Se Tour Review: Imperium Airsoft (Kent)

[Asomodai]

Site Name: Imperium Airsoft

Contact details: 01795 342 203

Website Address: https://imperiumairsoft.com/

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

Site Address: Uplees Road, Oare, Kent ME13 0QR

 

Whilst searching for sites to visit and review, I came across Imperium Airsoft advertising "OP Nexus". Advertised as a tough day/Battlesim with military vehicles. Seemed interesting enough so thought I would pop down on 01/03/2020 to see what its about. 

 

This site is right on the fringes of sanity to get to on public transport. Luckily @Albiscuit and his brother were on hand to pick me up to make it a whole lot easier! 

 

I had heard OF this site, but not much about the site itself, all I knew was that it was in Kent, relatively close to the shore of the North Sea and likely to be marshland looking at Google Maps. 

 

This is a Medium/Large sized Heathland style site. There were quite a lot of steep though relatively high mud banks and valleys, seemed somewhat man made in many respects. The roads throughout were muddy and tough going with plenty of water in the form of large puddles and lakes. The Heathland/Grassland sections were bumpy and unyielding with Nettles and brambles being the predominant vegetation. There were few trees, but lots and lots of thick bushes which for the most part impenetrable. Very few buildings, none of which were purpose built and were mostly inconsequential in terms of usage. Medium and Long distance engagement.

 

Around 90 players attended during the day. 

 

Good:

 

Unique setting: A Grass/Heathland style site is seldom seen in Airsoft in the South East and is certainly a different experience. Well worth giving it a go if only to say "I experienced it" The low vegetation brought its own unique challenges in firing and moving. The large mounds of earth separating areas of the site caused bottlenecks and required strategy to take and win the objective.

 

Marshalling behaviour: There were more paid professional marshals at this site then any I have previously visited. Despite the huge site there were plenty of them around and checking that rules were being adhered to. People were dealt with fairly and high tensions de-escalated. 

 

Safety Brief: Was fairly standard, covered all the salient points and was about the right length. Some humour injected into it for the regulars. The rules of the skirmish are well covered on the website.

 

Sorta Battlesim: The site operates as a Battlesim every skirmish. There is an unenforced ammo limit of 600 rounds for Assault, DMR and Sniper Players. 1200 rounds allowed when using an LMG (Must be real world model with Bipod) 2 second burst on full auto only, unless LMG which is allowed a 4 second burst while fully deployed. Usually two big skirmishes per Sunday and AM and PM one. Vehicles were also in play as troop carriers and a support platform. So a Battlesim-lite for Skirmish money.

 

Value: £30 is the top end for a skirmish, but you do get Vehicles, somewhat of a Battlesim experience and a free lunch. 

 

Chrono: A mandatory chrono was in affect and all guns were marked. AEG FPS limits are a high 360FPS. DMR is a low 420FPS with 20m MED and Bolt actions are 500 with a 30m MED. Chronoing on .2's is preferred rather then joule rate, Pistols were also tested.

 

Toilets: Not used by myself, but Als brother partook and reported it was in a metal outhouse, multiple toilets, sinks and soap. Clean. 

 

Professional Image: The website whilst small is well built, the Facebook page is well appointed with lots of photos and videos. The setup does seem quite professional at the site as well. 

 

Average: 

 

Playing Area: This was very marmite. The site is a large 80 acres. The variety of the site can be split into 3 sections, muddy roads and access paths, Grassland and a pit/quarry section. I loved the pit/quarry section, which had plenty of elevation and was the site of a good game in the afternoon to capture a lorry. There were many entrances and exits into it, so was hard to defend from most directions but there were good vantage points.

 

The Grassland was relatively flat, long sight distances with little protection from the elements. These sections were mostly overlooking the roads. They were FULL of very very mature brambles and nettles, hidden in the pseudo paths ready to trip up on, you couldn't hide in any of the hedges without getting scratched to pieces. I came away from the day with lots of scratches and bruises from tripping over and pulling myself through the undergrowth. @Albiscuit came off similar to me! So what cover there was was very low and pretty lethal. 

 

There was a very small open field section which had some man made structures, but were of poor quality and nothing to write home about.

 

Shop: I believe this was provided by Platoon stores. Had about 6 or 7 rifles, same amount of pistols and the usual gas, bbs and Tactical gear. Perfectly fine for a skirmish, but nothing out of the ordinary.

 

Food: Food came free with the price of the skirmish. There was only two choices, a home made beef chilli (That went down really well) and a Veggie Chilli option for those so inclined, free tea and coffee throughout the day, some cans available for £1. Great food, but poor variety. 

 

Parking: There was enough parking available for the 90 or so players and probably an overflow section could be opened up if needed.. The surface is grass though likely to turn to mud if the weather was particularly bad. Parking is close to the entrance of the site and close to the safe zone. No stacking of cars was needed. 

 

Clientele: Most people were quite friendly when playing (Mostly in-between games). Had a fair laugh with them and clearly the site had a few regulars. The mood did turn quite often though, people not taking hits, a fairly major argument did have to get de-escalated by the marshals late on in the day and there was lots of grumbling about the AM game that day (To be fair it was justified). 

 

Bad: 

 

Game modes: The Afternoon game was decent, but the morning game left a very bad taste in the mouth. It was setup that one team had almost immediate access to the main artery of the game objective, with the other teams spawn being bunched into corners that were easily overlooked with the wind against them (The wind was awful and blustery in one direction). So one team was spawn camped for a good hour or so. It was complained about multiple times to the marshals in charge, but nothing was changed. The spawn points just weren't working. The game should have been stopped and something else tried. Many felt it was a waste of the morning with the winning team having the spawn and height advantage. It set the mood for the rest of the day. 

 

Safe Zone: Is very large, its essentially part of a rather open field. There were some open tables but no where near enough to accommodate the amount that showed up, The vast majority had to setup out of the boot of their cars or on the surrounding grass. We were very lucky that the weather was fine on the day, it would have been pretty miserable if raining. Not acceptable in my opinion. 

 

Infrequent Game days: Imperium only run the 1st weekend of the month. Once a month. 

 

Conclusion: 

 

A real mixed bag. I definitely think that if you live in the SE and haven't played at a Grassland style site then i would give this a shot, its different and probably worth the effort. Due to the nature of the site go when the wind is forecast to be non existent or very light. If you are a sniper you will probably enjoy this site. You have to be pretty physically fit because of the amount of steep elevation on show. The constant nettles and brambles were a real nuisance and a shame. Though typical for this type of site. 

 

The organisers need to work on the safe zone. identify and not be afraid to change things that are not working out on the fly in terms of the games themselves. The Vehicles gave a nice dimension to the day and overall the value was good. 

 

Would I go back? Yes... probably, when the weather is nicer and more green around to hide in, though i have no doubt the nettles will be worse then! Although I had a fairly bad playing experience I can see the potential to warrant another visit. The Afternoon I made some pretty decent kills and last minute assault on the main objective which won the game. 

 

One last thing... on the ride back home, I admitted that whilst I was pretty tired, I felt that I was unsatisfied. Something was missing and that the day didn't really feel "finished". @Albiscuit felt the same as me I think. I cant quite put into words why. 

 

Bullpup Watch: My T97's and one L85 type. Poor for such large numbers

 

 

This is a terrible video. But this is what I experienced on the day. 

 

 

[clumpyedge]

Looks like they have plenty of room and elevation to allow for a HESCO style FOB there, would be interesting to know what sort of development they would be allowed to do?

[Zarrin]

I reckon it sounds like it may be worth while visiting June -July when it's dried out a bit - I like the idea of a quarry and some nice natural elevation, and the lakes and ponds look kinda cool from the birds eye shot.

 

@AsomodaiMaybe let them know what you thought about the morning games on their FB page, if they are a serious business they'll take some constructive feedback on board - so long as you're diplomatic 😉

[Asomodai]

41 minutes ago, mzjango said:

I reckon it sounds like it may be worth while visiting June -July when it's dried out a bit - I like the idea of a quarry and some nice natural elevation, and the lakes and ponds look kinda cool from the birds eye shot.

 

@AsomodaiMaybe let them know what you thought about the morning games on their FB page, if they are a serious business they'll take some constructive feedback on board - so long as you're diplomatic 😉

 

Its not so much a quarry. It kinda looks like one. It might have been a very shallow one some time ago but I cant really tell myself. 

 

 

[Guest Yukarin]

50 minutes ago, mzjango said:

I reckon it sounds like it may be worth while visiting June -July when it's dried out a bit - I like the idea of a quarry and some nice natural elevation, and the lakes and ponds look kinda cool from the birds eye shot.

 

@AsomodaiMaybe let them know what you thought about the morning games on their FB page, if they are a serious business they'll take some constructive feedback on board - so long as you're diplomatic 😉

I was on the side in the morning that greatly benefited from the bad spawns, my group made our criticisms known to the Marshalls who took it on board very well, at that point I personally believe it was hard to change the spawns that late into the game. They absolutely love feedback and kept coming up to my group (and I imagine other groups) to ask on what can be improved.

[Asomodai]

2 hours ago, Yukarin said:

 at that point I personally believe it was hard to change the spawns that late into the game.

 

We realized within 40 minutes of game starting it wasn't going to work and we started complaining. I reckon they could have stopped it and had another small game before the break. 

[Albiscuit]

Ok so it’s certainly a marmite site, but I for one really enjoyed the site. I make no secret of my love of CQB and dislike of woodland and this is something outside which is different from typical woodland/outdoor sites and certainly worth a visit later in the year when the weather is better and it’s a bit more green.

 

Agreed the morning game didn’t really work, I feel it would have been better if one team had to defend a convoy of vehicles across the site and the other set up ambushes and attempt to slow it down. 
As the game didn’t quite work with the blue objective being past the red spawn as we couldn’t get/go anywhere.

 

afternoon was awesome, I really enjoyed the game but I think the lack of players affected it, we didn’t have enough players to cover all the ground and access points to the objective.

 

Overall the day was 50:50 for me, some really good things and some issues but I feel I defo want to go back and try again as I think the negatives are very easily addressed.

 

good:

*site was excellent, hard on the legs but fun to play

*vehicles made a nice addition

*marshalling was great, always one visible and encouraging and I didn’t see/hear any issues 

*food was lovely
*site had a nice vibe from players and marshalls

 

bad:

*not a lot of players, not the sites fault but more players would have made it a better day with more action
*Game mode in the am session didn’t work

*Not a big choice of food and drink

*some more man made structures, buildings, cover would be a good addition 

*safe zone was uncovered and have half a dozen benches, setting up out of the car is not an issue but would have been nice to know before we went that was the case, would be horrible in the rain

*battlesim wasn’t quite working, big lack of organisation from our team, hardly anyone actually trying to do objectives and most people treated it like team death match which was really annoying (I understand people are there to play their own game as they paid their money. But for the type of game it was advertised as you would expect more people to be a bit more objective focused)

 

tldr

My day was good with some sticking points, I would like to go back and see if it was a one off as I really enjoyed a good part of it and think it’s one of those sites you should try at least once.

[Albiscuit]

14 hours ago, clumpyedge said:

Looks like they have plenty of room and elevation to allow for a HESCO style FOB there, would be interesting to know what sort of development they would be allowed to do?

some extra cover along the roads and some purpose built forts would be an awesome addition and very welcome

[Asomodai]

Have now added a very poor video from my cheapy headcam.

[MiK]

31 minutes ago, Asomodai said:

Have now added a very poor video from my cheapy headcam.

quality isn’t that bad tbh - what “cheapy headcam” is it ?

[Asomodai]

On 05/03/2020 at 16:43, MiK said:

quality isn’t that bad tbh - what “cheapy headcam” is it ?

 

Akaso EK7000

[MiK]

Cheers I had looked at that one but I pulled the trigger on APEMAN A79 on amazon for £36 as it had a extra external mic in the box along with the usual gubbins - hoping it’s not a dud and had waited on your reply 🙄

[Captain Hat]

Hello! I'm part of the marshalling team at Imperium (onsite I'm known as Chewie).  Thanks for your feedback!

The reason we run the site is to give our players a fun weekend.  We want you to go home feeling like you've had an awesome day and we take pride in the quality of our game-day experience and your memories of it!  We're making a big effort with professional photography, dedicated videography and of course our amazing military trucks, but we are a relatively new site and we're still growing and developing.  As such we're always looking for suggestions about things we can do better and your comments on the opening game are particularly useful to us.

 

We've already done a fair amount of work to improve the game site (mostly groundworks so far) and adding structures in the really open areas is next on the list.  Cutting back the vegetation to keep the paths open is a constant struggle as well, but we do try to keep on top of that too!

We also have a plan in place to improve the facilities in the safe zone- particularly ensuring that all players will have a covered prep area in the event of rain.  We have provided covered space before using our gazebo (which we don't always put up), the containers and the MOG's vehicle shelter as prep areas, but that's not a long-term solution for us- we want to do it properly.  We try to organise works days every few weekends, either a Saturday before a game day or on a weekend with no game, but obviously we're not doing anything at the moment due to present circumstances.

Our chrono is moving from FPS to Joules.  We have also put a number of measures in place to ensure players with HPA rigs and so on are treated fairly.  Joule limits are published on the website and on the Facebook page- guns up to 1.3J have no MED or full auto restrictions, up to 1.7J guns must be locked to semi-auto or slower and have a 20m MED, guns up to 2.4J must be bolt-action and have a 30m MED.  Guns over 2.4J are not allowed on site.  Energies are to be tested with site BBs (usually either .25g or .4g depending on the gun) with specific exceptions at a Marshal's discretion.

 

We are also looking at making our game days more frequent- maybe looking to move towards doing two game days a month or playing every other weekend instead of our current once-a-month schedule.  That will have to wait until after this pandemic is over, though.  We're not going to put anybody's health at risk by running events while it's still going on; we were one of the first sites in the UK to announce closure, ahead of the lockdown announcement.

 

Finally, I want to thank you for your positive comments on the marshalling team!  We do try our absolute best to be as professional and helpful as possible, and we consider it our sworn duty to make sure everyone has a good day out- it's great to hear that our efforts are appreciated :)

For those interested, the site itself has a long and interesting history.  It has been (at various times) a quarry, a munitions factory/arms dump, a landfill site (as far as we can tell, mostly for old rubber and aggregate), a paintball site (in the bottom field) and a  4x4 offroading centre.  There are fishing lakes in the centre of the site which are out of bounds on game days.  The site's history makes it more or less ideal to run an airsoft site on, and it's brownfield (which means we can basically put up whatever temporary structures we want, dig big holes etc and with no neighbours to upset and out of view to all).  This history does mean you sometimes have to watch your footing though!

 

Thanks again for taking the time to post a review, and do come back in the future as the site changes dramatically in the summer… if we’re lucky, we’ll be there!

[Albiscuit]

A decent reply, I remember  you Chewie.

 

I am glad you have taken the review as it was intended, a helpful guide for us here to know about sites we have not heard of and to be given enough information from a regular player to arrive at a new site informed and knowing what to expect.

 

I was with Asomodai on that day and it was also my first visit, I am sure you have read my thoughts on the site too.

 

It is a unique site, and I enjoyed the site, especially getting to see a lot more of it in the afternoon, the use of vehicles was great but some buildings and little more cover would be welcomed. 

Playing in the summer sounds interesting, and I certainly would return for a few games.

[Captain Hat]

Thanks dude.  Yeah, I read your thoughts too, thank you as well

We do try to get as much feedback as we can from our customers- so far most of it has been positive, which is nice, but really the things you want to know about the most are the things you're not getting right, because those are the things you need to change the most.

Most of the marshalling team has plenty of experience of what it feels like to be on both sides of a game of airsoft.  We usually have a pretty good feel for how games are panning out and we're not averse to changing things on the fly, but obviously there was some missed communication on the day you and Asomodai attended that we will need to sort out to make sure future games go better.  There are definitely areas that we have pinpointed for improvement in terms of site facilities as well, and feedback like yours helps us focus on the most important things for us to get done first.

[Albiscuit]

I cant wait to come back and try some other types of games there. You have a great site with a lot of potential.

 

Now your signed up, could you post your games days and site info on here in the Events and Meets thread? would be nice to see what your running and when and you may get some extra players from here too.

[Captain Hat]

On 05/05/2020 at 11:33, Albiscuit said:

I cant wait to come back and try some other types of games there. You have a great site with a lot of potential.

 

Now your signed up, could you post your games days and site info on here in the Events and Meets thread? would be nice to see what your running and when and you may get some extra players from here too.

As and when we start running events again, I might well do that.

 

If I remember

 

Look forward to seeing you again!

 

-Chewie