The Gaol, Leicestershire

[warlord]

This is probably a little bit of an unfair review as today was the Midlands Airsoft Fair and the games were just taster games. That said I played and what follows are my critiques.

Most of the site was taken up with trade and second hand stalls and made for a day of potentially grabbing some great bargains. Catering was the first thing on my mind though. After a hour in the car I need a cuppa and a bacon and sausage cob (that's what the foreigners in Leicestershire call them)  Catering was spot on.

I enrolled for a 12 noon CQB taster. The organisation seemed a bit lack lustre. I signed up and waited around until game time. I mentioned that I'd read I needed to pay, but this got laughed off and I was told tasters are free, it's not a full day rental. Literally as we were walking to the game I was told I need to go back outside to the canteen to get a hire voucher, for a tenner. Not the end of the world, but frustrating.

Arriving at the safe zone most were wearing eye pro (I say most, because not all were and this is a safe zone right?). The the marshals proceed to chrono the players guns in the safe zone. That done they then tell us to remove all our magazines as they then go through the safety protocols. I'm a bit confused here guys. Is this a safe zone, was this a safe zone or not?

I go out of the safe zone, weapons free and damn it, my loaner isn't feeding. Yes I've wound it and wound it. Pew, pew, pew - no bb  I went to a marshal he tested it and hollared for a new mag, new mag cam, pew, pew, bb's. Ok - on with the game. Several times pew, pew, no bb. Not feeding again  Back to the marshals who say "It's probably your hop up". Erm, "Probably your hop up, this is a loaner ". "Does it fire upside down?", "Guy's you want me to run around with an upside down gun?". Put if full auto it fires, semi, it doesn't.

Couple of Northern guys on the opposing team were awesome  I caught them both dead to rights from behind, pew, pew, no bb  But they both surrendered as we laughed at me firing blanks at them.

So after the recall I gave up on joining in any more and gave back the weapon and went home.

It was a good day and the site looks great. The facilities too. I'll no doubt be back, but only when I've sorted out my own hardware.

 

[Robert James]

How was the marshaling?

Did you know what you were doing during different games or did you only manage to play one game due to the gun?

 

[warlord]

How was the marshaling?

Did you know what you were doing during different games or did you only manage to play one game due to the gun?

Click to shrink...

As it was the fair they were only running a CQB in one area of the grounds. It was in a large portacabin type section. Made it hard to sneak as the floor was noisy. We played one game I guess, but we swapped ends at half time if you follow.

I thought the marshalling during the game was pretty decent, just the safe zone issue I thought wrong. I had one younger marshall  in the cabins that knew well enough not to "ghost" me or give away the locations of others in the dark. They positioned themselves quite well to monitor players. call any hits etc, but those that played made that unnecessary. Very sportsman like. But I did get tagged with friendly fire several times

I'll certainly return as the facilities and the game zone looked to be quite good.

 

[SELTS090]

the gaol is the local for me and i think personsally the marshalling is great. if you arent calling your hits or you have problems theyll soon cone over snd say from what ive seen.

its quite well organised in terms of gameplay as they have a good balamce of attack and defend without getting stuck in chokepoints for 90% of the game. there one bang rule for bfgs is great too keep gameplay moving.

 

[clumpyedge]

Arriving at the safe zone most were wearing eye pro (I say most, because not all were and this is a safe zone right?). The the marshals proceed to chrono the players guns in the safe zone. That done they then tell us to remove all our magazines as they then go through the safety protocols. I'm a bit confused here guys. Is this a safe zone, was this a safe zone or not?

Click to shrink...

If memory serves me right chrono'ing only happens in one room at The Gaol so when guns are chrono'd they only need the eye pro on in that room as the rest of the safe zone you shouldn't have a mag in your gun. I don't know of any place where in the safe zone its mandated you wear your eye pro, personally I wear eye pro as soon as i'm on site (whatever the location) just for peace of mind more than anything else.

Justin (the owner) is sh*t hot on all aspects of safety whenever I have played there , I would suggest if you have any concerns about H&S maybe drop him a message as he is probably the nicest guy I've ever met in the airsoft community (he even drove me to an emergency dentist himself when i had my tooth knocked out as I'm not from anywhere near the site location) and would be more than happy to chat with you about anything.

 

[warlord]

Don't let it detract from the fact the site, facilities and staff all seem very good. They made one mistake, I picked up on it.

Like I said, maybe things were a bit different as it was a taster game on the day of the fair. I'll certainly be giving them the benefit of the doubt by returning for some proper games.

 

[clumpyedge]

Don't let it detract from the fact the site, facilities and staff all seem very good. They made one mistake, I picked up on it.

Like I said, maybe things were a bit different as it was a taster game on the day of the fair. I'll certainly be giving them the benefit of the doubt by returning for some proper games.

Click to shrink...

You wont regret it, every time I play at The Gaol I'm impressed with Justin and his team's professionalism/friendly manner and overall conduct, shame its an hour and half way from me or id be more of a regular

 

[SELTS090]

psst. hes opening a new site in nottingham i believe. remeber seeing a post on the facebook group about it

 

[warlord]

I revisited the Gaol this weekend and played a full day of skirmish. We went as a party of 5, a first timer, long timer and 3 newish players. This time around there we no rentals between us. So all I can comment on is the site and game play.

Sunday play fee includes tea, coffee and lunch. Everyone else really enjoyed the pulled pork wrap, I didn't partake. Mainly because I'd stuffed down a large Chinese the night before. Kinda regretted that as it lay heavy and sapped my strength, leaving me feeling a bit bloated. Add to that the JD and cokes I wasn't really match fit  That said, it slowed me down a bit, but didn't spoil the day.

We had a great time. The marshalls were spot on. Pulled me up on some hits without making me feel like a dick, which is good. I call 'em when I get them, but some pouch hits I must have missed and fair play always accept the marshalls decisions. They also try to help move game play along when things become sticky. New to the site they'd give you pointers on angles of attack and defence and they handle banter well.

The site turned out not being totally my style of game play. First time I've come up against DMR's and snipers. These fookers really grind the game to a halt out doors when they have a good fire lane. We definitely needed more canon fodder prepared to push and risk a hit. Things got a bit stagnant at times because even as attackers many of our team switched into a more defensive role. Then it's just the clock ticking away. Some of the marshalls worked hard to help break stalemates though... even dropping smoke

Quote of the day:

"It's single fire only you dick head."

"It's a support weapon."

"Oh, ok... carry on."

TRMR's are mostly useless on much of this site. Many of the buildings are wood construction and absorb the impact without detonation. Those concrete builds didn't seem to get players in very often. Outdoors there are very few places where they are useful. Fizzies are the way to go here.

Most of the battles seemed to get played outside. Which is a shame for me at least because the indoor sections are very playable, but many of the objectives just lent themselves to outdoors play.

Personally I found it a hard site to play. The objectives which seemed easy just frustrated me as defending some of them was easily achieved and very difficult to break.

I really enjoyed it. Over the day I clocked about 8 miles on my fitbit and burned up my daily calorie intake during the warm up game! Had a right good laugh with some of my fellow green team - not just the friends I went with, but everyone else. Even those who friendly fired me on occasion, some my own fault. We'll certainly return, but we've got a lot of other sites out there to visit too.

 

[lemon191]

Can't recommend the Gaol enough. Being a jail it is quite a unique site. I have played the Wednesday evening games a lot and I have to say the darkness add's to the tension and really gets the blood pumping ! The Wednesday games are a lot smaller numbers but Justin mixes the games up a lot which is good and keeps it fresh, if you have not been it's defiantly one to add to the list !

 

[springs]

i did enjoy the site when i visited. my main gripe was that there was hardly anything going on inside the buildings. would of been nice for some of the games to be pushed inside a bit more.

They did use one of the buildings but ended up having 95% of the action outside and a few people going through the buildings.

will be back there at some point to give it another go.

 

[LightningCh]

Went to the Gaol today and had an absolute blast.

Great site, Great marshals (one marshal managed to spot a MK5 bang in a guys tac rig and this was promptly dealt with as the MK5s are banned due to noise).
Most of the gameplay was outdoor (except for a game of TDM where the players were split into 4 teams, 1 game in the E wing, and 1 game in the F wing, that was lots of indoor play and it was great.
There were 4 bolt action snipers on site that chronoed under 350fps so that was a little weird to see inside lol.
Also! As of Wednesday this week, they have painted all the car windows (except windshields) black, to prevent people smiling and waving through them knowing they can't get hit and "ruining the immersion". (Apparently this has been an issue for 2 years or so lol)

Overall, though I will gladly make the 1.5 hour trip to return there in the future as it was just great all round (usual cheaters, but marshals were good on this when they saw it so can't really complain)