Thanks to all at GZG-ECC III

As a player, "Queen's Retort" was a highlight. Keith Watt's rules for fuel
consumption are excellent. The ship designs and background are great. If you
value my opinion at all (I know at least half the list has already stopped
reading. <g>) you have to play Solar Thrust. It's a

Thanks to Jon, Jerry, and Mark for all of their efforts to organize
GZG-ECC III.  I only get to about 8 cons a year, but GZG-ECC is the best
of the bunch. Your efforts ARE appreciated.

Thanks to Keith Watt, JP Fiset, Ted Arlauskas, Pat Muller for a great maiden
voyage of Ord Sarno Pod Racing. It was a fun game and I'm glad to have had
such enthusiastic participation for the first convention showing of the rules.
Thanks also for all the comments and suggestions regarding the rules. Thanks
also to everyone who complimented the terrain. I wanted Ord Sarno to look good
and that
set-up is about as good as my meager talents will allow.  Finally, yes,
to all who asked, I will be running Ord Sarno at GZG-ECC IV.  I'll buy
some more buildings and get some more terrain ready and see about getting a
slightly larger table. Of course, I'll bring more debris,
too. <g>

So after four hours of racing, what do I decide I want to do? Get 7 other
gaming nuts to play Carabande, or as Los put it, "Pog Racing." Thanks to all
who played. We never did get concensus on the difference between a "flick" and
a "push," but we know a "pull" when we see it.
<g>  Yes, again, to all who asked, I'm bringing Carabande to GZG-ECC
IV.  So Friday night will be filled with my Pod/Pog Racing double
header.

Saturday morning's game was a blast, as expected. Stuart Murray's "Umpire
Strikes Back" was excellent, and I can't thank him enough for his efforts.
Thanks to all who played in the scenario. I particularly enjoyed playing the
marine commander and I had a fun team with Sergeants "Boba" Frock and
"Friendly Fire" Lawrence each taking a squad. Thanks also to Jerry Han for
playing our poor cousins, the local militia.

As a player, "Queen's Retort" was a highlight. Keith Watt's rules for fuel
consumption are excellent. The ship designs and background are great. If you
value my opinion at all (I know at least half the list has already stopped
reading. <g>) you have to play Solar Thrust. It's a great deal of fun, and is
highly believable. Sorry, Jon, I would have liked to link up with you, but
with a Jovian juggernaut on my 6, I didn't have any choice. Congrats, Aaron
for the win. Not to take anything away, but it was only by one point. Still,
it was one more point than any one else was able to squeeze out of Keith's
diabolical victory conditions.

What can I say about the "Beer (aka Cheese) Game"? We had 10 guys playing and
about 15 different interpretations of the rules. However, after the game, we
were all still friends and went out for beer, mozarella sticks, and cheese
fries. As predicted, KR bought the beer. But I bought the cheese! <g>

"King of the Mountain" was a huge success thanks to Brian "Baby" Bell and his
minis. 4 of the 5 fleets in this "bring your own fleet" competition were
provided by Brian. It makes me wonder why he finished third. <g> At any rate,
JP Fiset, Lester Bell, Brian Bell, Dean Maki, and Bryon Gordon helped me
finish ECC in style with a spirited competition that saw everything from
Bryon's transfer craft being
abandoned in-system to Dean's core breach in the second to the last
turn. "Spite" was the word of the day as retreating ships fired upon the space
station to keep it out of the hands of JP. Thanks to all five of you for one
of the most fun FT games I've seen, as well as my first chance to run a FT
convention game that actually had people bother to show up! <g> Again, to all
who asked, I'm not sure if I'll be running KotM at
GZG-ECC IV.  I'm talking with another person about possible GMing
something together. I'm also considering a BYOF, but with a different
set-up.  I'll be running 2-3 games at GZG-ECC IV, not counting the
unofficial ones. Ord Sarno is one of them, KotM may or may not be. But thanks
for all of the interest in my games.

Thanks again to everybody at the con. It was the best weekend of
gaming I've had since GZG-ECC II and probably the best I'll have until
GZG-ECC IV.  Maybe the guys at Mardi Gras have a better time, I don't
know. It's hard imagine a better time than I had in Lancaster. OK, maybe it's
not so hard to imagine, but with ECC at least, I don't have to worry about my
wife seeing the pictures. <g>

-Mike

> "Davis, Jonathan E (CRD)" wrote:

> Uh oh! I just had a thought. Had I (the Martians) whacked any one

When you come in second by just one point, you tend to replay the scenario in
your mind a bit. When you have to drive home from the con, you have some time
to think. <g> I thought about that, too. I don't want to go into too much
detail, since Keith may want to run this scenario again some time. But if I
had to do things over again, I would have ignored the possibility of a
"diplomatic incident," and taken a bit more immediate action. <g> At any rate,
"Retort" was the best finish I've ever had in a game of Full Thrust, so I
can't complain. Coming in second by a single point, to a quality player like
Aaron isn't exactly a poor showing. I would have been ecstatic had I been able
to pull off a close second in any of my previous FT games, instead of the
usual outcome. I've gotten to the point where I now bring a bowling ball bag
to FT games. It helps when I have to carry my head back home. <g>

-Mike