Bomb Squad Returns to OpTac

Our day started as all airsoft days should start, with a McDonald's breakfast!

The site is based in a huge 200-acre woodland and quarry estate in stoke - Huntley Wood, Cheadle Stoke on Trent, ST10 2NS.

How much did you pay to play a full day’s airsoft and what was included?

We paid the non-members price of £25 this included the full airsoft game day, for an extra £5 you could have a full dinner. The lunch was chicken and or hotdog rolls with pigs in blankets a drink and a pack of biscuits.

What did you think about the safe zone and the safety brief?

The safety brief was a little long, but when you put it into consideration the site itself is 200 Acres! The game day brief included a full site risk assessment, child protection policy and extra info for women’s first aid. Overall the safety brief is possibly the most informative one we have ever had and that was great!

What were the game modes?

For the first game the defending force had to protect 3 missile sites and a VIP, while the attacking force had to retrieve the missiles and get them back to their compound, as well as extract the VIP. This game had a time limit of 1 hour, for the most part of that time it was a constant battle.

The second game was a repeat of the first this time with roles reversed, so now the defenders were attacking, and attackers had become defenders. This was also a very intense game with constant firefights all around the vast game zone.

After the morning's action we broke for lunch, there are drinks and snacks also available to purchase and they are reasonably priced.

After lunch, the first game was to search and destroy. We had to defend our site to stop attackers from detonating a bomb on our objective. This was an extremely tough task as the game zone was vast and has some extremely good places to hide and allow the attacking force to sneak upon us. Once the objective was achieved or 1 hour had passed it was game over.

We then switched sides, so we were attacking. This was absolutely awesome! We had utilised the use of the on-site vehicles to gain as much ground as possible to get really close to the objective. We had some incredible support weapons and snipers keeping the enemy pinned down, whilst some of us made our advance.

Although we only played four games, they were all extremely tough games which most of us really enjoyed, even though we were all exhausted on the way home.

How well did you think the Marshals worked?

A special mention must go to the marshaling team onsite as they are very proactive, one of the teammates had an issue where another player opened the door of a vehicle and blindly fired on full auto in the face of our player. This was quickly dealt with by the marshal telling the offending player he was no longer allowed to take part in the days play for dangerous behaviour. Our player was ok however, as you can imagine, he did have a few bumps on his face.

What did you like about the site?

We liked the fact that the game modes were different from last time we went, and we also used different game locations from the last game day. The incorporation of vehicles was excellent. The marshaling team is very proactive and does all they can to help or assist you in any way.

What didn’t you like about the site?

The only gripes we could think of is the size of the safe zone, the car park is massive, yet the covered part of the safe zone is extremely small and if it started to rain most people's kit would get soaked.

Photo credit to Op-Tac The Kingdom