Fall 2012 Connecticut Water War

[marauder]

Date: Saturday, December 1st and Sunday, December 2nd (Arrival Friday, November 30th)

Playing Areas:

Paine Open Space [Map Link]
222 Maple Road
Easton, CT 06612

and

Long Beach Park [Map Link]
? Oak Bluff Ave
Stratford, CT 06615



Confirmed Participants (9):
Rob (Duxburian)
Ben (Marauder)
Tiff
Ben's nephews x2
Brandon (Seal)
Jon (Boggieboard2)
Keith
Scott (Scottthewaterwarrior)

Maybe (1):
Andrew (Wetmonkey442)

Scratched/Maybe next time (8):
Nick (Belisaurius)
Jake (Neptune)
Ethan (Poseidon)
Sam (CA99)
Koree
Tim
Fishfan
Bailey

Rules: Link to be posted soon

Local Rule Notes:
Centennial Watershed State Forest (marked with standard yellow blazes) is Off limits
The radio towers on Long Beach West are Off Limits
No running in the abandoned theater or pavilion
Output limit of 5x (up to 7x allowed on the nozzle selector) if the temperature is below 55 degrees
Output limit of 10x if the temperature is 55-60ish degrees
Anything goes over 60 degrees

For "Medium" gun rounds, allowed guns are:
Anything with a 5x nozzle or less. If it has a nozzle selector, it may have up to a 7x nozzle on the plate, but you can't use that nozzle.

For "Pistol" rounds, allowed pistols are:
SS 10, SS 20, SS 25, SS 30, SS 40, SS 50
XP 15, XP 215, XP 20, XP 220, XP 35, XP 40, XP 240, XP Triple Charge
MD 2000, MD 3000, MD 4000, MD Defender, MD Triple Shot, MD Liquidator
Hydrofury, Point Break, SC 400
Goblin, Cricket, Viper, Python, Equalizer, Outlaw, Firefly, Wasp, Zapper, Black Widow, Hammerhead, barricuda, Deluge, Bandit, Hydra, Titan
any Nerf SS besides the Hydrocannon


Tentative Schedule *Subject to change, check back often

Friday:
Any time: Arrival and war preparation (setup for Long Beach West must be finished!)
Players may spend the night at DX's house if needed

Saturday:
Any time until 9:00: Arrival at my house or breakfast if you stayed overnight
9:00-9:10: 10 min Warm-up Battle (my yard or pine forest, gametype TBD, guns TBD)
9:10-9:20: Pack For Long Beach West
9:20-10:20: Depart for Long Beach West (includes drive and walk in)
10:20-10:40: 20 min Theater Round (LBW, OHS, pistols)
10:40-10:50: Reset
10:50-11:10: 20 min Pavillion Round (LBW, OHS, medium guns)
11:10-11:30: 20 min Pavillion Round (LBW, OHS, pistols)
11:30-12:30: Return from Long Beach West (includes walk out and drive)
12:30-1:15: Lunch
1:15-1:30: 15 minute prep/planning for Rivalry Round
1:30-4:30: 3 hour Rivalry Round (POS, OHS, medium guns)
4:30-4:40: Return to my house
4:40-5:00: 20 min twilight/night round (my yard, gametype TBD, guns TBD)
Any time after 5:00: Depart CT if needed or dinner and mod/repair party
Players may spend the night at my house if needed

Sunday:
Looking like 5 players, still acceptable with the right terrain and gametypes.
Time TBD: 2v3 (POS, west or central pine forest, OHS, medium guns)
Time TBD: 2v3 (POS, island, OHS, medium guns)
Time TBD: 2v3 (POS, Laurel Ledges, HTL, medium guns)
Time TBD: Switch HTL roles
End of war



Overnight Accommodations:
This is a 2 day war. You do not need to stay for both days. If you are, you are welcome to sleepover at my upstairs "barn" room. It is a home office with insulation, heat, power, and Wifi.

Packing List:
Sleeping bag
Sleeping pad
Pillow
Toiletries
Flashlight
Food
Drinks
Pistols
Medium guns
Water bottles
Guns to trade/sell
Tools/parts for repairs/mods
Money if we go out to eat
Changes of clothes
Jacket/warm clothes
Hat/gloves

If you need a traditional bed, I have 2 in my room and a pullout. Else, the closest hotels are:

Best Western
100 Kings Highway Cutoff
Fairfield
(203) 659-2200

Trumbull Marriott
180 Hawley Lane
Trumbull
(203) 378-1400

[SEAL]

So basically the general idea is that M4 is coming up to Connecticut to visit his relatives, and will be meeting up with DX and I for a small war. I think it will just be one day right? I may have to stay for two nights though, but I need a little more information. What is the exact location?

Like I said before, it will probably be a good idea to bring some kind of water-resistant clothing, and stick to using low-output blasters. If it's over 50 then I'm willing to use CPS, but probably not any lower. NO SOAKFESTS. I would like to make the most of the day too; like I said before, if I'm driving 2.5-3 hours to attend a war, I expect to do a lot of fighting. I know this isn't really a premier event, but I want to make the trip worth it. So I think we should come up with some kind of schedule. DX, you're the host, so you should make one.

And if most of us are hardcore enough (and if there are a decent number of people.), we should try to have at least one long battle like we did at Downpour 2011, because those battles are fun, and I miss doing them. Also, defense games are fun, but I feel like we do them too much; I think we shouldn't do more than one or two rounds. If there are enough people, I want to play CTF too, because every CTF game I've played in have been some of the best rounds of my soaking career. That brings up another question; how many people are going to attend so far? It would be nice if some more community members came, but I have my doubts on that.

[marauder]

Confirmed Attendance
Duxburian, SEAL, BoogieBoard2, Keith, Marauder, Tiff, Danny, Tony

At the very least we will have enough for 4 on 4, which would be like Downpour this year. I know that Tony and Danny will be into this, but I don't know if at 9 and 12 they will be down for a really long battle - which is what I want as much as you. I can't guarantee that we will be able to fight all day. I have actually never met my nephews before, since they are Tiff's family, but her sister (their mom) said they would really be into this.

As for game types, I definitely want to play CTF. It would also be awesome to play some kind of game where we can stalk people through the woods, or move from barricade to barricade. Dux said there is a few areas where it's mostly pine trees. These would be ideal to fight in since there will still be foliage for cover. It would be awesome to have a few barriers in the area to hide behind/use for blocking, but I know DX has been busy with work lately. Fortunately we have 3 and a half months until this goes down, so there's still a bit of time to work on things. I would like to play Zombies in the woods. I think this would be a lot more fun than playing around my yard (which was still fun) because there would be lots of stalking and running through the woods.

I plan on stuffing a bunch of weapons in the trunk: 3 SC 600s, 2 Arctic Blasts, Defender, XP 75, XP 65, 2 XP 240s, SS 100 mk2, SS 60. I am not sure if I want to bring the Vindicator, Gorgon, Colossus, or Pool Pumper Blaster due to the high output/power. They are definitely a step above the other guns listed. If we do allow those guns I'd rather let non members use them. I just feel like DX + SEAL + Marauder + 3 collossi would end up destroying everyone. If we use less powerful guns it won't take away from the competition between the members since we will all be fighting on the same weapons level. It would also change things up, since usually 1 of 2 things happen with n00bs. They either go super aggressive using inferior weaponry and get wasted by our superior skills and weaponry, or they play defensive with inferior weaponry and we track them down and annihilate them. Don't get me wrong, I love getting a lot of kills, but I don't want the only real competition out there to be SEAL and Dux. If I have to be cautious of everybody then it completely changes the way I have been playing, and that will be more fun to me.

I am going to be wearing my underarmor under my BDUs. I highly recommend doing this for everyone, wear some water resistant shirt underneath a jacket. Hopefully it's not so cold that we have to wear more than that.

[SEAL]

4vs4 is actually better than Downpour; we only had at most 4vs3 there. This war will actually sort of make up for it, haha. Athough I think Hydropocalypse served pretty well as our premier event this year. I think 4vs4 is good for a long battle (we had 5vs4 at Downpour '11.), but we might not be able to do it if your nephews can't handle it. If we don't do that, we can (and should.) still do a toned-down version, where the time limit could be like half an hour and we wouldn't fight over quite as long a distance (although still longer than most of the battles we've had.). The gametype should probably be OHS.

I think we should play OHS, CTF, and possibly OHK if we want (I'm up for it.). Zombies/Infection might be fun as a war-ending battle (I'll bring my Electrostorm. ), but keep in mind that you do get soaked a bit more in that gametype than you do in standard games. We could play Hold the Line, but honestly, I'm a little sick of it, haha. We could do it at least once (or twice where we switch sides.). We could try a few different gametypes, though I found that we always just revert to standard games, dispite a lot of talk about trying new ones. If we actually do try something different, I kind of want to do CA99's Soak and Destroy game; it sounds fun.

As far as guns go, I'm probably going to bring my SS 50s, XP 75 and XXP 175 if I fix them by then, XP 270, AS Secret Strike, Arctic Blast, Equalizer, Vanquisher, and pretty much all my sidearms, as well as my leaking 100oz Aquapak if marauder still wants it. I might also bring my 1200 in case it is warm enough for small CPS. Should I bring the Douchenator? If I get a Gorgon and/or Colossus by then (I've been meaning to pick them up since before Hydropocalypse!), I'd bring them as well. I don't think it'd be that unfair if we used them; I've found that the Colossus' stream tends to break up a LOT, making it hard to get kills with. I don't know about the Gorgon though. At the very least, we could give the more powerful guns to your nephews. I'm actually excited about trying new guns out; while I'll always prefer CPS, if everyone else is using weaker guns, then I'm okay with using them myself.

Unfortunately, I don't have any under armor, so I'll probably just wear a few layers of T-shirts, with my lined camo hoodie on top. I'm already getting excited about this war. I hope it turns out for the best, and hopefully a few more members might join us. DX, if you have time, can you take some pictures of the park? That would be great.

[marauder]

I have a few under armor shirts, so I'll bring my extras (medium) in case anyone wants to try them out. Highly recommended. If it's in the 50s you could get away with just wearing them.

The amount you get hit in zombies has a lot to do with how soon you become one... but you do bring up a good point. I also want to look at some of CA99's games, cuz this seems like a great opportunity to try something new. I also want to play 1 round of 1hk.

I do think we should let the lesser skilled/talent challenged/experience challenged? players use the more powerful blasters. DX had a 19 to 1 hits made to hits received ratio last time! Bela's ratio was 0.16. For those of you who aren't so mathematically inclined, look at it this way: If DX makes 19 hits we expect he will only get shot one time. If Bela makes 19 hits we will expect him to get shot 119 times. I am definitely not for punishing talent and good performance, but at the same time I want to mix things up this time and I want to work harder for my kills.

Bring your WBL. My nephews will like it, and it's always better to have it than not. I will bring my 2500 for John.

[HBWW]

I tried to do with game setup what DX did with tactics: create a "system" or "theory" (though in this case, just a simple listing of variables actually; there are no predictors on how games actually play out and setting up good games is woven into knowing how gameplay factors affect tactics), and list out the variable factors one can use in setting up game rules. I suppose I try to break up water war games as if I were setting them up (or programming them) for video games, which helps you be more explicit with game rules.

[marauder]

Just talked to my sister-in-law to be. She said they like to play manhunt with airsoft, 1hk. Danny said they would use waterguns instead but theirs aren't powerful enough... haha. If they are using electrostorms, etc. I'd like to give them a demonstration with the WBLs and 2000s. I think we should play manhunt where the people hiding are more numerous, but have smaller guns than the people hunting.

[SEAL]

Manhunt? Is that like hide and seek with water guns? I've never heard of anyone doing that before. Seems like it might be fun though, especially at night. Sounds like your nephews are pretty serious; looking forward to seeing how they do.

In another thread, DX mentioned having a "modding party" if it's too cold to fight. That sounds fun, but it probably wouldn't work to well since each mod requires different parts, and we would need a huge stash of parts and materials if we wanted to do that. Most of the mods I have planned (have no idea when I'll get around to them...) are pretty unique.

Oh by the way, wetmonkey has no reason not to attend this if he's not busy on the 1st...

[scottthewaterwarrior]

Manhunt? Is that like hide and seek with water guns? I've never heard of anyone doing that before. Seems like it might be fun though, especially at night. Sounds like your nephews are pretty serious; looking forward to seeing how they do.

In another thread, DX mentioned having a "modding party" if it's too cold to fight. That sounds fun, but it probably wouldn't work to well since each mod requires different parts, and we would need a huge stash of parts and materials if we wanted to do that. Most of the mods I have planned (have no idea when I'll get around to them...) are pretty unique.

Oh by the way, wetmonkey has no reason not to attend this if he's not busy on the 1st...

I've traded a few PMs with M4 (oh wait, we can't really call him that now, can we?) on this, nothing definite yet, but I might be coming to this event. My dad dad thinks it would be a good excuse to visit his friend in Rhode Island. But if I do make it it would be just me, I'm not even going to bother asking Bela; even if he wants to come, his parents wouldn't let him have a battle in December.

Maybe we could have a "fixing party," I have quite a few blasters that need that (21 unless I've miscounted). Although moding guns on the spot might be hard, if we talked about what kind of stuff we might want to do, we could make sure to bring the parts and then we'd have other people to help with the mods. Say I wanted to do SEALs de-Max-D mod for the arctic blast, he could tell me what to bring, and then help me do it (that is just an example, other then the reliability problem I rather like Max-D triggers).

I will talk to my dad to see if he still wants to do this and get back to every one.

[marauder]

If it's too cold we can have a repair/mod party and then have a pistol fight indoors somewhere. Sounds great, hope you can come!

[SEAL]

Wow, this looks to be turning into a full-blown community event. That's awesome. Has anyone contacted wetmonkey about this yet? He really needs to come to this, since he lives so close.

The average temperature for Easton CT on Dec. 1st is 47 degrees F. That's absolutely fine for me, and even if it's around freezing, I still want to fight. I'll just bring a whole bunch of layers. The coldest I faught in was around 50 or so, and all I had was a sweatshirt over one t-shirt, and I got really hot. I don't think temperature will be much of an issue at all, especially since we'll only be using air pressure and small CPS (and by that I mean Arctic Blast-caliber, not 1200-caliber.). You just have to get around the stereotype that water wars are only summer activities. The only time I wouldn't fight would be if it's so cold that the water starts freezing in the reservoir, or maybe if it's raining or snowing.

Assuming the conditions are less than adaquate, I wouldn't mind having a repair/modding party, though all the mods I have planned are a little too complex and require too many parts, so I wouldn't do them here. I don't have many blasters that need repair, but maybe I'll bring one or two. The thing is, we would need a lot of tools and parts at our disposal. But like Scott said, we could say what we want done, and bring the nessecary parts. As for fighting indoors, it would be great if there was a giant office building of sorts that we had all to ourselves...

[Poseidon2000]

HEY, if i come, that could be my chance to drill what is currently a no name gun, and fix my mr. IRON MAN (abbreviated Mr. I'm)
and a have 2 nerf guns and knockoffs to partake in the pistol match.

[atvan]

I wish I could come, but the parents didn't even consider this one.

[Poseidon2000]

Might be a chance that mr. P's going to this event to help repair mr.I'm and drill what's
Currently CAPTAIN XERXES (read my sweepstakes thread) and give people their prize for making a
Name for CAPTAIN XERXES. Plus to know exactly what's happening at downpour. Sorta like an orientation
For me

[marauder]

It'd be really great if you could come Poseidon. Next Downpour Atvan. It's gonna be big.

[SEAL]

Hopefully the temperature will be agreeable, because I want to spend most of the time fighting. This doesn't have to be as battle-heavy as I want Downpour to be, but I still want to make the most of the day. I know you've probably heard me say this before, but I don't think we faught as much as we could have in the past few wars. I think the first Downpour worked out alright, but both of the wars this year didn't have as much fighting as they could have. The first day of Hydropocalypse was great, but we only faught 5 times over the next two days, which was almost the same amount of rounds as the first day alone! Sure, the rounds were bigger, but I think we spent way too much time going from place to place and all that, and don't even get me started on how long it took to get ready for the naval war. Downpour '12 was sabotaged by the rain, but DX and I still thought that we could have done more. All this has made me realize a few things; it's better to have small numbers of hardcore players than it is to have large numbers of casual people, and we need to have a written schedule.

Now this war doesn't really matter that much, since it's more of a get-together than other wars, but for Downpour next year, I'm planning to completely overhaul the way I organize the event. I will need you guys' help for that, but we'll get to that when the time comes. Now, even if this war isn't as serious as Downpour, I still think we ought to have some kind of a schedule, even if it's just like: "Fight from 10:00 to 12:00, have lunch for half an hour (I still think an hour is too long.), fight from 12:30 to 3:00, mod/repair guns from 3:00 to whenever."

[Poseidon2000]

I agree with SEAL. Time management is very very very important for any thing.


Plus, lunch should be around half an hour. At school in nyc, they give twenty minutes lunch, then half hour outside or watching a movie. Its slavery I tell you!

[DX]

I haven't had time to edit the all the pics I took for this, but I will have nothing but free time this weekend.

I intend to make this war matter :p and I don't plan on doing much modding or eating or chatting if the weather is nice. This is an opportunity to try some models and gametypes that we ordinarily wouldn't use. I'm trying to think of some alternate venues in the case of rain (more than just drizzle). Sherwood Island State Park has a large pavillion and outbuildings we could use. Now, if you really wanted a thrill, we could sneak into Long Beach West, the largest ghost town in New England. Bridgeport is slowly trying to restore the area to its former use as a park, so the abandoned houses and amusement park buildings will be torn down next spring I think. It looks like a zombie apocalypse hit the place. Hmm, where else...

Actually, the best plan may be to just wait out the rain at my house and jump at any breaks that pop up. It takes a matter of minutes to access Paine Open Space from my house. Of course, there will NOT be any rain or snow because we're not going to call it something like "Downpour" or "Hell Freezes Over".

[Poseidon2000]

I'm all for it. I pretty much just want to have a war, whether it be an old style or some new plan.
However, with DX's plan, it sounds hardcore, which needs the equivalent weaponary.

[SEAL]

I intend to make this war matter :p

Well seeing as our attendence list looks promising, why not? I originally assumed that we were just going to get together and hang out, while having a few battles as well. However, if we're going to turn this into a full-featured war (where we keep track of stats and everything.), I think it's all the more important that we have a schedule. Like you said, I don't want to spend an hour and a half at lunchtime just because everybody's eating at different times (I think I've been an offender of that myself...), and taking our time talking or whatever when we could be fighting or getting ready to fight. This has been a problem at some of the last few wars, but I think I've gone over that enough times, eh?

I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of the battleground. Unless it's absolutely epic and we don't want to fight anywhere else, I'm in favor of sneaking over to this ghost town thing for a few rounds. Are most of the abandoned buildings locked, or can we use them? Urban warfare is something that I've always longed to do, but never found a suitable location.

I actually had a bunch of name suggestions somewhere (not sure where.), and yes, they all involved something having to do with winter, snow, cold weather, etc. One that sticks out in my mind is "Frozen Fury". I actually really like that name, but if we call it that, will we get dumped on by ice rain?

Poseidon: I'm fine with using heavy weaponry (AKA CPS blasters.), but probably only if it's 50 degrees or above. I can bring all my best blasters either way, and we can just see how cold it feels.