WCC Aftercon Report

	Now that I've had a few hours sleep, I can be slightly more
coherent wh
en
writing my aftercon report.  I got to the hotel around six-thirty and
met
Bob Bantley, creater of the Bug Bead Ships (and ultimately winner of the
WCC Figure Painting Contest, Full Thrust Division) and his minions, his
son
Robert and his sons friend Alex.  We chatted for a bit until Ted and
Mike
came back from a food run.  When they got back, we decided to play Mikes
FMA Aliens game.  
	Bob, Ted, and I split the squad amoungst us and went to town. 
The firs
t
couple of turns went pretty well, the Aliens appearing a distance from
the
Marines, allowing Drake and Vasquez to gun them down like the alien scum
they were.  Sadly, though, all good things must come to an end, and that
included our heroes.  More and more bugs showed up, and despite all the
marines effort, started close assaulting.  Aliens vs human in close
combat
was pretty much a foregone conclusion, and the humans died messily.  At
least those that weren't captured to provide hosts for the new aliens.
	The game was a great deal of fun, and made an FMA convert of
Bob, who
earlier expressed doubts about grond combat games.  The Aliens were just
*ugly* in close combat, and Vasquez deserved a medal for her shooting,
nailing two or three (after being reactivated by Apone) Aliens per turn.
	Later the Bay Area Stargrunt Guild [1] showed up and put
together a big
Human vs Beastmen Stargrunt game.  The Beastmen were attacking a small
human outpost, while another human force attempted to relieve it.  I
commanded a human engineer platoon in this game.  It was a pretty big
game,
with about a company on either side.  This was a long game that petered
out
around one or two in the morning, with the consensus that the humans
were
in a very bad position vis a vis the cookpot.
	The next morning I came in and both Johns were in settting up
the "smal
l"
[2] 12,000 pt Kra'Vak vs Human game, so I got in on it.  Thrust [3] into
command of an NAC CA squadron, supported by a DN, and the CV element.
Unfortunately for my crews, I lost my head completely and went into the
teeth of the KV right with my cruisers, 13 fighter squadrons, and
dreadnaught (leaving the carriers behind was a good move, though). A
couple
of turns later, the fighters were quickly expanding globes of gas and I
found out what K-guns do to cruisers.  *Owwww*.  I lost two CA's in
short
order and near crippling damage to a third.  On the up side I was
through
the line and moving to attack the rear of their center element.  The
only
good luck the NAC got in the game was when one of the KV ships drove
into
an asteroid, and several others were sideswiped by the two asteroids.
That, if nothing else, was gratifying. 
	Mark Reidl and his friend (who's name escapes me) were playing a
FT gam
e
on the next table.  Evidently the Space Com. . .err, ESU were doing
well,
or at least that's what they were telling the Sa'Vasku (complete with
really bad Russian accent).
	After the FT game(s), Mike ran a 15mm Stargrunt game. 
Federation force
s
attack rebel scum.   Run on two seperate tables Seans mission was to
capture the rebels Supreme Commander, while Ted and I were to capture
the
star port.  Sean succeeded spectacularly with his mission, though Ted
and I
only managed a draw.  While this was going on, John Fox ran his convoy
escort game, which looked interesting. 
	James, Sean and Keith ran the Human vs Bugs Stargrunt game,
which looke
d
very nice, lots of rubber bugs and Tyranids.  This was also a fairly
long
game that I wasn't involved in, but it was fun wandering over and seeing
how it was going.
	That's about it.  I had a great time, and thanks again to Ted
and the
sponsors.  I had a great time and I'll be running a game next year. 
Maybe
I'll win one outright. :-)

Don

[1] My name for James, Sean, Jesse, and Keith.	I don't believe any of
them
are on the list now, but Ted let them know about it so we should hear
from
some of them soon.
[2] See the quotes page. 
[3] No pun intended. Honest!