GZGECC Fun Report

Greetings!

GZGECC IV was GREAT FUN!

I played in 4 events (see below) and ran one (post forthcomming).

First Kudos to Jon Davis, Mark Kotche, Jerry Han! You again brought me
the
highlight of my gaming year. I drive 7.5 hours (8.5 this year due to
construction) to get there and burn 4 vaction days on it and it is worth
every bit of it.

I was sorry to hear of Jerry's troubles that forced him to miss the con.

This year the scheduling ended up slightly strange. A lot of the games
filled up in preregistration. While this is great for the game judges
running the games, it is a little difficult for attendees who just show
up
or like to choose at the time of the game. Perhapse we need more people
to
run some games?

On to the observations:

Friday Night:
Ord Sarno Pod Racing by Mike Sarno (based on Star Wars Episode 1)
FT Racing Variant
This game was scedueled to hold up to 12, but Mike allowed additional
players (14?). Execelent game (most fun of the games I played in).
Everyone
chose the type of pod racer they wanted (trade off of hull for engines).
I
choose a MD 12/10 Hull pod. This was about in the middle of the
available
choices, providing some protection and good maneuverability. I thought
that
a pod with a 3/3 side slip would be very usefull (and it was). Most of
the
field took slightly more hull and less engine. Jon Davis took the pole
possition (mixture of engine speed and random roll for ties). I was in
the
second possition, but it was actually a better possition as I had a
straight
shot toward the first gate (Jon had to side-slip to hit it). There was
much
fun as the game progressed there were exclaimations as speeds kept
rising
thoughout the game. Mike had some excelent rules for emergency maneuvers
(that allowed you to correct some mistakes and allowed speeds to rise
even
higher) that made would could have been tedius maneuvering very fun. I
met
my goal of completing 1 lap of the course (in 1st place even) before my
control systems failed (due to damage) and I smashed into a rock at a
speed
of 64! Better (and more cautious) pilots finished the game (3 pilots out
of
14?). Again, much fun.

Saturday Morning:
Operation Avalanche by Me
FT/FB Vector Game
AAR forthcomming.

Saturday Afternoon:
Hot Spot by Jon Davis
DS2
This game was well put together. The time frame was just about right.
The
game ended in an easy judgement call.
Setup: Set in the Renegade Legion (FASA) background the Renegade Legion
(RL)
had taken a processing plant on a world with a molten crust. The
processing
plant sat on an island of cooled magma. There were other such islands on
the
board (about 12 total?). These islands extended about 3" above the
molten
magma. The Terran Overloard Government (TOG) forces were using grav
vehicles, so could move above the magma without fear, until they were
immobilized, then they sank into the lava. The RL forces were
represented by
counters until they were scanned (12" range) or activated.
The (glorious) TOG forces advanced in 2 waves up the trenches of molten
magma. The (rebel scum) RL forces waited patiently for the best
opprotunity
to activate (kudos to the RL tactics and patience). One unit of TOG
forces
hopped up on the crust and attempted "recon by fire", unsuccessfully.
The
TOG forces moved up the trenchs straight into opprotunity fire by RL
units
popping out of the side of one of the crust plates. This wiped out 1/2
of
one of the 8 TOG units. This affront was quickly and efficiently dealt
with
(all but 1 killed). However, the reprisal brought out another "pop-up"
unit
out of the crust with a firing lane to the reprising unit. Again about
1/2
of the unit was lost. The TOG carried the day due to darring on the part
of
the APC drivers. They jumped up on the crust, disgorged the infantry and
hit
the RL attack line, pinning them down so that the TOG tanks could hit
them.
The worrisome part for the TOG was that there was a whole other unit of
RL
that had not been placed on the board! The TOG kept expecting to be
ambushed
by pop-out possitions of RL forces. When the game was called, it was
revealed that the other RL forces was just a ruse, meant to make the TOG
units think that there were more RL forces available than there actually
were.
Again a very well run game and good fun.

Saturday Night:
Defense of Sol by Mark Kochte.
FT/FB Cinematic movement game
A good game, but like my game (Operation Avalanche), too big for the
time
slot. There were about 12 players, each with about an 1100 point forces
of
ships. The KV started on one corner of the table and tried, in part, to
sweep a wing of the human forces. The Human forces were fairly built
into a
wall formation. Both sides closed. The Fighter forces from both sides
met
and the outcome left only a few fighters on the board. Forces contined
to
close. The Human and KV forces begain trading fire. The UN forces then
revealed 2 new weapons: A GRAZER (Heavy Beam sytle weapon?) and an
Antimatter Missile (24" range like salvo missiles, holming to nearest
ship,
3d6 damage to ship hit, 1d6 to everything in 3mu radius, may not be
targeted
by PDS, disposable-3 shot, degraded by screens, mass 4). These were
devistating to the KV forces which had no defense agianst them. The game
was
called when time ran out. Nominal victory to the Human forces.

Sunday Morning:
CanAm FT Game
FT/FB vector, bring-your-own-fleet game.
Good game with a planet and gravity well to add spice to the game. Both
sides brought well designed fleets. Kudos to the Canadian team for a
last
minute fleet design and teaching players the game.
Both sides started at the far ends of the table. The US forces brought a
carrier force (cruisers and larger were all carriers) supported by
destoryers and heavy frigates. They launched 25 fighter groups and began
slow clockwise circumnavigation of the planet. The Canadian forces brout
a
beam and torpedo heavy force. They also started a clockwise move arround
the
planet. The Canadian fighter screen advanced on the US fighters to delay
them. The US fighters engaged them 1 group to 1 group and the rest flew
by
and pounced on the trailing Canadian forces. The Canadian ship group had
an
excelent, but ultimatly futile ADFC screen. The fighter engagements went
about 50/50 eventhough the Canadian players had some Hvy Interceptors.
Most
of the fighter groups continued the assault on the Canadian ships while
just
enough fighter groups fell out to tie up the remaining Canadian fighters
(protecting the Human attack fighters). The lead Canadian group used the
gravity of the planet to swing arround and engage some of the US ships
at
long range. This, however, left them open to a followup combined attack
by
the US fighter groups and salvo missile attacks from a line of 6
Walburg/Ms.
Fire was traded for another turn, with the Canadian Pulse Torpedos
comming
into long range and scoring some hits. Time was called. The canadians
had
lost 2 Komorov SDNs and some destroyers to 1 Sufferen CL/V. The game was
called in favor of the US forces.

---
Brian Bell
bkb@beol.net
ICQ: 12848051
AIM: Rlyehable
The Full Thrust Ship Registry:
http://www.ftsr.org
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