Notes and ramblings about GZG-ECC IV

Thought I'd add my two cents into the mix on ECC IV this weekend. I had a lot
of fun, and am already looking forward to next year (As I was after only
playing one game at ECC III on the friday night.)

First off, many thanks to everyone who made this possible, from the
organizers, to the vendors, to the referees, and the players themselves. The
camaraderie was more fun than the games themselves and it was a great delight
for me to put faces to the name I always see on the list (Even though those
same people were usually gunning for my units.....)) Thank you all for a fun
weekend.

And as a side note from me: Anyone that can find an extra copy of More Thrust,
please let me know. Thank you.

On to the events:

Friday Night: Friday Night Fire Fight

My first experience with Stargrunt, and what an experience it was! Terrain and
figures were excellent. I couldn't believe figures that small could be painted
that well! Definitely fun to see.

Unfortunately, my troops were not long to see on the board, as due to HORRIBLE
dice rolls, many atrocities befell them (as well as them creating a few
atrocities of their own.) Stuart felt sorry for me and kept giving me new toys
to play with, which were promptly turned into funeral pyres with catastrophic
results. (Two scout tanks were destroyed before I ever had a chance to
activate them, as well as a mig that was blown out of the sky by ADA fire. The
two napalm bombs that detonated in our rear area were not
appreciated.....)

But the most fun was the APC that was air dropped right in front of my right
flank unit..... (Not to mention one that was dropped almost on top of our side
commander, but that's another story....)

I had a tank buster missile (Can't remember exactly what type) which my unit
promptly fired at the APC as a way to say hello.

The missile completely failed to neutralize the APC. But it did have a nice
effect.....

Note to self: Civilians in the field of fire are very vulnerable to exhaust
gasses from anti tank missiles.......

The backblast from the missile fried a woman and child in front of my unit.
(The squad leader didn't worry too much about them at the time.) The unit felt
bad about this unfortunate occurance but agreed to stay and worry about the
APC. (They made their morale roll)

Unfortuntely, the news crew took great delight at filming the cremation
ceremony. They promptly took the footage they just filmed and uploaded it to
the city population. Needless to say, the city population was not pleased and
promptly rioted against my unit. Well, being armed with fists and rocks, and
my troops with automatic weapons, the mob lasted one activation and was
decimated, all in front of the cameras. And, my troops liked killing civilians
so much, (failed morale roll), they went on a rampage and killed any civilian
they could find in the city, much to the delight of the news crew that
continued to gain footage, and for some reason I could not shoot at. (I guess
my troops all wanted copies of the footage for their kids....)

Note to self: News Crews are EVIL and should be destroyed on first sight, with
extreme prejudice, as our highest priority.

Ok, the rest of my notes will be much shorter.

Sat AM: Carnage con Queso.

Lots of fun. Mike Sarno did a great job of pumping everyone up for this ahead
of time with a separate list to trade in game barbs with. It was a bring your
own squad game, and we had quite a variety of squads:

Nuns with Guns: (My unit) Ben Kenobi and his Harem Ghurkas Power armor Grunts
News Crew with Vehicle

Most minis had very high quality paint jobs and were a delight to behold.
(Mine needed some work....) The terrain was excellent with lots of hills,
buildings (Starport), caves, and places to hide.

We were all spread out, and had to acquire cheese crates that were
sporadically left on the board. So, maneuver was key. At the beginning of the
game, Ben Kenobi's harem and the Ghurkas ran out in the open to go after
cheese crates. One small arms fire and one artillery blast (Courtesy of a
cheese card) and half of the harem and half of the ghurkas were going after
cheese.....

It was cat and mouse after that... Highlights:

The PA stomping the daylights out of the grunts in close combat.... The no
fighting zones of the starport and med tent.... The 'my guys don't have guns'
of the news crew, who proceeded to clean up with cheese and drive it off
board.... The realization of everyone that the news crew had too much cheese,
and the subsequent chase.... The 'unarmed' newscrew popping the PA, killing
one and wounding another (with some help from a cheese card....) The final
close assault rush of the nuns against the ghurkas and news crew hiding in the
med tent..... (Nuns were decimated to one man, with the news crew even killing
a
nun....)

(Remember my previous note about Newscrews?  ;-))

All praise to the news crew.... The current Queso King

Sat Afternoon:

The game I was in was cancelled, but I got in a full thrust (Vector) game.
This was my first time with vector, and took me a bit to get used to it (As
noted by pointing my main gun in the opposite way of where it was intended, by
failing to overshoot the craft I was approaching.) It was a variation of 'hunt
the convoy' and was quite entertaining.

Sat PM: Defense of Sol.

The big Human vs Kravak full thrust game. Highly entertaining. The Kravak did
some early damage from range, but the fun occurred in the middle, where the
big scrum when the two fleets passed each other took place. Lots of carnage
given and taken on each side. As the two fleets split, we were running late on
time and decided to call the game. The humans were awarded the game, but with
more time, it could easily have gone the other way. Had some neat weapons from
the UN units that were played, and a fun time was had by all.

Sun AM: Sundiver

Another Full Thrust vector game, where we were defending a research base at
the edge of a gravitational field of a star. If you got gravitationally pulled
off the left edge of the table, you were incinerated in the star.
 I
learned some of the drawbacks of salvo missiles as mine were eliminated almost
to a missile (I think one survived out of about 36) by Area Defense. But the
game ended with quite a contingent of the attacking force being sucked into
the star, Indy's dreadnought holding on for dear life at the edge of the
gravity field, and EVERY defending ship pounding on it as well as they could.
We ended up creating a mini star at the edge of the research base.

Thanks everyone for the fun time this weekend. All best wishes to those who
travelled in the horrendous weather that came up as Sunday came to a close.
Hope you all made it home safe.