STRAIT UP FIGHT

IT’S BEEN A GOOD WHILE SINCE STEWBACCA FOUND HIS WAY TO THE OUTLYING PENGHU ISLAND ARCHIPELAGO IN THE TAIWAN STRAIT, ONE THAT SITS ABOUT A THIRD OF THE WAY OFF THE MAIN ISLAND HE RESIDES ON, AND REPRESENTS ONE OF THE MANY FRONTLINE ISLANDS FACING OFF AGAINST “THEM’NS” ON THE OTHER SIDE, STEEPED IN MILITARY HISTORY AND PERSONNEL TO THIS DAY. THE PERFECT SETTING THEN FOR A “STRAIT UP” AIRSOFT FIGHT AS HE KNOW REPORTS ON HIS RETURN TO THE ISLAND!

With COVID eventually kicking off in Taiwan just as I was last going out to PengHu to do an IPSC competition which was then cancelled, as well as visit my friends at Penghu Armament Factory (see ISSUE 127!) and with missing out on the last few IPSC games since due to my inability to get time off work, it definitely felt like it was time for me to return.

It’s the latter half of the year, which usually means all hell is breaking loose in most corners of the world, always seems that summer ushers in the start of events as such, despite summer her being a thermonuclear inferno that as we found out last year at POLK 3 is best not to venture out in the height of! Nonetheless, folks have to try and fit their events in somewhere to avoid folks missing out in favour of other MilSims or shows, so it was that a smaller contingent from within team Taiji got a bit of a low key personal invite among some other friends to return to another event location that hasn’t been used in around a decade apparently.

Myself as well as some of the ‘headshed’ of Taiji - Jon, our team leader, Barrie our 2IC, Nick our comms expert, Sky our quiet and cool guy, and Colin our resident Irishman who disappears into the shrubbery and aether with his sniper rifle, were all invited alongside our good friends at the “Keelung Airsoft Gun Sport Of Safety Association” who were fielding a handful of their own regulars in the form of ‘Blue Cat’, our fearless leader and top kid of Red Team overall, ‘CC’, ‘Bear’ and ‘Nurse’ who would be spending the long weekend running through the jungle with us to form a ten man unit within the larger 60-a-side melee who would be descending in force over the first weekend of September.

This would be my third outing to the PengHu islands in the strait of Taiwan, first heading there back in 2019 to cover another initial foray into MilSims on the island organised by Well of aforementioned PAF Airsoft, while I was reporting for Combat King Monthly on proceedings. This time, however, we elected to take the ferry (as did the majority of the players) from BuDai port way down on Taiwan’s mainland midland west coastline, however preparations had to begin a good few weeks in advance of that.

Due to the last few year’s tightening of restrictions on airsoft and/or all things gun shaped, it’s now no longer possible to put guns in secure storage on flights or ferries, and everything had to be shipped over en masse with the help of a local logistics outfit that in the end managed to get our crated up guns and magazines to and from the hotels we were staying at in short order ...albeit with a delicate ballet of “Please don’t deliver them early as we won’t be there and the hotel might wonder why the hell they’re drowning in guns” being effected by Blue Cat and the wider organising team! Top marks for their general coordination and efforts everything travelled both ways intact and un-accosted... Refreshing!

Travelling In Style

With the stage very much set, longer lead-time briefings in place, satellite pics and composite maps just for our unit’s use in place we awoke at around 03:00 on the Friday morning of September 5th, and Colin was good enough to drive the four of us foreigners all the way down south to allow us all to get a good catch up with each other (or on sleep in some cases) as the nature of his work means he can only usually make it along for the big events so we very much miss out on ‘the craic’ as it

Arriving at the port in excellent time, we scouted some local breakfast and began congregating with the massed gaggle of other ‘clearly airsofters’

“THIS WOULD BE MY THIRD OUTING TO THE PENGHU ISLANDS IN THE STRAIT OF TAIWAN, FIRST HEADING THERE BACK IN 2019 TO COVER ANOTHER INITIAL FORAY INTO MILSIMS ON THE ISLAND ORGANISED BY WELL OF AFOREMENTIONED PAF AIRSOFT, WHILE I WAS REPORTING FOR COMBAT KING MONTHLY ON PROCEEDINGS” dragging MOLLE clad bag-loads of their personal gear with them on trolleys and syphoning tentatively through the x-ray and customs stations to the ferry ready for our 10:00 departure.

We’d basically booked out the entire upper deck and it was a great experience for the most part just having a laugh and catching up with an array of familiar faces from various other teams far and wide that I know through social media and past games in Taiwan. Although the voyage was a bit choppy and some fell victim to seasickness for the 90 minute scoot out to Magong harbour, thankfully I was spared that fate both ways, but we arrived largely in high spirits nonetheless to be greeted by the organising team and local airsoft influencer Sally Chou, who I’d actually met for the first time way back on first trip to PengHu as she was MC-ing the opening evening event in Harley Quinn cosplay, and would likewise be providing her services for variety of local delicacies before hopping back on the coaches to visit the local shopping centre. A big part of Taiwanese culture is to bring back local specialities or gifts for friends and family if you do any manner of travelling, so one can’t begrudge them the detour; we had to wait for our hotels to be ready for check in anyway, and Jon, Colin and myself naturally gravitated to the Whisky outlet to take a look at what local

On to one of the four coaches organised for us we stowed our bags below decks and got ourselves seated for the trip across the main city of Magong to our lunch en masse at a local restaurant, taking over their upstairs area and engulfing a

Another stop off at a local confectionery manufacturer and we were finally at the hotels, with all our guns piled high in the tourist information lobby and being doled out to us before we scurried away to our rooms to begin preparations. Us four foreign legion were sharing a twin double room so it was a case of earplugs and potential spooning funtimes! Things were unpacked and it soon looked like an arms bazaar in everyone’s rooms as we’d basically taken over the entirety of two of the largest hotels on island and were milling about the floors checking in with each other after doing our usual inventory and preparing for the opening feast that night.

Dinner was another coach ride away and we all sat down to an excellent feeding in our tables of teams, with a raffle ensuring a lot of the participants took something away, from new tactical watches to a few Kizuna Works and VFC gas blowback replicas

“PREPARATIONS HAD TO BEGIN A GOOD FEW WEEKS IN ADVANCE OF THAT; DUE TO THE LAST FEW YEAR’S TIGHTENING OF RESTRICTIONS ON AIRSOFT AND/OR ALL THINGS GUN SHAPED, IT’S NOW NO LONGER POSSIBLE TO PUT GUNS IN SECURE STORAGE ON FLIGHTS OR FERRIES, AND EVERYTHING HAD TO BE SHIPPED OVER EN MASSE WITH THE HELP OF A LOCAL LOGISTICS OUTFIT” tactical gear and other goodies from many of the event’s gracious sponsors, and of course I did the rounds sharing a drink with the familiar faces in the industry and player base after the formalities were done.

Before we had time to get too merry it was back to the hotels and final prep, with our whole unit descending on our room and poring over the prepared maps and talking strategy based upon the initial briefings from command. We would be fighting Blue Team for possession of the large XiYu fort on the very West island of the archipelago which is like interconnected like the Florida keys with a series of as we cheerfully got to know our new compatriots in our various levels of ability in each other’s languages, and our plan was set and ready for the morning… and so, to bed…

Morning broke, and we started shuffling around donning our BDUs and gear (our group would all be wearing Multicam for the duration of proceedings); we congregated downstairs ready to board the coaches to the opposite end of the island chain. All decked out with guns slung I might add (it really is the wild west, out east here, fellow shooters) while I’d happen on my first outing where guys were clad head to toe in gear and rifles slung outside our hotel and passers-by were pulling up to take photos of how cool they looked rather than informing the authorities! In Taiwan news travels fast and people and authorities are usually informed of what’s going on anyway, although Colin did catch the gaze of some surprised passing RoC military guys in a jeep as he was hanging around the rear of the coach… “Laissez faire” doesn’t really do the Taiwanese folks justice; if you aren’t a problem they won’t make you one…

The coach ride was around 40 minutes and we arrived and debussed and collected our

“WE CONGREGATED DOWNSTAIRS READY TO BOARD THE COACHES TO THE OPPOSITE END OF THE ISLAND CHAIN. ALL DECKED OUT WITH GUNS SLUNG I MIGHT ADD… WHILE I’D NORMALLY BE THE FIRST TO CONSTERNATE OVER SUCH PUBLIC DISPLAYS I’D SEEN THE SAME HAPPEN ON MY FIRST OUTING WHERE GUYS WERE CLAD HEAD TO TOE IN GEAR AND RIFLES SLUNG OUTSIDE OUR HOTEL AND PASSERS-BY WERE PULLING UP TO TAKE PHOTOS” gear for the yomp down the hill to the main staging area and safe zone at one end of the facility, with awnings prepared for all the teams route’ option of just leopard crawling through the dense undergrowth for maximum stealth available to our moving elements. and nicely labelled with name plates for our convenience. We unfolded our chairs and settled in, buying locally sourced bio BBs and gas as we couldn’t carry any on the way, and loading up and tuning in our radio gear and other accoutrements ready for game on.

I was also collared for public relations as usual; many of our team have family or professional concerns that preclude them from appearing on camera or in print at times, but I guess I’m past that so I’m always nominated “imposing foreign dude” for photos and TV interviews! Hey mum, I’m on TV… again… To be fair, she’d probably kill me if she knew what mischief I’ve been up to over here all these years!

With everything dialled in and supplies stowed, especially water in our camelbaks and tac gear (you wouldn’t believe the heat and humidity out here even this late in the year compared to last year!), we marched up the hill from camp and to our start point at the west end of the facility, with Blue Team beginning over in the East.

Two major paved tracks at the north and south extremities connected us, also interspersed with ladder like paved cross-tracks as well as the ‘scenic

ACTIONS ON!

The first action kicked off at 10:00 and we all began dispersing along the main road and branching off into the rows of pine trees and filtering through the nooks and crannies to best disperse ourselves in cover out of the open and best away from incoming fire as the first elements of the OpFor broke the treelines on the peak ahead and fire erupted.

Our element stayed back as the rear guard as basically everyone else had pulled a ‘leeroy Jenkins’ and gone full tilt up front, so we then worked our way south through the connecting tracks and arrived at the southern main road and began moving eastward to intercept reinforcing and flanking elements of the Blue Force. As with previous POLK Milsims our radio comms seemed to be somewhat seamless and we were getting updated and re-directed all over the and were hanging back in the undergrowth and relaying orders between our unit and the numerous others that comprised Red Force. The one time I got taken out and fell back to their position for regen during the second action I never saw them stop the radio chatter, keeping everyone up to date and directing our elements into the fray with surprising adeptness. experiences Taiji/Keelung ended up being the sharp end of the stick and working well as a small independent QRF unit that seemed to be tabbing and crawling all over the place to plug the gaps amid the larger teams who took more entrenched positions and walked as walls of fire to clear out the enemy.

We were in our element, but certainly sweating it out… I got through my three litre Camlebak in short order and had to refill it!

As lunchtime drew close it seemed that our force had taken and held the objective areas despite fierce firefights and counterattacks from BluFor. Endex was called and we slung our rifles and ambled back to the prep area for the typical ‘bian dan’ Taiwanese lunch boxes and to reload all our gear.

Colin had immediately gone forward at game on with his Ghillie suit and sniper rifle and hunkered down in place and began relaying intelligence back to our main unit, but we soon lost contact with him as we later moved out of radio range, he nonetheless had a grand old time on his own by all accounts, messing up the BluFor and eventually engaging in a triple kill pistol battle!

Unfortunately, during the various crawling through the denser foliage I’d managed to tear up the hypalon style shoulder strap of my JPC clone and it was hanging off me held together with just the improvised integrated sling system I put on all my plate carriers. Luckily, Barrie had brought the everuseful roll of duct tape into the field with him, so I ditched all my gear and taped the daylights out of it to hold it together for the rest of the actions in the afternoon… Not an ideal start, but we survived without losses from our unit as far as I’m aware despite getting stuck in everywhere.

Lunchtime stretched on for two hours to give everyone chance to rest up properly and at least attempt to dry their gear out to some extent. As 14:00 approached we began gearing up again and posed for team photos and whole group photos for the event photographers in front of the large event & sponsor backdrop and then we tabbed off to the opposite end of the site to start the second action, switching ends, as it

ONCE MORE INTO THE BREACH!

We deployed to the far south-east corner and waited for game on at the base of a hill in a hidden bunker complex built into the walls of the fortification that were covered with foliage and not easily identifiable on the aerial photos.

With everything set we charged up the road to

“WITH EVERYTHING SET WE CHARGED UP THE ROAD TO THE WEST PASSING THE MAIN ARTILLERY EMPLACEMENTS AND BEGAN ENGAGING BLUFOR THROUGH THE TREE LINES; THEY HAD ALSO STARTED NOT FAR FROM OUR FORWARD BASE AND WE HAD TO PUSH THEM BACK IN A ROLLING REGEN MANNER TO BREAKOUT FROM OUR INITIAL LINE” the west, passing the main artillery emplacements (a quartet of gun basins in the top of a large fortification again buried into the walls) and began engaging BluFor through the tree lines. They had also started not far from our forward base and we had to push them back in a rolling regen manner to breakout from our initial lines.

Eventually we managed to force them back and began clearing ground and ‘opening up the map’ for us, as it were. After forcing our way past a low lying building that we took cover in and effected a bit of a pincer attack from, Jon, Barrie and me heading up the ridgeline to effect overwatch while the others forced forwards below. We once again came to a fork in the road and turned north towards the other main road in the distance, moving up the connecting track the opposite direction from the morning’s efforts, and emerging where we had begun the initial action.

As it happens, the only time during the whole operation I took a hit myself was towards the middle of the second action.

Unfortunately the rain had set in just as game on was called (typical!) and as a result my eyepro, and the stack of various lens protectors and lenses of my red dot and flip to centre G33 magnifier clone on my VFC T91 had decided to fog up making things a bit of a nightmare for me aiming at distance. I flipped the magnifier clear and decided to move up the ranks with the red dot only to engage the defending Blue Force at the intersection and, of course, being a large target managed to take a BB to my right arm. Out I ambled, back to the command element marking our regen towards the rear lines.

I sidled back into game after a bit of a breather, taking on much needed fluids, taking off my additional sustainment backpack, reloading and regassing my mags, and grabbing a snack.

Back to the lines I made my way and emerged into a large firefight already in progress! Piling into roadside cover provided by netting and fences, Red Force were pepper-potting gradually towards the enemy spawn point and holding the forces still there off, despite some sniper shots effecting casualties. Eventually we pulled out and returned along the same road to reinforce another action happening back on the southern road as our compatriots were encountering a lot of resistance when trying to move their larger units along it.

Quietly “leopard crawling” through the dense undergrowth in a column (seriously, we were joking the other night while planning the next MilSim about how we should all bring knives or hatchets to make sure we can get through this stuff more easily) I managed to get my gear stuck on a really tight root and vine patch we were crawling through and thankfully Barrie was right behind me and managed to retrieve one of my gas AR mags that got pulled out in the tangle… An expensive mistake dodged.

We emerged from the worst of it into a slightly clearer area and managed to flank the small BluFor unit that had been holding up the advance of the main element of our larger team, eliminating them after a few minutes of firefight and eventually realising it was in fact our new friends we’d met the day before during the tour of the town and gotten talking too.

With the road cleared we broke cover and beckoned the rest of our elements forward to take on the next challenge. We were on the coastline area at the south and could hear the waves crashing beneath and decided to chill for a short while and recover, reloading everything and preparing for the next push.

It was getting towards 17:00 when we had been told the second action would cease, and the only objective remaining was to find a pair of ammo crates which had apparently been left in the nearby brushland. The majority of Red Team were engaged in the search and we provided rear guard from any further attempts to flank by BluFor, but to be honest having dragged ourselves through the worst of it all for the last three hours under continuous fire and movement we were somewhat bedraggled and beaten. The heat and humidity are really oppressive when trying to spend longer exerting yourself in full battle rattle!

As endex was finally called we picked ourselves and the remnants of our gear up and ambled back to the staging area in relatively good spirits given our general state of exhaustion. In the end BluFor managed to find the ammo crates which were packed with free samples of Unicorn Airsoft’s Marui MWS reinforced GBBR nozzles… Happy faces all round!

We sat down and demobilised and debriefed while dinner was handed out to us again in the form of traditional lunch boxes. I didn’t eat much to be fair, and I was borderline zoned out and unresponsive to conversation to some extent. Dehydration will send your brain into ‘buffering mode’ and it’s important to keep an eye on each other within your team too. I tend to get very angry or belligerent when I’m exhausted and a little disoriented, but eventually I managed to get out of my gear, rehydrate, set all my things straight and settle in for the next wait.

The evening also had a short night vision oriented action, which would be a quick hour or so of gameplay but we didn’t get involved ourselves. A few of our wider team have NVG and/or thermal weapon sights or headsets, but weren’t present as such, and we were all toasted from the previous actions and just wanted to get back to the hotel and shower. My feet had been wet all day and trench-foot levels of dank were setting in alongside the heady aroma of ‘Flat Dank Earth’ which is my plate carrier and BDUs after any such action… Pickled, for sure!

THE FREEDOM PLANE/FERRY HOME

We eventually got a coach back a little earlier than originally expected as the organisers split the rides by whether or not people participated in the NVG game, so at least we had some time to chill out, clean ourselves up and gather for snacks and the follow up after action report and drinking in our room with the rest of the team.

Lots of the usual “adult beverage” induced multilingual levity and war stories ensued and it was a great reminder of how the people around you really make the events what they are.

The Sunday morning consisted of us re-boxing and wrapping our transport crates for shipping home and leaving everything stacked once again in the hotel lobby’s side room for the organisers to either ship home for us, or bring to the meeting point near the ferry later. With the morning to ourselves Colin, Jon and I went off on the scooters they rented for the weekend to explore the island a little more and chill out in the pleasant scenery, before rallying with all the others and the organisers to say our goodbyes and get on the boat back, once again taking over the whole of one deck and being surrounded by tactical bags and camo clad ‘tourists’ like ourselves.

Back on the main island we said our final goodbyes and packed back into Colin’s car for the long drive home through a pretty epic storm that had swept in as we were getting off the boat. Getting home at nearly 2300, and collapsing straight into bed, it had certainly been a ‘strait up fight’! Many thanks as always to the organisers for their extensive hard work putting on a great event, and to my teammates and all the participants for the excellent sportsmanship and camaraderie I observed throughout; there are no enemies in airsoft, merely opposing forces!

Until next time, fellow shooters… AA

“MANY THANKS AS ALWAYS TO THE ORGANISERS FOR THEIR EXTENSIVE HARD WORK PUTTING ON A GREAT EVENT, AND TO MY TEAMMATES AND ALL THE PARTICIPANTS FOR THE EXCELLENT SPORTSMANSHIP AND CAMARADERIE I OBSERVED THROUGHOUT; THERE ARE NO ENEMIES IN AIRSOFT, MERELY OPPOSING FORCES!”