GroundZero Weekender 2010 – Aftermath Day 2 – Pre Lunch
After the crazy that was Day 1 we awoke to a very different attitude on the Saturday.
By the time Darksaber and I had decided it was time to wake up, Psycho and co had already started getting gear ready in the same way that everyone else on the site had decided to do.
We cooked a good old tinned breakfast of beans and meatballs before getting our gear sorted and ready for the days events.
Luckily we had hired a portable toilet of our own for the team so we didn't have to go too far for the morning necessaries. I also don't think the public loos would have been too much fun after the drunken escapades taking place all over the site on the night before.
After sauntering down to the LZ with what appeared to be pretty much everyone else on the site we were treated to a briefing covering off the major safety points of Airsoft. Though we have all heard it a million times before everyone remained quiet so players new to the sport would be able to hear.
After the brief all the teams headed off to their respective starting points for the day. The Horns sounded for a game on and all was a go.
We decided it would be an excellent idea to head to the other end of the site for one of the early objectives, with it being the longest trek from the start point it was highly likely we would be first to get there for a small fight then objective capture.
Following our trusty map from the pack we set out in search of our objective and a couple of other players decided to take along with us. Apparently it looked like we knew what we were doing or something..
Well, as it turns out the map was wrong. Horribly horribly wrong.
We turned up at what should have been the objective about 30-40 minutes after the game start having seen no other players during the time, only to find out it wasn't there.
After about 20 minutes of searching and scouting the area we were unable to find the objective area entirely, so decided to start back-tracking and headed for another objective.
Only later did we find out that the map was indeed off course by about a quarter mile, which is why we got lost. And we thought it was just the fault of our navigator..
Having tracked back we heard gun shots in the distance and decided to investigate the noises.
In doing so we entered an area perched on the side of a small hill covered in trees pointing to what we assumed to be an objective. We took up positions in anticipation of a fight.
The rustle of leaves sent us silent with Kaiser hitting the deck and crawling forward to investigate.
Kaiser opened up and clocked a player on an opposing team scoring the first Luna Wolves kill of the day. Remarking that the player was French (the weekender really attracts people from all over Europe) Nightwolf offered to buy Kaiser a beer for his efforts.
Kaiser eventually got taken out along with pretty much everyone else leaving me (Bio), Valkyrie and Darksaber to fend for ourselves.
Nightwolf remembered he was an intel carrier and stood yelling this fact so that an opposing player may take the intel from him within the allotted 5 minute time period.
Another rustle in the bushes got my attention. The flash of an opposing tag was cause enough to open up with the M249 in the relative direction of the tag. Through the clattering of the gun on full auto I was unable to hear the yells of "HIT!" coming from our French friend from earlier that had come back to hunt us. Nightwolf called over that he was hit and that I was to stop firing to let him out of the combat zone.
We sat crouched until the allotted time was up and Nightwolf able to respawn, alert for any players that may try and take our precious intel.
Nobody did.
Our French friend from earlier appeared again in roughly the same spot as before and was met with yet another torrent of plastic doom.
We sat alert, waiting for the return of our team mates.
About 5 minutes later, our French friend returned, AGAIN. Either this guy was a glutton for punishment or very silly.
I was taken out very rapidly.
Upon my return to the nearest dead zone it was apparent what had been happening. The deadzone was not 200 meters from where we were fighting, if that!
Our French friend had been scouting out our positions at each death, returning to the dead zone, then exiting via the back in an attempt to pick us off! Dirty cheat!
Though to say this is cheating is not strictly true, but is certainly not in the spirit of Airsoft.
After being wiped out and trundling around the site some more, we stopped for lunch and headed back to camp. BBQ was again order of the day..
Red Dawn Weekender – Island Recon – Pre-Game write-up
Before I start: Please note this is the Pre-Game write-up. The game will be coming later in the week.
I'd like to start by talking a bit about the bad start to our weekend. In fact, DarkSaber's bad start to the weekend.
Prior to actually getting anything in the way of Airsoft under-way, she took a slight tumble down the steps outside our house while loading the car. At the front of our house we have paving slabs as steps with a shingle drive. When stepping onto the slabs it is wise to ensure that your footing is correct and you don't slip off them and twist your ankle in the process otherwise this happens:
Ouch
Ouch indeed.
This of course resulted in not much play from DarkSaber over the weekend, and a dash around Newport on Friday getting pain killers, ankle supports, and deep freeze gel.
So anyway.
On Friday we travelled over to the IOW and landed in Cowes then drove off to meet up with NightWolf. After bundling NightWolf into the car we set out on some errands to help get the site prepped. So it was off to get a USB stick then a journey to Staples to get a load of paperwork printed.
We then pressed onto the site to start the prep work there.
We arrived to be greeted by Mark and his wife who had already been doing some work on the site during the day although they had to leave shortly after.
From there NightWolf and I set out to erect a "comms tower" and scatter gold bars through-out the site for the game start on Saturday. That in itself took quite a bit of time as we had to walk the entire length of the site at least twice as well as its entire width (including the ridge) to ensure a nice distribution of gold.
To give you a good idea of just how large this is, I shall illustrate with the use of Google maps
Of course remember that this is the distance AROUND the site, not end to end.
If we were to roughly plot how far we walked:
Not too bad really, but that's just a guess and isn't accurate, in fairness it was probably slightly more than that. In 25C, in the woods which turns pretty much tropical and humid, it feels like a very long way but it had to be done to ensure some of the set pieces were ready for the Saturday.
Foolishly I was not wearing the proper socks with my boots to do this and I don't have particularly hard feet, so I wound up with nice blisters by the end of the day.
DarkSaber sensibly sat and rested up in the Safe Zone.
There was more running errands that day and plenty of driving to fetch things and getting things set-up. By the evening everyone that had turned up during the mean time, and including us, were getting hungry so some of the lads went on a KFC run.
DarkSaber and I pitched our tent and by the time this was done, the boys were back with the food. We drank and ate until about midnight wrapping up a beautiful day of hard work preparing for the game on.
Christmas 2009 game
Well for Christmas the 'Wolves will be over on the Isle of Wight to play at Island Recon. The theme is Santa vs. Elves.
This will be the first trip to the IOW to have the whole Luna Wolves team there together. NightWolf is actually a co-owner of IR so naturally tends to be there a bit more than the rest of us.
Coming with me is my new toy. Meet "Dorothy" (A&K M249 Para):
I picked her up off one of the fine UCAP-ians for a small sum.
Since purchase I've actually stripped her down (oh-er!), cleaned the gearbox up from the thick tractor grease that was in there and put some of the fine "Finish Line" stuff I normally use in there. This allows for more slippery on the gears and hence has increased ROF a fair bit from it's stock form.
I've also replaced the piston o-ring to get a better air seal as well as re-built the hop unit and cleaned the (VERY dirty) barrel, AND I've bought a new 9.6v Large for her.
She's now kicking out a steady 319fps (perfect for most sites in the UK) and the ROF is somewhere up near a TM FAMAS which is nice.