Saturday 8 September 2012

Loadouts 2: Heavy Fire Support

Scenario Description: Close-mid range team based encounters. General engagement ranges ~7-12m. Generally numerous, small teams instead of few, large teams. May or may not have numerous obstacles obstructing lines of fire. Player has taken role of fire support for team. Where necessary player provides fire support for team, and where necessary team protects player.
Keys to Victory: Rapid fire blasters with reasonably high capacity, preferably easy to reload. Reasonable range - does not have to shoot particularly far. Must be able to effectively spray darts at opponents, idealistically suppressing or tagging them. Large amounts of ammo. Fearlessly spray opponents, even when under heavy attack.
Unnecessary Burdens: Sidearms - your team covers you when you reload, more than one blaster (with exceptions) - unnecessary weight and bulk

Clip (Mag) System 1

Primary: Stampede ECS
Secondary: None
Gear: Anything that holds clips (mags) and drums
Ammo: Numerous clips (mags)/drums
Purpose: To provide the user with easy to use, full auto clip (mag) system goodness. To provide the team with high capacity, fast reloading covering/suppression fire.
Strengths: Rapid fire, reloading
Weaknesses: Vulnerability when reloading, low range and accuracy, quick-draw shots
Description: The Stampede is the perfect blaster for a fire support man. It gives you easy to use full auto spammage, coupled with the quick reloads of clip (mag) system. Sure, the Stampede suffers from terrible ranges and pretty bad accuracy, but just angle the Stampede upwards and you effectively start lobbing Streamlines wherever you want to. As for low accuracy? Leave that for the sharpshooters in your team. The Stampede's purpose is to allow you to spray a wall of foam at relatively close range with ease. Even the bravest opponents will think twice about advancing against someone with a Stampede and a 35 dart drum. Until it empties.

Clip (Mag) System 2

Primary: Rayven CS-18
Secondary: None
Gear: Anything that holds clips (mags) and drums
Ammo: Numerous clips (mags)/drums
Purpose: To provide the user with easy to use, semi auto clip (mag) system goodness. To provide the team with high capacity, fast reloading covering/suppression fire.
Strengths: Rapid fire, reloading, maneuverability (if not decked with ammo)
Weaknesses: Vulnerability when reloading, low accuracy, quick-draw shots
Description: The Rayven and Stampede are Nerf's two electronic CS blasters, so it's fitting that both are on this list. While the Stampede provides full auto spammy fire support, the Rayven provides slightly longer range, slightly more precise spammy fire support. Sure, to get max ranges you have to rev up to full, but when you need to spam about usually you're pretty close anyway. The flywheel noise can be annoying and give yourself away, but generally if you're going to spam your enemies to defeat they'll know where you are.
Basically the Rayven provides a different form of spammy clip (mag) system goodness.

Clip (Mag) System 3

Primary: Elite Hailfire
Secondary: None
Gear: Anything that holds clips (mags)
Ammo: Numerous clips (mags)
Purpose: To provide the user with stupidly high capacity spammability while retaining clip (mag) system's easy reloads
Strengths: Rapid fire, individual clip (mag) reloading, stupidly high capacity, switching clips (mags) is safer than all other blasters (assuming you have at least 1 loaded clip [mag])
Weaknesses: Vulnerability when reloading, low accuracy, quick-draw shots, bulk, instability of clip (mag) holder rack, vulnerable to misfires and misrotating with large clips (mags)
Description: The Hailfire takes what the Stampede and Rayven can do and takes it up 7 more levels. Unlike any other blaster before it, the Hailfire can hold 8 clips (mags) in its clip (mag) advancement rack, allowing for a maximum capacity with 18 clips (mags) of 144 darts. Couple this with high ranges (50-60ft supposedly easy), extreme spammability (semi auto) and ease of switching clips (mags) (with advancement handle) and the Hailfire positions itself as potentially the best fire support blaster as of late 2012. Of course, having 8 clips (mags) at your immediate disposal means having to reload 8 clips (mags) after your rampage (no pun intended), which means you'll be extremely vulnerable for numerous seconds. Chances are if you've just used 144 darts there won't be any enemies still standing, but it's better to be safe than sorry, so bring along a teammate or two.

Belt Fed 1

Primary: Vulcan EBF-25
Secondary: None
Gear: Anything that can hold belts
Ammo: Numerous belts
Purpose: To provide the user with easy to use, full auto belt fed goodness. To provide the team with high capacity, relatively accurate covering/suppression fire.
Strengths: Rapid fire, good accuracy given it's purpose, intimidation
Weaknesses: Vulnerability when reloading, long reload time, mediocre range
Description: The belt fed alternative to the Stampede, the Vulcan has long been popular and hated because of its belt fed system. Even with the Stampede well into the market, the Vulcan offers far more accurate rapid fire, and the addition of a manual bolt allows its use even when the batteries start getting low. Reloading is a pain, but that's why you have teammates. Your teammates can cover you while you painstakingly put another belt in the Vulcan, and when done you can continue to unleash more full auto goodness. Another bonus of the Vulcan is that in general it is one of the most intimidating sights on a battlefield.
I personally wouldn't use this loadout because reloading belts on the go is a pain (unlike clips [mags]), but it does have advantages such as accuracy.
If you're mod inclined, it is not hard to mod Vulcan belts to hold 49/50 darts rather than 25, giving you a higher capacity than a Stampede with a 35 drum. This also reduces the number of times you have to painstakingly switch belts, but the increased stress on the advancement motor is apparently a major issue.

Explosives Guy 1

Primary: Whatever your team deems suitable (in this example Rayven CS-18)
Secondaries: Lanard Scatter Blasts
Gear: Anything necessary for the above + anything that can hold Lanard Scatter Blasts
Ammo: Ammo for primary, darts for Scatter Blasts
Purpose: To provide explosive fire support for the team; to break up enemy formations
Strengths: Surprise attacks, breaking enemy formations, intimidation tactics, multiple hits, getting shots into well defended places
Weaknesses: If not thrown correctly will not detonate, very limited supply, must be pumped up to be used, burst radius/power is inconsistent, quite large and bulky for grenades
Description: A unique, non-Nerf solution to a long standing Nerfer's desire. The Lanard Scatter Blast, when used correctly, fires six darts out of it, tagging up to 6 people in the immediate area. It has a reasonably good blast radius and reasonable power for a grenade, and when used correctly can be a deadly and highly valuable asset. Realistically the primary is mainly for use when the Scatter Blasts would not be suitable.
Scatter Blasts are ideal for:
  • Clearing rooms (open door, throw one in)
  • Exposing enemies behind cover (throw one behind enemy)
  • Breaking up formations of enemies (throw one towards centre of enemy formation)
  • Clearing areas (throw into general area, enemies will run out of area)
and when paired with the right blaster, a Scatter Blast followed by a few shots, or vice versa, can be lethal.
This combo is not to be underestimated or taken lightly, but if you're going to use this make sure you perfect your throw - you don't want to waste any.
I'm not a good throw and I only have 1 Scatter Blast so I wouldn't use this, but if you're a hoarder and/or you're a good throw this may be a good loadout for you. Great for former/current footballers (football being AFL or American Football, not Soccer football).

Explosives Guy 2

Primary: Titan AS.V-1
Secondary: Easy to reload, reasonable capacity, well performing sidearm (e.g. Snapfire, Recon/Retaliator)
Gear: Anything that can hold rockets; anything that can hold ammo for you sidearm
Ammo: Rockets, ammo for secondary
Purpose: To provide rocket launcher support for the team
Strengths: Long range rocket shots, breaking enemy formations, intimidation
Weaknesses: Very long reload time, ammo is rare, when not in use Titan will be large burden
Description: Pretty much everyone loves running around with an overpowered rocket launcher, scaring the bejeezus out of everyone. If you really really really want to do that, this is the loadout for you. With the Titan, you can fire off long range rockets at far away targets. You can use it as a mortar or an RPG, your choice. Either way, the sight/sound of an incoming rocket is more than enough to scare the bejeezus out of most people. Use the superior range and intimidation to surprise and frighten your targets, although a rocket hit is nice too. Remember that rockets are much rarer on the battlefield, and you'll either have to acquire numerous rockets, have numerous rocketeers on the battlefield (so you can pick up ammo), or make your own rockets. Used correctly a Titan can win you the game, but use it incorrectly and it becomes a burden.
I personally wouldn't use this because I'm not accurate and thus I would likely waste the rockets, but if you're accurate this loadout will do wonders for you and your team.

Vortex 1
Primary: Vortex Pyragon (40 disc drum)
Secondary: Small dart-firing single shot (In this example the Jolt EX-1)
Gear: Vortex Ammo Belt (pouch, mag holders, blaster clip)
Ammo: Vortex mags, discs, darts
Purpose: To give the user the advantage of disc blasters, while being able to provide fire support for the team and still allowing the user to use all the main ammo types.
Strengths: Range, accuracy, curved shots, slam fire, quick reloads, not totally vulnerable when reloading.
Weaknesses: Discs are rarer than darts, curving at long distances is hard to take advantage of.
Description: Nerf brought out the Pyragon with high rates of fire (thanks to slam-fire), while still keeping the fantastic stock performances of the Vortex line. And thanks to its 40-disc drum, it's the highest stock capacity Nerf blaster (besides the Hailfire, which requires the use of multiple clips [mags] to out-capacity the Vortex 40 disc drum). This can be taken as an advantage in an outdoor situation, where the Pyragon out-ranges most dart blasters (exception: modded Blasters) and generally reloads faster than revolvers and N-Strike/Elite clip (mag)-system blasters. If you've used up your ammo, the dart-firing single-shot can back you up as a last resort weapon.

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