SWAT Urbans very last skirmish @ Saighton - a report by TOPCAT

We are very lucky to get a great guest review by the RDM's very own TOPCAT of the last day's skirmishing at SWAT Urban, Saighton, Nr Chester.

Sunday 18th July saw the last ever game of airsoft at Swat's current urban site, Saighton barracks as the council have approved the site for residential development, a decision that we were all hoping would be later rather than sooner. To give Saighton the send off it deserves, some players made a weekend of it with a Saturday evening game and a stay over, the main game day being the Sunday.

The weather was a bit dreary but that didn't dampen the spirits as players and teams arrived on Sunday morning, it was nice to see some old faces and a lot of new players too. Once we were all geared up and ready to go, Nutz delivered his entertaining but thorough safety brief, then off to start the days gaming.

Game 1 was the standard warm up game, locate the bomb, push the opposition back enough to carry the bomb through one of their re-spawn doors. This game is always intense and really gets the adrenaline flowing. The teams were well matched, and it wasn't until lockdown (players were now dead and out) that the Red team gained enough advantage to win the game.

All nicely warmed up despite the rain, we received game 2's brief, Block wars. As the Red team won the previous game they chose to defend the Officers Mess and the Blue team set off to defend the Hospital, half the team including The Mercs, Shane, Dan, Yosser and I chose to defend for this game, the other half set off to attack. Once defenders were hit they joined their team mates in attacking the oppositions base. Again this game went right to the bone but the Reds cleared the hospital out before we could hit the last few in the Officer’s Mess. Another Red victory.

We finally got some sunshine after lunch for a game of VIP, the Reds held the willing victim, Swat Greg (never turn your back on him) hostage in the Hospital offices, while the Blues attacked firstly from the top side doors. It took a lot of suicide runs from CBMPC with the rest of us covering fire, but we eventually breached the building and recovered the hostage. That was the easy part, now we had to fight our way through the rest of the hospital block to get the VIP to the extraction point. Mission accomplished. The Blues first win of the day.

Next the Blues got a chance to defend the high street from the advancing Red team, a fall back game, attackers re-spawn, and defenders fall back. There was a lot of pyro action as the ban on pyros outside was lifted for the last day, and players really did make the most of it. The Blues did a fantastic job of holding off the advance long enough to win the game.

The last ever game of airsoft at the site was a full on fire fight. Starting in the room to the right of the Officers Mess front door, Reds had to push us back, a room at a time until we reached the front door and outside. When hit, we fell back into the next room. We were given the option of full or semi auto for the game and while the Blue opted for full auto, the Reds were divided, so semi it was. The whole team set up in the first room ready to be pyro'd to death by the attacking Red team, yes... maybe a bit cramped but amazing fun!! Again we held off the advancing Red team for the allotted time, and claimed the last ever victory at Saighton camp, making the Blue team overall winners. Well done Blues!! And thanks to all the Red players who really gave us hell!

The Red Dragon Mercs first game was at this site back in November 2008, the first game ever to be played at Saighton. Since then we have lost members, gained new ones and traveled the country far and wide in search of a good game of airsoft, we have always come back here because it is a place which you will always get a good game. This has been a fantastic site, staff and players are always friendly and committed, and the standard of play high. A game at SWAT never disappoints. All that is left to say is thank you too all the Red Dragons, old and new who have been amazing to play with, and thanks to resident teams - Revs, Red Sabre, CBMPC, S.T.R.I.K.E, Insurgency, Dead Snow, Alpha Wolf, Team S.W.A.T and all the players that have attended the past 2 years at SWAT Urban, you guys and gals have made the site what is and I'm sure we will all continue to support SWAT at their woodland site Parkgate and where ever the new urban sites will be. And last but not least a massive thank you to Nutz, Dingodogs Airsoft, and all the SWAT staff, keep up the good work and were all looking forward to the next evolution.