2012 Community War

[DX]

Dangerous is good. Crowded is not. I found an epic place to fight in the Pequannock River Valley SP here in southern CT, but it's too popular with civilians. That, and there's no staging area or mass parking. I wouldn't mind coming to Dug Hill again, but the offseason presents a good opportunity to search out potential alternatives.

A good candidate venue needs to have:

A: Parking. Enough for all of us plus civilians. There should be space for at least a dozen cars.

B: Staging area. A nice place to dump our gear. Can be a pavilion, a picnic table area, or as i've used once, a giant piece of bedrock on a cliff. Should be convenient to the main playing area and the parking lot. If it's not a man-made structural thingy, it should be semi-private, an area we can claim as ours for the day/night.

C: Low human traffic. Should not be the most popular park in the region. Less people = less mistaken shots and less chance of things being stolen. Many big parks have secondary picnic areas and entrances that are relatively unknown to most. These are ideal.

D: Woods. Because you don't want to stand in an open field all day. Any kind of forest suffices, but the best have elevation changes and boulders or patches of thick bushes. It's nice if you can't see through it for miles like at Dug Hill, we need to have concealment.

E: Water sources: Pavilions with spigots are great like at Dug Hill. But, to fight several rounds deep into a park, it's nice to have a permanent natural source like a river, creek, lake, or pond. They also create interesting tactical scenarios. The water should not be bright orange, blood red, sewage green, or oil black. Don't ask don't tell.

F: Accessible location. At this point we are looking in CT, NY, NJ, and PA. Anything else starts to get really far. DE, DC, MA, may be acceptable if the venue is too good to resist. There should be at least one major highway nearby. There should be at least one viable campground nearby, or camping in the venue itself. For those who prefer not to camp, there also need to be hotels in the nearest city. Food nearby is a plus. An incontinence center run by Dr. Wood is a must.

G: Low number of rules. The venue should not be tightly patrolled by cops or tightly regulated by ordinances. We should be able to walk in with camo and homemade launchers and play in the woods all day and not have an issue. If there are cops, they need to be provided with soakers, so plan ahead.

H: Friendly natural environment. No mosquitoes is a huge plus. No ticks is even bigger. No poison ivy would help our poor, unfortunate, non-immune brethren. No hidden bee nests is another plus (ask Skitzo all about bees and the Battle for New York on Nerfhaven).

I: Relatively easy place to find. 850 Dug Hill Rd. M4 and I would not be cheated when we rolled up to that address and found zilch, so we pressed on without a guide and after many Indian raids, defective wagon wheels (damn firestone tires), river portages, worn out shoes, precarious winding passes, blinding snowstorms, forlorn hope, and cannibalism, we finally descended upon the golden gate of West Hurley Park. Oh, not to mention that evil Old Route 28 joke that Wilson Campground played on me and Wetmonkey. Talk about smoke and mirrors! Or the non-existent McDonalds in Kingston. At that point I really might have eaten Andrea. Or Route 28A and the Catskill conspiracy to have us circling the reservoir for all eternity. Without pavement. Damn Olive has a huge town dump.

[SEAL]

Well, let's go over the place I found, shall we?

A: Umm, no.

B: Nothing but rocks and mounds.

C: Hunters are the only people who ever go there.

D: Is the Pope Catholic?

E: There's a huge lake in the middle.

F: It's much closer to my house than Dug Hill, maybe 15 minutes up 28A.

G: Well, you need a permit to go in, but I don't think any cops have been there for years.

H: I'm not sure. There may be mosquitos, and there are ticks in my area (But I've never got one.), but I havn't seen much poison ivy there, and no bee's nests.

I: It's harder to find than Dug Hill. That said, did you guys really get lost (That's what I interpreted.)? I gave you my phone number for a reason. Oh, and the McDonalds is being rebuilt.

I doubt we could fight at this location, but I don't think I've ever seen a cooler battleground. I definitely want to have a war there sometime (Probably next year.).

[DX]

I: We got there the way Odysseus got home to Ithaca from Troy, both times (one with M4 a month in advance and then with Wetmonkey). I forget which navigational errors match up with which trip, but there were a ton. We got lost in Kingston desperately trying to find food. We flew by Hurley Mountain Road both times. We couldn't locate the park until we followed Dug Hill way down more. We got lost on Dug Hill and ended up on 28A going around the reservoir. We ended up at the Olive dump on a dirt road heading up a mountainside. We crossed Escopus Creek in both directions and turned around again and went around the reservoir the other way. The GPS on my rapidly dying iphone battery got us out eventually on some random, winding roads. When we saw Hurley Mountain Road again we knew that we'd live.

Do you have pictures of the other location? For certain things that are too nice to pass up, property laws are more like...guidelines...

[marauder]

I: Relatively easy place to find. 850 Dug Hill Rd. M4 and I would not be cheated when we rolled up to that address and found zilch, so we pressed on without a guide and after many Indian raids, defective wagon wheels (damn firestone tires), river portages, worn out shoes, precarious winding passes, blinding snowstorms, forlorn hope, and cannibalism, we finally descended upon the golden gate of West Hurley Park. Oh, not to mention that evil Old Route 28 joke that Wilson Campground played on me and Wetmonkey. Talk about smoke and mirrors! Or the non-existent McDonalds in Kingston. At that point I really might have eaten Andrea. Or Route 28A and the Catskill conspiracy to have us circling the reservoir for all eternity. Without pavement. Damn Olive has a huge town dump.

I really feel bad about her... she was nice... she even wanted to come to the war. She was getting 5 gallon buckets from work to bring. That was an epic adventure unto itself.

[SEAL]

Jeez, maybe I should write down precise directions next time! I thought you'd be able to get directions online or by GPS, but I guess we sort of live in the middle of nowhere, and the "All-knowing" internet is lost when it comes to this neck 'o the woods.
And who's Andrea? Sounds like you guys had quite a few adventures that you failed to mention.

Back on topic, I can try to get down to the battlegrounds sometime for pictures (My brother wanted to anyway.), but like I said, there's hardly any places to park (But I'm sure we'd be the only ones there.), and there's absolutely no amenities whatsoever; it's in the middle of the woods. We'd sort of have to, um, duck in when nobody's around, because you have to cut through a very teensy little section of private property (It's actually a game preserve.) to get there, and I don't want suspcious people calling the fuzz.

[DX]

And who's Andrea? Sounds like you guys had quite a few adventures that you failed to mention.

Andrea is the spark that ignited that adventure.



This is a picture of me and M4, 1 month before the community war. You'll recognize that rock anywhere now....it's in the Dug Hill park in West Hurley, NY.



And this is a picture of me and M4, except that's not in NY. It kind of looks familiar...a striking resemblance to the east bank of Waterbridge in Ridgewood, NJ. That's because it is...

I live in Connecticut. Andrea lives in New York City. M4 lives in North Carolina. There are pictures of us in West Hurley and in Ridgewood. Use your imagination.

[SEAL]

I am working on making a video tour of the "secret" battlegrounds, so you guys can decide for yourselves whether or not it's worth it to risk going there. One thing that will be particularly hard is getting all our equipment in there without arousing suspicion. Also, we'd need a place to park the cars; I think the less cars, the better. I would strongly advise against camping out there; you'd probably have to use Wilson again (Or a hotel.).

DX: Is Waterbridge a nice spot? Ridgewood is a relatively short drive from here, and it may be a more convienent location for others. Of course, we'd have to look into places to stay, but that shouldn't be difficult.

[marauder]

The great/horrible thing is that my computer won't turn on anymore, so all my pictures with her are lost. It's like all of that never happened.

[DX]

@M4: What kind of computer is it? I have a recovery thingy that can boot up any computer and perform repairs even if you are unable to boot up the OS. I'm not quite sure how it works, it might have to be burned to a CD and then put into the drive. The concept of starting a computer and bypassing the operating system is where a geek loses me. It's a 200mb file, which I'd rather send over Skype instead of FTP if possible. At least try it before resorting to things that would result in permanent data loss.

@Seal: Ridgewood has almost nowhere to stay. It's a residential suburb of the city, thus it lacks both hotels and campgrounds. I lived there for 11 years and I can't name a single place to stay reasonably near a viable battlefield. That, and the few viable parks have cramped or no parking. Neither of the previously used ones have staging areas either, which would mean carrying everything deeper in - easy at Waterbridge, a nightmare at Goffle. Saxon Woods in Mamaroneck, NY (Westchester County) is a serious option. I've nerfed there 4 times and it's the closest type of park to water warfare in the NIC.

Perhaps there could be a park scouting trip or two this upcoming spring? String favorable-looking parks into a route and we could go have a look. It's not exactly an unprecedented idea...

[HBWW]

Well I guess I don't have much say for this, haha. No guarantees on it either, at least not until I have a job and my own money to save up for a flight or something.

What you could probably do is gut out the HDD and hook it to another computer, and copy the files from there. Might want to make sure the computer being used has up to date antivirus and what not.

Files can also be uploaded to places like Mediafire, and they're not made public/search engine indexed; the're only visible to those you share the URL with.

[SEAL]

Perhaps there could be a park scouting trip or two this upcoming spring? String favorable-looking parks into a route and we could go have a look. It's not exactly an unprecedented idea...

I don't think I could go on such a trip, but I'll be happy to give a personal tour of the battlegrounds to whoever may happen to come here. Heck, if it's warm enough, we could even have a small battle or something, to get a feel for the terrain (As I myself have never battled there either.).

[Shrike]

@M4: What kind of computer is it? I have a recovery thingy that can boot up any computer and perform repairs even if you are unable to boot up the OS. I'm not quite sure how it works, it might have to be burned to a CD and then put into the drive. The concept of starting a computer and bypassing the operating system is where a geek loses me. It's a 200mb file, which I'd rather send over Skype instead of FTP if possible. At least try it before resorting to things that would result in permanent data loss.

It works like a second OS. You can burn it to a cd or store it on a flash drive, but i'd recommend the cd. When you boot your computer, you have to go into BIOs setup and change it so it boots the computer from the cd drive. That way, your computer loads the OS from the cd into the memory instead of the one from the hard drive, bypassing the problem that won't let you start the computer.
I know, off topic, but i hope it clears things up a little

[scottthewaterwarrior]

I'd say we should just have it the same place as last year. There was a little talk about having it here (DC) but honistly I think New York would be better. We all know how unreliable I am at getting things done. I have a bad habit of saying I will help people even when I already have to much to do, like with that war report - sorry about that Would be really cool if we could stay overnight this year at the park, some one mentioned that right? I read most of the posts, but some of them were weeks ago.

[SEAL]

Scott: Don't worry about that battle report; me, M4, and DX have all posted reports, so you really don't have to (Not that I wouldn't enjoy reading a report of the battle from your point of view.), unless you started one already.

I did indeed say that we could stay overnight at the park, as long as we can reserve the pavilion for 2 (Or maybe more...) days. That's why, if we want to have it at Dug Hill again, we would need a date pretty early, because those people there on saturday had it reserved since April at least.

Then again, Dug Hill is pretty close to that other battleground that I found, so maybe we could even arrange to fight at both.

[scottthewaterwarrior]

I did start that battle report actuly, but then school started and I never got back to it. There isn't really a point of posting what I have, it reads like a book so is a few pages in word but only half way through the first battle, so before the actual "battle" part. If I ever even finish that first battle I will be sure to post it, but it's not to likely. Like I said, I have a bad habit of trying to help even when I can't, like that Water gun review/story thing isoaker was doing last year.

[marauder]

I did start that battle report actuly, but then school started and I never got back to it. There isn't really a point of posting what I have, it reads like a book so is a few pages in word but only half way through the first battle, so before the actual "battle" part. If I ever even finish that first battle I will be sure to post it, but it's not to likely. Like I said, I have a bad habit of trying to help even when I can't, like that Water gun review/story thing isoaker was doing last year.

Just do the first battle then, because I'd really like to hear it from your perspective. You were the last person on the other team, or was it 2nd to the last? eliminated.

[DX]

Just 5 more feet closer during the ambush and he would have been the first eliminated :p I should have just rushed out blazing, but didn't want to risk it.

[SEAL]

You guys were talking about an all-night war in another thread, and that gave me an awesome idea. Assuming we have it at Dug Hill again, each team could camp out in different areas of the woods, and we could have people taking turns keeping watch, and have raids on the other team's base in the middle of the night. To make it even more interesting, we wouldn't tell the other team exactly where the tent/base is. Wouldn't that be great?

I should have just rushed out blazing, but didn't want to risk it.

Yeah, I would have shot you.

[DX]

Yeah, I would have shot you.

In yo' dreams. Actually, considering what a biatch it is to re-pump a totally depressurized CPS 2000, probably...

and we could have people taking turns keeping watch

My team won't be sleeping...

[atvan]

Unless I'm on it. My bedtime is strictly 6:42. I can play sleepy sleepy decoy if you'd like.