"Counterstrike"
"There's always a bigger fish." ~Quigon
<<June 19, 1999>>
You drop to the ground behind a hay bail and frantically pump your only weapon. When the water stops raining past you, you quickly jump back up and take a couple of potshots at the enemy force with your XXP 175 before following your two companions back to the next cover point.
How the heck did you get yourself stuck with this assignment?
You dodge behind a small hedge, narrowly avoiding a blast from an enemy CPS weapon. Not wanting to be eliminated by a chance spray through the hedge, you make sure you're a few feet back before you fire a random shot over and start pumping again.
Your turn to retreat first. You step fearfully back onto the path and into the open and quickly run away from the incoming enemy force the followed you away when you attacked their base. Once you're slightly out of range, you get behind a large tree and check to make sure your pressure gauge reads at its maximum setting.
While you benignly prepare to continue the winning retreat, your two teammates suddenly break into a run and sail right past you, frantically waving their arms. The signal to get the heck out of there.
Wasting no time in idle speculation, you join your companions in a headlong rush along the rest of the path and then barrel down a steep hill with your foes in hot pursuit . . . for the moment.
Suddenly, as the enemy force begins to follow you down the hill, powerful Super Soakers open fire from both sides and enormous water balloons plummet down upon them. You watch with delight as they stagger and try to turn and run, but continue slipping down the hill on momentum for a few precious seconds while the ambush continues.
Somehow, two of them manage to get back atop the hill and shoot madly over their shoulder as they sprint back along the way they came. You quickly find yourself joining the rest of your team in pursuit of them, racing around large clusters of bushes and small trees, looking for opportunistic shots to present themselves. Quickly one of the two remaining opponents fall, and the last one . . .
Suddenly chaos strikes. Your entire team races around a corner to find pressurized water mowing down your front ranks and another, larger enemy force firing weapons randomly into the throng.
The chase ends as suddenly as it began. The pressure of bodies shoves you back around a corner and behind cover.
"What in the world just happened!" someone yells. "No Super Soaker deals out that kind of pressure!"
"It's the hose!" someone else shouts. "Those cowards turned a hose on us!"
You stare up at the commander in confusion. "I thought you said the hose was off limits?"
His face turns red. "It was my understanding that no one would use the hose," he says. "But . . . I don't think it was explicitly . . . forbidden . . ."
You hear someone quietly mutter something about darn sophistry while your mind reels. They have a hose! You look around quickly. The remaining troops have no remaining water balloons and are pinned into a small area of cover by the fierce blast of the hose. You try to take a count, but suddenly realize after counting the other 12 people (including yourself) that the Commander has disappeared. You look up as a sudden noise catches your attention to see him with his weapon's water tank unscrewed, preparing to throw it.
Several things happen almost at once. In what seems like an eternity but is certainly only an instant, the commander heaves his water tank, sending it spiraling into the enemy force, spraying water in every direction. Second, the "gunner" at the hose reacts to the commander's presence by turning the hose on him, drenching him from head to toe. Third, the majority of the remaining friendly troops (who were apparently waiting for an opportunity to present itself) storm out of cover on the opposite side, fanning out with their weapons at the ready. Fourth, you suddenly realize you have to act fast and quickly . . .
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I would order half of the troops to totally drench the gunner, creating a distraction for the other half to siez the hose, therefore, turning the tables completely. Now, although not invinceible, we would have alot better chance of winning
~crowsnst
Hrm . . . if half of your force works in tandem to drench the gunner, there is a good chance that half of your force will be drenched in the process. At that point, the other half of your force would have to fight their way up to the hose, because its a sure bet that your enemies are closer, so although it would be a distraction I doubt it would make the next part of your plan easy.
At that point, if we assume you're lucky and manage to take the hose with only losing half of the remaining forces, the enemy is now right on top of you and probably outnumbers you at least 3 to 1.
If you think that's going to turn the tables completely, you place far too much value on the hose. You'd never get off a shot.
At this situation, I would have some friendlies hide and try to snipe the gunner.Attacking from two or three sides would distract the gunner easily,so that fast-moving guys or snipers can get him. It's a very risky movment, since more than three troops might be "killed" during the attack.
~Commander
You're currently, ah, under enemy fire. Its not like your planning an attack, the guy with the hose is hovering over your hiding spot preparing to drench anyone he/she can. Now is NOT the time to start placing snipers. Your chances of organizing an effective three-prong attack are slim at best.
I'd just find a way into the house and turn off the water valve :-) Just kidding.
No, the best thing to do here is count your losses and have everyone go back to base. It is possible to take on a hose, but very hard to if the hose has back-up support. There is limited range to hoses, so you can just run to fight another day.
As for taking out the hose? The best thing I can think of is a massive barrage of water-balloons (assuming they're available) from out of the range of the hose. I don't think you'd have to worry about them being legal or not because they've broken a basic rule of fairness, namely no hoses. This barrage would probably work because the person manning the hose would have two options. Abandon the hose to avoid getting hit or get hit. Of course, if there are still defenders at the hose you're messed.
Just my two cents.
~Bryce Kustra "Gambit"
Hm, that sounds somewhat difficult. Although you probably won't take too many more losses in the retreat, I don't think you can hit the hose with water balloons from out of its range, because there are various ways you can manipulate the water output of a hose (i.e. cover up part of the nozzel) to get a pretty good range out of it, so you'd need to use pretty small water balloons, which aren't likely to have a profound effect like you seem to be hoping. I would also recommend a contingency plan in case there are additional defenders (or even just an extra weapon) at the hose, because this possibility seems quite likely.
Also, water balloons were already used in the first ambush, so they're obviously not forbidden. The issue of the hose is already discussed in the problem, although you'll get no argument out of me that its a cheap way to win unless the game is designed to be played with a hose(s).
P.S. Another alternative is to threaten to quit the game. I know it's cheap, but if they know you're serious they might be willing to stop using the hose and maybe even let your eliminated men back into the game. I know it's not a battlefield tactic as such, but you could say diplomacy is a tactic.
Well, while diplomacy is a tactic, I don't think people using a hose like that are likely to respond well to diplomacy. As a matter of fact, I doubt you could even get a "live" messenger in to protest unless you could construct a flag of truce, and a "dead" player's threats of quitting would probably not be taken seriously. You could try to formally forfeit the game (appealing to their ego), but I don't think you're likely to convince them that they shouldn't have used the hose and get them to stop, let alone return your defeated teammates. Furthermore, they'd probably want their fighters back too, because it looks like they intentionally let them get "killed" to lure you into the ambush.
I think at best you could just get them to restart the game and drop the idea of a hose.
Look at me, I'm answering two in one night.
The answer seems pretty obvious to me. They turned skanky on us, so why not turn skanky on them?
Run straight for the hose. If you get hit, keep running for the hose. The rules never said if you're hit, you're out. Go for the blind rush.
~Ben Nesson
Well, first of all, *I* never said that if you get hit you're out, but I implied it several times, and I didn't say otherwise. Furthermore, if you don't go out when you're hit, they won't go out either (regardless of the rule), and the entire game will degrade into chaos instantly . . . however, if the teams hold together you'll probably still be outnumbered, and then what? You're wrest the hose from the gunner with your bare hands?