[ECC] An Aussie perspective (long)

G'day guys,

Finally back in the land of Oz... well physically, my brain is still 
custard somewhere over the Pacific I think (being plunged back into a 2 
day workshop and 1500 work email to answer hasn't eased the
transition!).

Well the con was a blast. Great to put so many faces to names at last! 
It was a really great time and I heartily recommend the attendance of as

many as possible... so long as you can take "weird" in your stride ;)

Others have given much better reports than my numb brain can manage 
right now, but here goes (otherwise work will suck me away again before 
I get the chance).

First before I bore you all to death and you stop reading I must thank 
everyone there for their generosity and friendliness, it put a wonderful

finish to what had been a long and tiring 3 weeks! In particular I'd 
like to thank Channing and Nick for going that extra mile for me (I 
greatly appreciate it!). I'd also want to thank all the GMs and 
organisers who did an outstanding job of making the games look and play 
superbly. I was exceedingly impressed by you all!

Channing drove me up from Columbus and was exceptionally considerate, 
even providing me with the Dr Who song (by the Time Lords). Before we 
actually met up I was wondering if I'd recognise him at the rendezvous 
point in Columbus, but the amazing B5 crew jacket hanging in his rear 
car window kind of gave him away ;)

We got to the gaming con about 4pm (as Nick Caldwell later said 
"MapQuest lies!" especially when it comes to time estimates for travel, 
they must employ low flying aircraft or something). Got checked in 
pretty quick and went down to the rooms and began running into many 
people who I think of as friends even though I'd never met them before. 
Initially it did take me a while to put faces to names (except 
Laserlight who greeted me with "Are you behaving yourself?" and so 
immediately gave himself away... that and his pocket full of sheep...), 
so sorry if I seemed a little dazed at first. I think the only person 
who looked more dazed was TomB, who took a little while to figure out 
who the demented female with the funny accent was "what is this a 
stealth trip?". How on Earth did we manage to unintentionally keep a 
secret from TomB?!

First game I played was called Full Thrust Frag. The tone of the weekend

was set when I was asked what I was playing first up and I said "I'm 
getting fragged by Jerry" to which Aaron says with a straight face: 
"Happens to us all" (or something to that affect). Anyways FT Frag 
involved flying space ships around a board crowded with asteroids, 
nebulae and a black hole... everyone out to shoot everyone else down. It

was the second time (or thereabouts) I'd ever played FT cinematic and so

I felt a wee bit out of my depth. As the sides were wrapping (so if you 
flew off one side you came on the opposite side) I figured I would just 
aim for Oerjan level ludicrous speed, thinking if I couldn't figure out 
where I was going to end up then everyone else should be at a loss too 
right? Well good theory. Every time I ended up in a spot with a decent 
line of sight and close range I either ended up shooting last and so was

cactus before getting a shot or my fire control systems were already 
damaged ("You've got him now Beth he's only 2 inches to your front". 
"Yes it'd be perfect if I had any firecontrols working..."). I also 
managed to just miss flying into the black hole and eventually ended up 
running into an asteroid... "You need a 33 on a D6 to survive" (Jerry 
would've allowed you to chain 6s' on a D6 until you reached the magic 
number but of course I started with a 1). Jon Davis' son was a hot shot 
taking down a few guys with bucket loads of dice and that wonderfully 
innocent look of an 11 yr old in a blood frenzy. I was equally impressed

with Jerry Accord's persistence, he not only survived the entire game 
with his original ship (you were respawned if you died but lost any 
weapons upgrades you'd collected), but he continued trying to hit 
someone (anyone) with his plasma bolt launcher, usually to no avail as I

remember, but he never gave up ;)

I was mildly amused to find I was the only one who'd ever played Phalons

before, but I think I'll skip where that discussion inevitably headed. I

will commend Jerry on his enthusiasm though (I think his smile would've 
only got bigger if one of us had actually finally managed to score a 
nova cannon upgrade). Jerry kept things rolling quickly (18 turns in 3 
hours) and had an up beat word accompanying his death counts each turn. 
He started off very positive, "its close, its going fast, anyone could 
win...". Soon it became "There's still an hour, its not too late to make

a miraculous recovery Beth". Then "Beth is now negative". Finally "Vince

has 4, Channing and Grant have 3, Jerry, Doug and Jon are on two  and 
then there's Beth..." I did eventually claw may way back to 0 so not a 
complete disgrace ;)

I didn't even try to stay up with the hardy Canadians (as an Aussie I 
should hang my head in shame at giving in so easily, but I was zonked), 
but I did ring Derek to rub it in ;)
As for breakfast at Zimmermans, I wasn't even out of bed when the guys 
headed off, but thanks for the many invitations!

Next morning I played in Indy's DS2.5 game. I was told to move 
aggressively up the board, so I did. Died to a man...which I hope was 
aggressive enough. I completely failed to spot the observer hiding in 
the rocks by my hands though, cunning cam Indy ;)

I didn't get a chance to talk over the game with Indy afterwards (so 
much to do so little time!), I will note though that one of the most 
interesting aspects of ECC was seeing the different playing styles. You 
tend to forget when you're closeted away that not everyone plays the way

you do. With respect to the new rules and their speed of play we tend 
not to fight firefights to the bitter end down here and we use smoke a 
lot more to cover advances and try to get hull or turret down a lot more

so people stop firing sooner as the targets are harder to pursue. Which 
means we get through things faster here, that doesn't mean less 
bloodshed its just spread over more turns ;)

Having said that I think part of the speed was just people getting used 
to the new rules and also there to have fun more than anything, 
continuing to fire when they'd probably have been more cautious
normally.

Next there was the "cheese game". Given you have to try and be as over 
the top as possible I went in with my nuns, including my naked close 
combat specialist. I'd actually expected to be the only females on the 
board, I was pleasantly surprised to see I wasn't (though the others 
were either better dressed or simply putrefying). We had to pick 
initiative cards (order we'd do our turns through the game). You got to 
plonk down your squad when your card came up... Laserlight looked far 
too pleased with himself as people positively abandoned positions on his

side of the board, so putting pigheadedness before intelligence I 
decided I'd start next to him. So there I was, to my left the 
uberzombies and to my right sheep. Jedi sheep, lead by Darth Baadar... 
it could only go down hill from there right? There was the expected 
first couple of turns of dashing to pick up as much cheese as possible 
(as no targets in site except sheep who some how used evil mind tricks 
to convince me they were too cute to shot... "baa"... as an Aussie born 
on a sheep farm I don't know how they managed to pull that off I 
should've have seen them for the evil woolly bastards they really were 
from the get go). During this early maneuvering I toyed with the idea of

"borrowing" the air car in the midst of a tent camp (why walk when you 
can fly right?). As I approached the car the tents were ripped aside to 
reveal NAC power armour and walkers who were there to protect the 
embedded media.. Move away or die. I decided to move away, but the glint

in Mike Hudak's eye showed that from here on out his destiny was 
sealed... take down Brun Hilda or die trying. Meanwhile at the other end

of the board the ninjas used the force to steal cheese off the power 
armour, who then chased the ninjas all over the place in an effort to 
get it back. I have a soft spot for ninjas so used one of my cards to 
stop them getting gunned down, I really didn't expect the power armour 
to run screaming from combat at the very thought of a Ninja from that 
point on though. It was about this time I suddenly realised that I had 
the most cheese (a REAL problem given its unlikely I'd be able to return

to run the event next year). Doug the uberzombie did have some big 
cheese in his site until Mike ran it over in his tank while trying a hit

and run on Brun Hilda (3 or 4 times), but I did note the sheep had a 
decent amount up on that hilltop where they'd stopped to graze (and try 
a sniper shot on Brun Hilda inspiring the comment about Mike missing her

4 times with a tank but the sheep hitting her with a sniper rifle from 
half a mile away). I was planning on sneaking around the bottom of the 
hill and surprising the sheep (I'm an Aussie so I couldn't just stand by

and watch the woolly monsters roam free!) before rolling the cheese down

hill into anybody elses squad so I didn't win, but things got a little 
out of hand before I got the chance. At this point it also became clear 
that Greg Davis had become intent on making me nunless and was running 
around cheese to get better shots at me. At this point some one comments

"the nuns are engaged" to which Laserlight responds "they can't be 
engaged they're nuns...". I had no recourse but to call artillery down 
on Greg, unfortunately that only seemed to encourage him. At this point 
Mike dropped a card on the sheep (on cliff top) that said that if they 
failed their morale roll then they attack the nearest enemy (me at the 
bottom of the cliff). Laserlight hands me his morale dice just to ensure

he fails. I roll a 1 on cue. The sheep leap off the cliff ("baansai") on

to me. Most survive the landing and we end up in hand to hoof combat... 
(I can hardly see straight at this point of the game I'm laughing so 
hard). Mother superior and the naked nun go down to Darth Baader's light

saber and a few other nuns are levelled by blaaasters (ouch). I play my 
"bloody minded" card and thus win the combat. Half the sheep run away 
and I convince our wonderful game master Adrian I can keep the rest 
(after all Australia is said to ride on the sheeps back... which does 
not mean what Adrian thought it meant...). Laserlight points out I'm a 
dirty rotten sheep rustler... which cracks me up even worse as it just 
means I'm taking up my families ancestral career path (that past time 
having a lot to do with why I was born an Australian and not a Scot, my 
forebears being shipped out here in chains for being liberal with other 
people's sheep... and cash... amongst other things). The PA are still 
chasing the ninjas at this point who run off the board, that way no one 
gets it (you can feel the PAs pain!). Meanwhile Tony is quietly 
collecting more cheese and sneaking up on the PA to make sure they feel 
even more pain. Greg Davis keeps after the nuns, I don't know why "after

all what have they done to you? They only dropped some artillery on 
you...". I ended up running around the bottom of the hill the sheep were

back on the top of and as we were told the end was near I took my cheese

to the sheep and left again (oh and I returned my slave sheep, after all

Laserlight did ask nicely). As Mike had singularly failed to kill Brun 
Hilda at this point I tried to give it a shot too, but sadly I missed. 
Mike has my best wishes for the future on that one! The sheep ended up 
with 70+ cheese, Tony had 20 something and right on down to me with 0, 
cheese game disaster averted ;)

After dinner was the "Weight of Command" scenario. While I enjoyed all 
of the games I played in, this scenario was by far one of the best 
set-up and executed games I've ever been in. Very cool. I don't think 
I'd have had the patience to play commander so hats off to Indy and 
Damond for that, also I think the guys on A table did a great job of 
making special forces snatches look easy and clock work (at least from 
afar). Our table had more of what I expected from a scenario of 
TomB's... things quickly going from normal to absurd ;)

For a start I ended up in command. I'm not good at command. We also 
figured there must be a twist up TomBs sleeve so started making liberal 
interpretations of the orders fairly quickly. We sent in foot patrols 
instead of staying unseen and of course were almost immediately spotted.

Then everything just got silly. Fun silly. Aaron did an excellent job of

shooting the tires out of the car we thought had Mr K in it (so good he 
flips the car and it goes up in smoke). Then Aaron very professionally 
went to see what was in the car (and to try and figure out what was 
happening on the snatch table, but we couldn't see enough for us to 
recover for the fact we'd already unknowingly blown our mission one turn

into the game by making boom noises next to jumpy arms dealers). As 
Aaron had tried to cam his squad in to the local population by removing 
his blue helmets (something I though was a good idea too) he was 
mistaken for a local faction and ended up in a fire fight with the local

plods (at least that was the plods story... after all those bulging 
envelopes from the bad guys were obviously just late valentines 
cards...) before he could convince them he was on a UN operation..."oops

did we just let the cat out of the bag...". Aaron and Tom McCarthy both 
did a good job of warning the local populace and following the verbal 
warning steps, unfortunately the local populace doesn't speak UNese and 
they both came under fire. So Tom McC didn't really break his ROE (much)

by firing his SAW at the civilians firing at his APC (he had to wait a 
wee while yet to really shred the ROE)... Los's son Miles also found 
himself under local plod fire so I drove my APC in the way and told 
everyone to try and go round in APCs where possible - which had the side

bonus that the local thugs didn't try to shot us... they left that to 
the heavily armed and armoured mercenaries flowing out of the church). 
This was Tom McC's cue to toss the rules of engagement out the door and 
begin firing his fusion gun in town at the mercs (who were running for 
the river and their escape boats, which sunk after being melted by the 
fusion gun fire). Tom did thoughtfully use his fusion gun as a crowd 
control weapon only, suppressing but not killing anybody (he just seat a

city block on fire.... the fire brigade had run away with all the local 
police at this point so even the guys on the other table couldn't help 
but notice the blossoming red cotton growing on our side of the river). 
About now my unease of the armour of the mercs and my inherent distrust 
of TomB's scenario twists lead to the realisation I was going to be 
court martialled for the fusion fire anyway so I might as well do 
likewise. Fine time to start rolling high and wipe everybody out... 
About this time C3-PO and R2D2 wander out of the church (and I though it

couldn't get weirder) and tell me there is a ticking nuke. They are 
singularly unhelpful when my detachment asks them to go back and see how

many seconds are left on the clock ("You just asked a civilian to go 
back in there?" Well there were droids!). About now reinforcements roll 
up but we figure they were crap troops who wouldn't help so they just 
got added to the list to be evacuated through the other board (I have no

idea why it had to be the other board other than to ensure extra chaos 
but who was I to start questioning orders... ok I had ignored or 
"creatively interpreted" every other order so far, but...). I never want

to try an organise an evacuation of APCs again all they do is create 
parking hassles, though apparently they were quite useful in clearing 
the road block on the other board, by running over it I believe. About 
now I have a discussion about minimizing damage with my guys just as our

commanders fly past in a VTOL whispering we should maximise it instead
;)

After circling the other board to no avail for a while the VTOL comes 
back to us and does a fast drop of PA down ropes on the heads of the 
still fleeing mercs and there is a short but bloody close combat 
(particularly for my PA team as I got my 1s back at this point). We 
interrogate (nice and gently) the prisoners who do good Shultz 
impressions ("I know nozink!") and point us in the direction of the big 
bosses in the church. We get the weapons free clearance (see we knew 
command would eventually see it our way) and Tom McC decides he'd better

go hack the log time stamps and follow the evac orders so he 
sacrificially picks up the wounded and skeedadles at this point (belting

past one and all on the other board... I had expected him to stop and 
lend a warm fusion powered hand over there too but he masterfully 
resisted the urge).  I'm not sure exactly when (I have the impression it

was before Tom left) we accidently killed the special forces UN liaison 
officer who can speak the local language (oops... Los had stressed we 
weren't supposed to let that happen... oh well this far into the game 
not much else could go wrong... could it?). Around now we find out we're

not allowed to give an amnesty (doesn't mean we can't still offer one 
and shot them when they stick their heads up though right?) and that the

commander is on his way in a VTOL to take charge once we have the site 
secured... so we'd better go secure the site... that is what he wanted 
right (well may be not, but that's what we thought he wanted... we also 
decided we'd better wave him off... little did we know the arms dealer 
probably would've handed the codes over to someone of that rank... at 
least the fleeing VTOL did draw the observation from the other board 
that "he must have something important to do", like save his butt). 
Never let it be said that Aaron is not one smart and cunning man, he 
always had some sharp suggestion, not the least of which was to use his 
sensors to look through the floor (where there are many dots all 
pointing weapons at the door to the staircase and "about 2 places the 
nuke can be"... "how do you have about 2 places TomB?"). While my 
command squad tries to convince the arms dealers I'm really sincere 
about that amnesty the PA blow through the floor in a circle (facing 
out) and capture the dealers after masterfully fighting off their attack

dog. Having had no success with the last interrogation and with about 30

secs on the nuke clock we get a little over enthusiastic in the prisoner

questioning department and shred the arms dealer who had the deactivate 
code (why do I roll 12 now?!). Next guy up  to the plate blabs that the 
XO was the only other guy with the code... we get a collective sick 
feeling about the merc we killed earlier in hand-to-hand. Oops. Aaron 
becomes the UN hero of the day and leaps into action, volunteering to 
stay behind and disarm it physically. He rips out some wires while we 
all head for cover in the local sewer (the power armour should survive 
long enough to be dug out from the rubble later right?). Unfortunately 
the wires were only for the countdown clock (at this point the other 
table is still calmly taking out Mr K... you have to admire their 
calm... so Tomb goes super cinematic in the seconds to explode 
countdown). My command squad is then told that school children have come

to visit the church yard, oh well we wouldn't have survived a collapsing

sewer in battledress anyway, so off and out to get the kids... oh wait a

minute the liaison officer who can speak the local lingo is dead, ok 
"here kiddy kiddy kid I have a nice candy bar for you...". I must have 
had an honest face as they did eventually follow me... well all apart 
from this one precocious brat, but we developed selective deafness and 
left him behind - he was fine he hot wired the school bus. Nice 
neighbourhood. By this time Aaron takes the nuke apart and feels the 
warm glow of pure handwavium (or unobtainum or whatever it was), he 
needs a lead box to put it in (like the one he just tore apart...). Hey 
wait this a church, there has to be a crypt.... no but there is a 
sewer... "Hi guys fancy meeting you here". PA come flying out of the 
sewer like rats with wings and dive into the river (to minimise 
contamination). We can't take the prisoners with us though they'd 
drown... "Prisoners, what prisoners, they're just 3 guys out for a walk,

free as a bird, on the river bank...". TomB starts suggesting Aaron may 
not live to tell his tale so Aaron (Lord of quick thinking) runs his 
finger along the wall so people can follow his trail Hansel and Gretel 
style. As a reward TomB lets him live. His squad mates however will only

shake his hand after he has been in hazmat for about 6 months and so 
tell him to wait for his pick up on the far side of the table from them 
(and then the command/hazmat add insult to injury by not even allowing 
him inside the pick up chopper, he has to hang on to the outside!). This

AAR in no way does justice to the experience! It was a helluva a lot of 
fun. One of the best bits being the briefings before and after. Nice 
touch. I particularly liked Magic's observation about the weird 
juxtaposition of command, in one ear he is relaying reports about us 
finding a ticking WMD and in the other he is forwarding a notice that 
the people in the disco are shooting at the snatch squad with pistols.

I didn't even think about trying to stay up after that lot!

Last game was Sunday morning and 15mm DS. The playing on the floor 
really did look like boys with their toys, but that just added to the 
fun. I copped out and opted to play the artillery up the back so as to 
ensure I wouldn't walk on anything and feel awful. We started off pretty

abysmally (as you'd expect against and ogre with a happy face painted on

its tower!). We did eventually swing the tide by cunningly luring it 
into destroying a 3rd of our forces with missiles and then getting it to

hide in the forest long enough for our infantry to do the IVAR 
equivalent of 'its a 1-in-a-million shot, so of course its comes off'. 
We didn't want the ogre to get too down hearted at our masterful tactics

though so we created a tank parking lot behind it so it could feel the 
self esteem lifting feeling of running over 80% of our forces... we 
secretly knew we'd get him with our "I'll throw myself under your tank 
so my crushed body will gum up your works" trick. John decided our 
devious cruelty was completely unbounded when we started asking him to 
pull all the chits (even when we had done hits on him). The tank side 
did eventually win out... eventually... boy do I wish they'd got that 
mushroom cloud painted up in time (mind you that would've just been 
extra reason for TomB to ensure the UN failed to save the day the night 
before!).

Then goodbyes all round (resisting the urge to go past the dealers 
again, as it was I'd had to sit on my suitcase to get it shut!).

Nick Caldwell kindly drove me back to Washington and let me stay the 
night (connections to fly out that night being impossible to make) 
before taking me to the Smithsonian to see the shuttle before 
farewelling me in mid-snow storm with the words "I hope I don't see you 
again tonight" ;)

At last I was on the home stretch, anticipating the look on the kids 
faces when they saw the cool stuff I had form them... or so I thought.

Beth gets to security with bulging bag and of course gets dragged out 
for the explosives and bag search.
Q. What is that?
A. My note book (filled with oceanography equations)

Q. What is that?
A. Physics textbook (newly bought on my travels)

Q. What is your job?
A. Scientist (having found that explaining ecomathematician is a hard 
call when tired an in a long line)

Q. What are these metal bits
A. Spaceship parts.

Q. You work for NASA or you just exporting rocket components?! (being an

amateur rocket builder Beth knows that is VERY illegal and suddenly 
realises how much trouble she may be in if she can't get this sorted 
quickly).
A. Oh no, toy space ships

Raised eyebrows and "yeah right" looks before much conferring off to the

side. Thankfully at that point another guard comes up, pokes around and 
looks up with a big smile saying "shes a geek not a threat". Thank 
heavens! I thought I was going to get the latex JP had missed out on!

I did eventually arrive home in one piece and the kids (including the 
big bearded one) loved the prizes and toys I brought home with me.

Sorry to ramble so long, but there was just so much packed into those 
few short days (I've missed out a heap!).

Oh and happy birthday Adrian!

Have fun and thanks for a superb time!

Beth