Skirmish Billericay Full Site Review

[essexmerc]

Site Description and location

The site is set within 70+ acres of woodland, which is fairly dense in places. The site is not flat and has quite a few hills to make your way up and down. The site is located within about 2 miles of Billericay Rail station and approximately 4 Miles from the A127 main route from London.

Site Facilities and Game Zones

When you actually get to the site you will find a gravel car park, which is right next to the safe zone. The actually safe zone is partial covered with picnic benches for you to put your kit on. There is a on-site shop with is staffed by people from action gamers, and supply all the normal stuff such as bb's and pyros. Also they have a on site tech there and offer battery charging, plus sell a wide selection of aeg's and other equipment. There is also a on site cafe serving hot food and drinks during the day but this is at the paintball end of the site, so you will need to walk down there. Just outside the safe zone and before you enter the gaming area is the chrono station. This is set up with 4 chronos and every gun needs to be chronoed before you play. The site limits are 350 fps for aeg's, 370 fps for single shot aegs, and 450 for bolt actions. One thing they have done as well is printed out a list of the common weights of bb's with the fps adjusted for the weights in relation to the site limits. There is 6 different gaming zones know as. Hill 60, Hotel 49, The Village, The Greenzone, Pikes Yard and Missle Command. Below I will describe what these are like.

Hill 60

Hill 60 is directly out side the safe zone is a massive bunker on top of a hill, this also includes a couple of satellite bunkers. With the main bunker being protected by sand bags and a mini sanger.

The Village

The Village is based on a Vietnam style village contain 6 single story buildings and a well, the village has been laid out so that it can be attacked/defended in a full 360 degrees.

The Green Zone

This area is basically a command post that is made out of pallets, barrels and camo netting and offers good fields of fire.

Missile Command

Missile command is area of the woods with a mocked up missile and small radar control area.

Pikes Yard

Not much really here except a caravan and couple of old wrecked cars. Also has good fields of fire onto the green zone.

Hotel 49

This is another command base in the same vain of the green zone but smaller.

Gaming and Marshalls

Depending on what day you visit the site depends on what type of games you can except to play. Normally the first game is a attack and defend game on either hill 60 or the village, which is then turned around. From there the games are varied and can include more attack and defend type games to what the site class as battle sim games (I will explain these a bit later). Also other game types are ambush games, rescue type games, and bomb games. The battle sim games are normally an afternoon game that contains multiple objectives but these type of games are only normally played on certain game days. The marshalls on the site are very helpful and deal with any problems that occur pretty quickly. They are all very friendly and very approachable and do not wear hi-vis vest, but very dark green tee-shirts with skirmish on them. They also conduct training for newbies in the correct use of the equipment and use of pyros. This is done by actually demonstrating how to light and use pyros, plus all the players that have never played airsoft before are lined up and a selection of 5 regular players shoot them. So they can feel what it's like to get hit, which to my mind is a good thing as it shows teachs them about being hit. There is 3 different types of game days which carter for all types of players and these are listed below.

Rookie Days

These are held 1st Sunday of every month and are for people over the age of 16 years with less then 12 months airsoft experience. Experienced players are allowed to play at these days but must bear in mind the games are structured for people with less experience. Hire guns are available on these days but must be pre-booked via action gamers.

Boot Camp Alpha and Bravo

These are held every 2nd Sunday and 3rd Saturday of each month and are for people of the age of 14 years and over with no airsoft experience at all. Hire guns again are available for these days via action gamers and again experienced players are allowed to play at these days.

Walk On

These days are for experienced players over the age of 16 with more then a years airsoft experience. No hire guns are available for these days.

So what is it going to cost for a day at the site, Well on your first visit you will pay £17.50 as a non-member of the site, but after that the game fee is £15 as a site member. Even thou you have a site membership after the first game does not mean you are ukara registered with the site and you will still need to do the normal requirement for ukara registration before the site will fill out your ukara form.

So ratings for the site

Friendliness of the players and staff 5/5

Facilities on the site 4/5 <-- marked down due to the long walk to the cafe.

Gaming and scenarios 5/5 <-- all type of players are catered for

Value for Money 5/5 <-- cheapest site I believe in the country for what you get.

For more information on the site visit

http://www.airsoft-billericay.co.uk/

For hiring of equipment visit

http://rentals.actiongamers.co.uk/

 

[sammy7676]

I think it is a great site however the tech did break my friends gun (lost 2 pins and bent one other and still didnt fix the fire selector) and also tried to charge me £60 to install a gear...

 

[Finius]

Any chance of some photos or something?

Moving down that way soon and this looks like a contender for the new "local" site...

 

[Suzuki Yamamoto]

Thanks for the review. I'm going there next month for the first time so your review has gone down very well indeed!

 

[Zak Da Mack]

I've been to airsoft Billericay a few times. I must admit that it is a good site which has loads of different areas and they come up with some good game scenarios. The only issue I had is with some of the marshalls, I remember one of them being an absolute C***. Also, action gamers has now closed down, so the rentals and shop is now done by Airsoft Quartermaster (something like that). Just a heads up, but personally it's still a great site!

 

[harvchan]

Any chance of some photos or something?

Moving down that way soon and this looks like a contender for the new "local" site...

Click to shrink...

What about UCAP Sandpit then!

 

[Finius]

Funny enough, I am also looking at the Sandpit, but at least initially I'll be the other side of Billericay so the Sandpit will probably be a secondary site for me, if that makes sense!

 

[BrightCandle]

Game date: 25/01/2015 (Pro-am day)

Price: £15 regular, £18 new

Safety

Briefing is always good, decent set of rules and regulations. Its not the mall but its also out in the woods. They chronograph every gun although they don't mark them and it all seems pretty solid.

Site

Is pretty big and expansive. You can pretty much always flank a position and there is a lot of that in the combat. The visibility range is usually a bit longer than you can fire but its quite dense in terms of trees in most places but low on the brambles and other low vegetation meaning you can go prone a lot and mostly fight around the trees as cover. Its mostly passable and I suspect it takes a lot of time to keep it that way so its not overgrown.

I did find in comparison to the summer that the green zone (which is now a CQB maze) is a swamp at the moment, you sink 4 inches into it as you walk and it made for mud that I trekked home for miles and miles.

Games

Morning game was the hill, considered a warm up attack/defend game. Then we did some rolling back defence with 3 lives. The last morning game was a CTF where each team had to defend the flag at their base and bring it to their base and also have kept their own flag. Was a great game with team tactics and a lot of little firefights and followed with a big one to recover our flag at the end while maintaining the enemies.

The afternoon game was the big plus for me, was several hours long and was a search for items mission across the entire area. We moved out in groups of about 4 people to all the different numbered locations and main sites on the map (maybe 30 things to search) looking for our messages. Turned into a lot of little firefights with a lot of movement and falling back when outnumbered. Combined with a respawn on count of 10 off a buddy the groups managed to stay together for the game which really helped the cohesion of it all.

The games aren't the ultra short type and they aren't the long type of UCAP sandpit either, they mostly fall somewhere in the middle. You can get away without a water pack for this if its not hot. So far across the 2 times I have been there the games have varied and always been well thought out and all worked well. The rules are always clear and well explained.

Marshall's

I haven't had a single issue with them. They have been helpful, laid out the games really well and ooze professionalism.

Facilities

There is a pretty decent burger shop setup for lunch. Its only really hotdogs and burgers but its well developed so you can get pretty much most canned drinks and they are cold etc etc. This isn't a van in a carpark like a lot of woodland sites.

The safe zone is park benches under a built structure somewhat, some benches are open air and others are covered. Pretty much no protection from wind or rain. But it is nice and safe. Haven't seen anybody dry firing or loading magazines and the marshalls are on top of unloading before entering and there is a nice solid wall between safe and game zone and a clear doorway with a Marshall on duty all the time.

There is an onsite shop which sells more than the usual. Its got things like a selection of slings and other such accessories as well as the usual gas + BBs etc. No guns that I recall but its better than I am used to and it serves the main purpose of replacing a broken or misplaced or forgotten item and tops up your ammo.

Overall I have been really happy with Skirmish Airsoft in Billericay. With just 2 games its become my favourite site so far and due to the size of it I get lots and lots of exercise. Highly recommended just like the OP, nearly a year and a half on I think its a great site.

 

[bruceball1]

I played here a week ago and I honestly found it was the one day I didn't have a good time airsofting. Admittedly I have only been to the site once and I hope the day I had was a one off but I found that the Marshalls took far too long between games and seemed very disorganised. In general everything took ages to set up and I felt like I spent most of the day walking to and from the safe zone whilst watching the Marshalls have a tea break after every game while they discussed what game to do next and how to do it. Please please please someone tell me this isn't the norm for this site as it would be a massive let down considering the wealth of quality to site itself has to offer

 

[oddjob]

I have been there twice and that is rare.

Enjoyed both times.

 

[Tad]

Unfortunately this seems to be very hit and miss in this site.

I beleive i have met all of the staff now and can honestly say roughly 50% are good at their jobs and will take action when required And enjoy what they do.

Unfortunately my year to date I've had the other half who have friends playing, and prefer to lean towards helping them. Or they just take their time with the Setup.

Again my year to date of playing their has resulted with these marshalls leavibg a bad taste in my groups mouth after a days game.

They have also now removed Pro-Am days and the boot camp days to mix up the player base. Which has some downsides, but at least the newbies can ask the amateurs about their gear more openly now!

There are some rather glaring cheaters who play at this site regulary, however because of the this they are known to the marshals who will shrug it off and no action is taken.

For how much they stress hit takers, they also do not check themselves, i.e with pistols or otherwise.

I guess the last point to make about this site, is that they have now changed the rules regarding what weapons are allowed.

All AEG are allowed if they chromo at 350fps with .20.

There are only 4 DMR variants that they will allowed to be used. They have to manufactured as single shot only and can be no more then 365fps with .20.

Bolt action rifles are capped at 450 with no other restrictions.

I do not know what the policy regarding Polarstar or Tippmans are, however there are none here today.

In all else this site is a hit and moss site. If you can get a decent day then you are very lucky!

 

[GingerBreadMan]

Unfortunately this seems to be very hit and miss in this site.

I beleive i have met all of the staff now and can honestly say roughly 50% are good at their jobs and will take action when required And enjoy what they do.

Unfortunately my year to date I've had the other half who have friends playing, and prefer to lean towards helping them. Or they just take their time with the Setup.

Again my year to date of playing their has resulted with these marshalls leavibg a bad taste in my groups mouth after a days game.

They have also now removed Pro-Am days and the boot camp days to mix up the player base. Which has some downsides, but at least the newbies can ask the amateurs about their gear more openly now!

There are some rather glaring cheaters who play at this site regulary, however because of the this they are known to the marshals who will shrug it off and no action is taken.

For how much they stress hit takers, they also do not check themselves, i.e with pistols or otherwise.

I guess the last point to make about this site, is that they have now changed the rules regarding what weapons are allowed.

All AEG are allowed if they chromo at 350fps with .20.

There are only 4 DMR variants that they will allowed to be used. They have to manufactured as single shot only and can be no more then 365fps with .20.

Bolt action rifles are capped at 450 with no other restrictions.

I do not know what the policy regarding Polarstar or Tippmans are, however there are none here today.

In all else this site is a hit and moss site. If you can get a decent day then you are very lucky!

Click to shrink...

I was there today and found the hit taking rather good to be honest. All of the marshals there today id say were in the 'good' 50% and the group i can think of who are friendly with the marshals and dont take hits werent there.

Their DMR policy i agree is really strange with insisting that it is factory locked, although the 15 fps you gain isnt really worth losing full auto i dont think.

 

[Hobbit]

Have been going to Billericay since January this year, and the first time was amazing and I really enjoyed it.

However, after going once a month, it has been getting worse each time. After each visit, less people are taking hits and the marshals clearly have their favourites. 3 guys emptying a mag into 1 person and not calling it. They told the chief marshal said that he's a nice guy and doesn't want to tell him off. pretty much word for word on that.

They chrono the guys before the day starts. Very weird fps limits if you ask me, and they claim to retest anyone who they think may be firing hot. Yet to actually see this happen though, as the game immediately after a gun was chronoed, a red-dot site was shattered.

They have a 10ft engagement distance, meaning if you are less than 10ft away you should shout surrender. 1 marshal clearly dismissed this rule as I got shot in the back about 3-5 ft away right in front of him. His response was "it's ok, you just hit some soft skin". I repeat, shot in the back less than 10ft away with a gas pistol.

I will admit that it is a fairly cheap site to go to, but I'm less than willing to go for cheap when the marshals don't follow their own rules. 1st couple of times were great and I thoroughly enjoyed it, in fact, they got me into airsoft. But now I would rather avoid the site.

Airsoft Quartermaster is rather good though. Got one of my pistols on a deal, it broke when I got home and they fixed within a couple of weeks. Only took that long due to waiting for parts. I definitely recommend the shop, as the prices for the guns are competitive, ammo, not so much

*I apologise for the rant, just had to highlight a couple of things that happened at this site

 

[bruceball1]

*Updated review!* 1/11/15

Played here again today and oh my god what a waste of money! Thought I'd give them another go and I wish u hadn't bothered. I brought along my brand new (3 days old) g&g firehawk and I have been assured it fires at roughly 320fps on 0.2 bbs by land warrior airsoft. But on the chrono here It came in very hot. 2 other people also had brand new guns which came in hot. (One of which was my mate who also had a new g&g gun). So my gun was then tested with the sites own mag with 0.2s and came out fine. Only for me to test it with my own 0.25s (bought from the site the same day) and it came out hot again, during this time I had huge fluctuations between as little as 200 fps all the way up to 380 fps. This happened to myself and the two others. After this I chose to not use the weapon as I didn't want to hurt anyone. So me and my mate played with my spare guns. And the (what I believe to be head marshall) spent the whole day mouthing off to everyone and effectively being a c*nt. Spent up to half hour in the safe zone between games and the whole day seemed disorganised as though the Marshalls didn't care. Simple to say I will not be going back and quite frankly I suggest all others to stay away. waste of time. Waste of money. And a waste of a perfectly good playing area let down by poor staff and what I have a strong suspicion is a dodgy chronograph.

 

[ALee91]

I had very similar issues when I went there for my first time playing airsoft a few months back. The head Marshal who was running the games (doing the briefings and hanging around the main objectives all day) liked to mouth off that day too, particular to a group of kids/teenagers when they we're complaining to each other about the other team not calling hits, which appeared to be rampant that day. I know no one wants to hear others whining about calls not being taken but when the marshals do nothing about it your not going to keep going to them with your concerns.

There are 2 other places I go to now because I much prefer them, the marshalling is excellent but they only run events once a month. The only thing about Billericay is they run games pretty much every week, I'm not sure where else in the Essex area at the moment does them that regularly.

 

[rsciw]

I must be fairly lucky I guess reading these reviews to play on days when there are no bad marshals around, at least I haven't encountered them yet.

Billericay is so far the first and only place I play, as it's not far away from where I live. But now I have my Ukara registration set, I'll visit other places soon too and probably can compare better.

In regards to Billericay itself, the site is large enough to spread out and they're planning to extend the airsoft game site to use the paintballing site too, with some test gaming there couple weeks ago I believe (I wasn't there, but friends were, and enjoyed it).

non-hit takers are probably always around, sometimes more, sometimes less. Yesterday there were allegedly a few. While I would not dismiss people stating some not taking their hits (it reminds me somewhat of online gaming where people just shout cheaters at anything that doesn't fit into their own view), some folks I'll believe w/o questioning as I know their range, hit ratio, etc. And one such friend assured me that one of our team did not take their hits yesterday despite hitting several times. It's of course annoying and sours the day.

My experience with marshals so far was alright, they do check on people with their pistols if they take hits (I've been test-shot too, as most probably have), and seen people being removed from the current game for misbehaviour, and one even off the complete site.

The one thing however which I would disagree a lot with is their statement on the website: "All food is freshly cooked to order with the best chips and burgers in Essex"

It is far from being the best chips/burgers in Essex, it's just some generic beef patty and chips, with a sad little piece of cheese slapped on it. Not even flame grilled or anything, in fact every time I get one, I just see the patty being taken out of a bucket type (whatever these restaurant/kitchen type buckets are called, if you know what I mean, those which are being kept warm and all...). However, unless you have a built-in barbecue grill in your car, that's the best bet for warm food. It is not that it's the worst or whatever, and they do what they can I guess given the area, but stating it's the best? Nah, no way.

 

[rsciw]

Right, I know it's an older thread, but figured it fits best below my previous reply from last year November... Time flies apparently!

Anywho, I thought it may be best to add a new reply with my current view of SAB:

Playing there over time you get to know the games, and in the end it's pretty much always the same, over and over, with some variations between weekends (say weekend 1 they play games A,B,C,D, weekend 2 they play games A,B,D,E, etc.) and not many different games to begin with. They do also appear to have regular marshalls, which may be 3-4 or something in that direction, and pretty much every other marshall comes and goes. I know by now (personally) many who were ex-marshalls, and most if not all try to avoid that place where possible too. Personally I believe if a site has such a high turnover for marshalls (it's like every other week there's a new face marshalling) it says a lot about the site itself.

In regards to the games, same goes for the CQB area. Initially it's fun, then it gets boring as it's usually the same type of games too. It's not a brick built or wooden built enclosure, it would be possible to move it around a bit, to spice it up between weeks (not necessarily every weekend, as it's probably some work to move it around every time, but like once a month would be neat).

non-hit takers, as others have stated above, do seem to get more and more prevalent, seen it too often myself with my own shots (based on their reaction when getting hit, flinching etc.)

The food's still crap, the DMR fps limit is pointless (I don't even run a DMR, but it's one of many future projects, and gearing it for SAB would be a waste of money/time).

All in all I will go there once a year, for UKARA site membership renewal, that's about it. If you're looking for a site to play in that area, you're better off with Airsoft Plantation. Costs a few quid more (22 compared to 15 for SAB members), but they do pride themselves on never playing the same game twice, plus when it's dry for a few days (e.g. from spring onwards), the vehicles come out too which adds to the fun.

 

[Josh95]

Right, I know it's an older thread, but figured it fits best below my previous reply from last year November... Time flies apparently!

Anywho, I thought it may be best to add a new reply with my current view of SAB:

Playing there over time you get to know the games, and in the end it's pretty much always the same, over and over, with some variations between weekends (say weekend 1 they play games A,B,C,D, weekend 2 they play games A,B,D,E, etc.) and not many different games to begin with. They do also appear to have regular marshalls, which may be 3-4 or something in that direction, and pretty much every other marshall comes and goes. I know by now (personally) many who were ex-marshalls, and most if not all try to avoid that place where possible too. Personally I believe if a site has such a high turnover for marshalls (it's like every other week there's a new face marshalling) it says a lot about the site itself.

In regards to the games, same goes for the CQB area. Initially it's fun, then it gets boring as it's usually the same type of games too. It's not a brick built or wooden built enclosure, it would be possible to move it around a bit, to spice it up between weeks (not necessarily every weekend, as it's probably some work to move it around every time, but like once a month would be neat).

non-hit takers, as others have stated above, do seem to get more and more prevalent, seen it too often myself with my own shots (based on their reaction when getting hit, flinching etc.)

The food's still crap, the DMR fps limit is pointless (I don't even run a DMR, but it's one of many future projects, and gearing it for SAB would be a waste of money/time).

All in all I will go there once a year, for UKARA site membership renewal, that's about it. If you're looking for a site to play in that area, you're better off with Airsoft Plantation. Costs a few quid more (22 compared to 15 for SAB members), but they do pride themselves on never playing the same game twice, plus when it's dry for a few days (e.g. from spring onwards), the vehicles come out too which adds to the fun.

Click to shrink...

i tend to agree with you on that, it does get very repetitive. Personally i sit out the CQB round or just watch it. i don't like it at all, or i go home if its the last game of the day. I really enjoy the first game of the day bunker hill, and the capture the village game. the other games are far too big, you spend 90% of the time walking from A to B only to get shot in the back by your own teammates. Theres a few regulars i don't really like, you probably know who I'm talking about. The marshals are alright i think personally.

They do change it up from time to time on the "pro-am" days. I remember a game where there was 3 teams, 1 team of 'special' forces and we were all trying to rescue downed pilots. Ive only played that game once, was quite fun. I think the people in the shop are quite nice, their guns are way overpriced but i guess they need to make a profit.

 

[Josh95]

I've never been to plantation, honestly didn't know it existed. ill go their soon

 

[rsciw]

Never been to one of those pro-am days, they removed those last year I believe, have the reinstated those?

The shop's handy to have, and I believe so far the best stocked on-site shop I've come across (well, so far only been to five separate sites, there may be others with a shop similar to that), Sandpit's on-site platoon store may be a second to that, depending on weekend (if event, packs more stuff).

The thing with Plantation is, as brilliant as the site is and fun to play at, they really suck at advertising / getting word out Prior to playing at SAB I've done F. knows how many online searches to see what's around, what people recommend, browse through forums such as this too, yet never came across AP. Only beginning of this year when visiting my local airsoft store the folks there introduced me to AP, and been sold to it since.