[GZG] [ECC XIV] AAR - Definitely not abridged version

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======
0600 - Reveille
0753 - left Ottawa
0950 - Pickup Doug S. in Ottawa
1045 - Penetrate US Border Defenses
1630 - After a nice lunch and a snowy drive down I-81 (14 cars in the
ditch,
2-3 more smashed up on the road, but we had no problem - being Canadian
and
having Snow Tires), arrived at Hampton Inn, Owego
1730 - Arrived at Owego Treadway convention room
1900 - Began playing in the 'Terminators kill the Tech Com humans'
scenario
2245 - John Connor admits that he isn't getting inside the Skynet
bunker.
Humans did manage to destroy 2 tracked HKs and 3 airborne HKs, but the
infantry Terms were still okay as were the mini HKs and one annoyingly
lucky
tracke HK that spent the whole game pounding the daylights out of a
single
human squad (needless to say, there were no survivors).

Once the Humans lost their 'technicals' (trucks with plasma guns or
missiles) and discovered their sapper teams were not going to carry the
day,
they were pretty much down to infantry. Not much chance to take down the
last HK and not enough force to push for the bunker.

Good forward defense from the Terminators! Excellent tactics and no
needless
waste of infantry when their armour could get the job done.

2300 - Ticket to Ride, beer, and scotch. I clearly had mine punched by a
certain French-Canadian. Carl and Doug were tied on points, but Carl had
completed more routes.

Saturday
======
0900 - Mark Kinsey's Brushfire War series continues with South Africans
and
the first outing of the Ratel-90 in an attack on a SWAPO camp in Angola.
SWAPO has blinds with some dummies (we saw all of their units, 1/4 of
the
dummies only...) and green troops with a few Recoilless Rifles. They
have a
kind of ditch (not a proper trench) to fight from. SA has better troops,
with 2 Eland armoured cars with 90mm guns, some Ratel-90s with infantry,
and
some Ratel-20s with infantry.

The Ratels came on on turn 3 and maybe turn 5 in waves from the bush. In
turn 3, the Ratels engaged, but lucky SWAPO fire cooked two Ratel-90s
and
two infantry squads. This meant we (SA) had to get all 6 remaining
Ratels
and squads off for a major victory. I figured we were bollixed already
but
didn't let on.

>From the SWAPO perspective, the game was one three and a half hour
hammering. Air strikes, a chopper they can only drive off with lots of
luck,
armoured cars their AKs can't dent and their AT can only if the greens
are
having a good day.... they lost squad after squad to the 90mms, 20mms,
and
even at one point a squad being overrun by a vehicle assault using both
the
90mm and the MAG LMGs. To the SWAPO guys, it just seemed like lose,
lose,
lose.

They immobilized a 3rd Ratel and I knew we were in danger of losing the
game
and they cooked a 4th with its infantry after Steve decided to try the
'drive through without stopping option'. In Steve's defense, that did
get
three Ratels with infantry off the board. We did smash or break 12
squads of
greens, but our losses were unacceptable and SWAPO won a minor victory
(which they didn't find too consoling given their feeling all game they
were
getting bludgeoned).

1400 - Damond's Predator game. Jon Davis, Jerry Accord, Steve Barosi and
I
took turns beating up ont he very good-sportsmanlike VC victim (Derek
Rogillio - thanks for being such a darn good sport, Derek).

The usually sober and honourable Davis had a moment of consumate greed
and
stole a scule from Jerry (or was it Steve?) and was duly repudiated by
his
Brethren until he contritely gave it back.

I mocked the three other Predators for depending on the crutch of the
invisibility screen. I used mine for approximately 1/2 a round in the
entire
game, fighting visibly. I also never used my Plasma Cannon, another
crutch
for the weak. (Both were shot off my armour at some point in the fight,
but
I hadn't been using them before that).

The game saw some sweet moves and some funny ones. Jerry's double 1 led
to
an electrical short in his plasma cannon. Steve's zeal led him to smash
his
spear through the back of a skull he was trying to collect (hence us
deciding he was the Junior Hunter just learning the trade - aka FNG).

I jumped down in the middle of 4 VCs, slammed two together (#3 was fast
at
moving out from between). When #1 and #2 were stunned, I impaled them on
the
same spear and then grabbed #3 by the ankle to spin into #4 as a club
(and
#4 got missed because #3 continued to resist, even when I grabbed each
leg
and tried to wishbone him).

Mr. Davis killed a fair few with his cannon, before deciding to move in.
Steve absorbed some bullets. Then it was on to the second phase.

The game had two phases: Predators attack camp full of green VC. Then,
after
collecting those skulls, while we ("Blunt Claw" Accord, "FNG" Barosi,
and I)
were censuring "Broken Spear" Davis (he broke his spear and lost his
plasma
cannon), Reg VC led by elite leaders came in armed for bear. Then it was
a
real fight.

The VC moved and fought well. They fought Jerry to a standstill,
wounding
him twice and forcing him to resort to a Med-pack. His HTH, even when it
went well with the dice, was deadlock (or very slow progress).

Steve also took a second wound and had to medpack it. He actually got
into a
1 on 4 fight with 4 VC regulars in HTH, but whittled them down one at a
time, finishing all 4.

Jon Davis, despite a fight on the trail in which he broke his spear,
used it
to stab one in the stomach, then came across the throat with his wrist
blades, severing the head. This after jumping on a pair of them, landing
on
one and standing on his chest while skewering the other. Some good
moves,
only slightly tainted by his previous klepto behaviour.(tsk, tsk) Give
credit where credit is due, he did kill one one of the VC elites with
just
his wrist blades and halitosis.

When the second wave of VC were moving in, I climbed to the top of a
tree
visibly, stood out, and let out a huge yell, to let every VC know where
I
was. I wanted them all to come to me. I got (in the end) the attention
of
about 5 or 6 (4 full time, 2 dabblers). They started shooting at me, so
I
jumped on one, speared him, and jumped back into the tree to take his
skull
(using him as body armour versus about 12 bursts of fire from other VC).
I
hung his body in the tree so that I could rejoin the fight, but the fire
was
intense enough I faked a fall from the tree as if hit (cunning is the
old
hunter....). When they came to see, I "Jean Claude Van Dam'd it" -
flipped
to my feet and leaped at them. The elite leader was a tough go. I went
back
and forth with him until I realized I wanted to throttle him, and so I
worked on that plan while his two assistants tried to melee or shoot me
(varying by moment). Eventually, very satisfyingly, I crushed his
windpipe.
I then turned and gutted one of the remaining Reg VC fighting me.

About that time, Steve finished his 4th, and in a comradely gesture,
tried
to Bogart one of my kills by firing into melee (yes, he could have shot
me).
I cinematically turned, gave him the predator equivalent of "WTF!???!!!
FIGHTING HERE!!!!" and turned around and killed the last guy. (New
Guys....
what can you do with them? tsk, tsk).

In the end, it was 10 skulls to me, 9 to Jon and I think 7 and 7 for
Jerry
and Steve. Most importantly, all of us (except poor Derek) had an
awesome
game experience. Damond is to be commended for putting on a scenic, fun
game
that used a modified FMA/SG mechanic that well suited the Predator feel.

I'm happy I won, but I was far happier it was a great game.

1830 - A very surreal journey into 'downtown' Owego, complete with a bar
we
couldn't get seats in, another restuarant we couldn't hear ourselves
think
in so didn't stay, and a nice enough dinner/pizza joint where the staff
were
friendly and attentive and the food was decent enough. Strange journey.

1930 - Star Wars: Capture Bei-kun! as hosted by Jerry and participated
in by
Doug S (Senatorial Guard, SPA forces, and Government Troops), Mark
Kinsey
and Derek Rogillio (Sith badass, Commando Bots, Bounty Hunters, and
seperatist locals (plus turncoats)), and me (Ithorian Jedi Master Uamaw
Fonwim (Starlight) and his padawan Lanik Mar, and a unit of government
troops, and the Senator's Bodyguards).

Senator Bei-kun (Bacon) was trapped in a building with his loyal
bodyguard,
some senatorial guard, and some local loyalists. The Sith had setup and
ambush, but warning was given a bit early and the Senator and his team
have
time to make a plan to get to one of two pads, calling a Clone Gunship
in
for a rescue dust-off for the Senator.

The first move of the game was the Sith hero crashing through a third
storey
window and dropping onto a platform. Snazzy beginning. Typical Sith
display
of power. (*grin*)

The Senatorial Guard and the local loyalists sally forth to try to
establish
blocking positions to preclude being cut-off from a landing pad. The
padawan
goes out to oversee while the Jedi Master and the bodyguard team remain
with
the Senator.

Suddenly, from under the platform, Commando droids swarm! And a bunch of
locals start heading for the loyalists. ROE on both sides limits who can
fire at what before particular actions occur.

As initial shots are exchanged over several fountains and forces pile up
on
either side of a small raised bridge area, the time for action arrives.
The
Jedi Master force-speeds himself down and out of the building, winning
the
initiative on the succeeding round and force-jumping over the
intervening
bridge structure into the very middle of a unit of commando droids. A
short
while later, a slightly winded Jedi Master (one angry tree-loving
Ithorian
stuck in a city) stands among the ruins of 7 or 8 commando droids.

The Sith, seeing his change, leaps a huge distance to engage the
Ithorian.
The exchange is brief, but the Ithorian proves his skill. The Sith is
left
with the choice of taking a lightsabering or evading and chooses
discretion,
leaping away to catch his breath. The Ithorian calls for some friendly
forces to advance and a team of Senatorial Guard join him. He tries hard
not
to think of them as meat shields, even though he understands the
necessity.

Meanwhile, the locals blast at each other to varying degrees of success.
The
padawan, still stuck with an ROE that precludes attacking some of the
locals, attacks the one squad she can attack. A force jump, some
lightsaber
flashes, and one squad of locals is spare parts. Perhaps unfortunately,
the
padawan LIKES it.

The Sith tries a flanking move, while his commando droids (unit 2)
swarms
the Senatorial Guard protecting the Ithorian. Some local troopers with
blasters niavely try to stop the Sith with predictable consequences. It
turns out that a chain link fence won't stop a lightsaber.

Communications during this period are sporadic. The Sith blame loyalist
jamming, the loyalists blame Sith treachery.

The padawan, infected with a tad bit of bloodlust (and knowing the
Ithorian
is tired and needs protected), leaps into a formation of commando
droids.
Shortly they too are good only for electronics spares and she exploits
into
a third unit (type I forget), cutting them into small, cauterized
chunks.
Her Ithorian Master will have to have a talk with her about her
ferocious
abandonment in these fights; Easy and attractive is the dark side,
faster
and allegedly they have cookies.

The Sith, recognizing the peril his plan is experiencing, due to the
applied
violence of Jedi skills, appears to be about to take out some more
locals,
but Master Starlight is not about to let that happen, even if he is
tired
himself. Catching his breath briefly, he leaps under an overhead bridge
to
engage the Sith in the dark shadows. Lightsabers flash... and the with
falls. If the Sith had been allowed to move away, he may have reached
the
Senator, whose only defense was the bodyguard. Having seen how nasty
lightsabers are versus non-Jedi.... that would have probably spelled the
end
for the Senator. The tired Ithorian had no choice.... and it worked out.
The
Will of the Force was clear.

Seeing their leader brought low and recognizing the returning strength
of
the two Jedi, and wisely wishing not to become further spare parts, the
remaining Seperatists gracefully surrendered.

Jerry surprised his players with great swag! He had some signed pics of
Boba
Fett and another hot SW female signed by the artist, he had a big poster
of
Chewie signed by Peter Mayhew, and some signed character cards from his
(brother in law?) who is a Sound Editor for Skywalker Sound and who does
some voice acting for Clone Wars. Wow! That was way above and beyond!

I felt sorry for Mark and Derek (it could have went the other way and
our
having both the padawan and the master meant the Sith not going to be
able
to protect his softer units from both at once). They were good sports
though
and I felt they genuinely came close to getting to the Senator (one good
move action and they might have been at him). The lightsaber battles
were
fierce and could have went either way and one bunch of droids did
slaughter
a Senatorial Guard unit.

2300 - Contraband - the smuggling card game that never ended. Doug won
and
has declared he will never play that game again.

Sunday:
0900 - Indy's obviously Traveller-inspired L5 Incident. The L-5
architecture
strangely resembed several decks of an Azhanti High Lightning class
Frontier
Cruiser from Traveller (minus, I was sadly told, the spinal mounts).

The Station had jumped away, leaving a bunch of crew trying to sort
themselves out and get to a shuttle from various decks. And then there
were
the large walking canine critters. They seemed to want to play fetch or
engage in ceremonial butt-sniffing or something. The Station crew were a
bit
short on scooby snacks or freezer-dried kosher bacon bars. The encounter
was
mystifying to both groups. There was some exchange of fancy shiny stones
and
lava lamps and perhaps the station was sold - it depends on who you talk
to.

The only combat was a dominance fight between the Varg...err.... canine
indigenous population of the planet the station arrived in orbit of.
There
was a lot of preperation for combat (Aaron set more overwatch counters
than
the rest combined) but not much shooting. I think the only other
shooting
incident was the XO blowing out a ceiling panel because someone had let
a
dog loose on his command deck without a leash or his by-God-say-so. He
wiped
the computer of the jump drive info (which the engineer had secured in
his
laptop apparently) and the shuttle got away, accidentally depressurizing
the
now computer-lobotomized and powered-down station.

I'm not sure anyone died. I'm not sure if there were successful
negotiations. I am sure Michelle Tuffley was a) not much of a scientist
(couldn't help with a programming problem), b) not good at getting
coffee
(kept finding empty dummy counters), and c) destroyed Guildenstern
property
(blew up a console on the bridge). I have no explanation for
Guildenstern
recruiting scientists who can't operate a mouse and whose specialties
have
nothing to do with physics, computers, or jump drive. I think there was
some
sort of nepotism going on or we subcontracted from Crackwater
Consulting.
(The science rolls were all quality related meaning perversely that the
green scientists were worse than the orange and blue security and
command
types... that needs some work Mark.... our scientists couldn't even find
gear in the storage lockers!)

All that makes it sound like it wasn't fun. It was actually a scream. We
all
appeared to have great fun, although it was funny to see Doug use
ladders
and automatic Iris values to cross 5 decks in one activation while
Aaron's
team took approximately 7 activations to take the elevator the same
distance.(I commented that it was definitely NOT a TURBO-lift).

I have no idea if the Vargr players understood my info and I know I only
got
part of what they were trying to communicate. I did resist my urge to
shoot
them several times :-)

The game was fun and was just the sort of good ending for a Sunday
morning.

An uneventful drive home later (a no-latex exfil from the USA) and
another
ECC was in the books. Good times, good friends, and good laughs.

Damond, Jerry, Mark K., Indy, and Mike, thanks for running the Games.
Derek,
I'm sorry your weekend consisted of bouts of dying interrupted by bouts
of
getting killed. You were a great sport and I'm sure you'll have good
karma
sometime to counterbalance that.

Jon, Jerry, Mark: Thanks for organizing again. Another good year.

Tom B
Ottawa, ON
("Terse? I can be terse. I was laconic once in flight school.")

-- 
Solitudinem fecerunt, pacem appelunt
-- Publius Cornelius Tacitus (from the book Agricola, attributed to a
speech
from Calgacus)