Airsoft Action - October 2023

AA LEGION
PORTUGAL
MIGUEL IS BACK IN THE FIELD AND BACK WITH THE AA LEGION THIS MONTH AS HE REPORTS ON AN
ANNUAL EVENT THAT TAKES PLACE IN PORTUGAL, WHICH SEES TEAMS FROM ALL OVER THE COUNTRY
GATHERING TO TEST OUT THEIR “NIGHT GAME” SKILLS AS THEY BATTLE THROUGH ANOTHER ROUND OF
“NIGHT OPS”!
How many of you have played Airsoft at night?
The game changes almost completely, right?
The distances seem a lot bigger, hiding is a lot
easier, but one never knows if on the other side is
someone with NVGs or thermals looking right at you.
The gameplay is a lot slower, almost no one runs, and
the risk of friendly fire increases a lot, so you need to
play smarter.
So this year awaited us another Night Ops
organized by the ANA association, and it has become
one of their best-known yearly games. Last year the
game was in Braga, in the northern part of Portugal,
but this year it was quite close to us, so there was no
excuse to miss it!
Before the game, the organization held their now
typical online briefing via streaming. I think it’s a great
way to explain how the game will go, the rules, the
field and any other important points of the game,
instead of written posts in the event, or just focusing
on the on-site briefing, where we know many aren’t
paying attention. Here, the players can also write
comments and see their questions can be answered in
real time by the staff.
Now fast-forward to the game day, the players
started arriving at the end of the afternoon; we all
passed in a check point before parking, where we
had to show our event ticket to the organization, a
QR code was read and with that we were on the list
for the end-game giveaways, simple and easy. After
parking, it was time to greet players, gear up, adjust
hop up, test the comms and the whole process that
we have all done hundreds, if not thousands of times.
And since it was a nationwide event, it was great to
see some faces from other parts of the country. In this
game I used my Specna Arms mk18 EDGE 2.0, a full
OD uniform, part Primal Gear part Viper Tactical, and
my Viper Tactical VX Gen 2 plate carrier.
After everything was ready, it was time to go
through the check in, and it was set up having several
stations where we had to pass; first it was the chrono,
then the table with the game gifts (red light, lanyard,
game patch, food tickets and a discount code for the
upcoming Salamandra II), the third stop was to pick
up the shirt and/or hoodie of the game if you ordered
one (I got both!) and the last stop had two tablets
with one Ares Alpha QR code for each faction, for
you to read and join your side. After that, we got to
mingle a bit in the safe zone while waiting for the
briefing.
At the scheduled time, the briefing started, and
the staff went through the important points of the
game, like it was mentioned in the online briefing.
Both factions were competing for points that were
controlled by Ares Alpha, and there were several
ways of getting points for your faction, first you
had two sectors, each with an Ares Alpha ATS, and
by controlling those ATS (you had to shoot them
to switch them to your faction colour) you would
get points for each minute the area was under your
control, then you had timed missions assigned to each
section, both factions were divided in four sections,
and each one had missions assigned at specific hours.
This way, everyone experienced the whole field and
different missions with attack and defend scenarios.
GOLF GHOSTS
My team was part of the Golf section, along with
the guys from F.O.E, UPJ and Warriors Airsoft and
since our first assigned mission was still almost 1 hour
away we started our game in one of the ATS sectors
along with other section who were also waiting for
their time to be present at the HQ tent. We located
the ATS station, threw some BBs at it until it was red
(our faction colour) and set up a defensive perimeter,
since there were sections from the enemy faction who
started in the annexed ATS sector. But nothing really
happened until it was our time to report to the HD
tent; one of our sections did venture into the enemy
controlled sector, but ours was calm during that time.
“BEFORE THE GAME, THE ORGANIZATION HELD THEIR NOW TYPICAL ONLINE BRIEFING VIA
STREAMING. I THINK IT’S A GREAT WAY TO EXPLAIN HOW THE GAME WILL GO, THE RULES,
THE FIELD AND ANY OTHER IMPORTANT POINTS OF THE GAME… QUESTIONS CAN BE
ANSWERED IN REAL TIME BY THE STAFF”
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