Colin Allen

The G&G ETU generally does not like 7.4v batteries.

Having marshalled and played at Battle Lakes in the "good old days", I would like to see it offering skirmishes again. However, is there enough space in the safe zone for significantly larger numbers? The safe zone seemed very small last time I was there compared to what it used to be. A FB group would be good, as would advertising events widely on social media. I prefer Saturdays but Sundays are fine as well.

I am not arguing that he is claiming to have been anything that he was not, just that the term "veteran" may not be entirely appropriate for someone who did six months national service. However, I do find the UK definition vaguely ridiculous; both of my sons would qualify as veterans if they ended their reserve service now, but I know that they would be utterly embarrassed to apply the description to themselves.

Indeed it is; I am not sure that I would describe someone who was conscripted for six months as a veteran.

My understanding is that he was a six month conscript. If anyone has different information, I would be interested.

Film sims are indeed not as popular as skirmishes. Imperium has structures, trench systems, armoured vehicles and a very strong social media presence. Battle Lakes is almost invisible. When we ran skirmishes there, we regularly got 80+ people.

Fair enough; it would be great if you could attend.

Is the correct answer!

Excellent! The more, the merrier! Should we all carry a rolled up copy of the Times so that we can identify each other?

It is big, with some interestingly varied terrain.

It's in my diary. Hopefully, a few others from here will make it as well.

It was a bit like that last time I went, which was a few years ago. I used to marshal there when it was just Battle Lakes and drew large numbers; the site suffered from bottlenecking at a couple of points, which probably will not be the case with fewer players. Is Tony/Val still running the site? They have game days on 7th and 8th December; I can only go on the 7th as I have a rehearsal on the Sunday. Is anyone else up for that day? I believe that @Jez_Armstrong is a regular there.

Indeed. 😉

That is definitely a wanker gun.

My Classic Army HK53 would disagree with this statement from LCT about the LK53: "The Taiwanese company LCT is thrilled to offer the first LK53 subcarbine replica on the airsoft market."

By the way, Deans connectors are far better than Tamiyas; the larger contact area provides far less resistance than Tamiyas.

You need those connectors for an ARX 160 as the cables from the gearbox connect to matching male connectors in the stock hinge.

https://prefired.co.uk/ads/m4-variant-and-accessories/ £235 brand new, yours for £300.

Today, I took another trip to the relatively new Dragon's Lair site near the Lakeside shopping centre in Essex. The lad and I were regular but not frequent visitors to the original site, which was very different from the new one. Numbers were surprisingly low compared to previous visits. There were only about 40 players, with around nine being rentals; I am used to there being around twice as many. The first game involved us starting on the hill with a mission to clear all the structures in the valley and declare it clear when we thought that we had eliminated all of the enemy. We would incur a five minute penalty for every surviving enemy player. We had infinite regens on a buddy while the defenders had three lives. We took it slow and steady, focussing on clearing each structure in turn; the enemy fiercely defended the first compound, which we eventually cleared through direct assault and a nifty posting of poison gas through the back door, although I was twice shot by my own team. As they had defended it so strongly, a number of them had used up their three lives, which made the following stages somewhat easier for us. After the capture of the first compound, I moved onto the rear wooded ridge, which gave me a great field of fire across the valley. When we called it clear, three ghillie suited enemies revealed themselves, so we incurred a 15 minute time penalty. The game was then turned around; I again took up a position on the rear wooded ridge, from where I was able to prevent some of the enemy turning that flank and to pot a few more while they were attempting to break into the first compound. As they moved along the valley, I followed them on the ridge, taking out a few. They completed the mission more rapidly than we did. However, four of us were still alive when they declared the valley clear; the result of this was that the adjusted times were identical. The next game involved the enemy defending the hilltop while we attacked it; the regen rules were the same as the previous game. A group of us worked our way around the far right, engaging the enemy and pushing into their left flank, while the rest of the team took the direct route up the hill. There were some great firefights and a wonderfully amusing and very loud argument between two enemy players, who were very annoyed with each other over something. Eventually, the enemy force was whittled down and we took the hill. After lunch, during which the two argumentative players left along with another player who was caught with a magazine in his rifle in the safe zone, we went out for the reverse of the previous game. I took up a position on the left flank in a very nice bush to try to prevent the enemy mimicking our flanking attack; they did try to and we had a nice little exchange of fire, which ended with them having to go back to their start point to regen as they had nobody left to medic them. Shortly after this, I was again shot in the back by one of my own team! My new position in a slightly less nice bush did not last long as we were starting to be swamped. A small group of us rallied behind the final hut and prepared to sell our lives dearly; we were able to hold off the enemy for longer than I had expected until we were eventually overrun. After this, we deployed to the valley. Six enemy players were in one of the compounds; their colleagues had to rescue them one at a time and escort them back to the hilltop, while we had to prevent them by killing the six or preventing the rescuers reaching them. A group of us pushed up the hillside, attempting to interdict the most direct route by which the enemy could reach their compatriots. This resulted in some fun firefights, which denied them the use of the direct route. The game eventually ended and I never did find out what the outcome was, only that we had definitely killed at least one of the six. As there was not much time left, the marshals decided to finish with a game of infection; I took the opportunity to leave, which others had been doing since lunchtime. Ray and his team have done a wonderful job in creating the new site after the closure of the previous one. The amount of work that has gone into it is staggering; the safe zone is even better than the old one and the scale of construction in the playing area is impressive. However, due to the limited size and the layout of the site, the gameplay can be somewhat repetitive, which is also a criticism that I made of the old site. As part of my regular peregrination around a few sites it serves its purpose well, but it is not a site that I could play at all the time, which is probably true for the other sites that I play at. Weapons used: King Arms PDW Double Eagle Honey Badger M904G ASG XP18 Commander (CO2)

My venerable MP5; it was bought in 2013. Only the externals remain of the original SRC gun; all the internals have been changed. I really should get an SEF version to go with my G3, HK33, HK53 and MC51.

Their stock information is not particularly reliable; however, I have ordered a number of items and have never had an issue. Delivery is usually rapid.

Tomorrow is a PDW day.

Possibly the selector mechanism has not been assembled properly and is a tooth out of alignment.

It looks funky but, without knowing how it shoots, it is impossible to comment about much more than that. What is the issue with the fire selector?