Mark Kochte writes:

Well, another year has gone by, and another great convention was had. Many
good quotes on the quote board from various games (and many more quotes that
never made it onto the board). I'm working on transcribing now, so we should
have that posted to the GZG ECC website in the coming days.

A lot of good games were played, and a goodly number of people were present -
iirc, Jon Davis said we hit 50 attendees this year (our second highest
attendance, I believe). There were many people who were originally coming then
had to cancel. Their presence was missed. Likewise those who had come in the
past but who were unable to attend this year. Next year we hope everyone will
be there - it'll be our 10th ECC, after all!

I'll let others relay their experiences and their games. I ran two games this
weekend: a DS3 Demo game (co-run with John Lerchey; was an NSL tank company
going against a K'V armour talon) and an FMAS SF- Crossover style game (based
in the Stargate universe, complete with Jaffa and SG-15, but also
stormtroopers, Jedi Knights, EarthForce GROPOs, NAC Ghurkas, terminators, and
Aliens made an appearance - all in 15mm). Got to play in no less than *three*
FT games over the weekend!  (okay, one was an EarthForce SourceBook game -
still FT in nature :-) ).I managed to not lose *all* my ships. And even hit a
few times (though wait for the quote board; some of it was...sad ;-) ). The
first FT game I couldn't hit the broadside of a barn from the inside. The
second game (EFSB) I was the Interstellar Alliance leading an interstellar
collection of ships (Narn, Brakiri, Drazi, Minbari, Earth Force), piloting the
Victory-class "Excalibur" accompanied by two White Stars, to tell an
apparently left-behind First One (the "Zog!" guys) to cease and desist random
commerce raiding and whatnot. We met it in hyperspace. Naturally it didn't
listen and the "Excalibur" got hammered on turn one by two electrical
discharges. The "Ex" spent the rest of the game trying to come about (took an
engine hit; no DC rolls in this game) to properly engage the First One ship
while it systematically neutralized or all but destroyed the rest of the
fleet. There were, of course, multiple complications to this scenario (such as
a non-hyperspace bubble appearing with an asteroid field within that the
Minbari had extreme interest in protecting for their own devices, or such as
the EarthForce sending boarding parties onto the First One ship to cut out and
escape with some advanced tech), but in the end we managed to deteat the First
One ship (cost both of my White Stars, each snuffed out one turn after another
by single electrical discharges from the Zog vessel).

In the final FT game I played there was a space station orbiting close to a
black hole. Our respective fleets were assigned to maneuver in close to the
station (without getting sucked into the black hole - we were playing
cinematic with gravity effects), take control of said station, or barring that
download the info on said station, or barring that prevent anyone else from
getting to the station, or barring that destroy the station. Well, first blood
was drawn against my NAC force (1xBB, 1xCA, 2xCL) by the UNSC who looked an
awful lot like an ESU fleet (mainly because the player and GM had no UNSC
ships for that fleet; still, didn't help matters any for the NAC). No other
reason that I can figure other than to do it. John Lerchey was playing an NSL
fleet and moved in to help me thump back. Once he did some damage to the UNSC,
he decided to turn and "not" fire at the IJN being run by Don. So he and Dan
exchanged fire, Scott and I exchanged fire, and the other two guys squeezed
into the small space around the station (Don did, too, and managed to get a
boarding party onto the station before his ship was destroyed). The game ended
not too long after that. It was fun, but it was a little complicated, as there
were three gravity bands that the black hole sucking effects were felt, and in
the inner two range bands you lost either one or two turns every time you were
in said gravity well band. While your turn was lost, you could take fire, but
damage was deferred until you could activate your ship again. It made for some
confusion trying to keep straight who was active when. But we managed. :-)

In the DS3 Demo, the objective (for the NSL) was to retain a hill near the
center of the table (the K'V, obviously, were to take said hill). The humans
didn't have an altogether awesome time of it, getting smacked around hard and
getting more than their share of unfortunate die rolls (one group of NSL MBTs
went Shaken, recovered, immediately went Shaken again; never fired a shot).
The K'V really overran the humans for a while, but then started going Ro'Kah
from platoons taking casualties, and they REALLY started overrunning the
humans! But then, on the last turn, they started breaking, which caused more
stress to build up on other units, which failed their activation rolls,
causing them to break, causing more stress to build up on other units - etc,
etc. It was a cascade failure of Ro'Kah units suddenly breaking and running,
leaving behind the K'V command platoon - who suddenly went Ro'Kah! Go figure.

The FMAS game (15mm) I ran used the 2004 playtest rules, so plays a bit
differently than the 2001 rules. The premise was that SG-15 was sent to
P4X-636 (do a google search for background info on this planet) to search for
and bring back any advanced technologies they might find not destroyed by the
Ancients (or the former inhabitants). Lord Ball had gotten wind of SG Commands
intentions, and sent a force of Jaffa to deter (or, that is, detain,
neutralize, eliminate, whatever) any SG teams that showed up. In the meantime,
as the multiverse spins, an imperial shuttle landed on the far side of the
lake from the Jaffa (who presumed it was a new ship of Lord Ball's, for
certainly the Tau'Ri had nothing like that!), hunting some fugitive Jedi
Knights they had been tracking for half a galaxy. At nearly the same time, a
squad of New Anglian Ghurkas, who were sent to this planet to search for
survivors of what was obviously a Kra'Vak attack, heard a noise coming from
near a large circular artifact (just outside of their LOS), and saw a team of
armed humans looking obviously military in nature walk away from it. While
this was going on, a squad of EarthForce GROPOs were picking their way through
the rubble of the ruined city, not far from the Ghurkas and SG-15. A few
blocks away, two Terminators stepped around the corner of rubble and began
cautiously moving through the broken city, looking for humans to eliminate.

The SG-15 team moved into the city, while the Jaffa began making their
appearance from around a hill (having heard the Chappa'i activate; it must be
the Tau'Ri), running headlong into weapons fire from the Ghurkas. The Jaffa,
upon losing two of their own (took a while; the Ghurkas weren't the crack
shots they thought they were), the remaining Jaffa dashed to the cover of a
ruined building at the edge of the city.

The GROPOs, hearing gunfire, began trotting through the wreckage of the city.
Unfortunately for Lt Kyle, being point man, he came under the sights of the
Terminators, one of which instantly blew his body to pieces in front of his
squad. This caught two other GROPOs moving in the open in LOS of the
Terminators, but suddenly an Alien jumped a Terminator, ripping off an arm in
the process (the Terminator would kill this Alien next round). The
stormtroopers and their accompanying Imperial Black Ops guys (basically
stormtroopers who had adequate weapons training) moved off seeking the Jedi.
The Jedi finally decided to stop humming contentedly (i.e., hide) and moved to
engage the stormtroopers. Long story short, one of the Jedi ran into and
engaged the Imperial Black Ops officer in Close Combat, wounding him but not
killing him. One of the storntroopers got gutsy (or stupid) and decided to
fire into the Close Combat melee - and managed to actually HIT the Jedi in the
process! Emboldened by this, another s'trooper also fired into the melee - and
he also hit the Jedi, killing him! A dark day for the Jedi and the Force,
indeed. The remaining Jedi decided these apparent 'super' s'troopers had the
advantage of terrain and pulled back fast, to seek better tactical advantage.

While this was going on, the Ghurkas and Jaffa exchanged some weapons fire,
then suddenly Aliens appeared and began moving in on the Jaffa position at the
edge of the city. The Jaffa decided to ignore the largely ineffective Ghurkas
and turned their attentions on shooting up the Aliens. They managed to
ultimately kill three of the things, one of them in Close Combat.

The Terminators attempted to kill off more GROPOS, but succeeded in only
wounding one of them. SG-15 got themselves to a building and encountered some
face-huggers. They eventually beat them off and backed out of the building
with the Eggs (they tried to spray the Eggs with weapons fire, but it was
ineffective). They decided this was too much and it was time to retreat. One
member dashed over to the DHD and activated the gate - he was then cut down
hard by a Terminator from two blocks away. One of the SG team saw the bright
shiney Termy and opened up on it with his P90 - and succeeded in scoring a
kill! But as Termies are extra tough, I declared that the damage done was
worth two Wounds - a normal kill for most figures, Terminators take 3 to die -
and that the Termy was still alive, but hurting badly. The SG team took that
as a victory and began to retreat in the face of superior firepower (or aliens
they really weren't prepared to take on). They managed to getthrough the
Stargate, and have two of the Ghurka join them.

While this was happening, the GROPOs were having problems of their own. The
squad leader was Shaken badly, and couldn't catch his nerve. He suddenly broke
and ran back the direction the squad had just come. He was promptly grabbed
and pulled into a window by an Alien, and...well, you can figure the rest. The
rest of the GROPOs tried to beat feet in the opposite direction, but then
Aliens started coming out of the building after them. They managed to kill one
and wound another before the game ended. It is unlikely, though, that they
would have survived against the Aliens alone, and the Ghurkas and SG-15 had
already left the field (the remaining Ghurkas dashed off into the hills, met
the Jedi, and dragged him along).

The stormtroopers divided up into two groups. One to try and chase down the
remaining Jedi (they would never catch him), and the other to drag the body of
the dead Jedi back to the shuttle - and strap it onto the hood!! (what, were
these stormtroopers Reavers or something?!?).

Speaking of, I need to track down the Serenity crew and reavers in 15mm. For
possibly next year...  ;-)

We ended the game at this point so people could get going home for the
weekend.

All in all, good con, good and memorable games. Sorry the rest of you guys
weren't able to make it. Next year?