The 'How Did Your Airsoft Day Go? Thread

[Colin Allen]

58 minutes ago, Cannonfodder said:

Being good mates with the guys who basically set up the school for the owner of Red1 and were subsequently screwed over by him, I'm not surprised that they don't have a clue about running a bath let alone a decent airsoft site. There's reasons why I don't shop at his store despite it being the closest to me

The sad thing is that the playing area is really rather good; it has lots of interesting structures, including a great trench system.  

[Tommikka]

4 hours ago, Adolf Hamster said:

 

do we trust the average airsofter to do it?

 

the answer?

 

I don’t trust anyone

I look both ways on roundabouts, in all directions at mini roundabouts and both ways in one way streets 

An an event many many years ago (I’ve a feeling maybe 2009 due to venue Im picturing in my mind - Swynnerton) ……

 

The game zone was open for site walking on the pre game day, with some activities such as laser tag

So masks were not required - which makes sense, though there was a casualty that year or the next year with a  laser tag player who face planted a breeze block wall (extra embarrassing for his ambulance trip as he was/still is a nurse)

On game day masks were not required before x time.  Allowing players to walk the long distances to the starting rally points.  
For me this lasted only a couple of minutes when those in front of me strolling along without masks on decided to shoot up a bush.  For me that triggered dropping my mask over my face and attempting to explain the inconsistency of a lack of goggles plus random shooting 

 

Other than that I have permitted masks off when on sites for pre game works - but with rules.

We must have ‘control’ of that area, know what game zones and routes will be in use for rentals etc, be in contact with Marshall’s, have distance / physical objects between us and any areas etc

 

Goggles must be at the ready for instant covering 

 

 

 

[Tommikka]

 

Permitting players to remove eye protection is a major disaster 

It should be totally clear what is and is not a safe area.

 

Sites that have remote game areas and may therefore have players out for multiple games can have in field safe zones which means you can permit players to enter a safe area and remove goggles without contradicting basic safety rules 

[MrTea]

First day back at NTAC in a long while. Around 20 or so players which is quite low for the site which was probably caused by A. NAF being on this weekend and B. The predicted torrential rain.

First issue of the day before games even began; "chronos are available on the table". Surely you should have zip ties etc. ready at the ENTRANCE to the play area and chrono people as they come through as mandatory thing? It takes 10 minutes tops.

 

Teams were sorted and the first game started and the old problems that bothered me with the site began to rear their head. The first game was bands attacking a small village area with unlimited lives. Defenders (non-bands) have 4 lives. Teams will be reversed after the game was over and fastest time wins. The attackers objective, we were told, was to get the flag up at the back of the village and kill defenders in the process which seems simple enough.

The first game was competitive and eventually the attackers got the flag up however the marshall said that the game isn't over as the non-bands were still alive... several of the non-bands who ran out of lives were at the side discussing the rules; surely the game is over when the flag is up otherwise it's just Elimination with a twist? Regardless, we swapped sides and non-bands attacked. We managed to beat the bands attack time convincingly. Queue some """BALANCING""" with the teams.

 

Next game was just the previous game mode in another area of the site without the flag. Non-bands got spanked on both attack and defence, not even remotely competitive. Interestingly there was no team balancing after this. Teams were only rejigged after lunch as some players on half-days left and some new players arrived.

 

Game after that was "body parts" in a recently remodeled area of the site. Game mode consisted of attackers having to recover mannequins on a stretcher from a van and bring them back to spawn. Stretcher must be carried by two players at all times. Most mannequins wins. Sounds interesting right? Sure but now consider that the only entrances to the objective area are two doorways barely bigger than your average person so I think you can guess where this is going.

Two of the players that arrived at lunch came with a bolt action sniper and a 417 styled DMR and were both put on bands. Both of these people found a position outside any real danger from our team and picked us off the second we got into the doorway. The only way through was sacrificing a player at the front but then you were hampered by a lack of cover. The left flank had an unobscured view of the team and the right side was a long lane where the sniper/DMR guy was nailing everyone. Another poorly thought out area in my opinion, there should have had another way of attacking other than through two choke points.

Once the first leg of this game ended, I and another arrived to the conclusion that this was, and I quote, "wank" and left.

The level of gameplay was quite high and never noticed or heard of any non-hit taking or moaning about other players with the exception of one guy who was "keyholing" in one game.

NTAC is an amazing site with huge potential ruined by lazy marshalls, shit team balancing and poorly thought out game modes that are too similar. My main gripe is team balancing as the marshalls appear to balance the teams on numbers not player experience & loadout capabilities unlike other sites i've been to. In addition, the marshall who was directing us for the day got the game started and just sat at the spawn closest to the parking area so he didn't have to walk as far. He never walked through the game area once.

The Mk18 performed well for the first half of the day, at one point I sniped the actual sniper, it was lifting BBs out to an absurd range. Occasionally it would double feed in semi auto but a quick burst in full auto would fix the issue in semi. I turned down the precocking a bit which appears to have fixed the issue. There's something causing issues with the gun however. Over the course of the day I began to lose accuracy and would sometimes get flyers. Not too sure what the issue is but I might try changing to a different barrel to see if the 6.02mm is a touch too tight and is causing issues.

Edited August 27, 2023 by MrTea
Spelling & grammar

[Haru]

Just had my 2nd game tonight, didnt charge my batteries and they both happened to die out in middle of the game, lesson learned there. Anyways I got to hold someones MWS and I was surprised by how light the gun is like DAMN I could probably spin it on my finger like a basketball, I wouldn't dare hold my mp5 in one hand

[gavinkempsell]

44 minutes ago, Haru said:

Just had my 2nd game tonight, didnt charge my batteries and they both happened to die out in middle of the game, lesson learned there. Anyways I got to hold someones MWS and I was surprised by how light the gun is like DAMN I could probably spin it on my finger like a basketball, I wouldn't dare hold my mp5 in one hand

I got several mini lipo's which fit 90% of my rifs, I change the battery for every game just in case I'm a bit 'hose happy'.

Edited August 26, 2023 by gavinkempsell

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

1 hour ago, Haru said:

Just had my 2nd game tonight, didnt charge my batteries and they both happened to die out in middle of the game, lesson learned there. Anyways I got to hold someones MWS and I was surprised by how light the gun is like DAMN I could probably spin it on my finger like a basketball, I wouldn't dare hold my mp5 in one hand

So once you get your UKARA it's 'Guns: fixed Cyma Platinum MP5, MWS' and a sore wallet...

[Haru]

11 minutes ago, Tactical Pith Helmet said:

So once you get your UKARA it's 'Guns: fixed Cyma Platinum MP5, MWS' and a sore wallet...

implying my wallet isnt already sore

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

1 hour ago, Haru said:

implying my wallet isnt already sore

Touché Sir!  😅

 

The next step is taking over the spare room/corner of the living room/bedroom with loadouts and kit.

 

Seriously, there's a PHD for someone writing a thesis on airsoftitis....

[Dan Robinson]

7 hours ago, Haru said:

implying my wallet isnt already sore

 

Welcome to Airsoft 

 

6 hours ago, Tactical Pith Helmet said:

corner of the living room

 

 

How about the Sofa, dining table, dining chairs and a whole wall of my office?  When SWMBO comes back in the new year I'm screewed  🤣🤣

[Beorn]

After umming and ahhing last night I decided to head down to Red1 Chislehurst this morning on the bus (a whopping 1hr 40 across 2 buses and a 2hr bus ride home afterward as well!) as planned for my third time, meaning at the end of the day I got my UKARA submitted finally. The forecast said there might be rain by mid afternoon but nothing came of it and it was a glorious day for airsoft. Avalon performed satisfactorily, no hiccups in terms of reliability although I do think the accuracy could be better. I don't have much experience tweaking the gun at all, and haven't really touched the hop, as most of the time the bbs fly true. Occasionally though one will zing off into the abyss apparently at random. May try some slightly heavier bbs soon once I've exhausted the 0.2's. May try some .25s or something.

My first visit at this site was relatively fun (beginners luck maybe), and the second time here was much worse as I mentioned in a prior summary a few months ago. Third time really must be the charm, because I had a ton of fun today. I think part of that was due to way lower numbers than before (national airsoft festival?), which I think meant there was more room to maneuver and it was easier to learn who was on your team or not. The atmosphere was also great for the most part. Got talking to a guy who I had quite a lot in common with (aside from airsoft! who was actually on the same bus as me en route) which was cool. There was one instance of arguing that I didn't witness personally, but which people were talking about in the safe zone during a drink break. Apparently someone making a scene during a game, someone confronted someone else about 'stolen valor' due to having a military patch on their airsoft impression kit. During the discussion people generally thought it was out of order to have a go at someone for a patch in essentially a cosplaying capacity which tbh I think I agree with. It wasn't like the guy was out there trying to get a free lunch.

By the by, the morning games were pretty fun, I think partly due to having more energy, it being a bit cooler etc. One of the games I quite enjoyed used the decent trenches section of the site. Both teams posted up at either end of the trenches, each team given a flag with the goal to move the flag as far up the trench line as possible. The flag could only be moved within the trench. If flag carrier gets shot, flag gets dropped and someone else must carry it forward. It was fun to play in quite a focused area and use the little cover available to inch forward and try to coordinate those moving up in the trench with cover moving up alongside outside of the trench.

It did bring to mind some of the footage I've seen from over in Ukraine, and gave the tiniest hint of how difficult and terrifying trench warfare must be. Sides weren't switched after the game ended, that same game would be replayed with switched sides later in the afternoon (which I quite liked as it added a bit of variation instead of switching sides straight away)

 

Second game I enjoyed was a fallback game which surprised me. I tend to hate fallback games, especially on defence (which we were) because it often devolves into waiting around and confusion as people fall back at different rates.

The starting defence was in a very small, limited area with little cover directly around the fracking sites. The fallback area after that was the first cqb village, then the second cqb village and then the final one was the woods behind all of that.

Our initial defence of the fracking wells lasted for a really long time due to some stiff resistance, good accurate shots and some very nice coordination and call  outs between people covering different arcs. I think it was so fun because I managed to hang in there with a smallish group who doggedly defended for longer than you would expect given the limited cover. Holding a fairly indefensible position like that was really satisfying and fun. Things slowed down once in the villages but still got some nice firefights.

We re-ran those games in the afternoon with the sides switched and there were a few other games too, one being played in the main CQB village. 4 players were placed in the tower at the middle of the village and teams had to race to extract them. Unfortunately our team didn't get the memo about the race (slightly lackadaisical marshaling on this point, one of the specific things I've noticed with the marshals here is that the briefings on specific game rules aren't the clearest. Marshals don't describe the boundaries very well so noobs frequently get lost, and important details like it being a race seem to get lost in translation) so the first round was over after about 2 minutes because we thought we were attacking to extract those players with the other team simply defending, instead of both teams being able to extract. A re run of the game yielded similarly unsatisfying gameplay, but that may be because I don't particularly love sprinting through CQB carelessly and prefer a more considered and deliberate approach to gameplay generally (especially since my back issues)

 

Atmosphere was really good all day long (aside from that small argument that I didn't personally witness earlier in the day) lots of joking and good sport between the teams, no issues with hit taking AT ALL which was awesome. Best day I've had so far on that front actually.

Overall it was one of the better days of airsoft I've had, and I defo see the appeal of smaller teams/player counts as it just seemed to make everyone more accountable on hit taking as well as friendlier. It seemed to make it easier for marshals to manage things also, and allowed you to actually move around the map a bit without getting zapped immediately from 8 different angles which was fun.

Hopefully my UKARA comes through relatively quickly (fingers crossed), I've had some fun down there but with my obligations met I can look further afield now as mentioned in a different thread. Reforger is on the cards, then perhaps tower airsoft/AP and some sites further afield, I've had my eye on going to a weekender down at Imperium but will have to see what happens!

[Colin Allen]

6 hours ago, Beorn said:

After umming and ahhing last night I decided to head down to Red1 Chislehurst this morning on the bus (a whopping 1hr 40 across 2 buses and a 2hr bus ride home afterward as well!) as planned for my third time, meaning at the end of the day I got my UKARA submitted finally. The forecast said there might be rain by mid afternoon but nothing came of it and it was a glorious day for airsoft. Avalon performed satisfactorily, no hiccups in terms of reliability although I do think the accuracy could be better. I don't have much experience tweaking the gun at all, and haven't really touched the hop, as most of the time the bbs fly true. Occasionally though one will zing off into the abyss apparently at random. May try some slightly heavier bbs soon once I've exhausted the 0.2's. May try some .25s or something.

My first visit at this site was relatively fun (beginners luck maybe), and the second time here was much worse as I mentioned in a prior summary a few months ago. Third time really must be the charm, because I had a ton of fun today. I think part of that was due to way lower numbers than before (national airsoft festival?), which I think meant there was more room to maneuver and it was easier to learn who was on your team or not. The atmosphere was also great for the most part. Got talking to a guy who I had quite a lot in common with (aside from airsoft! who was actually on the same bus as me en route) which was cool. There was one instance of arguing that I didn't witness personally, but which people were talking about in the safe zone during a drink break. Apparently someone making a scene during a game, someone confronted someone else about 'stolen valor' due to having a military patch on their airsoft impression kit. During the discussion people generally thought it was out of order to have a go at someone for a patch in essentially a cosplaying capacity which tbh I think I agree with. It wasn't like the guy was out there trying to get a free lunch.

By the by, the morning games were pretty fun, I think partly due to having more energy, it being a bit cooler etc. One of the games I quite enjoyed used the decent trenches section of the site. Both teams posted up at either end of the trenches, each team given a flag with the goal to move the flag as far up the trench line as possible. The flag could only be moved within the trench. If flag carrier gets shot, flag gets dropped and someone else must carry it forward. It was fun to play in quite a focused area and use the little cover available to inch forward and try to coordinate those moving up in the trench with cover moving up alongside outside of the trench.

It did bring to mind some of the footage I've seen from over in Ukraine, and gave the tiniest hint of how difficult and terrifying trench warfare must be. Sides weren't switched after the game ended, that same game would be replayed with switched sides later in the afternoon (which I quite liked as it added a bit of variation instead of switching sides straight away)

 

Second game I enjoyed was a fallback game which surprised me. I tend to hate fallback games, especially on defence (which we were) because it often devolves into waiting around and confusion as people fall back at different rates.

The starting defence was in a very small, limited area with little cover directly around the fracking sites. The fallback area after that was the first cqb village, then the second cqb village and then the final one was the woods behind all of that.

Our initial defence of the fracking wells lasted for a really long time due to some stiff resistance, good accurate shots and some very nice coordination and call  outs between people covering different arcs. I think it was so fun because I managed to hang in there with a smallish group who doggedly defended for longer than you would expect given the limited cover. Holding a fairly indefensible position like that was really satisfying and fun. Things slowed down once in the villages but still got some nice firefights.

We re-ran those games in the afternoon with the sides switched and there were a few other games too, one being played in the main CQB village. 4 players were placed in the tower at the middle of the village and teams had to race to extract them. Unfortunately our team didn't get the memo about the race (slightly lackadaisical marshaling on this point, one of the specific things I've noticed with the marshals here is that the briefings on specific game rules aren't the clearest. Marshals don't describe the boundaries very well so noobs frequently get lost, and important details like it being a race seem to get lost in translation) so the first round was over after about 2 minutes because we thought we were attacking to extract those players with the other team simply defending, instead of both teams being able to extract. A re run of the game yielded similarly unsatisfying gameplay, but that may be because I don't particularly love sprinting through CQB carelessly and prefer a more considered and deliberate approach to gameplay generally (especially since my back issues)

 

Atmosphere was really good all day long (aside from that small argument that I didn't personally witness earlier in the day) lots of joking and good sport between the teams, no issues with hit taking AT ALL which was awesome. Best day I've had so far on that front actually.

Overall it was one of the better days of airsoft I've had, and I defo see the appeal of smaller teams/player counts as it just seemed to make everyone more accountable on hit taking as well as friendlier. It seemed to make it easier for marshals to manage things also, and allowed you to actually move around the map a bit without getting zapped immediately from 8 different angles which was fun.

Hopefully my UKARA comes through relatively quickly (fingers crossed), I've had some fun down there but with my obligations met I can look further afield now as mentioned in a different thread. Reforger is on the cards, then perhaps tower airsoft/AP and some sites further afield, I've had my eye on going to a weekender down at Imperium but will have to see what happens!

Interesting to note that they still cannot manage to brief the teams properly.  Still, you had a good day and got your UKARA sorted out!

[RostokMcSpoons]

Good (ish) day out at Special Ops.  In fact I overheard a few people saying it was one of the best they'd had.

 

They were all on the other team 😂

 

Yet another day when the numbers were balanced but the gameplay wasn't.  The non-armband team won all but one of the games.   They showed good teamwork and thoroughly deserved it.  I didn't do enough to lift our team from a rather passive attitude, and out team did seem a bit light on experience.   But some fun was still to be had!

 

This was the first game in nearly two years when I didn't have my trusty Double Eagle (thanks to the failing control unit 😭), so I took

VFC HK416 GBBR

TM AUG High Cycle

TM 5.1 DOR Pistol

 

On arrival at the site it was clear there were plenty of players, in spite of NAF, but not many marshalls (because of NAF / holidays), so I (very loosely) became a player / marshal for the day

 

In the morning I played with the gas gun.  I'm down to a last few 0.40g BBs so I decided to save them for my sniper rifle, and went to 0.28s.  They're just too light, really.  The gas rifle is not fantastically accurate at the best of times, with the 0.28s they seem to go all over the place.  The 0.40s are prohibitively expensive given my finances but it seems I'll have to bite that particular bullet all the same!

 

During the second round I managed to lose a gas mag.  Not happy given the £50+ price tag, but thankfully a retracing of my steps during a pause, and I found it quite quickly.  Phew!  However I no longer trust my cheap polymer mag pouches to retain the heavy mags, if I decide to actually run at any point.  A rare event, but it does happen

 

The usual games - zombies, clear the minefield / find the items, nothing too complicated due to a large number of first time players and the lack of marshals, it worked ok.

 

I had further problems, one of my 4 mags developed a leak, and I got through enough shots (needing to switch to full auto to counter the lack of accuracy) that my gas mags were running out of gas, and my gas cans were getting empty too), basically I decided to go to the AUG for the afternoon.

Which I did... The extra weight of suppressing fire meant I could get a bit more pushy at the front line so it went better (and at one point I broke up the other team charging up the hill from Ping Ping with a long burst that got a good few of them and stopped the assault in its tracks).  Still couldn't break the other team's stranglehold, excepting one game where we beat them on time, but hit taking was fine.  Oh except for the ghillie guy who I shot square in the stomach from 15m, who - I'll give him the benefit of the doubt - didn't feel it because his suit was quite loose.  I made up for that by sneaking up on him and shooting him in the back at point-blank range 😅

 

The weather held up pretty well, lunch was good, and everyone was friendly.  Looking forward to two weeks time - and hopefully having my Double Eagle fixed, or at least an alternate DE to use (thanks @Speedbird_666!)

 

 

Edited August 28, 2023 by RostokMcSpoons

[Shamal]

Great weekend at the nae🙂

Weather held for us and my gear didn't fail me so that's a bonus.

 

Met some great characters,consumed some lovely food and drank ice cold beer.

 

I won't go into a long narrative but it was a weekend to remember.

 

Bought some bloc eyepro for £50 and wow! It stood up to the claim that it was antifog. 

 

Downside was that didn't get to meet @Skullcheweror @Enid_Puceflange.☹️

 

My hit count wasn't great,three hits over the weekend but walked probably 10 miles to get them! Lol.

 

Lessons learnt so next year look out 😂

 

Regards 

[Impulse]

Bittersweet day at Worthing so early disclaimer that I am a bit salty about a number of things and am not afraid to spill that salt all over the table like a cat causing mayhem in the kitchen.

 

I had a lot of stuff I needed to test out, so I wasn't able to bring absolutely everything I needed, so I left the m21 at home and brought the short m14 and the m40a5, which had a new hop setup since the last one started overhopping last game day, so I tried to get something a bit softer. Changed from the Modify X-range 55 degree and the Action Army hop nub to a new Maple Leaf 2023 silicone autobot 60 degree rubber with a new 50 degree silicone nub and it worked a charm; no more overhopping! I set the hop on the range after magging up, but here I got the first bittersweet bit of news. I was told that they had built more barricades and structures around the tower base and a lot of them interfere with the limited long-range lines of sight. I often describe Worthing Airsoft during the summer as "woodland CQB", so hearing that as someone who enjoys long range shooting made my heart sink a bit. So after magging up the m40a5, I decided to leave the m14 until after lunch as I had a lot I needed to test on that.

 

So the first thing I did in the morning before briefing was head out into the game area with my friend that I often pair up with as a sniper. We headed out to have a look and while I do like more builds on-site, there were a few bitter points of these and I'm pretty sure one of the barricades that was built was built because of me. There was a spot I used to crawl to that would cover over a very strong position behind the church building and essentially counter it. It was a difficult position to get into and involved low-crawling through a bunch of stinging nettles to get into it, but it was, I thought, one of the only positions that countered the position on the back of the church. Now that they've built a massive barricade across the entire line of sight from that spot, I realised I was wrong; it was the only position to counter the back of the church, which now goes unchecked for the team that spawns over that side of the base. Another build that really affected me was bad in the other way; it has made another of my spots far too strong, since it creates essentially a funnel right in front of it about 50m away that you can cover and hold super easily. Another barricade totally neuters a position that me and another sniper liked to take which, again, was a bit of a pain to get to as you had to crawl under a holly bush that was in view of the enemy team, so low-crawling was the only was to do it if people were in the area, as one new barricade covers half of the sight line and is about 20m away, while another barricade covers the rest of the sight line at 30m away. What didn't help is that the spots that were ruined were both spots that could be used by the team spawning from one side of the base, while the two spots made overpowered were on the other side and for the other team.

 

Anyway, one safety brief later we headed out and I stuck with the m40a5 because I needed to get an idea how these new builds would interact with snipers. Short answer is, it makes snipers and DMRs even worse during the summer. Worthing is already quite a thick site and with how much there are only a few areas where sniping works well; the tower, the outpost and the paths. Now, the tower is no longer one of those spots outside of two positions that are way too powerful now with the new barricades. I spent the first game in my overpowered spot overwatching the funnel checkpoint, while my friend took position behind me in the other overpowered spot and we held down that side of the base essentially by ourselves. My suspicions were definitely confirmed that those spots had been made incredibly overpowered, but time to switch sides after a relatively dominant hold from that side. I headed over to my old spot and while I still had a thin sight line to the back of tower, no dice for the church as expected. What made it worse is that getting into a position to see the front of the church (not even the rear which is the power position), I have to crawl forward and would be within the 30m MED to engage. Also, from what I heard, a sniper on the other team took up one of my overpowered positions (fortunately nobody really knows about the other one apart from like... 3 of us) and dominated that entire flank just as we had the previous game.

 

Next game was a bit widerspread than being concentrated around the tower, so I was excited for that. Sandbag bunker, a small base in the middle of the site near the boundary on the other side, had barrels in it and both teams had to get as many as they could. However, teams could only transport one barrel at a time, so you couldn't just rush it, get everyone to grab a barrel and run; you had to hold the area to transport the barrels away one at a time. Our base was the tower, their base was the outpost and the game never went anywhere near the tower. I think they got there first and got more barrels than us or something, but the entire game was us sieging the outpost, a hard base to take since the spawn for the team is very close. Got some lovely shots with the m40a5 in this game though, since around outpost is one of the few areas where sniper rifles work well at this time of year; I even got a shot at about 60m on a running target! That was my favourite shot of the day by far as it was just perfectly judged and super satisfying to hit. No idea who won that game, but it was very enjoyable. We switched ends after that and the game ended up with us trying to siege the tower base. We didn't get anywhere close to taking the tower though, since we were attacking from the nasty side. I spent most of the game trying to work out how to counter-snipe one of the overpowered spots, but while in game it was going to be hard to work out. The main takeaway I got from this game was that I think it's time I returned to long sleeves; the foliage at Worthing is out to kill you as it's covered in thorns, stinging nettles and holly bushes and I'm tired of coming away from a game day with my arms burning and having to take some painkillers to get to sleep.

 

So lunch time came around and after grabbing my burger, I headed out into the gameplay area again to try and work out how to counter-snipe that spot. After about an hour of combined effort with my friend, we worked out that it's essentially impossible to counter-snipe, and I'm not just saying that because I'm bad. The strength of the area is that it's behind a slight defilade and takes cover behind a tree, so all that really pokes out is the barrel of your rifle and the scope. Even without a ghillie or any camo patterns, as I went out in a black t-shirt, my friend said it was essentially impossible to see me from pretty much any angle. We worked out a way to counter the spot, but it doesn't involve counter-sniping it. It involves full-auto and a bit of luck where you just spray the exact position and hope you at least get a gun hit or something. Only other way is to flank around the entire field, but then you also need to sneak past the steady stream of dead and respawning players as you would cross over the paths to and from the enemy team's respawn, or you need to take the base itself, though with that side locked down by those positions, you would need to attack from the other end.

 

Anyway, the next thing that sucked was the short m14. For some reason it was shooting weird and felt like it was only firing at 0.2J or something. I have no idea why, since I only changed out the outer barrel and the stock, but when it just flat out stopped shooting I just gave up as I didn't want to damage it. I found the reason for it stopping shooting, which fortunately was only because the motor connectors were loose and the movement of the gearbox was shaking them off (the vibrations when the piston goes back and forwards was enough to shake them loose), but since I just can't do gearboxes, I'll be sending that off to my local tech soon-ish to get it sorted. Will probably get a third m14 rather than trying to frankengun a short m14 scout build with a mix of TM and Cyma parts, which is another case of clone items not being entirely compatible with each other beyond the Laylax scope mount not working on the Cyma receivers. The TM stock is a bit tighter than the Cyma one, though it will fit with some persuasion, but the outer barrels are incompatible; Cyma outer barrels won't fit in TM receivers without modification. I'll pick up a Cyma m14 socom to use for my short build and swap out the outer barrel for the one I have where the iron sights are separate from the flash hider.

 

The only other thing to really say is that the split chest rig also worked really well. A few minor tweaks to be done as the holster kept coming loose for the bodyguard pistol and I think if I was running an SMG secondary as I want to do, the mag pouches on the belt would press against it and be hard to access, so I'm going back to a separate shoulder holster. However, the idea of running one and taking weight off the belt kit was sound, and unclipping it when going prone allows me to still low-crawl with nothing on my front.

 

So in summary

- Short m14 shat itself

- Anything with an MED is incredibly limited at Worthing Airsoft now until the winter comes along and the foliage recedes  

- While I'm salty at the moment about the barricades doing this, I think it will be great during the winter to stop snipers being too dominant when the foliage recedes 

- One of the bases is super overpowered from one side  

- The marshalls who do build work have acknowledged that and already planned on adding some more stuff the other side to make it balanced  

- Will this make guns with MEDs even worse during the summer?  

- m40a5 was shooting flawlessly with the new hop setup  

- Split chest rig is the way forward for me when I'm sniping, which is most of the time, even with 1J builds  

 

Next game day I'm leaving the bolt action at home and bringing out the SR-25. I will also bring the m21 as I still need to test it with its new Cyma gearbox since I didn't like it being HPA, though I did move the lovely green TM stock back to it as it was mostly TM just with a Cyma gearbox. I will see what it's like running a similar style but with no MED and a bit less effective range, but my suspicions are that I won't lose all that much and I will gain a lot. It's either that or bring the m40a5 and set it to fire at 1J instead of 2J. I will also be bringing out the mp9 in a thigh holster for next game day even though I don't really need to with a 1J build, purely to test out the new split rig + belt + shoulder holstered bodyguard pistol setup when running that SMG secondary, even though it's not going to be my SMG secondary since I prefer retractable stocks over folding stocks for that and will be getting a TM mp7 at some point in the future to fill that role.

[Dan Robinson]

Made it to Driver Wood yesterday, and have to say it is one of the best Safe Zones I've seen,  clean, plenty of covered tables, decent food and toilets too.

 

Chrono was effective  - my new G36 was too hot, my L85 needed a few mags run through it to calm it down too.

  

The game zone was pretty damn good too with plenty of vehicles to play around and in (including two Sea King helicopters and a London bus.   I was rather miffed to discover that the non hit taker I was about to call out was in fact stood behind a fully rolled up window, and there was now two hicaps worth of BBs sitting in the back seat of the open window I was shooting through. LOL.  Show's it's worth checking before making a knob of yourself and complain unnecessarily (see story below).

 

Sadly I just couldn't get into the feel of things apart from the last game of the day.  Not sure if it was me having a lot on family wise at the moment and not having the boy with me, or if it was the worry of my knee giving up (which thankfully it didn't).  Certainly not the fault of the site.  Games started off with a TDM, then various item acquisition and domination games.  One criticism I do have though is that the attitude to spawn camping by the marshals was rather soft.  Our team seemed to always end up pinned down to a certain extent, but to be fair the green team were much more organised and pushed forward much harder than our team at the beginning of each game giving them the upper hand.

 

The best game of the day for me, was the Escort the VIP.  Said VIP had to reach certain locations and stay there for 5 minutes before moving on.  We had one amusing incident where I was helping him through the CQB area and we were firing as we moved.  A guy (who was on his third day in a row thanks to NAF and possibly "tired and emotional") was rather upset that he thought we were on full auto whilst slot shooting him.

 

We (then a marshal) politely pointed out that we were both on semi, and that shooting him through the slot he was hiding behind was perfectly OK, as well as the fact we were in the open at the time.  His whining then went on to rate of fire, seeing as he lost all other arguments; and that the slot shooting rule was not explained to him properly.  At which point the VIP and I just wandered off to have fun elsewhere.  Especially ironic as his team were not the greatest at hit taking and we had been taking full auto hits all afternoon without moaning; plus there was some very dodgy hit taking and a lot of blind firing from one of his pals who was holding the big tower in an earlier game.    For what it's worth the slot shooting rule is the same at every other site I have played, so why he thought it was any different here I don't know. 

 

My new fan-equipped eye pro, courtesy of @mightyjebus proved to be very effective.  The only issue was the unavoidable "raining" on the lenses when the sweat was really pouring; but no amount of anti-fog is going to help with that unless wipers are fitted.  A gentle draft across the lenses kept them nice and clear, with no problem of the eyes drying out.  Pew of the day was the DE 904 - whilst a little short on range, the accuracy and shot consistency more than made up for it.  Specna and L85 were working well, although for some reason BBs were veering off more than usual once they got past 30 metres or so.

 

Shame to have missed @ASP383and @Asomodai,  maybe another time?  Will certainly try and get there again as it happens to be just off a short cut I take when I drive to my dad's house -so I have been driving passed it unawares for years LOL.  I know the boy would love it because of the vehicles.  

 

One last amusing occurrence was a bunch of guys doing an paintball stag (judging by the outfits) do came up to me and asked if us airsofters were on some kind of military training - my reply was "nope just like you guys but with more realistic guns and better value for money"  which is when I noticed their surprising collection of deactivated weapons for a picture - including what looked an awful lot like an AT4 rocket launcher and a Mauser anti tank gun.

 

 

 

Edited August 29, 2023 by Dan Robinson

[The_Lord_Poncho]

29 minutes ago, Dan Robinson said:

 I was rather miffed to discover that the non hit taker I was about to call out was in fact stood behind a fully rolled up window, and there was now two hicaps worth of BBs sitting in the back seat of the open window I was shooting through.

 

 

 

 

Yep, I've been there too! I assume you are talking about the black cab? How that vehicles suspension still stands up to the amount of BB's in it, I'll never know! I'm planning on heading over to Driver Wood this weekend I think. (Invicta Black Ops tomorrow night first)

[Dan Robinson]

Yep....the balck taxi next to the bus.

 

Apparently they are moving loads of the vehicles about. 

[ASP383]

@Dan Robinson, shame to have missed you, my lad and I were orange team too ... can see the enemy through 30' of foliage, but not someone 5' away!

 

My lad and I went for the afternoon, we got separated while going through the woods to try to flank the other team, he ended up lost for about 10 minutes trying to find his way back into play and we only caught up with each other back at the safe zone. I tagged along with a sniper and together we flanked round to near 1 of the towers, the sniper got tucked down in the undergrowth on the opposite side of the track to me, where he had a line of sight more towards the tower and my blindside, but could also swing round to his right, where I was covering 1 of the paths enemy players would be using to get to the tower, I was also able to cover behind us, in case their players tried flanking us or just happened up that way. Together we got a few kills and then I noticed an enemy player in the tower, so went for him. The sniper then shouted hit and a few moments later, I felt something on my jacket, unsure if it was a twig or BB, I decided to call it, walking back, we went right through the enemy team, so after respawn, we knew where to go and worked our way up, both hit again, respawned and went back to same are, where we, now with a 3rd team member eliminated those players. all too soon, the game was over though.

Unfortunately, when we got back to the safe zone and caught up with my lad, he wasn't looking right and said he had a migraine coming on and he'd forgotten to bring some medication with him (I'll make sure he has some for next time), so he wanted to call it a day, but he did enjoy his game and managed a few kills too. 

Will be good to meet up with others and I'll keep an eye out Dan, or any others on here if you're playing when down this way.

[mightyjebus]

3 hours ago, Dan Robinson said:

 

My new fan-equipped eye pro, courtesy of @mightyjebus proved to be very effective.  The only issue was the unavoidable "raining" on the lenses when the sweat was really pouring; but no amount of anti-fog is going to help with that unless wipers are fitted.  A gentle draft across the lenses kept them nice and clear, with no problem of the eyes drying out.  Pew of the day was the DE 904 - whilst a little short on range, the accuracy and shot consistency more than made up for it.  Specna and L85 were working well, although for some reason BBs were veering off more than usual once they got past 30 metres or so.

Glad the glasses are working out for you. I just had to order another 20 fans as I can't make them fast enough at the moment.

[AGR]

Another good day had at Tier 1 Badlands, Cornwall. End of summer holiday games were fast and involved a new element of domination. The site has literally grown to be a great venue and is very well ran. 

 

A good day was had. 

[Madhouse]

Had a rare Sunday where only the eldest had footie so Mrs M did that and I got a pass to meet up with some friends at RIFT: REDCON2 in Abingdon.

 

Due to weekend commitments I usually play indoor CQB midweek, so it was nice to finally play outdoors in the daylight! Arrived to welcoming marshals, easy check in and a well stocked shop where I could grab some .25's. Got my kit together, sorted out my hops at the range and went through chrono just fine.

Just enough time for a bacon roll and a coffee before the briefing and by now I could tell it was going to be a hot day.

 

The briefing was ... comprehensive. There's even patches that say 'I survived Tony's briefing' 😂. What it did do was set out everything for the day to help it run smoothly - which it did.

 

Due to the heat it was 50min games all day which was fine by me, they were well run and the marshals were very visible and vocal in terms of always letting you know they're there - eg praising when you took a hit, complementing people on a good shot, providing assistance or just singing country songs!

What the marshals also do is drive the Snatch Landrovers, which are in play and they'll take you wherever you want to go which adds a whole new dimension to gameplay and is just great fun barrelling out of the back of one and trying to take the opposition's position.

 

First game was taking down enemy flags, second was ammo tin collection, third and fourth were bomb run's with the final game being taking enemy positions / flags. They were all great fun and well run, I didn't have any issues with hit-taking and I didn't hear of any others, I think someone got pulled up for getting a bit lippy but overall everyone was there for good time, took their hits and enjoyed good gameplay.

 

The guns worked perfectly, I'm even more of a TM MP7 fanboi now after seeing it sling .25's north of 55m (the hedge end of the range) from such a compact package. The 308 does the same but I was kind of expecting it to, although having 100rnd mags meant I could make the most of the full auto I had set to a 5rnd burst - full auto is used sparingly on a GBBR! - needless to say I put a lot more rounds through the AEG! The other pleasant surprise is that while far less accurate at distance, the FNX will go out past 50m too. I took the P226 but forgot to use it or even take it to the range.

 

Used the MP7 in the morning and the 308 in the afternoon as due to the heat there was a fair chance the MP7 could run a tad hot in the 26 degree heat, my mate's M16 was running hot even before lunch but then he thought it may be the case which is why he asked the marshal for a chrono. He swapped to his MP5 and carried on.

The FNX took a spill, falling out of my holster as I was running with a bomb. It landed on the light by the look of it and that pulled the outer away from the frame - although I didn't notice until the end of the day. After a bit of fiddling I realised it just needed snapping back into place so that's all sorted.

The red dot on the 308's also a bit small, had a few issues quickly acquiring a target that I didn't have with the MP7, so that's something to think about.

 

We were on the red team and we comprehensively lost the day but that's not really important. We all had great fun - that's the important bit.

 

Will definitely be back, although with the way my weekends are looking, your guess is as good as mine regarding when.

[Keldon]

Spent sunday at a new site South herts Airsoft  just outside Apsley (Hemel Hempstead) its the old delta force site for those that know it. 

 

It was a fun day, we only had 16 players so didnt take long to crono. Crono was done by wieght being used and in jules. 

 

8:30 doors open we were in play by 9:15 which is a nice change from turn up at 8:30 only to take a slow walk to fist game @ 10.

 

First game a simple elinmination game where groups where rebalanced once done. Then it was a game of sections through the entire site. We had to get a flag to a designated area once done or until timer ran out. Attackers had infinite lives defenders 5.

 

It is in a little forest with lots of cover and some man made cover added in. The first section is a downhill attack. Due to it being very shady and dark under the canapy it was very difficult at first to spot where people are shooting from to return fire also the 2 snipers on the other team sure did well. We had 2 flanking routes or you could go down the middle but beware its a steep sudden slop in the middle which someone found out rather sharply. 

 

Then it was moving across the flatter section through the trees into more open area with manmade defences. We made it through to the last 2 barreiers and 3 defenders, who were keeping there heads down under the surpresive fire. Which gave me the opportunity to just run with pistol past both barriers taking all three out. Then only for one of the snippers who had just respawned in look a bit confused as he set up into postion, with me shooting him thinking at first I was on his team with some blue on blue and that was the end of that section 

 

The final section was so difficult we had to fight through and clear a small building then on down a track to the drum depot. Getting into and clearing the building was fine getting out the otherside, well the defenders had dug in and again being under the dark canapy we were just being shot as soon as we left the building, it was just a battle of run out and let your team mates pinpoint where you were being shot from to take them out. It was slow going and 3 of us ran out ammo so just ended up with me running with flag to end point getting shot getting dropping flag, then do it again getting a little further each time. Until as i was running to get behind some cover and managed to trip and took a diving fall to said cover. Was still fun though. 

 

Then it was lunch which currently is bring your own thiugh they are looking to change that. 

 

After lunch it was change ends and we could see how easier defenders have it. Though I  think with more players it will make it a bit easy on the attackers. They were pushing us back on one flank, but it took them so much effort they swapped flanks if they had done another push on the original flank they would of broken through. But time ran out for them. Also the 2 snipers great for defenders but dut to lthe low numbers was not so good for attacking. 

 

All in all it was a great we contiued through the second section and due to how tired we all were we then just play a couple of fun little games to round off the day. 

 

There was some good use of smoke and one or two greanades used, for pyro they have no restrictions on its use as in the next field over the local farmer does clay pigeon shooting so noise is not an issue.

 

There is so much vegitation it is a great place for snippers and DMR's alike but also engough that they cant lock you down other than the last section coming out the building. We spoke to the owner abot that and someting will change to make it a bit easier to get out of. 

 

The changes in elvation make it nice and varied site to play on but it not a big site that walking up and down the hill to too much.

 

They have another building that they are planning to make into a litle cqb section and across 2 floor with a small mez area in the middle. 

 

As I said its a new site they still getting the feel of how games are played and what changes are required. The owner is very happy for players input on everyting.

 

The safe zone is all barried off from the playzone with fencing and netting. Next to the crono and range area(40m range). Plenty of tables only a few floding chairs under marquees. Site has parking for 50 though that will be a tight squeeze and is allowed up 75 players. 

 

It had a small shop of just the very basics at the moment, off bbs/gas and smoke greanades. They are looking in for someone to run a bigger shop as numbers grow. 

 

Had a real blast and can see this place grow and being a great site. The site itself is great a lot of fun to play at. Can only see it get better. 

 

Just nice to see somewhere open instead of closing for once lately. 

 

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091124543588

 

Google map loctaion 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/Us6FyZgdLkDxRPue7

 

 

 

Edited September 4, 2023 by Keldon

[Dan Robinson]

20 minutes ago, Keldon said:

Spent sunday at a new site South herts Airsoft  just outside Apsley (Hemel Hempstead) its the old delta force site for those that know it. 

 

It was a fun day, we only had 16 players so didnt take long to crono. Crono was done by wieght being used and in jules. 

 

8:30 doors open we were in play by 9:15 which is a nice change from turn up at 8:30 only to take a slow walk to fist game @ 10.

 

First game a simple elinmination game where groups where rebalanced once done. Then it was a game of sections through the entire site. We had to get a flag to a designated area once done or until timer ran out. Attackers had infinite lives defenders 5.

 

It is in a little forest with lots of cover and some man made cover added in. The first section is a downhill attack. Due to it being very shady and dark under the canapy it was very difficult at first to spot where people are shooting from to return fire also the 2 snipers on the other team sure did well. We had 2 flanking routes or you could go down the middle but beware its a steep sudden slop in the middle which someone found out rather sharply. 

 

Then it was moving across the flatter section through the trees into more open area with manmade defences. We made it through to the last 2 barreiers and 3 defenders, who were keeping there heads down under the surpresive fire. Which gave me the opportunity to just run with pistol past both barriers taking all three out. Then only for one of the snippers who had just respawned in look a bit confused as he set up into postion, with me shooting him thinking at first I was on his team with some blue on blue and that was the end of that section 

 

The final section was so difficult we had to fight through and clear a small building then on down a track to the drum depot. Getting into and clearing the building was fine getting out the otherside, well the defenders had dug in and again being under the dark canapy we were just being shot as soon as we left the building, it was just a battle of run out and let your team mates pinpoint where you were being shot from to take them out. It was slow going and 3 of us ran out ammo so just ended up with me running with flag to end point getting shot getting dropping flag, then do it again getting a little further each time. Until as i was running to get behind some cover and managed to trip and took a diving fall to said cover. Was still fun though. 

 

Then it was lunch which currently is bring your own thiugh they are looking to change that. 

 

After lunch it was change ends and we could see how easier defenders have it. Though I  think with more players it will make it a bit easy on the attackers. They were pushing us back on one flank, but it took them so much effort they swapped flanks if they had done another push on the original flank they would of broken through. But time ran out for them. Also the 2 snipers great for defenders but dut to lthe low numbers was not so good for attacking. 

 

All in all it was a great we contiued through the second section and due to how tired we all were we then just play a couple of fun little games to round off the day. 

 

There was some good use of smoke and one or two greanades used, for pyro they have no restrictions on its use as in the next field over the local farmer does clay pigeon shooting so noise is not an issue.

 

There is so much vegitation it is a great place for snippers and DMR's alike but also engough that they cant lock you down other than the last section coming out the building. We spoke to the owner abot that and someting will change to make it a bit easier to get out of. 

 

The changes in elvation make it nice and varied site to play on but it not a big site that walking up and down the hill to too much.

 

They have another building that they are planning to make into a litle cqb section and across 2 floor with a small mez area in the middle. 

 

As I said its a new site they still getting the feel of how games are played and what changes are required. The owner is very happy for players input on everyting.

 

The safe zone is all barried off from the playzone with fencing and netting. Next to the crono and range area(40m range). Plenty of tables only a few floding chairs under marquees. Site has parking for 50 though that will be a tight squeeze and is allowed up 75 players. 

 

It had a small shop of just the very basics at the moment, off bbs/gas and smoke greanades. They are looking in for someone to run a bigger shop as numbers grow. 

 

Had a real blast and can see this place grow and being a great site. The site itself is great a lot of fun to play at. Can only see it get better. 

 

Just nice to see somewhere open instead of closing for once lately. 

 

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091124543588

 

 

 

 

 

Are these the same people that ran Sentinel?  Will definitely give the place a try, their Facebook page isn't exactly loaded with information though - like an address LOL.

 

Shame they were being vandalised when trying to build the site.

[Cannonfodder]

1 hour ago, Keldon said:

Words

Thanks for the detailed review.  I'm planning on paying them a visit in a couple of weeks so it's good to hear positive things.

 

1 hour ago, Dan Robinson said:

their Facebook page isn't exactly loaded with information though - like an address LOL.

I know what you mean, I had to get the location from a mate who helped out on one of their build days earlier in the year. Even in a pm on faceache all I got was "between King's Langley and Hemel". Not exactly helpful and tbh I was starting to wonder if they actually wanted people to visit. As I understand it this was due to the vandalism which makes no sense to me as the vandals obviously already know where it is