SE Tour Review: Mayhem Paintball and Airsoft (Essex)

[Asomodai]

Site Name: Mayhem Paintball and Airsoft

Contact details: 01708 688517

Website Address: https://www.mayhempaintball.co.uk/eventssaturday-night-airsoft

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Mayhem-Events-Airsoft-107712677298318/

Site Address: Pryors Farm, Patch Park, Abridge, Essex RM4 1AA 

 

I had heard of Mayhem Paintball starting to run Airsoft games back in the summer. Its technically a Romford postcode, but its actually a little awkward to get to via Public transport so it took me until just before the end of the year to go. I went on the 29th of December 2019 which was the first time they had run Airsoft using the entire site and was dubbed as a Purple Thunder Special Event.

 

There are very few site reviews online, though some of my buddies have been before and had mixed views.  

 

This is a medium sized site based within Farmland. Half of the site was on slopes, no water features and pretty muddy underfoot due to the recent rainfall. The playing area is separated into somewhat distinct zones. There are many different features such as open fields, hay bales, caravans and vehicles, shipping containers, helicopters and airplanes, villages and various other Earthworks. Sometimes more then one zone was opened up to the same group of players for larger games. There is also a small indoor only based CQB section. Short, medium and long engagement distances are in play. 

 

Good:

 

Safe Zone(s): The Safe zone was split into an indoor and outdoor section. There was plenty of space for people to use despite being oversubscribed on the day (160+ people). Myself and some buddies had a nice indoor heated corner, bins pockmarked the area and it was pretty comfortable. The outdoor sections were all covered and was seated as well. 

Saturday!: Apart from the Skirmish I went to which was on a Sunday, the vast majority of skirmishes are held on a Saturday, always good to see! Usually they do 3PM to 10PM on a Saturday which is great for those who want to get the tracer units and torches out! 

 

Chrono: A mandatory chrono was in play. Guns were marked as to whether they were allowed in or not. 350 FPS for AEGs, 450 for DMR and 500 for BASR. The one complaint is that they insisted without excuse to chrono on .2's. This was not communicated clearly beforehand, whilst they had some .2's at the Chrono station they did not have a speedloader on hand. I will mark Chrono as good, but they must make available a speedloader or two or start chronoing by joules to prevent joule creep. 

Playing Area: They did almost as much as they could with the site considering it was based on farmers fields. There was little in the way of natural obstacles, pretty much everything had been purpose made or placed. Large buildings in one area, lots of somewhat climbable hay bales, some earth mounds, There are some fairly large height differences which really helped push the LMGs out to be absolute nuisances with suppressive fire. One thing I noticed that was missing was a trench system, which rival Driver Wood uses quite effectively. One of the big bits of PR for the site is a recreation of the COD map Shipment. Which was pretty much spot on, if slightly smaller then in the game. The indoor section is fairly small, but can be quite open with lots of waist height obstacles. Quite dark so a tracer can be fun. 

 

I would definitely look at some of the photos on their Facebook to get a feel for the place. Unfortunately some of the more fun building sections were not in use on the day probably because of the numbers. 

 

Shop: The shop was great if you liked Valken! (Everything was pretty much Valken). A good selection of BB's, gas, optics, some rifles and pistols on site and tac gear. It was good enough. Would like to see a bit more variety in brands though. 

 

Future potential: There is a lot of scope for improvement (Which will be gone into later on in the review) 

 

Parking: Excellent parking a short distance away from the safe zone. Muddy but plenty available. 

 

Average: 

 

Value: £25 for the day was pretty good for the variety you got. Rental packages are stonkingly cheap at a tenner as well. 

 

Marshaling: The Marshaling during the skirmishes was reasonable, they chased up on players who weren't taking hits, though not all the time. There were plenty of marshals available and over 70 are on the books if needed. 

 

Food: Food was available indoors, the burger I felt was poor for what it was (Dry burger, quite small) The Chicken burger was a bit better. £2.50 each. There were lots of vending machines available throughout the site. 

 

Taxi Service: The site runs a nominal Taxi service from the local underground station (Theydon Bois). Though I hear its poorly run and that people have real trouble getting in contact to arrange and often get on site quite late. Unfortunately there is no public transport on hand so this and private hire is the way to go. The taxi service is a great idea, but needs to be better arranged, 

 

Bad: 

 

Hit taking: Was pretty bad throughout the day. Though I could see some shots were getting no where near the players at times. The complaints about it got louder and more frequent throughout the day. 

 

Safety/Mission Briefs: Awful, probably one of the worst I have received. Safety brief was about 5 minutes long, relatively incoherent and didn't cover basic rules such as grenade kill radius. It was pretty dangerous in my opinion and really needs proper work. Mission briefs were given to the teams separately once on the field and they were very simple with very basic objectives. 

 

Game types and objectives: A big site but with no inventive or engaging missions. (Kill eachother until last man standing). As an example, most games were unlimited respawns until 10 minutes from the end of the game which then became one life only. Except that we had no idea when there was just 10 minutes left unless we heard through word of mouth. Loud whistles or horns were desperately needed to communicate this. 

 

Clientele: Kept themselves to themselves outside of groups. Lots of people were there, but the amount of complaints about hit taking and sarcastic comments throughout the day was pretty bad. Big mix of new players, casuals and people who took themselves way too seriously. The safety brief was short at the beginning of the day but even that was too difficult for some of the players to remember; denying ever hearing about the full auto minimum engagement distance (10 metres and under is semi only).

 

Turn-around time: Was pretty awful. The numbers were huge and probably a bit unexpected which made it difficult to gather people together. They should have split everyone in half and have two different groups throughout the day playing in different zones. I didn't get my moneys worth in my opinion. 

 

Not airsofters: It is pretty clear with all the bad points raised that the site is run by paintballers with little to no experience in Airsoft. This needs to change. 

 

Conclusion: 

 

A real mixed bag. 

 

The site itself is pretty excellent with little to improve in terms of playing area and safe zone. It's not quite as varied as Driver Wood which caters for the same type of skirmish, but its far enough away from their to not be a direct competitor. It is much bigger and more varied then the closest analogue which is Splatoon Airsoft in deeper Essex (though that has a better shipping container area and a proper woodland section). 

 

Basically, the stuff that needs changing is the easiest because it costs little money... Organisation and mission variation. It is clearly a paintball site who want to cash in on Airsoft, but have no idea that Airsoft has different needs and requirements in comparison to paintballers. 

 

I had an OK time here. I had some great moments with my LMG during the day and managed to get through 5000 odd rounds in an hour.

 

Luckily, a well known group of airsofters may well be coming in to take over the running of the Airsoft days. (I knew of this beforehand) They have plenty of experience so the future does look bright in this regard if contracts can be signed! If this happens then I can totally see this site being something I would rotate with Billericay and Airsoft Plantation for a regular haunt on the assumption the organisation can be sorted. 

 

Bullpup Watch: Very few, I and a few others had P90's but was essentially a sea of M4's and AK's.  

[Robert James]

6 minutes ago, Asomodai said:

Site Name: Mayhem Paintball and Airsoft

Contact details: 01708 688517

Website Address: https://www.mayhempaintball.co.uk/eventssaturday-night-airsoft

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Mayhem-Events-Airsoft-107712677298318/

Site Address: Pryors Farm, Patch Park, Abridge, Essex RM4 1AA 

 

I had heard of Mayhem Paintball starting to run Airsoft games back in the summer. Its technically a Romford postcode, but its actually a little awkward to get to via Public transport so it took me until just before the end of the year to go. I went on the 29th of December 2019 which was the first time they had run Airsoft using the entire site and was dubbed as a Purple Thunder Special Event.

 

There are very few site reviews online, though some of my buddies have been before and had mixed views.  

 

This is a medium sized site based within Farmland. Half of the site was on slopes, no water features and pretty muddy underfoot due to the recent rainfall. The playing area is separated into somewhat distinct zones. There are many different features such as open fields, hay bales, caravans and vehicles, shipping containers, helicopters and airplanes, villages and various other Earthworks. Sometimes more then one zone is opened up to the same group of players for larger games. There is also a small indoor only based CQB section. Short, medium and long engagement distances are in play. 

 

Good:

 

Safe Zone(s): The Safe zone was split into and indoor and outdoor section. There was plenty of space for people to use despite being slightly oversubscribed on the day (160+ people). Myself and some buddies had a nice indoor heated corner, bins pockmarked the area and it was pretty comfortable. The outdoor sections were all covered and was seated as well. 

Saturday!: Apart from the Skirmish I went to which was on a Sunday, the vast majority of skirmishes are held on a Saturday, always good to see! Usually they do 3PM to 10PM on a Saturday which is great for those who want to get the tracer units and torches out! 

 

Chrono: A mandatory chrono was in play. Guns were marked as to whether they were allowed in or not. 350 FPS for AEGs, 450 for DMR and 500 for BASR. The one complaint is that they insisted without excuse to chrono on .2's. This was not communicated clearly beforehand, whilst they had some .2's at the Chrono station they did not have a speedloader on hand. I will mark Chrono as good, but they must make available a speedloader or two or start chronoing by joules to prevent joule creep. 

Playing Area: They did almost as much as they could with the site considering it was based on farmers fields. There was little in the way of natural obstacles, pretty much everything had been purpose made or placed. Large buildings in one area, lots of somewhat climbable hay bales, some earth mounds, There are some fairly large height differences which really helped push the LMGs out to be absolute nuisances with suppressive fire. One thing I noticed that was missing was a trench system, which rival Driver Wood uses quite effectively. One of the big bits of PR for the site is a recreation of the COD map Shipment. Which was pretty much spot on, if slightly smaller then in the game. The indoor section is fairly small, but can be quite open with lots of waist height obstacles. Quite dark so a tracer can be fun. 

 

I would definitely look at some of the photos on their Facebook to get a feel for the place. Unfortunately some of the more fun building sections were not in use on the day probably because of the numbers. 

 

Shop: The shop was great if you liked Valken! (Everything was pretty much Valken). A good selection of BB's, gas, optics, some rifles and pistols on site and tac gear. It was good enough. Would like to see a bit more variety in brands though. 

 

Future potential: There is a lot of scope for improvement (Which will be gone into later on in the review) 

 

Parking: Excellent parking a short distance away from the safe zone. Muddy but plenty available. 

 

Average: 

 

Value: £25 for the day was pretty good for the variety you got. Rental packages are stonkingly cheap at a tenner as well. 

 

Marshalling: The Marshalling during the skirmishes was reasonable, they chased up on players who weren't taking hits, though not all the time. There were plenty of marshalls available and over 70 are on the books if needed. 

 

Food: Food was available indoors, the burger I felt was poor for what it was (Dry burger, quite small) The Chicken burger was a bit better. £2.50 each. There were lots of vending machines available throughout the site. 

 

Taxi Service: The site runs a nominal Taxi service from the local underground station (Theydon Bois). Though I hear its poorly run and that people have real trouble getting in contact to arrange and often get on site quite late. Unfortunately there is no public transport on hand so this and private hire is the way to go. The taxi service is a great idea, but needs to be better arranged, 

 

Bad: 

 

Hit taking: Was pretty bad throughout the day. Though I could see some shots were getting no where near the players at times. The complaints about it got louder and more frequent throughout the day. 

 

Safety/Mission Briefs: Awful. Safety brief was about 5 minutes long, relatively incoherent and didn't cover basic rules such as grenade kill radius. It was pretty dangerous in my opinion and really needs proper work. Mission briefs were given the teams separately once on the field and they were very simple with very basic objectives. 

 

Game types and objectives: A big site but with no inventive or engaging missions. (Kill eachother until last man standing). As an example, most games were unlimited respawns until 10 minutes from the end of the game which then became one life only. Except that we had no idea when there was just 10 minutes left unless we heard through word of mouth. Loud whistles or horns were desperately needed to communicate this. 

 

Clientele: Kept themselves to themselves outside of groups. Lots of people were there, but the amount of complaints about hit taking and sarcastic comments throughout the day was pretty bad. Big mix of new players, casuals and people who took themselves way too seriously. The safety brief was short at the beginning of the day but even that was too difficult for some of the players to remember who denied ever hearing about the full auto minimum engagement distance (10metres and under is semi only).

 

Turn-around time: Was pretty awful. The numbers were huge and probably a bit unexpected which made it difficult to gather people together. They should have split everyone in half and have two different groups throughout the day playing in different zones. I didn't get my moneys worth in my opinion. 

 

Not airsofters: It is pretty clear with all the bad points raised that the site is run by paintballers with little to no experience in Airsoft. This needs to change. 

 

Conclusion: 

 

A real mixed bag. 

 

The site itself is pretty excellent with little to improve in terms of playing area and safe zone. It's not quite as varied as Driver Wood which caters for the same type of skirmish, but its far enough away from their to not be a direct competitor. It is much bigger and more varied then the closest analogue which is Splatoon Airsoft in deeper Essex (though that has a better shipping container area and a proper woodland section). 

 

Basically, the stuff that needs changing is the easiest because it costs little money... Organisation and mission variation. It is clearly a paintball site who want to cash in on Airsoft, but have no idea that Airsoft has different needs and requirements in comparison to paintballers. 

 

I had an OK time here. I had some great moments with my LMG during the day and managed to get through 5000 odd rounds in an hour. I can totally see this site being something I would rotate with Billericay and Airsoft Plantation for a regular haunt on the assumption the organisation can be sorted. 

 

Luckily, a group may well be coming in to take over the running of the Airsoft days. They have plenty of experience so the future does look bright in this regard if contracts can be signed!

 

Bullpup Watch: Very few, I and a few others had P90's but was essentially a sea of M4's and AK's.  

Would you go again 

[Asomodai]

4 minutes ago, Robert James said:

Would you go again 

 

As mentioned at the end of the review, if it gets taken over by the group of Airsofters I know who are interested, then absolutely and quite regularly!

 

If they don't... Maybe occasionally to change things up a bit. 

[Albiscuit]

I agree with pretty much everything. I wasn’t at the same day as @Asomodai but was at a Saturday night game not too long ago and the games were basic and the organisational aspect could have been a lot better.

 

I like the sound of a regular Airsoft group running the game days as there is a lot of potential there.

 

1 hour ago, Robert James said:

Would you go again 

 

I was and still am in two minds about this question after my previous visit. 

I WOULD do a night game again, I wouldn’t make it a regular thing or look to do a full day though. However with this news of it being taken over I would venture down once it’s running and see if it’s improved somewhat.

[RMDavis]

160+ people for a skirmish...

 

Fuck that!

 

Sounds like plastic bukakke!

[Asomodai]

3 hours ago, RMDavis said:

160+ people for a skirmish...

 

Fuck that!

 

Sounds like plastic bukakke!

 

It was heavily advertised and was pretty much the only skirmish on at the time. I've heard the numbers on the Saturday games are around 30-40.