Colin Allen
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- Aug 27, 2022
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You won the spinner game very handily. What was the game after the missile game? I had to leave after it so missed whatever came next.
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The 'How Did Your Airsoft Day Go? Thread
- Thread starter Skara
- Start date
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JinxDuh
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Colin Allen
Members
- Aug 27, 2022
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Colin Allen
Members
- Aug 27, 2022
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DanBow
AF-UK patch owner
- Aug 29, 2023
- 515
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I know I've been off work, and immobile, for a few monrhs but why did no one tell how fat I've become! ?
View attachment 123436
gavinkempsell
AF-UK patch owner
- Mar 7, 2023
- 1,205
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I got you beat M8, my combats were a 'tad' tight last Sunday.
Galvatron
Members
- Jan 21, 2023
- 831
- 970
Another great day at RIFT Airsoft's "the Battery" CQB site not far from Stansted Airport.
Echoing much of what @Jacob Wright said on the previous page, the session had the expectedly good organisation from the staff. Since the first weekend, they were true to their word about listening to feedback about what worked and didn't work as the site had been updated to balance the games as the initial layout of defences, walkways and barricades did create an imbalance. Now it's much more balanced.
It started with a full house of 70 players, split evenly into 2 teams - later in the day, a few players left ahead of the scheduled end of game play but the teams were rebalanced. As he mentioned, pre-emptive and suppressive firing aren't allowed so players wouldn't be discouraged from pushing forward. Doors were opened up by marshals during the day to mix things up and present more avenues of attack and defence. Similarly, lighting can be turned off in alternating or all rooms to change the style of play further so having a gun/body-mounted torch is recommended. The timing and variety with the missions was good as there was enough to be engaged without anything feeling repetitive.
The host was clear in pointing out not to argue with opposing players if they didn't call their hits, just report it to a marshal and they'll judge accordingly. It made for a lot less bickering and actually some fairer play as I recall one marshal disagreeing with a shooter's claim he hit the opponent but the marshal had a clear view of this not being the case - the same marshal instructed another player later in the day to call a hit, giving him the benefit of the doubt that he may not have felt it on his plate carrier but the marshal saw the hit on him.
There was a raffle with 2 prizes available. 1st prize was a Lancer Tactical (LT-35 if memory serves but it was definitely an ARP9 style AEG) and 2nd was a Raven EU18 GBB pistol.
It's a shame that it will be gone in about a year's time but I'm glad I had the chance to play a few times there. I heard a few players had travelled at least 3 hours to play and the Battery lived up (or surpassed) their expectations.
Echoing much of what @Jacob Wright said on the previous page, the session had the expectedly good organisation from the staff. Since the first weekend, they were true to their word about listening to feedback about what worked and didn't work as the site had been updated to balance the games as the initial layout of defences, walkways and barricades did create an imbalance. Now it's much more balanced.
It started with a full house of 70 players, split evenly into 2 teams - later in the day, a few players left ahead of the scheduled end of game play but the teams were rebalanced. As he mentioned, pre-emptive and suppressive firing aren't allowed so players wouldn't be discouraged from pushing forward. Doors were opened up by marshals during the day to mix things up and present more avenues of attack and defence. Similarly, lighting can be turned off in alternating or all rooms to change the style of play further so having a gun/body-mounted torch is recommended. The timing and variety with the missions was good as there was enough to be engaged without anything feeling repetitive.
The host was clear in pointing out not to argue with opposing players if they didn't call their hits, just report it to a marshal and they'll judge accordingly. It made for a lot less bickering and actually some fairer play as I recall one marshal disagreeing with a shooter's claim he hit the opponent but the marshal had a clear view of this not being the case - the same marshal instructed another player later in the day to call a hit, giving him the benefit of the doubt that he may not have felt it on his plate carrier but the marshal saw the hit on him.
There was a raffle with 2 prizes available. 1st prize was a Lancer Tactical (LT-35 if memory serves but it was definitely an ARP9 style AEG) and 2nd was a Raven EU18 GBB pistol.
It's a shame that it will be gone in about a year's time but I'm glad I had the chance to play a few times there. I heard a few players had travelled at least 3 hours to play and the Battery lived up (or surpassed) their expectations.
Colin Allen
Members
- Aug 27, 2022
- 1,862
- 2,248
Today was a return to Airsoft Plantation in Essex, one of my regular sites. I had not been since they improved the already very good safe zone; there is now a third large covered area, with table space for a lot more players.
Fewer players were present than usual, possibly because of the rather poor weather forecast which turned out to inaccurate.
During the safety brief, the site owner stated that the day would be more like naval warfare. AP can be a trifle damp underfoot; today, some parts of it were completely flooded, with the plane at the DEA base looking like it had just crashed into a lake.
In order to give the open areas a chance to dry out a bit, we started off in the wood, with a two stage fallback game. As the defenders, we had two lives, one at the ridge line and one between the kill house and the wobbly bridge stream. The attackers, who had infinite regens on a marshal, had to get a bomb runner with a smoke grenade to, firstly, the Land Rover and, secondly, the wobbly bridge. The teams seemed somewhat imbalanced, with our team having a number of less experienced players. However, we fought hard at the ridge line, slowing down the enemy attack as they entered the woods and tried to push forward; communication was excellent, with our players calling out enemy movements. After being hit on the ridge line, I fell back to take up a position on our extreme right by the wobbly bridge stream, along with a few other players. The enemy pushed hard on our left flank, but we stayed where we were, anticipating a thrust in our area. They became bogged down in vicinity of the Land Rover/kill house, which delayed them badly. Seeking a new route, a group of them moved towards our position on our right, resulting in a sprawling fight, during which we were inevitably overcome, each having only one life left. Eventually, an enemy thrust from the left of the field got their bomb runner to the bridge and the game ended.
After a pleasingly short break to mag up, the game was reversed; we soon discovered why the enemy's attack had bogged down despite having infinite regens. Movement through the muddy woods was difficult and the defenders were able to use the plentiful cover to slow down the advance. However, after trying several different routes and approaches, we broke through their centre and, despite being held up by a few players positioned around the Land Rover and the kill house, eventually got the first bomb to the Land Rover. We pushed on quickly, partly because a lot of enemy players seemed to have used up both of their lives, and a final push saw our bomb runner set off the second bomb on the wobbly bridge.
Over two long, hard fought games, our time was approximately one minute quicker than that of our opponents.
We then moved into the village for another game where we were the defenders. Ten players were issued with yellow armbands; initially, they were to fight alongside us but, once hit, they had to remain where they were until captured by the enemy. They were then taken to the enemy's regen, where they became enemy players. In addition, one of them knew the location of a bell in one of the buildings; the attackers had to set this off to win. We had two lives in the village and its environs, while the attackers had infinite regens on the firebreak.
This was a hard fought game with lots of small firefights as the attackers tried to break into the village suburbs. Initially, I was in some bushes watching a track the enemy were likely to use; noticing enemy players moving to my right, I engaged them. Turning back to the track, I was surprised to find an enemy player shooting at me at fairly close range as I had not felt any hits; I shot back, hitting him, whereupon he became very salty about me allegedly not taking my hits. Immediately after, I was hit from behind. Pulling back into the village, I took up position with a few others in one of the buildings; we fought off attacks from several directions before I was hit and went back to the safe zone.
After lunch, that game was turned around; we decided to attack from several directions. I was with the group that went for the far left of the village; it was a hard fight through the scrubland, being repeatedly hit as we slowly wore down the enemy and pushed towards the village itself. At one point, we were pinned down on the edge of the village by players in a two storey structure, but eventually managed to dislodge them, breaking into the village alongside our colleagues to our right and setting off the bell.
Again, the times were close, but we were quicker by a few minutes.
After this game, I decided to leave as I had things that needed doing.
It was a good day's play with well designed and well marshalled games and great play from both sides.
Having played for three consecutive weekends, I am not playing for the next two; we have rehearsals next weekend and, the following weekend, are headlining the Sunday night of a small festival in Cardigan, which seems to be beyond where proper roads end.
Weapons used:
Classic Army HK33
Classic Army HK53
ASG Commander XP18 CO2
Fewer players were present than usual, possibly because of the rather poor weather forecast which turned out to inaccurate.
During the safety brief, the site owner stated that the day would be more like naval warfare. AP can be a trifle damp underfoot; today, some parts of it were completely flooded, with the plane at the DEA base looking like it had just crashed into a lake.
In order to give the open areas a chance to dry out a bit, we started off in the wood, with a two stage fallback game. As the defenders, we had two lives, one at the ridge line and one between the kill house and the wobbly bridge stream. The attackers, who had infinite regens on a marshal, had to get a bomb runner with a smoke grenade to, firstly, the Land Rover and, secondly, the wobbly bridge. The teams seemed somewhat imbalanced, with our team having a number of less experienced players. However, we fought hard at the ridge line, slowing down the enemy attack as they entered the woods and tried to push forward; communication was excellent, with our players calling out enemy movements. After being hit on the ridge line, I fell back to take up a position on our extreme right by the wobbly bridge stream, along with a few other players. The enemy pushed hard on our left flank, but we stayed where we were, anticipating a thrust in our area. They became bogged down in vicinity of the Land Rover/kill house, which delayed them badly. Seeking a new route, a group of them moved towards our position on our right, resulting in a sprawling fight, during which we were inevitably overcome, each having only one life left. Eventually, an enemy thrust from the left of the field got their bomb runner to the bridge and the game ended.
After a pleasingly short break to mag up, the game was reversed; we soon discovered why the enemy's attack had bogged down despite having infinite regens. Movement through the muddy woods was difficult and the defenders were able to use the plentiful cover to slow down the advance. However, after trying several different routes and approaches, we broke through their centre and, despite being held up by a few players positioned around the Land Rover and the kill house, eventually got the first bomb to the Land Rover. We pushed on quickly, partly because a lot of enemy players seemed to have used up both of their lives, and a final push saw our bomb runner set off the second bomb on the wobbly bridge.
Over two long, hard fought games, our time was approximately one minute quicker than that of our opponents.
We then moved into the village for another game where we were the defenders. Ten players were issued with yellow armbands; initially, they were to fight alongside us but, once hit, they had to remain where they were until captured by the enemy. They were then taken to the enemy's regen, where they became enemy players. In addition, one of them knew the location of a bell in one of the buildings; the attackers had to set this off to win. We had two lives in the village and its environs, while the attackers had infinite regens on the firebreak.
This was a hard fought game with lots of small firefights as the attackers tried to break into the village suburbs. Initially, I was in some bushes watching a track the enemy were likely to use; noticing enemy players moving to my right, I engaged them. Turning back to the track, I was surprised to find an enemy player shooting at me at fairly close range as I had not felt any hits; I shot back, hitting him, whereupon he became very salty about me allegedly not taking my hits. Immediately after, I was hit from behind. Pulling back into the village, I took up position with a few others in one of the buildings; we fought off attacks from several directions before I was hit and went back to the safe zone.
After lunch, that game was turned around; we decided to attack from several directions. I was with the group that went for the far left of the village; it was a hard fight through the scrubland, being repeatedly hit as we slowly wore down the enemy and pushed towards the village itself. At one point, we were pinned down on the edge of the village by players in a two storey structure, but eventually managed to dislodge them, breaking into the village alongside our colleagues to our right and setting off the bell.
Again, the times were close, but we were quicker by a few minutes.
After this game, I decided to leave as I had things that needed doing.
It was a good day's play with well designed and well marshalled games and great play from both sides.
Having played for three consecutive weekends, I am not playing for the next two; we have rehearsals next weekend and, the following weekend, are headlining the Sunday night of a small festival in Cardigan, which seems to be beyond where proper roads end.
Weapons used:
Classic Army HK33
Classic Army HK53
ASG Commander XP18 CO2
Last edited by a moderator:
Impulse
Members
- Apr 18, 2019
- 1,426
- 1,737
I had a more genuine sniper experience yesterday at Worthing Airsoft than I think I've had in a while. We played a long, multiple objective game in the morning, as they have the past few game days and I've been enjoying this, and I took up a position overwatching a pathway with my KJW m40a5. I lay in position for about 2 hours, watching movements in the distance and not shooting at all as my team pushed up to the checkpoint in front of my position, so I decided to get up and move because I was getting cold lying in the dirt. As soon as I pushed up, everyone on my team in front of me and around me got hit and I decided to go back to my previous position. Last hour of the game I went through all 3 of my mags holding that path, as it then got very busy. Had to pick my shots, because in cold weather the cooldown effect of my gas magazines is amplified and if I shoot too quickly the power will plummet. It's an interesting complication, but I would much rather it get warmer so my rifle performs to its best!
I think the only thing that could've made the experience more genuine is if nobody pushed up the path the whole game and also if I pissed myself and had to lie in it, but fortunately that didn't happen ?
Didn't play in the afternoon. Only had 5 hours sleep the previous night and with my current diet and exercise regime that is about half of what I should be getting, so I was really tired and I wasn't that bothered with dealing with the cooldown challenges of my rifle all day. Once my m14 socom is sorted I'll probably use that until it warms up a little, but most of my collection are gas guns and will have similar issues at the moment.
I think the only thing that could've made the experience more genuine is if nobody pushed up the path the whole game and also if I pissed myself and had to lie in it, but fortunately that didn't happen ?
Didn't play in the afternoon. Only had 5 hours sleep the previous night and with my current diet and exercise regime that is about half of what I should be getting, so I was really tired and I wasn't that bothered with dealing with the cooldown challenges of my rifle all day. Once my m14 socom is sorted I'll probably use that until it warms up a little, but most of my collection are gas guns and will have similar issues at the moment.
Tactical Pith Helmet
AF-UK patch owner
- Jul 5, 2016
- 1,040
- 2,576
Our Sunday game was cancelled due to flooding. The site at Necton was only usable if you had an aqualung.
Glad others got a game in!
Colin Allen
Members
- Aug 27, 2022
- 1,862
- 2,248
DanBow
AF-UK patch owner
- Aug 29, 2023
- 515
- 550
Played another half day today and actually managed nearly all of it! There was only12 of us with 4 or 5 first timers but it was a really good day. They first timers were all young teenagers so it took them the 1st game to realise that it doesn't hurt when you get shot. Standard attack/defend games were played and by the time I had had enough there were some very good tactical manoeuvres emerging with fantastic comms being shouted.
Pics below . . .
View attachment 123898View attachment 123899
That's my eldest daughter. Another proud father moment.
Pics below . . .
View attachment 123898View attachment 123899
That's my eldest daughter. Another proud father moment.
ParHunter
Members
- May 12, 2023
- 148
- 128
I played at DogTag down in West Sussex on Saturday. My son conscripted 5 of his friends to join us and at the end of the game they were already checking out deals for IFs (talking about growing the game).
The turnout was better than expected with mainly rentals and a few experienced players.
I felt like I was cheating. In one game I didn’t have to move at all as my pickings were so plentiful. I was sitting in a bush with a sniper hood and a camouflaged tuned Krytac overlooking a little valley to a place the other team had to come through to reach the objective. They looked in my direction and couldn’t understand where the BBs were coming from. I was out of reach of their rental guns so yes it really felt like cheating.
I prefer a mix with more experienced players but hey it was fun!
The turnout was better than expected with mainly rentals and a few experienced players.
I felt like I was cheating. In one game I didn’t have to move at all as my pickings were so plentiful. I was sitting in a bush with a sniper hood and a camouflaged tuned Krytac overlooking a little valley to a place the other team had to come through to reach the objective. They looked in my direction and couldn’t understand where the BBs were coming from. I was out of reach of their rental guns so yes it really felt like cheating.
I prefer a mix with more experienced players but hey it was fun!
Impulse
Members
- Apr 18, 2019
- 1,426
- 1,737
I took a trip down to not-Worthing for once and headed to Dogtag today with a whole host of Worthing regulars (I know @Badgerlicious is on this forum and he was also there, but I don't think any of the others are); always good to get out to a new site with the boys, especially since due to team balance I usually put myself on the other team from them at Worthing so we're not all on one side and just stomp. Most of us had never been to Dogtag, so we were experiencing the site for the first time, myself included. Therefore I will give the most balanced overview as I can on how it went.
We rolled up early to make sure we got a table under some cover, as the forecast was a bit confusing. Said it could've rained all morning, so we wanted to make sure our kit was under a roof. We got there pretty early, but some of our guys had got there earlier and we took some tables down the end of the safe zone. Pretty much as soon as we got there, the rain started easing off massively to the point where it flat out stopped raining as we were getting our stuff ready, which was really nice. However, first issue I had was the m14 wasn't feeding properly, so I'll have to give it back to the tech and ask him to fix that (hopefully he won't charge me too much because I haven't actually used it since I got it back from him). Good thing I brought the m700 as well, as I swapped over to that, the mac11 and the mk23; my go-to "I can sort of do everything" sniper setup. Ummed and aahh'd about whether I wanted to ghillie up and decided to, which proved to be the best decision I made all day, but more on that later. We got through chrono and eventually got out to our first game, a rolling assault from a fort type base all the way to the other side of the site. Apparently we were playing on the paintball site as the airsoft zones were being rented to a private paintball event, but this worked heavily in my favour as I had sight lines for days, and with the weather being warmer my m700 was performing flawlessly.
So first game. I took a concealed position in a fallen tree and got some lovely long shots, but as I ran out of ammo in my first mag, by this point they had managed to push up close, so I... went to ground. This is why running the ghillie was the best decision I made all day, as I had enemy players taking cover on the other side of the fallen tree shooting over my head as my team mates were returning fire, a hail of BBs about 1 - 2m above my head. To be clear, my ghillies are capes, I don't like running the all-over bush suits because they snag when I'm crawling and I just don't like them, so while parts of me were ghillied, there was a lot of MARPAT visible with how I was sitting. I had turned around, facing the same way as the enemy team ready to shoot them in the back, but... this is where my first criticism of the day comes in. Hit taking was laughably bad. I shot 6 people in the back with the mk23 after they pushed just past me, all separate instances as I was only picking isolated people off so I wouldn't give away my position, but the longest shot was about 20m, shortest was about 5m. None of them took the hit, not even the 5m guy. Fortunately, none of them saw me either, not even the group having a conversation on the path with 2 of them looking in my direction. The adrenaline high from these moments is one of the reasons I do the whole sniper thing. Spent the rest of the game following the enemy team, but breaking off to the opposite flank to where their spawn was as I didn't want to spawn camp them, so I just made people who went on the other flank very, very confused by shooting them in the back. Towards the end of the game it pushed into a very thick bushy area and as I was planning on going in with the mk23 to continue harassing them, I realised one of my mac11 magazines was missing, so I retraced my steps and eventually found it, but the game was over before I did, so I headed back to the safe zone. This is where my 2nd annoyance comes in; going back to safe zone after each game, especially with how boggy that path was. One of the guys in our group aptly described it as "it's like the Somme" because of how wet and boggy and horrible that path was.
Anyway, after a longer-than-it-needed-to-be trip back to the safe zone, we went back out and swapped over, so we were now attacking. We pushed pretty well, clearing the first few fields quite quickly, but then got bogged down in a large open field and the bushy bit after it so we didn't complete it. I heard a lot of people grumbling about hit taking here, but this wasn't the worst part. The worst part was there was a guy on defense who kept going out of bounds to retake ground and shoot everyone in the back. He did it on multiple occasions through this game and eventually got thrown off the site after it was caught on camera and shown to the marshalls, so good on the marshalls for actually sorting that out. Apparently the guy is a regular and well-known for doing this kind of stuff and has a youtube channel where he uploads videos of him doing it. Would've said good on him if he did what I did in the first game where nobody found him, but he got caught red-handed sneaking out of bounds and then coming back in, so yeah. Cheating, caught and called out, dealt with, done.
Then we broke for lunch and I didn't want to pay £5 for a burger, so I just made sure my kit was all good. It was at this point I realised I had lost one of my m700 magazines, so that's a neat £50 down the drain. Going to need to get that replaced as I can't run 2 magazines really. 50 shots is just not enough (in total, they're about 25 each!). Bugger. I'm trying to not spend too much, but that's something I can't just ignore since I use my gas m40a5 and m700 all the time.
We then went out after lunch and did an attack and defend at the fort area we started the rolling assaults from. Defenders had 3 lives (one in the first field, one in the 2nd field and one in the fort itself) and attackers had infinite. We started on the attacking team and I didn't really get too much done, partially because the sun was out (which was lovely) but since it's still February it was fairly low in the sky and I couldn't see anything with it glaring in my face. A few lovely shots, but the wind had picked up and I was noticing my shots curving hard. Shot in another direction to make sure it isn't my hop up coming loose and going to one side and it definitely wasn't, as the shot with where I thought the wind was going went incredibly straight. We then swapped sides immediately without going back to the safe zone, which made me rather happy. I elected to take a relatively far back position after refilling my mags and went through most of one mag with some lovely shots again. It's been a while since I played at a site with long sight lines (basically, last time I went to Driver Wood because Worthing isn't good for snipers with all the coppices around) and it was great to let my m700 do its thing. Eventually got hit by a spray where I don't think they knew exactly where I was, but shot enough in my direction where one hit my cheek, so I headed back behind my team and used my first respawn, lying prone behind a barricade watching a flank and an opening to the field. Went through my 2nd mag here with some long shots which made me happy and when the game was called, I stood up and waved at all the people who were trying to work out where I even was. Gas sniper rifles are deadly quiet and I love them for it!
That's where I called it, as I was starting to feel very tired and needed to work out how I was going to pack all my stuff away, as well as change out of my very wet and very muddy kit so I didn't get back into my friend's car with muddy trousers on his seats. There were a few games after I stopped, a team deathmatch in the super open field, swapping sides, and then a zombies game at the end. I'm going to ache tomorrow with all the walking and crawling I've done, but I did enjoy myself a lot. Will I go back? Maybe. If the lads are going, I'll tag along, but I won't make an effort to get back. Worthing and Driver Wood (once I get a car, hopefully this year), will be my main sites for skirmish, as I enjoy myself at those two sites more and they seem to have less issues. I think my day would've been worse if we actually played in the airsoft fields, funnily enough, as some of those looked very questionable for me running my bolt action rifle; the paintball sites were really good for my bolt action, however!
So, TL
R pros and cons...
Pros:
+ I had fun, and at the end of the day that's the main thing that matters
+ Marshalls were friendly and did act on a cheater. Could've done more on the hit calling, but with how few they were it's hard to police. They can't be everywhere
+ Even though we used the paintball sites, the games were good and they flowed well.
Cons:
- Laughable hit-calling that wasn't really addressed
- Needed more marshalls for the number of players and size of the site
- £5 burger (I know having a burger included with walk-on is a nicety at Worthing, but I'm willing to spend on a burger. Just not £5 for what it was...)
Pros and cons that the site wasn't responsible for:
+ Weather was amazing. 14 - 15 celcius, low wind for the mostpart and sun was out. It was great!
- Out-of-bounds clickbait youtube cheater (not the site's fault because they dealt with it and sent him home)
- Lost a £50 gas rifle magazine ?
- Almost lost another £50 gas SMG magazine ?
- Goggles fogged a bunch because the site was incredibly wet and humid, while the temperature was pretty good
- M14 didn't work ?
Overall, it exceeded my expectations, but my expectations were very low as I'd heard a lot of bad things regarding Dogtag. Some of it is definitely justified, but I still had fun doing my thing. Now I'm going to ache tomorrow and my washing machine is going to have a task ahead of it once I muster up the willpower to unpack my bags
Also, we had a team photo. I'm the tall bush on the left who isn't in a 360 degree bush suit (and showing way more forehead than I usually do as the balaclava wasn't done up properly at this point!)
View attachment 124207
We rolled up early to make sure we got a table under some cover, as the forecast was a bit confusing. Said it could've rained all morning, so we wanted to make sure our kit was under a roof. We got there pretty early, but some of our guys had got there earlier and we took some tables down the end of the safe zone. Pretty much as soon as we got there, the rain started easing off massively to the point where it flat out stopped raining as we were getting our stuff ready, which was really nice. However, first issue I had was the m14 wasn't feeding properly, so I'll have to give it back to the tech and ask him to fix that (hopefully he won't charge me too much because I haven't actually used it since I got it back from him). Good thing I brought the m700 as well, as I swapped over to that, the mac11 and the mk23; my go-to "I can sort of do everything" sniper setup. Ummed and aahh'd about whether I wanted to ghillie up and decided to, which proved to be the best decision I made all day, but more on that later. We got through chrono and eventually got out to our first game, a rolling assault from a fort type base all the way to the other side of the site. Apparently we were playing on the paintball site as the airsoft zones were being rented to a private paintball event, but this worked heavily in my favour as I had sight lines for days, and with the weather being warmer my m700 was performing flawlessly.
So first game. I took a concealed position in a fallen tree and got some lovely long shots, but as I ran out of ammo in my first mag, by this point they had managed to push up close, so I... went to ground. This is why running the ghillie was the best decision I made all day, as I had enemy players taking cover on the other side of the fallen tree shooting over my head as my team mates were returning fire, a hail of BBs about 1 - 2m above my head. To be clear, my ghillies are capes, I don't like running the all-over bush suits because they snag when I'm crawling and I just don't like them, so while parts of me were ghillied, there was a lot of MARPAT visible with how I was sitting. I had turned around, facing the same way as the enemy team ready to shoot them in the back, but... this is where my first criticism of the day comes in. Hit taking was laughably bad. I shot 6 people in the back with the mk23 after they pushed just past me, all separate instances as I was only picking isolated people off so I wouldn't give away my position, but the longest shot was about 20m, shortest was about 5m. None of them took the hit, not even the 5m guy. Fortunately, none of them saw me either, not even the group having a conversation on the path with 2 of them looking in my direction. The adrenaline high from these moments is one of the reasons I do the whole sniper thing. Spent the rest of the game following the enemy team, but breaking off to the opposite flank to where their spawn was as I didn't want to spawn camp them, so I just made people who went on the other flank very, very confused by shooting them in the back. Towards the end of the game it pushed into a very thick bushy area and as I was planning on going in with the mk23 to continue harassing them, I realised one of my mac11 magazines was missing, so I retraced my steps and eventually found it, but the game was over before I did, so I headed back to the safe zone. This is where my 2nd annoyance comes in; going back to safe zone after each game, especially with how boggy that path was. One of the guys in our group aptly described it as "it's like the Somme" because of how wet and boggy and horrible that path was.
Anyway, after a longer-than-it-needed-to-be trip back to the safe zone, we went back out and swapped over, so we were now attacking. We pushed pretty well, clearing the first few fields quite quickly, but then got bogged down in a large open field and the bushy bit after it so we didn't complete it. I heard a lot of people grumbling about hit taking here, but this wasn't the worst part. The worst part was there was a guy on defense who kept going out of bounds to retake ground and shoot everyone in the back. He did it on multiple occasions through this game and eventually got thrown off the site after it was caught on camera and shown to the marshalls, so good on the marshalls for actually sorting that out. Apparently the guy is a regular and well-known for doing this kind of stuff and has a youtube channel where he uploads videos of him doing it. Would've said good on him if he did what I did in the first game where nobody found him, but he got caught red-handed sneaking out of bounds and then coming back in, so yeah. Cheating, caught and called out, dealt with, done.
Then we broke for lunch and I didn't want to pay £5 for a burger, so I just made sure my kit was all good. It was at this point I realised I had lost one of my m700 magazines, so that's a neat £50 down the drain. Going to need to get that replaced as I can't run 2 magazines really. 50 shots is just not enough (in total, they're about 25 each!). Bugger. I'm trying to not spend too much, but that's something I can't just ignore since I use my gas m40a5 and m700 all the time.
We then went out after lunch and did an attack and defend at the fort area we started the rolling assaults from. Defenders had 3 lives (one in the first field, one in the 2nd field and one in the fort itself) and attackers had infinite. We started on the attacking team and I didn't really get too much done, partially because the sun was out (which was lovely) but since it's still February it was fairly low in the sky and I couldn't see anything with it glaring in my face. A few lovely shots, but the wind had picked up and I was noticing my shots curving hard. Shot in another direction to make sure it isn't my hop up coming loose and going to one side and it definitely wasn't, as the shot with where I thought the wind was going went incredibly straight. We then swapped sides immediately without going back to the safe zone, which made me rather happy. I elected to take a relatively far back position after refilling my mags and went through most of one mag with some lovely shots again. It's been a while since I played at a site with long sight lines (basically, last time I went to Driver Wood because Worthing isn't good for snipers with all the coppices around) and it was great to let my m700 do its thing. Eventually got hit by a spray where I don't think they knew exactly where I was, but shot enough in my direction where one hit my cheek, so I headed back behind my team and used my first respawn, lying prone behind a barricade watching a flank and an opening to the field. Went through my 2nd mag here with some long shots which made me happy and when the game was called, I stood up and waved at all the people who were trying to work out where I even was. Gas sniper rifles are deadly quiet and I love them for it!
That's where I called it, as I was starting to feel very tired and needed to work out how I was going to pack all my stuff away, as well as change out of my very wet and very muddy kit so I didn't get back into my friend's car with muddy trousers on his seats. There were a few games after I stopped, a team deathmatch in the super open field, swapping sides, and then a zombies game at the end. I'm going to ache tomorrow with all the walking and crawling I've done, but I did enjoy myself a lot. Will I go back? Maybe. If the lads are going, I'll tag along, but I won't make an effort to get back. Worthing and Driver Wood (once I get a car, hopefully this year), will be my main sites for skirmish, as I enjoy myself at those two sites more and they seem to have less issues. I think my day would've been worse if we actually played in the airsoft fields, funnily enough, as some of those looked very questionable for me running my bolt action rifle; the paintball sites were really good for my bolt action, however!
So, TL
R pros and cons...Pros:
+ I had fun, and at the end of the day that's the main thing that matters
+ Marshalls were friendly and did act on a cheater. Could've done more on the hit calling, but with how few they were it's hard to police. They can't be everywhere
+ Even though we used the paintball sites, the games were good and they flowed well.
Cons:
- Laughable hit-calling that wasn't really addressed
- Needed more marshalls for the number of players and size of the site
- £5 burger (I know having a burger included with walk-on is a nicety at Worthing, but I'm willing to spend on a burger. Just not £5 for what it was...)
Pros and cons that the site wasn't responsible for:
+ Weather was amazing. 14 - 15 celcius, low wind for the mostpart and sun was out. It was great!
- Out-of-bounds clickbait youtube cheater (not the site's fault because they dealt with it and sent him home)
- Lost a £50 gas rifle magazine ?
- Almost lost another £50 gas SMG magazine ?
- Goggles fogged a bunch because the site was incredibly wet and humid, while the temperature was pretty good
- M14 didn't work ?
Overall, it exceeded my expectations, but my expectations were very low as I'd heard a lot of bad things regarding Dogtag. Some of it is definitely justified, but I still had fun doing my thing. Now I'm going to ache tomorrow and my washing machine is going to have a task ahead of it once I muster up the willpower to unpack my bags
Also, we had a team photo. I'm the tall bush on the left who isn't in a 360 degree bush suit (and showing way more forehead than I usually do as the balaclava wasn't done up properly at this point!)
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JimFromHorsham
Members
- Mar 30, 2022
- 932
- 1,483
I was there for the morning session , wet but fun , and saw you guys mooching about , a very full auto heavy morning which I can only put down to some questionable hit taking on both sides so folk seemed to be ramping up the bb slinging .but nice not to see any real aggro first hand because of it , the out of bounds stuff seemed to be more of a problem than usual and I think that was more poor communication between the Marshalls , we watched one tell half a dozen guys they were out of bounds only for a follow up group to be told oh actually your good to go .
no pics of me today , just a snap of the gun , a G&G Sr300 with a bit of spice inside which performed very well indeed
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no pics of me today , just a snap of the gun , a G&G Sr300 with a bit of spice inside which performed very well indeed
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Skara
Members
- Oct 20, 2017
- 3,231
- 1,240
- Thread starter
- #2,036
Took the ak out for a spin today.
Performed really well except for:
Hop up, I need to slightly shave the rubber piece between the arm and tensioner as it was overhopping 0.32s without any hop applied;
Mags, back then I had bought a few Cyma 5.56 flash mags, some fed flawlessly, others didn't feed at all;
Stock, as much as I like the looks of the triangle, I think I will replace it with something else to give me room for adjustment (a touch too long length of pull for my liking).
Game wise... Let's just not talk about it ? mags being iffy made me reluctant to push and play as I usually do. Or maybe I just had a bad day, sometimes it happens.
Performed really well except for:
Hop up, I need to slightly shave the rubber piece between the arm and tensioner as it was overhopping 0.32s without any hop applied;
Mags, back then I had bought a few Cyma 5.56 flash mags, some fed flawlessly, others didn't feed at all;
Stock, as much as I like the looks of the triangle, I think I will replace it with something else to give me room for adjustment (a touch too long length of pull for my liking).
Game wise... Let's just not talk about it ? mags being iffy made me reluctant to push and play as I usually do. Or maybe I just had a bad day, sometimes it happens.
The_Lord_Poncho
Members
- Feb 15, 2022
- 581
- 539
Good read! I started off at Dogtag a few years back but haven't been there for at least two years - Driver Wood is my regular site - it's closer to my home, and I just enjoy the way it is run - much tighter and a little more professional. But....I am heading back to Dogtag in a fortnights time - taking a load a scouts as its a little cheaper for a rental package, and just a bit easier all round for a group to book. It will be interesting to see how it compares to Driver Wood now that I'm a bit more experienced in the game (and will no longer be outranged by everyone without a rental G36)- must admit that I am looking forward to a little change in scenery!
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Colin Allen
Members
- Aug 27, 2022
- 1,862
- 2,248
I keep intending to try these two sites, but they are just a bit too far away for a skirmish day when there are so many closer sites.
oddjob
Members
- Feb 24, 2015
- 92
- 17
did my first nvg night game and it was a mix for me.
i was trying to get used to using the things and managed to get in to the first objective. seems i got put with the "elite".
Some guy in front was looking about and then said you IR is on so looked on the nods and it said IR off. i replied its saying off.
the response from him "its fucking on i can fucking see it"
alright mate jheez.
decided to move off and see the other location
wasn't getting on with the nods but carried on till turn around.
started the game moved up to the location till 3 guys got wiped in front
fell back and the nightmare hit, eye pro took a whack from a branch enough to break the arm. (gutted)
get them on temp and moved to safe zone.
had to change the setup and go with a balaclava and goggles.
nvg was set to these so drop that.
got back in and didn't have a clue what was happening. team was going off and had scattered.
decided to tuck in and just pot shot the objective.
game ended and we moved on to building clearance.
this point i knew where i wanted to be and got to the location to defend and stuck it out.
i enjoyed that as i was holding a couple of guys back and using the torch to blind them.
got a hit and moved to respawn and then returned to get team killed.
managed to hold the team back before game over
we turned it around and attacked
game we well and we pushed passed the last team game.
the night was interesting to say the least but a learning curve.
A little annoyed with the comment and the glasses breaking but is what it is.
i was trying to get used to using the things and managed to get in to the first objective. seems i got put with the "elite".
Some guy in front was looking about and then said you IR is on so looked on the nods and it said IR off. i replied its saying off.
the response from him "its fucking on i can fucking see it"
alright mate jheez.
decided to move off and see the other location
wasn't getting on with the nods but carried on till turn around.
started the game moved up to the location till 3 guys got wiped in front
fell back and the nightmare hit, eye pro took a whack from a branch enough to break the arm. (gutted)
get them on temp and moved to safe zone.
had to change the setup and go with a balaclava and goggles.
nvg was set to these so drop that.
got back in and didn't have a clue what was happening. team was going off and had scattered.
decided to tuck in and just pot shot the objective.
game ended and we moved on to building clearance.
this point i knew where i wanted to be and got to the location to defend and stuck it out.
i enjoyed that as i was holding a couple of guys back and using the torch to blind them.
got a hit and moved to respawn and then returned to get team killed.
managed to hold the team back before game over
we turned it around and attacked
game we well and we pushed passed the last team game.
the night was interesting to say the least but a learning curve.
A little annoyed with the comment and the glasses breaking but is what it is.
Emergencychimps
Members
- Jul 20, 2021
- 368
- 478
That elite guy was me.... certainly wouldn't describe myself as "elite".
1. Pretty sure I only used the word fucking once (I could be wrong, it wasn't a part of the evening that was memorable for me). Apologies that it upset you.
2. I told you for your benefit, not mine. That little ir light onboard is just about useable indoors, outdoors all it is pretty useless other than having a shining light on your head to tell the enemy where you are.....like a target. You'd have zero chance of sneaking round on anyone with it on.
3. Telling you, disadvantaged me. I could have not told you and you then could have been a nice early warning system for when we were under attack by being the first person to get hit when the expected attack started. By you knowing an turning it off, it meant that was less likely to be the case and upped my chances of being the first target.
4. Telling you exposed my position more, by making me move each time I spoke to you, talking at an above whisper volume etc. It was already quite an exposed spot. I knew that the guys in the other team are pretty darn good.
If I'm such an elite/elistest person, why tell you? And when you responded that that it was off, why would I tell you it's on, if its off?
All of the above aside, I am genuinely sorry that something I did took the shine off of an otherwise good evening for you. I was trying to help and obviously it didn't land well, it wasn't the way it was intended.
I've been using night vision for airsoft for around 10 years now. Check out this video (from about halfway through) with some good suggestions on how to get more comfortable with yours. It's weird but shooting is only a small bit of using them.
If you'd like, more than happy to meet up and do some practice bits and pieces, chat through gear, practice etc using your nods out of a game environment. Just DM me if this is of interest.
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