Richie Boyle

you start of signing the oath of allegiance and pledging to fight for queen and country but in reality you fight for you and the guys fighting next to you no matter what they look like or whether you love or loathe them

i have just mentioned on facebook tonight that one of the main attractions to this is the attitude between players. once you are at a site it is a utopia where we can forget the outside world and concentrate of having a bit of fun with the lads and it doesnt really matter if you win or lose. it about participating in a team sport with others who are also there to spend the day enjoying ourselves miles away from the monumental supply of tossers out there in the real world. no doubt there will be some bad apples around in this world but so far the overwhelming majority are decent and respectful people

i have just mentioned on facebook tonight that one of the main attractions to this is the attitude between players. once you are at a site it is a utopia where we can forget the outside world and concentrate of having a bit of fun with the lads and it doesnt really matter if you win or lose. it about participating in a team sport with others who are also there to spend the day enjoying ourselves miles away from the monumental supply of tossers out there in the real world. no doubt there will be some bad apples around in this world but so far the overwhelming majority are decent and respectful people

my last troop OC was like that. some sproggy 2nd LT who thought he knew it all. it didnt take him long to lose the respect of the lads

i have just mentioned on facebook tonight that one of the main attractions to this is the attitude between players. once you are at a site it is a utopia where we can forget the outside world and concentrate of having a bit of fun with the lads and it doesnt really matter if you win or lose. it about participating in a team sport with others who are also there to spend the day enjoying ourselves miles away from the monumental supply of tossers out there in the real world. no doubt there will be some bad apples around in this world but so far the overwhelming majority are decent and respectful people

Haha bloody scaley backs, in the rear with the gear lol
 
We wouldn't have comms without you guys (my dad was a driver electrician with the signals for 25 years) so your as important as everybody else but I did some exercises with you guys and it made a nice slow pace, I also did the signals training to become qualified signsl man
 
We also had some of you guys who transfered over permanently
 
I joined the signals TA for a while after I left and some dozey little cow who'd been doing it for 5 minutes was telling me how to a job I used to do when we had an exercise, I politely told her to be quiet

hence the question mark over their service. we have ex forces here yet we do not show the same level of narrow mindedness displayed on that forum and i am not referring exclusively to airsoft. those who did serve tend to be more accepting because we had to be so people who claim to have served yet have complete disrespect for anyone outside of their group make me doubt that they have served at all. there are some exceptions to every rule but i would say that it is in our nature to be accepting and open minded. you had to be or you couldnt trust anyone you shared a room/regiment/battlefield with. you simply could not have an armed forces with that kind of culture in it
 
it would be interesting to see how they react to an ex serviceperson promoting this sport to them

What puts me off milsim as per Tier 1 and Sterling, is the tabbing miles carrying your kit in a bergen. Realistic? Yes. Fun? No.
 
I also don't believe that realcap mags make for realistic skirmishing. A real gun shoots through stuff we use as cover and light gusts of air do not massively deflect shots, so it can take many more shots to get a hit at 50m than it would take with an assault rifle. Also people are not afraid of being killed in airsoft, so they are braver than they would be facing real ammunition - hence it takes more firepower to suppress them.
 
I would like to take part in a more immersive event than standard skirmishing and had I not earmarked my cash for NAE14 rather than your event, Baz, I would have given it a go. As it turned out I couldn't do NAE anyway because I was too unwell :'( are there still places (because I'm a lot better now, just unfit as fuck!)?
 
Having said that, I'm not put off by 24hrs or more with no safe zone, digging a hole to shit in, the risk that i could be shot while shitting in a hole even I don't mind taking orders either, so long as whoever gives them understands that if they talk to me like I have no options, I will exercise my option to swear at them. The standard "no ammo not in mags" rule is something which ordinary skirmishes could benefit from imo...
 
What do you have in mind, Richie?

I know there are milsim days but I am not keen on the current practice from what I have so far picked up on them. It sounds like a normal game day minus the safezone which doesn't sound very realistic.
 
I was talking about upscaling that on facebook last night. 24 to 30 hours in the field which means cooking, sleeping, guard roster etc etc etc while 2 or more teams have their own objectives to complete within that time limit. During a game you know when your team is attacking OR defending so the only question is which direction. Change that to your team is attacking AND defending (as is every team) so you now need to factor in splitting the team into roles and nobody has any idea when an attack is likely to take place. Assuming your base is on someone's else's list of objectives of course. You wouldn't know where each team base is and it may be that team has to pick a site themselves to set up a base.
 
would anyone be interested in something like this?

Gas is generally cheaper than CO2. Unless it says it can take both gas and CO2 I would say no (you can't stick gas in it rather than CO2)

no matter what you do in life, your passing out parade with be one of the proudest days of your life. that one day tells you that you have achieved what most people cant or wont achieve
 
in many cases (possibly most), that instant bond and respect will become evident throughout life and that includes after service. you will meet other ex forces and there is an instant mutual respect and often friendships formed on that basis alone. being a soldier becomes your nature and even when you give up the right to the job title, you may never give up the nature which is no bad thing
 
 
of course you will meet some tossers who served but you will always meet tossers. just ignore them

"they were family to me"
My parents said the Army is full of thugs ( D: ) , this proves to me that they are well and truly wrong along with a lot of other things I've read on here, makes me happy that one day I'll hopefully be serving.

That is very true Richie
 
I took the oath but end of the day, who did I have to rely on in the mix of it ?
 
God, queen or country ?? It was the men next to me, the ones who saw each other through training, the guys who stood shoulder to shoulder, they were family to me
 
I hate these people who are letting the side down

you start of signing the oath of allegiance and pledging to fight for queen and country but in reality you fight for you and the guys fighting next to you no matter what they look like or whether you love or loathe them

Buy your co2 off amazon in bulk and they are WAY cheaper than that!

There are lots of flavours of milsim already out there. I find it is very difficult to get much information on what is available in any detail by googling and studying the Internet.
 
There are lots of companies doing these but each seems to have a loyal and almost inward facing following. None of them seem very good at conveying what they offer and how they differentiate themselves from the others. Its almost like you are expected to know or you come and try it and work it out by trial and error.
 
No milsim is 100% realistic for a variety of reasons but not limited to the experience and training of the players themselves. Some companies offer training on the grounds that they are ex military themselves.
 
In a real military situation, the participants would be limited in their choices so what level of control is realistic and reasonable ?
 
I have a non-financial interest in a milsim operation called Okto Eight. As the name suggests, we decided to focus on 8 hour battles that span a weekend on the basis that some airsofters wish to try Milsims but don't necessarily want to play continuously for 24-36 hours. Its just another flavour. The battle stops after around 8 hours, people can either go home or camp for the night and have a few beers, a campfire and it starts again next morning, where they left off.
 
In terms of decision making, we took the view that the scenario would be set and the players themselves would decide where it went. There is public domain information which is shown on the Facebook page and there are secret groups for each participating interest. Privileged information and intel is shown in the groups, but as in real life, each force has different slices of the real picture.
 
The teams get to choose their leaders and although there are overriding missions to be carried out which are set by command, as they are in real life, the teams get to choose how to accomplish them with the available assets.
 
The outcome of one weekend operation carries across to the next, so it is a little like a TV series. My partners are experienced in running immersive milsims and we can play at a number of sites. The MOD are a pain to deal with because operational requirements will always come first so they can cancel at the last minute, However, as organisers we can hire a number of privately owned ex MOD airfields and facilities.

never leave home without a roll Cropzy lol I do actually have a roll in my newly put together airsoft toolbag

anti fog solution
10 x CO2 canisters
spare mag
j cloth
long rod
1911 lawman CO2 pistol
G&G adapter to fit a suppressor to my TM G3

Apologies for the slower than anticipated response... busy weekend!
 
Milsim in the UK is very much a sliding scale;
you've got your 'milsim' on one end which is midcaps only, slightly longer games with a vague military scenario or back story... As far as I'm concerned these are sunday skirmishes without hi caps, not worth the bother.
 
In the middle (it's a pretty big middle) you've got guys like ambush adventures and brit-tac airsoft who do games with uniform colour requirements rather than armbands, mid caps only, better venues (normally MoD training areas, copehill, longmoor etc) but that's pretty much where the difference between that and a skirmish ends, there'll still be lunchbreaks and they very rarely run for more than a day. As with the other one-dayers you're unlikely to be put into any kind of 'squad'.
 
At the other extreme end of the scale you've got tier 1 and stirling, the games run non-stop from game on to game end, usually 24-36 hours sometimes longer. Sleeping, eating, reloading etc is all done in-game. Ammo limits / kit requirements are rather more stringently applied. Typically you'll be put in with a group of players (unless you go as a group) and you'll be expected to remain with them and move around/complete objectives etc as a unit, your unit will be given a callsign and a command radio to enable you to keep in contact with your team commander and vehicle assets/other units.
These games are pretty much the antithesis of the sunday skirmish, last one I went to was at the Sandpit in kent, I fired at most 600 BBs all weekend, spent 2 hours on stag at midnight (sort of, we chinned off sitting in sangars waiting and did some patrols around the compound instead) then went straight into briefing for a hostage rescue op; boat insertion under NVG to the other side of the lake, hour or so of recce/target observation before we grabbed the hostage (which was actually a 16st rescue dummy, FML), carried him about a mile to our pre-arranged RV for the boat to pick us up and get back across the lake, got back just in time for sunrise. 3 hours sleep and the baddies started chucking grenades over the compound walls... it was a pretty relentless but extremely fun weekend.
 
 
Obviously you can tell where my interests lie on the 'scale of milsim', I prefer a long, rolling scenario with realistic tasking and a difference between the two teams greater than the colour of their arm bands!
If you do fancy coming over to the UK for a more 'serious' (the people that play are often far from serious!) milsim game give me a shout, if we (Cobalt) are going along to the game it'd be great to have you along

.3s will be way too heavy at that FPS, stick the .2s, or pick up something like 25s online.

What is WW2 Airsoft?:
 
WW2 airsoft comes in 2 varieties. There are airsofters who turn up for normal airsoft skirmishes in WW2 gear. We shall ignore this for the purposes of this guide.
-Basic WW2 games. These are the best games to start with. Gear needed will be down to personal choice but basically avoid modern camo and if you don't have a ww2 era gun or wood stocked rifle you should wrap it in hessian. The more effort you put into your gear the more you will get out of the event, but no-one will expect you to spend a fortune if you cannot afford to.
-Niche WW2 games. The equipment requirements for these are bit more specific. There may be a specific era that gear should be based on. As an example, I have a game coming up set in 1940 with only rifles allowed. This means that uniforms must be correct for this time as far as is possible.
All WW2 games will require you to act as part of a squad. Running around as a lone wolf is frowned upon. In fact many games have a rule that if you are the last member of your squad alive, you cannot advance.
Usually the game will have some sort of story-line built into it so you have to achieve certain objectives.
The Uniforms, teamwork and story-line add together to produce games very different and more immersive than a normal airsoft game.
 
What gear should I get?
 
Choose a side. American, British or German will be usable for most games. Russian will get you 1 or maybe 2 games a year, Japanese have never been done in a game yet.
Get a hat. The helmet shapes for each side are very different so headwear is important in identifying teams, if you cannot afford the rest of the uniform, a helmet is a good start. Plastic replicas will do the job just fine.
Start with basic infantry uniform. Your bog standard infantry are the guys who do all the work and are at every battle but don't get the glory. The fact that they are at every battle means that once you have this look sorted, you are ready for most games. You can then adapt your gear to be a commando/airborne/SAS etc.
Guns!!!: Any WW2 era gun is fine for any side. You may feel you want the right one for your uniform though. Start with a SMG. The ASG Sten is very good, the ASG MP40 is quite good and there are several different Thompsons. There are also some SRC MP40's and MP41's which have a poor reputation.
Webbing: Each side has their own webbing and it can be a bit confusing working out what bits you need and how to attach them to each other. British webbing is probably the most confusing but is by far the best webbing of the period.
Boots, gaiters, anklets and puttees. Boots for most are low ankle combat boots with either anklets, gaiters or puttees. This means that you can get away with more modern cheaper boots if you can hide the tops with the anklets, gaiters or puttees.
 
How do you find the gear?
Ebay is good, Whatpriceglory.com is good for uniforms, Soldier of fortune http://www.sofmilitary.co.uk/ is good for most stuff but tends to be expensive, http://www.epicmilitaria.com/ have a lot of stuff and if they have it, are probably cheaper that SOF.
Other army surplus shops, web sites or re-enactment events may also be worth a look.
 
Time to find a game!
The place to find a WW2 airsoft game or get more detailed info about anything WW2 airsoft related is ww2airsoft.org.uk
Before you go there, some words of advice: The forums there are not as friendly seeming as they are here. Try not to take offence when on the ww2 airsoft forums, people are trying to help by telling you how to be more correct in your gear etc. Unfortunately often this comes across as unfriendly, nit picking etc. Until the internet allows tone of voice in forums, just assume people are trying to be helpful.
 
British Gear
Starting with basic infantry, you will need a helmet, battledress, pattern37 webbing, anklets, boots.
The helmet you will need is a brodie mk2 helmet. There are cheap plastic versions which will do the job just fine.
These cost about £10 on ebay
Steel versions consist of a steel shell with a liner bolted to the top of the helmet and a chinstrap. The liners come in different sizes and are sized by your head circumference in inches. You can cover the helmet with hessian or net and add hessian scrim. Ideally it should be brown but it was not unknown for them to get repainted with whatever paint was available (ie. whatever colour vehicles were being painted).
Battledress comes in several varieties. I use denim battledress mainly due to a wool allergy. Denim battledress was used everywhere as overalls so you didn't get your wool uniform dirty. It was also used in warmer weather so is very well suited to battles in Italy, greece, crete etc. The important thing though is it is better for staying cool and is usually cheaper although you will rarely find any original stuff. Soldier of fortune sell it in a green colour and What price glory sell it in brown.
Then there is P37 wool battledress, this is the most popular choice. It is usually some shade of brown but as it was made all over the commonwealth to different specs it varies from pale brown to dark brown and even green. P37 battledress has pleated pockets and concealed buttons. P40 Battledress is similar but pockets are not pleated and buttons are exposed so that it can be made faster and cheaper (basically after Dunkirk, the priority was to re-equip as fast as possible). Reproduction wool battledress is quite expensive and it is often cheaper to buy an original jacket. Unfortunately original trousers are very rare. You can get away with post war P49 battledress but it varies in having an open collar with lapels.
Pattern 37 webbing is complicated so heres a diagram:

 
 
 
 
The bits you need most are a belt, a pair of cross braces and a pair of ammo pouches. Try to get Mk3 pouches with popper fastening. Pouches with the quick release will do the job but are really post war versions. MK1 and MK2 pouches are slightly smaller and will not fit the Sten or MP40 mags. The best way to buy webbing is to watch ebay for a full set, expect to pay £40-50. Webbing should have brass buckles not steel ideally.
If the colour of your webbing bits doesn't match, don't worry. You should ideally use Blanco, think of it as paint for webbing. Get modern liquid blanco and brush it on your webbing. Soldier of fortune sell it in different shades, mid ww2 is probably best. Brush it onto the webbing making sure to get it into the texture of the webbing. Only use it on the sides of the webbing that show. Original blanco would rub off so it was not used on the bits of webbing that are against uniforms. Anklets should also be blanco'd but gun slings and gas mask bags should not.
When you want to add to your webbing, get a water bottle. These are enamelled steel covered in felt. If you are lucky the inside will be in perfect condition, otherwise you may need to insert a plastic bag and secure it with an elastic band. The stopper is a wine cork on a screw. There are skeleton water bottle carriers (as in the diagram) or envelope versions. You will need to get the carrier damp, put the water bottle in it and then pack cardboard between the bottle and carrier to stretch it while it dries. This makes it a less tight fit so you can actually remove the bottle and put it back in more easily.
Packs. There are 2 sizes of pack (large and small). Large packs were used to carry everything in when on the move. Small packs are what you would carry supplies and equipment in during battle. For either pack you will need a pair of L straps, these attach to the top of the pack and go over your shoulders and hook onto the ammo pouches, the narrow webbing then goes under your arms and to the bottom of the pack. On the small pack the L straps then attach to buckles on the bottom of the pack. On the large pack, there are loops instead of buckles, the L strap goes through the loop and then you attach blanket straps to the L strap. The blanket straps basically extend the L strap so it can go over the front of the pack crossing over and attaching to buckles at the top of the pack. This allows additional items to be strapped to the outside of the pack (a blanket perhaps).
If you have both packs, you can use an additional cross brace as a shoulder strap for the small pack and wear it as a shoulder bag (I often do this when travelling to games for extra carrying capacity.
 
Anklets or gaiters
They look so simple don't they? Just wait until you have a pair and try to work out which way they go. Basically they go over the top of your boots adding ankle support and preventing anything getting into the top of your boots. The buckles should be on the outside of your legs with the straps facing backwards. So the top one in the pic is the left one and the dip in the middle would be on the inside of your leg facing downwards. They come in different sizes 3 and 4 are most common and it depends how big your legs are.
 
Boots should ideally be ammo boots
They look similar to modern ammo boots but DO NOT buy modern ammo boots. Modern ammo boots have been redesigned so they do not flex. You can get repro ammo boots, but they are expensive. Next best is DMS boots these are effectively correct but with a rubber sole. Remember though that you are wearing anklets so the top of the boots is hidden, you can therefore get away with higher leg boots such as S95 boots. Avoid boots with padding around the ankles as this will make it hard to wear anklets. If you want to go all out on boot correctness, leather laces are preferred.
 
Additional accessories you may be tempted by:
Gas mask bags come in 2 main types; Early war versions are the big bag mounted on your front, These are excellent as dump pouches and if you keep speedloaders and bb's in them you always have everything to hand to refill mags when things are quiet. Lightweight gas mask bags can be used as a shoulder bag for you lunch, or they can attach to the belt.
Entrenching tool or E-tool comes in 2 parts, the helve has a bayonet fitting so you can attach the spike bayonet from a No.4 Lee Enfield to probe for mines or cook sausages. The head fits inside the carrier and the helve goes on the outside and the carrier attaches to the tails of your cross braces. It adds a lot of weight, get one for show but don't wear it during the game.
Bayonet frog for holding a bayonet
Pistol Holsters, don't bother. Only officers had pistols so if you need a pistol keep it in a pocket, gas mask bag etc.
 
 
Okay so thats pretty much everything an infantryman could possibly want or need. Now you want to be something more elite? Airborne loadouts are quite common. All you need in addition to the above is a denison smock and an airborne helmet. The smock will cost about £100+ but you can save a bit of money by getting a belgian denison smock, which is similar. The helmet will cost about £80 but the same shell was used in tankers helmets until the 80's. If you buy a tankers helmet is is possible to modify it at a later date, with a new liner, chinstrap etc but it will cost just as much in total. Once you have the Denison you can do commandos by switching to a wooly hat, green beret or normal helmet. Similarly SAS is just a different beret.
 
If anyone wants to do an American or German guide, just post it in this thread and PM me so I can add it here

I do laugh at the people who know nothing about this sport. They ask me what I have been up to and the answer 'buying guns' is usually met with surprise. Then they ask what I shoot and the obvious answer is 'people' because I love the reaction. 'oh...erm...right....ok'! Fair is fair, they are shooting at me

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CYMA-32rd-Magazine-for-CM121-Desert-Eagle-AEP-C-63-3-PCS-CM-MG-18-C63-3PCS-/321379846585?pt=UK_SportingGoods_Hunting_ShootingSports_ET&hash=item4ad3bb49b9
 
3 x desert eagle mags

I do laugh at the people who know nothing about this sport. They ask me what I have been up to and the answer 'buying guns' is usually met with surprise. Then they ask what I shoot and the obvious answer is 'people' because I love the reaction. 'oh...erm...right....ok'! Fair is fair, they are shooting at me