The 'How Did Your Airsoft Day Go? Thread

[Baser]

Had another great day out at Apocalypse on Sunday, been a busy week so only just finding the time to write it up. 

 

Was a busy day, with a larger than usual crowd, the marshal team from Worthing were visiting and I can only assume a few of the players from Invicta were there while the are closed to relocate. 

 

Took the newly upgraded, by the site tech Ricky, DMR'd LCT G3, newly acquired WE Apache MP5, backup Cyma MP5 (incase of breakdowns) and trusty Sig 226 as a secondary. 

 

First game was domination, 3 locations, the team holding 2 at the end won.  I took the G3 and SIG into this game and used it purely to bed in the G3, went down the bottom of the village and picked off the other team as they advanced from their spawn.  Really enjoyed the DMR game and held my spot well, moved a couple of times as I kept getting lit up by AEG's but they didn't have the range.  Went back to the range after 500 rounds to adjust the hop and scope and it was shooting very well, lots of range.  

 

Second game was move your bomb to the other teams base.  I picked a shady spot to the side of our base with the G3 to pick off the other teams advances.  Played well and a couple of our teams guys  were luring the other team forward while I picked them off.  Different play style for me as I usually only take a pistol into these games and run with the bomb. Went back to the range and adjusted everything at the end of the game and the G3 was comfortably hitting targets at the end of the range, exactly what I wanted.  

 

Third game was capture the marshal. The marshal went and hid on site, you had to grab him and take him back to your base, if you let him go he could run.  Took the GBB MP5 out for this one.  The other team found the marshal first and took him back to their base.  I ran out of ammo in the first ten minutes as I got carried away with the Apache and 140 BB's didn't last that long so dropped to the SIG.  I got tagged pretty quickly and walked back to re spawn.  On my way back into the game I spotted the marshal we needed to capture running towards me, I gave chase and caught him, dragged him back to our base and kept a very firm grip of him until the game ended surrounded by most of the team. 

 

All in a great day, good verity in the game play and the last game was an epic moving BB fight with a very quick marshal that could have gone either way.

 

A few people (morons) wandering around the safe zone with mags in guns understandably got the Marshall team het up.  A few grumbles about non hit takers and overkill but I didn't see that. 

 

Overall very happy with the day,  site was great, game play was aggressive but fair from both teams and I think I have my weapon selection and upgrades sorted.  

 

I need to find some better (non fogging) eye pro for stationary DMR'ing as I was fogging up badly at times. 

[tside]

Good day out today testing out my "new" 6b45 ratnik vest. Unfortunately that thing is an absolute sweat machine and the gorget (neck protector) is a much better idea on paper than it is in practicality. Otherwise it was great as usual to get onto the field and spray some BBs. Some great load outs at the field today including a top notch 1980s UN peacekeeper (with period correct mustache) and some Finish camo that made me spectacularly envious. Great sportsmanship from everyone I had the pleasure of shooting at and been shot by but I'm definitely worse for wear in terms of welts and bruises.

[Impulse]

Went to Worthing this weekend to play for the first time in a hot minute. Last game day I didn't book on and tuned all my guns for the upcoming Vietnam filmsim, and the game day before I had my only gun I brought go down at the start of the day so I was running around with just a pistol, so it was nice to get out there with a proper rifle. I was running my PPS Kar98k and Bell 1911, using my Vietnam load bearing kit (US m56 webbing plus SKS chicom rig), as I wanted to make sure that it was all working as intended for the Vietnam game in two weeks time. Me and my friend put ourselves on blue team, since we saw a lot of regulars on yellow.

 

First game was a king of the hill on a base that I don't usually play around, because it's a nightmare with MEDs around it from one side. We started on the side that sucked for sniping, so I went over to one of the other bases to make sure nobody could do anything sneaky and sure enough, I spotted some ghillies trying to do just that. Called out their position and our team forced them back, but it was a largely quiet game with a blue team victory. We then swapped sides and so I took a position in the middle of the pack, again mostly just keeping eyes. Once again, I noticed one of the ghillies trying something, not spotting him but spotting the ferns moving in an unnatural way and just waiting for his ghillie'd head to pop up, which it eventually did. I fired a grand total of 1 shot that game and got a whole 1 kill on that ghillie, but spent most of the game just relaying enemy movements to the rest of my team. Again, fairly uneventul, but another blue team victory. They also gave us players a little talk because apparently there had been some poor hit taking and some overly happy full auto trigger fingers, so they gave a warning.

 

Also, my SKS chest rig fell off. One of the leather loops that holds the straps decided to come loose and go walkabout, so that was a thing. Luckily, the m56 generic rifle ammo pouches can hold 4x Kar98k mags each, so I dropped from 11 mags to 9 mags; not much difference, and still plenty of ammo. (and before you go "bloody hell, 11 mags?!" I will say they're 10rds each. My 11 mags is still less than a single midcap!)

 

After these convincing wins, the marshalls moved the last group of regulars from blue onto yellow, apart from me, to try and balance the teams for the large game before lunch. It was a multi-objective game and it was far more balanced than the first two games. Yellow team had to move things to bases in a specific order and then hold that base for 5 minutes. Again, I didn't even shoot that much and just kept eyes. I had a good line of sight to just outside their spawn (though well out of range and far too many twiggy bits in the way for me to even try and arc the 150 - 200m shots it would've been), so I spent a lot of time relaying enemy team movements again and dissuading ghillies from trying anything sneaky. Saw them trying it on the same flank as the first game, seeing the movement through the foliage and calling it out to my team; ghillies become far less potent on the field when people know where they are. In the end, I'm not sure who won, but I know that the yellow team got a bunch of their objectives done, so it was probably them?

 

After lunch we played a bunch of shorter games. I was going to swap to my m16 to make sure that works and my load bearing kit works as well, but with my Kar98k mags still gassed and loaded, I didn't want to waste the gas by gassing up all my m16 mags and emptying all my kar98k mags. Stuck with the Kar98k. I chronoed the m16 and zeroed the repro colt 4x on it in the morning, so I know it shoots well, but the Kar98k definitely needs a clean as I realised shots were going off at angles every so often. Barrel is going to need a good cleaning...

 

The games after lunch themselves were back to being fairly one-sided again. Blue team got back to their winning ways as we played a flip can game (blue needed blue side up, yellow needed yellow side up), and I got back to my ghillie hunting ways. I took a fairly rear position, but I kept an eye on where I knew one of the enemy ghillies would go, and sure enough, I saw him cross over the path, trying to get in behind us to shoot us in the back. The marshalls asked why I didn't just shoot him, but it would've been about a 90m shot and I didn't want him to know I had spotted him. I headed back, tucking in behind a bunker to watch our backs, eventually catching the attention of some of my team. After I told them that there was a ghillie somewhere there but he hadn't crossed where I was watching, they went hunting and took him out. When we swapped sides, I finally had a more eventful game as I managed to get into a bush where I could overlook two of the flip cans. I did almost got taken out by a rental, but he made a rookie mistake, shooting a single semi-auto shot at me while I was in a thick bush. His BB rattled around in the bush but didn't hit me, so I dropped to the floor and pulled my pistol. As he moved to engage another target I popped out and took him out. He would've got me if he just let out a burst of full auto and I felt his pain because I have 100% done the exact same as him before.

 

Then the final game was a timed assault on one of the bases. We defended first and I took up my favourite position down a path, as their respawn was down that path I knew they would try and use it as a quick means of ingress. Sure enough, a bunch of them rushed down that path, led by a friend of mine, and my shot narrowly flew past him and hit the rental behind him. This dissuaded him from trying to continue along that path, but didn't stop a lot of the rest of them and I managed to single handedly pin a bunch of them at a checkpoint that they simply couldn't push through. They eventually took the base from another avenue, but I was proud of myself for holding back the tide. When we swapped sides, I went along that side, but dropped down from the path down the hill a little and came up along the fence line. Took one out close with the pistol and then got a beautiful shot onto another at the base itself with the Kar98k, but we took the base pretty damn quick for a blue team victory (as we did it faster).

 

All in all, it was a great day to get back to. I do enjoy hunting ghillies (especially when it's successfully done!) while wearing a bright hawaiian shirt

 

There were definitely issues (hit calling and full auto bursts being way too long and too close), but I saw the marshalls pull players out for breaking the rules which is great to see. You'll always get some players who try to cheat, but it's always disheartening if nothing is done about it, so seeing the marshalling team take a hard stance on it was really great. I personally didn't see much non-hit taking, as I only had one guy who didn't take one of my shots, so it probably wasn't even that bad (or I just was very ignorant to it!)

 

Now I just have to pray that the sniper ban is lifted at Eversley Alpha in two weeks time so I can terrorise the (sold out) US team with VC sniper shenanigans; target rich environment! If not, the m16 will serve well, but I definitely prefer the sniper and DMR style of play.

 

Now I just need to make sure I do some maintenance on the Kar98k and my 1911s before then. I'll also probably give the m16 and xm177 a re-lube just in case as well.

[Colin Allen]

This morning, I loaded up the Volvo and headed off to Splatoon.  Commandeering a table, I set up the two guns I would be using and then went out to set up and chrono two second hand guns that I had bought recently; one was spot on, putting out 1.05J and pinging BBs out a very long way, while the other was also reaching a very satisfactory range but was considerably underpowered.  It will be on the work table when I get an opportunity.

Around 70 players were present.

I was pleased to meet up with Gary again; he is a chap with a very interesting background and we are two of the "more mature" players at the site.

After the usual morning rituals of the chrono and the safety brief, the first game was Spinners; there is a spinner in each of the three sections of the site and the aim was to control at least two of them.  For once, I stayed in the middle section, where we had a hard fight but eventually secured the spinner and set it to our colour.  We then struggled to defend it as enemy players attacked us from the other two sections; however, when the game ended, it was still pointing our way, as was one of the others.  Victory!

After a return to the safe zone to refill mags etc, the next game involved getting smoke grenades to the grey helicopter in the container field.  Each team had three smoke grenades, which were located in the furthest section of the site; they could only transport one at a time, going back to collect the next one once they had bombed the helicopter.  The teams started at opposite ends of the container field, with the grey helicopter in the middle, albeit closer to the banded team's start point and regen than ours, which was not where I had expected it to be as the layout of the container field had changed somewhat since last time I was there.  At the start, both teams sent about half their players off to get the first smoke grenades, while the remainder fought for control of the area around the grey helicopter.  Those of us in the latter group had a long and grinding fight, while rumours abounded about the presence or absence of smoke grenades.  The enemy quickly got two of theirs into the helicopter, which seemed ominous; however, following that, our transport team got their mojo together while the rest of us pushed the banded team back so that our grenades could be set off in it.  A 3-2 victory!

After a break for lunch, the next game was to transport a bomb from the far end of the field to any one of the four vehicles in the container field (two helicopters and two buses).  The bomb had a timer, which was started at the beginning of the game to set it off when the time allowed expired.  Therefore, as the attackers, we had to get it into a target and then protect it until the end of the game.  The defenders could try to retake the vehicle and move the bomb 1m outside it.  Fighting through the central section of the site, we launched lots of probing attacks into the container field, finally deciding to try to get the bomb onto the red bus, which was successfully done after a struggle.  It seemed that not all of the enemy realised that it was there, as some of them continued to defend the other potential targets; this made the defence of the bus fairly straightforward and the bus was blown up!  Victory!

After more reloading of magazines, this game was reversed; I joined some of my colleagues defending the right hand side of the container field, covering the red bus and the grey helicopter.  The enemy pushed hard and repeatedly broke our defence, but we pushed them out every time, although on one occasion they got the bomb into the grey helicopter.  Having retaken it, we moved the bomb the required 1m away and locked the area down until the end of the game, when it blew up in the open.  Victory!

As the last game was a team deathmatch, which would then turn into a Filipino deathmatch where hit taking was not obligatory and you only had to put your hand up when you could not take any more, I and a fair number of the more sensible (older!) players elected to leave.

It was a good day of airsoft, the best that I have had at Splatoon for quite a while; based on it, I will be coming back rather more frequently than previously.

Guns used:
ICS CXP-APE
Double Bell Colt 607
ASG XP18 Commander (CO2)

Edited September 1 by Colin Allen

[Colin Allen]

[Impulse]

Just got home from this season's 'Namsoft at Gunman Eversley Alpha and... it's a strange one. I didn't really enjoy it all that much if I'm going to be completely honest, but have I got any complaints? Not a single one. And would I recommend them? Absolutely! Josh puts some amazing games together and this one was no exception. Didn't see @Tactical Pith Helmet this time though...

 

The good points were... most aspects. The weekend was really well run and Josh's enthusiasm is infectious. The scenario was great overall, with the opening scenario being incredibly chaotic as the Australian forces and US special forces had to locate and rescue all the US platoons that were stuck out there alone and with no radio. VC and PAVN had to find these platoons and destroy them and we were met with... actually more success than I thought. We got utterly hammered, as with our low numbers it was incredibly difficult to win any firefights, as we'd get in a gunfight with one platoon, and while we were fighting them another group, either Aussies or the US special forces, would come in behind us and wipe us out. I also got full auto'd by one of the LMGs in one of the US special forces groups. In the face. From less than 10m away. So that wasn't fun, but remember this US special forces group because they'll come up later. Speaking of later, after I went back to respawn, we headed out from our respawn, which was just over the road from their respawn, though the path between was to be treated as a solid wall, with it being completely out of play and neither team could engage over the path and had to go wide around the site to get to the objectives. The US special forces saw us leave our respawn and then just... decided to not go wide, walking up right behind us and shooting us in the back, half of their group engaging from the path that was out of play. I managed to shoot two of them with my 1911, but neither took the hits. However, we actually managed to steal one platoon's radio equipment during this part of the scenario scoring us a point, and kept the US forces occupied enough to where they never managed to rescue one of their platoons, soring us another point.

 

After this we split off in our groups. The PAVN group brought a bunch of mines and tripwires, so they were tasked with sneaking to the other side of the site and just setting up loads of traps, then goading the US forces into attacking them through their traps; they were incredibly successful in doing this and kept a stupid amount of the US forces occupied, who were all too keen on trying to squash them. Meanwhile, while the US forces were trying their hardest to kill off the PAVN, there were two VC groups going around the rest of the site and performing objectives. We had to set up ambushes that the US had to clear through, however with them so pre-occupied with the PAVN, we were able to just... farm up points. The ambush group I was in didn't even get any contact, and if the ambush wasn't cleared in 30 mins, we got a point (or the US lost a point, I'm not sure but it was a net +1 for us either way). The ambushes were signified by these bluetooth speakers playing jungle sounds, so we'd deploy the bluetooth speaker on max volume, then the US needed to deactivate it to clear the ambush. All through the day, however, there were so many complaints about the US special forces group I mentioned earlier. There were two special forces groups in play, one special forces group was full of great players who played the game phenomenally well, while the other group put the speshul in speshul forces. It's a shame, because all of the other US and Aussie teams were fantastic players and there were no complaints about anyone else on either the NATO or NVA teams, but this one special forces group were consistently shrugging off hits, spraying full auto up close, ignoring the 1 second burst rule for their full auto and ignoring objectives in favour of racking up a body count to the point where they actually tried to spawn camp us at one point. Josh spent a lot of the Saturday coordinating with his marshalls to try and deal with all this, and I don't envy the job he had to do. From what I gathered, they were a new group who hadn't played any Vietnam games at Gunman before; at least a bunch of us regulars didn't recognise them.

 

Anyway, we spent most of Saturday doing this, sending groups out to set up ambushes and farming points if (well... when) they weren't cleared. I can't comment on Sunday as I didn't play, as I wasn't too motivated to play, and my friend wasn't able to play at all since he played more on the Saturday than he should've because he was enjoying it so much and was paying the pain tax on the Sunday. However, the scores at the end of Saturday were NVA had +3 on the morale-o-meter, and the NATO forces had -7 on the morale-o-meter, so a *very* successful Saturday, despite feeling like we got kicked around the site all day.

 

So, why didn't I enjoy myself personally? My friend really enjoyed it, and everyone else seemed to really enjoy the games, but why didn't I? It was just an unfortunate combination of things that all fed into each other, honestly. I can deal with a group of shitty players, as I've played airsoft long enough to know how to deal with them, so it wasn't that. One of our group dropped out at the last minute, leaving just two of us, but the other guy is significantly older and can't play as much or as hard as me and the guy who dropped out. Also, there have been new rules added to the Vietnam filmsim ruleset at Gunman since I last played... around 2 years ago (heart issues caused me to miss a bunch, though I was still there for the social I just couldn't play). The rule in question was the "no one goes to war alone" rule, which is basically there to stop people coming down and treating it like a skirmish game as people should be moving around in squads. However, this combination meant I was unable to go out and do my sniper thing, since I didn't have my spotter (or shooter if he wants to use his bolt action, then I spot for him) as you need to leave in at least a two-man team, and can only perform objectives with at least four people, but also that I had to group up with other squads as I couldn't go out alone and hunt the GIs solo. The guys who play VC and PAVN forces are phenomenal guys and I love playing alongside them, but especially since we were outnumbered around 2.5 to 1 it meant that all of our regular squads were very focused on doing objectives. The issue is a lot of these objectives were in parts of the site where a 30m MED just meant that my rifle was useless and so I went around with a pistol all day Saturday. I spoke to Josh about it on the Sunday morning, and since he knows that I'm not some weird speedsofter and actually play the sniper role properly (as it's what I always did at Vietnam games), he's happy to make some accommodation if it happens in future, but it needs to be part of the scenario so that the Americans know it's not just someone flagrantly disregarding the rules.

 

I will 100% be going again, whether to the one in April(ish?) or Josh's next one next June. If I get the feeling I can't snipe, or simply if the sniper ban is in effect, I will just use my m16 (or m14 if I have it done by then) from the start. Hopefully we'll be back to a group of 3 or even 4 though, which will make it a lot easier for us to operate as snipers and support the other squads with intel and overwatch, rather than going into the thick bushes with nothing but a pistol again 

[Colin Allen]

After a few tiring and emotionally draining days at the Onboard the Craft festival, where we headlined the Friday night, it was a still very tired Colin who set off for Airsoft Plantation at 07:00 this morning.

Around 200 players were present, covering a wide range of ages and experience; it was good to see a fair number of younger rentals on site.

On signing in I was presented with the £64 worth of pyro that I had won in a raffle.  My plan is to throw it all at the Lad next time we play together.

Having met up with Tom and Dan, with the latter of whom I spent a lot of time discussing hop rubbers and nubs, we set out for the first game of the day, which came into being when the site owner was watching news coverage of rioters.

In the first phase, the attacking team, starting at the DEA base with infinite regens on a marshal, had to fight their way into the mortar pits and locate a crate of seven Molotov Cocktails (bottles with yellow smoke grenades, indicating gas, stuck in the top), which they had to take to the bridge.  As the defenders, we had one life in this phase.  Once they had got the case to the bridge, the game would reset, giving us the opportunity to set ourselves up in the village, where we had two lives.  The attackers then had to get the Molotov Cocktails into the seven central buildings and set them off; once the smoke had cleared, they could enter the building, steal the money in it and take it to the riot's organiser, who was on the firebreak.

Setting up on the far left of the mortar pits, the group that I was with were subject to constant attacks, which we repulsed after some intense and very close range firefights among the small trees and bushes.  I was eventually hit and set off for the village, observing the capture of the crate on my way.

I set up of the Main Street of the village, but that position rapidly became untenable and I was hit; as we had two lives in the village, I removed myself to a number of positions further back from where I continued to engage the enemy before I was hit again a few seconds before the game timed out.  The attackers had secured three bundles of cash.

After reloading and having a very nice and very welcome cup of tea, we set out for the reverse of that game.  We pushed hard into the mortar pits despite strong resistance and, after a short delay clearing out the top deck of the bus, grabbed the Molotov Cocktails and took them to the bridge.  As usual when attacking the village, I set out on a long swing around the far end of the site to attack it from the rear, as did another twenty or so players.  While our colleagues carried out a frontal attack, we worked our way through the light woods, taking out the few enemy we encountered and entering the village from that direction.  Just as we left the woods, my KA PDW stopped working mid shot; assuming that the CHiLUN mosfet had died, I carried on with my pistol.  A little later, the game ended as we had secured all seven bundles of money and transported them back to Steve.

Luncheon followed, during which I decided to take a look at the dead rifle; taking off the motor plate, I saw that one of the motor connector tabs had somehow broken off; the CHiLUN mosfet survives.

After lunch, the afternoon games were briefed.  Starting at Long Walk at the far end of the woods, the attackers, with infinite marshal regens, had to fight their way to the kill house in the woods, secure the stretcher, get someone on it and transport them to the border, where they would load them into the jeep and then transport them to the mortar pits via the village.  As the defenders, we had two lives in the woods and one in the village.  As usual, I dug myself into one of my favourite ditches and waited for the enemy; they took a while to turn up but, when they, did I potted all four of them.  Another somewhat larger group arrived a while later; after a longish fight in which I hit several of them, I was hit and crawled out of my beloved ditch and went off to reposition for my second life in the woods.  At this point I noticed that the vast majority of the enemy had already pushed well past my position and were now gathering at the border for phase 2 of the game.  Settling into another ditch, I let the rest of the attackers go past and, once they had set off again, I moved up behind them, using cover and some wonderfully muddy ditches (the connoisseur's choice) to knock off a player or two at a time and then disappear, before reappearing elsewhere.  I doubt that it had much impact on the game, but it was great fun.  However, inevitably, they achieved their objective.

When we returned to the safe zone, my tiredness and emotional exhaustion got the better of me and I decided to pack up and leave.  This was somewhat delayed by another conversation with Dan about hop rubbers and nubs as he was trying yet another combination in one of his rifles.

It was a really good day of airsoft, although not devoid of the usual occasional acts of twatishness by individual players, which were dealt with effectively by the marshals.

Weapons used:
King Arms PDW SBR (with a very long silencer)
CYMA G36K
ASG XP18 Commander (CO2)

Edited 1 hour ago by Colin Allen