Michael Cardwell - 10:45pm Jun 30, 2001 PST (#1908 of 1993) Just got back from the WBC. The second year in a row. I enjoyed this WBC experience immensely. I saw on peoples name tags number go up to about 950 or abouts. Don't know how many attended last year but must be almost 1000 this year. I played in 2 fun and well run tournaments this year. I thank Tom Gregorio and Gary Dickson of Russian Campaign and Robert Frisby of Panzergruppe Guderian. These gentlemen provided excellent service to the gamers of those tournaments. It was great to view up coming and new projects. Wilderness War, Barbarossa to Berlin, The 30 Years War, The Killing Ground, and Advanced ETO to name a few. I purchased new games Guderian's Blitzkrieg II and Cherkassy Pocket. I hope to remember the valuable lessons i learned from the tournament and open gaming opponents/teachers. I lost every game i played but gained much knowedge and pleasure of wargaming. I hope to return next year. Goal this year, spend more time playing wargames and less time in purchasing them. Mike Boeck - 09:21am Jul 1, 2001 PST (#1909 of 1993) Operation Overdyke is Go I saw on peoples name tags number go up to about 950 or abouts. I was number 1122 when I made it for the day on Saturday. Kris Weinschenker - 12:55pm Jul 1, 2001 PST (#1910 of 1993) I Got Pucked at DonCon 2001 Just back from my first WBC! Great to finally meet alot of the Consimmers I've come to know over over the past year or two face to face. Thanks to all the organizers for a well-run and FUN event I was number 1122 when I made it for the day on Saturday. Sorry I missed you, Mike. You were one of the few Consimmer's I didnt get to meet(if only to rub your nose in crabcakes;o) Did you play Slapshot? I was at the table naer the "penalty box" and won the Mario card for my jersey (along with an "I got Pucked Award") Michael Rinella - 05:27pm Jul 1, 2001 PST (#1911 of 1993) Designer, Operation Market Garden (MMP). Been back for a few hours now. I feel like I've been gaming for two weeks, not five days. Attendence was as good as ever. I played one game of AOR (third place); six of BKN (second place); and playtested Barbarossa to Berlin. I also met with MMP about Operation Market Garden, which hopefully will be an event at the 2002 WBCs. Oh yea and it was a great time. Based on the Sunday morning after action meeting, there appear to be changes in the air - but I will leave it at that ... Bob Ryan - 07:37pm Jul 1, 2001 PST (#1913 of 1993) Developing Dark December II for OSG The WBC was as good as ever this year. I especially liked the fact that the movable divider wall between the two large ballrooms downstairs was open the entire time (making for one big room). It was a lot easier keping track of what was going on without having to check the 'other' ballroom out. Randy Cox - 08:31pm Jul 1, 2001 PST (#1914 of 1993) It's almost Monday, so here's some additional "I just got back" reaction to this edition of WBC... There was a lot more open gaming that I'd ever seen before at previous WBCs/Avalocons. However, it wasn't 1/2 POG (unless you're counting only the wargame portion of open gaming). By far the biggest hit was, of all things, the parlor game Werewolf (a.k.a. Mafia) which is essentially toned-down role-playing to simulate mob mentality. Go figure. It's cute, but for several tables (each with over a dozen players) to sit and play game after game from midnight until 9 am is amazing. On the whole, it was well-run, as always, with dedicated volunteers doing most of the work. The only problem seemed to be that there were some "dead zones" in the schedule where there were very few options for starting a new event as other events were holding semi-finals or finals (I don't know if this was a conscious effort to keep the semi-finalists and finalists from missing other opening rounds, or just a fluke in resource allocation). The poor Medici GM, with only semis and finals scheduled against him, was swamped with entrants looking for anything to do. As to the big changes issue mentioned, I didn't attend the Sunday morning meeting, though everyone who did seemed to mention that Don said this was probably his last stint as convention manager. But I think I've heard him say that at just about every previous Avaloncon/WBC. If you've had to put up with every negative comment for the previous week, I suppose it would be natural to say it isn't worth it. We'll just have to see if he means it this time around. Hopefully there are not serious issues causing Don to say that. As to the attendance question, it didn't seem to be far off of last year's pace. Maybe it was the additional open gaming space that made it feel like more people were there (as you could see more active gaming going on, rather than having to peer into each room to see much of it). But the badge numbers (which have never seemed to be a completely accurate method of measuring attendance) seemed to crawl into the same four-digit range of years past. On the other hand, it seemed a lot easier to find a chair this year. I did try Cafe Jay's food, and it was surely overpriced and in no way spectacular. Essentially, it was the same fare we had the last two years in the basement assembly area with ice cream (and well-appreciated vegetarian burgers) thrown in. And I think that Rio Grande ended up with marginally better facilities for showcasing their games. Also, the continuous demos of their games were one of the highlights of the con. Peter Stein - 08:51pm Jul 1, 2001 PST (#1915 of 1993) ROLL. . .ONE. . .DIE! The above tag line is the most common line said to me during Pro Golf. It is not what you want to hear. Where to start? The list of games I played include AoR, March Madness (2 heats) Medici, Kremlin (GMed it), Pro Golf, Formula De (2 tourney races, two pick up races), Aladdin's Dragons, Decathalon, Guerilla, Atlantic Storm, Zertz (ick), Africa, Merchants of Genoa, Carsacone (couple of those), Battleline, Hera and Zeus, Pirate's Plunder and two turns of Wiz War. And somehow found the time to go out for dinner two nights. Personally, I had more fun than last year, but others might differ. I had high hopes for Frankie and Vinnie's, but found it to be essentially the same garbage as last year slightly repackged. Though I didn't try the sundaes. But then again, I don't go to the WBC to eat. My unscientific count had attendance down some, but not a big drop (10%?). Though Kremlin set an alltime attendance record at 51. The only real complaint I got was what I thought was the large of numbers of kids who I saw almost every night at 2AM with no parents in sight. Admittedly, that's not the WBC's fault, but I'm really wondering if I'm wrong in thinking that a 13 year old at 2AM should at the very least be in their room. Favorite line fo the con: When my friend Ted mentioned that he might not make next year because all his vacation time was going to be used on a long trip, I suggested he use sick days. Without realizing what he was saying, his response was, "I have to be sick to go to the WBC?" :-) My thanks to Don G and the board, the GMs (even you Mr. Coussis :-), worthy opponents in tourneys and open gaming, and occasional shoulders to cry on after losing ANOTHER one for a great convention. Allan J Rothberg - 09:23pm Jul 1, 2001 PST (#1917 of 1993) Wait, I can explain Tag number 1000 here. Do I win anything for that? Great to see faces attached to all the CSWers there. I just feel bad that i didn't see more of you that I know were there. So many people, so little time. Don Greenwood - 04:20am Jul 2, 2001 PST (#1918 of 1993) Many thanks to all who attended and contributed to another successful WBC. We'll have to finish the accounting process to weed out the no-shows and replacement badges but it appears we once again crossed the 1000 paid barrier for the second straight year ... something I wasn't expecting in the wake of the forced date change and the departure of World Dip Con. As these things go, this year's conference had less problems than the norm and I attribute that mainly to so many understanding attendees beginning to understand the system and trying hard not to make waves. Much appreciated. We've still got some things to improve but the challenge to do so is what makes it interesting. On that note, I would like to remind everyone that was too busy to do so, including those members who were unable to attend, that you can still exercise your right to vote until July 15th on our website at www.boardgamers.org. I urge everyone to do just that. The electorate is small and the percentage of folks that vote is unfortunately low, so each vote carries quite a lot of weight. The people elected will be the ones to implement or not implement the changes called for here and elsewhere so please be part of the process and vote for the candidate(s) of your choice. The same message also applies to the Survey posted on our website. The results of that survey will not be tabulated until July 15th and will be the fuel that backs up or refutes a lot of Board arguments in formulating policy for 2002 so please take a moment to be a part of the process now as opposed to a critic of the process later. Art Lupinacci - 07:41am Jul 2, 2001 PST (#1923 of 1993) Game Designer/Developer, Streets of Stalingrad 3rd Edition My WBC report Well, I just finished my second WBC and again, it proved to be a very enjoyable time. Thank you Don Greenwood and everyone else who labours to make this a wonderful event for board gamers. Please don't stop. The only improvement I would like to see is allowing a flea market and an auction. In my opinion, it is part and parcel to a game convention. I know, I know…..but it is what I would like to see added. Judging from the few people I spoke to, I am not alone. Personally, I think this would increase attendance, regardless if it is not to play games. As much as I like Hunt Valley, I think you need to find a better place. The dealers need a proper area and this, in my opinion, is also important. Attendance looked good to me and I was happy to see a lot of younger people attending. The most entertaining gamer award goes to Bruno Sinigaglio. He is one of the nicest people you will ever meet and has an energy level that can be best described as enviable. If you have ever seen a Chess Master play 20 opponents at that same time, that is what Bruno reminded me of. I am sure he had that many games going at the same time! :-) The most entertaining game was the Star Wars game he played against an equally energetic opponent whose name I unfortunately forgot. Again, I met a lot of nice new people and my gaming experience was a very positive one. In my opinion, this is the best convention of it’s kind and I highly recommend it to anyone who has never experienced it. I am greatly looking forward to next year! John Coussis - 07:48am Jul 2, 2001 PST (#1925 of 1993) "If you can't laugh at yourself, laugh at someone else" Wow, back from WBC and I need another vacation to recover from my vacation :). As usual this was a wonderful time. I want to echo many of the comments complimenting the GM's as well as Don's and the entire Board's efforts. Everyone did a terrific job, even the Kremlin GM, that's you Mr. Stein (always remember, 9 is bigger than 8) :). The only depressing part of all of this is now we have to wait 13 months for the next one :(. Wray Ferrell - 08:10am Jul 2, 2001 PST (#1926 of 1993) Currently reading "Chronicle of the Roman Emperors" Had a great time as usual this year. After reading all the posts on this board I sought out Mr. Greenwood to shake his hand and tell him I appreciated all the work he did. I open gamed the entire time as I always do. The group I game with every year has the rule if you bring a game and want to play it, we will. So played a lot a games for the first time this year. ConRails - good game, just needs some markers to indicate who owns which railroad and some better way to determine when switching rails. Chariot Lords - long game, but much improved over Brittinia imo The Hills Rise Wild - psuedo-minitures game that is best described as H.P. Lovecraft meets Deliverance. Great fun. Daddy's Home! Tried to play Medevil. Looked good, but Mr. Berg forgot to bring a chart so we could not get past that. As far as food goes, the Italian resturant across the street was quite good for a chain. Wray John Vasilakos - 08:55am Jul 2, 2001 PST (#1927 of 1993) G'KAR:- " Let me pass on to you the one thing I've learned about this place. No one here is exactly what he appears." My second WBC, and another great time. I was there from Thrusday to Sunday. And basiocally I enjoy just playing different things, mneeting people etc. I played in the Saratoga-Brandywine Tournament and the size of the games allowed me to play many other games in Open Gaming ... Blue vs Grey, PoG, the computer multiplayer version of Herman's Peloponesian War some Reds and Prussia's Glory as well as BS with some of the industry's notables. In addition there were lots of demos' going on, like Across the Rappahanack, 30 Years War, Clash of Giants, BtB- Back to Battaan..ooops I mean Barbarrossa to Berlin, etc. So kudos and thanks to all the BPA people who made it a great con! Steven Bucey - 09:31am Jul 2, 2001 PST (#1928 of 1993) Never mind the cheese, who took my mouse? I had a lot of fun. I played Hannibal, several games of For the People, Medici, Battle Line, and several games of Battle Cry. I talked to one fellow extensively about Panzer Gruppe Guderian -- apparently his favorate game of all time, watched demos of Wilderness War, 30 Years War, tournament games of Totaler Krieg! and GboH, and others (I was looking for a pickup game of SPQR, but never connected with anybody). But probably my greatest contribution to the hobby came when I caught Richard Berg and told him that regardless, he had to keep the working subtitle to his new work in progress about Rome during the time of Nero "We fiddle while you burn." Peter Staab - 12:42pm Jul 2, 2001 PST (#1934 of 1993) Well, another WBC is completed and I have already started to look forward to the preparation for the next one. It was terrific to see all of the old faces and meet some new people during all of the different games that I played. I would also like to publicly thank Don, the members of the Board and the other GMs for all of the work that they do to make the convention a success. Without all of their efforts, this convention wouldn't be as wonderful as it is all year. Medici, which I GM, did not make it to triple figure entrants although we did set our highest attendance record with 95 participants. Part of this was the Friday night "dead spot" others have mentioned leading to the largest heat I ever had with 57 participants. I have to admit that I was shocked by the crowd because I didn't realize this was a dead spot in the schedule. Since I knew I had to run Medici, I hadn't checked the rest of the schedule at that time to see what else was starting at that time (which turned out to be very little). However, I would not mind having that problem at each of my Medici heats in the future. I managed to participate in 18 different tournaments at this year's convention and had a good time playing with and competing against all of my different opponents. It is the quality of the competition along with the friendliness of the people at this convention that set it a level above the other conventions I attend. Once again I would have liked to have gotten in more open gaming to try other games, but there are enough tournaments occurring that I did not take advantage of this option. I agree with Randy that a person who volunteers to GM an event should realize that there may be some sacrifices that have to accompany that commitment. For example, I qualified for the semi-finals for Princes of Florence, my favorite game right now. However, I knew that it would probably conflict with my Friday night heat of Medici so I skipped the game and had no problem doing so. However, I don't have a problem with a GM getting assistance running a heat or the demo if they arrange for someone to handle it for them. Looking forward to seeing all of you again in thirteen months at WBC 2002. Joel A Tamburo - 12:45pm Jul 2, 2001 PST (#1935 of 1993) The Ultimate Joelist. Big fan of the WBC. Circus Minimus WBC 2001 Report Circus Minimus, which was released by The Gamers in 2000, is a fast playing game of Roman Chariot Racing. While the subject is the same as Circus Maximus, it is a completely different game and is a very fun and exciting playing experience. Due to the lateness of The Gamers acquisition of a vendor booth in 2000, it was not run that year. This year, therefore, marked the inaugural appearance of Circus Minimus at WBC, as a vendor sponsored Trial. Attendance was excellent, with 39 people participating. This included Dean Essig (the designer), Hoyt Burass (part of The Gamers team at WBC this year) and Rick Barber of Civil War game design and graphics fame. All in all, nine games were played across four heats and the final. Heat one saw two six player races. These races set the tone for the rest of the tournament, as the players wasted no time inflicting mayhem on each other to the degree that the game was nicknamed “Rollerball in the Ancient World”. In the first of these races, Scott Cornett won the race, as his virtually destroyed (8 damage out of a limit of 10) chariot staggered across the line. Anthony Musella, the only other living charioteer, finished second, and won the purse for most kills. The difference between turning in this game versus Circus Maximus (plus the players pre-game use of sabotage on each other) was evident, as three chariots flipped in the first corner. The second race was also a bloodbath, this time with only one chariot finishing. John Keating was the leader, but his chariot flipped in the final turn. He still could have won, but the fact that his driver was already badly injured (4 injuries out of 6 allowed) meant that he died before his team could have dragged him across the finish line. Barry Smith was the only one who finished with a Chariot. He took first while Bob Myers crossed the line on foot, and took the purse for most kills. Heat two saw three six player races. The mayhem level definitely equaled that of the first heat. In one of the races, Stephen Campbell hijacked Dean Essig’s chariot right at the end, and rode it to victory. Hoyt Burass was dragged by his team (chariot flip) across the line to finish second, while Dean (the designer) crossed on foot for third. After two more fun and exciting heats, it was time for the final. And what a final it was! The winner of the race and the event was Steve Shambeder. Steve’s win was no small accomplishment. With a badly damaged chariot, Steve survived two flip rolls by rolling a 6 each time. 6 was the only roll that would work. Then, after that, he won the game by rolling another 6 for his hard whip attempt, giving him enough speed to come in one space ahead of Greg Berry, who finished second by one space as he was dragged across the line by his team following a chariot flip. Andrew Fedin finished third, and wins my unofficial award for the gamest player. Andrew played in every round, usually being killed by his ruthless fellow racers. But perseverance paid off as he managed to qualify and take third place. Overall, the event was a blast. People would come in, play the game, and in many cases went to the vendor area and bought it from The Gamers, who sold out of it. Because I think that the attendance will be enough to warrant inclusion in the Century for next year, planning for that event is already underway. Let me close by thanking all of the players who helped make the event the great time that it was. They not only displayed a great attitude, but also put up with their occasionally befuddled GM. Special thanks here to Andrew Fedin, who on his own initiative stuck around through all of the heats, and helped a lot with the smooth running of things. Until next year, thank you and good gaming! Greg Nichols - 07:03am Jul 3, 2001 PST (#1957 of 1993) "May you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live." Irish toast. Congrats Don Greenwood on a terrific con. My first time at a WBC (never attended an AvalonCon either) and had a marvelous time. Overall, much better than Origins though I do miss not attending an auction. Played lots of games and met lots of great folks. Best con I've ever attended. Loved Cafe Jay and took advantage of it several times (must buy a copy of Wyatt Earp). Also, the open gaming areas were fun. Particularly liked the tournaments that took the "Heat" approach so that it didn't matter if I was there for the first round. Bruce Monnin - 10:19am Jul 3, 2001 PST (#1968 of 1994) Editor of the BOARDGAMER Now to get us back on a more enjoyable track, here's my summary from the WBC: I started off right away Tuesday night by running the training session for Auction in Jay's Café. I heard good and bad comments about how the training sessions worked, but for me it worked very well. I had three active learners and 3-4 others lurking in the background. Afterwards, about 4-5 of these players followed me over to the Auction mulligan round. I ran Auction with a mulligan round for two reasons. One was to provide an extra opportunity to play for those who desited it. The other was to use the mulligan round to try out an optional rule. This year it was the Enforced Rainbow rule, which required players to discard anything in excess of two cards of any set after the initial deal. It worked out well and will be used during the entire tournament next year. I personally went down in flames and did not advance. Amazingly, all the Auction games finished in a hour (a rare occurrence in past years) and I was able to get to Galaxy: The Dark Ages. Their I had both a successful and very enjoyable game (thanks to the fun people at my board) and advanced to the semifinals. I finished the night by winning my board at Win Place & Show to advance to those finals. Wednesday morning was the BPA Annual meeting, where I was able to listen to many of the board candidates speak briefly. Then I went to defend my title in March Madness. I was placed in a first game rematch of last year's finals, but this time Dennis Nicholson's 11 seeed upset my 6 seed and eliminated me from contention (Dennis eventually rode this team all the way to the tournament plaque). Wednesday afternoon I stopped in briefly to check out the Panzerblitz tournament before moving on to the Auction tournament. I again lost, but the semifinals and finals were tight games and enjoyable to watch. I finished the night with another heat of Galaxy (finished 2nd) and Greed, where I reached the position I wanted of being able to knock Ken Gutermuth off the bubble, but failed miserably in the attempt. Thursday was War At Sea. I went 4-1, my best record since 1993. I failed to advance to the single elimination portion, and finished 6th in this 5 plaque event. I then had time for Wrasslin Tag Team, where Jeff Mullet and myself defeated Jeff Finkledy and daughter before succumbing to the Dolan boys. Pro Golf ended the night as I played as poorly as the boys from GMT games, though I did stay up until almost 3AM helping as the Skins Game was played on my home course in Minster Ohio. Ken Gutermuth was the bridesmaid for the 8th consecutive year, advancing to the Skins Game but failing to win. Friday I ran Across Five Aprils. After three rounds of Swiss competition, I made the semifinals. I thought I had that game won easily, then my entire position collapsed in the last two turns and I was eliminated. I finished 4th in this 3 plaque event (I see a trend here). The final was once again a tight affair, being decided on the last turn of the game. Late night was Decathlon, where I was once again eliminated by faulting three times at the long jump, though at my board John Coussis managed to put together a stellar performance and take home the plaque. Saturday started with the Galaxy: The Dark Ages semifinal where I was edged out by Kaarin Engelmann. Unfortunately, I was 5 minutes late for the start of Naval War, so I did something different and ate lunch. After a short nap and spending a little time with my family, I went to Battleline. I went 5-0 in the preliminaries, but then went 1-2 in the next round (including another tight loss to Kaarin Engelmann). That got me out just in time to reache the Win Place & Show finals, where I was utterly unsuccessful, though it was fun to see Reiff, Gutermuth and Tucker challenged by some new entrants from the ASL ranks who had worked out a statistical analysis of the horses in each of the races. Ken Gutermuth still managed to pull out the win. Between the 5th and 6th races, I managed to sneak out to Café Jay for the Charles S Roberts Awards, where my magazine, The BOARDGAMER, won the award for Best Amatuear Wargame magazine for the second time. Though I missed the actual announcement, it was still a moment of great pride and satisfaction. My thanks to all who voted for The BOARDGAMER. The night then ended with Slapshot, an event that should be attended if only to watch Keith "The Voice Of Slapshot" Hunsinger perform the reading of the rules. I actually made the playoffs at my board this year before being eliminated, though I did manage to win the Stuart K. Tucker Memorial "I Got Pucked" award at my table. I still need to purchase a frame. Sunday was an early morning with the 7AM worship service, followed by the 8AM After Action meeting. This meeting was much shorter than usual, as after Don Greenwood announced that this may be his last year as convention manager, everyones usual little complaints seemed insignificant by comparison. I think I know what the Board's first order of business will be this year. Next was Enemy In Sight. I went against normal convention by taking an early lead and seeing if I could hold on. It looked like it was working, until at the end of the last round the second place player managed to achieve a 50-50 chance at capturing a ship for the win, which he proceeded to successfully roll. I was a bridesmaid once again. Finally was the Wrasslin Battle Royal (also known as the last wood of the week). I was one of 5 wrestlers to advance from my board in the preliminaries, so while the other prelim was finishing up we decided to do like on Survivor and eliminate the 5 from the other tribe before turning on each other. There was also a fellow Ohioan from the other board who advanced who I reached an understanding with. As the final started, the group ganged up to eliminate two of the Dolan family quite early. Then our tribe turned on one of our own to eliminate young Ray Stakenas from the event. I usued my automtic win specialy to later eliminate a rather large wrestler from the board, and rebuilt my hand unil their were 4 wrestlers left, three from my original board and the other Ohio fellow, George Sauer. I tried to lay low as the other two went after George, but had to chip in a little to avoid being obvious. When George was about eliminated, I turned on one of my allies and nailed him with my specialty. George was then finished off, and it was down to two. I eventually drew another specialty card from the deck and used it to secure the victory. I had my plaque, but probably only because I drew 4 specialty cards in the game and the other 9 players never drew any. In total, I played 31 games in 13 different events during the week. My main regret was that I could not worked in any more March Madness, and that I did not work in Battle Cry and Circus Maximus at all. Maybe next year! Jason Levine - 12:02pm Jul 3, 2001 PST (#1975 of 1994) Following in the Bruce Monnin fashion of describing the great week I had at this year's WBC: Tuesday night started off great. I got to see all of my friends who I hadn't seen in 11 months (13 next year...yuck). I started out with a quick game of Atlantic Storm where I achieved second place because one player had the choice of who to go with in the last round and went with the winner. Next I played in Attila and won my first game advancing to the finals. It was nice to see 2 people I knew in the finals (John Emery and Andy Lewis). I rushed off to an early lead only to have everyone play against me in the last scoring phase and push me back to fourth place. I then played in Win, Place and Show and won my table advancing to the finals later in the week. Wednesday started off with the Board Meeting and I got to hear lot of good viewpoints during it. It is good that there has been lots of discussion about where we all want this convention to go in the future. Afterwards I went off to defend my title in Starship Troopers. It wasn't meant to be, but Ben Knight came up with an excellent scenario where all of the players worked together to discover the world. A very fun time! Next it was off to Cafe Jay where I got to demo 2 of his new Rio Grande games. Then I went to play Medici (which was my team tournament) and advanced to the semifinal round. Next up was a game of El Grande in which I ended up in a 114-114 tie with another player. I couldn't have asked for a better game than that! Next thing I did was stop at the GMT booth to get my copy of Wilderness War. Boy was I lucky to get there when I did...there were only 4 copies left of the 60 they brought. I can't wait to try out the game in the next week or two. Anyway, then it was on to a "big event" as I went to play 1830. So much for long time frame...my game ended in bankruptcy and finished in under 1-1/2 hours. I did place second which put me in the semifinals. Then I decided to jump into a game of Stock Car Racing and it was a lot of fun. I finished second and had a good time. Rounding out the night was greed in which (for the 7th consecutive year) I scored a total of 0 points...LOL. Thursday was another fun day as I started off with a win in my first round of Robo Rally. I ended up fifth in the final, but I had a chance to get an early lead, but played the higher number move 1 card and had to move and then get pushed. Bad break, but a very enjoyable final game and I had some great battles in the back of the pack with the GM Mark Houde. Next up was Taj Mahal where again I was in a position where another player had the kingmaker spot in round 12 (sort of like my Atlantic Storm game) and he matched me and let the leader take the win. I then played Princes of Florence and ended up crushing my table by 15 points and advanced to the semifinals. Unfortunately, then game went long and by the time I got down to Pro Golf, there were no golfers left for me to take. Instead, I sat around with the 2 Bruce's (Reiff and Monnin, Andy & Carrie Lewis, Sean Cousins, and Gene from GMT to watch their round of play. I had to stay for the final and watch Ken blow it for what now...the 8th straight year! Friday came along and I decided to play March Madness and proceeded to lose in my first game. My team was a heavy favorite, but with fouls going to my entire frontcourt in the first half I came away with a 5 point loss. Next was the semifinals of El Grande and I won that game in a runaway. Then I played in the final game with a friend of mine from New York (Gary Presser) and managed to win the game and the whole tournament by 2 points. It should have been a runaway again, but I made a bad move and got lucky to pull off the win. The person in second happened to be the same person who won the Attila final I was in on Tuesday, so we both laughed and thought it was nice to each win one thing. Next up was another break at Cafe Jay and a chance to buy one of those overprice $3.50 milkshakes! I tested a new card game with Mike Fitzgerald and enjoyed it very much. After that it was off to the semifinals of Princes of Florence. I used my same killer strategy again, but only finished second because another player got 2 prestige cards and moved up 14 points at the end to take the game. It was very well played and it was nice to see a familiar face playing (the guy was the one who I tied in my first game of El Grande). That is one of the nice things about this convention...you meet so many new people each year and get to make lots of friends. After that game I went to the Medici semifinals and lost in the game (I never do well in my team events even if I do well in other things!). It was a fun day and I went to bed knowing I had won some wood again. Saturday started with the 1830 semifinals (although I wish I could have played in Battle Cry...I love the game). I advanced to the finals which would be later that night. What a great game it was and we finished $83 apart. The 1830 crowd is very friendly and I am glad I got to play with them again this year (I had blown the game off the past 2 years). Next I took a break and went shopping at the Decision Games store. I picked up a copy of Blue Max they were holding for me all week. It was great to finally have the game and I can't wait to play it with a big group of planes! Next was Battleline and I finished 6-1 in the first swiss round. Unfortunately I had too many responsibilities at 7pm that I had to drop out of the tournament. Instead I went over to the Win, Place and Show final and also the Origins of WW2 tourney that I was running. A special thanks to all fo the ncie people I dealt with that night. First George Sauer for taking over the GMing of Origins and making sure the tournet ran smoothly. Second, Ken Gutermuth for letting me put in my WPS bets while also running over to the 1830 final that started at 8pm. And lastly to Pierre LeBoeuf and the other 3 players in my 1830 game for allowing me to run over and make WPS bets while also playing in the 1830 game. This is the kind of generous attitude and friendliness that shines brightly at the WBC! Unfortunately, not being at the table for WPS I bet all the wrong horses and ended up with $500 at the end. 1830 didn't fare much better and I ended up in third, although if the fourth place player didn't try to screw me, then instead of 3rd and 4th places, we would have had a runaway victory and been in 1st and 2nd by ourselves. It was a short game again as it ended in bankruptcy (2 of my 3 games ended that way and neither time was it me who went bankrupt). I ended the night watching my friend get slammed in the final of Slapshot as I was too late to enter the event. This wasn't the last thing I did though as I joined in with the Werewolf crowd to play a few games later in the night (it was the "non-alcoholic" table with Mike Destro, Wendy DeMarco, and a lot of the younger people). That was a lot of fun and I ended up getting only about 1-2 hours of sleep that night. Sunday started with the After Action Meeting and my team shirt went over really well. Everyone loved the Baby Seals shirt with a picture of 2 seals clubbing Don Greenwood over the head with some board games and barking in his ear. When I described my inspiration I said "all the baby seals get clubbed and it is sad, but I bet everyone has thought about clubbing our convention director one time or another, so we thought we would give the seals a chance." Big laughs went up around the room and Don right away wanted to see the shirt. I was a fun thing and I am glad everyone got the humor. My last tournament of the convention was Acquire and everything was great up until the final game. I had won all of my previous games in both the swiss round and the semifinal, but in the final game there was one really rude and obnoxious person who spoiled the mood of the whole convention (Arthur Field). I have heard that Randy Cox left a table rather than playing in a game with this person and I can see why. I have never felt so uncomfortable and in such an unfriendly environment as in that game of Acquire. Thankfully Cliff Ackman (who also did a great job with the excel schedule sheets) did a great job settling things down and Justin and Bruce handled the stress pretty well also. There was a sigh of relief once the game ended and Justin went on to capture his third title in Acqiure. I just wish my week didn't have to end with such a hostile and self absorbed person. I think I will take the same stance as Randy and get off a table if I ever have to play with Arthur again. I hope other people do not have to go through the pain of playing with Arthur either as he is a total downer! Game count: 31 Wins and advancements: 18 Wood: 1 Other Plaques: 2 Well, as usual I had a great time at the WBC and I look forward to going again next year. It was great to see all of the old faces still showing up as well as some of the newer ones. I think this is still the greatest convention of the year and I look forward to many more of them. If Don really is quitting as he said in the meeting, I want to thank him for the great job he has done over the years and wish him the best! Jason charles eastman - 02:32pm Jul 3, 2001 PST (#1987 of 1994) My WBC summary: The food was over-priced. The A/C gave out in my room Thurs. night (must have been 90 degrees in there) Some of the events I wanted to play in had scheduling conflicts. With that said, I have to add that I absolutely had a grand time at the WBC and would not change a single thing! . I second all the comments above about the friendly atmosphere. I also very much apreciate the multiple-heat format as this allowed me to play some of my favorite games several times ( E & T and Taj Mahal ) as well as jump into a game of 1830 ( which has long been on my 'desired to play' list ). A big thanks to all the volunteers and organizers - you've done good! Chip David Fox - 02:39pm Jul 2, 2001 PST (#176 of 237) "The reason rock critics like Elvis Costello and not me is because most rock critics look like Elvis Costello." -- David Lee Roth The DonCon Report Some call it the WBC (World Boardgaming Championships). The official t-shirts call it BPA (Boardgame Players Association). Since I don't know which is correct I'll call it DonCon. Gaming at DonCon is like gaming at an American gambling casino-- it's air-conditioned within an inch of your life, many of the participants seem vaguely psychotic, and you so rarely get a glimpse of the outside world that one minute it's noon and the next minute you glance at your watch and cry "Sh_t, is it one a.m. already ??!!" My sympathies go out to GMT's Gene Billingsley, The Gamers' Dean Essig, and Clash of Arms' Ed Wimble who spent 5-6 days at DonCon selling product, talking to customers, and trying to stay awake and alert. They have two days off before they must travel to Origins in Columbus and do it all over again. Dean is a fountain of manic energy so he should be okay but Gene and Ed just seem to get grayer. All three had major new releases available. GMT debuted Volko Rhunke's WILDERNESS WAR (the WE THE PEOPLE system goes to the French & Indian War) which sold out in three hours. Volko and developer Rob Winslow had one of those giant foamboard demonstration gamesets going throughout the convention- if you were awake Wednesday morning you got to see them outside in the sweltering heat gluing the counters together, the epoxy fumes having driven them out into the hotel courtyard- and this looks like a very good game. ZERO (the DOWN IN FLAMES system goes to the early Pacific War) was there, finally, after something like three years in the GMT pipeline. I was disappointed by this game, however, particularly its limited variety of Japanese planes available. The only viable Japanese fighter is the Zero which is maneuverable as heck but is constructed of bamboo and spit and and can be shot down by a stiff breeze. In ZERO they are completely outclassed by the less nimble but much more rugged Hurricanes, Wildcats, and Warhawks that can trade the the Zeroes hit for hit and win easily. On a positive note ZERO's card graphics are a huge improvement over earlier games and it does seem intended to set up the forthcoming CORSAIR & HELLCAT with later Pacific planes which hopefully will include more robust Japanese fighters. At the GMT Seminar Gene Billingsley announced that he's finally been able to pry the rights to two major game projects away from Hasbro and the ruins of Avalon Hill. The biggest is Richard Borg's Ancients BATTLE CRY, which will be GMT's most ambitious undertaking by far. Gene promises to include the plastic soldiers and thick cardboard hexes that marked ACW Battle Cry. The other is Mark McLaughlin's PATHS OF GLORY-style Napoleonic operational game. Gene also talked about such upcoming projects as a WE THE PEOPLE-based Mexican-American game (designed by Mike Welker and myself); Ted Raicer's CLASH OF GIANTS (The Marne and Tannenberg) and REDS (the Russian Civil War, salvaged from the ruins of Command magazine); CORSAIR & HELLCAT and FOKKER, the next two DOWN IN FLAMES titles; RED BADGE OF COURAGE, the next game in Richard Berg's Great Battles of the American Civil War series on First and Second Bull Run; and Ben Hull's English Civil War battle quad THIS ACCURSED CIVIL WAR. The Gamers featured GUDERIAN'S BLITZKRIEG 2. Since I have little interest in the WW2 Eastern Front and never played the original I have no comments about this one except to say that it sure is big. I purchased CIRCUS MINIMUS, about which I'll say more later. Clash of Arms brought FEAR GOD & DREAD NOUGHT (a neato title, I must say), a set of miniatures rules and scenarios (with counters if you don't have ship miniatures) for WW1 naval combat. Another big one with the typical Clash graphic flare that seemed to make a big splash with the naval mini people. Get it ? Big splash ? Naval people ? Oh forget it. The only other company in the dealer room was MMP with tons of ASL modules and supplements. Nothing new from them as their long-awaited ARMIES OF OBLIVION (minor Axis nations) is scheduled for the ASL Octoberfest. My suspicion that ASL is a sort of vampire organism was strengthened as I watched JR Tracy vanish into the ASL tournament room every evening to emerge the following morning looking even paler, thinner, and more tired than before. The Charles Roberts Awards were announced. John Kranz finally won a long-deserved special award for his outstanding work on Consimworld. The late Winston Hamilton went into the Hall of Fame. Mark Simonitch won the Dunnigan Award. Game winners were DRIVE ON PARIS (beating out such strong competition as AUSTERLITZ 1805 with a heavy sigh), SOLOMON SEA, a tie between SICILY and UKRAINE 43 for Best WW2 game, and BRANDYWINE CREEK for Graphics. Magazine awards went to, grumble grumble, STRATEGY & TACTICS and THE BOARDGAMER. For the third year in a row I didn't sign up for any tournaments, opting instead for the open gaming that offers as broad a range of boardgame-playing opportunities as you could wish for. I playtested the battle of Rivoli from the upcoming NAPOLEON IN ITALY (sequel to AUSTERLITZ 1805) and demonstrated THIRTY YEARS WAR which is next on the GMT pub schedule and should arrive in September. Mark Simonitch delivered the finished cards for 30YW and they are quite handsome. In FORMULA DE I won at Buenos Aires and came in last at Monaco. CIRCUS MINIMUS once again proved to be a very bloody game as both games I played turned into last-man-standing affairs. It's a lot of fun but takes a suprisingly long time to finish a lap and I really don't see how you can avoid being killed, which Dean tells me is the point of the thing so here we are. BLITZKRIEG GENERAL was one of those "three hours to read the rules and set up but 20 minutes to play before giving up in bewilderment" games. At least we had a lot of fun laughing at the rules and trying to figure out just what the hell was going on. The 1979 vintage DIVINE RIGHT didn't turn out much better. Tons of flavor in this game (fantasy kingdom-creation with appropriate Tolkien/Leiber/Moorcock trimmings) but since it's so totally luck- driven there is no way to develop any kind of strategy we gave up. I did note that the old WHITE BEAR-RED MOON/ DRAGON PASS game is a blatant rip-off of DIVINE RIGHT, all the way down to characters and monsters copied entirely. Or perhaps DIVINE RIGHT rips off DRAGON PASS, it's hard to say. I had already played and enjoyed MUSTANGS (WW2 air combat) at a couple of Chitkickers sessions and did so again. This is a title that has received nowhere near the recognition it deserves since it manages to cover many of the important aspects of air combat without descending into the tedium of more detailed air games. Mike Welker's twin 12-year old daughters beat the stuffing out of me at IVANHOE so I will say no more about that one. I saw (but sadly didn't play) a really neato game called, I think, CARABANDA where you build a wooden track with ramps, tunnels, and curves and then race wooden markers through them by plinking the markers with your fingers. This thing looks cool as heck and has Chitkickers written all over it with the bonus that you can bean a complaining opponent with your marker. This year’s Undying Quote of the Convention comes from Dan Raspler—“The only possible excuse for playing the VAMPIRE live-action rpg is because you want to get laid.” Richard H. Berg - 06:09am Jul 1, 2001 PST (#8546 of 8641) Back from DonCon - very early as it unfortunately happened. WILDERNESS WARS sold out faster than cheap beer in a frat party. (I'd have said condoms at a frat house, but this is Family Entertainment.) They made a movie about 'em: "Gone in 60 Seconds". ZERO was moving nicely, but sales were mostly steady, not spectacular overall. Maybe the visual of The Gonz running the booth (for those of you who know and love The Gonz) scared off potential money throwers. Then again, if they reduce the selling area any more next year, the most active participant will be Weight Watchers. The usual number of giant-version games up and running, mostly FOR THE PEOPLE, PoG, and WILDERNESS WAR. Big turnout for tourneys for the first two, especially FtP. Participants in the PoG tournament tended to view it as a cardboard version of a combination of Last Man Standing and the Iron Man competition. I did get some nice pictures of various "celebs" while I was there, and I'll try to have our usual Photo-Poster, the inimitable Candyman, get them up for your visual pleasure. They include shots of the finals in the GBoH tournament - Terry Coleman and Roger Taylor, head-to-head at Heraclea (with much thanx to the energetic Bruno Sinigaglia.) Also in evidence was The Fox, running versions of his THIRTY YEARS WAR (I think the Christians won) and RIVOLI. Mike Welker was trying out a very (very) early version of his contribution to the GRINGO project, the MexWar campaign game. Ted Raicer, when he wasn't bemoaning his dental abcess (the good part of that was he wasn't tempted to indulge at "Jay's Cafe", the con's culinary version of pack lunch at Riker's Island), was playing several REDS games, that WWII Barbarborossa game whose title escapes me (looked too much like PoG for easy recognition) and showing the maps for the two CLASHES OF GIANTS battles. The only break ole TR took was to visit his drug dealer for some antibiotical uppers. The "fall" and "spring" versions of the Naseby Map (from THIS ACCURSED CIVIL WAR, a title that portends such others as THESE GOD-AWFUL RELIGIOUS WARS and the THE HOW LONG CAN WE KEEP THIS CRAP GOING HUNDRED YEARS WARS) were out and about, plus I had the Fredericksburg 1862 scenario from ACROSS THE RAPPAHANNOCK set up. We would have gotten a MEDIEVAL game going, except that I forgot to bring one of the charts . . . and two of the Power cards. That extinguished the early highs of anticipation rather smartly. (Altho I would say, in its defense, that the 5 people who wanted to play were much disappoitned as they liked what they had played . . .until they hit the aforementioned speed bump.) I'm sure others will join in with their comments and impressions, but DonCon still remains THE gameplayers' convention. Don G and staff have what looked like over a hundred different tournaments running like the proverbial clock. RHB Subject: Fw: WBC 2001 Con Report [Long] Ichabod wrote in message ... ------------------------------------- World Board Gaming Championships 2001 Convention Report ------------------------------------- Well, last weekend was 2001 WBC in Baltimore, and I went up for a four day weekend. I wasn¹t even planning on going up, but my significant other suggested it after listening to me whine too much about the state of gaming in town. I got up at five in the morning Thursday to drive up to Baltimore and make my first event. I had the brilliant idea of taking 15 and 70 around DC to avoid traffic, and ran into a wide load or something going 15 mph that no one could seem to pass. I abandoned that route, and managed to make the first event. [Editor¹s note: There are general comments about the con at the end if you want to skip the game by game. You might want to check out the Settlers of Catan report though.] The Covention Center -------------------- The hotel the con was in was rather nice. There was lots of room, with two large ballrooms and several smaller conference rooms and big hallways for open gaming. All of your typical fast food was available a few blocks away, and there was a suprising variety of hotel food available. Unlike some conventions I didn¹t even have to worry about smuggling in convention mix. The staff was very nice, and the concierge was very helpful even though it was obvious I was staying at a different hotel. It's also just a couple minutes from a nice cheap Econo Lodge. :) Roborally --------- The first event for me was Roborally, a classic I don¹t play much due to the length of game. We played with the two minute rule, so it went okay. The set-up we were given to play was well thought out, with a criss-crossing path so the leader couldn¹t run away, and the final flag being on the middle of the Island board. This made it trick to get the last flag, so we ended up with three of the five players within striking distance of the last flag at the end. I was one of the three, but I didn¹t make it to the final flag. [Rating: A] Tikal ----- The heats for this game were run with the basic game, which I found slightly annoying. I really prefer the auction game, but can't convince anyone else to play it. I had to struggle in this one, since one player¹s strategy seemed to be to attack my position, even long after I was the obvious leader. Fortunately, someone placed an early treasure hex in a really expensive to get to position. I slapped a blank tile next to it and built a camp, and got another treasure hex on the other side, giving me seven treasures right off the bat. That kept me in the game, although I finished third, IIRC. [Rating: eh] Dealer¹s Room ------------- I had some time to kill after Tikal and a trip to KFC, so I looked into the dealer¹s room. There was GMT, Multi-Man Publishing, and Cafe Games (Descartes and Columbia mostly), with Desert Fox Games downstairs (A mix of board games, with Mayfair, Rio Grande, Descartes, Looney Labs, and probably some others). [Rating: higher than low expectations] While wandering through I saw what appeared to be a Reiner Knizia card game version of Formula De. I was stunned by the conflicting thoughts of "Oooh! Knizia!" and "Ugh! Formula De!" Outside in the open gaming area I ran into an older couple who helpfully showed me the game, which actually had nothing to do with Formula De, it's called Formula Motor Racing. It's really more like a lighter version of Stock Car Championship Racing (not that I think SCCR is a heavy game or anything). Unfortunately I had to rudely run out on the game due to a bathroom emergency. El Grande --------- I really liked this game when it came out; but the more I play it, the worse I seem to get. It was a decently run event, but I got hit hard early on. I managed a good recovery between the first and second scoring rounds, but still ended up third out of fourth, IIRC. [Rating: B] Formula Motor Racing -------------------- I didn't really have a lot of fun Thursday, besides the Roborally event. Therefore, I skipped Euphrate & Tigris, which has not been fun for me in recent memory, to play in Knizia's racing game. It seemed like a light and fun game and it was. Everyone at my table seemed to have a gas playing it. I took the first of three races, but didn't do too well in the other two, ending up fourth out of six. The amazing thing was in the last race. Craig Reese plays a Charge card (roll d12: 1-9 move up one, 10-12 go to last, reroll until you want to stop or go to last) on his second car, which was in last place out of 12 cars. He rolled ten times, getting it from last to second in one turn. Then someone played the same card on him (which you can do to try and get the "bad" roll), and he went up again to first. Odds are actually better than 1 in 25, but it was truly amazing at the time. [Rating: zoomzoom] Cafe Jay -------- Next I checked in with Jay Tummelson, who was on hand demoing Rio Grande Games as he is wont to do. I checked out a lot of stuff I'd been interested in over the course of the con, including Time Pirates, The Traders of Genoa, Ghost Chase, and a bit of Africa. The Traders of Genoa was the only one that piqued my interest enough to buy it, but damn that's a cool game. [Rating: enjoyable chaos, as always] Settlers of Catan ----------------- This seemed to be the big controversy of the convention. Rather than run it single elimination, which I've always seen, or swiss, as I've thought would be good, the two GMs ran a Duplicate Settlers tournament. The way this worked was each table played the same game. Each table was given the same board set-up, a deck with 80 die rolls in the same order, and a deck of development cards in the same order. You weren't really competing against the people at your table. You were competing against everyone at the *other* boards who was at the same position as you (1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th player). You had to better going second than everyone else who went second. For each person in your position you scored better than, you scored 1 match point. For each one you tied, you scored 1/2 match point. Two heats of three games, top 12 players advancing to the finals. There was a lot of complaining going on about this. Most of it seemed to be that people wanted to roll dice, with quotes like "dice are part of the game, get over it!" This seemed kind of vacuous to me, since the decks were generated by actually rolling dice. Therefore, from the perspective of a player in a game, there's no mathematical difference. However, it does even out the luck between tables. I was personally glad to see this. I was dubious of playing in the tournament, having burned out on the importance of luck in the game a while ago. This seemed like an interesting attempt to fix what I see as a problem in the game. They did have two rulings in the tournament that I didn't like. One, you couldn't build past 10 points to get an 11 point win. I can see the reasoning for this one, since the rules say the game ends immediately when you build a tenth point. However, since you can be at nine and take longest road, going to 11; I think you should be able to build to 11. Especially in a duplicate format where that 11 can be really important. Two, and I have seen this a lot, VP cards did not count at the end of the game unless they were face up. I do not understand this at all, and can find no justification for it in the rules. It weakens the VP cards, taking away their potential surprise value. I played in the second heat, getting 11, 9, and 8. That gave me 29 out of a possible 36 match points, putting me around sixth place out of 14 boards. This got me into the finals the next day. Only fifteen people showed up for the finals, and it was run as five three player player games, three games for each player. I won my first two games with 10 points, which tied me with Kathy Stroh for second at 6 1/2, behind J.J. (full name??) at 7 1/2. The second game's board was kind of weird, with a certain symetry to it, but all the other boards up to that time had obviously been generated the normal way, even if everyone was playing on the same one. The final board was blatant evil. Desert in the center, with two wheat above it and two wheat below it. To the right was a row of four sheep, to the left a row of four wood. The the right of the sheep were three brick, and to the left of the wood were three rock. Start the numbers in the bottom hex, and spiral in counter-clockwise. It is left as an exercise to the reader to figure out where they put the ports. I was going second, and saw immediately that wood was the weak resource in the game, with 10, 11, 3, and 12. Following my usual rule of not looking for specific spots before it's my to place (to avoid frustration), I looked away. When I looked back, the first player had left me the 8-rock/10- wood/11-wood, two steps from the 8-rock/4-rock/rock port (the best port in the game). Leaving me that was a bad move in retrospect, but her placement did allow her to be the only player with access to all five resources later in the game. So I look away while the third player places his two. When I look back he left me the 10-wood/9-wheat/5-wheat two steps from the 5-wheat/wheat port. Then early in the game, the first player managed to block the third player from getting to the brick port at all. I got pounded on hard throughout the game, but an early city on the 8 rock allowed me to run away with it. Two ports in a game where trading is very important because of a weird board set up won me the game. That win gave me enough match points to win the entire tournament. I was just overjoyed. I went in hoping to one or two good games, not advance, and then play Battleline. When I made it into the finals, I just wanted to get a plaque. I end up winning an 80 person tournament, in a game I used to love, got burned out on, and now have revitalized interest in. Overall, except for what happened Sunday (see below), I really liked the tournament. Settlers is an odd game, where there is a lot of skillful play to be made, but luck is still a very significant factor. I appreciated a tournament format that allowed a greater focus on the skill, rather than having a couple clues and getting lucky. I think it worked, too. The competition I faced in the finals was very tough. Sure, they made mistakes. So did I. But they consistently did things I hadn't thought of, which I belatedly realized were really good moves. I think some of the nay-sayers will eventually come around, and a good chunk of them never will. So I don't think this duplicate format should be the only type of Settlers tournament, but I think something like this definitely deserves a place at gaming conventions. If it doesn't get one, you won't see me in many Settlers tournaments. [Rating: Yeehah!, but see below] Lost Cities ----------- Time for a light, quick game. Again, the tournament had an unexpected format. Rather than playing three games and totalling the scores of all three, we played best out of three, each game's score *not* carrying over. I talked to the GM about this, and he had some good points about the pros and cons of both sides. I made it to the second round, and then could only draw high cards, but not enough to score significant points. I thought it was telling of the kind of game that Lost Cities is that both of last year's finalists were eliminated in the first round. I didn't like the single elimination aspect of the tournament (with all the luck involved), but the GM looked at me like a madman when I suggested running it Swiss. I think the quote was: "You wan't to figure swiss pairings for 80 people with results coming in every half hour !?!?!" I'm hoping to work on a program to do that, but it might be beyond my meager skills. [Rating: A for the GM, C for the noisy players] Medici ------ Not much to say about this tournament. I love this game, but only get to play it at tournaments. This I find to be a problem, since you really need to know the other players, so you can predict how they'll bid. I find different people value things very differently. At least we played with the German rules, so I got to play on my German board, which I much prefer. I finished in the middle of the pack, and was happy. [Rating: B] Battle Cry ---------- Friday started out with Battle Cry. The last Battle Cry tournament I played in, we were given a scenario, and we played two games, each player playing each side, most flags winning and advancing. Apparently feeling that players would more enjoy playing a variety of people, we played round robin in groups of four. Same scenario (Brawner's Farm) each time, but the players bid dice to play the side they wanted. Those dice were rolled before the game, and the winning bidder lost figures from the units shown. The first game, not being used to scenario play, I let my opponent get the confederates for three dice, taking out two infantry figs and an artillery fig. With hot cards and dice he completely decimated my strong right flank. I thought the game was his, but on his right flank, a general with infantry couldn't retreat because of two infantry behind. The game gets to 5 flags to 4 in his favor, but with two attacks and retreats counting as kills, I was able to take out what was left of that unit and win. The next game I bid five dice to get the confederates. The battle was insane, with both of us charging our forces headlong into each other. It was tied at five flags on my turn. I made a wild attack, but couldn't get a flag. My opponent made a wild attack, and got one. On to the third game. This time I get the confederates for four dice. The roll comes up three artillery and crossed sabres (opponent chooses type of fig). I lose all my artillery, the South's main power in the center. It was all downhill from there, but somehow I managed to pull five flags out of my ass before I was slaughtered. I really appreciate that all three games went down to the last flag. From what I heard in the semis and finals, one player would pick a scenario, and the other would pick the side to play. I would have liked to play that way, but I see the sense in playing the round robin to cull the players. [Rating: Best tournament I ever lost] Battleline ---------- Another game I really like but have trouble finding players for. Unfortunately, I had to ditch this to play in the Settlers final. [Rating: unknown] Stock Car Championship Racing ----------------------------- After playing the Settlers tournament I was in a daze, and this being only the second time I've played this game I didn't do very well in this game. It was still a lot of fun, with all of Mike Garton's NASCAR models to play with. I took the Cartoon Network Scooby Doo car and had fun saying "Zoinks!" every now and then. As usual, I drew the least useful of the big three cards to have by itself: Learn the Track. [Rating: A-/B+] Acquire ------- This was run as a three game heat, with highest n cash totals advancing. The first game almost got tense with an argument over whether to use my 3M board or another player's Hasbro board. I figured it just wasn't worth making a fuss over, and acquiesced. Early on, I managed to majority or minority in three companies on the high side of the board. Then I managed to draw all low tiles, and saw two companies on the low end merge. I managed to eke out a third place finish when the high side got moving. Tired from being sick on and off all weekend, and facing a 3+ hour drive back home, past Baltimore and DC, I figured one whiping in Acquire was enough and asked the GM if it would be a problem if I dropped out. He said that was fine, so I went upstairs to buy a few last games and collect my prizes. [Rating: B] Prizes ------ This is the one part of the convention that really horked me off, and it was really just the Settler's GMs' fault. The Settler's finals ended after the registration booth closed for the night, so the GMs couldn't turn in the results. They said they would do it in the morning. I checked at 8 am, they hadn't turned them in, but I hadn¹t really expected them to by 8 am. I checked at 9 am, they hadn't turned them in. I check at 11 am, after Acqure. They still had not turned them in, one was known to have left town, and the other was nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, J.J. and I want to leave and can't get our prizes. I can't fault the people at the registration booth. They patiently checked everywhere the results could have been misfiled, even though I was getting rather grumpy. Finally, we got the top four finishers together, and they were willing to take our word that we were the top four finishers, and gave us our plaques. On the one hand, I really apreciate the thought and effort they put into the tournament, but on the other hand, I felt let down by the execution at the end (for this and other reasons). As for the prizes, I'm torn. For an 80+ person tournament, a plaque and a t-shirt seems kind of light, although cool. But it's a pretty afordable tournament, and I'm not sure I'd like paying more to get better prizes. They seemed to be thinking of giving out dealer's room coupons for winners, like Prezcon does. However, neither convention really has a good dealer's room, and I know Prezcon doesn't pay the dealers full value to redeem those coupons. I used to be a dealer, and I don't like it any more now that I'm not one. The book WBC puts out is rather excessive to my mind, but I'm not sure trimming it down would free up enough money to give decent prizes. [Rating: Depends on mood] Overall ------- Two things really struck me positively about this convention. The first was the sportsmanship of the players. No one throughout the entire convention was rude or nasty to me. Rules disagreements were settled by rational discussion and agreeing with the GM, not by screaming arguments. If you made a minor screw-up in game play, people let you take it back, rather than anally adhering to rules to advance their position in the tournament. People were playing to have fun, they were having fun, and it showed. Most of my games were filled with laughter and good natured joking. Looking back at the con I feel bad, because in terms of sportsmanship I think *I* was the worst player I ran into. Maybe I was just lucky. I did hear one person complaining about bad sportsmanship, and did see that one player had been banned from playing Age of Renassaince (I have no idea why, though). But I would really like to thank everyone I played against for making the last four days a really good time, because I desperately needed one. The second thing that struck me was the GMs. In a lot of the events it seemed that the GMs had really sat down and tried to think of what would be the most fun and interesting tournament format. Maybe they didn't please everybody. Who the hell does? Maybe it didn't work as well in execution as everyone would have hoped. When does it ever? But I really appreciate that they put the thought and effort into it, rather than just saying, "This is a cool game, I'll run it." I did feel the selection of games was a bit light on the things I like to play, but I expect that's just clashing preferences. There's a lot of wargaming going on, and while I like certain low end war games, I don't like playing them at conventions. I prefer to play a lot of shorter games at conventions, rather than a few long ones. I really would have liked to see more demoes of new games (with the obvious exception of Jay's constant demoing of Rio Grande games). There were several games there I was tempted to buy, but boardgames are expensive enough that I'm not going to buy one without playing it to see if I like it. Demoing generally increases sales, and that might attract more dealers. I went out on a limb and bought Evo, but I left buying only three games. For me, that's pretty light. Final rating: I've been going to 1 to 3 cons a year since I was a freshman in college, and I have a hard time remembering when I've had this much fun at one. If my plan for the next couple years works out, I will be coming to this one again. -- Craig "Ichabod" O'Brien Burger-flipper of the electronic age Hail to the Thief! Subject: Fw: WBC 2001 Con Report [Long] Rich Shipley wrote in message ... "Ichabod" Roborally I wish I could have played in this one. Maybe next year I won't have a conflict with the tournament I run. > Settlers of Catan > ----------------- > Two, and I have seen this a lot, VP cards did not > count at the end of the game unless they were face up. He just has the rule wrong. VPs don't have to be played. > I won my first two games with 10 > points, which tied me with Kathy Stroh for second at 6 1/2, > behind J.J. (full name??) at 7 1/2. J.J. is Joe Jaskiewicz, but he always goes by J.J. He is the resident curmudgeon and expert Settlers player of the Games Club of Maryland. > Battleline > ---------- > > Another game I really like but have trouble finding > players for. Unfortunately, I had to ditch this to play in > the Settlers final. [Rating: unknown] I have some mixed feelings about this one. I was sick all week, so could only manage to run my Empire Builder tournament (and lose in all three heats) until Saturday when I got to play some other games. After losing in the Ra semis, I headed for the Battleline tournament. In the first round, you were given approximately two hours to play as many different opponants as possible. For some reason, I was thinking very well and won my first three games and was leading in a fourth before time was called. The GM said it was OK to start the last, but didn't give enough time to finish. Three games won was enough to make it into the next round, which was ninety minutes or so. I won the first two games and then hit the wall as my cold caught up with me. I was still going through the same motions, but the moves weren't making sense anymore. I lost the third game with some really bad play. The GM said it was OK to start another, but called time before the same guy as I was playing last time time was called could finish me off (he wasn't too happy). Apparently, I play this game much more slowly than others (the games I was in took around 30 minutes each) because some had 6 games completed in the ~90 minute session! I was pretty happy to win a few games, but wish speed of play did not factor in so heavily in the results. > Prizes > ------ > > As for the prizes, I'm torn. For an 80+ person tournament, > a plaque and a t-shirt seems kind of light, although cool. Those plaques are pretty coveted. My wife won her first tournament (Union Pacific) this year after years of trying (mostly at Advanced Civ.) and is pretty satisfied. > But it's a pretty afordable tournament, and I'm not sure I'd > like paying more to get better prizes. They seemed to be > thinking of giving out dealer's room coupons for winners, > like Prezcon does. I think they are thinking of giving mechandice instead of 2nd+ place plaques. I don't think the winner would get more than the plaque and centurion shirt. I think it's a good idea - money can't buy a 1st place plaque, but it might be a better consolation prize for 2nd or 3rd. > Overall > ------- I agree with your assessment. It is the best convention I've been to or heard of for playing a wide variety of boardgames competitively. Rich