SE Tour Review: The Mall - Reading (Berkshire - CLOSED)

[Asomodai]

Site Name: The Mall

Contact details: 07796860685

Website Address: http://www.zedadventures.co.uk/airsoft/rules-urban/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Zed-Adventures-Airsoft-the-Mall-Reading/495961147174293

Site Address: Garrard Street, Reading, RG1 1NR

 

After a recommendation, we decided to finally check out The Mall. It was a Thursday night which has been stated as being the better time to play. Whether you can call this the South East of England is up for debate, but we'll gloss over that one!

 

The Mall is in central Reading right next to the train station so easy to get to on public transport.  

 

Previous reviews had been mixed, but have recently seen a marked improvement in the past year or so. 

 

This a small/medium sized Urban indoor CQB environment. Short to medium range engagement distances. The site has plenty of elevation with many stairwells and vertical play. 

 

Good:

 

Transport: The site as stated is right next to the main Reading train station, there is a bunch of taxis outside, buses are regular. Quite easy to get to in terms of from London. Parking is plentiful and has a marshal to guide you into and out. 

 

Its a freakin' mall: My buddy and I agreed we have never felt more operator then when playing at the Mall, genuine CQB tactics are needed here, room clearing, rushing etc. The layout is incredibly fun, it is less about the shop front areas and more about the basement and stock room/access areas. Stairwell fights are intense, the vertical engagements are the most difficult but rewarding. Soft play area is a bonus if you need to take a time out. There are some surprisingly long engagement distances due to some huge open rooms. 

 

Marshaling: Much like its sister site Battle Lakes, the marshaling was second to none. Fantastic briefing by a funny guy, literally covered everything in a quick and timely manner. People listened and took it in. The other marshals were very friendly and genuinely seemed to care about the players. They picked up on infringements and dealt with them accordingly. 

 

Game modes: Were plentiful and interesting, First was infection which gave us a fantastic bit of vertical skirmish action, ending in a massive firefight in a large room. The last game was unique and my favorite of the night, acquire the photographer and get a photo taken to get points. The more people in the photo and performing depraved poses, the more points you get. Fantastic. 

 

Safe Zone: Two large rooms to set up in, seats and actual table/stations to set up on. Unexpected in an urban CQB site and greatly welcomed. There were two male toilets and a female/staff toilet, they had an actual sink with genuine soap. Snacks and various cans and bottles of drink were available for purchase. There were various second hand RIFs available for sale as well as a rare boneyard section (Pretty much unheard of at a site in my experience). 

 

Clientele: A much younger clientele then expected and a fair few rentals. But for the most part the players worked very well together and against one another. People for the majority took their hits well, helped eachother out and took RISKS for each other. You genuinely felt like a team. 

 

Rentals: I did not hear one complaint about the rental guns. They looked clean and pretty new. Good rentals are important for the future of the sport. 

 

Timely turn around: Games had a 10 minutes maximum turnaround. We felt that we got the maximum amount of game time possible for an evening. 

 

Average: 

 

Shop: Was quite limited due to space. Appeared to sell mostly second hand RIF's with a limited stock of BB's and gas. 

 

Bad:

 

None: Apart from, why couldn't this site be closer to East London! 

 

Conclusion: 

 

What a real gem of a site! We enjoyed ourselves immensely. The site was run efficiently, we had fun, we felt operator and we were ridiculously knackered by the time we got home. Do NOT take this site for granted, its incredible that we have access to an abandoned mall in this country. Get yourself down there before it will inevitably lost to regeneration. My battle buddy and I could only WISH that we had a site like this in London. 

 

We had slight annoyances with some players not taking 50/50 hits, this is not the sites fault though and is indicative of fast rush based CQB. 

 

Zed Adventures marshals and sites are simply the best that I have encountered. You can tell that money and love are put into these skirmishes. We wouldn't hesitate to recommend this site. Go there and enjoy it whilst it exists! I should have prefaced this by saying, I am not a CQB player and generally don't enjoy short engagement distance. I think that says a lot.

 

BRING A TRACER UNIT, YOU WILL HAVE SO MUCH MORE FUN WITH ONE

 

[MisterG]

Good review, what was the temperatture like inside?

 

I got a really good workout when I played there and was really sweating, and that was when it was 18 outside.

 

Been holding off going back until it is cooler, but I can only go on a Sunday.

 

Cheers

G

[Asomodai]

2 minutes ago, MisterG said:

Good review, what was the temperatture like inside?

 

I got a really good workout when I played there and was really sweating, and that was when it was 18 outside.

 

Been holding off going back until it is cooler, but I can only go on a Sunday.

 

Cheers

G

 

A balmy sweaty 27 degrees. My buddy had to go outside for a breather every so often. I carry very lightweight kit so managed the entire night with no big issues. I didn't bother with glasses and went with mesh. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting. 

[ImTriggerHappy]

Good review buddy glad you enjoyed it and will pass it on to the staff when next there.

 

Give a Sunday a go as well to compare the two. I actually prefer Sundays as it is more of a challenge and I can sometimes almost get bored on a Thursday. We are all different so what suits some isn't right for others.

 

Didn't make last night as had a choice between Thursday and Saturday and Saturday won. The wife would go nuts if I did both.

[Lozart]

Great review, but as CQB sites go I wouldn't say 250,000 sq ft is "small to medium".

[Asomodai]

10 minutes ago, Lozart said:

Great review, but as CQB sites go I wouldn't say 250,000 sq ft is "small to medium".

 

I typically use a universal rating. Which to me would mean it is small to medium. 

 

It is probably leaning more to a medium size though. I mostly do woodland sites so I compare it to those. There is no perfect review format. 

[Albiscuit]

Great job, its my favourite and usual go to site!! Couldn't agree more with what you said!

Like Trigger said try a sunday too, its a totally different type of day. I LOVE the smaller thursday/saturday/special games as its more like 20-30 per team where as a Sunday can be 120 odd people. But Sundays are a different kind of fun to the smaller ones, especially if you know the site anyway  

 

But as Lozart said I would imagine as CQB sites go this is one of the larger ones, unless proven wrong!

[Asomodai]

13 minutes ago, Albiscuit said:

Great job, its my favourite and usual go to site!! Couldn't agree more with what you said!

Like Trigger said try a sunday too, its a totally different type of day. I LOVE the smaller thursday/saturday/special games as its more like 20-30 per team where as a Sunday can be 120 odd people. But Sundays are a different kind of fun to the smaller ones, especially if you know the site anyway  

 

But as Lozart said I would imagine as CQB sites go this is one of the larger ones, unless proven wrong!

 

I concede it is probably the largest CQB site by some margin in the UK. However my strictly inflexible review system cant say its a large site

 

I am generally not a fan of CQB and especially large numbers. So I would be reluctant to try it, but who knows! 

 

A lot more sites out there to try first! But we will be back. 

[Albiscuit]

1 hour ago, Asomodai said:

A lot more sites out there to try first! But we will be back. 

 

Thats fair... We had every intention of travelling to loads of different sites but tend to goto the same so good on ya!! Variety is the spice of life lol

[ImTriggerHappy]

Mall is 250,000 sq/ft, as for which is the biggest CQB site in the UK not a clue.

[E21A]

Was a really good evening. The marshals are excellent and the guy with the Mohawk has a brilliant sense of humour. 

 

A little frustrating at times but only due to not knowing the layout etc. Games were really good and varied. Players were very good and honest, calls of good shot and fist bumps were plentiful. 

 

Travel took a lot longer than than I expected so won’t be as regular a visit but will be going back on a few Sunday’s in the future. 

[Gtech]

Thanks for the review, I've still not tried it yet.

Would you say it's sufficient to turn up with a pistol or with the variety in range it's worth bringing the rifle?

[Asomodai]

39 minutes ago, Gtech said:

Thanks for the review, I've still not tried it yet.

Would you say it's sufficient to turn up with a pistol or with the variety in range it's worth bringing the rifle?

 

If you have a short rifle by all means go for it. My Aug more then held its own and the tracer just kicked ass. Didn't use my Pistol as much as I thought to be honest. 

[MisterG]

1 hour ago, Gtech said:

Thanks for the review, I've still not tried it yet.

Would you say it's sufficient to turn up with a pistol or with the variety in range it's worth bringing the rifle?

I used a scorpion evo and enjoyed it.  Didn't have a pistol at the time, which reminds me gas just delivered, off to try the G17.

 

Cheers

 

G

[Lozart]

Strikeforce is TINY by comparison. It's a basically a big "killhouse" style place with loads of particle board walls. Bloody great fun though!

 

I'm not sure that the Mall is actually 250k sq ft now that the dogleg has gone. I miss the dogleg. It was great. Back when you could actually use full auto down the concourse I set up an M249 at the corner of the dogleg and managed to wipe out half the other team in one fell swoop. Good times.

[ImTriggerHappy]

No game Thursday this week

[Tiercel]

The Mall is a fantastic site and great fun when it runs well, when it doesnt run so well... its a little less fun. I much prefer the Thursday night games as they tend to be a lot less "who can spray the most hicaps down a corridor" and more sneaky. Not so much fun when it ends in bottlenecks of hicap heros/trackie rentals. Though I did notice on my last visit theyve changed some of the wall layouts and this has resulted in much better flow and less bottlenecks. 

 

They also enforce the "BFGs must be below knee height" with an iron fist, although it always seems to be the player marshal whom I've just used the grenade on saying it was too high and Im no longer allowed to use it that day... despite rolling it along the floor.. maybe they just have very short legs and low knee heights 😏 

 

The walk-on fees are getting a little steep too, I suppose they have to pay a lot of rental fee for a central location like that, and actually paying their marshals, but £37 for walkon, plus best part of £20 on travel to get there means its becoming too expensive for a regular skirmish and now just an occasional treat to visit. 

 

Also sod respawning in the bloody elevator room!   God I hate walking up and down those escalators!

[E21A]

18 minutes ago, Tiercel said:

 

 

The walk-on fees are getting a little steep too, I suppose they have to pay a lot of rental fee for a central location like that, and actually paying their marshals, but £37 for walkon, plus best part of £20 on travel to get there means its becoming too expensive for a regular skirmish and now just an occasional treat to visit. 

 

 

This is the main thing putting me off, it was good, but doesn’t really justify the cost/travel time for regular visits. 

 

Gonna try out south coast CQB, same travel distance but less time and a lot cheaper. £15 for evening game vs £27 at the mall. Plus I sort of know the place having spent a week there some time ago. 

[ImTriggerHappy]

2 hours ago, Tiercel said:

 

They also enforce the "BFGs must be below knee height" with an iron fist, although it always seems to be the player marshal whom I've just used the grenade on saying it was too high and Im no longer allowed to use it that day... despite rolling it along the floor.. maybe they just have very short legs and low knee heights 😏 

Or maybe it is just proof that PMs are a great tool for catching people taking the piss when they think no marshal is looking 🤔

 

2 hours ago, Tiercel said:

Also sod respawning in the bloody elevator room!   God I hate walking up and down those escalators!

Use the other stairs because those escalators suck after a couple of times. Steps are higher and they really screw up your legs.