From: Derek Fulton <derekfulton@b...>
Date: Fri, 04 Mar 2005 00:31:59 +1100
Subject: [ECC] An Aussie perspective (long)
G'day guys,
Finally back in the land of Oz... well physically, my brain is still custard
somewhere over the Pacific I think (being plunged back into a 2 day workshop
and 1500 work email to answer hasn't eased the transition!).
Well the con was a blast. Great to put so many faces to names at last! It was
a really great time and I heartily recommend the attendance of as
many as possible... so long as you can take "weird" in your stride;)
Others have given much better reports than my numb brain can manage right now,
but here goes (otherwise work will suck me away again before I get the
chance).
First before I bore you all to death and you stop reading I must thank
everyone there for their generosity and friendliness, it put a wonderful
finish to what had been a long and tiring 3 weeks! In particular I'd like to
thank Channing and Nick for going that extra mile for me (I greatly appreciate
it!). I'd also want to thank all the GMs and organisers who did an outstanding
job of making the games look and play superbly. I was exceedingly impressed by
you all!
Channing drove me up from Columbus and was exceptionally considerate, even
providing me with the Dr Who song (by the Time Lords). Before we actually met
up I was wondering if I'd recognise him at the rendezvous point in Columbus,
but the amazing B5 crew jacket hanging in his rear car window kind of gave him
away;)
We got to the gaming con about 4pm (as Nick Caldwell later said "MapQuest
lies!" especially when it comes to time estimates for travel, they must employ
low flying aircraft or something). Got checked in pretty quick and went down
to the rooms and began running into many people who I think of as friends even
though I'd never met them before. Initially it did take me a while to put
faces to names (except Laserlight who greeted me with "Are you behaving
yourself?" and so immediately gave himself away... that and his pocket full of
sheep...), so sorry if I seemed a little dazed at first. I think the only
person who looked more dazed was TomB, who took a little while to figure out
who the demented female with the funny accent was "what is this a stealth
trip?". How on Earth did we manage to unintentionally keep a secret from
TomB?!
First game I played was called Full Thrust Frag. The tone of the weekend
was set when I was asked what I was playing first up and I said "I'm getting
fragged by Jerry" to which Aaron says with a straight face: "Happens to us
all" (or something to that affect). Anyways FT Frag involved flying space
ships around a board crowded with asteroids, nebulae and a black hole...
everyone out to shoot everyone else down. It
was the second time (or thereabouts) I'd ever played FT cinematic and so
I felt a wee bit out of my depth. As the sides were wrapping (so if you flew
off one side you came on the opposite side) I figured I would just aim for
Oerjan level ludicrous speed, thinking if I couldn't figure out where I was
going to end up then everyone else should be at a loss too right? Well good
theory. Every time I ended up in a spot with a decent line of sight and close
range I either ended up shooting last and so was
cactus before getting a shot or my fire control systems were already damaged
("You've got him now Beth he's only 2 inches to your front". "Yes it'd be
perfect if I had any firecontrols working..."). I also managed to just miss
flying into the black hole and eventually ended up running into an asteroid...
"You need a 33 on a D6 to survive" (Jerry would've allowed you to chain 6s' on
a D6 until you reached the magic number but of course I started with a 1). Jon
Davis' son was a hot shot taking down a few guys with bucket loads of dice and
that wonderfully innocent look of an 11 yr old in a blood frenzy. I was
equally impressed
with Jerry Accord's persistence, he not only survived the entire game with his
original ship (you were respawned if you died but lost any weapons upgrades
you'd collected), but he continued trying to hit someone (anyone) with his
plasma bolt launcher, usually to no avail as I
remember, but he never gave up;)
I was mildly amused to find I was the only one who'd ever played Phalons
before, but I think I'll skip where that discussion inevitably headed. I
will commend Jerry on his enthusiasm though (I think his smile would've only
got bigger if one of us had actually finally managed to score a nova cannon
upgrade). Jerry kept things rolling quickly (18 turns in 3 hours) and had an
up beat word accompanying his death counts each turn. He started off very
positive, "its close, its going fast, anyone could win...". Soon it became
"There's still an hour, its not too late to make
a miraculous recovery Beth". Then "Beth is now negative". Finally "Vince
has 4, Channing and Grant have 3, Jerry, Doug and Jon are on two and then
there's Beth..." I did eventually claw may way back to 0 so not a complete
disgrace;)
I didn't even try to stay up with the hardy Canadians (as an Aussie I should
hang my head in shame at giving in so easily, but I was zonked), but I did
ring Derek to rub it in;) As for breakfast at Zimmermans, I wasn't even out of
bed when the guys headed off, but thanks for the many invitations!
Next morning I played in Indy's DS2.5 game. I was told to move aggressively up
the board, so I did. Died to a man...which I hope was aggressive enough. I
completely failed to spot the observer hiding in the rocks by my hands though,
cunning cam Indy;)
I didn't get a chance to talk over the game with Indy afterwards (so much to
do so little time!), I will note though that one of the most interesting
aspects of ECC was seeing the different playing styles. You tend to forget
when you're closeted away that not everyone plays the way
you do. With respect to the new rules and their speed of play we tend not to
fight firefights to the bitter end down here and we use smoke a lot more to
cover advances and try to get hull or turret down a lot more
so people stop firing sooner as the targets are harder to pursue. Which means
we get through things faster here, that doesn't mean less bloodshed its just
spread over more turns;)
Having said that I think part of the speed was just people getting used to the
new rules and also there to have fun more than anything, continuing to fire
when they'd probably have been more cautious normally.
Next there was the "cheese game". Given you have to try and be as over the top
as possible I went in with my nuns, including my naked close combat
specialist. I'd actually expected to be the only females on the board, I was
pleasantly surprised to see I wasn't (though the others were either better
dressed or simply putrefying). We had to pick initiative cards (order we'd do
our turns through the game). You got to plonk down your squad when your card
came up... Laserlight looked far too pleased with himself as people positively
abandoned positions on his
side of the board, so putting pigheadedness before intelligence I decided I'd
start next to him. So there I was, to my left the uberzombies and to my right
sheep. Jedi sheep, lead by Darth Baadar... it could only go down hill from
there right? There was the expected first couple of turns of dashing to pick
up as much cheese as possible (as no targets in site except sheep who some how
used evil mind tricks to convince me they were too cute to shot... "baa"... as
an Aussie born on a sheep farm I don't know how they managed to pull that off
I should've have seen them for the evil woolly bastards they really were from
the get go). During this early maneuvering I toyed with the idea of
"borrowing" the air car in the midst of a tent camp (why walk when you can fly
right?). As I approached the car the tents were ripped aside to reveal NAC
power armour and walkers who were there to protect the embedded media.. Move
away or die. I decided to move away, but the glint
in Mike Hudak's eye showed that from here on out his destiny was sealed...
take down Brun Hilda or die trying. Meanwhile at the other end
of the board the ninjas used the force to steal cheese off the power armour,
who then chased the ninjas all over the place in an effort to get it back. I
have a soft spot for ninjas so used one of my cards to stop them getting
gunned down, I really didn't expect the power armour to run screaming from
combat at the very thought of a Ninja from that point on though. It was about
this time I suddenly realised that I had the most cheese (a REAL problem given
its unlikely I'd be able to return
to run the event next year). Doug the uberzombie did have some big cheese in
his site until Mike ran it over in his tank while trying a hit
and run on Brun Hilda (3 or 4 times), but I did note the sheep had a decent
amount up on that hilltop where they'd stopped to graze (and try a sniper shot
on Brun Hilda inspiring the comment about Mike missing her
4 times with a tank but the sheep hitting her with a sniper rifle from half a
mile away). I was planning on sneaking around the bottom of the hill and
surprising the sheep (I'm an Aussie so I couldn't just stand by
and watch the woolly monsters roam free!) before rolling the cheese down
hill into anybody elses squad so I didn't win, but things got a little out of
hand before I got the chance. At this point it also became clear that Greg
Davis had become intent on making me nunless and was running around cheese to
get better shots at me. At this point some one comments
"the nuns are engaged" to which Laserlight responds "they can't be engaged
they're nuns...". I had no recourse but to call artillery down on Greg,
unfortunately that only seemed to encourage him. At this point Mike dropped a
card on the sheep (on cliff top) that said that if they failed their morale
roll then they attack the nearest enemy (me at the bottom of the cliff).
Laserlight hands me his morale dice just to ensure
he fails. I roll a 1 on cue. The sheep leap off the cliff ("baansai") on
to me. Most survive the landing and we end up in hand to hoof combat... (I can
hardly see straight at this point of the game I'm laughing so hard). Mother
superior and the naked nun go down to Darth Baader's light
saber and a few other nuns are levelled by blaaasters (ouch). I play my
"bloody minded" card and thus win the combat. Half the sheep run away and I
convince our wonderful game master Adrian I can keep the rest (after all
Australia is said to ride on the sheeps back... which does not mean what
Adrian thought it meant...). Laserlight points out I'm a dirty rotten sheep
rustler... which cracks me up even worse as it just means I'm taking up my
families ancestral career path (that past time having a lot to do with why I
was born an Australian and not a Scot, my forebears being shipped out here in
chains for being liberal with other people's sheep... and cash... amongst
other things). The PA are still chasing the ninjas at this point who run off
the board, that way no one gets it (you can feel the PAs pain!). Meanwhile
Tony is quietly collecting more cheese and sneaking up on the PA to make sure
they feel even more pain. Greg Davis keeps after the nuns, I don't know why
"after
all what have they done to you? They only dropped some artillery on you...". I
ended up running around the bottom of the hill the sheep were
back on the top of and as we were told the end was near I took my cheese
to the sheep and left again (oh and I returned my slave sheep, after all
Laserlight did ask nicely). As Mike had singularly failed to kill Brun Hilda
at this point I tried to give it a shot too, but sadly I missed. Mike has my
best wishes for the future on that one! The sheep ended up
with 70+ cheese, Tony had 20 something and right on down to me with 0,
cheese game disaster averted;)
After dinner was the "Weight of Command" scenario. While I enjoyed all of the
games I played in, this scenario was by far one of the best
set-up and executed games I've ever been in. Very cool. I don't think
I'd have had the patience to play commander so hats off to Indy and Damond for
that, also I think the guys on A table did a great job of making special
forces snatches look easy and clock work (at least from afar). Our table had
more of what I expected from a scenario of TomB's... things quickly going from
normal to absurd;)
For a start I ended up in command. I'm not good at command. We also figured
there must be a twist up TomBs sleeve so started making liberal
interpretations of the orders fairly quickly. We sent in foot patrols instead
of staying unseen and of course were almost immediately spotted.
Then everything just got silly. Fun silly. Aaron did an excellent job of
shooting the tires out of the car we thought had Mr K in it (so good he flips
the car and it goes up in smoke). Then Aaron very professionally went to see
what was in the car (and to try and figure out what was happening on the
snatch table, but we couldn't see enough for us to recover for the fact we'd
already unknowingly blown our mission one turn
into the game by making boom noises next to jumpy arms dealers). As Aaron had
tried to cam his squad in to the local population by removing his blue helmets
(something I though was a good idea too) he was mistaken for a local faction
and ended up in a fire fight with the local
plods (at least that was the plods story... after all those bulging envelopes
from the bad guys were obviously just late valentines cards...) before he
could convince them he was on a UN operation..."oops
did we just let the cat out of the bag...". Aaron and Tom McCarthy both did a
good job of warning the local populace and following the verbal warning steps,
unfortunately the local populace doesn't speak UNese and they both came under
fire. So Tom McC didn't really break his ROE (much)
by firing his SAW at the civilians firing at his APC (he had to wait a wee
while yet to really shred the ROE)... Los's son Miles also found himself under
local plod fire so I drove my APC in the way and told
everyone to try and go round in APCs where possible - which had the side
bonus that the local thugs didn't try to shot us... they left that to the
heavily armed and armoured mercenaries flowing out of the church). This was
Tom McC's cue to toss the rules of engagement out the door and begin firing
his fusion gun in town at the mercs (who were running for the river and their
escape boats, which sunk after being melted by the fusion gun fire). Tom did
thoughtfully use his fusion gun as a crowd control weapon only, suppressing
but not killing anybody (he just seat a
city block on fire.... the fire brigade had run away with all the local police
at this point so even the guys on the other table couldn't help but notice the
blossoming red cotton growing on our side of the river). About now my unease
of the armour of the mercs and my inherent distrust of TomB's scenario twists
lead to the realisation I was going to be court martialled for the fusion fire
anyway so I might as well do likewise. Fine time to start rolling high and
wipe everybody out...
About this time C3-PO and R2D2 wander out of the church (and I though it
couldn't get weirder) and tell me there is a ticking nuke. They are singularly
unhelpful when my detachment asks them to go back and see how
many seconds are left on the clock ("You just asked a civilian to go back in
there?" Well there were droids!). About now reinforcements roll up but we
figure they were crap troops who wouldn't help so they just got added to the
list to be evacuated through the other board (I have no
idea why it had to be the other board other than to ensure extra chaos but who
was I to start questioning orders... ok I had ignored or "creatively
interpreted" every other order so far, but...). I never want
to try an organise an evacuation of APCs again all they do is create parking
hassles, though apparently they were quite useful in clearing the road block
on the other board, by running over it I believe. About now I have a
discussion about minimizing damage with my guys just as our
commanders fly past in a VTOL whispering we should maximise it instead
;)
After circling the other board to no avail for a while the VTOL comes back to
us and does a fast drop of PA down ropes on the heads of the still fleeing
mercs and there is a short but bloody close combat (particularly for my PA
team as I got my 1s back at this point). We interrogate (nice and gently) the
prisoners who do good Shultz impressions ("I know nozink!") and point us in
the direction of the big bosses in the church. We get the weapons free
clearance (see we knew command would eventually see it our way) and Tom McC
decides he'd better
go hack the log time stamps and follow the evac orders so he sacrificially
picks up the wounded and skeedadles at this point (belting
past one and all on the other board... I had expected him to stop and lend a
warm fusion powered hand over there too but he masterfully resisted the urge).
I'm not sure exactly when (I have the impression it
was before Tom left) we accidently killed the special forces UN liaison
officer who can speak the local language (oops... Los had stressed we weren't
supposed to let that happen... oh well this far into the game not much else
could go wrong... could it?). Around now we find out we're
not allowed to give an amnesty (doesn't mean we can't still offer one and shot
them when they stick their heads up though right?) and that the
commander is on his way in a VTOL to take charge once we have the site
secured... so we'd better go secure the site... that is what he wanted right
(well may be not, but that's what we thought he wanted... we also decided we'd
better wave him off... little did we know the arms dealer probably would've
handed the codes over to someone of that rank... at least the fleeing VTOL did
draw the observation from the other board that "he must have something
important to do", like save his butt). Never let it be said that Aaron is not
one smart and cunning man, he always had some sharp suggestion, not the least
of which was to use his sensors to look through the floor (where there are
many dots all pointing weapons at the door to the staircase and "about 2
places the nuke can be"... "how do you have about 2 places TomB?"). While my
command squad tries to convince the arms dealers I'm really sincere about that
amnesty the PA blow through the floor in a circle (facing out) and capture the
dealers after masterfully fighting off their attack
dog. Having had no success with the last interrogation and with about 30
secs on the nuke clock we get a little over enthusiastic in the prisoner
questioning department and shred the arms dealer who had the deactivate code
(why do I roll 12 now?!). Next guy up to the plate blabs that the XO was the
only other guy with the code... we get a collective sick
feeling about the merc we killed earlier in hand-to-hand. Oops. Aaron
becomes the UN hero of the day and leaps into action, volunteering to stay
behind and disarm it physically. He rips out some wires while we all head for
cover in the local sewer (the power armour should survive long enough to be
dug out from the rubble later right?). Unfortunately the wires were only for
the countdown clock (at this point the other table is still calmly taking out
Mr K... you have to admire their calm... so Tomb goes super cinematic in the
seconds to explode countdown). My command squad is then told that school
children have come
to visit the church yard, oh well we wouldn't have survived a collapsing
sewer in battledress anyway, so off and out to get the kids... oh wait a
minute the liaison officer who can speak the local lingo is dead, ok "here
kiddy kiddy kid I have a nice candy bar for you...". I must have had an honest
face as they did eventually follow me... well all apart from this one
precocious brat, but we developed selective deafness and
left him behind - he was fine he hot wired the school bus. Nice
neighbourhood. By this time Aaron takes the nuke apart and feels the warm glow
of pure handwavium (or unobtainum or whatever it was), he needs a lead box to
put it in (like the one he just tore apart...). Hey wait this a church, there
has to be a crypt.... no but there is a sewer... "Hi guys fancy meeting you
here". PA come flying out of the sewer like rats with wings and dive into the
river (to minimise contamination). We can't take the prisoners with us though
they'd drown... "Prisoners, what prisoners, they're just 3 guys out for a
walk,
free as a bird, on the river bank...". TomB starts suggesting Aaron may not
live to tell his tale so Aaron (Lord of quick thinking) runs his finger along
the wall so people can follow his trail Hansel and Gretel style. As a reward
TomB lets him live. His squad mates however will only
shake his hand after he has been in hazmat for about 6 months and so tell him
to wait for his pick up on the far side of the table from them
(and then the command/hazmat add insult to injury by not even allowing
him inside the pick up chopper, he has to hang on to the outside!). This
AAR in no way does justice to the experience! It was a helluva a lot of fun.
One of the best bits being the briefings before and after. Nice touch. I
particularly liked Magic's observation about the weird juxtaposition of
command, in one ear he is relaying reports about us finding a ticking WMD and
in the other he is forwarding a notice that the people in the disco are
shooting at the snatch squad with pistols.
I didn't even think about trying to stay up after that lot!
Last game was Sunday morning and 15mm DS. The playing on the floor really did
look like boys with their toys, but that just added to the fun. I copped out
and opted to play the artillery up the back so as to ensure I wouldn't walk on
anything and feel awful. We started off pretty
abysmally (as you'd expect against and ogre with a happy face painted on
its tower!). We did eventually swing the tide by cunningly luring it into
destroying a 3rd of our forces with missiles and then getting it to
hide in the forest long enough for our infantry to do the IVAR
equivalent of 'its a 1-in-a-million shot, so of course its comes off'.
We didn't want the ogre to get too down hearted at our masterful tactics
though so we created a tank parking lot behind it so it could feel the self
esteem lifting feeling of running over 80% of our forces... we secretly knew
we'd get him with our "I'll throw myself under your tank so my crushed body
will gum up your works" trick. John decided our devious cruelty was completely
unbounded when we started asking him to pull all the chits (even when we had
done hits on him). The tank side did eventually win out... eventually... boy
do I wish they'd got that mushroom cloud painted up in time (mind you that
would've just been extra reason for TomB to ensure the UN failed to save the
day the night before!).
Then goodbyes all round (resisting the urge to go past the dealers again, as
it was I'd had to sit on my suitcase to get it shut!).
Nick Caldwell kindly drove me back to Washington and let me stay the night
(connections to fly out that night being impossible to make) before taking me
to the Smithsonian to see the shuttle before
farewelling me in mid-snow storm with the words "I hope I don't see you
again tonight";)
At last I was on the home stretch, anticipating the look on the kids faces
when they saw the cool stuff I had form them... or so I thought.
Beth gets to security with bulging bag and of course gets dragged out for the
explosives and bag search. Q. What is that? A. My note book (filled with
oceanography equations)
Q. What is that? A. Physics textbook (newly bought on my travels)
Q. What is your job? A. Scientist (having found that explaining
ecomathematician is a hard call when tired an in a long line)
Q. What are these metal bits A. Spaceship parts.
Q. You work for NASA or you just exporting rocket components?! (being an
amateur rocket builder Beth knows that is VERY illegal and suddenly realises
how much trouble she may be in if she can't get this sorted quickly). A. Oh
no, toy space ships
Raised eyebrows and "yeah right" looks before much conferring off to the
side. Thankfully at that point another guard comes up, pokes around and looks
up with a big smile saying "shes a geek not a threat". Thank heavens! I
thought I was going to get the latex JP had missed out on!
I did eventually arrive home in one piece and the kids (including the big
bearded one) loved the prizes and toys I brought home with me.
Sorry to ramble so long, but there was just so much packed into those few
short days (I've missed out a heap!).
Oh and happy birthday Adrian!
Have fun and thanks for a superb time!
Beth