Links updated

I have finally updated the links page, adding an Australian based Nerf blog, Outback Nerf, Skurl's lazer tag page, The Hive Mind, Lasagna678's mod blog, and finally added the forum and group I'm a member of, Oz Nerf and Brisbane Nerf Group. Head on over and check out the blogs and groups, as well as the Slydev store.

Speed Foam Warfare: 23/9/12

If you know me personally, you'll know that I'm always struggling to get to or organise private wars, let alone  make it to a public war held on a set date. However, I did manage to finally make it to my first public foam warfare event held on the 23rd of last month.

This war was organised through Brisbane Nerf Group and was a speed foam warfare event, so high powered air blasters were not allowed. For $15, you got the use of aftermarket darts (informer snap cap darts) and a raffle ticket for a prize to be drawn during the day. To be honest, I had no idea what to expect, nor what to bring, so I just threw in a Rampage and Retaliator in to my bag, along with a bandolier strap and a hell of a lot of clips. As it turned out, that was a pretty good choice but I still had a lot to learn.

The event field was set up in parklands at Spring Hill, near Brisbane. When I arrived I helped set up under the direction of Thahn and Clem, who were well prepared. The field came together as an array of markers and flags for objectives and spawn points, cardboard boxes as semi destructible cover and tarps strung between trees. Every effort was made to provide an even field for both teams and to create interesting flanking pathways and places to hold down in. All this allowed for a bunch of awesome game types and some pretty intense shoot outs.

The back half of the field

When I got in to the action, I quickly found out that you don't want to be rocking up with a stock blaster. these guys were serious, with blasters that well out-ranged my elite gear and with aftermarket darts, were also incredibly accurate. That said, the limitations on air blasters did allow for anyone with an under powered blaster to still be competitive, it just took a little more careful planning and tactics. The games moved very fast and I did find myself using the Rampage to rush hard, but quite often my attempts were thwarted early on by being sniped by someone well out of my range, and when that happens to be from someone's heavily modded Longshot or Triple Shot, you certainly know about it! So, this is when I learned to play smarter. If I didn't have range, I would have to rely on flanking and the element of surprise. So I resorted to sprinting to cover as soon as the game started, wait for a gap, then move up to cover closer to my target, and hold it down. The slamfire goodness of the Rampage made it difficult for anyone to get past me and allowed me to get a few tags on people who would normally have nailed me with their sniper cannons from way off.

That damn maniac with that Retaliator pistol! Oh, wait, that's me.

This didn't work for every game mode, however, and I couldn't use a Rampage in pistol rounds, which were good fun as well. That's where the Retaliator made it's mark. A clip fed pistol in a pistol round is almost as great as a volt modded stampede in an ordinary round. The high refire rate is handy when you're facing 3v1.

The whole day was well run, and the use of referees helped keep everything fair. Getting an opportunity to meet the Brisbane nerfing community was awesome, and taught me things I didn't even know about yet. It's safe to say that the community is very friendly and welcoming, which gives me a great deal of faith in this young and developing sport of foam warfare. Anyone interested in future events around Brisbane should join Brisbane Nerf Group and start getting involved with the community and keep an eye out for upcoming events. Get into it!

Back in the Day: Nerf Secret Shot II

Annnd I'm back. And I'm coming back with something a little different too. I recently picked up a Nerf Secret Shot II, which was originally released in 1999. This pre-dates N-Strike by 4 years, so I wasn't really sure what to expect from a 14 year old blaster that was second hand.

When I got it, this Secret Shot II was in pretty mint condition, with the exception of a small leak coming through the barrel (most likely a valve sealing issue). It's got a brilliant red, black and yellow colour scheme and is a mega-dart firing air blaster. It's manual loaded via the barrel, and takes 5 or 6 pumps via the handle to fire. But the real kicker, is that the scope on ton is not actually a scope, press the button under the trigger and it flips down to act as a barrel for a second dart. Pretty cool! It is definitely not the tacticool style Nerf blasters of today have become, and it has a kind of top heavy beefy feel, like it's a hand held cannon or something,

Range on this unit was something I was surprised at, even with the leak, it manages to hit 50 feet most times with pretty good accuracy. Even by today's standards, that's respectable for a stock blaster. I have seen a couple of mod guides for it, which involve a barrel replacements and plugging the over pressure valve, which claims to get over 100 feet. The problem is, I'm not really sure I want to mod this unique piece. This would make for a pretty awesome sidearm if modded to take streamline size darts, but on the other hand it's still got it's mint looks.

What do you think? Should I leave it stock? Or do I do a barrel replacement and try to fix that leak? Leave a comment below! September Speed Foam Warfare event coverage next post!