Supercannon for high school water wars competition.

[C-A_99]

I've gotten a few CPS's from friends, many of them broken. I fixed them up and now they are very useful for our wars, but I also got some good deals off eBay. Generally, the CPS 1000, 1200, and 2100 are the easiest to find for reasonable prices; trying to get a larger, popular blaster like a Monster (any kind) or CPS 2500 will be costly. There are exceptions though; trying obscure eBay searches can turn up good blasters for lower auctioned prices (since few people see them), while searching for blasters during the off-season also tends to turn up lower auction final prices.

The rules permit water balloons, thus making launchers an option to look at. If you're interested, there are articles on launchers under homemades. Launchers can get much more range than any SCII but are much more difficult to hit a target with. (and are generally not an ideal method of engaging in assassins)

On a side note, if you can get some actual water wars together (outside of assassins) with a group, you'd probably have the third group in southeast Michigan. In summer of 2007 I managed to get two wars in with another group in South Lyon. The group leader used to be active around iSoaker but hasn't been around lately. I go to Oakland University now and think I know a friend who also went to your high school. Perhaps a water war can be arranged over the summer...

Good luck with the assassinations game. The wonder of the XP215 is that it's pretty much small enough to fit in your hand in a long sleeve making it completely concealed until it's too late, something that may be worth experimenting with.

Edit: I gotta say, that rule prohibiting drive-by's really kills it. Just imagine how great it would be to blast that SCII from a car window!

Edit: I also forgot to mention the potential use of a syringe or small spray bottle as an alternative to soakers. If the XP215 hiding in the sleeve doesn't work, a small syringe definately will. The problem is that syringes are a bit trickier to use and only have one shot. They also do not have much range.

[TheBrogrammer]

I've gotten a few CPS's from friends, many of them broken. I fixed them up and now they are very useful for our wars, but I also got some good deals off eBay. Generally, the CPS 1000, 1200, and 2100 are the easiest to find for reasonable prices; trying to get a larger, popular blaster like a Monster (any kind) or CPS 2500 will be costly. There are exceptions though; trying obscure eBay searches can turn up good blasters for lower auctioned prices (since few people see them), while searching for blasters during the off-season also tends to turn up lower auction final prices.

The rules permit water balloons, thus making launchers an option to look at. If you're interested, there are articles on launchers under homemades. Launchers can get much more range than any SCII but are much more difficult to hit a target with. (and are generally not an ideal method of engaging in assassins)

On a side note, if you can get some actual water wars together (outside of assassins) with a group, you'd probably have the third group in southeast Michigan. In summer of 2007 I managed to get two wars in with another group in South Lyon. The group leader used to be active around iSoaker but hasn't been around lately. I go to Oakland University now and think I know a friend who also went to your high school. Perhaps a water war can be arranged over the summer...

Good luck with the assassinations game. The wonder of the XP215 is that it's pretty much small enough to fit in your hand in a long sleeve making it completely concealed until it's too late, something that may be worth experimenting with.

Edit: I gotta say, that rule prohibiting drive-by's really kills it. Just imagine how great it would be to blast that SCII from a car window!

Edit: I also forgot to mention the potential use of a syringe or small spray bottle as an alternative to soakers. If the XP215 hiding in the sleeve doesn't work, a small syringe definately will. The problem is that syringes are a bit trickier to use and only have one shot. They also do not have much range.

Yeah, the drive-by rule sucks. My team has a lot of leverage in planning the competition (I built the website, another team member is an organizer, we are the two most powerful people other than judges) so we might try to revoke that rule. We can still stop, fire the SCII, and drive away, but it won't be as effective as a pure drive-by.

[zeda.beta]

I had to wait a while, but if you keep a sharp eye on ebay you can find some good deals. I got my CPS 1000 for $20. The easiest thing to do would be to have a plethora of plans for all situations. That way no matter what happens, you can be ready for it. BTW, you could always use a vaporizer with the casing removed and the tube extended through your sleeve, that is a cheap and easy mod to a decent gun.
-Zeda

[C-A_99]

For the drive-by's, it may be better to "camp", or park in one spot and try to appear as unsuspicious as possible. (occupants of the vehicle should hide) Then when the target walks by, let out the shot. Unfortunately, I don't know if this will get a non-player to become paranoid and call the police, as people around southeast MI seem to tend to call the police for the stupidest reasons. (it has happened several times at actual water wars, though I don't know any incidents with assassination games)

[TheBrogrammer]

Just bought our guns:

4 Water Warriors Vindicators
4 Super Soaker XP 215s

[zeda.beta]

You might want to buy 2-4 vaporizers as backup weapons, also you can leave them outside in a hiding spot for days before they will be needed. Plus they retail for about $5 apiece.b
-Zeda

[TheBrogrammer]

You might want to buy 2-4 vaporizers as backup weapons, also you can leave them outside in a hiding spot for days before they will be needed. Plus they retail for about $5 apiece.b
-Zeda

Thanks for the advice. We might do that. That's not a pressure gun right?

[zeda.beta]

Yeah, they are pistons, but make for great last ditch weapons. Any piston gun with a decent resivoir should work.
-zeda

[TheBrogrammer]

Yeah, they are pistons, but make for great last ditch weapons. Any piston gun with a decent resivoir should work.
-zeda

That's an interesting idea. It might be good to have a few in places outside my house, just in case.

I also have a question about the water guns in general.

Do they lose pressure over time if you pressurize them then don't shoot them for a few hours? I was just thinking that if I'm carrying around the XP 215 all day I don't want to be in a situation where I won't have pressure.

[martianshark]

Nice selection, although you probably should have bought a Vanquisher or two.

[zeda.beta]

They probably would loose pressure over time, but I never have tried that. I would just be carrying a super soaker keychain, it is the smallest piston gun I could find.
-Zeda

[TheBrogrammer]

Nice selection, although you probably should have bought a Vanquisher or two.

I went with the Vindicator because of it's greater power and more versatile nozzle settings. It just seemed to be an all-around better gun. You guys are the experts though. I could be wrong.

[zeda.beta]

The vanquisher has a bigger pressure chamber, but bad nozzle selector. In other words, it has a longer shot time then the vindicator, but I would have chosen it over the Vanquisher. The small blast, big blast, and fan blast just don't cut it, even if there is more shot time. Each to there own, but I think that you made the right choice. At least, until we switch the selector on the vindicator with the one on the vanquisher.
-Zeda

[soakernerd]

It really depends on your style. also, since the main benefit of the Vanquisher is shot-time, there is no real benefit in an assassins type game. You don't want to get into a running fight, hence shot-time becomes less of an issue.

[ncog]

The only problem with the 215s is that when you pump them a lot they dribble water slowly (but steadily) out of the nozzle meaning that you'll get your pockets wet. Possible solutions:

- Practice pumping the 215s and figure out the amount of pumps before water starts dribbling out the nozzle. That means that before you stow them in your pocket you can pump them up a little bit and when you take them out you can either shoot straight away for half range or pump further for more range.

- Put an open zip-lock bag in your pocket to stow the fully-pumped 215 in (so that the bag will collect any leakage). May be more difficult to easily get the soaker out when needed though.

- Live with the leakage, it's not that bad (just a bit annoying)

- Get other small soakers that don't leak. Cheap squirt guns will leak even worse, but a good choice is the Water Warriors Sting Ray. I used it for an Assassins type game at uni a few weeks ago and it didn't leak once in the several hours I had it in my pocket/bag. The only problem is that it's slightly bigger (I fit it in the pocket of my hoody/shorts pocket with the handle sticking out).


Another good thing to do is to go to a second hand clothing store and buy a cheap jacket with inside pockets. I got one for $2NZD the other day