HUNGER BATTLES GADGE TRAVELS TO TUDDENHAM, IN NORFOLK, TO TAKE PART IN A GUNMAN WEEKENDER WITH A DIFFERENCE I'VE ALWAYS HAD A SOFT SPOT for Gunman Airsoft events. Gunman nearly always manage to pull off exciting airsoft weekenders with enough features to keep you hooked but not so many you end up needing a 200 page rulebook and once again they played a blinder at “Hunger Battles”. Truth be told, it wasn”t an event I was expecting to cover but I”d asked Gunman”s head honcho, Josh Smith, if I could pop down to the Tuddenham site to do a few field tests for some gun reviews and he said “Why not come along and have a go at the Hunger Battles”… and why not? Hunger Battles, it was explained, was an event based loosely on the popular books and movies “The Hunger Games” and while no one was expected to turn up in a lycra outfit with a bow and arrows, there would definitely be a “survival of the fittest” meat grinder of an event, with players competing for
possession of supplies “air dropped” into the battle area. It”s a simple enough idea but perhaps it”s best to explain it in a little more detail. As I watched the multitude of players check in and chrono, Chief Tuddenham marshal Doug explained the premise. The game itself would be using Gunman”s popular “FilmSim” rules… not quite MilSim, not quite open day and somewhere in between. For example, fixing up a player as a “medic” required roleplaying fixing a bandage to their arm and, likewise, players were expected to scream and drop to the ground when hit rather than just stand around with their arm up after a call of “hit”. Players would start out with only one main weapon and 100 BBs and if they wanted a sidearm or extra ammo they would need to find the elusive supply drops. Getting shot out after taking your first bandage wound means a trek to your team’s respawn (or “re-cloning” point as it is in the game setting) but finding a portable medic station backpack allows your faction to set up a temporary (and movable) respawn point. Capturing an ammo crate would not only allow players to reload at the crate (any other reloads had to be done by hand, no speed loaders, in the field!) but to also up their ammo limit to 600 rounds per “clone”.
BRUTAL REALITY TV
Understandably there were a few more rules than normal to get to grips with and while these had all been put online prior to the event, they were recapped by Doug and his team after the initial safety brief and gun chronoing. With everyone clear on the rules of the game it was time to divide the players into
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JUly 2016