Asomodai Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 Site Name: Red 1 The School Urban CQB and Woodland Contact details: 01727 846069 Website Address: http://www.red1airsoft.co.uk/events/ Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Airsoft.CQB.The.School/ Site Address: Langleybury Lane, Kings Langley, WD4 8RN Special Guest Battlebuddy @Albiscuit and I visited Red 1 The School on 06/10/2019 for a Sunday Skirmish. Set in the gorgeous surroundings of the Herts countryside, this is one of the sites that I have been meaning to get around to early on in the reviews, but never managed to get to it due to scheduling conflicts. Previous reviews have been mixed about the site. Many complaining that the School part of site was contained to one level and was very small, most in part to a film crew using the rest. Not much was said about the woodland section either. This is a split site, the school is a relatively small 3 story building which is only part of an old school, the rest of the school buildings are taken up by the safe zone, film crew and other businesses. The woodland is fairly small but very varied area, slopes, buildings, sparse and dense vegetation. Not much in the way of long site lines so doesn't lend itself to snipers. Luckily for us all three levels of the school building were open to us apart from a very small section which was cable tied off. Good: Playing Area: We were warned before going to the woodland section that the site recently suffered a spate of vandalism recently. I couldn't tell! The woodland site was incredibly varied with man made structures everywhere. There were slopes throughout, spares and incredibly dense low lying vegetation which you could use to sneak up on people. The school section was your typical 40's/50's build, lots of plywood and doors, one purpose built dark room for dimly lit fights. A tracer and torch is not really needed but are useful to have. It wasn't quite American killhouse ultra tight CQB like the indoor section of The Outpost, but it wasn't far off it. Every floor was different in its own way in terms of layout and the tactics needed to get into each room. Marshalling: Was of a decent standard during the day, they were missing a marshal, but you almost didn't notice. The woodlands were fairly well run with the marshals sitting on people who wouldn't take their hits and gave helpful advice. When we moved into the School for the afternoon session only one marshal was available. Plaudits where plaudits due, he was excellent and the games were flawless. He certainly deserved his paycheck! Toilets: Real toilets! Not the greatest, but they were indoors and made of porcelain/ceramic so its by default good. Mission Brief/style: Simple works here. The Woodland section had an interesting game with taking bottles around the site trying to take the enemies but keeping yours safe. The school sections were also simple but incredible. Attacking and Defending each floor in a row and the last game which was send random teams of threes out in a all against all situation. One of my favourite memories was attacking the second floor and getting past a hail of plastic ahead of the rest of my team in a very difficult area and completely clearing the floor for the rest to follow. Future works: Red 1 are very active in making the site safer and more varied. Due to the vandalism they have asked the owner to put up a fence around the woodland section (Would be good as there was a dog walker wondering around right at the beginning of the day) they will also be rebuilding the damaged sections. Average: Safe Zone: Indoors and dry, which was immediately a good thing, however couldn't quite support the numbers and the park benches used were pretty fragile with not enough separation between them which caused groups to rub against each other. Those who turned up late had to setup on the floor. Do not take a huge amount of equipment. Food: Food is not included in the £30 price, sometimes it is pizza, this week was hotdogs. However we were asked at the beginning of the day if anyone was veggie or didnt eat pork so they went out and bought something for those people which is a nice touch. typical tuck shop grub also on offer. So not a particularly varied menu, but catered to everyone which i believe is more important. Parking: Was good, but a little far from the safe zone with not enough signs to point you in the right direction, follow everyone else to get to the right building. Hit taking: Was OK, there was one incident where i unloaded half a pistol mag into someone before he saw me and then he shot me. He did ask if I shot him after and I said yes. I must have hit his chest rig with at least 10 shots in that case! However the rest of the day was pretty good. Clientele: A mixed bag. There was a lot of grumbling in the woodland section in the morning, but the attitude of people in the School was top notch between team mates and the other side. Everyone was in their for a good time despite many getting hurt fairly bad! Value: £30 food not included. But you do get a good varied experience you just don't get in most sites. Whilst both sides of the site are not near the best in their category they really are not that bad at all considering! If they included food in the price this category would be in the good section. Bad: Chrono: 350 FPS for AEGs, 450 FPS for DMRs and 500 for bolties. Rifles were chronoed but not marked and pistols weren't chronoed at all. I am fairly sure I got hit in the forehead by a hot gun. The reason why this is in the bad section is that The school section is very close range and pretty dangerous with untagged rifles. The Chrono area is just to the side of the front entrance which can be dangerous to people entering the building without eyepro. Shop: Very small selection of Gas and bb's, minor bits of pouch of rigging. I would have hoped for better considering Red 1 also own a retail shop. Directions: A bit nit picky, but we missed the site entrance really easily. The sign for Red 1 was written on a very small sign in Biro next to many other signs for the same turn off. Conclusion: The site was a surprise, considering the mixed reviews that we both saw going into it, we weren't expecting much. The numbers were a little on the high side for both the woodland, safe zone and school section. But we had a thoroughly good time despite having a number of technical issues. I had some great "Moments" of play that reminds you why you play airsoft. The woodland section is worth a mention as its never spoken about in other reviews, small but perfectly formed. The only massive no no is the non tagging of rifles at chrono. With such a close engagement distance in both the woodland and especially the school, it is needed. If you cant decide whether you want to play CQB or Woodland on a skirmish day, then Red 1 The School would be perfect for you. Red are the play zones, green is the safe zone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albiscuit Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 Pretty much agree with all of this, but my points I would like to add: Toilets, agree indoor WCs are great and better than 80% of sites but boy were they filthy. I felt my hands were cleaner before I washed them (in all fairness it is a derelict site, but im sure some bleach and elbow grease could have them a bit nicer) Chrono, there was some rumblings about guns not being tagged and talk about people using hot guns or cheating the chrono by testing on .2s and upping the weight in game. Personally this puts me off. There were a LOT of bleeders, and I have some serous welts and bumps today! Overkill, Single shot only in the cqb area which is great, but a LOT of trigger spam which meant almost every time I was shot it was 5/10 bbs hitting me at close range From each person!! Sometimes there were 3/4 people firing at you so upwards of 20+ bbs hitting you when 1 would suffice. Whilst im not adverse to getting shot, I did feel there were lots of instances I took way more fire than needed and observed the same on others plenty of time, on both sides. Safe zone/safety, walking into the safe zone there was a guy outside firing his gun. We obviously didnt have eye pro as we were coming from the car and were unaware at the time but its the same area they chrono, also loads of people in the queue for chrono had no eyepro on. The area between the green area and the woods in a no eye pro area but there were LOTS of bbs scattered around as if people test fire out there too. Needless to say I did not feel comfortable outside the building without eye pro on Communication, I tried to reach out to the site before hand to ask some questions, no one had got back to me via email or facebook messenger. I had to ask on here to get some of my answers. During the day there was not a great deal of comms either. You go out to the woods from early until lunchtime. You do get 5 mins to reload but it is a fair walk and would have been better if we were told to bring a bag to the woods with ammo, water etc to save time and not have to walk back and forth. Similar with some of the game types, briefings were brief. Almost as if we expected to know or the marshals couldn't be bothered with the game types (except the marshal in the afternoon in the school, he was fantastic as mentioned!!) I probably wouldnt go again, stacking up in the building was a pain as hardly anyone pushed and it was impossible to get to the front to try to lead a push and there are other woodland sites but I am totally glad I went and would place this in the "you need to play here at least once" category. That being said I had a blast, the adrenaline was pumping, the games were good and there was a great atmosphere by all players, very little grumbling and no nonsense I saw. Our team had lots of banter and was good fun. All in all a good day of 'softing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert James Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 15 minutes ago, Albiscuit said: probably wouldnt go again, stacking up in the building was a pain as hardly anyone pushed and it was impossible to get to the front to try to lead a push and there are other woodland sites but I am totally glad I went and would place this in the "you need to play here at least once" category. Couldn't agree more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asomodai Posted October 7, 2019 Author Share Posted October 7, 2019 51 minutes ago, Albiscuit said: Pretty much agree with all of this, but my points I would like to add: Toilets, agree indoor WCs are great and better than 80% of sites but boy were they filthy. I felt my hands were cleaner before I washed them (in all fairness it is a derelict site, but im sure some bleach and elbow grease could have them a bit nicer) Chrono, there was some rumblings about guns not being tagged and talk about people using hot guns or cheating the chrono by testing on .2s and upping the weight in game. Personally this puts me off. There were a LOT of bleeders, and I have some serous welts and bumps today! Overkill, Single shot only in the cqb area which is great, but a LOT of trigger spam which meant almost every time I was shot it was 5/10 bbs hitting me at close range From each person!! Sometimes there were 3/4 people firing at you so upwards of 20+ bbs hitting you when 1 would suffice. Whilst im not adverse to getting shot, I did feel there were lots of instances I took way more fire than needed and observed the same on others plenty of time, on both sides. Safe zone/safety, walking into the safe zone there was a guy outside firing his gun. We obviously didnt have eye pro as we were coming from the car and were unaware at the time but its the same area they chrono, also loads of people in the queue for chrono had no eyepro on. The area between the green area and the woods in a no eye pro area but there were LOTS of bbs scattered around as if people test fire out there too. Needless to say I did not feel comfortable outside the building without eye pro on Communication, I tried to reach out to the site before hand to ask some questions, no one had got back to me via email or facebook messenger. I had to ask on here to get some of my answers. During the day there was not a great deal of comms either. You go out to the woods from early until lunchtime. You do get 5 mins to reload but it is a fair walk and would have been better if we were told to bring a bag to the woods with ammo, water etc to save time and not have to walk back and forth. Similar with some of the game types, briefings were brief. Almost as if we expected to know or the marshals couldn't be bothered with the game types (except the marshal in the afternoon in the school, he was fantastic as mentioned!!) I probably wouldnt go again, stacking up in the building was a pain as hardly anyone pushed and it was impossible to get to the front to try to lead a push and there are other woodland sites but I am totally glad I went and would place this in the "you need to play here at least once" category. That being said I had a blast, the adrenaline was pumping, the games were good and there was a great atmosphere by all players, very little grumbling and no nonsense I saw. Our team had lots of banter and was good fun. All in all a good day of 'softing! Thanks for going into more detail! Didn't pay much attention to the toilets. I agree to an extent with the overkill. I did catch a nasty shiner or two on my forehead, but apart from one other incident I didn't see a huge amount in the way of overkill myself. They did communicate about bringing ammo to the woodland during the safety brief, but I think they could have been a bit more obvious in the way they said it. I had forgotten about the guy shooting at the front door and I didn't even see that many people didn't have eye pro at Chrono. Maybe you should take over the reviews from me! We were on opposite sides on CQB, so maybe my lot were overkilling, but we were hustling through the building a bit faster. People really pushed. PS: I am on the "Good for once every 6-12 month" visit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albiscuit Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 3 minutes ago, Asomodai said: Maybe you should take over the reviews from me! No thanks, I like to try new places but not to the extend that you get around Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilMonkee Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 I went there a couple of years back and wasn't impressed. The school side was very small and hit taking was dodgy as fook. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keldon Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 Looks like you had an OK time, I'm sorry I was unable to make last minute family stuff taking priorities. I still not got round to it myself, living so close its a bit sill though I have been to across the road at reforger and the outpost in other direction. Like you say I will have to try it at least once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lasbrisas17 Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 Went there a few months ago, the chrono and lack of safety is a huge nope from me. No guns were tagged, what's even the point of chronoing? There were so many people on the site that anyone could just slip by without chronoing and no one would be able to tell otherwise. The site is already pushing it with 350fps in a school where each engagement is just a few feet from how densely packed it is. This one reason alone is stopping me from going again. Also, many times in the middle of games I saw people remove their masks right infront of marshalls, nothing said. Secondly, on the day someone was burning stuff right outside the school and causing me and my brother to have to leave early due to it being difficult to breathe in. Also the school was a pain, people standing in hallways and not pushing in, the design is linear so there's no otherway around.. This is the first site I don't see myself ever returning to unless some changes are made, shame because the outdoors was actually enjoyable. TLDR, imo it's very dangerous to play at, definetely recommend full face mask if you plan on going there. I personally cannot see myself recommending this place to anyone at it's current state. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albiscuit Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 I can’t really disagree with the above post. glad I played there though. It’s ticked off the list at least Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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