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SE Tour Review: Tech Brigade (Hertfordshire)


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Site Name: Tech Brigade

Telephone number: 07841 713356

Website Address: http://techbrigade.org/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/techbrigade/

Site Address: Warren Wood, Newgate street village, SG13 8NH

 

With my battle buddy absent, I hooked up with @Robert James and took advantage of his mobility largess to visit a site we have both wanted to visit for a while "Tech Brigade". This is one site that rarely advertises and can be hard to find reviews, though the ones I had read were somewhat middling to critical. There were around 25 skirmishers on a cold and windy day. 

 

This is a large woodland environment. Basically set in valleys, very few flat surfaces, lots of elevation, lots of dense packed trees but with many natural paths and open space. A mix of high and low vegetation. The engagement distances can be incredibly long, which really is a sniper/DMR heaven. Some purpose built structures but mostly incidental. There are some small streams running through the site, though are dammed up. 

 

The owners do not advertise itself as a traditional commercial site and just a bunch of enthusiasts that play in private woodland every two weeks. However I will be reviewing it as a normal commercial site because they do charge £20, produce merch and they have a limited onsite shop. This is more expensive then some commercial sites and has more features then some so shall be reviewed as such. 

 

Good:

 

Size of playing area: The playing area is not quite giant, but it is very large and we didn't see everything that day. Each area was sectioned out during the day to keep things different for new players, they also brought together two areas for one particular game. You do need to be physically fit if you want to go full pelt all day. I struggled at the end with the old arthritis. Paying for it the day after!

 

Natural Variety: For a woodland site, this is incredibly varied. Even though it was winter, there was a mix of high and low trees, dark bushes to hide in, muddy areas. There was lots of width to play around with to get around the back of the opposing team

 

Player Marshalls: there were no true non playing marshals. They all appeared to play for the day. They were very friendly and approachable, they listened to complaints and acted on them via walkies, cant fault it. 
 

Game Modes: The game modes available to this site are numerous, though we only played a small number of them, I am sure that we could have played many more. Two games were to blow a whistle, another was to set off a siren by merging two boxes together in the village, one was a sort of multi facetted hostage situation with Hermann the German. Pretty good. 

 

Safety brief/mission briefs: This was interesting. We were clearly new to the site so the organisers came up to us and gave our little group a personal safety brief which the regulars did not have to hear. This is a nice personal touch. It would never work on a well attended site, but worked here. Mission briefs were short but thorough. The long game had a map drawn up on a whiteboard.

 

Clientele: Everyone was very friendly. Very few issues with hit taking, not many complaints or fits of despair that I usually see on a Sunday. It's clear that the majority of the group are regulars and know each other. 

 

Cost: £20 is excellent and well worth the money considering how good the playing area is and proximity to London. 

 

Average: 

 

Parking: Small amount of parking, but for the numbers it was perfectly adequate. Make sure your cars tyres are in good condition as the track leading up to it can be a bit difficult. 

 

Safe Zone: Standard outdoor style safe zone. Surrounded by green netting, nice covered safe zone with chairs provided. Toilets nearby.  A bit open to the elements though. There was a range available just outside the safe zone, though was so short range it didn't seem worth it. A little bit of updating and I would have rated this as more then average. 

 

Toilet: Two portaloos. They were in good shape and they were right in the safe zone. 

 

Bad:

 

No Chrono/NO MED: Another non chrono site, but worst of all there is no Minimum Engagement Distance for Sniper Rifles or DMR's. The size of the site means that going under the MED happens rarely, but I do find it a bit difficult knowing that chrono did not occur and could be hit by someone running a hot sniper rifle under 30 metres. There may not have been any serious injury since TB have been running, but it can happen at any time. 

 

Debris: One of the players stepped on unseen barbed wire or a rusty nail, went straight through his boot. It is a known issue for the site, so be very careful where you step, especially if running. 

 

Full auto: There very little semi auto from the AEG users today. Probably down to a combination of two things. Long engagement distances with talented snipers and very dense vegetation close up. To have a chance of advancing in the more open areas, AEGS need to spray a lot to have a chance of hitting. When close up, people had very high ROF rifles to pepper dense vegetation with heavy bb's until someone called a hit. What should happen here is what AP do, if you cant directly see someone, you don't shoot and you have a burst fire rule, no more then 3 seconds of full auto before it's considered trigger spam. If you do not have a particularly long range rifle or one that does not have a high rate of fire, you will struggle here. 

 

Food/Water/Shop: None. But this is clearly advertised on the website. They did have an onsite shop for gas and bb's. It wouldn't take much effort to stock it with some bottles of water and sweets. probably make a fair bit of money as well. 

 

Purpose built structures: There are a number of man made emplacements, but are of poor quality. There are no true buildings (Enclosed with 4 sides) bar from two towers, one of which was not in play on the day. 

 

Conclusion: 

 

This site is all about the natural playing surface and difficulty. Its a very pure experience. If you are an experienced player, who wants to go up against some real long distance talent, come here. Make sure you arrive prepared with food and water. I had a good if slightly frustrating time. I would like to come back here if I actually became good at Airsoft! I would not recommend this for people who do not have decent kit/or non upgraded rifles. 

 

Bullpup Watch: One, a Silverback SRS Sniper rifle, which the owner let me have a good look at. I didn't even bring any bullpups this week. 

 

Rough guide to the area available in picture. (Do not include the field area in the North East)

Techbrigade.png

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Hmm, I like the idea of the place. But a few of the negatives make me super dubious considering there are other sites around for that money I know I will enjoy.

 

another great review, honest and thought provoking! You do make me want to visit all these sites to heck them out for myself :D  

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Someone at a site I went to last week mentioned tech brigade. When he told me about there being no MED for snipers and DMR and the way said it (insinuating that he enjoyed watching people flinch) that put me right off, when I said "fuck that" his response was "man up, you get into the sport knowing its going to hurt"

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On 28/01/2019 at 13:27, clumpyedge said:

Someone at a site I went to last week mentioned tech brigade. When he told me about there being no MED for snipers and DMR and the way said it (insinuating that he enjoyed watching people flinch) that put me right off, when I said "fuck that" his response was "man up, you get into the sport knowing its going to hurt"

 

Its Airsoft not boxing, what a twat!  Theres getting hurt from a stinger and then theres being shot from 10 m in the head from a sniper (on my own team) which literally made me drop to my knees with pain!! 

 

The no MED, no chrono and known hazards (nails, barb wire etc) make me not want to visit! 

The stupid thing is they are all easy fixes, tells me something about the management team to be honest.

 

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4 minutes ago, Albiscuit said:

 

Its Airsoft not boxing, what a twat!  Theres getting hurt from a stinger and then theres being shot from 10 m in the head from a sniper (on my own team) which literally made me drop to my knees with pain!! 

 

The no MED, no chrono and known hazards (nails, barb wire etc) make me not want to visit! 

The stupid thing is they are all easy fixes, tells me something about the management team to be honest.

 

I think with this site, most people are known to each other so it's more trust than anything else. The barbed wire I believe they said they were working on it.

 

The MED, whilst they said there wasn't one, a lot of the shooting was done from distance, I took a few shots with my vsr close range but into someones PC. Infact I later found out I had @Asomodai ass to shoot at but thought better of it. 

 

I'd say it's more of a site where it's just plain honest Airsoft than rental wide boys turning up to shoot mandem

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3 minutes ago, Robert James said:

I think with this site, most people are known to each other so it's more trust than anything else. The barbed wire I believe they said they were working on it.

 

The MED, whilst they said there wasn't one, a lot of the shooting was done from distance, I took a few shots with my vsr close range but into someones PC. Infact I later found out I had @Asomodai ass to shoot at but thought better of it. 

 

I'd say it's more of a site where it's just plain honest Airsoft than rental wide boys turning up to shoot mandem

 

While I appreciate your point they openly advertise game days to the wider public so should have better safety implementation for those that are not regulars. If I turned up and got shot from 5m with a rifle firing 500fps+ I can assure you I wouldn't be very happy. The guy I spoke to was a regular of the site and gave the impression they enjoy hurting people (sadistic fuck if you'd actually heard the way he said it, could have been bullshit but was gloating about some of his "achievements").

 

 

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1 hour ago, Robert James said:

 

1 hour ago, Robert James said:

 

I'd say it's more of a site where it's just plain honest Airsoft than rental wide boys turning up to shoot mandem

 

Now this really appeals to me, but unfortunately the other negatives are too much for me. 

 

Would rather spend my money at Airsoft Plantation or somewhere else!

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