The 'How Did Your Airsoft Day Go? Thread

[EvilMonkee]

  On 07/04/2025 at 12:13, Colin Allen said:

No mistake;  I knew what I was buying.  I buy kit to play pretend war in; UTV is far more practical than the grey rubbish which I initially used, although I do still have a set of that tucked away in the dressing up cupboard.

I have:
Helmet with camo netting.
Shirt
Trousers
Braces
Webbing
Mag pouches (7.62 and 5.45)
Backpack
Water bottle and cover
 

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Your more than set then whats stopped you so far???

[Colin Allen]

  On 07/04/2025 at 18:33, EvilMonkee said:

Your more than set then whats stopped you so far???

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I am not sure really.  I will sign up for one this year.

I also have an MPiKM and an MPi-AK-74N, both with the lovely plastic furniture; both are based on CYMA RIFs.

  On 07/04/2025 at 16:18, Impulse said:

I didn't actually play too much at Worthing on Sunday. Spent most of my day helping my friend with his guns and tweaking my own ready for AI500 next weekend. I will be removing the Jaeger Precision NPAS from my MWS though as even when I opened it all the way it was still blocking a portion of the intake and I was only mustering about 1.5J on ASG orange gas; DMR limit is 1.88J and this is specifically my DMR MWS. Didn't want to put red gas in it with how the weather was as I was worried I'd cause the nozzle to explode, so out came the ol' reliable KJW m700 built as an m40a5. Fortunately that performed really, really, really well, though with how windy it was it made sniping very difficult.

 

The game I did play was a large game where yellow team had to gather bomb components and then bomb a base. Nobody knew where the components were, and only yellow knew which base was the final objective. I was on blue so we had to stop them, but at the time I got into the game, yellow had basically all the components and were moving the bomb around. A lot of blue team were also suffering from the classic airsoft malady known as "I don't want to get shot syndrome" and so as soon as I got into the game, I became the front line with my bolt action sniper rifle. There were a few regulars on blue who were pushing, but in such small numbers they ended up getting picked off. Eventually, the marshalls told blues what the objective base was and started to verbally prod players to stop cowering far back, especially as the yellow team got into the base and started the bomb timer; that seemed to be enough to get players to start playing a bit more aggressively and we quickly swept yellow out of the base to defuse the bomb

 

I will say there was some absolutely abysmal hit taking and I heard that someone threatened to punch someone. The latter was very swiftly dealt with by the marshalls, as one was in ear shot and wasn't having any of that, and there were quite a few players who got sent back to the safe zone for not taking their hits. Marshalls were really on top of it all day, so props to the marshalling team for dealing with it when it cropped up, I just haven't seen so many people taking the piss in a while.

 

Spent the rest of the day tweaking my m40 on the range and helping my friend with his m700 (still having issues...) and his new MWS. I also think something in my hi-capa lower is busted because it doesn't always shoot when I pull the trigger. I think one of the sears is on the way out; it still works fine, but very occasionally I will pull the trigger and nothing will happen, so AAP will be my go-to sidearm for AI500 as that is having no issues.

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I do like sites that follow up the tough talk about the consequences of repeated non hit taking, having a hot gun and serious bad behaviour;  the chap who runs Airsoft Plantation has no qualms about sending people home.

Edited April 7 by Colin Allen

[Badgerlicious]

  On 07/04/2025 at 22:21, Colin Allen said:

I do like sites that follow up the tough talk about the consequences of repeated non hit taking, having a hot gun and serious bad behaviour;  the chap who runs Airsoft Plantation has no qualms about sending people home.

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Staff attitude will make or break a site. It's one of the reasons I feel very lucky to have worthing as my closet site.

 

I didn't see any of the bad hit taking personally, but I did overhear some marshall's reminding players of the rules. And I heard about the threats second hand, glad it was dealt with immediately. The guy got shot in the plate carrier with a little bb and threatened to hit someone. Ridiculous attitude over playing make believe. 

 

It was overall a great day though. My first in many months. I played like a regular player for once, rather than a shrubbery, and had a great time. Teams were very even in the morning. We did "sands of pain" which involved holding a button on a box to build up a timer. We lost by two seconds! But people peeled off through the day so teams had to get rebalanced past lunch a few times. 

 

Also someone had a lipo fire in their gun that was in their car. Thankfully only the gun got damaged and no one got hurt. But the parking area got nice new smell for the morning. 

[Colin Allen]

  On 08/04/2025 at 00:51, Badgerlicious said:

It's one of the reasons I feel very lucky to have worthing as my closet site.

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Which site will you use when you come out of the closet?

  On 08/04/2025 at 00:51, Badgerlicious said:

Also someone had a lipo fire in their gun that was in their car. Thankfully only the gun got damaged and no one got hurt. But the parking area got nice new smell for the morning. 

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A chap recently had a flashbang go off in his bag in the back of his car at AP; he chucked his bag in prior to leaving and there was a nice loud bang.  

[EvilMonkee]

  On 07/04/2025 at 22:21, Colin Allen said:

I am not sure really.  I will sign up for one this year.

I also have an MPiKM and an MPi-AK-74N, both with the lovely plastic furniture; both are based on CYMA RIFs.

 

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Perfect.  Next one is on 14 Nov up at Bourne in Lincs.  My local site and I can't make it as I am off to Bangface Festival

[EvilMonkee]

@Colin AllenPhotos are up https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1178384617418553&set=a.567764991813855

[Colin Allen]

  On 11/04/2025 at 16:00, EvilMonkee said:

@Colin AllenPhotos are up https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1178384617418553&set=a.567764991813855

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Looks good; I will try to get to the next one.

[Colin Allen]

I went to Mayhem in Essex; I was disappointed, so left at lunchtime.  I won't be returning.

[Ryfoolz]

  On 13/04/2025 at 18:15, Colin Allen said:

I went to Mayhem in Essex; I was disappointed, so left at lunchtime.  I won't be returning.

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That's been on my radar for a while to visit, what was it that disappointed you? 

[Colin Allen]

  On 13/04/2025 at 18:55, Ryfoolz said:

That's been on my radar for a while to visit, what was it that disappointed you? 

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I had also been considering it for a while.

On arriving, I couldn't find anyone to check in with; three of us eventually found someone in the shop/office. While everyone was prepping their kit, there was a fair amount of dry firing in the safe zone, which didn't seem to worry the staff.

The real disappointment was the games. Mayhem is very much a paintball site, with a number of different fields that could provide some interesting gameplay.  However, the four games that we played in the morning all involved the teams starting on opposite sides of a field and having to do something (move a flag, capture a flag, capture a jerrycan) that was a mechanism to bring the teams into contact.  This ended up with two lines of players shooting at each other; there was no real possibility to be sneaky or to try something creative.  I found it rather boring.

If you are considering going, be aware that they do not do hot food.  There are vending machines for fizzy drinks, chocolate and crisps and a tea/coffee dispenser, all of which take contactless payments.

One positive element is that, despite what it states on their website, they chrono on the weight of BB that you are using.

[bcofthewayitis]

I'm terrible with reviews, but I went to Mayhem today for the first time also.

 

I stayed the whole day and really enjoyed it. I arrived at around 08;15 and was quite early, but there is still a lot of space for parking regardless. The check in was slightly confusing, but it was smooth sailing from there. I didn't notice the dry firing like Colin said, but it is a shame that the Marshalls didn't do anything about it.

I am typically a regular at Plantation so I wanted to switch things up, and as Colin said, it is indeed more of a paintball site. However, that was the appeal for me. The AP field had become stale to me, and I wanted something on a smaller scale and with a more interesting layout, and Mayhem has plenty of different fields to support that. Lots of man-made cover, some fields had lots of grassy mounds like AP, it was a great mix of both for me. It felt a lot less one-sided than how AP can feel some days, especially since most of the gamemodes were teams on opposite sides, fighting over a flag or something.

 

Despite the safezone dry firing, the Marshalls were awesome, very friendly and involved. The guys at AP are great, but I found it easier to talk to the folks at Mayhem. There were quite a few, and they would constantly be in the middle of the battle watching everyone to guarantee hit taking. My friend ran into some dodgy hit taking so he brought it up with the Marshalls, and they got onto it straight away.

 

The community was also great for the most part, everyone I spoke to was very friendly. I did hear some attitude from players here and there, but it was a very minor problem. Most of the people that showed up were adults, about 50 of us in total including some rentals I believe. I was told that if they ever have too many people for one field, they run multiple games across their different fields, which is awesome to hear. Though that could potentially come with the problem of less Marshalls per field.

 

They require barrel socks for your guns, and pistols need to be holstered aimed at the ground. You can buy a barrel sock from their store, but they also have a lot they hand out for the day for free which was very good to see.

 

The Chrono was very quick and easy, they ask for your BB weight and get you to shoot a few times too make sure everything is okay, then you get a cable tie to attach to your gun to show you've Chrono'd it. They said they do spot checks throughout the day aswell.

 

There's a lot of covered seating available in the form of picnic tables and benches, so you don't need to bring your own chair which is neat.

 

I think it is something for a specific audience that likes fields that don't involve loads of bushes and trees. I much prefer just being able to see who is shooting at me because I can fight back, and there's no twigs to deflect your shots. They do have some fields in their forest aswell, and they were good fun.

 

The downsides to me were the limited shop, and the gamemodes. The shop sells plenty of airsoft supplies, but if you need any gear, it's only paintball stuff, which is unfortunate. They had some capture the flag style modes, a TDM style match on their Shipment field, and one where both sides had to fight and capture the fort in the middle of the field. That was good variety for me, but others may want more. The bigger problem was the lack of information provided to everyone before the round starts. I went into most of them confused despite being there for the briefing each time. It was essentially just "There's flags n stuff somewhere, find them and take them back". Which clearly wasnt enough because during one match, one objective had been completely missed by my whole team as it was a box on the ground. Another was a flag that was quite hidden inside of a building. I feel that if things were more thoroughly explained it would help everyone work on the objective better, especially for people new to the sport.

Also, their website is quite bad. There is not a lot of information, and the most useful information I found was from a post on here from 4 years ago. But you need to book your visit online.

 

All in all, I had a very positive experience and had a wonderful day, and am 100% considering making it my main site. There's not excessive amount of downtime between games, and the fields are, for the most part, well-made and mapped out, and you will go home feeling accomplished because it is very easy to get a load of hits throughout the day with the small fields and infinite respawns. They also do night games on lit fields which I would really like to check out.

I definitely recommend it to anyone as long as they feel that it is a style of site they could be interested in, there are some good overhead pictures and some videos here and there online so you can get a rough idea of what is going on. If you're unsure, I still think it's worth a shot since there is a lot of variety, and it's not any more expensive than other sites nearby.

 

[MrTea]

First airsoft day of 2025 and another game at Armageddon Airsoft to blow off the cobwebs.

Very good turn out today likely helped by the decent weather we've been having this past week. Due to other commitments, I didn't have much time to get things ready and brought along my usual Mk18 but this time I also carried in a JG Bar10 that i've been itching to use. In the Mk18 I had swapped to a "4uantum" AEG hop rubber and nub as i've heard good things about these online but to be honest, it performs like most other hop rubbers and it definitely didn't seem like it worked better than what I had in previously. I'll likely be swapping back to the Begadi 'Fly' hop rubber and Maple Leaf Omega nub. After playing the first two games with the Mk18 and eating through both batteries I swapped to the JG Bar10 before lunch.

I chrono'd the rifle on site after adjusting the hop to find it was ever so slightly over the limit. Thankfully the site owner said it's fine as it's only just over but give an extra 5m-10m distance on the MED to account for it. I've never used a sniper before and the change in playstyle was a bit awkward at first but I soon settled into it. It did help that the first game I used it on was a defensive time-based objective with limited lives for us, the defending team. I did struggle with losing sight of my BBs at range, even using the maximum magnification of 6x on my LPVO. This made it hard to tell where they were actually going but i'm not sure how to resolve this issue if at all possible. Another guy running a sniper suggested black BBs but from what I read online they are even harder to see than white ones. All in all, I did enjoy the change of playsyle and the satisfaction of using a single BB to get a 'kill' - I just need to install the weaker spring so I don't have any chrono issues again.

 

Equipment wise, the new chest rig worked well. It took a bit of getting used to having the two utility pouches on the side and getting into them was a bit fiddly but manageable. I'm used to running a chest rig with open top pouches with magazines inserts so I can reindex magazines with one hand. This rig has flaps over double-stack pouches so it's a two handed job most of the time due to the elastic. May have to invest in a dump pouch going forward.

Hoping to go further afield this year and try out some new places.

Edited April 13 by MrTea

[Colin Allen]

  On 13/04/2025 at 20:49, bcofthewayitis said:

I'm terrible with reviews, but I went to Mayhem today for the first time also.

 

I stayed the whole day and really enjoyed it. I arrived at around 08;15 and was quite early, but there is still a lot of space for parking regardless. The check in was slightly confusing, but it was smooth sailing from there. I didn't notice the dry firing like Colin said, but it is a shame that the Marshalls didn't do anything about it.

I am typically a regular at Plantation so I wanted to switch things up, and as Colin said, it is indeed more of a paintball site. However, that was the appeal for me. The AP field had become stale to me, and I wanted something on a smaller scale and with a more interesting layout, and Mayhem has plenty of different fields to support that. Lots of man-made cover, some fields had lots of grassy mounds like AP, it was a great mix of both for me. It felt a lot less one-sided than how AP can feel some days, especially since most of the gamemodes were teams on opposite sides, fighting over a flag or something.

 

Despite the safezone dry firing, the Marshalls were awesome, very friendly and involved. The guys at AP are great, but I found it easier to talk to the folks at Mayhem. There were quite a few, and they would constantly be in the middle of the battle watching everyone to guarantee hit taking. My friend ran into some dodgy hit taking so he brought it up with the Marshalls, and they got onto it straight away.

 

The community was also great for the most part, everyone I spoke to was very friendly. I did hear some attitude from players here and there, but it was a very minor problem. Most of the people that showed up were adults, about 50 of us in total including some rentals I believe. I was told that if they ever have too many people for one field, they run multiple games across their different fields, which is awesome to hear. Though that could potentially come with the problem of less Marshalls per field.

 

They require barrel socks for your guns, and pistols need to be holstered aimed at the ground. You can buy a barrel sock from their store, but they also have a lot they hand out for the day for free which was very good to see.

 

The Chrono was very quick and easy, they ask for your BB weight and get you to shoot a few times too make sure everything is okay, then you get a cable tie to attach to your gun to show you've Chrono'd it. They said they do spot checks throughout the day aswell.

 

There's a lot of covered seating available in the form of picnic tables and benches, so you don't need to bring your own chair which is neat.

 

I think it is something for a specific audience that likes fields that don't involve loads of bushes and trees. I much prefer just being able to see who is shooting at me because I can fight back, and there's no twigs to deflect your shots. They do have some fields in their forest aswell, and they were good fun.

 

The downsides to me were the limited shop, and the gamemodes. The shop sells plenty of airsoft supplies, but if you need any gear, it's only paintball stuff, which is unfortunate. They had some capture the flag style modes, a TDM style match on their Shipment field, and one where both sides had to fight and capture the fort in the middle of the field. That was good variety for me, but others may want more. The bigger problem was the lack of information provided to everyone before the round starts. I went into most of them confused despite being there for the briefing each time. It was essentially just "There's flags n stuff somewhere, find them and take them back". Which clearly wasnt enough because during one match, one objective had been completely missed by my whole team as it was a box on the ground. Another was a flag that was quite hidden inside of a building. I feel that if things were more thoroughly explained it would help everyone work on the objective better, especially for people new to the sport.

Also, their website is quite bad. There is not a lot of information, and the most useful information I found was from a post on here from 4 years ago. But you need to book your visit online.

 

All in all, I had a very positive experience and had a wonderful day, and am 100% considering making it my main site. There's not excessive amount of downtime between games, and the fields are, for the most part, well-made and mapped out, and you will go home feeling accomplished because it is very easy to get a load of hits throughout the day with the small fields and infinite respawns. They also do night games on lit fields which I would really like to check out.

I definitely recommend it to anyone as long as they feel that it is a style of site they could be interested in, there are some good overhead pictures and some videos here and there online so you can get a rough idea of what is going on. If you're unsure, I still think it's worth a shot since there is a lot of variety, and it's not any more expensive than other sites nearby.

 

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I think you hit the point when you wrote "..as long as they feel that it is a style of site they could be interested in..."  It didn't float my boat at all; I prefer more complex games with mission objectives etc.

You appear to have felt strongly enough about the day to create an account here and write your first post about it.

Out of interest, which team were you on today?

Edited April 14 by Colin Allen

[Badgerlicious]

  On 13/04/2025 at 21:39, MrTea said:

I did struggle with losing sight of my BBs at range

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Best thing is to shoot across a sunny area. Once the BB goes into shade it can just vanish. 

[Lozart]

First day out in ages, went to Red Alert.

 

Weather was decent - bit humid to start and a light sprinkle of wet stuff around lunch but otherwise ok.

 

M14 failed chrono by a whole 6 fps , my newly built G3SD/MC51 SBS call it what you will was overhopping 0.28sso I figured I'd load up something heavier for the next game as it had plenty of range (happy face) and then it started to jam (sad face).

 

Obviously being of the belief that one is none and all that I had brought 4 guns with me. Couldn't use my new AK because I'm an idiot who didn't check that the battery I had for it would actually fit BUT I had my Gordy clone with me and that was running lovely. 

 

Highlight of the day was getting 5 kills with a Tag round. Low point was discovering that the seals have gone in the Fist so I couldn't use any more Tags.

 

Overall a pretty decent day, lunch was good. Decent banter and what seemed to be a pretty good crowd although I did hear some reports of a couple of snipers playing fast and loose with their MED. By that point my knee decided enough was enough so early home for tea and buns!

[Colin Allen]

  On 14/04/2025 at 08:50, Lozart said:

First day out in ages, went to Red Alert.

 

Weather was decent - bit humid to start and a light sprinkle of wet stuff around lunch but otherwise ok.

 

M14 failed chrono by a whole 6 fps , my newly built G3SD/MC51 SBS call it what you will was overhopping 0.28sso I figured I'd load up something heavier for the next game as it had plenty of range (happy face) and then it started to jam (sad face).

 

Obviously being of the belief that one is none and all that I had brought 4 guns with me. Couldn't use my new AK because I'm an idiot who didn't check that the battery I had for it would actually fit BUT I had my Gordy clone with me and that was running lovely. 

 

Highlight of the day was getting 5 kills with a Tag round. Low point was discovering that the seals have gone in the Fist so I couldn't use any more Tags.

 

Overall a pretty decent day, lunch was good. Decent banter and what seemed to be a pretty good crowd although I did hear some reports of a couple of snipers playing fast and loose with their MED. By that point my knee decided enough was enough so early home for tea and buns!

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That sounds like an interesting day!

[Reef]

With Dogtag closing and me being not that fussed with Driverswood, I thought I’d try Apocalypse Kent. After the ‘glowing’ reviews from here I went with low expectations..

Place was easy to find and well signposted. Arrived at 8:30 to be greeted at the gate by a Marshall who guided me to a parking spot. I grabbed my gear and prepared myself for the climb up to the safe zone. Honestly wasn’t that bad but in the wet it could prove interesting…

Check in was easy although a sign said ‘gun bags mandatory’, this isn’t mentioned on the website and I didn’t have one. I didn’t say anything a nether did the Marshalls, I did have a sock in my bag if needed. 
Safe area was well built and clean, had a nice vibe about it and better feel than Driverswood. Shop well stocked and good bacon rolls. Toilets, well they do their best but still not great. Better than the portapotties at Dogtag…

Couldn’t fault Crono, guys were talkative and helpful. Even let me have a go on his TAC-41.
Safely brief was good, they explained the medic rule which was new to me but made sense. They said they had 100 booked in, I counted 80+ during the briefing.

First game was move the ‘Bomb’ across the site and into a structure. Each team (red/blue) was split into two squads so there were four groups starting in different places. This was much more complex than the games I’m used too, couple this with the medic rule and the huge site with many structures, I felt like a total noob! Soon got into the swing with my L85 but having to watch out for players coming from different directions meant many opportunities for friendly fire. I did enjoy the medic rule, to my untrained eye the rules were followed and hit taking was on a par with other sites I’ve visited. At one point I could hear the Marshalls radio and they were actively checking people. They game went on for a good two hours which again was a new thing for me, I’m used to shorter skirmishes. Glad I took all my mags.

After lunch (cracking cheese burger) was a domination game of three structures, I switched to my 1j sniper rifle and had a blast, this was another long game and the slower pace with the bolt rifle let me catch my breath. Even so I didn’t play the third game as I was really tired. Shame it was a CQB game I think.

I would definitely go again, I only got to see a small part of the site and would like to see the village.

 

 

 

[bcofthewayitis]

  On 13/04/2025 at 21:44, Colin Allen said:

I think you hit the point when you wrote "..as long as they feel that it is a style of site they could be interested in..."  It didn't float my boat at all; I prefer more complex games with mission objectives etc.

You appear to have felt strongly enough about the day to create an account here and write your first post about it.

Out of interest, which team were you on today?

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I was on the yellow team, though one of my friends changed over to blue/purple later on in the day for balance reasons.

I'm not sure how it felt for the others but not once did I feel like we were too strong or too weak, but the blues had some fantastic players that were quite scary for sure. I finished the day with some nasty hits up my arms and all.

[Impulse]

Ah, AI500... Yes, I went to AI500 in Flambards over the weekend and I have some thoughts. Especially since seeing the organisers locking Discord channels and deleting comments; that stuff rustles my jimmies when it's warranted criticism (if it's just rampant abuse, sure, but when it's valid criticism...)

 

However, I want to start on a positive note. As always, I went with the guys from Worthing Airsoft, a bunch of regular players and marshalls that numbered somewhere in the 20s, so a good, quality contingent of players to fill out half of Charlie section (or, C-Unit) of green team. We also had the lads from Cheeky Nandos and Dirty Dog rocking up to populate other sections of green team and it's always a riot playing alongside those guys and gals. The social aspect of the weekend was top notch as always and I loved hanging out with everyone again. It was an absolute pleasure to be a part of the green machine and most of the players I chatted with were pretty great, and the meal at spoons was a laugh.

 

In terms of gameplay, I certainly found ways to enjoy it and had a really fun weekend away, and the lead marshall did absolutely everything he could to make it so; if there was an issue, he was straight over to deal with it and did his best to keep the game moving and dynamic, though he was given very little to work with by the organisers (more on that later...). I found a lot of lovely spots where I could get some long shots, having to aim up and drop the BBs onto people. I didn't break my record of 124m that I made at the AI500 at Ebbw Vale, but I got a few at about 115m while sitting in a bush. On the Saturday I got moved on a bunch (more on that later...), but most success saw me holding down one of the chokepoints on the site (more on that later too...) from a heavily bushed, slightly raised area. I just went prone and started hitting a bunch of 90m shots, watching the dejected, shoulder slumps of the tan players who tried to enter my domain. On the Sunday, I had a lot of time where I couldn't do much because chokepoints, but when we pushed through I found a lovely bush to sit in and drop a bunch of 100m+ shots from (this is where I got the 115m one. At least that's what my laser rangefinder told me!).

 

I also got voted for the "best sniper" award, so that rounded out the weekend really nicely for me

 

 

Ok, so now for the negatives...

 

Firstly, the absolute fuckwit players. There were certainly some in attendance! One group of tans were caught on camera by an old lady when they hopped the fence of the site to try and flank around by trespassing in her garden in full kit. It's fortunate that the old lady knew that there was an airsoft game going on, as armed police response could've been called if not, but she sent that in to the organisers. Secondly, a bunch of players decided it would be a good idea to sneak into the site at night and climb on the roller coaster. They were caught by security and forcefully ejected from the event in the early hours of the morning. There were also reports of people running way overpowered HPA setups; one player was spot-checked and caught with a regular rifle (not a DMR or a bolt action, a regular, no MED rifle) slinging .32s at 2.6J, so if there was one, I'm sure there were more. Especially when on the Sunday the lead marshall asked how many people were using HPA and at least half the players raised their hands. Also, people's regulators weren't being tournament locked at chrono, so you knew this was going to happen. I forced them to lock my MTW when I chrono'd it, but I heard so many reports that they just... weren't locking regulators. My friend also got blind fired twice while trying to clear corners.

 

Also, hit taking was absolutely abysmal (as usual). As an example, I hit the same LMG gunner on the tan team four times, seeing the fabric of his hoodie ripple with each BB impact through my 15x zoom scope, only for him to continue spraying BBs in and never heading back to respawn. I also hit a bunch of headshots on people who then just ducked behind the wall to continue firing, eventually clipping me with a BB in the darkness that I called and headed back to respawn for, after telling a marshall and pointing out the exact player with an exact description because, y'know... 15x zoom. I also hit a whole load of headshots on people peeking barricades or corners, only for them to recoil from the hit, hide behind their cover and then peek out seconds later, returning fire. I'll put some of those down to medic rules on Sunday, as anyone could medic on Sunday, but not on Saturday where only specific people could medic and only had a certain number of medic bands. There was also definitely a lot of people taking far too many medic lives; you get 1, not 5!

 

The organisation was an absolute mess. I didn't see the organisers pretty much at all. I think I saw them when I booked in and when I chrono'd on the Friday, but after that I personally didn't see them once. There were also some really stupid rules around how cover worked, basically saying that if you couldn't fit your head through it, you couldn't shoot through it. Meaning that if you crouched behind a picket fence and got hit through it, that didn't count as a hit. I get no keyholing, but just being able to shrug off hits because they came through a picket fence was a bonkers rule that caused a lot of argument.

 

Also, added into this, the marshalling team in general felt pretty partisan outside of the lead marshall who was fantastic all event long. Frequently we were told to move off from an area as it was now out of bounds, only for the tans to be there 2 minutes later shooting us from it with no marshall interference (this happened to me personally 4 times on the Saturday). There were "airstrikes" called in on the Saturday to clear us out of areas, and then a bunch of mortar strikes on Sunday, despite us having stolen about 14 of the objects needed for the tans to even call in these mortar strikes. And when we called in our own mortar strike on a location where the tans were all crowded around, none of them were killed out of the game, basically meaning we destroyed the area for objective points, but all the tans huddled around it were absolutely fine. Every time there was a strike near us on green team we were forced to move a good distance away or we'd all be in the blast zone, meanwhile the tans moved up and took positions as the strike was happening as we'd return as soon as the marshalls told us the strike was over, only to be met by tans in the same spots we were just in; I guess on the tan team they turned friendly fire off in the game settings?

 

And finally, the site was... not adequate for airsoft. They shut the middle buildings to house a bar and the shop (yes, these were in the middle of the gameplay area), which led to the entire site becoming a battle for two chokepoints. Furthermore, they made one of them worse on Sunday by putting staggered barricades in the incredibly small chokepoint, meaning you couldn't even navigate it quickly. It became an absolute meatgrinder at these two chokepoints that neither team could push through and the whole game just ground to a halt on multiple occasions. Even more so when we were trying to push through it and then one of the marshalls said we couldn't use any pyro to try and clear it, meaning it was literally pointless for us to even try it. When the lead marshall heard this, he told us that was bullshit, said we could use pyro there (no smokes, but that was agreed at the start), and marched off to clarify that to the marshalls. The only reason we managed to get through it, was one of the marshalls told the tan team they had already won halfway through Sunday, so a bunch of them went home and then we pushed through and steamrolled them

 

I also heard that BBs were being shot through fences as people were playing too close to the chainlink fence that bordered a car park for the soft play area next door. Also apparently a child got hit by a stray BB. This is hearsay though as I didn't personally witness this, but I could see it happening. Yeah, it was a mess...

 

Also, they increased the price pretty dramatically for this one. I'm generally a fan of AI500 as an excuse to go out for a weekend with the lads and play BB wars, and there are some great connections with some of the other regulars who are literally on the other side of the country from us, but in future I'm really not sure I will go next time. Will see how things go, but this one left a really bad taste in my mouth.

[Colin Allen]

  On 14/04/2025 at 20:23, bcofthewayitis said:

 

I was on the yellow team, though one of my friends changed over to blue/purple later on in the day for balance reasons.

I'm not sure how it felt for the others but not once did I feel like we were too strong or too weak, but the blues had some fantastic players that were quite scary for sure. I finished the day with some nasty hits up my arms and all.

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I was on yellow as well; the sides seemed to be reasonably well matched.  Welcome to the forum!

[Colin Allen]

  On 14/04/2025 at 20:54, Impulse said:

Ah, AI500... Yes, I went to AI500 in Flambards over the weekend and I have some thoughts. Especially since seeing the organisers locking Discord channels and deleting comments; that stuff rustles my jimmies when it's warranted criticism (if it's just rampant abuse, sure, but when it's valid criticism...)

 

However, I want to start on a positive note. As always, I went with the guys from Worthing Airsoft, a bunch of regular players and marshalls that numbered somewhere in the 20s, so a good, quality contingent of players to fill out half of Charlie section (or, C-Unit) of green team. We also had the lads from Cheeky Nandos and Dirty Dog rocking up to populate other sections of green team and it's always a riot playing alongside those guys and gals. The social aspect of the weekend was top notch as always and I loved hanging out with everyone again. It was an absolute pleasure to be a part of the green machine and most of the players I chatted with were pretty great, and the meal at spoons was a laugh.

 

In terms of gameplay, I certainly found ways to enjoy it and had a really fun weekend away, and the lead marshall did absolutely everything he could to make it so; if there was an issue, he was straight over to deal with it and did his best to keep the game moving and dynamic, though he was given very little to work with by the organisers (more on that later...). I found a lot of lovely spots where I could get some long shots, having to aim up and drop the BBs onto people. I didn't break my record of 124m that I made at the AI500 at Ebbw Vale, but I got a few at about 115m while sitting in a bush. On the Saturday I got moved on a bunch (more on that later...), but most success saw me holding down one of the chokepoints on the site (more on that later too...) from a heavily bushed, slightly raised area. I just went prone and started hitting a bunch of 90m shots, watching the dejected, shoulder slumps of the tan players who tried to enter my domain. On the Sunday, I had a lot of time where I couldn't do much because chokepoints, but when we pushed through I found a lovely bush to sit in and drop a bunch of 100m+ shots from (this is where I got the 115m one. At least that's what my laser rangefinder told me!).

 

I also got voted for the "best sniper" award, so that rounded out the weekend really nicely for me

 

 

Ok, so now for the negatives...

 

Firstly, the absolute fuckwit players. There were certainly some in attendance! One group of tans were caught on camera by an old lady when they hopped the fence of the site to try and flank around by trespassing in her garden in full kit. It's fortunate that the old lady knew that there was an airsoft game going on, as armed police response could've been called if not, but she sent that in to the organisers. Secondly, a bunch of players decided it would be a good idea to sneak into the site at night and climb on the roller coaster. They were caught by security and forcefully ejected from the event in the early hours of the morning. There were also reports of people running way overpowered HPA setups; one player was spot-checked and caught with a regular rifle (not a DMR or a bolt action, a regular, no MED rifle) slinging .32s at 2.6J, so if there was one, I'm sure there were more. Especially when on the Sunday the lead marshall asked how many people were using HPA and at least half the players raised their hands. Also, people's regulators weren't being tournament locked at chrono, so you knew this was going to happen. I forced them to lock my MTW when I chrono'd it, but I heard so many reports that they just... weren't locking regulators. My friend also got blind fired twice while trying to clear corners.

 

Also, hit taking was absolutely abysmal (as usual). As an example, I hit the same LMG gunner on the tan team four times, seeing the fabric of his hoodie ripple with each BB impact through my 15x zoom scope, only for him to continue spraying BBs in and never heading back to respawn. I also hit a bunch of headshots on people who then just ducked behind the wall to continue firing, eventually clipping me with a BB in the darkness that I called and headed back to respawn for, after telling a marshall and pointing out the exact player with an exact description because, y'know... 15x zoom. I also hit a whole load of headshots on people peeking barricades or corners, only for them to recoil from the hit, hide behind their cover and then peek out seconds later, returning fire. I'll put some of those down to medic rules on Sunday, as anyone could medic on Sunday, but not on Saturday where only specific people could medic and only had a certain number of medic bands. There was also definitely a lot of people taking far too many medic lives; you get 1, not 5!

 

The organisation was an absolute mess. I didn't see the organisers pretty much at all. I think I saw them when I booked in and when I chrono'd on the Friday, but after that I personally didn't see them once. There were also some really stupid rules around how cover worked, basically saying that if you couldn't fit your head through it, you couldn't shoot through it. Meaning that if you crouched behind a picket fence and got hit through it, that didn't count as a hit. I get no keyholing, but just being able to shrug off hits because they came through a picket fence was a bonkers rule that caused a lot of argument.

 

Also, added into this, the marshalling team in general felt pretty partisan outside of the lead marshall who was fantastic all event long. Frequently we were told to move off from an area as it was now out of bounds, only for the tans to be there 2 minutes later shooting us from it with no marshall interference (this happened to me personally 4 times on the Saturday). There were "airstrikes" called in on the Saturday to clear us out of areas, and then a bunch of mortar strikes on Sunday, despite us having stolen about 14 of the objects needed for the tans to even call in these mortar strikes. And when we called in our own mortar strike on a location where the tans were all crowded around, none of them were killed out of the game, basically meaning we destroyed the area for objective points, but all the tans huddled around it were absolutely fine. Every time there was a strike near us on green team we were forced to move a good distance away or we'd all be in the blast zone, meanwhile the tans moved up and took positions as the strike was happening as we'd return as soon as the marshalls told us the strike was over, only to be met by tans in the same spots we were just in; I guess on the tan team they turned friendly fire off in the game settings?

 

And finally, the site was... not adequate for airsoft. They shut the middle buildings to house a bar and the shop (yes, these were in the middle of the gameplay area), which led to the entire site becoming a battle for two chokepoints. Furthermore, they made one of them worse on Sunday by putting staggered barricades in the incredibly small chokepoint, meaning you couldn't even navigate it quickly. It became an absolute meatgrinder at these two chokepoints that neither team could push through and the whole game just ground to a halt on multiple occasions. Even more so when we were trying to push through it and then one of the marshalls said we couldn't use any pyro to try and clear it, meaning it was literally pointless for us to even try it. When the lead marshall heard this, he told us that was bullshit, said we could use pyro there (no smokes, but that was agreed at the start), and marched off to clarify that to the marshalls. The only reason we managed to get through it, was one of the marshalls told the tan team they had already won halfway through Sunday, so a bunch of them went home and then we pushed through and steamrolled them

 

I also heard that BBs were being shot through fences as people were playing too close to the chainlink fence that bordered a car park for the soft play area next door. Also apparently a child got hit by a stray BB. This is hearsay though as I didn't personally witness this, but I could see it happening. Yeah, it was a mess...

 

Also, they increased the price pretty dramatically for this one. I'm generally a fan of AI500 as an excuse to go out for a weekend with the lads and play BB wars, and there are some great connections with some of the other regulars who are literally on the other side of the country from us, but in future I'm really not sure I will go next time. Will see how things go, but this one left a really bad taste in my mouth.

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That sounds like an utter shit show.  Events such as this are pretty close to my idea of hell, partly because decades of running and working at festivals have left me with a somewhat jaundiced view of the sorts of behaviour that humans indulge in when unsupervised and in a large crowd.  Based on what you have written, the organisers should never be allowed to run an event again; however, I am sure they will and equally sure that people will still pay to attend.

The chap running a standard rifle using .32s at 2.6J should be named and shamed.  I am not sure if the "naughty players" FB group is still running; if it is, at the very least his details should be shared there by the organisers, so that site owners and head marshals are aware of him.

[Badgerlicious]

A real shame to hear after the last two have been good (not perfect, but fun weekends). This time it sounds like it wasn't just unfortunate circumstances like ebbw vale being understaffed or having crappy barriers. This is just incompetence from the AI team running the whole thing. If Jason broke off to make his own thing run with people who at least know how to lock a regulator, I'd be willing to give that a bash. 

[Impulse]

  On 14/04/2025 at 21:22, Colin Allen said:

That sounds like an utter shit show.  Events such as this are pretty close to my idea of hell, partly because decades of running and working at festivals have left me with a somewhat jaundiced view of the sorts of behaviour that humans indulge in when unsupervised and in a large crowd.  Based on what you have written, the organisers should never be allowed to run an event again; however, I am sure they will and equally sure that people will still pay to attend.

The chap running a standard rifle using .32s at 2.6J should be named and shamed.  I am not sure if the "naughty players" FB group is still running; if it is, at the very least his details should be shared there by the organisers, so that site owners and head marshals are aware of him.

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I've heard some diehard AI loyalists on both sides are seriously considering their involvement in the future. Could be the final nail in the AI coffin, which has been on life support for a while now. I don't know which player was caught with 2.6J, but if I knew I would name and shame because that's a firearm that he's shooting people with.

[Tackle]

None of the bad stuff surprises me, years before AI started running games, the team behind the magazine turned up at a number of walk-on days at various sites, & they acted as if the rules didn't apply to them, cheating on a monumental level.

Any wonder that the games they organise are equally as bad, never felt inclined to sign up for any of their events,  irrespective of how good the locations looked potentially. 

[Cannonfodder]

  On 15/04/2025 at 09:33, Tackle said:

years before AI started running games, the team behind the magazine turned up at a number of walk-on days at various sites, & they acted as if the rules didn't apply to them, cheating on a monumental level.

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Yep. Seen it first hand. Their fucking about caused several hundred pounds of damage to a mate's M249 and they didn't give a crap.