WCC Aftercon Report

Now that I've had a few hours sleep, I can be slightly more coherent wh en
writing my aftercon report.  I got to the hotel around six-thirty and
met Bob Bantley, creater of the Bug Bead Ships (and ultimately winner of the
WCC Figure Painting Contest, Full Thrust Division) and his minions, his son
Robert and his sons friend Alex. We chatted for a bit until Ted and Mike came
back from a food run. When they got back, we decided to play Mikes FMA Aliens
game. Bob, Ted, and I split the squad amoungst us and went to town. The firs t
couple of turns went pretty well, the Aliens appearing a distance from the
Marines, allowing Drake and Vasquez to gun them down like the alien scum they
were. Sadly, though, all good things must come to an end, and that included
our heroes. More and more bugs showed up, and despite all the marines effort,
started close assaulting. Aliens vs human in close combat was pretty much a
foregone conclusion, and the humans died messily. At least those that weren't
captured to provide hosts for the new aliens. The game was a great deal of
fun, and made an FMA convert of Bob, who earlier expressed doubts about grond
combat games. The Aliens were just *ugly* in close combat, and Vasquez
deserved a medal for her shooting, nailing two or three (after being
reactivated by Apone) Aliens per turn. Later the Bay Area Stargrunt Guild [1]
showed up and put together a big Human vs Beastmen Stargrunt game. The
Beastmen were attacking a small human outpost, while another human force
attempted to relieve it. I commanded a human engineer platoon in this game. It
was a pretty big game, with about a company on either side. This was a long
game that petered out around one or two in the morning, with the consensus
that the humans were in a very bad position vis a vis the cookpot. The next
morning I came in and both Johns were in settting up the "smal
l"
[2] 12,000 pt Kra'Vak vs Human game, so I got in on it.  Thrust [3] into
command of an NAC CA squadron, supported by a DN, and the CV element.
Unfortunately for my crews, I lost my head completely and went into the teeth
of the KV right with my cruisers, 13 fighter squadrons, and dreadnaught
(leaving the carriers behind was a good move, though). A couple of turns
later, the fighters were quickly expanding globes of gas and I
found out what K-guns do to cruisers.  *Owwww*.  I lost two CA's in
short order and near crippling damage to a third. On the up side I was through
the line and moving to attack the rear of their center element. The only good
luck the NAC got in the game was when one of the KV ships drove into an
asteroid, and several others were sideswiped by the two asteroids. That, if
nothing else, was gratifying. Mark Reidl and his friend (who's name escapes
me) were playing a FT gam e on the next table. Evidently the Space Com...err,
ESU were doing well, or at least that's what they were telling the Sa'Vasku
(complete with really bad Russian accent). After the FT game(s), Mike ran a
15mm Stargrunt game. Federation force s
attack rebel scum.   Run on two seperate tables Seans mission was to
capture the rebels Supreme Commander, while Ted and I were to capture the star
port. Sean succeeded spectacularly with his mission, though Ted and I only
managed a draw. While this was going on, John Fox ran his convoy escort game,
which looked interesting. James, Sean and Keith ran the Human vs Bugs
Stargrunt game, which looke d very nice, lots of rubber bugs and Tyranids.
This was also a fairly long game that I wasn't involved in, but it was fun
wandering over and seeing how it was going. That's about it. I had a great
time, and thanks again to Ted and the sponsors. I had a great time and I'll be
running a game next year. Maybe
I'll win one outright. :-)