Operation Vortex - The Tale of Africa
This is just my perspective of events. If any one wants to contribute their story, do so!

Ok. After months of preparation, and getting the right equipment ready for three days airsofting, the day finally arrives. Tom Vane is due to pick me up at 9.30, and I wake up at 7 for final equipment checks, and lots of food. Packed everything I could remember, remind my Dad he offered to cook me breakfast, and then wait. Tom turns up, and I pile outside ASAP, and realise
" Oh dear. That car is going to collapse, under the combined weight of: 6 Guns, tons of ammo, body armour, webbing, BDUs, and other assorted arse"
Hmm.Ditch the tent ill sleep with Tom.

Sorted. Off we go, driving for about 2 hours, then realise we are going to not arrive at 1. Oh no. Nowhere near. Try about 3.30.We get to the site, sign in, buy some new shiny gloves (v nice ones) and pitch tent with the rest of Invicta Airsoft (mixture of all the Kent teams) and Wraith Alpha. I say hi to people, and then start socialising. I meet Koss, famous sniper on the forums, and realise hes not so short as they all say. Then go and meet George (aka Morden279) and realise he is very short. Have dinner, and then we get the big briefing of boringness, just safety stuff and basic rules.

Tent town nearby to our camp, centred on CSUs "chute"
Then we are told, anyone who wants to join in the night game, go ahead. Most people don't, the cowards!
But me Tom and Luke are game for it. We gear up sharpish, and leg it over to the starting point, where we are taken to the Village (an old cowboy western style one, quite big, complete with Church etc). We are told that the objective is very basic. Kill les enemy. Defenders have but one life. The attackers just have to run back to the respawn point ( a trailer), and go in again. Me Tom and Luke pick the high ground ( as we are defending first) and head to the Saloon, and to the top floor. Cos we am tactical, we sat back from the window, so we couldn't be seen, and we have a perfect view of the main point of attack. The whistle blows and the firing begins.

Bear in mind that about 20 people are attacking just ONE piece of the village. I begin blazing away, taking down loads of people, without being fired on. Tom discovers his M4 battery wasn't charged at all, and has to switch to his pistol. He goes downstairs in case someone manages to get inside the building. We can hear him happily snapping off shots. Luke and me own big style, still not taking much fire. Then finally they work out where we are, and one guy begins firing at us. We return fire, but hes got the hang of it , ducking down as soon as hes finished firing. He finally caps me, and it turns out I was one of two left, including Luke. Luke lasts a little bit longer, but is dead in the end. We held for 14 minutes, outnumbered by about 10 men.
Then it's our turn to attack. We split into two teams, one sweeping around the side, and one doing a frontal attack. I'm in the frontal attack team, as is Luke, and Tom had left to sort his battery out. After a bit of a sticking point, we push on, and I manage to run along the back of the building in front of the Saloon, and frag the house at the end of the row, delightfully accompanied by screams of " OH S**T" and "GRENADE"

Our lads move in and occupy the buildings, so I clear off round the other way, past the Indian settlement, and regroup with a bunch of guys held up in the Church. As it turns out, one of the enemies is cheating, as he's not in the village, hes standing in the bushes outside it, and capping us in the rear as we attack past him. I tell a Marshall, and he says ok, but does nothing. Fine then. I tell the other guys we are with not to take hits from that guy. He gives up quickly and surrenders once he realises his position is completely pointless. Then our team round the front charge the last house, and lots of grenades explode. End of game
We won; we took it in 10 minutes, being even more outnumbered than before. Invicta oorah!

Time for beer and medals. But no medals, medals having been replaced by beer. And also time was replaced in a similar fashion. And "and" was too. Beer.
I wander over to the military show off stand, bringing my Mosin Nagant rifle for all to see. All sorts of cool real guns hanging around, and I make a few friends. Get to play with an 1876 Henry Martini (ever seen Zulu? those guns) and a Lee Enfield SMLE Mk.III*. Very nice too. More beer. More beer. Singing.Getting Shouted at, and much silliness with a super powered torch... Sleep.
Matt And George and the Henry Martini


Wake up at 6, as does the entire of Invicta Airsoft (all the Kent teams plus Wraith Alpha). Nobody else on site is up yet, the lazy bastards. So we fire up the barby, and get the tea and bacon on. Most people are a bit groggy, but I was fandabbydozy, especially considering id been drinking, woke up early, and had been airsofting that night. Briefing is at 8.30, so we all begin preparing and checking weapons at about 7.30. By 8, the whole of Invicta Airsoft is ready for bear. Other people around the site are just getting up and yelling "Bollocks! Not long!"
We chat for a bit, until the air raid siren sounds, and we mosey over, standing closest to our team leader. The briefing begins.

We have to invade a series of countries and place a friendly president in each and make the country stable in order to score points. The enemy are doing the same. You can kill the presidents to take an enemy country. The presidents are large pieces of wood with a bloke painted on them, with a piece of paper covering a hole so you can kill them. The Sea Devils, Phoenix and Mercenaries are tasked with attacking the place where all our presidents are hiding, and take them back to HQ. Other teams are tasked to invade the countries and hold them. Off we run, and I test fire my AK. It doesn't work. Fan fcuking tastic. Matt says "here, use my FAMAS; I want to use my XM-8."
I empty all my mags into the FAMAS mags, and off we run to get briefed by our side commander for the last time before the game starts, then gragh!
As GAME ON is bellowed, Matt says, "Ed I want to use my FAMAS."
CHAINSAW. Oh well, its his gun, and hurriedly we pour my ammo into the XM-8. It fires at 330 fps, so its all good. Off we sprint to regroup with the rest of Invicta Airsoft, but get contacted instantly. I return fire, only to find the XM-8 is dribbling bbs...
I stomp off to the Safe zone, and put the XM-8 down, and get ready for my cross-country run to the campsite to retrieve my P90. I get there, and notice the yellows are cheating profusely and openly. Next to the campsite is one of the two safe zones. In each safe zone there is a clock, divided into yellow and Red five-minute intervals. The yellows are ignoring this clock, and are going back into the fight as soon as they have picked up their new life tokens, resulting in several cases of walk out of safe zone, get shot INSTANTLY

Anyway, I report this to a few marshals, and nothing is done. Waaah!
I grab my P90, strap Rev's box magazine onto it, and stomp back off to find something to kill. The rest of that morning was pretty boring, but I still got a good handful of kills. Finally, lunchtime, and we trudge off to the safe zone, to get our snacks and regroup. Red team are thoroughly pissed off as none of the objectives have been achieved, and lots of cheat calling is going on, towards the yellows. We all finish eating, and we all gear up again, and get the GAME ON.
We sprint out towards the trenches, and are somehow under instant fire! Bear in mind the site is 300 acres and the other team are supposed to be on the other side of the bloody site! O well. We fight em off and all sorts of craziness ensue. We kicked ass on Saturday afternoon, and most of our objectives were achieved, and we killed them in droves. My favourite bits include:
Me and Warren and some Chinese dude wiping out half of ESWAT (the French group, made up of currently serving soldiers and police) before getting killed by some cheating bugger, and then given an extra life by the nearby marshal. Gotta love 'em!

Me killing about 20 guys. Single-handed. Without being fired on. Mainly with my pistol. Ok here goes.

I'd become separated from all friendlies, and was attempting to find someone to hook up with. I notice a big group of guys all in Swat Tactical Uniform, and sprint over knowing they are Dog Company, and on my team. I'm the only non-Dog Coy man, so I wander around filling in any gaps in the line.
We don't take much fire, but one of the blokes takes a hit, and I see where it comes from, from behind the unused safe zone in the middle of the site. I stack up on the corner, getting ready to dive round and check it out. A Dog Coy guy is backing me up, but warns me I think they are right round that corner.
My reply is "Only one way to find out!"
I lean out all super-tactical, weapon into shoulder, head into sights, and promptly scream like a girl when I find out that my barrel is about an inch away from the point man of a three-man ESWAT team. I blow the crap out of him, and pull back behind the corner. I crouch down below the safe zone, and burn the legs off of the other two. Thank jeebus for that! . I retrace their route, and pop out next to a large group of dead red guys, including John, Roland, Warren and Koss, all standing near a Marshal. Then, I spot a big feck off group of yellows preparing for an assault on the helicopter, which Dog Coy are defending. I wander over to the Marshal and ask if I can open fire, and everyone moves out the way. I draw my pistol and P90 and take aim at this group. Starting with the pistol, I begin snapping off shots into the group. They all look thoroughly perplexed, and begin to turn towards me, so I once the pistol am out; I light them up with the P90. Absolute massacre. Then I holster the pistol, and sneak round again, and start taking fire from 4 guys. I jump out during a pause and obliterate all of them in one long burst. Then I realise that one of the guys I killed is using an MG42. I have NEVER ever seen one of these in my life, as they cost wait for it. About 1500 pounds. I killed a dude with a 1500 quid heavy machine gun, with my 30 quid second hand pistol! SCORE! Then I get shot in the back, but I saved Dog Company.


Then next up its the pyro game. Objective is, to get the WMD from no mans land, and the enemy have to do the same. All this while the biggest pyros in the world are going off. I nominate myself to hold up the enemy and loads of the guys come with me. Most of the other Sea Devils go off to find the bomb with the others. I charge up the track, and see a large area, with the enemy on the far side and sparse cover in the middle. I sprint across, and start firing from the hip. Massive vicious firefight, and i'm killed repeatedly, but keep on going back, respawning and charging.
Then we have to stop because a dude breaks his wrist painful much! The game begins again, and we realise their right flank is pretty open, and that what we are doing there is pretty futile. Luke and me wander off to join the search for the bomb. I move down a track and Luke disappears. I find my mate Martin pinned down by about 10 yellows, and I dive into a small one man bunker and begin to take them out, giving him the chance to move and fire properly again. We wipe them out between us, and I advance, with him watching for enemies. I stalk through the woods, and find this bloke lying down, staring intently down his scope, and hes wearing a yellow armband. I wander over, crouch next to him, and put my muzzle of my P90 into his shoulder. He looks up at me, and I whisper to him I really don't want to have to do this mate He looks around and asks where his team has gone. I say we've just killed em all. He goes, fair enough and goes back to respawn. I jump up and scream KNIFE KILL!!!! And promptly get hosed by three guys in the bushes. I trudge back to respawn and Martin sneaks up behind all three guys with his silenced G36 and double taps each one, without being spotted. Then game over.
Then beer and laughter.
Sleep, and find out that tom snores, the bitch...

Me, Macca, John, Bacon and Koss.

Then Sunday arrives. This day will live on in my memory, as the most intense day of fighting in airsofting history the objective is to hold the line. The enemy have nuclear weapons, but they have to physically move them into our countries to set them off. Some others and I move to the bridges, and me and about 5 other guys push over the bridges, advancing as far as we can safely without breaking our line. We mount a defence in depth, holding off a few waves of yellows, slowly being whittled down. We get pushed back to the bridges, but Lee and I are thoroughly installed in our positions, and George is still sniping the enemy off in the distance. Lee gets rushed and so do I, and just before we die, George calls hit. All red resistance on that side of the bridge is gone.

A Gaggle of Sea Devils: John, Roland and Martin

I pull back to the Trenches after respawning to discover the enemy are trying to take them. I head in and link up with a few Dog Company guys again, who are waiting for the enemy to charge. One of the Dog Coy guys tells me that the French have been using Tears of the Sun tactics. Basically, a solid wall of fire, followed by a volley of grenades, more fire and advance. Repeat if necessary. My Dog company mate gets shot in the glasses, I think by pure fluke, cos he wasn't visible. O well. I sneak into his position, and then crawl forward further, essentially leaving myself in no mans land, in a bush overlooking the enemy line. I'm hand signalling enemy positions to the rest of the guys behind me. I'M not firing, just watching and waiting. Then I hear " UNE DEUX TROIS!", And a hail of fire. I stick my head in the dirt in case a stray round hits me, and wait for the storm. 6 frags go off in a perfect line, and then they charge. As the grenades go off, 6 French guys stand up and charge, screaming. I jump up and scream TEARS OF THE SUN THIS! and take out 4 of em, and the other two are annihilated by the rest of Dog Coy over to my left. I notice James and some others in a trench in the gully at the bottom of the Trench network, hunkered down, and after some more fire and maneuver to get to them (driving the last of the enemy out) I reach them and ask whats going on. It turns out that at the t-junction in the gully, two snipers are hiding and pinning them down. After some deliberation we decide to wait em out, as they cant hit us and we cant hit them. Then some guy runs up, goes
"why aren't you killing em!", and hoofs a grenade down the gully and gets both of them. Amazing throw. We continue down the gully, and Dog Company meets us again, and we clear out gully area completely.

Then we being searching for the nuke, which we were sure, we had seen. Whilst probing beyond our lines, another enemy attack stars. I and some other guy crouch down and hide, waiting for the enemy. Ive got perfect eyes on this group of four guys, and I wait till they begin firing on other reds before I open up. I can see a guy twitching from my shots hitting him in the head, and he doesn't call hit. Some dude then advances with a Minimi, and doesn't see me but stands next to me and fires past me. I turn and fire a burst into his leg, at a range of about 5 ft, and he turns and shoots me. Cheating bastard I stomp off to hand over my token, whilst the rest of the men kill these guys off. I tell the marshal and the nice guy hands me three extra lives: D. Then all goes silent. No firing no nothing, and a lot of guys leave the trenches to regroup, leaving an odd assortment of people to defend them. About 5 of us in total. I ask John to get onto the command frequency and ask whats going on. We get the reply that we've destroyed one nuke, and we have a solid as hell front line.

Then we get the report that the enemy are massing for an attack somewhere. This explains the lack of a fight! Someone says they think the bridges are going to get attacked, and we see lots of people run from different areas to reinforce the bridges. I want to go but John says stay, so I do, and begin running messages for him, checking our defences and ammo situation amongst our defenders. We hear the chatter of guns over at the bridges, and after a while we get people pulling back to the trenches.

We have about 10 men now, and all of a sudden, about 50 Yellows, mainly Irish and French burst into the trench zone. We begin firing and all sorts of insanity ensues. They try charges, sneaking, tears of the sun, everything, but we are dug in too well, and too accurate. Del is hosing them with M249 from the high ground, just outside their range. Finally they charge in one MASSIVE group. I retreat to the left hand side of the trenches, where there is a wall that runs next to the trenches, offering perfect position to fire into the rest of the trenches. The French wipe out everyone in the trenches but Martin and me again. We begin killing. And killing and killing and killing. We hold off two enemy waves, bearing in mind this is against trained soldiers and a great Irish team, before reinforcements arrive at last. We drive them out, and they kill Martin and me.

When we respawn, it turned out that they had taken the trenches in our absence. This is about 30 minutes before the end of the ENTIRE weekend, and the whole thing hangs in the balance, as this would be the only objective they take all day if they got it. The most vicious firefight in airsofting history begins. Roughly 60 people a side ( by this point), fighting over one area. They occupied the trenches and had us completely pinned out side the area. I and some other guys (Team Panda) started doing suicide runs, drawing fire for other guys to get in and gain a foothold. We eventually take the left flank, and begin trying to clear them out, with 15 minutes left. I suddenly realise "
Hang on, why are we only attacking the one entrance?The entire site is still in play!"

Koss attempts to sleep whilst i perform the patented "bunny rabbit ears" tactic

I sneak round the back, take out a bunch of guys who are just milling about. And then head into the rear of the trenches. Nobody is looking at me, so I begin killing. I'm massacring these, not taking any fire in return. Then the scariest bit of the weekend. I kill two out of three guys behind a barricade, and then my gun starts dry firing (no ammo). The third guy spins, aims and fires but hes ALSO out of ammo! By this time i'm screaming and winding my mags like a crazy man, and he's drawing his pistol. He beats me to it, and pulls the trigger on his pistol.

NO GAS!!! FECKING HOORAY! I aim and put one shot into him. I continue and begin screaming "GET IN HERE YOU B*******S I NEED YOUR HELP" at the top of my lungs at the rest of red team, having taken one flank single handed, and one flank is already ours, leaving only the bottom of the trench zone with enemy in it. I get shot, and prepare to do the same again. I spent FOUR HOURS in those trenches under constant fire, apart from the bit where we received info about the enemy attack. One big firefight, with more grenades going off and more smoke bombs exploding than in a Hollywood movie. Intense.


The perfect end to the perfect weekend. It turns out we lost, but we know for a fact we outfought the enemy on all accounts. The points difference was 75 points, and total points on our side was 1665. It was THAT Close. I'd churned through nearly 15,000 BBs.SOOO MUCH Fun. And I came home with more beer than I went with! Made some great friends too!