SEAL's Pandemonium War Report

Discussion of past, present, and future water war events.
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SEAL's Pandemonium War Report

Post by SEAL » Thu Aug 21, 2014 5:03 pm

Pandemonium War Report by SEAL

So I'm going to write this in a new, slightly different style. Tell me if you like it.

Saturday, August 16th

Round 1 - 1HK @ Danbury Greenway south bank:

Bailey, SEAL, Danny, chief, CA99
vs.
AMBUSH, atvan, Duxburian, scottthewaterwarrior, Area51

The plan:
Hunt the enemy down and ambush them in the knotweed.

What actually happened:
After filling up, we headed to the center of the area to avoid being trapped in a bottleneck. We promptly found the enemy hiding in a large grove. I don't know if they saw us at first or not, but chief was able to ambush atvan and eliminate him early on. After that I tried to get the team to attack from several directions with me in the center. This did work somewhat; chief was able to hit Area51 and distract AMBUSH long enough for me to hit him. That left only two players behind. Two tough veteran players. Somewhere along the line CA99 was hit by Scott, and Danny also got eliminated by somebody, but I don't remember who or when.

DX and Scott had taken up a position in the middle of the knotweed, so I went in to try and wipe them out. My first try was unsuccessful; even the 30X blast of the 2000 could not make it very far without turning into mist, so I backed out to try hitting them from another angle. I met up with chief then regrouped with the team to make a final push and win the battle. chief went deep into the knotweed to hit them from the side, I moved in closer to the edge of the grove to attack their center, and Bailey stayed outside to catch them if we were to push them out.

We were able to get DX out to the edge, where I could eliminate him. Then I quickly had to turn around to meet Scott who rushed in from the right. I unloaded the rest of my PC in his direction, but felt heavy spray on my face and left shoulder. I thought it was a double kill but I think my stream somehow didn't make it through the foliage, so only I was out. Grrr... But Scott was the only one left, and we still had chief and Bailey. I ended up having to give the 2000 to Bailey because my 1500's pump handle snapped off AGAIN, even with the reinforcement. My two remaining teammates cornered Scott and took him out to end the round.

My opinion:
I think I would rate this as the best 1HK game I've ever played. There was a lot of stalking and maneuvering, and though gameplay was slow at times, there weren't really any true stand-offs. I only hope that those who were eliminated early on didn't get too bored sitting around waiting for us to finish. Not much else to say. Great round; I just wish my stupid guns would stop breaking.

Pros: Very tactical battle; some stealth; good amount of action
Cons: Rather difficult and slow fighting in the thick underbrush

Round 2 - VIP @ Paine Open Space:

Bailey, SEAL, Danny, Duxburian, CA99 (defense)
vs.
AMBUSH, atvan, chief, scottthewaterwarrior, Area51 (offense)

The plan:
Post guards in a spread out formation to cover as much ground as possible, in order to prevent the enemy team from escorting the VIP (Area51) to the parking lot.

What actually happened:
I waited on a hill among some thorn bushes, where I could see a fair distance down, and I could also turn around and watch the path above me. I sat there behind a tree for a while, until DX came over and told me that there was actually another path even higher up the hill that I should watch. So I headed up the hill to that path, and ran along it until I found a good place on the edge of the field with the parking lot. It was a good position; I could see far and it was pretty much impossible to see me due to the vegetation.

After sitting there for a couple minutes I suddenly hear DX yelling "CENTER!" I jumped out and ran down the hill towards the center path where the action was. My whole team engaged the enemy from different angles, and it got pretty frantic. I was hit once, but while respawning, somebody came by with a horse and we had to pause for a minute or so. After it passed I charged again, this time finding an opening and blasting Area51 with a flurry of shots. Immediately following that I was hit with like two or three streams at once from several directions, but since I'd hit the VIP, the round was over.

My opinion:
I enjoyed this game a lot. Surprisingly, this was the first time we'd ever played VIP at a community war. I'd only ever played it once or twice before, at a Nerf war in March 2012. It's a lot of fun; not sure why we don't play it more often. There was a lot of waiting, and the actual fighting didn't last long, but I thought it was fun.

Pros: Tactical gameplay; the thrill of waiting for the enemy which could show up any time; action-packed fighting
Cons: Fighting was short-lived

Round 3 - VIP @ Paine Open Space:

Same teams; side switch

The plan:
I would go around to the top of the hill that I was on before with Bailey and CA99, while DX would escort Danny (the VIP) around to the other side of the field and get him to the parking lot while my squad distracted the enemy.

What actually happened:
We got most of the way there, but Scott was positioned way down the trail away from the parking lot, and saw us before we got close. We decided to push him back toward the objective, hoping to draw out the rest of the team by doing so. Scott retreated back quite a bit and I decided to continue with the original plan of going up the hill to attack from the side. The hill was covered in thorns and my teammates didn't want to go through them so I went on alone and they moved down the trail.

I got to the same area where I had lain in wait the previous round, and rushed down the hill to where Bailey and CA99 were squaring off with the enemy. There were a couple shots taken but I wasn't taking any risks because we only had light weaponry and they had medium. My teammates got themselves hit though, and ran away to do......something. Not sure what. Maybe they were low on water? But it left me alone against the defense. I moved away from them up the hill, but they wouldn't follow so we were at a standstill until my team came back. No matter, I could wait.

chief suspected something, and started patrolling around the perimeter of the field. He got all the way behind me at the top of the hill, but didn't try to hit me so all was still good. I think Bailey and CA99 came back at this point and there might've been more skirmishing but I'm not sure. All I remember is that all of a sudden I hear someone yelling that the game is over. Wha...? As it turned out, atvan had spotted DX and Danny earlier, and forced them to go a different way. That way was up the hill, which happened to be right in the path of chief's patrol route. So that didn't end well. If I had known that they'd taken a different way, I could've intercepted chief and prevented him from reaching the VIP. Oh well; another situation where headsets would be extremely useful.

My opinion:
The second VIP round was also quite fun, though I think I preferred the first one. This one just kind of suddenly ended without a whole lot of action. It was still great sneaking through the woods trying to approach the enemy without being seen.

Pros: Tactical gameplay; some stalking
Cons: Fighting wasn't of the greatest quality; rather undramatic ending (though maybe it was more so for those involved)

Round 4 - 1HS @ Paine Open Space:

SEAL, chief, Duxburian, CA99, Area51
vs.
Bailey, Danny, AMBUSH, atvan, scottthewaterwarrior

The plan:
Hunt down the enemy and draw them into an ambush.

What actually happened:
Each team started at opposite ends of the park, so we had a huge space to work with. We stalked and hunted around for most of the two-hour battle, so I'll just focus on the encounters. First (I think; we had two rounds like this so I might be confusing the two), we spotted the enemy and ran back into an ambush position. We were crouched in the underbrush next to the trail, me behind a rock. DX stood out on the trail and tried to lure them in. It took a rather long time for them to get close and my poor knees were begging for mercy. Finally, chief called out to me because the enemy was close and had seen us. I hopped up and launched a stream at Bailey, but he was just out of range. I believe we skirmished a bit, but ultimately ended up separated again with no kills (I think) made.

The second encounter happened when both teams ran into each other on one of the trails. The enemy retreated uphill and held position. There was dense underbrush on both sides so we were not only fighting up a hill, we were in a bottleneck. atvan tried to flank us but couldn't get far. None of us could get past AMBUSH who was using my 2700 and could fire shot after shot to keep us back. chief took a long detour around to the back to engage them from behind, but that still didn't get us anywhere so I made the decision to join him. I didn't want to waste time, so instead of going all the way around I pushed through the thick stuff to reach them. It was tough going, and my progress was much hindered by thorn bushes and nettles, which got stuck in my freakin' hair.

Eventually I pushed out and assisted chief's assault. I think I made one kill then got blindsided from behind a tree, so the score was still tied. Aside from that we still didn't make much progress, so I made yet another flanking move, and positioned myself so that the enemy was surrounded from three sides in a triangular shape. I rushed in and hit one or two people if I remember right. Either way, once I'd done that then we finally broke through and got them on the run. We gave chase and racked up a few more kills (though I think some of us got hit too), before realizing that we were low on water, and let the enemy get away. We went to a nearby pond to refill, but suddenly the enemy appeared again, forcing us to make a tactical withdrawal to another pond farther away. The clock was winding down at this point, so we basically just waited it out.

My opinion:
I think this was my favorite battle of the weekend. What can I say? I like long rounds with no boundaries. It feels more like a real war, which is how I want it to be. True, there was not a whole lot of fighting, which may not be exciting for some people, but I personally love stalking through the woods seeking out the enemy and trying to catch them in a bad spot. Maybe it's just because I also enjoy hunting, I dunno. I do think that the area was probably a little to large for the amount of people we had; if it were a little smaller I think we would've had just the right mix of stalking and fighting. As an aside, one interesting thing I noticed is that teams pretty much always stuck to the trails until contact with the enemy was made.

Pros: Tactical gameplay; stalking; some good fighting; felt like a real war
Cons: A little too much hunting; that one standoff near the end

Sunday, August 17th

Round 5 - 1-CTF @ Paine Open Space tall grass area:

Bailey, SEAL, CA99, scottthewaterwarrior (defense)
vs.
AMBUSH, chief, Duxburian (offense)

The plan:
Spread out to cover as many pathways to the flag as possible. I would hide in the tall grass close to the flag to ambush anyone who made it past our defenses.

What actually happened:
Most of the battle was quite easy. chief went around to the rear, but got lost and took more than like 15 minutes to arrive. In the meantime it was 4v2, and even though the offense had heavier weaponry, it was still no challenge to keep them back. chief actually took so long to get there that his teammates actually went to refill and came back before he appeared. When he finally did show up, things got much tougher and we were pushed away from the flag and into the grass where movement was harder. I got hit at least once because I couldn't dodge well. At the end there was a massive flurry of confusion as the entire enemy team rushed the flag at once and a whole bunch of people were shot. I don't remember the details but DX got away with the flag and we weren't sure if he'd been hit or not, probably due to the small streams. But regardless of the actual outcome, we ended the match 'cause it was dragging on too long anyway.

My opinion:
This battle was more like those at previous wars, but it was still pretty fun. The fact that chief was absent so long made most of the round kind of dull and easy, especially since the offense didn't really try much except for the occasional flanking move. It wasn't quite the same as the 1-flag rounds in the barn at Frozen Fury '13, but near the end it got more frantic. I would've liked to have done a really spread out 1-flag game, but we probably would've needed more people and it might've ended up the same once the enemy attacked anyway.

Pros: Some decent fighting near the end
Cons: A little stagnant and unchallenging in the beginning; area was not very interesting to defend even with the tall grass; the confusion at the end

Round 6 - 1HS @ Paine Open Space:

Bailey, SEAL, chief, Duxburian
vs.
AMBUSH, CA99, scottthewaterwarrior

The plan:
Search and destroy!

What actually happened:
This round was the second 2-hour endurance test of the weekend. So again, much of it was spent searching, so I'll just focus on the encounters. There were less of them this time. The first and most important one happened right at the start of the battle. My team moved to the top of a tall hill to get a good view of our surroundings. It was actually the same hill that my team (the SEALs) used in Frozen Fury '12 to scope out the SS Liberation Front in the first serious rivalry round. Unlike that war, we couldn't see as far because it was summer and not winter. Also, the enemy spotted us much earlier and started running away. We gave pursuit, but weren't able to catch them and they took up a position on another hill nearby. Unfortunately for them, this hill had a steep dropoff on one side.

We assaulted the hill from several sides, pushing the enemy back up against the cliff. It took some time, but we managed to hit all of them and they ran away to respawn. After that we lost them and actually did not fight them at all for the rest of the battle. Once while we were patrolling an area near the parking lot, I heard Scott's voice saying either "Found you", or "Found them" (don't remember which), coming from somewhere in the bushes up a hill. We took a circuitous route around to try and flank them from the uphill side, but by the time we got there they were gone. A while later we got a text from Scott saying "F*** it, we give up". He also said that they'd gone back to the car. Since there was still 20 or so minutes left, we decided to go back and ambush them.

We got to the edge of the field with the parking lot, and Bailey went out into the open to try and draw them out while the rest of us went prone in the tall grass. They just stayed in Scott's car and weren't taking the bait, so we just walked over and soaked the car for 10 points. After that they drove back to DX's house. We followed them back there and sat around doing nothing (well, we did get some food and drinks) as the round ended.

My opinion:
I don't know if others will agree, but I did like this battle. It was not as much fun as the first 2-hour one, but I still thought it was fun. I just think that this is how water warfare should be played. The way we do it most of the time is a little too similar to Nerf. I like water wars to be more like "wars", than "games". But that's just me. I admit that this round was not one of the best long rounds I've played; there wasn't much fighting and the only skirmish we had really wasn't that great. I do have to say that the teams were probably pretty unbalanced as well. I don't know who came up with those arrangements, but it probably would've been better if someone from our side joined the enemy. Maybe that person would've talked them out of giving up anyway. I mean really?

Pros: Tactical gameplay; stalking; felt like a real war
Cons: Not enough fighting; only battle was nothing to write home about; the enemy gave up

Round 7 - VIP variation @ Paine Open Space central area:

SEAL, Duxburian, CA99 (offense)
vs.
Bailey, AMBUSH, chief, scottthewaterwarrior (defense)

The plan:
Hunt down the enemy, break through their defenses, and shoot AMBUSH, who was unarmed.

What actually happened:
Once we first sighted the enemy, we set up an ambush on each side of the trail they were walking down. I initiated, but didn't make any moves toward them, instead moving back to try and draw them into the others. DX and CA99 did spring out, but I don't think they hit anyone. We drove the enemy back aways, and after a shootout where several of them were hit, we were able to separate AMBUSH from the group and DX ran him down for the win.

My opinion:
An interesting round where the VIP was completely unarmed. It was pretty standard and over rather quickly. There isn't really a whole lot to say about it. We didn't really have anywhere to escort the VIP to, so he could've ran off and hid if he wanted to, but they decided to just attack us to get some action. Because of this I think all future VIP rounds should be of the escort type. I liked the ones we did anyway; they're kind of like reverse-CTF.

Pros: Some good fighting and tactics
Cons: Over rather quickly

Round 8 - 1HS @ Paine Open Space east side:

Bailey, SEAL, chief
vs.
Duxburian, CA99, scottthewaterwarrior

The plan:
Just shoot the enemy.

What actually happened:
We started in the tall grass where we played 1-flag CTF. We waited there for a little while, perhaps hoping for an ambush, but when we finally sighted them, they were running around near the trail that led to the parking lot. chief thought he saw them crouching behind some bushes, so we decided to go and blow them out. I couldn't see them at all, so I wasn't really sure about it, but I went anyway. It turned out that they indeed weren't there, so we moved back towards the tall grass. Only then did we see them again, and this time they did take up positions there (I think they saw us). We came up with the idea to leave chief there, bluffing the enemy into thinking that he was trying to lure them into an ambush, while Bailey and I would take the long way around to flank.

When we finally got there we ran into Scott and started exchanging shots. We pushed him back towards the other two who were engaging chief, and were coming in hard. DX quickly shifted over to meet us, and chief could run out and attack from a different angle. If I remember right, each side got a kill tying it up 1-1. Our opponents then retreated down one of the trails, which was flanked on both sides with thick underbrush, making flanking a suicide move. We kept pushing them back down the trail, but no hits (I think?) were made on either side thanks to the linearity of the battle zone. Finally we started to run out of water and just called it as it was getting late anyway. I remember it being a tie but I could be wrong.

My opinion:
I liked this battle as a shorter, less intense version of the two-hour ones we did earlier. It featured many of the same game mechanics, but was shorter and closer. Overall a good round up until the end when we were stuck in the bottleneck. I should've just had the team back out but the combination of worrying that they'd run away and lose us, and cockiness that we could get some hits off them, led to us just staying there shooting to no avail. So I wasn't really crazy about that, but the rest of the round was fun. It was the last one of the war.

Pros: Tactics; some stalking; a bit of intense fighting
Cons: That damn bottleneck situation

Overall thoughts:
So it was a good war. I loved how we finally did some really intense, tactical warfare. The kind that makes nerfers pass out from exhaustion. My legs and feet were pretty tired near the end; something that I can't really say about previous wars. My back was also pretty sore from carrying a fully loaded 2000 for all that time. Yeah, I pretty much stuck with the 2K the whole time, except for the few occasions where we did medium- and light-only. I think I used the 1200 once, the 150 twice, and the 2000 every other time. I offered it to Bailey/my brothers, but they didn't really want it, so I alone got to feel da powah. I gotta say, I really love using the 2000. I definitely do a lot better with it than I do with say, the 2700. You just have to pick your shots carefully. Usually I'm pretty good at it, though there were situations this war where I probably leaned a little close to 2700-mode. We did a lot of anything-goes, but I liked it because at Soakemore we didn't get to do it much.

I would probably rate this as my favorite war so far were it not for several rather glaring issues. First of all, we only got one round in at the Greenway thanks to some official lady who happened to show up just as we were all in the parking lot with our camo and guns. Apparently we needed permission to fight there or something. We probably should've brought everything in out of sight of the parking lot. The other thing is fighting time. We definitely should've got more in. True, some of the rounds were rather long so there were less of them, but I still kinda feel like we spent more time sitting around/doing whatever than fighting. We didn't have night battles for whatever reason either. On top of that I felt really crappy through most of the weekend. Like, no energy whatsoever. I'm guessing it was because of the cold I was still getting over. Once I got into the heat of battle adrenaline kicked in and I was fine, but while just sitting around, I really did not feel good (mostly mentally).

But that aside, this war had some of the best rounds I've played. They felt so different from the more Nerf-like battles we had at previous wars. Even the shorter ones involved a lot of tactical maneuvering and stealth. I don't really know how else to explain it; just that it felt more like real warfare and not just a game. I really wish we could've fought all day, though I guess we didn't really have enough people the second day or something...? I forgot why, but that would've solved the issue of fighting time. Even if it wasn't truly all-day, but just from whenever everyone got up to nightfall. But anyway, it was fun. I appreciate Duxburian hosting and providing everyone with a place to stay. It was great seeing everyone, and we had a decent amount of people show up.

Overall pros: Awesome hawdcore tactical battles; good numbers the first day; new face; no rain!

Overall cons: Not enough fighting time; getting kicked out of the Greenway; no night battles despite being summer; some people couldn't stay for the whole thing (atvan, marauder's nephews)

-SEAL
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We probably won't be back, but the legacy lives on.

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Re: SEAL's Pandemonium War Report

Post by HBWW » Thu Aug 21, 2014 6:14 pm

Good recap. Without it, some of the rounds we played would've escaped my memory.

That Sunday 1HS was just straight up unbalanced. A smaller, slower team vs. a larger, higher skilled, and more coordinated team (who refuses to walk into any potential ambush areas, I might add)? Meh. If it was nighttime, and my team was just scott and I, I might have given it a shot to see if we could get at least 2-3 kills per life, but in that particular case, we'd have to get 3+ kills per life to have a chance to win. (Which, without a chance to ambush, had no way of happening.)

But the Titanfall-style ending was a fun escape. Originally, I wanted to see if I could ambush you guys at the cars (and see how many hits I could get before the game ended), but the round already ended anyway, and I ended up giving away my position.

Anyway, the downside of this war IMO was the lack of nighttime games. Still, it was a fun weekend, and that long round OHS game on Saturday was fun, if only because I was on DX's team and actually made contribution to our team's victory. (If only by ensuring Area51 wasn't hit, and by giving extra water to the team.)
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Re: SEAL's Pandemonium War Report

Post by the oncoming storm » Thu Aug 21, 2014 7:11 pm

sounds great, I really enjoy reading the war stories that people write.
If you ever bother reading these, I worry for your mental sanity. :oo:

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Re: SEAL's Pandemonium War Report

Post by marauder » Thu Aug 21, 2014 8:55 pm

Great write up. Just one request. Next time please put in the guns used whenever possible. It helps in visualizing the action. In regards to the unloading too close to the parking lot, that's kind of what happened at MOAB. There was a grassy area closer to the highway and further from the houses that we could have parked at. I should have done that instead. Hopefully this doesn't happen a third time. What was the variation in VIP the last time? I am very much looking forward to the movie. Sounds like a lot of action.
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Re: SEAL's Pandemonium War Report

Post by SEAL » Fri Aug 22, 2014 8:46 am

Well I was going to include guns, but then I realized that there was no way that I could remember what guns so many people used in every round. Like, I have a pretty good memory, but it's not perfect. I'm usually not very good with small details. Guns aren't really that important in my opinion either. It wouldn't make much of a difference if someone was using a 2500 or a 1200, they still operate about the same on the battlefield. Even a 150 can hold back CPS (though maybe not heavy CPS) if the conditions are good. Point is, I have a feeling the outcomes of each battle would be very similar regardless of guns (assuming of course that this doesn't include guns outside of the class being used in each battle).

The variation in the last VIP round was just that the VIP didn't have any weapons so his team had to work harder to protect him. There are actually many different ways to play VIP. Maybe a better name for the first ones we did would be "VIP Escort" or something. As for the movie...well you might have to wait a while for that. We don't even have a Soakemore movie yet, do we?
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Re: SEAL's Pandemonium War Report

Post by marauder » Fri Aug 22, 2014 10:59 am

When trying to give the reader a better mental picture of what's going on it's nice to include these kind of details, it doesn't have to be everything, but what you can remember. And while many of us have said things like an XP 150 can hold back CPS this is basically more true for the more elite players. When skill levels are more or less equal gun choice can often make a difference e.g. Duelfest.

I am totally cool with waiting for a movie. I'd like to help with editing, but that requires getting a new computer capable of video editing, which I want to do eventually.
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Re: SEAL's Pandemonium War Report

Post by DX » Fri Aug 22, 2014 7:04 pm

I got a free upgrade to Final Cut Pro on this computer, but I don't really have the time to make videos. If I eventually get offered a job, that will change as I won't be worried about money anymore and can relax. My editing skills will also probably be better at that time (FCP is a $1,400 program and one of the leading favorites, the ESPN/MTV/MSNBC shows/movies are made with it). I really hope that Ben can move out here, as we could make some really good battle movies and reviews. I have Final Cut Pro, a good camera from Area 9 Cable Council, and a chronograph. Great setup, lack of time and ability to use it solo.

I wrote down as many of the guns used as I could, but there are gaps. Getting kicked out of the Greenway really screwed things up, once again the playlist had to be adjusted. We did play the games I wanted to get in, but they turned out differently than expected for obvious reasons.
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Re: SEAL's Pandemonium War Report

Post by HBWW » Sat Aug 23, 2014 1:45 am

Glad I could be of inspiration with the Frozen Fury video. I can make decent videos, but it doesn't catch my interest so much and I don't have time for it. Heck, I may even forget to upload the ReCoN Nerf war footage I just got a few hours ago.
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