Impulse

Gone a bit old school as I'm heading to a Vietnam game this weekend. Ready to snipe some GIs

Sounds a bit like last year, honestly. Our group weren't there this time to bolster numbers on green team (I think we brought about 30 last year) because it fell on a Worthing game day, but I do remember that a lot of greens left early last year because of the abysmal weather. Having 50 less players is a massive disadvantage that I experienced first hand last year, so it's a shame to hear they made no effort to balance the teams a bit. I'm sure there were small groups of tans who would've been willing to swap over to green team and it would've made the game far better. Getting locked in the spawn also sounds a lot like last year for the same reason. You'd think they would've sorted that; honestly, the site isn't good for 400 players, but they need the money from ticket sales. Just a bit of a mess really... You're totally right here. Voluntary chrono is pointless because you'll get people like me going up to chrono to make sure I'm at the right power and prove that my m21 or VSR is running at 1.1J for no MED (because 1.48J is a joke for DMRs and bolties), but all the people who are intending on running hot guns, will just not chrono. It's common sense; people breaking the rules aren't going to voluntarily rock up and say "hey, by the way I'm cheating and playing dangerously" This had me questioning it last year as well. I fully agreed with the decision to limit bangs to mk4s and below because not everyone had a set of hearing protection (and normal ear plugs are basically "I'm a free stealth kill") or could afford to invest in a set of Earmors or something just before the game, then when I saw the shop selling mk5s I was annoyed. When I heard that they were "mk5s with a mk4 bang" I knew they were lying back then and it's clear they were lying again this year. Also, people weren't following that rule anyway as one of my friends had a thermobaric posted blindly around a corner right into his chest, where it exploded just after impacting. Again, this makes me sigh... I had this happen last year to me when I was using my m21. I got pulled aside by a marshall who told me I wasn't allowed to use it because it was a "sniper rifle", while it's just an m14 with a scope and a rifle wrap (and running at 1.1J). I was also told by another marshall "oh, you can't use that indoors" when it was no more powerful than anyone else's m4. Now, I let that one slide because I didn't really go indoors and instead held angles outside, but I run my m21 at 1.1J for a reason; to use it in any situation I need it in. Had to clear it up with one of the head marshalls who said it was fine after I explained it all to him, but it was a situation that shouldn't have happened in the first place. Thanks for the write up @wicksy101 though it's sad to hear that it was another shitshow. Even though I wasn't there, I was hoping they'd take the lessons from last time and learn from them. Roll on next AI500 at a different venue, because that venue is not good for 400 players. Might get away with 300, but I think 200 (100 per side) would be far better, though it probably wouldn't be financially viable.

Had a weird one at Worthing on Sunday. I only played in the morning and had a huuuuge amount of success in the first two games with the VSR, burning through about 80 BBs and getting around 30+ kills in sheer area denial. However, I stopped playing at lunch due to two reasons. Firstly, the first two games were deceptively successful, because I went to two locations that are always good for sniping all year round; Spring is definitely here and Worthing is really starting to bush up again, which makes a 30m MED a pain to deal with, which I found out in the 3rd game. I didn't fire the VSR once and only got half a dozen kills with the p226 which I haven't used in a long time (but they were some nice shots and I forgot how well my p226 build works!). Large portions of the site are just becoming unusable for snipers and DMRs at Worthing and it's only going to get worse with time, so it may be time to hang up the VSR for 6 months or so. So why not switch to the other gun I brought? Why not use the m21? That's the second reason. I've been toying around with different hop rubbers and I've come to terms with the fact that while the silicone Maple Leaf VSR rubbers are absolutely god-tier amazing, the silicone AEG rubbers are absolutely trash. My m21 was shooting all over the place in the morning and just wasn't usable. Going to stick the old 60 degree macaron back in there as that was working well, but all the silicone rubbers I tried were absolutely craptastic. So yeah, moving forward, HPA VSR is going away for a few months. m21 and spring VSR are coming out in its stead as my "snipers" as they're both 1.1J, but I'll also be looking to use my AKM more often, as long as I can borrow my friend's mags when he's not using his

Yeah, that's what I'd recommend. One of my friends has been marshalling for a while and he's now getting back into the game but he's getting on a bit and can't play like he used to. I've advised him to try running a sniper instead as the slow movements are great for keeping muscle tone and aren't nearly as hard on your body as playing normally is. When I'm playing sniper normally and dress up like a bush (current playstyle not included because I'm a young'n and I'm trying to lose weight), I have some games where I don't move all game. I leave respawn, take up an overwatch position and just remain completely still for the whole game. Sometimes I get loads of action, sometimes I get barely any, it just depends on if people use the area I'm overwatching. It's a fun way to contribute if you feel like your body can't keep up any more.

Don't need to run to be sneaky. In fact, I'd argue you actively don't want to run if you're being sneaky because the eye is drawn to movement. That's where I've seen shotguns have a lot of success even in woodland, sneaking around and shooting at unsuspecting players with 3 barrels of fun.

It's similar with running a bolt action these days, since AEGs and 1J builds can reach out so far now; my 1.1J m21 build is by far my most practical gun and it's rare I come across a situation where I really miss that extra 10 - 15m I get with 2.3J of bolt action. I ran a Cyma shotgun last week at UCAP Bunker and it worked amazingly well (even won a shotgun duel with someone who was running some sort of expensive gas shotgun monster build). Very satisfying and you get team mates looking your direction when you make that very audible pump (it's so hard to word this without it sounding risqué...) I'd advise everyone to have at least a cheap tri-shot in their collection. They're a bit of fun and a good backup gun in case your main one breaks down or your batteries die or whatever. Metal-bodied Cyma tri-shots go for under £100 and they're a great bit of fun for the money.

GBB or AEG? My opinions of any VFC gun is typically pretty negative though, so I guess it doesn't matter. I don't like either.

I went and did something very different this weekend. The Worthing lot had a private game at UCAP Bunker on Saturday and I went along, having not done CQB for over a decade and I had a great time. I even went in costume as I was a member of the civilian treasure hunter team and wore a shirt, tie and a long coat for a very noir/cyberpunk mercenary look; the other two teams (yep, 3 team game!) were the home guard and the Russian PMCs. I took all my short guns (TM mp7 AEP, Cyma mp5k and Cyma m870 breacher) as well as my mk23 for a pistol and I had a blast. I did have to put the mp7 aside though, as the tunnels were longer than I expected and I just didn't have the range with my 0.5J of pew pew, plus I don't think people were feeling the hits on semi (which all players were limited to). I've had this problem before while using the mp7 as a sidearm to my sniper loadout; it needs full auto for people to feel it. You don't feel one, but you feel a quick burst of four or five. However, as soon as I brought out the tri-shot I found a lot more success switching between that for short range gunfights and the mk23 for everything else (silent kills and long range shots). Having practiced shoulder transfers and shooting from the left and right shoulder was absolutely invaluable for this event and I found a lot of success helping my team by taking up positions that required left-handed shooting. As a big and tall, 6'5" guy, I wasn't ever going to be the fastest down those tunnels as I was having to crouch to get through them, so I decided to do what I do best for my and played the sniper role in CQB. But how did I do that? Well, there were lots of nice little shadowy corners where it turns out I was basically invisible if I kept still, so I identified a few of these positions around the central corridor and just denied the ground to any opposing team. This funneled the Russian PMCs towards the home guard and was quite successful in keeping our flank protected while we focused on the objectives. I had friends on the home guard team who were wondering why the Russians were pushing so hard down towards them in the afternoon . Was it as high action as the rest of my team who fought damn well in the afternoon game to secure and move the objective? No, but it was incredibly satisfying with every quiet mk23 kill and very confused Russian PMC wondering where the hell they had been shot from. I even managed to knife kill the juggernaut and help my team secure the objective at the start by using the same tactics. No jokes, but next time I go down I'll bring my m21. It's set up for 1.1J as it's one of my no MED sniper rifles, but being able to deny down those long tunnels would be absolutely invaluable. I don't need anything more than a pistol for moving about and navigating those tight corners anyway.

haha, it was you! As I said, no hard feelings over it as I don't think it should really be counted either. I didn't get too worked up over it because it's impossible to feel them and is a silly rule (though I can see why they do it; lowest common denomimator and all that). The gun hit was me, as was the shot that eventually got you, as I saw the gun barrel sticking out the side and know what to look for as a bush-cosplayer myself, but I was pointing your exact location out to people and they just seemed to refuse to shoot. I was just like "bruh..." as I watched you take them out when all they had to do was spray the corner that I was pointing out to them (I was being pretty exact with the description), so eventually I just decided to push up myself to a range before my hop up started to hop the BB, then push up with the pistol to clear out the rest. If you want something done right, sometimes you just have to do it yourself!

Ah, that was you, Mr Flannel! Yeah, it was good to team up and felt pretty great to work as a sniper team, especially the offensive on Tower in the last game of the day where we just harassed them from that little corner of clearing with oppressive amounts of sniper fire. No-camo sniper team is best sniper team; who even needs to wear camo, let alone a ghillie ? I don't think it was you, but there was a ghillie on your team who wasn't calling when the flappy leafy bits were getting hit, though I didn't complain too much as I don't think it should count anyway and it's incredibly difficult to feel those. I was sniping at a guy near the cross and constantly hitting the flappy bit, watching it flap about each time I hit it, but with the hop-up and proximity to the ground it was hard to hit any lower. I just moved up and shot him in the butt instead, before pushing up and clearing the rest of cross by myself with my pistol, because none of the AEGs could see him when I was calling out his exact location and none of the AEGs were pushing. The real non-hit taking I saw was when I hit people, they recoil from the hit and bring up a hand to the affected area (because my VSR hurts when it hits with its 2.3J on .48s from a HPA setup; tends to give a good whack on impact), then just drop down low and look around to try and see where they got shot from. I had it happen a handful of times and had to give them some follow-up encouragement.

Yep. Plate carrier has weighted plates in it (originally looked at real ballistic plates for immersion, saw the price tag and settled on weighted plates instead) and I typically carry everything I will need for the day on my person, rather than leaving some stuff in the safe zone or by respawn (water, gas, BBs etc). I'm noticeably slower with it on and I can't run as fast or play as reactively, but I still combine this with playing far more aggressively (still sneaky though) than I usually do as a bush monster and it's giving me good results. I figured I have a lot of weight to shift, so I may as well do it doing something I enjoy as I hate exercising for the sake of exercising; I like doing things like airsoft or martial arts, though I can't afford the latter at the moment because I was made redundant and job hunting sucks (though diet is also very important in this. It's a two-pronged attack). As I said, I'll be changing to the m21, which is heavier than my VSR, for next game day at Worthing, so we'll see if I finally collapse under the stress! I frequently found myself being the front line with my sniper rifle while the AEG crowd were a bit further back and frequently found myself thinking "wait, shouldn't this be the other way around?"

PMC sniper / I'm trying to lose weight loadout. Now that I'm not dressing like a bush, I'm actually getting snapped (that being said, there were times I had people staring right at me and not spotting me because staying still and not silhouetting works wonders). I'll be changing out a few things next game day as I'm still learning what works and what doesn't with this weighted plate carrier loadout, but I did like this loadout.

Another fun day at Worthing, albeit quieter than usual due to Mother's Day (I'm so happy the sun is starting to come out...) where I decided to try playing aggressive sniper with my weight loss loadout; using my VSR I didn't need anything on my plate carrier, but I wore it anyway. It was interesting and I got a LOT of hits on people totally oblivious to my location, people looking directly at me while being totally oblivious to my location (wearing no camo patterns. Fieldcraft is more important than a ghillie) and people who totally knew where I was and were shooting their "my gnu can shoot 100m easy" at me, being about 70m away and watching their BBs just land 15 to 20m in front of me before utilising my .48s at 2.3J of HPA bolt action power to hit them with ease. That being said, I think I will be moving over to aggressive sniping with my m21 as I actually need my plate carrier for that, plus it's a heavier gun; also foliage will start to grow soon and Worthing totally changes to where those 70m+ shots are extremely few and far between. The ability to shoot within 30m will soon become way more important and my m21 build is typically used at 1.1J. I will say that I noticed more non-hit taking start to creep up; it's been fairly good the last few skirmishes, but this time I really noticed it. It's always difficult when you watch the BB fly through your scope, watch it hit someone and bounce off, them react to it and then keep playing. My friends were also saying similar things, so I'm really hoping that the sun coming out isn't also going to also bring out the non-hit takers. All that said, it was a pretty balanced day, with both teams winning and losing and the timed multi-objective attack and defend took so long with constant action that we didn't switch sides as the marshalls initially planned to do. It was a really fun day with a lot of really fun moments. I still found it damn hard and left the day totally drained, so my weight loss loadout is doing its job. I didn't have time to weigh myself on the Sunday morning before heading off (I leave at 6:30am as I get a lift with one of the staff), but I did on Saturday morning, which was a day where I ate slightly too much, so if anything the picture below is an underestimation as I probably gained a little over Saturday. Weighed myself this morning and was pretty pleased with the results (for context, I'm not a small person. My target weight is 100kg with around 15% body fat and I'm currently 134kg with about 35% body fat.

Welcome back to the mad house! As said above, the main change is the performance of the guns. You can get a lot better for a lot cheaper now, and I'm still amazed at the difference from when I started about 17 years ago; my Cyma m14 build probably cost me around £200ish and would outshoot a lovingly upgraded sniper rifle from back in the mid 2000s. From 7 years ago, the laws haven't changed. Still need to get a UKARA registration by playing 3 games in at least 2 months to buy guns. Hope you enjoy your return to the hobby!

Hey, I just wanted to see if other people are having the same experience as me. We all know that sometimes you will hit someone and they'll try to squeeze off a few shots before they call it in the hopes of trading, however this doesn't happen all the time. What I've noticed though is if you hit someone as they're striking or holding a grenade and hit them (very obviously, like a head or hand shot that you know they've felt), pretty much every single time that player will throw the grenade before calling it, rather than dropping it where they stand as they should. I'm curious if other people have observed this as much as I have. I can see why people might do it (pyro is expensive and it's why I don't use it), but at the same time it's both an example of non-hit taking and really annoying when you get that shot and then just watch them throw the grenade at you anyway. Naturally, my stance is a hit is a hit and you should drop it at your feet when you get hit; If you want to spend on grenades, don't pull them out them where you're going to get shot!

When I did a spring setup in my VSR, it was 2.2J on .2s and 2.9J on .48s. I haven't tried feeding .2s into any of my snipers since then, but I might do it out of curiosity, as they're all set to 2.3J (apart from the m21 and spring VSR which are 1.14J)

Mostly just calorie restrictions, intermittent fasting, maintaining my total abandonment of public transport forcing me to cycle everywhere I need to go. I'd be doing martial arts too, but I can only afford airsoft or martial arts while I'm unemployed and I chose airsoft. Hoping as the we transfer into spring I'll get out a bit more, but at the moment it's just dreary, grey and chilly so I have no desire to cycle along the seafront for fun right now

I have been summoned! So, I've done a lot of testing around this with my HPA m21 build and it really does come down to what you value more and what power limits you're working with. I will preface this by saying that I value effective range, so that's all the testing I work with. I don't care if you can spray your AEG at a 75m target and maybe hit it with 1 of 10 BBs, I measure if you the gun can consistently hit a man-sized target 9/10 times at a certain range. Some sites operate DMRs at 1.48J, which is utterly pointless in my opinion as you gain barely anything (I didn't notice any visible increase in effective range) but you trade off the ability to point-blank shoot, which can come up more often than you'd think. Some sites operate DMRs at 1.64J, which is a bit more arguable in its use since you do notice a slight difference. I noticed just about 5m more effective range (if that, honestly...) when running my m21 at 1.64J on .4s, however again you're trading off that MED for a, in my opinion, negligible increase in effective range. My local site runs DMRs at 1.64J with a 30m MED which I've looked at and decided I'm never running a DMR there because just about 5m more effective range vs not being able to shoot at anyone within 30m is a no-brainer for me. However, some sites allow DMRs up to 1.88J (which is what it was most places back when we measured in fps) with either a 20m or 30m MED. At this point I feel like you gain enough of a benefit to counteract the drawback, though mostly just in the marksman role, as I noticed I started to hit an effective range of about 10m more than my 1.14J setup while running 1.88J on .4s (I would probably use .43s or maybe experiment with .45s at this power, I just didn't have any). 1.88J with a 20m MED is where I'd run a DMR, otherwise I'm just going to run 1.14J or I'll use a BASR instead at 2.3J. I cannot stress enough how useful having no MED is; it won't come up all the time, but you'll remember every time you get hit out because you've had to swap to your pistol since the enemy are too close. Running a 1.14J "DMR" is a great idea and I've had a lot of success with it, even with my spring TM VSR build which is also a 1.14J build (it's consistently around 1.1J). An effective range of 60m is what I've achieved running my m21 at 1.14J on .32s and it's more than enough; I've been out-ranging the braggarts who claim their AEG hits out to 70m and even contending with a lot of the BASRs people seem to run (a lot of people don't put enough time and effort into their builds...), so I'm happy with it. You can go heavier for a little more consistency, but I go .32s because after that is where ammo gets exponentially more expensive and the benefits I get from heavier BBs at 1.14J isn't worth the investment at the moment. Let me make a few career jumps then we'll talk again Out of the box it... isn't that great. When you're trying to take long range shots, you really start to feel the 0.8J and the fact it can't hop much heavier than a .28 out of the box. I love my TM m14, but I've put a lot of money into it and wanted the TM externals for my HPA m21 build because it was going to be my magnum opus 1.14J build (and oh boy is it ever...). If you want something more affordable and you're not too bothered about a lack of trades / slightly worse quality externals, go with a Cyma m14. I have a Cyma m14 that I've set up as a Vietnam-era m21, though I will convert it to a DMR stock when I can afford one / one is in stock somewhere, and it's fantastic. It will likely come out of the box at around 1J if you order it in the UK (they're higher power out of the factory, but I believe most places reduce the power before selling them because otherwise they're a section 5 firearm out of the box!), but a quick hop rubber and barrel change will have it shooting incredibly well for the price point. My Cyma m14 build has cost me... about £130 in total because I got mine from TG before Brexit, but a Cyma m14 is £150 from Patrol Base, plus Maple Leaf macaron (£10), Omega nub (£5) and a ZCI stainless steel inner barrel (£25) will be a pretty powerful setup for under £200. It's what's in mine and while I haven't run it in a long time it was performing almost as well as my super-expensive TM m21 setup. Almost because it's not as quiet and not quite as consistent, but it's more than enough! Upgrading the gearbox internals of an m14 isn't too difficult either, but it's a laborious process. Dismantling the m14 takes a lot of time and care because there are springy bits all over the gearbox that you have to remove to get inside since the fire-selector and trigger contacts are on the outside of the gearbox. It's easy once you know the gearbox, but the first time will take you hours... You and me both; it's why I'm now transitioning away from AEGs (will use my NGRS 416d until I can get an MWS or more mags for my AKM). HPA for sneakybeaky, GBB for speedyboi clackclackclack. If you wanted to do a GBBR DMR build, I'd recommend the MWS platform on red gas. I haven't done my MWS build yet, but it's something I might toy with the idea if I can get the external parts to turn it into a mk12 SPR. Now, with gas guns you definitely lose consistency, however what you lose in consistency you gain in FUN. Seriously, I took my AKM out for its first game day over the weekend and my decision to start transitioning completely away from AEGs was just solidified in my mind. Every kill was more satisfying because 35rd magazines and cool-guy-oper8r-tac-reloads and firing it was an absolute blast with the recoil. You will get fantastic range on a GBBR if it's set up right and it's far easier to work on than any gearbox AEG, but it won't be the most "competitive" choice. However, that can be a wonderful catalyst for improving your drills and general gameplay performance as you're essentially playing with a handicap that you'll have to make up the gap with your own skills. Anyway, that's enough from me. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Since I'm no longer dressing up like a bush, I finally got snapped while playing! Weight loss loadout in its full glory because I've put 20 of the 45 kilos I originally lost back on thanks to stress eating over unemployment Even managed to use my GBBR AK instead of my NGRS 416, since my friend didn't want to use his last weekend so I could borrow his mags (I only have 1, he has 4, so 5 in total at 35 BBs each is usable). If I managed to lose 45kg before, surely I can lose 35kg now! I'm even going to the gym and healthy eating (again) and stuff ?

I just got home from playing airsoft in a swamp (not really, but Worthing Airsoft is on an incline and we played at the bottom today and it was quite swampy and it was a great day all things considered. Played aggressive, played hard, but the main reason it was good is I managed to play the whole day. Now, that might seem like a weirdly low bar for a young'n like me, but two things: 1. I missed last game day because I was ill, so I've had a month of eating baaaaaaaadly with very little exercise (I am a notoriously bad stress eater and unemployment + sickness wasn't a nice combo) 2. I was running my full "weight loss" setup to try and counteract the weight I've put back on over the past few months. The weight loss loadout worked. I could really feel it and now I'm totally knackered; plate carrier with 4kg weighted plates in it (so 8kg because 2 plates), all my mags and spare ammo and stuff in pouches and a backpack with more gas (GBBRs use a lot) and water to drink. It was a really heavy loadout, but I'm so happy that it was as it's exactly what I was going for. Was running around with the my TM AKM GBBR and it was firing fantastically. Need to bed the hop up rubber in a bit as it was the first time out with it, but it was shooting really nicely if a little inconsistently, though I imagine the mild rain in the morning and the ambient cold didn't help it too much in that regard. One bad thing that did happen was I dropped to one knee... right on a little rock in the ground, so my right knee hurts. Plenty of rest for that... I think I'm going to keep up my break from bush wookiee-ing and keep running this weight loss loadout as I move forward for now. Weight loss is half of it, but also just working on improving an aspect of the game that I don't typically do much and haven't done much in a long time; I feel like I have sniping down, so I'll work on what I'm weaker at for now. The goal is to not only do that, but also try and carry 3 guns total (rifle, sniper and a pistol) as I'm a big lad at 6'5" with a heavy Dutch build so I think it'll be doable. It may not be and may just be more hassle than it's worth with slings everywhere, but it's a nice goal to strive for. Roll on next game day!

Nah, they put it on a Worthing game day so none of the Worthing staff (or those of us who are good friends with the staff) will be along this time. It's a shame, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. This does, however, mean that people won't be finding Beans cards tucked into their gear (or around the hotel) this time

I don't trust any pistol with a metal slide in the UK climate. Most of the year it's just not warm enough for them to work well. Though I know some people use high-powered gas with better results I wouldn't want to put that strain on the pistol, especially with VFC's "fantastic" reputation for their internals. I can't confirm any of this because I've never owned a VFC USP, but I know that if I was going to get one I'd immediately get the TM one.

I just looked at these and as someone who likes to tweak and fine tune my RIFs to peak performance... these are awful. Could build better for less than half the price, not to mention I dislike the aesthetic. Also, £1250 for a pistol? I like my expensive pistols and will usually spend about £350 on mine plus magazines, but £1250 for something that most people won't even use? Well, I'm sure someone will buy these. I won't, but someone will.

CNN? Not clearly biased? [insert J. Jonah Jameson laughing meme here] Personally, I don't believe any of the mainstream media outlets any more and tend to find my news from multiple, independent sources, having been a journalist myself. You can give a journalist a set of facts and then they can write 3 different articles using the same set of facts, each telling a totally different story. It's really not that hard to do.