Schooled!

I totally got schooled today at an outdoor airsoft game. I hadn't played outdoors since last fall, at the zombie game, which was on a farm with trees but not as much underbrush, and a lot of rusted out junk and old buildings---what they would call "open woodland". It was also fall, so there wasn't as much foliage for cover. Today's game was in a JUNGLE by comparison. The play area was huge, and mostly dense woodland/underbrush. Thorns everywhere. Poison ivy---everywhere. There were no discernable trails to my eye. There were many steep slopes. My first challenge of the day was just trying to maneuver through the brush, let alone try to find the opponent. I kept getting caught in the stickers. The foliage was so dense that visibility beyond a few yards was nill. The dynamics of the game were very different from what I was used to. The other folks playing today were familiar with the territory. In the first game, I got my ASS HANDED to me. I didn't even fire a round. However, I did learn a lot about playing this kind of field. After a couple more games, I found my footing, and learned how to work with my teammates to find the objective. I suspect that with practice, it will become easier, but today I was totally challenged. I also realized that I need a totally different loadout configuration for playing that kind of game. A lot of stuff I normally use for CQB was useless (flashlight, green laser, etc.). My little telescope or monocular, and my compass would have come in handy, but I forgot to bring'em.