The 'How Did Your Airsoft Day Go? Thread

[Jaylordofwaargh]

On 20/04/2023 at 16:07, Skullchewer said:

The site is a good size, and decent layout

Any chance there is a "map" or set of line drawings a new to site could get there hands on before the day? It beats the not having a scooby during game briefs.

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

Operation Dustoff, Namsoft 22.04.23

 

This is an event staged by the rather legendary Denn at Gunman’s Alpha site in Eversley.  If you’ve not been this is a hilly rhododendron filled woodland site with several chalk streams that cross it.  The top of the site is a ‘wild west’ style village made up of cabins that serve as a party area, sleeping quarters and prop buildings for all kinds of airsoft games. 

 

Behind the village you’ll find a fire base consisting of trenches and dugouts, covered machine gun posts and large bunkers.  This is Fort William, and is the hard regen and home of the 173^rd Airborne, plus other US troops.  Hard work from the 173^rd’s members had resulted in a new building that sleeps two and acts as a storage area for the units gear.  This small complex was the site of much fighting over the weekend, changing hands several times. 

 

This was our third weekend under canvas, the first that we had a rain free day though.  I thought that arriving on site dry and on time for once heralded a smooth running weekend.  We then discovered that we had left two tarps, the lad’s sleeping bag, and the kettle behind.  Bollocks!

 

Anyhow, Mark the onsite go to man for anything you need a hand with rustled up a large Kelly kettle and a whole bivvy system.  After a chat and a catch up we said our thanks and went to mouch around the village where Neil had set up shop with a range of airsoft rifs, militaria bits, and consumables.  We bought Mk Vs and a new old stock AK pouch.  Snowy helped us sign on and then sold us an M16 bandolier.  We went back to the campfire before we spent any more cash. 

 

Saturday dawned bright and bloody freezing.  We shivered into our black pyjamas, Mrs TPH keeping her leggings and jumper on underneath.  Safety brief was short and concise, following the Gunman format.  Game brief was detailed and so informative that the only question was from me asking to confirm which channel to call the marshals on in case of accident.

 

We soon deployed to our hard regen at the base of the site, putting down bags of food and spare batteries etc in an old Nissan hut.  We had to leave in squads of at least three due to the large number of players in attendance.  As this was the first game that the Vietnamese forces had number parity with the US/Aussies, we were pleased to find that Rory and Ian were also looking to form a squad.  Both these blokes had also been at STALKERS a couple of weeks previously, and so we formed a recon group of four. 

 

Our first task was to drop off a respawn box somewhere useful, without getting spotted.  We were soon hiding in a clump of bushes as the whole Aussie squad passed by.  Upon hearing firing, we hid the box and joined in what turned out to be an ambush on the squad that had just passed us.  A counter push saw us melting away into the woods, only to circle back and harry them again from different angles. 

 

Since we were equipped with a decent compliment of radios, callsign Red Star our commander was soon deploying us against the opposition all over site.  When not engaged, we searched for the other side and radioed in location reports, sometimes hiding our rifs and approaching as civilians.  Points were awarded for working for and spying on the US.  This worked well, especially the player who acted as porter for the US only to grab a rifle as soon as they were attacked and managing to shoot most of the squad on the back. 

 

By late afternoon we had harassed the US back into Fort William which we stalked up to and took pot shots at the sentries.  This was great fun, and my sub 350fps K98 was very satisfying to get kills with.  I spent ages trying to shoot the lad and various mates.  

 

For only the second time at one of these events, someone got shouty, tempers got a bit hot and we pulled back from the firebase hearing more shouts.  I think that a US player had thrown an incendiary pyro that failed to ignite, and thought that VC players were ignoring it.  I radioed the marshal team to ask them to calm things down only to find that the organiser was already having a chat with the chap as I called him.  Misunderstandings can happen anywhere and will, and people get tired, confused etc.  Sorting things out quickly and amicably is the key and an apology and explanation is all that was needed to get the game 100% fun again.

 

The next stage was to build up to a full stage assault on William. This was a bit of a first.  William is hard to attack successfully, but for the first time ever we had equal numbers.  Given that we usually win these games overall fighting three to one, this turned into a complete grind down for the US team.  Huge numbers of pyro and smoke were thrown; it was very atmospheric with the coloured smoke, shouts and constant sound of firing.  We so overwhelmed the US that they gave up the base and we took it with relative ease.  A quick marshal talk followed, as someone had bought some MKIVs that turned out to be faulty, being extremely loud.  The offending grenades were put away and gameplay continued. 

 

The US attempts to regain the base were committed and tenacious, but in the end we gave it up at the end of the day.  We had raised our flag and beaten off every attack, including a mate who manged to gain entry into the new 173^rd bunker via a fire slit.  That had been a close call. 

 

With the US back in possession, we continued to pick off patrols and ambush US teams trying to carry out tasks.  At one point I crawled up to the firebase and slithered in through a window that had been left open.  I managed to hit an entire squad who were sitting down for a fag and tea break in what they thought was safety.  I then took out two more chaps before being hit myself.  For this I used my trusty CYMA AK though.  I say trusty as the mag catch has worn to the point that you have to hold the mag firmly into the magwell for it to feed.  I’ll get busy with an old credit card and some super glue and build up the mag’s lips at some point. 

 

End of day one, both sides had done well, but the huge VC numbers and being well coordinated for once meant that we were possibly ahead.  The Aussie team had done very well in the morning, so the game was still very close whatever the winner. 

 

Saturday night was a relaxed affair.  We were that knackered that we stayed at our own campfire and cooked steaks with spud salad, washed down with Irish coffee and decent scotch.  I honestly could not have taken another step and gone and socialised. 

 

Sunday morning saw a start at 7:30… well the Aussie team and a few VC did.  We got up about an hour later and joined in the fun, contesting the wall section of the site.  This was great fun and we had some really good firefights, I had a premonition that this would be an intense affair, and packed the RPK for the day.  This performed faultlessly as always, despite its increasingly battered appearance.  Mrs TPH’s new CYMA AK 74 SU worked a treat too.  She really got into the thick of things, running towards any sound of fighting and getting frustrated if she was not stalking and shooting a US squad. 

 

Once again the rain started on and off, and players began to dribble off site.  We staged one last attack on William, unlimited respawns for the VC, one life for the US.  We had a whale of a time throwing ourselves at the place.  At close of play we realised that we were the last VC squad left in the field, against a much depleted US side.  We were victorious (I think) but tired and in need of a shower and a bite to eat.  Our son was still fucking about in the field so I nicked his pasty.  Teach him to forget to take his lunch with him. 

 

Handshakes and goodbyes were said.  A lot of smiling and looking forward to seeing friends again at the next game took place.  We packed the van and pointed it homeward.  We’re all seriously done in and airsofted out, but it was a marvellous weekend.  Good company, good gameplay and sportsmanship, well thought out storyline and very good social.  I love these events and we’ll do one or two a month from March to November.  I did order a bloody thick double sleeping bag as soon as I got home though.  I’ll also remember to print out my filmsim kit list and tick the essentials off too.  I’ll also get a Kelly kettle and cook set kit having borrowed one.  The twig burning kettle was far better in cold weather than our iso-butane camping stove. 

 

All in all a great weekend, the guns ran very well.  The old AK is getting mag fussy, but that’s fixable.  The RPK is laser accurate and chugs at a decent rate of fire, i.e. slowly.  I can’t believe how well I shoot it from the hip with a loose sling.  Mrs TPH was well impressed with her AK SU and the Kar98 is impressively accurate as a standard rif.  All of the Russian platforms are CYMA and provide real reliability.  It’s great satisfaction to hit someone with a bolt action with no MED too.  Next is two Nam games are in June on successive weekends.  We’ll do a 90’s Middle-East game before then in May.  We’ll shoot at blokes in tri-colour desert and choc-chip camo instead of greens. 

 

We drove four hours to get to this game.  Some Aussie players came from Scotland.  They’re well worth the effort.  

 

Du ban GI!

 

 

 

 

 

[Colin Allen]

6 hours ago, Tactical Pith Helmet said:

Operation Dustoff, Namsoft 22.04.23

 

This is an event staged by the rather legendary Denn at Gunman’s Alpha site in Eversley.  If you’ve not been this is a hilly rhododendron filled woodland site with several chalk streams that cross it.  The top of the site is a ‘wild west’ style village made up of cabins that serve as a party area, sleeping quarters and prop buildings for all kinds of airsoft games. 

 

Behind the village you’ll find a fire base consisting of trenches and dugouts, covered machine gun posts and large bunkers.  This is Fort William, and is the hard regen and home of the 173^rd Airborne, plus other US troops.  Hard work from the 173^rd’s members had resulted in a new building that sleeps two and acts as a storage area for the units gear.  This small complex was the site of much fighting over the weekend, changing hands several times. 

 

This was our third weekend under canvas, the first that we had a rain free day though.  I thought that arriving on site dry and on time for once heralded a smooth running weekend.  We then discovered that we had left two tarps, the lad’s sleeping bag, and the kettle behind.  Bollocks!

 

Anyhow, Mark the onsite go to man for anything you need a hand with rustled up a large Kelly kettle and a whole bivvy system.  After a chat and a catch up we said our thanks and went to mouch around the village where Neil had set up shop with a range of airsoft rifs, militaria bits, and consumables.  We bought Mk Vs and a new old stock AK pouch.  Snowy helped us sign on and then sold us an M16 bandolier.  We went back to the campfire before we spent any more cash. 

 

Saturday dawned bright and bloody freezing.  We shivered into our black pyjamas, Mrs TPH keeping her leggings and jumper on underneath.  Safety brief was short and concise, following the Gunman format.  Game brief was detailed and so informative that the only question was from me asking to confirm which channel to call the marshals on in case of accident.

 

We soon deployed to our hard regen at the base of the site, putting down bags of food and spare batteries etc in an old Nissan hut.  We had to leave in squads of at least three due to the large number of players in attendance.  As this was the first game that the Vietnamese forces had number parity with the US/Aussies, we were pleased to find that Rory and Ian were also looking to form a squad.  Both these blokes had also been at STALKERS a couple of weeks previously, and so we formed a recon group of four. 

 

Our first task was to drop off a respawn box somewhere useful, without getting spotted.  We were soon hiding in a clump of bushes as the whole Aussie squad passed by.  Upon hearing firing, we hid the box and joined in what turned out to be an ambush on the squad that had just passed us.  A counter push saw us melting away into the woods, only to circle back and harry them again from different angles. 

 

Since we were equipped with a decent compliment of radios, callsign Red Star our commander was soon deploying us against the opposition all over site.  When not engaged, we searched for the other side and radioed in location reports, sometimes hiding our rifs and approaching as civilians.  Points were awarded for working for and spying on the US.  This worked well, especially the player who acted as porter for the US only to grab a rifle as soon as they were attacked and managing to shoot most of the squad on the back. 

 

By late afternoon we had harassed the US back into Fort William which we stalked up to and took pot shots at the sentries.  This was great fun, and my sub 350fps K98 was very satisfying to get kills with.  I spent ages trying to shoot the lad and various mates.  

 

For only the second time at one of these events, someone got shouty, tempers got a bit hot and we pulled back from the firebase hearing more shouts.  I think that a US player had thrown an incendiary pyro that failed to ignite, and thought that VC players were ignoring it.  I radioed the marshal team to ask them to calm things down only to find that the organiser was already having a chat with the chap as I called him.  Misunderstandings can happen anywhere and will, and people get tired, confused etc.  Sorting things out quickly and amicably is the key and an apology and explanation is all that was needed to get the game 100% fun again.

 

The next stage was to build up to a full stage assault on William. This was a bit of a first.  William is hard to attack successfully, but for the first time ever we had equal numbers.  Given that we usually win these games overall fighting three to one, this turned into a complete grind down for the US team.  Huge numbers of pyro and smoke were thrown; it was very atmospheric with the coloured smoke, shouts and constant sound of firing.  We so overwhelmed the US that they gave up the base and we took it with relative ease.  A quick marshal talk followed, as someone had bought some MKIVs that turned out to be faulty, being extremely loud.  The offending grenades were put away and gameplay continued. 

 

The US attempts to regain the base were committed and tenacious, but in the end we gave it up at the end of the day.  We had raised our flag and beaten off every attack, including a mate who manged to gain entry into the new 173^rd bunker via a fire slit.  That had been a close call. 

 

With the US back in possession, we continued to pick off patrols and ambush US teams trying to carry out tasks.  At one point I crawled up to the firebase and slithered in through a window that had been left open.  I managed to hit an entire squad who were sitting down for a fag and tea break in what they thought was safety.  I then took out two more chaps before being hit myself.  For this I used my trusty CYMA AK though.  I say trusty as the mag catch has worn to the point that you have to hold the mag firmly into the magwell for it to feed.  I’ll get busy with an old credit card and some super glue and build up the mag’s lips at some point. 

 

End of day one, both sides had done well, but the huge VC numbers and being well coordinated for once meant that we were possibly ahead.  The Aussie team had done very well in the morning, so the game was still very close whatever the winner. 

 

Saturday night was a relaxed affair.  We were that knackered that we stayed at our own campfire and cooked steaks with spud salad, washed down with Irish coffee and decent scotch.  I honestly could not have taken another step and gone and socialised. 

 

Sunday morning saw a start at 7:30… well the Aussie team and a few VC did.  We got up about an hour later and joined in the fun, contesting the wall section of the site.  This was great fun and we had some really good firefights, I had a premonition that this would be an intense affair, and packed the RPK for the day.  This performed faultlessly as always, despite its increasingly battered appearance.  Mrs TPH’s new CYMA AK 74 SU worked a treat too.  She really got into the thick of things, running towards any sound of fighting and getting frustrated if she was not stalking and shooting a US squad. 

 

Once again the rain started on and off, and players began to dribble off site.  We staged one last attack on William, unlimited respawns for the VC, one life for the US.  We had a whale of a time throwing ourselves at the place.  At close of play we realised that we were the last VC squad left in the field, against a much depleted US side.  We were victorious (I think) but tired and in need of a shower and a bite to eat.  Our son was still fucking about in the field so I nicked his pasty.  Teach him to forget to take his lunch with him. 

 

Handshakes and goodbyes were said.  A lot of smiling and looking forward to seeing friends again at the next game took place.  We packed the van and pointed it homeward.  We’re all seriously done in and airsofted out, but it was a marvellous weekend.  Good company, good gameplay and sportsmanship, well thought out storyline and very good social.  I love these events and we’ll do one or two a month from March to November.  I did order a bloody thick double sleeping bag as soon as I got home though.  I’ll also remember to print out my filmsim kit list and tick the essentials off too.  I’ll also get a Kelly kettle and cook set kit having borrowed one.  The twig burning kettle was far better in cold weather than our iso-butane camping stove. 

 

All in all a great weekend, the guns ran very well.  The old AK is getting mag fussy, but that’s fixable.  The RPK is laser accurate and chugs at a decent rate of fire, i.e. slowly.  I can’t believe how well I shoot it from the hip with a loose sling.  Mrs TPH was well impressed with her AK SU and the Kar98 is impressively accurate as a standard rif.  All of the Russian platforms are CYMA and provide real reliability.  It’s great satisfaction to hit someone with a bolt action with no MED too.  Next is two Nam games are in June on successive weekends.  We’ll do a 90’s Middle-East game before then in May.  We’ll shoot at blokes in tri-colour desert and choc-chip camo instead of greens. 

 

We drove four hours to get to this game.  Some Aussie players came from Scotland.  They’re well worth the effort.  

 

Du ban GI!

 

 

 

 

 

That sounds like bloody good fun!  What a cracking report as well!

[Impulse]

8 hours ago, Tactical Pith Helmet said:

Operation Dustoff, Namsoft 22.04.23

Big snip of good write up of the weekend

 

Damn it! I thought Dustoff was next weekend, not this one! I think we probably would've been down as VC if we knew, as the only reason we didn't sign on is we thought it was the same weekend as AI500 (next weekend) which two of us are going to. Good to see that VC numbers are keeping up though!

 

We'll be at the next Gunman 'Namsoft game in June; very much looking forward to sniping some GIs 😂

[rj1986]

This one was a bit different - a buying weekend rather than a playing.

 

Saw an MWS for sale, along with a couple of pistols and a ACR GBB., and a bunch of kit. Made an offer on buying the lot with the idea of flipping 90% of it and keeping the MWS. I knew most of the kit would be for the bring n buy at the end of the month, so no issues there. The pistols, I could sell on to the right people and make a tidy profit.

 

I was planning on selling the ACR, but i made the mistake of test firing it.... now I'm doing the man maths to justify having it.

[Skullchewer]

13 hours ago, Tactical Pith Helmet said:

Stuff  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another great write up, as always.

 

Yesterday Red Alert ran their first Battlesim LITE.

No kit restrictions.

Arm bands in use.

No medic rule.

Only break was for lunch.

 

Basically one long skirmish day with set teams and shifting objectives throughout the day, and one constant objective.

Red won the day convincingly (boo hiss), and overall the day was a great success.

 

It was a good intro for anyone interested in battlesims/milsim/filmsims that don't want to invest in specific kit.

Discussion is going on about what worked and what didn't, in order to tweak the rules as this may become a regular event every couple of months or so.

 

I had great fun, with the highlight being escorting two WWII jeeps across the site to an objective point.

But by the end of the day my back was giving out to me (I'm an old git), so I switched to war reporter mode and live streamed the last 20 minutes to Facebook, which I've now uploaded to YouTube and included below.

I also took off my facepro and subsequently took a round right on the top of my nose (shown on the livestream🤣)

 

Disclaimer: video contains foul mouthed old crusty!

 

Red Alert's next actual Battlesim (not lite) is on the 21st of May. Book at this link:

https://redalertpaintball.co.uk/battlesim/

 

 

 

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

'There's @GAMBLEwith a melee weapon in his hand. '  I believe he was born with one there tbh...  

[Skullchewer]

I once saw him sprinting across a site with a double ended light saber.

Got kills too. 

[RostokMcSpoons]

A beautiful sunny Saturday at Special Ops

 

I had egged on one of my friends who was the guy I'd first gone airsofting with to come along, he turned up with his new TM MP7 GBBR, and as it has been a long time since I had seen him I brought along a bunch of my recent gnus to show him.  I needed a bloody Chinook to transport it all...

 

Double Eagle M906C (natch)

VFC HK416 GBBR

Tippmann M4 HPA

TM AUG HC

CA Scarab

TM DOR 5.1 pistol

 

With the forecast fog missing in action, the sun was out so ditched the jacket for just a camo shirt.  Today was going to sting a bit more than usual 😬 but it'd also turn out to be warm enough for the gas guns to perform well

I gave my friend a demo of a few of the guns and encouragingly found they were all running well, even the Tippmann (though it was slightly too hot on the chrono to skirmish, and I didn't get around to adjusting it) and the VFC, which I'd never managed to dial in for longer range until now

 

A lack of marshals for the ~60 players meant I became a player-marshal for the day, mostly meant keeping an eye on the kids to make sure they kept safe.  Nice to know I could shout at people with no come backs, but I didn't need to... much 😋

 

The usual selection of games, but the site's layout has been changed quite a bit with lot more cover around the entrance to Ping Ping City, really freshened it up.  

A new escort the VIP game was introduced where the escort just happened to be carrying his electric minigun to defend himself!  Good stuff, as I'd been up against that in the previous games but he ended up on my side for that one 😅

 

A great day made extra special for me as I decided to use my HK416 gas rifle for most of it, I've detailed more about that in the owners thread ... suffice to say it was truly a game changer, I expect to be doing a lot more GBBR play in the future.  

My friend's MP7 was also great, very impressive... When the CQB site opens up I'll have to find a way to buy one

 

Sounds like I'll be going along to Red Alert next month (14th?), maybe I'll see some of you guys there?

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by RostokMcSpoons
Pic, fixed link

[Colin Allen]

So, today I was again at Tower Airsoft in Essex.  In addition to my CYMA based MPiKM and my unknown make AMD 65, I had the lad's G&G C7 with me as he had not used it since September 2022 and was keen that it got a run.  I also had my partially completed ancient DBoys PDW build, so that I could check its power output with the hop properly set;  Tower has a long straight path with trees at the end leading away from the range, which is ideal for setting up hops.  In addition, I took my old CYMA electric pistol because I still want to believe that they are viable airsoft weapons.

Arriving nice and early, I went out to set up the PDW; it shot perfectly at what the site chrono said was a decent power level.  Unfortunately, the quality of plastic from which it is constructed is so poor that the mag catch managed to smash the very thin piece of plastic that prevents it collapsing into the magwell once the magazine is removed.

I also tried the electric pistol and finally had to accept that my desire to believe something does not necessarily make it true.

There were about 105-110 players present, which is a lot for what is quite a small site; there also seemed to be more miniguns than I have ever seen on a single game day, along with a fair number of rentals and two of the smallest players that I have seen in a very long time.

The day was good, with the usual well though out games, including one in which the attackers had to secure a smoke grenade that was in an ammunition box in the village and transport it to the bridge, where they had to set it off. We were defending first and the attacking team eventually broke into the village and secured the smoke grenade, which they immediately set off; listening to, and remembering, the game brief is important!  When the game was turned around, we did not make the same mistake.  Both legs of the game were great fun with elements of both sides outflanking each other and turning up behind the opposing team, leading to a degree of paranoia which resulted in a lot of "friendly fire" kills.  Great fun!

On returning home, I concluded that the PDW was no longer viable; after stripping out the gearbox and everything else that was worth saving, I was left with the nasty cheap plastic externals.  Therefore, the best thing to do was to set fire to it, so it went into the fire flowerpot where it burned and melted nicely; having acquired a taste for burning and melting airsoft items, I then did the same with the electric pistol.  Great fun!



 

[Cannonfodder]

32 minutes ago, Colin Allen said:

I went out to set up the PDW; it shot perfectly at what the site chrono said was a decent power level.  Unfortunately, the quality of plastic from which it is constructed is so poor that the mag catch managed to smash the very thin piece of plastic that prevents it collapsing into the magwell once the magazine is removed.

I've been eyeing up one of those for my next purchase, but after reading that I'm having second thoughts.

 

Is Tower airsoft run by the same guys at CAMOCQB in canvey island? If so I think I'll have to try and pay them a visit sometime

[Colin Allen]

20 minutes ago, Cannonfodder said:

I've been eyeing up one of those for my next purchase, but after reading that I'm having second thoughts.

 

Is Tower airsoft run by the same guys at CAMOCQB in canvey island? If so I think I'll have to try and pay them a visit sometime

Miguel from CAMO usually, but not always, runs the days at Tower for Airsoft Plantation with the marshals usually being from Airsoft Plantation.

Regarding the PDW, the one that I was working on was ancient.  I believe that the Double Bell plastic version is somewhat better; the metal one is very decent.

Edited April 30, 2023 by Colin Allen

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

2 hours ago, Colin Allen said:

On returning home, I concluded that the PDW was no longer viable; after stripping out the gearbox and everything else that was worth saving, I was left with the nasty cheap plastic externals.  Therefore, the best thing to do was to set fire to it, so it went into the fire flowerpot where it burned and melted nicely; having acquired a taste for burning and melting airsoft items, I then did the same with the electric pistol.  Great fun!



 

Sounds like a fun day.  The pyromania at the end was a surprise finish to say the least!

 

Have  you become the Pete Townsend of the airsoft world?   Will this be a regular post-game ritual?  

 

We await next weeks instalment.  

[Colin Allen]

2 minutes ago, Tactical Pith Helmet said:

Sounds like a fun day.  The pyromania at the end was a surprise finish to say the least!

 

Have  you become the Pete Townsend of the airsoft world?   Will this be a regular post-game ritual?  

 

We await next weeks instalment.  

No, definitely not; this was a one off (probably).

 

I thought Townshend was a smasher rather than a burner; Hendrix burned a couple of guitars.

[Impulse]

So I went to AI500 this weekend and.... honestly, it was the best one I've been to so far. I preferred it to the Citadel in Dover and I definitely preferred it over what was a relative shitshow in Rochdale. It wasn't perfect, but it was a fantasticly fun weekend of airsoft with team Beans from Worthing Airsoft. I traveled as light as I could, as I was getting a lift up with two other guys and didn't want to monopolise car space, which meant that my backup rifle had to be left at home since I already needed to bring two rifles as bolt actions weren't allowed in a lot of the site. Brought the m700 and the MWS, as I was going for my US recce setup and therefore wanted long barreled rifles.

 

We arrived on the Friday, dropped some kit off at the Premier Inn where a lot of us were staying, then headed up to the site. Chrono was present, but it was a bit of a mess through lack of communication. We were told we would be chronoed using their ammo, but they were told we were being chronoed on our own ammo. As a result, I got chronoed on .2s, which with gas guns is totally inaccurate due to joule creep, however using your own ammo can also be easily cheated so I don't have too many complaints on how they did chrono and was happy that they made a point to do so. Fortunately, I've got both of my guns set up honestly, so the m700 only chronoed at about 1.7J since with heavy BBs it creeps to around 2.1J, and the MWS chronoed at 0.9J and rises to around 1.1J when I put .3s in it. This means there could've been bad actors being dishonest with the chrono, however I will say that I didn't hear any reports of people taking hits from overpowered guns this weekend unlike at Rochdale where I definitely heard, saw and felt some questionable hits. HPA rigs were tournament locked and I think that outside of the lapse in communication it was done well. A large obstacle was thrown at the organisers last minute which sort of ruined the plans that I had for the weekend as the local farmer was kicking up a fuss, meaning the entire car park area was out of play, which was where they were going to put the exfil boxes (objectives had to be exfiled to score) and where I planned on playing with the m700. They reclassified the service yard as outdoors to try and make up for it (as originally it wasn't just to try and prevent full auto fire going into the buildings), but it did narrow the game significantly.

 

First day the weather was absolutely gorgeous. Forecast was overcast for Ebbw Vale, but this was incorrect and the weather was absolutely perfect for me. I think the temperature was the late teens (18 - 19C or so) and the sun was out pretty much all day with very little wind. I spent the entirety of Saturday realising that a good quality scope with a decent reticle and mil-dots is the next step in my kit, as at my local site there aren't many opportunities for long distance shooting but at this event there was ample opportunity and I loved it. I had a few spots that I took with the m700, but my favourite was on top of a small hill with a rusty box of some sort on top of it as it allowed me to see pretty much the entire service yard and road alongside, meaning I could call out enemy movement across the entire outdoor area from my perch and take some very long distance shots. I think I spent the entirety of Saturday on 9x zoom on my scope, so anyone who says that you don't need more than around 4x for airsoft is a liar . I think I went through about 700x .45s since all of my shots were long distance and I often had to adjust for wind and distance. Longest hit I scored was 114.7m according to the my Vortex rangefinger and it was a beauty of an arced shot that accounted for a slight left to right breeze and it felt super satisfying. I could also see the tan team complaining to a marshall about me, but since I wasn't breaking any rules I don't know what they expected to happen. The negative was that while I would say most players were good with their hit taking, it only took a handful of absolutely laughable examples to start having both teams crying about people not taking their hits. I can't comment on greens, as I spent most of my time not that close to my team, but looking through a 9x zoom scope I saw some hilarious examples of non-hit taking, where you see the fabric of the clothes ripple from the impact and the guy suddenly tucks in more. We even had one guy crawling through a relatively thin bush get lit up by 5 guys on full auto and he just kept on going. As I said, most people from what I saw were good on the hit taking, but there were a few who let both sides down . Final score at the end of the first day was 36 - 0 to the tan team, as they managed to get an exfil done (basically, teams gathered objectives and then had to put them in a box that they had to take to a specific location to "exfil" them, obviously without getting shot in the process) and we didn't, though there were grumbles on that as the tans exfil crate was gifted to them at lunch time since the greens had it locked down super hard. One of the guys on my team was part of the group that locked it down through the morning so he knew exactly where it was (it was in our side of the map, like our crate started on the tans side of the map) and said it just disappeared during lunch as it wasn't there when we got back out. Oh well, I'm not too bothered as I don't care too much about objectives as long as the gameplay is fun, and the gameplay was very fun!

 

Sunday came around and the weather was... not so perfect and the weather forecast got it right. Day started with a drizzle, that misty rain that makes everything soaking, and that continued through the day, with the rain picking up in intensity in patches, so I quickly gave up on trying to use my m700 since I couldn't see anything through the scope. However, the start of Sunday was another lapse in communication and this one annoyed me and was probably the worst part of the weekend. The evening before we were told in no uncertain terms that the CPs weren't flipping and that we would be playing from the same sides for the weekend, so a bunch of us greens, including the green team 1IC, got to the site, unpacked cars and started setting up only to have tan players coming over and telling us that CPs had been flipped. We then heard that people were being told at the gate that the CPs had flipped and we eventually got confirmation, had to chuck everything back in the cars and drive down. Rather annoying, but we carried on as the rest of the event had been pretty great, plus looking at the map we knew the other side had a massive advantage on the objective exfil locations and were looking forward to showing the tans who denied that fervently. CPs were also moved to get both teams out of the rain so everyone's kit didn't get absolutely sodden, meaning both teams were moved into the shopping area, moving both greens and tans closer in to the objectives. Where Saturday was a bit closer, with a bit of push on each side, Sunday was incredibly one-sided. Tans started well, pushing down the road hard and almost taking it in its entirety, however it left the service yard undermanned and greens took control of both exfil boxes, exfilling objectives every half an hour as soon as the exfils became available. I don't know how many we got in total, but it was something like 7 exfils through the day (so spoiler alert, greens seem to have won by a pretty big margin). Over the day, we managed to push the tans back to their CP to the point where we were told to push no further to prevent spawn camping, and I made the tan team *very* unhappy by being 6'5" tall; there was a fence that was about 6ft tall (which was annoying in its own way as I had to constantly duck to not get shot in the head) that I was able to shoulder my rifle and fire over if I stood on my tip toes (good thing I don't skip leg day). The tans started throwing accusations of blind firing, so I had a marshall stand next to me while I did it to show the staff clearly that I was shouldering my rifle as I went up to shoot, which was what I wanted anyway as I was using the iron sights to get some good shots down the alley with the MWS. What it did mean though was that between my position and other greens on the doors to the buildings, we had a crossfire setup that meant that the alley was just completely closed off to the tan team. I lost count of how many kills I racked up from that spot and, just like the Saturday, managed to get some rather salty complaints levelled at me despite breaking absolutely zero rules. I'd be lying if I said I didn't take some enjoyment from that, especially as there was a lot of trash talk from the tans leading up to the event over Discord, so a hearty serving of humble pie needed to be served.

 

All in all, I loved the weekend. Yes, there were a few hiccups, mostly around communication, but I think the event was better run than the last two I've been to and it's nice to see that they seem to be taking at least some of the feedback onboard as they move forwards. It wasn't perfect, but it was an incredibly fun weekend and I think most people would agree that they had a blast. The most negative voices will be the loudest in the coming days, but I figured I'd chime in with a positive recount of the weekend before the inevitable salt. The site was larger than it looked and even with 150 players per side it felt like there were a lot less chokepoint battles than both the Citadel and Rochdale.

 

TL:DR - AI500. Not perfect, but a very fun weekend with the boys.

[Rogerborg]

50 minutes ago, Impulse said:

we had a crossfire setup that meant that the alley was just completely closed off to the tan team. I lost count of how many kills I racked up from that spot

[...]

there were a lot less chokepoint battles than both the Citadel and Rochdale

 

 

[Impulse]

1 hour ago, Rogerborg said:

 

 

 

Hey, I said less, not none! 🤣

 

I just decided that part of the site was mine and no tans were allowed there

[Badgerlicious]

I don't have much more to add than @Impulse. I definitely enjoyed my weekend overall, despite the lack of communication from the staff at some points. It was a really ineresting and fun site to play, and surprisingly not too small for the 300 players that were there. And though I heard accounts of it, I didn't personally witness any cheating with my own eyes. Everyone was playing hard and well, and the discord "drama" was a guilty sort of fun 🤣 rip my boy, Charles 🙏 

 

All in all a good weekend of airsoft, despite my cars drive belt becoming spghetti on the way up. I would most likely go again with team beans, not sure I'd go by myself unless it was super close to home. 

 

And now I get to go home and not walk for 17 years while my legs recover. 🙃 

Edited May 1, 2023 by Badgerlicious

[Cannonfodder]

Good to hear they're listening to and acting on feedback, I just wish other big event organisers would do the same 

[wicksy101]

I have decided not to return to AI after the last few, been very poor. 

 

You seem to have had a good experience but I have seen reports of police being called for not allowing people out of the gates and marshals saying they will shoot at people's cars if they try to leave?

 

Good that they're listening though i guess. Still sounds like chrono is a mess despite the 8mm BB's that were being used in Dover. 

[Skullchewer]

18 minutes ago, wicksy101 said:

I have decided not to return to AI after the last few, been very poor. 

 

You seem to have had a good experience but I have seen reports of police being called for not allowing people out of the gates and marshals saying they will shoot at people's cars if they try to leave?

 

Good that they're listening though i guess. Still sounds like chrono is a mess despite the 8mm BB's that were being used in Dover. 

What the actual frick?

[Cannonfodder]

20 minutes ago, wicksy101 said:

marshals saying they will shoot at people's cars if they try to leave

Today on how to get someone to laugh in your face. It's a 6mm bb not a .50  beowulf

[Colin Allen]

39 minutes ago, wicksy101 said:

I have decided not to return to AI after the last few, been very poor. 

 

You seem to have had a good experience but I have seen reports of police being called for not allowing people out of the gates and marshals saying they will shoot at people's cars if they try to leave?

 

Good that they're listening though i guess. Still sounds like chrono is a mess despite the 8mm BB's that were being used in Dover. 

If true, that should exclude them from ever running any event again.  Yes, they are only BBs, but threatening to shoot at people’s cars is unacceptable and could result in a charge of criminal damage.  As for refusing to allow people to leave, that is potentially false imprisonment, which is ironic, given the site.

[Impulse]

2 hours ago, wicksy101 said:

I have decided not to return to AI after the last few, been very poor. 

 

You seem to have had a good experience but I have seen reports of police being called for not allowing people out of the gates and marshals saying they will shoot at people's cars if they try to leave?

 

Good that they're listening though i guess. Still sounds like chrono is a mess despite the 8mm BB's that were being used in Dover. 

 

That sounds like someone trying to stir up drama, honestly. I saw the police at the site afterwards (well, the pictures because I had already left by that point) and they were posing with airsoft guns with the staff and having a go, so I doubt that the police were called because the staff were doing anything bad as it wouldn't have been that friendly if that was the case.

 

I remember the 8mm at Dover, and someone running a HPA speedsoft pistol setup at 2.3J at Rochdale, but this time it seemed like everyone's guns were legal because of the chrono they did. At least, I didn't hear anything about or feel any hits from hot guns myself.

[Jacob Wright]

This is how my day went … yes it was great … that is all 👍🏼