First of all, in spite of this 2 star review, the field is NOT BAD; but there are some glaring issues that need improvement. Read TLDR if you're interested in pick up games.
I've been playing airsoft at various levels of scale for upwards of 5 years now, and have played at many fields. Take that as you will, as I will be explaining the reasoning for my grievances, and my praise for the field either way. For reference I attended a Recent monthly "mini-op" at the field, and will be basing my review off of that.
I'll start off with the good, and there is plenty of good at this field.
Staff, and concessions are largely excellent. All essentials are sold and available for rent on field. Safety briefing is inclusive of everything I would expect. (valken BB's are sold for some weights, not necessarily good, but that ultimately comes down to you)
The fact that the on site store accepts credit/debit is very appreciated.
Time from arrival to check in and then to chrono and getting on field was very short, even for those that showed up late.
Scale of the field is excellent, shape of the field allows for varied engagements throughout the day of CQC and Field operations.
Objectives were clearly defined in what they were. Props were detailed and interesting.
Cover on the field is varied from dense natural foliage, to scattered pallet walls for artificial cover. Selection of cover to meet your play style is not a problem, and the field naturally works to cater to many styles of play.
On site Refs largely were attentive to player issues.
And now on to the not so good, I had high hopes for this field, I wanted it to be good.
Parking is a severe issue, very limited for larger games.
OP rules were unorthodox, involving medic cards, and utility building mechanics that seemed interesting, but ultimately went unused. (medic was later changed to standard designated medic rules, but even that was scrapped as there was no medic identifier). normally this would not be a fault, but the clear lack of a back up plan was not unnoticed.
Hit rules were constructed to allow for hostage taking, but ended up hindering game play as the hit players could gain information quickly and easily if the enemy pushed up, and players trickling in from re-spawn and not being auto grouped in waves by spawn mechanics (an easy mistake for any op, but one that can easily kill game pace during more drawn out portions of the game as confusion starts to arise).
Normally I would not be so pedantic about the rules, but this combined with the sheer lack of effective communication to the team members and the event organizers lead to the most common thing heard on field being "what's the current objective squad lead?" "No idea?".
Even when objectives were identified this was largely not helpful as no context as to the state of the game was usually given. Between objective resets, "game on" and "game off" were only implemented half the time (and randomly), this led to many instances of groups of players not knowing if the game was "on" or "off"
In addition to this, game flow was simply horrible. The "Rebel" team ended up defending the same objective from the same attack point, many times. there was some game play around the details of the objective, but realistically it was the same every time, "defend this same thing, again".
Organization wise, in terms of game-play, it was a mess, I could go on, and on, and on, but I will not. I will move on to the much more concerning issues of the field, as game-play mechanics are a experience that can change with time and experience. Up till this point I WOULD HAVE NOT TAKEN OFF MORE THAN ONE STAR.
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What cannot be overlooked, are the logistical and ethical problems that some of the staff has in terms of organization.
Several authority figures (I hesitate to call them refs because they were engaged in active game-play, but still held field authority), were especially harsh on some of the newer players for very minor rule infractions (eg. laying down/standing while dead and not kneeling, NOT safety violations) due to frustration (not sure what you expect due to the fact that its an OP and many new to field players will show up) and didn't seem to have any issues with taking it out on them.
This is concerning due to the fact that it can easily turn off newer players from the sport itself, as an impromptu squad lead, I personally received many complaints and even witnessed quite a few instances of this behavior myself.
This especially depressing to many of the players when these same authority figures are blatantly breaking rules themselves (such as dead men don't talk - especially into radios to give Intel and relay orders while dead literally 10 ft from an enemies).
Even more importantly, a parent called the field, and the child could not be found by either team leader within a reasonable time.
TLDR:
Probably good for pick up games as game flow needs work, OPs are a big let down (bad admin). read more
