You have to hand it to the Dutch... they have their act together. Airsoft has been legal now for just over a year in their country and already you find organisations and shops all over the place. And I’m not talking about your average-10cent-backalley-type of organisation, no. I’m talking about solid structures, awesome gameplays and terrains that make you – the airsofter – want to return to the scene.

I’m talking about solid structures, awesome gameplays and terrains that make you – the airsofter – want to return to the scene.

Now, as a professional pain-in-the-ass airsofter, I’m lucky to be able to play on most of the terrains in and around Europe, the Netherlands included. I have seen my share of awesomeness so it's becoming more and more of a task to get me impressed.

If you don’t have helicopters and boats, there is a big probability that I already have experienced what you will be offering (no insult intended, it just is).

But then you have the guys from 3Divsion, located in Daarle.

Daarle is a small Dutch town, in the northern part of the country, located next to wherethehellarewe-ville and thisisthemiddleofnowhere-town.

In fact, Daarle is nothing more than a couple of streets, some cosy-cheese-filled-typical-Dutch-houses, a dog, a cat and some people having coffee every Sunday morning. So what would the average airsofter be doing in this forgotten part of the beautiful Dutch countryside ?

Right.

Daarle houses a decommissioned military base, that used to serve as a weapons/logistics/storage facility. All of the stuff that goes “boom” was stored in huge bunkers that can be found all over the terrain and just like we can expect of a milspec terrain, the whole thing has been camouflaged with trees, grass, dirt roads and the occasional building left and right.

When the army decided that they no longer had the need for such a facility, it became available on the market (unfortunately, when the soldiers left the place, they took all of their real-life-toys with them) and the dudes from 3Division, a relatively fresh organisation, jumped at the opportunity.

Why the term “relatively” new ? Well, the whole crew of 3Division is comprised of people that have gathered years of experience on Belgian and UK airsoft fields (back in the old days when it was still considered being a crime to play airsoft in The Netherlands) so even if they are new to the organising part of the game, they have been around the block when it comes down to shooting our favourite 6mm ammo.

They took over the military base and baptised it “Bunker Hill” (what’s in a name?)

Up to this stage, the experience airsofter could ask him/herself the question, “What is so special about these guys? Is it a story similar to a lot of other organisations?”

Well, the big difference between 3Division and the majority of all other organisations is the way they approached the whole deal.

Airsoft is a sport, a passion that is distributed via the blood and soul of airsofters around the globe. It's like a virus, once infected, you will go Resident Evil -6mm version in no time and you will try to get as much people hooked as possible. While doing this, the airsofter often forgets that not everybody shares his/her level of passion and new addicts go cold turkey after playing once or twice.

Unfortunately, this is also the problem with a lot of new skirmish organisers, they have this incredible passion they want to share with the world but they forget that not everybody sees the joy in waking up early to go and crawl through mud and urine-infected grass.

The people behind 3Division do not look at the airsofters and the new people as “sportsmen” but as “customers”  --  a true shock,  I know. But the idea from there on is very simple. By looking at airsofters as customers, you are no longer your happy-Sunday-airsoft-club, but a genuine business.

What is every business looking for? Indeed... happy customers! And how do you get happy customers? Second indeed... by going the extra mile and offering Hilton-hotel class level service on the field.

And this level of service is present from the very first second.

Parking guides, camping space right across your vehicle, individual and personal litter bins all over the place, and electricity per tent (I’m talking about tents since 3Division offers weekend skirmishes with camping on site) are just some of the things that make your stay there simply pleasant.

Yes, we all like to be the next airsoft-chuck-norris but you aren’t going to get far when your lipo batteries are completely dry.

But it just doesn’t stop there.

The litter bins are emptied every hour, making your trash dissapear even faster than you can produce it.

Obviously, we are all ultramegaspecops and we all make the expendables look like a bunch of queens on XTC, but we do appreciate a fine and clean meal after a skirm. So when you are done being the new Bruce Lee with BBs, you can take your place at one of the tables of their own “pub”, where you can enjoy a selection of cold and hot drinks that come with a selection of hot snacks that are being cooked right there on the scene.

While enjoying your meal, you can drop your replica in their fully equiped, full ops airsoft shop that is located on the field. A technician will give your replica a full body massage and you have access to a whole range of HQ parts, spares, accessories, gear.

Oh yeah! 3Division accepts all major bank cards, how's that for a 2014-feeling on the field? The 3Division shop is also the hotspot for rental replicas that are available on the field. And we are not talking about cheap-ass-entry-level-rental stuff but HQ replicas, full metal and all trimmed to the local laws and regulations.

Next we have the toilets...

Ah yes! No matter where I go, I will never hold back on crawling through mountains of dirt and elephant poop as long as there is a place where I can go when the need hits. I absolutely HATE those chemical-never-cleaned-blue-toilet things like you can find on festival grounds. So usually, a roll of toilet paper and a local tree does the trick, BUT! 3Division has this customer-orientated mindset so they provided REAL, GENUINE, ULTRAMEGAAWESOME TOILETS which are cleaned every hour so you can pretty much state that these toilets will smell better than you after a intense weekend of skirmishing.

Call me old-fashioned but a clean toilet is a total green light for me.

Last but not least, there is the terrain and the actual skirmishes.

Let’s be honnest, the terrain is not the new Border War nor is not the next Airsoft Island. It’s not huge, it’s not small. It’s a fair sized and it's just intense enough not to die of 6 cardiac arrests when you run around the place.

But it is CLEAN! My god, this place is CLEAN! There have been moments when my living room was not as clean as the woods around the bunkers at Bunker Hill.

Don’t ask me HOW they do it, but there is not 1 piece of garbage to be found on the terrain. This might look like something average for the common man, but for me, it’s of the utmost importance.

I’m not going to play airsoft just to find myself crawling over leftover MREs of the guys who where there the month before.

How they manage to keep the place tidy is a secret, but I’m fairly sure it starts with the massive crew that is present on the field. And when I’m talking about massive, I do mean MASSIVE. The marshalls are EVERYWHERE on and off the field. When they are not performing FPS tests (because the FPS test is still a very big thing in our part of the world) they are on the field doing fairplay tests, managing the game to make sure that everybody is moving and when they give the impression of not having enough to do… well, they take a big plastic bag and go around on the camping recycling OUR dirt and trash.

Running around in their flashy blue outfits, they are clearly recognizable and they have a low talking-treshold

When you have a question, even a noobish one, just go to one of the guys and they will help you out because  even a noob is a customer and EVERY customer needs to be happy!

Is it all rainbows and unicorns?

Absolutely not. As a fair and objective reporter I am forced to point out the bad things as well. And the bad thing here is --- that there is only 1 skirmish being organized per month.

Only 1 and due to the incredible level of quality, the events are being sold out in a matter of days  and this is such a b**ch. But on the other hand, they are persistent in keeping the quality level this high so the limit is there for a reason.

All and all my conclusion is straight forward and fair.

YES, it is a damn shame that it's only once a month. YES, the terrain is just too damn far for any normal human being living in the Belgian outbacks just like me to drive to (its a 4 hour drive for your humble reporter). YES I do believe that I’m far better looking than Dennis (who is part of the 3Division crew) yet I do find myself registering for the event every single month, so they must be doing something very right.

Call me impressed!

You can find more info on their website or you can give them a like on Facebook.

Skirmish on!

Christophe “Lucid Mind”
www.lucidmind.be
www.ultraoperator.com