A reminder that this is tomorrow!  The forecast is good, around 81 degrees and sunny.  If the power goes out from tonight's storms, the war is still on.

Several people may be able to attend, but only for a few hours.  You know what that means, right?

"ROUNDS PER MINUTE!"

We need to step it up so everyone can have fun, no matter how long they are able to stay.  Downtime needs to be kept to a minimum.  This is still a week and a half away, so there's plenty of time to make more darts and tune up primaries.  Bring your A game, lots of darts, lots of friends, and be ready to play hard!

 

We are here, setting up mobstacles.

Connecticut Nerf Out - Saturday, July 2nd 2016

[Insert awesome sub-optimal image and teaser video here]

This war replaces the NENO that we were unable to do.  Note the new location.  If you live in the city, on LI, in Jersey, in eastern PA, this is a bit closer to you than usual.  We'd love to see you there if you are able to attend!  Check back here for updates, I like to update stuff the same way I vote - early and often.
 

Play Times: 
10 AM to at least 5 PM.  (That's 1 to 5 in Langley time)

 

Venue: 
West Rocks Middle School
81 West Rocks Rd, Norwalk, CT 06851
Parking: 41.133884, -73.414676







Backup: 
Cranbury Elementary School
10 Knowalot Ln, Norwalk, CT 06851
Parking: 41.156607, -73.402940
Playing: TBA

Lunch: 
Bring your own, or bring $$$ for group pizza.  Bring one for DX, too.  Feed the wildlife.

 

Rules:
Eye protection is mandatory, regardless of age.
Barrel taps ARE allowed (with the SIDE of your barrel or by hand tag).
Blaster hits count and hits to anything you are carrying count.
Shields and melee are not allowed.
FPS limit: Try to keep your average at or under 300 FPS.
 

Allowed Darts: 

- #6 Slugs
- #8 Slugs
- Silicone Domes
- Stock Darts of any variety other than FVJs

Check List:
- Lunch, for DX.
- Water.  Sugar water for DX.
- Money, for DX.  Somehow, I am still alive.
- Blaster for a raffle. (NIB Maximizer, System 2000, 1500 Arrow Shooter, etc)
- Darts.  This one is kind of important.  Bring at least a couple hundred.
- At least 2 primaries.  There's no guarantee that we'll have enough loaners for everyone, especially if you're a Yankees fan.
- Pistol, maybe.  I keep bringing one and we never end up doing pistol rounds.
- Sunscreen, if you burn easily.  Google, broadband, and Van James didn't exist the last time I got burned, but hey, not everyone can be this fabulous.

Game Types:

I'll make a rough playlist to avoid wasting time.  Make your requests if you want to play something and it's not listed.

Current Playlist:
- 3-15 Warmup x2
- VIP x2
- Uma Thurman x2
- Lunch / Maybe speed rounds
- 3-15 x2
- Freeze Tag x2
- 5/0 x2
- 3-15 Cooldowns

Raffle:
If you want to participate, bring a $10-20 blaster to toss in.  We'll assign everyone a number and pick from a random number program.  In addition to the raffle, I will be bringing stuff to give away.  It may not be useful...stuff...but it could be interesting and maybe you'll think of a use for it?  Whatever you don't take will be thrown away 100% guaranteed.  Last NENO I ended up throwing away about 8 blasters that were not claimed.

Confirmed Attendees (14): 
A wild DX +1
Van James
Blitz
Aeromech
Jlego
CA99
Zach +1
Edmund
Jonathan +1
Lucy! +1

Maybe:
Langley
Miguel

Connecticut Nerf Out - Sunday, January 29th 2017

This war allows us to stack 2 events on the same weekend (NYCNO is the day before!)  Mix of DIY and Superstock with mobstacles for cover.  We will be nerfing regardless of the weather, so dress warm.

 

 

Play Times: 
10 AM to around 4 PM.

 

Venue: 
West Rocks Middle School
81 West Rocks Rd, Norwalk, CT 06851
Parking: 41.133884, -73.414676




Backup: 
Cranbury Elementary School
10 Knowalot Ln, Norwalk, CT 06851
Parking: 41.156607, -73.402940

Lunch: 
Bring your own.  Due to the forecast for mid 30s, I don't plan on having much downtime.  There will still be rounds to play during lunch.

 

Rules:
Eye protection is mandatory, regardless of age.
Barrel taps ARE allowed (TAG WITH YOUR HAND, not your barrel)
Blaster hits count and hits to anything you are carrying count.
Shields and melee are not allowed.
 

FPS limit: 

For DIY rounds, try to keep your average at or under 300 FPS.
For SS rounds, try to keep your average at or under 150 FPS.
 

Allowed Darts: 

- #6 Slugs
- #8 Slugs
- Suction Cup Slugs (SCS)
- Silicone Domes
- Stock Darts of any variety and any length

Check List:

- Winter jacket
- Gloves
- Hat/scarf/etc.

- Lunch
- Water
- Money
- Blaster for a raffle. (NIB Maximizer, System 2000, 1500 Arrow Shooter, etc)
- Darts.  This one is kind of important.  Bring at least a couple hundred.
- At least 2 primaries.  We will have loaners available.
- Pistol, maybe.  I keep bringing one and we never end up doing pistol rounds.

Game Types:

- 3-15
- 5-0
- VIP

- Uma Thurman if I remember to bring the soda bottles
- 2 Flag CTF
- Speed rounds

Raffle:
If you want to participate, bring a $10-20 blaster to toss in.  We'll assign everyone a number and pick from a random number program.

Confirmed Attendees (8): 
A wild DX
Jaxon
Van James
CA99
Zach
Zack
Joe Med
David

Maybe:
Ron
Ethan

 

 

 

 

 

If I am cold, which I expect to be in the morning, there will be a lot of rounds and not a lot of downtime.  There will be plenty of opportunity to use everything.

For the raffle, we typically put in a $10-20 item (or combo of items, or Nerf blaster book, or Nerfstrong wristband, or big box of junk, or...Jaxon's left glove...).  Each person gets a number and numbers are drawn randomly, you pick in the order that the numbers come up.

NENO is this Sunday!  There is a chance of rain, so pack a jacket.

Like last time, I will be bringing a bunch of things I don't want.  The better ones will go into the raffle, the rest anyone can just take.  Whatever is left will go straight into the trash.

No, but you can trade the extras, depending on what you have.  I am always looking to trade junk for junk, especially for Deploys, regular ATs, RF 20s, etc.

War is still on, regardless of weather.  Bring a rain jacket and a change of clothes.

The forecast has improved to 51 degrees with periods of light rain.  The heavy stuff has been bumped to the evening.  I'd still bring rain gear and a change of clothes, but this is much better than the earlier forecast.

I have a few things to sell tomorrow if anyone is interested.

Many blaster, such Nerf

Let's do it.

Who uses a Roughcut at an NIC war? I can see a reloading topic potentially being useful if a certain gun is tricky, but it's kinda pointless with Nerf Elite guns. Almost everyone who brings one gets pwned hardcore.

Price should still be a factor in a review though. The problem I have with it is that you want people to shell out ~$80 for something that 99% of LS users are never going to need, without telling them the full story. The labor and craftsmanship may be worth the price on paper, but the value vs alternatives is awful. For that price they could commission an overhaul or homemade of something more useful. Longshots are fun, but there's better stuff out there, especially for the type of wars NH users tend to prefer. Even within the longshot's best gametypes...what a waste of money spending over $100 to pimp one out when campus HvZ can be won with a pair of 8 dollar nitefinders. It provides more of a challenge too, when you can't just spit out darts and have to use speed and strategy.

NH isn't really for advertising "Nerf businesses" either...doesn't the commercialization of this hobby ever bother you at all? It's already expensive enough pumping out darts and driving up and down the eastern seaboard for wars. Selling off my entire arsenal probably wouldn't match the cost of a full kit in metal. One of the things I've noticed in the past couple years is that the NIC has become more and more expensive. This used to be a much cheaper hobby when you could run around with 100 darts and primaries below $30. The businesses really bother me...it's one thing to be selling 3 dollar wyes...but look at what these places are charging for parts and kits...those prices are absurd. All this for fun...

And you said you got the boltsled provided for the review? Did you have to actually pay the 80 bucks to have that thing sent to you? A review where the subject was free and has no downsides is a red flag. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is, and for that amount of money, you'd better be 100% on top of your game before some poor kids throw away good money for something they aren't likely to need the power of.

In this specific case, the venue has been very carefully picked, using past experience to minimize interactions with police, local property owners, and various passer-bys.  It is a field behind a public school, surrounded by bushes/trees and on a terrace below the level of the school itself and its main sports fields.  Therefore, it is completely out of view of anyone on the rest of the school grounds, and almost completely out of sight from nearby houses.  The field is not visible from the street.  It is not marked for baseball, football, or soccer.  It is extremely unlikely that anyone else will even pass by during the course of the day.

In the very unlikely event that a sports team or local group has reserved the field, we can move to a portion of the upper fields that are also unmarked for sports.  In the unlikely event of a kick out, we have a backup venue about 5 minutes away.  Police in our region have historically been a non-factor in our public parks and on public school grounds outside of school session.  

Additionally, Sam, Van, and I will be making and setting up "mobstacles", cover made out of tarp and PVC.  The big, blue tarps on grassy fields tend to make Nerf look more like a sports game when viewed from far away.  People can't really tell what it is, but it looks like some sport or another, so they think nothing of it.

The activity itself is very safe, other than the risk of hits to the eye, which is why eye protection is mandatory.  That said, no one is to be held liable for any injury or harm that does occur.  You agree to assume all risk when you attend these events.  If you do not agree to that, do not come.  The ability to continue playing on public property is contingent upon players taking responsibility for themselves.

@Sponge_Nerfer: If you want to talk about your ball valve homemade, make a new topic for it. This topic is clearly for Traps, something you would have noticed had you bothered to read the title or any other posts in it. I also don't understand why so many people can't use forum code correctly. It is like HTML, you must close your tags: [/quote]

@drumsrock92: The COC also mentions the use of proper capitalization and punctuation. Your post was marginally better than Sponge_Nerfer's in terms of following the COC.

Now to get back on topic, which is what one should do after it has gone off in some other random direction. To sum up my earlier views on Traps: Certain traps are effective in certain locations and in certain types of wars. One kind of trap may be a waste of time in one game type while scoring multiple kills in another. Depends on the situation. Don't build traps for the sake of building traps; make them only if you know they have a chance of helping to swing the balance of a nerf fight in your favor.

Honestly, the best trap is a hidden person holding a gun. I've never found traps effective whatsoever, a careful and experienced enemy should not fall for them. Especially in Nerf, if you are not playing a one hit kill game, traps will have no effect at all. Only the weak and inexperienced can be intimidated this way. Veteran enemies will press on. If you are playing some variation of an elimination game, one-on-one action will take out more people than traps will. A skilled fighter should rely on combat rather than stationary traps which cannot react to peoples' actions nor move to counter a bypass of their position.

If you can't cover the necessary routes, then yeah, a trap would be very useful. If I were on my own in an assassin-style game, I would always try to have my back against something. A wall, a tree, something to cover and protect one flank. Then you can watch the other three more easily. Also depends on where you fight: suburban, forested, etc. Traps may not be as effective in a forest as they would be in a building complex. There is no one right answer to this, there are times when traps will work, and times when they are a waste.

* Postponed due to forecast heavy snow *









Date: Saturday, December 14th, 2013
Time: 10 AM to ~4 PM
Where: Saxon Woods Park

Across the street from
550 Mamaroneck Avenue
Harrison, NY 10528

Playing Area: Forest around a series of large boulders and small cliffs. Walk south from the parking lot and you can't miss it.

203-615-4914 if you get lost.



Map Link

Directions:
-Take the Hutchinson Parkway to Exit 23S
-Turn right on Mamaroneck Ave
-Park entrance is your next right at the intersection

or

-Take I-95 to Exit 16B
-Left on Mamaroneck Ave
-Go around the bend, pass 3 office buildings
-Park entrance is on your left at the first intersection where you can turn left

Typical MANL/East Coast style rules
-Eye protection is mandatory for under 18, over 18 strongly recommended
-Gun hits count
-No shields
-No singled Titans/Cobras/etc. If it's legal at NJ/PA wars, it's legal here.
-Barrel taps are allowed, but not with your barrel. You must tag the player with your hand.

Dart restrictions:
-Slugs and Silicone domes only

Lunch:
-Strongly recommended to bring a lunch with you. The playing area is not very close to the parking lot.

Other notes:
-If the gate is closed, park in front of it. Hopefully this doesn't happen, but if it does, we can shuttle people from the lot at West St Park.
-Don't bring a ton of gear unless you want to lug it in.

What to bring:
-At least two primaries
-Stefans (bring more than usual and plan on losing a bunch)
-Water (there is none at the park)
-Lunch
-Winter jacket and gloves. It could be pretty cold.
-Your "A" game. If it's cold, I don't plan on standing around for very long in between rounds.

Attendance:

Confirmed:
Duxburian
CA99
SEAL
Chief
SlightlySane
Kidame tomanaka
Donquixote +1
andtheherois +1

Maybe:
Ambush
Thailyer (sorry don't know your username)
Mangonerf
Griever 2112
Nick
Jaxon
Scott
Marauder

With 4-8" of snow forecast for the war site and 6-10" here, it may be best to cancel the war.

Depends on how much snow and the timing. If there is enough to make driving conditions dangerous, I'll have to postpone.

I'll be there. Just have to figure out where is where (I get very turned around at that campus).

There used to be a time when members knew what to post and when. Topics did not need to be closed. Off topic was meant to be used sparingly; laid-back discussions with some kind of value every now and then. A member's focus should be on practicing the hobby we all joined for. I look at this section about once a month, it's honestly rarely of any interest.

I don't think anyone who matters would exactly miss it. I mean if someone really wants to discuss something other than Nerf, why not do it at a war in between rounds? If someone really wants to make new friends, why not do that at wars too, where you can talk to their face rather than a forum mask?

Oh and:

Nerf Wars
Advertise or review your local wars
Topics 1123 Posts 29649

Off Topic
Anything unrelated to wargames.
Topics 2164 Posts 32243

It's kinda sad that off topic is bigger than wars, by like double the topics.

I have a somewhat unique fighting style. I use my water war fighting style in Nerf, as I usually find myself facing guns with too much of a range advantage [my Longshot shooting 70 vs a Crossbow shooting 130]. Since the last big Nerf war I attended, I have progressed deeper into the "Fluid level" fighting I use in water gun wars. This style calls upon constant, quick movement, weaving in and out of dense cover [hence the elf antics at Apoc], feigned aggression/weakness in order to feel out the opposing players' styles, and use of mobility to force short-to-middle range engagements [or just to flank]. When rushed, I tend to run away, but not out of intimidation, rather to preserve the fighting ranges I want. I also like random actions, such as running around to a far edge, holding, and then falling back, just to see how the opposing team reacts. That knowledge becomes useful later in a round/war.

While skilled players can overcome this style, I've found that several nerfers didn't know exactly how to counter it since it's not a style of play they'd otherwise face. In the few major wars I've attended, I've found it rare not to survive to the end of each round. There were a few rounds at the first BCNO that I finished with all 3 lives.

I typically use my Longshot for the ROF and the range which is good enough to hold my own in middle-range stand-offs. My recently modded nitefiner will see action in two days as a light sidearm. Regardless of the game type [3:15, CTF, deathmatch, whatever] I'd use the same guns.

I believe CX gave me my first welcome. I read much more back then I do now, as the information was crisper. Most topics nowadays have been regurgitated dozens of times over, but many of them had not really been done before.

It always looks different after taking a break. The topics and members change, but much of the same continues on.

Look, I want to make something clear. I am not backseat moderating, saying that anything needs to be done, or complaining for kicks. There has just been such a HUGE, and very sudden influx of noobishness recently. I am just wondering, did I miss something?

What the hell happened?

I tend to avoid these topics, but I think one thing needs to made clear. Nothing new has happened in regard to macro posting behavior. I'd like to add to JSB's point that things are no different than they were a few weeks ago, a few months ago, or even a few years ago. It has been this way for as long as I can remember, though with a bit less volume, as there were obviously less members. New members have tended to be validated in waves - there would be an influx of bad posting, arguments, bans, but eventually the quality members would emerge from the fray and survive to go on and contribute to the hobby. That cycle has produced many good members whom have stayed with us for many years. It is worth the hassle of having less-than-superior quality posters running around.

The admins deal with them anyway. It should be of no concern to the rest of us. It is actually rather easy to ignore the n00bishness entirely. Just don't read what you don't want to see. I skim the topic lists in General, Off Topic, etc., usually see things that aren't worth reading or replying to, and then move on. Been doing that since months before even obtaining membership. Personally, I'm in a sort of bubble where conversing with good members is the only type and the rest of the membership doesn't exist. That's why I've never even heard of some people who have been here for months or sometimes a year. If you just shut out the trash, all you see is the treasure. Kinda corny way to put it, but it is the simplest way to picture that viewpoint. And of course, membership length does not necessarily correspond to member value, but time does influence members in some ways that other things cannot.

Basically, bad posting and annoying members will always be present on a popular forum, and here they always have been, at least since I started reading NH in '04. There are two good ways to deal with it: Let the admins do their thing and ignore the junk so completely that you don't even know it exists, or use PMs to inform problem members of what they could be doing to improve their posting quality, along with PMs to admins when someone really needs a boot.

Either way, this kind of stuff should not be an over-arching issue. Nerfhaven is a resource first, community second. All forums share these concerns, regardless of their subject. It's more worthwhile to just discuss nerf and forget forum-related things.

Option #11- Hybrid

One who spends most of his Nerf time on modifications and Nerfs in one season of the year.

Option #11 1/2 -More Hybrid

One who is a mix of 3 or more of the categories.

I have elements from nerfer, toy soldier, and assassin. Odd mix, but that's what I am. I fight, mod, build homemades, normal stuff. But I also paint my guns, buy them to get used extensively, and use tactics, but nothing over the top and no camo. Due to a competition at school requiring elimination of other teams at any point in the day other than school and work, assassin tactics will be needed and ambushes set up. I also split the year between my hobbies: Nerf = Spring and Winter, Water Wars = Summer and Fall. Although if this Spring is warm I might juggle the two.

In addition, veteran experience in water wars and on those forums helps me here in Nerf. Tech, posting habits, and wars are areas where this comes out quite a bit. I've nerfed on and off for the past 8 or so years, but it took a while before I found the NIC and went several years with no interest in picking up the hobby again. Until this year that is, I am back into it and this time with hopes of larger team wars.

Ok, so I'm a definite unless there's a morning practice on Sat, which there shouldn't be. I still don't have a working primary though and am trying to come up with something. RSCB 2K is leaking and Max is reconstituted, but won't cock. I bought a pump shotty and an estimated 1950's pre-Nerf shotgun thingy that looks pretty cool, dunno how well it can be modded yet, still in the mail.

Pulling out of Penn now - will be there around 11:15.

Fuck yeah. Any January weekend works for me except the 16th and 23rd.

Tim, give us a date!

There actually is a worst gun: a broken one.

But jokes aside, there can never be a "best" or "worst" gun. I'm sure countless members have stated this over time, so here's another reinforcing blast of logic: such absolutes can never exist unless every user in the world possessed perfectly equal skill, preferences, athleticism, size, strength, age, and if every gun in the world had perfectly identical range, power, weight, size, pumps/springs, modding potential, etc. Every person and every gun would have to have perfectly identical attributes, which is impossible.

Therefore, this topic is completely pointless, as anyone with an once of logic and a few seconds of thought time can figure out why there is no worst gun, and why there will never be one.

Tropical systems are obviously being hyped up this year due to last year's fiasco with Katrina. 50 MPH winds and some visitors evacuated the Keys? Heck, we get stonger winds during ordinary thunderstorms.

I have quite a few weather-related stories, including about a dozen close misses with tornadoes. I used to live west of Chicago, so it was not surprising to see the sky turn green and to hear sirens go off. In fact, before I was born, a twister roared right down the middle of my future street.

However, tornadoes have touched down near where I've stayed/lived three times in the Northeast, which is rare. Eastern MA, eastern Long Island, and here in northern NJ. The most recent hit Bergenfield, about a mile and a half from my house.

For hurricanes, Floyd was the worst in this area, not due to wind, but to two feet of rain in 4 days. That caused flooding at the 25 year mark. Hurricanes are rare here, but we usually get the leftovers of systems that make landfall down south.

The worst storm I've seen was an extremely violent thunderstorm that stalled over the county for nearly 2 hours. When a microburst sits over you for that long, trees go down in just about every other yard.

It's just because of Katrina. The government knows that it fucked up badly, and the media knows it can feed off hurricane hype for at least this season to try and boost their ratings. Happens after every major disaster. Ernesto might actually be worse up here, simply because it is supposed to dump major amounts of rain on already totally saturated ground. It's poured for the last 4 days, the last thing the Northeast needs is the remains of a tropical system.

FlexPVC has changed, it now has a US presence so you no longer need to pay international shipping. However, they still usually don't give you an accurate quote until you check out. They've also got some strange shipping rules and policies on their FAQ page that either aren't true or are never enforced in the real world. I've ordered wyes from FlexPVC before so I know they're legit, but their shipping dept is…unusually paranoid.

McMaster would be a better deal if you're a northeastern nerfer. I usually get things in 1 day. If you're going to pay marginally more in base price and about the same for shipping, take the closer shipping origin.

#8 slugs, and only because slingshot domes continue to be banned regionally. RIP darts with actual accuracy.

My first NIC war was Apoc 2006. I had crap pistols for blasters (1st gen Mavs, Secret Shot barreled for megas) and didn't know that my SM 1500 could even *be* modded, so Evil lent me a Maxshot to use. I made up for not being able to hit anything by becoming one with the trees and bushes at Mill Creek. My first good kill was a sneaky turn-around-drop-down move on one of the Horsemen when they crashed Apoc with newly released Longshots.

NIC Nerf took some getting used to, as the playing style was (still is?) quite different from water wars, my native game at the time. Once I got a Maxshot ($20) of my own, and then a Maximizer ($28), shit got real. I never really gave up trying to use water war playing styles in Nerf and that gave me a fairly distinctive physical and psychological edge. It's been a pretty wild ride, from "Parkway" to "orange tape" to "BEES!" to "Faddle Battle!" to "freight elevator" to "WATCH OUT FOR DX". In 2006, I was being run into the trees. Now, I literally run other people into trees.

Currently, I use reshelled and unshelled 4B contraptions, and sometimes bring out aging springer homemades built by others. Nerf for me has always been about fighting first and modding a distant second, so never got into the building craze, and have neither the tools nor the patience to do better than a 10 year old would on a basic SNAP. The fun for me is on the battlefield and that's where I influence the NIC. I would *like to think* *hope* that years of flanking people, rushing them, and pushing them around the field has made a lot of NE and Mid-Atlantic nerfers better and stronger opponents.

I don't see why everyone hates this show so much.

Bandwagoning. It is in human nature to jump on the bandwagon to make yourself sound cooler. Some in this topic probably only posted that they hate Zoom for that reason. Few genuinely hate the show enough to post about that without having the bandwagon effect in mind. As for myself, I couldn't care less about that show.