This year, I decided to hold my paintballing websites new annual paintball meet in Delta Force. We headed for the Beechwood field.
- - - THE COST - - -
The tickets cost me just short of £100, but I got 24 tickets for that. In order to book, you have to buy the first 100 paintballs at the full price of £10 per person. But I sold the tickets to the people that came (3 of them) for £20 a piece, so that was good.
The paintballs on the day cost £6 per 100, or if you buy 2500 at once, you get them for £5 per hundred.
You can get paint grenades, smoke grenades and thunder flash's for £3.50 a piece. But the paint grenades are unreliable.
- - - THE GOODS - - -
You're equiped with a semi-automatic gat (Paintball gun) which is capable of 7 pbs (paintballs per second) if you really think you have to fire that fast. The paintballs travel at an average speed of 160 miles per hour. Does it hurt? Not really. It stings for a bit, and then you forget about the pain. The only thing that hurts is if you get shot in the top or back of the head. But that's OK because of the mask you get. The gun is a little heavy, but a good solid build and a nice responsive trigger. Just remember to take the safety off and cock the gun.
The mask is a JT all over mask, it covers the front, sides, top and rear of the head, but more importantly, your eyes.
- - - THE DAY - - -
The day kicks off at 9.15, you fill in a form with your names and team organiser on. You hand it in with your tickets, get given an overall (Small, Medium, Large and Extra Large) and a mask. I used my own mask, though. You get given an automated safety briefing and a demonstration of the Gat, Mask and Grenades. The only thing I don't agree with, is that this is all done in the safe zone with a marker loaded with a Co2 bottle but no hopper. It is however, possible to put a paintball in the to the gun, so it takes one forgetful person or one disgruntled person to mess something up and have someone's eye out. But hey, they know what they are doing. At some point during all of this they'll divide you in to teams with some different coloured tape that they put around your arms.
You get assigned a marshall, who will take you to and from the fields, explain the rules and one more safety briefing. Then he and his fellow marshalls will referee the games for the day. You play six games in all, all with two halves of 10 minutes on average.
- - - THE GAMES - - -
The games we played were:
The Bridge - A flag on the bridge in the middle to be captured and taken in to the enemies base.
A skirmish game, which was an eliminate the opposition in a field with a few wooden shelters etc.
Shapes - Another elimination game, with quite a few wooden shapes (churches, buildings) standing up. Fast paced!
Afghan fort - A large pyramid with a goal inside (in this case terry the torso) the objective is to get to the torso and get it to the enemies base. This had some good tactics in!
Village - A small field with an old war plane in the middle. A flag on the plane with a bridge to the one side of the village. Get the flag and escape the village.
Barrels - a small field with only barrel stacks to hide behind. Fast and short, the game was limited to five minutes each half.
You play each one twice (from a different side of the field) which is nice, but the fields are rather small. This may not be true of all delta force paintball fields though.
- - - THE STAFF - - -
All of the staff were friendly, but I think the head honcho there seemed a little angry all day long, which wasn't a nice feeling. All the marshals ranging from young to old were very helpful seem willing to assist with any issues you may have.
- - - THE LOCATION - - -
The field is located in Beechwood, Birmingham and is very easy to get to. You can get a train to the nearby station, and get a taxi, or drive there by car. Directions are given both on the site and on the confirmation letter that the send when you book.
- - - THE AMMENITIES - - -
The toilets there are sufficient, divided to both men and women.
The store there sells drinks, but they aren't refrigerated. It also sells a selection of snacks and paintball equipment.
The grill provides burgers etc. and vegetarian food.
Tea and Coffee is available free all day.
- - - THE VALUE - - -
Paintballing isn't cheap. That's a rule you need to follow when paintballing and thinking about the cost. Paintballs on the internet are cheap, but you are forbidden to use them. You have to buy from them which is unfortunate. But if you have a few people, you can get a decent bargain. For instance, the paintballs are £6 per 100, of £5 per 100 when you buy 2500 at once. With 5 people, that's £25 each for 500 instead of £30. So that's not too bad. But this isn't a cheap day, so take extra cash if you don't want to take card. They do accept card if you need it. But it is a great day out, so if you can afford it, I recommend it.
If you feel like coming drop me a line, I have another 12 tickets to use by the 30th of August!
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Comfort & Portability
Satisfactory
Price
Rate of firing
fast
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