Milsim 1-2day in NW?

[Jangalak]

Hi all, I am fairly new to airsoft and want to try out some milsim. I can see some awesome events further south and up in Scotland but can't seem to find anything near me in the NW (I live in Chester). Any recommendations? Cheers

[Baz JJ]

Talk to Gunman NW - they sometimes hold milsims or themed games in the North West.

[Jangalak]

Thanks dude I'll try them out. Any other suggestions?

[Chock]

Not quite a Milsim, but sort of along those lines in terms of outfits at least, is an all weekend event at Trojan Airsoft, including staying on site at night if you want to, with a late night BBQ etc. Trojan Airsoft has two NW sites, a woodland site near Macclesfield and a CQB site in an old six storey mill in Stockport town centre (so, only 40 miles from you). The Stockport Weir Mill site has an all weekend 'Red Dawn' themed event this coming Saturday and Sunday.

 

The scenario for the entire weekend is that the UK has been invaded by Soviet troops, so, everyone attending is split into two sides, you have to wear military outfit if you are on the Russian side, whereas you can wear anything you like if you are on the UK partisan force side. 60 quid all in for the entire weekend, or 30 quid for one day, or, if you just wanna do the day but not the evening skirmish, it is 25 quid. I'm going to do the Saturday from 9am til 6pm and miss out the evening skirmish (off to the pub that night instead), and I decided to go on the Brit 'partisan' side, which will apparently be a bit more 'sneaky' according to the organiser and is likely to be a smaller force.

 

Note that the Stockport CQB site has some rules about not using full auto and some rules about pistols only in some locations, so make sure you pack a pistol and a rifle capable of semi-auto or single shot if you want to be able to fight in all locations within the mill. There are also rules about what kind of pyros you can use.

 

If you wanna know more about it, check out their website, where you will find contact details etc: http://trojan-airsoft.com/

[Jangalak]

Cheers Chock that looks really good. I've had a look at their website and really appeals - not enough good behaviour points with wife for this weekend but I've got something to work toward.

 

Have you heard anything about Shock and Awe in North Wales - any good?

[Chock]

Not heard anything about that, but as noted, I am going to that Red Dawn one, so I'll let you know what it was like. It will make a change for me to be doing CQB there in daylight.

 

Normally I go to Trojan at Stockport on their league-based 'Purge' nights. They have a prize for the ultimate winner over a few weeks, and it is a good laugh, although that place gets seriously warm when you are in there in full combat gear. The Purge Night is not a milsim though, so it might not appeal to you, but it is certainly a challenge, taking place using all six storeys of the mill interior, in total darkness, apart from the odd bit of light from street lamps coming through the (mainly broken) windows. All teams get 18 lives (little blue ribbons) regardless of numbers in the team, if you get shot you can be mediced, providing someone can get to you, but if an enemy gets to you, you have to surrender a ribbon, if nobody gets to you in four minutes, you are dead and have to drop down a level in the building to respawn. If all your team lives are gone, you are then sent to the safe area and given an armband marking you as part of the hunter squad (no size limit on that team). When you are a hunter, you cannot have ribbons taken off you, but can collect them, so you can 'get back in the game' in spite of having been knocked out. At the end of the night, the team with the most ribbons is the winner, the rest being ranked in descending order on the leader board.

 

So as you can imagine, when I was there the other night with a team consisting of me and just one other person (which I named 'the bullet magnets' as i expected that's what we'd be), we had nine lives each, so thanks to being sneaky, stealth f*ck*rs (on account of me being equipped with night vision) we survived the entire evening despite losing a few ribbons each, so there are some advantages to being on a small team! Usually It's very stealthy stuff most of the time, although having said that, I did have a really seriously intense prolonged gun battle in there the other night with I think six versus six, because my team of just two people formed a truce with four other guys from another team for the last twenty minutes of the evening and then went after another six man team. It was in that last twenty minutes that I lost two of my ribbons, but it was worth it because the gun battle we had was excellent, with people zipping tac lights and lasers on and off quickly, in attempts to try to spot people but not give away their positions lest they invite a hail of fire. One guy actually had the lens shot out of his tac light on his rifle.

[straffham]

Thanks dude I'll try them out. Any other suggestions?

Have a look at the "Northwest Airsoft Alliance" facebook page, also Shock and Awe's facebook,usually have a lot going on. Alpha55 sometimes run milsim themed games but usually one day. Both above siteds also do away games eg to Catterick and other sites. I usually play at Alpha, not got round to S&A yet though as their games are on Sundays as a rule which is difficult for me.

[Jangalak]

@chock you've totally sold me on trying out Trojan. You're purge mission sounds awesome - I think the next one is a few weeks off so I am gonna try the resident evil event in the meantime.

 

It's off topic but any recommendations for tac lights? I'll need em by the sound of it. I'll try to remember to drop you as message when I go so I can say "thanks" for the recommendation.

[Jangalak]

@ straffham - thanks again mate. Alpha looks like it's at Halkyn which is pretty close to me so I'll give it a try. And yes I see now lots of the milsim events seem to be focused on the FIBUA locations so I'll just have to get driving.

 

Cheers - if I get to S&A I'll let you know what I think.

[Chock]

@chock you've totally sold me on trying out Trojan. You're purge mission sounds awesome - I think the next one is a few weeks off so I am gonna try the resident evil event in the meantime.

 

It's off topic but any recommendations for tac lights? I'll need em by the sound of it. I'll try to remember to drop you as message when I go so I can say "thanks" for the recommendation.

 

Yeah, the next purge night is a week on Wednesday, although they do have a regular skirmish night this coming Thursday if the Resident Evil thing this coming Wednesday doesn't float your boat.

 

Just got back from the Red Dawn event. It was a good laugh actually, lots of people hamming it up with fake Russian accents and the Brit side going all over the top cockney accents, although I ended up being on the Russkie side because some people didn't show up, bizarrely because it was raining, which is an odd excuse for not going to an indoor site, but there you go. Incidentally, we (the Russkies) were soundly thrashed by the UK partisans, but on the plus side, my team did well in the morning warm up skirmishes and I got a good many kills with my trusty M4. What was also cool, was that we had a player in a wheelchair, and he was kicking ass. We had to help him a little getting between floors, but other than that, he was a one-man-wrecking crew, so we managed it okay. It's good to know that airsoft is something that can include disabled players and pretty much on a level playing field too at that site.

 

With regard to Tac Lights, I got one of these the other day (it came in the post really quickly too), and can thoroughly recommend it:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181479919374?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

Don't be put off by the low price, that's a seriously good quality Tac Light. I've fixed the thumb switch to my front tactical grip and have the light mounted on the right side rail on my M4 SIR. The light is very cool, it is all metal, very bright, just the right beam width to illuminate targets at long CQB ranges, and the thumb switch has just the right amount of pressure to switch it on. I've had loads of great kills thanks to that light. It comes with a charger for the battery, the battery lasts a long time from what I can tell so far, and it also comes with a set of mounting clamps to fit it to a barrel if you don't have a tactical rail. Well worth fifteen quid. Will probably buy another two, one for for my MP5K and one for my 1911 pistol. Anyway, yes, you really do need a Tac light for Trojan at Stockport, even in the daytime there are a few floors of the building where it is in total darkness. I'd recommend a small torch as well. And if you have grenades there are lots of spots where they will prove decisive. Oh, and a training knife is not a bad idea either, as you can get knife kils there (the shop at the site sells good ones for 13 quid by the way, M4 bayonets in a scabbard).

[straffham]

@ straffham - thanks again mate. Alpha looks like it's at Halkyn which is pretty close to me so I'll give it a try. And yes I see now lots of the milsim events seem to be focused on the FIBUA locations so I'll just have to get driving.

 

Cheers - if I get to S&A I'll let you know what I think.

No worries mate, yeah would be good to get there myself. Shock and Awe is on an old MOD site and IIRC has some good props like a real decomissioned missile launcher vehicle: there was a review in Airsoft Action about a year ago.

Yeah Alpha55 is at Halkyn just off the A55 (hence the name obviously), I like Alpha as its usually really laid back and friendly, and good mix of age groups, abilities and players from noobs to sniper pro's lol, and decent sized site.Also doing a few pistol only games now which is a nice change, I was there for the summer social pistol tournament which is basically a one on one skirmish around and in a building, really funny moments as a spectator when players are diving out of a window, or when they both reach the same corner and you can see whats about to happen lol!

[Jangalak]

@chock - that's a great report from Red Dawn, hearing about the guy in the wheelchair really impressed me - glad to hear Trojan are able to be so inclusive and to hear the dude was a badass. And bad luck for the loss with your Komerades, but given renewed tensions with them there's no way they could let you win - bad for morale!

 

I have invested in the tac light you suggested - it's already been despatched on a Sunday so you were right about them being quick. I'll let you know what I think when it gets here. Also spent a little more and picked up an ASG tac light for my glock - I was gonna get two of the bigger ones but couldn't resist it looking so sleek on the G17.

 

I haven't got any grenades yet, I wanna maybe ask about at my next skirmish. They are bloody expensive so I'll have to take my time with those. Any advice? I like the idea of timed grenades but maybe they wouldn't be so useful as things move so quick?

 

And thanks for the advice on knives - I'll look into those too. Not gonna make it to resident evil this week but possibly the skirmish night.

 

Cheers

[Jangalak]

@chock - that's a great report from Red Dawn, hearing about the guy in the wheelchair really impressed me - glad to hear Trojan are able to be so inclusive and to hear the dude was a badass. And bad luck for the loss with your Komerades, but given renewed tensions with them there's no way they could let you win - bad for morale!

 

I have invested in the tac light you suggested - it's already been despatched on a Sunday so you were right about them being quick. I'll let you know what I think when it gets here. Also spent a little more and picked up an ASG tac light for my glock - I was gonna get two of the bigger ones but couldn't resist it looking so sleek on the G17.

 

I haven't got any grenades yet, I wanna maybe ask about at my next skirmish. They are bloody expensive so I'll have to take my time with those. Any advice? I like the idea of timed grenades but maybe they wouldn't be so useful as things move so quick?

 

And thanks for the advice on knives - I'll look into those too. Not gonna make it to resident evil this week but possibly the skirmish night.

 

Cheers

[Chock]

Check with sites to see what pyrotechnics are allowed at the specific site. Most have rules about that kind of thing, and as you say, they are pricey, so you don't want to buy something you can't use. At Trojan's indoor site, they allow timed grenades and impact grenades and that's it, and you can't lob them in stairwells. They do sometimes waive rules for specific themed days, for example, this weekend you were allowed to use smoke grenades, but normally they don't let you because it can set materials on fire, so they were very specific about where you could use it owing to the fact that some of the cover is hessian screening.

 

Timed grenades are more use than you might think. I got nailed by one on Saturday. I was holding off an entire enemy team on my own after all my squad died, because I was positioned to be able to fire through a doorway from very good cover and was laying down fire every time people popped out to try and take a shot at me, so I kept hitting guys, but of course they could be healed. It was their only way in, so it was a bit of a stalemate, since I had a high capacity mag in my M4, was firing on semi-auto and so I wasn't about to run out of ammo any time soon (although I did check it after and I'd fired about 250 rounds, all of them aimed single shots lol). Sure enough, someone rolled a timed grenade along the floor through that doorway, and I could not break cover to avoid it, as they'd have then been able to rush through the door. That grenade rolled up right alongside me, stopping about three meters from me and boom, I was hit.

[Jangalak]

@straffham Alpha 55 looks great thanks for the tip. I can't see a website for them, just a FB page - how do you know when the next game is?

 

I could handle some of that pistol action - sounds like a buzz - I will certainly give them a try whilst I am waiting for the right milsim experience. I bet the one-on-one games are bloody tense!

[straffham]

@straffham Alpha 55 looks great thanks for the tip. I can't see a website for them, just a FB page - how do you know when the next game is?

 

I could handle some of that pistol action - sounds like a buzz - I will certainly give them a try whilst I am waiting for the right milsim experience. I bet the one-on-one games are bloody tense!

They have games virtually every Saturday and Sunday, website is at www.iwantago.co.uk/about-us , (can't link direct off my phone sorry) shows gamedays and can book in/contact through there too. Hoping to get up there myself next Sat. They do have hire kit if required too but needs to be booked in advance if so. Be good to meet up if you get up there mate.

[Jangalak]

@straffham Thanks buddy that's great. Like the look of em. I'll drop you a line when I am coming down to say "hi". Cheers!