run of Broken Wing because we wanted so badly to take another crack at it. Not only did we, but we even succeeded, much to our collective surprise!

Shindig the Third gave us Gavinskia, for which we are eternally grateful. (Anyone who is not is expected to promptly report themselves to a Gavinskian Re-Education Center immediately. Gavinskia Forever! (Even with DMCA'd audio, it still warms the cockles of my heart.)) We bravely protected Presidente Heriberto Gabrio Zayás Fontanez Narciso Calbán as he nobly and honorably fled from his country as it rose up in unjust revolt against him. One day he will return, and Gavinskia will reclaim its place in the sun!

Shindig Fourtherst saw us pitching BMDs out the backs of planes and going on a mech-inf rampage. Mines, RPGs, even badmans with bigguns couldn't stop us! Honestly, I think we were all surprised at how successful and professional we were!

Our Mindigs (Mini-Shindigs) and other special events should give you some idea too. There were Typhoon Cobra (here and here) and WWII Month(ish) Mindigs among others.

And those are just the main events!

You see, the thing about Shindigs is, we don't just play one high stakes srsface mission, oh heavens no. We also encourage our mission makes to do Weird Or Goofy Things for your amusement as well. Such as!

Littlebird Migration - What happens when you race 30 Littlebirds.

Deathwagon - What happens when you - well, I'd say "it's complicated", but it's really not. You'll see.

Spacewalk - What happens when you turn Arma into a Quake-esque arena shooter a few thousand meters above the earth.

Lightcycles - What happens when you turn Arma into TRON.

Short Circuit - What happens when you turn Arma into The Terminator.

CBB the Mission of the Game of the Movie of the Legend of the True Story - What happens when you turn Arma into a Michael Bay movie.

The Reshmaan Ironman - What happens when you add Chinooks and HEMTTs and cargo planes to Littlebird Migration.

(If you've got a video from one of the above sessions, let me know and I'll update the post, thx.)