Ranking the Community/Major Wars You've Attended

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marauder
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Ranking the Community/Major Wars You've Attended

Post by marauder » Wed Jan 20, 2016 8:52 am

Now that it's the offseason in the northern hemisphere I wanted to ask everyone to take a look at all the major wars you've been to and make a list from best to worst.

What made them so successful/fun? What made them unsuccessful?

How can we apply this to future wars?
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Re: Ranking the Community/Major Wars You've Attended

Post by SEAL » Wed Jan 20, 2016 5:24 pm

Ok, this is a bit rough, but here goes. Note that for some of these events, I wasn't there for every battle.

1: Downpour 2011
The obvious choice, because the whole community war thing was new and exciting. Not being used to our opponents (and for some of us, it was our first serious water war) made for some very action-packed battles, which really cannot be recreated today. There have been wars with better-quality fighting, but this was definitely the war I had the most fun at. The only real downside I can think of is that we didn't get a tremendous amount of fighting in (no night wars except for the first night when I wasn't there). I'd almost set this as number zero because I think it will always be my favorite no matter what.

2: Pandemonium 2015
I was only here for one day and didn't get to fight at night, but the rounds I played were among the highest quality ever. I think a lot of that has to do with the battlefield; Cedar Hill is most likely my second favorite place we've fought at. It has just the right mix of thick and open areas. Semi-long range CTF was amazing, and VIP was also lots of fun. We played a lot of games that were more about strategy than just straight up shooting at each other, and I liked that. Downsides to this war...well I guess we shouldn't have carried all those guns in for Chaos (which was over in a heartbeat). We probably didn't get as much fighting in as we could have, but I think we did about the best we could considering the lengths of each battle.

3: Soakemore 2015
Should be obvious. The night rounds at the portable labyrinth are probably the best ones I've ever played, and this is coming from the woods guy. The only thing that prevents this war from taking second place is that we barely fought at all in the daytime (at least I didn't), and the battles we did have were kind of boring. Though for one of them I did pull off a 1:1 ratio of hits made to shots taken, which is the only time I've ever done that, and that's one of my top water warfare moments. Don't have much else to say. The portable labyrinth is currently my favorite location we've fought at. If it happens again next year I almost want to just like sleep/relax all day, then fight literally from dusk 'til dawn.

4: Pandemonium 2014
I really liked a lot of the battles we did here as well. We played longer rounds throughout larger areas, which I really like. Paine is also a pretty sexy battlefield in the summer. Obviously getting kicked out of the Greenway sucked, but Paine was definitely a good compromise. The biggest downside to this war was the lack of night battles.

5: Soakemore 2014
This war also featured excellent night fighting, though we only used the portable labyrinth one night and only with four people, so it wasn't quite as good as '15. However I think the daytime battles were the best out of all the Soakemores so far, and we got a surprisingly decent amount of fighting time in considering the circumstances. I really enjoyed this one, but I think the wars above it were a little better.

6: Frozen Fury 2012
This one ranks pretty high on the list mainly because of LBW. Urban fighting in abandoned buildings was something completely new to us at the time, and the battles there were pretty good. CTF was great. We also had the longer battle at Paine, which of course I liked, even if there were literally like two shots taken the whole battle. This war also kicked off the rivalry, which I took really seriously back then and made lots of plans for. My team really went in too, and while our success was mostly due to marauder's nephews being new (and a lot younger), I do feel like the team cohesion we had is unmatched to this day. No other team combination I've been on has worked together quite as well, though I'm not so sure that the same level of cohesion would be there with that team (me and my brothers plus Scott) today either. I had a few issues with the rivalry, but I think it really helped us come together and be a great team. But now I'm rambling. Onto downsides. I guess we didn't get a whole lot of fighting in, and the non-rivalry matches we did weren't that exciting.

7: Frozen Fury 2013
We had some good fights at this one, but I think I had more fun at the previous one, so I ranked it higher. FF '13 featured the most epic abandoned buildings, although they didn't end up working that well due to limited pathways and bottlenecks. There were some good battles at Northgate and the other area with the barn and foundry, but there were also those that weren't so good. We had a lot of close-range heavy-fire fighting, but we also had some standoffs, including one that was so bad we ended the game (1HK). All-in-all, a pretty average war in my opinion.

8: Soakemore 2013
Again, the night battles made this war. They have always been Soakemore's strong point. The inaugural event had some really good battles around that middle school (forget the name now), and the final night flag capture I made is still one of my favorite water warfare moments. Later Soakemores had even better night rounds though, and the daytime ones here weren't the greatest. I liked the one we played on Sycamore Island where we could hide in the undergrowth, but the rest of them either didn't stand out, or were no fun at all like the naval rounds (even though I got the first WBL hit). The biggest complaint with this war was all the downtime though. I think we only got like three short (under half an hour) rounds in on one of the days.

9: MOAB 2013
I would've ranked this above Soakemore if it weren't for the amazing night battles at the latter. MOAB featured one of the most intense rounds of any war (the opening Chaos battle), but it became a bit of a disappointment after we got kicked out. I didn't really have much fun in most of the Legend Park battles. Most of them were stationary and boring, and there were too many WW-only rounds. (Obviously the rain didn't help much either, and limited the amount of fighting we could do.) The one exception was the AP-only round, which was the first Legend Park battle. I really enjoyed that one because of how challenging it was. Honestly we should have been creamed, but it was Drenchenator's first war (not only that, but first round) and he made a lot of poorly timed rushes. I think that we need to imbalance teams a little more in the future, because it's definitely a recipe for action. Overall MOAB promised to be amazing, but unfortunately due to unexpected circumstances, it finds itself in ninth place.

10: Hydropocalypse 2012
The main thing that hurt this war was lack of fighting time. It took us forever to prepare for the naval war, which didn't even last half an hour and we never switched sides (I did really like bombarding the shore with the Douchenator though). On Saturday we also didn't get much in, and spent huge amounts of time driving around. A lot of the battles we had were held in the open and in the same spot, but there was a good amount of action because like with the first war, we were still relatively new to this. The battles around marauder's house were actually my favorite. We had a very intense last-minute victory in CTF, and the night battles were awesome even though my gun broke. They were the first night rounds I played at a community war. So that's that. I feel like a lot of issues that came up in this war have been solved in more recent events. It still has the record for most participants though, so that's another positive.

11: Subterranean Slaughter 2015
This was more of an experimental war, so I suppose it doesn't really fit in here, but it's still technically a community war. Obviously the main thing this war had going for it was the fact that it was in a motha-effing cave. Nothing like it had ever been done before by anybody as far as I know, and the first battle we had in there was probably the most intense I've ever played in. Unfortunately most of the rest of it was ruined somewhat by all the flashlights, but obviously this was a learn-as-you-go event. As I've said, if something like this is done again, we need more lanterns, and a restriction on flashlights.

12: Frozen Fury 2015
The latest war we had was pretty bland in my opinion. The only round I really enjoyed was the first one that I did. I would've had more fun if we'd just continued that round for the whole day, though I guess the teams were a little unfair. The main problem with this war was the location. Convenient as it was, it was pretty boring and open. The power lines were pretty much the only notable feature. In my opinion, Frozen Fury should always be the abandoned buildings war. I personally think it's worth sacrificing some travel time for a more awesome location. If we play longer rounds we can offset the added downtime.

13: Downpour 2012
AKA the wettest war ever. Mother Nature basically lifted up the Ashokan Reservoir and dumped it on us. Because of this we were only able to get in a couple short HTL rounds on the first day. On the second day we had the ridiculous launcher battle across the street from Dug Hill, which looked epic but kind of sucked to play. A lot of the fighting was pretty decent though, and I did have fun. It was only the third war too. It was most definitely a compromised war though, and also featured one of the shortest attendance lists. No night battles either.

14: Frozen Fury 2014
This ended up being like half a war, so I suppose it doesn't fit in that well either. We went from a pretty big attendance list to one of the smallest, and I didn't particularly enjoy any of the battles. It was more of a play test though. Cedar Hill was still pretty good in the winter, and I feel like this war would have rocked if we had more people.

15: Downpour 2013
And at the soggy bottom of the list, we find the war that made me want to stop hosting for a while. While some of the battles we had here were of decent quality, probably better overall than the two wars above, I'd definitely say that this war was the least fun for me. I think the main problem was that my expectations were way too high. This was supposed to be the best war ever held. After all, Downpour was the original event, and up until 2013 it was supposed to be the premier event. This war was my baby. The amount of planning I put into this was insane, but it ended up being too much. I had a rigid schedule instead of a simple list of games. Works in the military, but not here. I also threw out a huge invitational net. If I remember right I invited like 40 people at least. The games I planned out were for larger numbers, but we ended up having one of the smallest gatherings. The only big positive for this war was the amount of fighting, although it rained again on the second day which screwed things up a bit. Overall it was just a big disappointment for me, and that's why it winds up in last place. We definitely learned some things from it though.

So the biggest complaints I have are (in no order):
-not enough people
-too much downtime
-boring battles

I actually think we've been doing better in getting participants (at least for now), so that isn't quite as big an issue now as it's been. I think eight is the lowest we had last year, but I could be wrong. At Downpour '13 some of the battles only had five people in them. The downtime issue has pretty much never gone away, although I think it's improved somewhat. As I've been saying for a while, holding longer battles would be the best way to deal with it. Once people sit down it can be hard for them to get going again. As for the quality of the battles themselves, a lot of that depends on location, but I think we can also deal with that by unbalancing teams a bit. When one team has to fight for their lives, you get a lot more action. I think Manhunt is a good game to put in our future playbook.

As for wars that I want to see in 2016, well I'd definitely be interested in a Soakemore Night Edition, where we sleep in late, veg out most of the day, then fight all night at the portable labyrinth. I've never really been a huge fan of the day battles at Soakemore except for a few on the island when the reeds/plants/whatever are up. We'd still get the same amount of fighting in; just at night instead of during the day.

I also want to have an abandoned buildings war again, because I kinda miss those and the structures at Cedar Hill don't really count. If we do Frozen Fury again, that would be the obvious time to do it because most woods areas are too open then. I still really want to fight at the Letchworth Village power plant, and I think we could pull it off if we're careful. It wouldn't be a big event-type war, but we can save those for the summer.

Not sure about another cave war. I did find a second cave in the same area as the one we battled in, but as I've said the logistics are trickier and it's more dangerous. It's unlikely to happen at this point.

Lastly, I still want my all-day war, dammit! Not sure how to go about this one though. First we'd need a good location, then we'd need some committed players. Don't think I'd want to do it with less than 4v4. I'd want to form teams a month or two in advance, and plan things out before the big battle. Unfortunately I don't really see this working that well. Every time I read old Ridgewood or Vermin War stories, I'm always like "this looks like it was so much fun, I wish I could've been a part of it," but it seems the community can't recreate those types of wars for whatever reason.
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Re: Ranking the Community/Major Wars You've Attended

Post by marauder » Wed Jan 20, 2016 9:35 pm

I realized it would take too long to rank the Vermin Wars, etc. for now, so I'll just stick with the community wars for this first reply.

Downpour 2011 attendance 9
If you include Rob and my reconnaissance month(s?) prior to the war and the night war at Camp Wilson on top of first experiences this has to be tops. The round schedule was decent to above average. Things flowed rather smoothly, and we didn't waste a lot of time, but that would only make this war average to above average. The first 1hk round was still one of my favorites ever (probably because i could have single handedly killed your entire team). Again we see that teams of varying skill levels really creates more action.

Frozen Fury 2015 attendance 9
I actually really liked this war a lot. I got to stalk the enemy while everyone else was fighting on the battle line, come up from behind and make kills like we always talk about doing but never actually do. I actually somewhat enjoyed the suckiness of the cold rain as it made it feel more intense. My biggest issues with this war were the lack of concealment and how long it took between the first and 2nd rounds. Two hugely serious issues that make me understand why others will rank this war much lower, but between my stalking, the rain, the power lines, my utter dominance (my team lost only 1 battle the entire time which I get is subjective only to me and artificially ups this rating), and a number of firsts for me such as meeting David and Van James (again artificially upping the rating for me vs people who already met them) this has to be high on my list.

MOAB attendance 9
Chaos round was sick. 1hk AP only was a huge surprise and is another example of how varying weaponry and skill levels makes for a more dynamic fight. The CTF round was also particularly intense. With that being said, it was still too early for much foliage in Legend Park, and the lack of foliage really brought this score down. I still think Saint John's Woods is a special venue and am open to going back there again.

Frozen Fury 2013 attendance 9
The factory had incredible potential if we could have opened up more doors, swept up the glass, put up more obstacles, and cached more waters. OFC that's a lot of work, and it didn't happen. The Cornish Estate rounds were fairly average with Outpost being my favorite despite not being one of my least favorite games. This was artificially inflated due to my OP success with the Gorgon. The best rounds were the 1 flag CTF rounds at the furthest out point. Sam's video is legendary IMHO, despite this being a fairly average war.

Hudson Meet Up attendance 5
This war scores high due to low expectations. We just decided to meet up and fight. I used the XXP 275 against CPS the entire day and did surprisingly well, then we hung out and went to McDonald's. Nothing compared to any other war on this list, but it proved how much fun we could have if we all lived nearby, and there was no wasted time or let downs.

Frozen Fury 2012 attendance 8?
Long Beach West was so unique we had to fight there. Between the low attendance, Tony and Danny's limited abililty, a lack of a bathroom for any girls, and the long walk out I have to rank this low however.

Hydropocalypse attendance: 14
Surprisingly, my lowest rated war is the one that I hosted in honor of me coming home on my midtour leave from Afghanistan. On the one hand I was really impressed and flattered by all the people who showed up - which would be listed at above 20 if you count all the people who just came to hang out - but I also seriously underestimated some of the more glaring issues with Umstead as a venue. The park's best battlefields were at least 2 miles from the parking lot, so we stuck close to the parking lot, and even then ended up spending way too much time in transportation because it was a full 25+ miles from my house. The Naval round was fun, but didn't really play out how we imagined it would. As SEAL said, the best rounds were the night rounds and the CTF round at my house.

Favorite Rounds
Chaos round @ MOAB
1hk @ Downpour 2011
CTF @ Hydropocalypse -also the only CTF not to feature Rob
Night ambush and soakfest @ Camp Wilson Downpour 201


Takeaway for Future Wars
We need mixed levels of talent
Different weaponry types are a plus, but you don't have to go all out. SS 300s are different enough from CPS and Blazers can still compete at a high level.
Taking the time to plan out specific wars and rivalries actually up the scales
NIGHT WARS
Low travel time


I want to host a war with all of those components.
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Re: Ranking the Community/Major Wars You've Attended

Post by DX » Thu Jan 21, 2016 2:16 am

I'll rank all 19 community wars that I've been to, but in the interest of time, only the top 10 will receive descriptions. Full length wars will tend to rank higher than small/meetup wars. Many of those were fun, but are simply overshadowed by larger ones.



1. Downpour 2011
Nothing can top the nostalgia and meet-for-the-first-time factor of the original. A community war had been a dream since at least 2005 and it finally came together. So much of what went down there is now legend, from camping out for 2 days to Thunder Gulch to hitting Scott more than once a minute, to Ben goosing a random guy with a CPS 2000 around the corner at the bathrooms in our first ever night war. The first OHK round was epic and the CTF round that followed was even more-so. I was in near-peak physical shape and in full attack mode for that war.

Several rounds were meh average, but still fun.

2. Subterranean Slaughter 2015
Not a full war, but very high on my list. It outranks almost everything, and here's why - the cave was an absolute Rob paradise. I've never had home field advantage that strong - ever. The enemy chose to live off their flashlights, granting me all the rest of the territory in the darkness, so I went on a solo offensive. Other than some 1/4 second flashes to avoid tripping on rocks, I kept my flashlight off, and hunted by sound and geographic memory. My vision is terribad, but my hearing is terrific. I was able to hit Bailey? from up on a higher level with a leading shot, without being able to see jack shit. I racked up 16 hits behind their lines and in ambush behind columns on their flanks. I was so behind them that Sam attacked me in friendly fire, and I was able to hose Keith at point-blank range because he thought I was Brandon.

That war was sooooooooooo much FUN, it just suffered from not enough rounds or time. It was already like 3 PM when I got there, couldn't get there any earlier. The goddamn big flashlights sucked, too. We need to be limited to much smaller, weaker ones. There's not enough cover otherwise.

3. Soakemore 2015
The Labyrinth (portables) is the best venue I've ever played at. There's nothing like it and nowhere I know of even comes close. If we'd gotten our act together faster, we could have played with the power out! Those were awesome rounds, objective and OHS, long and short, complete with ambushing, action, strategy, and hunting. This random little place does it all, with ridiculous replay value. I could play that over and over again, all night.

The heat was my biggest complaint. The lack of most day rounds wasn't a negative. DC bakes hotter in spring than New England in the middle of summer. It hit 96 at the war, it hasn't hit 96 at home in 2 years. I already had dangerously low energy from having a wisdom tooth out, so I was floored all weekend. We also need to communicate better, so we don't have another missed Trettel incident. We weren't able to reserve Sycamore Island, either. However, Soakemore is the night battle war as much as Frozen Fury is the abandoned buildings war.

4. Pandemonium 2015
Cedar Hill is my favorite (permanent) venue, and second only to the Labyrinth overall. It's large, it's wild, it's tough. It's like a St Johns' Woods with more variety, no thorns, no shotgun-toting nutcases, and at triple the size. We haven't even used the other half of the park! That CTF was seriously intense and IMO, one of the best, with both flag bearers passing each other at the end.

Bringing all that water all that distance in gassed people, and chaos was over too quickly, making lots of gear useless. This year, we'll stage at the "A" site instead of the "B" site, which is a time difference of about 8 minutes vs 30. It sucked getting kicked out of Weston schools complex, but that was a fun 2v2v2 night round.


5. Soakemore 2013
This was the most complete war for its time. Really fun night CTF rounds at the middle school and fun, unique day rounds on Sycamore Island. The first naval assault round, with 3 WBLs, a water cannon, and 3 canoes. The first ever WBL hit. Sneaking around in the jewel weed on the north side of the island was fun, too.

We spent a lot of time in setup, especially for the naval round, this was pretty bad.


6. Frozen Fury 2013
This was the best Frozen Fury in terms of abandoned building quality. Beacon Terminal and Northgate were more interesting than Long Beach West and more urban than Cedar Hill. This was the first war using 1 Flag CTF and I thought the Foundry was great for it. I remember shooting Keith as he tried to slip in almost through the ceiling, and dueling with Sam trying in vain to dislodge him from the damn rooms on the right. It helped that a refilling source was right on-site. It was also easy to tell hits with light primaries at 29 degrees - just look for ice on your jacket.

Brain fart! I forgot that the upper level of Beacon Terminal was boarded up on one end of the access ramp, which screwed most of the gametypes I planned. Oops… Also, long walk up to reach the Foundry and Dairy Barn.

7. Soakemore 2014
This wasn't as good as Soakemore 2013. It was super windy and we didn't want to have sabots floating away down the Potomac, so no WBLs. The land battle portion of the naval assault was really intense, though. My CPS 2000 #5 loved the wind! Carderock 3 team OHK was interesting (and my team won!). One of the later HTL rounds gave us the legendary "Rocks, sticks, roots" moment. Oh, and we discovered the Labyrinth (portables)! That was the most epic 2v2 skirmish I've been in. This would rank way higher if Scott and his friends had come along exploring and played the Labyrinth. The police helicopter training its floodlight on us as we explored a golf course has also entered community war lore.

SEAL lost his car keys and we had to burn time looking for them in the leaves. Scott's friends also packed it in early. The middle school lost its replay value and Sycamore Island started to lose a bit as well. We had to leave the 2nd school early due to noise.

8. Frozen Fury 2015
I kind of agree with SEAL on this one, the lack of abandoned buildings at a Frozen Fury was like making a Jason Bourne movie without Matt Damon. The venue was the best I could do given the circumstances. 4 minute drive, on-site water, no civilians, no gate, enough parking, elevation changes, it satisfied many criteria. I liked the OHS, fighting from one small hill to the next. The power lines were fun, too, although the night round ended before I could complete my epic, 180 degree flank, having moved through thick bushes one arm and leg at a time.

An hour of precious daylight time was wasted waiting for people. From now on, we should consider marking the exact location of the staging area on Google Maps and just start a round. However, not being able to guide people to the right place has screwed us in the past (MoAB). It's a difficult decision. Also, if we want abandoned buildings, then we need to start planning Frozen Fury way, way earlier. Like now.

9. Pandemonium 2014
This would have been great with the original venue. Paine does have quite a lot of variety, but not enough concealment, even during the Summer. The ambush positions were easily bypassed. We did have an awesome VIP, full of strategy. Forget radios, we have smartphones! At just 30 seconds, Paine was the shortest morning drive ever.

Getting kicked out of the Danbury Greenway sucked. We were finally going to get action like the Ridgewood wars once had. I didn't even film the one round we got to play there. This event screwed my playlist. It still worked at Paine, but wasn't anywhere near the same.

10. Frozen Fury 2012
The first abandoned buildings war. Fighting in a theater and pavilion was awesome. The press box strategy didn't really work, but it was fun planning for the rivalry rounds. "Rob, your trigger sucks!" Ben's young nephews made the trek across 2 miles of exposed beach in winter temps and wind, fought in abandoned buildings, made it back, then went and fought again at Paine. "That's so diesel!" It was hilarious filming their SEAL diss video from the safety of the island.

A 2 mile walk across open beach in the wind. No fresh water at the destination. A cold Tiff walking back alone to find locked cars. Only like 3 rounds.

11. Hydropocalypse 2012

12. MoAB 2013

13. Downpour 2013

14. Downpour 2012

15. Last Chance Long Beach West 2013

16. Frozen Fury 2014

17. Schunamunk 2012

18. Brooklyn 2015

19. Ulster Landing 2012


Favorite Rounds!

1. OHS until 3 AM, Portables, Soakemore 2015
2. OHS, Subterranean Slaughter 2015
3. First Battle of Thunder Gulch OHS, Downpour 2011
4. 2v2 OHS, Portables, Soakemore 2014
5. 2 Flag CTF, Pandemonium 2015
6. 2 Flag CTF, Soakemore 2012
7. 2 Flag CTF, Downpour 2011
8. Chaos OHS, MoAB 2013
9. Naval Assault, Soakemore 2013
10. LET'S GET ROB OHS, Downpour 2012

Honorable Mention:

11. Naval Assault, Soakemore 2014
12. 1 Flag CTF, Frozen Fury 2013
13. Slaughter Hill HTL, Hydropocalypse 2012
14. First OHK, Downpour 2011
15. 5 Flag CTF, MoAB 2013
16. North End Sycamore Island OHS, Soakemore 2013
17. Nobody Gets Out Alive OHK, Hydropocalypse 2012
18. Escort the VIP, Portables, Soakemore 2015
19. Escort the VIP, Pandemonium 2014

Suggestions for Future Wars:

EARLY Planning
NO going back to the cars or interacting with nearby property owners
Make sure everyone knows exactly where to stage
Play to the war's strengths
Less, but longer rounds
Minimize the amount of gear that needs to be brought in
Get everyone awake and ready in the morning
Make sure there's young kids and friendly white guys when the cops show up
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Re: Ranking the Community/Major Wars You've Attended

Post by marauder » Thu Jan 21, 2016 7:59 am

Oh yeah, I forgot about the nobody gets out alive OHK at Hydropocalypse. The battlefield was less than desirable, but the sheer number of people combined with the epic way the fighting panned out definitely make that a great round. The 5 flag CTF round at MOAB was something I also thought about.

I agree on Frozen Fury, and wouldn't object to you starting a venue search topic for that ASAP.

I've hit one major dilemma with MOAB for this year. Our house has been delayed from a March finish time to "July to October" and now I'm going to be gone for the Army from May to July. That's a huge change. I could do a number of things, and I'd like suggestions -

1) Host MOAB without the house as a base of operations. Either in April, July, August, or September. I'm not sure if some of you will be able to take the heat here in July or August.
2) Wait until the house is built. September would be ideal as the foliage cover is still 99% and it won't be as hot. Most likely it will be built by September, but I will have a better idea in the next few months.
3) Postpone until next year

Clayton Weather by Month

I'd like to put together a by month rough draft template of when each war is going to be this year. This topic was started as a reflection on past wars, but also to take from that to help us plan the wars for this year. I'm assuming we have 4 to schedule this year - MOAB, Soakermore, Pandemonium, and Frozen Fury.
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Re: Ranking the Community/Major Wars You've Attended

Post by HBWW » Fri Jan 22, 2016 6:06 pm

I'm down for some MOAB this year. I'd like a visit to where I started community wars and see where I am 3 years later, at least as far as that's possible. Although there's a lot going on this year now and I need to really plan things out and figure out how many days I can take off of work, paid or unpaid.
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Re: Ranking the Community/Major Wars You've Attended

Post by DX » Fri Jan 22, 2016 8:21 pm

It would be great to do MoAB while gas is still cheap. It usually costs around $150 for me to drive to NC, but at current prices, only $80. Spring or fall would probably be best.

I'd like to do Pandemonium on the 2nd or 3rd weekend in August. This date slot has worked in the past for a lot of people, any heat waves have usually broken by then, and most notably, there is a "tick gap" in mid-August. They undergo a life cycle stage change around that time and withdraw from feeding.

Frozen Fury is open to being moved forward. However, the weekend after Thanksgiving has been solid due to people not having school or work.
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Re: Ranking the Community/Major Wars You've Attended

Post by SEAL » Sat Jan 23, 2016 3:02 pm

I mainly tried to rank the wars on how much fun I had overall, regardless of my combat performance. But I can see where if you do really well you'll have more fun, and if you get your ass whooped you'd have less fun.

I actually lost my keys in the first Soakemore ('13), during that battle where we decided not to keep track of stats (unheard of up until that round) and just go all out. But I mixed up Soakemores too, when I said I got the first WBL hit in '14. That was actually in '13 (I edited my post), which also happened to be the last war where we used launchers at all. I do kinda miss using them, but they take sooooo long to set up.

It's hard for me to choose my favorite rounds. We've had so many. I'll probably have to go with just about every non-objective round we did at the Labyrinth. While still fun, I feel like the objective rounds kept the fighting in the same spot, when that place is most fun when you use the whole thing. The second CTF round at Pandemonium '15 also makes the list, as do the CTF rounds at Soakemore '13 and Hydropocalypse. Chaos at MOAB was also a blast. And of course I gotta give a shout-out to the classic Downpour '11 rounds, particularly Thunder Gulch 1HS and the first 1HK. The latter may have been embarrassing, but it was still fun for me and was the first serious battle I'd ever played in. CTF at Downpour doesn't quite make the list for me because I was on defense the whole time and didn't see as much action, but it was still definitely an amazing fight.

I could only attend a MOAB if it wasn't at the same time as school. But I am kinda interested in making the drive to NC by myself for the first time, and like DX said, gas prices are insanely low now (knock on wood that it doesn't suddenly shoot up to $4.50 or some ish). $80 is definitely doable for me, although with my car it'd probably be more like $110. If you don't have your house built yet I'd be open to camping out. I haven't done that for a war since the last Downpour and I feel like it'd be fun to bring back this former community war tradition.
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We probably won't be back, but the legacy lives on.

marauder
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Re: Ranking the Community/Major Wars You've Attended

Post by marauder » Sat Jan 23, 2016 5:51 pm

Maybe we could do a hardcore war where we just camp out and fight for a weekend? With that being said, we would probably have less people doing it that way vs doing a traditional war due to the logistics. If you guys are cool with that I could host sometime when you're on Spring break (MOAB is a Spring war?). I would also like it to be when Tony and Danny are on Spring Break, for obvious reasons, and also they could bring stuff down so that we aren't taking everything all at once when they move.

I would probably host the war at the second half of Saint John's Woods. Where I haven't taken you yet. I'm putting together a plan to purchase the land as a nature preserve/park. Riverwood would probably not have enough concealment yet. This would be on the opposite side of the road. There are no houses or anything. It's 75 acres of wilderness.

*edit*
decided to start this thread = http://waterwar.net/forum/viewtopic.php ... 930#p61930
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SEAL wrote:If you ain't bloody and muddy by the end of the day, you went to a Nerf war.

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