ECC 7 report

Hi All,

This was my first ECC and I have to admit, it was the best gaming Con that
I've ever been to.

I spent two weeks working getting things ready, since I was taking care of
business for Decals Express, which is owned by one of my best friends. I do
design work for him, it's not my business... I just cover for him when he's
off playing Navy.:)

In addition to that, I had to paint Shermans and Stuarts for Tom Pope's War of
the Worlds DSII game, and finish painting OGREs for the OGRE bash game. Since
I have a real job, and stuff like that, sleep became quite a commodity.

The before I left, I received word that Tom would not be able to make it this
year, so I volunteered to run the War of the Worlds game. That entailed
writing up sheets in the car while my girlfriend, Yerin, drove.

I arrived Friday evening, and had about a half an hour to set up the game,
wander around and meet some folks (I had only met 3 or 4 of the attendees face
to face before coming to the con!).

I then ran the War of the Worlds game. The martain invasion of the late 1890s
was only a preliminary strike. A massive recon excersize if you will. The
second round, in the early 1940s was much different. The martian tripods and
grav floaters now had shields to improve their defenses. The infantry and
crews had pressurized, environmentally sealed combat armor (powered armor) to
protect them from Earths horrible germs and bacteria. Despite this, 6 tripods
and 6 floaters with 6 PA squads would have a tough time against a full
battalion of U.S. tanks! Even though they were only Stuarts and Shermans,
there were a LOT of them. The martians, unbeknownst to the Americans, had a
sinister plan.
They were there in the mid-west, not to kill humans, but to capture
cows! And sheeps! This was a sekrit known only to the martians, though one of
the US tank commanders, I believe Capt. Kotche, figured it out fairly quickly.
The Martains did not do as well as I had expected based on playtest games, but
mostly due to two factors. First, the US forces pulled an amazing number of
Boom! chits, destroying Martain Sheild Generators, making the Martian Tripods
and Floaters much more vulnerable to their 37mm and 75mm cannons. Second, the
Martains did not seem to be able to hit the broad side of a Sherman at ANY
range. Tony was given an Indy Singularity award for his truly, amazingly
abysmal die rolls.:)

Still, by the end of the evening, despite the fact that all of the Martian PA
was dead, 6 Floaters were burning on the field, and 3 Tripods had been
destroyed, the Martians escaped with 3 elements of Cows. It seemed to me that
everyone had a good time with the game, and there are lots of quotes from it.
:)

Saturday morning, Yerin and I set up the Decals Express table, and again, I
did some wandering around. I ended up in a WWII early Russian front game
(another DSII game!) as a Russian tank company commander. To my suprise and
delight, I found myself facing Indy as a German! The game used a hidden
movement system, which while effective, did slow down resolution. I have since
posted
<http://okapi.andrew.cmu.edu/lerchey/www/DSII> a simplified version of
this (updated last night) for those interested. I'm going to use it in some
upcoming games.:) As Indys forces approached my single company of
T-26 tanks, I managed to kill a full platoon of motorcycle troops, a
company of Kubelwagons and most of a platoon of Pz Is. For my efforts I
lost 1 platoon of T-26s.  I had yet to meet anything other than recon
units... I fear that the Skdfz 222 armored cars and Pz Mk IVs would have torn
me to shreds had the game continued. It was fun though, while it lasted.

I then ate, and spent the afternoon alternately looking over peoples shoulders
and cutting out counters for the evening OGRE bash game that I would be
running with Indy.

Supper came and went, and I returned in time to see the painting contest
results. I was both amazed and delited when the Mk V OGRE that I entered
(Sauron) took second place in the DSII category.:D

Next was the OGRE bash. We had 8 players and a dozen or more OGREs on the
battlefields.  We had Mk Is, Mk IIs, Mk IIIs, a Mk III-B, a Mk IV, a
couple of Mk Vs and a Fencer or two.  Sadly, no one drew the Mk VI -
Bun-bun.

The first turn took us most of the evening, and gave the players a good idea
of how the OGRE mod rules worked. Mostly, folks were dropping missiles on each
other (or trying to), and taking some long range pot shots. Indy and I decided
to speed up turn 2. Everyone activated their OGREs in a flurry of movement, to
be followed by massive amounts of firing. Most OGREs were badly hurt, and
tried to trigger itself off as a nuke by blowing it's relays and doing an
engine overload. Sadly (since it would have been spectacular!) it failed to do
anything other than burn out its own systems. Still, it was very fun game to
run. Like many "con games" (heh heh) getting resolution for 8 players is
tough. But we managed to get a good feel for how it likely would have gone,
and the players seemed to have enjoyed trying to turn each other into scrap.
If you want to see the OGRE mod rules, they can be found at
<http://okapi.andrew.cmu.edu/lerchey/www/DSII/OGRE.html>.

After that it was time for cleanup and bed.

Sunday morning I played in Indys Battle for Durango. DSII again. I played on
the rightous side of good and truth, defending the residents of Durango Valley
from the evil, federal goverment types who had sold out to the NAC, giving up
the average Americans right to bear tanks.:)

Sadly, while seting up my forces, I did not understand that the buildings and
woods between my tanks and the enemy would offer almost no cover, nor would it
seriously impare LoS. I got hammered. And who would have
thought that Jerrys VTOLs would EACH be carrying FOUR GMS/Hs!?  Ouch.
I had a blast failing to defend the valley. Yes, the defenders lost, but we
had a blast doing so. I definitely lost more of my forces than anyone else,
but had way too much fun to notice.

I also got to spend some time chatting with Jon T and David Dunn (DLD
productions). That was just icing on the cake. Getting to meet so many folks
who I know as email addresses rocked.

Unless something (like work) keeps me away, I'll see everyone there again next
year. What a great convention!

> John K Lerchey wrote:

It's not my fault! I just sat around and rolled dice when people
told me to.  (8-)  Though, admittedly, it was fun rolling 16 d10 to
go after your platoon of rebel scum tanks. (8-)

And any luck with the VTOLs was cancelled out by the troop of light
tanks I was running as well -- TWO firing system down chits back to
back? Arugh.

JGH

Jerry,

I *never* blamed you for it.:) Granted, you did beat the crap out of me, but I
blame Indy for making woods that weren't woods. After all, it could hardly be
my fault that I didn't ask first...

John

John K. Lerchey Computer and Network Security Coordinator Computing Services
Carnegie Mellon University

> On Mon, 1 Mar 2004, Jerry Han wrote:

> John K Lerchey wrote:
Ouch.
> It's not my fault! I just sat around and rolled dice when people

[quoted original message omitted]