What is airsoft, well a common way of explaining it usually involves the word "paintball" within the first sentence.  I'll try not to fall into this trap... 

Airsoft is a shooting sport, where teams of players armed with realistic imitation firearms try to complete objective based games / missions.  The weapons fire solid plastic pellets referred to as BBs and strike other players with these to register "kills".

See, i didn't say paintball once, except for just there and in the first sentence! Whoops.  Lets be honest, despite the inexplicable anomousity towards each other's sport - airsoft and paintball are similar.  You are in teams, you shoot other people, you try and win games.

paintballersmall.jpg

Where is airsoft different?  Well theres no paint - so theres no visable marks when you strike an opponent.  Airsoft relies on a "honour system" (honor, if you are American and don't speak the Queen's English!) where players "call" their hits.  Its a very simple system that underpins every game - if people don't do it, farce decends.

Airsoft is often touted as "more realistic" on the grounds that the weapons are full replicas and don't look like plumbing pipe with a plastic toliet flush mechanism attached to the top - but hey - we're biased!

Its also considered more realistic due to the fact they can (in most cases) fire fully auto and have greater range and accuracy.  Plus airsoft generally has more commonplace use of real world camoflauage designs and real world webbing and chest rigs - because the weapons are replicas so all the magazines for them are too - and you need somewhere to put em!

Your average paintballer will have his face mask, his plumbing pipe and plastic hopper, and a velcro belt with more paintball tubes in it.  Your average airsofter will be running a M4 Assualt Rifle, some camos and a chest rig containing pouches holding his replica magazines for the M4.  The visual difference is stunning and the differences don't stop there.

Paintball increasingly tends to be played around 'arena' designs of games, where the fighting is not themed and its played over a very small space as well- letting you burn through lots of expensive ammunition.  Whilst on the subject - in terms of ammunition used, paintball is also more expensive as a big paintball that explodes on impact is much more difficult and expensive to manufacture than a 6mm plastic BB.  Airsoft games are not designed to get you burning through lots of ammo - as there is no money for the site operators like there is with paintball.

airsofter.jpgAirsoft makes great and continued use scenarios - from famous films, and war stories.  At Nomad we have lots of props and objectives to be collected in-game - so its not just running about shooting everything that moves - its a lot more tactical*  (* You can shoot everything that moves too, you just don't have to!)

Airsoft is ultimately less popular and your average person hasn't heard of it - but don't think of that as a bad thing. 

As a small community you find the players are a welcoming bunch, and within minutes of playing you'll find yourself working as a team with people you've never met before - enjoying every second of crawling through the bushes ready to jump your unsuspecting enemy.

Try it - we'll bet you'll love it.  To make it easier to get into the sport and try it, we're the first in Scotland to offer an all inclusive hire price - with everything you need for a normal full day's play included - show us another airsoft or even a paintball site that does that and we'll eat our hats!

For a more detailed (and serious!) take on airsoft, try the Wikipedia entry - it might be clearer than I have been!