The 'How Did Your Airsoft Day Go? Thread

[ButcherBill]

Am I too late to mention Nazi's or has the argument ended?

 

[The_Lord_Poncho]

So, anyway...

After the foreign trip I was obliged to take last year by His Majesty I've had lots of leave to use before the new tax year and I've done 3 games this year already, which puts me on track to play the most I have since about 2009 ?

After reading a fair few very good reviews I wanted to try out Dog Tag near Gatwick as I've not been before, but they weren't running this weekend so I went over the road to Driver Wood. Their site slogan should be something very 'safe' and unassuming, like 'Driver Wood, you'll definitely not have a bad time'. It was absolutely: fine.

Track leading down to the entrance is the closest to a real mettled road I've ever come across, car park pretty solid. Tons of decent benches, stringent SZ protocols, big range of hot food (plus snacks) available, not a bad little airsoft shop with tons of consumables and a selections of shooters. Rather than a the standard rotund organiser/marshal shouting in an attempt to herd the pack of unruly cats they've got a tannoy system for the briefing and timings to get back in etc, gives it a very commercialised feel that's pretty strange to experience by airsoft standards. Safety brief was delivered in a tone that comes across like the bloke is sick of his job, which I do fully understand, but I also don't pay to be slightly patronised in the morning tbh ?‍ Made me wish I'd gone back to AP.

Seems it was a busy day, ~130 players. The site is big enough I'd say, but at the end of the day the main area which is used for regular airsoft play (there's various other small arenas for paintball and kids' airsoft) is mostly just a flat piece of dense pine woodland. There's enough barrel clusters and the like dotted around, but apart from the one fire break where all the old vehicles are, I found within an hour or two it's already pretty stale. They've got a few other areas that didn't fit in to the scenarios and weren't used. I say scenarios loosely, because there wasn't much to them, no opportunity for more than 1-2 people to really be involved at any one time, and since the 2 games for the day were similar and were both just reversed, the entire day was basically just 'fight over the site' (essentially no difference on attack/def other than regen point). Nobody got spawn trapped or anything, but it was a tad WW1 feeling, and not in the sense of brutal trench CQB.

The one thing I really found odd was MEDs. Their rules online say 10m for auto and 0m for semi with a standard AEG, which I think makes total sense, seems like a good rule. Possibly I misheard in the morning, but what I heard was 10m minimum for any primary weapon and only sidearms or melee to be used within 10m, pretty sure I heard it again later too. Now that makes no sense to me, because sidearms and rifles have the same muzzle energy rules; one of those things that made me question my own brain a bit? It just puts a damper on all movement as if you don't have a pistol (I don't bring one unless it's definitely a requirement), then you have to 100% ensure you'll never round a corner and come upon an opposing player close up.  Oh and one marshal doing chrono'ing said 0.23g BBs don't exist...

Didn't see any major agro, all ran pretty smoothly, good safety all around. They actually allow some types of TAG and they sell charges and smoke to launch from 'mortars'. I saw a lot of different interesting gats and gear on people which is always fun. So I'd never say I'd never go back, but I won't rush to book again either. If you live SE and ever feel like 'I just want to play somewhere' but the sites you want aren't on or you can't get to them or whatever, it's the safety option for you.

P.S. Did get very lucky in one regard, I've had an item up for sale here and an interested buyer messaged me who happened to live right nearby, which circumvented my least favourite thing about online sales i.e. when you send it off and spend the next couple of days praying RM/PF don't fuckin break it. Top bloke too, we had a lot in common.

It's my closest site, and one that I go to the most. In terms of woodland sites, I only have this and Dogtag to compare (and Driver Wood  is definitely my favourite) - so I don't have much of a yard stick. I do find that there are huge areas of generally unpopulated woodland on the margins of the main area that allow for some more sneaky and cunning flanking plans- but often these aren't particularly discovered until the second or third visit. Certainly I feel that the site can become a little attritional when they have large numbers of players like you experienced. It does cut down on the opportunity to execute a well thought out plan, and the difference between having a really good game and a frustrating game comes more down to pot luck, than if there were, say, 60 or so players. 

Perhaps try to experience it on a quieter day, and you might come away with a touch more favourable an opinion - although its anybodies guess when a quiet day may be! I suppose Dogtag being shut  for the weekend might have been a clue as to why it was so busy.

(As an aside - anyone know what is going on with Dogtag? No bookable game days on their website at all at the moment)

 

[TheFull9]

I have only been there once, for half a day; it was ok, verging on quite good, but I cannot summon up much enthusiasm to go there again.  I think your report reflected my feelings about it better than mine did.

I also went once before, maybe 3 years ago or so, that time was better. They sell VIP  tickets with unlimited games so they've got a solid customer base clearly, in fact the bloke sitting next to me that I spoke to said he'd bought one, but I couldn't see it myself. Be good if you just need that motivation to get outside on the weekend and you live pretty close and that can be a big deal for some, but maybe it's a grower not a shower.

snip

I should have mentioned that food rule, good prompt. Absolutely comical! As if you're going to police me eating a digestive biccie during a break, lol. Even ignoring that fact it's total weapons grade bs, what if you don't happen to want to eat what they offer? Worst case, it's a 90 second walk back out to your car during the lunch break anyway.

The whole day did lock in my idea of getting a DMR you're quite right. I've got a build in it's early stages that I was on the fence about but my mind has now been made up. There's so many long lanes you can just look down and make use of a range advantage.

Funnily enough someone next to me said DogTag was worse, but the (older now) review on here is glowing. Be an interesting comparison, the two are fairly unusually closely located.  I'm trying to figure out where you are though for those places to be the only ones reachable. To get 2 hours from Imperium you reach Chichester, Winchester or Basingstoke, but if you're central south there's lots of other places slightly further West than Driver Wood that are within a reasonable travel time?

snip

It stuck in my mind that the borders were never actually mentioned, because there weren't any, but it's actually kind of hard to break from the normal mindset of being fairly penned in. I'm pretty sure it was far quieter last time I went and it was better, but of course it's just warming up now, ground's mostly dry, clear skies. I'm sure you're absolutely right about the numbers, with DT shut it makes total sense for the other nearby place to get way busier.

 

[Impulse]

To get 2 hours from Imperium you reach Chichester, Winchester or Basingstoke, but if you're central south there's lots of other places slightly further West than Driver Wood that are within a reasonable travel time?

I'm in Brighton, right on the south coast. To my knowledge, the only sites near me are Worthing Airsoft (40ish mins), Driver Wood (40ish mins), Dogtag (40ish mins), Southdown Airsoft (1hr 15mins), Battle Lakes (1hr 15 mins). Invicta is about 1hr 30 mins and Imperium is about 2hrs. Gunman Eversley is also about 2hrs I think, because the M25 is always a bastard, so while Google maps says 1hr 40mins, I can say from experience going there for Vietnam games it's closer to 2hrs.

If there are other sites, I'd love to know about it! I'm starting to learn to drive (literally just had my 2nd lesson), so once I've got that done and I've got my own car, I'll be looking to explore a bit.

Funnily enough someone next to me said DogTag was worse, but the (older now) review on here is glowing. Be an interesting comparison, the two are fairly unusually closely located. 

And yes. I went to Dogtag... also about a year ago and I wasn't impressed the day I went. There was a regular who was blatantly cheating by going out of bounds to sneak around and shoot people in the back (we literally caught him doing it on camera, emerging from out of bounds to shoot people in the back) and this same person also didn't take his hit from me when I shot him in the back with a mk23 (he wasn't the only questionable hit taker either). The games were... fine, and we got the better end of it in my opinion as we used the paintball fields instead of the airsoft fields; the airsoft fields there looked really small and very contained. I much prefer wide open sites like Driver Wood and Gunman Eversley Alpha than the small, multiple arena type fields like Dogtag (and Southdown. They have a lovely wide open site... that they then split into small arenas!)

 

[TheFull9]

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You're not in a great spot for sites admittedly, looking at the map, Eastbourne is maybe the worst in the SE. Have to go a bit North or West to reach anywhere and weirdly there's nowhere South of that. But from Brighton you've also got UCAP GreenOps and then maybe.. 5 or so places in and around Portsmouth which is about within a reasonable journey.

 

[The_Lord_Poncho]

It stuck in my mind that the borders were never actually mentioned, because there weren't any, but it's actually kind of hard to break from the normal mindset of being fairly penned in. I'm pretty sure it was far quieter last time I went and it was better, but of course it's just warming up now, ground's mostly dry, clear skies. I'm sure you're absolutely right about the numbers, with DT shut it makes total sense for the other nearby place to get way busier.

It's crude, but in the games using the full area, generally the red line shown below is the rough boundary. Most players seem to stick within the yellow ringed area (i.e. only a 1/3rd of the playing area) - which on a busy day gets somewhat congested:

View attachment 146190

 

[Colin Allen]

It's crude, but in the games using the full area, generally the red line shown below is the rough boundary. Most players seem to stick within the yellow ringed area (i.e. only a 1/3rd of the playing area) - which on a busy day gets somewhat congested:

View attachment 146190

Interesting.  When I went there, I think I probably played on about half of the site.

 

[Reef]

FYI, Dogtag in Horsham/Crawley has closed for the foreseeable future. 

I did go to Driverwood once but it didn't really work for me, can't put my finger on why.... I'll give it another go but also looking forward to trying Worthing Airsoft next weekend, any tips for Worthing?

Is Invicta's woodland site in Kent worth the trip? Its about 1h from me.

 

[Impulse]

FYI, Dogtag in Horsham/Crawley has closed for the foreseeable future. 

I did go to Driverwood once but it didn't really work for me, can't put my finger on why.... I'll give it another go but also looking forward to trying Worthing Airsoft next weekend, any tips for Worthing?

Is Invicta's woodland site in Kent worth the trip? Its about 1h from me.

My main advice for Worthing Airsoft would be don't use something with an MED on your first game day there as it can be a challenge and/or a limiting factor in where you can play. It's not as bad as it could be, because spring hasn't properly sprung yet and the bushes are not all bushed up so the top part of the site is still viable with a bolt action or DMR with an MED, but it can still be a difficult site to play with an MED as the twiggy bits are still very prevalent. In a few months it'll be woodland CQB when all the leaves come back, and the bottom part of the site is literally unplayable with an MED, even during winter.

Never been to Invicta's woodland site myself, but it's on my list to visit once I have my driving licence and a car.

 

[The_Lord_Poncho]

FYI, Dogtag in Horsham/Crawley has closed for the foreseeable future.

That's a shame - any clue what has happened? I always seemed quite well attended. Likely to re-open do we know?

 

[Reef]

@Impulse Thanks for the info. My AEG is only full auto at the moment so I don't know if that will effect things. In semi-auto games or areas I use my pistol. My bolt rifle is 1j so should be ok.

@The_Lord_PonchoYes, the times I've been its always been well attended. I know Dogtag is a small part of a larger concern with Archery, axe throwing and other type activities, there's also the paintball and laser tag areas. Even if the airsoft is going well it could be affected by business in the other areas. Honestly don't know. 

 

[Impulse]

@Impulse Thanks for the info. My AEG is only full auto at the moment so I don't know if that will effect things. In semi-auto games or areas I use my pistol. My bolt rifle is 1j so should be ok.

You'll be fine 95% of the time. Sometimes they do semi-only games, but it's a rarity, and if you only have full auto I'm sure they'd be fine with it as long as you feathered the trigger. Below 10m they want semi-auto only too

 

[TheFull9]

It's crude, but in the games using the full area, generally the red line shown below is the rough boundary. Most players seem to stick within the yellow ringed area (i.e. only a 1/3rd of the playing area) - which on a busy day gets somewhat congested:

You're pretty on the money with that map mate, yeah. If there's another clear lane in the west I didn't even see it and I had no idea there's playable area south of the stream as well lol. Though all the objectives for every game that day were very much clustered in the yellow area with not much to be gained from a long flank around the really dense bits of the woods (far as I could tell anyway).

FYI, Dogtag in Horsham/Crawley has closed for the foreseeable future. 

I'll take the hit on this one guys, I took an interest in playing after many years, which with my luck means the entire site gets closed down right before I go to try and book on.

 

[Lozart]

I'll take the hit on this one guys, I took an interest in playing after many years, which with my luck means the entire site gets closed down right before I go to try and book on.

You're the kind of guy that makes it rain by washing your car, aren't you?

 

[Colin Allen]

You're pretty on the money with that map mate, yeah. If there's another clear lane in the west I didn't even see it and I had no idea there's playable area south of the stream as well lol. Though all the objectives for every game that day were very much clustered in the yellow area with not much to be gained from a long flank around the really dense bits of the woods (far as I could tell anyway).

I'll take the hit on this one guys, I took an interest in playing after many years, which with my luck means the entire site gets closed down right before I go to try and book on.

Would you consider taking an interest in playing at Tactical Warfare Airsoft?  That site needs to be closed down.

 

[Reef]

Would you consider taking an interest in playing at Tactical Warfare Airsoft?  That site needs to be closed down.

Oh no, this was on my list of sites to try, what's wrong with it?

 

[Colin Allen]

Oh no, this was on my list of sites to try, what's wrong with it?

Badly run, inconsistent rules, clueless marshals (including one who had to be persuaded to wear eyepro in the playing area), no checks on mags in guns when returning to the safe zone, loads of mags in guns in safe zone, lots of dry firing in safe zone, loads of speedsofters spamming guns in the semi-only CQB section.

 

[Galvatron]

loads of speedsofters spamming guns in the semi-only CQB section.

I am with airsoft welcoming all but speedsofters who abuse abuse semi-only rules in CQB are a bane that keep me away from airsoft sites that accommodate them.

 

[Colin Allen]

[No message]

 

[Impulse]

Was an interesting day at Worthing Airsoft today, and I saw @Hatchet today which was a welcome surprise, and I know @Reef was there too, but I apologise as I didn't see you about! Fortunately it was a dry one, but it was very overcast and very humid so I sweated an absolute tonne, but I did play the whole day. Originally I was going to play half the day with my KJW m40a5 and then set up my Tanaka AICS ready for AI500 in a few weeks (as those are the two guns I'm taking), but my friends' guns were both acting up so instead I went out with my m40 as planned, and let my friend play with my Tanaka AICS, so he basically made sure it was shooting well and hopping properly (it was and he got lots of kills with it!)

Also decided to not go with my cape + boonie + leafy rifle wrap ghillie setup today, as I've put lower scope mounts to bring the scope more in-line with the barrel. It definitely helps with the long distance shooting, but with a leafy rifle wrap it'd probably get in the way and piss me off. Instead I used my cobra hood, put a suppressor cover on the DTSS style suppressor on my m40, then simply wrapped scrim net around my rifle and secured it with black elastic bands (I now have a bunch of hair ties for this, but didn't have them for today). Worked like a charm and there was no point in the day where I feel like I wouldn't have been spotted if I was more ghillie'd up, but it allowed me to be a lot more mobile. Well, mobility was hindered by a foot injury earlier in the week, but I did quite like the lighter setup and will be using it at AI500 for sure as it all worked really well.

The games were enjoyable. I missed the warm up game, as I was helping my friend try and troubleshoot his guns in the morning, so after the safety brief I had to finish sorting my mags and gear. However, I got out for the big game where there were multiple objectives. One was a box that was hung up in the open that we had to hold a button down on, and the other was a stretcher with a dummy on it that we had to find and bring to different bases across the site. The spawns weren't great, and it led to me doing a bit of spawncamping at one point unknowingly, as one of the bases we had to get the stretcher to was right next to the enemy spawn apparently, so while I was covering one side of the base along with Mr. @Hatchet (we made a pretty great team to be fair and completely shut that side down), we were unknowingly shooting pretty much into their spawn at times.

We totally dominated that game and it did feel like the yellow team gave up after that base that was too close to their spawn. I played a lot more active than I usually do and it paid off as I got a LOT of good shots. After lunch they rebalanced the teams and we played a balloon game where each team had a load of balloons that we had to take to bases to score them. The further the base from our spawn, the more points each balloon would be worth. The energy that the blue team had in the morning was completely gone though and we got rolled, with me and my friend sniping along one side feeling like we were the front line for most of the game. I did also shoot the same guy four times behind a barricade and he kept getting medic'd, despite only having one medic life; at least he called the hits, but... yeah, waaaaaay too many medic lives. Reported that to the marshalls. Also the marshalls made someone take their ghillie off today because they weren't taking hits as they "couldn't feel it". Marshall watched them get laced up and not call it, so they sent them back to the car park to take the ghillie off. Marshalls were generally on it today and were on top of all the shifty behaviour that happened to my knowledge, so big props to the marshall team today for dealing with stuff there and then. While I would say there was more shifty behaviour today than normal, the marshalls were on top of it all.

Last two games were three base domination games. Didn't get too many good shots in these games, as Worthing is really, really, really difficult for sniping now. If you stand, there's overhanging branches and coppices that block your shots, and if you go prone the brambles are too high and you won't have good lines of sight. Crouching is basically the way to go, but even then some of the brambles are still too high, not to mention the bottom of the site being literally unplayable if you have an MED; well, you can use your pistol, but if I go to the bottom part of the site, I may as well leave the bolt action at the top, so I didn't even bother going down to the bottom of the site in any of the games. I got a few with the pistol on people who pretty much walked up to me and didn't spot me, got a few at silly long range posting it through a gap in the coppices towards one of the bases, and in the second game when we swapped ends, I got a few on some players trying to be sneaky, so that was nice.