The perfect team?
In response to this thread ,
“So, what’s, IYO, the perfect CQB team?
For me, I was thinking an 8 man team, 2 riflemen, 4 smg-weilders, 1 support, and 1 shotgun-ner.
The entire team would be equipped with either AK or AR carients for ease of mag exchange. The riflemen would have upgraded, full-size varients like SLR-105’s or M15-SPR’s.
SMG-ers would have have Beta’s/ aks-74u’s or 10.5″ barrel or shorter m4’s.
Support would have anything they wanted because they need big drum/ box mags.
Shotgunner could also have whatever they wanted but I’d say a Maruzen m870, m1100r, or other gas shotgun, springgers, IMO, are more effective in woodland/ urban. The shotty-user would also have to carry something like an mp7, mp5-k, m11, or anything else that’s very smal and has full-auto, even a kitty kat or a stock-less beta would work.anyway, the riflemen would stay behind the team and give, basically, sniper support by covering doors while the main team moved in. the support would do something similar, if the field size allowed. The support would stay mid-range so that the riflemen could move around also. as for the smg-ers and shotgunner, they would mostly stay together but would have designated teams of two and three, in case splitting up was needed. One team would be two smg-ers and the shotgun-user while the others would be a team of two.
That’s what I have so far, I’ve almost confirmed a team of 7 as of last night and we’re deciding whether or not to get new guns or not. also, we want some team formation information. ”
simple:
… All so called perfect teams need only one thing; playing to their strengths. Thats it. So if you have a great pistoleer you don’t make him play a long M4 just because you think it makes [i]the look[/i] better.
… Moreover, truly great teams are about two things; passion and leadership. It is a team game. You must be able to inspire and be inspired by every member of your team to play better.
You may think that I am picking hairs, but I am not. On Tuesday I watched as a well armed team got *fruitcage*ed big style by another team who were prepared to put in the effort to win.
Specific to CQB, some usual assumptions that are not correct,
1. Short accurate weapons are better.
Rubbish. All that matters is that the user is very well versed in his gun. That he can move fast, slow, jump, etc without banging it. That he can shoot very accurately from either side of his body with it. Two weeks ago a man with a full size M249 kicked the ass of someone with this:
How? He knew how to position his gun to take advantage.
2. Fast firing guns are better.
As much as I respect those who have very fast firing guns and a hankering to use them, this is just not true. Accurate and skillful movement is more important. [b]It only takes one BB to hit someone.[/b] Watch the Electrowerkz movie over in the Electro forum (post about movie competition) and watch for Vince moving out of cover with his patriot. Vince is a big guy, but his skill level is so high that he is able to clear the door, slink around the wall and hug the cover all without taking his gun off his targets and without looking where he is going. having a fast firing gun isn’t going to help a man avoid being hit.
3. Room Entry is a vital skill set.
Now my brothers, the Darkangels are trained in room entry. We love it. However, we are good at it precisely because we recognise that this is just a game. One with infinite lives. We use this understanding to our advantage. Real life military tactics will only help you so far. Airsoft room clearing skills comes from thinking outside the “Real Steel” box. None of your men are going to die so why not use that as a tactic?
We often use the “Grammaton Cleric Method”, which is simply the use of one very fast running pistoleer to sacrifice himself (and hopefully take a few with him). He runs through the door screaming and draws the fire to him so that the team gain those few seconds to take the room. I have been this man for the DA’s on many occasions (when I am wearing level III armour) and this tactic works great. I mentioned it once on the SNAFU boards and got back “snigger, if you lose a man entering a room , you are doing something wrong…” Frankly I relish the chance to prove myself right against these people.
4. Moscarts own in CQB.
Don’t make me laugh. Moscarts cant hit *beep*. Two weeks ago I was shot at from a clean angle from maybe 15ft away and didn’t get hit by nothing. The guy then popped his head back around the corner to see what had happened and I single shot him with my pistol. Even DA 1, who loved the things in the past, had a 6 shot launcher and he often fired 3 or 4 at a time! Don’t expect a scatter shot to make up for what should be excellent snap pistol skills.
Anyway, CQB is great fun. It is most definitely not milsim and in my opinion any person “designing” a team needs only to pick a flexible suite of weapons and REALLY train with them.
Basho
From this (“Airsoft knife kills?, yes or no?”) discussion,
The word humiliate makes me wonder…
One the subject of humiliation, it is an unfortunate side effect of airsoft that someone is going to get hit and someone isn’t. There are two types of humiliation and two different reactions:
- Caught unawares. E.G. Shot in the back of the head, from a hiding place etc.
- Dominated. Domination in airsoft is when one team is so eating the smack down on another that the second team is unable to mount a defense anymore.
As a marshal I spend a large amount of my time keeping the game balanced to avoid people being humiliated by domination. Often by giving advice, making certain people swap sides, perhaps shooting a few people myself, or even calling a halt and resetting the floor/game.
It is the opposite of when as a player I try to “break” the opponents mentally all the time. I want them so afraid that they won’t come out of their respawn. I want them frozen in fear in their defensive positions. I want to flank them and crush them utterly. I want my lack of fear of the pain of being laced to be my advantage. I want to work harder than they and respawn quicker to flood a room with more men firing faster…
… etc. This is the Darkangel way and our “aggression” has won us many battles.
The problem is the reactions once the fight has gone to total domination,
- They get upset and humiliated. Take time out. Sit down, shake, cry, etc. They are in effect shell shocked. This is not good for them. Not good for the flow of the site or the game.
- They get angry. Start shouting that people aren’t playing fair. That they are not taking their hits. They start to cheat, often blatantly. Eventually these people leave the game in a huff. It is not fair that they have been humiliated, etc as they are special.
In situations where people are getting this “stressed” then rubber knives have no place and should be withdrawn for the night.
In games and on nights where the play is equal (ish) then rubber knives can be a safe fun addition to the mix.
It is for marshals to know how to make the game balanced enough for everyone to have a good time and not to go back to the safezone in tears.
Basho
From the ABA website:
When I spoke to an amendment in Committee on 22 May at col. 623, the Minister said that the Government rejected it and that they believed that there was no compelling reason for airsofters to use realistic imitations. That is the very point at which airsofters and the Government diverge in their understanding of the sport. Airsofters have said to me that it is vital in skirmishing that they should be able to use realistic imitation weapons. In Committee, I put on record a detailed description of what constitutes the activity of airsoft. As this is Report, I shall certainly not go through that detail again, but I am very much aware that the activity is not well known to Members of Parliament in either House, so it took some while for a head of steam to work up and for noble Lords and Members of another place properly to appreciate how important the activity is to a substantial number of people in the United Kingdom.
I am proud to call myself one of those number!
It is a wonderfull thing when a small group can get to speak to the highest people in the land and get them to listen!
If airsoft can do it then so can anything else.
This is the most insane of all CQB AEG’s. Lex, the leader of Darkangel, is here demonstrating his newly upgraded Patriot.
What?
Basically the Patriot is a custom built mini M4 rifle, cut down to be as small as possible. In fact it is not much bigger than a large frame pistol and fantastic for CQB. This is of course not enough for Lex. He has been constantly upgrading this monster for the last year or so and here I show its latest configuration. The major difference to it today is that he has bought and installed a Prowin gearbox:
Its not very often airsoft gets innovations like this. Prowin have just designed a gearbox for the Tokyo Marui M4/M16 that incorporates the hop up unit and the gearbox into a single airtight unit. Redwolf airsoft claim that the new design gives gains of about 100 FPS over a normal updated gearbox using the same spring. And here’s a great little feature, the back of the gearbox can be removed and the spring changed in under 2 minutes with the box still in the receiver.
Whilst notoriously difficult to build, the Prowin is definitely the current box to own.
The FPS of this…this…thing is only 270fps, but I can speak with feeling when I say that it is not fun being on the receiving end of it!
Sorry for the quality of the video, as my phone camera is shite, just check out the happy grin on his chops!
Fear!
I am glad that I am on his side!
!EDIT! this Youtube has been changed to a link because it was raping my bandwidth.
Amazing news! The forums are a’buzz with the news that the ABA led by minimiman have had their request for an exemption form the VCR bill granted!
Oh day of days!
I feel like Admiral Ackbar at the end of ROTJ, when he breaths out a big sigh and signals the fleet to start the party.
Details of the exemption are still coming through and are likely to included some form of registration. Frankly, it could involved dancing naked on a pogo stick for ten minutes whilst being sprayed with high powered custard and I would still be happy.
Letter from Airsoftscotland here:
Well done to all those who wrote letters, badgered their MP’s, phoned into radio shows, wrote to websites and especially to the ABA for formulating and presenting the case to the government.
An exemption for the community can only mean that the government have recognised that we are a mature and committed bunch; that we [B]deserve [/B]an exemption. We all must do everything we can to continue to portray the positive sides of this great game of ours.
This was our wake up call and has become a golden opportunity to make airsoft a truly recognised sport, to organise and spread further. I have a dream that we can use this very strong will that we have amassed to create a framework under which airsoft can flourish.
I hope that Arnies, the other forums, retailers, sites and the ABA can be leading lights in forming airsoft’s rebirth as a government acknowledged pastime of great value.
Airsoft is a beacon of hope for other minority pastimes under threat from tyrannical legislation. For if we, one of the most fractured groups, can form into a single voice that reaches into the very corridors of power, others can take heart and follow our example.
Now as the leader of the Stonecutters said, “lets all get drunk and play ping pong!”
<—- Basho is very happy
Start your party engines!
FIRST IMPRESSIONS & BATTLE REPORT
ICS, in celebration of their 10 year anniversary have forged, in secret, a master gun. One gun to rule them all, one gun to find them, one gun to bring them all, and in the darkness lace the shit out them!
Here she is in all her glory:
(Click for a larger, more detailed image)
Now, I don’t know about you, but I think that this is a very unique and special looking gun and not at all deserving of the comments she has received from the like of Darklite:
So it’s not incredibly realistic — and still looks like it fell out of the arse of the ugliest bird in uglyland at the top of the ugliest uglytree and hit every ugly branch on the way down to the ugly ground before being trampled to extreme uglyness by a rampaging hoard of uglybears.
Rubbish sir! The ICS is not ugly; no one would call her ugly that held her. She has a bluff bow, lovely lines. She’s a fine warbird: weatherly, stiff and fast… very fast, if she’s well handled. No, she’s not ugly; she’s in her prime.
Of course, she had a metal nose…
So, what’s in the box? What do you get for your £269? Actually quite a lot:
- Unique Individually Serial Numbered Body.
- Complete Reinforced Main Gear Set, Steel Pinion Gear, Steel Bevel Gear, Steel Bushings, Metal Spring Guide, M120 Spring, Aluminum Piston, Bore-Up Cylinder, Strengthened Gearbox, New Silicone Wiring.
- Working forward assist to release the gears.
- Super Torque-Up Turbo 3000 Upgraded to M120.
- Metal Body, metal Receiver — Lower & Upper, Barrel, Front Parts, Sight, Stock, Handguard, metal Folding Stock.
- Spring Eject RIS Bi-Pod Vertical Grip Two High Caps, Speedloader, T-Shirt, Sling.
- Metal Tsunami RAS.
- Sanyo Battery in PEQ Battery Box.
Which, as anyone would agree is a lot of value for £269!
I received the gun at the start of the Ground Zero Weekender and was able to give her a thorough run through a check out, both in the range and in the field. Now, I had asked for her to be downgraded to 328fps because Electrowerkz has a very firm limit on feet per second. Zero One had not only down graded her, but also charged the battery, which was very nice of them since it is a small connector and I only have a large connector on my charger.
I zipped up a highcap of BB’s and let rip at a distant tree. As a comparison I also fired on the same target with my LR 300 custom £800 AEG, which has a real steel holosight, Systema highspeed motor (ooooohhh) as well as Prometheus internals and a tight bore barrel.
To put that into context, on the Sunday and using the LR I was able to shoot a guy standing 60 meters away, single shot, in the back of the head. To stand up to that challenge the ICs would have to be hot stuff!
And stand up it did. The rate of fire is of very high quality, somewhere below my LR with its Systema but definitely above a stock TM. Accuracy was good to very good and I was dropping rounds onto the tree with no issues. It doesn’t have the upgraded inner barrel, but it was more than good enough for combat.
Since the whole thing is full metal it has a very nice and very solid feel on the shoulder, which cut down my aim time by a fair whack. I would say that it is balanced very well, even with the PEQ box battery and snap shooting was not a problem. The stock folds down and has a slight bump when folded to hold it in place. I didn’t find it jumped around at all in play.
The tube sticking out the back, which was the cause of so much consternation amongst the geardos is in fact identical to the RS version and a god send in airsoft because this is where the sling mount has been attached and it is a very natural position for it to be in. I found it attached with no worries to my Chalker sling and the whole package sat nicely on my front without dragging me forwards like many other full metal guns do (the hatefull Star Sopmod being the worst.)
So how did it fair in battle?
<—Battle
Well, for a change, the Darkangel team was fighting in woodland this weekend and since this is not a naturally tenable position for the DA’s to find themselves we have a very short time to come to terms with being in woodland, before we got hit and had to sit out for ten minutes.
Obviously in those few moments before being laced, it is the quality of your gun that adds the difference between living and not. For example, a AAA battery gun isn’t going to win, no matter how good you are.
The ICS helped. It went through the mud and trees, it went through the bushes and got down and dirty and every time came up trumps. I had fantastic success using this gun on this day and my final kill count was 27 down for 13 lives with 9 of those being bang kills. Lovely!
Also a nice feature was the bipod. It meant that I could put the gun down and not worry about it being in the mud. Very handy indeed!
Accuracy… Well to be sure, having a proper bipod helps a lot in obtaining pin point accuracy in the field. However, please wait dear reader as next Tuesday I will be testing it out before the games in Electrowerkz, which are as near to ideal conditions as you can get. Suffice to say that during this weekend I was hitting everything I shot at and frankly that is all you can ask for with any gun.
The only gun I have that is better cost £800, so nuff said. The value of this package is immense and it is by far the best airsoft purchase, backed by Z1’s rock solid warranty, that I could have hoped for.
Buy one, you wont regret it. As lex said,
“Its very niiice!”
Here are some images of the trades and two movies; one I show the spring loaded bipod and two I fire the gun dry.
The free T-shirt
MOVIES:
First I show the spring loaded legs:
<—-CLICK FOR MOVIE
Next I show the gun firing (the noise is very loud for an AEG).
The first sound is single shot, then you can hear a burst, then you can hear my wife moaning about me shooting in the house, then I press the forward assist and release the gears.
<—-CLICK FOR MOVIE
So, next week will come a battle report in my home turf; CQB and a full accuracy test from the top floor of electro… watch this space!
Regards,
Basho
Or “What I saw at the weekend”
CLICK THE IMAGES TO ENLARGE
This weekend the Darkangel team and I drove down to the beautiful New Forest for a weekend of skirmish mayhem. What a weekend we had!
Late Friday afternoon, Trip, Kiero and I arrived at the Z1 campsite and met up with the rest of the guys (and girl; Jenny). The camp site is situated in a couple of fields about a mile down a dirt path and was full of tents. In the final count I was told over 500 people were attending! I saw tents of all types. Some had basic summer fair, whilst others had pulled out all the stops and brought parachute tents, military quick buildings, African plains tents that sat atop their landrovers and all possible permutations of alpine tents.
The London lot had taken over a small corner in the far field and we drove through the grounds to meet up with them.
We quickly unzipped our tents. I say quickly because Trip whipped out his 2 second tent and whooomph he was up and ready! 4 seconds later he had a beer in hand and was looking far too relaxed. At that point I hadn’t even got the bloody tent pegs out yet!
Doc, Kiero and Big D
My Tent!
Lex and his enormous tent
Janno looking hungry
George smiles for the shot
Once the tents were up we quickly got down to business and started drinking (joke!). No, we split into two groups; those playing the first night game, and those who were going to party all night. Guess which group I was in! The weather was glorious and I was very much in the mood to party as I hadn’t seen these guys for a month or so.
Before we got too emerged, I sauntered over to the Z1 crew and picked up my new gun.
ICS, in celebration of their 20 year anniversary have forged, in secret, a master gun. One gun to rule them all, one gun to find them, one gun to find them all, and in the darkness lace the shit out them!
As lex said, “Its very niiice!”
I quickly took her over to the range and gave her a little dance. Now, I had asked for her to be downgraded to 328fps because Electrowerkz has a very firm limit on feet per second. Zero One had not only down graded her, but also charged the battery, all for the bargain price of £269.
The rate of fire is of very high quality, somewhere below my LR with its Systema high speed motor, but definitely above a stock TM. Range’wise the LR is slightly higher (in fact the LR is sniper quality), but the ICS is still very good indeed.
The whole thing is full metal and a nice solid feel on the shoulder. The accuracy is great and the gears very loud (like all ICS). It comes with two (!) high caps, the battery in a PEQ box, a T-shirt, a BB loader and a sling.
Fantastic!
Trip and his super custom HK with prowin gearbox
The night ticked on and we partied hard. Those fighting in the night game came back and announced that the site was huge and the enemy experienced. They also announced that ACU cammo is bloody useless in the the woodland! Doh! I guess we are not in London anymore!
Around 1am I drove the spiders out of my tent and went to sleep.
The next morning was beautiful. We woke at 7:30am and, after a quick visit to the bogs, made breakfast and got ready for action. We started in our ACU’s, but I think we all knew that we would need to change later to something that didn’t glow in the dark and announcing in loud clearly annunciated English where we were hiding!
Trip, Me, Kiero
Z1 had put in a massive amount of thought and planning into the days games. The basic premise was that there was three sides in a localised conflict. The DA’s were on Delta, which was signified by the white tags that we hung from our tac gear. We were fighting against “Bravo” and “The Others” in a fully featured war setting. The Idea was that during the day certain objectives had to be held, materials recovered and hostages either taken or rescued. I heard, throughout the entire weekend, many of the Darkangel team say that they thought the whole event was being very well arranged. I would agree. Z1 have done themselves proud.
As the Marshals explained all this to us I took stock of the size of the crowd we had here. 500 people in various gear is a sight to see. It was massive! I could tell that the fighting was going to be very very fierce once we got started.
I was right. The teams made their way to their start points. I began to get an idea of the size of the Z1 play area. It is by far the largest I have ever played. Hills, valleys, camps, bases, dug outs, brush, ferns, paths and off road paths litter an enormous area. The game started an we DA’s looked at each other; already we were lost.
One of the regular players broke from his team and led us out. I have to say that in all my time in Airsoft I have yet to come across nicer regulars in any site. Soon contact was made and men went down in BB fire. The kill rules here are simple. once dead you sit out for ten minutes at designated points and then you are back in. This lends a whole reinforcement aspect to the flow of the game, which worked very well. It also gives you a rest!
The Z1 regular that scouted for us.
Geardo!
Janno describing the size of his breakfast
The DA’s fought hard but made slow progress down the pathways towards the Bravo quadrant. Our ACU was simply too easy to see (we nicknamed it “I-SEE-YOU”.) I was starting to tire and decided to try and flank the enemy on the path by making my way through the bushes. Soon I was lost. The opponents I encountered were quickly beaten by the surprise of seeing me coming out of the bush and giving them a wave, then shooting them. Silly sods. I never cheated by claiming to be on their side, I didn’t have to, a simple wave of the hand disarmed them totally.
I found myself far down the path of their lines and passed back towards the DA’s sneaking up to all the opponents (who were looking the other way) and tapping them on the shoulder. I would simply say “You’re dead mate!” and pass on. I managed to kill 8 before they cottoned on and took me down. It was too late for them, my strategy for the day had been decided. I was going to sneak.
An example of the quick reflexes and well organised responses of the Z1 team came when a crazy women, nothing to do with the game (or so I understand) drove through the game in an open top red car. She obviously had no idea where she was and if she was in danger from a stray BB. The car was very quickly trailed by a quad bike full of Marshals and soon escorted out of the arena.
I teamed up with George and we spent the rest of the afternoon sneaking through the bush as a double team and caused mayhem! Our greatest achievement was taking out the entire “Stag camp.”
We sneak up on “Stag.”
We skirted around the camp, which has multiple sand bag positions and great fields of fire down the front paths. Slowly and silently we crept in the rear entrance; hidden through bushes. I led and came across a rear guardsman who back at me and, yes you guessed it, waved. I signaled him that he was dead and to his eternal credit he took the “bang kill” silently. Let me say it again; what a honest player. Passing by him I could see 8 players dug in around the camp and all looking the other way. We passed silently into their camp and I bang killed 4 of them before the others even realised they were under attack. As I moved to the fifth George noticed that I had been spotted and opened fire. Suddenly we were in a large firefight and all were killed. nevertheless, we had taken the whole camp!
A nice feeling. We congratulated ourselves and walked to the dead zone where we chatted with those who had fallen in the fight and swapped stories about the firefight.
After that, my other highlight was taking the “Check Point Charlie” base and holding off a massive 20 man onslaught, only falling to a grenade thrown through the door after taking 8 men out.
It is an example of the size of the place that we fought the same men all day and didn’t see more than 200 of the 500 doing battle.
The end of day results put Delta in second place by on 90 points and so there was all to play for. Big D made up much of our score by finding one of the most valuable packages; the gold nuggets.
As darkness drew we retired from the fighting for dinner then made our way back to the night game. Lex and Trip had arranged with the Z1 commanders that they would announce the start of the night games by letting off a mark 120 pyrotechnic, which could be heard from all parts of the site.
Lex and Trip wire up the pyrotechnic.
CLICK ME FOR A MOVIE OF THE PYRO GOING UP!
The boom sounded and we started the attack. Night games are always chaos and thus it was this time. All too soon someone was injured and the game was halted whilst he was looked after. Trip and Lex then powered up the night scope and went and kicked 30 assess in the pitch black.
I decided to bug out at that point and go back to party harder than last night. Like only the Darkangel’s can!
On the way back to camp our resident singer; Big D together with Janno and myself came up with new words for the song “Bohemian Rhapsody”, which goes as follows:
Janno strikes the pose!
I see a little silhouetto on the airsoft field,
Scaramouche,scaramouche light up the mother fucxer–
Thunderbolt and lightning-BB’s very frightening me–
Galileo,galileo,
Galileo galileo
Galileo He’s a newbie–
But Im just a newbie and nobody loves me–
Hes just a newbie boy from a rental family–
Spending his life for an EO-TECH–
Easy come easy go-,won’t you geardo?-
Bismillah! no-,we will not geardo!-
geardo!
Bismillah! no-,we will not geardo!-
geardo!
Bismillah! no-,we will not geardo!-
geardo!
Will not not geardo!-
Will not not geardo!-
No,no,no,no,no,no,no–
Mama mia,mama mia,mama mia let me geardo!-
Beelzebub has a devil put a sidearm for me?,for me?,for me?-
’nuff said!
The next morning, I awoke to the sound of many snoring ‘angels. Brushing the multitude of spiders from my obviously irresistible body I crawled out of my tent and started to make the coffee. then someone had the best idea I had heard all day; let’s find a café and get a cooked breakfast!
Morning has broken!
We quickly formed up in three transports and zoomed off to find a very nice little café in Christchurch. I was so hungry that the other team members christened me “F18” in honour of the speed I drive (which was a fully legal speed, I assure you!)
The second days fighting saw the ‘angels stick closer together and work very well as a team. We even followed the objectives in the plan!
The Delta a Bravo teams joined forces and attacked the entrenched Others.
Our mission was to assault the high hill camp, but first we had to get past the defenses along the roads leading to the base of the hill. We decided to flank the opponents and snuck along through the ferns to the far far left of the road.
The DA’s’ quickly adopt local camouflage and blend in! You can’t tell but there is 4 maybe 5 DA’s in this picture! Can you even spot a single one!?
Moving well as a team we beat a path upto the hill and started our assault. The fight was tough, very tough but after much battle, laying flat and crawling up the mud we were victorious in taking the highest point and beating the defense to a pulp. Janno, as is his way, led the cry for a “Hell yeah!” and the Delta/Bravo men and women cried in unison.
We have the hill!
Then, of course, the union of the two forces failed at the marshals command. After many hours slugging it out, including one master shot from the LR, which took out a guy bloody miles away, we passed back by the home safe zone and called it a day.
Night vision glock!
The remaining DA’s salute their leader!
The event had been very successful and we all had a great time. We packed in very high spirits and slowly, taking our time, we drove off in convoy. We used radios to keep in touch whilst driving up the M3 and after many good byes my car left the others for its journey to Buckhurst Hill.
There and back again. The event was over for us, but the memories will last until we next take up arms at Zero One.
Regards,
Basho
