WELCOME TO BADLANDS! STRIKE FORCE BADLANDS REVIEW!

Hey everyone, last month I finally managed to get a game in at Strike Force's new site 'Badlands' and here are my thoughts on the site!


So Strike Force Badlands is situated in Abingdon, Oxfordshire at the former RAF Abingdon site now known as the Dalton Barracks. The site is 95 miles from my home in Derbyshire and takes around an hour and a half via the M42 and M40. It is a huge woodland site of varied terrain with 280 acres of total playable area. When the site isn't being used for BB wars it is used for off road driver and hostile environment training amongst other training exercises. The site is easy to find especially using a Sat Nav or Google maps as the postcode takes you directly outside the site and there is a friendly marshal outside on game days to welcome you and direct you to the gravel car park area. The gravel car park is fairly large with room for their average player count of 90.

For a woodland site, it has excellent facilities - a lit, heated safe zone building with multiple rooms filled with tables, chairs, sofas, working toilets for both male and female players, an onsite shop and free tea and coffee throughout the day. Walk on is £30 and if you require a rental, the package is £45 which is in line with the average game day fee up and down the country. The price doesn't include lunch so it is advisable to bring a packed lunch but there are a few shops nearby including a McDonald's. Bookings can be made either by calling Swindon Airsoft or via their website.

P.S I'm also not sure where my stock was going in that photo either :P

Now the site staff are one of my favourite aspects of the Strike Force family of sites, the staff are really efficient when receiving players in the reception area, the safety brief is always comprehensive, it doesn't drag on for ages and is delivered by engaging marshals. The marshals and site owners run a tight ship and aren't afraid to have a laugh. The other players I played with on my visit were an honest and friendly bunch, I didn't encounter any issues that day and I even got to meet and play alongside some of my awesome followers!

The team currently utilise 140 acres of the total playable area which is more than enough. My favourite part of the site is the 'bunker' which is a structure of man made stone hills that create a more enclosed area to play in and gives me that CQB fix. The terrain varies from thick brambled woods, roads, the bunker hills, a body of water, long grass and wide open spaces so the gameplay is never the same. I spent most of my day crawling through woods and long grass to get some super sneaky kills. Although I'm a CQB player at heart, I do love a good run and gun in the great outdoors and this site is so big and varied that I didn't get bored. I had loads of fun crawling through brambles, into trenches, climbing hills etc. We played a varied set of games that appealed to everyone from team death matches to objective games like capture the flag that really get me into the game (CTF ended in a very intense firefight between myself and one of the sites owners Paul Bibby over a heavily overgrown embankment! All good fun!

The site is huge and running is a must so I would advise against wearing LOADS of gear purely
because you need to be incredibly mobile to move at speed and lightweight/slick enough to get through the wooded areas of the site. I opted for my Warrior 901 chest rig in OD for this skirmish with my M81 BDU and realised two things - chest rigs are awesome and that I need to slim mine down a tad as it makes me look out of proportion haha. The weather on the day I attended was swelteringly hot! So I ended up going from playing in a UBAC and face mask to a t shirt and no face pro (but no pics so it didn't happen right? - tell that to the shot I took to the nose! Haha)

Overall, even though I'm not a huge fan of woodland sites, I was exceptionally impressed with Badlands. The safe zone is easily the best out of all the woodland sites I have been to and the site itself is varied enough to not become a drag (pure green, flat ground gets hella boring after a while) and the games have something to offer everyone. Well done team SF!



Photos thanks to Snook Snaps.

Strike Force Badlands
Honey Bottom Lane
Dry Sandford
Abingdon
Oxfordshire
OX13 6BX

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'NEW EYES - AIRSOFT SHOW REPORT: IWA 2016'

When I was informed late last year that I would be going to IWA 2016, my reaction was akin to that of a child who had received that long awaited and asked for pony for their birthday (although for the record I was never that child – horses scare the living daylights out of me!) I had joked with my friends about how I would be at IWA 2016 as press with no idea that 12 months later I would be at the Messe, wearing the coveted yellow press pass representing the UK’s number one Airsoft magazine and needless to say I had to periodically pinch myself to ensure I was really there!

We arrived in Nuremberg on Thursday evening and after exploring the town centre and a traditional German dinner of Bratwurst, bread, salted cabbage and a quick beer in the Irish Bar Finnegan’s, we hit the hay ready to get into the full swing of the show on Friday. I awoke promptly at 4am like a child on Christmas morning eager to get the day started! 4 agonising hours later we set off for the Messe. As an IWA virgin, I had no idea what to expect from the show, I had seen Instagram posts on the infamous SHOT Show which only fueled the imagination. The main aspect of the show that got me buzzing was the social aspect, I’m a huge fan of social media so meeting so many of my international friends for the first time, taking killer pictures for Instagram and the chance to meet with the big contenders in the Airsoft Industry! With a jam packed schedule we stepped from the cushty press room into the chaotic halls filled to the brim with tactical goodness.


Stepping into the halls was a very odd moment – it wasn’t anything like I had ever imagined. Even though I had seen pictures of stands from the big Industry shows, I was genuinely taken aback by the effort, time and money that goes into these shows every year! The Messe is a huge exhibition centre made up of multiple halls and is easily accessible by foot or the metro, we took a taxi which was around a 15 minute ride from our hotel in Old Town. Our hotel of choice was the Hotel klughardt which was a quaint B&B in the top quarter of Old Town, the rooms were spacious, clean and the service was very efficient. 

As we were attending IWA for the Airsoft side of the show we focused our attention on halls 7 and 7A (which lucky for us was right next to the press room!). 

These halls are home to the biggest contenders in Airsoft during IWA and no expense is spared by the brands to showcase their new and existing products – one of my favourite brand set ups was the Umarex stand, in fact their stand is so big that hall 7A is dubbed ‘Umarex Hall’. Their stand compromised of around 8 full sized shipping containers filled with their Airsoft, personal defence and training weapons in amazing set ups featuring elaborately carved arm chairs to stuffed stags, and what impressed me the most about their set up was the Umarex private bar within the stand – I have never seen anything like it! Weeks before the show we put together our ‘hit list’ of brands and companies we were eager to visit such as G&G, ASG, Nuprol, Redwolf Airsoft, King Arms etc. each brand having its own unique stand and putting their stamp on the halls of IWA. 

There were many highlights of the show for me, such as meeting the team behind G&G and even having a blast on the M.E.T target system with the newly released G&G Warhog, drinking champagne with ASG at their reception whilst discussing the new Scorpion Evo 3A1 with the Wolverine HPA system, hanging out with The Airsoft Surgeon at the RedWolf Airsoft looking at £3,000 Swarovski encrusted competition pistols to name a few.


The show was a glittering display of RIF’s, pistols, new technology and gear. Whilst at the show I also ventured into some of the other halls including the hunting halls, but the displays of stuffed (and clothed!) bunny rabbits was a MAJOR downer for someone who has two very pampered and loved house rabbits and really didn’t do it for me! I did take a stroll into hall 9 which was a gear whores paradise with all the big gear brands such as Warrior Assault Systems, Helikon, Pentagon, Mechanix and 5.11. One of the items I was really keen to see was the new 5.11 yoga pants as I’d seen all the hype at SHOT show regarding them and I wasn’t disappointed, they offer a comfy solution to shooting attire but the price point of $80 for the Capri version they are on the pricey side! The list of products I would have loved to have come home with is insane!


Anyone who has attended IWA knows that more business is done after show hours over a few beers in the infamous Finnegan’s than during the show itself which is something I discovered over the weekend, I knew the social aspect of the show was massive, but I wasn’t aware of just how big a part it plays and the relationships/bonds you form with people over a tankard of beer and a horrifically sung Bryan Adams anthem is phenomenal. The bar is a quaint, dimly lit traditional Irish bar set in the shadow of the castle walls within the town centre and during IWA week it gets rammed with the who’s who of the Airsoft industry. I frequented the Irish bar on all 3 of my evenings in Nuremberg, and each night had a different outcome, from an extremely sensible 10.30 bedtime the first night, partying in a German club until 4am on the Friday night and the last night ending in witnessing a Police Raid outside of Finnegan’s and taking a walk through the Red Light District – which was definitely an eye opening experience! Only at IWA!

IWA for me was an absolutely insane experience that I am so grateful to the Airsoft Action team for letting me be a part of – from meeting the retailers, brands and personalities to getting to see some of the newest products to hit the market, well there’s only one word to describe it – Awesome!

Here’s to IWA 2017!

Hardwick, K. (2016). Airsoft Show Report: IWA 2016. Airsoft Action. 61 (May), p29-30.

...And here's the unofficial IWA images ;)










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FEMME FATALE AIRSOFT ANNOUNCES THE SUPPORT OF STRIKE FORCE


Hey everyone! So this week is going to be an awesome week for content and events, and I also have some great news! I am excited to announce that FFA has the support of the Strike Force family of sites including Strike Force CQB and Badlands.

Strike Force CQB and Badlands are among some of my favourite sites in the UK at the moment and I look forward to working with the staff on their events and game days!

'Join the battle and strike with force'
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INSTA Q&A

Hey everyone! So it's been a while since we did an Instagram Q&A, and last week I asked you to provide me with some questions and as per usual you didn't disappoint! Here they are:

Do you plan to plan Airsoft outside of the UK? - gtaleemans
Next year I'm travelling to Vegas to attend SHOT show and whilst I'm there I do plan on getting a few Airsoft games in!

First Airsoft gun? - painkiller_33
My First Airsoft gun was the baby pink G&G Armament FF26 AEG - I loved this gun and is where my callsign came from! Although I stopped using this gun shortly after I got the G&G 'Black Rose' I still have her but I save her for special occasions.

Do you ever feel separated in MilSim games? - rha_spider
Fortunately I have never felt separated at MilSim games, at my last MilSim Op - Operation Crypt Kicker I was the SAF force 2IC so I was heavily involved with the decision making and tactics. 

Have you played Airsoft on a beach? - big_birtha223
I haven't played Airsoft on a beach, but how cool would that be?

Can I use a day pack at night? - scottallangoesforth
That's blasphemy...

Do you get any flak for being a girl? - thesabrewulf
In the early days of Femme Fatale Airsoft I got a lot of stick for being a small female but as I've travelled to sites up and down the country, played command roles at MilSim ops and become a writer for the UK's number one Airsoft mag I feel I've 'proven' myself (you shouldn't have to prove yourself but it is what it is) 

Do you ever think there will be a day when a boy (or a girl), can out-swim a shark? - butcher_and_bolt
One can only dream of such a glorious day.

What is the best gun you have owned or used? - rivalairsoft3
In terms of reliability, range, ROF etc I would have to say it's my ASG Scorpion Evo 3A1, for such a small gun it has awesome range

Best urban loadout? - itslokihere
I really like the wolf/titanium grey colour loadouts that are hot right now for Urban and CQB but I'm a stickler for MC.

Were you a sniper in Airsoft? - x_emochicken_x
I haven't played the role of a sniper in the time I've been Airsofting but it is something I have planned for the future.

Where's your favourite place to play in the UK? And when was/ have you played FAO Anzio? - beartownbastards
Currently my favourite UK site is Strike Force  CQB in Gloucester - it's the super close CQB rush that I crave, I always have a fantastic day and the staff are brilliant. I have only played Anzio Camp once, around February/March time and unfortunately I didn't have a very good day but I definitely want to play the site again just incase it was one of those 'off days'

Have you played in the USA before, if so where? - bautisa_johnny
I haven't played in the US as of yet, but that's definitely on the itinerary for when I visit in January.

Do you like big butts and you cannot lie? - nathan_mikukski_
Damn, did Sir Mix-A-Lot let out my secret?

Why do hotdogs come in tins of 8 but hot dog rolls come in packs of 6? - lewismantle
'Some people just want to watch the world burn'

What site would you like to visit the most outside of the UK? - k_law_11
I think it would have to be DesertFox Moat field in Cali!

Do you get criticised for the pink? E.G people saying you can't be sneaky etc. And if so how do you reply? (I always like to point out the knife kills I've got lol) - pinkpantherairsoft
I have been heavily criticised for the pink gear by self proclaimed 'hardcore MilSimmers' but Airsoft for me is fun and I like to have fun with my loadout. Pink is one of my favourite colours, so why not incorporate it? I have thought about taking the pink out of my loadout but the day you change to please other people is the day you lose yourself. So I dip dyed my hair pink. The pink gear has never prevented me getting sneakier kills.

Know any good radios that are effective and not too pricey? - strategic_eliminator
I use a Boafeng UV-5RE dual band radio that was recommended to me by one of my MilSim buddies, and I picked it up from Amazon for about £23, they're really easy to use.

Does size really matter? - butcher_and_bolt
Size isn't everything, it's how you use it. (Size is still pretty important tho)

I had loads of fun answering your questions! Thank you to everyone that sent questions in! Catch you all soon! 💋


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