[GZG] GZG ECC XII - had a great time

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went home from GZG ECC 12 in a great mood, more enthusiastic about the
games than I'd been in a long time.



Friday night I played in Scott Bishop's sci-fi crossover scenario.
Scattered around the table were Mark Kochte (Tau'Ri), Jerry Han
(Klingons), Aaron Newman (Earth Alliance), myself (Imperial Star
Destroyers) and Ken Wang (2 Battlestars).  Jerry and Mark turned towards
each other and fought viciously in one corner, while Aaron, Ken and I
accelerated towards them.  After two turns, it was clear Jerry would
disappear and Mark would be relatively unscathed, but drifting off the
table edge (and wrapping back at the bottom).  So Ken unleashed fighters
and missiles at me, while Aaron completed the pincer with Starfuries
from my right.	I was eliminated, and Aaron, Ken and Indy declared a
draw.



After the game, it was time for the board game Pandemic.



Saturday morning I was on the Rebel side of Aaron's scenario, along with
JP Fiset and Carl Scheu.  In the aftermath of a successful but punishing
strike on the Imperial forces, a damaged Mon Calamari Cruiser lurked in
the asteroids, repairing itself.  But before it was repaired, enemy
contacts appeared.  JP had approximately 8 or so fighters (X and A wings
primarily) to hold off twice that number of TIEs of various stripes
(flew by John Kovacs and Scott Bishop?), I had the cruiser and 1 Y and 2
B wings, Carl to my right had the Falcon and 3 X-wing shaped fighters.
Jim Bell was flying in some unidentified elements of scum and villainy
(X-wings and 2 ships of the class Boba Fett flies) with unknown
intentions.  Behind the cruiser was an Imperial shuttle and 3 gunboats
in one corner (Steve Barosi), and in the other a Vesudra which proved to
be an Imperial Q-ship carrier (Derek Rogillio (sp?)).  The battle
unfolded fairly neatly.  (I digress; the battle's spectacle hinged on
the typical fighter being a plastic WOTC Star Wars collectible, and the
rest being scaled up from that, mostly MicroMachine Titanium series or
plastic snap-togethers, with the cruiser model some 2 or 3 feet long of
carved painted foam).  Jim's scum and villainy took four turns to come
down the right side of the board, during which time JP engaged and
slowed the advancing TIEs.  I lost a B-wing destroying the Imperial
shuttle, but flew past the gunboats, which had to face Carl's X-wings by
turn 3 or 4.  The other B-wing braved the intense but incompetent fire
of Derek's fighters while pounding the Vesudra.  At turn 4, the game
changed as Jim tried to cripple and capture the Vesudra, Carl dealt with
Steve's gunships, and the I spent my turn marking damage to the cruiser
from Scott and John's TIEs and what remained of Derek's fighters.  On
turn 6, the game ended with the cruiser intact and the rebels holding
the board.  JP had lost very few fighters, and Carl's losses were light.
A Rebel victory.



Saturday afternoon I was in Vince Johnson's game.  Carl Scheu and John
Kovacs had FSE factions, and I had a block of NAC.  The Imperial
Japanese (CJ Coventry) and ESU (Lisa Johnson) were trying to prevent us
from sending 2 BDNs into the past through a 'time gate'.  The dense
asteroids limited the board to an asterisk shape, and the battle started
with ES and IJN fleets coming up two branches towards the middle while
John came down the centre towards them and Carl and I were oriented
diagonally through the middle to face the attackers.  The ESU and IJN
came in fairly slowly, allowing me to sally forth into the middle to
attack the ESU, then cross the centre and engage the IJN just as Carl
and John's lead elements began to enter the centre.  With FSE fighters
and salvo missiles decimating the IJN as my guns came to bear, CJ's
fleet was decimated.  The next turn, a fast moving IJN flotilla appeared
behind the evaporating first wave, but by then the FSE was busy
stripping away the ESU escorts using SMs like paint remover all over the
hull.  As the game came to a close, the NAC BDN escaped the board, the
FSE BDN right behind it, while the ESU swallowed inordinate amounts of
ordnance and the fast moving Japanese, arriving too late, was also
damaged by whatever launchers hadn't been able to bear on the ESU.  A
surprisingly clean and bloodless win for the NAC/FSE alliance.



Saturday evening I switched to FMA, with Steve Barosi and Martin
Connell's game.  Through luck of the draw, I felt like I had a target
painted on my head.  I was playing the grey aliens, lead by Beeg Het.
To my left were the Drantahk interstellar cops hunting me (Mark Kinsey).
Left and ahead were the Men In Black who were hunting me (Damond
Walker).  Across the table were the Intergalactic Women's Defence Force,
who wished to expose the existence of aliens to the world (Jerry Accord)
and Jerry decided he could either claim victory markers, or just hunt
and capture me... To my right was a small squad of anime-inspired deadly
school girl assassins, hired to kill all aliens (such as me and Mark)
and finally to my right and ahead of me were 3 soldiers from an unnamed
agency who owed me money (Mike Hudak).	Mark Kinsey's Drantahk advanced
cautiously in a block, driving me to the right.  Aaron quickly was tied
up in combat with Mike's gungho rednecks.  The MIB swept wide and
aggressively advanced, while so did the IWDF.  My close combat
specialist failed a morale test when one of the IWDF tried to engage him
in close combat, and he fled into the guns of the assassins, becoming
stressed with each shot that narrowly missed him or bounced off his
forcefield.  He would eventually surrender to Jerry.  Beeg Het and his
supporters otherwise proved too arrogant to ever drop below 'Confident',
but slowly and steadily accumulated wounds (especially in close combat)
and were eventually overwhelmed.  They ended the game having failed to
have wounded anyone with any of their shots from their sidearms.  Beeg
Het actually died of his wounds (a bleeding torso wound from Jerry's
IWDF) while Mark's Drantahk just couldn't wound the greys fast enough to
force a morale collapse.  Damond Walker's chief agent nearly brought it
all to a precipitous end by grappling Beeg Het, but his will was weak,
and he wound up dragging Beeg Het to relative safety (in front of
Jerry's guns; ugh!) before going off to challenge and be captured by a
school girl assassin.



Saturday night late was more Pandemic and some Ticket To Ride.



Sunday morning was another Aaron Newman game.  We had Martin Connell
(Blackbeard), Carl Scheu (Black Bart), Anne Bonney (Mark Kinsey), Steve
Barosi (Calico Jack) and myself (Navy/Governor's daughter).  Somehow,
this one started off badly for me.  The Governor had been kidnapped
(presumably by pirates) and I was to interrogate Anne Bonney or Calico
Jack to find out who took him.	Bonney's ship was at the dock, while
Calico Jack was nowhere to be found (his ship had been lost weeks
before).  Blackbeard and Black Bart were sailing into the harbor as the
game began.  Each of us had 6 figures.	As the first turn unfolded, I
began to send marines to the dock, while Bonney began to prepare a
dinghy.  Calico Jack's figures began to appear around town, scattered,
while the 'blacks' approached.	Suddenly, Anne Bonney herself clambered
over the side of the ship, shot my lead marine Ned, in the head, dead.
Then the 'Dancing Turk' followed over the side, and killed the other
marine.  And Calico Jack appeared, struck up a conversation with the
Governness, and wooed her to his side.	Turn 1 ended with haf my figures
dead.  Turn 2 I sent a marine to the cannons and Captain Fancypants and
Elizabeth, the Governor's daughter, the end of the dock.  Blackbeard
sailed up and killed Fancypants with a swivel gun.  Elizabetha nd Calico
Jack's cabin boy engaged the Turk but he refused to die.  Meanwhile, the
undead pirates of Black Bart began to harass Anne Bonney's ship.
Craziness ensued.  My marine failed hopelessly shooting at the ships,
and when Elizabeth boarded Bonney's ship, she could hear her father
below decks.  But Blackbeard swooped aboard and captured her, only to be
gunned down by one of the undead, who fell to a member of Bonney's crew.
Then a second undead scooped up the lass and dropped her as he swung
through the air to his own ship.  He wound up in the water, swimming to
escape the shark, while Elizabeth fell into the hands of Blackbeard's
crew.  But Calico Jack, the governess, cabin boy and Mary Reilly were
storming the ship to steal it.	A mine on the dock finished the cabin
boy and governess, and Mary Reilly's monkey wound be wounded twice
before she herself fell, but Blackbeard's crew was hard pressed, and the
undead swung to the attack, trying to take the virginal prize from them.
To my relief, Elizabeth woke up (doubling my forces), swung to the deck
of Bonney's boat, freed her father, and fled with him to shore, hotly
pursued by two undead pirates.	The hapless marine came to their aid,
survived the pirate beating him, then destroyed the buccaneer remnant.
Elizabeth ran home, killing the second pirate in the doorway, and bolted
the door.  (The town was in deep trouble at this point.  While this went
on, Steve's faction recruited two townspeople, got a treasure map, found
a key in the pirate on the gibbet, ran into zombies coming from the
graveyard, and attacked the voudun witch doctor among the crypts.  This
had left zombies wandering the town, eating the blacksmith, priest,
farmer, madam, callgirl, waitress, dog, etc.)  The game ended with
Blackbeard's mate taking Black Bart's ship, Bonney's mate sailing away
with her ship (and the treasure found in the shark but losing the
governor) , and Calico Jack taking Blackbeard's ship and the treasure.
The hapless marine would be promoted and Elizabeth had saved her father.