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Make a little dot or indent in the plastic with an awl , then put your paint in the dot

On what started out as a bright and sunny morning, the lad and I set off for Airsoft Plantation. As we got closer, heavy clouds rolled in and rain started. However, after some heavy rain while we were in the safe zone, the weather was excellent all day. The first game was a three stage fallback; as the defenders, we had one life at each of the casino, the village and the hill fort, while the attackers had infinite regens on a marshal 30m behind them. Each stage had a buzzer and, once it was sounded by the attackers, any surviving defenders had to fall back to the next stage. My involvement in the first stage was rather limited; starting as far forward as possible on the right, I took out several opponents before being hit. Falling back to the village, I positioned myself in a favourite bush behind the pond and had a great time taking out attackers; I was eventually hit by what was probably a stray shot from a team mate. At the hill fort, I ducked into my favourite little bunker and held my position there until the game ended when an attacker set off the buzzer in the hill fort. This game was then reversed. A group of us sneaked around to the right and broke into the border area, annihilating the defenders to our front and pushing up to near the edge of the village just as the buzzer in the casino was sounded. Having regrouped, we again pushed forward, passing the pond and starting to move into the village. At this point, my rifle started misfiring and eventually stopped altogether, so I withdrew to the safe zone to try to work out what was wrong; it turned out to be a broken electrical connector. Unfortunately, my other rifle only takes a very small battery and I knew it could not last more than half a day, so I sat out the rest of this game and the next one. Therefore, the lad has provided his commentary: "I ended up on the right flank shooting into the village, which quickly fell as we were able to push defenders back far enough that a brave rental was able to make a run for the buzzer in the well. After a regroup to allow the defenders to fall back to their new positions defending the hill fort, we were soon off to capture it. After some strong resistance at the fire break, I decided to sneak around the edge of the field via the DEA base and come up behind the defenders and shoot a handful in the back before a blue player was able to get into the hill fort and set off the buzzer, signalling the end of the game. After a break to reload, we played a special Father’s Day version of “Bomb the Jeeps”. 3 father-son/daughter pairs were selected and one pair was designated bomb carriers while the other 2 pairs were designated bomb techs. The aim of this game was to set off a bomb in each of the 4 Jeeps in the mortar pits, the twist being that while most of the attackers had a 30m buddy regen, if either of the special pair were hit, they both had to return to the start point to regen. Once again I flanked around the DEA base along with 2 other players to come out behind the enemy. After the last game they were expecting this and were in considerably better positions to be able to cover the rear of the mortar pits. However, the superior range of the VAL proved itself and I was able to easily pick off targets and exploit the gaps in the defences. One red player in particular seemed particularly surprised to see me emerge from the bushes 10m to his left when only a minute before we had been exchanging fire to his front. Due to the pincer movement, the defence soon crumbled and we were able to take out all the red players, giving the bomb carriers and techs a clear route in to destroy the last Jeep." After lunch, the bomb runner game was reversed; the lad and I took up positions covering the approach from the DEA base and access to the Bedford. After a strong initial defence, which delayed the attackers for a considerable time, they started to swamp us; I was hit by a long range shot and fell back to another position, which soon became untenable as our numbers were whittled down. While bugging out to yet another position, I was shot in the back and my game was over. Following this, we played a "rescue the VIP game"; the dastardly reds had captured six of our players and were holding them captive in the village; we had to rescue them and get them back to our regen on the firebreak, from where they could join in the attack. We had infinite regens on the firebreak, while the reds had two lives in the village. A group of us went on a wide flanking attack, moving towards the village from the far end and taking out defenders as we cautiously moved forwards through the wood. At one point, a figure came running towards us, shouting "Don't shoot! I am a VIP!" He had escaped his captors and was heading as fast as possible for the firebreak so that he could return and take his revenge on them for the indignities that he had suffered at their hands. Soon after this, the defence collapsed and we liberated the remaining captives. Hurrah! The reverse of this game saw both the lad and I ensconced in the village's fuel dump but facing different directions; I was able to cover a large arc of the left front of the village, while the lad covered the right front. Many foes fell under the accurate fire of the VZ58 before I was hit by a sniper who had worked his way around our flank. Falling back, I took up a position at the edge of the woods and carried on the fight until I was hit again. That ended my day; it was an excellent day of airsoft played in a good spirit by a slightly smaller than usual group of players, which meant that there was more room for sneakiness. The recent plant growth has also really helped those of us who are sneaky. Weapons used: Me: Umarex Beretta ARX 160 Ares VZ58 ASG XP18 Commander (CO2) The lad: LCT AS VAL CYMA AK74 ASG XP18 Commander (CO2)

Yes. But make sure the site record it every game. I would try and get it with the site you are mostly likely to visit most.

Pews on the walls, kit in cheap box thingies, webbing etc hanging under pews & the floor usually strewn with detritis. Not recent pics but same idea currently.

Honestly I have no constructive advice to give, but if you want to feel better about your own situation, I have a roughly 2m x 3m room into which I cram: * My WFH office setup, so desk, 3 screens, printer, couple of laptops * Mine and the boys RIFs and assorted ammo, gas, optics etc etc * 3 x 1/10 RC touring cars, tools, spare bodies, wheels, transmitters * Motorcycle gear * Electric guitar and amp Each unique 'hobby' more or less has its own space, so everything is in one place, but it all has to get sorted out in a roughly 1m square of carpet if I'm going to use any of it that day. Here it is in today's game-day chaos. Thankfully all this will be in the boot of the car shortly and then once done it will get stacked up behind the office door. Thus my RIF storage is limited by how many gun cases you can fit behind the door and still open it.

Can you post a picture? What sort of location is this? No paint is really able to withstand constant wear, even cerakote can wear out over time So instead of looking for something that last forever (which doesn't exist), maybe you need something that can be applied easily, like a paint marker pen that you keep in the bag Or 3D print a replacement part with a different colour plastic

At work, on a sunday. Fathers day. with access to classifieds and coffee. what could possibly go wrong?

So ive seen these around with very limited information. Seems to be about 200fps, holds 17 bbs and has the battery in the magazine. It works on a system similar to the gbls das or some of the older guns that preceded that and some newer nerf guns. That meaning you get a mechanical trigger that releases the sear on the piston and then the motor automatically kicks in to recock that piston and make the slide cycle. Probably a bad idea to be an early adopter but ive always liked aeps and this just seems so cool ive ordered one. Ill post more once I have it. No spare mags available anywhere at the mo but its only been out for 4-5 months or so and less than that in the uk.

That was quick..cheers

Arrived this week, just not displayed yet.

Aug. Check P90. Check. Famas. Check . 🤣🤣🤣 Love it. 😁

If you mean tell ukara you're going to play at a on dates x,y, and z then no, just book the games with the site. Sites will keep records when you sign in (either paper or electronically) and some will use these while some will give you a separate sheet to be signed. It's best to ask on site No. I didn't have a site membership for a couple a couple of years till last week but I was still playing

Depends on the site. Ask them as you are signing in. Some use a stamp method. Some will just count online bookings. Most sites tie membership up with a UKARA number I believe. Though the sites I used to go to didn't have any sort of membership as such and just gave out the UKARA number when you hit your three games in over 2 months.

Weekend #5 in a row and while there was a scare for a bit of rain this morning, the weather held out for a lovely sunny day of airsoft. It did rain ever so slightly just before the safety brief, but it was barely noticeable and abated pretty fast. I decided to run my Cyma SR-25 today, though it was only chronoing at 1.73J; I would've liked it to be over 1.8J as the limit is 1.88J, but I wanted to see how it ran anyway. I could hit 75m fairly easily with a bit of angling, but I know when I'm over 1.8J I don't really need to angle it at all, so while it wasn't shooting exactly as I wanted, it was shooting well enough and it was accurate. First game was a long game where one of the marshalls was dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and roamed the site. We had to bring stacks of cash to him to swap it for totally-not-flour that we had to carry back to our base in a specific briefcase. I managed to get into a barricade and tuck in close, with good line of sight forward and onto two flanking paths that I knew the enemy team was going to try and use. One thing I will say though is that Worthing Airsoft is worse this year than last year when it comes to being overgrown. There are very few places where using something with an MED is viable, but fortunately my barricade was one such place. Pretty much singlehandedly managed to hold that part of the site for the entire game and only got shot in the last minute when a bunch of yellows rushed up and one saw me, so I had to take him out. Earlier in the game I had yellows taking cover on the other side of the barricade and shooting over me while my friend was further back and shooting over my head to take them out. Good times. After lunch I swapped to my KJW m40a5, as we played a few simple games. 3 base domination where all the bases were around awful positions for 30m MEDs, so I ended up lying down watching a path where I didn't shoot anyone, apart from the yellows trying to come out of what is essentially a woodland killhouse at this time of year that I wasn't going into myself. Had a good line on it to my side with my pistol and took a lot of yellows out there without them working out where I am, despite the 1911 very much being a GBB and making GBB noises when I shot it; it's amazing what you can get away with if you're careful. Eventually got taken out, again near the end of the game, by someone I had previously taken out and he had respawned and come back from the other side, where I thought I would've had some teammates but apparently all the blues were... elsewhere? He was able to just waltz up pretty close without anyone shooting at him anyway. Then after that we played a king of the hill game at the Tower base; whoever had the most players inside the tower at the end of the game wins. We started on the easier side and I went to one of my usual spots watching the path, since there are very few other places I can go with an MED and this position is pretty strong anyway. Managed to take out a bunch of players down the path, but the yellows kept on coming in behind us and even when I called it out, the players near me were just like "no, those guys are blues and they're dead." I then got shot as I was telling them that no, there were yellows who shot those blues coming in from behind Anyway, had some drama when we swapped it around the other side. Trying to attack it with a bolt action from that side is hilariously difficult, but also I had a run in with the same ghillie player who is constantly causing issues. I can't remember the last time I bumped into him in game where he wasn't either breaking rules or being a general dick across the last year. Going out of bounds, shooting within his MED, spawncamping and headshots are constant with him. Basically, in this game I poked out from behind a barricade to look into the super dense area, full body on show and as I spot him lying down right in front of me and he shoots me in the neck from pretty much point blank with a mk23 that I'm pretty sure he uses heavy ammo in; the distance was maybe 1m? After the game he said it was unintentional, but I simply told him I didn't believe him, since my entire body was on show and he would've had to angle his pistol up to hit me in the neck, plus he had shot me earlier in the day as well with my whole body on show and it was another headshot. I will give people the benefit of the doubt, but when it's every time I start to wonder. The game before this one my friend said he was spawncamping us as well, which I was entirely unsurprised to hear as he does it fairly often, and apparently there were some people who had some nasty bleeders today who got shot by someone with a quiet gun, and I know it wasn't me as the only headshot I did today was a rental on the full face mask (that he didn't take) as that was all that was poking out; every other hit I dished out was a body shot today and hit calling was generally really good, I must say; outside of that one rental, everyone took their hits I found. I'm usually pretty diplomatic and chilled about most things and I've only ever complained about one player before, and surprise surprise it was another ghillie player who now doesn't play at Worthing as I think he got banned after he shot a marshall who was playing that game day in the face at about 10m with his bolt action. Anyway, I spoke to one of the site owners about it and they said they'd keep an eye on him, so that's all I can do. I'm not going to go on a rant on "why are so many ghillie players utter cockwombles?", but it's players like that that make me, someone who has played ghillie since about 2008, really start thinking that I wouldn't be that put off if they were banned across the entire country tomorrow. I love playing in my ghillie, but it seems like decent ghillie players tend to be an exception and not a rule and I start to think if the hobby would be better as a whole without them. We never had these issues back in 2008, not even when I played in Spain; I'd actually say that Spain was better despite there being no sites, no marshalls, no chrono etc, as it was self-governing; if you were a dick or a cheater, you didn't get invited to play. Simple. I finally have a weekend coming up where I won't be playing. I have a lot of guns that need a little tweaking (power on the SR-25, hop up on my mk12 MWS, setting up my G&P m14 that I collected today etc.), but I'm saving those for when I'm on blood thinners and can't play, as hopefully the procedure is coming up soon. However, with just how overgrown Worthing Airsoft is now I think I may ditch the ghillie for now and use a 1.1J gun instead. I think I'll go with my m14 scout or my short MWS for next game day.

Not quite right. You need a defence, being on the ukara database is just one such defence. It's certainly the easiest to use as it's accepted by the most shops but it certainly isn't the only defence

I haven’t, but you shouldn’t need to change the nozzle. I haven’t; my hop unit of choice used to be Combat Union, until the QC fell off a cliff and then Putler invaded Ukraine. The Begadi one works very well.

Which is an utterly irrelevant argument. The principle that those seeking licensing should bear the costs of that licensing is a legitimate one.

https://www.redwolfairsoft.com/vfc-1911-kimber-lapd-swat-custom-ii-gbb-pistol.html

It's hard to tell without knowing the make of each gun. I'd guess you could get £100 for each but they could be worth more. If the brand is unknown you'll need to assume it's the cheapest. You need to Google images of "m14 socom airsoft" and see if you can work out what you have. Maybe cyma, g&g, TM, snow wolf or jg (if they made a socom variant), aps is another maybe. Could be others depending on how old it us. For the m4 just find one with the same receiver markings.

Picked up some Lonex 200rd mid caps and one of the clearance ICS XAEs from Fire-Support this week, plus a new Guarder spring for my Double Eagle, all of which I shall be trying out this afternoon.

Then what incentive is there for them to limit costs? "My department is over-staffed and much of what we do is pointless busywork," said no bureaucrat, ever.

Pews are in a metal cabinate, BBs , grenades and batteries are in ammo boxes on top , gas also on top in a normal box. Shelf in the top of the cabinate holds radio's spare optics and the box mags for LMGs and side arms. Mags and spare parts etc are in a couple of sets of metal draws stacked vertically next to the cabinate. Tac vest on a hanger on the wall . Those are in the garage, BDUs are in my wardrobe folded up, one draw takes care of socks, belts, patches , gloves etc.

The Begadi hop is excellent.

If you google "gun room interior design" there are loads of impressive looking examples, the vast majority of them seem to follow this formula: Cabinets lower half Display racks upper half Colour / material coordinated Integrated lighting In your case maybe it is a matter of organising what is below the slatboards, maybe with some cabinets Maybe convert to a vertical gun rack for better efficiency Or even remove half the wall rack and put in taller cabinets, since half of your wall rack is stuff that shouldn't be on the wall anyway

I have two wardrobes for my guns and vests etc. Under the bed I have a 5.11 range bag that holds mags and pistols,it's bloody heavy so I decant what I need on the day. It works for me, and Mrs Shamal is happy cause it's not in her way.🙂

I wonder if you just need a bigger house with a 2nd gun room... I have similar problems but my challenge isnt so much how to store stuff (I just use a chest of drawers) but how to categorise and organise it. You could organise by platform, brand, part type etc. I have 2 boxes of parts but each part well labelled in a zip lock bag. I have to empty the box every time I need to find something but at least I only have 2 boxes to deal with. Bbs and gas just stay in the kit bag I take out when playing, and mags have their own drawer. Watching this thread with interest to see what other people do

I just trade marked a padded bra that never loses its shape. I call it Mammary Foam®

I agree to the increased fee but the service is woefully understaffed and undertrained at the moment in a good few areas and people have waited 2 years for a grant or renewal. I fear that it could be a "you get to hit them once so hit them hard" increase in fees. Also that it does not follow onto air powered and airsoft shooting. Fingers crossed.

As far as CQB is concerned, pretty much every CQB place is limited to very small venues due to cost of buildings in the London area. I have compiled a list of all the sites that are Public Transportable and up to an hour of walking from Central London. To be honest there are very few additional sites that require a car to get to anyway and none of them CQB as far as I can say. Outdoors, Pure Woodland or Woodland with few structures considering it's size in Green Outdoor sites with a specific CQB section(s) of a reasonable size in Blue Urban sites (Has a mixture of Outdoor/Woodland with significant Man made structures not purpose built for Airsoft) in Purple Pure CQB in RED Sites within the M25. Bunker 51 Red 1 Chislehurst Tactical Warfare Croydon Mayhem Airsoft Abridge D&A Dropzone Incursion Airsoft "The Tunnels" Sites just outside the M25 Reforger Red 1 The School Red 1 Oblivion Ultimate Wargames Ambush Airsoft Campaign Airsoft South Herts Airsoft Sites a bit further away but possible to reach with public transport and less than an hour of walking. Airsoft Plantation Skirmish Billericay Dragons Lair (Moving soon to a place that's easier to get to on public transport) CAMO Canvey Island Driver Wood (But the CQB specific sections are hardly used for Airsoft anymore) Dogtag Skirmish Wycombe Battle Sector X Future Survival Gravesend Invicta Black Site ** Imperium Splatoon Hockley Arena ** Reachable via Train on Saturday games only, the first Sunday train is too late to arrive in time The only pure indoor CQB sites are Bunker 51, Incursion, CAMO, Future Survival, Battle Sector X, Hockley Arena and Invicta Black Site. The largest being, Incursion and Black Site. If you have a car than RIFTS The Battery would be well worth the trip as it is a mix of Indoor and Outdoor CQB which is pretty unique in the South East. Splatoon is kind of urban considering a 1/3rd of the playing area is taken up by a shipping container area which is pretty good. Red 1 The School uses an old school for half the day but its very limited in terms of a playing area.

Ah, welcome to "dad tech"-ing. Its a proud moment when the little snot monster you raised, runs head on into a hail of plastic in the daftness we call airsoft. I've mentioned on your other thread about the m4 mag doodad. P90's are great little pews and can, if played with correctly, show up a lot of the big heavy lumps that I/we carry around. Ours was a boneyard and was shot to hell n back. However now, it absolutely screams plastic death. If thats a thing. If not, i just invented it. And want it on a patch. EDIT: and the only daft queston is one you dont ask.

I was looking at another forum recently and they noted an intention within the Labour manifesto to increase firearms licensing to cover the full costs involved. Now I know that's not airsoft but shooters of ALL disciplines should be aware that if one group is targeted successfully then you can bet your last BB that they will look elsewhere to do something similar. Get more money in from our sport, maybe ban it, or more difficult to access. Who knows. You can never trust these politicians........

In addition on the hi-caps (and I caution that I have no particular knowledge of P90 Hi-caps, only the M4, AK, and G3 versions) - the sound of the spring rapidly unwinding usually means that the numbers of BBs left inside the mag are so few that they don't drop into the 'cog' that the spring tensions in order that the 'cog' can then push them up the feed tube of the mag and into the gun. The end result being that there is nothing to stop the cog simply spinning and unwinding the spring that tensions it fully (despite there still being a number of BBs still in the hi-caps feed tube rattling around). That's a terrible description from me, but basically - if you haven't already - ensure that the mag is full, give it a load of winds as mentioned above, and then see if you continue to have problems.

Another excellent game at South Herts Airsoft today. For a while now once a month SHA have been running a full game day midweek. Numbers were low (12 total) which allowed for some sneaky shenanigans, but with the site being quite small you're not at any risk of wandering around not seeing a soul. Great games and sportsmanship all round, this place is definitely turning into my preferred site and I highly recommend anyone to pay them a visit. At £20 green fees they're a good deal too. I'd recently put a Maple Leaf hop rubber in my specna arms M4 so wanted to test it out and I'm more than happy with the results. The stock rubber was barely able to lift .28g bbs, but now it's sending them much further and I think it'll easily lift heavier ammo. In the end I ended up using it all day with the MP5K staying in the gun bag. The only downside to the day was the fuck up fairy playing havoc with the trains

I was there and it was a slower start than usual - not really sure why. Brief is always 9:30 for 15ish minutes, then game on at 10ish. I think they had less vehicles running, so it took longer to bus everyone to the start with a few round trips. The actual play time ended up around the same as they pushed lunch back, made lunch a little shorter then ran the day a little later. The bigger issue was that the afternoon game was a bit of a stalemate. I was on Blue and it was our objective to recover a downed enemy pilot, then return him for questioning. It was Red's objective to recover him to their FoB, then collect some items from his intel on the other side of the site. Unfortunately, they either never got told the second part of the objective or forgot, so their whole team just hunkered down in the FoB near their regen for two hours making progress impossible.

Went to the farm in Lincoln yesterday for the first time yesterday and apart from some really inconsistent performance from my ICS APE had a great morning, I say morning because into the second game after lunch my son got a call to say his son was being rushed to hospital with a suspected broken leg. We rushed off to pack up and leave, and while doing so were asked why we were leaving and then instantly offered a refund for half the day that we would miss. We declined and we told that if we came back to mention it on booking and they would only charge us half a day. Just to add a cherry on the top my son posted on the Lincolnshire airsoft page to say how appreciative he was of the gesture and the first response was from the farm team to ask how his son was doing (fine btw thankfully not a serious break). So not only is it a really interesting site to play, it is well run, good game play and pretty decent people running it to, and a second cherry is that it is really reasonably priced for a full game day!

Superb morning at Driver Wood on Sunday - a 2.5 hour game, starting just before half nine, and running all the way through to lunch. Its the first time I've been there when they have run that, instead of two nominally one hour games (but which can get eroded through general faffage). As I only ever go for a half day/morning, packing as much play into that time gets my vote. Quite a fun game concept too - with lots of balloons located all around the playing area at different objectives in the team colours - idea being that you shoot out the enemy team colour balloons, and defend yours. Also I took along my 12 year old daughter for her first taste of airsoft - which she absolutely loved! I managed to give her a heavily curated experience - generally with us sticking as a pair, and me playing a lot less 'aggressively' than normal (and taking a lot more hits in the process!). She got a few hits herself, including her highlight of taking out a group of five enemy players ten minutes before the end - leaving her absolutely buzzing. I managed to arm her with a fully polymer Specna (even a polymer buffer tube) that I built up from a few parts - super light and the stock can be adjusted pretty short. Shout out to the site shop as well -coming to the rescue and selling her a multicam hoody for just £5 as she didn't have anything suitable in her own wardrobe.

I went out to Gunman Eversley Alpha this weekend for a weekend of shooting GIs in the 'Nam. We set off on the Friday to get there nice and early and set up our camp compound. The guy who drives us all up there and introduced us to 'Namsoft loves his glamping, so we are always very well stocked. A bit of a squeeze this time as his grandson was with us as well, so we were four people instead of three and therefore needed a 2nd tent as we couldn't all fit in the one. We managed to get everything packed in and got there 2nd out of everyone. Another pair was there when we arrived and were setting up, but were setting up away from where we usually like to camp, so we claimed our corner and set up the tents, gazebo, literal kitchen etc. I was a little worried, as my heart was playing up a lot a few weeks ago, but it had been quiet since the Tuesday before last, so I made the decision to go along. Also, the guy driving couldn't play due to tendonitis in his hips (but he still wanted to go as he loves his camping and wanted to see the familiar faces), so we were down to three during the gameplay. He did get out there though as a civilian to help Josh with some objective placements and stuff. Friday night I found it difficult getting to sleep due to anxiety around my heart, but eventually got to sleep without any issues. Anyway, first day was... slow. I headed out with my new PPS Kar98 set up for 1J on .32s and we were put with the main squads to go and put up some observation posts. It's not usually how we play, as our little group does our best work when we're a bit more independent and just focus on making the lives of the GIs hell, but we went along with it to avoid conflict and also help show our new addition around and get him used to the 'Nam. He's only 12 and only started playing airsoft recently, so it was a very different experience for him from normal skirmish and we wanted to make sure he didn't get overwhelmed. Our first little sortie went... pretty poorly. I think part of this was that Josh said it would be game on in 5 mins after the brief, but it probably took closer to 20 - 25 mins for the NVA/VC team to get out to our respawn and go through our objectives and how we wanted to do them. We didn't get too far outside of our base before we got attacked by two separate groups of Americans (well, one was the Aussies, one was the Americans). My friend tried to sneak into one of the many thick bushes just ahead of us, but as he did so a third American team popped around the corner and him also being armed with a Kar98 was not the best weapon to engage a whole squad, so he dived for cover but got hit. He managed to crawl over to me (as you can crawl to a teammate in these filmsim events), so I medic'd him back in. We took a couple of the Americans down, but there were way too many of them and the firepower was overwhelming. I managed to take a few out with the Kar98 and as it's fairly silent they couldn't pinpoint my location. One guy definitely ignored the hit I put on him, but outside of that I put non-hit taking down to them being fairly long distance shots while they were moving and I think we've all been there; a single shot at long distance so the impact isn't massive is easy to not feel when you're moving about. The rest of the group tried to move on the flank and my friend eventually got hit again by the m60 on the hill that had been medic'd back in as well. I held down in the bushes until my friend's bleedout, as the dogtags I hated from last year's game made a return and I didn't want to abandon his to be collected by the US for a free point. I think that the US thought it was just him there and were trying to mop up the other squad to our left before coming to collect the dogtag, as I managed to scoot out of there and link up with the other squad higher up in the valley without much trouble. We kept going around until we got to the first observation point and set up to defend it as we had to hold them for 15 mins to score. We held our ground, but eventually got attacked by one US unit who managed to sneak through the ferns onto a flank. We managed to repel them though and eventually got reinforcements to push them back and around to the other side of the valley. I got left behind somewhat, but linked up with a few others and we also pushed up, however only four of us (me, my friend, my other friend's grandson and another VC guy) went to the next observation post. However, it was fairly quiet around the mortar pit, so we placed it down and dug into the bushes. No US forces came across us, so it was an easy 15 minute hold to set it up. We then lost the other VC guy (no idea where he went!) so the three of us pushed to the fort as it was a central location and we thought we could do some damage from there. It was fairly quiet, but one of the special forces teams did walk right by us while we hid in the bushes; one of them even looked directly at us and my friend's grandson was standing up! Either he didn't want to get shot as we all had guns trained on them, or they actually didn't see us because their whole team walked past us. In hindsight, we should've shot them all as they passed, but we let them pass instead to stay undetected. We then discussed our next plan of action and when I left the bushes to go do that... they didn't follow, so I was left by myself. Apparently they had gone to the gate of the fort and held there, while I went around the back and had to Metal Gear Solid my way through another three whole US teams; one of 5, one of 10(!) and one of 4, as with the Kar98 there was no way in hell I could engage. Well, I could, but I'd probably just give the US troops a free point as they'd likely take me out with BB spam into the bushes and take my dogtag. Managed to sneak by all three teams undetected, despite wearing all black and sticking out like a sore thumb; who needs a ghillie to stay hidden, eh? I finally made it back to our base and called it a day there. It was about 2:30pm, so another 1hr 30 mins left of Saturday's game, but I was exhausted after having to sneak my way across half the site. The results of the Saturday was 58 points to the NVA/VC against the 42 points to the US/ARVN, so a win for the NVA on the first day put us in a good place. Saturday night I also managed to sleep decently well, though I did wake up in the middle of the night and was short of breath, but when I put my little heart rate monitor on it was reading very normal so it was purely anxiety around it acting up and not actually acting up. Didn't play on the Sunday. My friend had a chest infection and a really bad back so he couldn't move much and my other friend still had tendonitis in his hips as that doesn't just go away over night. His grandson was too tired to play and I really wasn't feeling it, so we instead had breakfast and then took a couple of hours to dismantle the compound. NVA/VC handled business on Sunday and won handily, culminating in a battle that pushed the Americans out of their base and had the NVA/VC closing in on them on all sides. The NVA managed to set up their anti-tank weapons, which was their main objective, and Josh said to us it was probably better that we didn't play as it could've been very oppressive for the US/ARVN players if our group of 4 was also out there causing mayhem. So, what was good? Everyone there was playing in the spirit of the game. Lots of banter and bad acting on both sides! Also, a new rule where if the US/ARVN harassed a civilian and that civilian doesn't have any contraband like intel, a radio or a hidden weapon, then the civilian got a token to give to NVA command. 5 of these tokens was a point for the NVA/VC, so it adds something to disincentivise the US forces from interrogating every civilian player as before there were no negative consequences for them stopping and searching every civilian they found at gunpoint. Also, as usual, peoples kit was great. I'm no stitch counter, so I'm generally fine with inaccurate kit, but everyone at least looked the part which made for some great cinema. It was also good to see @Tactical Pith Helmet (and Mrs. TPH!) again; what a lovely chap that guy is! However, I didn't enjoy it as much as usual. So, why didn't I? Well, the Saturday was incredibly slow for us and we were folded into squads. I felt like I was playing PAVN in black, not VC, and I didn't enjoy that; it definitely felt more on the milsim side of filmsim and I don't enjoy that; I like a bit of silly BB wars in the woods in fancy dress. Also, the dogtag mechanic singlehandedly kills my enjoyment. My usual tactics would just be free points for the US forces, as it's a high risk harassment campaign all weekend that sees me getting shot and every time I get hit there's either nobody or only 1 other person around to stop them getting my dogtag; it's very easy to get overwhelmed, especially with a 1J bolt action. I don't want to be the reason the NVA/VC side loses because my tactics don't tend to score points; it's more indirect scoring as I try to make the US troops fearful and wary of moving about as they could get jumped by a crazy villager with a rifle at any moment! The dogtags very much hamper those efforts, but at least this time it was only one dogtag. Last year it was one dogtag per life which absolutely crippled my way of playing, but one dogtag was enough to dissuade me from my usual harassment tactics. Thirdly, it was the sniper ban. Gunman do a sniper ban during the summer as the ferns grow quite high, but me being a veteran of the sniper hell that is summertime Worthing Airsoft was constantly finding locations where I had great line of sight and wished I had my 2.3J m700 with me. Yes, there are locations that are close in, but that's what my upgraded pistols are for and compared to Worthing Airsoft, Eversley Alpha is incredibly viable for sniping with a 30m MED. I probably won't make the next one in September, as I've got a hospital appointment in a few weeks with cardiology, so I'm likely getting my heart sorted soon (probably in August with the timing of this appointment). This means I'll be on blood thinners in September (as I have to be for a few months afterwards) which will mean no airsoft for me for those months, which will include September if I'm correct about the timings. Got a year to think about how I want to go ahead with Vietnam games in the future, and one potential avenue that we're exploring as a group is putting together an ARVN kit and then asking Josh where he wants us, as we'd have sets for both teams. US/ARVN have been getting hammered for the past 3 years, so it might be time to try and redress the balance by playing a bit of imperialist gameplay. Give the NVA/VC team a real sniper threat to worry about

First day out in a couple of months today, got to Combat Airsoft in Thetford. Not a bad day at all, was on my own but bumped into an old work colleague. Didn’t hear a single complaint from anyone all day, the games didn’t stagnate, and everything seemed to work!

Just got my Hipower back from @EDcase, couldn’t of asked for more really , quick to reply , quick to the work which was at a very reasonable price , and very quick to get it returned . More projects will hopefully be on the way soon !! before - and after