Dust Clouds

> At 03:33 PM 2/3/97 -0800, you wrote:

Wow!  Sounds intense!  :-)

I take it that the effects of the dust cloud was to roll for a "lock on" just
before you fired?

> hosford.donald wrote:

It was during the "Full Thrust" competition at CANCON, the Australian National
(War)Games convention, held every year on the Australia Day Long Weekend in
January.

There were a number of games played.

Players had to provide 2 fleets: 1800 pts of standard ships (no privateers or
missile ships or System Defence Cruisers, but anything else was OK), the other
fleet was 1000 pts, with SDCs allowed.

The first was a Warm-Up: 1800 pts a side. Played lengthways

The second had an asteroid field (non moving), 1800 pts a side. Played
lengthways

The third was an attack/defence game. Attacker had their standard 1800
pts, defender had 1000 pts plus a non-moving battlestation defending a
planet. Basically, it was a System Defence Cruiser without thrust or warp, but
with double the null boxes. The 1000 pts was a seperate fleet list, which
could include System Defence Cruisers. The attacker had to Warp in. Yours
truly, aiming at the centre of the large table, managed to have 2 of my 3
SuperDreads scatter off table (30" and 36" off). My opponent agreed to them
"coming on later" rather than being "destroyed". He got the "Best and Fairest"
award, and IMHO deserved it. Naturally the one SuperDread that was accurate
got munched by the firepower of the Battlestation plus 3 System Defence
Cruisers plus a few others.

The fourth was the same as the third, with sides reversed.

The fifth had many, many dust clouds all over the place, 1800 pts a side.
Played Lengthways

The sixth and last had a large field of asteroids at one end, and a large
group of dust clouds at the other, 1800 pts a side. Played widthways, and you
had to write down your location before coming on the board simultaneously.

It was a great success. I took 3 SuperDreads on the grounds that I had played
exactly one game of FT before, and that 2 years previously. I figured that
manoeuvre and subtlety were not going to be my strong points, so "Keep it
simple". The 1000 pt fleet was a Fleet Carrier and a System Defence Cruiser
for much the same reason.

Alas, 3 SuperDreads vs a balanced fleet under the circumstances of the comp
gave the biggies an unfair advantage. My only loss was to the guy

> At 11:24 AM 2/4/97 -0800, you wrote:

That clears things up :-))

> --
BTW I always wanted to know...what is a "MAERKLIN Wagon", and why would a
crocodile be pulling one?

> hosford.donald wrote:

> Wow! Sounds intense! :-)

Yes, plus an additional shield, i.e. exactly as per More Thrust. The effects
ocurred when either the firer, or the target, or both were in
the dust cloud, or if line-of-fire crossed a cloud.

> hosford.donald wrote:

> BTW I always wanted to know...what is a "MAERKLIN Wagon", and why

For a picture of Croc: http://www.z-world.com/graphics/z/master/8856.gif

For Maerklin Wagons, try:
http://www.z-world.com/graphics/z/master/8608.gif

To give you an idea of the scale:
http://www.marklin.com/subdir/z-gauge/z.html
(This is a MUST SEE)

For more info, http://www.z-world.com

----------------------      <> <>    How doth the little Crocodile

> At 09:55 AM 2/6/97 -0800, you wrote:
http://www.z-world.com/graphics/z/master/8856.gif
> For Maerklin Wagons, try:
Shock! That picture of the hand holding the LITTLE engine was amazing! I had
no idea that anything that small existed!

To be honist, I thought croc's pulling maerklin wagons was a joke....not
anymore!

You must be into an extreamly small hobby.