From: Ed Kraska Subject: Avaloncon As I mentioned last week, I took along some posterboard to Avaloncon this year, and had a "CONSIM-L Sign In" set up whenever I was in the open gaming area. The following consim-l members stopped by and said "hello": Don Stone Ted Raicer Ed Beach Mark Herman Scott Duncan George Young Gerry "G3" Germond Gordon Bliss J.R. Tracy As far as the convention itself was concerned, I had a great time. Attendance was off a little from last year, but still attracted around 1000 gamers. I only participated in the "Storm Over Arnhem" and "Hannibal" tournaments (and was singularly unsuccessful), but got in lots of open gaming. I was able to play three games of Columbia's "Rommel in the Desert", and I can see why many people think this is the best desert game ever. I played MIH's "Ring of Fire" and Spearhead's "Antietam: Bloodiest Day" (with the 2nd edition rules), and thought they were winners as well. I also played a game of Columbia's "War of 1812", and saw that, like "Quebec:1759", this would make a good PBEM game. "Air Baron" could be AH's next "History of the World"; easy rules, fun for novices and experienced gamers, AND a relatively short playing time. I also played a demonstration game of AH's upcoming release, "Renaissance", and although the demo wasn't very well run, the game looks like it *could be* good. The components (map, cards) are absolutely gorgeous, and the game is a blend of "Civilization" and "History of the World". I also had the opportunity to play a variety of German games each night after the "serious" gaming finished, and I enjoyed most of them. These included: Settlers of Catan, El Grande, Manhattan, Quo Vadis, and Auf Heller and Pfennig. Other "lite" games played included: Cosmic Encounter, Arcana, and a now-mandatory, 3AM game of Bandu. Ed Kraska kraska@gdb.org Baltimore, MD From: 103474.2771@CompuServe.COM Subject: Re: AvalonCon The Convention seemed to be slightly down in attendance this year. Rumor had it down approx 10-15%. It seemed like more, but part of the reason for the above appearance was the fact that more space was available in the major gamerooms because some of the events were moved to different rooms, opening up the playing area. It was quite comfortable actually. For next year the rumors have it at the same place and approx same time. There seems to be an effort to have the Convention extented in length, from Tues morning to Sunday. Everyone (including me) opted for that response in the tournament survey. It appeared to me that all of the same games that were played last year were again run this year. Additions included Hannibal, Gunslinger, Renaissance (demo?), Air Baron, Pacific War (and maybe a few others I missed). Lots of the same (unfortunately nameless) faces were there. I missed the AHIKS meeting, was busy sorta beating Tom Oleson in Anzio. ("Sorta" because he played a gentlemans game and I rolled eight one's in a roll!). Therefore I don't know what the AHIKS attendance was like or who was there. As for my personal achievements, I made it to the semi-finals in Anzio, TPS, and the tournament I GM'd, War & Peace. (Didn't get a chance to play Machiavelli). I enjoyed myself immensely (as usual), as did everyone else I spoke with. No real problems noted. It was geat to see everyone again. Of course the Convention was too short and the upcoming year will be too long! Bryan Jackson Avaloncon '96 This was my first year at Avaloncon not being a Gamesmaster, so I was able to be very busy playing games. However, the reason I wasn't a Gamesmaster was that I wasn't sure I'd be going until about 6 weeks before Avaloncon due to my wife's school and my work schedules for the past year. So I planned to play some basic stuff and find some pick- up tournaments that would be fun. Everyone noted that attendance seemed to be down this year and that was confirmed at the Sunday AM meeting, but it was still the second largest Avaloncon. It was also noted that no contract for '97 had been signed with the hotel, but that was based on the possiblity that the length would increase by a day or two -- overseas attendees, in particular felt it was too short. The decision was to be based, in large part, on the survey included in the brochure. But my impres- sion was that they would move quickly to make a decision and get the dates confirmed. (Perhaps they are by now.) Also of interest in the survey were questions about allowing for flea markets, auctions, seminars, non-AH game tournaments, and even non-AH game sales. This is unprecedented since the prior philosophy regard- ing Avaloncon (from Don Greenwood and AH) was that Avaloncon is about game-playing of AH games. The Gamesmaster newsletters in the past did not suggest other options would be considered. However, there was no discussion about the actual likelihood of these things based on the survey results as there was regarding the length of Avaloncon next time. Among the non-AH tournament/game play activities that I spent some time watching were: o play of TGWIE by Ted Racier and Mark Herman, o play-testing of Richard Berg's "Confederate Rails" (a potential fuure Mayfair game) about control of the rail systems in the South during the Civil War and competition between them for business where multiple players get to control several rail lines, take on shipments and try to deliver them to accumulate money, and manipulate Union & Confederate troops to help themselves and hinder others, o a look at the board for Mark Herman's ACW game, based on the We The People system, called (for now) "Of the People" (from the G'burg Address) -- not much said about it while I was present as the discussion was about Mark's map com- pared to Richard's map as they are the same (approximate) scale. The longest period of time I spent not playing an AH game but watch- ing others play was my time observing the Speed Circuit heats and finals (parts of each, none all the way since they seemed to take ~3 hours each). The folks here are loyal as I have seen the same basic group over the past 3 years. I may get into this next year as they have a lot of fun but take the play seriously. (As opposed to my two pick-up tournament experienecs with SlapShot and Greed -- now those folks have a lot of fun, but the games aren't exactly challenges!) Avaloncon is a lot of fun. It's not too big so you feel lost and the variety of things to do seems good. I did vote in the survey for a few new items (e.g., seminars if they are about gaming and design as opposed to pure military history), but even if they don't make it, I can recommend Avaloncon as 4 days (maybe now more) of solid gaming enjoyment. Scott Duncan All, I just retured from Avaloncon yesterday and had a GREAT time! :-) I arrived on Wednesday night and spent a better part of the evening hunting around for familiar faces (primarily my teamates). It's great to actually see the people with whom one constantly corresponds through e- or snail-mail face-to-face. That evening I played two games of UP FRONT (fanatic that I am) followed by participation in the GUNSLINGER demo -- a game which I hadn't played in nearly a decade. On Thursday I played in the two-player TITAN tournament (another game which I hadn't played in several years owing to lack of opponents and scheduling conflicts during the previous two Acons) and actually made it to the second round after a grueling 7.5 hour game. I held the upper hand through most of the game and for some reason the ref never came by to call the game -- which ran twice as long as it should have. In my second round I went face to face with a wringer who made me feel like I was trying to hold back a tidal wave with a purforated umbrella. Oh well ... ;-) On Friday I played a tight game of 1776 agains Mark Miklos (designer of GMT's up-coming Saratoga game) but lost on the final turn. When Mark asked me if I had a preference of sides in the Saratoga scenario, I really should have picked the Americans! I'll know better next year... Friday evening I played HISTORY OF THE WORLD (my first playing since two games during the previous Acon) and was doing surprisingly well owing to some lucky epoch draws and had a shot at winning. Unfortunately, I was drawing for epochs last and the guy who was winning by a narrow margin drew the United States and passed it along to me which blew me out of the water. C'est la Vie! Saturday was the UP FRONT tournament which was also my "team game." The tournament was run in a four-player round-robin format for the first round (allowing everyone to play at least three games). I lost my first game to the "perrenial brides-maid" Jeff Paull who -- apart from being a great guy -- has been the runner up in at least two previous Avaloncons. My second game was also a loss which I completely and utterly attribute to bad luck -- something I normally never do. As the Russians I had the ability to replace my hand of cards every turn, and every turn I got cards I could not play. The game was over in about ten minutes. I stomped around for the next hour trying to cool off! Fortunately I won my third game by being in a far superior position when time ran out. After the first round, the tournament went to single-elim, and in my first scenario I got to choose my favorite scenario and side (Japanese in the Jungle Meeting Engagement) and won with little difficulty. My fifth and final game was something of an irony as it pitted one of my teammates against me who eventually knocked me out of the tournament. If I had beat him, I could have gone on to score points for our team. The irony is that I knocked him out of his team game -- HISTORY OF THE WORLD -- the night before. Turn-about is fair-play, I guess! On Sunday I played ATTACK SUB, a game which has become something of a "Sunday brunch" at Avaloncon for UP FRONT players. After a grueling day of cards and concentration, ATS is a light champaign breakfast to cap it -- and the contention -- off. In ATS, I went 2-1 in the first round and was knocked out of the tournament by Jeremy Billiones (the guy who slaughtered me in my second game of UF) in a tight match. Acon '96 was the best tournament for me schedule-wise, but this cut down on the amount of hob-nobbing I could do this year. The only industry luminaries I talked with (however briefly) were Don Greenwood and Mark Miklos. During play I saw a lot of familiar faces including Ted Racier, Rex Martin, and Richard Berg (who was constantly popping his head into the two-player tournament room). The only complaint I have about the con (apart from not getting enough sleep!) was that UP FRONT conficted with WE THE PEOPLE on Saturday. I placed "in the money" in WtP last year, but had to choose UF instead (it being the greatest game of all time!). All-in-all, a fabulous time was had and I can't wait 'til next year! Michael Nagel Ray Freeman - 07:06pm Sep 15, 1996 EST (#17 of 18) I again made it to Avaloncon this year, my fourth trip to the Con. A Con has to be damn good for me to lay out something like $500-$600 for room and travel, and Avaloncon delivers for me! I went back to my usual ways this year after experimenting with some different games last year. That's the biggest problem with the Con. There are bunches of events I'd love to enter, but one only has so much time. Anyway, after a long train ride from Raleigh, NC (it was a triangular vacation) I arrived at the convention site on Wednesday about 4 pm. After getting myself organized and fed, I promptly got trashed in the mulligan round of Breakout:Normandy. Not a suprise since I hadn't played it in 11-1/2 months. Then I wandered around and gawked, and hunted down Tim Greene from Tennessee, who is currently crushing me in the AREA VITP ladder. On Thursday, I spent the day playing War at Sea, and was knocked out of contention for the semis in the 5th round by Phil Rennert, perreneal PGG champ and a former WAS champ. Somewhat disgusted, I went over to see how my buddy Alan Applebaum from Boston was making out as the GM for 1830. He had the rowdy railroaders under control, so we played a pickup game of Breakout:Normandy and he explained how he was crushing Don Greenwood in BKN the night before but at some point had moved his last fresh unit off Sword Beach. Naturally, it started to rain and Don hit the British beaches with the 12SS Panzer Division and that was that. Against me, Alan consistently rolled 4 or less with two dice, ending most days in our game prematurely which, for the US, is fatal. He resigned in disgust on June 10. A lot of people were playing Air Baron and Hannibal, and most were raving about both. I've got Hannibal on order. I also picked up a roomate on Wednesday, Mike Kaye of Boston. Alan A and him have been giving each other VITP lessons, so we hit it off and I cut my expenses by $100 or so. Mike managed to barely survive my snoring and I managed to avoid getting sucked into a game of Rommel in the Desrt with him. Friday morning begins the VITP marathon, which I and Alan skipped last year to play Breakout:Normandy. Unfortunately, the GMs idea of a swiss system tournament is a bit unusual, to say the least. He pairs #1 vs #2, and #3 vs #4, etc. in the first round. So I had to play Alan, since perreneal favorite Dave Targonski was MIA. He let me have the Japs (course I had to bid 3.5 POC to get them) and I eventually squeaked out a win that went the full 8 turns. I started out real lucky, and had lots of chances to put him away on turns 5-7, but he kept coming up with plans (and a few critical die rolls) to keep himself in the game. The sign of a true expert. He doesn't roll over for you! Unfortunately, this turned out to be by far the most interesting game I played in the event. Now that's a bit of a bummer when you consider that the VITP tourney runs from 9 am on Friday to 2 pm on Sunday (7 rounds!). I won the next two easily, then got diced out in round 4. After 2 more wins, my dice went frigid in the 7th round and I got flattened by Bob Kondracki who took the plaque. My team, the Band of Fools managed to remain respectable, but not a threat for the team title. Tom Gregorio, our fearless leader, won the TRC tourney. If I had been playing VITP as my team event, we might have cracked the top 5. Did I see much of Baltimore? No. Did I see much of the Con? Well, yes, in passing, but mostly I played games, 14 to be exact. Did I have a good time? Definitely. Will I return in '97? Yes, and if you like AH games, top level competition, and non-stop action, you should too.