PureSilver
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- Nov 25, 2015
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Format shamelessly stolen from @Asomodai.
EXTREMELY LENGTHY REVIEW.
Site Name: Invicta Battlefield Black Site
Contact Details: [email protected]
Website Address: https://www.invictabattlefield.co.uk/cqb-site
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Invictabattlefield
Site Address: Hampstead Lane, ME18 6AD
Hello all! I can't find a review of Invicta Battlefield's Black Site on AFUK, which is understandable as it's a relatively new site (only open since 08/12/21). @blobface and I played the Sunday game on 29/05/22.
The Site:
Black Site is a medium-size CQB site spread over three floors of a derelict building formerly occupied by ICI. It's literally 30 feet from Yalding train station. Providing a size comparison to other CQB sites isn't that easy, but I roughly estimate it at about two-fifths of the size of The Mall. The site itself has four floors - Alpha (the safe zone), Bravo, Charlie and Delta (not currently in play).
Side Elevation
The site is semi-auto only, with an energy limit of 350FPS (1.14J), and a maximum BB weight of 0.25g (313FPS equivalent). You may only carry a maximum of 300rds on your person. No sniper rifles, DMRs, grenade launchers, drum magazines, smoke grenades, or green lasers are permitted. Pyro use is limited to BFGs up to 9mm PAK/.380R, EG67s and Mk. Vs. I'd recommend bringing or buying a few grenades; dead players are not permitted to collect thrown grenades until the end of the game. The play area of the site is in fair condition - no rubbish, but there's a lot of dust and occasional dripping patches on ceilings. You must bring a torch; almost all of the building is in near-total darkness, with windows boarded up and interior lighting non-functional outside of stairwells and the safe zone.
Good:
Location: This is a readily accessible site for those travelling by train: the site's front door is quite literally 50' from Yalding station's exit. This is pretty convenient for London-based players, at a bit over an hour on the train from Charing Cross with one change. The site has a very large gravel car park available for those travelling by car.
Site Layout: At present three floors - Alpha, which is the safe zone, and Bravo and Charlie, which are in play - are open. Both Bravo and Charlie are an interesting collection of medium-sized offices, corridors, and industrial spaces. Holes have been cut in some of the interior walls for access; some of these are pretty small so a hat or helmet is recommended. Larger spaces are broken up by barriers and furniture to provide hard cover. The entire play area is in almost complete darkness. I didn't see anyone with NV, and given how everyone's using a torch it may not be that advantageous, but if that's your bag every game here is a night game.
Floor Plans
Engagement distances are typically short - mostly 5-15m, depending on angles and your appetite for storming a room and eating a lot of BBs at bad-breath range. The respawn points are at the base of the stairwells, which is my only major complaint: descending and then ascending two flights of stairs every couple of minutes doesn't feel like much of a reward for pushing up. Since the stairwells themselves thankfully aren't in play I'd be happier with a respawn point on each floor and a minimum respawn group size or time.
Marshalling: Really really good, possibly the best I've ever seen. There were loads of them, they were friendly and helpful, and they intervened frequently, e.g. to tell players that they had actually been killed by a grenade or BB.
Safety: A good comprehensive brief with no unfunny jokes, and stringent chronographing of all guns with the site's BBs and marker zip ties. The chronograph is done with 0.20g BBs; it might be better to see it done with 0.25g, since that's the maximum weight and joule creep only goes one way. The BB weight limit initially felt a bit arbitrary, but having played the site the engagement distances are so short there would be no advantage to heavier rounds anyway. There was no attempt to enforce the (obviously unenforceable, all BBs look the same outside the bottle) weight limit and there was some muttering from particularly bruised players about whether or not everyone was sticking to it.
Game Modes: The game modes were very simple - find the lighting pucks, switch them to your team's colour and defend them, find the lighting pucks in your team's colour and return them to base, etc. They weren't anything massively innovative - except for the light-up pucks, which are absolutely brilliant - but bluntly they didn't need to be; they worked well and players understood and played the objective.
Playerbase: A pretty broad mix of players - a lot of multicam, a lot of more casual set-ups, some younger rentals - but no speedsofters. Players were pretty well-behaved, with nobody (that I saw) losing their cool, cheat calling, or bitching despite several players - including me - copping bleeding welts from the close range. There were a couple of groups of players who were aggressively pushing up and running to and from the safe zone, which always sets a good tone, and even though the day was apparently fully booked there were only a few times people pointlessly stacked up - probably a testament to how close the respawns were. There were a few situations where I felt hits weren't being called, and overkill was repeatedly mentioned by the marshals, but it was pretty minor overall.
Turnaround Time: Fairly rapid, aided by the fact that the safe zone is readily accessible. You won't come back and find half your team chatting in the safe zone, either.
Average:
Value: £25.00 for an evening game (£35.00 including rental equipment) and £35.00 for a day game (£50.00 including rental equipment) is pretty reasonable for a non-woodsball site. It's almost exactly what the late, lamented Echelon Airsoft charged.
Game Options: The site has evening games (17:30-22:30) on Wednesdays and day games (08:00-16:30) on Sundays.
Site Shop: The site shop seemed to have what you'll need on the day: BBs, propellant, pyro, drinks and snacks. There looked to be a very limited selection of RIFs. Hot food can be pre-booked; some pretty alluring burgers were on offer. Unfortunately owing to very spotty mobile data coverage the entire site is cash only.
UKARA Membership: Invicta are UKARA-registered and able to provide you with a UKARA-registered defence.
Safe Zone: It's clean, well lit and right inside the front door. It opens straight into the ground floor; there's no massive hike to the safe zone between rounds. There's plenty of horizontal surfaces, but it was a bit tight inside with the site fully booked. It's really thoughtful to provide the floor plans (above) for people trying to figure out how to navigate the maze-like site; I wish more sites did this. Unfortunately (see below) there's no plug sockets and the bathroom situation is a bit dodgy.
Bad:
The major problems with the site aren't really anything to do with the way the site is run, but to do with how the building has been disconnected from the public utilities.
Facilities: The disconnection from mains electricity means the site has very few or no working plug sockets - none readily available in the safe zone. It may be that the shop can charge batteries for you, but you'll be better off planning on being totally self-reliant. There are actual, plumbed-in toilets (ladies and gents), which seemed reasonably clean, but because the site has been disconnected from the water main - there's no sinks to wash your hands, just hand wipes. The urinals don't flush. If you want to use a toilet, you have to refill the cistern afterwards from big orange buckets of water. The toilets are definitely vastly, vastly better than a portaloo, but it is a bit off-putting that it is a physical impossibility for anyone in the safe zone to have properly washed their hands...
Conclusion:
Black Site is a great day's play. The site is fun with lots of repeat value (I think it would take several game days just to start remembering where the doors lead and which of the windows still have glass in them), Invicta run it very well, and the players make the most of both. When Invicta do such a great job running the site it feels churlish to complain about the facilities - presumably mostly beyond Invicta's control - but they are the only major downside. I'd wholeheartedly recommend Black Site to anyone that wants to play CQB in the dark and we'll certainly be back.
Bullpup Watch: Tragically I think it was just my AUG.
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