AAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL RIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!
So, we’ve had a few chats about new guns and quite a bit of information was imparted about the various advantages and disadvantages of various weapons. But some of you are probably wondering, “What does it all mean?” “How does this apply to me?” Well here’s a little guide to choosing the right weapons for you.
Part 1: How do you fight?
One of my fencing coaches always was telling me to fight my fight, nobody else’s, and the same applies to Nerf. I tend to think about Nerfing in terms of “commando stereotypes.”
They are:
Sniper
Scout
Anti-Personnel and Suppressive Fire
Commander/General
Your sniper trains up on long range weapons, modified Long Strikes, Long Shots, Blowguns, and Nite Finders. They’re roll is to provide precision fire at long range. Since they make more precise shots, they can get away with carrying less ammo than most others, often only expending about 30 rounds in a typical game (15 minutes).
The scout focuses on maneuverability and lightness, rolling with pistols and light carbines like Nite Finders and Fury Fires. Their job is to move quickly and scout out an area, and engage the position until the rest of the squad can show, or sneak up and take out enemies with stealth tactics. A scout needs to carry quite a bit of ammo, probably around 60 rounds.
The anti-personnel and suppressive fire guy rolls with the rapid-fire weapons and shot guns. Their job, kills as many people as possibly in the least amount of time. They’re going to want to roll with Stampedes, Rapid-Fire 20’s, and Buzzbee Berzerkers. Their job is to roll into to battle and mow down folks, break rushes, and provide covering fire for a tactical retreat. You’ve got to go heavy on the ammo if you fight in this class, probably over 100 rounds.
The commander/general is a bit of a jack of all trades. He generally caries multiple guns which fill multiple roles. Blowguns are a good weapon for the commander, because they are light and provide good range. Slam fire guns like the Raider and Alpha-Trooper with multiple clips are also good for the commander to keep around. You’re probably going to want about 70 rounds.
Now the purpose of these guys are archetypes, almost nobody actually outfits themselves to fit only one of these roles, or fills these roles all the time. Usually one picks two depending upon their strengths. The key to being a good sniper is patience and accuracy. If you like to take aim and bean a quarter at 40 feet, sniper is the appropriate role for you to fill. Scouts have to be able to move, dodging is key to this roll, so if you can jump around all night, scouting is a good option. Anti-personnel folks need to be able to move as well, though less so than the scout, but if you like spraying fire all over the place while shouting like Schwarzenager, this is your role.
Part 2: The Guns
Sniping Weapons
When you’re sniping, you want the double whammy of range and accuracy. When modding a Nerf gun, increased range and accuracy generally go hand in hand. Your barrel material is CPVC. This gives a tight seal against the dart, though you have to twist the dart into the barrel. This decreases your rate of fire. But for a sniper, this is almost a good thing, because it trains you to time your shots, to line them up, and to make each round count.
Nite-Finders modified with the spring out of a Tek Six and a CPVC barrel is called a sniper pistol. This has increased range and, assuming the barrel is aligned properly, incredibly accurate. In my games, shots on the gun count as a kill, and a Nite Finger used properly can almost send darts up the barrel of the your opponents weapon. If you are of a Vortex disposition, the Proton is a good alternative, though it is less accurate, it has good range out of the box, and con be modified for greater range.
Blow guns are made from ½ in. PVC piping cut to length. Each gun is customized to the individual player by placing the pipe in the mouth, extending the arm out and cutting the pipe off about six inches in front of the finger tips. A dart is loaded into the back, and then a swift puff of air sends the dart out to distances up to 70 ft flat very straight. For a weapon that is this light, it’s very light, and easy to carry.
But the ultimate sniper’s play toy combines a blowgun with some kind of air tank to create a small air canon. These can be easily sourced from the Buzzbee Berzerker or Ultimate Missile Blast. Cutting off the existing barrel and attaching a blowgun barrel of about 6-8 in. long renders a breach loading weapon which can reach out to 80, 90, and even 100 ft. Add a longer barrel and you can break 100 ft., though once you get past about two feet of barrel, the aerodynamic restrictions of the darts themselves prevents much greater range, and once you get up to 80 or so feet, most darts will begin to weave in the air and loose accuracy. This weapon also has a slow rate of fire, as the barrel must be removed and a dart loaded, then the air tank must be pumped between five and eight times to full pressure, and then its ready to aim and fire. But its worth is because no other Nerf gun has this one’s muzzle velocity and range. To get much better you’d have to use either a custom high pressure air tank or a CO2 canister, both of which would shred stock darts, so you’d have to build your own. Since these are illegal in my games, this is essentially the ultimate sniping weapon.
Scouting Weapons
When you’re rolling as a Scout, lightness is everything. Basically you’ve got to be ready for a 100 yard dash at a moment’s notice, so you can’t be weighed down by large guns and a load of magazines. So light weapons are the Scout’s best friend.
A Nite-Finder is a great choice for the scout. Modified with a Tek Six spring and a Roseart barrel renders a gun which reloads quickly, while still having good range an accuracy. Rolling with two of these gives the Scout plenty of firepower, while still remaining light. The Proton is the Vortex equivalent.
Blowguns are a nice light weapon, but the long one’s suitable for snipers are a bit bulky to carry around. But the lovely thing about CPVC pipe is they can be cut. A two foot blow gun will still deliver good range and accuracy, while being compact enough to not impede easy movement.
The Maverick.
BOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
No no, now hold on! A stock Maverick is essentially a jam waiting to happen, but with a little TLC it can work. It has several advantages as a weapon system. Its light for one thing, and compact, about as deep as a stock Nite-Finder, and only a few inches longer, so its very compact and maneuverable. It uses a six shot revolving turret, and an inverse plunger system, cocked by a back slide. Stock the ranges are somewhat poor generally, many have trouble making it to 20 ft, and the components are so weak, that often as not the weapon either misfires or jams. But given a few mods and tweaks, the range is upped to around 30-40 ft and reliability becomes much improved. If you would prefer to use discs, the Vigilon is a good substitute. It uses a six internal magazine, and the same back slide cocking system as the Maverick, with the great range of the Vortex line. It is, however somewhat bulkier than the Maverick, though it is better built, and still small enough to not impede mobility overly much.
If you want something with a little bit higher rate of fire, the Fury Fire is the way to go for scouts. It’s a good compromise between the larger rifles and pistols, about a foot and a half in length, it is a pump action weapon with a ten round turret. Out of the box it delivers a decent 20 ft. range, and can be modified for ranges up to about 35 ft. The ten round, pump action system gives a great rate and volume of fire for such a small package. If you need to lay down fire until your buddies arrive? This is the gun to do it. If you are of a Vortex disposition, the Praxis is a great choice for this, same mag size, same pump action layout, with ranges reaching out to 50-60 ft. The ten shot clips and small and light, and give a good rapid reload. It’s a bit bulkier than the Fury Fire, but still compact enough to not impede maneuverability.
Anti-Personnel/Suppressive Fire Weapons
Rate of fire is key for this type of fighting, so fully automatic weapons are Johnny on the spot.
The most popular full auto these days by far is the Stampede, and that’s because it works. Out of the box it fires out to about 25-30 ft. and has a rate of fire about 180 rounds per minute, from 18 round clips, with the ability to take the 6 round clip, and 18 and 36 round drums. It has a high rate of fire, a rapid reload, and good name, so what if its not the most accurate gun in the world? It doesn’t use a fly wheel, and it feels good to shoot. Its an excellent weapon for suppression and aggression. If its Vortex you want, you want the fully automatic Nitron.
The Rapid-Fire 20 is the old man on the block, still sold at Target, but for how long? I couldn’t tell you, so if you want one, get one now! This gun takes a bit of TLC to get it to shoot. Each of the twenty rounds must be loaded into the turret, then it must be pumped about forty times. But once its ready for fire, you get 300 rounds per minute, almost twice that of the stampede, and a range of about 30 ft, so about the same as that of the Stampede. It’s a bit slower to reload, but that rate of fire can’t be matched, nor can the psychological factor of all of those round blasting at you.
The Raider and Alpha-Trooper are both cut from the same cloth. They make use of essentially the same internals at the Long Strike, but have a system called Slamfire. This is a rapid fire system where one can hold down the trigger and pull the cocking handle back and forth quickly to cause the weapon to shoot rapidly, one shot for each cycling of the cocking mechanism for a rate of fire about 240 rounds per minute. Stock ranges are poor, between 15 and 20 ft, but this can be improved by knocking the air restrictor out and putting a second spring in the detachable stock (after cutting the back of the gun out), this gets it up to about 35-40 ft, possibly further if you are using completely fresh darts. They have the ability to take the 6 and 18 round clips, as well as the 18 and 36 round drums, so there is no shortage of large magazines. One disadvantage is that as the cocking mechanism is on the front of both of these weapons, cycling it quickly back and forth causes the nose to judder about, throwing off the aim, so its not the most accurate weapon in the world.
I’m an example of a Commander/General type of fighter, I specialize in scout weapons but I carry several of them, so weight class I’m in with the heavies. I also carry two sniping weapons, and a Rapid 20, so I’ve got a gun that fits most every situation, which uses the same ammo type, of which I have a lot, around 200 rounds.
Part 3: The Gear
Now that you have your guns you have to figure out how to carry them and all the ammo you have for them. Many folks often as not carry in their hands one or two guns and put ammo in their pants pocket, but there are many things you can do otherwise.
First of all, its often helpful for pistols to make belt holsters for them, or buy some that fit your guns a military surplus shops. This helps you carry more guns without impeding mobility. For a larger gun, make a back strap, called a sling, and swing it over your shoulder. Similarly you might want to make a bag that hangs from your belt to carry all your darts. Nerf used to make mesh bags which happily carried about thirty rounds with a belt clip, so if you can dig up one of those, you’ll make good use of them.
This is what you want to do if you’re on a budget, but if you want to spend a bit more, you can always go military. Surplus shops these days will sell you a myriad of holsters, pouches, and accessories which can be easily adapted to Nerf. The sexiest accessory you can get is the Tactical Assault Vest (TAV) which makes use of straps, called M.O.L.L.I.E, which can be used to mount everything from holsters to pouches. They often come with integrated belt loops, so you can attach a gun belt directly to it. One can completely customize where everything goes on the vest so that you can tell by feel where everything is, and have everything easily accessible. The one disadvantage to this type of gear is that it can get a bit heavy, but it is designed to distribute the weight so it doesn’t impede motion.
I personally use a system which is custom made of denim, and is designed to mimic the military system. Its much lighter and has integrated ammo pouches, which holds more ammo than most comparable pouches for a TAV. It’s a good system, though it is expensive, and doesn’t hold up nearly as well as the mil-spec stuff.
So there you have it, a simple three step thought process to go through when choosing your guns. There are many more guns out there than what I have listed, so shop around, play around, and fiddle around until you get your arsenal right. And remember, play your game, nobody else’s.
Me:
Weapons:
2 Roseart Nite-Finders
1 CPVC Nite-Finder
1 Two Foot Blowgun
1 Custom Shotgun
1 Fury Fire
2 CPVC Tech Targets
1 Rapid-Fire 20
Primary role:
Sniper
Gear:
Custom denim TAV with integrated ammo pouches
approx. 200 rounds, mix of Taggers, Sonics, and Micros
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