ECC-VII: short visit, long report

I had a great time during my short stint at ECC-VII. My son (6) and I 
drove up saturday morning and we were there for the am and afternoon 
sessions, cutting out after dinnertime. Zev spent his allowance on 
minis, helped roll dice, and in general was really impressed with the 
whole thing.  He did remark on the general lack of women in the event. 
I had no idea what he was talking about. He was really happy and proud 
to have been invited along. I think he acquitted himself pretty well at 
the con, and I'm grateful to everyone there for their kindness and 
tolerance.

Stuart Murray's Cinegrunt (The Mysterious Island of Dr. Carter) was my 
first chance to play any type of StarGrunt, and it was great fun. My 
Witchdoctor bought the farm relatively early, still believing he could 
con his god into helping him off the chief so _he_ could marry as many 
women as he wanted to. The natives in general started getting their act 
together late in the game trying to stampede dinosaurs into the various 
factions invading the island, though not with enough effect by the 
close of the game. Of the surviving surviving (i.e. not squashed or 
eaten by dinosaurs, or shot in the head by Great White Hunters) 
scientists, two made off with a couple pterodactyl eggs (ensuring 
everlasting fame, or at least decent breakfast), and the two daring 
female volcanologists, after barely escaping abduction by natives, 
secured a ruby from the base of the volcano large enough for them to 
buy several universities.

I'm not sure what happened to the Brits, Americans, and Germans - the 
natives didn't really distinguish the various thieves of the Tears of 
God (apart from recognizing the Gentleman in the White Suit who came 
from the Giant Gleaming Fish of God as their deity), and the scientists 
weren't interested in politics.

Well. It all made perfect sense at the time. Zev enjoyed the dinosaurs, 
but I think he was as frustrated as I was that the natives kept getting 
themselves killed. Storming the German's compound might have gotten the 
native their rubies back, but the natives don't know much about 
cannons. I thought shimmying up the legs of the Victorian Walker and 
taking it over would have been fun, but climbing natives are not a real 
match for pistols.

The afternoon game was Dean Gundberg's Sci-Fi crossover, where the good 
guy fleets (B-5, BSG, Rebels) were outnumbered 4 to 5 by Evil (Empire 
and Klingons). We didn't do badly, but a too-hard turn brought my Omega 
too close up against a D-7+C-9 squadron, and I 'd sent my fighter 
escort off to aid the Super-Star Destroyer assault. I think my best 
snapshot that encompasses the "crossoverness" of the crossover was my 
Omega staring down three D7's in the front arc, with four squadrons of 
TIE fighters swarming around the ships. Losing initiative on that round 
really hurt, since the Klingon fire took out both my forward grasers, 
really cramping my return. The TIEs also shouldn't have been the 
problem they were, doing damage to ships only on a 6 (+reroll) but they 
did over 10 points in one attack, and kicking me over an extra 
threshold a turn earlier than I might have.  When Zev rolled my dice, 
we did well, as I expected, but when he was distracted and I took over, 
we suffered greatly. In the end, the forces of light did not prevail, 
but it was grand.

It was great meeting and talking Jon T in person, and I've already 
started putting together the NI minis I got from him. If the stars 
align correctly in the future, I hope someday to have the privilege of 
gaming with him.

In the "flesh" I really like the look of the NI minis - they've got 
this nifty stylistic twist to them a shade of retro-'stremlined' - 
Flash Gordon-y look to them when you look close, but more modern  
UN-meets-Japan style if you step back. Sure I'm biased, but I really do 
like them.

In all, my stint at ECC-7 was short but sweet. I would have liked to 
stay for the later session, and to have had more time to talk to folks, 
but I will make do with the electronic medium for now. I hope to make 
the next one.

Bring One Maze	  (to Noam Izenberg's Maze potluck)