Re: Saturday at the Con. . .

On Mon, 1 Mar 1999, Aaron Teske wrote:

> No, let's just say that if I'd decided to try & cross the board to get
at
> you, I'd have been burning into my strategic fuel well before you did.
 (My
> carrier had one -- count it, ONE -- box of tac fuel left at the end of
the
> game.  My other ships had less than five each.  For the uninitiated,
one
> box of fuel is used to rotate, or do a one point burn of the main
drive;
> John didn't mention it explicitly, but yes, the scenario used vector
rules.)

Keep in mind too, that the UNSC and VMC ships had only -half- their
normal
starting fuel.	That's only 5 turns at full throttle and the game went
on
for 8.	So, as I mentioned, for one game (which is almost always less
than
10 turns), fuel isn't generally a problem, but if you are playing a
strategic game (which this scenario really was part of), it can be a
major
factor - as Aaron discovered!

Still, he covered the fact that he was almost out of fuel very nicely, I
thought.  He would have been in a less strong diplomatic position if you
guys had known how bad off he was.

> More out of boredom than anything else; his inital instructions said
he
> would only return fire, then he & Keith worked out a loophole....

Yeah, it quickly became obvous that no one was going to fire at him at
their own...  That's something I'll change if I ever run it again (which
I
probaly won't soon, too many interesting scenarios in this background
left
to do! <g>)

> I got some good rolls. ^_^ 

And how! <g>

> While the UNSC didn't achieve it's listed objectives, I don't think
that
> was a bad thing since all the listed objectives were derived from
> information given to the UNSC by the Venusians.  (I hadn't even read
the
> background history in the packet Keith handed out... oops.)  So, as
more
> information came to light, I changed my own objectives.... <shrug> 
Kinda
> like pre-radio fleets, I'd guess.  Commander's gotta have autonomy....

Yes, I thought Aaron played the role exactly to the hilt.  I would have
done the same thing in his place, I think.  I'm glad everyone had a good
time, the actual point values weren't really that important, I don't
think.

It was good meeting all of you, as well!

Keith

kwatt@astro.umd.edu
Univ. of Maryland Astronomy