On Airsoft

[Mr. Edgyman]

Yes the title is a joke with von Clausewitz's "On War".

A few days ago I went to my first airsoft game. This has given me the idea of creating a topic where after every "battle" I come here and do a short report of my results and experience, with other users also being able to do the same here of course.

I am not sure if Psychlonic would get annoyed at the use of certain words like in the Blogposting thread so I'll try to substitute some with ones that are less... bot detectable or something. Guaranteed to look kinda goofy though.

So let's begin.

First battle.

Conditions: Day. A bit wet from previous rain.
Location: Deactivated set of buildings with some green areas outside. Extremely close range inside most areas of the buildings, longer on the areas outside of the buildings.
Number of participants: I think 20 for each team.
Equipment:
Skull black balaclava (I don't like it because it has too much white but had nothing better)
Black protective goggles with battery powered fan to avoid fogging of the non dark transparent plastic
Black protective mesh for nose, teeth and cheeks
Black combat shirt
Black tactical gloves
Black tactical pants
Internal soft knee-pads (They are really nice because I can crouch really fast and it won't hurt while at the same time not making an impact noise, highly recommended!)
Black tactical belt
Black pouch for extra pew container
Black leg pew launcher holder
Thingies that keep the lower part of the pants from covering the boots and things from getting inside the pants
Black long socks
Black army boots
Electric hand pew launcher
Two 30BB pew containers (one inside launcher)
Pew container loader with about 120 extra BBs
Tactical flashlight

First round:
Objective: Get some MacGuffins to activate a static boom device, afterwards, protect the device so it isn't deactivated. Also protect some boom device deactivation MacGuffins.

Results:
Objective: Defeat. MacGuffins collected but device wasn't activated.
Times hit: Many.
Foes hit: 0.

Second round:
Objective: Protect some MacGuffins so a static boom device isn't activated while at the same time getting some other MacGuffins to deactivate the device in case it is activated.

Results:
Objective: Success! MacGuffins collected and device wasn't activated.
Times hit: Many. But a bit less this time.
Foes hit: 3!

Now comments on this battle.

I think my very poor performance can be attributed to some things.

1. Lack of sleep. I had only managed to sleep for two hours the night before the game due to too much excitement. Fortunately the game was in the morning so the little sleep I had didn't fully wane away before it. I didn't feel sleepy because I was constantly active, but it still certainly affected my cognitive abilities.

2. Wrong equipment and skills for the task. Since it was my first game I didn't know what to do or where to go very well so I followed the other guys. Infantry guys.

Those guys had very head on combat centric tasks that I'm not equipped for. My equipment is very light and tailored towards close range recon not "Go take that area" type things. My skill set is also focused on stealth, not head on combat.

Let's first talk about the equipment. Imagine you were playing a FPS video game. In that game every weapon, from the tiniest to the largest takes down the opponents in a single hit anywhere on the body or equipment. Armor, no matter how thick and resistant, will not do anything to stop you from getting downed in one hit. It seems obvious then that the most optimal kit would be the lightest one, no armor and a weapon suited for the distance you wish to fight in. This all changes when one more mechanic is introduced: Pain. Whenever you get hit directly on skin or thin clothing in game wherever you got hit on will hurt a lot in real life. With that one change it now makes sense to armor yourself up as much as possible to avoid the pain, not doing so makes you fearful of exposing yourself and that has a lot of consequences. That's how it is in airsoft.

One thing that happened a lot on that regard is getting locked in a cover fight with someone and always losing due to the psychological effects of lack of armor and pain. I am fearful of getting hit because of the pain so I'll try to quickly pop out of cover, fire one shot and get back into cover. This results in very poor accuracy, specially considering I'm using a hand pewer that has no third point of contact with the body, as well as an inability to capitalize on the effects of suppression. Ideally you will fire and spook your opponent into getting back into cover and holding your aim on him so that next time when he pops out you hit him. That requires very strong or calm nerves, something that with the fear of pain and lack of armor I can't have, leading to me being the guy who's zeroed in after trying to pop out and fire for the third time or so.

Then there's the skill issue. My basic training program only has very basic combat skills, I'll only train CQB stuff on the intermediary training program that'll only happen some time after I'm done with the basic. The skills I have so far are mostly related to stealth, this leads to situations like having my ability to walk without making a sound completely nullified because I'm following loud infantry guys who walk loudly and whose gear rattles a lot, meaning my one advantage is lost.

3. Team. As much as I don't like blaming others for my own perils I think it's undeniable that I may have committed a mistake by choosing what team I wanted to play as too early, leading to me being with the team that's equipped like a rag tag guerrilla instead of the team with a bunch of guys who look like soldiers, special forces and shadow government death squads. You may say that equipment doesn't equal skill, and you'd be right, putting on Delta Force's kit won't improve your skill, but it's way more probable that the guy who has invested a whole lot of money into his kit puts more effort and time into training than the guy with a chest rig, boonie hat and basic long pewer because the guy with Gucci kit has a greater incentive into making that money be worth it as well as probably having more interest for tactics and stuff. That without mentioning that rarely one goes all in into something so he probably built his kit as time passed and thus has more experience due to playing more games.

Now let's talk about some changes to be made that will hopefully improve my situation.

1. Try to sleep well the night before the game lol.

2. Here I have two options, change my gear or change my behavior. For now I chose the former. My family didn't like that I came back from the game with skin wounds that last for days and offered to buy me a plate carrier but I denied it for now as those tend to be noisy. I will instead try to do more of the little successes I had last game, all 3 foe hits I had were when I used stealth and clever positioning to my advantage. 2 when I did an ambush at a ramp aiming from an angle where I could see their legs but they couldn't see me, then getting into a cover fight and losing. The last one when I got into a cover fight but realized that I'd probably lose so I just waited, then heard some fighting coming from that direction and with that probable distraction shifting my position and spotting the head of one, aiming and hitting it, unfortunately another heard it, appeared and hit me one second later. These little successes as well as hearing about how that same game a guy hid in a room until 7 people passed him then hit them all from behind show that stealth is in fact a viable tactic, thus I'll try to lean more into it. I think I'll stalk around the less populated second floor trying to lay ambushes, if spotted retreating and laying another ambush, repeating until pursuers worn out or given up, if forced to fight try to avoid getting bogged down and instead maneuver around, if bogged down waiting or just try to accept that I'm probably gonna get hit anyway and fully committing to the cover fight. A very dodgy fighting style.

I will still make some alterations on my kit however. The balaclava, goggle and mask combo make it really hard to breathe so I bought a balaclava with integrated nose and teeth protection, no cheek protection though but hopefully it won't hurt a lot. Overpriced but I hope it will be worth it. The tactical pants make quite a lot of noise when a leg scrapes into another but for now I'll just try to put up with it because I enjoy the environmental protection it gives me. I have given up on the tactical flashlight because it's just not powerful enough to give me an advantage during the day. The Pew container loader unfortunately rattles when I run after some of it is emptied but I'm not aware of any fix for it besides getting more pew containers instead but that's kind of expensive and I also can't get rid of the loader because still, I NEED MORE BOOLITS!!!

I feel like my kit will hit full maturity when I get an radio and an electronic ear protection headset that integrates with said radio. That would allow me to hide somewhere where I can see and transmit information about the other team's movements to the guys on my team who have radios and they relay that information to the others, helping the team as a whole a lot. The protection part of the electronic ear pro isn't all that necessary since this field doesn't allow loud hand boom devices but they also amplify noises like steps, talking and other stuff that's pretty useful for stealth. Another thing would be nocturnal capabilities with good night vision and an IR laser since this field hosts night games. Getting a suppressor for my hand pew would also be nice just to complete the look.

3. Just wait until the game is about to start before choosing the team I feel more confidence in.

And I guess this is it for now, next game soon and also a report on that. I also need to stop procrastinating and write up the report on crouch walking, hopefully I haven't forgotten anything yet.

[Psychlonic]

For whatever it's worth, I know a guy who played for awhile and probably the most utilitarian version I heard about were the smaller closed arena style games. The close quarters mandates using clever tactics for dispatching enemies like laying supine alongside of doorways and such if you're using more realistic guns instead of the bb hoses most players seem to use. Can also imagine the close proximity makes it so that learning bad habits on real firearms isn't really a concern, since trigger or reloading intricacies won't factor in nearly as much.

I sort of liked the concept and even the unfairness of trying to use something like an airsoft pistol with 17 rounds against an opposing force filling the air with plastic, since if it's just you IRL that may well be exactly how unfair it is.

[Mr. Edgyman]

Time for the report on my second game, quite a lot of improvements.

Conditions: Day.
Location: Deactivated set of buildings with some green areas outside. Extremely close range inside most areas of the buildings, longer on the areas outside of the buildings.
Number of participants: I think 15 for each team.
Equipment:
Black balaclava with protective mesh for mouth and nose
Black protective goggles with battery powered fan to avoid fogging of the non dark transparent plastic
Black combat shirt
Black tactical gloves
Black tactical pants
Internal soft knee-pads
Black tactical belt
Black pouch for extra pew container
Black leg pew launcher holder
Thingies that keep the lower part of the pants from covering the boots and things from getting inside the pants
Black long socks
Black army boots
Electric hand pew launcher
Two 30BB pew containers (one inside launcher)
Pew container loader with about 120 extra BBs

First round:
Objective: Get 5 fun chemical packages assigned to our team and bring them to a warehouse room. Stop the enemy team from doing the same with their fun chemical packages.

Results:
Objective: Unknown. I wasn't paying too much attention to playing the objective this time.
Times hit: Not that many this time.
Foes hit: 2. Could have been more though.

Second round:
Objective: Same as last time. However this time the map didn't flip for me because I followed a friend I made in changing teams because he wanted to play with some friends of his.

Results:
Objective: Once again unknown. Probably defeat though because some of the guys in our team quit towards the end of the game due to classic airsoft drama.
Times hit: Again not that many.
Foes hit: 4!

Now highlights of this battle.

I want to begin with the foe hit highlights.

First one was by holding what was effectively for him a center fed room, he picked the wrong side to commit to and I hit him on the back, afterwards I immediately ran back upstairs to lay another ambush, got distracted by my team passing by outside right as the same guy I had hit respawned, got upstairs and shot me on my buttocks. Now, I could have easily hit the guy on the back of the head as one should do in a real situation while using a hand pewer against someone who's wearing just a vest, but after witnessing first hand how much these BBs hurt I just couldn't do it, I just hope it doesn't become a terrible training scar.

Second one was outside. I had looked around and it didn't seem like there was any enemies covering where I wanted to advance through so I went forwards. I reached a building but didn't go in, instead I spotted an enemy sniper who was distracted looking at another direction, he was a bit far away but I wanted to engage him anyway. Had to fire about 15 times to get through some branches and angle my pewer a bit but eventually I hit him. While I was firing two other enemies noticed it but I just took one step back towards the building so they didn't have an angle on me. After the sniper was taken care of it was time for those other two guys. I didn't commit the mistake of peeking them, instead I went into a high crawl to silently advance behind cover and hit them from an unexpected angle but as I was halfway there the end of round horn had sounded.

Now at the start of the second round. This was near the ramps that connected the first and second floor. I took cover at a spot they couldn't see me to lay an ambush. I saw a muzzle from what was probably the enemy so I popped out to engage, I hit him but due to panic he hits me a bit after he was already hit. Since dying is optional on my part in this scenario and I didn't want to jog all the way back to base and back there again I decided to just stick around. I do however kept the mental note of trying to not expose myself so much next time. Since this was badly explained I made a drawing of it seem down bellow.

i rival da vinci.jpg (13.72 KiB) Viewed 1739 times

Now towards the end of the round. This was next to some stairs that connected the first and second floor close to our spawn. I get up to the second floor through some other stairs and what do I see? An entire enemy squad, they see me as well. I retreat and try to engage from another direction, in a panic hit one of their guys who was already dead from another engagement and was just trying to get back to their spawn, this blows my cover so I once again retreat and try to hit them from where I came, once again I hit the poor guy who was already dead and blow my cover, go back to the other direction, spotted again and go back to where I came, this time however they had committed too hard to that other direction and no one detected me coming, I hit three guys, the third one asks me if my pewer had actually fired or if it had jammed because it made a strange sound, as I reply saying that I saw a BB coming out the last man in their squad hits me as I'm distracted. Very sad ending but an excellent practical demonstration of that fighting style I said I would adopt in the last report.

Now for some fail highlights.

Twice I tried to hit them from behind by coming out of the second floor stairs close to their spawn, twice I got unlucky. First time I tried to advance through the large corridor, one of theirs appeared out of a room and looked at my direction, I had nowhere to retreat and take cover so he hit me. Second time I got into a room that linked the large corridor with the smaller one, one of theirs passed going back to their spawn extremely calmly, I didn't fire at him because I assumed he was dead and on his way to respawn. He wasn't. He walked back and hit me on the chest.

In some corridor at the second floor close to our spawn me and another guy were engaging 2 or 3 enemies, one of them locks down the corridor except by the fact that there was some large waist high boxes he couldn't have an angle behind. I try to silently advance in a crawl to get into a room but one of them appears from another room I didn't know had an connection and hits me in the face.

Now non combat highlights.

At some point I kept running between two friendly squads holding the second floor, asking how's their situation and informing them of the status of the other squad. Who knew world war one runner was still a thing?

Now comments on this battle.

I think I've managed pretty well to correct the mistakes of the first battle and the results speak for themselves. I've slept well the night before for one, I've used a fighting style that is coherent with my equipment, the new facial protection I got allows me to breathe well, I rationalized that I would probably get hit anyway so might as well not be cowardly and thus regained my ability to be aggressive and finally I waited a bit more and chose the team with more guys who look like they know what they're doing.

On the pain problem. It seems to be a bit less painful now. I guess that guy from 4chan who made a thread about microdosing bullets to gain immunity to them wasn't completely insane.

I've also went with my family to a tactical stuff store and tested some vests, one of them fits pretty well on me and isn't noisy but is made specifically for airsoft so it isn't as well built as some other two. Those two were noisy but I don't know if it's just because they aren't well adjusted to me. I may get a vest because those marks haven't disappeared in weeks and I'd rather not end up peppered with a bunch of them. I'd like the vest to last so I'll try seeing if the more expensive ones aren't just in need of adjustment to be silent. Also the drip factor.

Until next time.

For whatever it's worth, I know a guy who played for awhile and probably the most utilitarian version I heard about were the smaller closed arena style games. The close quarters mandates using clever tactics for dispatching enemies like laying supine alongside of doorways and such if you're using more realistic guns instead of the bb hoses most players seem to use. Can also imagine the close proximity makes it so that learning bad habits on real firearms isn't really a concern, since trigger or reloading intricacies won't factor in nearly as much.

I sort of liked the concept and even the unfairness of trying to use something like an airsoft pistol with 17 rounds against an opposing force filling the air with plastic, since if it's just you IRL that may well be exactly how unfair it is.

On the field I've been going it seems like the vast majority of people use normal things instead of BB hoses.

I think close proximity is where you can get a lot of bad habits like flagging or pressing the trigger in bad ways since it's less significant, that last one can go uncorrected and become a big problem when you get in longer distances. If you do need to reload you also better do it well and quickly because the opponent can rush you if you have no teammates nearby.

Regarding mag capacity, I think they need to be larger than in reality because of the lack of accuracy. A good example of it is me engaging that sniper. If it were real I could have hit him in the first round but because it's airsoft I had to empty half my mag. That's why I think it's ok to use mid cap magazines instead of low cap ones. Also magazines are expensive.

[Mr. Edgyman]

Time for my report on the third game. This one will probably be shorter and have less details because it's been sometime since it happened as I have been busy these last few days and without much energy for writing.

Conditions, location, number of participants and equipment are the same.

First round:
Objective: Capture 4 flags assigned to your team, then capture one final flag assigned to both teams. Stop the enemy team from doing the same.

Results:
Objective: Unknown. Maybe a tie.
Times hit: Not that many.
Foes hit: 2 I think.

Second round:
Objective: Same as last time.

Results:
Objective: We certainly didn't win, not so sure about the enemy.
Times hit: Again not that many.
Foes hit: 5 plus 2 spot assists.

Now highlights. Beginning with enemy hits.

The first two were when I was doing rear security. First one managed to get one of ours before I hit him. Second one I flinched, I think causing him to miss, despite the flinch I still hit him. A flinch may have well saved me this time but it still certainly isn't good, specially considering I'm pretty sure I closed my eyes while doing it. Need to get calmer.

The next two were defending a room that controlled a pretty important section of the map that led to many other places. I was peeking through some small holes and cracks in the bricks, as soon as I saw an enemy going out in the open I'd rush to the door, pop out and hit him. Got two people that way.

The next three were in that same room. I couldn't see but could hear them approaching which meant they were about to stack up on my door and enter the room, so I waited close to the door. First one begins entering and I hit him, quickly utilizing the surprise I advance a bit more and hit a guy that was on the right side of the door then another who was just waiting right in the middle. I see the fourth guy and he sees me, he's on the left side of the door and I quickly determine I have no chance against him because his cover is just too good. I retreat with two steps back with the intention of retreating further to hide somewhere and ambush him but before I could turn around an enemy appeared on the other door and hit me thrice in the back. God, that hurt.

The spot assists were when I teamed up with a government death squad guy and went through a very low population part of the map to try and get behind the enemy, maybe capture a flag. At some point we run into a very long corridor, I was acting as the pointman at that moment so I went in first, as I go in I spot far into the corridor two enemies facing away from us, knowing I haven't got the range I quickly use some hand movements to call him to my position quickly and then point down into the corridor. He comes over, sees the two enemies, aims and quickly dispatches both. We then continued going forwards but at some point we get into contact and he gets hit. I'm not sure if I got hit as well or if it was a ricochet but I declare myself dead and head back to spawn as well for reasons I'll explain later. But this highlight, this felt supreme. This was awesome. These moments where it's you and another guy being well coordinated and working together towards a goal feel great. Makes me wonder how many things a stealth oriented duo could accomplish. Some mistakes on my part were made though. Firstly I should have hid somewhere instead of standing in the middle of the corridor, I mean, those guys could have looked back. Second is I wasn't 100% sure those guys were enemies before designating them as such, must do better target identification.

Now for fail highlights.

Both of them are related to poor assumptions of allegiance. First one I was waiting crouched into a room with another guy for reasons I can't remember. We hear someone coming from behind but because that's the direction of our team's spawn we assume it's a friendly. It wasn't and he hits us both. Second one I see a guy from my team talking with someone else, I assume that someone else is friendly. It wasn't, he raises his weapon revealing it was an enemy and he hits me. Yeah the last one is a bit of bad luck but I guess with both the lesson is to assume less.

Now comments.

Three times I had the opportunity to stay behind enemy lines and do stealth because my squad had been wiped out. I didn't seize any of those opportunities. Why? Well I just wasn't feeling it. What's "it"? I don't know. I think it's a combination of energy and motivation, both I was kind of lacking that day. Still am lacking. I'll try to do better but things just haven't been going too well in non tactical matters in my life so I don't know how that will go.

Until next time, guys.

[Mr. Edgyman]

I'll have to skip nearly everything from the fourth battle and jump straight to comments for OPSEC reasons.

Comments.

Some easy shots were missed. Not much to say here except put more effort into aiming.

Using a pistol in open terrain forces you to get creative in order to gain ground and dispatch enemies. Had to belly crawl on the ground and do some very crazy and daring stuff in order to capture some positions. While pinned down behind a tree I remembered a review for the Cyberpunk tabletop game. It said something along the lines that in that game attitude is key, to think weak is to be weak, to think strong is to be strong. After remembering that I got the idea to do a certain thing but couldn't try it out as I got hit while peeking shortly after, but did similar things and it worked out quite well. I guess there's some truth in that saying.

While it did sort of work sometimes, in hindsight I think it may have been better to rely on not being detected instead of suppression in certain attacks, specially considering it was me spending my own limited ammunition to provide cover to my own advance, which meant not having a lot of BBs left after getting to the position I wanted to, that got me hit once because I forgot to reload and when I tried to hit an advancing enemy my weapon was empty. Additionally I should maybe try to be a bit more professional at times in regard to the way I move.

My cardio was abysmal. I would move a bit and then have to rest for a minute or two. I once exerted myself so much to successfully take a position that I felt terrible pain in my abdomen and could only stay on the floor gripping the pain while awaiting a plastiky death or capture. It could have been because I couldn't work out for a long time or that my backpack was too tight and wouldn't let me breathe properly, maybe both.

The aftermath of this battle was a bit of a problem as nearly everything in my kit was dirty and lots of cleanup had to be done. The BB mag loader got damaged as well due to sliding on the floor a few times to get to cover with it in my back pocket. I repaired it but I will move it to another storage space.

While last game my motivation and energy was terrible, this time I had somehow managed to forget about other problems and give some of my best. Very happy about that.

Until next time.

[Mr. Edgyman]

Fifth battle's thing is that this one was at night, finally.

Conditions: Night.
Location: Deactivated set of buildings with some green areas outside. Extremely close range inside most areas of the buildings, longer on the areas outside of the buildings.
Number of participants: I think 20 for each team.
Equipment:
Black balaclava with protective mesh for mouth and nose
Black protective goggles with battery powered fan to avoid fogging of the non dark transparent plastic
Black combat shirt
Black tactical gloves
Black tactical pants
Internal soft knee-pads
Black tactical belt
Black pouch for extra magazine
Black leg holster
Thingies that keep the lower part of the pants from covering the boots and things from getting inside the pants
Black long socks
Black army boots
Electric pistol
Two 30BB magazines (one inside launcher)
Magazine loader with about 120 extra BBs

First round:
Objective: Get four keycards assigned to our team and use them to activate a static boom device. Stop the enemy team from doing the same with their keycards.

Results:
Objective: Unknown.
Times hit: 1!
Foes hit: 7 I think!

Second round:
Objective: Same as last time but with the spawns reversed.

Results:
Objective: Unknown.
Times hit: About 3 I think.
Foes hit: I can't really remember any more than 2.

Foe hit highlights.

Five enemies that I took out in the first round were by stalking around on the second floor of the building closest to their spawn. I'd always try to wait in rooms that had connections to other rooms that also had connections back to the corridor, that way if someone got into one of the rooms I'd be able to silently loop around and get them from behind. If they didn't get into the room I'd let them pass and hit them from behind. I'd also try to be mindful of my surroundings and take cover in places where shadows made the background black to match my clothes and equipment. Once a guy almost surprised me by coming from behind but I heard him at the last moment so from the crouched position I just point shot him three times holding the pistol with both hands. I also hit two other guys who were outside at ground floor from a window, it was very hard because due to the lack of glow in the dark sides I was more or less locked to point shooting, not much of a problem at extremely close ranges but a big problem at longer ones. After firing I'd always try to reposition, not just in case some other enemy heard it but also because here people respawn. I also had to reload once, ran very far away so I could do it using the magazine loader. Sometimes friendly soldiers would appear and I'd use them as cover and distractions to reposition. While doing all of this I heard two guys talking to a staff member, he said "We're looking for a guy, he's in all black, he looks like (or "he's like", can be translated both ways) a ghost", that comment made my night and I had an ear to ear grin when I heard it. Unfortunately those two guys would end my streak very close to the rounds end because I had made a fatal mistake who'll talk more about in the fail section. My objective was to make that somewhat important area of the map a pain to traverse for the enemy team, they'd have to clear all of the many rooms every time they'd want to get through there or risk me appearing behind them and taking them out. Based on those guy's comments and actions I think I had accomplished that objective.

Second round wasn't as nice but I did manage to help a squad get behind enemy lines. We were being very stealthy until one of them stepped on something making a loud noise prompting the others to laugh and start talking. Oh well. Since I was acting as pointman/scout I got way in front of them, they got into some kind of engagement, an enemy didn't bother to check behind him so I took him out. Afterwards that friendly squad got wiped out and only I remained, and pretty close to the enemy base. I tried to advance further but ended up failing as you'll see later. Another interesting moment I had was when accompanying another squad who got wiped out. I hid in a room and at least 10 enemies passed by without bothering to clear the room, I waited further until I didn't hear anything, unfortunately so much waiting led to a lone enemy who was probably just practicing room clearing taking me out, but not before me getting him as well. We'll talk more about that later.

Fail highlights.

The first and most notable fail was when those two guys where looking for me on the second floor. First mistake was a bit unavoidable but I ended up running into a room that had no connection to anything else besides the corridor, a dead end, a thing that I only noticed after it was too late to reposition as the enemies were probably in the corridor looking at my direction already. Second mistake was trying to flatten against a wall in that room, not noticing a brick at the corner and kicking it. The moment I kicked that brick I thought "It's over", a defeatist thought that shouldn't be had. They then got ready to get into the room but at the last moment I decided to reposition to the other side of the room by running and crossing the doors line of sight while firing towards it. I got to the other side but didn't hit any of them, now we're engaged. I tried to crouch and peak but got hit in the head by one of them. Oh well. Now let's think of what I could have done better here.

First mistake was probably impossible to avoid so I'll skip that one. Second was kicking the brick. If that hadn't happened at worst I'd have better chances when they got into the room and at best they wouldn't even had gotten interested in the room and would just pass by me allowing an attack from behind. Should be more careful with what's on the floor. Third was not repositioning right after kicking the brick. Even the third best spot in the room was probably better than just staying right were the noise was made but I think that defeatist thought clouded my mind and I didn't bother to move until it was arguably too late. Fourth was that peek. Yes if I had managed to take one out it would have made things way easier but it was too risky, just staying put in the corner could have been better.

Second fail was during the lone advance towards the enemy base. I got spotted by an enemy that was at most three meters away from me, I dodge away from the angle he had on me and try to flank but he sees me, I then try to run back towards friendly lines, pass through the initial angle while firing, no hits I think, get into an area of the second floor who's more open, see an enemy who sees me, try to change directions to get away from the angle he has on me with the intention of following up with a flank but my boots slip on the dusty floor and I fall on my side. After that I just called it off and declared myself dead because there was no way I could have escaped from that situation. My second mag also fell here, only noticed after the game had ended, got back in there and found it on the ground where I fell.

Now what could have been done better? Well first could be to be more careful when advancing, though I really didn't hear him at all. Second thing would be to try and flank him without going as fast in order to make less noise and avoid detection, though I think I was afraid he would just charge me and get me moving in the corridor. Third mistake was trying to run back towards my lines instead of some random room and try to get him by surprise if he chose to come looking for me. Now fourth, the slip, I think that one was unavoidable as if I had went slower the enemy who could see me would have probably gotten me. Now the last thing is testing my mag pouch to see if that mag drop was just a fluke caused by improper use or if it's something that consistently happens.

Third fail. I'm not sure if I should count my long wait as a mistake as I was just waiting until I didn't hear anything so it was safer to leave. The other mistake was positioning, I could have chosen a better spot, maybe one where I had some chance to grab an opponent's rifle and follow up by shooting him, but I think I chose the spot I did because it gave me a tiny option to retreat further inside.

In retrospective I think in all these situations where I got stuck in a dead end room I had the option of attempting a leg split on the tiny adjacent rooms they have on them. I say attempt because I haven't tried one in quite a while so I have no idea how that would go. If I did manage to do it and continue doing it for enough time I could at worse have some chances of getting one of my pursuers from an unexpected angle and at best they just wouldn't notice me and they'd be convinced there's nothing there, opening an opportunity for an attack from behind. Additionally I'm pretty sure that in the room of the third fail there was a window I could have tried to use to carefully descend to the first floor. Again, "could have tried" because I'm not sure if I'm capable of doing that without hurting myself. That or just bring a hook plus rope and rappel down. The point here is that at the time I didn't even think of those options and it really shows how people under stress fall back to their previous training and "unlocked abilities" instead of thinking outside the box.

Now comments.

As it was demonstrated in certain moments of previous battles, stealth is in fact a viable tactic in airsoft, the final piece to unlock it's full potential was the darkness that comes in nocturnal games. I could have begun by playing at night but wanted to do a few games during the day first just to get a feel for how everything works with fewer mechanics and complications to keep in mind. I think it was the right call.

Of note was the use of white light, or visible light, whatever you want to call it, by other people, specially enemies. They seemed to heavily rely on their rifle mounted lights instead of natural night vision. At the slightest incentive they would use it, losing whatever adaptation to the dark their eyes had, further locking them into having to rely on white light. Their use of light not only allowed me to be aware of their presence, but by looking at how the light interacted with the environment I could easily determine where they probably were, with that information I could make better decisions as to what to do, where to move, how to move , plan how to dispatch them and whatnot. Knowing the direction a light came from also helped determining if that light probably belonged to friendlies or enemies. I'd really only recommend visible light for blinding enemies if you're already engaged in some kind of cover fight, otherwise rely on natural night vision, a night vision device or just a really weak visible light just to illuminate a dark floor so you don't step on anything noisy.

Also, for OPSEC reasons I can't get into specifics as I don't know how common this practice is but this field has a way to somewhat easily tell friend from foe even in darkness.

As for potential equipment acquisitions I think the already previously mentioned NVGs, IR laser for the pistol and electronic ear protection with sound amplification would be excellent, but I do worry about how well my current night vision device would interact with my protective goggles. Also in it's current state it's horrible, unusable even, but even after the upgrades I have planned for them it would still be very bad due to it's low field of vision that I don't think there's a fix for. Now for new equipment acquisition ideas, maybe a couple of spring handheld boom devices would be pretty useful, will probably start stocking all the used BBs left on the ground from training at home to load them with when I get some. Also maybe a foam or rubber knife so I can brag about having got someone with it lol.

As for skills to get, I guess it's more or less confirmed to have leg splits and rope stuff in the intermediary training program considering how useful those skills could have been here and they don't seem too hard to learn. Prone stuff as well.

We reach the end of another After Action Report. I'll do a pause on airsofting for now. Yes, it's a bit goofy that I'm doing a pause right as I get into night games but I really need some breathing time so I can focus on getting that crouched wall flattening report done as I've been postponing it for a very long time now and I want to not have to do it after returning to my main base as when I get back there I want to already start training on another skill group.