Wow, It start out as a little Micro-con, me Kurt and DoCtoR Chud getting together for a LITTLE quake and mostly to play some Full thrust Starship miniatures combat, but somehow it got convoluted into almost a full Loscon! Pre-Con As some of you may know, Nat and the Milesbot were in Paris last week, so I took the opportunity to do some major renovations to the whole upstairs of the house. These were completed just in time. Nat and Milesbot got back last night at 2230. Friday. DoCtOr ChUd arrived at about 1700. We had a few things we knew we wanted to do this weekend. Two of which were to play Action Quake (AQ2) and Rainbow Six (R6). Kurt arrived around 2000. We ordered Pizza and set up the net with the usual quickness. We would have seven machines (all 3d capable except Kurt's P200 notebook) plus the server. We gave a quick demo of R6 then propagated all the latest maps, patches whatever throughout the net and got down to some 3-player AQ2. Later in the evening we began the LONG process of getting in synch as a team on R6. Around 0100 we sat down to watch a few Army videos of my team doing CQB training, room clearing exercises and other general whatnot. These made it a little easier the next day when we would start working on R6 in earnest. Went to bed at around 000. Saturday With no Miles around we were able to sleep late! I slept until around 0930, then made the DD run. The biggest thing of the morning was Magic send us a new level he had designed of our house. This was excellent. Kurt and I played this for a while, sent in some recommendation to Bob, and he had the updated levels (one with lots of guns, one with pistols) completed and turned around in a few hours. Kurt and I made a run to pick up THE FINAL OPTION (SAS movie ) and REPLACEMENT KILLERS (AQ2 movie), and hit Glenwoods. We watched the Final Option when we got home. This put us in the mood to get working on R6. The three of us got together and started working on moving like a team. This is VERY difficult! When people play Quake, they are used to just doing their own thing. Even Teamplay online is still a very loose type of teamwork due to comms problems. In this game Not sticking together or one person not following directions, not listening, not communicating, maintaining a small SA bubble, etc, generally gets the whole team whacked inn a few seconds. SO to play this game as if you are a real HRT means first "breaking" everyone of old habits and getting everyone listening to one boss. It's more important that we do everything together and follow instruction EVEN if it gets us all killed, than it is to operate outside the "team". This is the first thing that has to be hammered home. Once that is done, then technique and tactics follow very easily. It took us about an hour before noone was crossing in front of the other guys fields of fire, shooting outside his sector of responsibility, chasing people down on their own, and not communicating. The tactics were all based on the ones we use for real. Occasionally we would get a few miniature soldiers out, draw the layout of this or that room/halway configuration on a piece of paper, and work out the methods , then get back on the computer. By the end of about two hours we were able to execute the Embassy takedown successfully. We only worked in one three man team. The progress and learning curve was steep and extremely rewarding. As the team leader, I had the feeling of making decisions, communicating and tactics as if we were doing a real mission, so on that alone I rate the game an astounding success. Around 2000 Flug and Jim showed up. They caught the tail end of our R6 session and were duly impressed. Due to technical problems, we were unable to get R6 MULTIPLAYER working on Los180 (and Los133) so we couldn't do the team scenario that we had all hoped for, (three team members against two terrorists and a hostage.) Note: I did get the damn thing working on Sunday but it was too late! SO around 2100 Ze and Jorge show up. We enjoyed some fine Port and prepared for a long AQ2 session. but wait, before that something horrible happened. Our one collectors bottle of the rare RC Draft Cola was consumed by Jim!!!!! I would liken this to being in possession of a pair of viable Dinosaur eggs (priceless in their worth) , then coming home one day and watching Jim finish up an omelet he just made with those two eggs! (Or watching J.B. using it to make a Rum and Coke) The thing was hidden in the back of the fridge, waiting for that "one special moment" someday, like either one minute seconds before we are hit by a planet-killing asteroid, or the day Jesus final walks again amongst his fellow men. Oh my God, what will I tell Nat?, Who I scolded at least a dozen times for even looking at that bottle! Anyway what's done is done. In one way, it is fitting. Jim, (Lawman), is now a full fledged member of the Loscon team having partaken in the sweet nectar of the gods. perhaps it is a most fitting in for such a rare treasure as an out of production classic RC draft Cola. [note to self: remember to thank my portuguese grandma for instilling me with this finely tuned ability to inflict guilt] Anyway, I'll try to finish up this AAR, (sniff sniff). We then launched into a huge AQ2 session. Started out with the new Los' House Map. We didn't tell anyone where they were playing, we just let them figure it out on their own. This map was played for like an hour, then we went to Office3, then Genius Base. The battling went on until at least 0330. I have to say that DoCtOr ChUd was fairly incredible. in Office3, he had like 168 Frags, and the next highest was sub one hundreds! real domination. After everyone split, Kurt and I monkeyed with the demos we recorded using keygrip2. That program has some real promise. We finally went to bed around 0530. SUNDAY I woke up at 1200! Kurt and Chud were already up (Dr. CHud having got up at 0730 to watch the F1 race!) and the DD run was already made. We then settled into a long R6 session to home our teamwork. We then hooked up the VCR to my Canopus Pure II 3d card, and undertook a hit/hostage rescue against a Colombian drug lord. It took many attempts, and we honed are skills each time. All kinds of cool things happened often, reinforcing certain principles such as establishing security first, before you move onto the next action, etc. Around 1800 we sat down to watch the footage, at least an hour's worth, and we put together a VERY cool video which could serve as either an R6 advertisement or a principles to room clearing HRT video. (Note: we are finding ourselves monkeying with more and more audio visual technology during these cons so maybe it's time to start buying some good editing equipment.) Anyway, Kurt left at almost 2200, thus concluding and other full weekend. Next one, either late Sept or early October. A full blown Loscon is also scheduled for Thanksgiving weekend. it'll be a dooosy. Los Back To The After Action Index Back To LoneRanger's HomePage