From: Kenneth Winland <kwinland@c...>
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 13:03:09 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Toronto Trek: Success!
Toronto Trek 12 came and went! I would like to thank all of the players and
game masters who contributed to the success of the con.
Canada's largest non-profit sci-fi convention pulled more than 3,300
guests this year (they are still counting).
The gaming concourse was pretty packed. As for FT/DS/SG games,
they drew quite a crowd. The DSII game master could not make the con, and as
we alternates had devoted most of our time to setting up Full Thrust and
Stargrunt, we decided that Dirtside II wouldn't be run this year <sigh>.
However, interest in Full Thrust and Stargrunt *more* than made up for it!
Four Full Thrust games were run, two using Star Trek ships, and two using the
FT line of minis. The Klingons took it on th chin *twice*, with the Feds
taking heavy damage. In the other universe, it was a tie; The Neu Swabian
League had a brilliant victory on Saturday, but the Federal Stats Europa
inflicted some severe punishment on Sunday.
As always, Stargrunt II was a hit (second year running at Toronto Trek). Six
SGII games were run. Three of the smaller games involved platoons of the OUDF
(Australians) and PAU (Africans). Two games involved the Japanese and a Merc
platoon. No clear outcomes were seen between the OUDF and PAU. The scenarios
alternated betwen meeting engagements and
attack/defense. Most people picked up early on that This is Not
Warty-40,
and that marching out in the open and pushing for close combat translated into
unacceptably high casualties. The two games with the Japanese and
the Mercs offered no clear-cut victors; both scenarios were recon
platoon-sized meeting engagements, with both side taking/inflicting
gross casualties. In the end, perhaps the Mercs did better in both games, but
that is a shady judgment call.
And of course, in full Toronto Trek tradition, we had a company level assualt!
The forces invloved were the OUDF and FSE/PAU, controlled by 14
players. The game was played on a 10x4 foot surface. The OUDF was to assault
the starport, capturing it intact and minimilizing own losses. They had a
platoon of regular OUDF, a platoon of light NZ recon (Merc figs), and a
platoon of powered armour (NAC). In addition to the comapny command, they had
4 APCs, 2 infantry walkers, and 1 combat walker. The defenders had a bit
less...
On defense was an understrength platoon of PAU regulars led by a squad of
Legionnaires. They had been holding the starport for several days, and were
exhausted. Reinforcements came in the way of a full platoon of Legion
paratroops and a combat walker. The also had a sqaud of local colonists acting
as mounted infantry (converted Ral Partha Boer figs). A number of mines and
dummy counters were also available.
Five turns and five hours later, the defense was getting a rough
lesson in tactical set-up. The defenders had placed ALL of their mines
in the middle of the table, and a majority of their forces in woods and hard
cover scattered throughout their half of the board. Only TWO of their squads
were in the starport proper. The Aussie's powered armour took 60% casualties,
but they had punched a gaping whole in the defender's line. They also
destroyed the defenders company command squad and one of their platoon command
squads (OUCH!). The attackers also lost all of their walker units and a few
Kiwis from a recon squad. The defenders lost about 30% of their forces, and
were in the process of retreating back to the starport.
Sadly, had we started the game at 7pm rather than at 8:30pm, we could have
followed through to the conclusion. We stopped at 1:30am, the ultimate outcome
being obvious to most.
Thanks again to Geo-Hex for supplying many wonderful prizes! We
are planning more Full Thrust/Dirtside/Stargrunt events at Sci-Fi World
this September and, of course, at Pandemonium in January.
Hope to see you there!
Ken