Combat Action Games (CAG) 18/10/09
Players Present. Benj, Mutton, Stu
Total Player 40
Walk on £20

After my last review of CAG some say I was a little harsh, others that I was right and that when I’m not writing reviews for the E6 website I also drive around the Top Gear test track in a white helmet…all I know is, I’m not the Stig!

A little over a month has passed since that woeful skirmish back in September and I had mixed emotions about returning. Sure I’ve had bad days out in the field, we all have but these always seem to be fresh in the mind and the good days fade to a distant memory. If I’m honest I can’t remember the last great days Airsofting I was part off but I sure can remember the bad ones. So now that my “thoughts” are now put into the written word I can look back in the future and remind myself that this skirmish was one of those…not perfect, but it was a bloody good days Airsofting!

A Story of 3 Support Weapons

Having convinced my other half that “Yeah I’ll be fine, I’ll find something to do Sunday, enjoy London and have fun with your friends” I was free for a day’s Airsofting. After putting the word out to all the “Gucci Softers” in my phonebook only I and Mutton, complete with a new M249 joined Stu for a day of potential fun and frolics at CAG. After our arrival we signed in and immediately noticed the amount of experience on the yellow team. Now not being shy of a challenge and feeling our presence would be better suited elsewhere we opted to rock it with the reds. Once kitted up and briefed we moved out into the game zone but without the usual chrono-ing being done, something about a dodgy chrono I heard but still, you never know who’s playing with what.

Game 1 was one of my favourite CAG games, kill’em till they can’t die no more! Red team started in bravo with the yellows camped in VC. Our objective was to clear VC then Jungle and finally onto Trenches with the yellows having 3 lives (2 shoulder respawns) at each location. With the reds having infinite respawns the yellows objective is basically the amount of time they can hold us up for. As we set off I was a-gasp to notice P90 guy was on our team and was wielding a 60…someone who by the end of the game would have me questioning the intellect of some airsofters and have me confronting a marshal in a tone rarely seen…well maybe not that rare!

Throughout the game the yellows put up a fairly stiff resistance with our progression being limited to tree to tree through VC until we managed to open up the game nearer jungle. A lack of communication was ripe throughout the red team from the off with some friendly fire incidents between VC and Jungle and some insane…and idiotic overkill from, yes you’ve guessed it P90 guy and his ARES M60. Firing from the hip and looping rounds in P90 guy was acting like an idiot, mouthing off and letting us know how much carnage he alone was causing. I was ashamed to be playing alongside him. This more or less continued all the way until trenches when me and mutton tried to get as far away from him as possible. I was beginning to boil; the overkill was getting to me, and on 3 occasions had to tell him to stop firing to let players out of cover…something I felt the marshals should have gotten on top of sooner. Flanking left of the trenches I came up against 3/4 chaps about 50m in front of me, set up the 60 and gave them a few bursts…nothing, which was funny seeing as I was hitting 60m earlier in testing. I pushed forward and again let off a few rounds, eventually one dropped, and I wasn’t even aiming at him, he was behind the chap I was going for. This tipped me over the edge and I lost it but before I could “talk nicely” with the fellow Emily (Foxy) got to me first, I was in a rage, and bless her; she got the full brunt of my insane-ness which I later talked to her about. I really feel more marshals are needed during game days and things such as overkill need to be stamped on quicker, after all these types of rule breaches can be sorted quickly unlike a player’s honesty.

The interval before Game 2 allowed me to take a minute and reflect on the previous game and to realise that in fact, I no longer cared about stewarding my team through the rest of the day. I didn’t care what tricks my team mates got up to, I just wanted to unleash my “measured” response as a player, and not a self appointed “in game marshal”. And to add, my “measured response” throughout the day came in the form of over 7000 spent rounds! Game 2 was basically Game 1 but reversed with the reds defending Fuel Dump (FD), Check Point Charlie (CPC) and finally Camp Bravo (CB). As we found earlier with the yellows defence of VC it isn’t really the amount of respawns you have that determines how long you last it’s the amount of good cover and overwhelming firepower you have. From behind the cover I had I could hit 50m up the slope at FD without receiving any fire. I remained is this position until yellow team members were within 10m of me, obscured by oil barrels. It was the lack of ammo and taking too much time deciding who was in game that cost me my first life. After a little mincing about I respawed off Mutton and found a quiet place to rearm out the way, some 30m behind FD as I was continuously being hit while dead. Having emptied my first bag of Excels into the 60 I looked up to see some chump had ignored my presence and flanked round the back of FD from the slope and opened up and tagged Mutton, not impressed with that I proceeded to remove him from the game with extreme prejudice. Now being very noisy and aggressive (running with a shouldered 10.5kg AEG) I no doubt attract a lot of attention so after my latest kill I dropped to let him out of cover and wait for a response from elsewhere. Almost instantly I was hit from an AEG burst in the shoulder and abdomen which made me flinch to the right, which as it happens I’m actually glad of because I received another two on my ear and cheek, which would have been my face and they weren’t from any 330 weapon. After a little disgruntled I ran back to CPC to begin its defence. I found myself a nice little bit of cover 30m in front of CPC, the furthest forward of all the defence, which begs the question, why, when defending an area do most players feel the need to be either inside or behind what there defending?

Needless to say the cover I chose was brilliant, and held up the yellows advance for some time. Fearing a ricochet due to the thick cover I asked Emily to come stand near me just in case (cos you know how much stick E6 gets behind closed doors) but was obvious nobody had a clue where I was, I felt invincible. This feeling soon abandoned me when after the “umpteen” attack the yellows finally removed me. Falling back to CPC to rearm (yes again) I kept my attention on the front of CPC where the main attack was concentrated. Knowing the eventually outcome would be our demise we ignored reports of snipers to our rear and carried on for no more than 2 minutes when eventually being tapped in the back. After having a nice chat with Shaun we made are defence of CB more of the same dogged determination. Holding the left flank by ourselves Mutton and I threw the lot at our attackers, sheer overwhelming firepower against precision. Again in good cover the yellow team had to fight for every yard. After some time I and faithful Mutton had to respawn and rearm (I know 4th time). I opted for a small bunker which just resulted in me being pinned; I didn’t last long as was one of the first out of the game, which I didn’t mind, especially with the carnage that followed.

During the break when we had a few minute’s Mutton, speaking softly into my ear said…2…4…9! It’s at times like these I’m reminded of when others would say to me, “why a 60, you’ll hate it”. How can you hate a support gun, the sheer power in one’s hand just conveys a sense of invincibility and reassuring state of mind to a team. Mutton for some time now had been toying with the idea of a M249, I remember before his second TM M4 arrived he was looking at a Para version of the 5.56 Calibre infantry support weapon. Now some 9 months after starting on that long and winding road of Airsoft Mr Jason Mutton esquire had purchased his 3rd AEG, an ARES M249 MkII. Now after some indecision mid week the ARES was chosen over the A&K as a subsequent CA could not be found in time. Now I’ve never seen one up close and Mutton’s initial reaction on opening the box was “I’m sending it back”. We all knew It was going to be a little on the plastic side and the only way Mutton was going to keep it was if it happened to shoot like a demon out of the box. So after some initial hop issues Mutton swung it up juiced by a lipo and packed with some “AIM” .2’s he just purchased from the well stocked CAG shop and gave it a burst, FUCK ME that was quick. Its ROF was idiotic, and that was only a 7.2 lipo turning it over. Not to be out done I quickly changed out my 9.6v for my freshly charged 10.8v, Ha, that’ll show the little upstart I thought. Game 3 was going to be fun…

Game 3 was a short game of capture the flag. The flag was at CPC with the reds starting in village and the yellows at CB, the idea was to hold the flag until game finish, some 30 minutes away. Reassured by or overwhelming firepower Mutton and myself set up on the right of the flag after an initial advance captured it unopposed. We set up either side of the track and waited for the yellows to make a push. Sure enough it came and with great anticipation waited for some unlucky fellow to walk into mine and Muttons path. When I eventually opened up my initial burst made me aware that the 10.8v battery I had changed the night before wasn’t kicking them out quite as fast as I hoped, you might have even been forgiving to thinking that the charging of this battery was…well, abit crap! Looking over Mutton, now with a smile on his face was knocking them down with great aplomb, even the words “I’m keeping it” could be heard. Thinking my battery could keep me in the fight till game end I kept my bursts short and well placed, giving Mutton and his newly appreciated M249 all the glory (its true).

During our time lying on our faces some strange disturbance could be heard to the left of me, I turned my head to notice black boots beneath some Flecktarn trousers. A call of surrender came next followed by a burst of weapons fire and a very disgruntled Nick Davis was left in disbelief. Turns out young Nick had managed to sneak in round the back and get the drop on a couple of youngsters and eventually me. Fortunately for though, my ever faithful companion Mutton lit him up like a Christmas tree before I even realised what was going on. Cheers Chap!

After a while it was clear the 60 was running low on juice and fearing the worst I removed myself to the rear to change back my previous battery, after a quick test I again noticed a lack of power, this time with the 9.6v. The previous 4000 rounds before lunch had taken a lot out of it and it was becoming clear I was in trouble. During my battery change Mutton appeared, the M249 had an issue, it wasn’t feeding and it sounded a little on the duff side. As far as we were concerned this game was over, I needed some more juice and Mutton needed a new gun. While messing about trying to make out we knew what the problem was the game was over, the yellows had retaken the flag and we had lost. Just goes to show that when the Eagles leave your in the shit!

During the interval I went back up to the safe zone to sort out “my life”. Both my large batteries had taken a dive and it was clear some power was needed. Back in the safe zone all alone I found Emily guarding the shop, armed to the teeth with a radio and a cigarette. We talked; we laughed and hopefully I conveyed to her that members of this website/team are in fact worth our walk on fee and that some members of the CAG “boys club” should keep their “destructive comments” to themselves.

During the charging of the for mentioned battery I missed half of game 4 and arrived back in time for the return leg of kill the hostage at Village. Another game I am very fond of and felt we did a sterling job of protecting Freda until the very end. And again, another game where I was dispatched quite early on, which is funny when you consider some of the comments that have previously been made in some special members only clubs! Nothing really noticeable happened but it didn’t need to as that game is jolly good fun when all players get stuck in. (see my previous CAG review to see how not to play Kill the hostage)

Having time for one more game before the close of play game 5 was again a solid CAG mission based scenario which we knew very well. Your team is tasked with transporting (bodyguard style) a VIP along a set path to an appointed location. The mission is time based with the quickest team to transport the VIP the winner and for every time the VIP is hit a time penalty of 30 seconds (if I remember right) is incurred. Now I’ll be honest, for me this is a no brainer and a simple task, so when I tell you that our team won it wasn’t a fluke. We won because the red team decided to make things very stupid, so stupid it was getting boring shooting them with my 60 that I switched to my .45 to give them a chance, it was hilarious but for all the wrong reasons. Rather than keeping the VIP behind the fight and protected the reds decided to have the VIP at the head of the advance creeping forward with two/three guys in front creating a “human shield” (instant respawn from VIP) . It was getting beyond stupid and it was only due to a lack of ammo that eventually the VIP made it through. The return journey was a much quicker affair, creating a defensive ring around the VIP we made quick and steady progress and within 15 minutes the game was over, no fuss, no frills just a win, a win without the VIP taking a single hit, chuffed, yo9u bet your ass I was.

So as it turns out this CAG day was a good one, yes there were incidents of stupidity and some of the Marshalling (early on) was a little abstract at times but as we’ve seen, all you can do these days at CAG is look out for yourself and the guy next to you. So when I look back at this review I’ll remember I wasn’t such a bad day…

Overall: B+…Close but no Cigar.

Peace out Mo’Fo’s.