GZG ECC VI AAR [long]

Friday night: The Taxman Cometh [CineGrunt, Stuart Murray]
Saturday morning: Convoy Attack [StarGrunt, Adrian Johnson]
Saturday afternoon: Interrupted Negotiations [Full Thrust, Noam
Izenburg]
Saturday evening: Found Me A Sheep [FMA Skirmish, Tom Barclay and Chris
DeBoe]
Saturday midnight: Formula De
Sunday morning: FMA Frag [FMA version of SJG's Frag, Mike Hudak]

----Friday night: The Taxman Cometh [CineGrunt, Stuart Murray]
   Poor Adrian.  
   One of his characters, Leftenant the Rt Hon D'Arcy Yeatman-Briggs,
was
desperate to evade the attentions of the Colonel's daughter--he ended up
proposing to her and having the Regimental Sergeant Major carry out the
ceremony right there on the battlefield.  And Nick caught it on video...
   One of his other characters, Major Isaiah Ferris, was gong-hunting
(trying to earn--or at least get--a decoration such as Victoria's
Cross).
He bumped his artillery piece on something and rode on for several
hundred
meters before noticing he'd lost it.  The Pathans then leapt out and
captured the gun, despite a spirited defense by the Ladies' Temperence
Society.  The Pathans also captured eight of the ten mules in the
baggage
train, then ran off and escaped before a Brit infantry company could
catch
them. The Major realized that, as the ranking officer present, he was
going
to have to tell the Regimental Sergeant Major that they'd just lost the
regimental silver; about a minute later, he heard the RSM bellowing at
the
tax man, "Why, you 'orrible little man, how dare you question me! Of
course
I know where every ounce of the regimental silver is, it's in strongbox
in
the right saddle bag of number two mule inthe baggage train--right there
where Major Ferris is, he'll show you!"  So the tax man (Egbert Wapple,
CPA) went back to Major Ferris and demanded an audit ("close assault,
causes terror in friend or foe").  The Major broke and fled through
Pathan
infested mountains and attacked a column of Pathan horse with one
artillery
piece, in hopes of salvaging something out of the debacle--he survived,
but
his career prospects looked pretty dismal.  As Adrian said, "Both my
main
characters not only failed to achieve their objectives--they failed
catastrophically."
  But that's what makes it fun, right?
  Other high points were Rick Rutherford preaching (as the Ladies'
Temperance Society) to the Pathans and even managing to convert one; the
Bengal Lancers charging to rescue the Colonel's dog from the clutches of
the wily Pathan; and of course Indy's Great White Hunter getting eaten
by
the tiger.
  As always, Stuart's game was a blast.

----Saturday morning: Convoy Attack [StarGrunt, Adrian Johnson]
   A version of this is, IIRC, on www.stargrunt.ca ; I commanded the
ambushers (with assistance from, IIRC, Tim and Robert) and TomB took the
convoy (assisted by, IIRC, Lee).  My job was to capture supplies and do
damage to the escorting troops; TomBs orders turned out to be to trap
the
ambushers by running a "Q-ship" convoy.
   The ambushers announced their presence with a GMS shot that killed
the
lead GEV APC, which sank into the river.  Another GMS shot went in
through
a truck's windshield and out through the side window, doing no damage
but
scaring the daylights out of the driver.  The driver pulled off to the
side, parked the truck and fled.  One of my squads was hidden in the
woods
right next to the truck, so they captured the truck, hotwired it and
drove
off.  TomB's tank tried to pursue the truck but couldn't catch it.  The
surviving APC unloaded an infantry squad, and so did another truck.
   Along about this point I realized that this "convoy" was not as
advertised, so I instructed my units to destroy any other trucks and
break
contact.  Our HAMR marksman did a mobility kill on another hovertruck,
which grounded in the river's shallows and disgorged another infantry
squad. The HAMR unit was then taken under fire by an APC SAW and a
couple
of infantry squads, including one at point-blank range--they only took
suppressions but it was obvious that they were going to get chopped to
sushi sooner or later, so I ordered them to surrender.	The remainder of
my
forces continued to withdraw, occasionally throwing smoke  and taking
pot
shots.	TomB's units fired blanks back at us--his dice really sucked.
  Then TomB called in an airdrop of a powered armor squad, which landed
all
too close to my command squad.	I crossed my fingers and ordered an
artillery strike despite the high risk that it might very well land on
me
instead of him.  It did deviate, but not enough to matter, and then my
dice
caught fire--TomB's six man squad lost four killed, one wounded! 
Meanwhile
TomB's tank was pursuing one of my squads along one board edge and two
mounted squads were getting much too close on the other side.
   When time was called, I'd say I was slightly ahead on points, but
another turn might easily have seen things go the other way.  A very
close
match, and very tense despite the low casualty count--the first shot
(which
sank the APC) and the last shot (the arty strike) did a total of seven
KIA,
one WIA, and there were zero casualties in between!  My side lost the
marksman and his spotter (who I'd ordered to surrender) but no
blood--appropriate for the merc unit I was commanding.
   I'd like to play this one again, with Opportunity Fire rules; if Tom
remembered to take his dice out of the freezer, it'd probably still be
an
even match.

----Saturday afternoon: Interrupted Negotiations [Full Thrust, Noam
Izenburg]
   Noam is going to post a full AAR on this, so I'll just add my
comments. 
Yes, the Islamic Fed was on the board, and no, I didn't play them, I
took
the New Israelis.  The IF player said that he felt the IF ship designs
(Hattin CH and Said ed Din BB) were very effective.
   Two of the three KV players decided to aim at me, so I prudently
ducked
behind Jim Bell's  ships and let the UN get mulched instead of me. 
After
that I wandered around the battlefield, maneuvering incompetently and
plinking at whichever KV happened not to be in my A arc that turn. 
Fortunately the IF was able to get into knife fighting range, and their
firepower combined with abysmal KV threshold rolls managed to save the
day.
The KV withdrew and the IF FTL'd out (presumably with the saboteur, who
I'm
betting was aboard one of the Hattins), leaving me in undisputed
possession
by default.
  I found the NI ships a little tricky to work with but a large part of
that was probably due to my inept maneuvering--I need to brush up on
cinematic.  However, the IF player said that he felt the IF ship designs
(Hattin CH and Said ed Din BB) were very effective, so I was happy.

----Saturday evening: Found Me A Sheep [FMA Skirmish, Tom Barclay and
Chris
DeBoe]
  If there had been an event, it would have started with a legal
disclaimer
and finished with the conclusion that several players would have a good
chance of recovering well enough to be able to function in society
again,
if they had enough therapy.
  Notable events in between might have included the resurrection of
Stuart
MacMurray, smelling of lambchops and mint jelly; an attempt to herd
sheep
by throwing dynamite at them; a duel with one participant using Scots
Kiss/Head Butt and the other using a Swiss Army lightsaber; the gallant
defense of ... no, I'd better not mention that; Jerry's French Foreign
legion trooper shooting through his own sergeant to hit a Fierce
Multi-Armed Sheep; Allan MacCajun playing bluegrass music on his paisley
bagpipes; the attempted...no, I'd *definitely* better not bring *that*
up;
and of course the use a tactical nuclear weapon in a skirmish game.
  However, everyone agreed that there was no event, nothing happened,
move
along, move along.

----Saturday midnight: Formula De
TomB rammed me on the starting move and destroyed half my car; despite
this, I made it to the finish line and didn't come in last.  I probably
had
the worst overall performance--I started in second position, I think I
finished sixth of eight--but I survived!

----Sunday morning: FMA Frag [FMA version of SJG's Frag, Mike Hudak]
A good, simple Sunday morning game of unmitigated mayhem.  Move to point
blank range with someone, fire your heaviest weapon at them, loot the
body
and move on...

Kudos to Jon, Indy, Jerry et al for putting this together--I'm already
making plans for next year!

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