Cambridge University Assassins' Guild - Cambridge, England

[cantab]

OK, not a water wars team per se, but I thought I'd get the ball rolling here.

This is for information only; I am not speaking for the Guild in any way. /disclaimer

Team name: Cambridge University Assassins' Guild

Location: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England. Unsurprisingly.

Number of members: Varies. The guild's games tend to have 40 to 160 participants. Numbers for home Varsity matches are lower, and numbers for away matches lower still.

Year established: before 1993

Leader: No fixed leader. Games have an Umpire, who is in charge for that particular game. Umpires are chosen by a shady cabal of keen and/or good players.

Contact email: however this may not be reliable during the off-season, especially the long vacation (mid june - start october).

Description of activities: Mainly assassination games in Cambridge. You'll need to live or regularly go within about 15 minutes walk of the town centre to play (students at Cambridge and ARU can almost always play). We also have Varsity matches, both home and away, against other similar societies, usually with Durham in the last few years since the Oxford guild became defunct. Battles against other water warfare teams would likely be on a similar basis to this.
We virtually always play one-hit-kills. Resurrection time (if at all) and status of limb hits vary, but don't expect soakfests.
Bear in mind that Varsity rules in general tend to be more restrictive than normal rules, to avoid risk of pissing off authorities.

Armoury: Whatever people have. There are still some CPSes around but they're perhaps getting fewer. Note that non-water weapons are also used. Rubber band guns, nerf weaponry, pens labelled knife, and more. If you're not happy with that, don't battle us. The website has weapon rules; note they tend to change from game to game. Novelty weapons are encouraged but need umpirical approval before use.

Website: http://www.srcf.ucam.org/assassins/

Logo: The 'cloak and dagger' seen on the website.

[Hunt_and_Annoy]

That's pretty cool.

[Silence]

Hmm...aren't water guns easily outranged by Nerf guns, etc? Are they for close range only, with longer shot times? Water pistols are conceivably concealable (no pun intended).

Are the Varsity matches in the assassins format, too? Is it team assassins?

Sound cool.

Edit: Shameless plug here, but recruit some people to the forums and Ben will set up a Group.

[cantab]

Nerf guns just seem uncommon around Cambridge. I think they do tend to have a range edge, but at limits of range anything's more easily dodgeable, and nerf runs out of ammo quickly; with use, you may even lose a fair bit, since it's not so easy to replace. They have been used to great effect by some though; their rarity can make them more intimidating.

They are also bulky as you say. There's a rule that you can kill anyone you see carrying a weapon, so people try and conceal stuff. Smaller Super Soakers can happily be hidden inside a coat (though larger coats, or gowns, are capable of hiding anything up to a 1500), as can rubber band guns.

Rubber PELLET guns were and are very effective, able to take on CPS class water weaponry. However, they're banned at Cambridge because all available models look too realistic.

For main games, stealthy ambushes are quite common, rather than dueling, so range doesn't matter so much. Plenty of kills happen by stabbing, and plenty of encounters end with someone running or hiding and no kill at all. It's also surprisingly common for newer or less careful players to be completely unarmed! End game duels are often, though not always, arranged to have fair weaponry.

Varsity matches vary. The last one was based around a series of objectives - capture the flag, defend a person, defend a base, etc. 2006's was simpler, just a long 1HK no-respawn battle, with arrangements made for some of the visitors to be in certain places at certain times (just so that stuff would actually happen rather than everyone walking around town missing each other). I spent most of that game with people who were being excessively cautious, and thus ended up meeting the Durham team when they were all already dead!

Incidentally, Varsity takes place annually. Next year's will probably be away, I guess at Durham, though Leeds got in on the act too this year so maybe we'll go there.

Also there are a couple of spinoff groups from the Assassins' that are more oriented at battles or short events, but there hasn't been much activity from them of late (or if there has I've fallen off the mailing lists).

I don't know how many people are that interested in water weaponry per se, but there are some in the Guild with impressive arsenals, and a few modded and homemade guns about. There are also some very good duelists; at least one of whom I know is generally willing to share his knowledge. So yeah, if I get the chance I'll point people here. I'm unlikely to meet or speak with them much until October though.

[Silence]

Originally Posted by cantab

There's a rule that you can kill anyone you see carrying a weapon

Without actually shooting them, you mean?

What if you see the shape of the gun hidden inside clothing?

It's neat to hear about modded and homemade guns not posted on the forums. You never really know how much market penetration you get, although Ben might have a better idea thanks to the email forms. I have yet to encounter an off-site homemade soaker, but it seems like they'd be common at the colleges I'm applying to.

[cantab]

No, you do have to physically shoot or stab them. (The following applies to main games only; Mayweek is different). It's that you're not supposed to kill just anyone - indeed, you don't even KNOW who all the players are. You have 3 targets, you're also allowed to kill the 3 people targeting you (if you find out who they are), anyone openly bearing a weapon, anyone acting like they're trying to kill you (obviously), anyone 'wanted', or anyone 'incompetent'. You CAN kill other people, but you get made wanted for doing so, which means you're a legal target for everyone playing.

It counts as bearing if the weapon is visible wholly or partly and obviously or known to be a legal assassins weapon. Bulges under coats, no matter how conspicuous, are not bearing. A bit silly I know, but that's how the rules are.
That also means it's OK to shoot non-players you see carrying weapons. Strangely it sometimes annoys said people. I'd have thought if one is carrying a water pistol, one should not be surprised to be shot by another with a water pistol.

I came across a 27K recently with about 60 balloons. The owner said they'd bought it k-modded. It kept breaking though, he had to open it up and fix it mid-battle!

I didn't mention before: Main games, of which there are two a year, in the first two terms, are elimination games. The idea is to be the last person alive. They tend to last several weeks (6 is the usual limit) and will end with a duel if not sooner.

[Silence]

Supposedly the 27K has the weakest internals of all the CPS soakers. I believe Ben suggested never taking it past 10-20 balloons. I'm sure somebody will pipe in about that.

Originally Posted by cantab

No, you do have to physically shoot or stab them. (The following applies to main games only; Mayweek is different). It's that you're not supposed to kill just anyone - indeed, you don't even KNOW who all the players are. You have 3 targets, you're also allowed to kill the 3 people targeting you (if you find out who they are), anyone openly bearing a weapon, anyone acting like they're trying to kill you (obviously), anyone 'wanted', or anyone 'incompetent'. You CAN kill other people, but you get made wanted for doing so, which means you're a legal target for everyone playing.

Awesome. Those rules are both well-developed and common-sensical. Much more advanced than StreetWarz.

Originally Posted by cantab

It counts as bearing if the weapon is visible wholly or partly and obviously or known to be a legal assassins weapon. Bulges under coats, no matter how conspicuous, are not bearing. A bit silly I know, but that's how the rules are.

Not necessarily silly...just something that you'd need to know when playing.

I wonder if you could cut a hole in a jacket and shoot the water gun out of that. Has that been done before?

[cantab]

Full rules can be had on the website. The last game was a Mayweek one, look in the archives for main game rules. There've been many years to develop them, and they still get changed.

I'm not sure about cutting holes in clothing and stuff. Never heard it tried. One would need to check with the Umpire.

[Silence]

Definitely a light, well-run site, a bit like DX's Dart Wars. I may dig into the rules today, but as you can see, I'm more interested in finding the loopholes.

Originally Posted by cantab

I'm not sure about cutting holes in clothing and stuff. Never heard it tried. One would need to check with the Umpire.

Better to just do it, rather than ask and be denied.

[cantab]

The Umpire is considered immortal and omnipotent. Kills can be retroactively disallowed, for example if the weapon used was unauthorised or inappropriate for the location (eg using a CPS in a shop). I think shooting through holes in clothing would probably be allowed though; I'm sure people have shot out of bags before, and weapons concealed up one's sleeve are OK. I used to have a little nerf pen. Easily hidden by a coat sleeve covering the hand, and what I call a 'zero draw time', which it what it says. Only one shot before reloading, but it was the one shot I made count on a number of occasions. Pity I lost it