So DX had come up to Saugerties, NY for Memorial Day weekend, and didn't have anything to do. Luckily, I happen to be like half an hour away, so after discussing things via PM and over the phone, we decided to scout out some of the nearby parks, and maybe have a battle or two to make things more interesting for the both of us (I was supposed to have a baseball game, but it was canceled, so I didn't have anything to do either.). There were 3 parks that I found on the map that looked promising. We only ended up checking out one of them though, because DX had to be back at his friend's house earlier than he thought.
The park we explored is called Ulster Landing Park, and it overlooks the Hudson River. It seemed like a pretty epic place; there was a lot of undergrowth, although some of it was poison ivy. There were some pretty thick sections there. I took a few pictures.
I brought the best of my arsenal: my camo painted CPS 2700, camo covered CPS 1200 (originally DX's.), and camo covered Vanquisher. Yes, that really is the best of my arsenal. DX brought one of his CPS 2000s.
Here we are, filling up for the first battle.
A zoomed-out picture. The place you are looking at is the mouth of a small creek. The Hudson River is behind me.
Yours truly...
Some of our gear.
This was really funny. There was this guy in the Hudson, on a big inner tube or something getting towed around by a speeding boat. He kept going, "WHOO-HOO!", and he'd occasionally wipe out. It was hilarious to watch. I tried to get a few pictures, but they didn't turn out too well. I wanted to get one where the guy fell off.
Also, from the same viewpoint, here's the Rhinecliff Bridge, one of the many bridges spanning the Hudson.
Yeah, I know. You want to get to the good part. Well have no fear, ye of the impatient breed; from this point onward, I will give you a detailed report of our adventures in Ulster Landing Park with our water guns.
Battle 1, OHS, 10-minute time limit:
Me (SEAL); Vanquisher
DX; CPS 2000
vs.
Jon; CPS 2700
Keith; CPS 1200
We held the battle between both sides of the small stream you see in the first two photos. DX and I on one side of the stream, and my brothers on the other side. Each team had a hill to start on, with the spawn points on top. The way this game worked was, you could use either spawn point, and not just your starting point. We had a 10-second respawn time.
Immediately after the round began, we moved forward. There was a foot-bridge that ran across the creek, which we made use of. When we got to the other side, we could no longer see my brothers. We could hear them moving through the thick brush to the left, so we went up to their starting point, and started to follow them. It was very thick, and I knew it'd be very hard to maneuver in these conditions. We could see the enemy ahead of us; they were now on one of the trails, near the bridge. Between us and them was a dense area of bushes, trees, and logs. We are not stupid; we both knew that the first team to try and make it through that jungle would be the first team to die.
I don't know what's more common in water wars; Mexican standoffs, or water guns. We stood there for a little, but finally decided that the war wasn't going to win itself, and backed out of the thick stuff and onto the trail again. We retraced our steps back to the bridge, where we found our enemy waiting for us. The first shots of the battle were exchanged. DX scored a hit on Jon, who ran back to the spawn point that we started from. Using this as an opportunity to get Keith while he was alone, I charged perpendicular to him, blasting away, but I didn't get anything for my troubles.
Keith was on the bridge, I was on one of the trails that led to the bridge, and DX was on the other. Neither of us could land a hit on him, because the brush on either side of the trail was so thick, you couldn't dodge from side-to-side, only back and forth. It went on like this for a while, until Jon came back from respawning. As DX engaged him, I held Keith back on the bridge. We were just outside each other's range, and neither of us could get anywhere. It was almost funny. DX had more room however, and landed another hit on Jon, who was trying to advance up the bank of the stream.
Pretty much all the same stuff happened all the way until the game ended. We won 2-0, with DX the only one in the entire battle to actually hit anybody. We figured it'd be better if we found somewhere else to fight, so we packed our stuff and headed down the trail. Most of the terrain was pretty thick. It probably would be fine to fight in if you were wearing cargo pants and a jacket of some kind, but we were just in shorts and T-shirts, so we tried to find a place that wasn't quite so thick, yet still with good places to hide. Along the way we found this huge canyon with the stream running through it. We decided that the slopes were a bit to steep and dangerous, so we didn't fight there, although it might have made a good setting for a WBL-only battle.
Battle 2, HTL, 10-minute time limit:
Assault team:
Me; CPS 2700
DX; CPS 2000
vs.
Defending team:
Jon; Vanquisher
Keith; CPS 1200
After a bit of walking, we found a spot that looked good for an attack/defense game. There was this rock wall (home to a huge gray spider...) on a high spot on the trail, where someone could hold off attackers trying to make it up the hill. We used the same Hold the Line rules that we did at Hydropocalypse (where the defense has 3 lives instead of 1.), but with a 10-minute time limit, so that the defense would actually have a way to win. We once again had a 10-second respawn time.
I started out by doing an all-out charge, to test the range of the defender's blasters. I was hit by Jon, but I nearly got him as well. The hill wasn't particularly steep, so the range differences weren't huge. After respawning, I attacked the right side while DX hit the left. Jon shot me one more time, but I hit him three times, so he was out. DX had hit Keith once, but he was all alone now, so it wouldn't be too difficult to get him out before the time was up. I charged, and shot him, but he also got me, so we both had to respawn. Once I came back, DX and I moved in and got the Keith for the last time. We both shot at the same time, so I don't really know who got the kill. It was a fun round; I got hit 3 times, but got at least 4 kills. DX got about 2 kills and only died once (or did he get hit at all?), I think.
We decided to go look for another spot to battle. We found our way out to the overflow parking lot, and from there headed down the road to where the car was parked, down by the beach. Near there, we found a big stone wall that looked like it'd be perfect for another assault game. Here are some pictures.
Can you spot me in this photo (okay, I wasn't really trying too hard to hide...)?
A better angle.
There wasn't really much room to maneuver on top though, so we thought it'd be better if we used the shorter rock wall 100 feet in front of the bigger one. Unfortunately, there wasn't much in the way of cover.
Battle 3, HTL, 10-minute time limit:
Defending team:
Me; CPS 1200
Keith; Vanquisher
vs.
Assault team:
Jon; CPS 2700
DX; CPS 2000
This round reminded me a lot of the 2nd battle at Downpour 2011. Most of the battle was spent staring at each other. Every few seconds, we'd exchange a shot or two, but nothing terribly exciting happened, save for one time when my brother slipped and fell, just as DX shot him with the 2000. I have a picture of that...
I was hit only once in this battle, by DX's 2000. Keith was hit twice by both Jon and DX, Jon was hit twice by Keith, and DX wasn't hit at all. I have a video, which I will let do the talking.
Here's a picture of the battle. Unfortunately, it didn't come out well at all, but it was a good shot, so I ended up keeping it.
And another one.
And here's the video. It will give you an idea of what this round was like.
http://s807.photobucket.com/albums/yy35 ... attle2.mp4
In the end, Keith and I held out all the way to the end, with neither of us eliminated. However we only got 2 kills to their 3.
We were going to have one more round, perhaps on the beach of the Hudson, but it was about time for DX to go back to his friend's house, so we called it a day. Overall, the battleground was pretty nice. It was quite thick in many places, making it nice for stealth, but not so good for actual fighting. I think it worked quite well for small groups, but I don't know about large groups, though I can see it being pretty epic if we had huge groups (say, 20vs20 or more.), and used the entire park.
But it was fun, and it made an otherwise dull Sunday more interesting. We're planning to have a "NY vs. CT" war soon, maybe next month. Stay tuned for that.
Oh, and here's a group photo.
~SEAL
). Because these were posted before you're updated date, I haven't changed the date field.