Re: Saturday at the Con. . .

At 10:30 PM 3/1/99 -0500, John Atkinson wrote:
>Evening was probably the best scenario I've ever seen at any con, bar
>none.	Solar Thrust.  Set in a background Keith dreamed up, in 2061,
>using realistic engines and FUEL rules.  Keith convincingly
demonstrated
>that fuel rules don't signficantly impact the way the game is played,
>even for those who showed up a bit short on fuel.  

Um... next time, *you* try being the one skosh fuel.  Ya wanna know why
I
was plinking away at you from range with my warships?  It wasn't because
I
was afraid of losing ships, though in the end I did decide that, for a
fledgling UNSC Navy, that probably would've been a consideration.

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.)

>Convoluted five-sided
>scenario in which no two players trusted each other.  

Quite! ^_^

>Outstanding use of
>conflicting victory conditions, some of which could be fulfilled by
>peaceful negotiations prompted Andy Presby to spend more time using
>commo lasers than weapons lasers.  

Most of which, actually.  You're the only one who got more for
destroying
ships -- apart from the Martian transports -- than for causing them to
retreat.

>Jerry Han's Venusians went away soon
>as his mortal enemies, the Mercutians (me) closed in to blast him
>immediately.  I was taking a lot of fire from the UNSC's fighters until
>Andy finally committed to helping me

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

>--his fighters were almost wiped out
>cleaning those damned Earther toys off my battleship.	

I got some good rolls. ^_^  (One fighter of mine killed five of
Andy's... a
6... a 6... a five.  I was pretty happy, though he did lose a squadmate
or
two in the fight.  And, unfortunately, no one else got kills from his
squad. <sigh> )

Though nothing beats the rolls you got early on, and I'm still a bit
dumbfounded by Jerry's early rotation maneuver.  (Kinda like I am by
Noam's
decision to not evade missile salvos in Showdown!... speaking of which,
I
should prolly work on orders.  Oh well.  Soon.)

>Andy then
>negotiated terms for the UNSC's withdrawl, making this a decisive
>victory for the Martians, who basically had done a little firing at the
>Venusians and otherwise basically drifted in a straight line not doing
>anything or talking to anyone.  

Not true, actually.  I talked to him a few times, and he talked with
Andy a
bunch... but then, the latter you weren't worried about.  I'm still not
sure if he would've fired on you, though, if you'd come back to hunt me
down.  (It was sounding like it, a bit, but since you couldn't stop it
was
kinda irrelevant.)

>Mars got 80 out of 80 points for having
>all non-Martian, non-Vestian (who weren't mentioned in his victory
>conditions) warships leave Titan. I picked up 72 out of 80 for not
being
>the one to deliver the coup de grace to two of Jerry's ships and for
>letting the UNSC escape, but I didn't think I had a choice given the
>state of my battleship and the Vestian's threatened withdrawl of
fighter
>support.

<grin>

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....

					Aaron Teske
					ateske@HICom.net
LAUNCH DAY!
A totally unprovoked attack on peaceful neighbors. Must be the race 
file. Does strange things.
		--Rick Kucejko, on the War Monger PRT in Stars!