Driver Wood, Crawley - Night Game Review from a first timer

[LeekSausage]

** MODS - appreciate this may be the wrong section for this, however im justifying it as it was my first time airsofting (kinda), and its being written to help newbies get an idea of what visiting a site is like for the first time. please move / remove if deemed necessary **

 

Personal background - i'm mid 30's, average fitness, used to airsoft semi regularly in my mid teens. financially i found it quite prohibiting, but now im deep into a career, that burden is eased. Avid gamer, but constantly thinking i should have a hobby that's more active. A stag do in the Epsom Bunker got me stuck in a youtube rabbit hole re airsoft and decided to give it another punt 20 years on.

 

Pre Arrival / Gearing up - After grabbing some cheap kit from amazon and a well maintained second hand RIF from another website, i booked my night game at Driver Wood, Crawley on recommendation from an old friend. I made a stop at Crawley surplus store the day prior for a browse and some bits. Picked up a couple of mags, knee pads etc. Chatting to the sales person, he told me he regularly gets involved in the night games and recommend a couple of extra bits if i had the budget. One of those being a bifrost tracer unit and some BB's. He was also kind enough to chrono (checking the joules / fps of my gun) my second hand RIF to ensure it wasnt hot (too powerful) prior to game day.

 

I was a touch anxious about the event itself. How does arrival / check in work? Where do i leave my kit between games? Do many people play solo? Will i get screamed at for making a 'bad play'? A quick call to the site alleviated my concerns. I spoke to the co-owner, Joanna, asked her a dozen or so questions and she was happy to run through everything with me. I didnt feel rushed off the phone or an inconvenience in any way.

 

Arrival - I arrived at the site about an hour early. Car park was massive and i was clearly the first arrival. Grabbed my gear and went in. The site 'safe zone' was like a big military FOB. It immediately set the mood of what the game is about. Filled in my disclaimer forms and checked in. Garry (the other co-owner) was manning the desk, told him it was my first time and he ran everything by me again. Garry is extremely professional, softly spoken and clearly very passionate about airsoft / paintball. He effectively did a 1 on 1 safety briefing with me and gave me a couple of freebies which was very generous of him. I bought some snacks, drinks and some smoke grenades.

 

About 30 mins later, the other players started to arrive. I was nervous. These guys were KITTED. Vectors, HPA guns, side arms, shotguns, reusable grenades, please dont tell me thats a grenade launcher... I'm about to enter a world of hurt im thinking. Garry had told me that the Wednesday night crowd were the most dedicated of their customer base, now i knew what he meant. After i finished prepping my kit and filling my mags, i paced the zone, anxiously drinking my redbull, trying to keep the cold at bay. It wasnt long before a young chap started talking to me, il call him 'R'. I told R it was effectively my first time and he practically offered to show me the ropes etc. We went round the zone, looking at all the kit people had. Everyone was super eager to see what i had and talk about what they had, it was a military nerds wet dream. Everyone knew everyone on a first name basis. There was lots of banter being flung around but all relatively PC which was a surprise to me. I had expected an almost, military wannabes, toxic masculinity in the sport; not at this site. The site owners and the marshal were mingling with the crowd, chatting to everyone. A chap showed up with nothing but a side arm and a gigantic viking battle axe, everyone cheered when he walked in. A small criticism at this stage (and this may only be applicable to me as i'm partially deaf and wear hearing aids), the music in the safe zone was relatively loud, which made hearing other people somewhat of a challenge.

 

The armbands used were rather sun faded green and orange bands. My colour blindness doesnt help but i seriously struggled to immediately process the colour of the bands on first sight, causing slight hesitation in target acquisition. Feedback for the site would be to get them replaced for a blue / yellow or blue / red.

 

In total, around 30 people attended.

 

A full safety briefing was given and we progressed into the game.

 

Early Evening Gameplay - I made sure i was on the same team as R, the light was still decent at this point and we went to their main 'map' for a capture the flag game. My play style was cautious at first, but after being hit once i realised it really didnt hurt all that bad (certainly nothing compared to your mates going full auto on your leg at CQB in the Epsom Tunnels - NOTE: this was NOT allowed at the Epsom site owner explained. It was a privately held event and was very difficult to police... but it happened!). I switched to a more aggressive play style and spearheaded the charge to the flag, holding it down behind cover for the bulk of the game. GREAT

 

I was taken back at how taxing the game was on my body, as i said at the start, im of average fitness, but i was f***** after the first game. I had made some kit errors that caused some fogging in my eye pro. This would effectively plague me for the rest of the evening (i have since resolved the issue by getting a delta mike face pro and some good anti fog wipes). No longer was i cold, so much so i removed my thermal compression layer from under my shirt.

 

I was surprised there was only a single marshal keeping an eye on the game. However, it soon became apparent that this particular crowd lived and died by the honour of the game. I didnt witness a single case of hit cheating, talking dead men, blind firing or anything of the sort. I saw people congratulating each other on good shots, checking others were OK when there was a whelp of genuine pain, team mates telling the enemy that they themselves were hit first and fired back as a snap reaction, for the enemy to put their ('dead') hand down and crack on. Sportsmanship to the highest level.

 

Late Evening Gameplay - As the night progressed the light got darker and darker. The tracer units were really beginning to shine. Tracking your shots over a distance felt like it would have been near on impossible in the darkness and i had stopped using my sight and opted to look over the gun and follow the tracers.

 

When it got dark enough, they moved us to a 'map' that was clearly built with night games in mind. There were fog machines dotted around the map in key areas. Heavy tree coverage brought the ambient light down to almost nothing, with just silhouettes visible through the trees. The temperature and low wind caused the fog to settle neatly over the ground, parting aside as you moved from position to position. Powerful mood lights lit up key areas and choke points, slowing radiating their red, green and blue lighting through the site. Atmospherically it was awesome. The tracers added immensely to the atmosphere and was a great purchase for my first experience.

 

I ended up having some great 'moments' with other team mates that ended in adrenaline fuelled laughter. As it was so dark, i didnt know who they were (and not recognising them by voice this soon into meeting them) so I couldnt have a laugh about it once back at the safe zone.

 

The final game mode was zombies, which involved a bit of hiding (great opportunity to catch your breath), then being super sneaky round the forest floor being hunted by the zombies.

 

Had a long chat with the owner on final return to the safe zone as he mingled amongst the customers.

 

Conclusion / TLDR - I had a great evening and slept like a log that night. The site staff were truly excellent and the Wednesday night crowd were exceptionally accommodating. I will be booking the next Wednesday night game with them for sure. I ached liked a b**** the following day. Getting shot really doesnt hurt that much, especially with some adrenaline flowing round your body. Fogging is your worst enemy, do everything necessary to prevent it. Consider mid caps, especially for night games, I sounded like a macarena for the bulk of the evening.

 

 

 

[Emergencychimps]

Cracking write up and wonderful to hear you enjoyed what was effectively your first game! Taking on a night game for your first game is brave but something I'd recommend  as it definitely can add to it. My first real game in 2012 was a night game and I was hooked! 

 

Seems like a good crowd to get into as well, thats how the sport should be! Everyone who loves kit, owns kits etc generally loves chatting about it, so when you see someone kitted up you're just really seeing how much they love the sport and loads of opportunities to start conversations with them. 

 

For your fogging issue, there's a whole bunch of solutions and what works well for one person won't for another. However if you want to stay with glasses then I'd recommend a pair that are close fitting (minimal gaps) but not too close as you want air flow around them as well. Also some of them have an anti fog layer on them (bolle siliums are the ones I use) and around £10 a pair. Some glasses are just a bit pants, seems everyone hates (there'll be some that don't) the bolle tracker 2 glasses (which is a shame cause they look like they'd be awesome). I'd also suggest an extra layer of anti fog stuff, some people recommend cat crap, the anti fog wipes etc. I also recommend bob hopes visor spray (for motorcyclists), spray, clean the glasses and then spray again and allow to dry on. Making sure whatever headwear(cap etc) and face protection is right for you is part of it, some facepro can push your hot breath into your glasses (no idea what the delta mike is like for this), I find caps absorb sweat, some find it hinders. I always find any balaclavas or scarf type things hinder fogging issues for me as it prevents me from controlling my temperature (so sweat more) but generally the more sweat there is the more fogging there is.

 

You could just get mesh (check out heroshark on facebook) but there's a whole thing of you might get some fragments etc through, but such low power etc. I don't cause I love night games and mesh at night is like wearing sunglasses at night #dark. 

 

I'd never given thought to coloured arm bands and people who are colour blind, I am sure the owner will want to hear about it. It might not be something they can justify fixing now, but maybe on their next purchase of arm bands etc they can. 

[Cannonfodder]

Glad to hear you had a better experience than I did for a night game there