JesterCon 2001 a brief report

G'Day

Yesterday two friends (Nathan Rolfe (list member) and John Langiu (not a

list member)) and I travelled to Launceston (a city in Northern
Tasmania) 
to attend the local convention, JesterCon 2001, to put on a
demonstration 
game of Dirtside 2. The con was a small affair and Saturday was mostly 
roleplay sessions but we did have interested persons come by and ask
questions.

The game was played out on a 6' by 8' area, and was designed to be
played 
on day, after all this was a demo game. I ran the NSL defenders and
Nathan 
and John ran the ESU attackers, we used the attack/defence game set up 
given in the rulebook, I set up with approximately 10 000 points of
troops 
in defensive positions and John  began the attack with the ESU recon 
element (approx 5000 points), it's appears the ESU doctrine was recon
via 
suicide as the ESU troops threw themselves on the prepared NSL
positions, 
although the "Eurie" attack VTOLs inflicted heavy losses on the NSL.

After the recon troops came the advance guard run by Nathan (approx 10
000 
points), but the NSL lines were bolstered by the arrival of the reaction

force (approx 12 000 points), and over the next few turns a ferocious 
battle developed, centred on a hill on the front of the NSL lines. The
hill 
was defended by a platoon of panzer grenadiers and the fight consumed
the 
hill's defenders and 8 tanks, 5 apcs and 14 stands of infantry belonging
to 
the ESU attackers. It also included the NSL artillery being called down
on 
their own positions as the ESU infantry attacked, this broke the
momentum 
of the initial ESU thrust.

The day finished at the end of turn 5 with the NSL Divisional reserve 
(approx 12 000 points, including two platoons of the hover variant of
the 
Deimos tank) and ESU main body (approx 35 000 points) arriving on the 
tabletop, when we discussed the game on Friday afternoon I suggested the

ESU main body be broken into 10 000 to 15 000 point chunks but John 
displayed what some might say was an unnatural urge to see 35 000 points
of 
the ESU charge across the table and brought it all on at once 
(understandable considering the amount of time he had invested in
painting 
his miniatures).

It was time to pack up and thank our hosts for putting up with us. The
NSL 
defenders still held the objectives, but the ESU had it's 35 000 point
main 
body raring to go. John, Nathan and I all agree we would like to
continue 
the game at a later date and play a further three turns. But I think we 
will probably go back to the 'chunks' for the ESU main body, with 1
chunk 
on the table and the rest still off the board arriving on the table in 
subsequent turns.

Nathan and I are writing up a detailed after action report, which will
be 
posted to my website when it's finished.

Derek

Derek Fulton
12 Balaka st.
Rosny, Hobart.
Tasmania,  7018.
Australia

Phone; (03) 62459123
Email; derekfulton@bigpond.com
URL; http://www.users.bigpond.com/derekfulton/