As is so often the case, a rather dull Sunday morning saw the omniphagus Volvo conveying me to Airsoft Plantation in the rather curious county of Essex.
180 players were present, with an unusually high percentage being either first time visitors to the site or new to airsoft; nobody that I usually team up with was present.
I started the day by checking the setup of the ASG FLCN 5.56 that was an impulse buy when I dropped into JD Airsoft a couple of weeks ago, while in Cannock doing lights for a festival which featured possibly the last appearance of the band that I have worked with for a quarter of a century. All that I had done was to replace the hop rubber and nub and the spring. Over a measured 70m distance with the hop set for perfect flight it was putting out 1.03J; lovely!
The first game required the Blue team, who started on the firebreak, to get two players onto the upper floors of the five two storey buildings in the village; they had infinite regens on the firebreak, while we had two lives. I started off in the two storey building by the now dried up pond, which soon became rather lively as the enemy attacked directly from the firebreak and flanked around past the border. After some great fights and several very satisfying hits, a BB found me and I moved back to the woods to help defend the sniper tower and the town hall against blue players who had flanked right around the far end of the site. We had a great time stalking each other in the woods and, in our case, providing flanking fire against attacks against the sniper tower. The game timed out with the Blues having taken two of the required buildings.
The game was then turned around and I joined a group who were attacking via the suburbs; we pushed into the village and, after a hard fight, took the two storey buildings at that end of the village, getting the requisite two players onto the upper floors of each. Our colleagues attacking from other directions had similar success and we occupied all of the buildings with 45 seconds left on the clock.
1-0 to the Reds
Having reloaded, it was time for the briefing for the next game; before this, the site owner gave a very stiff talk about hit taking. I had not noticed any problems, with everyone that I thought I hit raising their hand and walking off, but it seems that there had been an unusually high number of complaints about it. We were informed that anyone found not taking their hits would be required to leave. Fair enough!
The next game required us to transfer three bombs in a box to three locations in the mortar pits and set them off; the box required two people to carry it and the bombs could only be transported in the box. We had infinite regens on a marshal, while the defenders had two lives. Leaving the DEA base, we ran into a fierce resistance that initially brought us to a halt, but we found a way through and delivered our bombs to the bridge, the tunnels and, finally, the Bedford.
When this game was turned around, a group of us initially took up a position in the Hill Fort, from where we slowed the enemy's attack. Eventually being hit, I fell back to the cover of a large berm from which I was able to pick off some of the enemy now occupying the Hill Fort. There was then a shout that the enemy were attacking in strength on our far left; a group of us ran over to help the defenders, who were trying to repel an attack along the flanking berm on that side; I hit several of the attackers before eventually being hit just as the game ended. The enemy did not bomb all their targets.
2-0 to the Reds
Lunch followed, immediately after which we played a short game; starting at the bus in the mortar pits, we were given a 60 second head start to run and take up positions anywhere on that side of the firebreak. The Blues had to hunt us down and kill as many of us as they could in ten minutes. We had one life, while they had infinite regens. Having run away as fast as we could, a group of us took up a number of positions in the scrubland, potting attackers as we slowly fell back to the far end of the site, where we met up with others, including all of our ghillies, to make a stand. When the game ended, 45 of our team had been killed.
In the return of this game, we set out rapidly after the retreating blue team, trying to to hunt them down before they could get organised, which we didn't quite manage to do; nevertheless, we managed to kill 55 of them.
3-0 to the Reds
For the final game, starting at the border, the blue team had to transport a very large bag of Bob Marley's favourite recreational substance to the Cock Inn in the village, where they could exchange it for a suitcase full of Colombia's finest, which they then had to get into the Cessna. They had infinite buddy regens, while we had one life in the village and two on the other side of the firebreak. My involvement in the first part of this was somewhat limited as a BB skimmed the brim of my boonie, sending me trudging off to the other side of the firebreak, where I set myself up in the Hill Fort, being joined by a few colleagues. We waited for quite a while for the Blue team to complete their transaction in the village; once they had, it became apparent that they were not heading in our direction, so most of us set off for the area around the Cessna, where a disjointed but fierce set of fights ensued as the attackers tried to get the suitcase into it. Lurking behind the rather overgrown biplane, I took out a fair few attackers before the game ended with them failing to achieve their objective.
4-0 to the Reds
From my perspective, it was a thoroughly enjoyable day of airsoft; I did not encounter any hit taking issues, despite the concerns that some players seemed to have.
Weapons used:
ASG FLCN 5.56 (made by Double Eagle)
Double Eagle Honey Badger/PDW
ASG XP18 Commander (CO2)
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