Reviewing Kit Ahead of Splatoon 10th April

Our first post-lockdown event is 10th April at Splatoon, a paintball and airsoft site in Essex. I played there back in August last year in the Golden Summer and the site is very different to my usual Foam Flinging Skirmish and Green Cloaks environments so it called for a rethink on how I approach equipment. It's a much denser urban style arena and there is a lot more in the way of tight spaces.

Additionally, the games are much shorter with no Long Game format so I'm not having to sustain engagements over multiple hours so the ammunition load is much, much lower. With enough manouverability, I ought to be able to compensate for the Gryphon's shorter range and the Caliburn's lower rate of fire.

Houston, we have  DPM problem!

That is most of my DPM and green kit. The site is a private field with a mix of containers and scrubland so full camo and blacked out blasters are acceptable. The issue is to forge an effective load out from this DPM mess.

I stripped everything back to bare basics and evaluated all my equipment as I was adding it. I currently only have 14 Talon magazines which made selecting the base of the load out a much simpler task. A battle belt will happily take 2 hex pouches so with one in the blaster, that's all your magazines on board.

Paired belts form the basis of this load out

The battle belt sits above my Viper tactical belt that's holding by DPM trousers in place and both of them have a role in holding equipment. The battle belt itself is a custom made piece that I built inspired by the Condor battle belt. I like my DPM so I built one in that fabric. 

Armour and vests:

A vest didn't make the cut

A lot of the bulk of that big old DPM pile up there is various forms of foam armour for either LARP purposes or for protecting from high velocity impacts. I opted to without armour partly to reduce carriage bulk and partly to minimise the load and keep myself mobile. Within the FFS environment, it's much easier to plant your feet and use a fire and manouvre style of play but the containers at Splatoon are going to need faster and more efficient use of darts. I looked at the vest and normally it would carry 4 x magazine pouches and probably some auxiliary bits and pieces but in this context, it adds nothing that the battle belt doesn't and adds a significant amount of bulk and weight.

Item by Item Analysis:

First pass assessment of essential kit for the event

Items 1 and 2 are the belts I've already discussed and 3 and 4 are the magazine pouches needed to feed the Gryphon.

I still suck at taking photos

 Next to 4 and without a number is the zip dump pouch for loose ammo. Top off in these sorts of engagements is critical so it had a large open top to get my hand into readily. 12+1 with top is a tried and tested means of staying in the game with full length ammo so it shouldn't be too much to port that to half lengths. I estimated this pouch will hold on the order of 300 rounds which for most purposes in the Splatoon type environment ought to be enough.

5 and 9 are my radio with push to talk module and boom mounted microphone respectively. The radio is clipped to my belt while the wires are run up the inside of the my DPM BDU to emerge at the base of my neck allowing for the most movement.

Talon Hex Magazine Pouch and Firestrike Holster

One of the unique features of Splatoon is that it has a kill maze where you're in very close proximity and having anything other than a one shot pistol for most of the engagements inside that area isn't worth it. The Firestrike has an upgrade spring in it and is handy for those tight corners while not taking up much space. Not bad for a sidearm I picked up for a one shot LARP character.

Old faithful water carrier

One of the advantages to my FFS rig is the giant 3L Camelbak inside the haversack. Given I'm not expecting there to be multiple hours worth of engagement, I can afford to slim it down to a 1L bottle and then just top off from the haversack when I'm in the safe zone. The carrier itself is my old Maxpedition black MOLLE mounted bottle carrier with some US Army style water bottle in it. I should probably replace it with one that's not falling apart but it holds water and that's what matters.

Gloves are unsung Nerf essentials

More old faithful kit at 6 are my knock off fingerless tactical gloves. Between needing my skin in tact for the day job (alcohol gel in cuts isn't the best idea) and helping keep a little warm, my fingerless gloves come everywhere with me. I opt for fingerless so you can protect the important bits of my hands but retain the dexterity needed for magazine changes and blaster work.

Eye and neck protection

Items 7 and 8 are my DPM snood and BOLLE Tracker eye protection respectively. The snood is there for neck protection because the thing I hate the most is getting shot in the neck. It also adds a layer of face protection if I need to pull it up. Given we're outdoors, I don't suspect that there will need to be for COVID19 protection but it can double as that too. My Tracker shooter glasses are rated to airsoft and then some so they ought to do the job plenty good.

Knee pads from Alta

Finally, knee pads because your knees are a very precious resource and wearing them out is a bad idea. These are my old Alta Contour pads in Olive Green that will sit happily over the top of my DPM BDU and are like kneeling on clouds.

Additional Kit:

That's all the kit I have on hand and everything that I think I'll need. I've ordered a DPM boonie hat to pop on my head to help keep the radio headset in place and the sun out of my eyes. I'm exploring adding smoke capability in the form of a pouch containing a pair of WP40 smoke grenades but it might just be easier to carry them in my pockets at this point.

I've opted to go without helmet and camera for this run just so I've got less equipment to worry about going back into the event. I can just run around and drop some foam and have fun. It'll be good to be back on the field again.