The 'How Did Your Airsoft Day Go? Thread

[Colin Allen]

A logistical dilemma caused by the convergence of the last rehearsal before our 25th Birthday gig and the London Marathon means that I am spending tonight in a Premier Inn in Woking.

However, every cloud has a silver lining, so this seemed like a good opportunity to spend the afternoon at Driver Wood, a site about which I have heard and read a lot but have never visited.

So, this morning, in addition to my video mixer, projector, video loops etc, I loaded my airsoft gear into the car, including the lad's C7, which I had done some work on last Saturday evening as it seemed to have lost power. 

Arriving at Driver Wood was a bit of a culture shock; there were paintballers, kids' parties, airsoft beginners' sessions and about 60 airsofters.  This actually seemed like a proper business!

Checking in was straightforward; I got my wristband and I was in.  I found a table, chatted to the players on the next table, one of whom admired the C7, and chrono'd the C7 (1.04J and great range).  The safezone was well organised, clean and had WiFi!  The only negative aspect was a number of signs stating that no food or drink could be brought in.

I then sorted my own stuff out, remembering to ensure that barrel socks were in use in the safezone, chrono'd my rifle and pistol, and set off for balancing of teams, distribution of us afternoon arrivals to teams and a mercifully short but complete safety and rules brief.

Immediately after this, we set out for the game zone, passing various areas full of kids having great fun shooting paint and BBs at each other.

The first game of the afternoon involved collecting a downed pilot, getting them on to a stretcher and transporting them to one of the helicopters.  Each side had a stretcher and, if the two players carrying it were killed, they had to drop it; the opposing team could then try to prevent them recovering it but could not steal it.  However, if the pilot was on it, they could transfer him to their stretcher if it could be brought alongside.

I teamed up with a few players who decided to try to work around into the enemy's left flank and rear; this went rather well until we encountered an enemy force who had decided to try to work around into our right flank and rear.  This resulted in some great fights; I found a spot in a ditch under a bush from where I could control the convergence of two paths that the enemy were using; it was what WW2 U-Boat crews called a Happy Time; a target rich environment and a hidden Colin with a very accurate rifle.

Ultimately, as for the U-Boat crews, the Happy Time ended and I was sunk.  Regenning, I encountered the two chaps from the table next to mine and we fought our own little war against a group of enemy who were continuing to try to push into our team's tactical rear, holding them off until the end of the game, which our side won, getting the stretcher and pilot into the helicopter after a stand off.  Hurrah!

After a short break, we started the second game of the afternoon; a three point domination.  The targets were the green tent, the six wheeler and one of the helicopters; whoever controlled each of them at every 10 minute interval got a point .  I have no idea what happened at the six wheeler or the helicopter, as I was solely involved around the green tent, which the enemy grabbed at the start of the game.  This was a really good action, with people flanking all over the place, hiding in bushes, and generally popping up where they were least expected.  Despite us pushing hard, the enemy held the green tent for most of the game, with us only capturing it for the very last point.

My first impressions of Driver Wood are positive, despite the signs about not bringing your own food and drink.  The playing area reminded me somewhat of Battle Lakes, albeit without that site's bottlenecks and choke points.

I will definitely be going back.

After the game, I stopped off at Surplus Store UK in Crawley, with the possible intention of buying a JG T3 SAS.  However, the size, or rather the lack of size, of its battery compartment, put me off.

Armband watch: Bright green (I thought they were yellow!) and purple.

Weapons used:

SRC T-91
ASG Commander XP18 (CO2)

Edited Sunday at 07:39 by Colin Allen

[Tackle]

5 hours ago, Colin Allen said:

A logistical dilemma caused by the convergence of the last rehearsal before our 25th Birthday gig and the London Marathon means that I am spending tonight in a Premier Inn in Woking.

However, every cloud has a silver lining, so this seemed like a good opportunity to spend the afternoon at Driver Wood, a site about which I have heard and read a lot but have never visited.

So, this morning, in addition to my video mixer, projector, video loops etc, I loaded my airsoft gear into the car, including the lad's C7, which I had done some work on last Saturday evening as it seemed to have lost power. 

Arriving at Driver Wood was a bit of a culture shock; there were paintballers, kid's parties, airsoft beginners' sessions and about 60 airsofters.  This actually seemed like a proper business!

Checking in was straightforward; I got my wristband and I was in.  I found a table, chatted to the players on the next table, one of whom admired the C7, and chrono'd the C7 (1.04J and great range).  The safezone was well organised, clean and had WiFi!  The only negative aspect was a number of signs stating that no food or drink could be brought in.

I then sorted my own stuff out, remembering to ensure that barrel socks were in use in the safezone, chrono'd my rifle and pistol, and set off for balancing of teams, distribution of us afternoon arrivals to teams and a mercifully short but complete safety and rules brief.

Immediately after this, we set out for the game zone, passing various areas full of kids having great fun shooting paint and BBs at each other.

The first game of the afternoon involved collecting a downed pilot, getting them on to a stretcher and transporting them to one of the helicopters.  Each side had a stretcher and, if the two players carrying it were killed, they had to drop it; the opposing team could then try to prevent them recovering it but could not steal it.  However, if the pilot was on it, they could transfer him to their stretcher if it could be brought alongside.

I teamed up with a few players who decided to try to work around into the enemy's left flank and rear; this went rather well until we encountered an enemy force who had decided to try to work around into our right flank and rear.  This resulted in some great fights; I found a spot in a ditch under a bush from where I could control the convergence of two paths that the enemy were using; it was what WW2 U-Boat crews called a Happy Time; a target rich environment and a hidden Colin with a very accurate rifle.

Ultimately, as for the U-Boat crews, the Happy Time ended and I was sunk.  Regenning, I encountered the two chaps from the table next to mine and we fought our own little war against a group of enemy who were continuing to try to push into our team's tactical rear, holding them off until the end of the game, which our side won, getting the stretcher and pilot into the helicopter after a stand off.  Hurrah!

After a short break, we started the second game of the afternoon; a three point domination.  The targets were the green tent, the six wheeler and one of the helicopters; whoever controlled each of them at every 10 minute interval got a point .  I have no idea what happened at the six wheeler or the helicopter, as I was solely involved around the green tent, which the enemy grabbed at the start of the game.  This was a really good action, with people flanking all over the place, hiding in bushes, and generally popping up where they were least expected.  Despite us pushing hard, the enemy held the green tent for most of the game, with us only capturing it for the very last point.

My first impressions of Driver Wood are positive, despite the signs about not bringing your own food and drink.  The playing area reminded me somewhat of Battle Lakes, albeit without that site's bottlenecks and choke points.

I will definitely be going back.

After the game, I stopped off at Surplus Store UK in Crawley, with the possible intention of buying a JG T3 SAS.  However, the size, or rather the lack of size, of its battery compartment, put me off.

Armband watch: Bright green (I thought they were yellow!) and purple.

Weapons used:

SRC T-91
ASG Commander XP18 (CO2)

The food & drink rule is disappointing, not everyone can eat the crap some sites churn out, nor should they have to shell out silly prices for essentials such as bottles of water.

What were the options offered for food & drink ?

[Galvatron]

6 hours ago, Colin Allen said:

My first impressions of Driver Wood are positive, despite the signs about not bringing your own food and drink.  The playing area reminded me somewhat of Battle Lakes, albeit without that site's bottlenecks and choke points.

 

 

I went there for the boot sale at the end of January but not to play though I got a similarly good impression of the organisation from the signage and the tannoy announcements so I will go there to play at some point.

 

It sucks that they don't allow players to bring their own food and drinks. I thought that captive market mentality was left in cinemas.

[Colin Allen]

6 hours ago, Tackle said:

The food & drink rule is disappointing, not everyone can eat the crap some sites churn out, nor should they have to shell out silly prices for essentials such as bottles of water.

What were the options offered for food & drink ?

The food looked pretty good. There was also a vending machine with bottles of cold drinks for reasonable prices.

 

https://driverwoodactivitycentre.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/DriverWoodFoodMenu.pdf

Edited Sunday at 06:58 by Colin Allen

[Egon_247]

13 hours ago, Galvatron said:

 

I went there for the boot sale at the end of January but not to play though I got a similarly good impression of the organisation from the signage and the tannoy announcements so I will go there to play at some point.

 

It sucks that they don't allow players to bring their own food and drinks. I thought that captive market mentality was left in cinemas.

Me and one of my mates were there (in the sleet n bloody cold!). Havent actually played there yet! 

Everyone seemed to be having fun. At least the parking and the seating is good. We've played the one up the road from there (dogtag, i think).

 

[JimFromHorsham]

Dogtag for me this morning , mixed bag really , played some area that haven’t been used in a long time so that was good as everyone was on an even footing with the layout . Marshalling was pretty decent , clear objectives (attack and defend 😂) and not so bad on boundaries . 
 

hit taking however was a bit poor , multiple times I had to take a breath and walk away , from players on both sides I might add 😕 .

 

think I’ll pop along somewhere different when time permits , maybe Worthing or DriversWood , although being local and in touch with quite a few regulars the latter I hear very mixed accounts of player honesty , Marshall’s and site layout .

 

 

Edited Sunday at 14:55 by JimFromHorsham

[Reef]

We were at Dogtag today as well. Enjoyed the new area, I didn’t know that arena with the ‘castle’ existed so it was a surprise. 
I did hear the issues with hit taking, the marshal had to remind everyone after the first round which was the first time I’ve heard them do that. A shame that was happening but I still had a blast with a few good gun battles.

[TheFull9]

Ace Airsoft War Games is literally 5 minutes from where I am currently, but until recently I thought the site was just a place that did paintball/kids parties/axe throwing etc.  If you look at the spot on google maps with a wider perspective you'll see Warped Sports which is the aforementioned type activity centre, but if you carry on zooming the marker for Ace appears.

 

It is very much.. a woodland airsoft site.  It's fine.  I certainly wouldn't tell anyone to avoid by any means, but I don't think it needs to be on the top of any must-visit site lists.  More on account of the physical size/shape of the game areas than anything, they're all fairly long but pretty narrow, which even with only around 25 per side just made most of the games very stalemate'y.  In a way, if you just want to shoot all day it actually works out, because it's a short walk to regen then you're back at it and it wasn't massively overcrowded, there just wasn't much movement.  Nothing to be done as the borders were set as wide as they can be within the land.

 

Track from the road to the car park somewhat lengthy and a bit bumpy but they'd put a lot of work and material in to filling the holes so could've been far far worse.  Decent amount of safe zone cover and table space, not a lot of chairs but equally there wasn't too much sitting around in there either.  I didn't make use of the shop or food facilities myself, looked alright though.  Staff were pretty good overall I'd say.  Works out to about £26 for military, £24 for members or £29 for pre-booked walk-ons.  No lunch included, but that seems about a fair price for woodland in the west mids.

 

Definitely some 'chatty' characters but I guess every day has that, everyone seemed sound overall which combined with the basically perfect weather did work out nicely.  The one event that kinda pissed on my morning's play was standing up from my cover spot after the staff all shouted game over etc and catching a full auto burst all across my head and torso; couldn't spot the culprit but oh well. 🙄

 

 

2 other issues I had.  The first that really won't matter to most people is that one of the game areas is thick with some kind of plant (and I mean thick, it's a carpet of the stuff) which stinks to high heaven.  Someone near me said wild onion.  The entire area has a sort of dank smell to it an my boots stink now even after being scrubbed immaculately clean in the shower.  Maybe I've just got a sensitive little nose but it was pungent to me personally and I'm worried as to whether it'll ever come out of my boots.

 

 

Secondly, this pic was taken on the path that leads from the SZ to the afternoon game area.  There's maybe 6m between it and the M54 with absolutely no screening for a portion.  Now, I'm assuming it's been this way for years with nothing untoward happening so fair enough, but I certainly made sure my gun was held down below the waist when going by.  To me, just the lightest bit of sparse visual screening would be fine here since it's a dual carriageway with the usual 70 limit, but I was surprised by this uncovered area tbh.  I'm sure nobody would be stupid enough to ever just fire BBs at a car......

[Impulse]

Only played half the day today at Worthing, but not the morning this time. I had so much I needed to do in the morning that I only got out in the last 40 mins before lunch, then played through the afternoon. I brought a small armoury with me today as I wanted to give 3 guns to a local tech (G&P m14 DMR, Cyma SR-25 and A&K m249), then I brought two guns to give to my friend as he's buying them from me (Cyma m14 and TM Hi-Capa 4.3) and finally I brought some guns for me to actually use (both MWSs). I had to set up the Cyma m14 and TM Hi-Capa before handing them off, so I did that first. All good there. Then I had to set up my MWS with a new hop setup and initially it wasn't amazing. Hop up was on the all the way and it was hopping the .4s, but since I wanted to run .43s I was a little crestfallen. Oh well. I then went back to the car, took the G&P m14 apart and sprayed the stock OD to cover a digital desert camo that was already on there (got it 2nd hand and that was what was on it), and then sprayed the cheek riser and heatshield plain black. Only took two coats, so I sprayed it, waited for it to mostly dry, then gave it a 2nd go over and it looks so much better now. Left it hanging on the tree for the whole game day as it wasn't meant to rain and I wanted to give it the maximum amount of time to dry.

 

So I finally got out to play with the mk12 MWS, set up as a DMR at about 1.8J. At first I went to a path and saw a ghillie in a holly bush at the end of it as I was peeking through a crack in the wood, so I waited until someone from my team pushed up, I saw him faffing with his pistol and then peeked and took him out. As my team pushed up to where I was, I saw that nobody was covering a very obvious route where the enemy players seemed to be attacking from and then shooting our team in the back, so I set up by a barricade and simply watched that way. Despite the fact that it looked like I was well out of the fight I got a surprising number of hits on players trying to sneak up that way until I heard a lot pushing from the other flank, so I repositioned to get an angle on them. Despite the fact I was only out for 40 mins, I got a lot of hits so it felt good.

 

Then I went out in the afternoon and the hop rubber in the MWS is starting to bed in. It was overhopping the .4s now, so I took it down a few clicks to get it straight again. I also tried some .43s at lunch as my friend had some and it was hopping them amazingly well, so 2kg of .43s is being ordered this evening. It was a 3 base domination and I managed to crawl onto the side of a small log pile, deploying my bipod and watching the right of the base with my friend on his bolt action a few metres back and covering my blindside. Managed to stay there all game, slotting any of the enemy team who came down the right side and none of them could locate me, despite the fact that I'm not exactly using the quietest of guns; MWS is a GBBR after all! I only got hit because a bunch of rentals crouched behind me, despite there being no cover, and someone shot at them and hit me by accident. Thanks guys... 😐 We then swapped sides and I took to defending the flanks again. It's a thankless job, but someone has to do it!

 

Final game that I played was an attack and defend with us as the attackers. I crawled all the way along a flank, as the foliage is high enough to where I can get into good firing positions on the base without people seeing me at all, which is exactly what I did. Sniped a few of the defenders from their positions and then took up a spot to try and cut off reinforcements. The only shame is I got a lovely shot on someone moving in to medic another person I had already shot, only for him to completely ignore the shot. It was getting later in the day where people haven't drunk enough water and hit taking was getting questionable, but I was going to call it there anyway. I still had to get back to the safe zone to reassemble my newly olive drab sprayed m14 so I could give it to the tech, along with my SR-25 and m249, so I did that. 6 week lead time, but I'm not desperate, especially with the fact that we're in spring and will be moving into summer at some point; all my gas guns will be at their best, so that's what I'll use for now!  

[Colin Allen]

1 hour ago, TheFull9 said:

Ace Airsoft War Games is literally 5 minutes from where I am currently, but until recently I thought the site was just a place that did paintball/kids parties/axe throwing etc.  If you look at the spot on google maps with a wider perspective you'll see Warped Sports which is the aforementioned type activity centre, but if you carry on zooming the marker for Ace appears.

 

It is very much.. a woodland airsoft site.  It's fine.  I certainly wouldn't tell anyone to avoid by any means, but I don't think it needs to be on the top of any must-visit site lists.  More on account of the physical size/shape of the game areas than anything, they're all fairly long but pretty narrow, which even with only around 25 per side just made most of the games very stalemate'y.  In a way, if you just want to shoot all day it actually works out, because it's a short walk to regen then you're back at it and it wasn't massively overcrowded, there just wasn't much movement.  Nothing to be done as the borders were set as wide as they can be within the land.

 

Track from the road to the car park somewhat lengthy and a bit bumpy but they'd put a lot of work and material in to filling the holes so could've been far far worse.  Decent amount of safe zone cover and table space, not a lot of chairs but equally there wasn't too much sitting around in there either.  I didn't make use of the shop or food facilities myself, looked alright though.  Staff were pretty good overall I'd say.  Works out to about £26 for military, £24 for members or £29 for pre-booked walk-ons.  No lunch included, but that seems about a fair price for woodland in the west mids.

 

Definitely some 'chatty' characters but I guess every day has that, everyone seemed sound overall which combined with the basically perfect weather did work out nicely.  The one event that kinda pissed on my morning's play was standing up from my cover spot after the staff all shouted game over etc and catching a full auto burst all across my head and torso; couldn't spot the culprit but oh well. 🙄

 

 

2 other issues I had.  The first that really won't matter to most people is that one of the game areas is thick with some kind of plant (and I mean thick, it's a carpet of the stuff) which stinks to high heaven.  Someone near me said wild onion.  The entire area has a sort of dank smell to it an my boots stink now even after being scrubbed immaculately clean in the shower.  Maybe I've just got a sensitive little nose but it was pungent to me personally and I'm worried as to whether it'll ever come out of my boots.

 

 

Secondly, this pic was taken on the path that leads from the SZ to the afternoon game area.  There's maybe 6m between it and the M54 with absolutely no screening for a portion.  Now, I'm assuming it's been this way for years with nothing untoward happening so fair enough, but I certainly made sure my gun was held down below the waist when going by.  To me, just the lightest bit of sparse visual screening would be fine here since it's a dual carriageway with the usual 70 limit, but I was surprised by this uncovered area tbh.  I'm sure nobody would be stupid enough to ever just fire BBs at a car......

That path does seem somewhat exposed to public view, which seems rather lax.  £29 is pretty high for what sounds like a pretty average site.

As to the plant, that sounds like wild garlic, which is incredibly pungent.

Edited Sunday at 19:58 by Colin Allen

[Skullchewer]

Good day yesterday, marshalled most of the day, but played one game in the morning, then I had planned on playing one game after lunch, at an easy pace, as I'm old and it's been a hard week. 

 

So I walk out onto the field and the head marshall makes me one of the three Personalities in the Personality game. 

If you don't know it: the Personality player starts rogue, when shot they go into a medic state, joining the side that medics them back into play, and they will then ask to be escorted to a POI. Getting the Personality to their objective scores a point for that team, and the Personality then goes rogue again. The three Personality players are aggressive to each other at all times. 

 

So yeah, that was my easy paced game after lunch, sprinting from POI to POI, getting shot by EVERYONE. 

 

Bloody fun day though. Weather was great, good playing all round.

I am broken today. 

Edited Monday at 07:45 by Skullchewer
Tog l

[LMKipper]

I was also at DogTag yesterday. Crap start for me when I got ten minutes away and released I'd left my boots at home! Quick nip to the services to see if the petrol station had anything for truckers. Lo and behold they did, and I played with the finest boots available (for £35 from Pease Pottage services).

 

Morning games were alright with the castle, a part I've not used before. Less alright was when a chap on my own side with poor awareness/muzzle/trigger disclipine, shot me in the side of the head with a 2.3j rifle from about 3 feet away & it lodged in my ear (photo of offending item: https://ibb.co/4gMJk2F). He was very apologetic and I know accidents happen, but it wasn't brilliant. Ended up with claret on my kit/RIF.

 

The afternoon was a struggle. About 70% of the field seemed to go home, so there was only 20 or so people left by the end. I gave up around 3:30 when it was basically 5-a-side. Is this a common thing now? I've never been to another site that empties out so much at lunch, to the point where I'm not sure I'd bother paying for another full day. That said driving nearly an hour to only play for three doesn't seem worth the effort.

 

Edited Monday at 12:38 by LMKipper

[Colin Allen]

That is a beauty!

[Skullchewer]

5 minutes ago, Colin Allen said:

That is a beauty!

Say what now?

15 minutes ago, LMKipper said:

The afternoon was a struggle. About 70% of the field seemed to go home, so there was only 20 or so people left by the end. I gave up around 3:30 when it was basically 5-a-side. Is this a common thing now? I've never been to another site that empties out so much at lunch, to the point where I'm not sure I'd bother paying for another full day. That said driving nearly an hour to only play for three doesn't seem worth the effort.

 

 

We tend to get it a little most game days. People go HARD in the morning, and wear themselves out. 

But it's rare to see it thin out that much, unless the weather has been particularly poor.

[The_Lord_Poncho]

43 minutes ago, LMKipper said:

The afternoon was a struggle. About 70% of the field seemed to go home, so there was only 20 or so people left by the end. I gave up around 3:30 when it was basically 5-a-side. Is this a common thing now? I've never been to another site that empties out so much at lunch, to the point where I'm not sure I'd bother paying for another full day. That said driving nearly an hour to only play for three doesn't seem worth the effort.

 

When i played (probably circa two months ago now - i lose track of time) at Dogtag, it was the same - probably went down to 10-15 per team after lunch. But to be honest, I preferred that. I tend to feel the same at Driver Wood too, my other local site - the lower number sessions seem to me at least to open up additional latitude for low cunning, or bold aggression  - without such attempts being thwarted 99% of the time by a complete saturation of the playing area with enemy players.

[The Waco Kid]

This is the way.
 

Unfortunately I usually have to go at lunchtime. I have been told Saturday skirmishes are a different crowd and smaller numbers. Might be worth a look.

[Colin Allen]

2 hours ago, Skullchewer said:

Say what now?

A BB in an ear.

[simonh]

Played again at TAC House Spartan "The Stan" this sunday, we linked up with F Team Airsoft who drove up from portsmouth to Sheffield to give the site a try.

 

All in all a good day, we clocked in the fastest pushback time ever since the site re-opened at just over 9 minutes. we defended it for 23!

 

Decent selection of games as usual and they have just opened up an new staircase and we were the first ones to play across 3 floors, which is not great on the legs! Hit taking was good (it usually is here) and everyone seemed to play in the spirit of the game which always make the day better.

 

if you haven't been back to the Stan since it re-opened it is well worth a visit.

 

Simon