Reading Mall Site

[jay83]

After the last few skirmishes of bad weather and water all over our guns Surrey Viper Squad decided to try out Reading Mall under Zed Adventures.

Waking up at 5am on Sunday morning was very hard work with the 1.30 hour drive ahead we like to get to sites and early as possible have nice bit of breakfast at the local Al Cart Mcdonalds and then try and get the best place to sent up our gear.

We arrived at 7.50am and were allowed in at 8am to pay and get ready. When you walk into this place it feels very exciting and knowing that the weather is not going to ruin it is a big plus. The staff like all Zed Adventure sites are very friendly and helpfull and everything is well organised inside with a little shop.

When you walk in and you see this old shopping mall you cant help be excited and the first game started after the normal rules meet that lasted around 30mins and finshes just around the time you lose the will to live. The first game was 8 guys verses the other 80 and when they kill someone that person then joins there team. This was a great first game and to be honest we were really enjoying it and holding out well and then we started dropping and one by one started joining the other team. After about 30mins the game was over and the Martial's said back to safe zone for a break, i was a bit disappointed by this as i was just getting in the mood of it and another break was due??!! after around 10-15mins of break time that was not needed as the place is mainly semi auto only so i had only used one mag out of my 10 we went back out there and had the martial tell us more rules and then story to the next game that took another 20mins. So out of the last our i have played for 30mins.

This stop start of games happened all day at The Mall, and to be honest when they day ended i felt like i had not done enough Airsofting, i normally cant wait to get home but the constant breaks i was more then rested. The actual site and when your playing is 10/10 and i really like the semi auto this because it actually takes skill instead just holding the trigger down.

I will be going back to the Mall in the next few months but i wont be looking forward to all the breaks im not sure if this is something they have always done, maybe someone can shed some light on this but i would have liked it much more if one game had ended and they said swap sides carry on.

The highlight of the day is the Terminator who walks around in Armour with a 25 a second machine gun and you can only shoot on semi!! when you see him with his glowing red eyes come round the corner of the basement corridors its stay and get shot or run!! i tried both!! and both times got SHOT!! lol OUCH!!!

Venue 10/10

Staff 9/10

Games and game play 5/10

 

[Lozart]

There is a facebook page for the Zed Adventures guys and I'm sure they would be very happy to get your feedback!

I know what you mean that sometimes it can feel a bit stop/start but then equally I've had games where I've mostly been covering the length of the main concourse and pissed through 8 midcaps of suppressive fire! Whenever I've been there they have at least a couple of back to back games with no break other than to reverse the teams positions (apart from on the hottest day of the year where they wisely made sure everyone took enough breaks to prevent anyone keeling over from heat stroke!).

I find the Thursday night games to be a lot more fast paced as they run them for less people - maybe you should try one of those too?

 

[jay83]

Id love to mate but Reading and a week night is miles away not a chance i could do it.

I gotta try it again though as maybe it was just one of those days just seemed like i spent as much time not playing as playing and thats no good id rather play all day with a 1 hour break for reloads ect.

Battlelakes this weekend , cant wait!!

 

[kejot]

seems to have changed a bit since we went there, seemed like 2hrs of briefing!!

loved the site but hope they have blanked out some of the windows and put some cover in the larger shops rather than big dust sheets!! found the marshaling let it down,

 

[jay83]

Na was the same as you just said although i didnt mind that too much just all the talking done they seemed to like the sound of there own voice too much but thats not saying they were dicks because they were nice guys. Just when i want to play Airsoft i want maximum time playing Airsoft and not listening to people talk and sitting down resting. Hopefully with enough people saying same things there change it slightly because thats all that site needs to being prob most epic site in Uk.

 

[kejot]

people been saying for years now, still no change..................

but yes, bit of investment would work wonders, i play ucap bunker and we have change arounds all the time and themed areas/rooms

 

[jay83]

Thats a shame though because they would have the best site in the UK with slight tweeking. Instead im thinking twice about going because the journey with the talking is not really worth the game time.

Shame.

Sure are be there again in next 6 months though.

 

[kriegar]

I think they are limited on investment at the Mall as there is a planning permission application going through the works to knock the whole thing down, they can only rent the site until that decision is made so it doesn't make any sense to spend a lot of cash on what is only a temporary site.

 

[jay83]

thats a shame, such a nice site not many like that coming around often.

 

[kejot]

we first went it opened, not much changed in 4 years, whats a thousand pounds say, over 4 years to improve a site

also the investment programme in on hold for seeable future due to the drainage issue

 

[BrightCandle]

Was hearing from a long term veteran and airsoft shop owner that he was there a few months ago and had some major issues with regulars there not calling their hits and just camping out in dark corners. Even when these guys set it up so the Marshall could see these guys weren't calling their hits they weren't willing to do anything about it as they were their regulars. Admittedly its second hand knowledge, I haven't yet made the 2 hour trek out there, but at the same time this is a guy who has a team that has been playing for a long time all over the world. His advice to me was enjoy the site but the current crop of regulars are an issue.

 

[jeffery7466]

Went there with a friend last Saturday. We both enjoyed it a lot, and it was well marshalled. They gave warnings to people who didn't take hits and players who were being dickheads and really acted on the rules they set. The site was very dark in some places, but I really liked that, even though I didn't have a good torch. briefings were longer than usual, but I felt like I did enough airsofting at the end of the day. Breaks were shortened to 5 mins each.

A very good site overall!

 

[Albiscuit]

Went today for the first time. Only ever playing the Bunker at Greenwich before I loved the size and feel of the Mall.

The site itself as a venue is brilliant.

A few issues with people not calling hits, I had one myself but the Marshalls were keen to help and claimed they spoke to people and were watching people (whos to say they did/have though)

The games were good but the objectives games all seemed to turn into team deathmatch whilst 3 or 4 people went off on their own with no communication to the rest of the team to grab objectives on their own.

Briefing before every game was loooooooong and the morning briefing was overly long too.But I can see the need for it as people will ignore the rules anyway and there were lots of noobs too.

Overall a great day, and I cant wait to book it again.

 

[deacon]

I think the mall is a great site, I know a lot of people say about non hit taking, but on the flip side I have seen a few people calling others out when that actually hadn't hit them.

I had it once in the basement and a guy at the end of the corridor was 100% certain that he was hitting me, even though you could hear his BB's hitting a bit of metal just to my right. Luckily there was a marshall standing not to far away who saw what was happening and when the rather annoyed player starting walking towards me and shouting out calling me a cheat the marshall explained he had been standing there for the duration and not a single one of the other players BB's had hit me.

I also had it once myself when using my pistol, I thought I had hit someone in the basement a few times but they weren't calling it, they shot me and I walked, a bit annoyed that they weren't taking there hits. Joined back into the game in a lit area and took a shot at someone when I realised my shots were dropping well short of normal (so I couldn't have got the previous guy). Was glad that I hadn't called him out and always made me much better at cleaning my guns as the issue was just a dirty barrel.

 

[pete53534]

Just booking the mall for the 5th oct. Cant wait. Will be my 2nd visit and my 3rd skirmish so will be applying for my UKARA.

 

[pete53534]

Anyone going to the mall on the 5th?

 

[SoapAirsoft]

Was hearing from a long term veteran and airsoft shop owner that he was there a few months ago and had some major issues with regulars there not calling their hits and just camping out in dark corners. Even when these guys set it up so the Marshall could see these guys weren't calling their hits they weren't willing to do anything about it as they were their regulars. Admittedly its second hand knowledge, I haven't yet made the 2 hour trek out there, but at the same time this is a guy who has a team that has been playing for a long time all over the world. His advice to me was enjoy the site but the current crop of regulars are an issue.

Click to shrink...

Can't say I've had that issue before there, and played a handful of times. The Marshalls are really hot on cheating, stand nearby one for a while and listen to the radio and they have constant descriptions of players going out acting a bit silly.

I played there this past weekend.

 

[Colonel Kurtz]

I started playing there early last-year and didn't see any favouritism of any-kind. Quite the opposite, i once saw a weekly regular guy have an arguement with the marshalls and he was almost tearful because these guys 'he'd known for years' had just decided to ban him from all their sites with no warnings or second chances or previous offenses for kicking off at someone; shouting, being rude to another player about an incident of them not taking hits.

Quite simply, they don't need to hold on to customers that much. I've experienced plenty of 'abit more fps wont matter, just make sure you use .25s' and other favouritism and my local woodland sites where they need to keep hold of their core players to make up 30-50 people each week. The Mall gets 100-120 every week and rarely any same faces 2 events in a row.

I'm reasonably regular there now and have had two marshall bollockings in what must be about 20+ visits over the past 10 months. Bless me forum for I have sinned;

1.) My first time at The Mall was the second time i'd played airsoft. I was reported to a marshal by someone for not taking hits in the second game. Without me noticing the marshall followed me around for abit and then took me to one side for a chat. He asked if i used to play paintball and if i was new to airsoft. I replied yes to both. He said he noticed that when i was getting hit, I was glancing down at the area i'd been hit as if i was looking for paint or blood. I would then mutter 'hit', stick my hand in the air and walk off back to the spawn. My problem was that i wasn't shouting 'hit' loud enough, and this combined with the couple seconds delay from me looking at my clothes was making it hard for players to tell if i'd taken the hit when involved in battles at either end of a dark coridor. He said whereas i may be actaully taking the hits and walking off to the spawn, a team-mate will quickly take my place in the same spot and it's hard to notice that happening and easy to assume its the same person, unless there's a reasonably instant loud shout of 'HIT'. He said it was a very common behaviour from new players to airsoft and suggested that i try to revive the urge to swear instantly when hit, but to shout 'HIT' not 'f**k'. He also jokingly said that the paintball reflex to check one's clothing was a pretty common affliction for reformed paint-addicts that would pass in time and that i was free to consider this site like a paintball rehab clinic At the woodland site I first went to I hadn't needed to shout 'HIT' loudly as they can see you come out from behind the tree with your hand up very easily, so it was very helpful advice to me as a new player.

2.) This sunday a suprise pyro landed directly onto my shoe (is quite scorched now lol) I paniced and flicked the pyro about a couple metres away. Only the marshall in the room at the time saw this happen and he took me to one side immediately. He said that regardless of me taking the hit without prompt and being the only player in the room i'm banned for life if I do it again in any context that day or any other day. The marshall said that not touching pyro's once dropped/thrown was a rule that had been missed from the breifing that day but he knew i had been told it before and if any other players had been involved or witnessed it I'd been banned right now. I appologised and said it was a moment of blind panic and the closest thing to a conscious decision involved was that i didn't want to get my leg set on fire or made more deaf as my ear defenders fell out a few moments earlier. I was granted a mulligan, but a new player to the site might have gotten a simple warning without significant threat. It was because I was a regular and he knew i knew better that I got the threat of perma-ban.

Over all my visits there I've had a marshall point out i'd been hit on pouches etc a handful of times that i hadn't noticed. Funniest one was when a marshall noticed that a BB had hit my hair (was a messy-mullet at the time) He saw a tiny little bit of hair flick up as a BB passed through it and told me immediately as i didn't feel it at all. These guys are very good at spotting this kind of thing, keeping track of the order it occurs in and ensuring the correct people are defined as hit or not hit. They're also very good at telling when you haven't actually hit someone as people get it wrong all the time. I've had an instance where i was positive i had hit someone, and looked over to the marshall standing next to me in disbelief, he told me that it had been possibly the most truely amazing act of not actually hitting someone at close range, one that couldn't be repeated if i tried, i'd managed to shoot around him, between his legs, between his outstreetched arm and body, but not a single BB had actually hit him while he ran and all had hit the glass behind him.

The briefings are half the length they used to be. As for the breaks, it's no more or less than any other airsoft site I've been to. I too find it very frustrating that people are so unfit that 10-15 minutes of every hour is spent on a break. Especially as people wear enough fooking molle-gear and pouches etc to carry enough ammo/equipment for a whole weekend milsim and shouldn't need any breaks between games, only a lunch break.

 

[BrightCandle]

I played there finally end of November last year. I didn't agree with his opinion after playing there. While the site isn't my thing I think its incredibly well run and I have no issues with the marshalling at all. The site has one of the best safety briefs I have seen and its one of those places where you feel the marshalls are really doing something. I think my friend may be one of those guys that likes to call others out because I can't imagine there being an issue on this site often.

When there were moments of people doing stupid things (like a guy who ran into a room fully of friendlies, got lit up and somehow having been shot at from all the way across the corridor and got through the door and took 2 people out) that were obviously impossible they warned them for it severely. They reminded everyone about their molle gear hiding hits and to listen out for it. It was nice how after a lot of grumbling about hit taking they actually got the games back on track, which never happens at other sites.

 

[SeniorSpaz87]

Anyone want to join me on the 22nd?