iSoaker.net :: Soaking the world!

I need some help arranging an urban water war. I normally have my large battles in a wooded area and my small ones in my back yard, but for a change of pace I want to have a large one with my whole neighborhood as the battlefield. I would be having it with my friends and it would be a team soakfest, 4 on 4 at most. My problem is that none of my friends live in my neighborhood, so my house would be the only place we could us a hose. Is it possible to have a urban battle with only one reliable refill spot? My neighborhood has loots of trees and parked cars to hide behind. There is a park in the center with a low output water fountain which we could probably use to refill if the paranoid parents there don't kick us out. So any idea how I should pull this off? (Should we play with bases? Carry water with us? Should we use the whole neighborhood, or just part of it? How sould we manage refilling? etc?)

Usually houses have two hoses. If you're missing a hose, you can buy a second one so that you can have two teams each with their own hose. Otherwise, if you only have one hose, then you must setup teams so that their starting points are equidistant from the hose, unless you are playing unbalanced games and alternating between team positions. (i.e. assault/defense which is played two rounds at a time; one team is assault and the other is defense and on the second round they switch around.) Bases are not really necessary; they are just a way of playing and as long as all players carry a full water gun (and perhaps some refill bottles) it should be fine.

As for going to the park, it all depends on where you live. Where I live, people usually call the police for those who carry something as unthinkably dangerous as a water gun. The people living around your area may not be so mentally deficient though. I'd say it's worth a try as long as there's nobody already using the area who could get in the way.

I have something to correct, my house actually has 3 hoses. What I meant to say was that since none of my friends live in my neighborhood than if my team's base is at my house, then where will the other team’s base be? As long as we weren’t battling around the little kids the people at the park probably would not call the police. It wouldn’t be too hard, it’s a big park. Sorry for the confutation, I guess my real question would be whether it could work if I had the other team have a base other than my house, and if so, where should it be? Where would they get their water? And how far should it be from my house?

Your questions really can't be answered with specifics without knowing more about the layout of your neighborhood and that level of detail is something that really shouldn't be shared on these forums, anyhow, being publically visible. That said, if you want to split into two teams, each with the own base, but be fair, you can set up a game in which neither team can use the hose for refilling during the game. Instead, each team has an equal number of water bottles/buckets/some other way of refilling that's available. The location of the other base really depends on what properties/areas you can access without trespassing on private property or causing concern with other neighbors. I've had water blaster fights in neighborhoods I was not as familiar with, but the local kids were invited and joined in (with parental permission) and thus we had a lot of areas which opened up by doing some brief chatting before we actually started (~15 mins of prep time). It is amazing how accommodating some can be if they feel they are being respected and informed of what you are planning (i.e. holding a water war in the area). Of course, I've also had to deal with people who didn't want us battling anywhere near their property; thus, some areas got flagged as "illegal areas" and Players were forbidden from going within water blaster firing range of these properties (to even avoid the chance of a mis-fire straying onto private property).

You can split up your hose into several "bases", determined by where the hoses are. Either way, as long as your game setup is done fairly, there shouldn't be any problems. The assault/defense example I mentioned is just one; it's fair because two teams alternate positions. Infection can also work with only a single fortified positions; there are lots of possibilities. It doesn't matter how your area is set up (as long as there's at least a little cover), you can almost always find a way to set up fair matches even if a symetrical or semi-symetrical setup isn't possible. (i.e. If there's only one hose you have all players start the match the same distance away from it. Have a look at how video games balance weaponry; a lot of games have a single "power weapon" placed in the middle of the map.)

iSoaker's information on restricted areas is important to note as well. You don't want neighbors getting pissed at you/your group.

You guys have given me lots of ideas to go on, thank you. unfortunately, its starting to get cold where I am but you have been vary helpfull and now I will have some good ideas to start next year with, thanks again.