The Starplex forum

Played my first Airsoft game at a disused mall in Reading a few months ago and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Now I am ready to get my own weapons. An assault rifle and a pistol. I have settled on the following.

Umarex H&K G36CV Electric Blow Back AEG in black

Socom Gear 1911 Novak Next Silver

And here are some images of the little beauties

Click on the images to embiggen!




The pistols, I have found out, are what the Hitman uses... Well if it`s good enough for him!

Hoping to get these delivered and ready to be used before the next skirmish me and my friends go to in the next few weeks.

Socom pistol with Madbull Punisher extension

Not the all silver version, but the silencer is the one I want...

Very cool. What's involved? Running around shooting each other?

Depends on the venue... But the objective is to kill and/or maim as many people as possible!
Usually the entire group playing is split up into two teams.

It is great fun, much better than paint balling.

There is a venue in Reading that uses a small disused shopping mall. That is pretty much all close quarters battle. Great fun especially in the utility corridors where it is completely dark...
http://www.firstandonlyevents.co.uk/venues/the-mall/

Another one near Edlesborough that, if memory serves, is an old RAF listening post. So that is indoor and outdoor. Which I might be going to soon.
http://www.xsiteairsoft.co.uk/

However, the other one which I really want to go to, is in Greenwich, completely underground and it is styled like a nuclear test facility
http://www.wolfarmouries.co.uk/airsoft/ ... e=bunker51

You should come along to one with us some time! My friend Matt normally has spare weapons or you can often hire them on-site.

So it's a cross between paintball and Quasar?

Not sure I'm fit enough for such things just yet - and I'm the poorest I've ever been in my life. Bought a game the other day and that's nearly wiped me out!

If you borrow the weaponry from Matt. Then you are looking at around £25 for the game itself.

I know what it is like to have an under-abundance of money...
But if you ever change your mind, you know where I is.

Went to a skirmish yesterday, Sunday. This was another indoor CQB (Close Quarters Battle) event a bit like the Reading Mall. Except this time it was even more cramped and entirely underground, no windows. In an old WWII bunker situated in Epsom.

Check their web site >>> Elite Action Games

Only got a couple of pictures. But here they are for your delectation...

This is how you get in and out of the venue

Having a break, reloading and chomping on grub

The first thing I noticed was as me and my friends approached the entrance, the view and noise of a 1Kv petrol driven generator was seen and heard. My first thought? Not too high tech today then!

The toilet facilities were, shall we say, interesting... third tree to the left. If you needed to do anything more substantial, they would lend you a spade...

The tunnels looked mainly like what you see in the safe zone photograph. But there was a section in the middle which was of a different design.

Surprisingly, there were a couple of girl players. One was even quite cute too. Yeah, it was a sexist comment, so shoot me.

Great day of playing. There were several themed games. One where all the players, there were 22 of us on this day, team up except for one guy who is a zombie, who can sprint! He cannot be killed or reasoned with. If you shoot him in the chest, it incapacitates them for 10 seconds. During which time you may not shoot them again to reset the counter! When he touches another player, they become infected and have to go back to the safe zone to drop off their weapon and come back out as a fully fledged zombie to infect more players.

I lasted a fairly long time, but got caught in the end. My strategy was to go for the stealth zombie approach. Which paid off, as I was able to sneak up on five people and infect the lot of `em!

Another game which was quite memorable was a Terminator style one. This involved one guy, carrying a support weapon. Think mini-gun! With a huge magazine, probably capable of carrying 3-4 thousand rounds. He had exposed electronics (plastic styrene cups!) one attached to each of his shoulders. The object was to sneak up on him and pull them off. But one person is only allowed to grab one at a time. The player playing the Terminator is a very experienced player and knows just about all the hidey holes in the place. I tried hiding behind a lump of plywood and hoping he would go by me and then I could come out from behind and grab a cup! Fat chance, he got me both times I tried it...

Other games were played, a gold rush type game where one team had to find and transport gold bars back to their base, but you had to use a specific container and could only carry two at a time. Sometimes there were three in one place...

Great day out.