Before the community war era, I would have argued that straight up dueling was not an ideal type of engagement and even avoided. Most hits and attempts at attacking came from ambushes and pincers from concealed positions, because such attacks were "high yield/high chance of success". Even now, straight up fighting usually wastes a lot of water and energy, while producing few hits. Here are some instances of using concealment from the RM-WB wars from 2004 to 2007 and they are only from daytime wars:
Concealment is rare in daytime water warfare.
. The RM ambushed WB in the middle of Waterbridge's East Bank in a staggered split set up. It became known as the "perfect" ambush and got 2 hits.
. Nick ambushed the RM from below the Grove St Bridge. The ambush could have taken out everyone if Nick had a CPS, but it failed due to lack of range and output.
. The RM ambushed WB from next to the Spring St Bridge. This where my water balloon bounced off Matt and the others chose to shoot instead, so he still got annihilated.
. WB ambushed me from behind Reed Hill. They got in several lax stick shots from within 15 ft before I even noticed they were attacking. While the ambush failed, a more accurate person would have succeeded.
. Jeff ambushed Court from a dry culvert in the Goffle dam. He walked right into it even with me shouting at him that there was an ambush.
. WB tried to ambush the RM on the West Bank path near Telos-Groven, but I was checking under the leaf canopy and spotted them. They were also situated too far away.
. The RM ambushed WB using the Goffle treehouse in a "fake base" style ambush, where we hid away from the treehouse. It failed because we used water balloons, and their accuracy sucks.
. The RM ambushed WB on the Goffle main path where it forks. There isn't even particularly good concealment there and we split up while outnumbered. The score went from 0-2 us losing to 3-2 us winning in that ambush.
. The RM ambushed WB in another treehouse fake base ambush, but triggered it too late.
. The RM ambushed WB from behind some trees on the Goffle East Bank. Again, it's just standard woods, not good concealment there. Again it was 0-2, and again we made it 3-2 in this attack.
. Connor ambushed WB from behind at the Goffle dam. It worked, but he was also hit.
. WB tried to ambush the RM from within the Sacred Grove. The RM ended up ambushing Matt in the Grove, cause limited visibility was a double edged sword.
. Half the RM ambushed Hannibal at the Spring St Bridge. It was easy.
. WB tried to ambush the RM in a cache ambush, but we spotted them before they could trigger it.
. The RM ambushed WB near Corning in the Goffle mounds. I triggered too early from 40ft.
. Nick tried to ambush the RM solo on both banks at Waterbridge, but was spotted.
. The RM tried to pincer ambush WB near the Waterbridge gazebo. Coordination problems and thorns made it fail.
. The RM tried to ambush WB again in thorns near the Grove St Bridge. I had to trigger it a bit too early as they were about to spot us.
. WB tried to ambush the RM from behind a large, fallen tree on the Waterbridge West Bank, but we spotted it.
. WB tried to ambush the RM again from Ivy Hill, but triggered it way too early.
. RM tried to ambush WB near Echopont, but 2 dog walking civilians alerted them to the danger.
. WB tried to ambush the RM in the rear from Ivy Hill, but there was too much going on and we moved in time.
. The RM ambushed WB from near Upper Bluff, in a rushing ambush where you start way out of range and rush all at once hoping to get them to run, which is what happened. Most got away, but Nick tripped.
. Both teams ran into each other in reeds near the Grove St Bridge. We ended up getting 1 hit. Utter chaos.
. WB ambushed the RM between Ivy Hill and Telos-Groven in a rushing pincer ambush, one of their best ambushes ever. But, CPS...and I countered with a suicide rush that was good for 2 hits.
. The RM ambushed WB from a hill near the refilling gravel bar. That led to lopsided fighting and 2 hits for us.
. The RM tried to ambush WB in the reeds near the Spring St Bridge, but they did not get within range.
. WB tried to ambush the RM while we were in an ambush position near the Goffle dam, but we spotted them first. We should have all died, but we ended up hitting all of them in a staggered split by popping up one at a time, unexpectedly.
. The RM tried to ambush WB near the dam again, but they came from the Heights path instead.
. WB hid from us at Waterbridge and we unable to find them for an hour and a half.
. WB tried to ambush the RM from under the Spring St Bridge, but we split up and sent a guy around to deal with that.
. Both teams ran into each other in the Sacred Grove. It was utter chaos.
. WB ambushed the RM from below Upper Bluff. We spotted part of the ambush, but it was a staggered split...ulgh.
. Both teams tried to pincer each other in the reeds near the refilling gravel bar. Utter chaos.
. The RM ambushed WB in the same area, using enemy footstep sounds to score a hit, since sight was useless in there.
. The RM ambushed WB in a distraction ambush, but it took a lot of maneuvering to get it just right. It did end up working, and even better than expected, because one of our teammates respawned there and it became a pincer.
. WB pincered the RM near the Goffle entrance path, which would have been a problem, but time expired.
. CJ ambush pincered Jeff near the Spring St Bridge, but neither was able to get a hit and the rest of the RM was too far off to support.
. WB forced an RM assault on the Sacred Grove. We came out ahead, but it was utter chaos.
Camo is not actually necessary, we rarely had full body. Most people just wore green or brown shirts, cargo pants, and often swimsuits. For hardcore teams, both had quite casual appearances. Also, Ridgewood cops are assholes.
One thing to note is that ambushing is not necessarily about sitting in one place and waiting for the enemy to hopefully walk by. There are many types of ambushes you can try, several of which involve intentionally giving away your position.
Ambushes are not uncommon in community wars. The Friday soakfest at Downpour '11 ended in an ambush. In the first OHK round, my team ambushed the enemy to great effect, Wetmonkey ambushed Ben and almost got him, and they ambushed me on the path and almost got me. At Frozen Fury, Ben's nephews were *supposed* to ambush the enemy from the press box in the theater, Ben ambushed Keith from a crawlspace near the stage, and the Seals ambushed us on the Laurel Ledges during the long rivalry round at Paine. Hell, at Moab, we got ambushed near Ranch Rd.
They also happen in around the yard fights. At duelfest, I hid behind 2 cars and got Ben when he came by the first car. I tried it again later on, but he didn't fall for that again. We tried to ambush each other at corners of the house.
The only thing I consider a sniper weapon right now is a water cannon. The APWC could be used from a concealed position, at longer range and accuracy at that range than 99% of the things we field. You'd then need to make a quick getaway, as it has very low RoF, like a sniper.
The snipers gametype looks like some RM-WB wars, where we hid with CPS while WB tried to find us with lesser guns.
Frozen isn't going to work very well because water guns...low ranges...very close to teammates...you'd need to run people out of water.
Hostage rescue is like a variation of VIP. With the size of the venues we use, I'd rather just play normal VIP where they travel with you and not go look for someone hidden anywhere in a huge area.
POW is like the gym class version of CTF, without flags. If too many people get hit, it might turn into a standoff where you don't have enough left to go for the enemy flag, cover your own flag, and try to rescue people.
Speedball = single flag CTF. Single flag CTF is a huge fail. We tried that in Nerf and it lasted 30 seconds because Mike and I sprinted for the flag without guns.
There's a reason we have our gametypes, Nerf has theirs, and paintball has theirs. And in all honesty, I don't understand why people want to make the games so much more complex. If you examine what the most fun rounds have been, virtually everything has been straight up OHK, straight up OHS, and straight up CTF. Changing the teams, numbers, and soakers produces most of the variation between rounds. Do we need more complex rules? I am going to stand back, shut up, and let Seal do what he wants for his own war, but for the next Frozen Fury, I'll be sticking to mostly simple, time-tested games that require zero set up and explaining. After really looking at what we've played and what people enjoyed the most, it sticks out that all but a couple have been seriously basic.