After Action Report - Tom Barclay Team Ottawa (JP, Jim, Tom and TomB) returned to
Ottawa @ 2300 hrs after an uneventful good weather drive. Border was a no-latex
crossing.

Friday: JP and Jim drove us down through some rain and a wee bit of freezing
conditions, but didn't impede us much. Hit Lancaster around 1630-1700 hrs.

FRIDAY NIGHT: Routing The Imperials on Tanoose GM: Mark Kinsey  GAME: SG2  SETTING:
Traveller (Classic) Synopsis:

The Tanoose Freedom League and convince some of their Sword World allies, perhaps
with some Zhodani meddling, that their prior actions against the Imperium have been
quite successful and this merits a direct action to evict the Imperial forces. The
Sword Worlder's contribute a platoon of good infantry with grav APCs, a couple of
grav tanks, a grav AA platform, and two armed open-topped air rafts to support the
local TFL forces (with a variety of civilian trucks and such and a mismatch of
weaponry) whose major contribution would be inciting the Startown locals.

The Swordies were driving on the Starport and the scenario focused on the vangaurd
who were trying to punch a whole through Startown to the Starport perimeter and
destroy dangerous Imperial anti-armour assets before a second company of Swordies
joined the drive into the port itself (after this game's expiry). So the Sword World
forces were to engage and destroy Imperial and Vilisan armour and anti-armour
artillery.

On the other side, the Imperial supported Vilisan collaborationist government had a
variety of anti-armour weapons, some turncoat local troops, a fair few well equipped
Imperial-backed mercenaries (apparently the Imperium fear committing their own
military forces) with a grav tank, an air raft, a wheeled APC and a wheeled FSV.

The Sword World's Commanders along with their Tanoose allies planned to play to
their mobile force's strengths, sailing in through Startown at high speed to seize
control of portions of the Startown perimeter road which the Imperial lackeys would
need to deploy upon.

The fast, high-flight capable grav units raced across the shanty town. The two air
rafts were dispatched to support the local crowd of patriots against the quisling
police riot troops (the police would find out that heavy weapons are their reward
for treachery against the cause of Tanoose). The local troops and their motley
assortment of vehicles were dispatched through startown up one flank to provide
cover for the flank of the deep strike by the Sword World grav force and to help put
the police to flight. If they could kill some Mercenaries or Vilisan troops, that
was a bonus.

The Imperial wheeled forces rolled in from the Starport fence and along the
perimeter road. They also had anti-armour assets (tripod GMS, plasma gun, and so on)
launchers in building along the Startown road. Their grav tank and air raft made
good use of building cover to advance to meet to the Swordies from Gram.

The Swordies scored first blood, blowing up a Vilisan APC (South African Rattel
model) with one of their Grav tanks. They tried to use the local buildings as cover
and to get the grav infantry up in support, but the Imperials were canny and managed
to blow up one of the Swordie grav tanks with a massive blast from a plasma gun.

The Gram infantry pushed into the middle of the Starport perimeter road, opening
fire on the emplaced AT weapons on rooftops and in buldings and firing the AA RFAC/2
at the Imperial Mercenary's wheeled vehicles. This gutted the mercenary APC and the
Mercenary FSV began to hammer at the Swordie APCs while the Imperial Grav tank
pulled back to avoid the remaining Gram grav tank. Local Tanoose Freedom League
forces started to fire upon some of the mercenaries and the police.

The Swordie commanders, both being strongly in favour of using armoured forces
decisively, pushed the attack. The remaining grav tank sped into the middle of the
enemy positions, lifting over a 2 storey house to arrive. One good shot from its
main gun blew the Imperial grav tank to scrap metal. Meanwhile, the counterfire from
enemy tripod AT weapons and the wheeled FSV should reasonably have cost the Sword
Worlder's up to half of their grav APCs and embarked infantry, but none of the
attacks penetrated (they build them well on Gram). In return, the grav APCs cannons
hammered several groups of forces including the Mercenaries FSV and some of their
emplaced infantry. The Grav air rafts ("the Rat Patrol") popped out from behind a
burning building and decimated the local riot police. Another Rattel died from APC
fire.

At this juncture, the writing was on the wall. The troops from Gram had started
deploying into buildings preparing to close assault remaining mercenary or Vilisan
holdouts. The Mercenaries had no armed vehicles (their unarmed air raft should have
been fleeing) and the remaining Gram grav tank was using its main gun to blow apart
the top floor and roof of buildings where enemy tripod AT assets existed. In a short
period of time, had the Imperial client units not fled, they would all have been
dead at a very low cost to the Sword Worlders.

Final Tally

Imperium: - Lost Startown, path to Starport perimeter cleared for Sword World's
invasion. - Mercenaries from the Broadsword: All vehicles but air raft destroyed. At
least one squad of troops damaged, but with no ride or fire support, and an entire
platoon of TFL with two armed air rafts in supports descending upon them, they would
have had to flee or else die in place. - Vilisan Troops: Most Rattels destroyed,
some infantry destroyed, all AT assets either destroyed or shortly to be destroyed
with little chance of doing anything except perhaps allowing the crews to flee.
Essentially combat ineffective as anything but foot infantry and not much of a
threat to the armoured Swordies. - Vehicle Losses: 1 tank, 2-3 Vilisan APCs, 1
Mercenary APC, 1 Mercenary FSV (also tripod AT weapons)

Sword Worlders and Tanoose Freedom League: - A few casualties fighting the police
for the TFL (but not many, and they liberated some new captured weapons) - One lost
grav tank (not ideal, but war is hell) - Probably some injured infantry, but not
many (projecting out the close assaults that were about to go down after game end) -
Tactical success in forcing through a route to the Starport and neutralizing enemy
AT assets while sustaining minimal losses (no lost APCs, did not lose AA platform,
only lost 1 tank, did not lose air rafts)

Outcome: I'd have to call this a decisive Imperial Victory.

However, I think the TFL and the Swordies had real advantages - first initiative,
taken boldly, with 4d12 worth of combat movement capable of flying over building or
between them, on a 72" long board.... that led to us (Stuart and me) gaining
decisive board position early and leaving the Imperials very little cover, room to
manouver, and giving us good lanes of fire on some of their entry points. Our TFL
allies (Greg Davis) kept the police busy, put some fire on the merecenaries, and
helped get some of the locals moving as a distraction and flank cover.

Our enemies, Meagan (sp?), Kieth, and Bob "Magic" Makowsky (a hard working man,
working at the Con while gaming) did their best with the small area of geography
they were allowed and with the pre-set fixed positions for the AT artillery (not
forward deployed into Startown). They needed two heavily armed grav vehicles to have
a mutually supporting element and didn't have that, thus their one tank was at risk
from the two Gram grav tanks and the AA platform's RFAC/2 (remember, all dice have
low numbers...).

Tactically, the Swordie op plan was correct, even if Stuart thought he came up with
it (*grin*). Speed and violence, move fast, take the key positions, use cover as
well as you can, keep units in mutual supporting distance, don't let armour outpace
its infantry, use vehicle fire support to cover infantry assaults on positions, etc.
Just like the manual would say. The Imperials were put immediately into a reactive
mode and onto the defensive from when they showed up on the board.

Bob did try to be as offensive in counterattack as he could, but he just didn't have
the resources to buckle our attack. Meagan fought on gallantly to try to make the
Swordies pay, but Stuart's armour was excellent in its good luck --- lots of rounds
that could have went into loaded grav APCs bounced. Sword World's paint is tough
stuff.

In the end, I don't envy the situation we put Meagan and Bob and Keith into. They
had little place to hide, not a big enough hammer to hit us with, and no strategic
depth.

Once again, thanks to Mark Kinsey for a picturesque and fun game. Thanks to my foes
for a good effort in a tough spot. Thanks to my allies for great support. Thanks to
Stewart for being Stewart. A great game.

And once again, the forces imposing Imperial military and political interference in
the affairs of sovereign worlds is beaten back by the honourable Sword Worlders and
their Tanoose Freedom League allies.

FREE TANOOSE!

SATURDAY MORNING 0900 Operation Galahad: Communications Difficulties

http://www.warpfish.com/gzgecc/gzgecc12/sched-sat1.shtml#TABLE6

4 Players lined up to lead the 22nd SAS (4 sections) and their attached Gurkhas
section in a quiet raid on an ESU communications center on Lancelot to try to
capture key communications codes and force compositions of the defenders.

Mike Hudak - SAS Command Section (CO, Pl Sgt, EW Op, 2 cas-aids, sniper team) SAS
squad 1 - Tom Ball SAS squad 2 - Randy Stoda SAS squad 3 - (blankness - help?)
Gurkha squad - Bob Makowsky (still working hard)

ESU - GM

Team snuck on the board, using terrain and some cautious movement (and some luck) to
avoid being fully spotted by ESU patrols early. They discovered ESU patrols to their
front and rear. They did eventually alert to separate ESU squads, but only to the
point where they went to take a closer look (aka 'to get ambushed by silenced
weapons and eliminated'). During this early action, a prisoner was taken giving
enemy strength at around 40.

During the advance, one of the sensor clusters on the base eventually spotted the
gunfire from an SAS squad and opened fire (ineffectually). Other turrets opened up
on SAS and Gurkhas in the woods, generating some suppression and a wound or two, but
not getting much traction.

The SAS responded with showers of IAVR/GMS systems, breaking through hostile jamming
to destroy most of the facilities weapon turrets. A close assault by one of the SAS
squads took one quadrant of the building complex.

About the same time, the ESU was engaging with two squads of infantry, a squad of
commisars with dogs, and a fireteam of PA was making its way into one of the
quadrants to engage the NAC invaders.

The NAC forces continued to push their attack, with the Gurkhas storming the comm
tower, capturing the comm techs, and beginning 'active persuasion'. The Geneva
Convention was apparently never translated into Nepalese.

A quotable quote that probably never made the quote board, from Bob Makowsky (Gurkha
leader to comm tech #2) (while holding up the severed family jewels from comm tech
#1):

"You can give us all of your comm codes and you can call orbit and tell them
everything is fine or you can get what he (comm tech #1) got..."

This tac proved instantly effective in persuading the comm tech to give up useful
intel..

The ESU powered armour fireteam prepared to storm the comm center from the next
quadrant, but the Gurkhas threw a demolition charge into that quadrant, blowing it
down and killing all 4 members of the ESU PA fireteam.

A second ESU PA fireteam closed with another entrance to get behind the SAS squad
that had entered. The SAS saw them coming and planned a cunning trap - they fired
their rifles wildly at the PA to attract their attention, then fled into the
building, drawing the SAS in after them, leaving a demo charge in the quadrant as
they fled to the next quadrant. BOOM. Another quadrant destroyed, 4 more ESU PA
dead.

By this point, any remaining ESU squads were leaderless (commissars had been killed
or captured by two SAS fireteams) and the remaining squads were still separated
returning from patrol. So they held back and decided to let the NAC alone (bugging
them seemed to get you dead).

The SAS and the Gurkhas recognized their peril and revectored their evac bird to
land out front of the partly demolished complex, in a debris laden field.
Unfortunately, this proved terminal to the VTOL's engine systems (Mike Hudak rolled
double 1's....) and the VTOL crew became foot infantry.

End Result: SAS major victory (strategic) and minor victory (tactical). It's a major
victory because they captured some officers and NCOs and techs, captured log books
and signal intel, captured unit intelligence, and demolished the facility. They did
this taking no more than 2-3 wounded, maybe 1 dead and inflicting at least three
infantry squad's worth of casualties and one PA squad's worth of PA casualties. It's
only a tactical minor victory because they did destroy some additional intelligence
they could have captured (when blowing up the PA to forestall close assault) and
because they'll have to walk out (using E&E training) or hold out to wait for
another ride, which means fighting more ESU ground units and any further
reinforcements.

An excellent job by the players, some inventive (and sound) tactics, and some funny
moments (the VTOL crash, Bob's highly effective interrogation style, etc). Thanks to
all my players.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON http://www.warpfish.com/gzgecc/gzgecc12/sched-sat2.shtml#TABLE4

Players Ron Leonard - ESU 57th Division Tom Ball - ESU 57th Division Kevin Chase -
NAC/NSL Randy Stoda - NAC/NSL Bob Makowsky - ESU 57th Division Mystery Player 6 -
NAC/NSL (Anyone knows who was who a bit more precisely - I know by face, but I'm bad
with names - please clue me in....)

Rules: DS3 (the bits I understand so far.... with help from John L)

ESU Forces 4 Groups of: 1 AD element - AA sensor platform vehicle, AA artillery 2 x
HEL 1 tracked MBT element - 3 x MBT Size 3, HKP/3 1 tracked APC element - 3 x APC
Size 3, GMS/L, RFAC/1 3 infantry elements (57th Combined Division) ALSO: 4 Coastal
Defense Turrets (size class 7, armour 8, HVC/5, HEL/2)

NAC forces: 2 wheeled APC elements - 4 x HMW APC, GMS, RFAC/1 1 wheeled FSV element
- 3 x HMW FSV, HKP/3 1 wheeled AA element - 2 x HMW AA platform, 2 x HEL/2 1 wheeled
TD element = 2 x HMW AT, dual GMS/L 8 infantry elements (Royal Scots Borderers) 1
boxcar 'battle taxi' VTOL element = 4 x VTOL, unarmed 4 airmobile infantry
(Parachute Regiment)

NSL forces: 2 GEV MBT elements - 4x size 3 light GEV MBT, HKP/4 2 GEV APC elements -
4x size 3 light GEV APC, DFFG/1 1 GEV AG element - 4x size 3 light GEV AG, MDC/5 1
GEV scout (hoverjeep) element - 4x size 1 jeeplet, AGL 4 KSK Special Operations
infantry elements 8 Panzergrenadier hardshell infantry elements

Later reinforcements: 1 x Stilleto VTOL (helo) - size 3, stealth 2, gunship with
GMS\L and RFAC\1

Initial setup: City in mid board. ESU side has cultivated fields on their board
edge. Sides have hills, swamps, etc. NSL side (waterfront) has beech and water as
well as some islands. Board is 6x6, 6x4 is land, 6x2 is water. ESU starts in city
and around key targets, NSL comes in over water, NAC comes in from one end or the
other (their choice) on land. ESU forces split up and hidden.

ESU defensive objectives: 1) power plant 2) local chairman and his cronies (ah,
politics) (near gov't center) 3) starport (source of supply and denial of same to
enemy) 4) local comms facility and hospital

NAC offensive objectives: 1) power plant 2) starport 3) government center 4) comms
center

Initial attack: NSL hover tanks lead the way, meeting nasty fire from the coastal
defense batteries and some ESU tanks. Players first encounter with firefight
mechanics. NSL platoon more or less destroyed without ESU losing a tower (their
armour bounced several hits).

NSL regroups at one board end, with the heavy hitter MDC/5 assault guns behind an
island midway down the board. NAC pours on from the beachward corner of one side and
heads for the first objective - the starport. NAC/NSL forces finally destroy the
coastal defense tower near the NAC entry point to allow them a bit of peace.

This time, the attack uses cover of trees and hills reasonably well and gets to the
edge of the starport before a major furball breaks out, with infantry APCs and tanks
from the ESU revealing to engage.

NAC VTOL joins the fray, flying NOE and eventually being crippled by enemy tank and
GMS fire, landing near starport field. (no SAR bird unfortunately). NAC continues
push into starport field, firing past parked ships to destroy ESU APCs and tanks.
Air def units on both sides employed against enemy ground units.

NSL tank destroyers join firefight against coastal defence towers with the help from
a few NAC vehicles. Eventually, 3 out of 4 coastal defense towers are destroyed by
continued fire. MDC/5 eventually proves its worth, but it costs the NSL half that
unit and the other half's morale is shattered.

This does, however, clear the way for the final push into the starport. Boxcars land
troops on the ESU side of the starport ready to move on it then on to the power
plant. APCs deploy troops all across the starport to clean it out then move towards
the power plant and the front of the urban area with the government offices and
local chairman's neighborhood.

By the end of the slot, everyone had seen the firefight mechanics. The ESU was a bit
bored due to having well setup static defense. Until late in the game, only about
1/3rd of their units needed to activate. The NAC and NSL were bogged by the coastal
towers and no real safe axis of advance. The towers held out longer than I (ref)
expected. I'd have dropped their armour a level next time - probably shorten their
life by a turn.

At the end, the NAC had captured the starport, and blown apart two elements of enemy
APCs and an element of tanks as well as 3/4 of the defensive towers. But most of the
ESU tank forces had not engaged, the main NSL tank forces were reduced to one unit
of MBTs and the NAC only had 3 FSVs which weren't as good as tanks.

The NAC had lost some vehicles and guys and their first VTOL (two more could have
arrived). They would have been in a position to fight the ESU for the power plant
and consider an attack into the city, but the ESU infantry was largely intact and
would have made the city and powerplant fights challenging as would the ESU tank
forces.

ESU reinforcements, which I didn't provide but had planned, would probably have
driven the NAC/NSL back out, given their previous losses and the strong ESU grav
tanks coming (and a VTOL with some PA) unless the NAC got some additional
reinforcements fast dropped to the starport field.

There is some feedback for the DS3 development team I will be providing. I hope the
players could see the potential for DS3 as a bit more interesting model of this sort
of combat than DS2, now long in the tooth. The dual 15 min/20 second timescale takes
some getting used to and players have to be able to elect when to pursue or break
off firefights, but the feel is good to me - we played 60 minutes of in-game time in
4 hours. Without the explanation and with some more experience and more of the fast
play rules, we probably could have reached a resolution on 2nds/3rd objectives in
the 4 hours.

Overall, I think the ESU did the right thing in structuring their dispersed defense
for mutual support. The NAC did well at using cover once they realized how vital
that was and they used combined activations well to get multiple elements in
position for the next firefight to start. The NSL helped a lot by crushing the
towers, even if it did cost them a lot of armour.

If you read the link's historical background, the 57th combined division of the ESU
under the pole Padowski held out like blazes for seventy days. The fight over
Nottingham/Grunwald relfects this - the NAC and NSL may have taken and held one
objective, or may have been pushed out by powerful ESU reinforcements. In the long
run, the NAC and NSL would be able to dump enough resources at the problem to win,
but it would be long and slow and the ESU would make the NSL/NAC alliance pay for
every inch.

Just like in the future history.

SATURDAY EVENING GAME: Assault on Hoth   GM: Phil Pournelle (nods respects)  Game:
Modified DS2

Scenario: Imperial Walkers on their way to Echo Base on Hoth. Rebels trying to slow
them up to let the transports escape. AT-AT and AT-ST with stormtroopers coming in,
attacking to destroy shield generator to let Vader and more troops come in. Veers
leading. Rebel snowspeeders, infantry, and turrets defending. Luke is in a speeder.
Leia is in command center kicking butt to move evacuation along.

Early on, the paired rebel speeders decided to take the battle to the AT-ATs as far
down the table as possible. Out they went. Early attempts were made to attack at
range to avoid AT-AT air defenses. This tended to produce poor results. Rebels
started trying to kill chicken walkers (AT-STs) with turrets and GMS from troops.
AT-ATs used close formations for mutual support.

Early game looked like Imperial walkover - no real hits from Rebels, turrets being
blown up by AT-ATs, and things looked bad. First snowspeeder shot down (by odd
circumstance) - Luke Skywalker. AT-AT turned toward him, tauntaun SAR dispatched,
snowspeeders attacked walker and killed it from close in, braving air defense, but
it dropped troops.

Several walkers dropped stormtrooper missile teams to shoot at speeders. Rebel
losses mounted, but consolidations were taken and attacks were pressed despite the
cost. Soon, 2 chicken walkers and 3 AT-ATs were down. By this point, about five or
six of about 11 turrets were down, all on the side with the shield generator.
General Veers was already dead.

Chicken walkers overran infantry positions, losing one to final defensive GMS fire,
and then chased infantry away with RFAC and missiles. Turret fire (to everyone's
amazement) eventually killed the 4th (second last) AT-AT, but again stormroopers
were dropped. Luke came under blaster fire from stormtroopers and snowspeeders tried
to take the pressure off him with tailguns, but to no avail. He ended up rushing to
attack enemy infantry with his lightsaber....

More turrets died. More infantry died. Stormtrooper infantry shot down more
speeders. The final AT-AT fired on the shield generator ineffectually, but he had
the shot. Then the remaining snowspeeders blew him away. A turret killed the last
chickenwalker and there wasn't much more to be done for the Imperials. The shield
generator would stand until another Imperial Wave could be brought from orbit.

On the pathetic side, Leia had done a crappy job and only the complete halting of
the wave saved the day for the rebels, as only two transports (out of about 12 where
the Falcon was 5th) had managed to launch by the time the shield generator came
under fire.

On the tragic side, Luke Skywalker was killed in HTH combat with stormtrooper
squads. I guess only Imperial Storm Troopers could be that precise. Ben was right.

I did point out that Luke didn't do much in ESB or even in ROTJ - the heroes and
destroyers of the Empire's war machinery in those movies were Wedge, Lando, Nien
Numb, Han, Leia (still around) and the Rebel Commandos with some fuzzy bear help. So
Luke's loss was not so bad.

Leia would just have to go to Dagobah and become the Jedi eventually and lead the
NJO after ROTJ.

The battle was considered a minor victory for the rebels (would have been major if
not for Luke's death).

A well run game, with slightly odd dice mechanics. Phil needs to do a bit more
'typesetting' to make his charts more user friendly for himself! But the game was
interesting and fit the genre well enough. I think Luke should have had some force
points to cheat death, but that's just a minor flavour point.

It *felt* like Star Wars. I *felt* with all of the 1s we rolled on the Rebel side
(crazy) that the ground was shaking as the inevitable defeat approached. Then we had
a miraculous turn around powered by our attempts to save Luke and making our attacks
suicidally aggressive on the AT-ATs, much like in the movie. And the Imperials, if
given one more round or better luck, could have blown the shield and our transports
would have been screwed.

So, all in all, an excellent game. Nice job Phil!

SUNDAY MORNING REF: Damond and Jer  GAME: FMA WWII Paratroops meeting between lines
on way back from patrols

Each side had about 10 guys, with one MG, an SMG or two, a few grenades (too few I
think) and a bunch of rifles. Both sides had to exit guys off the other side and the
board looked about 6x6 or 5x5. Tree stands and a house in the middle.

Bob Makowsky, Greg Davis and I were the Fallschirmjager. I draw a blank at 2 am on
the names of our opponents, but mean no disrespect. I'm just tired and bad with
names.

The German plan was: 1) Get MG into firing position fast to cover road, house, and
mid-board 2) Get Sergeant up with MG for reactivations 3) Get Corporal and two
soldiers into house

Well, our plan failed miserably. Bad dice helped a lot, but so did good American
decisions. Americans beat us to the house (dice, I think) and then proceeded to
throw back (to our detriment) every grenade we lobbed into the house. We eventually
hurt those guys a bit with massed gunfire, but it took a long time.

Meanwhile, grenades and gunfire cost us that entire flank - 2 riflemen and the
corporal.

The MG got to fire once all game then the allied MG and rifles put so much fire on
him that his stress precluded any reactivations (note stress was not being removed
by failed activation tests!). He just became useless. The sergeant ended up
activating riflemen until he was shot dead with one shot from a US rifleman.
Survivor of Crete and the Eastern Front, some 82nd AB yahoo killed him.

Our remaining rifles took position and fired until seriously wounded (one guy shot
through both legs seriously, another with a head wound) and until ammo was running
low. We stressed a few Americans and killed another, but our side lost morale with
the MG down, all NCOs down. Some started to melt away and some held on against bad
odds, which usually ends badly.

The game was an American victory by a combination of sensible tactics, mutual
support, good grenade return skills, and their early kill of our corporal and later
mid-game kill of our sergeant. The German tactics seemed valid enough, but just
didn't pan out.

Critiques included how easy it was to chuck back grenades (including ones not
directly at your feet) and how a figure with a bunch of stress that can't activate
but not enough to autofail to a lower morale status can languish for the entire game
doing nothing.

This draft is a modified 2003/4 FMAS draft, so probably not much like that currently
in testing (or so I suspect). But it was good and playable, with the few complaints.
Bob and I both thought it did a good job of a lot of things and that it would make a
playable game more or less as Damo had it written up with the issues we mention
above addressed.

Thanks to Damo and Jer for a good game (as usual), nice terrain and figures, and a
fun end to my convention.

And a BIG THANKS to Jon Davis, Mark Kochte, Jerry Han and anyone else doing
organizing and helping out. ECC would not exist without these noble souls and that
would be a big loss.