SE Tour Review: Longmoor Camp (Hampshire)

[Asomodai]

Site Name: RAF Longmoor - Legion Airsoft Event. 

Contact details: 

Website Address: www.legionairsoftevents.com

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

Site Address: Longmoor Urban Training Centre - Longmoor, Liphook. 

 

My battle buddy and I popped along to the Dusk til Dawn Battlesim run by Legion Airsoft. This was to be our first outdoor Skirmish running from 8PM til 8AM. This was held at Longmoor, which is a small to medium sized realistic urban setting. Mostly short engagement distances due to the darkness.This had some fairly dense woodland and fields surrounding the residential area. It is a mockup of a typical English suburb, complete with brick houses, gardens, garages and alley ways. There was a large sandbag style fort, some safety lights in place of lamp posts and roads running throughout. Mostly flat with no obvious water features. 

 

This is more of a review on the site rather then Legion who organised it for reasons that will be described below. 

 

Good :

 

Site Variety: As described in the intro, the site was incredibly varied. This was the first time we had played in a suburban mockup and we really enjoyed it. Felt to me like I was playing in an estate back in the wilds of North East Bristol. Half expecting a family to pop up pushing a pram! The woodland was dense with lots of low lying vegetation to hide in. The fort was very large with lookout posts and razorwire surrounding it. 

 

Parking: Lots of parking within the safe zone, rough gravel, no chance of getting bogged down in the mud. 

 

Marshaling: Marshalling during the night was top notch. There were lots of marshalls walking around asking how everyone was getting on, probably getting shot a lot as well. Welfare was a priority. 

 

Clientele (Who remained to the end): For the people who stayed til the end, felt like one big party, watching eachothers backs and giving good intel. When heading into especially dark areas our hands were being held by people operating NVG. Good tactical play. 

 

Shop: The shop was pretty decent, no rifles but had some pistols and lots of gear including sights, tracers pouches and a very large patch collection. The only food available was sweets and pop, but this is standard for a Battlesim not based at a standard Airsoft site. 

 

Hit taking: For a night game the hit taking was excellent. Only heard one instance of non hit taking. 

 

Organisation: The organisation of the night was pretty good, mission brief was well written and handed out ahead of time. 

 

Average: 

 

Safe Zone: Part of the safe zone was an actual proper building where the briefing and shop were placed. Unfortunately due to no tables we had to set up out of cars, but as this is a training base first and Airsoft skirmish area second that was likely to be the case. 

 

Bad:

 

Clientele (Who didn't remain til the end, who didn't prepare). 65ish people had booked and paid for the Battlesim, 25 didn't bother to show up which meant only 40 played. When we were setting up, I exclaimed about the number of people who had rocked up in what appeared to be summer gear, no thermal stuff, lack of decent torches, tracers units etc. Come 3AM, sure enough there were only just over 20 players remaining. Most left due to the cold or not being able to see. Unfortunately due to this we decided that there were too few players to carry on and to pack up and go home. As we stayed til the end we have a discount to a future Legion Battlesim.  

 

Chrono: As in our last Legion game, due to latecomers, the game started quite late and there was not enough time to run a mandatory Chrono. Some people were to be tested as and when though I didn't see it. 

 

Conclusion:

 

Longmoor is a fantastic site, the darkness was not our friend, tense and exciting. My Battlebuddy had a great time and we wished it could have been seen to the conclusion. However, the people who didn't prepare spoiled the night and we had to pack up and go home early. NVG was a huge advantage in this scenario.

 

Legion to their credit ran a decent Battlesim and have given all who stayed to the end a discount for the next sim. We were particularly impressed with the in-game Marshalling. 

 

It would be very interesting to play this same site in the day time as some of the engagement distances looked very long if you could see people! We cant wait for the next Legion Battlesim! Urban settings like this are very few and far between in the SE and this was as realistic as it comes!

 

Bullpup Watch: Terrible, just my own PDR-C and Faux Bullpup P90. 

 

[Tackle]

Shame so many idiots spoiled the event, nvg isn't a must but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out its gonna get cold at night lol.

[Chopper92]

Have to say we had a great game put on by Battlestations there a couple of years ago,  24hr rolling 'zombie' game where you could return to FOB(Safe zone) throughout the game which was constantly rolling. Different scenarios throughout, the best part was the night battle through the back alleys and gardens of the village. Admittedly myself and friends had NVG but to see the tracers and flash bangs going off every other minute was spectacular.

 

Shame people turn up to these events so ill prepared. Ruins it for others, as these events and especially that site need strong numbers to make it work. Im all for people trying new events but at least read the description so you are ready to play the whole game.

[Immortal]

Thanls for the info.

 

(Not sure if you meant to but the link in your post goes to Zed Adventures - Battle Lakes? should be https://legionairsoftevents.com/)

[Asomodai]

10 minutes ago, Immortal said:

Thanls for the info.

 

(Not sure if you meant to but the link in your post goes to Zed Adventures - Battle Lakes? should be https://legionairsoftevents.com/)

 

Cheers. I have corrected it 🙂

[Mad Rag]

59 minutes ago, Immortal said:

Thanls for the info.

 

(Not sure if you meant to but the link in your post goes to Zed Adventures - Battle Lakes? should be https://legionairsoftevents.com/)

i was wondering that lol 

i very much want to do a battle sim but there inst anywhere in Scotland that does them. 

[clumpyedge]

Did they send out a warning order with information on helpful kit like they do on their Milsim events?

[Asomodai]

41 minutes ago, clumpyedge said:

Did they send out a warning order with information on helpful kit like they do on their Milsim events?

 

Just went through my emails. In this instance, no. 

 

I guess we cant assume people have the common sense to wear thermals on a night that was forecast as under 6 degrees! 

[clumpyedge]

17 minutes ago, Asomodai said:

 

Just went through my emails. In this instance, no. 

 

I guess we cant assume people have the common sense to wear thermals on a night that was forecast as under 6 degrees! 

 

 

That's fair, they generally send out a mission pack (like most Milsim groups) prior to the (Milsim) games and I assumed they did the same for the battlesims due to it being loosely mission based. You're right though you cant assume anyone has common sense anymore as it tends not to exist! Glad you had fun when you did get to play, I'm hoping to head back there soon with Legion for a Milsim which personally I think is a great first step (as they cater for all experience levels) If you haven't done one before.

 

Cold weather/Wet weather gear hardly needs to take up much space in a kit bag - for wet weather even a bloody poncho will do and that can fold up into a GP pouch!

[Tackle]

Did a milsim a few years ago, 48hrs in woodland in mid October, the number of Dopes that turned up in little more than a T-shirt or ubacs & a full plate carrier, & feck all else, within 12hrs half of them had cried off & gone home, seriously, mid October in woodland, what did they expect ?.

Too busy trying to look the part I guess 😏

[clumpyedge]

16 minutes ago, Tackle said:

Did a milsim a few years ago, 48hrs in woodland in mid October, the number of Dopes that turned up in little more than a T-shirt or ubacs & a full plate carrier, & feck all else, within 12hrs half of them had cried off & gone home, seriously, mid October in woodland, what did they expect ?.

Too busy trying to look the part I guess 😏

 

It does surprise me even though logic would dictate that you would need warm/wet weather gear. It doesn't have to cost a bomb either which also makes me wonder why people don't have it even for skirmishes. Like I say a poncho can be as cheap as a few quid and thermals maybe slightly more! I got some cold weather gear from GoOutdoors in their season sale (and usually do every year) and you can get full thermal sets for as little as £25.

[Albiscuit]

Been offered a few chances to play at longmoor through the guys at EAG but could never make the dates in the past. I REALLY want to get there for a game. This one sounded awesome (except the unprepared idiots!!) Will keep an eye out for some dates in the future!

 

 

[Robert James]

Nice one, sounds really good. Im hoping to get out some more over the coming months once my new job role settles down.

 

Id love a night game, still need to do a camping weekend as well. Good review as always

[GeorgePlaysAirsoft]

Great write up. Played a few games at longmoor and it is a cracking place. But i wish event organisers wouldnt have people spawning at the tank near the carpark - as far as i can tell it just sets them up for a loss. One team behind the train track and another directly on the other side of the playing area makes for much better balance. 

 

As for people dropping out that is quite shocking though hardly unprecedented...

 

I'm gonna 'throw shade' here... me and a mate went to a legion battlesim game in november. As there were two of us i asked a team of guys just before kick off if we could tag along. Nicely rebuffed - fair enough.

 

A few hours later its pissing it down and significant numbers had called it a day.. including the team who were too good for us!!! (Don't worry im over it...now). Just sat in the car park twiddling thier thumbs. 

 

Nothing against fair weather airsofters - you do you. But an all day game in november might not be for you and to be frank it was a bit lame. 

 

'Everybody wants to be an operator untill its time to do (literally the bare minimum) of operator shit' haha

 

Edit: @Asomodai -did playing at night inspire you to get nvg? Would you do it again? Thanks!

[Asomodai]

1 hour ago, GeorgePlaysAirsoft said:

Great write up. Played a few games at longmoor and it is a cracking place. But i wish event organisers wouldnt have people spawning at the tank near the carpark - as far as i can tell it just sets them up for a loss. One team behind the train track and another directly on the other side of the playing area makes for much better balance. 

 

As for people dropping out that is quite shocking though hardly unprecedented...

 

I'm gonna 'throw shade' here... me and a mate went to a legion battlesim game in november. As there were two of us i asked a team of guys just before kick off if we could tag along. Nicely rebuffed - fair enough.

 

A few hours later its pissing it down and significant numbers had called it a day.. including the team who were too good for us!!! (Don't worry im over it...now). Just sat in the car park twiddling thier thumbs. 

 

Nothing against fair weather airsofters - you do you. But an all day game in november might not be for you and to be frank it was a bit lame. 

 

'Everybody wants to be an operator untill its time to do (literally the bare minimum) of operator shit' haha

 

Edit: @Asomodai -did playing at night inspire you to get nvg? Would you do it again? Thanks!

 

 

I really enjoyed playing at night, but considering its doesn't happen often and the relatively high cost of entry for a decent set of NVG I doubt I will be investing in any. 

 

I can just imagine what sort of RIFs I could get for that money! 

 

 Got more kills then deaths with my mk1 eyeball. So it'll do 🙂

[Lasbrisas17]

I really hope this hasn't made them unwilling to host another night event, sadly I couldn't go due to health reasons (didn't book anyway). It's a shame, maybe they should make it so people have to deposit or increase the deposit amount if they already do before booking.