PTC Warrington, Cheshire - Outdoor site - Honest Players Review

[Matt Gordon]

A Players review

PTC Warrington

 

PTC is a small Outdoor Site in Warrington, Cheshire. Run in Conjunction with BUA HQ (Bomb Up Airsoft)

 

PTC sits on the outskirts of Warrington, just near Rixton, and is about 2 minutes drive off the M6 Junction 21.

It is a former clay pigeon shooting site and as such is surrounded by tall trees and fences to camouflage the site for the locals.

 

To get to the site you need to  drive down the A57 Manchester Road, then turn off onto Moat Lane, just after the Rams wood Plant Nursery, The Left at moss side lane, Left at Prospect lane and past the Blundells Fishery, then right onto the end of Holly Bush Lane. You can't go straight off Manchester road onto Holly Bush Lane as it's a private road and the owner doesn't allow through traffic to the site unfortunately. But access is easy to get to and gets you straight into the car park.

There is always a Marshall at the end of Prospect lane checking to see if you are booked in, and if you are full day or half day in order to send you to the best parking area for you.

 

Carpark, Safe Zone, Shop, Food, Toilets

The car park is a good size, But this also serves as the safe zone and Briefing area, so on busy days it can be a bit cramped. You will have to use your car as your preop area. 

This is good for some, who come prepared with their own tables, chairs and cover. For others, especially hire, they can be restricted as no where to sit. this is one canopy tent, but it's usually filled by regulars before anyone else turn up. and it's only enough space for 4 people on it.

 

Shop and Food

There is a BUA tent which serves as check in and also sell all the goodies you would want or need. Including, Guns, BB’s Eyepro, Gas, batteries, Clothing, Chest Rigs etc….Also there is a snack van and hot food vendor. All Decently Priced for a site.

 

Toilets

This is a bit of a niggle as there are 2 toilets.

1)The women’s toilet - is good quality shed with a Portaloo in it. The staff make it clear that only girls are aloud to use this. It's basically kept clean.

2)The Men’s toilet - is a standard plastic Portaloo and is in terrible condition. The door doesn't even lock, not that you would want it too. It’s never clean, it leans, the floor outside is unstable. I would advise a gas mask and an NBC loadout to make sure you survive. It's horrible.

The toilet areas are definitely the biggest issue on this site. I'd even go so far as to say they aren't fit for use. A decent shed or portacabin with a loo and a sink are sorely needed for men and women alike.

 

Chrono

In the corridor to the fire zone there is also a shooting table to test your guns, and a chrono, where the marshals chrono and tag each gun before the brief. PTC don’t allow dry firing in the safe zone at all. See Below for the limits

 

The layout

The site is split into different sections by large slat fencing, this is good as it defines zones to play in. But at the same time these fences are sagging in many areas and The site could do with a good bout of maintenance. it's easy to work around these areas though. It doesn't ruin the feel of the site. The Site is small for an outdoor site. but it feels a comfortable size with most areas having something of value in them. there are plenty of the usually wooden barriers , tyres, water tanks etc to get behind, there are also some cars, containers, a firebase and the trap covers to use. all in all the site isn't too small or too big to play in. depending on amount of players. The Area plays well, the south and east zones are better to play in, the north west area it's very barren of stuff to fight over. 

The playable area is defined by fencing around the north, east and south, on the west there is a berm that runs the length of the site. you can play on the berm, but not go over the other side of it.

 

The zones

Jungle - southwest - just outside of the safe zone - not often used unless starting at Alamo.

Alamo - northwest - usually a spawn area, not often used unless as a spawn point to move through.

Firebase - centre - a good place to defend and expand through to the village from.

Village - south - an open area with barriers and cars, the tower (now out of use) was a good space to snipe from.

No Mans Land - a small area between the back firebase and the fox hole - a bit disused at present, mostly used as a through road to fix hole and firebase. 

Fox Hole - thick trees and bush area with the old toilets building - good area mostly used to slow down attaing forces through most areas.

GB1 - right of village - a good place if spawning from Trap 8 to cover attacking forces from village and main corridor.

Traps - east between all other points and the trapland - used to be clay pigeon traps and most have defendable "sheds" to play through.
Trapland - East - the large open land in which most snipers feel at their most useful. filled with tyres and barriers - but no to much that it closes down the area.

 

Player Count - There is a regular attendance of around 70 - 90 players. At times there have been 120 players on this site, which is a bit much considering the overall area of the playing zones, and the size of the car park. The site, Ideally would be great with a maximum of 80 players on the day. But it seems they just really want as many players to turn up as possible, without considering it's too many for the site. Limits would help the management of the players, it would help with maintaining a clearer car park and safe zone,

 

The Games

Apart from the odd special day where they will come up with a story, such drug cartels, or invasion missions. The game days are usually set as either TDM's or Capture the Flag or variant type games.

The games run around 45 minutes each, with a break after for rearming.

The games can be a bit repetitive, the main issue wis that starting locations, with small site there are limited spawn points, and it usually goes along the lines of 1 team starts at Trap 8 and the other either starts at Trap 1, or the Alamo. Which can get repetitive. but usually, it's all about how the players adapt to the locations and gameplay that defines the game and days outcome.

On average there are 4/5 games in the day

 

Balanced Teams

We’ve recently found that if a day start off with a team winning easily, The marshals make no attempt at any point through the day, to rebalance the teams to make it a better day for all, even after it being mentioned by many players. Which leads to gameday either being great for 1 team, and bad for the other. If the teams are set good at the start, this usually leads to a good day for all in general.

 

Half day bookings

Players can book in for half days in the morning, and in the afternoon, pm bookings are recommended to attend half days in the afternoon, as the mornings are slow to start, and are taken up more by the safety brief and simply Marshall not pushing everyone enough to be ready on time. The safety brief for players in the afternoon is done during lunch.

 

Hire guns

Hire Guns are available, though I’ve not used them, they mostly seem to be G36c aeg's. I've not heard of any players complain that they don't work or shoot badly etc. but they have onsite tech staff who can fix or replace them if needed.

 

FPS Limits

Site limits are decent, The Marshalls make sure to chrono every gun and make sure no one is breaking fps limits. the guns are tagged, and random checks are made through the day if there are any issues. They don't however base the fps on the actual weight on the bb. They have a variance chart they run off, and don't check to make sure player stating their bb weight is genuine. It’s a good idea to use this variance table when you chrono at home to make sure you don’t go over their limits. It's also been known that players have come back after a game saying they weren't running on what they said when Chrono’s i.e..   .36’s running at 350 fps instead of .2’s.

Standard  - 350fps on .2's (the chrono of different weight is on a comparison sheet)

DMR - 420fp on .2's and engagement range of 30 metres. (again, weigh variance off sheet)

Sniper - 500 fps on .2's and 40 metre engagement range (again, weight variance off sheet)

They are very strict on these results and if a gun is 1fps over the limit they refuse it as they state the limit is already at maximum hence "the limit". Which is fare. They do pull up players reported for possibly running hot and inspect guns at random.

 

Briefings -

The Safety Brief - depending on who does it, is a bit random, some have a habit of going off the list they have for safety and rant on about how everyone cheats and stop doing it. Suring a brief the Marshall said, "what do you do when you get hit?" everyone raised their hands and shouted "hit". At that point he replied, "Well why don't you do it then?" which led to an awkward silence. The safety brief need to be scripted in a way that's friendly to the players, and it's a brief, not a heavy contract, it shouldn't take 30 minutes to give a safety brief. It should be simple and quick. Marshalls shouldn't go off on a tangent. Maybe even putting a big board on the container next to the game map with these rules would help keep the brief, well, brief!

 

The Game Briefs - Are to the point, there have been many times where the marshals get confused as to what the rules are to that game, especially if it's not a regular game. Depends who you speak to. We made sure to confirm with the Marshall who gave the brief and during the brief make sure to ask those questions, so everyone gets the same answer. There have been moments where a Marshall would come over tell you not to do what you are doing as it's against the rules, even though it was the objective of that game. Some Marshalls don't seem to pay attention to the game brief themselves. which can be a problem. other Marshalls are spot on. If the Owner does the brief, it's done well.

 

The Marshalls - Some are good, genuinely helpful and nice people. Some I wouldn't advise interact with the paying customers are they are short tempered, ratty and can be a bit shitty to players. The owner is fantastic and is onsite every game day to check on customers and his staff alike. It's often also to see children in masks and hi-Vis Jackets that say they are Marshalls, but i think maybe the parents are marshals and just tell them that so they feel like they are involved. Which is seen as a bit of a not funny joke to the regular players. It's also been mentioned that the children often are in the way of players on the field, as the marshals will move around players to get out of the way and the kids, well, don't.

 

Breaking the Rules - PTC are clear that there are Penalties for breaking the rules

Players are to inform marshals of any issues with other players. It's made clear not to throw accusations out to other players while in game, but it's stressed to report those issues to marshals for them to follow up on.

If you are found not taking hits by Marshall doing random hit checks, you will be sent out of the current game, if you do it again then you also miss the next game.

If you are found taking your mask off it's the same deal. And rightly so.

Depending on how bad the issue, they can also make player to leave site altogether, also facing a ban. And they’ve done this before, all for legitimately serious reasons backed by the other players.

 

Pausing a game - Only marshals are allowed to hold the game, no one else is allowed to pass on the message - anyone found doing so will also be thrown out of a game.

Any abuse, or even criticism at Marshalls, or other players is a no no at this site. Marshalls don't have any issues throwing people off site for this. They have been known to state that if you don't like it then go somewhere else.

The owner, however, is open to some criticism and questions regarding the rules etc. But has limits.

Gameday Costs

The cost to play this site is decent, especially for members who can play a full day without hire at £20 for the day!

Ful day with Hire - £45.00

Full Day without Hire - £30.00

Half Day with Hire - £25.00

Half Day without Hire - £15.00

Members - £10 off (so full day without hire would be £20!)

 

Summary - a decent size site to play at, If the Player size, Marshall management and site issues are resolved this could be a go to for anyone. Due to it's low cost and it's location, this could be an epic site.

The owner is great, the shop staff are great, the food is good, but due to the attitude of some of the of Marshalls, the lack of maintenance, and the horrible loos, it knocks it down a level or two.

 

I would recommend at least attending this site at least once. Give it a try, you might be surprise at how well some days can go. Repeat only if you enjoy it. There are far better....And far worse, Airsoft sites.

 

Location – 9/10

Size – 7/10

Playability - 8/10

Maintenance – 2/10

Marshal – 5/10

Services everything but the toilets 9/10,

Toilets 1/10

Car Part and Safe Zone 5/10

Total 6/10

 

 

BUA HQ Website

https://bombupairsoft.co.uk/?srsltid=AfmBOorMJ__I3r70MW0ap98SvEG_3UXmYYCt7SeamVDO9Rfx09hNsNUx

 

PTC Booking 

https://bombupairsoft.co.uk/pages/ptc-airsoft-warrington

[hitmanNo2]

Just identify as a woman for the day to use the nice toilet. Problem solved 😁 

[DanBow]

A new member posting a well written and, seemingly, balanced review is something of a rarity. I was expecting a glowing review that it is the bestest site in the whole wide world and everyone should go.

Well done @Matt Gordon and welcome to the dorum.

[Colin Allen]

Thanks for what seems to be a very objective review.  It is a long way from me so I will probably never play there but, as DanBow stated, it is good and rare to see such a review.

[Cannonfodder]

As above. A great review giving both positive and negative points. The site sounds like it has the potential to be an excellent site as long as the staff are willing to put in the effort.