Tuesday, March 28, 2006
The TABS CondoCon VI brawl
On Saturday morning, as the TABS CondoCon VI got going, a whole bunch of us (nine, as I recall) grabbed the big board room-style table in the room and set up for a planned auto duel. While a good portion of the players were newbies, a few of us were familiar with the game. I'd say about half the players took cars generated by the host of the game, George. A few of us built our own vehicles. Just about everybody was running a car, except for two people running trikes (George and Logan), and one person (me) running a cycle.
After George explained the rules to those who weren't familiar with the game, we got going. We set up on the edge of the arena (technically, the town double-map) and chose starting speeds between 30 and 50 mph. My cycle (built by Logan; I didn't get around to building one, unfortunately) was built for speed (top speed of 205 mph and an acceleration of 15 mph), and I knew I had to kick it up into high gear really quickly.
Everyone started moving along in the first turn, with no shots being taken. On turn two, my cycle had Logan's left side in front of him by about eight inches, so I took a shot, missing completely. Since Logan built my bike, he was pretty sure he couldn't hit me, so he turned his attention to Thor's car (with a turret-mounted vulcan machinegun) and opened up with a flamethrower, doing some damage but not igniting Thor's car. The only other car in our area of the arena was Jeffrey's, and he started gunning it ahead to take on Thor.
On the other side of the arena, George decided to cross towards Logan and myself, firing at Logan's front tire and doing some damage (but not taking the tire out). Meanwhile, Chris N. had moved around to head after Steve, John and a kid (I never did find out his name :(). I wasn't paying all that much attention to that side of the arena, but I seem to recall Steve, the kid and John got into a skirmish really quickly.
On turn three, two rams occurred. Logan's trike crashed into the right-hand side of George's trike at a speed fast enough to total both trikes and kill both drivers. While unfortunate that they were both out so early, it allowed George to act more as a GM and help everyone out with rules questions.
At the same time, John's and the kid's cars hit head-on, utterly destroying the kid's front armour and doing some serious damage to John's car, as well. Meanwhile, Steve and Chris N. went head-to-head as I cruised around my side of the arena, taking pot shots and Thor and Jeffrey.
By turn four or five, I'd got up over 100 mph and was heading passed Jeffrey to swing around to do battle with the other side of the arena. By this time, Steve's car had gone into a spin and he'd pretty much been taken out. Jeffrey had fired on Thor, reducing his armour to practically nothing. The kid that John collided with had taken so much damage that his car wasn't really moving all that quickly. Of course, neither was John's car moving very quickly. :)
That's when I swung around to open fire on the kid. I knew I only had one shot before I'd have to swerve, as I was doing upwards of about 115 mph by that point. I took the shot, did some damage to his engine and then swerved to avoid a collision and focus on taking shots at Chris N.
When we called the game at around noon, my cycle was doing upwards of 145 mph and coming in behind Chris N. We'd allowed Thor and the kid (apologies for not getting your name) to limp out of the arena. Steve was out of it (shot down by Chris N.). George and Logan were long gone. John was crippled, and Chris N. was lining up a shot. While I hadn't taken a scratch, I also hadn't succeeded in getting a kill.
As we were hungry, we called the game and gave the win to Chris N., who not only survived but also got a confirmed kill.
After George explained the rules to those who weren't familiar with the game, we got going. We set up on the edge of the arena (technically, the town double-map) and chose starting speeds between 30 and 50 mph. My cycle (built by Logan; I didn't get around to building one, unfortunately) was built for speed (top speed of 205 mph and an acceleration of 15 mph), and I knew I had to kick it up into high gear really quickly.
Everyone started moving along in the first turn, with no shots being taken. On turn two, my cycle had Logan's left side in front of him by about eight inches, so I took a shot, missing completely. Since Logan built my bike, he was pretty sure he couldn't hit me, so he turned his attention to Thor's car (with a turret-mounted vulcan machinegun) and opened up with a flamethrower, doing some damage but not igniting Thor's car. The only other car in our area of the arena was Jeffrey's, and he started gunning it ahead to take on Thor.
On the other side of the arena, George decided to cross towards Logan and myself, firing at Logan's front tire and doing some damage (but not taking the tire out). Meanwhile, Chris N. had moved around to head after Steve, John and a kid (I never did find out his name :(). I wasn't paying all that much attention to that side of the arena, but I seem to recall Steve, the kid and John got into a skirmish really quickly.
On turn three, two rams occurred. Logan's trike crashed into the right-hand side of George's trike at a speed fast enough to total both trikes and kill both drivers. While unfortunate that they were both out so early, it allowed George to act more as a GM and help everyone out with rules questions.
At the same time, John's and the kid's cars hit head-on, utterly destroying the kid's front armour and doing some serious damage to John's car, as well. Meanwhile, Steve and Chris N. went head-to-head as I cruised around my side of the arena, taking pot shots and Thor and Jeffrey.
By turn four or five, I'd got up over 100 mph and was heading passed Jeffrey to swing around to do battle with the other side of the arena. By this time, Steve's car had gone into a spin and he'd pretty much been taken out. Jeffrey had fired on Thor, reducing his armour to practically nothing. The kid that John collided with had taken so much damage that his car wasn't really moving all that quickly. Of course, neither was John's car moving very quickly. :)
That's when I swung around to open fire on the kid. I knew I only had one shot before I'd have to swerve, as I was doing upwards of about 115 mph by that point. I took the shot, did some damage to his engine and then swerved to avoid a collision and focus on taking shots at Chris N.
When we called the game at around noon, my cycle was doing upwards of 145 mph and coming in behind Chris N. We'd allowed Thor and the kid (apologies for not getting your name) to limp out of the arena. Steve was out of it (shot down by Chris N.). George and Logan were long gone. John was crippled, and Chris N. was lining up a shot. While I hadn't taken a scratch, I also hadn't succeeded in getting a kill.
As we were hungry, we called the game and gave the win to Chris N., who not only survived but also got a confirmed kill.
// posted by Chris @ 10:19 AM 
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