If you think your team is on top of the world having survived and won at Elektrowerkz, think again. If you survive an encounter with the DA’s playing as a full team at their home site, then you can proudly say to the world that your team is comprised of CQC artists. But we doubt if the DA's would easily give that on a silver platter, you'll have to earn their respect, which will be hard to win. The `Werkz is their territory, and it always will be.

A very friendly and accommodating bunch, they took time to have a chat with us while they were busy helping Andy of FCS manage the site. They toured us around The `Werkz, showing us the maze of rooms and the different set-ups per floor. But I forgot to ask why in the world is there an aeroplane fuselage right inside The `Werkz.

Established in 2004, Team DarkAngel (The DA's) are arguably the finest CQC airsoft players in the United Kingdom, and they have the training to show that. A number of the team members are in law enforcement for a living, you wouldn't doubt that they know what they are talking about. Lex Jones, the founder of  The DA, gives us an insight on their team.

Can you tell us more of the origins of the DA’s? How it was formed and how many members are there now?

Firstly, thanks for the recognition and taking the time to find out what we are about. We started out in June 2004, when DA1 first posted up on the Firefight London site thread on the old (and sadly missed) UKAN forums, asking if anyone else was interested in starting a team. I did this because at the time there was no weekend skirmishing to be had at Electrowerkz, and I was interested in experiencing the varied and vast amounts of other airsoft sites in the UK. I was astounded by the response, and within a couple of months our ranks were running at over 20 members. People come and go in airsoft as you know, but at our peak there were fifty of us, and to this day there are still thirty or so very regular players, still visiting various sites around the country to play the sport we all know and love.

As mentioned, a number of the DA’s are law enforcers themselves, are there members of Armed Response Units within the group?

No, at this time there are none of us carrying real firearms for our daily bread. Our employers frown upon this sort of thing if you are in a firearm role, believing that if you enjoy a skirmish you must have an unhealthy interest in guns. They couldn’t be further from the truth; most of the members of the team, especially the law enforcers, treat airsoft as a sport, and play it to replicate first person shooter console and computer games. There are very few of the team that would admit to playing airsoft because they like playing soldiers! There are also a fair few serving and ex military within the team that play for the escapism factor. They obviously do carry real firearms at work, but I don’t think that their employers would frown upon it as much!

Would it be possible for you to enumerate the callsigns of the members of DA’s?

You can find a list of active, fire-team assigned (numbered) players, and those that are not so regular but still play when they can, on our own team forum at www.delta-alpha.org, team discussion sub-forum, Fireteam postings and positions thread. I don’t think you want to clutter up this interview with the fifty plus names that are listed there!

Since the DA’s are based at The `Werkz, which is primarily a CQC site, have you ever been to other airsoft skirmish sites?

The whole point of the DA’s is to travel around, trying out the different disciplines of Airsoft. We have just started playing more Woodland airsoft, but our strengths definitely lay within CQC and FIBUA. We are regulars at Ambush Longmoor, and have been for over two years. You will find us out in force at the Ground Zero national game every August, which is our big team weekend get together / party! We have visited far too many of the UK airsoft sites to list them all.

Which do you think is more exhilarating, playing CQB or woodland/field skirmishes?

CQC or FIBUA definitely, in terms of exhilaration you can’t really compare them to woodland play at many sites. I know that in many ways the team enjoys woodland as much as CQC, but woodland play is definitely a lot tamer, slower and more drawn out in terms of regen. There’s no denying that playing in the Woods contains much more apprehension though. When we’re storming through an indoor site like Electrowerkz, you pretty much know that when you step around the corner you’re going to get engagement. At some woodland sites, you can wonder around for what seems like ages before you get to shoot at someone. Long walks away from fire-fights to dead-zones, followed by a wait before you can regen, definitely kills the adrenalin and exhilaration for a lot of us.

Do you recruit members to the DA? If yes, what's your recruitment process?

We do recruit, but we only really take on friends and friends of friends. The beauty of the team is that we are all mates, and there are rarely issues between team members. We tend not to have our members spread out across the country, because we’re an active airsoft team, not a forum discussion group. If a player comes to Electrowerkz and is exceptional, then clearly they will be invited to join regardless of whether or not they know any of the existing members. If you are invited to join, then you will be required to perform a tactical assessment, in most cases you will already be of the standard we are looking for in a player, but we need to know that you play the game properly and honestly before you get your badge. Being a member of a big organised team all wearing the same badge has already brought us problems and accusations in the past. There are too many whiners within the sport that don’t enjoy being on the receiving end, thinking that they can just brand us all through rumour.

That’s why we don’t let just anyone blunder around wearing our patch ruining our rep. Incidentally, I would like to take this opportunity to point out to all UK airsofters, that all of our team members wear numbers so they can be clearly identified. If you have a problem, please note the number clearly displayed on the players right arm and your concerns can be addressed and dealt with. We don’t tolerate cheating on the team. I think that the fact that we are all playing with numbers on our arms speaks volumes about our transparency. If you don’t have the nuts to point the finger, then please stop gobbing off! Labelling the whole team is not on. On a lighter note we always need more drivers, no more passengers are required!

Any standard loadout that you require from DA members?

We don’t really have a standard load-out. We like to see all members wearing ACU with black tac gear for CQC (at the Werkz), and most of us wear Multicam with desert or Multicam tac-gear when we play FIBUA. Anything goes in the woods, although most of us favour good old British DPM. As far as guns go, most of us have M4 / M16 variants for ease and mag sharing compatibility, but we’ll never dictate to anyone what AEG they carry, it’s a very personal choice after all….

In playing CQB, what would you recommend as the best and effective team composition?

We find storming through Electrowerkz as an 8-man team to be most effective. Most of us have adapted to ambidextrous AEG play, as it’s essential to be able to shoot both left and right handed in CQC environments. Staying together as an 8 man team allows you to keep up the pressure as you move around, while still allowing some leeway for those who get shot running (yes running) to the regen point and back. Quick regen to get back to your fire-team is the key to keeping up pressure and taking ground. Any more than 8 of you in cramped conditions, and you start getting a lot of friendly fire.

Is your formal training in the law enforcement applicable to airsoft game plays, especially for CQB games? Have you also found some lessons brought about by playing airsoft that can be applied for real world situations?

Although none of us have been formally trained to do it as a job, virtually all of our team members have had training from serving Police Specialist Firearms Officers and the same opinions always crop up. Police Officers in real situations are only interested in surviving and keeping themselves, their team and innocent bystanders safe from harm, so a much more cautious approach to achieving their objective is required. DA’s are only interested in fragging the enemy to take ground followed by running back to the regen point to get back and frag some more! It’s easy to be fearless when you know that the worst thing that will happen to you is that you’ll get a little red mark on your skin! This is why I would compare our style of play to computer games more than SWAT tactics. Although there is no doubt that if you were to put an airsofter who has had some ‘Police training’  in a house with a real gun and tell him to go kill the terrorists he will have a much better idea of what to do than most other airsofters. Fundamentally we have learned a lot from Police and SWAT tactics, personal admin and teamwork / awareness being the main things, these skills and tactics only become truly applicable in ‘one life’ airsoft games. It is very hard to play survival tactics against someone who will rush out at your whole team with the finger on the trigger.  Speaking from my experience as a player and site marshal, I would say that “one-life” games tend to encourage camping and cheating which doesn’t really make for a good game of airsoft.  No one wants to spend money to go and sit in the safe zone, having played only a minute or less of a game.

Have you recommended airsoft as a training tool for members of law enforcement and military groups?

Yes, and those that have tried it have seen the value in using airsoft guns for training purposes. There are rumours that Special forces units use AEGs for training, and play in only their underpants. It seems that most law enforcement agencies would rather use the more expensive and higher powered Simunition guns, due to their more highly adaptive realistic mechanisms and clearer marking qualities. I’m sure the trainees would rather take the soft option though...

Do the DA’s conduct regular practice games at The Werkz or you just form up during scheduled games of FCS?

We used to, but we now know the site and each other so well, it really isn’t necessary anymore. I think deep down we all enjoy the challenge of being a little rusty these days, there’s a lot to be said for a bit of ‘self-handicapping’. Unlike at most sites where the home team always plays together, unless we have a specific challenge from another team (which we haven’t had from non-Electrowerkz based teams yet), you won’t find all the DA’s on one team. With the exception of being heavily handicapped with much fewer numbers or having all the rental players or first timers play with us, most of the time we split down into two and play against each other.

Ever been to any airsoft tournament or are you planning to organise one at The Werkz?

No planned tournaments, but we do have our annual charity Pistol and shotguns only day coming up in July, date to be confirmed, which is always very well subscribed by the Airsoft retailers and Site organisers giving us fantastic prize draws. This day is always very different to the norm at Electrowerkz, very much a low octane event, and a definite breath of fresh air for some people giving them a great opportunity to play at the site under very different conditions. And it’s a 7 hour event! So far the DA’s have raised over £4000 for children’s charities over just two events. Keep your eyes on the FCS website for more details coming very soon.

A team of four DA’s comprising of 2, 8, 13 and 14 won the Airsoft International Snatch Cup at the Longmoor weekender in November 2007, but other than that, no. Personally I’m not interested in skills tournaments, which is what all the other airsoft tournaments apart from the snatch cup have been so far, although I’m sure that there are plenty of the team that would like to put their ‘Police training’ to use in this way, and I would never discourage them. But until an infallible system is invented in order to accurately referee airsoft as a team on team game, then the DA’s core airsoft talents will remain untested in my opinion.

Outside of the UK, what airsoft event would you want to try?

I think we’d all like to do one of the stateside games such as Ashbash, I mean, who wouldn’t want to go to Hawaii??!!! Unsurprisingly, everyone wants to go to Hong Kong (more pipe dreams), but travelling by air with AEG’s and large amounts of tac-gear seems very daunting for most though, which only leaves us with European games. We considered Berget briefly, but after reading what we all believed to be a ridiculous amount of rules and restrictions at this game, none of us thought it was that interesting from our point of view. Milsim is one thing that the team is not, although there a few closet milsimers among us! I am proud to say I am not one of them, Geardo, maybe, milsimer, definitely not.

Any tips that you want to share with our readers, especially in playing Close Quarters Combat such as recommended load-outs, airsoft weapons, and physical requirements?

For CQC airsoft it definitely helps to be physically fit. As I said before the faster you can get yourself backwards and forwards to the regen point, the more effective you are as a member of the team. Keep it light, don’t wear heavy plate carriers with lots of useless unfilled pouches, carry only mags and pyro that you need. Short barrelled weapons with folding stocks are best, they make you more efficient around the tight corners of a CQC site (not to be confused with FIBUA). Use a red-dot sight, its speeds up your target acquisition, but make sure that it is zero’d to the abilities of your gun. Use a tac-light to dazzle and disorientate your enemy, it can win you valuable seconds when it matters. Carry a back up pistol, and most importantly switch quickly when your AEG goes down. Finally, if you have a fearless attitude, spatial awareness of yourself and your team so that you are not getting in your team-mate’s way, a plan and the ability to communicate it or listen and react to the good plans of others and trigger discipline regarding your own team, you’ll be well on your way to having some idea about CQC airsoft.

Before we end this interview, what made you decide to take the Dark Angel name?

We skirmish at a site in Angel, and its Dark…..it really is that simple.

I hate to disappoint the more geeky of those among you, but there are no Warhammer connotations I’m afraid.

The DA's would like to thank Andy at Firefight Combat Simulations and Paul and Andy at Spectrum Pyrotechnics for their continued sponsorship, and all the retailers and site organisers whose generosity makes the annual DA charity event such a massive success time and time again.

Thank you very much!

You’re welcome, thank you.

Photos by Sam Jackson (www.eljackimages.com)