GZG ECC XIX - AAR (long!!)

Ground Zero Games East Coast Convention XIX – April 1-3, 2016

[Note: This covers pretty much the entire weekend convention, so it
is…long. Read at your own peril :-D ]

It’s been 19 years since Jon Davis and I first conspired to organize a
small gathering of folks who like to play GZG rules (Full Thrust,
StarGrunt, Dirtside, etc). We weren’t interested in the  large
multi-hundred to multi-thousand person conventions, where a myriad of
games
were played, and GZG games were lost in the noise. We were interested in
a
like-minded set of folks who wanted to play GZG games and not be
distracted
by other things.

Over 19 years times and outlooks can change, and the GZG ECCs opened up
to
be inclusive of other game systems, to the benefit of the convention. 19
years, and the convention is still going strong, albeit still small
(20-30
persons on average attend). We’d like a bit more, but, we don’t want
to
become the multi-hundred large convention either. It’s nice to be able
to
know everyone’s name at the con, for there to be few, if any,
strangers
amongst the group. And we’re small enough that when new folks do come
to
attend, they are welcomed with open arms, rather than the “register
here,
go find a game, play and have fun, then go home” feel that larger,
less
personable cons seem to exude. It’s like…we’re a family of sorts.

So, here we are, 19 years later, and we have moved the con from February
to
March/April in hopes of having better weather, so people would not be
hampered dealing with blizzards and ice and other rotten winter
conditions
that have prevented more than a few folks from being able to attend on
some
years.

This year would be my shortest time attending the con. Typically I come
Friday afternoon, and stay through Sunday afternoon when all is said and
done. This year, however, with so many other irons in the fire (among
them
working on a new starship combat game system called Emerging Suns, and
working on updating my climbing guidebook to Maryland), I would find
myself
having to leave early on Sunday. But that still gave me Friday evening,
and
all day Saturday, to just be at the con. Whether or not I got to play
(which I rarely do, given how busy I am with everything else during the
con) was moot. I was enjoying the comaraderie and company of friends
whom I
only get to see once a year.

This year we had a handful of new faces. Among them was Ken Burnside of
Ad
Astra Games, who came as a vendor, and also was demoing his 3D starship
combat game Squadron Strike and playtesting his generic campaign game,
Stars At War. Also attending were Ben and Nathan Bentley from Wash,
D.C.,
who were demoing their new game, Silent Fury, which will be published
through Ad Astra Games.  Plus a few others whom I really didn’t get to
meet, what with everything else going on.

Friday evening Noam Izenberg was hosting a scenario for our game of
Emerging Suns: Starship Combat Manual (ESCOM for short). His scenario,
“Eye
of Orcus”, is becoming our showcase testpiece for illustrating
boarding
action combat in ESCOM. He had a full table of players, and while the
humans ended up mopping the floor with the alien Udrenu, everyone seemed
to
have a great time. My role was to be an assistant to Noam should the
players need someone else to consult for rules questions, but after
Noam’s
masterful explanation of how the game played, no one really needed me to
be
there, which freed me up to do prize distribution to the various games
being played (including a pick-up game of Tomorrow’s War), shoot
photos,
and socialize a bit. And sit in on the Squadron Strike demo (which I
wanted
to do anyway, since I had picked up a copy of it from Ken that evening).
We
did get some additional feedback thoughts from the players on a few
things,
including some considerations on tweaks to be possibly made to the
boarding
action combat.

Ken had warned me a couple months back that Squadron Strike is pretty
much
on the other end of the complexity scale from Full Thrust, and he was
very
right. Also, since I don’t do higher level math in my head like Ken
can,
I’d probably not play this during a convention when I am
time-constrained,
but rather at home or at a game shop with friends when I have more time
to
relax about it. (but not distracted with other stuff – okay, so maybe
just
at home instead of the game shop, knowing how the “oooo shiney!”
distractions can pull players away, even when they are fully engaged in
a
game).

The other thing I wanted to see in action was Stars At War, since Ken
wants
Noam and I to work up hooks to it for ESCOM. I’ve read the SAW rules a
few
times, but reading rules and seeing something in action are sometimes
two
very different beasts, and this was no exception. I picked up a lot from
just talking with Ken and watching the intermittent turns being played
over
the weekend vs. sitting at home trying to read the rules. Now I’m on
the
hook to work up the ESCOM links to SAW, but I’m actually looking
forward to
seeing what I can come up with for him.

Back to the con! There were several other games being played Friday
evening: Bolt Action, StarGrunt (based in the StarGate universe, and
devolved into a Cinegrunt game very quickly, allowing some science types
to
b!tch-slap some attacking aliens to goo), and Tomorrow’s War (giant
mechs
vs infantry and tanks!). They all looked fun, and all were pretty full
with
players.

Saturday came all too quickly after the late night Friday, and Jon
Davis,
his son Greg, and I hiked up to the nearby hole-in-the-wall diner for
breakfast. It was a chilly but pleasant morning that promised to be a
nice
day, despite the forecasted threats of rain-to-snow said to be coming
that
afternoon/evening. After breakfast, back to the convention room!

Bunch of games being run this morning: Tomorrow’s War (nice to see
multiple
instances of this game being played, even if I didn’t get in on any of
them), Gruntz, Pulp Alley, and an actual Full Thrust game! This latter
pitting a fleet of Klingons D7s against a fleet of Federation heavy
cruisers. All games were pretty full up from what I could tell. I did my
usual prize distribution thing to the various games being run, then
bounced
between tables taking photos and chatting with Ken about Stars At War.
Then
I got pulled into the Full Thrust game, as Noam was running four ships,
covering for someone who hadn’t shown up yet (everyone else was
running two
ships), so I got to get in on the game with two Klingon ships
(ironically,
Noam would soon be pulled away to resolve a tactical battle using Full
Thrust for the Stars At War game, and I would end up running his ships
in
addition to my own :-D ).

Now the Klingons were armed with Beam-2s (phasers) and Grazer-1s
(nominally
disruptors). The Feds with Beam-2s (phasers) and pulse torpedoes (photon
torps). Those who know me historically from Full Thrust know I can’t
hit
the broad side of a barn with p-torps. Moreso than most any other game
where rolling high is good, low is bad, in FT I often roll low. When it
comes to p-torps, I can count on my hands the number of times I’ve
actually
HIT with them in the past 20 years. (even at point blank range, where
you
only miss on a ‘1’, I will invariably roll that ‘1’). Now
grazers…I haven’t
really played much with grazers since they were in playtest mode, and
even
then my involvement was minimal short of just exercising the mechanic.
Today I would get the opportunity to fire some grazers.

Only, ‘today’ came right quicker than I thought, as we finished the
movement phase of the turn I joined the game, there were Fed starships
RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!! Oh, and though we (the Klingons) lost initiative,
when it came to us (after I survived against the first pitiful salvo
from
one of the Fed cruisers), I let loose with one of my Klingon D7s. Beams
sliced and diced, but the grazers…well, burned the ship from stem to
stern
with the repeated rerolls I was getting! Scratch one Feddie! The next
opportunity I got to fire my other ship put some serious holes in the
other
Fed ship before me. Yeah…I like grazers.  :-D

Now, that said, I missed with several grazer shots later in the game,
and
some hits were minimal damage, but more often than not when I hit, I hit
hard.

In the end, however, the Feds were able to win the day, as at the end of
turn 10 they still had four cruisers (one pretty crippled, the other
three
in various states of light to moderate damage) left on the table to two
Klingon ships (both damaged to some level, one of them mine). Ahhh, but
it
was not an easy victory for them!

During this time submissions were coming in for the miniatures painting
contest which I also oversee, so I periodically had to step away to
attend
those. After the game most people had their minis submitted for the
contest, and that meant a quick lunch run to Subway before the afternoon
games kicked off. This afternoon I was running another ESCOM game, this
one
“The Martians Are Coming”. The Silent Fury brothers had their game
going as
well. Heck, we had I think five of the six tables of games running, all
mostly full up with players. I originally had six signed up to play
ESCOM,
but two dropped out to join another game (some ‘kill all monsters’
game,
iirc), but one new person signed up to play so I ended up with five
players. Of the five, two (Steve Barosi and Martin Connell) were
veterans
of past ECC playtests, one (John “Red” Connelly) was a new veteran
having
played his first game the evening before in Noam’s scenario, and the
other
two (Aaron Newman and Jerry Acord) were totally new to ESCOM (and as I
understood it, neither had actually played FT or Babylon 5 in a few
years).
As a lot had changed with ESCOM from the 2015 ECC, I went over the rules
again with everyone so they were up to speed. As Aaron and Jerry HAD
played
Full Thrust before, they picked up the nuances of ESCOM very quickly.
Red
was very familiar with the rules from the night before, and Steve and
Martin
were familiar with the rules from the work they’ve been doing with
their
Victorian Age SciFi gaming, adapting ESCOM to that era. Still, they were
a
few versions behind so had a few new things to pick up, but the whole
group
grasped everything very quickly, and after the first turn or two, my
presence was mostly superfluous. They pretty much ran the game
themselves.
:-)  Which freed me up to go off and do photos and coerce people to get
up
when they had some downtime in their games to vote in the minis contest.

Still, I kept tabs on my game, to see how this crop of players would
play
it. Everyone who has done the scenario has had different tactics and
ideas
on how to best achieve their objectives. Sometimes they work…sometimes
not
so much. On this day, despite the valiant single ship stands against the
incoming United Mars Provinces squadrons, the German fleet could not
stem
the tide and protect their freighters. The Marsies stomped on the Neu
European Union combat line (though not without getting bloody noses
themselves) and dissected the freighters in short order. In this game,
the
UMP won a fairly decisive victory.

After the afternoon session was over most people went off to get dinner.
For me, I spent my time tallying up the votes for the minis contest and
chatting ‘shop talk’ with Jon Davis and Jerry Han, my other two con
conspirator organizers. So, no dinner for me. Half an hour before the
evening events were to kick off, we (Jon and I) did our usual thank you
talk to the attendees (most of whom were back from dinner). We reflected
briefly on the passing of Ron Walls, who started coming to the ECCs a
few
years ago and always ran some great scenarios, sometimes two or three
over
the course of the convention! In Ron’s words, “You know, when you go
to [a
gaming convention] you realize that there are givers and takers. I want
to
be a giver." (Ron was lost to family and friends last August to a rip
current during a vacation trip to NC), talked about the future of ECC
(next
year is our 20th!!), solicited input from the attendees what they would
like to see or have done in celebration of the 20th ECC, and then it was
over to the prize winners for the minis contest. We had some very nice
prizes to give the winners, our prize sponsors being GZG, Brigade
Models,
and Tactical Games Systems (a newcomer to the miniatures industry, they
have some VERY nice 3D printed starship and 15mm SF vehicle minis!
tacticalgamesystems.com).

To expand on how the voting goes for those who don’t know, I do not
participate in the voting. Rather, I encourage the con attendees
(players
and vendors) to fill out the ballot papers to what they think is best in
each category. I tally up the votes, and if there is a tie, only then I
will then step in and cast the deciding vote between the entries.
Otherwise
I stay out of it to maintain impartiality. This year there were two
categories which had ties (the 25/28mm and 15mm scale categories) that I
had to cast the deciding vote. The decisions were tough, as all the
entries
were high quality, but in the end, the winners podium broke down like
so:

Scratchbuild (2 entries) :

Dave Hornung (2nd place)

Scott Howland (1st place)

6mm/Dirtside (7 entries) :

Noam Izenberg (3rd place)

Steve Barosi (2nd place)

Martin Connell (1st place)

15mm scale (7 entries) :

Dave Hornung (3rd place)

Steve Barosi (2nd place)

Martin Connell (1st place)

25/28mm scale (12 entries) :

Steve Barosi (3rd place)

Aaron Newman (2nd place)

Jeff Aubert (1st place, with this piece, which some people might
recognize
from the cover of the old ADnD Player’s Handbook:
http://otherworldminiatures.co.uk/shop/demons-devils/dd1-the-demon-idol/
)

Starships (7 entries) :

John “Red” Connelly (3rd place)

Steve Barosi (2nd place)

David Skelly (1st place)

After I handed out the prizes and certificates, Jon Davis then brought
out
the special raffle prizes he had for the attendees. When one registered,
they were asked to pick their favorite category. Jon had four prizes,
one
for each category (starship, 25/28mm, 15mm, and 6mm). We drew the names
(I
don’t remember who all won what, but I do remember JP Fiset got the 3D
printed Mars globe, which was AWESOME!
https://www.shapeways.com/shops/yo3d).
We then did a quick photo shoot of all the winners, then on to the
evening
games!

This evening one of the games I was keenly interested in participating
in
was Steve Barosi and Martin Connell’s ESCOM-Victorian Age Sf Aeronef
game.
I was very interested to see what direction they had gone with our
rules.
One of the things they had retained from an early version of ESCOM (back
when it was SMITE) was the opposed roll mechanic (attacker rolls attack
dice for the ship’s weapons, the defender rolls defense dice from the
ship’s defense level; die rolls are compared and any attacking roll
that
beats an defending roll gets to do that many points damage to the
defending
ship). Though we liked the mechanic when we came up with it, we had
dropped
this a while back as it noticeably slowed the game down. That would be
telling in this evening’s “Falklands 1889” game as well, but
otherwise it
worked as originally conceived. Another difference they had was
character
cards. The character cards gave the ship with the character on it
certain
abilities, but only a limited number of them (like, three times it could
be
used in the course of the game). Said abilities were ‘increase defense
die
by one die type’ or ‘perform a free, unscheduled/plotted 3
clockfacing turn
during any movement phase’. I was concerned that these might unbalance
or
be something players would abuse, but over the course of the game this
concern did not bear fruit, and I am considering perhaps our adopting it
to
ESCOM (although Noam and I are already talking about crew quality levels
and legendary officers; the character cards could easily be those
legendary
officers). I was on the side of the British, and we had to travel over
to
the Falkland Islands and bomb an aeronef base the Argentinians had put
in
place after they overran the islands. Between us and the island was a
line
of Argentinian (and a few allied Brazilian) ‘nefs. We came on in a
line and
fire was exchanged early on. The Argentinian ‘nefs had some very heavy
guns, but when they took damage, they tended to crack very quickly
(fragile
buggers, they were). We managed to break most of the defensive line, but
never got to the island before the game was called due to the lateness
of
the hour (and the tiredness of many participants ;-) ). The Argentinians
also had a reserve of four Brazilian cruisers coming in, but it was
likely
they would be too late in preventing our bombing of the aeronef base had
we
played out a few more turns.

After we wrapped the game I retired for the evening. As snow was falling
from the skies.

The next morning I looked out my hotel window and saw the ground was
covered with a blanket of snow. About an inch and a half or so. I packed
things up and went out to my snow-covered car and had to laugh. Only on
Friday, when I was packing for the weekend, I had taken out my ice
scraper.
When I brushed the top inch layer of snow from the car, beneath it was a
half inch of frozen ice snow. Seriously, I had JUST taken the ice
scraper
out on Friday! Note to self for next year: keep the damned ice scraper
in
the car! :-D   Ah, well, what’s an ECC without a little snow? I
managed to
borrow an ice scraper from Jon Davis later and got the car cleared off.
But
first some breakfast in the hotel, then in to the convention room to
finish
packing things away. Distributed the last of the prizes to the final
games
being played, then I had to take off, as I had to get back down to
Maryland
to do a climbing photo shoot for the upcoming guidebook at one of the
crags
while one of our local climbers tackled one of the harder routes in the
state.

All in all it was a great convention, even if I had to leave early. Next
year we will have it on the weekend of March 24th, so if you want to
attend, mark that on your calendar now!

Photos: none posted yet. Jerry Han will get the whole kit and kaboodle
uploaded to the ECC site when he has a free moment to breathe, and
I’ll
probably post a small selection of mine to the GZG ECC group on FB as
well.

Looking forward to next year. Hope to see some new faces and games!  J

Mk