The Best Way to Start the New Year!

Discussion of past, present, and future water war events.
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The Best Way to Start the New Year!

Post by SEAL » Tue Jan 10, 2012 6:27 pm

Edit: This thread has been moved from the Water Warfare section.

Quite possibly the strangest way to welcome in the new year! We had beautiful weather on New Years Day, so me and my brothers decided to have a war to get the year started off on the right foot. Here is the battle report, and I also have some footage.

I won't go into too much detail, since the video has most of the action in it.
To start, we loaded our blasters into backpacks, and biked over to the battleground. We thought about fighting at our regular area, but in the end, we decided that we wanted something a little different. So we headed over to an awesome battleground that we found in the fall (I think I mentioned it in the 2012 Community War thread.), with massive cliffs that tower over you and create an imposing atmosphere (They're easily taller than my house.). We hadn't faught there before, and we decided to give it a try, even though it's pretty big for just the three of us. It didn't disappoint, but I think it would have been a lot more fun if we had more people.

So when we got there, we made a mad dash into the woods (You have to go through a very small section of private property to get there, and I didn't want anyone calling the cops.), and set up next to the lake, which lies around the center of the battleground (We haven't really defined the boundaries yet.). Unfortunately, the lake was frozen over, but luckily the ice was very thin, and quite easy to break. Once I'd made a hole big enough to fill up our blasters, we proceeded to dunk our blasters in the water, which was cold enough to make you go into shock, should you be stupid enough to test your luck on the ice.

Our armory:

Me: Water Warriors Equalizer | A nice little blaster that performs quite well, albeit a little unbalanced.
Keith: Super Soaker Aquashock Sneak Attack | Probably the best piston blaster in our arsenal, and dispite a pretty much useless gimmick, I can get 40' out of it.
Jon: Super Soaker Quick Blast | A very weak blaster, even though the stream is thick by Hasbro standards; I still like using it for some reason, it's a lot of fun.

First, me and Jon had a duel, while Keith filmed. Now we actually ended up having 4 battles, since we had to stop the first 3 for various reasons that I'll explain momenetarily.
Round 1, First Try:

Me and Jon started at opposite sides of the battlefield, next to the lake. I started by dashing off to the left, to attempt an ambush. I got to a small mound, and I could see Jon on the other side, on the trail. Unfortunately, he saw me as well, and we exchanged a few shots over the mound. However, Jon's Quick Blast didn't seem to be working right; he'd pump it a few times, and nothing would come out, then after pumping it maybe 5 times, a small burst of water would come out of the nozzle, mostly mist. Now I know for a fact that this happens with piston-elastic hybrid blasters when they're almost empty, and Jon didn't fill it all the way because he didn't like the cold water. So we stopped the battle, and filled the QB all the way to the top.

Round 1, Second Try:

This battle lasted less than a minute; we started on opposite sides again, but we switched them, so that I was now where Jon was previously. With the same plan in my head as before, I ran around to the right to try and set up an ambush, but I'd only gone a few yards, when I heard voices; turns out there were some city people hiking through there! I didn't think anyone ever came here except hunters. So we stopped the battle, because we didn't want to accidently blast them and their little kids.

Round 1, Third Try:

We started in the same places as the first time, and I once again attemped an ambush, but was spotted again, so I just ran forward and ended up getting stuck in a freakin' Mexican standoff, that lasted for about a minute, but the QB was still doing the same thing, and we ended up stopping this battle as well. So we're guessing that the Quick Blast is on it's way out, which isn't particularly surprising. So Keith gave Jon the Sneak Attack to use.

Round 1, Fourth Try:

This time, we decided to start on top of the cliffs. There are a lot of pine trees and low-lying shrubs up there, which make for great concealment. After we started, I ran into the woods away from the edge of the cliff, and climbed a small hill. I waited up there for a few minutes, before I saw movement down below; it was him alright, so I started to make my way down the hill towards him. Now, I mentioned that the woods on top of the cliffs have great concealment, but what I didn't mention is that the ground is covered in dry leaves, upon which keeping quiet is harder than putting out a forest fire with a Nerf Thunderstorm. In other words, I got spotted. So we battled it out over a period of at least 3 or 4 minutes, with many annoying standoffs and back-and-forth running, until I finally managed to land a hit on my opponent.

So that wrapped up the first round, so me and Keith decided to have a duel, so we could get some footage, and since the QB wasn't working right anyway.

Round 2:

We started farther down the trail than before; we were going to have the battle in a section with a lot of mounds, but I decided to climb up the cliff and wait for Keith to pass below so I could shoot him without putting myself in danger. So I got up there, but I ended up waiting for a long time before actually seeing him, and when I did, he was out of range. I tried to get him to come closer by tossing rocks over the edge, but I wasn't sure if he ever heard them. He popped in and out of view a couple of times, until finally, after there were a lot fewer rocks on top of the cliff, he came almost within range. I snuck over to the edge, waiting for him to cross into the danger zone, but somehow, he noticed me crouching up there. After flipping him off, I fired a shot to see just how far my stream would go, and found that I might have been able to hit him had he not seen me.

So he took off running toward where the easiest way to the top of the cliffs was, and I figured I'd try and ambush him when he came looking for me. I went up the same hill as I'd done in the previous match, forgetting for a moment just how hard it is to move quietly up there. So my attack plan ended up in much the same situation as before, I tried to sneak up on Keith, but with all the leaves on the ground (My bulky size 12 hiking shoes didn't help one bit.), it proved futile. He spotted me when I was about 100 feet behind him, and we exchanged a few shots. Not wanting to get caught in another Mexican standoff, I bolted, and as I suspected, he followed me. I remembered passing a big boulder when I was stalking Keith, and the only thing that was going through my mind was to get to that boulder and set up an ambush. I ran around it, making it look like that I intended to keep running, but at the last second I dove behind it and waited.

It turned out that Keith was farther behind me than I thought. Good, now I had more time to think. Shortly, he came to within ambushing range. I might have been able to pull it off, but Jon, who was supposed to only be filming, said out loud "Brandon's behind the rock!". Jon said later that he was just talking to the camera, but Keith heard him and the game was up. I ran into the open where I could move better, and dueled it out for a little bit. It was a much more fast-paced battle (Much more fun than when I battled Jon.), and it ended quite spectacularly; I faked a retreat, then looped around, dodged a blast from Keith, and one-handed the Equalizer for the kill. It all happened in a few seconds, but Jon didn't manage to catch it on film, which really sucks because it was the most exciting battle of the day in my opinion.

And that was it for the second round. So far, I'm undefeated this year. For the third round, Keith and Jon would duel while I filmed.

Round 3:

Unlike in the previous rounds, which were all OHK, for the third round we decided to do OHS with respawn points, and whoever got 3 kills first would win. We played it in the same place that we started in for Round 2. Keith and Jon started on either side of the trail, each behind a mound. I stood in the middle on the trail. Keith started by going around his mound, while Jon got to the top of his mound. Keith charged in; Jon had the high ground, but the mounds were made out of crushed pieces of shale, which made for a very unstable surface. Jon tried to retreat back up the hill, but slipped on the shale and Keith got him.

Score: Keith: 1, Jon, 0
Keith set himself up behind another mound while Jon respawned. Jon looped around the fighting area, and came down the trail. Keith tried to ambush him or something over the mound, but it didn't work out, and he ended up having to get off the mound due to the terrible footing. They were beginning a standoff when the camera ran out of batteries. They stopped the battle after I'd told them; I guess they figured that it didn't matter anymore now that I couldn't film them anymore. I would have still faught, but they were tired after a long day of fighting and filming.

So all-and-all, it wasn't one of our better battles, but it was still an interesting way to start the year. I hope you enjoy reading this either way.

LINK TO VIDEO

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Re: The Best Way to Start the New Year!

Post by HBWW » Tue Jan 10, 2012 9:39 pm

Protip: Use bottles to fill most blasters to avoid getting the internals soaked (which, aside from being annoying for a minute or two of water falling out, also helps prevent springs and rods from rusting).

Nice that you got a war in though. The weather has been oddly warm this winter so far.
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Re: The Best Way to Start the New Year!

Post by atvan » Tue Jan 10, 2012 10:30 pm

Sounds sweet.
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Well, not that much soakage.
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Re: The Best Way to Start the New Year!

Post by SEAL » Wed Jan 11, 2012 10:05 am

CA99: Thanks, haha. I actually have some water bottles stored someplace. Oddly, it never occured to me to use them... :|

That battleground is sick though; I can't wait to try it out with more people.
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Re: The Best Way to Start the New Year!

Post by marauder » Wed Jan 11, 2012 10:42 am

I've had the movie loading for the past 2 hours.... watched the first 5 minutes. Haha you guys are crazy. You broke the ice on a frozen pond to fill up. That's awesome. I like the battleground site. This is a good "off season" so far. It's making me really want to have a war when I'm home in late may for my R&R break.
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Re: The Best Way to Start the New Year!

Post by scottthewaterwarrior » Mon Jan 16, 2012 8:45 pm

Nice battle, though this is why I test my guns after filling them, the small loss of water is well worth knowing that you have a working gun when the battle starts. I agree that the Equalizer is an excellent gun, I just got two of them and they are probably the best guns of their size that I have ever used. As much as I like my Helix, I think it is going to replace it as my secondary.

By the way, how cold was it, because maybe if I say "these guys did it in 'x' cold," I can get my wimpy friends to do it in 10 degrees warmer. If its under 75 they wont fight.

I wish I hadn't been sick on new years, I did go out and test some new guns, but then I got even worse.
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Re: The Best Way to Start the New Year!

Post by SEAL » Tue Jan 17, 2012 10:18 am

Unless you're having a soakfest, I'd much rather have wars in cooler weather; even in this battle where the temperature was about 50 (F), I was getting hot after all the fighting. My team will go down until we can see our breath, then we know it's a bit too cold for normal warfare.

Of course, you could probably go down to around 15 as long as you bundle up properly. I wanted to have a battle in the snow this year, but so far we've only had about a half inch.
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Re: The Best Way to Start the New Year!

Post by scottthewaterwarrior » Tue Jan 17, 2012 7:40 pm

50 degrees? I can see having OHK in that and maybe CTF. I'm more accustom to that stuff after the Community War; I'm starting to get my friends off Soakfests so the next time it is 60 (50 sounds a bit cold) I think I will get some of them together and go to my new spot! Will have to find a spot to put the car keys though, I'd be worried with all the running around if it was in my pants. I know, the tank of my gun! :goofy: I'm actually series on that, it's perfect!
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Re: The Best Way to Start the New Year!

Post by SEAL » Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:34 pm

Believe me, 50 isn't as cold as it sounds when you're doing an intense OHK battle. Here's a list on recommended temperatures for water wars that I made:

40 or lower:
Gametypes: OHK only
Blasters: Lower-output blasters
Clothing: Waterproof coats and pants recommended
Weather: Must be sunny with no wind

45-50:
Gametypes: OHK only
Blasters: Lower-output blasters recommended
Clothing: At least some type of sweater/light jacket, and long pants
Weather: Can be either sunny or overcast, but no rain and little to no wind

50-55:
Gametypes: OHK, OHS, and some types of CTF
Blasters: Any type of blaster aside from really high-output guns
Clothing: Long pants, and long sleeves at least
Weather: Sunny or overcast, but no rain; a little wind is fine.

55-60:
Gametypes: Most gametypes that don't involve a lot of soaking
Blasters: Any
Clothing: Long pants and short sleeves
Weather: Any except strong wind and/or rain

60-65:
Gametypes: Pretty much anything with a scoring system (In other words, no soakfests)
Blasters: Any
Clothing: Pretty much anything at this point
Weather: Any (Aside from dangerously close thunderstorms)

65-70:
Same as above

70-75:
Gametypes: Any
Blasters: Lower-output guns recommended for soakfests
Clothing: Any
Weather: Any

75-80:
Anything (This is my favorite temperature zone.)

80-85:
Same as above

85-90:
Same as above

90-95:
Gametypes: Less intense games recommended
Blasters: Any
Clothing: Shorts and short sleeves recommended
Weather: Any

95-100:
Gametypes: Mostly soakfests at this point
Blasters: Any
Clothing: Shorts and short sleeves (Or even no shirt, provided you have sun screen.) strongly recommended
Weather: At this point, sunny days start to be a little much

100 or higher:
What the hell are you doing outside in temperature like that!? :goofy:

Although this list is sort of biased towards people in cooler climates.
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Re: The Best Way to Start the New Year!

Post by scottthewaterwarrior » Wed Jan 18, 2012 6:39 pm

For me, I'm worried doing it any cooler then about 55 because my hands get too cold when they are out of my pockets, and any gloves that really provide any warmth are bulky so it is hard to work the guns. After 90 degrees, I don't even have soakfests. I play what I am going to call: "Blast the Hose." I basically just set up a bunch of sprinklers in the yard and every one grabs a gun and a trash can lid and tries to blast them without getting hit. It never works so you stay pretty cool. But I would agree that 75-80 is the best range, it can get pretty humid around here so 75 is better.

Edit:
I just looked at Sunday's paper (the day I scoped out Carter Rock as a battle ground), it was only 36 degrees that day so 50 would probably be fine.
"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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Re: The Best Way to Start the New Year!

Post by DX » Thu Jan 19, 2012 3:11 am

Seeing as it was in the teens for much of last weekend and the beginning of this week, yesterday and today's 40s were "OMG t shirts and shorts" kind of weather. 55 to 80 is my favorite temp range for a war, however, that is season-dependent. In the spring, I like it on the lower end, since it will feel much warmer than it actually is. 55-65 would feel pretty good when you're used to 30s and lower. In the summer, I like it in the middle, 65-75. I never build up a tolerance to heat, with one exception: fall. I want it at the upper end, 70-80, in the fall because I have not yet adjusted to cold.

However, I have no minimum temperature requirement for a water war. I've nerfed in 8 degrees with snow and a water war would actually keep a person warmer, simply because it takes way more energy to wield an overloaded CPS 2000 than an RBP. Cold weather wars encourage action, since the best way to warm up quickly is to run around.
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Re: The Best Way to Start the New Year!

Post by marauder » Thu Feb 23, 2012 5:37 am

8 points for Seal!

5 points - write up a full length battle report (500+ words)
+1 point - participate in a duel or small skirmish (2-3 players)
+1 point - gramar
+2 points - movie
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Re: The Best Way to Start the New Year!

Post by SEAL » Thu Feb 23, 2012 6:21 pm

Gee, thanks. I didn't know you could get points before the league season. Is this something I should be doing too?
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Re: The Best Way to Start the New Year!

Post by marauder » Fri Feb 24, 2012 12:19 am

You fought a battle wrote about it, and made a movie. I don't think it matters that it was January. If you do something you should be rewarded for it. Disagree?

If you want to tally up your own points then that's cool, other ppl can check over it for you. I just went ahead and did it cuz we decided on Downpour for the war name, and I thought I'd go ahead and be decisive on the points system.
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Re: The Best Way to Start the New Year!

Post by isoaker » Fri Feb 24, 2012 8:54 am

marauder_4 wrote: I just went ahead and did it cuz we decided on Downpour for the war name, and I thought I'd go ahead and be decisive on the points system.
Hold on a sec... being decisive on the points system is all good, but are we in agreement on the WWn League name? :goofy:

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Re: The Best Way to Start the New Year!

Post by marauder » Fri Feb 24, 2012 9:01 am

isoaker wrote:
marauder_4 wrote: I just went ahead and did it cuz we decided on Downpour for the war name, and I thought I'd go ahead and be decisive on the points system.
Hold on a sec... being decisive on the points system is all good, but are we in agreement on the WWn League name? :goofy:

:cool:
No, but I'm pretty sure we are in agreement on the points system. We have had a good offseason, which I think is great, so rather than backtracking come May, and finding all these posts again to give points (or simply not rewarding points for work done in the offseason) I figure it's easier just to go ahead and count out the points value now.
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Re: The Best Way to Start the New Year!

Post by scottthewaterwarrior » Sat Feb 25, 2012 11:06 pm

I think we shouldn't even have an 'off season,' what about people in Australia who's on season is our off season? Those people aside, not many battles take place during the winter anyway so we might as well count the ones that do. If some guy in Florida starts having battles every other day then we might have to have an off season, but so far only two people have even had battles, me and SEAL, and I still got to finish editing my footage (35 minutes of it, I'm trying to cut it down).
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Alex: "But the stream is cold." Me: "It's fine, my feet really hurt, now they're numb!"

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Re: The Best Way to Start the New Year!

Post by martianshark » Sun Feb 26, 2012 1:59 am

You should get bonus points for having a war in winter too.
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Re: The Best Way to Start the New Year!

Post by marauder » Fri Apr 20, 2012 6:08 am

5 points awarded to SEAL for this submission. Feels good to finally get the ball rolling on the league. See you in less than a month man.
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