Shadow Stalkers possess a private facility near Nottingham, which is free of charge as long as we maintain it for owners and look after the habitat for the wildlife.

This was a full Saturday and Sunday, with two purposes, move the central campsite to a new location on the boundary of the site to allow more use of the central position, and train in 'fire and Manouvre'. We also taught camouflage and concealment, which as you will see, made a huge difference!

The first task on arriving was to clear the new camp zone of fallen trees and obstructions. We then dismantled the old fire place and built a new one in the new 'safe zone'.

After this was completed, we ran the 'Fire and Manouvre' Pairs competition, where a pair of members had 30 rounds each, 15 spread out targets (head size) and 2 minutes to complete the course. This being in dense woodland and 50 metres long!
After two runs, it was run in a brilliant time of 1 min 18 seconds by Chris Hunt and Matt Phelps, team 'Redneck'.

After a break for lunch we then installed some new barriers at the old camp zone, and ran a 'King of the Hill' style game, which proved the location was ideal for this scenario, it just needs further barriers. After a late dinner, we ran 'Defend the Fort' games on the hill, and the 'King of the Hill' again but during the night, tracer fun!

We endexed at 23:00 and sat round the camp fire with beer and sarcasm.

The following day, we started with 'Fire. Manouvre, Target Designation, and Camouflage/Concealment. The members them cammed up and we ran through CQB lanes drills, and then onto Search and Destroy missions. With the members cammed up it was virtually impossible to see them over 10 metres away! Different missions were played out throughout the day until Endex at 16:00 hrs when Camp was broken down.

Coming from a different point of view, here is Arron Staffords take on it:

 Highlights for me from the weekender at Gotham: 

1. Stalking the flank of Chris and Matt's highly effective machinegun emplacement on the ridge in the first hill-defence game and lighting them both up from the side.
2. Chris returned the favour in the swap around by repeating my exact same manoeuvre except I was expecting him so we exchanged rounds at the same time, him on auto with the RPK and me on semi so I think I came off worse.
3. Stalking people in the evening games, my favourite type of playing… total silence as people creep through the moss forest, trying to avoid breaking any twigs, then from nowhere “phut-phut-phut.... HIT!” or “BRAAAAAP… HIT!” every few minutes. Repeatedly being called a “sneaky bugger”. Love it.
4. Being truly out-stalked by Jason in the king-of-the-hill game in the dark… I’d been slowly creeping up towards the objective area for ages from a new angle, trying to get a clear shot on Sam who had been picking our team off from the shadows in a great defensive position that we couldn’t see just inside the objective area. I didn’t realise I had picked up a tail behind me as I was totally focussed on not being spotted by Sam and was moving silently and slowly, spending a lot of time crouched still, listening, so didn’t imagine anyone would pick me up. Just as I’m slowly standing up and sighting in on the side of Sam’s face, I hear a twig crack about 10m directly behind me in the dark, a piece of ground I had just passed through. I grin to myself as I realise I’m already fucked, I know it’s not friendly as rest of my team is off in front of me running their own party. I can either spin round and try to shoot my assailant though he probably already has the sights on me and even if I do get him, the noise will attract Sam’s attention who will promptly slot me. I decide to go for the shot I have on Sam and we all open up on each other – I shoot for Sam and Jason slots me from the back. Absolutely hilarious. Turns out Jason had been following me silently for about 15 minutes as I moved through the undergrowth to get an angle on Sam, him stopping every time I stopped to listen so never knew he was moving with me. The fucker was going for the knife kill and almost got it as well!!
5. The downed-pilot fiasco game in the dark – me and Sam are “downed pilots” with just pistols who have to get to the other side of the area and set off a pyro on the hill before 11pm. Everyone else is hunter teams in pairs with cyalumes on their belts so we can see them and bloody bright torches. Trouble was that they knew where our start location was and they were already between us and our objective when the game started so we never really stood a chance – all 3 hunter teams began to sweep towards us very quickly, me and Sam went to ground hoping they would pass us by but it was clear they were all heading straight for us. I waited until Shepherd and Luke were about 10m away and were about to sweep the torch across my legs before flicking my laser sight on and aiming for the cyalume, I got Shep but missed Luke and the other teams arrived so me and Sam went down fighting, I think we made the honourable choice.
6. Repeating the downed pilot escape’n’evade game in the daytime with me on the hunter team this time and more pilots with not just pistols – me and Jamal spent ages stalking down the south-east side of the area hunting them, only to be lit up by Chris who was very well hidden laying prone in the bushes on the very edge of the area, he’d ran to get there before us, and apparently we walked straight past Bradley in a similar position. Rather embarrassing for us hunters.
7. Same game, me and Jamal moved down quickly through the centre, over the hill and along the quarry face path, aiming to come up behind the pilots in a pincer move as Brenn, Shep and Luke pressed down in a line from the safe zone towards the quarry face – it worked! An exchange of fire ahead makes me and Jamal take a knee and freeze, we are fully cammed up, and I am suddenly presented with Alex in a ghillie suit sprinting straight towards me like a wookie on fire in retreat from Brenn, he doesn’t realise he’s running straight towards us until I bring my rifle up give him a few rounds to remind him that even your retreat should be tactical as you never know when a kill team has moved in behind you to cut you off as you run from the main sweepers – don’t just hoon it!
8. Bradley laying prone fully cammed up as a hunter in the reversal game, me and Jamal almost bloody stepped on him, lit us both up from a few metres away, like an angry Ewok.
9. The Mead.
10. BBQ for tea, BBQ for Breakfast, leftover BBQ for lunch….
11. Sleeping under a bivvie/basha in summer, missed that a lot since cadets. Fucking slugs everywhere in that moss forest though!
12. Shep’s flour bombs!
13. “Bodycot Hole”
14. Getting “cammed up” for the first time in about 7 years!
15. Chris’s red tracer! YES, RED TRACER!
16. Brenn playing against me for the first time in the final game, surprised me with a jack-in-the-box from a big patch of nettles as I crept forward again. I got him back later in the game as he stepped out from behind a tree and realised I was looking straight at him through my scope whilst his mp5 was slung by his side.
17. The last minute of the final game when I just flicked my SCAR to full auto and starting area-denial suppression fire on the objective area, Rambo-firing from the hip, hosing left to right across the treeline as Chris screamed in terror from behind a tree down range. Did 3 x 160 midcaps in under a minute, great considering most of the weekend had been stealthy single shot, barely using a mag per game.
18. Me and Brenn having a brothers pistol showdown after the last game to settle who won – start back to back, pistols holstered, walk 10 paces as counted by Chris, turn and shoot. Brenn draws quicker than me but forgets his slide safety catch on his 1911 – my XDM is grip safety so I give him 2 full pistol mags so he won’t forget next time :-P
19. Rocking up at the maccies drive-thru for a mcflurry and a big-ass milkshake (good call Chris!) still got cam-cream all over my face, wearing combats and my rubber axe on the passenger seat next to me! “errrr…. Hello sir, what can I get for you?” 

I’ve got video of most of this which will be incoming sometime over the next week, I’ve got the Skirmish video to finish editing first! 

Brilliant weekend, bloody sucks to be back at my desk on Monday!