The 'How Did Your Airsoft Day Go? Thread

[Enid_Puceflange]

Deleted ?

 

[gavinkempsell]

Deleted ?

Come on...spill.

 

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

Deleted ?

Too late.  I live a nine hour drive away and even I figured that one out lol.  ?

 

[OTH21]

Braved the wind for the first skirmish day of the year at Imperium. Luckily the wind wasn't too bad with most of the chosen playing areas sheltered by trees/terrain. 

Low numbers for the site, at about 40 pax. A few father/son duos which is always nice to see. Relatively slow start to the morning, with the first game not starting until just after 10:30. Especially when the safety kicks off around 09:00. 

2 games either side of lunch, and considering the wind and cold meaning more layers worn, hit taking wasn't too bad. With a few but not many complaints and not extra briefings from the Marshall. Good play with quite a few "kills" pushing positions or getting sneaky flanks. 

The only point of contention was the use of one player's 'riot' shield. It kind of unbalanced a capture the flag game. Especially with said player declaring they couldn't feel below the shield leg shots because of padding.  And the shield seemingly impervious to pyro - it was briefed at the beginning to be bb resistant only. 

Overall good day, but as always I would recommend the "ground war" days at Imperium, mainly because skirmish days are like herding cats. The next ground war is on the 4th of Feb, may see some of you there. 

 

[Cannonfodder]

So I decided to pay a visit to the tunnels at Epsom yesterday and it definitely managed to scratch a cqb itch. Numbers were lower than I was expecting at between 10 and 15 players in total but to me that made it better as it meant there was room to move and every doorway or corner wasn't a choke point. Hit taking was excellent with none problems or whining I'd noticed had started to get worse at my previous regular site. All in all I'll definitely be going back 

 

[Reef]

My son was busy with his friends so I was 'Billy no mates' at Dogtag last Sunday. Ironically he got me started in this to spend more time together LOL. I was a bit uncomfortable being on my own but once that first BB fly's past your head, all that goes out the window... 

This was the first time I've played a game with a proper objective which was get a pilot and fuel to the Helicopter. It was great fun and knowing there's a time limit really puts some pressure on.

I'm starting to use concealment and using the bushes as cover, Rhododendron's work really well with DPM! Really impressed with my new over glasses Herosharks.   

Roll on next weekend!

 

[The_Lord_Poncho]

My son was busy with his friends so I was 'Billy no mates' at Dogtag last Sunday. Ironically he got me started in this to spend more time together LOL. I was a bit uncomfortable being on my own but once that first BB fly's past your head, all that goes out the window... 

This was the first time I've played a game with a proper objective which was get a pilot and fuel to the Helicopter. It was great fun and knowing there's a time limit really puts some pressure on.

I'm starting to use concealment and using the bushes as cover, Rhododendron's work really well with DPM! Really impressed with my new over glasses Herosharks.   

Roll on next weekend!

I mostly go on my own too - agreed that at first i felt a bit uncomfortable as it seems everyone else is in big crowds of mates - but the reality is there are lots of others like us, quietly getting on with sorting our kit in the corner. And if you are so inclined, without fail, I've always found people will strike up a conversation at the slightest opportunity - ultimately you automatically have rather a lot of common ground with everyone else there! Also - agreed - DPM (and, similarly, Multicam Tropic) is beyond effective with Rhododendron! It was of course designed for a dense woodland environment of central Europe. Multicam/MTP is very effective, but ultimately a bit of a compromise, and is a touch too light in heavy cover (whereas DPM sticks out as a dark blob in open ground or very light cover).

 

[Impulse]

Another weekend, another skirmish at Worthing Airsoft. I was intending to use the m40a5 today, either with my HK45 as a sidearm, or my mac11 + mk23 combo, but as I was experimenting on the range with my chrono, the power was dropping with every shot. Issue with running a gas bolt action in the cold is that the cooldown effect of each shot just compounds and makes it worse, so the mags were progressively getting colder and the ambient temperature was making it worse. So that was out, but I at least had my HPA VSR as a backup so I set that up at 2.25J and took it out with the HK45 as a sidearm, as if I'm running a line I don't like using the mac11 because the shoulder rig I run it on constantly catches the HPA line and it's a pain to deal with (especially when you're trying to move as little as possible so people don't see you)

Anyway, I went out for the first game which was a large, multi-objective game that would last until lunch. Brilliant, I love these games! I took a spot in a holly bush to overwatch a path, though at this time of year there aren't many leaves on them! It was a good spot to hold though as I single-handedly held the path against a lot of players that just couldn't locate where the shots were coming from. Some BBs were sprayed in my general direction, but with me low to the ground and surrounded by foliage nothing was coming close to me. I eventually got taken out when some regulars led a massive group of enemy players down the path. I managed to take out the two regulars, but was taken out by one of the other players as there was a wave of about 12, so one of them was bound to spot me after I opened up with the GBB pistol! I respawned, grabbed two teammates and went to cut them off again, but there were only about 3 of us and we weren't able to stop them from getting into a base and digging in. I then tried to go around them, got a bit lost and went out of bounds where I bumped into another sniper on the other team. I said we were out of bounds so we walked back in game and had a gentleman's agreement to not shoot each other, but he ran off and told his team I was there so I got taken out pretty fast. Respawned again and headed the other way this time, as their team were firmly entrenched on the other flank, so I thought I could punch through a gap by going the other way. I hugged the boundary and came up to their respawn where I went to ground. I didn't shoot, because spawn camping is bad, but I wanted to wait until nobody was in their spawn so I could cross over, get to the fence line, move along to another base and shoot them in the back, as they wouldn't be expecting shots to come in from behind. One player respawned and almost walked on top of me, but thankfully due to the power of my KMCS ghillie suit just kidding, I run a cape ghillie that I built off a webtex concealment vest, but it worked well enough for the enemy player to pass me by. I let him get clear of me, before I scurried across their now empty respawn and got to my fence line. My blue armband was on my right arm, but they could only see me from the left, so I made it look like I was a yellow player and hoped I didn't bump into anyone who would recognise me and realise I was on the other team. I think I only passed one player this way, who didn't recognise me and I got into my sniper spot. Problem was, I was fogged up and the sun was in my direction, so I couldn't see anything through my scope. I got a few players as I tried to get my heart rate down and stop sweating quite so much, then as I heard the 10 seconds left call, I took out one last guy who was chatting with his friends and then the game over was called. It was funny, because while I was in that position, a yellow player spotted me as he was heading back to the safe zone to get his lunch and gave me a nod and mouthed "well played". It was very amusing, but it was also frustrating because our team just wasn't really doing anything. Every time I made a play, there might've been 2 or 3 other people around. Apparently most of our team were sitting in a pair of bases that the enemy team just... avoided because they didn't have objectives there. It also didn't help that the spawns weren't far enough apart / far enough from bases, so there was some spawn camping happening on both sides.

I then decided to set my VSR back to 1.1J. The reasons are twofold; first, it's a lot quieter on 75psi than it is on 130psi. I think it's louder than my gas m40a5 when firing at 2.3J. Secondly, I found that Worthing Airsoft is a bit too... twiggy. The foliage is almost non-existent at this time of year, so there's very little to hide in, but there's a lot of twigs everywhere. The flora at Worthing Airsoft is lots of coppices, so while there aren't many leaves on them, there's lots of twiggy bits everywhere and threading long range shots is a bit weird. I'll still run the m40a5 at 2.3J, but with the VSR, the difference in sound signature just makes 1.1J the better call. I'll keep it as a backup gun. Didn't play the afternoon games as the guy who drives us up there has an issue with his ankle and can't really play, so me and the other guy decided to call it early as it doesn't feel fair to drag it on. 

Also, I couldn't put my finger on it, but the atmosphere today was off and all in all it felt a bit weird. I don't think there was too much enthusiasm to play on either side today, I think the spawn camping made people annoyed and a good chunk left at lunch, and... I don't know, it's hard to put into words, but there was this uneasy feeling looming over the game day today.

Might be heading to Driver Wood next weekend, so it'll be good to get out to another site. Will probably use the opportunity to run a DMR as I like their DMR rules and my HPA m21 really prefers running at DMR power than anything else.

 

[Colin Allen]

This morning, I braved the journey into deepest Essex and the wonderful little site that is Dragon's Lair.

Having paid and got my wristband, I was having a chat with the owner when he told me that the site would soon be closing as the landowner wants to open an adventure park and, as part of that, needs the land that the site occupies.  Sadness was overwhelming; Dragon's Lair is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, sites in the UK, having been there, either as an airsoft site or as a paintball site, for 38 years.

However, the good news is that they have secured a much larger location, for which they have great plans, including an Afghan village and vastly improved catering.

Anyway, on to a description of the day.

Around 100 players were present, being a good mixture of experienced and relatively new players, covering a wide range of ages.

We started with a fallback game; as attackers, we had infinite regens on our rearmost player, while the defenders had one life at each of the ditch, the fort, the bridges (the stream could only be crossed by the bridges) and the village.  We pushed them out of their first position quite rapidly, the SLR causing its share of casualties.  Taking the fort and crossing the stream seemed to take forever but, once across, we wrapped up the village rather rapidly, despite not noticing a live bush wookie, which added five minutes to our time.

The game was then turned around; taking up a lone position on our left flank, the SLR and I held off the enemy there for a long time before I was eventually hit, whereupon I fell back to the area of the fort and took up a similar position by the boundary ditch, again holding the enemy off for ages.  My sojourn by the bridges was cut short by a magnificent shot which hit the only exposed paper of me (my left elbow).  Falling back to the village, I again took up position on the left flank, taking out several opponents before they ran out of time to complete the mission.

After this, as the labyrinth is being dismantled next weekend, we played a game entirely inside it.  Each team started with 10 players attacking into the labyrinth, with the objective being to hold the centre of the structure for longer than the other team.  Once players were hit, they moved out of the labyrinth and tagged in another friendly player.  As this was not a game that any self-respecting SLR would wish to be involved with (as well as it being totally unsuitable for CQB), I swapped to the rather more practical QBZ 97 for the rest of the day.  This game was really good fun and utter mayhem; we won!

The final games of the day were based around attacking the fort and the labyrinth; at the end of the game, if either team controlled the labyrinth and the raised walkway in the fort, they were the winners.  Within the fort, neither side could go past the centreline.  Before this game, five of us were asked to move to the other team in order to balance the sides.  It soon became obvious why we had won the earlier games; the team were a bit sluggish and hesitant.  In the first running of the game, we lost both objectives, despite trying to push the team forward; when the game was turned around so that we were now attacking from the other side, it ended in a hard fought draw.

It was a good, fun day of old fashioned airsoft.  While the Lair is not somewhere I play very often, I feel quite sad that it is closing as it has been a fixture of our airsofting life for years.  Still, on to a bigger and better version.

Weapons used:
Ares L1A1 (SLR)
Real Sword QBZ 97
Cybergun M1911 Tactical CO2 (or whatever it is called)

 

 

[Jacob Wright]

Great day at RIFT 'The Battery' today. Less than an hour from home and being CQB we thought we'd give it a go as it's something a bit different to a normal outdoor skirmish (and less muddy).

Well organised by RIFT as usual, with hot/cold drinks, snacks and hotdogs for lunch. Also a well stocked shop from White Sphere.

They cap the number at 70, which I'd say is the most you can get on the site. Rules such as no pre-firing or suppressive fire, and no pyro worked really well with very few bottlenecks, and the short 30 minutes games were long enough to get involved with but not so long that you get bored.

Will definitely be back, ran the MP5, L119A1 and at one point just the Glock - great fun.

View attachment 123013

 

[Colin Allen]

Great day at RIFT 'The Battery' today. Less than an hour from home and being CQB we thought we'd give it a go as it's something a bit different to a normal outdoor skirmish (and less muddy).

Well organised by RIFT as usual, with hot/cold drinks, snacks and hotdogs for lunch. Also a well stocked shop from White Sphere.

They cap the number at 70, which I'd say is the most you can get on the site. Rules such as no pre-firing or suppressive fire, and no pyro worked really well with very few bottlenecks, and the short 30 minutes games were long enough to get involved with but not so long that you get bored.

Will definitely be back, ran the MP5, L119A1 and at one point just the Glock - great fun.

View attachment 123013

This sounds like a really interesting site; unfortunately, it is probably just a bit too far .

 

[The_Lord_Poncho]

Mixed morning at Driver Wood yesterday - they were trialling a new game format, including roaming spawns (marshall with a flag acting as the spawn point, and moving around behind the action). I’m a great fan of roaming spawns -  they are a good solution to allowing the use of a large playing area, without  the trek back to spawn becoming so lengthy that it encourages cheating or is just outright tedious. The game involved a team trying to get a stretcher to a number of different objectives in a set sequence, the other team defending those objectives. First game we were ‘defending’, second game, attacking with the stretcher.

I opted to run the AAP carbine in the first game - built up using a TTI kit, with a 21cm inner barrel, and running on HPA via an Airtac MP5 magazine adapter. It didn’t start well, with the obligatory pre-game test shots sending the charging handle extension flying over my shoulder and my discovery that the outer barrel was wobbly! Throughout the game, I was needing to constantly re-zero the gun, not by adjusting the sight, but by nudging the alignment of the outer barrel within the handguard. Madness.  Still, it gives me an excuse to strip the carbine down to pop a longer inner barrel (circa 300mm) so that I can reduce the HPA pressure to create less wear and tear (and this time use a bit more threadlock when I re-assemble…). Aside from gun troubles, the first game was a bit of an annoying game of attrition, with our team somewhat static, and lacking the motivation to push hard, despite the spawn only being a short distance behind us.

Second game we swapped roles, and this time I opted to take the L96 and MK23 - both of which performed superbly, with plenty of pleasingly long range hits with the sniper rifle, and much more mobile game play from both sides for some reason. Also, re-affirming my view that a good ghillie head and shoulders aka viper hood is in 80% of cases as effective as a full ghillie suit, without the heat and hassle. And for once, the weather was great!

 

[Enid_Puceflange]

My mukker came down from Inverness to visit this weekend

We had been playing paintball side by side since the early 90’s so have good comms and knowledge of what the other is going to do.

I got him into Airsoft about 5 years ago, and have been playing again together when we get the chance, obviously being a 3 hour drive away from me is a hassle.

So he came down and we visited Battle Zone just on the north side of Edinburgh.

The first couple of warm up games showed issues with non hit takers, so a little extra “love” had to be sent to them to let them know to stick their hands up ?

it continued into game 4 of the morning, then the marshals announced a zero tolerance for non hit taking, intending to drag the culprit out of the game and stop them playing the rest of the day.

(A few of them are known repeat offenders apparently)

This dramatically improved the game play, funnily enough the offenders themselves stopped playing and sat and sulked in the safe zone until their parents/uber came to collect them at the end of the day.

With the knobber’s no longer interested in playing, the sportsmanship massively enhanced, the games were superb, and my chum and I were on top form and worked like a proper small unit.

(propaby helped by watching 13 hours - secret soldiers of Benghazi at 5:30 am before leaving for a proper buffet breakfast on the way to the site ?)

Only one technical issue for me was my shots half way through the day started going haywire, had a Quick Look whilst under fire and somehow I was experiencing Muzzle Strike on my supressor (QD Angry Gun Surefire clone)

So off it came, and my accuracy was restored.

Cracking day, finished off with a lovely Chinese take away.

Im hurting today, back & legs and woke up with a stinking sore head proving that I’m still not taking in enough fluids .

Silly boy!

But showed some of the kids that two duffers in their 50’s can still keep it up with them ?

 

[rj1986]

Didn't play this weekend, but I'm pretty sure most games would've been better than this guys

https://westchester.news12.com/police-airsoft-game-dispute-in-carmel-led-to-stabbing

Yes - apparently it was about non calling hits, and No, it wasn't Kicking Mustang for a change.

This sounds like a really interesting site; unfortunately, it is probably just a bit too far .

I played it a couple weeks ago, with about 30 odd players. I really liked it, as it was CQB but without 90 degree angles every 5 yards, and areas big enough to get some longer shots off. And as it's fairly short engagement and no pyro allowed, its not pay-to-win.

 

[Jacob Wright]

I played it a couple weeks ago, with about 30 odd players. I really liked it, as it was CQB but without 90 degree angles every 5 yards, and areas big enough to get some longer shots off. And as it's fairly short engagement and no pyro allowed, its not pay-to-win.

Yes plenty of cover and barricades which they switched around each game, which helped to keep you on your toes! Shame it's only going to be around until 2025 when they're redeveloping the site..

 

[DanBow]

In a word, or 2, bloody brilliant!

I only booked in for a half day, due to my still broken but getting better leg, and I stuck it out for a couple of hours but i loved every second of it.

I had everyrhing ready to go, batteries charged,  mags gassed and when i got to site I realised that I'd left the bag of batteries at home! Knobber! Luckily the guy setting up next to me had a spare, otherwise it would have ben a pistol day!

Not many shots were fired and i dont think I i got anyone but it was nice to be out. 

There was a photographer taking shots (pictures) for their website too. If he got any decent ones of me, you'll all see them on here! Lol

 

[Colin Allen]

Today, I went to Splatoon in Essex, a site I have been to a few times before and always had an enjoyable day.

About 90-100 players were present, a mixture of old (I chatted with a 72 year old chap who was playing for the first time and was there with this grandson) and young, experienced and newcomers to the hobby.

The first game was a fallback; we were defending and the attackers had to clear each of four areas in turn, not being able to attack the next section until they had cleared the current one.  There was a 30 second time penalty for every enemy player still alive after the attacking team called the area clear.  Defenders had one life in each area, while the attackers had infinite lives, respawning on a marshal who was just behind their rearmost player.  We put up a great fight in each area, with the attackers finally taking the last area, by someone reaching the grey helicopter, with about 90 seconds of the game remaining.

After a short break to refill mags, the game was reversed; we stormed through the enemy, setting a new site record for completing the objective, even allowing for a 30 second time penalty when we overlooked a still living defender.

Following this, we played a game across the whole site, which involved controlling the three spinners that are situated across it; control of a spinner was shown by turning it so that your side's colour was facing upward.  Both sides had infinite regens on their start points.  This was a really fun game, with small groups of players roving over the site, popping up in unexpected places and many small and large firefights breaking out and then fading out.  I was mostly in the lower section of the field, where the yellow team claimed the spinner in the last seconds with a brilliant run from a lone player.  At the end they also controlled the spinner in the container field, while we held the central one.

After another short break to refill mags, we played a search and recovery game.  15 small missiles were spread across the entire site; the teams had to recover as many as they could and store them in their helicopter (there are two helicopters on site, one at each end of the container field).  A player could only carry one missile at a time and the regen rules were as in the previous game.  This was enjoyable mayhem, with small groups roving the site looking for missiles, trying to get them back to their helicopter, trying to ambush enemy players transporting missiles, and attempting to raid the other team's helicopter.  When the game ended, we had 9 missiles and the enemy had 6.

It was a good, fun day of airsoft with some great play from both sides and interesting games.

Weapons used:
Hurricane/G&P SR47
DBoys AKMS
ASG XP18 Commander CO2 (a massive upgrade on the Cybergun M1911)

 

 

[gavinkempsell]

Not many shots were fired and i dont think I i got anyone but it was nice to be out. 

as long as you enjoyed the time it'll have been worth it.

 

[Colin Allen]

In a word, or 2, bloody brilliant!

I only booked in for a half day, due to my still broken but getting better leg, and I stuck it out for a couple of hours but i loved every second of it.

I had everyrhing ready to go, batteries charged,  mags gassed and when i got to site I realised that I'd left the bag of batteries at home! Knobber! Luckily the guy setting up next to me had a spare, otherwise it would have ben a pistol day!

Not many shots were fired and i dont think I i got anyone but it was nice to be out. 

There was a photographer taking shots (pictures) for their website too. If he got any decent ones of me, you'll all see them on here! Lol

Well done for getting out there with a broken leg; that is true dedication.

 

[JinxDuh]

Today, I went to Splatoon in Essex, a site I have been to a few times before and always had an enjoyable day.

About 90-100 players were present, a mixture of old (I chatted with a 72 year old chap who was playing for the first time and was there with this grandson) and young, experienced and newcomers to the hobby.

The first game was a fallback; we were defending and the attackers had to clear each of four areas in turn, not being able to attack the next section until they had cleared the current one.  There was a 30 second time penalty for every enemy player still alive after the attacking team called the area clear.  Defenders had one life in each area, while the attackers had infinite lives, respawning on a marshal who was just behind their rearmost player.  We put up a great fight in each area, with the attackers finally taking the last area, by  someone reaching the grey helicopter with about 90 seconds of the game remaining.

After a short break to refill mags, the game was reversed; we stormed through the enemy, setting a new site record for completing the objective, even allowing for a 30 second time penalty when we overlooked a still living defender.

Following this, we played a game across the whole site, which involved controlling the three spinners that are situated across it; control of a spinner was shown by turning it so that your side's colour was facing upward.  Both sides had infinite regens on their start points.  This was a really fun game, with small groups of players roving over the site, popping up in unexpected places and many small and large firefights breaking out and then fading out.  I was mostly in the lower section of the field, where the yellow team claimed the spinner in the last seconds with a brilliant run from a lone player.  At the end they also controlled the spinner in the container field, while we held the central one.

After another short break to refill mags, we played a search and recovery game.  15 small missiles were spread across the entire site; the teams had to recover as many as they could and store them in their helicopter (there are two helicopters on site, one at each end of the container field).  A player could only carry one missile at a time and the regen rules were as in the previous game.  This was enjoyable mayhem, with small groups roving the site looking for missiles, trying to get them back to their helicopter, trying to ambush enemy players transporting missiles, and attempting to raid the other team's helicopter.  When the game ended, we had 9 missiles and the enemy had 6.

It was a good, fun day of airsoft with some great play from both sides and interesting games.

Weapons used:
Hurricane/G&P SR47
DBoys AKMS
ASG XP18 Commander CO2 (a massive upgrade on the Cybergun M1911)

 

Mate. Us yellows got demolished all day ?

Absolute blast though!