This weekend I attended BASHCon at Student Union of the Toledo University in Toledo, OH with my brother and our oldest sons.

Amongst the things I did at the convention was to play an intro
game of CAV run by Michael. I played with 5 other con-goers while my
son was in another part of the con with my brother playing Dagorhir
(foam sword combat) and my nephew was a couple of tables over playing
(dare I say utter it's name here?) Battletech Classic. He spend most of
his day there... literally, all day!

I've owned Reaper's 1st Edition CAV rules, Journal of Recognition
and some figures for a couple of years but I just haven't gotten into
the game. My sons (I have three) just weren't interested in learning,
and there's no local CAV gaming group to my knowledge. Boy, am I glad I
checked out the demo and finally caught the bug!

Michael ran us through a quick demo scenario in which we all
controlled a single Dictator-60 with it's IFM's disabled. We went for a
free-for-all which I think gave me an advantage since the other five
players knew each other before sitting down at the table. Being friends
made them gun for each other for whatever good-natured grudges and
vendettas friends build up over time.

I spent most of the game picking off targets that had been weakened
by fighting with others and back-stabbing underdogs that I had
previously supported in gunfights. Basically being a treacherous snake.
When 4 out of my 5 opponents had been taken out I rushed up to Kevin,
who'd taken a pounding in the first round of the game and sought refuge
in the cover of a stand of light woods to hunker down an repair. I got
right up in his face and layed into him, confident that in a slug-fest
that I would come out on top seeing as how I wasn't as damaged as him.

Nope, he rolled a critical and "cratered" my CAV taking the once
mighty warmachine down to it's 9th damage track. Too bad Dictator's
only have 5 tracks! (6 if you count track 0). D'oh!

I was amazed at the speed and ease of play and was excited to have
my son and nephew try the game out. They didn't want to. My son didn't
want to learn "another game" because he was having trouble keeping
rules straight in his head. My nephew was obsessed with Battletech.
That was Saturday, we were going back on Sunday so on the way home I
talked my son into at least TRYING CAV in the morning.

Once my nephew heard that Jake was gonna try CAV, he said he wanted
to as well. So bright and early Sunday morning, we sat down while
Michael was setting up his miniatures and I ran them through the basics
of the CAV rules that I'd learned the day before. One of the things my
son said when I'd shown him how to resolve a direct-fire attack was
"That's it?   That's easy!" My nephew said "That's faster than
Battletech..."

When we got around the playing the game, it was four players, my
son, my nephew, a boy named Joe and myself. It was teams, Joe and I vs.
"The Cousins". We were all controlling Dictator-60's.

Joe and I were doing alright, taking damage but giving as good as
we got. When my nephew's CAV went down things were looking very grim
for my son as all our CAVs were on the same dmg track and he was facing
2-1 odds. Joe and I were looking at an easy win.

Then it happened. After my nephew was knocked out, my son was the
last init-card for that turn. He rolls a crit on an auto-hit shot with
his GC, then a 10 for the crits! Joe was cratered, his CAV somehow
being converted instantly to metallic confetti! With the lightning
crack of a Gauss-cannon discharge, I went from smugly self-assured
victor to a participant in a toe-to-toe slugfest! Next initiative was
critical...

My son won initative, advancing implacably through the still
falling wreckage of Joe's CAV to PB range, *CRACK* and the slug from
one of his GC's plowed sprayed up asphalt from the street next to my
CAV, *CRACK* and he rolled another 10 at PB range... he rolls again for
the Crits... an 8! Two CAVs cratered by my boy in as many turns!
Michael was impressed, called Tim (Black Lighting, running a
dungeon-crawl Warlord game at an adjacent table) over to tell the tale
of my son's impressive victory.

Joe and I, we were still busy settling to the ground, atomized into a fine red mist.

My son proclaimed that he "Likes CAV." and my nephew want to learn
it better but he thinks he might like it better than B-tech once he's
more familiar with it.