Camp Sparta Site Review

[Luke85]

Visited Camp Sparta in Lincolnshire yesterday, here aa breakdown of my thoughts and review of the site if you will for anyone thinking of paying them a visit.

 

Pros 

 

The site itself is awesome, a 31 acre complex on an old RAF barracks consisting of 15 buildings, with roads and large outside areas in between. This not only means you can play a variety of different games and really mix things up, but also that there is literally a role here for everyone and every type of player and gun from Snipers and DMRs right down to compact SMG and pistol users.

 

The Marshals were really good, only had one instance all day of someone suspected of not calling hits but wasn't the marshals fault. Overall they kept a great eye on games and made sure they were running smoothly, helped by the majority of players playing fairly and honestly. Only one suspected not hit caller and another player who cracked a door open just enough to stick his pistol through and shoot after just been told in the briefing this was not allowed. But yeah, neither the marshals fault. You always get the odd dickhead who'll cheat or at least try to as soon as their back is turned.

 

Facilities were really good, the car park had plenty space for everyone and was literally right next to the rooms used for equipment and gearing up. So, if like me you take a lot of crap (some say too much), it saved me making multiple 2-3 minute runs to and from the car. The gearing up area was large and had plenty tables and space for everyone, to need to jostle or get there early for a good spot, almost everyone could have had a large table to themselves if the wanted. I imagine it gets busier, but still, there was plenty more space still available and having room to spread your gear out on a table was welcome. The toilets were also proper indoor toilets, not as clean as 5* hotel, but a million times nicer than a porterloo for sure.

 

The freedom to use the entire site was great. All but 2 of the buildings were in play and you could use them if you so wished. For me this been my first visit didnt lead to much, more than once I entered a building thinking I could cut through to the other side to flank the other team or get round them only to find dead ends a dark ( pitch black ) corridors. But I'm sure with greater knowledge and experience of the site you could really get to know your way around the site and all its buildings, most of which were of considerable size too, each one like entering a mini maze with many of the entrances and exits sealed off and entry only gained at certain points. Also, just making your way down a dark interior corridor with just a flashlight and laser on your gun for light felt awesome. My first experience playing indoors at all and I liked it.

 

Cons

 

The Morning briefing took far too long. They had some technical issues with their projector apparently, but even so, It took the piss a\ bit just how long it took things to get going in the morning. I arrived just after half 8 and it was almost 11 before the first game was under way. Now I hate been rushed, I like having time to arrive, get my kit sorted, gas up and load up etc, have a smoke and morning coffee etc. But almost having enough time to watch a Lord of the Rings movie between arriving and getting playing is a bit of a joke. People were just milling around for ages before they pulled us into the morning briefing, and the briefing itself was overly long. I get you always have to cater to the new players and rentals too, but theirs rule explanation and then theirs giving a 20+ minute power point presentation and it just felt way too excessive. Explaining the rules shouldn't take longer than 5 minutes, and then a few more minutes to go over anything specific to that site regards safety, safe zones, where not to go etc. After the briefing there was yet more milling around before we were finally assembled and given the first game

 

There was a game played in the afternoon where there was a serious imbalance in the teams, caused by an avoidable situation. The teams in the morning were very balanced it seemed, but we started the afternoon playing a game attacking 2 buildings, and the other team clearly had more than a few people who had done this before and knew the drill. The drill, it became clear, was to stock up on grenades galore and camp at the top of the stairs in each building, making it nearly impossible to get any further than half way up the stairs. I seriously lost count of how many grenades they used, but it was a lot, and after half an hour we'd got absolutely no where, with every member of their team camped at the top of staircases, not a single player on the ground floor, just rolling grenade after grenade down on us between mag dumps any time any of us popped our head and shoulders round the corners with our guns up. Now, we could have made some headway if we'd had grenades of our own, several times we made a bit of a push and got into positions where we could have chucked a grenade to help take the top of the stair cases, the marshals eventually tried offering advise and were telling us to use grenades too, but none of our team had any, none. The other team had apparently bought several hundred over dinner time. All it would take is for them to give a heads up that in the afternoon, knowing how that particular game plays out, that it might be a good idea for atleast a few people on each team to grab some grenades. To their credit they saw how we were stuck in a none win scenario and stopped the game after half an hour or so, but it was just a frustrating game really, either make both teams aware of the situation or limit the use of grenades to a set number per team and also make them have players spread out a bit with some on the ground floor. So that the attacking team doesn't find 20 odd guns aimed at them at the top of each staircase. 

 

Other than those 2 little rants which perhaps made it sound like I didnt enjoy the day, I have to say I really did. The site itself and facilities were top draw and was well marshalled by and large. Just a shame it took so long to get going and that a heads up wasn't given for the first game of the afternoon. Overall though, a great site. I'll definitely go back at some point, just a shame its almost 90 minutes away. If it were closer to me I'd certainly familiarise myself with this site a lot more. 

 

 

[Albiscuit]

A lot of info and ranting there but it does sound an interesting site.

 

the late start would have pissed me off too but I don’t agree with 20mins being too long for a brief.  Sites like this have a lot of other rules that a pure woodland site wouldn’t.

the Mall got a lot of stick for it’s “45 min brief” which never took longer than 25 in reality but with such unique sites you have to cater for the most stupid person in the room, and in airsoft unfortunately the most stupid always seems VERY stupid!!

theres always some guy after the brief asking his mate the most obvious questions he would have know the answer too if they just bloody listened!

[clumpyedge]

8 hours ago, Albiscuit said:

you have to cater for the most stupid person in the room, and in airsoft unfortunately the most stupid always seems VERY stupid!!

 

 

Not 'arf! If you could hear half the stuff I hear on a regular basis just following players or over hearing things while gearing up I don't think they could give out Darwin awards quick enough.

[EvilMonkee]

Its probably an insurance thing that the briefing is that detailed.

[heroshark]

Ha. I guess stig was doing briefing. Bad luck. 

[Luke85]

11 hours ago, Albiscuit said:

you have to cater for the most stupid person in the room, and in airsoft unfortunately the most stupid always seems VERY stupid!!

theres always some guy after the brief asking his mate the most obvious questions he would have know the answer too if they just bloody listened!

 

Ain't that a truth, and I appreciate it must be frustrating for the site runners. I still think the briefing was overly long, you can explain the rules of airsoft even to a complete noob in under ten minutes and allow the same time again for site specifics. But in truth a 20 odd minute briefing wouldn't bother me at all usually, it was the time wasting both before and after it too that made it feel such a drag.

[Albiscuit]

6 hours ago, EvilMonkee said:

Its probably an insurance thing that the briefing is that detailed.

 

Totally, and the fact it sounds like such a unique site. 

Similar to the Mall, lots more hazards and things to watch out for than a standard woodland site.

 

Still an 11am start is taking the piss a little!

[EvilMonkee]

Ok, bit of an update.  I went here at the weekend and can confirm all of what @Luke85 stated in July.  

 

The brief was overly long, yet still managed to leave out important info such as that the entire site was semi only (I had to ask).  There was a total of 2 Marshals all day neither of whom seemed overly interested in the game or the issues presented to them.  The game didn't start till nearly 11 after gates opened at 0830.  

 

The biggest issue however, and one that I spotted right after the brief, was that the teams were divided down into the 'regulars' who were all a bunch of hardcore geardos - you know the type - and whom I assumed to be the Head Marshall for the day (he had gave the safety brief, more on that later) vs everyone else who had bothered to turn up.  You can see where this is heading, as we did and sadly we weren't disappointed in our assessment.  The hit taking and general power gaming from this bunch was appalling.  I was hitting people from less than 4m away in a building (they couldn't see me as I was shooting through a large hole in the wall at an oblique angle) with .36s and I could visibly see them flinching but they all consistently failed to take it.  They all failed the number one rule of Don't be a Dick by turning up with respirators (yes!) so they could use smoke grenades indoors on purpose.  The amount of solid state grenades being chucked around by them was silly.  

 

One game of hold an objective for 10mins was so obviously bent in favour of this bunch of regulars was ridiculous.  We had held it for over 10mins before a Marshall even appeared who promptly declared it contested before the other team finally took it and we had no chance of getting back upstairs.  

 

I can take the non hit taking but the power gaming was awful, we left at lunch.  Speaking to some of our team members who had been there before, apparently this is a regular occurrence when this bunch turn up.  A great site, being badly ran by the Marshals to the betterment of a small in-group.  

 

Put it this way, I usually don't feel too bad about any particular site if I am getting loads of 'kills'.  My battle buddy and I consistently outplayed this bunch of 'milsim' regulars, I got loads of kills and I enjoyed it not one jot......

 

Avoid till its better ran.  Final point - the 'Head Marshal' that briefed wasn't actually the Head Marshal, just and I quote one of the other Marshals - 'A bloke who helps us out occasionally'.  So they basically let a paying player run the safety brief and the games for the day.

[Albiscuit]

Oh dear.. such a shame as it sounds like a unique urban site, and there ain’t many around anymore   

 

thanks for the update 

[EvilMonkee]

Yeh its a shame. I can hack the non hit taking but the favouritism pissed me off 

[Albiscuit]

On 16/10/2019 at 19:50, EvilMonkee said:

Yeh its a shame. I can hack the non hit taking but the favouritism pissed me off 

 

Would get me too. Shame so many great sites are run this way. 

 

Non hit taking is one of those things, you either keep shooting em until the relent or go after other people in my experience. I dont let it get to me really.

[Shamal]

On 23/07/2019 at 22:27, Albiscuit said:

A lot of info and ranting there but it does sound an interesting site.

 

the late start would have pissed me off too but I don’t agree with 20mins being too long for a brief.  Sites like this have a lot of other rules that a pure woodland site wouldn’t.

the Mall got a lot of stick for it’s “45 min brief” which never took longer than 25 in reality but with such unique sites you have to cater for the most stupid person in the room, and in airsoft unfortunately the most stupid always seems VERY stupid!!

theres always some guy after the brief asking his mate the most obvious questions he would have know the answer too if they just bloody listened!

That's me!! Lol."Right.What are we doing?"

 

[Albiscuit]

To be fair I listen to the safety brief as each site is different, But when it comes to the game brief I tend to not follow and end up asking about the objectives halfway through    

[Shamal]

Haha yeah pisses the marshals off.😡

[Leonine]

1 hour ago, Albiscuit said:

To be fair I listen to the safety brief as each site is different, But when it comes to the game brief I tend to not follow and end up asking about the objectives halfway through    

Always feels like forever when explaining everything meanwhile I’m wrestling trying to fit my LiPo in my gun so I’m just nodding along😂

[Corey212j]

Playing there tomorrow,, will see if this is still the case!

 

[EvilMonkee]

On 29/08/2020 at 11:07, Corey212j said:

Playing there tomorrow,, will see if this is still the case!

 

 I would be interested to see if they are still letting a player brief and if its still Regulars v The Rest.  Its a great site badly ran on the occassions I went there.

[Captain Darling]

On 15/10/2019 at 13:52, EvilMonkee said:

Ok, bit of an update.  I went here at the weekend and can confirm all of what @Luke85 stated in July.  

 

The brief was overly long, yet still managed to leave out important info such as that the entire site was semi only (I had to ask).  There was a total of 2 Marshals all day neither of whom seemed overly interested in the game or the issues presented to them.  The game didn't start till nearly 11 after gates opened at 0830.  

 

The biggest issue however, and one that I spotted right after the brief, was that the teams were divided down into the 'regulars' who were all a bunch of hardcore geardos - you know the type - and whom I assumed to be the Head Marshall for the day (he had gave the safety brief, more on that later) vs everyone else who had bothered to turn up.  You can see where this is heading, as we did and sadly we weren't disappointed in our assessment.  The hit taking and general power gaming from this bunch was appalling.  I was hitting people from less than 4m away in a building (they couldn't see me as I was shooting through a large hole in the wall at an oblique angle) with .36s and I could visibly see them flinching but they all consistently failed to take it.  They all failed the number one rule of Don't be a Dick by turning up with respirators (yes!) so they could use smoke grenades indoors on purpose.  The amount of solid state grenades being chucked around by them was silly.  

 

One game of hold an objective for 10mins was so obviously bent in favour of this bunch of regulars was ridiculous.  We had held it for over 10mins before a Marshall even appeared who promptly declared it contested before the other team finally took it and we had no chance of getting back upstairs.  

 

I can take the non hit taking but the power gaming was awful, we left at lunch.  Speaking to some of our team members who had been there before, apparently this is a regular occurrence when this bunch turn up.  A great site, being badly ran by the Marshals to the betterment of a small in-group.  

 

Put it this way, I usually don't feel too bad about any particular site if I am getting loads of 'kills'.  My battle buddy and I consistently outplayed this bunch of 'milsim' regulars, I got loads of kills and I enjoyed it not one jot......

 

Avoid till its better ran.  Final point - the 'Head Marshal' that briefed wasn't actually the Head Marshal, just and I quote one of the other Marshals - 'A bloke who helps us out occasionally'.  So they basically let a paying player run the safety brief and the games for the day.

Bit of a necropost here, but an update nevertheless.

 

I went to this site last Sunday, and I’m sad to say all of the above review is still the case.  But now with added bad airsoft bingo:

Wall to wall unchecked HPA wankers

Hot guns

Non hit taking

Overkill

Poorly executed medic rules

 

I’m being harsh, and I think there’s more going on with the site than I understand. Everybody was friendly enough, but nobody in charge seemed to have a grip of what was going on.  I was chatting with a lovely lad who had been allowed to use his hi cap fed Barrett 50 cal HPA, firing .43’s as a semi auto DMR on fuck knows what silly FPS.  He didn’t carry a secondary, just grenades. 

 

It’s really put me off airsoft - 1/2 the site were using wanker HPA guns, I suspect mainly to circumvent the single shot only rule by feathering out 5 shot taps.   However some were in my opinion taking advantage of the extremely weak chrono policy on site, where far too much trust was placed on players to say what weight ammo  they were using. No tourney locks, no random chronos on .20’s. In my option having 40 odd players on HPA, poorly policed, is a recipe for a day of toxic airsoft.  If every site was run like this I honestly would just quit, it was that unnecessarily shit.  
 

From chatting with other players, I suspect that it’s just how things roll there, and to be competitive the way to play is rock up with a HPA rig running 1.7 J, spam the trigger and only expect to have your hit taken on the 4th or 5th bb.  Toxic airsoft, but if you go there knowing that and are prepared to play on those terms, it’s probably loads of fun for those in the know.  As I said, the others players, site owner and ‘marshalls’ were warm friendly people who were up for a fun day, but ultimately the place was out of control.  

[leadly]

Hello all, anymore recent reviews on this site?

 

My lot have fallen out with Anzio because of how over grown the site is this time of year but we do love a bit of building clearance!

 

Nicco has recently played here and it looked pretty much like Anzio but with less trees! Seems a shame to drive 1.5 hours to find it's disappointing due to being poorly run as we can drive 40 mins to Anzio for that!!

[GeorgePlaysAirsoft]

22 hours ago, leadly said:

Hello all, anymore recent reviews on this site?

 

My lot have fallen out with Anzio because of how over grown the site is this time of year but we do love a bit of building clearance!

 

Nicco has recently played here and it looked pretty much like Anzio but with less trees! Seems a shame to drive 1.5 hours to find it's disappointing due to being poorly run as we can drive 40 mins to Anzio for that!!

 

Maybe not the answer you were looking for but whatever. I played a game at Camp Sparta, but hosted by Brit Tac. One of the best day's airsofting I ever had. They have a 10 hour "battlesim" coming up next month which may be worth investigating: https://www.brittacevents.com/event-details/op-red-wings-10-hour-event-camp-sparta

 

You get to play at Camp Sparta (which is absolutely amazing) and I can vouch for the great day Brit Tac put on. You also get a longer day, which takes the sting out of a longer drive (3hrs in my case) I can't vouch for how Camp Sparta actually run things.

 

Though I have to disagree with the comments made above about smoke inside buildings (I thought it was cool) and people using respirators (fair play, i also consider this to be cool). "don't be a dick" is a nice enough thing to say but not actually a very useful one as clearly people have different ideas about what constitutes being a dick. Hence why its good to have unambiguous rules. In this case, the rules unambiguously allow the use of smokes indoors. So bring your smokes. Bring a respirator if you have one too

[leadly]

Thanks for that @GeorgePlaysAirsoft.

 

You can't please everyone I suppose!

 

I'm a HPA welding wanker who also wears a Kicking Mustang leaf suit so I'm either not taking my hits or cheating the chrono!!

 

Then on other days im just a cunt in a dye mask and running too fast with a Hi Capa!

 

I'll give it some more thought and see what the other lads think!

[EvilMonkee]

On 23/08/2021 at 10:16, GeorgePlaysAirsoft said:

 

Maybe not the answer you were looking for but whatever. I played a game at Camp Sparta, but hosted by Brit Tac. One of the best day's airsofting I ever had. They have a 10 hour "battlesim" coming up next month which may be worth investigating: https://www.brittacevents.com/event-details/op-red-wings-10-hour-event-camp-sparta

 

You get to play at Camp Sparta (which is absolutely amazing) and I can vouch for the great day Brit Tac put on. You also get a longer day, which takes the sting out of a longer drive (3hrs in my case) I can't vouch for how Camp Sparta actually run things.

 

Though I have to disagree with the comments made above about smoke inside buildings (I thought it was cool) and people using respirators (fair play, i also consider this to be cool). "don't be a dick" is a nice enough thing to say but not actually a very useful one as clearly people have different ideas about what constitutes being a dick. Hence why its good to have unambiguous rules. In this case, the rules unambiguously allow the use of smokes indoors. So bring your smokes. Bring a respirator if you have one too

@GeorgePlaysAirsoft, smoke is toxic.  Even in the military letting off smokes in buildings will get you your arse handed to you.  Its a dick move.

Edited February 24, 2022 by EvilMonkee

[hitmanNo2]

Surely mil smokes are banned at most sites though?  I'm pretty sure every brief I've heard specifically includes no mil smokes.  EG claim to have non toxic smokes.

[heroshark]

I've always enjoyed Sparta . Another non-Sparta run game there are the west midlands airsoft gangster city events which are very enjoyable.

Edited February 24, 2022 by heroshark

[hitmanNo2]

3 hours ago, heroshark said:

Another non-Sparta run game there are the west midlands airsoft gangster city events which are very enjoyable.

My only experience of Camp Sparta and a lot of fun indeed.