THE SWAT BIG GAME 2002

"The Battle of Halkyn Forest"

By Roger Stenning

Held over the weekend of 28th - 30th June 2002 at S.W.A.T. Airsoft's site in North Wales, the SWAT Big Game was attended by 274 Airsofters, four retailers, one Army recruiting team, and a host of support staff, making it officially the largest single Airsoft special event held in the UK and Europe to date - and it was a resounding success on all counts!

I attended on a purely reporting basis (no playing for me, unfortunately - I was too busy with my cameras, and talking to people, and still managed to enjoy myself!

Designed around a series of ten interwoven 'scenarios' with a common 'back story' (the world descends to chaos, and the EU fights to bring order to the chaos in Europe), there were two 'sides', the EUSF ('European Union Special Forces') and the 'rebels' ('Cambrian Militia'), visually different by the use of red or blue coloured arm-bands.

Previous events held on similar themes had the 'rebel scum' beating the 'EU' sides hands down twice in a row, so as an impartial reporter (yeah, right, and Santa really does exist!), I was rather interested to see if the 'EU' side would win the weekend this time.

Preparation for this event had been going on for almost a year, with Paul Knaggs, the boss at SWAT Airsoft, leading the development of the overall look and feel to the event. To paraphrase him, "It was exhausting, but well worth it". I'd agree. For the three months leading up to the event, he published details of the event on the SWAT Airsoft web site, calling each information release 'Intel 1' through 'Intel 7'. These included the 'back story', changes in rules and procedures for the game, directions on how to get to the site, who would be there, and so on. All very professional, informative, and, truth be told, entertaining as well - you could tell just by these alone, that a lot of effort had been put into getting the game ready to rock!

SWAT Airsoft is an offshoot of SWAT Paintball, a business that's been on the go since the early nineties. Their experience in that arena led to them starting up SWAT Airsoft a couple of years ago; with only a small site (74 acres) to work with, they've done a hell of a lot of work to get the site ready for Airsoft, and still run paintball games as well; their marshals are experienced, qualified to Paintball levels, and trained by Paul and his staff to adapt to the variances of the Airsoft game, which is significantly different (as most of you will already know!). The result shows - all the staff at the Big Game worked their behinds off, to make the event work, and be as fair as possible, while keeping it as safe as possible, with lessons learned from previous Airsoft game days injected into their experience bank - it paid off, but read on for more!

Friday... Day Zero...

Having driven through the night to get to the site before any players, I arrived in Halkyn at around six thirty, to find ten or fifteen players already on-site, camped out! So much for getting there ahead of things! The day was starting out like it intended to go on - hot, and sunny; ideal for a relaxed get-to-know you day; the plan was for there to be a bring-and-buy 'boot sale' of Airsoft kit from roughly midday, with a welcome party in the early evening. The get-to-know-you stated off right there and then as I arrived, meeting people that I'd only spoken to through the UK Airsoft Forums before - it's always nice to be able to put faces to names!

By a quarter to eight, after a nice breakfast with the lads already on-site (at the Little Chef a couple of hundred yards away from the site), the lads from SWAT Airsoft had begun to arrive - in a couple of cars, and a massive Mercedes van, loaded to the gunnels with Airsoft and safety kit!

For the next couple of hours, the staff were working flat out to get the site up-and-running; the catering van arrived at roughly eleven, and was almost immediately selling coffee, tea, and hot food - boy, did they have a busy weekend ahead of them - and, to my very pleasant surprise, they weren't charging 'captive rates', as one normally finds at similar events - they were very reasonable indeed - for example, a quarter-pound cheese burger cost £1.50! Now how's that for reasonable?!

The rest of the day was taken up with players and traders arriving, making themselves known, finding places to pitch their tens, park their cars, and other facets of the normal 'aha, we've arrived, let's get sorted out' routines that one comes to know and expect at such events. Throughout this, the on-site staff were hard-working, pleasant to all (including me!), and found time to relax and chat with anyone who wanted to talk, as well - they even found time to begin chrono testing everyone's Airsoft models!

Day 'zero' ended with a 'welcome party', which I reluctantly had to bow out of, succumbing to having been up and doing for something like 27 hours to that point.

Saturday... Day one...

Saturday dawned bright and early, and organisational matters were almost immediately running (following breakfast, of course, which was supplied from the catering van, which opened at the ungodly hour of 07:00! - Lord knows how they managed to smile at that time in the morning!)

At 09:00 prompt (well, give or take a few minutes), the first real en-mass briefing took place, re-emphasising safety rules, first aid instructions, and admin on how the teams were going to be split, etcetera; completed within half an hour, the teams were then led away by their leaders, to begin the serious business of beating the pants off each other!

By midday, it was becoming more than apparent that the EUSF teams were gaining the upper hand, as the leader board began to swell with the tally of their successes; in particular, their assault on the 'Satellite Base' was becoming the stuff of legend, with almost text-book precision being the norm for the scenario, with two of the EUSF teams, WASPS, and the Boston Rangers, (both of whom had obviously been training hard for the occasion), storming the Satellite Base with consummate ease!

By this time, the trade stands were in full operation, and trade (with players who had been 'eliminated' from the game for set periods of time) stocking up on such things as clothing, more guns, ammunition, grenades, and so on (and the occasional hamburger).

Airsoft Dynamics, one of the leading merchants of custom Airsoft parts and upgrades in the UK, said that by the end of the weekend, they'd managed to perform several thousand pounds-worth of sales - making it more than worth their time in setting up their new marquee, which they generously shared with Flecktarn.co.uk, a new UK retailer of German military clothing and equipment, who also did good business!

The day rounded off with a barbecue, and party, with a local band (sorry, I've forgotten their name, OOPS!) providing the music (loudly!)

Sunday... Day two...

Day two dawned cloudy, and ever so slightly cooler, but with fewer than expected hangovers from the partying of the night before (it's amazing what country air will do for the inebriated, isn't it?!).

For day two, the roles remained the same, as did the teams, but the ends of the ground were swapped, thus presenting a slightly different angle; since the defending teams the day before had come to know the lie of the land, their attackers could draw from this, and let their attackers know what the best ways of attacking the targets were (and vice verse, of course!). In theory, this should have opened up a whole new shooting match. Of course, since no plan ever survives contact with the enemy, this didn't exactly go according to plan...

The EUSF team were, once again, fully on top of things, and from the first scenario of the day, were hammering away at the Cambrian Militia team mercilessly.

Here's a list of the scenarios, to show you just what everyone was doing...

1. This is a mission required to be completed any time during the days play, no time limit but you prioritise how you deem fit
2. Locate & Destroy enemy command post (50 points)
3. Rescue the downed pilot (50 points)
4. Locate & bribe corrupt official (50 points) (links with mission 4)
5. Locate & capture both Scientists and their 'Nerve Agent' (50 points)
6. Locate, and fire a missile, sited somewhere on the site; the missile is aimed at the enemy base. (50 points)
   With this objective achieved, quickly will go to stage 2
   Secure, return to base with, and reload missile. Further launches grants 25 points per launch
7. Fuel drums search recovery. For every drum you get, 25 points are awarded
8. V.I.P. Rescue. (50 points)
9. Spy satellite camera recovery. (50 points)
10. V.I.P. Escort (50 points)
11. Locate & Destroy comms bunker. (50 points)
12. Drugs cartel - Capture illegal drugs. 25 points for each bag secured in your bunker. (linked with 12)
13. Destroy drugs (find explosive expert) (50 points)

And that's the lot; as you can see, a hell of a lot of preparation went into this event (the same scenarios were used on day one as well); for day two, the victory tally was as follows:

So, after two years of eating northern types taunts, the EUSF team has finally broken their two-year run of bad luck, and beaten the EUSF soundly! Congratulations!

Prize Winners:

The awards speak for themselves, so here they are!

Event winner:

EUSF

Event runners up (2nd place):

Cambrian Militia

Best dressed player:

Chris Stanney of dark legion

Prat of the weekend:

The marshals Nutz and Ice (nominated because they did not pick anyone for the award!)

Most sporting team:

Boston Rangers

Most sporting player:

Lt Steve Paddock, (blown up on the Saturday three times by marshals and still grinning, a member of the Boston Rangers)

G. I. Joe Award:

Christophe Maris (ESwat / Paris team)

G. I. Jane Award:

Jo Wan (from Flecktarn.co.uk)

Action man award (for the player who took 'em all out on his own and managed to do all the scenario's himself etcetera, etcetera):

Bruce Kingsley, for his awesome body count on the Sunday!

So, after all was said and done, how did everyone feel (even the losers?)

On the site, and amenities:

Michael W.: "The confusion factor was confusing, and the cap park was too small, but I'd give it 8 out of 10, even then!"

Alex S.: "9 out of 10; they need to steamroller the campsite, which was the only 'muggly' bit!"

Pretty much everyone had comments regarding the camp site, which was, to say the least, a bit lumpy; Paul from SWAT Airsoft has taken this on board, though, and next year, will be getting the camp site flattened properly, and increasing the size of the car park as well.

On the playing, and scenarios:

Nick M.: "Excellent! 10 Plus out of 10!"

Russell C.: was mostly unprintable (the market is wide, mate, not just adults!!), but came out with high praise - "Eleven out of ten!"

Most everyone had the same thing to say on the sportsmanship of other players: Cheating was almost non-existent, and everyone was happy, and playing well

About the EUSF winning (And the Cambrians losing)...

Mostly, the language used, while good natured, prevents me from repeating what was said, but everyone I spoke to was happy enough; The French were chuffed that they'd had a team member win an award, The Southerners (EUSF) were chuffed to bits about winning (finally!), and the Northerners (Cambrians) were a little disheartened about losing, but had the consolation of having won the previous two events (Firefly 1 and 2), so it all evened out, in the end.

I'd like to thank Paul Knaggs and all his staff at SWAT Airsoft for making me feel so welcome, and all the players, traders, and, of course, catering staff, for getting right into the spirit of the event, and making it a completely enjoyable, successful event for everyone - THIS was the spirit of Airsoft at its' best, and long may it continue!

And yes - The SWAT Big Game is returning in 2003!

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