Thought on Bunker 51 & The Mall, please?

[dapprman]

I did The Mall in February as part of a meet up for another forum.

It was well marshalled, meaning it was hard for people to get away with not taking their hits (I believe two people were asked to leave in the afternoon, one of whom was given a permanent ban). The briefings were clear, well explained, but long. The games were about 20 minutes each, 3 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon, so actual game play for the day was not the greatest. Added to this there's always a fair walk back to the safe zone, so if, like me, you're using gas guns, you struggle to refill and reload in time.

The site itself is in very good condition, but there were too many choke points, meaning play became rather static - especially with the extra safety rules over grenades (can't throw above knee height, fine for timed grenades you can roll along, not particularly useful for impact ones).

As a whole, despite what I've written above, I actually enjoyed the day, and would do The Mall again, but it's the sort of place I could only do one to four times a year, no more.

Oh and as to food - they no longer give free lunch (they were stopped from doing it apparently) - but the price is/was not changed.

 

[Sitting Duck]

Shame Tactical WarFare lost Anerley urban site

Only got a woodland one now but think:

£20 day walk on

£10 half-day walk on - some places don't do half day walk ons

£20 gun hire mask etc... - they do not do half day hire though

so for me half day @ £10 is fine - getting too old for this $hit

and others wishing to rent etc...

£40 + hot dog or something for lunch - dunno I just go half day usually

think they pick you up from a nearby tram stop if you ask nicely & keep them informed

no mega a$$ briefings run by players for players they say

and good bunch of regulars I found too - even though they shoot my A$$ to bits

 

[Lozart]

I did The Mall in February as part of a meet up for another forum.

It was well marshalled, meaning it was hard for people to get away with not taking their hits (I believe two people were asked to leave in the afternoon, one of whom was given a permanent ban). The briefings were clear, well explained, but long. The games were about 20 minutes each, 3 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon, so actual game play for the day was not the greatest. Added to this there's always a fair walk back to the safe zone, so if, like me, you're using gas guns, you struggle to refill and reload in time.

The site itself is in very good condition, but there were too many choke points, meaning play became rather static - especially with the extra safety rules over grenades (can't throw above knee height, fine for timed grenades you can roll along, not particularly useful for impact ones).

As a whole, despite what I've written above, I actually enjoyed the day, and would do The Mall again, but it's the sort of place I could only do one to four times a year, no more.

Oh and as to food - they no longer give free lunch (they were stopped from doing it apparently) - but the price is/was not changed.

Food was unfortunately stopped because the insurance company stopped them cooking on site. The price did change but only by a pound!

I like it, but I've been a lot and I know the layout which helps a lot. It's fair to say though that the malls isn't for everyone.

 

[Black Death]

I've not tried bunker51 but I have visited the mall. Overall it's a good site and I can appreciate why it has won awards. It's quite large as sites go and the layout is brilliant. The guys that run it seem very nice which makes it all the harder to criticise it BUT I had one main frustration from my experience which was the lack of lighting. Yes most sites (especially cqb) will have dark areas and in some sites absolute pitch black but the mall just has too many areas like this. A little bit of this makes for exciting variance but too much of it means it encourages too many choking points and at times spray and pray type gameplay. I felt the fluidity was definitely reduced by stumbling blindly around where more running and fighting could have commenced.

On a more positive note, the terminator game mode is absolutely fucking AWESOME! If you haven't seen it before a guy dresses up as terminator and will take hundreds of bbs before he goes down for 30 seconds or so. He fights back with a fully auto support weapon which feels like being shot at by an entire team at once.

If you can get down to the site then do so. In my honest opinion it's not the best ever site but it's very far from the worst either

 

[jeffery7466]

I'm also looking at EAG Epsom. It looks pretty cool! Its also closer so easier to plan.

Also, has anyone been to airsoft sites that are abandoned buildings around London, a bit like this?

I know that's in France, but KhanSeb is pretty awesome.

 

[BrightCandle]

I play at Bunker 51 a lot and its OK. The main problem is the site is quite small, its all focussed around a single fatal funnel from a T shaped design CQB area. The difference between winning and loosing is normally just about 5 metres of positioning, winning is just getting a key point and holding it and its very hard once the game is being won or lost to change the outcome. Its decent on safety, its kind of dark but not flashlight dark and its quite expensive considering its only 3 hours on a Saturday evening at the same price as everyone else is for the day, with expensive rentals (and bad rental guns). The floor is usually covered in paintball gunky although it depends, so sometimes its slippery and other times its not. Mostly semi auto, you can get away with a pistol all night because the ranges are very low.

Its high action and low on tactics.

 

[PT247]

EAG Epsom is fun but I'd not want to do a whole day there as it is too small. The Wednesday eve game there is just about the right time span.