The 'How Did Your Airsoft Day Go? Thread

[Jez_Armstrong]

2 minutes ago, The_Lord_Poncho said:

Superb evening last night at Invicta Blacksite (CQB). The changes they have made in the past few months to the layouts, including knocking more crawl holes through walls etc have really helped ease choke points and allow some sneaky indoor flanks! Great fun, good game play, and as ever, easy to strike up a conversation and rapport with the regulars and newbies alike. Cracking way to spend a Wednesday evening which would otherwise have been alternatively spent inevitably falling asleep in front of youtube nonsense. But my god those finger and neck hits still hurt today!

I need to get down there for a Wednesday evening game, it's my local and now I have NV so I need to come by 

[The_Lord_Poncho]

33 minutes ago, Jez_Armstrong said:

I need to get down there for a Wednesday evening game, it's my local and now I have NV so I need to come by 

I'm sure that you won't be disappointed. It's tightly run, and there is minimal waiting between games - so once the games get going (circa 7:30 after the briefing), you actually pack quite a lot of game play into an evening (finishes just before 11pm).

 

One guy had some form of night vision last night - said that it wasn't hugely helpful due to depth perception issues - and to be fair, i can imagine it might be more hassle than its worth in that sort of environment where everything is very up close and personal.  Definitely worth a try though - you may be onto a winner! Due to the nature of the place, lots of opportunity for torches and optics to get shot out, so I'd advise a protector on the NV if you do bring it.

 

Only downsides of the place in my view is that they lock the car park gates (they wish to sign everyone in and out for safety reasons/making sure no one is left lying unconscious in a cupboard at the end of the night etc) - laudable, but when you have a 45 minute drive home, waiting 15 minutes at 11 pm for a marshal to come and unlock the gate is just a bit irritating....

[Jez_Armstrong]

I've played there lots on Sundays but haven't done a night game there yet, depth perception won't be an issue with my unit and it's got thick plexi for protection 👌

[The_Lord_Poncho]

1 hour ago, Jez_Armstrong said:

I've played there lots on Sundays but haven't done a night game there yet, depth perception won't be an issue with my unit and it's got thick plexi for protection 👌

Ah, got you. I notice they have built an outdoor CQB complex there too - looks really good, but they never seem to use it on Wednesday nights. Does it get used on the Sundays? If so, any good?

[Lozart]

1 hour ago, Jez_Armstrong said:

depth perception won't be an issue with my unit

 

FNARRR!

[Jez_Armstrong]

4 hours ago, The_Lord_Poncho said:

Ah, got you. I notice they have built an outdoor CQB complex there too - looks really good, but they never seem to use it on Wednesday nights. Does it get used on the Sundays? If so, any good?

I'll be honest, I go for the CQB so when they turf you outside it feels like a waste of my money 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Cannonfodder]

Today South Herts Airsoft had their first midweek game and unlike many other sites where they're only in the evening this was a full day. Numbers were very low with only 6 a side but as the site is relatively small this wasn't a problem and the low numbers meant games were more tactical rather than the meat grinder which can happen with greater numbers. Hit taking was excellent and I heard no grumbles or complaints. In fact the only negative part of the day was self inflicted as I sent myself arse over tit running for cover and it was only when the adrenaline wore off I realised I'd landed in a load of stinging nettles 

 

All in all I hope this will be the first of many midweek games as I can't always get to games on sundays and I wholeheartedly recommend anyone in the Hertfordshire area give them a try

Edited April 11 by Cannonfodder

[Dan Robinson]

18 minutes ago, Cannonfodder said:

Today South Herts Airsoft had their first midweek game and unlike many other sites where they're only in the evening this was a full day. Numbers were very low with only 6 a side but as the site is relatively small this wasn't a problem and the low numbers meant games were more tactical rather than the meat grinder which can happen with greater numbers. Hit taking was excellent and I heard no grumbles or complaints. In fact the only negative part of the day was self inflicted as I sent myself arse over tit running for cover and it was only when the adrenaline wore off I realised I'd landed in a load of stinging nettles 

 

All in all I hope this will be the first of many midweek games as I can't always get to games on sundays and I wholeheartedly recommend anyone in the Hertfordshire area give them a try

 

What's the lunch situation there?  Bring Your Own?   One must have one's creature comforts.

[Cannonfodder]

Bring your own. Talking to the owner they've looked into having a local  burger van or similar but from what they said nobody is really interested as they'd need a minimum of 30 to make it worthwhile. Not really an issue for me as in my experience the food provided at many sites is a bit crap

[Colin Allen]

This morning, the lad and I set off for a journey across southern parts of London to spend the day at Tactical Warfare Airsoft, a site where we have had a few good days over the last few months.

As usual, there were a fair number of rental players present and, before the morning safety briefing, the lad twice removed magazines from rentals' guns in the safezone.

After the usual safety brief, which included the usual talk about eyepro, no magazines in guns in the safezone and no dry firing in the safezone, we set out into the game zone for the first game; turning around to talk to the lad, I was shocked to find that the marshal who was with us was not wearing eyepro in the playing area; I immediately pointed this out to him and that there were players with loaded weapons and that some were shooting. He argued that it was not a problem but, after some persuading, put them on.

As we assembled for the first game briefing (60+ players with loaded guns), I noticed that the same marshal was standing 2m away from, and looking at, a rental player who had removed his eyepro and was making no attempt to get him to put it back on.

Both of these incidents were reported to the head marshal, who stated that he would "have a word" with him.

The first game was a fairly straightforward capture the flag using the village and part of the wood; this turned into a stalemate with some very dodgy hit taking.  

This was followed by a fallback game; as the defenders we had one life in each of Badger Base, Jungle Base and the Pit.  This was mostly a good game, except for repeated concerns that an HPA user on the other team was running a hot gun; experienced players were reporting that hits were hurting far more than they should.  When the lad challenged him on it, asking what weight he was using, he claimed to be using 0.20g BBs.  The lad then mentioned it to the head marshal, who responded that it had passed chrono.  Another player suggested that it be spot checked, but this was rejected.  There was also massive confusion about the boundaries for each stage; at the Pit, several of our players were hit by opponents who were out of bounds, as no information had been given to them as to where they could and could not go.

When it came time to turn the game around, we found that more than half of our team had disappeared, either going back to the safezone or leaving.  Despite this, we made a gallant attempt.  While attacking Badger Base, I asked a marshal if a couple of enemy players were out of bounds; his reply was that they probably weren't as that was where they were firing from, which made no sense.  We then asked how far we could flank round to attack them and were told we could go wherever we wanted; I checked whether this included flanking around behind the Pit and was told that we could not do that, so I asked again where we could flank round them.  The marshal replied that we could go anywhere that we wanted, so I again sought clarification on what this meant with regard to sneaking up on them by flanking around behind the pit.  The response was again that we could not do that.  Apparently, anywhere that we wanted was not anywhere that we wanted. Utter disorganisation!

Lunch followed, during which the lad again had to remove a magazine from a rental's gun; unlike every other site we play at, TWA does not check that players returning to the safe zone have removed mags and cleared their weapons.  On several occasions, triggers were pulled in the safezone, with no response from the marshals.  After one player had twice fired long bursts (no BBs fired) with an SMG, I raised this with the site owner, who went over and told him not to do it again.

We discussed leaving but decided to give it another try after lunch.  After the sides had been rebalanced and afternoon arrivals integrated into the teams, we set off for the next game.  This was a game in which we, as the attackers, had to fight our way into the village, collect six barrels and get them back to our start point; we had infinite regens on our start point and the defenders had two lives.

After a stiff fight and some hilariously bad hit taking, we fought our way into the village, whereupon the 0.20g HPA guy inflicted some serious damage on a couple of players, drawing blood; he also hit my webbing, the impact leaving me in no doubt that he was not using 0.20g BBs.

Once this game finished, we decide to leave; we will not be returning to Tactical Warfare Airsoft.  Unfortunately, it has reverted to being the shit show that it previously was, with the added bonus of little or no apparent concern for players' safety or even marshals' own safety.

Weapons used:

Me
CYMA G36C
King Arms PDW
ASG Commander XP18 (CO2)

The lad
G&G C7
G&G Modernised M4
ASG Commander XP18 (CO2)
Dynatex Grenade (x2)
 

Edited April 14 by Colin Allen

[Tackle]

54 minutes ago, Colin Allen said:

This morning, the lad and I set off for a journey across southern parts of London to spend the day at Tactical Warfare Airsoft, a site where we have had a few good days over the last few months.

As usual, there were a fair number of rental players present and, before the morning safety briefing, the lad twice removed magazines from rentals' guns in the safezone.

After the usual safety brief, which included the usual talk about eyepro, no magazines in guns in the safezone and no dry firing in the safezone, we set out into the game zone for the first game; turning around to talk to the lad, I was shocked to find that the marshal who was with us was not wearing eyepro in the playing area; I immediately pointed this out to him and that there were players with loaded weapons and that some were shooting. He argued that it was not a problem but, after some persuading, put them on.

As we assembled for the first game briefing (60+ players with loaded guns), I noticed that the same marshal was standing 2m away from, and looking at, a rental player who had removed his eyepro and was making no attempt to get him to put it back on.

Both of these incidents were reported to the head marshal, who stated that he would "have a word" with him.

The first game was a fairly straightforward capture the flag using the village and part of the wood; this turned into a stalemate with some very dodgy hit taking.  

This was followed by a fallback game; as the defenders we had one life in each of Badger Base, Jungle Base and the Pit.  This was mostly a good game, except for repeated concerns that an HPA user on the other team was running a hot gun; experienced players were reporting that hits were hurting far more than they should.  When the lad challenged him on it, asking what weight he was using, he claimed to be using 0.20g BBs.  The lad then mentioned it to the head marshal, who responded that it had passed chrono.  Another player suggested that it be spot checked, but this was rejected.  There was also massive confusion about the boundaries for each stage; at the Pit, several of our players were hit by opponents who were out of bounds, as no information had been given to them as to where they could and could not go.

When it came time to turn the game around, we found that more than half of our team had disappeared, either going back to the safezone or leaving.  Despite this, we made a gallant attempt.  While attacking Badger Base, I asked a marshal if a couple of enemy players were out of bounds; his reply was that they probably weren't as that was where they were firing from, which made no sense.  We then asked how far we could flank round to attack them and were told we could go wherever we wanted; I checked whether this included flanking around behind the Pit and was told that we could not do that, so I asked again where we could flank round them.  The marshal replied that we could go anywhere that we wanted, so I again sought clarification on what this meant with regard to sneaking up on them by flanking around behind the pit.  The response was again that we could not do that.  Apparently, anywhere that we wanted was not anywhere that we wanted. Utter disorganisation!

Lunch followed, during which the lad again had to remove a magazine from a rental's gun; unlike every other site we play at, TWA does not check that players returning to the safe zone have removed mags and cleared their weapons.  On several occasions, triggers were pulled in the safezone, with no response from the marshals.  After one player had twice fired two long bursts (no BBs fired) with an SMG, I raised this with the site owner, who went over and told him not to do it again.

We discussed leaving but decided to give it another try after lunch.  After the sides had been rebalanced and afternoon arrivals integrated into the teams, we set off for the next game.  This was a game in which we, as the attackers, had to fight our way into the village, collect six barrels and get them back to our start point; we had infinite regens on our start point and the defenders had two lives.

After a stiff fight and some hilariously bad hit taking, we fought our way into the village, whereupon the 0.20g HPA guy inflicted some serious damage on a couple of players, drawing blood; he also hit my webbing, the impact leaving me in no doubt that he was not using 0.20g BBs.

Once this game finished, we decide to leave; we will not be returning to Tactical Warfare Airsoft.  Unfortunately, it has reverted to being the shit show that it previously was, with the added bonus of little or no apparent concern over player safety or even marshals' own safety.

Weapons used:

Me
CYMA G36C
King Arms PDW
ASG Commander XP18 (CO2)

The lad
G&G C7
G&G Modernised M4
ASG Commander XP18 (CO2)
Dynatex Grenade (x2)
 

Thanks, I'd always heard they were shit, didn't know they'd improved a bit, & now they're shit again.

Never considered making the trek to twa, definitely off the radar now, that Marshalling is appalling, its amazing that it's lasted as long as it has considering its rep.

[Cannonfodder]

Bloody hell, that's definitely one to avoid

[Colin Allen]

10 hours ago, Tackle said:

Thanks, I'd always heard they were shit, didn't know they'd improved a bit, & now they're shit again.

Never considered making the trek to twa, definitely off the radar now, that Marshalling is appalling, its amazing that it's lasted as long as it has considering its rep.

It is rather disappointing as it did seem to be getting better, albeit always with a bit of vagueness about rules and boundaries.  Since the sad demise of Tower Airsoft, which was a cracking little site, it was the only site that opened on Saturdays within what I regard as a reasonable travelling time.  Rehearsals and recording sessions tend to eat into my available Sundays, so being able to play on a Saturday was quite useful.  I am just about to head off for the penultimate rehearsal before our 25th Birthday gig and the lad is going back to university today, which is why we went there yesterday.

Edited April 14 by Colin Allen

[RostokMcSpoons]

Mine went well then a bit shit. 

Too skint to go to Spec Ops Cqb, so I instead spent some time with my Old Skool TM AK47-S.  Got a new dust cover a couple of days back from Hutt Armouries (cheers) so trying that out was a good reason to fling a few shots down the garden.  It's still impressive.  Hitting 320fps on 0.20s and very nicely accurate... The impact point bang on to the iron sights.  A bit slow on the RoF with a 7.4v lipo, but usable all the same.   Good ol' TM.

 

So that was all good! 

 

The shit bit was when I was packing it away.  I put the gun on top of a stack of toolboxes, damned thing slid off onto the floor - barely any height, and onto carpet - but enough to shear the pins inside the stock release catch/attachment to the receiver.

 

Bugger.

 

So I now need to find a replacement folding stock, or at least the catch and its fitments.  Not much luck so far (remember I've already been on this journey because I was trying to replace the stock release button when that went walkies)

 

Looks like I'll have to pay Chump Tax and buy a whole Cyma stock ($30 at Evike USA)

Edited April 14 by RostokMcSpoons

[Colin Allen]

8 hours ago, RostokMcSpoons said:

Mine went well then a bit shit. 

Too skint to go to Spec Ops Cqb, so I instead spent some time with my Old Skool TM AK47-S.  Got a new dust cover a couple of days back from Hutt Armouries (cheers) so trying that out was a good reason to fling a few shots down the garden.  It's still impressive.  Hitting 320fps on 0.20s and very nicely accurate... The impact point bang on to the iron sights.  A bit slow on the RoF with a 7.4v lipo, but usable all the same.   Good ol' TM.

 

So that was all good! 

 

The shit bit was when I was packing it away.  I put the gun on top of a stack of toolboxes, damned thing slid off onto the floor - barely any height, and onto carpet - but enough to shear the pins inside the stock release catch/attachment to the receiver.

 

Bugger.

 

So I now need to find a replacement folding stock, or at least the catch and its fitments.  Not much luck so far (remember I've already been on this journey because I was trying to replace the just release button when that went walkies)

 

Looks like I'll have to pay Chump Tax and buy a whole Cyma stock ($30 at Evike USA)

That is a shame; the old TM and CYMA ones are rather vulnerable.  A friend of mine broke his and replaced it with a much better quality Real Sword one.

[GenuineGerman]

Went down to NPF Bassets Pole today, first time in a while. 
 

Checking in took a while as there were about 80 something players, fair few rentals and everyone else. 
 

Safety briefing was informative and unlike some other sites apparently no loaded weapons in the safe area. 
 

Once that was done out to the games with where formatted in hour to hour and half missions. The Marshalls handed out a missions of the day which helped clarify what was going on. 
 

Battled until lunch, got killed about 30 times, I must remember just running at people doesn’t equal success haha. 
 

Broke for lunch and chomped on a cheeseburger with I ordered at the beginning of the day and was quite nice to be fair. 
 

Back out in the afternoon for more missions and got killed about 30 times again. The missions themselves got a bit confusing as time went on but I felt this was more that most people just went off to do their own thing rather than stick to the plan. 
 

Marshalling I would say was of a good quality but then behaviour by players was as well. No over shooting however some rather debatable hit taking. (Bloody sniper guille wankers) 😜

 

Only one incident of the today was a player taking in a hot sniper and dmr after the missions had started and not having chronoed. One chap sadly has quite a welt on his head tonight but it was dealt with efficiently and without a massive whohar. 
 

Overall I had a really good day, was fun and would recommend it.  However the mission structure could be better and Marshall need to be more proactive to stop spawn camping. 

Edited April 14 by GenuineGerman
Good England

[Lozart]

Went to South Coast CQB for the first time in about 8 years yesterday!

 

Overall a good day, but....

 

Marshalling was pretty woeful, several times the two marshals assigned to our side spent the entire game sat at spawn pissing about with their phones. The other two seemed to be a bit more on the ball so there's that. Lots of whingeing about hit taking but personally I didn't see a problem. I think there's a lot of people whose guns aren't as good as they think they are!

The site is a LOT smaller than the last time I went. The whole back half of the site has been fenced off by the landowner (presumably because the buildings are less fucked and able to be rented out).

Teams were massively unbalanced and there was no attempt to address it. We got our shit pushed in and spent most of the day within about 100yds of our spawn point (that's on us, I am aware).

 

On the plus side, my SCAR full of @ak2m4's upgrade bits performed excellently, although my MP9 managed to get a BB stuck under the nozzle and went through a kinetic disassembly.

Good day overall, not in a massive rush to go back though. There's other sites that are the same/less distance that I'd rather spend my time at.

[Badgerlicious]

2 hours ago, Lozart said:

spent most of the day within about 100yds of our spawn point

To be fair, I think the site is only about 100 yards across  That sucks though, unbalanced teams sometimes happens, but no attempts to fix it is poor management. And shame about the hit callers. 95% of the time they aren't hitting a damn thing, but they're always so sure they are. 

[The_Lord_Poncho]

Decided to roll out the AAP (TTI) carbine for the first game at Driver Wood on Saturday - now sporting a 310mm new maple leaf  inner barrel, and running on mini MP5 mags via an Airtac mag adapter. Accuracy and range were now pretty good on 0.36 BBs - with the HPA reg set on circa 110PSI/1.8j. The odd flyer, but got some good hits, and the clack clack of the bolt+ slight feedback was great fun. Second game I switched to the Noveritsch SSX303. I've never been that happy with the accuracy from it, but I'd recently swapped in a new silicone MR hop bucking, and a mini TDC screw+ CNC hop arm from Tridos - and, wow, what a difference they have made! Again, running an airtac adapter (this time taking 30rd shotgun shells), the gun was getting incredible range on 1.8j, good accuracy, and is super quiet. At the start of the second game I legged it , and spent the first ten minutes of the game taking out the their team as they advanced past the side of me - not one of them had a clue where they had been shot from, enabling me to to achieve the same results in the second wave until I got bored and moved off.

 

The Driver Wood game play has become so much better now they have moved to roving spawns and ditched the 'medic' arm bands - marshals seem to be able to equalise game play a little by moving the spawns from very dominant teams back a little further to the rear, game play is more fluid around the playing area, and hit taking seems to have dramatically improved - no doubt as there is no longer a 5 min trudge back to spawn.

[Lozart]

1 hour ago, Badgerlicious said:

To be fair, I think the site is only about 100 yards across  

 

Good point, well made! Seemed to spend half the day at one end or the other of the range, or building 4!

[TheFull9]

9 hours ago, Lozart said:

Good day overall, not in a massive rush to go back though. There's other sites that are the same/less distance that I'd rather spend my time at.

 

That place had been on my list for a good few years.. but yeah, past tense for now lol.  Cheers for the warning though, very valuable.

[Lozart]

12 hours ago, TheFull9 said:

 

That place had been on my list for a good few years.. but yeah, past tense for now lol.  Cheers for the warning though, very valuable.

 

The final kicker is that it's the same price as it ever was but the site is smaller. Fewer accessible buildings too.

[Colin Allen]

20 hours ago, The_Lord_Poncho said:

Decided to roll out the AAP (TTI) carbine for the first game at Driver Wood on Saturday - now sporting a 310mm new maple leaf  inner barrel, and running on mini MP5 mags via an Airtac mag adapter. Accuracy and range were now pretty good on 0.36 BBs - with the HPA reg set on circa 110PSI/1.8j. The odd flyer, but got some good hits, and the clack clack of the bolt+ slight feedback was great fun. Second game I switched to the Noveritsch SSX303. I've never been that happy with the accuracy from it, but I'd recently swapped in a new silicone MR hop bucking, and a mini TDC screw+ CNC hop arm from Tridos - and, wow, what a difference they have made! Again, running an airtac adapter (this time taking 30rd shotgun shells), the gun was getting incredible range on 1.8j, good accuracy, and is super quiet. At the start of the second game I legged it , and spent the first ten minutes of the game taking out the their team as they advanced past the side of me - not one of them had a clue where they had been shot from, enabling me to to achieve the same results in the second wave until I got bored and moved off.

 

The Driver Wood game play has become so much better now they have moved to roving spawns and ditched the 'medic' arm bands - marshals seem to be able to equalise game play a little by moving the spawns from very dominant teams back a little further to the rear, game play is more fluid around the playing area, and hit taking seems to have dramatically improved - no doubt as there is no longer a 5 min trudge back to spawn.

I might head down there for Saturday afternoon this weekend; I will be staying in Woking that evening and it is on the way.

Edited April 16 by Colin Allen

[Jacob Wright]

Good day at Gunman Tuddenham today for a filmsim game. Started off a bit wet and windy but warmed up for the second half of the day.

 

Got a chance to use my new MP7 and Ferro Concepts Slickster. The MP7 was great fun, but I'll be sticking with NGRS for now at least. The Slickster on the other hand will be staying in the collection - I've not always been a fan of plate carriers but it easily retained 4 magazines plus a speed loader and radio, fitted nicely and will be well complemented by a decent belt set up.

 

Gameplay was standard, a few instances where people claimed that dead players were spotting for those who hadn't been hit - and one poor show of a player swearing about the game (because they weren't winning/didn't appear to understand it), and then refusing to engage with the marshal who was trying to understand their frustrations 🤷🏼‍♀️... Otherwise a good day with some amazing shots and attacks through the woodland.

 

Might be the last Airsoft day for a while due to holidays but looking forward to the next one already.

[Colin Allen]

1 hour ago, Jacob Wright said:

Good day at Gunman Tuddenham today for a filmsim game. Started off a bit wet and windy but warmed up for the second half of the day.

 

Got a chance to use my new MP7 and Ferro Concepts Slickster. The MP7 was great fun, but I'll be sticking with NGRS for now at least. The Slickster on the other hand will be staying in the collection - I've not always been a fan of plate carriers but it easily retained 4 magazines plus a speed loader and radio, fitted nicely and will be well complemented by a decent belt set up.

 

Gameplay was standard, a few instances where people claimed that dead players were spotting for those who hadn't been hit - and one poor show of a player swearing about the game (because they weren't winning/didn't appear to understand it), and then refusing to engage with the marshal who was trying to understand their frustrations 🤷🏼‍♀️... Otherwise a good day with some amazing shots and attacks through the woodland.

 

Might be the last Airsoft day for a while due to holidays but looking forward to the next one already.

Bloody humans!  They always try to spoil everything.