* Players Offense - Stream Timing
By: iSoaker.com
While the beginner or novice water warrior tends to rush into a fray, wielding their blaster with pride, and accepting the onslaught of water while dishing out as much as possible, the veteran water warrior has more patience and understands that, to remain as dry as possible while getting others as wet as possible, timing is everything. Of course, this is much easier said (or typed!) than done. However, the following page will attempt to look at key scenarios that will make it easier to see the truly opportune moments and how best to utilize the opportunities.
The first thing one should remember during any water fight is never let the pressurized water run out. Without pressurized water, one is not much better than a sponge, unable to defend or attack. When running low on water, one should already be heading towards a refill station or have some sort of additional water supply on hand from which to refill. If refill stations are not declared no-firing zones, if the blaster allows, always have some water in the firing chamber ready in case of attack. The way to help maximize blaster field life is to use only in short bursts and not just pulling the trigger and unloading a full tank on a sole opponent (unless, of course, it's a duel game).
Burst Firing
Burst firing, while conserving water use, is a critical technique to use when it comes to attack timing. Burst firing allows the user to target, attack, and adjust one's firing pattern on any target, be it moving, stationary, or obscured by some defensive structure. Rapid bursting or pulsing one's shots also allows one to soak an opponent more effectively. A single, long stream will impact one spot, saturating it and then being partially reflected by the wetness formed, thus wasting water despite impacting. Pulsed shots with slight variation covers more surface area. With the nozzle calibre of most modern water blasters, even a short pulse is often enough to thoroughly saturate the impact zone. Pulsing allows one to cover more area while conserving water for a more thorough liquidation of the target. Pulsing also lets one pump between shots in order to maintain as much pressurized water as possible.
The pulsed shot is often used when targetting a moving target. The idea of accurately hitting a moving target is to pulse one's stream into the area where the target will be when the stream reaches that point. This is often called "leading the target". Basically, one needs to approximate how far ahead of a moving target one needs to shoot in order for the stream and target to co-incide. It is much easier to do this using pulsed shots.
Seize the Moment
While the concept of maintaining some pressurized water in the blaster has been introduced above, many opponents will not be as informed. Thus, there are times that one's opponent, though within range, will be unable to return fire having spent all their pressurized water. At these moments, one has the opportunity of sprinting momentarily closer to increase accuracy and precision of one's attack with no fear of being countered. This technique of waiting for low-pressure moments can work even when against more than one opponent with surprisingly effective results.
Don't Charge
Contrary to many people's instincts, it is best not to charge opponents. Instead, let opponents charge you and take advantage of the virtual-increased range. Unlike actual firearms, water blaster streams do not travel at a very high velocity and are readily affected by wind, motion of the user, etc. The idea is to lead one's opponents into one's stream instead of chasing after them. Employing this technique conserves water, energy used, as well as improving the overall performance of one's blaster. The main problems when chasing after opponents when using water blasters is that one is actually reducing the relative range by 25%-50% depending on the blaster. As well, one is expending much more energy at soaking, leaving less energy for defence and recharging. This does not mean that one should never charge. However, if given the choice between charging as awaiting the opposition to charge, in water warfare, it is often more beneficial to await their arrival so long as it's not a critical zone one is defending.
Posted: 20040501
