Best 24+ hour milsim events in UK

I think that's about your lot at the moment darman. I know of a few others that run events on MOD sites but whether or not they are strictly 24+ hour milsim I can't say; namely Dragon Valley & Airsoft Airborne.

Others that I can mention, although shall point out that they are not strictly 'milsim' although very strong on narrative and have been on MOD facilities include: Gunman airsoft (who never disappoint) and Urban-6 airsoft (for whom I had the pleasure of being a "drug-lord" for a 24 hour event in Swynnerton barracks, complete with vehicles). Gunman do a mix of 24 hour and non-24 hour events so it does depend on the event details, and Urban-6 have actual normal game-day sites as well.

I've not named others as I know they're not 24 hour.

darman28 wrote: »

Thanks a lot for the reply & info Lemming, plenty of food for thought and I'll look into them. Just wanted to ask what you mean by "not strictly milsim"? Don't mind events with good narrative, adds to it really. Also have you going to been to any of the others I mentioned above & be able to give your or what you have heard?

By "not strictly milsim" I mean they don't bill themselves per-se as being milsim games like Tier-One or TA-Events or the like. Indeed TA-Events billed most of their games as "battle-sim" rather than milsim, but I digress.

As for personal experience; I've been around the houses with a few of those event companies named;

Tier-One:
I've played one Tier-One game which was at STANTA in Norfolk in a blizzard for 36 hours*. It was fun although the storyline went a bit to pot even if the game itself did not and everyone made the best of the insane weather including the organisers who were missing a lot of staff for the weekend.

Stirling airsoft:
I'm going to preface this by saying that I have not been to a Stirling game in a very long time so they may well have changed their tune. Personally speaking, I did not enjoy the game that both FireKitten & I attended which is a pity as the site (Whinney-hill OBUA village in Catterick Garrison) is a fantastic MOD facility. I found that I was paying to be the OpFor for Team-Stirling's personal airsoft enjoyment. It's a view I've heard others share of other events more recent than my own experience. As a matter of note, FK & I left said event on the Saturday evening. As we then discovered, they also decided to break for the night (before game-on I might add ... ) on what was meant to be billed a 24-hour event as we later heard.

So, if you're signing on with Team Stirling you'll have a great time; if you're not ... maybe not. They like to win and the game-flow and rules will adapt to match this desire to win.

Urban-6:
I've not been to any of their game sites but have heard nothing but good things about them and they have been regulars at Brit-tac events and are a great bunch of lads. I've attended one event run at Swynnerton Barracks (they use the site reasonably frequently so I'm led to believe) as a character for the game (two rival drug cartels & a police force in the middle of it all). Well organised, well run, and with cracking storylines.

Gunman Airsoft:
Been a while since I've been to an event, but they've run a few at Sennybridge & the like and they can be found running events in conjunction with other companies like First & Only. In any case, they've never let me down with strong storylines and good props. Tend to be more period (e.g. WW2) or "film-sim" events, all with strong storylines and interesting faction setup.

Dragon-Valley I know by name only although they've held events at Sennybridge recently, and Airsoft-Airborne seem fairly active down south with use of an old RAF base.

There are some other sites/events that are non-milsim and/or 24 hour that are worth a mention imo for something a little different:

Predator Combat Games in Northern Ireland - who have a weekend event coming up soon. Everyone should experience a Predator weekend event. They're awesome.

Fireball Squadron in Birmingham - awesome site and the event I attended was outstandingly run. Not milsim, but a lot of fun with your mates. Not sure if they've got a weekender event on this year.

Brit-Tac airsoft: whilst I shall add the disclaimer that I used to marshal for them, I think I can safely say that they have a fantastic reputation and are generally very well-organised with good event scenarios. Even when the MOD dumps on them, they somehow manage to turn it all around through sheer determination. Not milsim per-se but you'll find a lot of the restrictions & requirements that one might find at an event advertised as milsim. They've had several dates pulled this year by the MOD and given that I no longer marshal for them I've not been paying attention to their goins-on so I have no idea what's going on for weekend events this year. They keep their facebook page up to date so any news will be up in short order.


* 36 hours billed, not necessarily 36 hours played. I've heard from subsequent events that they can be somewhat tardy with event start times