By: C-A_99
Intro:
With the opening water war of 2008, some more interesting additions went in and were tested out, first being pringles cans as water balloon canisters. On my belt, I was also able to clip on a Max-D 2000 and a water bottle, all accessories being fairly convinient assets during and between games. I also had a pouch for holding another bottle as well as unfilled balloons which I filled up with my 12k between wars to put in the canister; up to 4 fit in. Another first was fighting in the rain, which probably sucks for soakfest, but is just plain epic for elimination and respawn games. Unfortunately, the time between games was constantly being delayed by occasional equipment problems, people coming, trying to clear up rules, etc. Consequently, we were only able to do 5 games in 2 hours. 0_o
Armory: CPS 12k, 10k, 2700, 2100, 2000, 2500, (3) Splashzooka; Max-D 6000, 5000, (2) 3000, 2000; SC 400, (2) FF, Orca, Tiger Shark, Piranha,
Equipment: 3 Pringles’ cans (as water balloon holders), several water bottles, approx. 150 filled and unfilled balloons, 2 deluxe hose valve-nozzle systems.
Teams: Aquatic Soaking Squad (5-6) vs Team Ultima (4-5)
Score: 3-2 ASS Victory
Combat:
The amount of players on each team kept changing due to people coming in), and was pure elimination. After many delays, we were only going to go from first team to 5 wins, but that eventually changed to 3. This time, our team tactics were a good deal better than before, though there were still some new players I had to watch out at. Some important factors that helped us won: our higher numbers gave greater versatility to tactics, our formation helped ensured that no one would slip through cover undetected, and we had fairly decent team coordination. Some players were a little unwary of their surroundings, and some wanted to even ban around-the-house flanking, but we got over that soon and adjusted.
At first, the other team was playing on our terms; they moved into our area and approached a set of 4 tall bush-trees we were standing around. This area had enough people covering and any around-the-house flankers would be spotted very early on. One time, we spotted a flanker coming over the driveway of our base. Me and another one on my team immediately came to assess the situation. The idea was for me to drag the flanker out, who knew he had been spotted, then the squadmember who was behind the wall would lash out and make the kill. However, instead of coming out, he kept going back. Later, we have a standoff, and without me giving any orders, the squadmember runs around the house and as I’m talking and making tap shots to the flanker, he comes out and they both eliminate each other.
Later on, however, we would often have to move into their area, but still managed well. In fact, we probably provoked them to retreat by constantly throwing balloons and making slightly out-of-range tap shots in their direction. They did not try to form together and take over one side, in fact, they were fairly split up. I was able to eliminate another player simply by standing behind a bush on the line of bushes, predicting when he’d come up and shooting in the general area just before he was visible. After this, the other team’s leader and I eliminated each other. On the next game, I eliminated the same person in the same area simply by leading and making a tap-shot as he ran, at which I was quite surprised that my 12k had well enough range to get a soak on the runner.
If I haven’t made clear enough in previous war reports, their team leader is fairly fast and very good with dodging and charging; deadly if wielding a k-modded long range soaker. (this time however, he didn’t manage to get long range weapons often) I usually eliminate him by attacking, which usually gets me eliminated, but the safest way to attack is to have him chase and try to eliminate another player, then charging in and attacking then.
On the last game, after ridding of most of their team, there’s one person left standing, who runs away as one of our squads chases him. He goes behind the church building while I stop the squad to quietly check out what’s going on. I figure there’s a 40% chance he’s trying to flank around, which was confirmed when we ran out from where we came from. Some dead teammates confirmed (bad etiquette here) that he did run around, but when we came out, we saw that he was heading towards our base. We chase and I make the longest run in the whole game, my equipment nearly fell off going down and back up the long ditch. By the time we get to the end of our yard, he’s on the middle of the driveway and is no longer running away. Later, as he was talking and arguing, I manage to get a spray at him, which he seems to ignore, but someone else, who went around the other side, gets a clear hit and the game ends.
Conclusion:
There was some trouble getting people to do their damn jobs; releasing pressure and emptying all water from the soakers. They rushed in to setup stuff, then I was stuck outside when it started raining again (heavily too), wondering around, getting soakers and equipment together, and making sure nothing was getting lost, etc. Inside, we played some Gears and Halo, ate junk food, and a few people went to the basement to shoot a friend’s airsoft sniper rifle. (springer bolt action, it was probably a replica of a variant of the R700 and was somewhat like the Scout in Counter-Strike)
Highlights of the war:
– New equipment
– New PVC hose nozzle filler that I built. (configured to allow filling only and no shooting)
– Better tactics and squad formation
– Epic weather (it was rainy, but just warm enough)
Problems with the war:
– Delay between games
– Lack of order with getting players to hold onto their blasters (some would drop it if they were eliminated) and to help dry, de-pressurize, clean up, and put their soakers away. In fact, one person was even confused by the term “de-pressurize”.
– Half the people who were supposed to come never showed up. (though we still had a decent turnout)
