In most games, there is always a need for an opposing team. Somebody has to play the bad guy in order for there to be good guys. But it’s not really as clear cut as that, depending on the event you’re attending or the scenario you’re trying to play; OPposing FORce can be many things. And the loadouts are just much cooler than the regular Multicam look that dominates the field.

I got a message a couple of weeks back from a local player who wanted an “insurgent” loadout but didn’t know where to start, so I figured it’d be an interesting topic to look at. Opfor gives you a lot of freedom not only in the kit, but in the playstyle. I like events where the marshals just brief you with “go and cause problems for the other team” because it gives you much more freedom to play where you want and how you want. But I’ll cover that stuff in a future article, for now I want to look at pulling loadouts together for it. I don’t know why there are so few willing to take on the role of the “enemy”, because every event needs an opposition for the game to work; I’ve been to some events so bereft of bad guys the game really struggled, whereas the Multicam force sold out pretty quickly. Top tip then – switch your loadout and you’re almost guaranteed a place.

Airsoft works best as a team game, and in my opinion just the two teams (event organisers – that third wheel just adds confusion). I hate armbands in game but obviously at a skirmish day there’ll be hundreds of random loadouts on show so it’s necessary. At a more organised game, any half decent organiser will request some sort of camo rule to distinguish the two teams more easily. Now, I don’t have anything against wearing brightly coloured tape but it’s often difficult to identify friend or foe at 100 metres when you’re trying to see a strip of tape through dense bushes. Recognisable camouflage or colour schemes make everything a lot easier, because if you can see anything of a player you know instantly which side they’re on. Unless you can just see boots.

There are two main styles for Opfor teams. Either you’re going to play some kind of poorly equipped local gang, or a highly competent enemy force which I think is a much more interesting route to go down. There’s nothing actually saying that you have to play as impoverished farmers about to get steamrollered as a squadron of helicopters drops in a hundred highly trained and equipped SEALs to wipe you out. Take the fight back to them – both teams have guns, radios and pyro all the same, you’re just dressed differently to represent a different faction. Nothing saying you’re not a crack commando unit that needs dislodged. You can look at inspiration from the Afghan war, where British SAS and SBS teams operated in-country in pretty casual looking gear.

You could also look at Tears Of The Sun – If you haven’t seen it, great film with cool old kit. Although its not that old…

My favourite split is simply Greens vs Tans/Multicam. Green dominant camouflage patterns versus some kind of desert/arid looking force, which allows a lot of variation within each team but still gives an overall “colour” or look. Tans invariably end up clad in NATO-friendly Multicam related stuff, modern kit and all the accessories, normally because very few people rock up to the woods wearing very bright tan colours. Though I am one of those.

Greens, as well as a colour difference, seem drawn towards older pre-Multicam patterns and turn out with older surplus gear, which is great because it lends a more rag-tag look to contrast with the more uniform Tan team, and are usually deployed as the “Opfor” team. In some more story-driven events, they might play local militia, a terrorist group, or military faction that will oppose the Tans.

I’ve done events where the Green team is there simply to be an opposition that has no winning objectives or mission, whereas the Tan team play some kind of NATO task force and are the focus of the event; it’s like “we want to play out this mission for our team and we just need someone to play against us”. As players, we all want to be Delta Force in Black Hawk Down, or some kind of strike team that gets parachuted in to eliminate a hostile warlord. Everyone wants to play the hero, succeed in the mission and save the world. And most Airsofters when they start out will happily load up on multicam.

Tucked in shirts, immaculately ironed trousers, polished boots, trouser twists, correctly shaped berets not your thing? Grab a beer…

The reason I’ve talked about the Green/Tan split is because it works most of the time if you go and load up on green based kit (obviously check the rules, don’t turn up with the wrong uniform using “yeah but Stip said”) then it’s accepted for most events. If it’s skirmish and you just like the vibe, it doesn’t matter anyway. Generally, this will lead to older, simpler and cheaper camo patterns such as DPM, US Woodland, Flecktarn or CCE which is great for the wallet. Things you pick up from bargain bins at surplus stores, or for £5 on eBay. Realistically, if you’re going to be playing some local militia force, they’re probably going to be fairly poorly funded compared to a professional military, and that makes Opfor loadouts very easy to put together. Even non-military kit like hiking trousers and shirts will do if you had some lying around already. But, I draw the line at lumberjack shirts – the reason being that although we can dress casually, there’s still a need for some camouflage here; it’ll help you a lot in the game so don’t dismiss it outright. If you’re one of those people who believe it really doesn’t make a difference to Airsoft, then take it from a sniper – it definitely does.

Any combination will do, it doesn’t even have to match so you can have a nice individual look to your kit and choose whatever works for you. Even if you’re part of a team, it’s not necessary to have a regimented uniform between you and your militant mates, although some kind of common pattern does help to identify your squad in a firefight.

The one thing I think it is important to do is that if you’re going to portray a specific faction or enemy force, that it’s done so respectfully – on occasion I see at big events some players take the idea of an enemy force too far, being either disrespectful to who they’re portraying or just an excuse to be downright racist. There’s no need for that, and certainly no room for it on the field. You don’t even need to go as far as being “in character”, just be yourself out there and give the opponent the toughest fight you can – that’s all the role requires.

In terms of weapons, I know most players instantly look to an AK platform for it but Opfor can just pick up whatever is available. I recall reading reports from the Afghanistan conflict of Taliban fighters using World War 2 bolt action rifles as well as captured US equipment, so nothing is off the table and you can use whatever you already have. If your squad is looking at a more professional kit, perhaps playing an opposing military unit, then obviously you can go with whatever suits the look, such as L119A1’s or the increasingly popular M249 for the aforementioned SAS/SBS look.

Aaaah, complete loadout freedom…

This weekend, I decided to go and run my interpretation of an Opfor kit at my local site in the hope of getting a few photos for this article to show you it in action.

Unfortunately after going a bit too stealthy (yes, in that shirt), I didn’t quite get what I wanted but here’s the loadout laid out in traditional Airsoft fashion, and I’ll go through what I used.

Clothing wise, I went with a hiking shirt I got for around £25 many years ago. A cheap pair of outdoor trousers, although lacking in pockets, around £15 from Decathlon complete a nice comfortable and casual base. I’ve added a Shemagh for that in-country look. The webbing is the extremely versatile Northern Ireland chest rig which allows me to easily switch weapons platforms without worrying about different mag sizes. I own two of these and they’re great all-round solutions for all event types. My friend on the day, in contrast, ran a plate carrier (try not to laugh) with only fast mag pouches and had no space for keys/wallet/pyro/food/drink/spare ammo etc. This is why getting the right load bearing is important to carry your kit. Note the Swedish Army gas mask bag, which carried snacks and even a change of shirt – only £3. On the day, I slung my old school M727 over my shoulder but took an MC51 along too, so both are displayed here. WileyX Sabers which are my daily wear ballistic glasses, some Nomex flight gloves from my Black Hawk Down kit purely because they were in my gun bag on the day, a pair of Altberg boots and a Lonestar Tactical face mask finish the loadout.

Now, you can see in the pics above that the site has suddenly gone very green (since my last visit) and that desert-coloured shirt didn’t do much for my camouflage. And I got shot in the head quite a bit, so there’s a couple of tweaks required.

Back to my floor then, I decided to switch a couple of things around to go for something better to play in next time out. So this is my version 2.

The almost-white shirt has been replaced by a much tougher US Woodland BDU shirt, that should keep me hidden better and I did swap to it for the afternoon at skirmish, which is probably why there weren’t any photos. A simple green beanie will protect the head and also give me a little more camouflage on the head area, although at the cost of messing up my hair. As an alternative, the Swedish gas mask bag has been swapped for a DPM respirator pouch in case I need to carry other people’s valuables – because they went all Johnny Big Gun with an overly minimalist load bearing setup focused purely on mags and little else. Otherwise it’s largely the same, though I’ve added a radio and fist mic to hook up to the rest of my team. It’s the little things that make the biggest difference.

The cost?

• Hat £1
• Rig (free, usually £15)
• Shirt £5
• Respirator bag £3
• Trousers £15

And that’s it, pocket money in airsoft terms and equivalent to a couple of tubs of decent bb’s. just add your weapon system and your eye pro etc and you’re good to go. I’ll do some more OpFor content this summer so if anyone has any requests, drop it in the comments.