Asomodai
AF-UK patch owner
- Jun 14, 2017
- 3,146
- 1,054
Site Name: Erebor: Black Ops
Telephone number: 07432457398
Website Address: https://www.accelevents.com/e/ereborBlackOps
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ereborUK/
Site Address: Pilgrim Group, Unit 8, Orchard Business Park, Bonehurst Road, Salfords, Redhill, RH1 5EL
I have played at Erebor Airsoft twice in the past couple of months, both on a test day and proper skirmish day. The following are my thoughts of the site from the SKIRMISH day updated from my original test day review.
Erebor Airsoft is an Urban/CQB airsoft site in Redhill just outside the M25. I played on the 14/09/2019
This is a site has been used by the police/CTFSO for training purposes in the past and possibly present. It also has escape rooms and zombie nights on occasion. It is currently being evaluated for Airsoft use. This is very early days for the site and is currently marshalled by people used by Zed Adventures of The Mall and Battle Lakes fame.
This is a Small sized CQB/Urban mock village built into a warehouse, it has roads, Cars, buildings with a sound and light system. It has two tiers due to the 1st floors of buildings and balconies. Every building is explorable and themed. Semi with a site limit of 350 FPS, probably no snipers allowed as it would difficult to shoot anyone over standard minimum engagement distances. No paper based pyro for obvious reasons. BFGs are allowed in the street and ground floor. I would bet its about four times the size of Bunker 51 in Charlton. Due to the size the player amount is restricted to about 20-25 people.
Positives:
Unique Playing area: The playing area was a quality mock town built under a warehouse. There were a large variety of buildings, all with second stories. A Clinic with stretchers, Police station with jail, Grand Hotel with three balconies to look out from, a Bazaar and a Café complete with outdoor seating, umbrellas and plants. This is clearly not built as an airsoft site as there has been actual money spent on this! The building work was solid and with the lights turned down low you could mistake it for the real thing.
Safe Zone: The safe zone is a large brick building adjoined to the warehouse, its heated with tea, coffee and water machine. We essentially set up in the kitchen/canteen area. Everyone had a small table to themselves and a seat.
Toilet: Male and female toilets, indoors next to the safe zone, actual porcelain. Fit for human use. Probably one of the best toilets. Even had handwash.
Shop: There was a shop at hand that included 4 or 5 rifles, the same amount of pistols and gas and bb's. Considering the limited numbers the site can support I find this to be a more then adequate shop. There is also a boneyard section. I managed to pick up a well used AG36 Grenade launcher that needed a little bit of attention for a fair price.
Parking: Parking on tarmac for around 80 to 100 cars, more then enough and its very secure.
Vehicles: There was a converted van used as a helicopter. You ascend into the vehicle which is then closed up, lights and sound are played of a real helicopter, it has a button release system that will bring down the rear door to exit into the arena. Its a nice touch! It can hold quite a few people.
Location: Being just outside the M25, within 15 minutes walk of a Oyster accessible station (Salfords station) This is very good for London based players.
Sound and light: The lighting can be switched on and off with varying levels of light in-between. Background sounds can be pumped in via the speakers all around the building, usually typical neighbourhood sounds or night time sounds. Very realistic and adds a lot of variety throughout the day.
Mandatory Chrono: All guns used were chronoed with .2's. 350 FPS limit and rifles were tagged.
Marshal/organiser Attitude: Was very good which is the same that I have experienced at Zed Adventure sites. Always good for a chin wag and love their gear. When teams were struggling they got involved helping them out. I made a number of comments after as I did on the test day about layout and other possibilities and they reacted positively to them.
Safety Brief: Fairly long and covered pretty much everything, performed with the customary Zed Adventure swagger.
Mission Variety: Due to the nature of the site I imagine it is a ball ache to think of missions that would work well, but the Marshals managed to pull it off and I am sure they will get even better when the site becomes more familiar.
Average:
Comms: Once you book your tickets online comms were pretty good, you got to choose your food if you wished to order it ahead of time as well as being able to sign the waiver online. Seth the organiser is very responsive on comms either here @Seth_Erebor or on the phone.
However, on the initial test day it was a mix between day time and night time games. Apart from the first game it was pretty much all dark games. Although on booking it is recommended to bring a torch, I would have communicated that it was ESSENTIAL considering it was pretty much all night games this time around.
Value for money: At £35 a time it is a bit steep in comparison to other airsoft sites, but considering the unique nature of the site it really isn't that bad. The food that was on offer however was quite expensive as it is ordered in. Its a nice service, but the day could easily cost around £50-55 on site fee and food.
Negatives:
Layout: The current layout means that if you start at the far end of the warehouse, you are able to have line of sight for 2/3rds of the site almost immediately. This puts the team starting at the near side at a disadvantage from the off from progressing up the field. But it also means that firefights can boil down to bottlenecks on the two main roads as there is no access to the middle row of buildings from the far side of the warehouse. The warehouse owners have noted there is a possibility to change the layout and cut out more windows to improve accessibility, but what really needs to happen is to have more doors going to useful places.
The Grand Hotel is fantastic but it is very difficult to access from the near side of the warehouse as you need to fully expose yourself to get inside which is difficult without being hit due to the long sight line mentioned previously. I asked about putting some sort of fence up to allow access and blocking the long site line and it looks like that will happen for future games.
Night game overload: Further from the Comms rating, I would have preferred to see more daytime games, maybe with the lights turned down at a random time during a skirmish for extra kicks?
Conclusion:
It is a very interesting site. The unique selling point being its playing area which is pretty unique in the south east and/or England. There is a lot of hard work involved in the site upkeep and it clearly shows. I really have to applaud Seth for somehow getting this made available to Airsoft. I had some very good moments whilst playing when you get the jump on people and surprise them but you have to work hard for it!
Although I am not a fan of USA style Scenario based games, with civilians, bartering etc, I can definitely see that style being very effective at this site rather then firefights.
It has its faults in that it is clearly not built as an airsoft site in mind, It can be a very fun site, but it hangs in the balance because it would be easy to spoil a game if the teams are unbalanced or if one little thing gets missed out in the mission brief. It will take continued evolution to keep games on track.
I am personally not a fan of CQB, but this is definitely one to experience at least once. Myself and the buddy I went with both commented that it would be good for an occasional treat, but not as a regular week in week out skirmish. We will probably revisit again with the next 6 months especially if some of the layout and sight line issues are worked on.
This site is ideal for shotguns (In daytime) and I had great fun with my KSG. A fellow forum member had an AA12 which was also very effective. Tracer units and torches are ESSENTIAL to having a good time in my opinion.
Bullpup Watch: My KSG and Fake Bullpup (P90).
View attachment 47857
Telephone number: 07432457398
Website Address: https://www.accelevents.com/e/ereborBlackOps
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ereborUK/
Site Address: Pilgrim Group, Unit 8, Orchard Business Park, Bonehurst Road, Salfords, Redhill, RH1 5EL
I have played at Erebor Airsoft twice in the past couple of months, both on a test day and proper skirmish day. The following are my thoughts of the site from the SKIRMISH day updated from my original test day review.
Erebor Airsoft is an Urban/CQB airsoft site in Redhill just outside the M25. I played on the 14/09/2019
This is a site has been used by the police/CTFSO for training purposes in the past and possibly present. It also has escape rooms and zombie nights on occasion. It is currently being evaluated for Airsoft use. This is very early days for the site and is currently marshalled by people used by Zed Adventures of The Mall and Battle Lakes fame.
This is a Small sized CQB/Urban mock village built into a warehouse, it has roads, Cars, buildings with a sound and light system. It has two tiers due to the 1st floors of buildings and balconies. Every building is explorable and themed. Semi with a site limit of 350 FPS, probably no snipers allowed as it would difficult to shoot anyone over standard minimum engagement distances. No paper based pyro for obvious reasons. BFGs are allowed in the street and ground floor. I would bet its about four times the size of Bunker 51 in Charlton. Due to the size the player amount is restricted to about 20-25 people.
Positives:
Unique Playing area: The playing area was a quality mock town built under a warehouse. There were a large variety of buildings, all with second stories. A Clinic with stretchers, Police station with jail, Grand Hotel with three balconies to look out from, a Bazaar and a Café complete with outdoor seating, umbrellas and plants. This is clearly not built as an airsoft site as there has been actual money spent on this! The building work was solid and with the lights turned down low you could mistake it for the real thing.
Safe Zone: The safe zone is a large brick building adjoined to the warehouse, its heated with tea, coffee and water machine. We essentially set up in the kitchen/canteen area. Everyone had a small table to themselves and a seat.
Toilet: Male and female toilets, indoors next to the safe zone, actual porcelain. Fit for human use. Probably one of the best toilets. Even had handwash.
Shop: There was a shop at hand that included 4 or 5 rifles, the same amount of pistols and gas and bb's. Considering the limited numbers the site can support I find this to be a more then adequate shop. There is also a boneyard section. I managed to pick up a well used AG36 Grenade launcher that needed a little bit of attention for a fair price.
Parking: Parking on tarmac for around 80 to 100 cars, more then enough and its very secure.
Vehicles: There was a converted van used as a helicopter. You ascend into the vehicle which is then closed up, lights and sound are played of a real helicopter, it has a button release system that will bring down the rear door to exit into the arena. Its a nice touch! It can hold quite a few people.
Location: Being just outside the M25, within 15 minutes walk of a Oyster accessible station (Salfords station) This is very good for London based players.
Sound and light: The lighting can be switched on and off with varying levels of light in-between. Background sounds can be pumped in via the speakers all around the building, usually typical neighbourhood sounds or night time sounds. Very realistic and adds a lot of variety throughout the day.
Mandatory Chrono: All guns used were chronoed with .2's. 350 FPS limit and rifles were tagged.
Marshal/organiser Attitude: Was very good which is the same that I have experienced at Zed Adventure sites. Always good for a chin wag and love their gear. When teams were struggling they got involved helping them out. I made a number of comments after as I did on the test day about layout and other possibilities and they reacted positively to them.
Safety Brief: Fairly long and covered pretty much everything, performed with the customary Zed Adventure swagger.
Mission Variety: Due to the nature of the site I imagine it is a ball ache to think of missions that would work well, but the Marshals managed to pull it off and I am sure they will get even better when the site becomes more familiar.
Average:
Comms: Once you book your tickets online comms were pretty good, you got to choose your food if you wished to order it ahead of time as well as being able to sign the waiver online. Seth the organiser is very responsive on comms either here @Seth_Erebor or on the phone.
However, on the initial test day it was a mix between day time and night time games. Apart from the first game it was pretty much all dark games. Although on booking it is recommended to bring a torch, I would have communicated that it was ESSENTIAL considering it was pretty much all night games this time around.
Value for money: At £35 a time it is a bit steep in comparison to other airsoft sites, but considering the unique nature of the site it really isn't that bad. The food that was on offer however was quite expensive as it is ordered in. Its a nice service, but the day could easily cost around £50-55 on site fee and food.
Negatives:
Layout: The current layout means that if you start at the far end of the warehouse, you are able to have line of sight for 2/3rds of the site almost immediately. This puts the team starting at the near side at a disadvantage from the off from progressing up the field. But it also means that firefights can boil down to bottlenecks on the two main roads as there is no access to the middle row of buildings from the far side of the warehouse. The warehouse owners have noted there is a possibility to change the layout and cut out more windows to improve accessibility, but what really needs to happen is to have more doors going to useful places.
The Grand Hotel is fantastic but it is very difficult to access from the near side of the warehouse as you need to fully expose yourself to get inside which is difficult without being hit due to the long sight line mentioned previously. I asked about putting some sort of fence up to allow access and blocking the long site line and it looks like that will happen for future games.
Night game overload: Further from the Comms rating, I would have preferred to see more daytime games, maybe with the lights turned down at a random time during a skirmish for extra kicks?
Conclusion:
It is a very interesting site. The unique selling point being its playing area which is pretty unique in the south east and/or England. There is a lot of hard work involved in the site upkeep and it clearly shows. I really have to applaud Seth for somehow getting this made available to Airsoft. I had some very good moments whilst playing when you get the jump on people and surprise them but you have to work hard for it!
Although I am not a fan of USA style Scenario based games, with civilians, bartering etc, I can definitely see that style being very effective at this site rather then firefights.
It has its faults in that it is clearly not built as an airsoft site in mind, It can be a very fun site, but it hangs in the balance because it would be easy to spoil a game if the teams are unbalanced or if one little thing gets missed out in the mission brief. It will take continued evolution to keep games on track.
I am personally not a fan of CQB, but this is definitely one to experience at least once. Myself and the buddy I went with both commented that it would be good for an occasional treat, but not as a regular week in week out skirmish. We will probably revisit again with the next 6 months especially if some of the layout and sight line issues are worked on.
This site is ideal for shotguns (In daytime) and I had great fun with my KSG. A fellow forum member had an AA12 which was also very effective. Tracer units and torches are ESSENTIAL to having a good time in my opinion.
Bullpup Watch: My KSG and Fake Bullpup (P90).
View attachment 47857
Last edited by a moderator:
