A Skirmish is what airsoft games are called. Airsoft Skirmishes can be broken up into walk-on airsoft games, big airsoft games with over 100 airsoft players, and national/international airsoft games, drawing airsoft players to exciting locations for huge events.
We’ll start to break these down and tell you what to expect at each.
Walk-On Airsoft Skirmishes
New airsoft players should start at the walk-on airsoft skirmishes. Click the following link for information on what airsoft gear is required for these games. The local fields host airsoft skirmishes on varying schedules to show up and play in any uniform. These are also referred to as “trigger time,” and generally speaking, that’s what they are.
The airsoft field operators and refs come up with a small scenario, and the players are divided up into at least two factions, and each starts at an opposite end of the field and attempts to complete objectives. Most good fields will try to mix up the veteran airsoft players and airsoft teams with the new airsoft players.
If they have the guys that are all dressed exactly alike vs. a disheveled rabble of kids, mention it to someone and if you don’t like the answer provided, speak with your wallet and play elsewhere. A good mix of experience levels promises a better airsoft day for everyone involved and ensures that new players don’t become cannon fodder.
Walk-on Airsoft Skirmishes are great for testing new electric airsoft guns, gas airsoft guns, and even spring-loaded airsoft sniper rifles. They have chronographs onsite to ensure that all airsoft guns are firing under the field limits (mandated by insurance and common sense). These games don’t really matter, so anything goes.
New strategies form, exploits in the enemy are discovered, and everyone learns a little more about the airsoft players they’re up against. This is a great way for new players to build up to their first big airsoft skirmish.
Big Airsoft Skirmishes Focus on Team Work and Community
The Big Airsoft Skirmish is what the sport is really all about. These scenarios are often planned well in advance by field operators, airsoft teams, or community members. Companies like Operational Scenarios have also started to run games at various fields in the region and reinvest the proceeds back into the company to hold future events with better airsoft props.
Airsoft Props are another reason that big airsoft skirmishes are as much fun as they are. When was the last time you had to hump a real (deactivated) missile across 50 acres of the field? Or had to find multiple parts to a “nuclear device” with electronics built-in and coded. When was the last time you played airsoft with explosions going off around you and in the background every few minutes? Or got to ride in a military vehicle or troop carrier? Big Airsoft games bring all of these and more into the picture for a unique experience that you can’t get elsewhere.
Big airsoft skirmishes often run entire weekends, providing players with night vision goggles a chance to utilize them in nighttime play. Nighttime airsoft games are a huge draw, often bringing in 150 people to play one airsoft “operation.” Airsoft players arrive on Saturday, set up tents (unless the game goes 36 hours straight, with no breaks), and get on with the scenario until about midnight.
Extremely high candle-watt tactical flashlights are the norm, as well as high-intensity glow sticks, providing moments of daylight and disorientation to mix in with the exhaustion of carrying all the extra weight of your tactical gear and all the energy expended throughout the day.
Day 2 always starts as early as the rooster crows, so again, exhausted with limited, if any, sleep, everyone, mounts up and heads back out to finish what they started the day before. These games can range anywhere from 35 dollars to $90 depending on the field, props being utilized, and other expenses for whoever is running the airsoft event.
National and International Airsoft Events – Where the Hardcore Play
National games cost an arm and a leg more and with good reason. National airsoft skirmishes provide locations you’d be unable to access without joining the military or without special permission and put you through an experience you’ll never forget. These large-scale airsoft events bring in platoon-level airsoft games with over 400 players in various roles.
These are strictly squad-based events with realistic chains of command, squad load-outs, and fire teams. Communications are all military-level terminology, so if you’re not upon it, you should brush up before heading to one of these events.
Airsoft players from all over the world come to these events for a chance to play airsoft on a MOUT training facility, which basically amounts to a small city in the middle of a military base used to train US troops and Marines.
These are million-dollar facilities with streets, sewers (that are accessible and provide access to buildings), stairs, windows, multiple floors, and every kind of building you’d expect to see in a city. From houses in cul-de-sacs to gas stations, hotels, and schools, it’s all here.
The streets are littered with blown-up buses, downed helicopters, and mangled cars with flames coming through them. Machine gunfire and screams, explosions, and barking dogs can be heard at extremely high decibels and add to the overall dynamics of putting you into the environment.
Factor in being awake almost 3 days straight, and you get an idea of the level of experience and endurance required to pull one of these off.
While overcoming the enemy is always nice, just making it through one of these national airsoft events is a badge of honor. Expect to pay more than 200 dollars plus food, fuel, and hotel/camping arrangements if you decide to take up going to one of these events.
If you can not pass a Federal background check, don’t even consider it.
