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Ambush Activities! a New Southern Home? Yes


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https://www.ambushactivities.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/AmbushActivities/

 

With the closure of CS woodland, we (my brothers and I) need a new site near Fareham. Cue Ambush Activities.

Booking process is easy enough. With the whole COVID thing wavers are electronic, Christine (Site manager) starts reminding people (constantly) via their FB page to get these done - mine went into my brothers spam folder....watch out for that, they do have a no waver, no play, no refund policy (which is not enforced but they do shame those that haven't done it). 

 

SAFE ZONE!

There are covid precautions in place, as the safe zone opens  there is a mini covid brief as each group gets to the entrance, a great start.

 

The safe zone is important right, first impressions and all that. Picture this plenty of (sturdy) picnic tables under covered areas....i know right. Christine manages the area from a cabin where sign in happens as well as the tuck and bang shop. Super5s also have a shop on site for those impulse purchases and ammo top ups ( https://shop.super5ives.com/shop/category/16-airsoft.html?site_context=airsoft ). 

 

What i say next is important to any skirmish day - they have an honest to gods porta cabin for the loos! WITH RUNNING HOT WATER! a small thing to some of you but a significant upgrade from the wonky portaloo and covered ditch of CS.

 

They also have a speaker system set up in the zone to save shouting, its first use is to call out those players that have not signed the wavers/signed in. second use is to remind us all to get crono'ed. They measure in J, i know this as when asked what weight i used the reply was 'good i don't have to convert anything' He was holding one of those wieght/fps conversion charts i have seen around ( more points in their favour). 

 

THE GAMES!

 

So after getting called to the crono zone for safety brief, which was thorough and clear with a couple of questionable points (more on that later) we get called for teams, as i have mentioned this day seemed to have a lot of CS players so that kinda made up one team which we were on, as it happened the reds seemed to get all of the AA regs. Both teams had the same number of walking bushes and rental/newer players which looked intentional (more points).

 

First game  and Mark (lead marshal) tells us we will only be out for 20 mins or so. Hold Up! this is red flag for me as UCAP (green ops) like their tea breaks and we didn't want a repeat. but its ok after a quick 'grab these objectives and return it to respawn' turns out a couple of people had gun issues and thats what this game is used for, discovering any issues then trying to get them fixed. 

 

First game, bomb drop - get bomb to a choice of locations and arm/defend locations 

 

Blues have mostly never been to this sight before or only been once, my brothers are holding the bomb ( it is a two man lift can shoot job with digital timer), we have never been to this sight before....some how the team decide that we will take the heavily fortified area (which turns out to be nearer the red start point). The firefight is heavy losses are tough. the bomb is static as one person is shot off it. There is good flanking by reds to really pin us down. i get over to the bomb and figure we might as well take a punt at the other location. We manage it get it in with a few second remaining on the game clock. A fun game, not convinced all the blues were playing objective, but enough of us were that we got it done.

 

Next up Defend fort - a multi objective game, attackers must clear a boat, move many bombs (1 player, 2 players and 4 players to move it) cross a river and get bombs into the fort. This game was a tough one, i loved it but, was it trying to do to much in a single game? defending the boat was a game of attrition with another 'life' at the bridge, bring grenades to clear the bridge, and another at the fort which was their lock down project. the fort is gorgeous. 

 

Moving on, these games were reversed, over all these were fun games, again the fort attack seemed really tough on the attackers, and maybe it should be. i personally felt we didn't get enough use out of the fort. Some foul play was called, some reds were calling blues out for non hit-taking, marshals hit checked many blues (including me) and couldn't fault us, turns out blues just had better range on our bb slingers. there were a few reds not taking hits, but nothing a (short) burst on full auto didn't fix....there were no  marshals around.....

 

Domination was the order of the day for the after noon which was good fun, had a number of great firefights, did this game go on for to long? not sure, could be that it hit a stale mate over some of the structures but then that might have been the nature of the teams playing, Reds seemed to dig in and blues were much more fluid - taking an objective and then moving on doing 'rounds' as it were. 

 

so the bones

 

PROS

The Structures - yes this gets it's own sub heading. There were many and good ( wouldn't hurt to get a full on village like CS had but i can dream)

The boat has a ladder leading to a bridge with good over view of area is surrounded by 'water' (blue fence) leaving it's stern as the 'docked' area, marshals shot anyone trying to cross the water.

The bridge - as i said bring grenades or movable cover, you are not getting over it otherwise. has good cover ether side to give great firefights that you really have to push through.

The FORT! as mentioned this was the lockdown project, it is large, many ramparts, lots of corners and angels of cover, A DEAD MANS EXIT. two entrances, could do with a few more drum barrels but that will be added

 

The marshals - not many of them but they were fair and honest with decent banter. 

 

The management team - Both Christine and Mark (owner and lead marshal) were really open to listening to feedback, had good banter. Now the day was not perfect and see below for the reasons but these two were very honest about it being a paintball sight with airsoft only making up a small portion of the gamedays until the last couple of years. in that time they have built up a solid regulars base and have expanded their game repartee hugely, even with this they were both willing to take on board good feedback points. Apparently, i deliver a great bullshit sandwich.

 

The safe zone - as mention, good loos. urn of hot water. Space. Decent on site shop 

 

CONS

eye pro discipline - this is what made us feel most uncomfortable - there were times where, after games we were told mags out clear guns and then we were allowed to take off eye pro. i know what you are thinking. it was one of the first pieces of feedback i gave....now i don't have a problem with guns cleared and put down with a step back and eye pro coming off, but this wasn't that. once i had given feedback they did take this on board and see the point of a healthy paranoia.

 

The disjointed feel of the start of the day - crono was opened operated and closed, we were then called into the crono area for safety brief - back to the safe zone  - the out for the first short game - this did give us a little trepidation as to how the rest of the game would go.

 

Paying for tea coffee - so i got spoiled at CS, and yes it is cheap enough to buy the sachets they offered 

 

No granade rules mentioned in safety brief - might have just been forgotten about or just needs adding

 

Every new player at CS got a map, it wasn't OS quality but it had key features on it and you could use it to find your way around, would have been great if we had had one of those. In one of the bullshit sandwiches that day i might have mentioned it.....by Wednesday there was a RPG style map on the FB group. while not there for the day i went it is good to know others will get one, like i said the management team here are listening to feedback.

 

Will i be going back? hell yes. when i visit family we will be diving out on the Sunday to come here. 

Given that the three of us were always comparing Ambush to Combat South woodland we left after having a great day shooting. Did this first day equal CS? No, but they are clearly interested in getting those players in and keeping them (until Rus can find another site at least). 

Also worth noting that they are publishing the style of day on their FB pages so you can do the style of gameday you want to do. 

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Fair enough, bit if a late review then 😂 

my first reaction was he was there at the weekend just gone

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30 minutes ago, Albiscuit said:

Fair enough, bit if a late review then 😂 

my first reaction was he was there at the weekend just gone

Looks like he played on the weekend of 10/11 November, this is the post showing a map

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1073804819340768/permalink/3436586869729206?sfns=mo

 

I was going to say that I thought they had a big map up in the safe zone, but then I remembered that it’s in my garage.  We have run a few scenario paintball games there, and I think that it’s the map of our Falklands game

 

A worthwhile mention for airsofters is that part of the safe zone has mains power.  That may or may not still be turned on for players access, but a while back (maybe 2 years ago?) when I was down with Super5ives I was recharging some players batteries over lunch 

(Don’t quote me when you turn up one day and it’s not available)
 

 

 

I’m surprised by the eye protection part.  I’ve been to a few places where masks can be taken off, but it does need strict control by marshalls

(Ambush do have some mini safe zones built out in areas of the woods, but I don’t know if they are still in use)

As many airsofters use glasses style eye pro I personally wouldn’t be inclined to see a ‘need’ to remove the protection

In paintball we have full face protection and barrel condoms as the norm.  It’s still the norm to keep them on and the exception to allow a controlled removal 

 

Free tea & coffee is a key subject for sites, Ambush used to provide them for free, and I’ve always had it for free there - but I have not played there for years, and have since been there either event running, supporting Super5ives or as media so my experience may differ 

Free drink areas regularly become a dirty mess and attract wasps in the summer, and for the sites perspective is another overhead.  It may have changed as part of reducing overheads vs upping entry costs or as a discussion point with customers at some point - eg you can have X for free included in your entry or Y as a paid add on

 

Real flushing toilets and hot running water have been an added advantage and was an advertising point in our player pack when we first ran an event there 

PS It may be more accurate to say that I haven’t paid for coffee rather than I had free!

 

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2 hours ago, Albiscuit said:

When did you play? 
I can’t believe a site is currently open...

Oh shit! Yeah I can see how that looks 😅😷

 

We Played 11/10. 

1 hour ago, Albiscuit said:

bit if a late review

Yes, yes it is....

 

They did have a small white board for a map...it was small unclear and rubbed out in places...

 

As to mains power, if they had it I didnt need it, they were charging a few at lunch in the shop.

 

Clarity on the eye pro issue - the marshals did ask for mags out and clear, getting them out wasnt an issue it was as to when mags were put back in, I think this is mostly due to the small number of marshals on the day.

 

Lunch - there was an opportunity for domino's but we didnt go for it. 

Christine did give me a cheeky fruit tea.

 

They also had a photographer running around (well one of the marshals had a camera) so I finally have an action shot or two.

 

Yes i'll go back, I will also be clearer on when I go next time I write up!

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