When we were kids, we used to play games such as gun shooting, machine gun games, bow and arrow games etc.

Why is it that we have been fascinated by such pastimes since so young? Is it because it’s in our nature to be warriors? Sure it is, since we are the only beings capable of killing just for fun, practicing hunting no longer because we need to, but as a recreational activity...

Airsoft is a more realistic and a cleaner alternative to paintball. It's a team game designed to simulate faithfully military tactics and missions. So faithfully does the game simulate the real thing, that police and military forces use airsoft games as military drills! Instead of guns firing pellets containing paint, in airsoft we use a variety of guns firing plastic pellets (very much like the guns that made our childhood a bit painful, but something more sophisticated).

The nature of the ammunition is important because of two facts. Firstly, the shooting range is shorter than if you use paintball markers. Therefore airsoft tactics differ a lot from the ones used in paintball. You can no longer hide behind a tree and start shooting blindly, hoping that maybe you’ll eventually hit the enemy. In fact, blindfiring is strictly prohibited in airsoft.

Secondly, in the absence of paint pellets, a question arises: How do you know who was hit and who was not? The answer is a bit complicated. In fact, it’s not. It’s rather simple. The game is based on a code of honour. When you are hit, you leave the game. You will leave it without anybody telling you to do so, because you know that that’s the right thing to do and it’s a question of honour and you wouldn’t like to cheat. Or maybe you would ... Some regulations require that when a player is hit, he must tie a red band around his arm and leave the game, and is banned from talking to former members of his team or to his enemies.

He’s dead, at least for the game. If discovered, a cheater draws the other players’ resentment, as cheating always spoils the fun. It may happen however that someone does not feel the hit, even though weapons are used from close range. To avoid that, some airsoft games use an arbitrator, that functions as "the eye in the sky", pointing out the players that were hit. However, the code of honour is very important, because the arbitrator can’t always see everything that happens on the battlefield.

The honour system of airsoft has a lot to do with the Japanese roots of the game and if we look at their animes, we see that honour still means something to these people. In Japan, paintball is illegal. In fact, generally paintball is played little in Asia, if at all. In Japan, however, tactical team games have always been highly appreciated. Thus a new tactical game sprang up in the 70’s – airsoft. Its name comes from "soft air", the pellet weapons used in this game.

Another difference between paintball and airsoft consists in the fact that the weapons used in airsoft are replicas of real weapons. They were first manufactured in the U.S., at the end of the 70’s. The Japanese took the idea and changed a bit the design of the weapons. Tokyo Marui, the first Japanese company to produce airsoft guns, started by selling self-assembly plastic replica gun kits, life-sized. At first, these guns fired spherical plastic projectiles through a spring operated mechanism. Lately, this system was replaced by electricity and the first modern airsoft guns appeared: Airsoft Automatic Electric Guns (AEG), which were no longer self-assembly kits, but ready-to- use models.

Even if electric guns were introduced a long time ago, airsoft players also use hand or air operated guns. The game then extended to Taiwan, Philippines, Korea and Hong Kong. Even though the game arrived in the U.S., Canada and Europe almost simultaneously, in the mid 90’s, it’s only recently that airsoft has begun to be taken seriously. In Italy, for instance, airsoft is recognized as a sport and organized as such, into teams, championships and federations.

Now, where can we place Romania in this global landscape? Romania’s first specialized centre in military sports opened in Timisoara and, of course, Airsoft is one of our specialities, as we provide excellent conditions for you to practice this sport, including locker rooms, a suitable training room to practice target shooting, a shop supplying airsoft guns, accessories and equipment, a CQB campus (for urban fighting), a coffee room and other facilities ... Even though the game is not very popular here, there are a lot of merchants of airsoft guns. Beware of the prices of the guns, they may vary a lot, not only because of their different operating mechanism, but also because there are a wide variety of manufacturers and products, and when a gun is very cheap it may be a low quality one. Learn more about the weapons used in the game from our airsoft guns section.

Finally, I hope I didn’t leave you the impression that airsoft is about gathering some friends and shooting them away. There are standard scenarios and rules, which must be discussed in detail before players prepare themselves for warfare and equip themselves with weaponry. Otherwise the game ends in a complete fiasco.

Briefly, airsoft is a sport or a teambuilding activity perfect for those who want a realistic simulation of military combat. It is like paintball, only better, for it’s a game that gives you more liberty of action, without ending up quickly and in a mess. Strategy is very important, because sometimes several days may pass before the game is over and the winner is declared. Of course you realize ... this means war.

It’s not something everybody dreams about and it’s certainly not advisable to show off your Kalashnikov replica rifle during a NATO summit. However, we respect and appreciate any game based on ... a code of honour.