RR's ECC6 AAR

Hi all,

I just re-subscribed after a year's hiatus... here's my after-action
report from the GZG East Coast Convention 6:

I drove up on Friday afternoon, and I was lucky to have started out early,
because the traffic got much worse as the day went on. Just after I left
the Baltimore area, the radio reported a seven-car pile-up, and later in
the evening I heard from Nick that there were a total of five different
accidents around Baltimore beltway. There were traffic accidents around
Harrisburg and York, and as I got close to Lancaster, I had to detour
around a jackknifed tractor-trailer that had closed the bridge over the
Susquehanna River.

Stuart Murray's Friday evening game "The Taxman Cometh" was great fun!. His
"cinematic Stargrunt" style was energetic as usual, and all the
different characters, plots, and sub-plots made for an exciting,
engaging game. And yes, Adrian Johnson really did get down on his knees and
propose to Chris Deboe! (In character, of course.)

Saturday morning, I went to the local farmer's market to get some bread and
cheese for the "Carnage Con Queso" game. I bought a wedge of Brie and a chunk
of Canadian goats' milk cheese, and I made sure to get some Wensleydale in
case any of the players were fans of Wallace and Gromit.
:)

Saturday afternoon, I ran the Carnage Con Queso game. I've put the scenario
description at the end of this email, because of its length. In short, there
were two sides, the Red Team and the Green Team, each of which was composed of
fast powered armor. The Green Team was less numerous, but they could call for
ortillery barrages that would land
0-2 turns later (arrival determined by a secret die-roll).

During the game, two of the Green Team players (Tom Barclay and Jesse Bigelow)
each called down an ortillery barrage, and then moved their squads into the
ortillery target area that they had nominated! The only reason Tom didn't get
hit was that he lost initiative on the following turn, and got wiped out by
Adrian's squad before the barrage landed. Jesse managed to leave in the nick
of time, and drew John Crimmins (from the Red Team) in after him, who then
proceeded to get pounded. Tony Finin called in a barrage right next to his
squad, knowing that he wouldn't be moving, and hoping that it wouldn't deviate
towards him! (Luckily for him, it
didn't.)

I thought I had come up with a balanced game, but halfway through the Red
team had taken over 3/4 of the map, and it was looking like they would
win handily. I was afraid that I had dreamed up an awful scenario and that the
game was going to end prematurely, but the tide turned and the game ended up
being a very close contest at the end.

Saturday evening I ran the painting workshop, and had a great time painting
figures with Jon Davis, Laurel Caldwell, Bill Spring, and two children (didn't
get their names) who were looking for something to do. Next year I'd like to
run it again, but change the time to Saturday morning so we can have more
daylight to paint by.

Sunday morning I played in the FMA Frag game, run by Mike Hudak, and it
was a good Sunday-morning game -- fast, fun, and lots of mayhem.

Overall, it was another excellent convention! Thanks very much to Jon, Mark
and Jerry for organizing everything and keeping it running!

**********************************************************
Carnage Con Queso

This scenario takes place on a planet that is in the process of being
terraformed. Each side will be using fast powered armor, because the terrain
and atmosphere on the planet are a hostile environment.

Due to the electrically charged atmosphere, all communication attempts made by
any squad are automatically considered to be "opposed" by the environment.
When a squad makes a communication roll, one of the opposing players should
roll a die of the same type to try to block the communication (just as if they
had an EW trooper).

Terrain The green "wooded" areas are dense clumps of tall grass that block
line-of-sight into or through the foliage.
Figures may enter the tall grass, but movement is halved inside the foliage.
Foliage provides soft cover to troops inside. If the base of a figure is on
the edge of the foliage, it can see and be seen from the outside. If the base
of a figure is inside the foliage template, it cannot see or be seen from the
outside. Players should specify where the troops are to avoid any confusion.
In some cases, the foliage template may be too narrow to hide a figure inside.

The blue "stream" areas are gullies about 1 meter deep, which contain a
genetically engineered soup of chemicals that promotes the formation of
healthy, fertile soil. Gullies provide hard cover to troops inside. If the a
figure is in a gully, it can see and be seen from the outside. Gullies have no
effect on movement when troops enter them, but it takes a full action to exit
them (they're sticky). Troops can only move 2" per action when walking down
the length of a gully.

Troops There are two different kinds of troops in this scenario: standard
riflemen and squad support weapons. The squad leader fights as a standard
rifleman. Each squad consists of one squad leader, three riflemen, and one
squad support weapon trooper.

The stats for the figures are: Troop Firepower Impact Armor Move Rifleman 3
d12 d12 12" Support Wpn d12 d12 d12 12"

Green Company The troops in green company are an elite force that is used to
working together as a team, and the command structure is looser than that of a
traditional force. Because of this, there is no platoon commander or company
commander. Instead, any squad leader may transfer one of his actions to
another squad during his activation, using the standard communication roll. If
successful, the other squad receives ONE extra ACTION (not activation).

Red Company The troops in red company are a veteran force of two platoons with
a traditional command structure, commanded by two platoon leaders. Any platoon
leader may transfer one of his actions to another squad during his activation,
using the standard communication roll. If successful, the other squad receives
ONE extra ACTION (not activation).

Victory The side that controls the largest number of green "wooded" foliage
templates is the winner. Control is determined by the presence of friendly
troops inside or close to the template.

Notes Everyone has excellent mobility and firepower, so choose your battles
carefully. Firefights will be quick and bloody.

> Rutherford wrote:

> Stuart Murray's Friday evening game "The Taxman Cometh" was great

Ah, is that where you disappeared to. Which farmer's market did you hit?

> Saturday evening I ran the painting workshop, and had a great time

Here! Here! And that'll give people who attend the opportunity to submit their
work into the painting contest and get feedback from the rest of the people at
the con (if they won, they done good, no?)

Mk

> On Mon, 24 Feb 2003, Indy wrote:

I'm not sure... it's an indoor market, about 2 blocks south(?) of the
hotel, near that central statue/monument in downtown Lancaster.

> Here! Here! And that'll give people who attend the opportunity to

Sure, but it usually takes me more than 4 hours to put together something that
has a chance of winning the contest.

> Rutherford wrote:

It's the one that Jerry and I would hit for convention donuts in previous
years before the hotel basically said we couldn't bring in our own food.