ECC 7 report

Hi All,

This was my first ECC and I have to admit, it was the best gaming Con
that
I've ever been to.

I spent two weeks working getting things ready, since I was taking care
of
business for Decals Express, which is owned by one of my best friends. 
I
do design work for him, it's not my business... I just cover for him
when
he's off playing Navy. :)

In addition to that, I had to paint Shermans and Stuarts for Tom Pope's
War of the Worlds DSII game, and finish painting OGREs for the OGRE bash
game.  Since I have a real job, and stuff like that, sleep became quite
a
commodity.

The before I left, I received word that Tom would not be able to make it
this year, so I volunteered to run the War of the Worlds game.	That
entailed writing up sheets in the car while my girlfriend, Yerin, drove.

I arrived Friday evening, and had about a half an hour to set up the
game,
wander around and meet some folks (I had only met 3 or 4 of the
attendees
face to face before coming to the con!).

I then ran the War of the Worlds game.	The martain invasion of the late
1890s was only a preliminary strike.  A massive recon excersize if you
will.  The second round, in the early 1940s was much different.  The
martian tripods and grav floaters now had shields to improve their
defenses.  The infantry and crews had pressurized, environmentally
sealed combat armor (powered armor) to protect them from Earths
horrible germs and bacteria. Despite this, 6 tripods and 6 floaters with
6 PA squads would have a tough time against a full battalion of U.S.
tanks!	Even though they were only Stuarts and Shermans, there were a
LOT
of them.  The martians, unbeknownst to the Americans, had a sinister
plan.
They were there in the mid-west, not to kill humans, but to capture
cows!
And sheeps!  This was a sekrit known only to the martians, though one of
the US tank commanders, I believe Capt. Kotche, figured it out fairly
quickly.  The Martains did not do as well as I had expected based on
playtest games, but mostly due to two factors.	First, the US forces
pulled an amazing number of Boom! chits, destroying Martain Sheild
Generators, making the Martian Tripods and Floaters much more vulnerable
to their 37mm and 75mm cannons.  Second, the Martains did not seem to be
able to hit the broad side of a Sherman at ANY range.  Tony was given an
Indy Singularity award for his truly, amazingly abysmal die rolls. :)

Still, by the end of the evening, despite the fact that all of the
Martian
PA was dead, 6 Floaters were burning on the field, and 3 Tripods had
been
destroyed, the Martians escaped with 3 elements of Cows.  It seemed to
me
that everyone had a good time with the game, and there are lots of
quotes
from it. :)

Saturday morning, Yerin and I set up the Decals Express table, and
again,
I did some wandering around.  I ended up in a WWII early Russian front
game (another DSII game!) as a Russian tank company commander.	To my
suprise and delight, I found myself facing Indy as a German!  The game
used a hidden movement system, which while effective, did slow down
resolution.  I have since posted
<http://okapi.andrew.cmu.edu/lerchey/www/DSII> a simplified version of
this (updated last night) for those interested.  I'm going to use it in
some upcoming games. :)  As Indys forces approached my single company of
T-26 tanks, I managed to kill a full platoon of motorcycle troops, a
company of Kubelwagons and most of a platoon of Pz Is.	For my efforts I
lost 1 platoon of T-26s.  I had yet to meet anything other than recon
units... I fear that the Skdfz 222 armored cars and Pz Mk IVs would have
torn me to shreds had the game continued.  It was fun though, while it
lasted.

I then ate, and spent the afternoon alternately looking over peoples
shoulders and cutting out counters for the evening OGRE bash game that I
would be running with Indy.

Supper came and went, and I returned in time to see the painting contest
results.  I was both amazed and delited when the Mk V OGRE that I
entered
(Sauron) took second place  in the DSII category. :D

Next was the OGRE bash.  We had 8 players and a dozen or more OGREs on
the
battlefields.  We had Mk Is, Mk IIs, Mk IIIs, a Mk III-B, a Mk IV, a
couple of Mk Vs and a Fencer or two.  Sadly, no one drew the Mk VI -
Bun-bun.

The first turn took us most of the evening, and gave the players a good
idea of how the OGRE mod rules worked.	Mostly, folks were dropping
missiles on each other (or trying to), and taking some long range pot
shots.	Indy and I decided to speed up turn 2.	Everyone activated their
OGREs in a flurry of movement, to be followed by massive amounts of
firing.  Most OGREs were badly hurt, and tried to trigger itself off as
a
nuke by blowing it's relays and doing an engine overload.  Sadly (since
it
would have been spectacular!) it failed to do anything other than burn
out
its own systems.  Still, it was very fun game to run.  Like many "con
games" (heh heh) getting resolution for 8 players is tough.  But we
managed to get a good feel for how it likely would have gone, and the
players seemed to have enjoyed trying to turn each other into scrap.  If
you want to see the OGRE mod rules, they can be found at
<http://okapi.andrew.cmu.edu/lerchey/www/DSII/OGRE.html>.

After that it was time for cleanup and bed.

Sunday morning I played in Indys Battle for Durango.  DSII again.  I
played on the rightous side of good and truth, defending the residents
of
Durango Valley from the evil, federal goverment types who had sold out
to
the NAC, giving up the average Americans right to bear tanks. :)

Sadly, while seting up my forces, I did not understand that the
buildings
and woods between my tanks and the enemy would offer almost no cover,
nor
would it seriously impare LoS.	I got hammered.  And who would have
thought that Jerrys VTOLs would EACH be carrying FOUR GMS/Hs!?	Ouch.
I had a blast failing to defend the valley.  Yes, the defenders lost,
but
we had a blast doing so.  I definitely lost more of my forces than
anyone
else, but had way too much fun to notice.

I also got to spend some time chatting with Jon T and David Dunn (DLD
productions).  That was just icing on the cake.  Getting to meet so many
folks who I know as email addresses rocked.

Unless something (like work) keeps me away, I'll see everyone there
again
next year.  What a great convention!

John

John K. Lerchey
Computer and Network Security Coordinator
Computing Services
Carnegie Mellon University