Combat Action Games (CAG) 6/9/09

Players Present. Ads, Bauer, Benj, Ives, Jam, Mutton, Pat, Stu

Total Player 35

Walk on £20
Typical Sunday Skirmish, a day of Airsoft full of potential that just didn’t quite hit the mark.
We arrived to find the usual faces amongst the new, the experienced and the very…very young. 13 to 50ish all paying 20 bucks for the privilege of shooting each other in a woodland areas directed by a team of marshals who on the most part appeared to have a grasp on what Airsoft actually was.
As common faces to CAG we always set our stall out to make full use of a site we know very well and to compete in games we know inside out.
To start the day off the CAG manual was thrown away and for a change an original game was set into motion, well I say original, same props with the same premise as “counterpoint” but with a small twist. Special forces units must infiltrate the forest and remove guidance chips from rockets aimed at a nearby town.
As with all CAG Milsim/Filmsim/planned themed games the planning is always left wanting, its as if its all abit of a secret and only a chosen few really know what is going on. No leadership is put into place, the objectives always change and the players are left wondering what they’ve actually paid to do.
The 2½ hr morning game began with little enthusiasm. A Special Forces unit (red tape) was tasked with locating a single missile and retrieving is guidance chip. The missile was located in the village and the SF team started there advance from the old safe zone, the opposite side of the playing area. The defending team (no tape) started there defence at Camp Bravo (CB).
As a member of the defending team we were then informed of a second missile at CB that the SF were not aware of, we were now tasked with defending this as well. Straight from the off we were tasked with defending 2 areas, splitting our force against a SF team with only one objective. Now as a rule, we don’t defend, we’re aggressive so the only plan we had was to seek out the SF and destroy them before they reached the village or CB. Now if this was a planned Milsim then the defending team would not know the SF were in the area and would be operating standard procedure, set patrol routes, look out positions and entrenched positions defending the missiles, this would’ve been a little more realistic. Perhaps we should have done this, after all we thought about it but now knowing the SF were on site it seemed a little pointless, after all our mission brief had been changed so we needed a little bit of a head start. Having no set guidelines we decided to split our force and set up a couple of defensive positions and two ambushes to give us a good chance of locating the SF team early. Having chosen the fuel dump (FD) as a good ambush point myself, Ads, Jam, Stu and “mate” reached it in good time and having noticed a few shadows high on the slope dug in ready to open up. A short time later and allowing the SF team to get within 30m we opened up. 3, maybe 4 dropped straight off in the first exchange. Not feeling the SF had the stomach for it the engagement was brief as they pulled back up the slope and moved away towards Check Point Charlie (CPC).
After securing our position at FD and leaving the other 3 there myself and Ads pushed away from the FD up the slope to track 3 SF members across to CPC. Being in radio contact with team 2 (E6 Bravo) we notified them of our position and intentions as we stalked through to CPC and the village. Taking the track side down to the village Ads opened up on a very surprised Ramplers, behind and left of me leaving me exposed on the right flank. This made me go to ground and cover up, unfortunately I covered up on the wrong side as was easy pickings for some chump 20m to my right. 2 calls of hit and 20 rounds later I walked down to the village to respawn from three chaps who had been there since game start. I stayed for a while just to get a low down on the current situation and set up a defence as a few SF members were spotted in the thick stuff. It was obvious from our initial ambush at FD that the SF team had fragmented and were all over the place. Team 2 at this point was now coming down from there previous position in behind the SF members to enclose them. After some intense action we pushed back the SF team and hooked up with team 2. After a chat and a sit down we were told by three young chaps that the guidance chip from the missile at bravo was missing, this we didn’t like at all, especially as “I’m guessing” it wasn’t supposed to be part of the game until much later. We decided to go take a look, see what we could see at bravo. As it turned out not a lot and eventually sat at bravo for the rest of the game. During out little break of Ginsters Pork Pies (Ben) and MRE’s (Pat) we were informed that our…yes our “Radio” had been destroyed/captured (I can t remember which) and we needed to retrieve if before the SF were evacuated…What Frigging Radio? Needless to say this didn’t spur us into action, and with this event happening at the other end of the site to us we didn’t really care and ignored it. At this point in the game the battery on one of the younger players AEG had failed. Now as a paying customer you would think that this would’ve been sorted out by one the marshals or site staff, after all its only a battery and would be beneficial to CAG to keep him in the game by lending him another one..well wouldn’t it?. So well done to good old James Kerry who stepped up with a mini batt for the young chap…Unfortunately it wasn’t the batt at all but that pesky Ver2 lockup! Now as the young lad had already paid 20 bucks and his only option was a hire gun (not in CAG’s interest to let him borrow one) and I’ve taken him under my wing (NPBP) I felt responsible, so I broke out the XM177 of justice! There you go fella…Enjoy!
We went back up to bravo as it was sounding very tasty over the radio only to find the game had been called…game over…not very eventful…at all!

Lunch…More MRE’s, Banana’s (Mutton) and Ginsters…O’and Ads brought a Packed Lunch!

The afternoon games were split into a series of short games:

Game 1 – VIP Assassination at VC (reversed)
Game 2 – Stalingrad (reversed)
Game 3 – Capture Fuel Dump (reversed)
Game 4 – Stalingrad at Bravo with Player Recycling

Game 1
Assassinate the VIP is one of those solid CAG games that always works well when both teams play there part. The defenders lat out to the last man and the attackers push until its all over and that sexy dummy has been slotted in the face. Unfortunately having made our way into VC and taken out a good portion of there defence a group of defenders (Girling boys) decided it would be a good idea to run off back to bravo and try to attack from our left, a movement of almost 360°, which took an absolute age and gave us nothing to shoot at, and the point of this was? Eventually after some 10 minutes or so they managed to find there way back to the game zone with no real effect as the VIP had been hit and the game was over. A bit of a waste to be honest.
On the return leg we set our stall up in a very orthodox manner determined to just hold out. We did for a while with very few casualties when apparently the VIP took a hit, something which came as quite a surprise to many people, especially me who was still out of range of most and only got to slot 2 chumps who decided to come in the back way on there faces.
Game 2
Stalingrad, and by this point we had lost Ads, Bauer and Ives…I didn’t blame them from going early.
Stalingrad is Stalingrad, nothing much really happens different each time you play it, but I did get 6 pistol kills, which doesn’t happen everyday.
After Stalingrad we lost Pat, we were now down 5 with the reds gaining an extra 2, Pete the Site Owner and Baz Smith who was wearing a very fetching LBV which looked liked it was doubling as a Combat Corset!
Game 3 was going to be hard work with only myself, Mutton and Jam still in the fight.
Game 3
Capture the FD, sounds simple but it wasn’t. Outnumbered against a opposition dug in, well armed and benefiting from and elevated position we were heading for a meaty fight! Surprisingly it started very well with some good progress but we soon hit a brick wall. One young chap dug himself into a fallen tree directly in front of myself and Mutton and apparently we couldn’t hit him. Time and time again he would pop up and we would fire back and he just wouldn’t die. By now I must have respawed 4 times without gaining a yard. With no grenade it was clear the only way to flush this chap out was to get a good angle on him and let him know he was dead. Unfortunately, in pursuit of my angle I came in range of Shaun, and a 425 semi M14. He was dug in on the slope, in very good cover and quickly dispatched me…twice.
Obviously annoyed at my lack of progress Mutton joined me and we tried again to find this magical angle to dispatch the young man from behind the fallen tree. Eventually I found this angle and with extreme prejudice removed the young man from the game. After this we continued with good progress and eventually took the FD.
The reverse leg was sure to be a quicker affair so decided to position myself on the slope to give myself a good view of the FD and surrounding area. With the FD and the road in full view I had a very big engagement area and it has to be said, was feeing very confident, especially with Mutton keeping an eye on me.
Unfortunately nobody tried to push up the slope to us until the end, well I say no one, one poor chap tried his luck. Needless to say the 60 and Muttons M4 made quick work of him, he must have felt that for days after! As the last two still standing we knew we were in trouble, exposed on the slope and surrounded we knew it was going to get tasty so we did what anyone would do, go down fighting!
It was at this point my M60 decided to go all French and stopped feeding, bloody box mag! Out came the trusty 1911, new firefly hop in place and 2 magazines of .23 justice…I got a couple, you can imagine the rest.
Game 4
With my primary down and my 1911 spent I couldn’t really be bothered with game 4. I did attempt to set up my claymore but all I achieved was falling on my face and giving Ramplers a good laugh (fuck that hurt). After licking my wounds I walked back to the safe zone, 60 in my left hand, rucksack slung over the right shoulder and my spent claymore in the right hand. Out of the game and walking away from it all I got for my troubles was a burst of fire in the face from one of the Girling boys. I wish they knew how to play Airsoft, I’m sure it would make the whole CAG experience more exhilarating with better opposition.

In Summary
Overall it was CAG, just like CAG always is. Same familiar faces mixed in with the kids, and to be honest it feels more of a boys club for the owners mate rather than a business. Simple games on the whole with a long morning game that didn’t really achieve anything and after an hour just left you bored and confused. Honesty throughout the day was hit and miss with some of the more experienced regulars taking the piss a bit. Lots of friendly fire incidents through out the day until the yellows were taped up in the afternoon, which asks the question, why didn’t it get done at the start of the day?
I also have a gripe with one of the marshals, now it has nothing to do with sexism, I love the idea of women in Airsoft, I’m a member of NAGS as it go’s but the last time I was spoken to like that was at school some 12 years ago. A sense of humour is vital in Airsoft, and so is experience, you have to know what your doing and acting like a teacher, being patronising isn’t the way.

C+ Average….