Frozen Fury 2013 War Report

[SEAL]

Frozen Fury 2013 - A View of the War From SEAL's Perspective for Those who Actually Care

I figure I'll work on this during study breaks. I'm going to write it as more of a "review" than a "story", because it's quicker and I like the style better.

Day 1:

We used the factory and mansion area (aka "Northgate") for the fighting on Saturday. Overall a fun day, but the factory didn't turn out as well as we hoped (I actually figured it out a couple weeks beforehand just from studying the pictures), and I feel like we should've gotten more fighting time in. We were originally going to do rivalry rounds, but wetmonkey cancelled at the last minute so I guess it wouldn't have worked? My friend Bailey was able to come on this day, and Scott's dad ("Radiodad" on here) volunteered to fight, so we actually had pretty large numbers considering the frosty nature of the war.

Round 1 - 2-sided CTF at Factory

Bailey
SEAL
Danny
AMBUSH
chief
Radiodad
vs.
marauder
Duxburian
CA99
scottthewaterwarrior
Area51

We did this in just one of the warehouses, with each team starting maybe 300 feet apart. The problem with this round was that the fighting area was divided by a wall with only one opening (a large door), through which neither team could advance, causing the entire round to turn into a fruitless battle over the door. Bailey and chief actually found a hidden way out of the factory, which they used to try and sneak around to attack the enemy flank, but stepped in a puddle and had to go respawn. Soon after that we ended the round due to nothing happening. It wasn't really a complete standoff, as kills were made and there was quite a bit of shooting (too much). Not extremely fun for me, but at least we learned that it's a good idea to make sure a battleground doesn't have any bottleneck areas where things like that can happen before fighting there. I've started to develop a sense for how rounds will turn out based on the terrain/features of the battleground, which is good.

Round 2 - OHS at Factory

Same teams

This round was pretty fun. I held a position on top of a balcony for most of the battle, in an attempt to draw attention away from Bailey and chief, who were going to attack them on the ground level and push them towards me, while the rest of my team would assist me either on the balcony or by shooting through a hole in one of the warehouse walls. Bailey and chief ended up just luring people into ambushes, while my group fought with the rest. There were some pretty action-packed moments, and plenty of kills were made. Scott's dad impressed me with surprisingly good (considering he's the oldest person to ever fight with us) combat skills. I thought it was hilarious how he actually managed to land hits on some of the veterans, even though he did take quite a few. We need to get him to fight more, haha. Scott ended up running out of water, and picked up a camera to film. Unfortunately the way he was still holding his blaster while filming in a battle position (poking around a corner) caused us to soak him thinking he was still playing. Next time make it more obvious that you're out! I think my team won in the end. Overall a good round. Two people showed up at the end of the fight and disappeared into one of the dark rooms. As it turned out, they were going in there to light up some weed, and marauder, who had disappeared to flank us, brought them out of the clouds by accidentally hosing them down with his 2000. "You soaked my bowl, man!" Classic! After that we decided to leave the factory.

Round 3 - 7-point Outpost/Domination/Conquest at "Northgate"

SEAL
chief
CA99
scottthewaterwarrior
Area51
vs.
Bailey
marauder
Danny
AMBUSH
Duxburian


As CA99 put it in the FF thread, this round was a disaster (for my team, anyway). We started out by capturing 4 of the points, but due to a miscommunique we started a little later than the enemy did, and from there things went downhill as Scott and chief and I got pinned against the edge of a steep hill while trying to defend a point, leaving CA99 and Area51 to try and defend three points against marauder, against whom they didn't fare so well. My 12K's pump was leaking so I ran out of water early on, effectively dooming the team to an infestation of "blue side up". The trouble was that I'd never played non-linear Outpost/Domination/whatever before, so I didn't really have a good plan for what to do after we initially captured the points. Looking back on it I would've handled it a LOT differently. There were also some issues with respawn rules; we had it so you had to touch a point that you posses to respawn, which caused some iSoak'd-esque situations. My idea for solving this problem is to make it so you have to respawn somewhere nearby a captured point, but not directly on it. A spawn time of maybe 20-30 seconds might help too. Overall I think this round was a good learning experience. It was also kind of fun at first, with an intense shootout over one of the points.

Round 4 - OHS at "Northgate"

Bailey
SEAL
AMBUSH
Duxburian
CA99
vs.
marauder
Danny
chief
scottthewaterwarrior
Area51

I liked this round a lot. We started out by maneuvering around the area, ultimately ending up dug in at the mansion, waiting for the enemy. When they came we got stuck Mexican-style, with no advancements made on either side. After a couple minutes of this I decided something really needed to be done or we'd end the round with another 0-0 tie. So I ran away to my left down a narrow path through a thorn bush thicket, with the idea to flank the opponents and stir things up. Scott called marauder over when he saw me, bringing his nephews with him. Rather than charge all 4 of them, I waited until marauder ran back to wherever he was before (probably to help chief), then I quietly ran over and brought the heat. Danny didn't even see me until I fired, when he was already hit. AMBUSH and Bailey joined me as we all rushed at Scott and Area51, causing them to hightail it over to the rest of the team. The three of us then attacked the whole enemy team from behind while they were engaging DX and CA99. This was where the most kills were made I think. AMBUSH and I ended up skirmishing with Scott and chief way away from the rest of the group when the round ended, with my team snagging the 'W'. The funny thing is that it might've ended up as a boring tie had I not done what I did. Just goes to show you how one little thing can change the entire outcome of the battle. Probably one of my favorite battles of the war.

Round 5 - OHS at "Northgate"

Bailey
marauder
SEAL
chief
Area51
vs.
Danny
AMBUSH
Duxburian
CA99
scottthewaterwarrior

We started really close together for this round, which as you know isn't my preferred style of fighting. To make matters worse, the enemy started on a hill with no intentions of leaving it, creating a HTL scenario. True, this round wasn't one of my favorites, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The beginning of the battle saw little action, but chief decided to go around back to attack them from behind. The rest of us mostly stared the enemy team down, until he got into position near the top of the rear of the hill, at which point I ran up the side to join him. The great thing was that the wind was at our backs, enabling us to kick all sorts of ass. I think we got like 5 or 6 kills between the two of us. They could barely even reach us with their streams. However the fun wouldn't last; I was running my borrowed 1000 (thanks Scott!) low, so we decided to back off and return to the rest of the team with the intent of going on the defensive. We'd done plenty of damage. Things started going a little downhill after that; I fell a couple feet off a concrete block onto my side while dodging a shot and was hit from behind while trying to get away. marauder also hurt his foot, and Bailey pulled a leg muscle, making for an injury-filled battle. Despite that we still held onto our lead and won the round. It was pretty fun, but a little too immobile for my tastes.

Day 2:

Bailey wasn't available for Sunday, but everyone else was still around, so we still had good numbers. Our venue would be the barn and foundry area, which was up the trail from "Northgate". We were supposed to get started around 9:30-10:00, but it ended up being like 11:30 or something. Then we had to walk a mile up the mountain to get to the battleground, which took a lot longer then we remembered. We probably didn't start the first battle until after noon. I think for future wars we really need to minimize the amount of walking time to get to where we want to fight.

Round 6 - OHK at Barn/Foundry Area

SEAL
Duxburian
CA99
scottthewaterwarrior
Area51
vs.
marauder
Danny
AMBUSH
chief

My team started at the foundry, and the other team started at the barn. I believe the more experienced players had light primaries, while everyone else could wield whatever they wanted. We never actually engaged near any of the buildings, but rather on a slight hill off to the side. Somehow I found myself dueling both of my brothers along with Scott and CA99, while DX was off with Area51 fighting marauder and Danny. I think Danny's gun froze up, forcing him to leave the battle and pick up a camera, leaving the others locked in a standoff of sorts. Conversely, on my end, things were getting pretty hot. Even though he's been to like every war, AMBUSH was still allowed to use whatever he chose, in this case his 1021. Meanwhile I had a 270 and Scott and CA99 had 150s I think, so it was tough. I was doing a lot of running around and shooting, but my teammates for the most part stood in one place. We really should have tried to surround them or something. I finally figured that the 1021 absolutely needed to go, so I made an all-out rush attempt that turned into a double kill. At least the big gun was out of the fight, right? I was hoping that Scott and CA99 would then gang up on chief, but the latter ran away to join marauder without even a threat of pursuit. Come on guys! :p From there the remainder of each team stared each other down from across a creek, resulting in our calling the round. If I were still in I would've moved out of the position and tried a flanking move or something, just to keep things moving. Calling the round wouldn't have been necessary then.

Round 7 - 1-flag CTF at Foundry

marauder and I had to go back to the car for some guns and supplies, which resulted in our missing the next two rounds. So naturally they were some of the most intense, or at least that's what people said. They did a 1-flag defense-type game around the foundry building, then switched sides. Not much I can say about it.

Round 8 - 1-flag CTF at Foundry

See above.

Round 9 - 1-flag CTF at Barn

SEAL
AMBUSH
CA99
scottthewaterwarrior
vs.
marauder
Danny
chief
Duxburian
Area51

After eating lunch we decided to do another one of these rounds, but in the barn instead. My team defended first, and while I thought it'd be a massacre because of all the windows and ways to shoot in, we actually held out for about six minutes before enough of us were eliminated at once that marauder could jump through a window and make off with the flag. I made good use of the zone tactic in this round, and I have to admit there was a lot of action. I still think I prefer longer-range stealth-based rounds however (not so much the way we've done them though). Not necessarily always in the woods either; a long range urban war in a place like where we explored on Friday would be incredible.

Round 10 - 1-flag CTF at Barn

Same teams; side switch

The enemy started by rushing out of the barn, I guess to unhinge us or something, but I countered by running around the side towards the unprotected flag, making them run back in. Once again, quite a bit of shooting. Since marauder's way to the flag worked last time, I decided to use the same way. I spent a lot of the battle outside that window, waiting for an opportunity and shooting at whoever came within range. Eventually AMBUSH was able to run in, disrupt the defense, and take the flag. I quickly jumped through the window to his aid; chief shot him on his way out, followed by me shooting chief and picking up the flag where AMBUSH dropped it, returning it to the base. As it turned out, the enemy held out for about the same amount of time as we did, so the mini-series was tied. Fun little games.

Round 11 - 1-flag CTF at Foundry

Same teams

The last game of the war would be a redo of the previous rounds that marauder and I missed. Apparently the first games were fun, but this one was less so. My team couldn't make any headway for the entire match, despite all my crafty attempts at sneaking around the back and shooting through holes in the walls. I think the reason that this game was less successful than the previous ones is that we had extra people on defense, making it much harder to attack. marauder also went off to refill after respawning (while we all thought he was still out), and shot us from behind without our suspecting anything. Because of this I think we need to come up with standardized spawn rules. My suggestions are: Once you are hit, you must hold your hands up in the air and go respawn wherever the games rules dictate. Once you're back in, yell "Clear!" like they do in Nerf wars (DX and I already do it), then you're free to do whatever. Overall, I didn't enjoy the round that much, though some others did. Though if I had to do it over, I would've done a different approach that would probably have been pretty effective.

But because nothing was happening, we simply decided to call it. I think some wanted to switch sides, but most of us didn't, and it was getting dark so we ended the war. Some closing thoughts: I enjoyed the war, and I think many of us got better at fighting together and as a team. I myself learned a lot more from this war than from most others. I still had blaster troubles, but I'm getting used to it by now. I was disappointed that I didn't get to use my 2000, but maybe it's for the best because it probably would've broken again anyway. I also wish I could've seen everyone again during the week; I explored an epic place with CA99 on Friday, but all of our other plans were ruined by almost constant snowing. But aside from that, the war was a blast. Now can we plan for an all-day (and possibly all-night) battle?

Pictures (as usual I was too busy fighting to get many; we need an official cameraman or something):

Getting ready for the first round.


The whole group!


And again!


Being a boss as usual.


-SEAL

[HBWW]

Bailey and chief actually found a hidden way out of the factory, which they used to try and sneak around to attack the enemy flank, but stepped in a puddle and had to go respawn.

Whatever happened to environmental soakings (rain, streams, etc.) not counting as hits? lol.

The last 1-flag CTF would've been much better if I continued to push instead of refilling. I was under the impression that we didn't really have a time limit, but looks like you guys quit right as I finished reloading. We almost took control of that building, which would've allowed us to push the defense further inwards. The least I could've done was respawn and blast Ben at the same time. That's generally the preferred method of anti-spawn-camping.

I prefer having stealth opportunities in general, which is why I'm not into most woods based water warfare.

[SEAL]

^chief thought that marauder got him, but he found out later that he'd stepped in a puddle, making it look like he was hit. I don't know about Bailey though.

[the oncoming storm]

After reading about wars, Frozen Fury seems mostly to consist of short intense rounds urban fighting, while most other wars focus on longer rounds in small areas (leading to more standoffs)

[HBWW]

^ Sort of . Many wars last summer had strict time limits because they were setup to spend a lot of time hunting around in very large areas. What we needed were closer spawns, or time limits on hunting so that both teams have to reveal their positions after that time limit. For FF, we skipped longer-distance starting points mainly because they are a pain to setup and get coordinated.

[DX]

Frozen Fury has occurred among the shortest days of the year, and below freezing, so the rounds have to be different by default. Shorter, faster-paced action is necessary to play a decent number of rounds, plus keep people and blasters warmed up. Urban fighting is more suited to these types of rounds, and abandoned places are awesome, so I've incorporated more and more of them over time. Next year, I will be scouting for closer locations that would allow for similar rounds. Also, I want to do it earlier if possible, still furious, but not quite as frozen.

Whatever happened to environmental soakings (rain, streams, etc.) not counting as hits? lol.

Logically, only actual hits by players should count. RM - WB had an environmental soaking rule because our hit system only counted the shirt, shots anywhere else were discarded. Therefore, visual checks were much more important. If your shirt was soaked from something else, it would be very difficult to check for hits.

The last 1-flag CTF would've been much better if I continued to push instead of refilling. I was under the impression that we didn't really have a time limit, but looks like you guys quit right as I finished reloading

There is no time limit, it doesn't end until the offense takes the flag. However, I think the offense was having ice-in-nozzles trouble and that may have been the cause of ending the round early, because the defense was very close to breaking.

[SEAL]

Seems to me like every war has had mostly short rounds in small to medium-sized areas. They aren't always fast-paced due to how they're set up, but I feel we have learned so much about how to set up a good round. The main problem with the rounds at Downpour was that they were designed for larger numbers than our 5-6. At this war we almost had too many people for some of the rounds (1-flag CTF in particular, because the buildings were kind of small), but most of them worked out well.

So we are doing this next year?

[marauder]

I disagree that we had too many people. In the first 2 4 v 5 single flag CTF rounds the attackers took the flag in 6 minutes. Definitely not too many people. In the round after that, the final round, the defenders did have more of an advantage, but it still only lasted 19 minutes. That's not to say that you would have captured the flag in the 20th minute, but 19 minutes is not a long time in the grand scheme of things. As CA99 would probably be more than glad to point out, we generally spend at least this much time searching for each other in longer woods rounds.

The issue that needs to be addressed here is how to choose rounds based off the location and number of people involved. We want our rounds to be as fun as possible. Perhaps the final round would have been more fun if there had been more than 1 flag. We could have had another flag in the room that CA99 kept attacking out of, and or a flag in the room Keith was defending.

The short, 6 minute single flag CTF rounds were a great way to pack a lot of fighting into a small amount of time. We got an awfully late start, had a horrible hike to get to the battlefield, and still managed to get a good amount of fighting in. I think that this should definitely be included in future wars if the battlefield supports it.

The worst rounds, in my opinion, are the ones with lots of stand offs and hardly any action. I hope that even the most ardent urban warfare enthusiasts would prefer a long of woods warfare with lots of stalking and chasing to an urban or semi wooded battle mostly consisting of stand offs. The 1hk round between the 2 bases was one of the worst rounds I've ever been in. The 1hs fighting between the mansion and the ruins was ok. I could tolerate one of those rounds per war, but it would not be ideal.

At this point I can tell we are really getting off subject from your war report. We have commentary on the war in both this and the FF topic and now we are talking about what would be ideal for future wars. While I'm not super OCD about this like the NIC I think it might be best if we tried to coalesce the post war discussion. Should we use this topic or the other one to discuss our thoughts on the war? Also, at the end of the month, or even now if y'all want it, I would like to start a 2013 League Community Wars in review topic which centers on what we learned about what makes for a more enjoyable experience for all and how we can incorporate that into next years wars.

[HBWW]

^ Thank you. Adding more objectives adds more depth and makes these defense games more interesting and is why I've wanted to push for more in-depth single-sided objective games in the past (but always met with resistance or poor implementations such as the Soakemore beach landing). I honestly think the Foundry 1-flag CTF games have been enlightening to showing some of the kind of wars we really do want, but I can see how some won't feel this way since their role in those games may not have been as exciting. The new urban style of gametype is very different from what everyone is used to, but I'm super-excited for the direction that it's going in and would love to setup more games of that nature. Of course, that's also dependent on the playing environments; I don't think I've really played in a good woods environment so far in community wars except for Sycamore Island. Legend Park woods had a few interesting rounds, but a lot of them played rather similarly to day 2's 1HK game.

Problem is, I can't quite dictate game types and setups until I host my own war, and with a lot of these new places, I don't have the previous knowledge of them to plan out games. 1-flag CTF turned out to be a hit completely by unplanned accident.

@marauder: Feel free to start a new topic. However, there's not much to discuss on the war report itself other than reviewing our differing opinions and experiences of the event.

[SEAL]

I'm pretty sure there's already a topic for the future of community wars, though I guess it isn't quite the same thing as a "2013 In Review" topic. Everything in this thread should be about Frozen Fury.

I disagree that we had too many people. In the first 2 4 v 5 single flag CTF rounds the attackers took the flag in 6 minutes. Definitely not too many people.

I said almost too many people. I don't know about the rest of you, but to me the 1-flag games felt a tad cramped, meaning that a couple more people would be too many (for those locations). That's just me though.

[HBWW]

I think they were set just right. Higher player density, yes, but not cramped at all. The barn had enough flow to it where you could attack from a number of different angles. With more players, the fight would've been pushed out a bit and perhaps start getting cramped, but I never remotely came close to not having enough options. Even with the foundry, there's enough room to push forward, although with a few more players it would've been quite difficult and the fighting would've been too spread out. (However, if such a problem arose, it could be solved by additional objectives as M4 said, and/or by adding other dynamics to the game to assist the assault.)

There's a lot of potential in these games, much more so than in many OHS-in-the-woods games I've played.