FEMME FATALE AIRSOFT'S FAVOURITE UK SITES 2018!

Hey everyone!

Welcome back to the blog! Today I have another ‘Favourites’ post for you and this time we’re looking at my favourite UK Airsoft Sites of 2018! This post causes outrage every year, so let me clarify something straight off the bat - these are MY personal favourite sites (yours probably will be different) that I have played in 2018 - meaning I have not played every site in the UK and nor am I proclaiming that they are the best sites in the country, but simply saying that these are the ones I have most enjoyed playing. In 2018, I spent a lot of time out of the country at shows and events so I have played ‘away’ less in 2018 than I would have liked to but I still played a good chunk of the UK. With that cleared up, let’s get into my favourite sites of 2018!



Strikeforce CQB is a 52,000 sq ft warehouse space in the centre of Gloucester that has been transformed into one of the UK's biggest purpose-built CQB sites, with a U.S kill house style layout it is full of wooden/tarpaulin structures - corridors, covers, kill houses and a toilet block at the very back of the site perfect for all those grenade kills. The site is split into two by steel columns and each side is completely different from the other opening up the gameplay options. The games Strikeforce put together use their site to the full extent that includes objective games such as capture the flag and VIP games. The pushback game is easily my favourite game that is run - both teams take it in turns to attack and defend both sides of the site and whoever clears the whole site of hostiles in the fastest time wins! The Facilities at Strikeforce CQB are good. My only complaint regarding the site is that they have introduced full auto burst fire in recent months which in my honest opinion is a little unnecessary but some players love getting their full auto play in. 




The Proving Grounds is a large woodland site in Selby, Yorkshire that keeps me coming back for more. It features a number of structures centred around a large bridge structure in a dense fern forest. What I love about Proving Grounds, is that unlike a lot of woodland sites players have structures etc to fight over rather than just fighting for ground and trees. The facilities on site include a covered safe zone that has room for almost 300 players, a food counter that serves hot food and snacks all day and a couple of portaloos (which is the only thing I dislike about the Proving Grounds). Although I mostly play CQB it is always really fun to crawl through the brush and through trenches for a day. Woodland does require an entirely different skill set to CQB making it a challenging day for players like me especially when snipers are king. The Proving Ground runs once a month, so be sure to keep an eye on their Facebook page for the next game day released!

A site that is no longer in operation but does deserve a mention for my favourite sites for 2018! The Mall was exactly as it says on the tin - an old shopping centre in the heart of Reading city centre. Players could fight through all the old shops including a children’s soft play area, the loading bays and promenade. They had special game modes including NPCs such as the Juggernaut with the Microgun. Over the last 2-3 years, I’ve played the Mall on a few occasions and I’ve always really enjoyed my day, from running up the abandoned escalators and creeping through the dark corridors behind the storefronts it’s always been an intense and action filled day!

News on the street is that Zed Adventures are on the lookout for a new CQB site to open in the near future!

Before I get into this site, I have to declare that I do Marshall for West Midlands Airsoft and take the photos for their woodland site.

Next up is the FOB. It was once a Home Guard Training Area during the Second World War and is a vast site covering 120 acres of varied woodland terrain. The site boasts some purpose-built structures and natural games zones from open dense woodland to 7 purpose-built, themed gaming areas such as “The Fort”, “Village” and the Crash Site which has an old beat up helicopter dominating the game zone. The game modes differ from game day to game day but there are often long objective based game modes and shorter attack and defend games which I am a fan of. The site has a bunch of cool props that add another element to the gameplay.

MOD Swynnerton. Training Camp, Swynnerton



MOD Swynnerton isn’t technically an airsoft site but, I have played airsoft on this MOD base a fair few times now so it’s going on the list for 2018. It was once a Royal Ordinance Factory that is now used for Army training and events. The training area has a full road system, buildings to fight through and even old vehicles to use as cover. The site allows the use of some really spicy pyrotechnics which adds to the feel of the game.

The next game at Swynnerton is Operation Breakpoint ran by West Midlands Airsoft.
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SPECNA ARMS EDGE FROM GUNFIRE.COM

Hey everyone!

Welcome back to the blog! Today I have another review for you in partnership with gunfire.com and we’re going to be looking at a new AEG carbine within the Specna Arms brand: the Edge series! This new AEG has been manufactured under the license of Rock River Arms. Rock River Arms is a well known American firearms manufacturer and it is equipped with GATE technology.


First, let’s chat about the features of the Edge models! The SA Edge has an Orion Gearbox, which is based on a reinforced shell and is equipped with a mainspring release function. Out of the box it has a reinforced piston with full steel teeth, an Aluminium seal nozzle & double sealed cylinder head, steel gears, 8mm ball bearings, a rotary hop-up chamber, a 6.03mm precision barrel, a quick change spring system (which means you can quickly change the spring in the system to adjust the FPS without the use of any specialised tools) and a QD pistol grip which gives the player quick access to the AEG’s engine without the use of tools. All these features make this one of the best Specna's yet - durable and ready to get to work.


One of the Edge’s most notable features is the GATE X-ASR MOSFET as standard! The MOSFET X-ASR unit will ensure the safety of the components, increase the trigger response and extend the life of the electronics and battery.

The aesthetics of the Edge are that of a classic M4 Carbine in a black/tan colourway. The only things I don’t like about the aesthetics of the Edge model is the fixed front sight and carry handle - but these are purely aesthetic and can be changed, I swapped my carry handle for a flip to zoom and a red dot sight. I really like the Rock River Arms trademarks on the body and think it adds a nice touch of authenticity to the rifle.




So the aesthetics are cool, but how does it shoot? I totally didn’t expect the GATE logo on the box when I took it out of the outer box so seeing that it had a GATE MOSFET as standard, I had really high hopes for it! I decided to take the Edge to my local woodland airsoft site to see how it ran. GF very kindly downgraded my Edge to below 350 FPS (322 FPS to be exact), which a player could easily do themselves thanks to the quick change spring system! On semi, the trigger response is pretty snappy, it feeds well and is generally satisfying to use. On full auto, I had a lot of fun! Using it during the course of the day it was a fun AEG to use, it has a nice weight to it and functions well. The price is still to be released however I have a feeling it will still be affordable, but a little more pricey than the other Specna models because of the internals. This particular AEG would be a great choice for a player who wants a gun that has excellent internals straight out of the box.

Another nice touch, is in the box there is a front grip and 2 x 125 BB Mid-cap magazines that have a stippled effect on them - meaning the gun can be accessorised and ran straight out of the box.

Post sponsored by Gunfire.com
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MSW: FLASHPOINT ASTANA! A HIPPIE TALE!

Hey everyone, and welcome back to the blog!

On the weekend of 26th-28th October 2018, myself, Unicorn Leah, Jet DesertFox and Dayton from the House Gamers left DesertUnicorn HQ for MilSim West’s infamous insurgency style game at George Airforce Base in Victorville, California named ‘Flashpoint Astana’.

The insurgency style games are worlds apart from their other events - insurgency focuses more on the role-playing aspect of the game with players creating businesses, an economy and also an intricate social/political dynamic. For this game, instead of picking up a weapon, myself, Unicorn Leah and our friend Kat decided to be non-violent anti-war protestors very much reminiscent of the Vietnam war protestors in the hippy era, the 1960s & 1970s. Whilst Leah, being a flower child at heart herself already had attire that fit the bill so to kit me out, we took a trip to the local goodwill to find me some hippy-esque clothing. Which we did! Once our outfits were on point, it was time to get to the craft store for posterboard, glitter glue and artificial flowers to complete the look! You can check out my ‘MSW Flashpoint Astana Prep’ vlog here!

Next, let’s chat about the AO - George Air Force Base! It is a former US Air Force base in the town of Victorville, California. It was established by the US Army Air Corps in 1941 as an Advanced Flying School. It closed at the end of the WWII but was re-activated as a training base at the start of the Korean War in 1950 where it remained an active training base until it finally shut its doors in 1993. In the 25 years the base has been closed, with no maintenance the AO has naturally degraded meaning it looks more like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie – from fell trees and collapsed roofs, broken glass and missing walls, it was gnarly and the perfect setting for war-torn Kazakhstan. It has a complete road system that spans the entire site and over 100 derelict buildings to fight through.

After arriving on site, we set up our sleeping quarters in the government building just behind the main square of the city. Which due to the AO required dust masks for when we cleared all the debris out of our room - by the end it looked like a post-apocalyptic hippy college dorm. Once we were set up, we walked into the square for registration and gained our citizen cards which identified us as a citizen of the city of Astana. After a quick brief from Astana’s government officials, we got our boombox, protest posters and camping chairs and set-up in the town square. Shortly after we sat down the local Shark Tank approached us wanting to invest their Fetty Bucks into our not-for-profit business - ‘Party for Peace’. After our encounter with Shark Tank, we decided to take our investment money into the town and live our slogan, party for peace. 

Our first stop was the Spice Rack - the local nightclub in Astana. The Spice Rack was a small hole in the wall covered in graffiti, yet inside it was a fully functional club - from disco lights to a sound system and a makeshift bar - the Spice Rack had everything needed to make the citizens of war-torn Astana forget their troubles for a few hours. As the only nightclub in the city, it became the HQ for the Sisterhood of the Travelling Panties ‘Party for Peace’. We were welcomed into the Spice Rack by the doorman who proclaimed ‘ladies enter and drink for free!’ And we began our mission to get the citizens of Astana to party for peace. After half an hour or so, the party was truly raging and we had assimilated another sister into our sisterhood - Sharon. Whilst outside the club we heard rumours that a tattoo shop had opened in Astana so we made our way to the outskirts of the city to check it out - we walked into the shop and was met by Pauly and his assistant. We began perusing the artwork on the walls and in the design books and came across a few designs that would be perfect for us. One by one the Sisterhood of the Travelling Panties made our way into the tattoo chair and go ourselves inked up for the event. 





After visiting the tattoo shop and the gallery that had opened in town, we visited the local casino - where citizens and government officials could relax with a spot of gambling. It’s where I learned to play ‘Blackjack’ but after a few lucky runs, I decided to dip out. As we made our way out of the Casino, a couple of friends approached us saying that NATO forces wouldn’t let them return to their base just outside of the town confines so we decided to set-up a ‘hippie escort service’ - we convinced the Police force patrolling the city fences to allow us to help our friends get back to their home and set about walking the short distance to their quarters. As we walked down the path we shouted ‘We are unarmed, please do not shoot’ and ‘party for peace’ to ensure the NATO forces knew we were unarmed civilians. Within 5 minutes we had made it to their quarters and were on our way back to the city. After this, we decided to retire to our quarters.


On Saturday morning we made our way onto the main street in the town to demonstrate against the violence in Astana as there had been a lot of shots fired in the streets by all sides, as we sat in the blistering heat in the middle of the road with our signs and flowers it was announced that a trial would be held for a man accused of robbing the casino! As Sevant had helped the hippies the previous evening, our hippie in chief Leah chose to be his public defender - unfortunately, it was judged that Sevants crime was too severe and he was executed in the street by the Police which started a small firefight.





As night fell, the music festival began - DJs from all over the city came to the Spice Rack to showcase their talents - the sisterhood of the travelling panties was out in force to encourage the citizens of Astana to ‘party for peace’. At around 1am, the sisterhood retired for the evening. During the night, after the hippies retired for the evening there was an attack on the Spice Rack, although by whom and why we were not sure!

On Sunday morning, the air was full of excitement as the citizens of Astana gathered in the main square of the town, armed to the teeth ready to take the fight to the corrupt Police force that had plagued the town over the weekend. Fetty Slav and his officials rounded up the civilians and we stormed through the town towards the Police FOB. As we got within reach of the FOB, the battle was already a go - with NATO and Russian forces attacking the 2 story building the Police were residing in. The civilian forces flooded the outside of the building, in a haze of smoke and with the distinctive sound of blank fire in the background. As myself and Kat stood in protest popping smoke, Leah ran into battle screaming hippie battle cries. The battle raged on for around an hour, with smoke, explosions and blank fire popping off in all directions until Leah emerged from the Police station with a very dead police chief (Jet Desertfox) and holding his beloved ARP9.








With the battle against corruption won, we made our way back to the main street in the town, where another battle was raging between NATO and everyone else - Rusfor and civilians. Our civilian fighters ran out of ammunition but luckily I had hoarded some in my sleeping quarters. My friend Michael had given me a pistol to help me get through the hoards of NATO surrounding our sleeping quarters, as myself, Michael and Cooke made our way around the outsides of the buildings, NATO troops searched room after room looking for any civilians up to ‘no good’. Eventually, we made it to my sleeping quarters, jumped through the window and found the ammunition, as we started loading mags we heard footsteps in the building. There were around 10 NATO soldiers in the building. I and Cooke stayed still and silent in the wardrobe space in the quarter until we heard them walk to the back of the building, all 3 of us then made it to the next building along where our government officials were waiting.

Endex.

So what are my final thoughts on Flashpoint Astana? This instalment of the MilSim West insurgency series is one of the most hilarious and fun mil-sim games I’ve played in my 4 years of airsoft! It was really fun playing a none-combatant, but I did have an itchy trigger finger by the time the final battle at the Police station came around! 

Photography thanks to MilSim West
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MY FAVOURITE AIRSOFT EXPERIENCES OF 2018!

Hey everyone!

 Firstly, happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and NY with your friends and family. Now that 2018 has finally come to an end, it's time for me to look back on a year of airsoft and pick my favourite airsoft experiences of 2018. As many of you know I would usually do this way earlier in December but a house move and a rather nasty spell of Tonsillitis meant I had to postpone some content, with those out of the way here are my top 5 airsoft experiences of 2018:

#5 - Operation Invasion II - Halo Mill Proving Grounds, UK.

PC: Stacey Deanne Photography

PC: Stacey Deanne Photography
First up is the charity weekender 'Operation Invasion II' held at Halo Mill Proving Grounds in Selby, UK organised by 1 Legion MilSim in aid of The Pilgrim Bandits and 'Veterans for Airsoft'.

I LOVE playing at Halo Mill Proving Grounds so when this event invitation popped up in my Facebook messages I jumped at the chance, it's a well-known fact that I predominantly play CQB but this is one woodland site that keeps me coming back for more. It has great structures including a huge bridge fort for players to fight over in amongst the dense forest.

It was a really enjoyable day full of great gameplay/sportsmanship from players and full of camaraderie. It was wonderful to catch up with friends, put faces to names that I’ve only seen on the internet and of course meet players from across the pond - it really was a pleasure to finally meet 1 Legion Superfly and Sheep. The amount raised by the community was fantastic and just shows how much of a difference we can make when we band together.

You can read my full event review here

#4 - Warzone 6: The Final Assault - Arkadi, Crete

PC: Jonny Teo
Warzone 6: The Final Assault was my first time visiting the beautiful island of Crete and playing in Greece. This airsoft game was set in the beautiful hills of Arkadi - the small town home to the famous Arkadi Monastry. I and Bill, my fellow Airsoft Action Contributor played alongside the UN Forces as peacekeepers during this 48 hour game. The terrain and weather were completely different to what we were used to, the action was intense and the cameraderie strong. 

My trip to Crete was definitely a trip of firsts, from my first time driving in Europe, to the first time riding on the back of a motorbike, trying new foods and even having a go at preparing Shisha, it was only right that I tried an entirely new role during gameplay! As I was the smallest and quickest member of my squad, I was chosen as the Medic. This is a role I’m not used to playing; I prefer to be at the front of the action rather than hanging back, and what I learned from playing this role is: I definitely need to do more cardio and a medic should never be the charger because if you get shot first your squad is pretty f*cked unless there is another medic nearby. It was definitely an interesting learning curve to play this role.

All in all, I had an amazing weekend at Warzone 6! Although I’ve been told that this really IS the Final Assault and they have indeed gone out with a bang, I’m hoping that Stelios and the team will run another event in the future so we can go on another Cretan adventure! This definitely won’t be the last time we visit the beautiful island of Crete.

You can read my full event review here

#3 MSW: Flashpoint Astana - Victorville, CA


PC: TK Bin Photography & Graphics

PC: TK Bin Photography & Graphics
The insurgency style games are worlds apart from MSW's other events - insurgency focuses more on the role-playing aspect of the game with players creating businesses, an economy and also an intricate social/political dynamic. For this game, instead of picking up a weapon, myself, Unicorn Leah and our friend Kat decided to be non-violent anti-war protestors very much reminiscent of the Vietnam war protestors in the hippy era, the 1960s & 1970s. It was great to play a character that is SO different to what I'm used to playing/portraying.

I loved the role-playing aspect of the insurgency series from being apart of the in-game civilian world.

Keep your eyes peeled for the event review coming soon!

#2 Gangsta City: Retribution - Swynnerton, UK


Gangsta City: Retribution was held at MOD Swynnerton near Stoke-on-Trent and was pretty much airsoft GTA. We played 'Moonshine Mob' and our mission for the weekend was to make and sell as much 'moonshine' as we could to the other factions.

The firefights and car chases were intense and MOD Swynnerton is an awesome urban site. If you get the chance to play a MilSim at this site, I recommend you get to it!

#1 - DFE: Battle for Lost Angeles - Victorville, CA

PC: Desert Fox Airsoft Events

PC: Desert Fox Airsoft Events
DFE: Battle for Lost Angeles was held at George Airforce Base in Victorville, CA - the AO was a really cool location for an airsoft game that offered both close and long range engagements, the game ran well thanks to the admin staff and the players, it was a constant firefight thanks to the app which made it really fun and there were some awesome loadouts amongst the teams. I am really looking forward to the next instalment of Desertfox Events next month!

You can read my full event review here
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