Site: AWA 18/4/2010
Player present: Ads, Benj, Ives, Jam and Stu
Total Players: 80
Walk On: £20
The 18th
Ambush Wargames Herts is a long running Airsoft site based in Hertfordshire and being close to London and sunny Essex AWA sports quite a large number of players despite the sites small size. The overall site is split into two with one side being used for Airsoft and the other side being the domain of paintballers. On the game we attended, there was between 70-80 players.
7am Sunday morning, and we’re ready to set out to AWA. Batteries are charged, mags are loaded, satnav is set and despite only getting mildly lost we make it in reasonable time. Unfortunately the directions on the website are not the clearest, especially to us Norfolk folk.
Games normally start around 10am, with the required safety briefing beforehand. I felt the safety briefing was a bit rushed, and didn’t really go into many specifics (ie grenades kill radius, smoke used as gas?) as well as a brief mention of the bang rule. Which seemed more along the lines of “well you can ask people to surrender but they might not but they might” either enforce the rule or don’t bother.
The first game was a base defence, and would set the theme for the rest of the day. One team, with limited respawns must defend the base against the other team with unlimited respawns. Defending team not allowed to move out of outer barricades of the base.
40 people, crammed into a base ideally defended by 15 people. Behind each piece of cover you had about 3 or 4 people. Roughly a 20 min time limit so at least it was over quickly. I was hoping for a quick reversal then we could get on to playing proper games.
Quick reversal, again about a 20 min time limit. No point in attempting anything other than charging the base and using overwhelming firepower. You did bring the hicaps right ?
Every other game of the day was exactly the same, attack and defend around a feature of the site. It was purely paintball games, games which required no skill, use of tactics or thought what so ever. All that was needed to succeed was hicaps.
There were roughly 4 marshal’s wandering about and paying little to no attention, while walking between games 2 of the marshal’s engaged in a firefight using people walking to the next game as cover. Way to set a good example.
During one game, the marshal’s decided to have a little sit down and completely ignore a very heated and very loud argument between 2 players in regards to overkill. again, great marshalling.
Between one game, everyone was told to place their guns on the floor, and could remove their eye protection. Removing eye protection in a game zone is an ultimate no no, another bad habit.
The one game that I was looking forward to after the briefing unfortunately turned into a game designed for the regs to win. The regs were split off into their own team, leaving 2 teams largely of noobs or people who had not played at the site before with the yellow team made up of the regs. All 3 teams had to locate a downed pilot and return him to the safe zone. The yellow team knew where the pilot was, and being regulars of the site knew the site well. The other teams had no idea where the pilot was. The game was actually restarted when the regs failed to find the pilot, so the marshal’s gave them another go. What basically happened was the regs proceeded in force to where they knew the pilot was, then extracted him to the safe zone. While the other 2 teams, where left floundering about on an unfamilar site. I was left wondering whether that game had been entirely used to let the regs win one over the “noobs”
To make matters worse, there was a half hour break in the morning, an hour and a half for lunch and finally another half hour break in the afternoon. The last game finished at 4pm. 2 and a half hours sat in the safe zone takes the piss.
To Summerise
Paintball style games
Marshalls who dont give a shit
Marshalls who dont care for health and safety
Small site, all games had restrictions on where you could go
Very Short Games 20-30 mins
Long, unnecessary breaks
Start late, finish early
JAM
#1 by gasman on April 30, 2010 - 09:08
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Well, I for one wouldn’t waste any time/money visiting after that comprehensive review.
Gasman
#2 by Richard on April 30, 2010 - 16:12
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Thats whats cool about doing reviews like this, yes its an opinion but we get to voice it and let people know exactly how the game day went whether its good or bad. So sites can take it on board or ignore it, all we can do is put it out there and weve done our part.
If its bad or people dont say anything, how does it help the site.
#3 by Benj on May 1, 2010 - 12:39
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Firsty thanks to Jam for giving me a break from site reviews…i’ve now got somebody else to split the hate mail with.
AWA for me started off ok, the safe zone was fantastic, lots under cover, plenty of space, a shop, a BBQ for hot grub, free tea/coffee if you wanted it and felt more proffessional than some sites we’ve visted.
As Jam mentioned the safety brief was a little short but unless your a complete novice it covered the basics. The hire guns, of which there was alot were given a more structured brief after.
We’d been planning AWA herts for a couple of months because of it’s reputation but unfortunalety this seemed a site that catered for the corporate and day hire side of Airsoft more than the true Airsofter. Yeah there was few local elites and plenty of kids (who talk to much about nothing) but other than that i must have seen 15-20 guys in hire overalls.
The games to be fair were simple enough for anybody to understand which im guessing was the point but with such great numbers why were the game’s confined to such a small area? I know the site is shared by paintballers but this is Airsoft, we need space to stretch out and use are tactics, not just point at shoot at the same target for 20 minutes.
Overall there was more time spent in the safe zone sitting on our arses then in the field and the last two games were a complete waste of our time. I mean, a game designed for the local elites to walk over the kids was pointless, and their attitude to towards the rules was ridiculous. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
The last game was also a particular highlight, 80 players, 40 aside, 1 bridge… i think that speaks for itself, and after being mouthed off at by a local elite (who was in the middle of the game zone without his arm in the air) that was enough for me, home to plan for IED and put AWA in the back of my mind to forget.
AWA…Great for kids, paintballers and team building corporate days.
Regular skirmishers will struggle to have a good full day.
Milsimers will commit suicide before lunch…
Ben