The weekend before Toy Fair, I got to drive back to Athens, Ohio for a fun winter HvZ game. Being February, it was a small group, but it was still a blast being able to have an actual HvZ game after only minigames and regular Nerf wars. It was as absurd as I had hoped!
Once In Play, Always In Play
This is a picture that a friend took before the game.
The HvZ game was a bit different than what I’m used to. You were no longer required to give mission briefings or change loadouts. Instead, you were limited to what you had (and could salvage from the ground) once you started the game. It was a clear end. Even with the dart cleanup pauses, on the one hand. It also meant that you could not use something you didn’t like until your death.
It was a ballistic Hirricane ballistic ball that I attached to my backpack. A 12V Coleman blower fan, powered by a 3S lipo, drives the balls. The backpack has several lengths of 5 cm rigid vacuum tubing, with elbows, plus one tee that ends in a loading cap, A flexible shop vac tube then connects the backpack to the blaster. In this case, a Tyco Thunderstrike 20 I thrifted. It only does semiauto, but thats fine with me. Full auto ballistic balls would just be too silly
The backpack worked beautifully, and (with help) could be reloaded in the field. The blaster is in dire need of some attention and will soon receive a mod to improve its performance. In the end, it didnt matter too much, as I had an unexciting death by noodle from not paying attention!
WHY WON’T YOU DIE?
It was great fun as a zombie! I had a noodle almost the entire time, and was (in my opinion) more effective as a distraction than anything else. However, I did get a few kills. It was also fun dodging darts and blocking with the noodle when possible.
Athens will host a spring Invitational if you’re not in the Midwest March 22-23. Friday night is optional and will kill most people before Saturday’s main game. It’s there to have extra fun and maybe earn some things for Saturday play.
