[GZG] GZG ECC IX - a bit of an AAR

_______________________________________________
Gzg-l mailing list
Gzg-l@lists.csua.berkeley.edu
http://lists.csua.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gzg-lWell, another year
has gone by, and another great convention was had. Many
good quotes on the quote board from various games (and many more quotes
that
never made it onto the board). I'm working on transcribing now, so we
should
have that posted to the GZG ECC website in the coming days.

A lot of good games were played, and a goodly number of people were
present
- iirc, Jon Davis said we hit 50 attendees this year (our second highest
attendance, I believe). There were many people who were originally
coming
then had to cancel. Their presence was missed. Likewise those who had
come
in the past but who were unable to attend this year. Next year we hope
everyone will be there - it'll be our 10th ECC, after all!

I'll let others relay their experiences and their games. I ran two games
this weekend: a DS3 Demo game (co-run with John Lerchey; was an NSL tank
company going against a K'V armour talon) and an FMAS SF-Crossover style
game (based in the Stargate universe, complete with Jaffa and SG-15, but
also stormtroopers, Jedi Knights, EarthForce GROPOs, NAC Ghurkas,
terminators, and Aliens made an appearance - all in 15mm). Got to play
in no
less than *three* FT games over the weekend!  (okay, one was an
EarthForce
SourceBook game - still FT in nature :-) ).I managed to not lose *all*
my
ships. And even hit a few times (though wait for the quote board; some
of it
was...sad ;-) ). The first FT game I couldn't hit the broadside of a
barn
from the inside. The second game (EFSB) I was the Interstellar Alliance
leading an interstellar collection of ships (Narn, Brakiri, Drazi,
Minbari,
Earth Force), piloting the Victory-class "Excalibur" accompanied by two
White Stars, to tell an apparently left-behind First One (the "Zog!"
guys)
to cease and desist random commerce raiding and whatnot. We met it in
hyperspace. Naturally it didn't listen and the "Excalibur" got hammered
on
turn one by two electrical discharges. The "Ex" spent the rest of the
game
trying to come about (took an engine hit; no DC rolls in this game) to
properly engage the First One ship while it systematically neutralized
or
all but destroyed the rest of the fleet. There were, of course, multiple
complications to this scenario (such as a non-hyperspace bubble
appearing
with an asteroid field within that the Minbari had extreme interest in
protecting for their own devices, or such as the EarthForce sending
boarding
parties onto the First One ship to cut out and escape with some advanced
tech), but in the end we managed to deteat the First One ship (cost both
of
my White Stars, each snuffed out one turn after another by single
electrical
discharges from the Zog vessel).

In the final FT game I played there was a space station orbiting close
to a
black hole. Our respective fleets were assigned to maneuver in close to
the
station (without getting sucked into the black hole - we were playing
cinematic with gravity effects), take control of said station, or
barring
that download the info on said station, or barring that prevent anyone
else
from getting to the station, or barring that destroy the station. Well,
first blood was drawn against my NAC force (1xBB, 1xCA, 2xCL) by the
UNSC
who looked an awful lot like an ESU fleet (mainly because the player and
GM
had no UNSC ships for that fleet; still, didn't help matters any for the
NAC). No other reason that I can figure other than to do it. John
Lerchey
was playing an NSL fleet and moved in to help me thump back. Once he did
some damage to the UNSC, he decided to turn and "not" fire at the IJN
being
run by Don. So he and Dan exchanged fire, Scott and I exchanged fire,
and
the other two guys squeezed into the small space around the station (Don
did, too, and managed to get a boarding party onto the station before
his
ship was destroyed). The game ended not too long after that. It was fun,
but
it was a little complicated, as there were three gravity bands that the
black hole sucking effects were felt, and in the inner two range bands
you
lost either one or two turns every time you were in said gravity well
band.
While your turn was lost, you could take fire, but damage was deferred
until
you could activate your ship again. It made for some confusion trying to
keep straight who was active when. But we managed. :-)

In the DS3 Demo, the objective (for the NSL) was to retain a hill near
the
center of the table (the K'V, obviously, were to take said hill). The
humans
didn't have an altogether awesome time of it, getting smacked around
hard
and getting more than their share of unfortunate die rolls (one group of
NSL
MBTs went Shaken, recovered, immediately went Shaken again; never fired
a
shot). The K'V really overran the humans for a while, but then started
going
Ro'Kah from platoons taking casualties, and they REALLY started
overrunning
the humans! But then, on the last turn, they started breaking, which
caused
more stress to build up on other units, which failed their activation
rolls,
causing them to break, causing more stress to build up on other units -
etc,
etc. It was a cascade failure of Ro'Kah units suddenly breaking and
running,
leaving behind the K'V command platoon - who suddenly went Ro'Kah! Go
figure.

The FMAS game (15mm) I ran used the 2004 playtest rules, so plays a bit
differently than the 2001 rules. The premise was that SG-15 was sent to
P4X-636 (do a google search for background info on this planet) to
search
for and bring back any advanced technologies they might find not
destroyed
by the Ancients (or the former inhabitants). Lord Ball had gotten wind
of SG
Commands intentions, and sent a force of Jaffa to deter (or, that is,
detain, neutralize, eliminate, whatever) any SG teams that showed up. In
the
meantime, as the multiverse spins, an imperial shuttle landed on the far
side of the lake from the Jaffa (who presumed it was a new ship of Lord
Ball's, for certainly the Tau'Ri had nothing like that!), hunting some
fugitive Jedi Knights they had been tracking for half a galaxy. At
nearly
the same time, a squad of New Anglian Ghurkas, who were sent to this
planet
to search for survivors of what was obviously a Kra'Vak attack, heard a
noise coming from near a large circular artifact (just outside of their
LOS), and saw a team of armed humans looking obviously military in
nature
walk away from it. While this was going on, a squad of EarthForce GROPOs
were picking their way through the rubble of the ruined city, not far
from
the Ghurkas and SG-15. A few blocks away, two Terminators stepped around
the
corner of rubble and began cautiously moving through the broken city,
looking for humans to eliminate.

The SG-15 team moved into the city, while the Jaffa began making their
appearance from around a hill (having heard the Chappa'i activate; it
must
be the Tau'Ri), running headlong into weapons fire from the Ghurkas. The
Jaffa, upon losing two of their own (took a while; the Ghurkas weren't
the
crack shots they thought they were), the remaining Jaffa dashed to the
cover
of a ruined building at the edge of the city.

The GROPOs, hearing gunfire, began trotting through the wreckage of the
city. Unfortunately for Lt Kyle, being point man, he came under the
sights
of the Terminators, one of which instantly blew his body to pieces in
front
of his squad. This caught two other GROPOs moving in the open in LOS of
the
Terminators, but suddenly an Alien jumped a Terminator, ripping off an
arm
in the process (the Terminator would kill this Alien next round). The
stormtroopers and their accompanying Imperial Black Ops guys (basically
stormtroopers who had adequate weapons training) moved off seeking the
Jedi.
The Jedi finally decided to stop humming contentedly (i.e., hide) and
moved
to engage the stormtroopers. Long story short, one of the Jedi ran into
and
engaged the Imperial Black Ops officer in Close Combat, wounding him but
not
killing him. One of the storntroopers got gutsy (or stupid) and decided
to
fire into the Close Combat melee - and managed to actually HIT the Jedi
in
the process! Emboldened by this, another s'trooper also fired into the
melee
- and he also hit the Jedi, killing him! A dark day for the Jedi and the
Force, indeed. The remaining Jedi decided these apparent 'super'
s'troopers
had the advantage of terrain and pulled back fast, to seek better
tactical
advantage.

While this was going on, the Ghurkas and Jaffa exchanged some weapons
fire,
then suddenly Aliens appeared and began moving in on the Jaffa position
at
the edge of the city. The Jaffa decided to ignore the largely
ineffective
Ghurkas and turned their attentions on shooting up the Aliens. They
managed
to ultimately kill three of the things, one of them in Close Combat.

The Terminators attempted to kill off more GROPOS, but succeeded in only
wounding one of them. SG-15 got themselves to a building and encountered
some face-huggers. They eventually beat them off and backed out of the
building with the Eggs (they tried to spray the Eggs with weapons fire,
but
it was ineffective). They decided this was too much and it was time to
retreat. One member dashed over to the DHD and activated the gate - he
was
then cut down hard by a Terminator from two blocks away. One of the SG
team
saw the bright shiney Termy and opened up on it with his P90 - and
succeeded
in scoring a kill! But as Termies are extra tough, I declared that the
damage done was worth two Wounds - a normal kill for most figures,
Terminators take 3 to die - and that the Termy was still alive, but
hurting
badly. The SG team took that as a victory and began to retreat in the
face
of superior firepower (or aliens they really weren't prepared to take
on).
They managed to getthrough the Stargate, and have two of the Ghurka join
them.

While this was happening, the GROPOs were having problems of their own.
The
squad leader was Shaken badly, and couldn't catch his nerve. He suddenly
broke and ran back the direction the squad had just come. He was
promptly
grabbed and pulled into a window by an Alien, and...well, you can figure
the
rest. The rest of the GROPOs tried to beat feet in the opposite
direction,
but then Aliens started coming out of the building after them. They
managed
to kill one and wound another before the game ended. It is unlikely,
though,
that they would have survived against the Aliens alone, and the Ghurkas
and
SG-15 had already left the field (the remaining Ghurkas dashed off into
the
hills, met the Jedi, and dragged him along).

The stormtroopers divided up into two groups. One to try and chase down
the
remaining Jedi (they would never catch him), and the other to drag the
body
of the dead Jedi back to the shuttle - and strap it onto the hood!!
(what,
were these stormtroopers Reavers or something?!?).

Speaking of, I need to track down the Serenity crew and reavers in 15mm.
For
possibly next year...  ;-)

We ended the game at this point so people could get going home for the
weekend.

All in all, good con, good and memorable games. Sorry the rest of you
guys
weren't able to make it. Next year?

Mk