[GZG] ECC-X AAR
From: "Laserlight" <laserlight@v...>
Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 23:22:35 -0500
Subject: [GZG] ECC-X AAR
Back from Dogsled ECC. There was snow on the ground in Lancaster but the
streets has been screaped and I didn't have any trouble. Of course, I
came
from Virginia Beach; I gather some of the other routes had delays of an
extra hour or so, and our crowd seemed a bit less crowded than usual.
Friday night was Aaron Newman's game in The Matrix, with Agents,
Hackers
and Programs skulking around city streets, trying to locate their
targets
and take them out without attracting hostile attention. That was the
briefing that *I* got, anyway. Given the number of vehicle highjackings,
vehicle rammings, rocket explosions, and long bursts of wildly
uncontrolled
fire, it's possible other people didn't get the same briefing.
I had a group of rogue programs, including the boss, two assistants,
and
two vampire soldiers. About halfway through the second turn--about the
time
that my two soldiers died, one from an exploding tanker truck and the
other
from a rocket launcher hit--I realized that subtle and clever play was
not
going to be a winning strategy. I quicklly wrote off any hope of
achieving
my victory conditions and tried to achieve an ignominious retreat. It
didn't
work. Martin's Hacker leader took a sword to my leader, hacking me quite
easily. The only thing left for my two surviving assistants to do was to
grovel at the police and beg for protection. Fortunately TomB was
playing
the police and didn't shoot me out of hand, although that may have been
because he didn't want to get blood on his doughnut. The most amusing
incident was the firefight held where both sides, and an innocent
bystander,
were all in the same police car.
Friday night's late night gaming was Nuclear Dud. I don't think that was
the
actual title but it should have been. The Canadians gleefully destroyed
each
other, except for Doug who, through a series of mishaps, more or less
managed to destroy himself. Mike Hudak and I, as the survivors, called
for a
mutual non-aggression pact around 3:00 am.
Saturday morning was a Cine-FMA-Skirmish game, set in the Western town
of
Plaindealing and run by the Incomparable Stuart Murray. Each player got
one
main character, a sidekick and a group of followers--in my case, Rev
Jedidiah Quesenberry, Deacon Jankins, and the Sunday School Teachers.
The
main character, instead of merely being "Regular 1" or "Veteran 2" and
using
that for everything, had separate characteristics for Shootin,
Wrasslin',
Figurin' (for reaction tests, spotting, etc), Orneryness (armor), and
Health (number of wounds he could take). You could also pick a personal
advantage (in my case, Persuasiveness) and a disadvantage (Foolishly
Brave).
The scenario called for the Townspeople, led by my preacher and TomB's
sheriff, to try to keep the peace; the miners to protect the union
paychest
and released the unjustly-jailed union leader; the evil boss and his
company
men to steal the miners' paychest; and the hired desperadoes to kill,
steal
and terrorize. The scenario was much too interesting to give a full
replay
here, but some of the highlights were: the Sunday School teachers close
assaults a gang of desperados an dragging them off to the church to
repent;
thugs tossing dynamite, or in one case dropping dynamite with loud and
fatal
results; the stagecoach careening wildly through the crowd, with people
diving out of the way to escape; the Jilted Bride chasing after her
Faithless Groom; and last but certainly not least, my telling the Man In
Black (With A Terrible Secret) that the company boss knew that the MIB's
name was Sue (how did he know? I'd told the boss, although I didn't
mention
that to the MIB) and then telling the MIB that "I don't think he boss
hass
told anyone else...yet...."--and the MIB went berserk and tried to kill
the
company boss to keep his secret from getting out (he tried to kill me
first
but the Lord was protecting me--I was hit three times but was too Ornery
to
be hurt).
It was a fun and interesting game, with a really great idea on cinematic
game mechanics.
Saturday afternoon was Carnage con Queso, run by me. We didn't have as
many
players as I would have liked and the player-on-player combat was
lacking,
but Adrian, abetted by Doug Schavo, did manage to unseal the Temple of
Shangri-Baa, which caused the image of an Elder God to appear--the image
being a photo of Jon Tuffley from a couple fo ECC's ago; Indy had
printed
out the pic and offered it, and I'd applied it to the top of a mastaba
(truncated step pyramid), which explains some of the quotes you'll see.
The
appearance of the Tuffley, plus some poking by players, led to the
Opening
of the Gate, the manifestation of Hastur-lambkin, and hundreds of sheep
attacking and devouring most of the characters. Adrian's squad wasn't
devoured, exactly, because his girls had all jumped into the sacrificial
well in a vain but amusing attempt to placate Hastur-lambkin; he did
manage
to get R2D2 and C3PO off the board, though. Ben Izenberg, age 6, nearly
won,
but with a couple of last-second cards, Doug Schavo slipped past him and
took first place. Kudos to John Lerchey, who provided Sheep Warning
Decals
as prizes (and I think also provided the Sunday morning bagels, yum!)
Saturday night was Isengard's Plan B, in which Saruman's skiled,
professional troops intecepted a rabble of whiny elves (they claim it
was a
bard singing) in the forest of Mirkwood. We attempted to rescue the Two
Ring
from the spiteful and ethnically-intolerant Galadriel. Elvish archery
was
surprisingly ineffective, but their close combat abilities were
generally
pretty good. Our right flank got off to a slow start as Uruk-Frock
apparently chanted "Bud for the Bud God!", blowing four activation rolls
with four 1's; fortunately he got a Yuengling and his theology and die
rolls
improved greatly. One orc regular on the far right took on five elvish
veterans, and won (well, against four of them; he won the Orctorian
Order,
posthumously), and Joel's troll lumbered into the elvish ruins and
managed,
after a hard-fought melee, to take down the squad of elvish defenders.
The
elvish dice generally alternated between bad and horrible, and the
orcish
berserkers' abilitry to ignore suppresseion was generally agreed to be
overpowered; however, despite these disadvantages, the battle was
undecided
Saturday late gaming was Carcassone (and watching Terminator from the
other
side of the room), which lasted till about 3am.
I somehow maanged to regain functionality--"consciouslness" might be
over-generous--in time to make it to Jerry's Full Sail game, set in 1810
off
Portugal. Our valiant French raiders attempted to intercept the British
convoy and capture Wellington's paychest. We managed the "intercept"
part
quite nicely, but the "capture" part was beyond us. Two of my three
ships
exploded, thanks largely to the shooting of Jon "Teske Field" Davis,
whose
dinghy outshot my battleship. Aaro Newman's American squadron did a
creditable job of trying to swipe the paychest for himself, but at the
end
of the day, it looked like an English victory. Jerry is doing a god job
making Full Sail into something which is reasonably realistic while
still
being fun and quick. Good job!
Wonderful seeing the regulars again, and the Con Committee went to extra
work arranging special 10th Anniversary shirts, mugs, minis (everyone
got a
Delafield battlecruiser, sculpted by Joel Frock), and presentations.
Great
job, fun time, and I'm looking forward to next year. And sleep....zzzz
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