Phoenix Airsoft is where I first started my Airsoft journey, we’re talking 10 years ago and whilst initially it was twice a month, the frequency dropped off a little as life busied up and then I began to venture further afield trying lots of different sites. Phoenix got somewhat left behind and whilst I always had the intention of going again at some point, I never really got round to it. This time though, I did.
Where: Phoenix Airsoft Mansfield NG20 9JX https://www.phoenix-airsoft.co.uk/
Date played: 28/12/2025
Weather: Winter, Cool, Dry
Type: Woodland
Cost: £30 (non-members)
Arrival & Safe Zone
Phoenix has a very large poster on the main road, you’ll struggle to miss it. The track into site is long and bumpy but it gives you a taster of what you’re going to be playing through, with barricades, buildings, sniper posts, pallets, tyres, containers, trenches all within eyesite. The car park park is big, theres room off track at the entrance to the safe zone but also a huge overflow further back if needed.
What a safe zone, it’s absolutely huge! It’s like it’s own little village, all self contained within 3 very large containers forming the main area where there are plenty of undercover benches and also additional cover for those wetter days. There is an onsite shop, chrono booth, army surplus store, kitchen/cafe and booking in office.
There are well placed toilets, urinals for the guys and a portaloo with a couple of portalkoos for the girls.
Sign In
I was impressed with this, sign in is just a sign in however, I needed to pay my balance on card. Phoenix have had the forethought to install an internet link into site so they have a proper internet enabled book in with QR waiver, fast card payment and the ability to spread this over I assume to the cafe, shop and army surplus as well.
Safety Brief & Chrono
Safety brief was done in the main safe zone, it was done to a script and at pace, I felt it covered what it needed to, without the usual marshall of the day giving a poor stand up comedy show as well which was a bonus with very little to no players talking amongst themselves.
Chrono is done in it’s own dedicated booth and you are zip tied a colour to show if you are AEG/DMR or BASR. Phoenix chrono in joules. Limits are 1.27J for AEG, Shotgun and Pistol, 1.88J for DMR and 2.32J for BASR. HPA are tourney locked as well for extra assurance and a part of the brief is that there will be random chrono’s throughout the day to discourage tinkering.
A side note as well and something that I really liked and feel they are leading the way with, they used an Acetech chrono paired to an iPad, a digital display showing the shots in real time, calculating both FPS and J value for the BB used. No tatty paper conversion charts.
Site & Playing Areas
The site is an ex army base located on a 120 acre woodland site. There are a significant amount of structures that are available to use for games and for the most part, the entire site is in play, every game. This allows for some excellent build up or flanking play with a bottleneck for guaranteed action into the attraction you are attacking. Usually I would name a few notable ones at this point but I’m going to leave a photo I took of the map below as there simply are that many.
Morning Games
I love the Phoenix mentality to games, get loads of ammo and get out of the safe zone. The morning game was a minimum of an hour long, played as a 3 point domination down the main track over Terminal, Kill House and Fuel Dump. Rather than trying to take the very long flank and to get some rust shaken off, I opted for just off the main road, straight approach. The enemy came straight on at first which got me a few kills and then began flanking, thats when the fun started. A very simple game played out into an epic battle. Props as well, really good quality pelicases with team coloured lights, sounds and interactive buttons to turn the objective to your team.
The second game was kind of an objective lead push back. Starting from safe zone. Pick up 2 objectives from G&T and take them to the Whitehouse (not shown on the map but very near the blue dot for No Mans Land) where we have to then eleminate all enemy, search them for 2 more objectives and use all objectives to set off a prop bomb in Whitehouse. What we weren’t told though was the few defensive players at the first objective we re-gen’d 5 mins after we left so we were attacking to the front and defending to the rear. We had an hour to do this and I think we just about managed it.
Lunch
Lunch was always good at Phoenix. I originally loved the burgers and I was there for the revolution when Jeff got his first chip fryer. Now though they have a proper kitchen with a 5* hygiene rating and this is a separate entity in it’s own right. It has the kind of menu that you’d want to see, burgers, chicken burgers, hot dogs, nuggets, chips, cans, chocolate and sweets.
A lunchtime meal is £7 which consists of a main, chips and can of drink. Great food and well worth the price.
Afternoon Games
The afternoon game was built around our team defending a point (5-a-side) for 20 mins and then moving a hostage out and into a building in the village where we needed to hold the building for another 20 minutes. We had a very stiff opposition on this game, the opposition must have had red bull laced chips. We managed to hold the first objective and move the hostage relatively well however getting into the building in the village proved difficult. We had a great shootout but ultimately ran out of time.
The second game of the afternoon was Infected, it was getttin darker and people were beginning to drop off, this is a variant of Zombie where the infected can only walk, great mix up but also the whole lower quarter adjacent to safe zone was in play. Both myself and Figment bunkered in fairly close to safe zone but hidden well against a fallen tree, we saw some action, engaged with one group but then they left. Ultimately I think we were last ones out and didn’t hear the End-X.
Games in General (a special shoutout)
Any site can be big and any site can bang bits of wood together to call it a structure. Something that really took me back yesterday though was the creativity of Jeff for how he put the games together, all Airsoft games are going to be built around some basic objective but the fluff you add on around and the rules you impose shape how that and add to the immersion and give every player a sense of purpose. I feel a large part of Phoenix’s success is because of this, the games are interesting, engaging and you get some great battles. Surely that’s what you want in an Airsoft site?
Marshalling & General Attitude of Players
There were a good handful of marshalls about and clearly visible by hi-vis. The group wasn’t huge and the players were relaxed which meant really there was no need for them. I certainly didn’t hear any cheat calling or heated arguments at any point. The Xmas-NY gap is usually pretty laid back and this vibe was picked up by marshalls only being about if called upon.
Player attitudes couldn’t be criticised, everyone was happy, approachable and in good spirits.
Overall
Phoenix Airsoft… I knew it would be good but it absolutely over delivered for me. I’ve come away looking forward to going back. The only criticism I can levy is that as the site is so big and in play for every game, I’m an utter mess today as my middle aged body sits here in agony as I write this.
A huge thank you to Jeff at Phoenix Airsoft for yesterday, for taking the time to talk to us and for making us feel so welcome despite our lengthy absence, an absence that will not be repeated.