Shelter. Sleeping quarters. Workshop. The tent is your base camp for the weekend, is likely to be the most expensive piece of kit and you need to choose carefully. It needs to keep you protected from the elements and give you the space you need to sleep, store kit and get yourself organised.

Survival rule of three – 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food. Read that shelter one back again. Staying warm and dry really is that important.

The first advice I got for a tent setup for airsoft was a typically milsim setup of bivi and basha. If you don’t know what that is, it’s basically a waterproof bag you sleep inside (in a sleeping bag) with a plastic sheet over the top. As basic as you can get, it’s a very lightweight setup and the basha (tarp) is a very flexible piece of kit, allowing you to set up a sheltered area around your bivi bag to give you room to cook in and keep kit dry. Get a decent tarp for £40 – DD tarps are easily the best at this price point, like this 3×3. I have the 3×3 pro which costs a bit more, that has extra attachment points and it’s an amazing piece of kit for all outdoor activities, and will take a lot of rain.

My DD tarp set up for summer camping with the family. Extremely versatile bit of kit. I chose it over the British Army basha tarp purely because when i mentioned it was camo, my wife told me to fuck off.

Anything bigger is probably at risk of catching the wind and only really necessary if you’re planning a party underneath. Bear in mind you will need sturdy poles or somewhere with trees to tie a tarp onto – and remember you may not always have trees nearby (unlikely, but i’ll mention it). I always take a tarp, even if it’s not set up, it’s still handy for putting over the top of stuff outside the tent to keep them dry, or as an extra waterproof layer in case you have a leak. At airsoft events you’ll inevitably have far more kit than you have room for in a tent porch, and so having them outside under a tarp (pegged down over the top) makes a great gear store. If you’re somewhere with a lot of bugs or wild animals and need to keep that kit off the ground (especially if it contains food), the Highlander gear store is a cheap solution for keeping your kit safe :

There are cheaper tarps available but they’ll be poorly reinforced and generally a plastic type material. There are also far more expensive tarps if you want to fork out extra for lightweight materials, but the DD ones are more than good enough. The other type I really do want to mention is the British Army issue basha. One of the best tarps ever made, it’s a 250x170cm sheet of beautiful DPM or Desert DPM material with really well thought out attachment points, very solidly made, lightweight and a great piece of kit for the individual. Be wary of cheap copies, like the Kombat UK one, which I bought mistakenly and it’s a very heavy bit of kit in comparison.

Awful pic of the DPM basha that seems to have become the default pic for the genuine surplus version across pretty much every selling platform on the internet. Easy way to tell if it’s the real thing, or a cheapy “army tarp, military woodland camo” copy.

Here’s a great example from Ronan, who does a lot of hard routine milsims (as hardcore as you’re ever likely to get without being deployed). His kit is stripped down to the absolute basics, but bear in mind it’s usually only for one night. It’s basic but effective, and very lightweight. The tarp provides a shelter over a bivi bag, essentially a waterproof sleeping bag that goes over your sleeping bag, to keep you dry.

When it comes to choosing a bivi bag, the British Army goretex bags are superb, and being goretex rather than some budget “goretex-type” material, will keep you dry in all conditions. The downside to this setup is that it doesn’t give you a lot of room to sleep in, or get changed in etc, but for events where you need to carry all your kit with you, for pack size it’s hard to beat. There are bivi bags available for less, but be wary of going too cheap on something you’re effectively trusting your life to.

An alternative you might consider is a hooped bivi. The idea here is that having a small pole to add structure will give you a bit of usable space inside the bivi, and room to move a little. Here are a couple of examples courtesy of Jordan and Lawrence from Sniperworks.

So, the two we’re looking at here are the Dutch Army DPM Hooped bivi, and the incredibly rare SAS Double hooped bivi. The SAS bivi is Jordan’s, an experienced outdoorsman with a knack of acquiring extremely good kit and in the last few years I think I’ve only ever seen one come up for sale. The Dutch DPM Hooped bivi is still quite hard to get hold of, but is extremely worth getting your hands on if you can. It’s roomy enough that you can fit a 50l pack inside with you, is made from extremely durable goretex type material and will keep you dry through anything (and at Sniperworks, we rarely get a dry day…)

These are again very good for pack size and are low profile, so you can stay hidden, which is ideal for anyone in a recon role who is planning to stay out all night without being discovered. The addition of a hoop means there’s space to get comfortable and you don’t have material resting on your face, which isn’t ideal when it’s cold and wet outside. There are more expensive versions available, such as this Stratosphere model from Snugpak, which are a bit more high tech and lightweight if you want something of better quality, and comes with a better head area courtesy of the two pole setup, but the army versions are more than good enough. The downside is limited kit space, so you’re likely going to need somewhere else to store your kit, ideally a tarp (told you you’d need one) or a gear store as listed above.

Another surplus option is this British Army one man tent setup, behind in the pic below, courtesy of Aiden (Sniperworks). What you have is a net inner tent, which keeps bugs out and gives you room to sit up in, onto which you attach a waterproof DPM outer. Initially, this mosquito tent was designed to fit inside bigger army tents on deplyments as a personal bed space and can be picked up for very little. Getting the cover to turn it into a tent is much more difficult, but I thought I’d show it as an option. Aiden uses his on top of a cot style camp bed, which gives him storage space underneath for kit. It stands up really well to the elements and is the next step up from a bivi setup. It’s a very good option although lacks a little in porch space, or the ability to access stuff stored underneath in bad weather. The cot bed is a little bulky but very comfortable.

Personally, I like to be comfortable. It’s something I’ve had drilled into me from my team experiences away with the Norvern Monkeys. Leader Scott has a huge amount of experience in the field and always has the team performing well throughout the weekend because they’re looked after. If you’re well rested, well fed and have had a comfortable night camping, you’re going to be much more effective on the second day of the event. Morale is key, and with that in mind, I invested in this Wild Country Coshee 2 tent for airsoft.

Now, a tent might seem a bit boring compared to the more “military” options, but there’s reasoning behind it. Instead of taking a bivi bag, getting a bug net for it to avoid getting eaten during the night and inhaling spiders, and then having to mess on setting up a tarp, I’ve got all three in one much neater package that takes very little time to pitch; it’s two small poles in and then two guy lines either end to pop it up, which i can do in about two or three minutes, which is great in wet weather. Pack size isn’t too big either, expecially compared to a bivi and tarp. Having said that, Tarps are always handy if you need extra outdoor living space and have time to set one up properly.

For tent buying, always look at the waterproof rating of the flysheet (the upper) first. The bigger the number, the more waterproof it is, however too much and the tent won’t be breathable. Generally most reasonably priced tents will be rated 1500mm, 2000mm, or 3000mm. From experience in some of the wettest environments in the UK, which is wet anyway, I’d always go for a 3000mm tent just in case. The other thing to look for is a bathtub groundsheet, whereby the groundsheet isn’t flat, but comes up the side of the tent a little to keep more water out. Additionally, it tends to indicate the groundsheet and inner tent are one section, which means you don’t have gaps for bugs to get in.

Do look at the tent specifications when buying though and make sure it isn’t an “inner pitch first” type tent. Either outer first, or all-in-one. If it’s bucketing down with rain, you want to get into your tent ASAP and the inner first means having the mesh inner part of the tent exposed to the elements while you set up, which leads to puddles inside your tent before you can get the outer sheet on. If possible, you could get a tarp up overhead to protect you from the rain so you can dry off a little, and pitch the tent under cover.

It’s not camouflaged, although I did get it in green, and isn’t very tacticool although it’s still difficult to hide a camouflage tent, but it’s been brilliant for me. As a brand, Wild Country are the budget arm of Terra Nova, who are rated extremely highly when it comes to tents. Although it’s a “budget” option, the quality is still there. It’s extremely waterproof, and very quick and easy to set up. Vango do a similar model, the legendary Banshee which is extremely popular among campers, and this wedge design of tent gives you two entrances and two porch areas for kit which is superb for managing all the stuff you’ll invariably take with you, and correctly pitched allows wind to blow over without buffeting the tent too much,

Ventilation is excellent in the Coshee and I’ve never had to deal with condensation. Inside, a two man means I can fit comfortably with my gun bag and a patrol bag which has all my essential kit in, plus a change of clothes. Being a tent means I can get changed inside in the dry, to prevent baselayers getting wet and leaving me cold and miserable.

Another good tent that I want to mention is the Miltec recon tent, which I’ve seen do very well in bad weather and in a lot of bushcraft videos. Note the way the poles cross over each other – this is a geodesic shaped tent and the crossing over adds great stability in wind. There are some that come with lots and lots of poles though that can be a pain to assemble, so don’t overdo it. It comes in a range of colours and camo patterns which is quite cool. The crossed poles make it extremely sturdy and the porch area is perfect for storing your kit in.

Really, you don’t want to be going any bigger than a two man tent because it’ll be more hassle to set up, put down, clean etc as well as taking up more room in your bag. It is possible to spend hundreds on tents, but it’s rarely to any great gain. The most expensive tents (£500+) often don’t come with the seams sealed from the factory, meaning you have to waterproof them yourself (I have no idea why). And if a £100 tent gives you shelter, and is waterproof and windproof, what more does spending £1000 add to those basic requirements? Not a lot.Just make sure you peg it out well, that everything is nice and secure, and you’ll be well covered.

If anyone has any other tent recommendations, please stick them in the comments.

Oh yeah, a couple of common tents that crop up in searches – the French army commando tent, which is a simple triangular tent design, leaks water all over. Avoid. And the Polish army Lavvu tent and Dutch army DPM tent are very nice, but old school canvas tents and weigh a ton. Again, fine if you have a car handy and both are very warm in colder climates, but less useful if you plan to be mobile.