Steven Bucey - Jul 8, 2007 6:55 pm (#5482 Total: 5502) Going against the grain in 2007 I did have a really good time. First, the folks organizing and running the Board Room and War Room deserve a lot of credit for making it a great weekend. The War Room was almost always full and the Board Room was packed most of the time. Recap: Thursday evening Adam and I played Hunters and Gatherers with a couple of other folks (a young lady and her father Adam all but dragged over to our table to play with us -- no social phobias in that kid). Friday I spent the morning explaining Tarleton's Quarter to several interested people who stopped by to look at it. That afternoon John Alsen and I played one of the scenarios to Panzer Grenadier: Airborne Introductory edition. It was the second scenario if I recall correctly and ended in a draw as John was not able to clear all of the hexes he needed for victory and I was 1 short of the number of kills I needed to get against him -- lots of fun. That evening Rand McGlaughlin and I got half way through a game of Great Battles of Caesar from the Dictator module (the battle between the Romans and King Mithridates of Pontus). When we left I was poised to crush Rand's left wing while Rand was poised to crush my left wing. Saturday I spent the morning explaining Tarleton's Quarter to several interested people who stopped by to look at it. That afternoon Rand and I finished our game of Caesar. By dent of a clever move he managed to mangle most of the Pontic cavalary threatening to overwhelm his left. My follow on cataphract cavalry still wrecked what was left of his left flank but it was to little, to late as the cumulative losses elsewhere had pushed me up to my rout level. After dinner I played two team games of Wings of War: Dawn of War with several other folks (John, Lind, Alan and Matt -- Matt took over for Lind). This expands Wings of War into WWII and is mostly the same game with some added features and a few new items to reflect WWII air warfare. We had a lot of fun with it. I was shot down the first game but did much better in the second game shooting down both opponents (though I myself was shot down that same round -- a result of my tendency to charge enemy plains head on). Then Gary and I got in a game of Bastogne: the Desperate Defense (part of the SPI West Wall Quad). I've played this one many times but I don't think the Germans can really win against a good American player. By the last turn of the first scenario I had destroyed most of Gary's units and captured Bastogne two turns before, but I still needed to exit six units of the Lehr to win. Unfortunately, Gary was able to place a single artillery unit (about the only thing he had left on the Northern half of the board) on the road blocking most of them and I was only able to exit two such units. Excellent play on Gary's part in what looked like a losing situation. Sunday Alan and I played about half a game of "They Shall Not Pass." Alan had blown open several holes and driven the remnants of the French 30th Corps back nearly to the forts before my reinforcements started to stabilize the line (aided by the fact that much of his artillery was now out of range and had to limber and move forward). We picked up the rules easily and got into play quickly with only a few questions. It felt right and was fun to play (even as my dead pile grew quite large). Also I might mention that it is a very inexpensive game with nice components. Don't be fooled by the box size -- it contains a very large map (which looks just fine to me art wise) and the counters are clean and easy to read (with the exception of the Demoralized markers). Finally I spent time explaining Tarleton's Quarter to one more person who stopped by to look at it before packing up and leaving around 3:30 this afternoon. I also spent to much money. I picked up for cheap a copy of 3W's Salvo! from Kevin and a copy of Victory Game's France 1944 from Crazy Egor's. I got Mayfair Game's Express for Adam. I got Ogre: Battlefields with extra Ogre/GEV maps and scenarios for really cheap from the Steve Jackson's Games booth. From the folks at MMP I picked up A Victory Lost and Red Star Rising, both of which got heavy play this weekend and from what I saw I liked a lot. I also finally got a copy of Warfighter 101: The Guards (with new scenario victory conditions) from the folks at Bayonet Games. I also landed Risk 2210 from the Boardroom Raffle. This last is not something I will hang on to but will put into the next CABS math trade. I also saw several games I wanted to get but for one reason or another didn't. The Six Angles games look nice and in particular I almost got the Dark December, but I've already got a couple of good Bulge games I haven't played yet and a couple of others I have and like. I spoke with the folks at Decision Games about the Triple Alliance War and Land Without End, but I've been so unhappy about the last few games I got from them (with the exception of Dagger Thrust) that I'm very reluctant to purchase anything from them now. And Command And Colors Ancients seems to be such a big hit that it is hard to resist but I have several other ancient systems I like so much better and these games are expensive. And I really would like to get The Conquerors: Alexander the Great but somehow held off (I'm telling myself Christmas is not far off). Aaron Krebs - Jul 8, 2007 8:59 pm (#3305 Total: 3419) Nice job CABS Just got in from a nice long weekend in Columbus. My review would be strikingly similar to past years': Major kudos to CABS for setting up the War/Boardgame rooms! It's been fun to see how it has evolved and grown over the past few years. It is a hopping joint and I have a good time playing there. Typically lukewarm/negative opinion of the GAMA effort - because my chance to come was only realized late I had to go through the on-site registration process which, since you are then required to go register for events in a similarly long line, would have totally depressed me. I swore after my first Origins I would not do that again and unfortunately many years later I had to - and it was no better than it had been before.' This leads to more praise for CABS for allowing folks to buy ribbons in the rooms; the net effect was I just nixed any notion of registering to play events anywhere else. I would say that overall there was a much smaller turnout to Origins. But it was also the weekend AFTER the Fourth, and I for one know that for me and two other buddies it made a huge difference. I only got clearance to go at the last minute. I am pleased it is moving back to the normal pre-4th slot the next few years. Next year would be a better judge for the trend to determine if it's a decline or if the decrease has plateau-ed. Though I had one less day to game my Columbus experience was as usual great - I have family in the area and we eat heartily at the (though no longer, to me) surprising plethora of FINE eateries. So A+ Columbus, A+ CABS, A+ to the vendors, and .. C- to GAMA. Kevin Rohrer - Jul 8, 2007 9:54 pm (#3306 Total: 3419) Gearing up for even more multiplayer fun at the Buckeye Game Fest in Coumbus, Ohio, Sep. 27-30. Thanx! Thanx to CABS for making Origins as much fun as it was. Jamie and I were there for 5-days of Gaming Nirvana. I'd also like to thank all the great guys who gamed with me whom I only see once or twice a year: Andy and Matt from the UK, Mike, Charles, Craig, and all the rest. Kevin Rohrer - Jul 8, 2007 9:56 pm (#3307 Total: 3419) earing up for even more multiplayer fun at the Buckeye Game Fest in Coumbus, Ohio, Sep. 27-30. Gama-tards in Charge As for GAMA continuing to shoot themselves and their members in the foot, I can only shake my head at their penny-pinching stupidity. The Gama-tards in charge seem to be doing whatever they can to kill Origins. They have already started pricing themselves out of the market, the prime example being the absence of dealers. I know of at least one other example of their indifference to their members and the public, which I will detail in my AAR. Mike Welker - Jul 8, 2007 10:12 pm (#3308 Total: 3419) Halls of Montezuma (GMT) graduated to the Art & Final Development phase, thanks to all!! The War Room was great... and thanks to Mark P for showing me around the ASL SK. Steven Bucey - Jul 8, 2007 10:43 pm (#3309 Total: 3419) Going against the grain in 2007 Mike, you will be assimilated. Matt Deaville - Jul 8, 2007 10:45 pm (#3310 Total: 3419) Origins I just got back from Origins a couple of hours ago. I did not end up having to walk from the airport as sopmeone suggested but the 'every 20 minutes' scheduled shuttle took 1h:30m to arrive, evidently due to the fireworks (and parade?). I got in to the hotel just in time to see the fireworks. I agree with the comment that attendance seemed lower this year than last. I went to events in different areas (nsdm, war college, board game hall, historical minis - not just focussed on the war room) so probably got a bigger picture than most here. The whole convention had a much less busy feel. I was not in the boardroom/warroom area during peak times, but when I did stop by, (usually late) it still seemed busy and it was easy to drop into a game. I did not make it to the dealer room until Sunday around 1pm - the hall seemed as full as last year (in the # of booths). There were still a fair number of people in there considering the time, but it was not crowded. One thing that seemed down was card games. I think that last year they had hall C for minis & board games and hall E/F for card games (and maybe some board games?) but this year all of hall C was minis and board/card games shared E/F. I had nothing to do in the RPG areas, but walking through there, the area seemed active. I don't really share peoples concern that the convention is at risk though. To me it seemed that 2007 was less busy than 2006 but 2006 was BUSIER than 2005. I really think it has much more to do with the date of the convention and where the holiday falls. This was especially evident on Sunday - with today being MUCH quieter than last year. Last year the Monday after the con was the holiday, meanding people could stay later on Sunday (leaving them Monday for family/holiday activities or travel back from the con). 2005 the holiday was on the Thursday - meaning people could take off Friday and make a 4 day weekend. Having the holiday fall on Wednesday made it less convenient. One problem I encountered is that there were events scheduled on Wednesday but many did not happen (for me it was 3 out of the 4 I had tickets for). Also one Sunday event I had a ticket for was cancelled. I was able to get refunds for these, but it is inconvenient to have to wait around to give the organizer time to show up, then go to the room HQ and get the ticket signed, then go to customer service and get a refund. I am not sure if you can really blame GAMA for people scheduling events to run and then not doing it - since they are volunteers. But they (GAMA) should do something to post a list of cancelled events. Anyway - I had a great time, played lots of games and had lots of fun. The minor annoyances (like selling $3 soda next to a $1.50 soda machine that does not get refilled for the whole con) were offset by minor improvements (shuttle to hotels now running from 6:30am until 4:00am). Matt mlriley - Jul 9, 2007 11:00 am (#3319 Total: 3419) Last 7 games played here in Minneapolis: Marlborough:War of the Spanish Succession(S&T 238), Austro-Prussian War(S&T),ATS(CH),Lobositz(CoA), Axis & Allies Pacific,ASL SK#3,Twilight Struggle(GMT),Napoleon(CG) Just back from Origins. CABS War Room was really great (legendary), lots of people, lots of war games. The Boardroom next door was action-packed, even late at night. The Exibit Hall had a lot fewer vendors than previous years. Flames of War had a huge showing in the miniatures area. There was a fair amount of naval miniatures and a good DBA turnout. Convention attendance seemed down quite a bit. Holiday weekend of new trend? Much smaller effort from WizKids and Wizards of the Coast this year. Mark Pitcavage - Jul 9, 2007 2:06 pm (#3320 Total: 3419) One foot in the grave, the other in the mouth >The War Room was great... and thanks to Mark P for showing me around the ASL SK. Mike, the pleasure was all mine! For Thurs, Fri, and Sat, I got to play 10 ASL and ASLSK scenarios. I also ended up teaching two guys who did not actually go on to play a scenario. I know that another ASLer started to teach another person how to play ASLSK, but then abandoned him part way through (grrr). A couple of folks borrowed kit to play ASLSK or ASL. And I know Mr. Riley and Mr. Kisner also played ASLSK3. Unfortunately, there were two people who wanted to learn ASLSK, but every time they came by, I was in the middle of something with someone else. Steven Bucey - Jul 9, 2007 3:38 pm (#3321 Total: 3419) Going against the grain in 2007 >And I know Mr. Riley and Mr. Kisner also played ASLSK3. If I recall correctly Mr. Kisner had one of his tanks have a main gun malfunction the first time he tried to fire it and it was in a tight situation I brought my ASLSK3 with me each day but the opportunity to get in a game never presented itself. John Kisner - Jul 9, 2007 3:46 pm (#3322 Total: 3419) Des Moines, Iowa... working on OCS "Baltic Storm" Actually, it was Mike that had the weapons malfunctions (2 of them). He still gave me a whippin though. But I enjoyed seeing everything come together (I had played a scenario of SK1 when it came out, but Mike taught me how to use mortars and guns and tanks in the SK3 scenario set in late June, 1941. Now I know how things interact, and (theoretically) can concentrate on improving my skill as a tactician. I thought some of the things were a little weird, like when a buttoned-up tank pivoted 120 degrees so it could machinegun a sqaud of infantry making a dash for cover to its rear, but Mike advised me not to think about stuff like that too hard and just enjoy the fun. I did. Steven Bucey - Jul 9, 2007 4:13 pm (#3323 Total: 3419) Going against the grain in 2007 Sorry about that John! >I thought some of the things were a little weird, like when a buttoned-up tank pivoted 120 degrees so it could machinegun a sqaud of infantry making a dash for cover to its rear, but Mike advised me not to think about stuff like that too hard and just enjoy the fun. ASL does have its critics for things like that He should have at least had a heafty negative DRM on his attack, however (something for the pivot and something for the buttoned-up status)? I believe he was playing the Germans and the German tanks were much better at giving the commander all around vision than others, though it still should have been a hard shot. Matt Boehland - Jul 9, 2007 7:34 pm (#3324 Total: 3419) This kind of stuff just never happens in Monopoly My Origins recap Here's my recap of what I played at Origins: Matt's Origins 2007 list That has long rambling descriptions and/or opinions, here's the simple 'list of games': Alhambra Carcassone Twilight Struggle Pizza Box Baseball 7 Ages Marvel Heroes Zooloretto Memoir '44 C&C Ancients Battlelore Combat Commander Mike Welker - Jul 9, 2007 8:24 pm (#3325 Total: 3419) Halls of Montezuma (GMT) graduated to the Art & Final Development phase, thanks to all!! Hooo, man... hmm, I played: Combat Commander Battlelore Halls of Montezuma ASL SK1 (Scenario 1) Hordes (Circle vs. Trollbloods) Pirates of the Spanish Main Savage Worlds (a brief pulp adventure) Mike Zehnal - Jul 9, 2007 9:23 pm (#3326 Total: 3419) 2007 WBC Trainer of Pete "Scorched Earth" Stein I finally hit for the cycle. Once again, I had a great time at Origins. My pre-registration worked out fine. The most important event, "The Board Room Ribbon", was with my package. No problem picking up my Childrens' badges at the same time. 15 minutes in line on Wednesday, certainly reasonable given the method employed and the volunteers. I played a LARP, a RPG, a Wargame, many many Euros, a Puffing Billy event, several Miniature events, a CCG, several demos in dealer room and painted miniatures with the kids. No small task to fit this all in. I have been to all Origins since they arrived in Columbus. From my perspective, it seemed well attended. I actually played in every type of event rather than receiving a phone call in Toronto and reporting 3rd person. I enjoyed seeing many children at the convention. I think the Pokeman Nationals were good to get the kids here (I played Magic). The Board Room and War Room were great again. Kudos to the Cabbies that put forth a tremendous effort to ensure many people are having a good time. Remember, all volunteers are taking time off from work for others to have a good time. I commend their dedication to the hobby. I spent my usual several hundred dollars in the dealer room. I miss Hasbro/WOTC not having a booth. Looking forward to next year. William Cooper - Jul 9, 2007 10:12 pm (#3327 Total: 3419) Developing: "To the Halls of Montezuma" (GMT) and "Red Storm over the Reich (Compass). Chatham, NJ and Hague, NY. To my eye, Origins attendance was down from last year, and last year was down from 2004. The Dealer Room was MUCH less filled this year. BC Matt Deaville - Jul 9, 2007 10:35 pm (#3328 Total: 3419) What I played I played these games, in approximately this order: Zombies - played this on Wednesday when my scheduled events did not occur. Some people in the hall grabbed me since they needed another player. It was a fair game, nothing great. I don't see why it's so popular, with so many expansions. At the end 3 people were close to winning, I managed to win with a lucky card draw. Dragon War - played in this demo. I really disliked this game. It was almost entirely random. The only decision making is if/when to play a card (if you have one - you get cards by landing on a 'draw card' space) and who to attack (if you land on a battle space). A waste of time, even though I won. Twilight Struggle - I have played before, great game as always. I won around turn 4 as the USSR with a 'We Will Bury You'. Warrior Knights - Played this on Wednesday evening with Kevin R. and Tex. It worked OK as a three player game, but of course, as with any game that includes voting, would be better with 4+. Second time I have played this game (the first was with 5). I like the game, but I need to play more to decide if it is an OK game or a good game. Game ended close (14 to 13 to 12 I think, with me winning.) Ticket to Ride - I had seen this game before but never played it. I enjoyed it. Plenty of planning, fast playing, not too random. It was late and I don't remember who won, I was either 1st or 2nd. For Sale (I think that was the name of the game). Simple bidding game wher you bid for real estate and then use the real estate values to bid for checks. We played it three times (4 or 5 players each time). I was in the middle each game (no 1st or last place) Silent Death - space fighter combat minis game. I played this once years ago and it was fun. This scenario was a free for all where everyone started with a small fighter of a random class. Then after doing enough kills and surving you could upgrade to a tier 2 and then 3. The aim was to upgrade to level 3, do enough damage and survive. The game was fun. I like the way the system handles a variety of ships, defenses, beam weapons, pilot & gunner skills, missiles, torpedoes, decoys etc yet remains simple and playable. I got hammered at this game. All the other players were a ship tier ahead of me, i.e. the turn I got to 2, they all got to 3. It was fun though. NSDM (full game) - A single cell (USA) game with around 20 players, I had the Director of Homeland Security position. They had changed the mechanics for the USA cell from past games. I liked the changes BUT there were a few concerns about a few of the new positions, I believe they made changes before the Saturday game to address the concerns. I got 1st place. The last 2 years the Thursday game was a cold war scenario - but they have stopped that, going back to the present day scenario. Talavera 1809 (minis, not sure what the system was) - 4 players per side. I had the Spanish infantry (mostly militia). Fun game with an interesting, seemingly balanced, scenario. We held up the French in the middle for some time and beat off their initial attack on Talavera and launched a semi successful counter attack. Our cavalry on the left flank was getting hammered (due to bad luck, not any mistakes by our Cav. commander. My militia in the center managed to beat off a french attack. When the game was called due to time, the French were about to launch another attack on Talavera. It was called as a French victory, which was a reasonable decision based on the casualties done but it was really not decisive. It was a shame we did not have more time. I heard comments from some other mini's players that the time slots were too short. Since there are different length slots available I suspect this is due to GM's under estimating the time needed based on play-testing (by experienced players) and not factoring in enough time for teaching, slower players etc. NSDM (fast play game) - South East Asian cells (probably 30+ players, divided between Vietnam, Australia and Indonesia). I had the 'Australian Democrat' position (Australia has been played before but I have never played in that cell). I didn't particularly like the Australian cell (it wasn't BAD, but was not as interesting to me as some of the cells that allow for more 'sneaky' play. I think it would suit less experienced players since it was straight forward). I did not rank in this game (typically the first 5-10 players are ranked, with the top 5 getting a prize). NSDM (fast play game) - (probably 40 players) Iran, Russia, Turkey. I had the 'Russian Centrist Conservative' position.This was the first time Turkey was used as a player cell. I heard good things about Turkey and hope to play in that cell in future but I didn't interact with them much. I had never played in Russia before and enjoyed it. This game was excellent, lots of interaction between cells and lots of deals being made. Pretty much all of the Russian cell were outsmarted by the Communist player, who managed to take over the cell and restablish the USSR (he also, deservedly, won the game). Again I did not rank. Aerodrome - Excellent WW1 air combat minis game. They track kills, medals etc from convention to convention. There were people in the game with 100+ kills (it was my first game). I was VERY luck in the first battle, achieving 2 kills and surviving. Did just fair in the second (1 kill and died) but won the game overall on points. This game is great fun. Simple enough rules but since you 'plot' three moves ahead (using a board, not written plots) there is plenty of planning/thinking ahead and tension as you guess where the enemy will go. Ceylon '42 - minis game using modified rules from the 'Midway' boardgame. Double-blind. Lots of tension. Unfortunately not enough time (2 hours) to get a result. We (British) managed to combine a lot of our scattered forces and give them a land-based CAP before the Japanese found and launched a major attack. The 2 CV's were damaged lighly. No ships lost. Fun game, good scenario. Forces need to start closer and a 3 hour slot would be better (this was the first time this scenario was played and the GM agreed) Coffee - Play test of this game about, you guessed it, coffee. Plant and harvest coffee, build warehouses, roast the beans, sell the coffee. Good Euro. Sufficiently different mechanics to make it original. Actually related to the theme instead of having the theme tacked on. I managed to win (4 player game) NSMD (full game) - USA and China. Lots of players (typically the Saturday games are larger than Thursday since many new players try one of the fast-play games on Friday and come back on Saturday for the full game). I had the Chinese Navy position. This was an excellent game. From what I saw/heard of the USA cell (which used the new mechanics from Thursday) that cell was fun. China is always a fun cell to be in and this game was no exception. I took 1st place. Caylus - I have played this before. Joined a 4 player pick-up game late one night. Fun as usual. Fast players who all knew the game. The end result was close (I didn't win, I don't remember if I was 2nd or 3rd). Venus Needs Men - played a 4 player demo. Each race has different combat strengths and multiple special abilites so each plays very differently. I really liked this game. Very close finish (so it must be balanced based on ONE game, right?). Nuclear War - I used to think this game was fun but it is really not a good game. It's WAY to random, players can be eliminated too easily and it's too long for what it is. Cash and Guns - Fun late night game. Played twice with 5 or 6 players. Not a great deal of strategy but fun anyway. Not sure how many times I would want to replay it though but it is IDEAL as a late night convention game. Galactic Destiny - played a 6 player game on Sunday. This game has lots of potential but the rules are simply not there. Lots of political / voting type things you can do. Also military and non military attacks on plants. It's more of a political game than military but there is lots of conflict (it's no Euro). We did have fun with this but the rules holes were frustrating to some. There is a phase where players can propose a 'proposal' that gets voted on. They can propose anything (with certain limits, like the proposal cannot target one player or create resources). This is MUCH too open ended (I think there will be a new set of rules to fix this). Anyway at the end we proposed that everyone with a 'pointy' ship won the game, making a 4-way tie Even fixing that rule, there are MANY holes that we found. We went to their booth after the game and asked some questions - they gave vague answers like 'well, you can play it like that if you want, we used to but now we prefer to do xxxxx instead, do whatever works for your group'. This is find if you always play with the same group but not for a convention - you don't want to have a 'rules negotiation' phase at the start of the game. There IS a lot of potential here though - I think that if the rules get (re-)written it could be great. One other thing - the players are also playing against the game system, so all can loose (think Republic of Rome) I also played a co-operative game about Camelot (something of Camelot? or Camelot something?). It was good since no-one had played much (I think 1 or 2 of the 5 of us had played once) so we had to talk through what to do. It was fun but I am not sure of the replay value. I also attended 2 war college lectures: The Russian Navy - this was interesting AND entertaining (I want BOTH of these factors for a lecture at a game convention) The Red Chinese Threat - I forgot I attended this last year or the year before and it had not changed much since then, so a lot of it was repeated. Good lecture despite that. Well, this is much too long so I will stop now. Thanks to everyone I gamed with, especially those who taught me a game. Matt Deaville - Jul 9, 2007 10:38 pm (#3329 Total: 3419) Dealer Room I yield to the opinion of those who say the dealer room was way down. My observation was based on there still being a fair few people in there on Sunday. I never spend much time in there anyway so don't have much to compare it to. William Cooper - Jul 9, 2007 10:47 pm (#3330 Total: 3419) Developing: "To the Halls of Montezuma" (GMT) and "Red Storm over the Reich (Compass). Chatham, NJ and Hague, NY. I will be clear: the space filled by dealers in the Dealers' Room was much less than in previous years. BC Andy Loakes - Jul 10, 2007 9:35 am (#3333 Total: 3419) Playing Napoleon at the Crossroads, Triumph of Chaos, USN, Paths of Glory and 1066 via Cyberboard and Here I Stand F2F. Whether numbers were up or down I wouldn't know as this was my first (and probably last - due to distance) Origins. What I do know is I had a great time. I spent most of it in the War Room. The highlight for me was meeting so many people I've seen on CSW (though this was far less than I'd hoped - not helped that I now see I missed a few of you: David Gray, MJRiley, John Kisner to name but a few; a real shame). I'll not name those I met (other than Gary, my gracious host, and Randy Lein from KPG, my room-mate; sterling guys) for fear of missing someone. Needless to say everyone was welcoming and helpful - I very much enjoyed everyone's company. And I know it is poor form to do this to someone who has welcomed me into his home but I can't resist. Gary didn't only play Bulge games he was also seen playing Leaping Lemmings. Could this be a sign of things to come?!? I should also point out that he won Andy William Cooper - Jul 10, 2007 9:38 am (#3334 Total: 3419) Developing: "To the Halls of Montezuma" (GMT) and "Red Storm over the Reich (Compass). Chatham, NJ and Hague, NY. >What I do know is I had a great time. This of course is the important point. I also had a great time; thanks for playing Leaping Lemmings, Andy! BC Andy Loakes - Jul 10, 2007 9:52 am (#3335 Total: 3419) Playing Napoleon at the Crossroads, Triumph of Chaos, USN, Paths of Glory and 1066 via Cyberboard and Here I Stand F2F. >thanks for playing Leaping Lemmings Absolutely my pleasure Bill - thanks for the opportunity, a great little game that I'll know doubt acquire (in one of the myriad of versions we proposed during the game - that was hilarious and almost as much fun as the game itself! ) Mark Pitcavage - Jul 10, 2007 10:51 am (#3336 Total: 3419) ne foot in the grave, the other in the mouth From my entirely subjective opinion, attendence in the dealers room seemed down a tad on Thursday and Friday, but looked its normal packed on Saturday. Kevin Rohrer - Jul 10, 2007 11:01 am (#3337 Total: 3419) Gearing up for even more multiplayer fun at the Buckeye Game Fest in Coumbus, Ohio, Sep. 27-30. Played at Origins # 7 Ages x2 # Warrior Knights # Combat Commander x2 # Galactic Destiny 2x # Twilight Struggle # Rise & Fall # Shattered States Wished I Could Have Played # Mare Nostrum # 1960 # Duel in the Dark # Manifest Destiny # Age of Empires 3 Glad I Didn't Play # any Euro William Cooper - Jul 10, 2007 11:10 am (#3338 Total: 3419) Developing: "To the Halls of Montezuma" (GMT) and "Red Storm over the Reich (Compass). Chatham, NJ and Hague, NY. >attendence in the dealers room Of buyers or sellers? There were, clearly, fewer dealers there: the arena took up a lot of space which formerly had been used for dealer booths, and I recall that the dealers got closer to the back wall in previous years. In addition, there seemed to be a lot more open gaming tables in various places than previously. BC Mark Pitcavage - Jul 10, 2007 11:42 am (#3339 Total: 3419) One foot in the grave, the other in the mouth I am talking about buyers, of course. Gary Christiansen - Jul 10, 2007 11:42 am (#3340 Total: 3419) What's this, a Bulge game Gary? (most common comment I heard at Origins 2007) Seemed to me the actual number of dealers were noticeably down in the sales hall. The attendance numbers seemed well down during Thursday and Friday, slightly down on Saturday. It appeared to me the sales of wargames were going well as the stacks on the tables of wargame publishers seemed to diminish noticeably from Thursday to end of day Saturday (Sunday being hard to gauge by since everyone starts to pack up anything but display copies). Interestingly the GMT folk reported an apparent renewed interest in Europe Engulfed has been evidenced by being both sold out of the title and many people requesting it at the Origins price before leaving. L2 sold out almost everything Art brought, and it looked to me MMP was doing well. Mike at Avalanche was busy doing the making change from sales thing every time I walked past. It was hard to judge how DG was doing though. Attendance in the War Room seemed a bit depressed but at the same time the Board Room was greatly overflowing into other areas. CABS is certainly glad to see that. It appeared everyone who attended the War Room or the Board Room came away happy. Great going Bud, Nathan, Pete, Paul, etc. You'se bums were great that did the work behind the tables! It is my observation that all the designers or game company reps who came to the War Room seemed to come away very happy too. There were a couple incidents in the War Room that were not negative but things we had to deal with. One gentleman had injured himself outside the convention center pretty badly in a fall on the sidewalk. Fortunately he did not appear to have a concussion and was verified to have made it to his local crash space safely. Another attendee with an important lost bag incident was able to be resolved without escalation to the convention. In all, I'd say if those are the most serious problems we encounter, the place is doing well. Steven Bucey - Jul 10, 2007 12:00 pm (#3341 Total: 3419) Going against the grain in 2007 I'm always amazed that we can collectively as a group leave our bags and boxes with hundreds of dollars worth of games sitting around as we go get lunch or dinner or snack or sleep or whatever. William Cooper - Jul 10, 2007 12:03 pm (#3342 Total: 3419) Developing: "To the Halls of Montezuma" (GMT) and "Red Storm over the Reich (Compass). Chatham, NJ and Hague, NY. >I am talking about buyers, of course. Thank you for that needed clarification. I will agree that Saturday seemed to bring everyone out to shop. BC William Cooper - Jul 10, 2007 12:05 pm (#3343 Total: 3419) Developing: "To the Halls of Montezuma" (GMT) and "Red Storm over the Reich (Compass). Chatham, NJ and Hague, NY. >I'm always amazed that we can collectively as a group leave our bags and boxes with hundreds of dollars worth of games sitting around as we go get lunch or dinner or snack or sleep or whatever. Not just games, but cameras and wallets (mine was in my bag most of the time, except when I went shopping). BC Steven Bucey - Jul 10, 2007 12:08 pm (#3344 Total: 3419) Going against the grain in 2007 I suppose Origins is a game trade show with gaming. I do understand that a big draw for a lot of people is the dealer's room, and it does make the whole thing more interesting. Personally, however, I think I spent maybe two hours total in the dealer's room and 30 hours in the War Room (and 2 hours in the Board Room). It means nothing to me personally if the overall attendance is down, so long as the CABS run activities continue to have a strong showing. I would be disappointed if the wargame publishers stopped showing up, but that in and of itself would not stop me from attending -- the majority of my purchases from them are via their web sites anyway. 90% of the reason I attend is to play wargames with people I don't usually get a chance to play games with and see what everybody else is playing. Mark Pitcavage - Jul 10, 2007 1:32 pm (#3345 Total: 3419) One foot in the grave, the other in the mouth Until I started playing ASL, I ONLY went to Origins for the dealers. I think one year I did a We the People tournament, but other than that, I only went to buy. I know that is the case for many of my gaming friends--they go to Origins for one day only to stock up on stuff. Peter Stein - Jul 10, 2007 1:59 pm (#3346 Total: 3419) Next on the 2007 Professional Gamers Tour: Origins, July 4-8, Columbus, OH. You'll find me in the War Room, hiding behind Gary Christiansen. Even before the War/Board Room, the two reasons I went to Origins was (1) the dealer room and (2) CABS. I was very disappointed with the lack of what I call the little vendors. I've already bought or ordered what I'm going to get from MMP, GMT and even Rio Grande. But I always liked checking out the small guys- you never know what you might find. The last few years I've gotten a few good football games and ETO from Nappa Games. This year the only thing remotely of interest to me was the card football and hockey guys, and I already have all their stuff. Why were there fewer of these companies there? That's a debate for another day. Mike Zehnal - Jul 10, 2007 2:04 pm (#3347 Total: 3419) 2007 WBC Trainer of Pete "Scorched Earth" Stein Dealers at Origins I like to demo games and look at the product. There is a limit to how much I will spend in my trips to the dealer room (what I can carry). However, I buy all year long and will purchase many of the games I demo at Origins. I think the P500, etc. takes away sales from convention dealers. However, they already have this market. Dealers need to influence those not already playing their games. To measure the success of the show on sales alone is probably not the right metric. Brant Guillory - Jul 10, 2007 5:47 pm (#3356 Total: 3419) Next up for Warfighter Series: The Guards II & Asian Thunder; after that, Next Wars I: Orange Crush/War in the Ukraine Origins Dealer Room As a vendor, I can offer a few comments: Foot traffic seemed normal on THU and SAT, but waaaaaay down on FRI and SUN, even accounting for the usual slowness of those two days. The number of dealers seems to be holding steady, but they seem to be teaming up more. 2 years ago, AEG and FFG both had BIG booths, and both were working out of Steve Jackson's booth this year, with no demo space and no demo games. A lot of the smaller booths were working with sparse decorations. The podcasting booth, for instance, had very little hanging on the black backdrop. Ditto a lot of other smaller booths (L2 comes to mind, but some of the smaller RPG companies were that way, too). That makes them look smaller even if they aren't. There weren't as many entrepreneurial booths this year (or at least it didn't seem like it) and the collectible game aftermarket seems to be shifting to Indy. Between those two things, that's probably 4-6 booths that weren't there this year. 2 years ago, there were some out-of-place booths, like the Columbus Whist Association, and the broadcast team from CD101. Although the gamers didn't notice their absence, they were booths that extended the size of the room and now aren't there. And of course, WizKids pulled over to their own room, which cut a major exhibitor out of the middle. Brant Guillory - Jul 10, 2007 5:48 pm (#3357 Total: 3419) Next up for Warfighter Series: The Guards II & Asian Thunder; after that, Next Wars I: Orange Crush/War in the Ukraine War College Talk For anyone who cares (yes, both of you!), the slides from the talk I did at the War College is available for download at www.bayonetgames.com If you've been following the Battle Lab columns at www.wargamer.com, then you've pretty much seen the entire talk, since it's heavily adapted from Battle Labs 1 & 3. Mark Guttag - Jul 10, 2007 5:54 pm (#3358 Total: 3419) Fairfax, VA >Why were there fewer of these companies there? That's a debate for another day. There are now better and more cost-efficient ways for a small publisher publicize a new game than Origins? If I was a small publisher, I would rather publicize my game at a smaller convention such as EuroQuest, BuckeyeGamefest, PrezCon or even the WBC. My game would stand out more at such a convention and would find about as many players who could give me positive word of mouth on-line. There are a fair number of people at each of those conventions that are active on-line and in local game clubs that could spread the word about my game. I could also send a copy of my game to a relatively well-know podcaster such as Tom Vasel (Dice Tower). If my game is a wargame, I could use Consimworld to publicize my game. And there are probably a bunch of other ways I could use the internet to publicize my game that would be more cost-effective than going to Origins. I still really enjoy Origins, but even I can see that it isn't quite the draw it was before the existence of the Internet in general and the BoardgameGeek and Consimworld in particular. There are simply dozens of ways to find out about new games before they are released now that weren't available even 10 years ago. In some ways, it often feels like it's Origins every day now: New games are always being released, new reviews are being posted daily, I get to keep up with gaming friends from all over the country (although it's still no replacement for seeing everyone in person), I can shop from an assortment of hundreds of games (on-line), etc. John Tex Teixeira - Jul 10, 2007 9:01 pm (#3362 Total: 3419) Famous war movie quote XI: "I am Le Long Carabine! My death is a great honor to the Huron, take me!" I was only at Origins for Wednesday night and all of Thursday. I had family commitments on Fri and Sat. I really enjoyed spending time with Kevin R. and others, I played Warrior Knights on Wed. and then Frederich, Rise and Fall and Shattered States on Thu. A lot of fun and the War Room was first rate. The guys at CABS shouls be proud of the job that they did. I was very disappointed with the lack of what I call the little vendors. I couldn't agree more.Those "little vendors" really are a lot of fun and were sorely missed. It was almost embaressing to see the lack of vendors and how GAMA tried to spread out the companies to cover the space. As Bilbo Baggins said in LOTR "it felt like too little butter spread out over too much bread" or something like that. Its silly to spread out the wargame companies all over the place. GAMA needs to keep them clustered in the same local area of the convention hall. I don't know f I will make the 8 hour trek next year, but I have gone for the past 5 years and can't say enough positive things about CABS. Steven Bucey - Jul 10, 2007 9:22 pm (#3363 Total: 3419) Going against the grain in 2007 >I was very disappointed with the lack of what I call the little vendors. Well, there was the fellow selling his new take on dominoes that looked like a deck of cards, or was it a deck of cards that played like dominoes? I saw a few small shops scattered about, mostly on the north side of the hall. I'll bet what happened was most of you that wandered over there got distracted by the girls "dressed" (and I use that term loosely) up as Succubus and didn't notice anything else