Colin Allen
Members
- Aug 27, 2022
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Today, the lad and I wandered off to Splatoon, a smallish airsoft and paintball in deepest Essex. I had been once before for a boot fair, but this was to be our first time playing there.
The safe zone is pretty large and well appointed with remarkably good toilet facilities, a tap for water, a decent food stall selling the usual range of drinks, snacks and burgers (actually including vegetarian!) and HPA filling points. It just about absorbed the 90-100 players who were present. All weapons except pistols must wear a muzzle sock in the safe zone.
After finding a table and chronoing (which opened early and ran very efficiently), we were ready for the first game; this was a simple domination using the four available playing areas (two are being upgraded), two of which were wooded with lots of small structures, while the others contained a variety of larger structures, mostly built from old shipping containers, a kill house and a couple of wrecked helicopters. This was a good, fun game which provided us with a good opportunity to explore the areas that were in play. Hit taking seemed to be very good and the game ran well; apart from the last five minutes of the day, all weapons except support weapons were limited to semi auto, which meant that the latter actually had a distinct role.
After a quick trip to the safe zone to reload, we went back out to play a game were our team (red) had to transport a bomb across the site (at 90 degrees to the direction the first game had been played) and place it in either of the two helicopters. If the bomb carrier was hit, they had to drop the bomb, which could then be picked up by another member of the team; the opponents could not touch it. After a very good set of battles across the site, we got our bomb in with about 7 minutes to spare. Yay! Go us!
This game was then reversed; a well organised defence resulted in our opponents being unable to get their bomb into either helicopter. Yay! Go us, again!
After lunch, about which I cannot comment as we took pizza, there was a fun team deathmatch, which was manic, slightly chaotic (in a good way) and a good way to blow off the post lunch lethargy.
We then moved on to a fallback game; as the attackers, we respawned on a marshal who was a reasonable distance behind us, while the defenders had three lives in each of the four zones. We pushed them out of the woods quite rapidly and then got stuck attempting to break into the first of the container structure areas, thanks to a gritty defence by our opponents. Eventually, we managed to break into the area, although many of our team were taken out by a superb pyro throw which sailed over one of the helicopters and exploded, taking out all of the players who were clustered behind it. We slowly pushed up and were just starting to move into the final zone when we ran out of time.
As so often seems to happen in the afternoon, a few players became quite vocal about alleged non hit taking and other alleged misdemeanours so, when we returned to the safe zone, the site owner gave a rather impressive "motivational talk", reminding everyone that we were there to have fun shooting each other with plastic balls from toy guns and it really was not something to get aggressive about; this was very well received.
As it was now getting close to the end of the day, we went out for another team deathmatch, albeit with a slight twist; the first ten minutes would be team v team and semi only, while the last five minutes would be all v all with full auto allowed. The lad announced that he would be keeping as far away from me as possible towards the end of the game; I can't think why.
The last five minutes were as chaotic and fun as might be expected with lots of people taking the opportunity to shoot their mates.
Thus ended the day; it was great fun, was well marshalled and made the best use of the four areas of the site that were available. We left very satisfied and will definitely return.
As the lad is off to train for Cambrian Patrol and then back off to university, while I have rehearsals for our third festival gig of the summer and the festival, our next game will be at Op-Tac's The Kingdom near Stoke in early September.
Weapons used:
Me:
LCT PP-19-01
APS UAR
Milbro M1911 Classic (CO2) - until it died just after lunch.
The lad:
CYMA AKS74U
LCT AS-VAL
ASG XP18 Commander (CO2)
View attachment 113525
View attachment 113526
The safe zone is pretty large and well appointed with remarkably good toilet facilities, a tap for water, a decent food stall selling the usual range of drinks, snacks and burgers (actually including vegetarian!) and HPA filling points. It just about absorbed the 90-100 players who were present. All weapons except pistols must wear a muzzle sock in the safe zone.
After finding a table and chronoing (which opened early and ran very efficiently), we were ready for the first game; this was a simple domination using the four available playing areas (two are being upgraded), two of which were wooded with lots of small structures, while the others contained a variety of larger structures, mostly built from old shipping containers, a kill house and a couple of wrecked helicopters. This was a good, fun game which provided us with a good opportunity to explore the areas that were in play. Hit taking seemed to be very good and the game ran well; apart from the last five minutes of the day, all weapons except support weapons were limited to semi auto, which meant that the latter actually had a distinct role.
After a quick trip to the safe zone to reload, we went back out to play a game were our team (red) had to transport a bomb across the site (at 90 degrees to the direction the first game had been played) and place it in either of the two helicopters. If the bomb carrier was hit, they had to drop the bomb, which could then be picked up by another member of the team; the opponents could not touch it. After a very good set of battles across the site, we got our bomb in with about 7 minutes to spare. Yay! Go us!
This game was then reversed; a well organised defence resulted in our opponents being unable to get their bomb into either helicopter. Yay! Go us, again!
After lunch, about which I cannot comment as we took pizza, there was a fun team deathmatch, which was manic, slightly chaotic (in a good way) and a good way to blow off the post lunch lethargy.
We then moved on to a fallback game; as the attackers, we respawned on a marshal who was a reasonable distance behind us, while the defenders had three lives in each of the four zones. We pushed them out of the woods quite rapidly and then got stuck attempting to break into the first of the container structure areas, thanks to a gritty defence by our opponents. Eventually, we managed to break into the area, although many of our team were taken out by a superb pyro throw which sailed over one of the helicopters and exploded, taking out all of the players who were clustered behind it. We slowly pushed up and were just starting to move into the final zone when we ran out of time.
As so often seems to happen in the afternoon, a few players became quite vocal about alleged non hit taking and other alleged misdemeanours so, when we returned to the safe zone, the site owner gave a rather impressive "motivational talk", reminding everyone that we were there to have fun shooting each other with plastic balls from toy guns and it really was not something to get aggressive about; this was very well received.
As it was now getting close to the end of the day, we went out for another team deathmatch, albeit with a slight twist; the first ten minutes would be team v team and semi only, while the last five minutes would be all v all with full auto allowed. The lad announced that he would be keeping as far away from me as possible towards the end of the game; I can't think why.
The last five minutes were as chaotic and fun as might be expected with lots of people taking the opportunity to shoot their mates.
Thus ended the day; it was great fun, was well marshalled and made the best use of the four areas of the site that were available. We left very satisfied and will definitely return.
As the lad is off to train for Cambrian Patrol and then back off to university, while I have rehearsals for our third festival gig of the summer and the festival, our next game will be at Op-Tac's The Kingdom near Stoke in early September.
Weapons used:
Me:
LCT PP-19-01
APS UAR
Milbro M1911 Classic (CO2) - until it died just after lunch.
The lad:
CYMA AKS74U
LCT AS-VAL
ASG XP18 Commander (CO2)
View attachment 113525
View attachment 113526
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, but I have spent an lot of time around various firearms so I'm supposedly well trained. But that one time I messed up and I still burn with a sense of shame over it.
