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loki7491
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#1
The Fortress - Liverpool
24 February, 2014, 20:31
Sunday 23rd of Feb saw myself and Blythm wake at the un-earthly of 0300hrs to ensure that we were on the road by 0400hrs.
After 3.5 hours, a belly full of McDonalds and enough Redbull to sink a battle ship we arrived at the front gates to the site (much earlier than we planned to). The Fortress is not just a clever name or a play on words, the place is quite literally an almost impenetrable fortress. Originally it was a bonded warehouse and tobacco production / packaging factory. Taking into account the cost of the product inside, security was given a very high priority. There is an enormous perimeter wall. Best guess is it is 4 - 5 meters with a single entry / exit in the wall by way of an electric concertina door controlled by a security guard. Even the surrounding homes were restricted in height at the time of building so they could not see into the compound.
Once into the place parking was easy and ample. Even late comers would be no more than 30 meters from the safe zone. After catching a few minutes kip in the car, the site staff arrived and opened up for us. There we hooked up with Psirus101 who is sadly banned from this forum now so will not be reading this. for the record - he is a sound chap!
The Safe Zone
The safe zone is a large open plan building with a large vehicle loading door as the main point of entry. All down the left side and half way across the back wall is counter tops with the remainder of the room having large work benches adorned with trays, padded rifle stands and a smattering of some of the heaviest chairs I have ever tried to move!
The chrono area is in a separate room and is controlled like a gun range (which essentially it is) Next to the chrono room is the toilets. Male and female, indoor, porcelain, flushing, with running water at the sinks and even a mirror so you check yourself out in your tac gear - in short, it is not the Ritz, but it is civilised and better than 90% of the sites I know of.
Once the safe zone was set up, there was:
a bank of 10 NiMh battery chargers
a bank of 4 for LiPo batteries
a disco quality sound system pumping out some heavy rock / metal music
a water cooler with disposable cups (free to use)
a Burco water heater and brew kit (free to use)
a shop engineer service provided by the highly regarded Johnny J Raptor
a tuck shop for stickies and fizzy pop
a shop for airsoft related stuff
The Game Zone
As eluded to earlier, the site is massive. It is a 99.99% indoor site somewhere in the region of 5+ acres and 2 levels with something like 14 stairwells. The rooms all vary in size with packing areas, warehouses, offices, mezzanines, a 1/4 mile corridor (That is not a typo, the centre corridor is a 1/4 mile - the way Vin Diesel lives his life) with a multitude of rooms herring boning off of them.
The rooms have a mix of full lighting, some lighting and pitch darkness. Transitioning from area to the next played havoc with the ability to see and a tac light is an essential piece of kit at this site. Most of the place is bare, but the site operators have placed barricades to break up the scenery and have plans to do much more (please remember the site has only been operating since the beginning of the year)
The Marshals / Site Staff
They were certainly on their A game this Sunday - quite simply 10/10
The marshals were discrete and out of the way during game play, but always there and on hand if required. They knew the games inside out so could guide the new guys if they go disorientated or simply lost (easy done here). The jumped on confirmed cases of non-hit taking and very kindly returned your thrown BFGs (More on BFGs in a bit). in the safe zone they were friendly, accommodating and much to my surprise, easy on the micky taking. You have to appreciate that I have London accent, I drink larger and lime and am in the middle of Liverpool - I had given them plenty of ammo and they were still gentle!
Lunch
Lunch is a bring your own picnic type of affair, but for £10 there will be a piping hot pizza waiting for you in the safe zone at lunch. this is something we went for. I estimate the pizza to be 18" and it was certainly big enough to feed the three of us.
The Grenade Situation
There is a blanket ban on all chemical burn pyro. I was initially sceptical about this as I know they are heavily into selling the Versatile Training Grenades. I did have concerns that this was a ploy. I am pleased to say I was VERY wrong. Traditional pyro is banned on site because the whole place is still wired to active fire alarms, which in turn are connected direct to the local fire station. A Mk 5 thunderflash could inadvertently trigger the system and waste precious time and resources of the local fire brigade.
That aside, the game play works well without the pyro, but it is enhanced with the use of grenades. Between Blythe and myself we rocked 3 impacts and 3 delay type BFGs and were non-to-shy with getting them launched.
If you are not fortunate enough to own a slack handful of BFGs, the site will hire them out for £10 with 10x blanks. That is about 1/3 the cost if you were using 10x chemical burn pyro so a nice touch on their part.
The Games
The games were fluid and dynamic. The first two were based on the principal of once hit, fall back to the next position. This gave the illusion of attacking a larger force and given the size of the site, aided you in seeing a bit more of the real estate on offer.
The 3rd game was based on capturing an enemy laptop and returning it to your base, with them trying to do the same.
I am not really in a position to speak on the other games as I spent the latter part of the day in safe zone talking to the staff / owner and sharing ideas and putting the world to rights and checking out some of their facilities such as a purpose built range that can be used for competitions such as timed events, accuracy and even the 2 gun or 3 gun challenges with a mixture of paper targets and metal falling plate targets.
Each of the games lasted over an hour and were on semi-auto all day long. When in game I ended running VFC PDW with 6 midcaps and a pistol with 4 mags. It is an ammo intensive site so running the gas guns I had with me would have proved an exercise in futility for the most part. Blythe did in fact take his Vector out in the last game (based on a Zombie, once shot you turn into one type of thing) and scored a 12:1 hit ratio - something I heard about extensively on the drive home.
Overall conclusion
I am very proud of the Bluestreak site that I operate, but I make no secret of being very envious of The Fortress and it is a site I would love to run.
If you are in a position to do so, I suggest you take a trip over there. I needed to adjust my game play from normal to accommodate the style of the games coupled with the site layout, but we had a blast. I cannot recommend the site nearly enough.
BAMF
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#2
24 February, 2014, 20:46
Re: The Fortress - Liverpool
Mate, it was great to have you all up there to see how the other half live.
I can confirm that it's 8.5 acres of indoor airsoft finery and those chairs were only heavy because you're little.
It was a cracking day, with a quality night on the lash afterwards. Game play was brilliant, with sportsmanship shown by all named forum (And ex) members.
To my shame, I received a ticking off from an old dear in a crowded boozer for my prolific and prolonged profanity.
Cheers for your attendance mate. It was greatly appreciated.
There's a scammer operating openly on this forum. Please be aware of who you're dealing with.
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thebolshevik88
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#3
24 February, 2014, 21:19
Re: The Fortress - Liverpool
Great review mate- This place sounds incredible!
"Being offended provides no objective indication of "right" & "wrong". It's nothing more than a barometer of your own emotional control."- Ricky Gervais
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blytm
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#4
24 February, 2014, 21:26
Re: The Fortress - Liverpool
To echo what Loki has said, it is a fantastic site and so very different to what we are used to. For a site in it's infancy and having been there with ours the Fortress is going to become one of the best sites in the north. Even the seasoned woodland veteran like myself had a thoroughly good time.
My personal highlight which has been skipped by Loki was jumping a barrier 3/4 his size under somewhat heavy fire with me the other side providing covering fire using his gun, while trying not to wet myself laughing at the Hawaiian shirt mess roll over the floor towards the next bit of cover, for me to be then shot and leave him without a weapon. Everyone who witnessed this epic move couldn't hold back laughter as Loki beckoned me for his gun as I shouted hit and walked away with it...
The Vector 12:1 was brilliant as I rarely get to use the lovely thing.
As for the hospitality we received from Bamf and the whole team that were at the site was fantastic. Even getting to meet a few faces off here!
I can't wait for the next trip up.
Hotels near by are cheap. Drinks are cheap (we certainly consumed enough.. and then some)
Old woman are a bit mean though
Dear old Loki going all tactical...
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Caldymoose
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#5
24 February, 2014, 21:37
Re: The Fortress - Liverpool
was brilliant to meet both of you up there, nice to put a face to a forum name! Glad you both enjoyed yourselves and had a good game day, welcome back anytime!
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Currently rocking: Tokyo Marui 416D Recoil Shock and a Tokyo Marui HK45 w/SureFire X300
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BAMF
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#6
24 February, 2014, 21:59
Re: The Fortress - Liverpool
Originally posted by
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Great review mate- This place sounds incredible!
It is mate. It really, really is.
Plenty of Zeroiners past and present were in attendance.
Yosser, Psirus101, Loki7491, blytm, Caldymoose, theagitater, JohnnyJ, my bad self and numerous others. All great guys for whom airsofting is practically a way of life!
As an addendum, Loki made a bold statement after about 4 or 5 pints of how he has the bladder control of a dromedary camel and has been on nights out without engaging Armitage Shanks at close range. Two sips later, off he toddled to the little boys room for some target practice!
Lightweight!
Of course, yours truly lasted approximately another 5 or 6 pints (Plus blytm's, another shandy drinking fairy) before retiring to powder one's nose.
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dannyeprice23
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#7
24 February, 2014, 22:10
Re: The Fortress - Liverpool
I'll be there in a few weeks pal.
“A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.”
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loki7491
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#8
24 February, 2014, 22:12
Re: The Fortress - Liverpool
"Bladder of field mouse" is my super power!
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theagitater
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#9
25 February, 2014, 15:25
Re: The Fortress - Liverpool
It was my first time going to the fortress and I loved it, great site, great people, for me it was the little details and touches that made it stand out, Can't wait to go again.
KJW KP-08 - g&g scar l - we g23 - kwa vector - g&g tr4 cqb-s
VOA is a combat multiplier. When engaging an opponent, or engaged by an opponent, the immediate application of extreme violence lends a ferocious momentum forward that is irresistible.
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BAMF
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#10
25 February, 2014, 15:38
Re: The Fortress - Liverpool
Originally posted by
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It was my first time going to the fortress and I loved it, great site, great people, for me it was the little details and touches that made it stand out, Can't wait to go again.
I checked your pics on the Facebook page Lee. Talk about crazy madman look!!
Excellent photos though.
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theagitater
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#11
25 February, 2014, 15:41
Re: The Fortress - Liverpool
Originally posted by
BAMF
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I checked your pics on the Facebook page Lee. Talk about crazy madman look!!
Excellent photos though.
We will put that down to be immersed in the constant action lol
KJW KP-08 - g&g scar l - we g23 - kwa vector - g&g tr4 cqb-s
VOA is a combat multiplier. When engaging an opponent, or engaged by an opponent, the immediate application of extreme violence lends a ferocious momentum forward that is irresistible.
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shinobi14
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#12
26 February, 2014, 11:59
Re: The Fortress - Liverpool
Great site indeed, shame I missed you all being there! :/
I'll be back soon, but I have to take some new recruits up to Anzio in a few weeks, so that's first.
TM > JG
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BAMF
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#13
26 February, 2014, 20:25
Re: The Fortress - Liverpool
Short video uploaded. Not as many pictures taken as Nutz would have liked, as he had other pressing tasks on the day.
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Johnno
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#14
27 February, 2014, 12:49
Re: The Fortress - Liverpool
To my shame I didn't know this place existed and I only live 15-20 minutes away....will give it a go in the Summer when my old Body has shook off the effects of Winter.
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