RR's ECC6 AAR

Hi all,

I just re-subscribed after a year's hiatus... here's my after-action
report from the GZG East Coast Convention 6:

I drove up on Friday afternoon, and I was lucky to have started out
early,
because the traffic got much worse as the day went on. Just after I left
the Baltimore area, the radio reported a seven-car pile-up, and later in
the evening I heard from Nick that there were a total of five different
accidents around Baltimore beltway. There were traffic accidents around
Harrisburg and York, and as I got close to Lancaster, I had to detour
around a jackknifed tractor-trailer that had closed the bridge over the
Susquehanna River.

Stuart Murray's Friday evening game "The Taxman Cometh" was great fun!.
His "cinematic Stargrunt" style was energetic as usual, and all the
different characters, plots, and sub-plots made for an exciting,
engaging
game. And yes, Adrian Johnson really did get down on his knees and
propose
to Chris Deboe! (In character, of course.)

Saturday morning, I went to the local farmer's market to get some bread
and cheese for the "Carnage Con Queso" game. I bought a wedge of Brie
and
a chunk of Canadian goats' milk cheese, and I made sure to get some
Wensleydale in case any of the players were fans of Wallace and Gromit.
:)

Saturday afternoon, I ran the Carnage Con Queso game. I've put the
scenario description at the end of this email, because of its length. In
short, there were two sides, the Red Team and the Green Team, each of
which was composed of fast powered armor. The Green Team was less
numerous, but they could call for ortillery barrages that would land
0-2 turns later (arrival determined by a secret die-roll).

During the game, two of the Green Team players (Tom Barclay and Jesse
Bigelow) each called down an ortillery barrage, and then moved their
squads into the ortillery target area that they had nominated! The only
reason Tom didn't get hit was that he lost initiative on the following
turn, and got wiped out by Adrian's squad before the barrage landed.
Jesse
managed to leave in the nick of time, and drew John Crimmins (from the
Red
Team) in after him, who then proceeded to get pounded. Tony Finin called
in a barrage right next to his squad, knowing that he wouldn't be
moving,
and hoping that it wouldn't deviate towards him! (Luckily for him, it
didn't.)

I thought I had come up with a balanced game, but halfway through the
Red
team had taken over 3/4 of the map, and it was looking like they would
win
handily. I was afraid that I had dreamed up an awful scenario and that
the
game was going to end prematurely, but the tide turned and the game
ended
up being a very close contest at the end.

Saturday evening I ran the painting workshop, and had a great time
painting figures with Jon Davis, Laurel Caldwell, Bill Spring, and two
children (didn't get their names) who were looking for something to do.
Next year I'd like to run it again, but change the time to Saturday
morning so we can have more daylight to paint by.

Sunday morning I played in the FMA Frag game, run by Mike Hudak, and it
was a good Sunday-morning game -- fast, fun, and lots of mayhem.

Overall, it was another excellent convention! Thanks very much to Jon,
Mark and Jerry for organizing everything and keeping it running!

**********************************************************
Carnage Con Queso

This scenario takes place on a planet that is in the process of being
terraformed. Each side will be using fast powered armor, because the
terrain and atmosphere on the planet are a hostile environment.

Due to the electrically charged atmosphere, all communication attempts
made by any squad are automatically considered to be "opposed" by the
environment. When a squad makes a communication roll, one of the
opposing
players should roll a die of the same type to try to block the
communication (just as if they had an EW trooper).

Terrain
The green "wooded" areas are dense clumps of tall grass that block
line-of-sight into or through the foliage.
Figures may enter the tall grass, but movement is halved inside the
foliage.
Foliage provides soft cover to troops inside.
If the base of a figure is on the edge of the foliage, it can see and be
seen from the outside.
If the base of a figure is inside the foliage template, it cannot see or
be seen from the outside.
Players should specify where the troops are to avoid any confusion. In
some cases, the foliage template may be too narrow to hide a figure
inside.

The blue "stream" areas are gullies about 1 meter deep, which contain a
genetically engineered soup of chemicals that promotes the formation of
healthy, fertile soil.
Gullies provide hard cover to troops inside.
If the a figure is in a gully, it can see and be seen from the outside.
Gullies have no effect on movement when troops enter them, but it takes
a
full action to exit them (they're sticky). Troops can only move 2" per
action when walking down the length of a gully.

Troops
There are two different kinds of troops in this scenario: standard
riflemen and squad support weapons. The squad leader fights as a
standard
rifleman. Each squad consists of one squad leader, three riflemen, and
one
squad support weapon trooper.

The stats for the figures are:
Troop		Firepower	Impact		Armor		Move
Rifleman	3		d12		d12		12"
Support Wpn	d12		d12		d12		12"

Green Company
The troops in green company are an elite force that is used to working
together as a team, and the command structure is looser than that of a
traditional force. Because of this, there is no platoon commander or
company commander. Instead, any squad leader may transfer one of his
actions to another squad during his activation, using the standard
communication roll. If successful, the other squad receives ONE extra
ACTION (not activation).

Red Company
The troops in red company are a veteran force of two platoons with a
traditional command structure, commanded by two platoon leaders. Any
platoon leader may transfer one of his actions to another squad during
his
activation, using the standard communication roll. If successful, the
other squad receives ONE extra ACTION (not activation).

Victory
The side that controls the largest number of green "wooded" foliage
templates is the winner. Control is determined by the presence of
friendly
troops inside or close to the template.

Notes
Everyone has excellent mobility and firepower, so choose your battles
carefully. Firefights will be quick and bloody.

-- Rick Rutherford