Another Melbourne HvZ event. A variety of reasons resulted in a reduced amount of enjoyment for me personally, but the event overall went quite well otherwise.
Blasters
Since there were a lot of different blasters there, Ive generalised them and only listed down the ones that I saw as significant or noteworthy, or remember for that matter. It is possible that I missed some blasters because I cannot be everywhere at the same time.
Regulars/Recurring
Elite Rapidstrike (various motors, LiPos) standard full-auto flywheeler. It is very reliable in close quarters or against zombie groups, but it is very ammo-hungry.
N-Strike/Elite Rayven (various motors, LiPos) semi-auto bullpup flywheeler. The Stryfe is generally considered inferior for modding because of the longer barrel and many internal issues. However, if properly built, can still function as well as a Stryfe.
N-Strike/Elite Alpha Trooper (various upgrade springs) a decent out-of-box pump action springer. Lacks a little power compared to other options, particularly the Retaliator, but still does quite well as a basic all-rounder. They are more likely to shoot out the AR, rendering it unusable. The fix is to take the AR assembly off completely. This happened to me.
ZS Hammershots (various springs, cylinders) a solid, one-handable revolver springer. This is a popular sidearm weapon, but it can also be used as a primary by players who want to carry light, on-the-fly loads.
Elite Retaliator (various springs, typically pump grips) modular mag-fed springer, typically run with an underbarrel pump grip. Packs some good power, easily enough for HvZ, and can be readily customised. A little lacking in ROF compared to flywheelers, but good enough for most combat.
ZS Slingfire is a mag-fed, one-handed springer that offers serious style points. Practically, falls short of the Retaliator, which has a faster ROF and more power.
Elite Stryfe (various motors, LiPos) standard semi-auto flywheeler.
An excellent all-round blaster when built well, and capable of handling the majority of combat situations in the hands of a skilled user.
Doomlands Lawbringer (various springs) essentially a supersized Hammershot. Has a good capacity and is also one-handable, making it good primary for a light, top-up on-the-fly loadout. Its size does make it harder to carry around.
Elite Hyperfire (various motors, LiPos) full-auto flywheeler with belt feed. I find them to be a lot less reliable than a Rapidstrike, and the stock canted flywheel cage doesnt help. It works when it does, but I find Hyperfires significantly less reliable overall.
Mega Rotofury is a high-powered springer that can easily be recharged. Effective at pot-shotting zombies from longer range, but vulnerable in close quarters with its relatively low capacity and ROF.
Modulus ECS-10 (various motors, LiPos) essentially a Stryfe in a big shell, a solid all-round semi-auto flywheeler.
N-Strike/ZS Longshot (unknown mods) largely obsolete for HvZ, as Retaliators can already achieve the 130fps cap without too much issue, in a much more compact form.
Infrequent/New:
X-Shot Eliminator (SS Shotblast tank) used as a multi-dart shotgun blaster. It is quite effective at close range against a few Zombies, but not as well against many more from different directions.
Alien Menace Incisor semi-auto cylinder-fed flywheeler. Very good for a light, top-up on-the-fly loadout with good performance and capacity, but isnt easy to completely fill up quickly.
Doomlands double dealer (unknown mods if any) can achieve reasonable power if one magwell is used. This defeats the purpose for two magwells. Very impractical, and inferior to many other options such as the Rampage.
BoomCo Mad Slammer (assumed stock) a very compact, slam-fire only blaster. Its user was skilled with it, and they could fire off reasonably accurate shots quite quickly. The ammo size is also noteworthy, allowing the player to carry a lot more darts in the same space.
Incompatability with Nerf darts leaves its user in trouble once it runs out however, as scavenging is far more difficult.
Modulus Regulator (unknown mods) functionally no different to a similar spec Hyperfire, as it has the same canted flywheel cage and belt feed. If well constructed, it can work quite well.
XShot Turbo Advance (unknown modifications) A pump-action, cylinder fed springer. It packs a lot of power and has a large capacity that can be quickly topped up. This particular unit was unreliable in rotation, but I expect them to be able to perform quite well for HvZ.
Buzz Bee Reaper is a compact, powerful mag-fed springer. Although it was possible to trade shots with other high-powered blasters, the ROF was not sufficient for close quarters combat against multiple zombies.
X-Shot Bug Attack Rapid Fire (unknown mods) relatively compact pull-back revolver. It packs a lot of power but can over-rotate on a fast prime.
It was quite cool on the day, no rain and reasonable sunshine, ideal weather for HvZ. We had a decent player count, peaking around 35 or so. We had many newer players and a few more experienced players.
The first round, as always, was a Survival round. I stayed with a small group of people, keeping them out of the fighting in the early games. We went largely unnoticed and untargeted, and tried to avoid large groups of humans. Eventually, this becomes very difficult to sustain as human casualties mount up and the zombie horde grows. My group of humans got caught up with the remaining ten or so humans, with the zombies closing in around us. One other human and I took up a position as a rearguard, fighting off many zombies behind us while the rest of our group ran. During this time, my Bullpup RS malfunctioned, with one fo the flywheels seemingly struggling to reach the correct speed.
I was tagged by one the Tanks because of my distraction from the malfunction and the lack of backup. Shortly after, the rest of the human group was overwhelmed by the zombies, and I went off to diagnose the issue with my Bullpup RS.
It turned out that the top flywheel motor was failing and would not spin. My Bullpup RS was completely disabled. Additionally, as I was selling some blasters on the day, I did not pack a backup primary blaster, so was left with an EAT I was selling later in the day, and my Sweet Revenges.
We switched to playing Space Pope, and played two rounds of it.
Both rounds progressed quite ordinarily through the first eight or so minutes, and it was only in the second half of the games that distinct differences emerged. The Tanks made a few successful charges in the first round but were not able achieve many tags. This changed significantly when the Husk was released. Against the often clumped up humans, the Husk can be a very significant threat in Space Pope, and can achieve a number of tags even without particularly good throws. The Husk made me a victim. There were about two or three humans between myself and the Husk, which obscured my view of them. When the Husk threw, they all dodged in time, but I did not react in time to the Husks Vortex Howler, and was tagged.
As I was making my way out of the tanbark area, there was some commotion in the human group. The Traitor had attempted to tag out the General and another human using the grenade and their Traitor tag. The General noticed the situation and launched a dart at the Traitor. After clarification of the Traitor rules were made, both the Traitor & General were turned. The zombies knew the identity of Space Pope so we could target people more accurately. In particular, Husk was made a good target. We began multiple charges into the tanbark, with the zombies coordinating on one target but spreading out across the area. Although the zombies were mostly defeated for a few minutes, humans had to deal with increasing numbers of casualties due to unwatched angle attacks.
The VIP was eventually made vulnerable and was tagged with a victory code for zombies.
The General was defeated by the Traitor in the second round. Despite repeated zombie attacks, this time the human group held firm. In this round, unlike the previous round, where poor direction coverage resulted in many human casualties due to lack of coverage, the humans were better at covering all directions even when faced with repeated zombie charges. The single zombies were easily wiped out by a similar zombie horde. The result was that the human race suffered significantly fewer casualties, and was much more resilient in the final minutes of the game. The round concluded with a dominant human victory.
After lunch we took a break and returned with a Defence Survival Round. The majority of of the Infector weapons were in the south-most square, with the Tank shields in the middle and the Husk up north. I stuck with a group of humans defending the north square. The Infector square was not protected as the humans gravitated to the Tank and Husk squares. The Tank square was initially the target of the zombies, but they were able to quickly break through human defenses. After the shields had been obtained, the humans fell back to the Husk square and the zombies started their march northward.
Even with the Tanks present, we were able to fend off the zombies from the Husk square for a fair time. The zombies eventually closed in on the Husk square, from many directions, and it became impossible to protect it reliably. The humans pulled out and moved up north, while the zombies moved in to claim their prize. The zombies then moved in against the large group of humans up north. The humans split into two groups, one that escaped south, and another that remained in the north. I stayed with the group up north. My human group was left facing a small group of zombies who were easily defeated.
The rest of the zombie horde eventually returned to the north after having successfully tagged the majority of those who had separated. My group, which consisted of a majority of zombies and a small number of human survivors, was forced to retreat as they tried to escape the horde. After being distracted by fighting off other zombies, I was again tagged at range by the Husk during this skirmish. The remainder of the humans were whittled down and destroyed, however they were able to survive for a reasonable time before the last human was tagged.
Next, we played a round VIP Survival. We had VIPs for the Tanks, and the Husk. Infectors were available at the beginning. Compared to regular Survival, this round saw a lot more early game movement from the main human groups. The zombies know which humans they want to kill, unlike other gamemodes. The majority of humans will stay with one of the VIPs and form two dense human groups. This gamemode is more dangerous for zombies, and forces humans to move more.
I personally avoided much of this, sticking with a small group of humans away from the main groups. As few zombies were near us, we were able survive for quite some time without firing darts. This tactic worked well for a while, however as the horde began to grow it became increasingly more difficult to stay away from combat. Eventually, my group came under attack from various groups of zombies, and at times we were thrown together with other human groups to survive. During one particular skirmish, my group split off from a larger human group shortly after fending off a group of zombies. During the escape, we dropped our guard and failed to watch our backs, allowing one recently un-stunned zombie to tag most of us in one go.
For the second round, we switched to Space Pope. At Melbourne HvZ, there are a number of players named Will, and in this event there were five present. It was decided, as a joke that the Space Pope would be chosen from the five Wills.
With less players and thus less zombies, the humans were under less pressure than usual.
Even though Tank shields were available, it was easy to repel earlier zombie advances. Some humans began to investigate the Wills and tried to find the Traitor, despite the low zombie threat. The Traitor eventually revealed themselves and was eliminated. With the threat of the Traitor removed, the General was free to reveal the identity of the Space Pope to the humans. They looked around, trying to locate the correct Will, only to realise that the Will they had chosen was already a zombie. As it turns out, the Will who had been chosen as Space Pope was not aware that they had been selected, thus had not declared a zombie victory when he had been tagged.
Another round of Space Pope was probably started after the Space Pope round. However, I had to leave and spent the rest of my time packing up. As mentioned previously, various circumstances including the malfunction of my Bullpup RS and my lack of backup blasters resulted in my reduced enjoyment of the day, however there were still some good games and great moments. Unfortunately, this was the last Melbourne HvZ of the year.
You can find the same Nerf Game Report on my own blog: Outback Nerf
