From: Paul M. M. Jacobus <paul@o...>
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005 10:31:25 -0500 (EST)
Subject: GZG-ECC 8 report
Long, and with no pictures! I really need a good digital camera. For more details on all the games mentioned here, check out http://www.warpfish.com/gzgecc/gzgecc8/schedule.shtml Note: I'm primarily a Stargrunt player, so this review will be heavily slanted in that direction. FRIDAY EVENING: Mr.Dunn of DLD Productions opened his booth, and within the first fifteen minutes three of the four 25 mm Dropships he brought were sold! He also had on hand the prototype for the micro-scale Dropship, and let me assure you it was downright cute. Games that caught my eye: * Last Bot Standing - DS2 game using figs from the old Rivets board game (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/2192) Big boppers! * Full Thrust Frag - People at this table were definitely having a good time. * Zombie Smackdown 4 - can't go wrong with zombies or teleporting aliens. I was highly amused by the zombie players sneaking off to the side to plot against the still-living interlopers. Exciting hotel trivia! As the hotel itself only recently changed hands, the hotel bar was closed while they worked on the license. No, really. The helpful staff pointed me to a decent bar just a block away, though. SATURDAY MORNING: Mental note: don't forget my own soap next time. Hotel soap turns my skin into paper. What I played: Zombies in da Hood As I notes above, can't go wrong with zombies. Instead of aliens, though, we got Baron Samedi and his gang. I ran the SWAT team who, with some military 'recruits,' were breaking *into* the zombie containment zone to loot a bank vault while everyone else is busy. Hey, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Course, we didn't know about the well-armed zombie supercommandos. Turn one, a school bus crashes into the first escape truck right in front of our escape route going, maybe, sixty. This was where the bad news started. Position was quickly being overrun, despite the valiant efforts of Steve's Guardsmen. Like, one soldier spending three turns of close combat against five zombies without taking a wound. As the horde closed in, the survivors (and their looted goods) piled into the working truck and tried to pull around the building and bust out that way. Which is when we ran into Samedi's lieutenant, with an IAVR. Boom. Then, it was all over but the brain-eating. Still a close game, despite the setbacks. Games that caught my eye: * Cinegrunt: A Small Matter of the Bonus - As always, delightfully visual. Dropships, space jellyfish, thumpers, the whole nine yards. * Full Sail! - FT using the ships from that Pirates game, nine ships per side. Very smooth, eager to read reports on this one. Lunch was at the House of Pizza (houseofpizza.com), filling and tasty, if not healthy. However, they have Sanka, which confounds me. More exciting hotel trivia: The TV in my room was one of the worst TVs I had seen in years. The remote didn't have basic things like 'mute.' And the sound, man, I don't even think it was stereo. I'm no snob for these things, it was just impressively ancient. SATURDAY AFTERNOON: What I played: Carnage Con Queso. It's cheesy, and it's back. What I brought to the Carnage Con Queso: Six OUDF in Power Armor (the aforementioned "eggs with legs." Pics online, hopefully, one day.) light power armor (d10 armor, 12" move) Leadership 2, Quality Regular six low-tech assault rifles (Firepower 2, d8 Impact) and one IAVR (d10 Support, d12+ Impact.) This, in fact, had me as the lowest cheese rating, and thusly got the most cards (seven.) which I used and abused. Incidentally, I had a cheese rating of six. Doug Perrins had a rating of, I'm not kidding, 52. It was masterful. So I made sure to hit him with a card early, prompting the NAC on the board (Brun Hilda's bodyguards) to take a nasty turn shooting him up. My main conflict started early. I hotfooted it over to one of the big cheeses and quickly had it under control. Then, some ninjas snuck up and stole it! I spent, oh, the rest of the game chasing down and shooting ninjas. I tried to charge them, but Beth's soft spot for ninjas got the best of her, and her card caused my guns to jam. No problem, I think, I'll just charge into them. But I failed the check! To my credit, they were wearing all black and carrying swords and what have you. Then they charged! Scared (and embarrassed) we retreated. No, I'm not joking. Eventually we shot them up some more, and they ran off board with the big cheese, but man. The game quickly degenerated into three main sections. My epic quest vs. ninja dominated our side of the board, while Tony Finan's cops and robots efficiently collected up much cheese (only taking one last turn to shoot up my OUDF with an astonishing number of dice, possibly over some unpaid parking tickets.) There was some warfare between nuns and Laserlight's sheep, efficiently covered in his report (and on the Quotes board.) But honestly, any game where Mike Hudak pays a card causing Laserlight's sheep to jump off a cliff and assault some nuns, that's the kind of action you're only going to see at the GZG-ECC Also, possibly, on late-night cable. Mike Hudak gets special credit for his single-minded pursuit of the media, and Brun Hilda in specific. And by single-minded, I mean, trying to run her over with a tank, *backing the tank up* to try again, *and then a third time, disabling her escape car (even if only accidentally,) etc., etc. Oh, and he didn't get the job done in the long run, but man, impressive to see. Also, Carnage Con Queso godfather Mike Sarno stopped by for a round of applause. In the end, Beth's nuns sold out to Laserlight's Darth Baa, giving him all their cheese and the most points, but due to some collusion/conspiracy/whateverness between him and the gamemaster, the winner was declared Tony Finan and hi cops and robots. Unfortunately for him, that means he gets to run the carnage next year. Games that caught my eye: * Full Metal Thrust: Attack on the Death Star - a FT version of the Death Star trench run, very keen. * There was also a Stargrunt Star Wars game going on I didn't get to see enough of. Painting contest was a tough decision as always, especially for a painter of... meager skills such as myself. In the end, Kevin Fox (yes, that ninja from the Carnage Con Queso!) took home a handful of awards, not bad for his first GZG-ECC. Hopefully, gallery online shortly by one of those people that took pics. Many fine entries. SATURDAY EVENING: My evening game was canceled as the gamemaster didn't make the con. Feh. Games that caught my eye: * FMA Sheep 3 - Again, Mr. DeBoe's report covers this in much better detail than I could. 1889, killer sheep, etc. * The Weight of Command - very ambitious. Two separate tables with different forces on each, with command orders being relayed from HQ, which was in a separate room and only receiving limited intel over linked computers (including, in fact, satellite photos of the thick urban terrain - the satellite being a digital camera picture taken by standing on a chair looking down on the table.) Limited communication between players, etc. Totally wish I was in on this one, looked totally cool. More description here: http://www.warpfish.com/gzgecc/gzgecc8/sched-sat3.shtml#TABLE6 SUNDAY MORNING: I woke up late! Haw haw. Games that caught my eye: * Alien vs. Predator - another fan favorite. Ruins, a ziggeraut, stealthy Aliens, cloaked Predators, hapless Marines, etc. * Full Thrust 1889 - Etherships battle on the surface of the sun, dodging solar flares! * The Bigger They Are... - DS2, in 15 mm, fighting an Ogre Mk. 3. Aw yeah. -P.