Recent Water Fights

[martianshark]

Hi guys. I'm back. Due to cold weather and other hobbies, I haven't been doing much. But it's getting hot, and me and my friends have done several water fights recently.

Day 1:
My friend, who will be called B, lives four doors down from me. We play Magic: The Gathering a lot, and I've shown him some things about water guns and the truth about Super Soaker. I got him interested in water warfare during my dormancy, and about a week ago, he suggested that we have a water fight. The teams went like this:

B: CPS 1200
O (B's little sister): WW Avenger
C (My little sister): WW Ultimate Outlaw

and

Me: CPS 2700
A (My little brother): WW Steady Stream

Since my team only had two players, we were each allowed to have a second weapon. We had a Gorgon (smallest nozzle drilled out) and a Vanquisher (with PC expansion, K mod, and fan nozzle drilled) ready to use.

Basically, the war was a soakfest. We just shot each other with our highest nozzle settings. B's team's base was in my front yard, and used the front yard hose to refill. My team was on the side of my house (we live on a corner), and we used a hose there. Since it was a soakfest, there isn't much else to say. It was just fun.

Day 2:
A few days later, my friend knocked on my door, wanting to have another water fight. This war was basically the same as the first, but me and my friend wanted to be on the same team this time. So it was me and him against everyone else. We shot each other. The end.

Day 3 (today)
Two days later, we were ready to have another war. This time, I suggested that we have an organized war: Capture the Flag.

The playing area for this war went from my house to his, with my team at my front yard and the other team in his. This rules went like this:

The goal is to get the other team's flag, bring it to the location of your flag, and touch them together. If anyone is shot at any time, they must go to a tree at the center of the battlefield and count to 20. Shots fired after being shot don't count. If you had the other team's flag, you must give it to the opposing team. The flag is placed back where it was. After counting, you have 5 seconds of invincibility to avoid spawn kills.

The teams:

O: Avenger and Gorgon
C: Ultimate Outlaw
A: Hydro Cannon

and

Me: CPS 1200
B: CPS 2700

The first round ended pretty quickly. Our strategy was for B to use the CPS 2700 to guard the flag, while I would go near their flag, snipe them with the 1200, and take the flag. This worked after a few tries, and we won.

Second round, we decided that the other team's flag was a little too close, so we hid it further down the block. I grabbed some water balloons I had prepared earlier. Same strategy, but this time I had a few water balloons to throw at them. This worked pretty well, but the round took a long time as we kept trading off each other. As one player rushed to the other side to grab the flag, someone on the other team would respawn and shoot them. It was lots of fun, but eventually we decided to just charge. We packed a water balloon each, threw them, shot anyone close to us, grabbed the flag, and ran back. We won, but it was risky. If we had been shot, our flag would have been defenseless.

Third round, the other team wanted their own water balloons. So I gave them some, and they spent the next half hour filling them. Also, during the second round, the Hydro Cannon's trigger had broken. A had done some really nice ambush shots with the Hydro Cannon by the way. I was out of usable guns, so I ended up having to give him a 1L bottle with a hole cut in the top, a box lid shield, and some squeeze bulb ring shooters (greatest assassin weapon ever btw). He also had access to his team's water balloons.

We decided to try a completely new strategy. The plan was for B to purposely get himself killed, and when the other team ran for the flag, I would drop some full-sized balloons on them from the roof. Then B would respawn and run for their flag. But I missed, and they won.

Fourth round, we decided to try the same thing. While on the roof, C snuck through the backyard, grabbed our flag from behind, and ran back toward the backyard without B noticing. As she ran past the side of the house, I threw one of my two full size balloons at her and missed. As she went across the other side of the house, I threw the second one and got her. Since I was out of balloons, I climbed down and fought as normal. Later during the round, another neighborhood friend joined the other side's team (using their Gorgon), so they gave us A. There were a lot of close ones; a few times, we were a few feet away from winning, as was the other team. One time, C ran off with our flag with no one noticing for several seconds. I ran as fast as I could to catch up and shot her just before she won. The last round was never finished though, because it was getting dark, and we started going inside.

So that's what my water wars of 2013 look like so far. There will likely be more skirmishes and organized wars in the future, including a night war we're planning to do.

[HBWW]

Welcome back 'Shark! I too, have had a huge break from water warfare, that even started as far back as later last summer. (I got too preoccupied.) All that changed when I managed to attend my first community war a few weeks ago.

It sounds like you're keeping things fresh at your wars. Some peeps here have long gotten bored of neighborhood wars, but I still think they have a lot of fun potential. Water ball on hits are tricky to pull off, so congrats on getting a hit like that.

Keeping the guns mixed up is fun too, and challenges you to not get too comfortable with the same thing for long.

Anyway, this is looking to be a better year of water warfare for a lot of us. Happy soaking.

[marauder]

I am really surprised the Hydrocannon's trigger broke. That thing seemed realllly sturdy. Did you mean that the nozzle valve broke? Some part of the nozzle firing assembly, or did the orange trigger itself break?

[martianshark]

I probably should have given more details on that. The Hydro Cannon's trigger is stuck pulled back, so the trigger valve is always open. This may be a simple problem where something is in the way on the inside of the trigger. But I'm suspicious that the problem has something to do with the actual trigger mech. The Hydro Cannon's trigger does seem pretty sturdy, and I'm pretty sure no plastic parts actually snapped. It just feels like the trigger mech is stuck open for some reason.

[HBWW]

If it's stuck open, perhaps either the spring broke or something crucial to the mechanism broke. It's possible that it was pulled with too much force.

Are you able to grab the trigger and push it forwards? And what does that do? A simple, correctable jam would seem unlikely, but I wouldn't know.

[martianshark]

No, the trigger won't move from the position it's in.

[marauder]

Wow. The Hydrocannon requires a great amount of time to get open. It's built incredibly solid with about 3 different layers of plastic plus an incredible amount of screws of various sizes. It's one of my favorite looking guns but I won't mess with it anymore due to all of its drawbacks.

[SEAL]

Hey, welcome back! Sounds like some fun battles. I haven't had a local war in quite a while now; the last one was the CPS 1200 vs. CPS 1021 blaster duel, if you could even call that a "war". It's nice that you have a good amount of interest in your neighborhood. The CPS 1200 and 2700 used to be my only CPS blasters by the way.

But yeah, we've been pretty busy while you were gone. Some of us were talking about getting together to go on a big road trip, traveling around and battling people. Unfortunately we called it off for this year, but if we do it next year, we could include you in the route.

[HBWW]

There's another 2700 that's ready to go, fresh off the repair shop! Mine has a comfy epoxy putty finger grip too, but it wiggles around too much since I had to bust some of the trigger guides during that awful repair. Needless to say, everyone who has a 2700 who hasn't done so should reinforce the trigger before it breaks, and it will.

Local wars... I haven't had an official HBWW event in a year and a half; all I had were two small 2v2 games last summer but were private games. Hopefully that changes this summer, but I'm starting to find that I may be better off relying on community wars instead, considering I hosted an event last summer were only one person out of 20-30 showed up. smfh...

[martianshark]

The CPS 1200 and 2700 used to be my only CPS blasters by the way.

The CPS 1200 and 2700 are my only CPS blasters. Huh.

But yeah, we've been pretty busy while you were gone. Some of us were talking about getting together to go on a big road trip, traveling around and battling people. Unfortunately we called it off for this year, but if we do it next year, we could include you in the route.

That's awesome. I hope it actually happens.

[HBWW]

Perfect timing on that road trip, because I likely won't be able to host a community war until next year anyways. =)

@martianshark: Keep an eye out for eBay deals or something. The 2000 and 2500 really do not disappoint and are an amazing complement to any warrior's arsenal, especially if you get involved with community warfare. Although if you're happy with the 1200 and 2700, that works too lol. After all, you were able to come up with a solution very quickly for the broken HydroCannon so while having sufficient equipment seems to be an issue, it gets resolved easily.

I have the opposite problem: Too many blasters and too few wars/too little local interest in them.

[martianshark]

Well I don't really plan on buying a new CPS anytime soon. I don't have much money (especially not enough for a 2000). I'll look around, but I'll do fine with my 1200 and 2700 for now. I also love my Gorgon.

[HBWW]

I found a pretty good 2000 MK II on eBay; let me know if you want me to PM the link and I'll lay off of my plans to snipe on it. (Assuming it stays in my price range.) It has a few issues though.

[martianshark]

Go ahead. I won't be actually bidding on anything until next year probably.

[SEAL]

Dang it!

To contribute more to the discussion, I would look for a CPS 1500 or 1700. They can be brought reasonably cheaply, and offer insane power, rivaling the 2500 (in fact, my 1500 feels more powerful than all three of my 2500s).

[HBWW]

The 2700 was my first large CPS option; I got it for $10 with $20-30ish shipping (it was from Canada/USPS so that's why it was so pricey to ship).

SEAL, is that you who threw the bid on there?

Anyway, today's warmer, and I'm itching for another water war. I gotta organize something soon lol, maybe even an neighborhood fight.