Saturday 26th - Armageddon Airsoft - Halloween night game.
Having picked some more brains over my Mk18s random issue of only firing once per two trigger pulls, i'd swapped out the hop rubber to a Begadi Fly 5 and ran this rifle the whole night to see if the issue was remedied. As it happens, I never had an issue once! It would appear that the feed lips of the Maple Leaf Macaron are ever so slightly too long to play nicely in this RIF and randomly cause feed issues - more testing needed to confirm but i'm sure the issue is fixed.
The night game was, overall, great. The games started about 1815 right as we were losing the light with probably around 20-30 people in attendance.
The first game was TDM but ruined by people behind everyone else using weapon lights to illuminate their own team revealing them to the enemy and even resulting in some teamkills - annoying to say the least. The rest of the games progressed at much slower pace as all the light was gone inside the woods resulting in a much more dynamic pace of gameplay. One random person firing tracers would often descend into multiple people trading scores of BBs to each other which, in the darkness, was hilarious to see. Some people tried to play without tracers (to prevent giving their position away (even I did)) but quickly found that you simply can not tell where you're shooting without tracers. The games were pretty fun as you had to pick your shots at people who were actually out of cover which was super satisfying when you get a kill.
Long break at this point with BBQ provided - even the site dogs had costumes on!
The penultimate game was 'lightbox' which was basically flip the switch for the light of your team - whichever team light is on at the end wins. We were told the box would be in the middle of the 'village' area. The box was actually so far to OUR side that me and another guy (the first two into the village) ran straight past it and it was discovered by a guy who bent down to tie his boot laces... IDK who placed that box or what his idea of 'fair play' is but god, that match was pretty rigged in our favour. Despite that, we only won because one guy sprinted at the objective and flicked our light on at the last second. The site had a nice quirk to this game for halloween; around the village they had hidden 6 large prize slips - if you found one and brought it to the site owner, they'd give you a halloween bag. AFAIK it had a bag/bottle of BBs and some other stuff thrown in - a nice addition to keep seasonal events relevant and fun.
Naturally the rain arrived for 10 minutes and dissipated quickly.
The final game started around 2315 and was a good old game of timed defence with limited lives. Our team defended first, 5 defenders (with 3 lives) v 6 attackers with unlimited lives - attacker respawn was 30 paces back (reduced players due to people leaving). After several exchanges and being suppressed I was one of the last two people left alive IIRC and the last guy was hiding in a dark enclosed area to maximise time before attackers called clear - I was fighting for my life and was knackered from constantly changing awkward positions after firing and exposing myself. We lasted 20 mins exactly.
Our attack was 5 v 6 with the defenders still having 3 lives each, while a little unfair in a timed mode, made for a nice challenge. After telling some of our team to go hard right and advance from the dark and mostly unlit area, I moved left and darted between the trees while I had flood lights at my back. Naturally you're going to think this is stupid, allowing myself to be illuminated but I was quickly past the main area of the floodlights and only really had to be concerned with the enemy weapon lights as long as I kept myself to the shadows cast from the trees. I was utilising a mix of low and high crawl to move towards the defence area but realised my rifle was just slowing me down so I left it leaning against a tree. Mk23 in hand, I low crawled closer and closer on the left flank often having to stop and lay flat as the enemy checked the area for movement. Unfortunately for me, a teammate with a DMR (who hadn't seen me) had also used the same flank and started firing from further behind making my advance even harder but they were taking enemies out at the same time. I had to expose myself as two of the opposing team were sat right infront of me - three shots handily dispatched both of them. Eventually I was close enough to start throwing pyro into the defensive perimeter. I holstered the Mk23 and swapped between the left and right, dropping pyro over the barriers and bushes in an attempt to maximise kills without exposing myself.
Satisfied that I had cleared the immediate area, I crept in only to receive two shots into the side of my head knocking me on my arse. How the pyro I landed in the area hadn't got this guy, I had no idea but fuck it, i'll assume they were behind hard cover. I took my 30 paces back and respawned. By the time I ran back to the objective, it was empty and we called clear. 20 minutes and 50 seconds. Technically we lost however the enemy team had a extra man with 3 lives so i'm claiming a win on this one. After all the crawling through the undergrowth, my front was soaked through but gladly I wasn't stung and/or bitten to death!
Overall an enjoyable night and i'd recommend the site to anyone else who's looking to try new sites. The one recommendation i'd probably give the site owner is to maybe think about trialing semi-auto only during night games. There was one instance of someone being full-autod in the face from about six feet away. Almost inevitable in the dark and they appeared to be pretty unhappy about it.