On the opening
weekend of The Foundry CQB in Leeds I was invited by Leeds Airsoft to head over
with some friends to review their newest Airsoft CQB site. The Foundry CQB is
located in Stourton, Leeds just off the M1. It was a really easy drive from my
home in the East Midlands, just hop on the A42 onto the M1 and follow it all
the way up, the site is at the very end of Haigh Park Road and is signposted so
it is easy to find. On arrival there was ample car parking space in the car
park and around the venue itself. The drive in total took me an hour and 40
minutes, which isn’t unusual for me to travel to get to a game day. When I
arrived I was warmly greeted by Stuart and his team of marshals who were very
welcoming.
The site itself was previously used for industrial purposes
and definitely has that raw, industrial vibe throughout the site. When you walk
into the safe zone, it is a relatively small room but there are plenty of
tables/stations and chairs for players to organise and set up their kit for the
day. The site has a small on site shop that sells BBs, gas, pyro, a variety of
RIFs and other gubbins that you would need during the day, it also sells a
variety of snacks including drinks. We can definitely expect to see more stock
rolling into the shop during the coming months. Unfortunately lunch isn’t
included in the walk on fee so it is advisable to bring food with you but as
the site is pretty close to the centre there are plenty of places nearby to get
lunch including good ol’ maccies, KFC and supermarkets if you’d prefer to grab
a meal deal sarnie. In regards to toilet facilities, there is a portaloo on
site.
The walk on fees for The Foundry I feel are really
reasonable, £20 for 4 hours and £25 for 8 hours with members enjoying rates of
£15 for 4 hours and £20 for 8 hours, these are cheaper than a lot of other CQB
sites up and down the country. They also supply rental packages for £10 for 4
hours and £15 for all 8 hours. They are open for private hire between 10am-5pm
Monday to Friday and 6pm-10pm for night games if you wanted to enjoy a skirmish
with your mates mid-week. On the weekends they are open 10-5pm both days for
play.
The Foundry’s FPS limits are in line with other sites, at
350 FPS and single shot only. They also allow the use of pyrotechnics up to 9mm
which is pretty standard and although players aren’t allowed to deploy smoke in
game, the marshals do deploy smoke during certain games to add a curveball into
play. It definitely adds to the feel of the site. The site has a mixture of
close dark spaces, light filled mazes and also open areas to fight through. My
favourite aspects of the site are the bar room (which has a red sofa and animal
print throw Austin Powers vibe going on), the almost pitch black ‘street’ area
which requires torches and pyro to gain access to and also the maze at the far
end of the site which is the perfect place to use pistols and BFGs to get the
drop on people. The site has loads of interesting props scattered around the
site to make it as unique as possible.
We played a variety of game modes during the day, from an all-out
team death match to start the day and get everyone familiar with the site to 2
vs 2 elimination games where 2 players from each team went head to head over
the whole site. My favourite games that we played were definitely the attack
and defend game where one team dug in and the enemy team cleared them out of
the site and the bomb placement game where each team started with a fake
explosive and had to get it to the enemies control point and destroy it. I
think the games worked well, especially the team death match/elimination games
but there were a few issues on site which I feel are to be expected for a brand
spanking new site. There was a couple of incidences of none hit taking, and
blind firing which were addressed by the staff in a swift manner. Overshooting
was an issue during the day but as the site is so close it is bound to happen
especially when dead players are returning to spawn when players are rushing
out to get back into the game.
The staff on site were very friendly and welcoming yet fair,
my only criticism is that one of the marshals shouted at players a fair bit,
which is isn’t really necessary for a skirmish day in my honest opinion – if I
wanted to be shouted at like a recruit I would have joined the military. I
think that is best saved for MilSim ops rather than skirmish days but I
appreciate that the marshal was only trying to make the day run smoothly.
For their opening weekend, Leeds Airsoft also had a special
guest in attendance – Big Phil Campion, former 22 SAS. Phil was there on the
day handing out patches from his brand Born Fearless and answering any
questions players have about what life is like as Special Forces. He gave a brief
talk on his career and talking about his new Airsoft training that he will be
running at The Foundry. I was lucky enough to sit down with him for half an
hour and interview him about his career and experiences of 22 SAS so be sure to
keep an eye out for that in Airsoft Action!
Would I make any improvements? Well when Stuart took me on a
tour of the rest of the building during lunch he explained to me that they will
be opening up other, larger rooms in the site to give players more play options
in regards to flanking and attacking – this will transform it into a truly
awesome site. My only other improvement would be to put a limit on the number
of players on site up until the site is expanded, as it is a fairly small space
having too many players makes it difficult to move around the site without
stale mates or getting bottle necked.
I spoke to some other players on the day and here’s what
they said:
Adam Fletcher: ‘Starting off it surprised me how close the
site actually is, we were on top of each other straight out of spawn. Although
there was still plenty of avenues to flank and get around, it is definitely at
the moment a limited number site. Having 10 vs 10 would be close to what I’d
max the players at to allow games to flow smoothly, until they open up the
other rooms on site to make the site larger. If you are a well-co-ordinated
team you can really dominate key parts of the site and make it difficult for
the enemy team to move. Overall, I had a good day and enjoyed the face paced
close action. I would definitely head back once the whole site is opened up!’
Chris Tibbott: ‘I’m quite a fan of the layout of the
Foundry, there’s plenty of room to move without being locked into a stalemate with
the opposition, but due to its infancy there are a couple of places that create
an unfair advantage for one team. Things like long unobstructed corridors down
to regen allow for one team to be trapped at one end of said corridor. With age
though, barriers could be placed which will minimise this aspect of the site.
There’s plenty of variation amongst the Foundry’s cover, something I like to
see with room to room, killhouse style sites is just a room with a door, or
maybe a window if you’re lucky. With the Foundry you have obstacles within
rooms such as large boxes and even a bar. What I like about this is that you
can’t just frag any room you get to and expect it to be clear as there’s a
large chance that someone else could be hiding in cover through there’
Jay Fitzpatrick: ‘My overall experience of the Foundry was
positive. The site itself is extremely small as it stands which makes it
perfect for small team action. On the day it was approximately 11 v 11 which I
thought was slightly too many players – however upon expansion that should
change. The Foundry is extremely close quarters and very chaotic due to the
angles you can fire and receive fire from. The marshals were loud, precise and
offered no sympathy towards players who believe bang bang kills have a place
there. Upon meeting Stuart you can tell he is extremely enthusiastic about building
his site and constantly asked myself and teammates for feedback on if we were
enjoying the day. I look forward to seeing what they do with available space in
the future’
Overall, I had a really good day at The Foundry and will
definitely be back when the whole site is in play. The day was full of intense,
close and fast paced CQB carnage which is exactly how I like my CQB games but
there were a few issues on the day in regards to none hit taking/blind firing -
this isn’t the sites fault, unfortunately these issues occur at most sites. I
was impressed with the level of effort that had gone into the building of the
site, it has some really interesting features and the games played were
enjoyable! For £25 walk on fee, you can’t grumble!
Site Details:
Vulcan Foundry
Haigh Park Road
Stourton
Leeds
LS10 1RX
01132777707
07968258952
Hardwick, K. (2017). The Foundry CQB. Airsoft Action. 77 (August), 26-29.
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