Sunday battle day: good times.

Mmm, clear blue sky!

One of the best things about living in Australia is that we get such great weather most of the year, and winter Sundays usually mean perfect blue skies, nice warm sun shining down, but never too hot to get outside to have fun. Today was a prime example of how to best use these days; get outside and run around blasting your mates with foam and spitwads! After gathering everyone together, downing loads of energy drinks between us and doing a couple of quick mods, we got in to it. Be warned, this is going to be a long post, with plenty of photos. I actually have about 3 other write-ups to do, 2 on battle testing, and one write up on my modded longshot that I finally finished today. but anyway, after the jump...

Today's Nerf / Max Force war went really well, we didn't have a large group of us, just our regular players. But, being regulars they are quite good at this kind of thing, and the competition got pretty heated in every game. Many of the game types we played ended up leaving both teams pinned down at some stage, or one player on either side locked in and intense game of cat and mouse. But one of the main aims of today was to try out Max Force blasters in games normally played with Nerf blasters, and seeing as we had 3 Shadow Hawks (review here), it was decided we'd play a bit of "sniper defence". This game type involved 3 players defending their position on a balcony, each with a Max Force Shadow Hawk, and a Nerf gun of choice, and had to take 2 hits to be eliminated, but could not leave the balcony. The attacking team of 5 could use whatever blaster they like, whatever equipment they wanted, and had the option of having one player with a riot shield, but could only take one hit. 

Defenders loaded out to make a stand

In every game, there's always someone on a roof somewhere...

This game type was by far where the Shadow Hawk came in to it's own league, being able to put out long distance, reasonably accurate shots towards the attacking team put the pressure on them big time. When the sides switched, I moved to a setup using my modified Alpha Trooper and Nitefinder, and had quite a hard time trying to move up on the snipers. I did find that the only way to take out a player with a Shadow Hawk is to either take them on with a very long range Nerf blaster, or if they're in range, make full use of slamfire to keep them ducked down while you scramble to cover a little closer.

note the dart mid flight...

Overall, "sniper defence" was one of my favourite game types of the day, and definitely allowed Max Force to prove worthy of being included in future Nerf wars. These games actually lasted a fair while, with many stand-offs and trial and error of tactics. For both sides it was quite full on, especially if you were defending and suddenly realise you're out of paper pellets, or you're an attacker, and you've somehow misjudged the effectiveness of your chosen cover...

A hairy englishman lining up shots in the aussie sunshine

 As the day got in to the afternoon, the temperature dropped a bit, so we decided to gear up and try some scenario games. Those that had cams, boots and tac vests suited up. At the end of the day, Nerf wars are really an excuse to have tons of fun, so whipping out the ghillie suits or dressing as a ninja is never out of place in our games, because it's always just that, a game. This did mean that I'd be able to carry loads more clips on me for my Alpha Trooper and pick up more ammo as I go to support the other players on my team. Below, is a couple of ways we kit out. Glasses are always a good idea, being shot in they eye sucks, though sometimes they won't prevent someone from taking a picture of you striking a weird facial expression (yep, that's me on the right...)

The next game was a team death-match, which got really intense. No respawns, kit out the way you want and no restrictions of where you could go within the property. I decided to use my Alpha Trooper with the only attachment being the recon stock, with my Nitefinder tied to my vest, top right pocket loaded with loose darts and top left with a spare clip. In the end it boiled down to 2 players on each team still left in, and after a tight shootout it was just myself and one other with a Nerf Stampede. After constant never-back-down style firing back and forth, out of nowhere I was hit with one dart from the stampede square on the vest. Without doubt it was a brilliant shot, and I had been defeated.

Later in the evening, the camo gear became really useful. Night games are usually all about one team being stealthy, and the other blatantly giving away their position with lights and talking as per normal. There's a variety of different scenarios we do using this format, from the attackers having to turn out lights, to having to eliminate everyone, even as simple as staying hidden for a certain amount of time. In all cases, there's always been an incident where I've been 3 feet away from another player and they've not spotted my thanks to being silent and wearing cams. The scenario we covered was 3 attackers in full cams had to sneak past the patrols, unplug a spotlight and make a break for the mound at the back of the yard. This actually proved to be really difficult, but very fun and kept us on edge. While sneaking in the dark, blending in with whatever we could was hard enough, once the light was out the other team was on to us very quickly, and in 3 rounds the closest we got was one of the three getting within a few metres of the mound with the entire defending side flanked from all angles and got the win.

At the end of the day, between 8 people we had consumed 15 cans of energy drink, 6 pizzas, 3 garlic bread, lost over 100 darts and 120 max force pellets, and had the most fun anyone can possibly have in a back yard  on a sunny winter Sunday. It's the kind of thing that this blog derives it's essence from, mates, foam, and good times!