Community Summer War

Discussion of past, present, and future water war events.
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atvan
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Re: Community Summer War

Post by atvan » Mon Sep 05, 2011 6:43 pm

Stream Macine is a brand name.

Glad that page is over. It took forever to load.
DX wrote:In the neanderthal days of K-modding, people would lop off the whole PRV
Well, not that much soakage.
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Re: Community Summer War

Post by DX » Tue Sep 06, 2011 1:49 pm

That is until I put up pics :p They aren't that great really, just the FFA in the field because I was too busy fighting in the serious games.
marauder wrote:You have to explain things in terms that kids will understand, like videogames^ That's how I got Sam to stop using piston pumpers

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Re: Community Summer War

Post by isoaker » Tue Sep 06, 2011 2:59 pm

DX wrote:That is until I put up pics :p They aren't that great really, just the FFA in the field because I was too busy fighting in the serious games.
When it comes to pics, if you don't have time/easy access to hosting, I'll be happy to push pics online if you are willing and able to email them to me. Just a thought!

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Re: Community Summer War

Post by DX » Tue Sep 06, 2011 3:54 pm

I finally have a good host, but the delay has been compressing and scaling them, which is annoying. My camera takes pictures in dimensions of 4320 × 3240, which is gigantic.
marauder wrote:You have to explain things in terms that kids will understand, like videogames^ That's how I got Sam to stop using piston pumpers

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Re: Community Summer War

Post by isoaker » Tue Sep 06, 2011 4:03 pm

DX wrote:I finally have a good host, but the delay has been compressing and scaling them, which is annoying. My camera takes pictures in dimensions of 4320 × 3240, which is gigantic.
If you're willing to FTP things, I can do fast scaling and compression if you're interested.

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Re: Community Summer War

Post by DX » Tue Sep 06, 2011 4:06 pm

Sure, PM the details.
marauder wrote:You have to explain things in terms that kids will understand, like videogames^ That's how I got Sam to stop using piston pumpers

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Re: Community Summer War

Post by isoaker » Tue Sep 20, 2011 8:30 am

DX wrote:Sure, PM the details.
Shall I post the link or will you?

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Re: Community Summer War

Post by DX » Tue Sep 20, 2011 12:31 pm

Will post late tonight with my full report. Been putting it off because the thing is massive.
marauder wrote:You have to explain things in terms that kids will understand, like videogames^ That's how I got Sam to stop using piston pumpers

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Re: Community Summer War

Post by DX » Wed Sep 21, 2011 9:54 pm

DX's Full War Report

For starters, here's some pics, mainly from the Saturday afternoon soakfest. I was far too busy fighting during the good rounds, haha.

http://www.isoaker.com/Gallery/WaterWar ... WarDX.html

I hate most of the pics and videos of the war where you can see me because I look a good 6 years below my age. Normally I have a large goatee, but it was shaved for a job interview a few days before the war. But, I digress...

So, we met up at the campground on Friday evening and set up the tents, checked out the place, and went out for dinner. There's two things you can do in Kingston: Find food and see Dr. Richard Wood at the Incontinence Center. Ask M4 all about it…

Anyway, we arrived back when it was dark and I mean DARK. When I lived in Jersey, it simply didn't get dark at night. Here in Conn, it gets dark, but there's still some light pollution around the area. Now, in Hurley, NY it gets DARK, there is absolutely no light anywhere. The moon was 3/4 full and you couldn't see 10 ft past your face. Of course, the one vital thing I'd forgotten to bring was a flashlight, just had my dying cell phone. That would come back to haunt me in the very first fight.

We decided to do a night soakfest. There was a set of bathrooms down the road to the right, about a 5 minute walk from the campsite. The building was placed in an open field near the edge of the woods. We ended up using the handicapped shower to fill and refill, as the sinks were kind of small. I figured out that the plastic trash can could be filled and used to put water in when the sink couldn't keep filling a gun (the trash was in a liner bag, with the actual container surface clean). Simply put, I didn't feel like waiting for the shower and this way I also didn't get the whole gun soaked while trying to fill it.

We fought no rules FFA for probably half an hour continuously. 2000 on 2000 was a lot of fun except for the pumping. By the end of the soakfest I was holding the pump in place and shoving the gun back and forth with my right hand. Repumping a 2000 in a fast-paced soakfest burns. There were some good duels. I preferred to block or dodge when someone came at me head on with a longer lasting stream. I saved the full load for someone else when they weren't looking in my direction. The choice target was M4 right after he unloaded his 2000 :p There was one duel where I remember Will charging me with his 1500 and loading everything, only to have it all miss to the right. My MK2 didn't miss in return, but someone else then got me from another direction. You don't emerge dry from a FFA no matter what you do, haha.

Andrew's 21K ran into issues and he returned with M4 to the campsite for a while. Rambo, Will, and I were all thinking the same thing: ambush the crap out of them when they walk back. At this point, the battle became 3v2 team soakfest.

So, we reloaded and took up positions between trees across from the door to the bathrooms. We let M4 and Wetmonkey walk in, fill, and walk out. However, triggering the ambush was a bit late, I thought the closer person was going to trigger and they waited.

M4 and Wetmonkey got away and ran into the fringe of the woods. With the big lights on the bathroom, it was impossible to see into the fringe. Rambo, Will, and I kept our distance and I reminded them to stay out of "water gun range" from it. We patrolled back and forth, but didn't have positive ID on anything. I was reluctant to enter the woods given the lighting, so we walked around to see if the enemy would mirror.

At one point, I was in an ambush position behind the bathroom and came within a fraction of a second from soaking a random stranger from inches away. It was the same person that M4 had already hit point blank with the same gun, lolz. He came around the corner as I lunged out, it was so close that my nozzle was almost on his chest and I don't know how I managed to abort pulling the trigger.

At some point, I saw some light from the right side woods, across from the street. We set up near some big rocks at the road in anticipation that the enemy had gone there. However, the lights stopped and nothing else happened. I let it go, but never stopped glimpsing in that direction and wouldn't go within water gun range of it.

I then assumed that they must have back up to the road and were going to ambush from it. We were near the corner of the place and on a dark road with dense forest on each side. This is when they were really spread eagle on the ground to our right, just out of range. Thus, my decision to pull back and refill might have saved a blindside.

We took a while to refill, which was a mistake, but like a quarterback who doesn't pick up the blitz, I didn't expect them to come out and set up an ambush at the door. The video is really funny, you see me open the door, take a huge blast to the chest, and recoil back inside.

On Saturday, we got up bright and early to head to the war site. Now, as previously leaked, M4 and I had visited the site a month earlier and mapped the place. It paid off to know the terrain.

Our team started in the woods. We decided to go all the way back to a gulch near mining tailings. We traveled quietly along the far side, stepping on moss to avoid making noise. There was no trace of the enemy, but at one point we heard someone (which may have been Scott). When we were way on the left of the battlefield, it was time to cross the small swamp/stream in the center and go up the other side at a wide trail covered in ferns. While resting behind a huge boulder on the right side, we saw nothing.

We then moved up to the fringe of the open rock pile area and still saw no trace of the other team. There was still no trace even when we circled the park from the narrow strip of woods out in front. I thought they might be waiting in ambush in a thick area of bushes, while M4 thought they might be doing the same thing we were. That ended up being the case, but we wouldn't know that until later.

Now on the extreme right of the battlefield, right of the entrance road, we moved through the woods back to the main area and up some rocks (near where my base was for CTF). We swept the woods in the area and saw no trace. It was a good formation, with M4 at point with a 2000 and me at rear with a 2000. If attacked from the rear, my position would become point with no changes necessary. If attacked from either flank, we could wheel around and the 2000's would then be on our flanks.

On our way down the center path, Wetmonkey's gray shirt came into view. I signaled that I'd seen it and we hit the deck. The enemy was actually coming up to the same path we were on and would be at our position in a matter of seconds. We had almost no cover there, not even real trees, so we booked it out of there and into a ditch with good tree cover. Amazingly, the enemy did not see or hear this pretty messy retreat.

After that we lost them, but reacquired visual while in the woods closer to the baseball field. We saw their whole team moving to the left (right side of the park). We mirrored them and again, not quietly at all (it was a full run). M4, again at point, got us off the path quickly, near a row of pine trees. We got behind deciduous trees behind those, about 60ft from the path. We'd only been in ambush position for about a minute and a half before we saw the enemy coming down that path from the left, walking single-file. Wetmonkey was at point and had to have seen us, but I guess he couldn't convey that knowledge to his team without giving away that he knew. They kept on walking and when the last person passed my tree, I leapt out to trigger the ambush, unloading my full 2000 blast. However, they were just out of range, maybe less than 5 ft, and I didn't get anyone. I stood aside to pump while the rest of my team rushed. The enemy ran away, but Seal tripped and M4 got him.

M4 noticed that Keith ran to the right and was isolated, so he took off after him. I covered his left with his cousins and came very close to walking into an ambush from a high rock position at a bend in the path. However, we'd scouted the place and I knew about that, it came back to me in a flash of panic and I literally stopped dead, right as a stream, possibly Scott's or Wetmonkey's, flew by in front of me. Two more strides forward and I'd have been dead.

I dodged two shots and got out of there, around to where the position is weaker. M4's cousins and I gradually pushed forward and drove them from the rock. They fled down into thick stuff a good distance below. We did not pursue, as we needed to block access to M4's left. Again, we did not make any kills, but M4 got Keith on the right while the rest of the enemy was distracted with us. M4 called for us to regroup and we met on the path.

We advanced down the path and got ambushed again, from thick stuff on the left. Wetmonkey came really close to hitting M4 when he trigged the ambush, but M4 got him. In bushes fighting, Will killed John, leaving Scott to make a last stand. We surrounded him, but he had a thick tree. I moved up to another tree and got in range. He was taking spray and droplets from me, but not enough to cross the threshold into a kill. Finally, I got a solid shot in that was plenty enough and the game was over. As far as 1HK rounds go, that was picture perfect with no losses on my team with the short stack.

The next round was attack and defense, with the rock pile as the base. I went all out on offense for this one, with Douchenator, APWC, and water balloons. The fancy stuff, however, was not very effective. Douchenator had an air leak and did not hold pressure, so it was never even fired. I did manage to get in close and unload APWC, but its inefficient, 5 year old design did not allow for a decisive wave of water. There was not enough water in the wye, so air got into the shot and made it mist too much. Hand-thrown water balloons were also ineffective, as the defense was able to move too much, so they missed at range. Water balloons may have been more effective in a base with cover, making the defense less able to move as much.

Again, my team came out of this without any losses. It was with lives and we took hits, but were able to eliminate the defense at full strength. The back ridge was supposed to be out of bounds, but it ended up getting used by both sides.

The next round was 3 team elimination limited only to air pressure guns. We'd talked about this before the war and decided to go for it. The main area of woods was used as the battlefield. My involvement in this round was rather brief, as M4's team and I went at each other in the beginning. We were both out in a flash, having gone for each other in traffic. I managed to take 2 XP 150 shots in that round. It ultimately came down to a 1 on 1 shootout between Seal and John. It took a ton of skirmishing, but Seal finally won.

The round was so much fun that we did it again, this time in 2 team format, still 1HK elimination. This time, I didn't die right at the start, but did get blindsided. I laid down a couple of kills and was moving in on the enemy center, having just told the person on my right to watch the right because there was an enemy there. Next thing I know, I'm being shot in the back from the right, but my teammate wasn't dead or there. Go figure. The endgame was the same as the first, with Seal and John in a looooooong shootout with Seal finally winning.

That concluded Saturday's fighting and we did not have a night battle. Seal's parents made us lunch and ordered pizza for dinner at the campsite. That stuff hit the spot after a long day of fighting.

We got up earlier on Sunday because M4 had to leave around noonish (NY to NC is a bit of a haul). The opening round was 2 team, 2 flag CTF. I have to kind of apologize for the unannounced change of flag position, as M4's ended up in a really great position, while mine was lying at the edge of an open field in front of a path with bad cover. That wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes, especially the way the enemy opened.

Thus, I moved the flag/Goblin to a low branch of a pine tree on the rock cliffs in from the field, a much better base. The thing was still in plain sight, but only if you looked up, lol. There was a sign prohibiting people from climbing the rocks, so that was one less flank to worry about.

M4's team started right in front of our base when time started, a good tactical move. However, he had the short stack and we repelled the attack. After dealing with that, we divided up offense and defense. With Seal back on D with a 2700, I wasn't worried about our defense. I went on offense and for the first wave, went alone to prod. Sneaking along the edge of the main path in the woods, I got up very close before M4 turned around like a sentinel. I managed to get in even closer, to pretty much the only good approach angle, resulting in an almost point-blank CPS 2000 duel behind trees. Luckily, I am skinny enough that my tree provided enough cover. However, he had one other person back and was calling him in. I couldn't stay there, so I rushed to M4's tree and wrapped around the right of it, shooting wildly. He got me when I ran out of pressure , diving for the flag. This solo attack was surprisingly successful, if he'd missed I would have been off to the races with the flag.

On my way back to respawn, I noticed that Wetmonkey was sneaking up near the rocks on the right, in the woods area where the park no longer prohibits it. I ran in to respawn and he had to get outta dodge. Trusting Seal to break that up, I turned back to the field and saw Will coming in to attack. Someone with me countered and we stayed between Will and my base to deny him entry. When my teammate went off to duel Will further out in the field, I saw an open road to M4's base and took it. This time, M4 was the only one on defense. However, I was out of breath and in the open. We again dueled 2000 on 2000, but in the open I could feel the MK1 asserting its will and in close droplets his stream was better, enough to send me back. It was not a waste of energy, for now I knew nobody else was defending.

Back in my base, there was a lot going on, but with all 5 of us back, the enemy attack was broken up. Now, I went on the offense for a 3rd wave with Scott and John. The plan was to dupe M4 into thinking I'd be the flag runner, using my 1st route and using the others as distractions. I was the actual distraction, with the serious approach to draw M4's attention. Scott would take the open approach in the field and be the one to actually kill M4 if I didn't. John would be the flag runner and go way off on the right, coming up from below the fringe unnoticed and take the flag when M4 was dead.

This worked pretty much on script. I came up to within feet of the flag like the first time and I dueled M4 2000 to 2000 at that deadly close range. The MK1 bested MK2, but Scott took M4 out from the open. I couldn't see what happened next, but in the chaos, John did get in, grabbed the flag, and took off. But, I went too far left and couldn't find the path. From where I was, I could see M4's attackers walking back in the field and suddenly could account for his whole team, meaning John would have an open road back to my base if he could get on the path and run. I was yelling for him to just drop everything and sprint (he had a gun and backpack). Unfortunately, he did not hear me and when he did get back to the path, took off with everything. Although all day had passed, maybe 2 whole minutes, I was worried he wouldn't make it because now M4 was alive again and running at a much faster rate.

Later, I would learn that M4 caught up to John and killed him, returning the flag, but that John had actually made it pretty far, almost back to my base. The time limit expired with no winner.

The next round was 2 team OHS in the gulch that the 1HK action the first day had started on. However, we took out the big CPS's and required 2 piston guns for each team. Respawn was also only 10 seconds. This made for a round of OHS that was unlike anything I'd played in 24 wars' worth. The score ended up being ridiculously high (see M4's report for how high), but it was a ton of fun. Fast-paced, with a lot of attacking, dodging, and dying. Deaths were kept track of instead of kills. Luckily, there had been so much rain lately that the gulch was full of water to refill from. When M4 and I first visited the war site, the place was tinder dry everywhere.

Poor Scott. He got cut off on the left and killed a bunch of times. I got him at least 14 times during the dueling alone on the left. My 12K was flying long range and wasn't missing much. To put the novelty of this round in perspective, my 3 deaths were lowest of anyone for the round, but more deaths than in my past 7, full length OHS wars and more than all of the 2007 season. The fast pace was not a detractor though, instead it resulted in M4 dropping the camera to take part in the next round, a repeat of this one.

Wetmonkey filmed for the next round, with otherwise the same teams. THunder boomed during this round, which made it epic. The Battle of Thunder Gulch was born, and it was intense. The rain did not help and eventually we stopped the round as it poured. I knew 2 people at my old summer camp who were killed instantly by the same bolt of lightning in 2006 in an open field, so now I am afraid of it in the open. We had to cross the wide open baseball field to return to the pavilion and I booked it the whole way. The odds are lower than winning the lottery, but still, there's that primal fear. I was fine with it in the woods, but open field carrying a water gun == lightning rod.

So concluded the community water war of 2011. But, this report ain't over yet, you're stuck with me for a little while longer.

The community war was a great chance to play the major gametypes and see how they worked out. We played three games recommended by the iSoaker Water Warfare League and not giving feedback on how things went would be a wasted opportunity.

The first was Team One Hit Eliminates. My first comment is that the recommended time limit is actually too short. We didn't have teams larger than 5 a piece and our game ran way over an hour. Of course, the whole first hour was spent just trying to find the other team, but nobody really had a problem with that. I would recommend either having a 1-2 hour time limit, or no time limit and letting the game play out. In a tournament setting, the area of play would probably be small enough to allow for one team to get eliminated in a reasonable amount of time, without being clocked. They can't just run away after an engagement and they can't stalk for long without coming to battle. Plus, momentum turns hard against one team once it starts losing more players than the other. Think about 3-15 in Nerf wars, where the smaller team rapidly gets beat down. I would never do just 15 minutes, even 30 min may be too short. The size of the teams also does not determine how long the game should run, it's the size of the area of play and how aggressive the teams are. Big area of play, long time limit and vice versa. Large teams that clash hard could get to an endgame after that single engagement. Special rules like air pressure only also allow for time to naturally be lengthened or shortened. Honor-based hits worked for the most part. We went with direct hit (could be angled). Everyone was pretty cool and honest about hits, so we had no major disputes, only the routine questioning of whether an amount was enough or who shot first.

The second was Team Capture the Flag. This was a pure type as specified in the League gsmetype, with no scoring and no elimination. Only flag capture could win the game. We did a time limit of 25 minutes, which was long enough to get in 3 series on offense. The league recommendation should stand: no shorter than 20 minutes. 30 to an hour might be the best length, it would have been interesting if each side could have gotten in one or two more series. Our hit system was the same as with 1HK, with respawn points about 30 seconds away from the base. We did not do the recommended end game, as it was pure CTF. We just decided on a draw since no flag was taken all the way. In a tournament, sudden death might make sense. Either that, or better yet, move the flags to an open field and do a sort of overtime game of about 10 minutes, with 1HK elimination for players. That way, it's easy to get at each flag, plus elimination could end it as well. I don't think that bases and spawn points need to be designated with flags. Two flags are all that is needed, but all players should know about the location of both bases, both flags, and both spawn points. Our change of flag location messed up the other team and that was not the intention, only defensibility, but that was a result. We started the game using prior agreed-upon time. That way, we didn't have to bother with audible or visual signals or have to make people move to give/see them. The league text about multiple flags is interesting, however, unrealistic given how hard it was just to touch one flag and live. We had a good playing area for CTF, allowing routes to sneak through the woods, but also in the open. It was very interesting with that combination.

The third type was my darling, Team One Hit Scores. While, we played it with pretty standard OHS rules, it turned out much differently than what I was used to. This indicates that there is potential for greater variability in this game family and a lot of possible gametypes. All we did was change the time limit to 30 minutes, the respawn time to 10 seconds, the guns to piston/air/low grade CPS, and look at the result. An RM-Waterbridge OHS war could have score as low as 1-0 after 3 hours of fighting, vs 46-21 in half an hour in the community war. The total score in half an hour was more than what Waterbridge scored in 4 seasons worth of OHS wars (24 wars, 59 points). In this community war version, the league time limit of 15 minutes to 1 hour is appropriate. In the unlimited version, with a larger field, longer respawn, and bigger guns, the time limit is way too short. OHS suffers from the need for refs or major honor. In a game this fast paced, it would have been impossible to track team level score like in unlimited. Thus, we had to track deaths. There are a ton of hits dished out and a ton more chances for disputes to arise, although I don't remember any hit that was seriously disputed in either of the OHS rounds, despite how many hits there were. In a tournament with moon on the line, you want refs I think. M4's camera commentary actually helped, because it was like having a ref as he called out all the hits that he saw go down. This was a less tactical OHS and a more shootout one. Thus, I would recommend more use and experimentation with the parameters of the OHS game family to determine what style would be best in a tournament. We know a lot about OHK, OSF, and FFA and they don't tend to change much, but OHS gives us very different results when we change little things.

So that wraps up my book, lol.
marauder wrote:You have to explain things in terms that kids will understand, like videogames^ That's how I got Sam to stop using piston pumpers

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Re: Community Summer War

Post by scottthewaterwarrior » Wed Dec 14, 2011 10:08 pm

Update on my war story:
Its near Christmas break so my school work has been light lately. I've finally had time to get back to typing that war report and I've been working like mad! I have finished the whole first battle now, I hope to get at least the first day, if not both days of the battle. I am going away for X-mass next Thursday so I will post what ever I have gotten done then. The thing really reads like a book, 7 pages long in MS Word so far.

Update, OK, so time got away from me. I started the very beginning of the second battle, but never even finished that. As promised I will post what I have:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Community Summer War, 2011, Dug Hill Park, NY

Participants:
Rob
Ben
Jack
Will
Andrew
Scott (me)
Brandon
Jonathan
Keith

10:00am: meeting time
It was probably slightly after 10 when my dad and I drove up to the parking lot of Dug Hill Park in New York State. It was a mostly cloudless day of a little over 80 degrees with very little wind. My dad parked the car and I went over to the picnic benches by the basket ball courts where I saw some other people with water guns laid out on the tables.
“You guys here for the battle?” said Brandon.
“Yeah,” I replied, “you SEAL?”
“Well SEAL is actually the name of my team, my name is Brandon, and those are my brothers Jonathan and Keith.” He said while gesturing to each of them respectively.
“Hi! Well I’m Scott, Scott the water warrior on the site, the only one to have a name with Scott in it.” There was an awkward silence. “Have any of the others shown up yet?”
“No not yet.”
“Alright, where should I go to get changed?”
“There are bathrooms are over there,” said Brandon’s father.
“Thanks,” I replied as I headed over them to get changed into my green swim trunks and my brown and grey tie-dye shirt that I was using as improv cammo.
When I came out I laid my guns out on the table and we all set up the canvas gazebo that I had brought. We had just started filling water bottles when the others showed up; this was probably around 10:15. After introductions we hiked into the woods to check out the battle field. Everyone was pretty impressed with the battleground and around 10:30 we were ready to start the first round.

10:30am: Day 1, Round 1: OHK Elimination
The teams for the first round were the following:

Team A: Team B:
Rob - CPS 2000 Andrew – CPS 2100
Ben - CPS 2000 Keith - Vanquisher
Jack - CPS 2500 John - CPS 1200
Will - CPS 1500 Scott – Vindicator
Brandon - CPS 2700

After choosing the teams we each headed off to a different entrance into the woods. Team A Went across the field to a path that went into the woods on the northern side of the field while me and the other members of Team B went south to the woods entrance near the rock piles. As we came in we found a good starting location on top of a small ridge a little ways in on the east side of the trail. It wasn’t really much of a base, it gave a good view of the surrounding area but we didn’t stay there long and left no indication that we had even been there. After we had been at our “base” for only a few minutes Andrew decided that we should go out and try and find the enemy. The battle didn’t actually start until 10:50 but there was no rule saying you couldn’t look for the enemy before then, you just couldn’t attack them.
We started off back down the path that we were on heading north. Andrew sent Brandon off to the west and Jonathan off to the east to walk parallel to us and cover more ground. Keith fallowed directly behind Andrew on the main path while I stayed maybe 50 feet back and covered the rear. It was about this time that I noticed that the water in my vindicator was sloshing around a lot. The filling station had been rather awkward and so I hadn’t filled the tank up as much as I thought. I cursed myself for not noticing sooner and stopped to dump the 50oz bottle I had in my back pack in the tank, it took the whole thing. I replaced the battle back in my pack and scanned the woods one more time just to make sure. No one, I swung my pack back on and jogged back up to Keith and Andrew barely visible on the trail ahead. They had stopped at a very recognizable landmark that we had all remembered from before when we where exploring the battle field. It was a thin rock that stuck straight up in the air; it was also where the majority of the trails through the woods met. One thing was different though; there was now a water battle in front of the rock. No one could remember weather it had been there before, I was pretty sure it hadn’t but none of us were positive. I partly regretted using the water bottle I had in my pack since we found this one only 3 minutes latter. I guess this will mean better mobility, I thought.
We continued along the trail until we came to the point where Team A had entered it on the north side of the field. I think that we were all expecting an ambush the whole time, that’s why I kept checking behind us so much, but it never came. The other team had actually went to the rock, long before we did, dropped the bottle, and then headed north west to the northern end of the cannon. We were pretty puzzled as to where the other team was at this point, they were actually as puzzled as to our location as we were though, but we decided we had better meet up with the rest of the group. We started back down the trail to the south. We probably should have told Brandon and Jonathan to stay within visual range because we had no idea where they were. As we went back down the trail we met up with John, “have you seen SEAL, I mean Brandon, your brother?” I asked, stumbling over the question (it took me a while to get used to calling people by their real names).
“No I haven’t,” John said, “last I saw him he was some where over there,” he gestured somewhere behind him.
I love it when people are precise, I thought.
We started off heading south again, this time I was second to last and Keith took the rear. We were heading along the trail for maybe 5 minutes when I saw movement up ahead on the right, “stop!” I whispered to John who was up the trail a little way, “Tell Andrew to stop!”
It took few tries to get their attention since I didn’t want to be loud and alert the enemy. We all finally stopped, crouched down behind trees and other cover, and waited. After a short wait Brandon appeared above the small ridge a little ways ahead. I think he thought we were the enemy too so was extra cautious. We all met up, no one had even seen a sign of the enemy.
We decided to head for the meeting place of all the trails at the big rock to plan our next move. John and I talked most of the way until we got a sudden “Shhhhhhhh!” from Brandon. I have to say, I had the stealthy movement down but I’m still working on not talking for more then 5 minutes. When we arrived at the rock we noticed the water bottle again, now I was sure, it hadn’t been there before. We latter found out that the other team had placed it there so that if we used it to refill they would know we had been there. We didn’t use it, though we had no idea what there plan was at that time but none of us needed to refill.
We all stood around the rock to plan are next move.
“Where are they?!?” Seemed to be the question of the day, at this point we had spent maybe 20 minutes looking for them, and hadn’t seen anything. This may not seem like long for some, but other then Andrew most of us had only done relatively small battles in the past.
“I think they must be on the other side of the ridge,” I said, “We should check over there.”
“Alright, I guess we could split up again, I can take a group around this way,” said Andrew, gesturing toward the northern end of the battlefield, “Brandon, you can take the others around the other way.”
“And we will meet up on the other side?” said Brandon.
“Yeah.”
“Good,” I said, “cause if we are going to split up again I think we need a meeting point.”
“So who comes with me?”
“I guess I will,” John said walking over to Andrew.
“We’re with Brandon then,” Keith said as I followed him over to Brandon.
“See you on the other side,” said Andrew as he began to walk off with John.
“Should we yell if they attack us?” Keith asked as we were heading off.
Andrew turned around, “well yeah, if you’re attacked they will already know where you are so it won’t mater.”
After that, we headed off. I don’t know what Andrew and John did as they went around the north side of the canyon as I was not with them, only that they didn’t find anything. All I know is that they made better time then us; don’t know if it was because they were less good ambush spots around that way or we were just over cautious, that was mostly because of my paranoia though. We mainly walked in silence on the way down the trail, didn’t have my buddy John to talk about LEGO or what ever it was we were talking about.
We headed west in a loose formation until we reached the edge of the gulch/canyon/ditch thingy. I was on the far left, (south) side of the formation, Brandon was in the middle, and Keith was on the far right. This time we made sure to stay with in visual range of each other. At the – gulch, Brandon signaled us in. We now headed southwest along the edge of the canyon until we found a suitable place to clime down at the end of the canyon.
This is where I really started to get paranoid. First I left Keith a little to the right of the position Brandon and I were planning to clime down. This was in case the enemy was tailing us, so we would have a look out. Then Brandon started to clime down, but I was worried that the enemy might be hiding behind the ridge behind us. So before I came down as well, I ran up and checked it. Now I finally joined up with Brandon at the bottom of the gulch. This was the first time any of us had seen the enemy, we were talking over the plan on how to clime the other side, (yes, I thought there was yet another ambush at the top of this hill), when suddenly I saw movement to the southwest.
“I saw something!” I said, “I think we are being out flanked.”
“What to go check?” Brandon replied.
“Yeah, if I just head a little ways that way,” I pointed to the west, “I think I will be able to see them.”
I dashed, as quick as I could through all the low hanging saplings to a position where I could see the place I had seen the movement. Nothing. I made my way, more slowly this time, back up to Brandon.
“Anything?”
“No, must have been a squirrel or something.”
“Maybe a dear, they are a lot of them around here,” Brandon replied, “That’s private property anyway, I think”
We found out latter that that really was the enemy team. They were looking for us just as much as we were looking for them. Now we went back to trying to clime the other side of the – canyon. Not only was I worried about the possibility of ambush, but the hill was covered entirely with head sized rocks that made it very hard to clime even slowly. I came to the conclusion that if they were waiting in ambush, who ever tried to clime would have no chance, but we’d have to try sooner or later. Sooner, I started up. Brandon stayed at the bottom, if I made it to the top he would come up after me, if not he and Keith were to run like - that place with hockey sticks – to regroup with Andrew.
I made it to the top, than Brandon came up after me. At this point, I could see for a good ways, there were only small trees on that side and no ambush spots at all, good or not. We still didn’t want to make much noise so I left Brandon at the top and went to get Keith. I found him in a ditch over looking the ravine; he looked half asleep and very comfy resting against a tree.
By the time we got back to Brandon the rest of our group had arrived. Other then that false (sorta) sighting of mine, no one had seen anything. At this point about half an hour had passed.
“Maybe the gave up,” said Keith.
“We should head back to the basket ball courts and check,” Brandon said.
“I think we should check our base first, they might be there,” replied Andrew.
“No I don’t think so, we left no indication that it was our base, so they wouldn’t know, plus when I went to the top of that ridge.” I pointed the ridge on the other side of the gulch, I could see pretty much that whole area.”
“You sure?”
“They aren’t there, we might as well check back at the parents tent anyway, get some drinks.”
With this we headed off back down the main trail which looped around back to the basket ball courts.
“So how was it?” my dad asked.
“We haven’t even found them yet!” I replied, “We thought they might have come back here, and we need some drinks anyway.”
“There is water and Gatorade in that cooler,” said Brandon’s dad.
“Thanks!”
We all took a break and got some drinks. I drank half a Gatorade and threw the bottle in my bag. We each grabbed a handful of chips and headed off again to the field.
We figured the only place we hadn’t checked yet was the forest to the northeast of the field, so we decided to check there. We were pretty board at this point, we didn’t even bother with cover, we walked right through the middle of the field (that was a mistake). We went back into the woods at gravel path that split off the main path; this was right by my team’s base during the CTF game the next day. We followed the main trail north. Then I saw something, defiantly a person.
“I see some one! Could that be them?” I said, moving a little closer.
“I don’t think any of them were wearing a bright yellow shirt, and he doesn’t have a gun,” Andrew said.
We continued on and turned off into the think pit of woods to the right just before the dump, though the “dump” just looked like a bunch of wood piles to me. We fanned out a little to search the woods. We didn’t really find much of any thing, the deeper we went, the swampier it got. After it was just water with only a few dry patches to leap between we decided to turn back.
Now we were really discouraged, we had searched everywhere and found no sign of the enemy. This is where we let our guard down. I wasn’t actually in the back of our formation, but I had always made a habit of checking over my shoulder where ever I was, this time I didn’t. You know the old saying “when you least expect it.” Well there we were, walking back down the trail, we had just past the fork in the road when suddenly I herd the noise of valves opening followed by a bunch of yelling.
“Ambush!” Some one said it, I really don’t know who it was, it might have even been me.
The next few minutes I don’t remember too well, my adrenaline level was higher then it had even been my whole life so there really wasn’t much thought in my actions. Our attackers were just out of range, even there 2000s fell short. I wiped around and fired a quick burst, if 2000s couldn’t make it, my Vindicator sure couldn’t, but I on instincts at this point.
“Run!” some one yelled, might have been me, and we all took off.
We ran down the path, I turned and looked behind me to see Brandon trip. Normally I would have gone back and helped him. But with him on the ground, it would have been me vs. at least one CPS 2000 and he would have the high ground. Of coarse, at the time, none of that went trough my head. Around that point I blacked out, not literally, but every part of my mind other then that needed to keep running shut off. We apparently stopped and ambushed them from some high rocks according to Rob’s report, I was in the back when we finally stopped so I must have been in on it, but I don’t remember a thing. The next thing I remember was Andrew dashing into the woods up in front of me. I dashed in after him.
We came to a stop in an area of woods with some medium trees in the front and surrounded by think bushes on 3 sides after you went in about 10 feet. The thicket of woods was next to the main trail on the east side. It was just before the final turn to go come out of the woods on the south side. I came in after Andrew, he was positioned behind a tree. I was still slightly foggy from the amount of adrenaline that was just pumped into me, so I just stud next to him.
“Find your own spot!” he said.
“Oh, right, sorry.”
I went back into the woods a little and hid behind another tree about 50 feet back. The trail looped around this area so I had a good firing position (about 20 feet) on the trail to my left. About this time my thoughts started to come back to me so I looked around our “final stand” position. I saw John crouched low on the ground nestled in a bush, abound 20 feet behind me. He nodded to me, I sighed in return. This was the first time I had noticed him, I’m not even sure how he got back there, my memory was still pretty spotty up until that point. We waited for I while; I realized that my hat, white with a gold Rotary symbol, was a dead give away so I took it off and looped the strap through my pumping arm (my left). Just at this moment I spotted the enemy, I straitend up behind the tree and tried to think small thoughts. I hope this improv cammo works, I thought, I wish I had a cammo gun like Andrew.
Now they were only a few feet, on the trail, from our location.
“Ya!” yelled Ben as he hosed down Andrew.
“I’m out!” Andrew shouted as he climbed out of the woods, not even glancing back at us.
I’m not even sure if Andrew got I shot off here, if he did, then they fired at about the same time, because I only herd one shot (I was behind him, so I couldn’t see if anything came out of his gun).
The enemy must have thought he’d stayed behind to give us a chance, because they after they got Andrew they kept walking down the path. How did they not see me? I thought.
They got a little farther down the path, to the point where it curved around about 20 feet from me. Now I sprung my ambush targeting Ben. He must have some six sence or an insane amount of luck because I lead him because he was walking but he stopped just as I fired. My shot flew right in front of his chest.
“Woh!” he shouted and tuned in my direction, “there he is!”
“I got him,” Rob said, coming at me from where Andrew had been a minute ago.
I fired off a few shots in the direction Ben had been to discourage any one from coming at me that way. Rob was pretty close now and tried to get me with his 2000, but I hid behind the tree. I saw I shot coming my way from my left so I darted out from behind the tree to get out of range. Rob took advantage of this and fired again, I jumped to the right. He was at the edge of his guns range so only a few drops hit my thigh while the rest hit the ground slightly to the left of me. I fired too, but was well out of range.
“Is that a hit?” Rob asked.
“You got me a little, you wanta count it?”
Rob fired again in response, I dodged to the left, I guess that means no.
About this time, John yelled out, “I’m hit!”
Now it was down to just me, and to think I was jealous of how good cover he had. There wasn’t much time to think, another shot from Rob came at me, I dodged again. It was a stale mate for about a minute then shots started coming down at me from the bush to my left. From what I can gather from other people’s war reports, this was Will’s 1500’s handiwork. I fired I shot into the bushes, than fired a few tap shots over it. Then I was reminded of the immediate threat of Robs 2k when I dodged one of his shots by slamming my side against the tree to my right. At least I was getting my bearings! No time to think, another shot, must have been ether Ben or Jack, came at me over the bush from my right. I steeped back to dodge, then ran left and under the shots coming from that way. I fired over the right bush behind me as I went for what ever good it was. I was dead, I knew it, but I wanted to take one of them, preferably Rob, (Vindicator beats 2k would have been fun to brag about) with me. About then I took some more droplets from the 2000.
“Is that a hit?” he asked.
“No, you got me more the last time!” I said stepping back to the right.
He fired three burst, which I dodge by going to the left. He pumped some, then fired again, just as I dashed to the right to dodge a shot from the bushes. I saw it coming, knew I couldn’t dodge with my current momentum, so I changed direction and went right at Rob, I fired just as his shot nailed me in the face and chest.
“That’s a hit!” we both said.
There was some celebration among the other team. I still wished I could have got one of them, but I was pretty happy to have survived a few minutes against 4 to 1 odds.
“Did I even get you at all?” I asked Rob as we walked back.
“No, all your shots fell a few feet short.”
“Darn,” I said firing my Vindicator up in the air so the water landed on me. It may have been a water fight, but I was still really hot.
After an hour of searching, my team had been completely eliminated in 15 minutes with out even a kill to our credit. Oh well it was time to head back for lunch anyway.

Lunch was good; Brandon’s parents provided a few bags of chips and a whole assortment of sandwiches. We were all really hungry, I ate two PBJs myself, some chips, and I don’t even know how many pretzels.
After lunch, we tested out some of the homemades: Rob’s APH as well as Brandon’s. Rob also tried to give a demonstration of the water balloon cannon he called “the Douchenator.” Unfortunately the cannon had a leak and so it wouldn’t hold pressure, I really wanted to see it fire.
We discussed the next round; it was to be an elimination base defense round where we each had 3 lives. One team would have to defend the rock piles while the other would have to attack it. While we were talking I ate some more pretzels. That is when Rob said: “Scott, I still owe you a 2000.”
I stopped eating and looked at him with diner plate eyes. I was distracted so I didn’t notice that he had his CPS 2000 fully pumped and had brought it up above the table. “Oh, shoot!”
I got up and started walking backward; I got about 5-10 feet when I turn to run. He let me have it right in the back. I’ve herd a 2000 is pretty powerful, well it wasn’t too bad, but I wouldn’t want to get hit in the face with it, even at that range. My whole back was completely soaked though. The decisions for the next round had been made, so the defending team loaded up their guns. Then we filled up ours while they went to the rock piles and fortified their positions. We were all ready to start the next round.

12:30pm?: Day 1, Round 2: OHK Siege, 3 lives per person
The teams for the second round were the following:
Defense Team: Assault Team:
Andrew - CPS 2000 Ben - CPS 2000
Will - CPS 1500 Rob - CPS 2000, APH, Douchenator, waterballoons
John - CPS 2000 Jack - CPS 2500
Keith - Vanquisher Scott - Vindicator
Brandon - CPS 2700

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I will be away for the next week so probaly no more will get done for now, but more is to come!
"If you are wet at the end of a water war, you are doing it wrong"
Van: "What happened?" SEAL: "Scott Happened"
Alex: "But the stream is cold." Me: "It's fine, my feet really hurt, now they're numb!"

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SEAL
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Re: Community Summer War

Post by SEAL » Thu Dec 29, 2011 1:27 pm

Well, well, well. I knew I had pictures of the first day floating around somewhere! I found them on my mom's camera. So here are some long-lost pictures of the first day that I (or my parents) took.

I remember taking this shot before everybody got there. It shows some of my armory, and the neat way I set up iSoaker's Goblins.
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Here's a sweet group photo, taken before the first battle. Yes, I look like the Terminator...
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Everyone having lunch after the first battle.
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Here's my brother, before the assault game I think.
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Yours truly. I'm not sure if I'm respawning during the battle, or walking back for some water balloons before the battle.
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And now I'm walking back.
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A picture of the battle.
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And finally, a shot of the final (I think.) kill. I'd like to think that I'm blasting wetmonkey for the last kill, but he could have been the one doing the blasting, and Scott got the kill, or maybe we both shot each other. I guess the answer probably lies in one of the movies. Edit: Just checked, and I guess it wasn't the last kill. My brother Jon was the last one killed.
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iSoaker has my permission to put them on iSoaker.com if he wants to.

Edit: Whoa, didn't notice Scott's battle report! It's great so far; how on earth did you remember all that!? :goofy:
~Hotel Oscar Golf~

We probably won't be back, but the legacy lives on.

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Re: Community Summer War

Post by HBWW » Thu Dec 29, 2011 4:15 pm

Thanks for the Project Soaking Trident reference pictures! :goofy: Awesome pics!

/Will soak the entire world if I have to, to attend next year's community war.
HydroBrawl Water Warfare

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marauder
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Re: Community Summer War

Post by marauder » Fri Dec 30, 2011 2:11 pm

Reading everyone's war stories and looking at the new pics really lightened the mood here overseas. If only real wars were fought with waterguns and waterballoons, oh well.

This makes me even more upset about missing next year's war. I'm going to have a big watergun fight, if possible, when I get my mid tour leave in May.

Thanks for posting the stories and photos guys. Rob is a very good writer, and I loved reading Seal's view of things. It's rare that you get to see both perspectives.
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SEAL wrote:If you ain't bloody and muddy by the end of the day, you went to a Nerf war.

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