Are you a student type in Newcastle?

Do you like, or think you may like Airsoft (lets be honest why wouldn’t you?)

Then keep an eye out as they’re trying to get a Airsoft Society off the ground. They already have the obligatory facebook group up and running, make contact, say hi, get blamming. Much better than all that studying crap…

See you on the battlefield.

Not really an after action report as we didn’t make it this year, but more of a congratulations.

To the Misfits, Legion Clan and anyone else who played for “The Others” this year well played fellas. Beautiful news to see the team dedicated to chaos and mayhem overwhelming the corporate nancy boys of Delta and Bravo. Hope you all came back with tall tales of daring-do!

See you there next year!

Bravo Zulu

So after a fair break we finally got together for a trip to Op-tacticals the Stan. Set in the old Stanley Tools site in Sheffield.

We arrived early and rigged for CQB expecting the action to be close up and frantic. MP5s,pistols and plenty of pyro being the order of the day. Also good to see plenty of guys from the North-East alongside us from NSC, Einherjar and NEAUK.

First impressions were of a large site, and although certainly dilapidated great potential for some CQB shenanigans. The OP-Tactical guys use an indoor area as shop/safe zone/briefing area which will be really useful when winter hits! The safety brief was probably the most detailed I have ever endured listened to, and whilst I am always supportive of anything that keeps us safe I think judicious use of a chrono is far more productive than letting me know the method statement for risk assessments is available for my viewing…

Whilst on the safety subject, the site insist that all weapons are left inside the safezone during lunch. Now I can understand the desire to declare the site safe and let everyone have a break, but stopping a player taking unloaded and cleared kit back to cars to change out, repair or walking to their vehicle with an unloaded pistol in a holster is getting a bit overkill. Especially when they can walk around with them in the safezone to begin with, and walked to and from the car park at beginning and the end of the day.

Anyway to the action! One of the marshals kindly gave all the visitors a walk round the site before gameon to give us at least a vague idea of where we were going. Turned out to be a big help. The teams were roughly divided along the lines of visitors (Raptors, NSC and so on…) versus the locals. We kicked off defending three boxes on different floors with the locals attacking with a time limit to recapture them. Good game to get everyone moving and our lack of site knowledge obvious as we were flanked in stairwells and struggled to hang on to the last box before the hour was up. But some strong teamwork and grit saw us through… as did a bucketload of BBs and pyro…

The next game involved us moving a VIP from the third floor to the ground (by the long route) and across the car park to the office block. With 45 mins limit to accomplish this it was always going to be tough. With 10 mins left we had barely covered half the ground before some urging on and fearsome attacks saw us get to the last door onto the car park as Endex was called… then some well deserved lunch…

After lunch some banter from the homies on how they could have done the VIP game easily led to the marshals abandoning the planned game for a rematch of moving the VIP with the roles reversed. We restocked and rearmed and went to the task at hand with gusto. Smokes and pyro rained on us and the locals kept the attacks relentless.

Although the chap who nearly stood on me decided to wisely take the surrender when I tapped his undercarriage with the muzzle of my MP5 and suggested it…Full marks to the “Special Forces” for not giving up and fighting to the very last second.

Now I know it’s a bit annoying when a big bunch of travellers turn up on a site and are pitted against the regulars and hold their own, but we were getting the feeling that this was getting stacked against us when the marshal who was our spawn point kept buggering off early, our limits on defending were further back than the previous game and one of our guys timing it called over 52 mins played on the 45 min game… not so simple I guess and I will admit made it all the sweeter to hold them to just clearing the first floor… Great fun, nonetheless!

The last game of the day involved finding your teams general and capturing the OPFOR general, all the while keeping an eye out for valuable packages. A whole site game this gave teams a chance to explore a bit, with firefights rapidly breaking out all over the place.

A few of use became determined to push across the bridge and into the offices, leading to some cracking firefights on the bridge. I will at this point have a moan. I really did not appreciate the player deliberately shooting out the remains of the lighting above my position to shower me in broken glass and fluorescent tubing. I know it’s frustrating when someone is well dug in and protected by his team mates, but seriously, no need, and not funny. Fortunately the rest of his team were better sportsmen.

We were so successful in our push through (well played to the einherjar lads who came with us and Fleet!) we actually ended up in the OPFOR spawn. Not by design I may add as we couldn’t have found it if we wanted to! So after a brief chat with a couple of their guys we pulled back half way to the bridge and held the line to prevent their counter attack through that direction. They seemed determined to keep coming so naturally we kept defending it, with some guys sprinting back to respawn and return asap when hit. All in all a most enjoyable an hard fought win.

So overall feelings? A great CQB site. Hopefully the photos capture how tense and fast the action becomes in the tight surroundings, time limits fly by and with serous fire fights lasting an hour or more expect to get through some ammo, at which point I must mention their shop which was very reasonably priced for BBs and pyro. The OP-Tactical guys have kept large areas dark and I recommend a tac-light if you can. Charlie who seemed to brief and run most of the games did a great job organising and getting things running, thoroughly enjoyed the day out seeing players from all over the northeast making the trip down. My only reservations on the site would be given the ranges a bit more enforcement of single shot, I witnessed a few players getting rinsed from very close ranges; and I found myself missing the opportunity to lurk. Given the CQB nature of the whole site it is very hard to find any sort of tactical advantage to manoeuvre, games become very straightforward and linear, I missed giving people that little surprise from under a well camouflaged position.

Definitely worth another visit, and if you like CQB then you need to try it!

[All photos by Swampy and he has updated the previous MP5 PDW review. Nice work fella]

We’ve been quiet of late I know. Our visit to Northern Alliance in July never got written up and Spider had a run out to NSC where they fielded an APC! Worst of all is we won’t be making Ground Zero weekender this year, for only the second time since we both started playing, and gutted not to be there.

Plenty of reasons, all involve real life getting in the way of airsoft, but hopefully a chance get to maybe a single day in somewhere soon and rack some games up in October and November.

So for now best of luck to all the lads heading south. To Razor and the Misfits, anyone from NSC, Northern Alliance, Legion Airsoft Clan and North East Airsoft UK, and anyone else we know going down, have a great weekender, (no getting naked and trying to jump on quad bikes, it’s uncouth) and make sure you absolutely murder Delta.

Get some fellas.
Raps.

…& in case you didn’t notice we recently topped 100K hits, you lot must be bored for something to read! thanks for coming back!

Trip off to Dishforth for some shootin. Been aaaaaaaages. Which is the pointy end again?

You can find directions, info and all the usual at their website here

Interesting article on Popular Airsoft about the motorola tx 700 tactical comms system, a ruggedised mobile smartphone style handset that provides first resposnders with comms, both mobile network and PTT radio and position data and availability.

The article has plenty of comments on how the milsim players will love it, I guess satisfying both the “real steel” obsession and the geardo inside us all.

A large percentage of airsofters already use comms of varying degrees of sophistication (see Swampys post), and I think positional and tactical data may well be the next level of softing. I use positioning a lot in my life outside of airsoft, so it was with interest I came across this website. Battletac Milsim GPS tracking.

First impressions are quite good, running from a browser on most smartphones or PDAs it requires a gps if you wish to broadcast your position, although you can see other units with that. It does require a data connection. You are required to create a login, although it is free at this stage there are addons and dedicated hardware available for purchase, and unit security is provided via a user created password you can distribute amongst your allies.

So what do you get?

The map screen (above) is a screenshot example. You get a fully zoomable google map with your allied units overlaid. You can pan and examine areas, or go straight to your location. You can go into the menu and there is a whole host of settings for you to screw about with…

Two more functions which may prove useful are the message function which allows you to broadcast message over virtual radio channels, which automatically appears on any screen logged in to your channel.

and the unit status, which then removes dead units from the display, ensuring anyone making tactical decision is doing so from available allies.

There are of course a stack of other functions available, and the website shows it in use for a base commander with a very nice setup of course.

Will I use it? well, it is only of any use if several of you agree to use it and it does have that magic price tag of free! I can see it being of some use on big games such as the Ground Zero weekender where I always seem to lose buddies. It does eat battery power as it requires a data connection, screen on and gps to be running all the time, but this can be compensated for a little by slowing the update rate – in tests a HTC Desire (android OS) and a iPhone (not mine I hasten to add) lasted 3-4 hours without too much trouble. So team this up with an external power pack such as these and you should be set for a full day at least.

Word of caution; I have no idea what amount of data is used. If you have a restrictive tariff it may well be worth checking first! If anyone does give it a bash please let us know, it would be very interesting to hear some views on whether it enhanced your airsoft or just proved a pain and got turned off after 5 mins…

A day out in Scarborough! A shame we could only do half a day due to commitments but it turned out to be a great find!

An early start for us as we headed to the east coast. I really wasn’t sure what to expect as the rain poured across the North yorks moors. As I had no idea how long the drive would take so I ended up arriving early, to find the first few Centurion guys setting up their tents for the day.

Shortly followed by MilGeek (good to see him back out!) and Swampy. First impressions were – It’s on a f*****g mountainside! Closely followed by a complimentary bacon sandwich and brew; In fact that pretty much set the tone for the day…

A bit light on numbers for the day they nevertheless began with an excellent briefing, concise and covered everything – even ensuring players were reminded to keep fluids up and look after themselves. Everyone was chrono’d and guns tagged as legal (something else I like to see as it promotes a level playing field)

The first game showed us a little of the terrain. It had rained consistently for 5 days prior and it showed. Trying to just get to the first spawn was an effort as I ended up knee deep in mud on a very steep slope. I am not the fittest of players but it was a real endurance test, it was re-assuring that it caught the marshals out how boggy it was! The game was a fall back attack/defend scenario with 3 stages in it and the marshals arranged it to run down the hill, meaning that the game play (the important bit after all) ran well. Like all sites you can quickly spot the guys who know the terrain and they used it well. I managed a few good shots before being crept up on and slotted before I even knew he was there. Well played sir!

As is fair we changed ends next, and after the slog back up the hill we attacked. The only thing I could find to complain about was that the opfor I spent a while stalking missed out on a grenade as the flashbang I dropped at his feet failed to go off, probably sank in a foot of mud given the condition… although 2 quick rounds from the pistol followed though…

Another quick game before lunch entailed chasing down a flag to return it either to our base, or the enemy base. In truth I’m still not sure which, but I suspect that’s my fault for not listening properly, as by this point I was busy breathing through every orifice available. Happily I managed a few quick kills before heading back for lunch, again thoughtfully provided by the lovely ladies back at the safe zone tent…

Unfortunately we had to make tracks at half time, although gave us an opportunity for a chat before going our separate ways, and also hearing MilGeeks views.

Overall for the day? For a site that has not been running long they are very well organised. Great briefings and well thought out games. The hospitality is second to none, for a walk on fee of £15 you get greeted with a bacon buttie and tea, lunch (substantial) is thrown in and more importantly everyone is welcoming. The site itself will lend itself to slower paced games that range about and allow sneakiness just due to the terrain, some great woodland interspaced with open area that mean you must think about your routes (and provide good killing grounds for bolt action users). Be prepared to get knackered, they must be in the running for the steepest airsoft site (even compared to Otley!) But well worth a visit and one we’ll certainly be back to. If you’re in the Scarborough area certainly no reason not to go…

… and I need to get fitter!

Centurion Airsoft website
Centurion Forum

– Spider

A quick review.

Those of you who have visited our ramblings before may be aware that we picked up a pair of Cyma MP5 PDW last year from Action hobbies.

Great shop, very friendly when we visited, and good service, and the AEGs perform well, although wildly different fps when first chrono’d! (330 and 400!)

One think we both mamanged to accomplish was to snap the muzzle break in the first few months. Something neither of us had done with any other airsoft weapon.

This weekend whilst enjoying a cracking day out at NSC I ran into a group of 3 guys, all sporting either MP5 PDW or Ks, and ALL THREE had done the same. Everyone I have met who has one has snapped the same part.

So, what to do?

Well first up is to warn you if you buy one you will probably break it. After all 5 experienced airsofters all managed to.

Second, how to fix or prevent it?

Well, I fixed mine with 2 part metal epoxy resin which seems to have done the trick

Then to stop it happening in the future a new front end such as this from RSOV which protects the vulnerable part (and looks awesome into the bargain)

I still think it’s a great little weapon. Perfect sniper secondary or CQB gun. Just be aware what you’re letting yourself in for.

********** 28/08/2012***********

Swampy edit….

After playing with the PDW in a couple of open woodland and semi woodland games it was good to get to use the MP5 in a full on CQB game setting at the Stan in Sheffield. With 6 mags and a recently added reflex sight (v cheap imports) it was a cracking little gun for the tight corners and limited space at the Stan. Saw people with M4’s and AK’s struggling in the corridors and stairwells and for me (and I think spider too although haven’t asked him) it was a dream. Collapsible stock was a boon too allowing for side swaps at short notice and never felt encumbered by the rig that I used with it. Looking forward to the next CQB site…

One of the players at Centurion is doing some academic work on the subject of airsoft, you can help out by taking a 2 minute survey on the subject here to give him some data to work with…

Go on, you know you want to…

22nd April we’re off to try out Centurion Airsoft, Scarborough. Hoping the weather and legs hold out and rumour has it that the rare and elusive lesser spotted MilGeek will make a battlefield appearance! (There, now he has to go!)

As always be good to see anyone there, link to their website above…

Beauty and the beast this one…

Beautiful weather, the best for ages, as we tried another new site. Gunho in Guisbrough, near Middlesbrough. It’s a site I’ve been trying to get to for ages as it’s so close and eventually all (both!) the Raptors made it.

They’ve got a a great location, laid back from a main road by a couple hundred yards it’s nicely out of the way. No neighbours to disturb and plenty of space.

So after the usual tarting about, sorting kit in the car park they eventually assembled a good crowd of about 40 including lots of 1st timers. These were fairly easy to spot for the bright hoodies and flourescent trainers. The safety brief I’m afraid to say was dire (really bad, the worst I have ever been at). There was some mumbling about taking hits and keeping eye protection on and that “fps for bolt actions was high”. Nothing about safe zones, or how to clear a gun, the marshal even had a safety brief sheet to read from which he ignored… Now I know that experienced players shouldn’t really need telling, but for the young newbies there (and there were lots), in their best hoodies, faced with rows of guys in full camo, tactical gear and fancy weapons they really needed a good loud authoritative and above all comprehensive safety brief. Not a great start.

The first games were attack/defend type games. It’s at this game brief we discover “don’t go too far the paintballers are over there”. Now whilst I’m not as fervent anti-paintball as some, having both on the same site, at the same time with vague boundaries worries me. Anyway, the game ran well. Defenders only had a single life, attackers unlimited. It’s a good type of game to get going with as it gets everyone involved. Although giving the defenders 2 lives makes players more willing to get stuck in a bit. (I should also add I reaped the benefit of stripping down and cleaning my L96. Straight, consistent, accurate. Easy to be awesome with such a weapon at my disposal). As only fair we swapped ends, although when we attacked with the Einherjar lads the game did seem somewhat shorter… 😉

The day developed into some scenario games based on moving, capturing or discovering a bomb (shiny blue metal case) and getting it to the enemy base. The first of which gave us a run round the far end of the site. At this point you discover the sites best aspects, beautiful old untouched woodland. Fantastic even at this time of year with cover, some undulations to creep about it, and plenty of hiding spots. As we regrouped at our base having first grabbed the bomb we made a concerted move to get to the opfor base. I went scouting ahead for out bomb carrier, clearing a path, and pulled off what can only be described as an awesome shot, a one shot kill, on a target moving between cover some distance ahead. Only marginally reduced in it’s awesomeness by the realisation that he was on our team… With time running out fast we launched a co-ordinate attack on the enemy base as they cowered inside, falling short by some 20m as time ran out. A moral victory none the less.

After lunch we launched into some more objective based games. The woodland really is great, perfect for airsoft, and we got to see even more of it as the paintballers cleared off having spent fortunes on ammo…

The first game of the afternoon involved medics. A good way of opening up the site and encouraging players to look out for their mates. Two things struck me here. First up, it’s great to see so many young players getting involved. They are the future veterans after all. But if the site can run paintball on the same day and supply camo overalls to those customers why not the airsofters? It really is annoying when having just crawled to a perfect sniping spot where I know they haven’t noticed me when a gaggle of young lads in bright blue hoodies (and I do mean bright) mill about asking you which way to the enemy. Not their fault and I try to be encouraging but sometimes you really feel like shouting piss off…

Next, organising games. Medic rules are great, and need bleed out options for when a medic isn’t coming. But simply dumping a dozen players immediately in the rear of a team that has just cleared and checked it’s rear really isn’t sporting. It’s bloody annoying.

The last game of the day involved pegs. It actually ran really well, and hooking up the raps and einherjar paid dividends as we subtlety flanked then stormed the opfor base, pinched all the prized pegs, shot a few more of their players coming back to their base thinking they were safe and had done well having grabbed a few of our pegs only to have them removed and returned. Team work pays off, and there was an object lesson. We are not the fastest, or have the most expensive systemas. But play as a team and communicate and it works…

The only way to finish the day appropriately was to bask in the glow of the beautiful evening sun and our victories at the pub down the road. All in all a good days airsoft.

Over a beer everyone seemed to agree the overall rating for the day was good, but disappointed a bit that it wasn’t great. Gunho have a great site, some of the best woodland going. The have a great location where they can build and a good safe zone. But the briefings and organisation were lacking on the day. I understand speaking to the guys that it wasn’t the usual marshal briefing. I understand it happens, but as they say “We have a dedicated staff of enthusiastic Airsofters with over 10 years experience in the sport”. Which means you know what happens with a lot of new guys and no clear directions. I also felt the day suffered sharing the site with paintballers. We all visit sites which get used for both – but not at the same time. It would allow them to give the hire guns some camo, and increase the number of marshals if only one activity is run at a time. I know it’s a financial decision ultimately, but with 40+ airsofters at around £20 a head (more for hire guns) plus sales of ammo, gas and pyro it’s not as if the airsoft was an insignificant activity on the day…

Enjoyed the day, great to see the lads out, and some fellow airsofters we hadn’t seen in a while – Definitely coming back, but would think about timing next visit when only airsoft is on.

GunHo Airsoft website

…and I for one applaud it. Especially in the airsoft site sparse North East! Anything that encourages more people to play, give it a go or just support us in our pastime has to be good.

To that end a facebook group has sprouted for players in the North East.

North East Airsoft [UK] says “This group is now open to anyone who has played airsoft in the North east of England at either the NSC, NTAC, or GunHo airsoft sites (including the now closed Marrs site)” With best part of 200 people following the group so far, and plenty to look at.

It’s also a good place to get a look at others photos, videos and comments on sites. Hopefully it gets more people on more sites and leads to better game days. Now who doesn’t want that?

A welcome return to Airsoft for me, after a Christmas break of 4 months!!!

The planned trip to Otley saw us arrive amid melting snow and patches of ice.  One of us early and one of us late ahem…. A good turn out with a first in Airsoft for me, a large group of voucher users.  F+O have used the Groupon offer system and the result was at least thirty players the vast majority of which, if not all, were first timers.  A good idea and a way of inexpensively introducing new players to what can be or at least can  be perceived as an expensive hobby.  Again another good idea was the hire gun users being loaned a tac vest as part of their package another way of making new players feel more included in the ‘geardo’ feel of things.

So into the game brief, which we mostly missed, and another turn up is the handing over of control of the site from owner Jamie to a couple of his regulars badger and erm sorry if forgot the other guys name.  Still the instruction, safety and advice was delivered well and with more experience will only get better.

First game saw us defending bunker hill at the far end of the site.  Same as last time, although with no greenery, it was a bit of a turkey shoot but none the less a good warm up?  This part of the site is cracking with undulations, sand bags, holes, ridges and recounts.  More work here would make an excellent ville.

Second game, the ambush, saw us attacking down hill towards a known choke point to spring an ambush and fight our way throu with our VIP. Never knowingly undersold or outflanked, the raps were justly done in just so a fashion.  An excellent bit of sneaking by the enemy saw a lone gunman through our lines to fire on us from behind.  Well played fella.  Sorry I didn’t catch your name!

Third game was a tricky setup given the number of new players.  Three teams split up, one to take the VIP to a meet with thesecond, whilst the thwe’d us were hell bent on interdiction.

All went well until game on when all hell broke loose with bb’s flying everywhere! Not quite as the marshals intended however a cracking game with a couple of damn fine nerve shredding hits for the oppos when spider slotted them from deep cover.  Never knew what hit em, till he stood up and laughed at them.

A break to the safe zone up the previously mentioned big big arse hill saw the raps nursing a couple of injuries (paggered more like) and an extended lunch break was had.  Good to catch up with my mate and talk about all things Airsoft. Like my shiny new ascu2 installation on my G3!! Cheers to mick and sneak and all in the chat for talking about it.  Works a bloody dream!

Post lunch was reverse of the morning and saw us attacking bunker hill. A hard climb and a fair old stalk for not much offering but a good game none the less with the new guys starting to push hard and make a go oF it.

Finishing up at the car park again the raps knocked it in for the day and headed home.  All in all a really good day.

Again Otley is hard work, muddy but a really good site.  Am looking forward to it being full and hosting site wide games hopefully in the future.

Anything I miss spider??

 

The Raps are planning a return to Otley on the 12th Feb, for a combined outing. Long overdue return for me after Christmas and real life jobs so looking forward to shooting with my team mate again on the calf burning slopes of the Khe Sanh wood! Rock on.

NSC have moved their forum to www.nscairsoft.co.uk/forum, users will have to re-register by the looks of it. So get over and secure your username!

I’ll be at next game day after missing far too many. Hope to see you there!

Quick post to wish Razor, head honcho of the Misfits belated congratulations on the birth of daughter Zoe.

Best wishes from the Raps, hope everyone is doing well and especially hope she doesn’t inherit your looks!

(So that’s another Misfits recruit in a few years who will ignore you as well…)

On a blustery, wet and windy Sunday the Raps headed for our latest site,Northern Alliance Airsoft near Dishforth. Despite glorious weather for 2 weeks, autumn had definitely set in as we arrived. The high winds meant the “Longs” were left in the cars and the new MP5PDW brought out to play.

Easy to find, and on the edge of Dishforth Airfield at first glance the site looks quite barren. Once you park up and wander in you realise that there is a wealth of concrete stuctures and blast protection defences left over from more real steel appliactions. You get a good appreciation of the layout on Google Maps

Relatively new, the site has only run 6 games to date, but already there is plenty of evidence of the effort they have put in with numerous structures. Although some of these are left over from a paintball operator who shares the site there is little paintball litter, and I couldn’t see any of the usual splatter which ruins the environment at most paintball sites.

With the WASPs, several Einherjar and a small contingent of Misfits joining us, we were met onsite with a friendly welcome. They obviously have a small loyal local following already, and things were kept very informal and friendly compared to some big operators.

The day consisted of a shoot’em’up first game to get everyone playing around the site. Between the bunkers, blast walls (slippery when wet!), structures and undergrowth there is a wide variety in what is in fact a small site, even left over Airfield command vehicles.

Lunch was very well catered for, with hot food, drinks and munchies all included in the game fee. The amenities are good as well, with some of the bunkers used for shop/office, tables and chairs and proper on site all important toilets!

The afternoon consisited of more focused objective based games (capture items, locations, or move the VIP) which lead to some great firefights as the the regulars stacked up against all the travellers. Although we were outnumbered and lacked site knowledge I’d like to think we gave a good acquittal of ourselves and made them work hard for it!

There is real scope for this to become a cracking site. An there is an obvious enthusiasm to develop both in terms of the site and the running of the site.

One thing the site does suffer from is wind. Because of the open exposed land all round it I think bolt action days would be rare.

I really enjoyed the “get stuck in” atmosphere that the site has, friendly staff and the relaxed atmosphere. Possibly my only gripe would be for the marshalls to keep a closer eye on loaded weapons in the safe zone. A couple of times I put my glasses back on just in case, but they seemed to have it well in hand by the end of the day. In fact nice as the safe zone is, it does seem a shame that all the bunkers on one side are given over to the safe zone. Using it for games would open up the site a lot and make for some great longer games of base v base with objectives spread around the rest of the site.. and opportunities for sneaking and lurking about…

Overall a good day out, a good site in a good location (A1 Junction 49 with A19) that fills a large geographic gap, and more sites, especially ones this friendly is always good.

Their website is worth a look, with some good photos, as is their facebook page (I hope I can be forgiven for shamelessly pinching pics of me and Swamps from it!). Definitely worth another visit.

Last word, CYMA MP5PDWs, lovely feeling aeg. Perfect size, however we’ve both managed to snap the end of the barrel from the body in the space of 2 game days. Both of us. Something I have never done to another aeg. We didn’t have fancy silencers or peripherals. So fixes needed all round. Shame because I really like them otherwise!

Our first run out since GZ, and feeling in decidedly better shape!

Although a crappy weather forecast was in prospect the day proved to be very different. The wind died and a nice autumn crisp morning was in prospect with the last few weeks of foliage meaning it was bolt action time! Also getting a run out for me for the first time was my MP5PDW, which Mick at NSC had sorted thanks to my effort to fit a new spring and lower it’s initial 390 fps….

The guys at NSC have been working hard to get some new structures in place, and combined with the thick covering of green in parts it made the day interesting!

We kicked off with a simple one end versus the other type game to get all the new players involved – and there was plenty of them which is fantastic to see. In fact there were so many it meant the marshalls extended the usual warm up game over a much larger area.

Next up one of my favourite types of scenario. A downed pilot to be rescued, two teams determined to get to him, and 3 sniper teams sent out to cause chaos and mayhem. Swampy soon figured out that the snipers nest is no longer as covert as it was!

Meanwhile I was having fun sitting in no mans land and taking it in turns to pick one off from each team. Later in the same game came a good chance to try out the MP5PDW properly. Caught between both teams we decided to go out guns blazing and tried to storm the structure the pilot was being held in. With Swampy covering I made the mad dash towards the tower, running the MP5 on an 11.1v LiPo I’ve decided to keep it to semi auto mainly, the trigger response is great and lets you just tap away. With the stock extended the accuracy for such a short barreled weapon isn’t bad either. It fell to the last of the 5 enemy to get me as I managed to clear the first 4. So near and yet so far…

The afternoon continued in similar fashion with large ranging games covering the entire site. Its been a while since I’ve had to cover so much ground at NSC and the legs were definitely feeling it by the end of the day!

With the cover so thick in areas, it made movement exciting to say the least as it didn’t take a ghillie suit to lurk succesfully!

All in all, a cracking day again, finished off with a couple of sociable drinks and left me looking forward to the next game day at NSC on the 2nd October!

Well, what a weekend. Plenty of highs and lows, and certainly eventful!

Mrs Swampy put up with us both burbling on for an entire evening the night before as we loaded up everything we could think of taking…

We set off heading south to our first stop of the tour. Action Hobbies. I’d arranged a pair of MP5PDWs to be waiting, I’d been looking at these for a while now and well, since they were in stock and we were passing!

A warm welcome from the guys there, especially considering they were in the middle of building their new shop area and not really open to the public. Should be good when complete, plenty of space and certainly looks like business is booming. Certainly deserves to be, several times this year I’ve found their website to be the only one with decent stock levels as opposed to lots on offer on other websites only to be found to be out of stock and no date for restocking (yes it is a pet hate of mine). Anyway, a brace of full metal (and solid feeling) CYMA MP5PDWs into the car and off we sped across Milton Keynes to our next stop.

Bletchley Park
Home of the codebreaking effort during World War II. I’d wanted to visit here for a while and you know, since we were passing!

As probably befits its clandestine history it’s a fairly discreet turn off into Bletchley. It has a rich history and its origins are fascinating. It became home to some of the most brilliant minds of its day as they battled the Axis cryptographic services including the fabled enigma machine. To even begin to summarise it’s contributions to the allies would be to do a disservice somewhere, far better you have a look at their website, or even better check it out for yourself! (I also recommend a good read such as Station X), you can learn about the men and women that gave us such marvels as the Bombe and recently recreated the world’s first operational computer – The Colossus

We had a cracking few hours wandering the hallowed huts and there are plenty of exhibits that until fairly recently were largely forgotten and ignored (The restaurant in Hut 4 also served lovely pasties and ginger beer!). Just looking at the complexity and ingenuity of the code breaking effort is breathtaking. The only proviso is there is obviously a lot of restoration work still underway and a few huts were closed off – all for good causes I am sure!

Of particular interest to me personally was the history of HMS Bulldog and her part in obtaining “The Loot”. I served part of my time on her modern namesake as an RN Officer where we remembered the actions of our predecessors every year. (The cinematic historical travesty U571 is not an accurate portrayal….)

This inconspicuous little establishment and the men and women who worked there in utter secrecy played a vital role in the Allies eventual victory. it can be argues that without them Britain would have starved as the wolfpacks cuts us off. It seems strange walking around them that the minds at work in these little huts were one of our greatest weapons… Whilst we always must remember that history was not played out with the benefit our current sensibilities and morals, it does seem shameful the way we treated a man who did so much for us.

(Footnote to Bletchley Park – Since our visit we have read of the sad death of Tony Sale, one of the founders of the Bletchley Park Trust and the mastermind behind the successful rebuild of Colossus. Without dedicated people like Tony our historical knowledge would be far less complete, and a lot more boring!)

Onwards to Battle
We hooked up with the Misfits at a suitable hostelry just before GZ and landed on site together. Fortunately we managed to get base camp erected before the rains forecast for the Friday turned out to be torrential monsoons!

The heavens opened and given the camp site is a riding field for much of the year the inevitable Glastonbury conditions soon occurred. The roads were soon requiring the attention of several tons of urgently acquired gravel and with the back breaking efforts of the marshals some semblance of a road was restored.

I took the opportunity for a walk round the safe zone, having a stroll round the Zero One Marquee which seem to have plenty on show, and the boot sale, where plenty of players had second hand kit for sale.

Unfortunately for me at this point I decided on some rigorous testing of the portaloo facilities due to a digestive system failure. In an attempt not to waste the airsofting opportunities I retired very early and felt sorry for myself. I believe that in my absence and despite the conditions a good time was continued to be had by all as they had merry games such as “watch the shop flood”…

Saturday kicked off with better weather and the usual GZ style with a safety brief and then the teams depart to their respective bases. There’s obviously been a lot of wok since I was here last as the structures have become more substantial and more atmospheric. GZ have also increased the gaming area to the west with a serious amount of woodland ideal for creeping about in now in play.

We started up at the well known check point Charlie and spent most of the morning in either setting ambushes or hitting Delta near their base. Hanging out with our old friends the Misfits we managed a couple of fantastic well timed attacks and covered a lot of ground.

I had a slight hiccup when attempting to flank an enemy junction through the thick undergrowth I found myself next the Fort with an unprotected open doorway. I then spent a tense 30 mins sneaking about in the dark ground floor shooting anyone who came in and listening to the Bravo forces upstairs calling for help on their radio as there were “loads of enemy” below. I’ll take it as a compliment lads!

The day gradually wound on to a ferocious firefight over the village for the close of play, with a three way battle and a never ending stream of dead walking out. I estimated at least 100 Others piled in and similar from the other teams all in a small tight area. The noise and charges were epic!

Once we finished for the evening I must admit the dodgy stomach and lack of proper food and fluids took their toll on me, and I made my excuses for a quiet evening again.

Overnight I discovered that because the Others had completed the most tasks and launched the most nuclear strikes we were naturally last in the points stakes. (as always!)

Sunday kicked off slightly later and more humid. This time we started from the very exposed Burrows site and were immediately hit by both teams at once. It was during this battle I experienced what must be acknowledged as one of the problems of GZ. Hit calling. Whether it is the high proportion of younger players, or the fact that people only play there one a year I don’t know. But after realising no-one was going to call a sniper rifle hit I stormed a postion with my pistol. The first 2 guys sportingly called it with a fair degree of surprise, but a younger player laid in a bush with his back to me was a different story. Completely unaware of my approach I got to within 18 inches of him so decided a single shot to the assault vest was sufficient. He turned to face me and started to bring his AEG up so I shot him again in the front. Only to be asked “what I was doing?” Needless to say I shot him again, this time on an unprotected arm whilst explaining “waiting for you to call your hit”. I was told he “wanted to see who it was” shooting him. I tactfully explained it makes no difference if you’re hit and you should call it, and shot him again for good measure.( Somewhere he could definitely feel it). It was obvious he was sure it was friendly fire and he was looking to avoid calling it. Things like that really ruin the event, as you can’t help but think “well if they’re not going to call it…” it takes a real effort to keep yourself honest after something like that.

I should add it’s not a situation limited to GZ and I’ve seen it at other big games with lots of players who don’t know each other, and whilst the marshals do their best,(even catching the guys who decided no hot pyro didn’t apply to them as they rained smokes onto my position!) with 1700 players it’s always going to be tough.

I got stuck into defending our base and before long several hours had passed. During my next spell in the dead zone my radio battery died, and between that and a renewal of my stomach ache I beat an early retreat to the campsite.

Overall, I had a great weekend. It’s always good to get the Raps together and we had some great stops. Fighting alongside friends such as the Misfits is always enjoyable. Personally I could really have done without feeling poorly which hampered my socialising and I missed out on saying hi to so many people. So best wishes to BattleTec, Legion, and anyone else I meant to see!

Finally thanks to H and his merry band. The marshals really do work hard to lay on what is a massive festival of airsoft now. Hopefully they know it’s appreciated! next year with some luck I may be in better condition to enjoy all of it!

Right, about to load up and get going eventually hitting GZ in Hampshire on Friday. There’s a few stops on the way that we’ll reveal later, and I’m going to experiment with lots of updates on Twitter, including in the game zone (Nothing too revealing for the opfor obviously!). So stay glued, we’ll be using the hashtag #GZWeekender and you can follow us either here on the right, or on our twitter feed here

We’ll see how it goes!