GZG-ECC 8 report

Long, and with no pictures! I really need a good digital camera.

For more details on all the games mentioned here, check out 
http://www.warpfish.com/gzgecc/gzgecc8/schedule.shtml

Note: I'm primarily a Stargrunt player, so this review will be heavily 
slanted in that direction.

FRIDAY EVENING:

Mr. Dunn of DLD Productions opened his booth, and within the first
fifteen
minutes three of the four 25 mm Dropships he brought were sold! He also
had on hand the prototype for the micro-scale Dropship, and let me
assure 
you it was downright cute.

Games that caught my eye:
* Last Bot Standing - DS2 game using figs from the old Rivets board game

(http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/2192) Big boppers!
* Full Thrust Frag - People at this table were definitely having a good 
time.
* Zombie Smackdown 4 - can't go wrong with zombies or teleporting
aliens. 
I was highly amused by the zombie players sneaking off to the side to
plot 
against the still-living interlopers.

Exciting hotel trivia! As the hotel itself only recently changed hands, 
the hotel bar was closed while they worked on the license. No, really.
The 
helpful staff pointed me to a decent bar just a block away, though.

SATURDAY MORNING:

Mental note: don't forget my own soap next time. Hotel soap turns my
skin 
into paper.

What I played: Zombies in da Hood

As I notes above, can't go wrong with zombies. Instead of aliens,
though, 
we got Baron Samedi and his gang. I ran the SWAT team who, with some 
military 'recruits,' were breaking *into* the zombie containment zone to

loot a bank vault while everyone else is busy. Hey, it seemed like a
good 
idea at the time. Course, we didn't know about the well-armed zombie 
supercommandos.

Turn one, a school bus crashes into the first escape truck right in
front
of our escape route going, maybe, sixty. This was where the bad news
started. Position was quickly being overrun, despite the valiant efforts
of Steve's Guardsmen. Like, one soldier spending three turns of close
combat against five zombies without taking a wound. As the horde closed
in, the survivors (and their looted goods) piled into the working truck
and tried to pull around the building and bust out that way. Which is
when
we ran into Samedi's lieutenant, with an IAVR. Boom. Then, it was all
over
but the brain-eating. Still a close game, despite the setbacks.

Games that caught my eye:
* Cinegrunt: A Small Matter of the Bonus - As always, delightfully
visual. 
Dropships, space jellyfish, thumpers, the whole nine yards. 
* Full Sail! - FT using the ships from that Pirates game, nine ships per

side. Very smooth, eager to read reports on this one.

Lunch was at the House of Pizza (houseofpizza.com), filling and tasty,
if 
not healthy. However, they have Sanka, which confounds me.

More exciting hotel trivia: The TV in my room was one of the worst TVs I
had seen in years. The remote didn't have basic things like 'mute.' And
the sound, man, I don't even think it was stereo. I'm no snob for these
things, it was just impressively ancient.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON:

What I played: Carnage Con Queso. It's cheesy, and it's back.

What I brought to the Carnage Con Queso:

Six OUDF in Power Armor (the aforementioned "eggs with legs." Pics 
online, hopefully, one day.)
light power armor (d10 armor, 12" move)
Leadership 2, Quality Regular
six low-tech assault rifles (Firepower 2, d8 Impact)
and one IAVR (d10 Support, d12+ Impact.)

This, in fact, had me as the lowest cheese rating, and thusly got the
most 
cards (seven.) which I used and abused. Incidentally, I had a cheese
rating 
of six. Doug Perrins had a rating of, I'm not kidding, 52. It was 
masterful. So I made sure to hit him with a card early, prompting the
NAC 
on the board (Brun Hilda's bodyguards) to take a nasty turn shooting him

up.

My main conflict started early. I hotfooted it over to one of the big 
cheeses and quickly had it under control. Then, some ninjas snuck up and

stole it! I spent, oh, the rest of the game chasing down and shooting 
ninjas. I tried to charge them, but Beth's soft spot for ninjas got the 
best of her, and her card caused my guns to jam. No problem, I think,
I'll 
just charge into them. But I failed the check! To my credit, they were 
wearing all black and carrying swords and what have you. Then they 
charged! Scared (and embarrassed) we retreated. No, I'm not joking. 
Eventually we shot them up some more, and they ran off board with the
big 
cheese, but man. 

The game quickly degenerated into three main sections. My epic quest vs.

ninja dominated our side of the board, while Tony Finan's cops and
robots 
efficiently collected up much cheese (only taking one last turn to shoot

up my OUDF with an astonishing number of dice, possibly over some unpaid

parking tickets.) There was some warfare between nuns and Laserlight's 
sheep, efficiently covered in his report (and on the Quotes board.)

But honestly, any game where Mike Hudak pays a card causing Laserlight's

sheep to jump off a cliff and assault some nuns, that's the kind of
action 
you're only going to see at the GZG-ECC Also, possibly, on late-night 
cable.

Mike Hudak gets special credit for his single-minded pursuit of the
media,
and Brun Hilda in specific. And by single-minded, I mean, trying to run
her over with a tank, *backing the tank up* to try again, *and then a
third time, disabling her escape car (even if only accidentally,) etc., 
etc. Oh, and he didn't get the job done in the long run, but man, 
impressive to see.

Also, Carnage Con Queso godfather Mike Sarno stopped by for a round of 
applause.

In the end, Beth's nuns sold out to Laserlight's Darth Baa, giving him
all
their cheese and the most points, but due to some
collusion/conspiracy/whateverness between him and the gamemaster, the
winner was declared Tony Finan and hi cops and robots. Unfortunately for
him, that means he gets to run the carnage next year.

Games that caught my eye:
* Full Metal Thrust: Attack on the Death Star - a FT version of the
Death 
Star trench run, very keen.
* There was also a Stargrunt Star Wars game going on I didn't get to see

enough of.

Painting contest was a tough decision as always, especially for a
painter 
of... meager skills such as myself. In the end, Kevin Fox (yes, that
ninja 
from the Carnage Con Queso!) took home a handful of awards, not bad for 
his first GZG-ECC. Hopefully, gallery online shortly by one of those 
people that took pics. Many fine entries.

SATURDAY EVENING:

My evening game was canceled as the gamemaster didn't make the con. Feh.

Games that caught my eye:
* FMA Sheep 3 - Again, Mr. DeBoe's report covers this in much better 
detail than I could. 1889, killer sheep, etc.
* The Weight of Command - very ambitious. Two separate tables with
different forces on each, with command orders being relayed from HQ,
which
was in a separate room and only receiving limited intel over linked
computers (including, in fact, satellite photos of the thick urban
terrain 
- the satellite being a digital camera picture taken by standing on a 
chair looking down on the table.) Limited communication between players,

etc. Totally wish I was in on this one, looked totally cool. More 
description here: 
http://www.warpfish.com/gzgecc/gzgecc8/sched-sat3.shtml#TABLE6

SUNDAY MORNING:

I woke up late! Haw haw.

Games that caught my eye:
* Alien vs. Predator - another fan favorite. Ruins, a ziggeraut,
stealthy 
Aliens, cloaked Predators, hapless Marines, etc.
* Full Thrust 1889 - Etherships battle on the surface of the sun,
dodging 
solar flares!
* The Bigger They Are... - DS2, in 15 mm, fighting an Ogre Mk. 3. Aw
yeah. 

-P.

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