From: Brian Bell <bkb@b...>
Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2001 09:15:51 -0500
Subject: GZGECC Fun Report
Greetings! GZGECC IV was GREAT FUN! I played in 4 events (see below) and ran one (post forthcomming). First Kudos to Jon Davis, Mark Kotche, Jerry Han! You again brought me the highlight of my gaming year. I drive 7.5 hours (8.5 this year due to construction) to get there and burn 4 vaction days on it and it is worth every bit of it. I was sorry to hear of Jerry's troubles that forced him to miss the con. This year the scheduling ended up slightly strange. A lot of the games filled up in preregistration. While this is great for the game judges running the games, it is a little difficult for attendees who just show up or like to choose at the time of the game. Perhapse we need more people to run some games? On to the observations: Friday Night: Ord Sarno Pod Racing by Mike Sarno (based on Star Wars Episode 1) FT Racing Variant This game was scedueled to hold up to 12, but Mike allowed additional players (14?). Execelent game (most fun of the games I played in). Everyone chose the type of pod racer they wanted (trade off of hull for engines). I choose a MD 12/10 Hull pod. This was about in the middle of the available choices, providing some protection and good maneuverability. I thought that a pod with a 3/3 side slip would be very usefull (and it was). Most of the field took slightly more hull and less engine. Jon Davis took the pole possition (mixture of engine speed and random roll for ties). I was in the second possition, but it was actually a better possition as I had a straight shot toward the first gate (Jon had to side-slip to hit it). There was much fun as the game progressed there were exclaimations as speeds kept rising thoughout the game. Mike had some excelent rules for emergency maneuvers (that allowed you to correct some mistakes and allowed speeds to rise even higher) that made would could have been tedius maneuvering very fun. I met my goal of completing 1 lap of the course (in 1st place even) before my control systems failed (due to damage) and I smashed into a rock at a speed of 64! Better (and more cautious) pilots finished the game (3 pilots out of 14?). Again, much fun. Saturday Morning: Operation Avalanche by Me FT/FB Vector Game AAR forthcomming. Saturday Afternoon: Hot Spot by Jon Davis DS2 This game was well put together. The time frame was just about right. The game ended in an easy judgement call. Setup: Set in the Renegade Legion (FASA) background the Renegade Legion (RL) had taken a processing plant on a world with a molten crust. The processing plant sat on an island of cooled magma. There were other such islands on the board (about 12 total?). These islands extended about 3" above the molten magma. The Terran Overloard Government (TOG) forces were using grav vehicles, so could move above the magma without fear, until they were immobilized, then they sank into the lava. The RL forces were represented by counters until they were scanned (12" range) or activated. The (glorious) TOG forces advanced in 2 waves up the trenches of molten magma. The (rebel scum) RL forces waited patiently for the best opprotunity to activate (kudos to the RL tactics and patience). One unit of TOG forces hopped up on the crust and attempted "recon by fire", unsuccessfully. The TOG forces moved up the trenchs straight into opprotunity fire by RL units popping out of the side of one of the crust plates. This wiped out 1/2 of one of the 8 TOG units. This affront was quickly and efficiently dealt with (all but 1 killed). However, the reprisal brought out another "pop-up" unit out of the crust with a firing lane to the reprising unit. Again about 1/2 of the unit was lost. The TOG carried the day due to darring on the part of the APC drivers. They jumped up on the crust, disgorged the infantry and hit the RL attack line, pinning them down so that the TOG tanks could hit them. The worrisome part for the TOG was that there was a whole other unit of RL that had not been placed on the board! The TOG kept expecting to be ambushed by pop-out possitions of RL forces. When the game was called, it was revealed that the other RL forces was just a ruse, meant to make the TOG units think that there were more RL forces available than there actually were. Again a very well run game and good fun. Saturday Night: Defense of Sol by Mark Kochte. FT/FB Cinematic movement game A good game, but like my game (Operation Avalanche), too big for the time slot. There were about 12 players, each with about an 1100 point forces of ships. The KV started on one corner of the table and tried, in part, to sweep a wing of the human forces. The Human forces were fairly built into a wall formation. Both sides closed. The Fighter forces from both sides met and the outcome left only a few fighters on the board. Forces contined to close. The Human and KV forces begain trading fire. The UN forces then revealed 2 new weapons: A GRAZER (Heavy Beam sytle weapon?) and an Antimatter Missile (24" range like salvo missiles, holming to nearest ship, 3d6 damage to ship hit, 1d6 to everything in 3mu radius, may not be targeted by PDS, disposable-3 shot, degraded by screens, mass 4). These were devistating to the KV forces which had no defense agianst them. The game was called when time ran out. Nominal victory to the Human forces. Sunday Morning: CanAm FT Game FT/FB vector, bring-your-own-fleet game. Good game with a planet and gravity well to add spice to the game. Both sides brought well designed fleets. Kudos to the Canadian team for a last minute fleet design and teaching players the game. Both sides started at the far ends of the table. The US forces brought a carrier force (cruisers and larger were all carriers) supported by destoryers and heavy frigates. They launched 25 fighter groups and began slow clockwise circumnavigation of the planet. The Canadian forces brout a beam and torpedo heavy force. They also started a clockwise move arround the planet. The Canadian fighter screen advanced on the US fighters to delay them. The US fighters engaged them 1 group to 1 group and the rest flew by and pounced on the trailing Canadian forces. The Canadian ship group had an excelent, but ultimatly futile ADFC screen. The fighter engagements went about 50/50 eventhough the Canadian players had some Hvy Interceptors. Most of the fighter groups continued the assault on the Canadian ships while just enough fighter groups fell out to tie up the remaining Canadian fighters (protecting the Human attack fighters). The lead Canadian group used the gravity of the planet to swing arround and engage some of the US ships at long range. This, however, left them open to a followup combined attack by the US fighter groups and salvo missile attacks from a line of 6 Walburg/Ms. Fire was traded for another turn, with the Canadian Pulse Torpedos comming into long range and scoring some hits. Time was called. The canadians had lost 2 Komorov SDNs and some destroyers to 1 Sufferen CL/V. The game was called in favor of the US forces. ---