So today I went skirmishing for the first time...

[Josh95]

No I'm not being judgemental! I'm defo not conformed to many many social norms, just the awkward air of snobbery, superiority really wasn't pleasant

Actually I totally agree with that,

It seems to occur in most hobbies unfortunately.

 

Dont let them bother you nevertheless, sometimes the rental guys can be more effective then the guys with £1000 kit lol

[Ian_Gere]

I'm weird. Not a gear-snob, but definitely outside most social norms.

 

I classify sites by what I call their ACF, or Absolute Cock Factor. Roughly speaking the more often you find yourself thinking, "You absolute cock!" as a result of someone's behaviour/speech, the higher the ACF, and the longer I give it as a mental cross through future dates at that site. For sure absolute cocks can turn up new to the site, but if the general atmosphere maintained by the marshals is hostile to knobheadery, without being hostile to the perpetrators, they will be either on the bus or under it.

 

Good marshalling takes more than just knowing the rules and how to pull players on infractions without turning into a jobsworth. Sites which maintain a good ethos tend to be run by people who have been involved in the sport for quite a long time, although that doesn't mean that the particular site has been operating for a long time, nor is experience a guarantee of good psychology - Anzio Camp for eg. Your best bet is to look for independent reviews of sites you consider visiting. We have reviews on here, although it is a somewhat neglected forum, or there's the FB group airsoft sites in the uk reviewed; not sure i'd take what gets printed in the likes of Airsoft International without a pinch of salt though...

[bornleverpuller]

I think a lot gets made of how you're meant to play this game, the answer is there is no right way as long as you are following the rules.

[SuicidalBarrelRoll]

I think a lot gets made of how you're meant to play this game, the answer is there is no right way as long as you are following the rules.

But smoking in game and not playing? Naaa

[Chock]

But smoking in game and not playing? Naaa

 

Agreed, wouldn't do that, couldn't anyway what with all the lower face mesh etc. I do smoke, but Christ on a bike if you can't wait until the game's finished then it's pretty desperate.

[Sitting Duck]

Near Twickenham, this was tactical warfare airsoft ( not to slur their name, still overall a great day )

 

just popped in coz on hol is US atm - life's a 8itch I know

 

Blimey - TWA is Croydon Surrey not Twickenham.

 

Alas there are one or two of younger players there who have a tendency not to take hits straight away

My local site and it can get frustrating to the more serious players I know.

It is on my doorstep and I tend not to take it too seriously - but I do like to think I take hits - think coz it means f*ck all to me in mega serious terms

(I know I am crap so I often call it even if unsure where as others tend to ignore a "possible" or "was that a bb ?" tap on them)

 

Usually if somebody reports non-hits then marshalls Pete,John, Simon & Sam will test out their GBB pistols on them quite regularly

 

But there is perhaps 1 or 2 that may not play fairly as others I will admit - f*cking shame coz it can ruin it for others and think that some

of the more serious or skilled players have maybe gone to the more serious sites like Sandpitt or Mall etc...

 

Really sorry there was more to$$ers than usual, normally it ain't mega mega bad non-hit takers but you always get 1 or 2 in many places I think

 

It is a cheap & cheerful site - but I must admit the DMR sounds bollox to me coz they really are so hot on safety, everything chrono's

so can't work out why they woulkd of let somebody use higher fps with easy auto option & not locked to semi - that really amazes me

They say you gotta know wtf MED is all about before they will allow you to use it

And have seen first hand them kick peeps off for the slightest bending of safety guidelines

 

Well none of that crap yesterday was me coz was over in Orlando - ahh well

seriously - I'm sorry you didn't have a great game at my local and it was a bit of a w@nk

perhaps try other sites if the cheap & cheerful TWA is not for you

 

Next time if anybody gives me & son a shout then I can try & ensure I'm on enemy team and will be the perfect hit taking twat for you to shoot at

 

Happy New Year anyway - shoot ya later

[Ian_Gere]

 

Agreed, wouldn't do that, couldn't anyway what with all the lower face mesh etc. I do smoke, but Christ on a bike if you can't wait until the game's finished then it's pretty desperate.

Oh i dunno, i've put my 1/2 face on top of my head to have a fag in game before - long games with long walks to regen, that kind of thing, but also whilst just giving myself time to recover from running while at regen i've been known to spark up. In theory it's not allowed at Skirmish, because it's woodland... and pyro's are less likely to cause fires? My hole. So i do it anyway.

[n1ckh]

I sometimes have a smoke during a game but its more often during a brief or on way back to the safe zone although I did smoke during a game but burnt my lip so I dont do that unless hanging around waiting when I'm in fire support role

[Chock]

On the subject of smoking: Just out to shops earlier in my car and found out where the end of my cig went that fell off when I was driving back from skirmish yesterday: This occurred whilst I was trying to avoid some dickhead in a shiny new black Range Rover, who was driving like a complete tit on the motorway. He was about two inches off my back bumper flashing his lights onto main beam repeatedly, apparently because I was doing fifty mph on the section of the M61 with a speed limit of, you guessed it, fifty. Little hole burnt in the edge of the sun visor. No big deal, ditching that car in about two months anyway.

 

Guess that driver in his shiny new sixty grand RR was another case of 'all the gear and no idea' lol.

[n1ckh]

Wonder if he was a 'white van man' in a previous t*at life lol or has no idea how to keep at a safe distance ??

 

Glad to see 'all the gear and no idea' is working its way into peoples everyday vocabulary

 

At least you know where the cherry went Chock and didn't burn the car up

[SuicidalBarrelRoll]

 

 

It is a cheap & cheerful site - but I must admit the DMR sounds bollox to me coz they really are so hot on safety, everything chrono's

so can't work out why they woulkd of let somebody use higher fps with easy auto option & not locked to semi - that really amazes me

They say you gotta know wtf MED is all about before they will allow you to use it

 

Maybe he was just calling it a DMR, but it looked the biz and he said something about higher FPS

[Albiscuit]

Its a shame your first was such a negative experience. Stick with it and try other venues though. I have currently only been to three different sites and the one we went too last Sunday was by far the best experience I have had at a skirmish. We went to Epsom tunnels and it was such a great day. I shall put a short review in the relevant forum later....

[team flex]

Hit taking was so so questionable from even regulars, and it was quite uncomfortable seeing people who aren't good and can't play well with £700 quid VSR 10s and £800 Top Tech M4s. Is this normal, or did I have bad luck?

I have found this before. Had people moan about me not taking hits and i pointed out that actually his gun was missing by a good 10+ metres. I guess there will always be people who are overconfident about their guns

[Lozart]

I have found this before. Had people moan about me not taking hits and i pointed out that actually his gun was missing by a good 10+ metres. I guess there will always be people who are overconfident about their guns

Yep, all too often people spend a fortune on upgrades and convince themselves that their gun is better than it actually is. Plus no amount of tactical frippery makes up for being a crap shot!

[Albiscuit]

Yep, all too often people spend a fortune on upgrades and convince themselves that their gun is better than it actually is. Plus no amount of tactical frippery makes up for being a crap shot!

 

 

Totally, Realised my gun was firing high at to the right for the first time the other week, explains why they wasnt taking their hits earlier on in the game also make me realise the range was not as good as I originally assumed, still im sure my run behind enemy lines with my pistol took out more than actually called

[NickM]

Its easy to run a sh!t site with few players, players who aren't friendly and lots of new people coming through. The challenge is to make a site that people want to come back to time and time again because it is everything a site is supposed to be and pushing all the time to get better, even if it means driving long distances or being inconvenienced to use it.

 

I used to live in an area with about 4 sites within 40 mins drive, and another 4 within an hour. But where did I find myself playing on the most regular basis, 1hr 30mins away at UCAP Sandpit. Why? Because the day was just so much more enjoyable there than any of the other 8, the players were great, the marshals were nice guys who kept on top of things and the games were interesting. One of those 8 was TWA on Featherbed Ln. although I haven't played there I was warned off by some of my team mates. The one of the closest 4 I would have played more regularly was EAG Worthing but it was the furthest away from the rest of my teammates who all lived around the M25. The site itself isn't especially brilliant just because of its layout and that they cant really build anything structures wise, but the marshals and regulars were a really great bunch who did a hell of a lot with the little they had.

 

Now I live in Norwich, but I'm itching to get back to the pit some time soon and it's a 5 hr round trip!!! I've sampled one of the sites in the area but have yet to give Gunman Norwich a go, I'm looking forward to it as Gunman have a damn good reputation.

[BrightCandle]

I am guessing I know quite a few of the TWA and UCAP guys. Sorry I haven't played the last month my house flooded and I have been dealing with the aftermath. Will be at UCAP in a couple of weeks time if the weather is OK.

 

Anyhow I tend to agree about sites. TWA is one of those sites where I liked a particular group of guys more than the site as a whole. The games themselves IMO aren't that fantastic and the site is a bit too small for what I would ideally like tactically. But some of the guys who attended there in summer/autumn are good friends and so I find my games there are a bit mixed. Its a very underdeveloped site and the marshals are pretty friendly and its a bit of fun and not super super serious. I don't think its a bad site like bunker 51, nor is it an unsafe site like Epsom bunkerr, its OK its just not amazing. UCAP sandpit is a completely different game style, 2 halves and basically one game played in 2 different directions in a large open space.

 

Billericay is actually my favourite site of the ones I play in around London, because its woodland (which is one of TWA's strengths compared to UCAP which is mostly open ground) and because its really well developed. Benches and food stalls and such that are part of the site and its really well built and constantly changing and its big and has a lot of players. Its also quite tactical, you can really flank all the way around if you want to, which in UCAP is kind of impossible, its possible to have a wide front but its open enough they see you doing it and defence can often stop it, and if its in the CQB area around the buildings obviously its a bit more fatal funnel driven. UCAP is the one place I have had people calling me out more than any other place (yeah I wasn't hit, they were missing by meters) but I just walked away as the aggression was a concern for me. They need to get that in check on that site.

 

I have found there to be great guys and less than nice guys at all these sites, I think in the end they all have decent marshals and the game is pretty much fair all around. None of them are 100% on the people front however. If anything I would rather get the gang together and choose to play sites as I find playing with the gents who I get on with (D, J and T) more important to me than playing any one particular site. Whether the other side appears to be cheating or not doesn't matter to me, I to some extent have seen my BBs do crazy things, these guns just aren't as accurate as people sometimes think they are and so I just assume the other guy has a better gun and is a better shot, I don't try to worry too much about it.

[Sitting Duck]

When TWA had urban it was the nutz - alas that is gone

 

Team Nuclear Waste used to play at TWA Woodland spring/summer but they have stopped

though 1 or 2 of them turn up from time to time and show us noobs how its done

 

TWA is a cheap & cheerful site like I have said - not the best and most serious I admit

but is good to get ya feet wet so to speak and in my case on doorstep and perfect for getting ukara

£20 full walk-on or £10 for half day, shop sells stuff at good prices, takes safety seriously I found

 

They run on Saturday's rather than Sunday's like many sites but maybe not for the more serious players

But I try not to take it too seriously and go for fun and often have a laugh, keep me ukara up, break a gun etc...

Son normally goes full day - drop him off and pop back in afternoon for half a day with any stuff he/we may need

 

So though it may not be the perfect site for some it does me and will continue to visit as its so local

Might pop down Epsom again, or one day try Mall and/or Sandpitt with more "serious" players

(might have to grow up a bit myself - so it might be a while before I check out Mall though)

[Lozart]

 

So though it may not be the perfect site for some it does me and will continue to visit as its so local

Might pop down Epsom again, or one day try Mall and/or Sandpitt with more "serious" players

(might have to grow up a bit myself - so it might be a while before I check out Mall though)

 

You don't need to be a grown up to enjoy the Mall. I'm certainly not. Just the same as anywhere really - try not to be a dick. And learn to love running up and down stairs in the dark.

[Sitting Duck]

Ahh the trying not to be a dick bit may take a while for me - kidding (sort of)

 

well deffo may try mall as I enjoyed cqb - think its funnier too

like when chubby & a few of ya get wedged in a doorway and peeps yelling move move move

and the classic - is anyone in there ya wonder as you peek a corner...

CRACK - yup HIT - deffo somebody in there as I just got my head shot off

[BrightCandle]

The Marhsals at the Mall astounded me. While at TWA they are friendly and at Billericay they are very professional the ones at the Mall are just incredible. The place is kind of famous for its long briefing but dang do they really think about the safety of their players. The game I played there sort of soured in the afternoon as some hit calling was being questioned and the marshalls were on it. We got this wonderful talk, not just about assuming the other guy was honest but also a warning to those players with plates and chest rigs about how they wouldn't feel the hits and how important it was for them to pay attention. It really got me thinking about moving and the sound of being hit and how hard those two things were together. I really didn't like the gameplay in the mall, it wasn't very tactical it was just close quarters and chaotic but at the same time it as a very good site that is really well run.