Subject: [GZG-ECC] [FMAS] First CanAm (Trouble with Colonials) Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 20:32:57 -0500 From: "Barclay, Tom" Reply-To: gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu To: "'gzg-test@csua.berkeley.edu'" , "'gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu'" Aside:This convention was superb. Jon D and Indy are owed a lot by the participants. Especially when poor Prince Jerry couldn't make it down due to the abscense of papers to confirm he wasn't an illegal alien.... The Command Staff did an amazing job of organizing it, and Jon has secured us reasonable facility rates for the next three years. Three cheers for the Organizers! Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray! And three cheers for Geohex and BR Snasis... they were great vendors, both in terms of their loot and their attitudes! Cheers to you too guys! Aside 2.0: It took the Canadians 11 hours on the road (plus Adrian another 5+ today I imagine) to get home due to the Nor'Easter in force. A Jacknifed rig on I-81 near Frackville kept us in Pennsylvania for a long time. Picks of this situation will also be on my web page shortly. No regrets though, we all loved it and will be back! To the event itself: A brief AAR. A more complete one with 25 or so digital images shall be available as soon as I can get it together. Participants: Team Red Maple: "The" Jim Bell Adrian "The Queso King" Johnson Team Stars N Stripes: Bob "Magic" Makowsky Rick "Bulletproof" Rutherford David "Divine Wind" Raynes Chris "Laserlight" DeBoe Judges: Carlos Lourenco (Los) (also our Complex Constructor) Thomas Barclay (Tomb) (scenario constructor) Scenario: Fight between 2 forces in an urban complex (big mall/office). Board is roughly 3'x3'. Full of halways, rooms, and set dressing. Forces on the US side: three squads of infantry (4-5 men each) and a 2 man PA squad Forces on the Canadian side: three squads of infantry (4 guys each), 3 of which had a PA figure replacing an infantry figure Some of the squads had "reactivating" NCOs, some not. Typical equipment was body armour (D6 in most cases, D8 in some), AAR w GL, 3 HEDP grenades for the GL, 2 hand grenades (frag), 1 smoke grenade (usually each squad also had 1 squaddie with a SAW). Infantry moved 8", PA 12". Initiative was done in a Piquet-ish style (each figure had a card, and when your card came up, you acted). This was done for speed of play. There were also random event cards. The US forces had at least 2 plasma gun armed forces. Grenades, engineer charges, PA, and plasma guns could breach walls. Both teams entered from diagonal corners. Dummies and real objectives were scattered all over the map in rooms (counters). Flip the counter by getting within a couple of inches of it. Look at it, put it back upside down. Put an allegiance marker on it. The winner controlled most "actual" objectives at the game end time. The first couple of rounds saw movement to take positions to try to command two central longitudinal corridors. One was taken by the US, one was contested. It also saw the Canadian Engineer Cpl. Atkinson use a breaching charge to open a hole in a wall and open a whole new section of the complex to the Canadian forces (a third longitudinal axis of advance along the Canadian's left flank). Canadians raced in up their newly opened flank, with PA in the lead. They moved to the edge of the central (and contested) longitudinal corridor. The US forces moved to their end of the contested corridor, towards their far right flank (which would intersect the newly opened Canadian advance) and down the second main longitudinal corridor which they took. Unlike their Canadian counterparts, the Americans paid little or no attention to the objective/dummy markers. They went for containment. The Canadians used another breaching charge to secure a midpoint access to the central corridor to lay smoke. This covered their guys at the far end moving across towards the second longitudinal corridor and into a few middle-of-the-board rooms (to get to objective markers). Fire exchanges began to happen down the main corridor, rifles and grenades. Similarly, the US forces at the far end of the corridor they controlled were now in a position to take the Canadian advance directly under engagement at close range (a room with doors into both main corridors). Gunfight ensued. The first death in the game was the Canadian leader, Sgt. Adrian Johnson who brought into play the new mechanic of "Gruesome Death" as Sgt. Reynold's powered armour lobbed a grenade into his room blowing him into salsa. This salsa sprayed over the Canadian Medic. However, the medic, having seen entrails before, was unconcerned. (Note the funny part was that Chris (running himself and Sam's characters) and Adrian were both playing... and Adrian was not only the first kill, but he died very horribly - First Blood to team Stars N Stripes) In short order, Sgt. Makowsky's squad (Magic), pushed down the US right flank to an airlock to try to cuttoff the Canadian advance gained as a result of breaching. This was achieved, but it still left many markers in the hands of the Canadians. Sgt. Reynolds in his PA, entered the grenaded room (where he killed the Canadian Sgt. Johnson). He met several characters on overwatch including a Canadian PA figure and was wounded. He retreated to the corner of the room, but was slain by Canadian attacks shortly thereafter. Sgt. Raynes and his squad continued engagement with Canadians at the end of the their hallway... exchanging fire with Jim Bell's squad. More grenades rolled up and down the main contested corridor. Pop. Bang. Sgt. Rutherford advanced through the smoke in the central corridor to try to force things in the middle. The Canadians saw him from a room on his left whereas he was watching a doorway on the right. Out charged one suit of Canadian powered armour.... however Sgt. Rutherford had his Nikes on and ran wisely away. back through the fog shrouding the middle of the main corridor. The Canadian PA was fearful of moving unsupported out of the smoke on the other side, so returned to its blocking role. A grenade was rolled down the corridor, killing a member of Sgt. Rutherford's force (hiding behind a doorframe) (who turned out to be Pvt. Kochte - thus causing Jim Bell to cavort through the convention room shouting "I killed Indy!") though it ignored him (standing in the open). This proved to be typical of the night. Anyone with cover shifts pretty much died from grenades, those in the open lived. End of night total: people in the open: 6, hand grenades: 0. Three or four guys using doorframes or other hard cover died in the same blasts. The Canadian Pvt. Glover then moved to force the centre in return, crossing the smoke. He saw Sgt. Rutherford, and fired at him. Rick seemed rather bulletproof as he danced around the bursts... Sgt. Deboe saw Pvt. Glover and close assaulted him to get him off of Sgt. Rutherford. Chris had PA, Owen had wet trouser legs... Shortly thereafter, Owen was removed from the game. Mental note: PA in close combat is to be avoided.... On the Canadian left, Sgt. Johnson's guys were exchanging fire with Magic's guys. SOme of Rick Rutherford's forces moved to support magic, and a lucky grenade roll or two put the Canadians into suppressed/wounded states. Things looked dodgy for the Canucks on this flank. On the other Flank, Sgt. Bell had had enough of David Raynes and his buddies (like Pvt Sarno) putting shots in the general vicinity of his SAW gunner trying to cover the main corridor (ineffective attacks.... lots of ricochets and flying plaster). He ordered the Canadian PA blocking the main corridor to come out of his position, move back down the corridor a short distance and through the room connecting the two longitudinal corridors to put the boots to Mr. Raynes and his formation. Before that, a grenade started that process, killing Mr. Sarno. The Canadian PA rolled hot around and into the US squad and the lone remaining US defender (after the grenade) tried the "Divine Wind" manouvre, dropping a grenade at his own feet. Sadly, both the combatants were in the open, so the grenade (as was the norm) was ineffective. (Note, the prior grenade had ignored Sgt. Raynes in the open, but killed Mr. Sarno behind the doorframe) - apparently all grenades in 2183 seek out targets in cover. The Canadian PA then preceeded to "eliminate" Sgt. Raynes. Thus the US squad holding the secondary longitudinal corridor was gone, except for one laggard (whose card had been misplaced (ooops)). At this time, the Canadian position looked secure on the right flank, and weak on their left with Magic and Rick pushing. Then the Canadians got lucky and got a powerful random event - a traitor. The turncoat Cpl. Brian Bell (obviously with some distant relation to Jim Bell) pulled off his Star-Spangled Banner revealing a Maple Leaf! He turned on Cpl. Goodall with his SAW and proceeded to fire a belt of blanks.... (how do you miss at 2"? bad dice). He then fled to join the Canadians, changing the dynamic of that front somewhat and weakening the US team while strengthening the Canadian Team. The Canadian powered armour Sgt. Bell had ordered to destroy Sgt. Raynes squad noticed the lone US figure far down the secondary corridor and close assaulted. The US figure gave ineffective fire, then was most effectively torn to bits. Lesson: if you aren't wearing PA, don't let it get close to you. The game ended shortly after this with Team Red Maple in possession of 4 objective markers and Team Stars N Stripes in possession of 1. The referees declared it a decisive victory for Canada. The US players signed the Canadian players certificates (as did the refs) and the Canadians promised to frame them. There were plans for a repeat next year, and for an appropriate trophy to be evolved (something that can pass from hand to hand). The Canadians, for a period starting at the time of their victory, and until the end of next years event, will bear the title "King's Own CanAm Champions". Bear it with pride Gentlemen. It is an honour. (note the spelling...!) God Save The King! Analysis: 1) Smoke was used to good effect. As were grenades. The grenade type was assumed to be specific to indoor fighting, so had d12 impact and a 4" burst radius (little anti-terrorist grenades). 2) The Canadians used breaching to good advantage. The US never seemed to breach for some reason. The Canadians actually _stopped_ using it because they didn't want the US team to realize the ways they could cut off parts of the Canadian advance. (Jim said "I didn't want to give them any ideas...") 3) The Canadians went to the objectives early. Team Stars N Stripes had "containment/exterminate" as a mission focus, and didn't get people around to the objective markers. (There were 7, they'd have had to take at least 1 from the Canadian forces but two were in contestible areas). 4) Canadians had good luck on a key random event. 5) Piquet style of initiative kept the game flowing well. I suspect if we'd used normal side-to-side, the discussion over who moved next would have drawn the game out. 6) The Canadians fell back on their left flank too early in my opinion. Had they pushed a bit more, and got to the airlock, they might well have got to chuck grenades into the middle of 9 US figures to very nasty effect (except, with them all in the open, they'd have been fine, but that wasn't evident until the end of the night). 7) I'll have some suggestions for the playtest list on use of Grenades indoors (thanks to Adrian, Jim, Carlos and Magic), ranges of throws, effects, and close assault resolutions (and taking actions that are not "fight" while in close assault such as David attempting to drop a grenade at his feet to get both himself and Jim's PA). There will also be comments on indoor fighting generally, movement rates (most people felt 8" was too fast... 6" would have probably been better), etc. Generally, the game was felt (I believe) to flow okay and to not require too much record keeping. It was fairly straightforward. Good basic mechanics Sr. Tuffley, and the changes to how range bands are done were good. To make the game have the same movement proportions (say 6" std for inf) and armour values (we used D6, D8 for NAC/NSL figs and 2D6 for PA) as well as recognizable impact dice and "in positions/cover" rules means a very low learning curve for SG2 players. The players all seemed to pick up the game very quickly. 8) One card for each side got misplaced, so each side had 1 relatively static character. (D'oh) 9) Los: Great Complex man! Next year... bigger! (Or maybe several small ones (buildings) linked by open spaces... real city fighting....) 10) All of the participants were good sports. Thank you gentlemen. It was a pleasure to play with you all. 11) Pics are on my PC, but I need to name them, shrink them, and get a web page up with commentary. I'll post the URL when I get the chance. AARs for the other games I played in (Carnage Con Queso - the cheese game (SG2), Hot Spot (DS2), the FT CanAm (ouch...), Ord Sarno Pod racing, and two games of Formula De) will be forthcoming shortly.