Tactical Scenario H1 - Protect the Base at All Costs!

[marauder]

Objective
Defend the base at all costs. If the enemy team enters the base they will lay claim to victory. If all enemies are destroyed or the enemy does not enter the base by the end of the day (midnight) your team is victorious. Each player has 2 lives, after being hit twice they are eliminated. You do not know where the enemy will attack from, only that it will be in the morning, and that you will be outnumbered most likely 2 to 1.



Map Recon
O: Your base, a tree fort 10 feet off the ground, 6 feet wide by 6 feet long, with windows on all 4 sides. The fort has a ladder built out of 2x4s on one of the pine trees holding up the base.
A: Shed Alpha. A 6 x 6 shed, 10 feet tall with 1 window which faces NW (towards the top left corner of the map).
B: Shed Beta. A 6 x 6 shed, 10 feet tall, with 1 window which faces E (right).
Γ: Sand Pile: An 8 foot long trench about 4 foot deep with a 5x5 ft sand mount, about 3 ft high directly north of it. Surrounded by young pine trees. The woods to the N and W of the sandpile are very dense, with typical visibility of just 30 feet.
X: Water faucets.From upper left to bottom right: X1 is located under the back deck. X2 is located on top of the deck. X3 is located on the side of the house next to the driveway.

Other noteables:
Path at top R corner: Crosses a creek at the edge of the map, natural source of water. Creek follows northern limit of map. Path goes several miles, across another field next to a neighborhood, and deep into the woods. You also have a horse troth and numerous wooden crates at your disposal.

Your Team
9 members and the following arsenal
CPS 1000
SC 500
SC 400
SS 100 mk2
Speed Loader 1500
1 Hose
2 squirt pistols
50 waterballoons
What are your orders to your team? Where do you position them?

Defend the fort to the end!

[the oncoming storm]

You are toast,

Wait for them to attack and place the hose at the frontlines covered by the 400 and a squirt gun. You split the others into 2 groups
1 group with the 1000, 100, and water balloons, and the other with the SL 1500, 500, and the other squirt gun. the third group covers the flank for the hose while the, second group moves to flank the other team and ambush them.

[marauder]

You meaning your team, the defenders? Or you referring to if I'm controlling the attacking players? haha. Also, I forgot to include a scale, but are you attaching the hose to x1, x2, or x3?

[the oncoming storm]

Depends on where they attack from

[marauder]

As with most battles, you don't know where the enemy is going to attack from

[darthmeow]

Can you use a connector to split the hose to two outputs? If so, put the SL QFD on one, a sweeper nozzle or 5mm brass nozzle (they work the same but the sweeper has an on/off switch) on the other. Run a long hose to the sweeper nozzle and QFD and send the people with the 1000, 500, and hose on top of the roof. They can then see the enemy and hit them from long range regardless of direction.

I would prioritize a power nozzle on the hose even if it means disabling the SL 1500.

Edit: since the hose outputs would be on the roof, I would probably use hose position X3

[HBWW]

Loosely split into two squads, with the fastest, most capable members as forward scouts/skirmishers and the slower members stationed in the more defensible areas. The forward squad's main purpose is to get an idea of how the enemy wants to attack, but they may also be able to fight them effectively in some situations. In this case, definitely hope that one of the fast/elite players is using the 1000 effectively since everything else is lacking in capacity and range. The forward squad can split up further if necessary. I would leave 3 teammates back at the treehouse; two in the treehouse and one on the ground.

A hose alone is not very useful, so I'm just going to take the liberty of assuming that it has a full VHS setup, able to easily switch between the following 4 nozzles:
- High range shooter/water balloon filler nozzle. (Because there's no reason to not bring unfilled balloons onto the field. They're cheap and are too light/small to slow you down at all.
- Larger-orifice (1/2" male thread) reservoir filler nozzle - fills reservoirs about twice as fast as the high range shooter with less splash/overflow.
- SC filler nozzle.
- Speedloader filler nozzle.

Not sure if an SC and Speedloader hybrid is possible, but it'd be nice to have.

The hose should be hooked to the back faucet closest to the treehouse. No length is given, so I will assume that it's long enough to reach up into the treehouse. This will be key to keeping the treehouse defender(s) filled up, and then the VHS can be tossed to the ground when needed for troops on ground to shoot it in case of emergancy. With a strong defense, having the faucet shut off should not be a huge concern unless the enemy concentrates their numbers together and has sufficient skill/waterpower to overwhelm. (We could be facing off against a bunch of CPS 2000's, DX didn't buy all of them yet lol.)

Anyway, fighters in the base need to be well armed but as always for water warfare, also need to be mobile enough. Can't ask this of the treehouse troops, but their higher effective range and refill point will be very important to the defense even if they lack the ability to be mobile.

Armament however, is tricky. There are only 5 combat-effective blasters, the remaining 4 players have to share the hose, squirters, and water balloons. I would keep every player with the blasters away from the water balloons unless they're in a situation where they're absolutely needed. The balloon cache should be stored in the treehouse. Here's how I'd make sure it's setup (because I don't like the idea of anyone being unarmed).

- CPS 1000, SC500, 400, SS100, SL1500 divided amongst 5 of the forward squad. The last person in the forward squad carries water balloons and/or the squirt gun. This person needs to be very fast, perceptive, and very difficult to hit, but we don't want to spoil any opportunities for easy/good kills just because he/she wasn't armed.
- One of the treehouse defenders has the hose. The other has the water balloon cache and can fill additional water balloons. The water balloons aren't too effective with all that distance, but they will be great if anyone tries to climb into the treehouse, and they offer good range despite being easier to dodge. (They should be used in combination with stream attacks, especially for attackers who are too close for comfort to the treehouse.)
- The remaining defender on the ground carries a squirt gun and water balloons, and should skilled enough with them to not die. His/her job is to give early warning of attacks, and run back quickly enough to try to goad any enemy attackers into a good killzone for the treehouse defenders.

[darthmeow]

By treehouse do you mean the house? I do not think marauder mentioned a tree house. Being able to drop the VHS from the house to the defenders below would help a lot.

Does anyone think having one person with the 500? hide in the shed could help? They could ambush the enemy if they take a route around the house. If people are on top of the house they could also probably hide on the roof for a few seconds before the enemy notices.

Who is on the enemy team? Also, based on what is on ebay now, they might be armed with a MK1 2100, four 1-3-5s, five 2Ks, an arctic blast, and a broken hydro blitz

[HBWW]

"Tree fort 10 feet off the ground", same idea. =p

[the oncoming storm]

Read vermin war 1 everything here is taken from it even down to the tree-house that served as Red Scorpion's first base, as such you only have what information he had when helping his commander Viper to prepare.

[soakinader]

Not sure if an SC and Speedloader hybrid is possible, but it'd be nice to have.

http://www.waterwar.net/site_wwn/board/topic5682.html

Hello, Nad3r here. It's already been done.

[marauder]

The oncoming storm is actually correct, this battle has already happened. H1 stands for historical, first historical tactical scenario. The idea is to ask everyone here what they would do in the situation, because everyone would handle the situation differently. Then we can trade ideas based off of people's responses, and the original war story.

Since so many people have already replied I will actually go ahead and tell you the enemy armament, though as already pointed out, a lot of the time you won't know what the enemy has or how many you're up against. This is what you're up against: 1 CPS 2000, 2 CPS 1000s, 2 SC 600s, 2 SC 500s, 1 XP 110, 3 XP 85s, 2 piston pumpers, 2 squirt pistols, and about 50 waterballoons.

Most have you have forgotten several key points. There are 3 water faucets, not just 1. You also have an insane amount of wooden crates, brush, and a horse troth. I did not mention this, but you have QFDs for both your Super Chargers and Speed Loader, and you actually have 3 hoses and 1 splitter, but only 1 hose nozzle - which is what I meant by 1 hose. Sorry for not clarifying. OH and you have 50 FILLED balloons, you have more unfilled. Faucet X2 (the middle X on the map) is actually on a deck. The aerial view looks like it's on the roof, but it's really just a covered deck with an open front. In other words, it has a roof over it, but it's not walled in in front, it's about 6 feet off the ground. Faucet X1 is under that deck.

[DX]

Let's do this!

"At all costs" means just that to me. If the enemy is not going to attack until the morning, I'm using all night to prepare.

With something that must be defended and the enemy's numbers, arsenal, skill, experience, and approach totally unknown, (other than outnumbering me 2-1) I am playing siege here. I am gonna circle the proverbial wagons.

I am assuming that I only have access to basic things that might be in a shed or house, without the possibility of filling more balloons or enhancing the hose beyond the stock opening.

My defense shall be concentrated in a half circle, extending from the upper left corner of the house past the alpha shed to the treehouse to the beta shed to the upper right corner of the house. This tight formation will help absorb extra attacking numbers and give me very close interior lines.

The first part of the formation to be prepped is the open area between the beta shed and the house. My team will use the horse trough here, some crates, and go into the woods to collect logs. The goal is to construct a flash defensive wall using the outpost method, creating two core posts that will be easily defendable (the trough and crates) and connecting them with the logs to form a wall, depending on how many suitable ones can be located. If there's not enough logs, then the wall will be set up in fragmented, offset pieces, forming a slant so that attackers have to zig zag through the openings. This creates a short (matter of seconds) delay that could be useful. Defenders can give ground without letting the enemy through.

Now, my team goes back to the woods to find big branches, especially ones that are full of thorns. The branches go under the treehouse, in the openings of my right side wall, and between the sheds. If there are enough branches, they will suffice as wall material. I particularly want these to completely fill up the space under the treehouse so the enemy can't go there, and to fill in the gaps of my left side. I have all night to do this, so there is plenty of time to get this stuff in place.

After the walls, I want to set up the treehouse defense. I will place 2 defenders in it and they will get 25 of the water balloons. This next part depends on what is available in the house/sheds. Ideally, I'd like to find duct tape, buckets, and rain jackets, but any adhesive, towels and any containers will suffice. The jackets/towels are to partly cover the windows of the treehouse so shots can't easily sail in, and the buckets are for inside. The defenders can dump buckets out the windows, or dump them down the entrance at anyone trying to get in. One towel should be saturated with water and left near the entrance for a wring-it-out last ditch defense. The entrance area should be barricaded using as many thorn branches as practical, cause it's difficult to climb into a treehouse with a ton of thorny bushes in your face. The defenders need to be able to access all 4 windows, but other than that, the rest of the free space near the entrance should be filled with thorn branches.

At this point, the defenders are committed and barricaded inside. Now we take the ladder out and put it next to the house.

Now, we set up the roof position. Nothing in the rules says we can't use the house roof and we have a friggen ladder, lol. There will be 5 balloons and some containers placed up here. Now the hose is connected to faucet X2 and the hose is ran up to the roof (oh snap). I calculated the distance to defend the treehouse from the roof using the car parked in the driveway as a reference measurement. From the ground level, the hose might not reach, but from the roof, it can easily provide supporting fire.

I usually poo-poo hoses in water wars, but in this case it's pretty decisively located. The rest of the house makes it tough to reach the hose user, while he can cover any part of the line, plus himself, and shoot over to the sides of the house and a bit into the woods. So little of the hose tube is on the ground that it would be very difficult to get in and kink it or shut it off. Any enemy who managed to would then still have to face water balloons and buckets.

This will be my position, because it has a bird's eye view of the battlespace, and I can easily make audible calls from it and manage the defenses. Once my teammates pass the treehouse ladder up to me and it is placed on the roof, I am committed to the position.

Now I can place my other 6 players and I have conserved all of our water guns for them to use.

I place the SL 1500 at the faucet X1, near the corner of the house. The QFD can remain attached to this faucet for quick reloading. I can cover him with the hose when he needs to reload and he does not need to leave his position in order to so, the QFD is right there.

I place the SS 100 at the right house corner. If they come from that side, I need a strong gun there with good field life to skirmish.

I place the SC 500 and 400 on the roofs of the sheds. We can get them up there using the ladder if necessary. They will also get 5 balloons each and a bucket if possible. The height advantage will give them more range and stopping power.

I place the 2 squirt pistols inside the beta shed, with 10 balloons. This player can either try to snipe with the pistols or support from the windows with the balloons. This is my most vulnerable player, so I have them in this position to make it hard for the enemy to even attack them. If they need water, the player on the beta shed roof can cover.

I give the CPS 1000 to my 9th player, who plays reserve/switch, moving to the part of the defense that needs him most. This player also helps ferry water to those who need it.

This is the most solid deployment I can think of, and should hold for quite a while. If the players on the shed roofs don't have enough space to dodge effectively, they can just jump down and take up new positions from behind the shed walls.

[darthmeow]

This is what you're up against: 1 CPS 2000, 2 CPS 2000s

What?

[marauder]

Haha, oops thanks for catching that! I meant 2 CPS 1000s.

[SEAL]

Definitely my kind of battle. Unlike DX though, I would only make my preparations the previous evening so as to let my troops get their rest so they'll be in tip top condition for tomorrow's fight. Lack of sleep definitely hurts my fighting performance and energy level, and I assume most others are the same way.

For preparations, I would fill as many water balloons as possible and stash them in the treehouse, both sheds, the deck, and the roof of the house. If available, I'd also stash a ton of water bottles in the treehouse and sheds, in case my troops get trapped inside and cannot reach the hoses. I'd probably attach the hose nozzle to X2, and both QFDs to X1. The water balloon filler can go on X3, but I do not expect to use it much, as most of the balloons will already be filled. It might make a good nozzle though. How long are the hoses, by the way? I will also pile up wooden crates inside the treehouse near the windows for cover, as well as on the deck. The horse trough will be filled with water and placed inside Shed Beta. Food will also be stashed in the treehouse, both sheds, and on the deck.

Since the objective is to defend the tree house, I am naturally going to play this defensively. I know that they will come, so there is no point in hunting around for them. So here is how I'm planning troop placement:

Player 1 (the commander) will carry the 1000 (plus a water balloon or two) and will basically patrol around the house and search for enemy movement. He will basically go wherever he is needed most when the enemy attacks, and will oversee all events.

Player 2 will carry the 500 and hide in the treehouse, and will defend it with his life.

Player 3 uses the 400, and will hide in the woods to the north of the treehouse. His job is to scan the woods for invaders and perhaps spring an ambush before retreating back to the base area to help defend. If the enemy attacks from a different side, he can still ambush from the woods.

Player 4 carries the 100 and will assist Player 2 in the treehouse. Water balloons will be the main weapons for both players. They won't necessarily throw very many of them, but will use them to intimidate the enemy and keep them from getting too close.

Player 5 will carry the SL 1500 and hide in Shed Alpha, using the window to snipe through. He will only reveal himself when the enemy is close enough to shoot at. If the enemy attacks from a different direction he will simply come out of the shed to engage (and if the door is facing the enemy, he will use that as cover/concealment).

Player 6 will stay up on the deck with the hose, and will basically send water everywhere to keep enemies away and perhaps soak the ground under their feet, making it muddy and slippery. If the hose is long enough, Player 6 could take up a position near Shed Alpha if the enemy attacks from the north.

Player 7 will take up a position by X3 with a couple of water balloons (plus a package of unfilled ones) and a squirt pistol. His main task will be to watch the woods on the other side of the field and the front yard, and perhaps use the hose to defend if necessary. Otherwise he will just engage the enemy wherever they may appear. If necessary, he can fill the extra water balloons.

Player 8 will assist Player 6 on the deck with the other squirt pistol, but he will mostly throw balloons.

Player 9, the best water balloon thrower on the team, will spend most of the battle running around on the roof, chucking rubber.

Aside from that, what happens depends entirely on how the enemy attacks.

[marauder]

So here's the plan for the actual battle. Hose with nozzle is at x2. Hose with splitter and both QFDs is under the deck at x1. A barricade is made here with wooden crates. The door to go under the house is right next to the QFDs. The SC 400 and Speed Loader 1500 are to share this area with the SC 400 being able to go under the house and shoot people from the vents if necessary. 2 Players would be on the deck next to the hose with waterballoons. The door to the house would be open so you could throw from windows if necessary.

The tree house would have 2 team members with squirt pistols and waterballoons, and our official commander with his SC 500. The CPS 1000 user and SS 100 would roam around the base of the tree fort and use the sheds and trees as cover.


I think this was a pretty decent plan. I love the QFD idea, protecting our ability to refil, and giving us a good place to ambush from. I also love the positioning of the hose, although DX's idea on the roof is superior. The rest of the plan is only decent in my opinion. Most of you came up with better options for around the fort.

What does everyone else think? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the actual plan?

[HBWW]

I do like DX's ideas, but I would favor good sleep for the troops over fortifications. It's water warfare. You need tall, overhead cover that takes a lot of time to build, although building stakes or whatever to slow them down would be helpful, if a bit dangerous against the enemy team.

Based on what's mentioned earlier however, I would definitely redo my plan to make use of the house roof more, especially if it can cover the treehouse ladder well. Shielding/cover for the treehouse windows/openings are a great idea, so long as they do not inhibit the defenders' fov and fields of fire too much.

As for the actual plan, I would want to avoid too many stationary/immobile positions, although they seemed to carry a great element of surprise that seems to have been well worth the cost of mobility. If it was the RM coming however, I doubt it would've worked very well. =p

[DX]

If someone wanted to sleep, they could do so in shifts. Ideally, my players would know about the "48 hour rule" and would have put down the serious sleep the night before this. Athletes tend to have pre-event insomnia anyway, there is no point in trying to get more than 4 hours of sleep before a war this important. In a maneuver war, I wouldn't go all night, but it's essentially a siege for the defenders, total movement space less than 100ft. That takes significantly less energy than a full field, constantly moving fight.

The point of flash fortification is mainly psychological. The barrier stabilizes and slows down the pace of the battle, breaking up rushes, pushes, overruns, momentum swings, and defining/enforcing separate battlespaces for the offense and defense. It is good for newbies, as they can easily understand that this is where to NOT let the enemy cross. It can be used as a stalling tactic. The barrier need not provide substantive cover for the defense - in fact, you do not want to defend from directly behind it. Because of the arc of streams, you want to defend from at least 5-10ft back. What the barrier does need to do is impede forward attack. This is why bushes/branches are excellent and can be much lower than a conventional wall. Picture the ease of rushing an enemy behind a stone wall vs rushing an enemy behind a briar patch.

One thing I would definitely change is handing out more water balloons, now that I see we can fill more. Also, stocking as much water as possible in the treehouse, so they can hold out longer. If only there were an XP 150 in this scenario, I could mod it overnight with a tube, fill a garbage can or two full of water, and have that to defend the entrance. The shooter could use the cans as cover, too. That alone could last for hours of continuous tap shooting.

I have people placed at key static positions because it's really important to hold them or avoid getting ambushed from them, like the house corners. I avoided putting anyone under the deck because it's in the center and the enemy does not need to go there. The enemy only needs to get into the treehouse, for all I know they would avoid the house area entirely. If I were attacking, I would keep the battle away from the house, because it only aids the defense to fight there. By keeping the battle near the treehouse, the defense doesn't get to use the house as a physical barrier and has to deal with my numbers advantage more directly. With 2 on 1, I might spread some attackers out to force the defenders to cover more angles, but their positions are not vital. If they do not have flash fortifications, I am going to approach from the Beta shed area in the open, use my numbers to take the shed, and use that as cover to attack the treehouse directly. If the treehouse lacks the proper countermeasures, the 2000 just lobs shots in through the entrance or windows and I have someone go underneath with covering fire to stop them from tossing water balloons or dumping buckets out the windows. The beta shed is so close to the entrance that the spreading stream of a 2000 would be devastating without countermeasures. Eliminating the defenders in the treehouse is my #1 priority. *If* they can all be hit, it makes this scenario easy and renders the rest of the defensive setup useless. If they do have it well-barricaded, then it's a much tougher proposition that requires eliminating everyone else before taking on the treehouse.

[marauder]

Come to think of it, the hose is so devastating from on top of the roof (assuming you can pile some crates around the chimney, that you really don't need multiple people on the deck. I would, however, be worried about people getting on the deck and turning the hose off. I would have to make some kind of barricade to the deck steps so that people couldn't get up on it. Or if they did, they'd be slowed down so much in trying to climb over that my guy with the hose could take them out. Ideally I'd run the hose out a window and onto the roof, but that would require coming up with some kind of connection from the kitchen sink to the garden hose, and given the time constraints I do not think that's possible.

Putting players at the corner of the house/deck/under the house proved effective in the war because that's where the bulk of the enemy team came from, it was difficult for them to get to us, and because it gave the defenders there unlimited ammo. With that being said, I do think a more savvy enemy would ignore the players under the house and would focus primarily on eliminating the tree fort defenders/getting into the fort.

With that being said, the Speed Loader 1500 is useless without its QFD. In my experience, and I'm pretty sure Soakinader would agree, it runs out really fast if you're using both nozzles, which I would recommend doing in elimination games. It's going to need to be refilled. Let's see where everyone put the SL 1500 user and the QFD. SEAL said he'd place the SL 1500 user in shed Alpha and the QFD on faucet x1. I think this is a bit risky because if he runs out, and he probably will, he's going to have to make a dash for x1. The hose can prevent anyone from taking the QFD, which is good. Likewise, Rob would put his QFD on x1. However, he said he'd place the SL 1500 user at the corner of the house. Is he going to be behind one of your barricades or behind a tree or what? Cuz you said he wouldn't be under the house. I'm not sure what I think of this plan until Rob says if this guy is going to have cover and where. Sam said he'd have the SL 1500 move around with a squad. I am not big on going on the offensive when outnumbered and supposed to be protecting a fort, however I will say that there is the chance you can take out opponents with an ambush and the SL 1500 is as mobile as you can get. The Oncoming Storm's plan is similar.

In regards to sleep vs maintenance I think it's best to follow Sun Tzu's advice - an army cannot win if it does not know itself. If I was working with friends from WWN I would make sure Scott got to bed early and as team leader I would let SEAL go to bed whenever he wanted. Basically whenever you're tired you're free to go. But we would be working on defenses - love Rob's idea - until then. Even so, I'd probably have Rob, myself, Nick, and any other night owls, staying up well into the night working on this because what he said about event insomnia is true for a lot of us. In a recent article Michael Vick (Quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles) admitted not being able to sleep at training camp simply because he was so excited to work with Chip Kelly and learn his new fast paced offense. And that's JUST training camp! The point is that things that excite people affect them in different ways, and as such need to be handled on an individual basis, in my opinion.