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[ECC AAR] [long]

From: "Laserlight" <laserlight@q...>
Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2005 23:51:03 -0500
Subject: [ECC AAR] [long]

Back from yet another great ECC.

First person I met as I came through the door was the esteemed and
wonderful Beth "Yes, Dice Have 1's in the Northern Hemisphere Too"
Fulton.  She gave me a (toy) authentic Australian sheep, thus getting
the weekend off on the right foot (from my point of view,
anyway...YMMV).  Good to see Wi'Sel Wasserman, Phil Pournelle, Mike
Sarno, Magic, Los, plus plenty of other regulars and new folks.

Friday night was the pickup Stargrunt game, with the righteous
Brethren of the Brown Rocks sweeping the hapless and craven Grey Rock
Gang from the board, meanwhile demonstrating that "there's no point in
shooting at Laserlight".  I had the most heavily armored squad on the
board and never had to make an impact vs. armor roll (although a
persistent sniper did manage to suppress me a couple of times).  Kurt
Wasserman bravely played rear guard for the Grey gang until he was
wounded and used as a Cub Scout merit badge project (read the quote
board).

Saturday morning I wandered up to the table where Stuart Murray was
setting up "A Small Matter of a Bonus."  Stuart looked over and said
"I need a devious underhanded schemer to play the Weyland Yutani
executive, so that's your faction."  I sent the RDiv team off to
capture Predator tech and the TechDiv team off to bring back an Alien
queen egg plus royal jelly, making it clear that quarterly performance
reviews were coming up soon (someone, probably Aaron N, said "at
Weyland Yutani, quarterly reviews happen every week").
    We had a minor setback when an overeager Marine lieutenant fired a
warning shot *through* our dropship's bow; however, due to my
take-charge management style, we converted this impromptu cost-cutting
operation into a profit center by sending the Marines a 186 line-item
bill for the dropship, its crew, environmental remediation,
transportation, new-equipment replacement costs, etc etc.
    I also reviewed the reports, memos and PowerPoint presentations of
the field managers who were leading their combat teams.  The TechDiv
team faced serious challenges, including fire from misguided Marine
forces, and was unable to complete its mission on schedule. I am
pleased to report that one of my subordinates, (Burke, Carter J.,
played by Adrian) displayed initiative and aptitude for an aggressive
negotiation approach, and was able to accomplish his mission on time
and within budget despite a significant reduction in force. At the end
of the game, I accepted a promotion to Senior Executive Vice
President.

    Saturday afternoon was Carnage con Queso, which will take more
explanation than I can manage right now.  Doug Perrins brought a squad
which broke the 50 Cheese Points level (a large squad of undead with
sniper, rocket launchers, and so forth--most players were under 20
Cheese Points). Mike Hudak's tank ran over two of the news crew but
missed Brun Hilda four times, then tried to self destruct (to catch
her in the blast) but failed, then machine gunned her, then bailed out
and shot her with SMGs...and she still survived it all. On the other
end of the map, some ninjas stole cheese from a squad of power troops,
who chased them but couldn't pass the morale test to melee them; the
ninjas (down to two by that point, IIRC) eventually charged the PA
squad (which broke and fled), then slipped off the map with a
d30-sized cheese.
    I brought Darth Baa and his Imperial Stormsheep, and really wasn't
planning on winning.  I gathered a few cheese containers and then
settled in on top of a hill and planned to stay there.	Beth tried to
shoot at me, but I pointed out that I was Darth Baa, using the Force,
and she didn't really want to shoot me, so she had to do something
else.
    Unfortunately, one of the cards in the game was "Sheepishness",
which if played on anyone *but me* would have caused that squad to
retreat, but when played on me caused my squad to go baaserk and
attack the nearest target.  Unfortunately, the closest target was
Beth's Nuns With Guns, who were at the bottom of the cliff that I was
on top of.  I tried pointing out that we were sheep not lemmings, but
to no avail, so my Sheeptroopers cried "Baaanzai!" and jumped over the
cliff.	After a brief hand-to-hoof combat, both squads were down to 3
functional members and I retreated back to the top of the hill.
    Doug then shot rockets at me, but they bounced off Darth Baa's
armor with nary a scuff, so he too decided "it's pointless to shoot at
Laserlight".
    Beth (who was also not planning on winning, since she may not be
available to run the event next year) then ran up the hill, dropped
her cheese next to me, and withdrew.  As a result, I nearly ended the
game with 70 victory points, but fortunately Adrian hit me with a 50
point penalty for excessive cheesiness (all my PSB about "I'm using
the Force, so you don't want to shoot me"--pure baloney, but I got
away with it). As a result, Tony Finan discovered to his dismay that
his 33 points made him the lucky winner of this year's Carnage con
Queso.

    Saturday evening was the FMASheep game, which was not actually
about finding TomB's soul (which was located on an entirely different
continent, verify the directions next time).   I will ....no.  Let's
just say that the GM really doesn't need to do anything to the
players -- just provide the materials and they'll do it to themselves.
Kudos go to Greg "Sgt Atkinson" Davis, who made his first appearance
at FMASheep and managed to rescue the beautiful reporter, win the VC,
and survive.  Kudos also go to Tony Finan, who played the beautiful
reporter (JM Fulton) in a manner which I shall definitely not be
describing, and to Adrian, for an absolutely brilliant ploy which took
me completely by surprise, and which I will let him explain.  Don't
try that again. :-)  The rest of the player characters were
incinerated by an exploding volcano, but in consolation, they found
the silent warriors who wore white paint-- they discovered King
Solomon's Mimes.

    Sunday morning was Aliens v Predators, with a generous helping of
Corporate and Marine troops.  My predators slew half a dozen alien
drones in unarmed combat, which was a good thing as I couldn't hit
anything I shot at.  Then the Thing That Couldn't Be Killed crushed me
in hand-to-tentacle combat, and I determined that when you die with
honor, you're still dead.  This was sort of a good thing, though,
because I had time to examine Aaron's terrain and determine that if I
start later tonight and work hard, I might have terrain that looks
that good in time for an AvP game next year.  And therefore, next
year's FMA Sheep game may involve baaological weapons, brought to you
by ...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...

Weyland Ewetani.

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