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

[Indy <indy.kochte@xxxxxxxxx>]

Well, 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

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