Dogtag Airsoft: Holmbush Events

[SheriffHD]

This year has been one of the worst ones for me since getting back into airsoft as an adult. total games for this year has ended at a disappointing ONE game.....But what wasnt disappointing was where I chose to go for that one game.

 

Dogtag airsoft is set just outside of Crawley, West Sussex and covers approx. 150 acres of land.

 

The site is set among tall evergreens with a very soft peat ground so even though its in the middle of winter it wasn't bogged out heavily which was something I feared.

This site is unique as their safe zone is located in the middle of main play area which some people commented about as if it is a negative thing but the ability to quickly go back to the safe zone for toilet, batteries, ammo, or any other reason and be able to quickly re-join is a huge plus in my eyes.

 

SAFE ZONE - This safe zone must have been built ground up with covid in mind as there is TONS of space for people. Safe zone is set up in bays with 4 people per bay. each bay has its own picnic table in the middle and two shelfs which go around the walls of the bay, one at hip height and one at shoulder height. 

Easy to spot section for rental players to collect their gear from with a small hatch for buying cold food, drinks and supplies (ammo, pyros) there was also an extra section where hot food was served (Did not sample the food as diabetic and have to be careful, but my god it looked good enough that i was tempted to just stab myself with some insulin and get messy with that food)

 

Chrono was done by the marshals at their range where they test to Joules rather than FPS to ensure that isn't any creep going on which I can understand. Before going into the game staff check for tags on all guns before entering the field and it did seem they were checking peoples limits during the game as well as a guy was found to be suddenly hot during one of the games.

 

SITE - As above in the image you can see that there are various different fields. the ones that were used on my visit were the Crater, Helicopter, swamp, Medi pack. CQB, and Valley areas. Marshal did state that they were doing battlesim days where the whole area was used which does sound appealing but for the day I went the area used was sufficient gave a nice variety and didn't feel repetitive. The ground is soft and covered in peat due to being surrounded by evergreens and there was little to no painful shrubbery like nettles and the sort. Was a few small bushes to hind in and enough to give cover but you wouldn't have to worry about getting stung if you suddenly fell into one. 

 

There are bunkers located in every field and lots of hard cover in place to hide behind making it easy to advance across a field under heavy fire providing you have good teamwork going on. Structures are well made (as im 25stone and if it doesn't wobble when i fall into it you know its solid)

 

Game mode - Thankfully there was a spilt in modes. Nice big game for the morning when everyone is full of energy and then smaller quick modes in the afternoon once every one is dead on their feet.

The first mode we played spanned across all the areas in plan for that day with one team attacking and one defending. Attackers had unlimited lives and defenders once hit had to retreat to the next objective point. Respawn point for attackers was slowly moved closer to the objective as the game went on to keep the flow and to ensure that it didn't grind to a halt which ensured gameplay was smooth.

 

As the big game finished early there was a quick CQB game held with a zombie mode being used (two zombies vs everyone else, once hit you become the zombie untill time is called or every one is dead)