GAME REPORT: TAIWAN

GOING DARK

WITH THINGS OPENING UP AGAIN IN TAIWAN IT SEEMS THAT NOT ONLY IS THE AIRSOFT INDUSTRY BUSY THERE, BUT THE PLAYERS ARE TOO AS THE GAME TEMPO QUITE LITERALLY LIGHTS UP AFTER THE PANDEMIC! STEWBACCA CONTINUES HIS PERSONAL AIRSOFT DRIVE FORWARD AS HE HEADS TO THE 6 HIGHLANDS AIRSOFT SITE FOR A UNIQUE GAME WITH OLD MATES AND RUN BY AN OLD FRIEND, ABLY SUPPORTED BY ACETECH!

As I cast my eyes back across my spreadsheet recording the games I’ve attended here in Taiwan (yes, I’m that much of a nerd!) it seems it had been nearly a whole two years since my previous outing to the 6 Highlands Airsoft site down in the East of Hsinchu near my initial stomping ground from when I first arrived in Taiwan. As it happens photos from that previous event were used in my article way back in issue 116, “Tropic Thunder: Playing Hot” as I was describing the sheer difference in playing in the local environment, or more so climate, here in the tropics… time flies, so it seems!

Once again I was in attendance for an event organised by my old friend Khann (n00b_soft) who has been focusing his efforts over the last few years towards growing the culture of Speedsoft/SpeedQB and competitive force on force, also organising the events I reported on at Action Bunker in East Taipei among others. This time I didn’t have to worry quite so much about the scorching heat of the day, because this event, ‘Going Dark’ was, as the name suggests, to be held in the fading evening light and into the night, with an emphasis on small squad force on force gameplay, one on one duels, and the extensive use of full-auto firepower and tracer units and relevant ammunition.

Direct support was given by local tracer manufacturer Acetech who provided numerous different models of tracer units for rent and trial by those players who have not yet acquired their own examples, a good excuse for both marketing, testing and public relations, not that their products don’t sell themselves!

With the primary focus of the evening being aimed towards a 3 Vs 3 small team, short-round, fastaction structure, a total of sixteen squads originally signed up, with a final turnout of 12 groups on site, many of them being squads derived from larger teams, with one group fielding 3 separate squads of 3 to the competition. Some split off from larger teams they had since joined to revive old team names and aesthetics to differentiate themselves for a friendly night of teamwork and high intensity action.

Myself and my old colleague and teammate Kiran were driven down to the site from our northern abodes thanks to Harry who usually runs with OPS (On Point Squad) the SpeedQB-centric offshoot of our older skirmishing TaiWan Anglophone Team (TWAT, which the three of us reprised our role in for this event) going up against old friends and teammates in OPS, KSJV who have a reputation for their vibrant uniforms and equipment, and rolling in fast and using excellent teamwork to win out over other competitors in past events. There were also two squads from our Filipino friends of Special Airsoft Force (SAF), as well as reprised roles from 77 Free Soul and NKVS, as well as being joined by Sa B, DEW and Soland who are up and coming teams new to the scene since Khann’s work has developed interest all over the island with his events in the north such as Taipei and Hsinchu. Add to this further south in Kaohsiung where an old shopping centre has served as a great proving ground for SpeedQB and new practitioners, as well as Tainan where a purpose built arena has recently been secured, all giving players more space to practise their game style.

As we’re all no doubt aware of in various countries there’s inevitable pushback against Speedsoft / SpeedQB and the game style and sub-culture; it’s especially prevalent in Taiwan due to the heavy emphasis on outdoor tropical forest or jungle gaming, MilSim and uniformed team tactics style games using more realistic loadouts. Despite the

entrenched or somewhat hostile environment, and the obvious lack of mixing for the most part of the game styles perhaps arguably with good reason; Khann and his friends new brand ‘PewLogic’ has sought to develop events and support the movement in isolation from more traditional MilSim, and try to avoid the culture clashes and issues when people try to force the two styles to co-exist on the same fields or at the same times with obvious problems.

At least with the growing interest and number of active teams throughout the island, as well as more purpose built or outfitted arenas and allocated times or places with which to promote the competitive and high speed close-in action as its own separate entity, it’s clearly developing some interest despite the initial malaise. While I’m an old guard and an old dog type of guy myself, and cut my teeth doing woodland and CQB skirmishing as well as hardcore weekender MilSim gaming in the UK and Spain before moving here, I’m nonetheless intrigued by all things shooting related, and likewise have taken up Action Air AIPSC and dabbled in IDPA pending more time to focus on both those competitive styles when time permits (as always, build that longer table, instead of that higher fence!) I’m sure we can all learn to co-exist within shooting sports regardless of your chosen poison.

With that in mind I rolled up with Kiran and we chose to run gas guns all night, despite being somewhat outgunned by the HPA powered DYE mask full-face clad or dual-sector- gear- AEG running squads, it was a change of pace and scenery, and after such a long absence from that site in particular, and with COVID related shutdowns or event cancellations in mind, it was nice just to get out of my usual scene and reconnect with people I hadn’t seen in a long time. As always, the people and friendships make the events and community what they are, the fact we were all having an excellent time partaking in the typical Taiwanese tradition of communally barbecuing large packs of meat and milling around taking photos, conversing and catching up as well as making new friends and taking a look at new equipment we’ve acquired or discussing issues we’d had with certain things.

3X3 ACTION!

As the event progressed we started out with the 3 v 3 squad games in the daylight before it faded; having drawn bingo balls from a bag to determine our team ID numbers which were then used in conjunction with the huge pre-fabricated game scheduling board to determine which teams would face off in each bout and ensure that everyone played everyone (66 planned bouts in all!( prior to the final scores being tallied, with points awarded for each opposition team eliminated, each team member remaining on your own side, and bonuses for collection tokens littered around the game arena if possible during gameplay. I had no such chance myself throughout any of our rounds… just staying in the game was somewhat of a task given our opposition and trying to run gas blowback guns against them, a familiar problem from when I first dabbled in SpeedQB competitions for “live and let DYE” in issue 112, my first article following the official formation of the Airsoft Action Legion.

Harry, Kiran and myself nonetheless managed to hold our own against some of the less experienced teams, or other players who were dabbling in it from a more conventional background, relying on our marksmanship and teamwork in the face of typically much heavier firepower. I started off using my Archwick Glock USW carbine kit with the VFC Glock 18C inside and replica ACRO red dot atop as well as a vertical foregrip and a bunch of long and short magazines filling every pouch I could muster to ensure I had enough ammunition on me to at least match the 250 rounds limit which everyone else’s single mid-cap

magazines they started each with probably held… I’m always playing hard mode, it seems.

The first round saw us starting at alternating positions distributed around the arena so everyone had two opposing team players one either side, and starting with guns unloaded and our magazines on the floor in front of us; I had just enough time at the game on signal to retrieve my mag, load my USW and charge it, emerge from cover and fire a burst into Hank of 77FS just as he broke cover and opened up on me too, we eliminated each other, but he managed to draw blood due to my lower mesh mask being seated a little too low and presenting part of my nose between it and my ballistic glasses, sod’s law eh, But certainly not the first time it’s happened. We retired to the safe zone to tend our wounds and reload our magazines, not that we’d had chance to spend many BBs!

The second round saw us go up against another squad from 77FS, this time we were entirely triumphant with no losses and the opposition entirely wiped. Through no action of my own, this time, in the time it took for me to try and retrieve my magazine, load my USW, encounter a stoppage and clear it to emerge from cover Harry and Kiran had done all the work, with the A10 Warthog like ‘BRRRT’ of his set up signalling the few bursts that ended the match

in seconds, then we emerged sights on each other and accidentally engaged before we had chance to ID each other, I guess running out of opponents is no bad thing…

Up next we were up against team Soland; the young up and coming team I’d been following on Instagram through their formation and development at Khann’s other events previously, this round seemed to last a lot longer, again with the familiar ‘BRRT’ of DSG setups in the background and me managing to get off enough rounds keeping some opponents at bay to need to reload, and then suffer another stoppage and get eliminated. I retired again to reload and sink some more barbecue down my gullet in the brief lull before our next round; by this time the light was really fading and we started donning our flashing team LED lit armbands which would be solid during gameplay and then be switched to flashing mode upon our elimination to avoid overkill as best as possible. They did add a certain TRON legacy vibe to the whole affair, along with the green beams of high rate of fire tracers.

A MODIFY’D APPROACH

Next we went up against KSJV, having switched to my trusty AAP-01 with my Acetech Lighter S tracer unit affixed and the same Glock magazine loadout having emptied my magazines and refilled them with tracer rounds to prepare for the whole ‘Going Dark’ part of the gameplay. I managed to hold out at the rear for the most time, but could hear the continued bursts of ‘BRRT’ closing on me as the guys eliminated Kiran and Harry and then moved on me; last man standing I did what I could to empty magazines into the windows of the cover provided and keep them at bay as long as I could, but of course I succumbed to their speed and firepower a short time later. It certainly made for exciting gameplay and videos with the tracers spewing everywhere at least! For the next bout we were up against our fast moving and stout Filipino death squad friends from Special Airsoft Force, I switched to using my Modify PP2K having recently solved the magazine reliability issues with the help of the team at the Modify booth at MOA campfest the weekend before. Toting all three

long magazines with 56 rounds each and a great rate of fire, range and accuracy, as well as the T1 replica up top to allow ease of getting sights on in the otherwise darkened environment, I was ‘cooking on gas’ as they say, I managed to dump all my rounds from that in one of the more prolonged firefights of the evening before finally getting taken out as I switched to my AAP-01 again which was now serving as my sidearm.

Next we faced off against our old teammates from On Point Squad, OPS, who usually battle with KSJV over who will prevail in the finals of most such competitions. Suffice to say this round did not last long, and did not go so well for us! Finally, some luck and/or skill won out and in our next round against newcomers DEW I managed to hold my ground and eliminate two of the opponents in short order despite their use of cover and torches to try and dissuade me; finally I managed to survive a whole round, and did something useful!

Similarly in the next round against other newcomer team Sa B I managed to get at least one elimination as well as once again surviving the whole round. This would as it happens mark the last round our squad played, finishing on a high note at least; we had a break having managed to get through nearly 50 of the 66 originally planned 3 Vs 3 bouts, but the night was drawing on and the decision was made to switch it up to the one on one duels for those interested and begin totalling up the scores in the meantime as there just wouldn’t be the opportunity to complete all the rounds with the time remaining. I managed to fare reasonably well, surviving to my third “round robin” one on one duel, with most of our group of volunteers surviving each engagement to the point where they split us up to balance the groups… at which point I got eliminated on my next round, must have been the bad side of the arena, clearly!

AARS AND MEMORIES OF GLORY!

With all the action dealt with people began retiring to the safe zone as their rounds were finished, and we all focused on after action reports and war stories, squaring away our equipment ready to make a quick exit, and ensuring that all the delicious barbecue meat was consumed to the best of our abilities!

The PewLogic team rounded off their tallying of each squads points to determine the winner and runners up, with Khann announcing that newcomers Soland had in fact triumphed and beaten KSJV and OPS to the first place; by this point it seemed that the winning was however very much secondary to the sportsmanship, and spirits were high all round as players had their fill of fast paced fun and food, another great event done, we helped tidy up our admin area and then Harry dropped me and Kiran off to get the late night high speed rail back to Taipei… I arrived home around midnight in the end, just in time to unpack my night shoot setup and repack for the 0700 start for my usual Sunday Skirmish shoot in the great outdoors with Team TaiJi – #EatShootSleepRepeat – out here it never ends!

Many thanks to Khann, his wife, John and the rest of the PewLogic crowd for putting on such a great event, and for everyone that participated, it was great to see familiar faces again that I hadn’t for a good long while! AA