Winter Clash of BritNerf - Brief Thoughts on Equipment

Winter Clash of BritNerf was over the weekend of 12th November and consisted of a variety of events at three different venues. I attended two of them: Superstore and Invicta Battlefields. My After Action Reports for Superstore and Invicta can be found over on BritNerf that detail the game play and my general thoughts on the event. This post briefly makes some notes about my equipment for each event and how it panned out.

Superstore - 12th November

Superstore is an old department store that's been converted to an airsoft arena. Close sight lines, 130FPS cap and quite a bit of CQB action. I found the Gryphon on a 2S snuck in under the cap so I was on short lengths for the full event.

Tactical Boff is watching you...

Major equipment changes from my last post include the addition of a full linen shemagh. It's great to be back in the soft coolness of proper linen on my next. With the FAST helmet and camera combination (as long as the SD card remained empty), it sat under my chin nicely and kept my neck protected from incoming darts nicely.

 I also swapped up my eye protection to the lighter BOLLE Viper glasses rather than my older Tracker goggles. The result was a much better experience with less fogging and general problems. Sure, the event was REALLY yellow for all of it but I took two direct hits to the lenses and they didn't struggle. I think I'll be keeping them for future events.

The old 2018 pattern vest is actually still working really well. I think over the winter I'll need to make myself some Talon pouches now that I'm pretty much operating solely on short darts because the old magazine pouch dividers can only take me so far. The proper tactical shirt I have for under it is working nicely and has plenty of pockets and space for patches.

"STAY STILL THEIR VISION IS BASED ON MOVEMENT" - SpectreN7 on this photo

 The AirTac grenades pictured with the orange caps on my vest continue to be a pain in the balls. They're fragile but when they work, they work really well. I feel there are a lot of improvements that could be made with them but they did work to clear rooms nicely. I need to make a proper holder for them, though because the 3D printed one they come with is terrible. I've only used it for two events and there have already been breakages on the clips. I need to find a way of carrying the 'nades and the charge bag on a single panel that I can move around as I need it.

I might also want to invest in some black knee pads if indoor games are starting up again on the regular. I'm currently relying on not having to kneel much but venues are getting more and more varied so I want to be able to protect my knees as I get older.

Finally, the Demolisher rocket and MEGA dart holder is showing it's age and needs replacing. I need a way of carrying spare darts for my shield busting side arm that doesn't see them get squished. It's something to put on the design list.

And yes, there are jokes to be made about playing amongst the corpse of late stage capitalism with this arena...

Invicta Battlegrounds - 13th November

Going back to London between two events might not have been the best idea but I wasn't lugging two sets of gear around. Invicta is a completely different dart game to Superstore. 300FPS cap, outdoors and in the woods. It's a unique venue that lends itself to a different game type than other high energy fields but I still rocked my standard green kit.

"What this situation needs is more smoke..."

This is one of my favourite event photos for a while. We're assaulting a fort that's behind that cloud of smoke. You can see the arc of live pyro mid air from other players and we wanted a dense screen to advance under. We'd cleared the woods to my left of skirmishers and were due to make an advance on a heavily defended position.

This shows off my current gear quite nicely and the theme and look is consistent. New additions are the Gecko holster for my shiny new side arm. It wasn't in service for this event but I took it along in the holster with it's magazine pouch so I could get a feel for where it needs to go. Honestly, it might have to go onto a drop-leg. The draw was a bit meh with it on the battle belt as high as it is and it got caught on the mag pouches. You can also see the dual stage Tempus in this photo which is a massive upgrade to the Gryphon. It still needs some work to get it dialled in but it did a great job on the day. The photo does show some problems with gear remaining in position, however. The current core of the system is webbing straps and those will bend and deform which can mean things get in the way.

This shot shows some of my difficulties with the current set up. This rig was developed in 2018 originally and then patched onto for an event in 2020 where I needed to be in the field for up to 72 hours at a stretch for a LARP. While it's light over the work shirt, there are tubes, pipes and straps everywhere. I've tightened it up as best I can but it's still a little all over the shop. A radio pouch for the transmission radio and probably a new headset are in order since my Bowman appears to have stopped broadcasting. The haversack is a bit loose on the webbing and moves when I run. Carrying an entire event's worth of fighting equipment on me served me well, rarely did I have to return to the safe zone for anything. Food, water, pyro and ammo all in one place works great but I think the concept needs to be refined. I can dump the top rig still to give me the skirmish belt for shorter games but at the same time, the Tempus is a hungry beast and probably demands more than just the two basic magazines I have on the lighter version of this order.

I've been considering the design of a completely bespoke tactical vest for myself to include all the wiring and tube pipes that I think I need. I can then put the haversack on the back and maybe look at making cloak/bedroll carriage a little more intuitive. A pocket for stowing my head set when it's not in use so the wires don't get destroyed in transit would also be handy. I will thrash out a full design brief over the winter and hopefully go in 2022 with gear that has learned the lessons post-pandemic now events are starting up again.

Oh and the boonie hat was necessary because I'm still working on my power supply situation for the new helmet and camera system.