Alan P. Murphy - 10:30am Aug 3, 2002 PST (#4489 of 4508) 
Beat The Meatles
Drive on Paris; SCS Tournament Update, WBC 2002 

Just got home yesterday evening (midnight) from the WBC. Once again, I
had another great time at the WBC this summer. Let me update you on the
tournament itself. 

First, I had set up the Operation Michael game as a demo during the WBC
for the previous three days. The game was a big attraction. 

Of the two OM games I played (The Agony of the Fifth Army, and the
Campaign Game), I saw a few other OM games being set up and played in
the open gaming area. 

Operation Michael, along with Drive on Paris, were the only two games in
the entire series that participants for the DoP;SCS wanted to play
during the event! I had not anticipated this. Also, Steve Newhouse's
Battle of Belgium scenario turned out to be very popular, and drew a
number of positive comments from the tournament's participants. 

The OM game also drew a considerable number of passerbyes' interests.
Many, to my surprise, had no idea of the game - indeed, a surprising
number of passerbyes were not even aware of who the Gamers, or MMP,
were. 

The Drive of Paris tournament could have had better participation. While
the tournament drew a total of 16 players, almost all entered the event
sparadically, most only playing a single round; so finding and matching
players was quite difficult for me. A couple of players I ended up
having to play myself, as I did not have any other players readily
available to match them with at the time. 

I'm not sure if the tournament should be continued for next year. I felt
totally out-classed when compared to the turnout for Wilderness War,
Clash of Giants, and/or Paths of Glory, all of which drew dozens of
gamers. 

Maybe the WBC is not the ideal convention for a SCS type tournament.
Maybe this would be better served at something like
MonsterGamecon...(definitely Homercon). Nevertheless, some players hung
in there. Rich Ogata ended up winning the tournament overall, with a
grand total of 11 VPs overall. Rich apparently had done his SCS homework
beforehand, and blazed away in his Drive on Paris matches. A big hand
goes out to Rich for his DoP;SCS tournament win! 

I'd also like to thank Ken Nied for his kind assistance as Asst.-GM, who
helped me by hosting the opening Mulligan rounds on Tuesday evening. He
did a great job, and he too deserves a big round of applause. 

Anyway, Michael appeared to be the big hit of the event. Yesterday, I
set up and played three turns of the campaign scenario, taking on the
Germans. My friends Lew Ritter, then Dave Mugmon, played the Allies. 

By the end of turn 3, I had successfully enveloped the entire British
Army into a huge pocket - every UK and French unit still on the map were
completely out of supply. The Germans took the town of Arras on the
second turn, using OOS Sturmblocks. Further, the main German line was
able to advance - the majority of their army comfortably in supply -
almost out of the devastated area. The Brits had considerable strength
still in Peronnes, but were cut off and OOS. Both British players,
however, were determined to hold the town at all costs. 

It made for a very interesting game, and even drew the attention of Dean
Essig, who said he had never seen such a thing before. I think we broke
some new ground here. 

Anyway, this is just my first-hand reflection of the tournament and the
convention. Gaming until 0300 hrs. each of the three days I was there
has plumb wore me out. I will bring you more updates as I try to unwind
from the convention (whew!). 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Randy Cox - 08:07am Aug 4, 2002 PST (#4490 of 4508) 

I'm still at WBC, but figured I'd get a message in now, as I'll be on a
train for 12 hours later this afternoon. 

The con seems to have been right about where it has been of late in
terms of attendance and tournament excitement. The far and away most
popular event has got to be Puerto Rico (a trial event) which drew 152
participants and has a 40-player quarterfinal taking place as I write
this. The game was played in open gaming nearly non-stop as well. 

The announcement of $125 room rates next year leaves me very cold. I
suspect that the estimate that WBC would lose about 20% of the attendees
if it moved to the July 4 weekend will be equalled by those who do not
want to pay an extra $33 per night. We'll surely lose a good many
attendees over this one (in my opinion, more than we would acutally lose
if we moved to the holiday weekend). And the fact that the price
includes three $10 vouchers for HVI food isn't much compensation, as the
vouchers will only be usable at the bar and the Cinnamon Tree restaurant
(and not allowed for the breakfast buffet). So, I suspect many will
either not attend or will stay off-site. 

Another interesting happening concerns some sort of police intervention
on one of the early nights. I don't remember police coming out to the
con since the infamous face-squeezing incident of 1991, when someone was
trying to shush a habitual kibitzer. Anyway, I'm sure that our leaders
handled any incident professionally. 

All in all, it was a good con. Certainly not the very best it's been
(seems a bit frantic sometimes), but the open gaming was good (if not
well-lighted) and the tournaments I entered were sociable and fun while
not being excessively competitive. A very positive trend. 


Martin Svensson - 09:47am Aug 4, 2002 PST (#4491 of 4508) 

Origins of World War II at WBC 2002 This was my first assignment as a GM
and overall very satisfying. The 12 noon demo was nicely attended. While
the attendees for OW2 was down (12), anecdotally I would say that the
competing games, particularly Battle Cry, cost me 2 players. I had one
gentleman chomping at the bit to play, and I was prepared to play, but
the attrition wouldn't allow for a quorum to permit a fourth opening
round game. Therefore we had three opening round games underway, and
they were exciting. What we lacked in quantity was compensated for with
quality. The tables were manned with previous OW2 champs, newcomers that
attended the demo, gaming champs from other events and others that knew
their OW2 stuff. The opening round games produced surprises in that
France won 2 of the 3 contests! Britain won the other. The final was
incredible with taut play. The banter among the participants was lively
and very animated. Humor, fake French accents,and other barbs made the
game quite incredible. The top three finishers had only a 2 point spread
among them. In fact the winner won by a slim margin of a half point. And
the winner was: JOHNNY HASAY (Yes, Mr. Panzerblitz) who as FRANCE lulled
everbody into thinking France was finished after losing Alsace Lorraine
on Turn 1. Germany was played masterfully by David Rynkowski who
unfortunately had to face down his competitors alone, a common fate for
the German player. Newcomer Gene Pappas was fantastic. He took to the
social aspects of the game immediately and played quite well, needless
to say. Our OW2 visitor from Palm Beach, Brad Jones, served as Russia
and made the final two turns suspenseful as the potential spoiler. Vive
la France! 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vince Meconi - 05:42pm Aug 4, 2002 PST (#4496 of 4508) 

Flash GM report for War At Sea: Andy Gardner captures the 2002 WBC War
At Sea crown. Andy went 6-1-0, achieving two other firsts as well.
Having won WAS's sister game Victory in the Pacific at the 2000 WBC, he
becomes the only person to win both events. And, he is the first
4th-seeded semifinalist to win the championship. Andy defeated Bruce
Reiff (5-2-0) in the final match. Our other 2 semifinalists were 3rd
place, Ray Freeman (5-1-0), who was the only player to win all 5 swiss
rounds, and current AREA leader Jonathan Lockwood (4-2-0) in 4th.
Rounding out the top 10 were 5th-Rob Flowers (4-1-0), 6th-Mike Bailey
(4-1-0), 7th-Steve Packwood (4-1-0), 8th-Frank Cunliffe (4-1-0),
9th-John Strand (3-2-0), who was our Rookie of the Year, and 10th-David
Finberg (3-2-0), the defending champ. Andy Gardner also copped Best Axis
Player with a 5-0-0 log, while Ray Freeman won the Best Allied Player
award, for the third time, at 5-1-0. If everybody else had half as much
fun as I did, they had a great time. More later. 


Tom Gregorio - 05:55pm Aug 4, 2002 PST (#4497 of 4508) 
Recovering from WBC '02.

Flash GM report for The Russian Campaign WBC event: In order, the top
six finishers for this 30 person event were Tom Gregorio, Art Lupinacci,
Joe Collinson, Alan Zasada, Gary Dickson, and Forrest Pafenberg. 31
matches were played and the competition was fierce given that among the
participants were 7 prior WBC TRC title holders. The big upset was Steve
Dickson upsetting Rob Beyma in the initial round; Rob assures me that
he'll be training in the off season and will be back next year with a
vengence. Time clocks continue to be well received and the game scenario
seems to be balanced with the Germans winning 16 of the 31 matches. 

Of course, I had a good time, but more importantly, the initial feedback
from the other players was also positive and it appears that this game
is alive and kicking even after 25 years! Detailed writeup to follow
once adrenaline levels go back to normal. 

mmp - 07:53pm Aug 4, 2002 PST (#4500 of 4508) 
Multi-Man Publishing, LLC., Home of The Gamers
Just a few quick words with the results. More details to follow. 

ASL: Defending Champion Paul Sidhu pulled off that most difficult of
successes: the Repeat. 

Congratulations Paul. 

1st Place Paul Sidhu 7-0 (Wood plaque and $60 MMP certificate) 2nd Place
Gary Mei 6-1 (plaque and $50 MMP certificate) 3rd Place Kevin Valerien
4-3 (plaque and $40 MMP certificate) 4th Place JR Tracy 4-3 (plaque and
$30 MMP certificate) 5th Place Jim Stahler 4-3 (plaque and $20 MMP
certificate) 6th place Ray Woloszyn 4-3 (plaque and $10 MMP certificate)

Honorable Mentions at 4-3: Scott Romanowski, Bret Hildebran, Ken
Mioduski 

35 people played in the tournament, although many did not play all seven
rounds. 

Once again, some pretty meaty PM-round scenarions put the hurt on the
populace, resulting in a number of no-shows for the final round, and
seven players tied at 4-3. Tie breakers needed tie breakers, but the
cream still rose to the top. 

....Perry "Sorry for the cross post" 

Allan J Rothberg - 09:51pm Aug 4, 2002 PST (#4505 of 4508) 
Consimworld one big happy dysfunctional family.

Just winding down after unpacking and catching up on emails, bills
(notice my order of priority there), &c. 

It was great to see so many old friends at WBC and also especially great
to make so many new friends there. I had the great good fortune to see
many new faces to the names here on CSW at WBC. I even managed to get
some game playing in! Who would of thought? 

If I can recall correctly this is what I played there: Attack of the
Mutants (Yaq.), Kingmaker (AH), The Rise of Rome (future GMT), Four
Caesers (Berg and ?), Napoleonic Wars (GMT), and Illuminati (SJG). Oddly
enough in every multiplayer game save one (Nappy), I was immediately
attacked by every player in the game. Such is the price of fame. In
Nappy I played Austria and just missed pulling off a turn 2 win thanks
to Spain pulling France's butt out of the fire on the last card of the
turn. Boo! hiss! I'll have my revenge Fox! I still say we did great work
fending off the encroaching horde of werewolf players with our TNW crew.
What was Nappy's line? The morale is to the physical as three is to one?
I'd say we were outnumbered by considerably more than 3-1. Seems Nappy
was understating the situation. 

I actually spent more on clothing at WBC than games (Eva will be so
proud). I bought 1 game, 3 books and 4 tee shirts. Something seems awry
here. Oh well, time to go pre-order some more games to make up for that.
I did manage to get the L's (Lombardy and Lupinacci) to sign my SoS3 tee
and Jack Greene to sign his two books. (A genuine pleasure to meet you
guys in the flesh after corresponding with you for sooooo long.) I did
repay Captain Greene by curing his hangover. Which reminds me, Rick,
that brew you brought down with you was pretty decent. If the stories
are true, I am glad I got to sample that and not your own home grown
batch. Some people say that the aftertaste of your stuff can still be
sensed today. 

I got to meet lotsa future gamers at the Con as well. Both of Dean's
boys, Volko's son and Andy's youngest. I also got to meet several
signoficant others. There was Ms. Welker, Ms. Youse and Ms. Lewis. Hello
lovely ladies! A few of the guys made noises about bringing down their
spouses next year (Dave and Lew). I figure the more non-gaming spouses
there, the merrier! Anna Maria and Bari, you I don't count. You two are
better gamers than most of the other people there. Oh, happy birthday to
Chris Palermo (Mr. Anna Maria) and thanks for arranging the rooms for us
again this year. (Did you two get to Cranberry? The exit for the town
was right off the NJT.) There was some discussion of a smallish, more
family oriented con at Disneyworld by several of the spouses at WBC.
(Specificallly Eva, Ms. Welker, and Ms. Fox, by proxy.) I may start a
new chat for discussion of this topic and to get a feel for such an
idea. 

Finally, the GCA award presentations went nearly flawlessly (damn camera
bugged out during the ceremony, I had to shoot pics of everybody
afterwards). Thank you to Don and Andy for helping the SGS to bring this
off on such short notice. And thank you to all the animated corpses that
showed up to ingest donuts (Krispy Kremes, yikes!) and coffee (super
HiTest) and cheer on the award winners. (Sal Vasta followed quick on my
heels with the Charlies. I didn't save my list of the Charlie winners,
so I will leave it to other, more official, persons to do so.) Next year
I'll try and get to Don earlier and get a more reasonable hour for the
awards' presentation. 

Thanks to everybody for making WBC such a great time! 

---------------------------------------

Well, my summer convention campaign is over, and its time to write after
action reports. Let's start with the last convention first, that being
the World Boardgame Championships in Baltimore. 

First a word of congratulations. My former lieutenant, Steve Likevich,
won first place in an AH classic tourney for the second year in a row.
Last year he won Anzio, and this year, he picked off a first place win
in Bulge '81. Steve also GM'd the Waterloo tournament, and guess this
must make him a certified elite grognard. 

This performance contrasts starkly with yours truly. I've gotten to the
point where I don't even expect to win wood, and by grognard standards,
I'm in no way any kind of serious competitor. I don't PBEM. I don't come
to WBC Con (nee' BPA Con, nee Avaloncon, aka DonCon) until Friday at the
earliest, so there are lots of games that are long gone in the
tournament schedule by the time I get there. This year was particularly
bad for me, because: 

1. Saratoga (also Brandywine) was moved back to Wednesday. I see that
the GM went back to Mark Miklos and I heard that Mark also won this
event (for the second time in four years, IIRC). There is is just
something fundamentally wrong when WBC holds a tournament where the GM
is also the game designer is also the first place winner. The worst of
it is that this is a basically playable system that lends itself well to
this tournament format. But in my case, WBC's not there for me, even
though I won the sportsmanship award last year for playing games to
which the old GM had assigned me, even after I was mathematically
eliminated. 

2. I didn't get to the Hunt Valley Marriott until about 9:45 Friday
because, to my utter consternation, I left the power cord for my laptop
at home, and so I ended up having to find a local library (in this case,
the library of the University of Maryland Baltimore Campus) to approve
timesheets for this pay period. So I missed out on Wilderness War and
(to my surprise), The Russian Campaign (which I thought had commenced
Thursday evening, and work requirements kept me from starting to
Baltimore until late that evening, too). 

Note: I stayed at Motel 6 on the south side of town that evening, where
I discovered that my power cord was MIA. Motel 6 is $55 a night for
minimal accomodations. Later on in the day, I checked out hotels and one
thing I looked for was a computer room. In some places, the Hampton Inn
offers this, but the nice people at Hampton Inn explained to me that
their hotel doesn't offer that option, since it was one of the first
built. The Hampton Inn seems to be the cheapest stay in the area, I got
in for $84 a night. The Embassy Suites is $139, and does have a computer
room, the Courtyard's rate was $94 and it does not have a computer room.
As many folks know, Don announced that the Hunt Valley Marriott is
putting the squeeze on BPA with respect to rates, and the only comment I
will make here is that the Marriott really ought to consider putting in
a computer center to justify stuff like higher rates and obligatory meal
tickets. This is the kind of thing quality resort hotels should! just
do...my family vacation was at the Myrtle Beach Hampton Inn this year,
and we got better rates, more service and a better view of the ocean
than anything you'll find in Hunt Valley. 

While I'm on this subject, I did hear some discussion of the attendence
and amenities of WBC Con versus the HMGS East Historicon. Since WBC
seems to be making such comparisons, let me point out for the public
that the HGMS Fall In convention is supposed to go to TIMONIUM next
year, because of similar difficulties with the Gettysburg resort hotel
that has been used to host Fall In, and there is no certainty that the
other HMGS conventions will stay in Lancaster once the contract expires.
So the moral of the story for BPA is that the grass always seems greener
on the other side - even when it is not. 

Okay, back to gaming. I spent all day Friday playing (get this): 

1. Flagship at 11 AM. I went 1-2 and was eliminated after my second
loss. 2 Battleline at 5PM. I went 0-3, all breakthroughs, and was
eliminated in the first round. 3. Merchant of Venus at 7 PM. I placed
last among four players. 

Now that I have that out of the way, let me point out the following: 

* I really like Battleline, and have played it together with Ivanhoe,
with my kids. Although the formal results were disastrous, all three
games were very close, and with somewhat less disastrous cards, I could
have prevailed. * Realizing that if I didn't get into some short term
event - like a card game - I would have nothing to play, I procured
Flagship, which I have never played before, from the GMT vendor booth.
Mark Herman was in the same rubber as I was, and as the rules were
explained, he remarked, "This is Magic", which, in a real sense, is
exactly what the game is like. Nonetheless, I've made my investment, and
the genre is certainly less off-putting than the WOTC flagship game.
Mark's son seems to like it, and we'll have to see how my increasingly
adolescent children react to it. (These are the kids who won't even play
Settlers because it is "too historical".) * I thought Merchant of Venus
was just delightful. They don't make games like this anymore. 

After the MOV game, we got into a discussion about the mechanics of WBC,
and then I got into a longer discussion with a young man from the
greater DC area about what he liked and didn't like about game design.
Well, it turns out that this fellow's peak experience with wargames has
been Axis and Allies. He confessed to me that he had these AH
Smithsonian games that he owned, but couldn't quite get his head around
the rules to play. One of these games was D-Day, the other Guadalcanal.
I pointed out, in some ignorance, as it turns out, that D-Day is
considerably simpler than Guadalcanal, and I offered to give him a
tutorial Saturday evening. (I was of course assuming that I would be
knocked out of any tournament competition by then, as of course, I was.)
More on that later. 

So Saturday morning dawned, and I woke up about 8:17 AM. I rushed
through my morning oblations and dashed off to the Marriott, arriving in
good time for my planned venture into the inner circle of hell -
Fortress Europa single elimination. Damnation was swift and sure for me
this year. 

Of, it got off to a roaring start. I got paired off against a guy from
Chicago, and won in the first turn as the Germans. Some explanation is
in order. You see, last year, the GM changed the tournament victory
conditions to make Southern France less attractive and the Seventh Army
District more attractive. So now, in Fortress Europa, everyone invades
Britanny or Normandy instead of Southern France. (Well, except the slow
learners, as you'll see). This particular allied player sized up my
deployment and came in just west of St. Malo, with the 82d and 101st
dropping a couple ofhexes in, flanked by the British 6th paras just to
the northwest, and two British commando brigades on the southern
Brittany coastline, just north of St. Nazaire. Very impressive and he
did get his boys in pretty clean, well - except for the US paratroopers
and British commandos, which landed smack dab on top of my hidden
infantry divisions. They went away in the first impulse. With obligatory
attacks, t! he British paras and two US divisions retreated in the
second impulse, leaving only a two division stack on the forelorn
mulberry. Two 3-1 attacks latter, and the game was mine. 

I'm always happy with an easy first round win, it takes pressure off and
builds momentum and confidence, what the Washington Redskins experienced
later that England. But sometimes, this can be a false euphoria as
happened to me, and as I predict the Redskins will find later this
season. My next opponent, a young bright looking guy, had knocked off
Randy Heller, and I knew it wouldn't be so easy. It wasn't. 

This guy expressed the opinion that this game was biased in favor of the
Germans. Perhaps that has become true, but it hasn't been my experience
in the past, and anyway, after looking at all these guys going into
Normandy and getting smacked, I decided to modify my original plan -
which was to go into Southern France in the Nice area, or just west of
Marseilles, and swing out all the way to the four hexes below Perpignan
where I was pretty sure that no SS Panzer Divisions were lurking. 

This assessment was correct, but I had been swindled. My opponent had
piled up a bunch of units in Cherbourg and just let Brittany wide open.
Of course, Southern France looked nearly as naked, so there was clearly
a trap somewhere. There was, but not the trap I expected. This guy had
placed two SS divisions in a reserve position in the north, two SS
divisions on the coastline west of Marseilles, and Panzer Lehr on the
Biscay coast. My first invasion turn was pretty simple. Kill the weak
infantry division in Perpignan. Get reserves ashore and the mulberry in
place. I didn't have enough strength to blow him out of Nimes, so I went
for terrain advantage. 

This goober paradropped a German airborne division on the mulberry hex,
with two infantry divisions present. Yes, it got smashed up, but now I
knew the kind of player I was facing and the kind of game this was going
to be. I started to go off my plan. I went after Nimes, but realizing
that this was the kind of guy who would kamikaze his panzer divisions to
pick off the mulberry, my play went tentative. I ended up sending all
the French divisions out of the 19th military district to gain more
depth to my position, and I stacked my US divisions doubled up in a
single line when my attack on Nimes failed. This turned out very badly,
for I had nothing left in reserve. My opponent sent his panzers in with
1-1 attack, which resulted, IIRC, in an exchange. Now, this is Fortress
Europa, where rules manipulation beats solid tactics and the application
of the principles of war any day. With an exchange, my opponent could
open up a hole into which could race his panzers, three hexes awa! y.
(Why didn't I put the mulberry even farther west, I asked myself,
ruefully ? But hindsight is always 20/20.) 

And so I resigned the only board wargame I played this year at the World
Boardgaming championships, just as my opponent was placing the 9th (?)
Panzer division next to the mulberry. Hardly a word was said as I
cleaned up my game and he wrote his summary for the GM. It was about 3
in the afternoon. 

My defeat opened up an opportunity for me to indulge in my all-time
favorite, "Win, Place, and Show". Like Merchant of Venus, it really was
fun, and I did manage to increase my holdings from $50K to $67.5K to win
second out of six players. Nothing beats conservative betting. It was
explained to me that even though I technically was allowed to advance,
the earlier heats hadn't been told that second place winners were to
advance, so they were going by total winnings. 

So, I spent the rest of the evening "teaching" D-Day to my new-found
protege. Now, until the box was opened, I didn't realize that this
"D-Day" game was not your father's Avalon Hill game. Different board,
different scale, significantly different rules. I started out by
explaining some hex wargame basics - until symbology, combat and
movement factors, zones of control, terrain effects (this game has a
terrain effects chart printed on the board), that sort of thing. Ummm-
the Smithsonian version of D-Day lacks a combat results table. You don't
have to do hard math like division to calculate odd ratios, all you have
to do is add and subtract combat factors and terrain modifiers to cause
step losses and retreats. Well, I figured this out pretty quickly, but
we were about 4-5 turns into the game before my student pointed out that
my interpretation of the stacking rules was in error - that the rules
indicated that an unlimited number of corps can stack on an army, not
just one co! rps, as I had read into the text. (This is what the funny
little army holding boxes on the bottom of the map board are for.) 

This, of course, dramatically affected the play of the game, but I had
succeeded in getting the basics across to the learner, and like any good
teacher, I had learned something else in the process. One of the things
I learned was that even though this version of D-Day is crudely
abstract, there are a lot of good ideas in the design. 

One of the things we had discussed the evening before was how brain dead
Hasbro was, and how it had utterly failed to pick up on the AH game
line, except for the non-military titles Diplomacy (which my children
also regard as a wargame, heck, they even call Mississippi Queen a
wargame, since it has hexes) and Acquire, and its own redesigned title
"Battle Cry". Interestingly, the fellow I taught D-Day had gotten ahold
of the old Milton Bradley games, including Broadside, Hit the Beach, and
Battle cry, and really like Broadside while dissing the older Battle
Cry. 

Before I conclude, please indulge this commercial word. While trolling
the vendor booths, I latched onto a game that truly responds to some of
my complaints about board game design in recent years. This game is
Dresden, by New England Simulations (which shared booth space with GMT).
This game (which I haven't even played yet) is outstanding for the
following reasons: 

1. It sold for $20. 2. The artwork is both simple and elegant. I'd like
to mount the box lid on my wall. The map graphics (which I understand to
be computer generated) are clean and understandable> Same goes for the
counters. The whole package combines the best features of classic SPI
aesthetics with a quality box design. I can't say enough in praise of
this game's aesthetics. 3. The game system is a Napoleon at Waterloo
upgrade. The designer has added morale attributes to the unit counters,
so there is a bit more - just a bit more - than the old NAW
move-fight-move-fight system. The rules are just as well executed as the
artwork. 

Bottom line: I think New England Simulations is setting the example for
the rest of the industry in terms of quality and reasonable costs, and I
look forward to supporting their products in recognition of this
excellence. 

Conclusion: Don seems to feel that WBC's declining numbers are
attributable to the economy. This very well may be the case, and
certainly the continued participation of children at this convention is
one of its very outstanding qualities (WBC doesn't really need to take
second place to Historicon in this respect). I have two impressions
coming out of DonCon this year: 

1. If you always do what you always did, you always get what you always
got. This may be fine for the grogs who come in on Tuesday, win a bunch
of plaques and go home to line their walls with wood. But it seems to me
that WBC is missing out on a very valuable training function that it can
support, one that transcends demo games and junior events, one that
cannot by definition be addressed by the pre-cons (which just drive
things more in the grognard direction). If I'm teaching a paying WBC
player an Avalon Hill boardgame, indeed, one of the simpler examples of
the genre, down in the Valley room on Saturday night, there is room for
this sort of thing on a more structured basis. 

2. Maybe this is the way out of the scheduling impasse. I'm sad to see
that that Napoleon's Last Battles is not even on the Century 100 voting
list (I promise to push this back onto the agenda in the upcoming year,
lowly BPA backbencher though I am). What we need to do is get some of
the good old games in a C events and teach the kids (and increasingly,
the adults) how to play. Now I realize that this could crimp the
schedules of grognards who have come to play and win, but I ain't seen
no wood in three years now, and my time would just as well be spent
teaching the young how to play and win. That said, I don't think the 12
and under category works for hex-based wargames, and one advantage of
this approach would be that, just as my oldest two children have gotten
to the age where it is difficult, if not impossible, for dad to teach
them anything, I don't consider these youngsters unreachable, since the
ultimate act of adolescent rebellion is to diss your dad by learning
Bitt! er Woods from another adult. But perhaps most families aren't as
disfunctional as mine. Nonetheless, consider this an argument for junior
tournaments to age 18 and training events over and above the open table
games we have now. 

The bottom line is that I hope BPA will allow us to build up support for
some of the lost classics if we show that we're willing to sacrifice the
time to support this process. I particularly think there are
opportunities on Saturday and Sunday that we're ignoring because
everyone knows that nothing happens at WBC Con on Sundays, and they plan
accordingly. 

Bill R.

Randy Cox - 06:56am Aug 5, 2002 PST (#4507 of 4678) 

Superstar Baseball recap: The power outage from 8:15 until 9:00 may have
detered some from attending this event and surely kept away a few who
were going to meet informally at 8:30 to learn the game, but the turnout
was still reasonable, with 20 managers guiding their historic teams into
this year's version of diamond camaraderie. 

In the opening round, each team played three games, round robin, against
all other teams at their table (4 teams per table, with teams ranging
from the year 1924 through 1999). To the table champions, we added three
wild cards, leaving us with a single elimination eight-team bracket.
After the first playoff round, the semi-finals paired the 1994 Atlanta
Braves (who had defeated the '75 Red Sox in the quarterfinals) against
the 1984 Cubs (victorious over the '75 Red Sox) and the '80 Royals (who
beat the '24 Senators) opposing the '80 Phillies (who beat the '61 Yanks
in extra innings). The Cubs jumped to an early lead and held on for a
6-4 victory, while the Phillies did likewise, with the Royals
squandering several late-inning rally opportunities, ending in a 6-3
Phillie victory. 

So the stage was set for John Emery (Cubs) to travel to Philadelphia to
face Ken Samuel. The Cubs jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead as Larry
Christenson allowed four hits and walked two in the first frame. It was
looking like a long day for Ken. But in the bottom of the second inning,
Leon Durham's error with one out rattled Cub starter Dennis Eckersley,
as he gave up a homer to seldom-used infielder Ramon Aviles, then
walkled a batter, and allowed a second blast by Bake McBride. One inning
later, it was Schmidt's turn and the Phillies were on top 5-4. But in
the top of the fifth, John's Cubs rebounded as Christenson walked three
and allowed a pair of singles, leaving the game knotted at 5. In the
bottom of the seventh, game MVP Bake McBride led off with his second
homer of the game, putting the Phillies up 6-5. Christenson reported
that he had lost his stuff, so manager Samuel went to his bullpen and
brought in Ron Reed. Reed responded by allowing a one-out single to Thad
Bosley, who advanced to second on a subsequent wild pitch. But then the
reliever calmed down and retired the next two batters. In their final
chance, Cubs Durham and Matthews struck out and Jody Davis weekly
grounded out to the pitcher to secure the save for Reed and the
championship for Ken Samuel. 

Many incidents highlighted the early rounds (John Weber's use of Don
Newcombe, a pitcher, as his designated hitter for the '55 Dodgers; U.L.
Washington's successful steal of home in the top of the 14th inning
after Willie Wilson botched a suicide squeeze; Mookie Wilson's strikeout
late in the game which matched up the '86 Mets and '86 Red Sox), and I
think all involved had a great time, which, after all, is the whole
point. 


Arthur Field - 04:21pm Aug 5, 2002 PST (#4555 of 4678) 

And now for my impressions: 

A fantastic time. Arrived at 4 PM Tues to find the HVI looking much
better than last year. After the traditional Greenville get together,
distribution of shirts and flasks and a memorial toast to comrades
passed on (Earle in heaven), we checked in and into the pool. A quick
dip and it was on to Auction to defend my title. First helped Monnin run
the demo. 

A good set of cards coming out let me win the first round. Great to see
Bruce Monnin, and everyone else on the first day. After Auction, it was
on to Princes of Florence for the qualifying heat. Played the game of my
life and got a 71 against some fine opponents. (Will never see cards
like that again.) 

Following day got to play Titan the Arena for the first time. Loved it.
Managed to get 2 firsts and a second(?). Tied for the last qualifying
spot in the finals with Lance Ribeiro and got in because I won the game
we both played in. Fine player Lance. Finals were cutthroat with
everyone going after Hebner. Let Joe Sposito talk his way into the win.
Sneaky 14 year old kid. Great job everyone and a well run tournament by
Coussis. Then it was on to Auction, where Reiff almost talked himself
into the lead in the semifinal game. I made the mistake of doing what
Bruce wanted. Managed to squeak out the win and get in the finals.
Sadly, Bruce got in as the highest second place player. Darn. He did a
great job and won the finals. I was second. Just couldn't get the last
$300 I needed to end the game. Ra in the evening. Tied for first on
suns. Enjoy that game immensely. 

Atlantic Storm to fill the time. Great game. Only played once before and
had Rick Mannis at my table to help me. He was the clear leader, so they
went after him and I managed to sneak into first. Lots of fun. Thanks
again to John Coussis for well run event. Union Pacific at night and had
lots of fun. Andy Lewis did another great job. Acquire afterwards and
then much needed rest. 

Then it was off to Tikal demo on Friday. It's tough to GM. 44 people
showed up for first round. Great turnout. Got things started in about 7
minutes. Lots of good games. Played some Medici and Ra and more Princes.
More Princes to help fill out the round. Missed Acquire start but Cliff
was great. Offered to let me play in an extra round because the lateness
was due to a GM matter and adjudication of a rules situation. Great
sportsmanship as GM to Cliff. 

Two more rounds of Tikal. A round of Puerto Rico. Then the big event.
POF semis and finals. Phenomenal competition. Managed to just beat some
great players (Doug Smith Dave Platnick, etc.) for the win in POF. Edged
out my own son. He still won't talk to me. 

Semi finals in Tikal. My 12 year old daughter becomes youngest to
qualify for a semi in Tikal. 16 people. 3.5 hours. Then the finals. Me,
my son, Kevin Garber (his teammate) and Brian Jones (Kevin's best
friend). What a game. Almost 4 hours of thinking, strategy, etc. Brian
sneaks into the win by 4 points. Well done Brian Jones. I get second. Ah
well. 

More Acquire, Judith Knauss, etc. 

More Medici. 

Sunday, win Puerto Rico quarter. Then semi, and now I am stuck not being
able to leave until final ends. The only justification my kids would let
me have for not leaving was to win, so I got very lucky and did so.
Phew. 

Best time of my life. In next posting I want to thank all of those who
made this a spectacular week for me and my family. You were all
wonderful and I can't wait to see you again. 

Tally: 2 Firsts, 2 seconds, one 4th. 

Fun: 100% 

AMF 


Ken Rothstein - 06:01pm Aug 5, 2002 PST (#4560 of 4678) 

Hi 

This was my 10th convention in Baltimore and I am starting to get old I
think. 

I used to win a tournment once every other year or so (well, 3 in six
years including Adv Civ and Air Baron), but now I see that perhaps I
have to rethink my policy of playing til I drop, because now I see I am
starting to make mistakes. 

Anyway 

Air Baron is a game thats always fun, I was first, rolled a "1" and
promptly found myself with $2 and in last place by turn 3. A desperate
bid for the lead left me vulnerable to a calmity, and when the oil hike
came I was off the board. Took a new company, borrowed money, and then
wound up facing a strike. The next heat I couldn't roll, so I lost to
the eventual, and deserving champ. 

Tikal: I am still perplexed. I had 26 treasure points for 3 scoring
rounds and lost. I still don't know what happened. 

Acquire: In my heat I finished with $45,000. The winner had $45,100. I
made a mistake here due to being just tired and not willing to try and
think back as to who bought what. 

Age of renaissance: I am no expert on this game, but can be competitive
and got into the semis. My main issue is more often than not silk and
spice IS everything nice, so this year at home I was trying to develop a
strategy using a premature purchase of Master Art while I held the
Renaissance leader in my hand. Then I buy it easily, go on the attack
and make back the spent points buying Master Art by discarding 6
commodity cards everyone else needs but I am now sitting on, and taking
the cities on the commodities everyone else has cards for. Well, it got
me to round two when Ted and Steve Crenshaw were so buddy buddy that it
made the guy holding Ivory/Gold sick and he played it as Ivory (I had 3
Ivory and 2 Gold). I won by 70 points more or less so Steve and I were
both going to the second round anyway. But Steve got revenge in round 2
by buying Cathedral when I bought renaissance, forcing others to buy it,
and I was reduced to 8 or 9 cities and just could never recover. Ken
Gutermuth won that game with a tremendous comeback, and it was a great
game filled with experienced players and we were done in 3 hours. I am
going back to the drawing board to fine tune my strategies. 

Facts In Five is always a blast, and this year I had to challenge the GM
when he said Nurse Chapel was not a major character on Star Trek. Lucky
for me, some ST gurus were across the room. 

Puerto Rico: Made it to the quarter finals/round of 5 zillion, but lost
easily the next round. 

Medici: Semis but lost. 

Gangsters: The room was too hot, and the guy at my table was drunk. 

Rail Baron: This game is a pain for me. Its the first AH game I learned
in my current gaming incarnation, and play it just once a year at
Baltimore. How people win is beyond me. I went to Portland Maine, and
some other weird cities. 

Also did some pick up games including Zombies and some card game making
fun of RPGs. At Cafe Jay, I learned Pizarro, Industrial Waste and
Gladiator. 

My great frustration is that Circus Maxmius is ran at 9 am every day. I
am sorry, thats just too early for a game requiring screaming and beer.
Also, I missed out on Ra!, Merchants of Venus, E&T, Auction, Stock
Market Guru (which has disappeared), and my pick up group forgot to
bring gods gift to gaming: Race For The White House. 

Anyway, this is always a great con, and the lightning storm saturday
night was cool to watch (or was it friday). 

Kevin Youells - 06:18pm Aug 5, 2002 PST (#4562 of 4678) 
Palm Bay, FL
Hi everyone, 

Now that I have gotten home, taken a nap and ate some decent food, I am
ready to give my 2002 World Boardgaming Championships report. 

We had over 1000 participants again this year and had the ususal 130-odd
events. Most of my time was spent in the actual tournaments but I
managed to get in Tikal, Serenissma, and Puerto Rico in open gaming. 

Tuesday started with Age of Renaissance. The less said about it, the
better. After a fast start with Barcelona and forst turn Crusades, I had
the big bullseye painted on me. In a full three epoch game I ended up
with a whopping 541 points which was good enough for a distant last
place in the game which Venice ended up winning. After that was
Elchfest, the moose racing game. Funny and silly, it was the perfect
antiote to my earlier disaster. I was crusing along until I hit someone
who played the game enough to have spent the time to make his own set
with two foot high moose and a disc you puch with your feet. He has
waaayyyyy too much time on his hands. Needless to say, I was eliminated,
but one of our other Florida players took first while I placed sixth for
the second straight year. 

Wednesday was THE event...Advanced Civilization. We had twenty players
this year, and all first round games were completed in the allocated
seven hours. Everyone liked the new format with the shortened first
round, because it essentially gave all of us another 1 1/2 days to
devote to other events. Playing Assyria, I finished second at my table
but my score was not high enough to advance. I finished in tenth place.
The previous champion successfully defended his title while playing
Babylon in the finals. Egypt (the guy who eliminated me) finished
second. 

On Thursday I got my first opportunity to play the Hasbro version of
History of the World. I like it, as everything takes less time and looks
and plays much better than the old version. Of course, my view may be
tainted because I won the game and got to play the semi-finals. I also
advanced to the semis in Tikal the same day. Naturally, the two semis
were at the same time Saturday so I had to choose one. I also won the
qualifying round of Medici to advance to that semi as well. 

Since I didn't get to play the Advanced Civilization final, I had to
find other things to do Friday. Just for fun, I decided to play
RoboRally...and got paired up with the prior year's champion. I got
pushed into a pit, and shoved onto a conveyor heading for the edge of
the board while I was shut down. Guess who didn't win. I also played two
more qualifying heats for Tikal and won both. The GM was very suprised
when I chose to advance in History of the World instead, but I was all
Tikaled out by that point. On a whim (and because it filled the hole in
my schedule before the Medici semi-final) I chose to enter the
Battleline event. This is one of my worst games, as James beats me on a
regular basis and I thought I sucked. I figured I'd be there two hours,
get eliminated, and go eat dinner. Naturally this then becomes the only
WBC event that I ever win the first place plaque in. The funny thing is
that James was unable to make the event because he was playing the
Advanced Civ final while I won the game he should have been playing in.
There is no doubt in my mind that he would have won had he entered. I
finished the night be getting second in my Medici semi final, so at
least I got a top ten finish there. 

I started Saturday with We the People and got knocked out in the first
round which then allowed me to go play the History of the World semi.
Since we had eighteen left at three tables, they chose to advance first
and second place from each to the finals...but didn't announce it. I was
smart enough to ask before we started and proceeded to play for second
and allow a runaway winner while I held the others back and cruised to
an easy second to advance. The final was about an hour later, and we all
got destroyed by a woman who drew/was passed the Romans, Arabs, and
Chola and then France in Epoch VI. I wa happy with my fourth place
showing (after nearly twelve hours of HOTW) since each of us at the
table was already guaranteed a plaque. 

Sunday was the only chance I had to fit in a round of Diplomacy. I guess
I'm too used to having time to check and double check everything like I
can by e-mail. The end result was that I misordered two of my four
Russian units in Spring '01. The sharks smelled blood in the water and I
got pounced on with an elimination in '04. It was completely my fault,
and I deserved it but these things happen. Then a 14 hour ride home and
here I am. 

Kevin 


Ken Whitesell - 07:10pm Aug 5, 2002 PST (#4565 of 4678) 

Another after-action report - I think I'm awake enough now to do this...

My big event for the weekend was The Queen's Gambit. I managed to play
in three heats and the single-elimination round Saturday morning. (I was
torn between playing in the elimination round on Saturday or playing in
BattleCry again this year. Both GMs were flexible enough to let me wait
to see how the numbers worked out for both events before requiring me to
make a decision. Thanks to Andy Lewis and Buddy Sinigaglio for their
cooperation.) 

The heats were a blast for me. I won my first heat against Jim Vroom, a
long time gaming friend. I lost the second heat against Don Greenwood.
(Oh the embarassment of it all!) I got beat in the third heat by John
Poniske Jr, who normally only gets the chance to beat me in Dinosaurs of
the Lost World - and does that regularly. 

In the elimination round I faced (and defeated again) Jim, then someone
whose name I have forgotten, before losing to someone else who I don't
remember. (I'm lousy with names.) Official finish, 6th. 

I had much more success in the Football Strategy tournament. Friday
morning I jumped in to kill some time. I defeated Chaka Benson in my
first game, followed by Jim Vroom in the second. My third game was
against Ray Stakenas Jr - a young man whose father introduced me to this
hobby over 25 years ago. Most notable about this game was the "overtime
that wasn't". At the end of regulation, I added up the scores as 32-32,
so we went into overtime. After scoring the winning touchdown in OT, I
re-added the scores only to find out that I had won in regulation by a
34-32 score. My final game in the heat was against Dave R. (I'm not even
going to try to spell his last name - sorry Dave.) 

A relatively easy win over Dave put me in the finals against Bill
Cleary. Bill and I have played many times over the years in the Avalon
Hill Football Strategy League, so I knew it was going to be a tough
game. It was. Bill was able to stop my previously-unstoppable offense
for a 30 - 18 win. (Grumble, grumble, grumble) To come _sooo_ close. 

I had 23 participants in the DLW tournament, up from 17 last year and
back to the low-20s that it always drew in the past. Great fun to run
and play. The majority are young adults who have 'graduated' from the
juniors event over the previous 11 years - they have the same type of
'common history' and camaraderie that the adults have - making for some
very spirited gaming. 

I also ran the "Plastic Infantry Guys" juniors event - 19 kids was about
50% more than expected, but I think they all had fun - the real purpose
of the event. 

Another wonderful weekend all the way around! Very much looking forward
to next year. 

On another note - those of you who are complaining about the changes for
next year - what would you have happen? Want to see the weekend
admission raised to $80? Want to move to a hotel with a $150 / night
rate? Want to see the convention shrink back to 500 people? These are
really the issues involved here. Don made the announcement - and I know
he was very sincere - he'll be glad to investigate any reasonable
alternatives. They looked at more than 10 other different sites to try
and find a better deal, and couldn't. Those of you who _might_ try to
sit back and think they can do a better job need to remember that Don
has been organizing conventions for close to 30 years now - having been
the driving force behind the first Origins in 75. In a way, Randy hit
the nail on the head. The effect of any change will only be known after
the fact. I just hope enough people realize that abandoning the HVI to
stay elsewhere is a very short-sighted approach. 

Bruce Monnin - 07:14pm Aug 5, 2002 PST (#4566 of 4678) 
Editor of the BOARDGAMER

Kevin, 

We had 3 semifinal tables for Auction. The way I've done this is I take
all the first place finishers from the preliminaries and then add second
place finishers as needed to get to a multiple of four. Thanks to one
player who won their game in both the Mulligan round and in the
preliminaries, we had an even 12 first round winners advance to teh
semifinals. 

That made three games whereI advanced the winners and the best second
place finish to the finals. Bruce Reiff didn't finish all that well in
his game, but due to the absolute lack of any legitimate second place
finishers in the other two games (Bruce had $5570, just sneaking by
Thomas McCorry with $5530, while the other two boards had 2nd place
finishers at $3700 and $4340). 

The finals were fascinating to watch as Reiff had about the absolutely
worst starting hand possible, but after Reiff bought a cheap Buyer's
Card early, and after about the first 8 cards, everything else went
Bruce's way, including the other players selling to the board the exact
cards Bruce needed. If two of those cards had been in the bottom half of
the deck, Bruce would never have come close. But you play as best you
can and make certain that if the breaks come your way you are ready to
capitalize on them. 

I personally finished 2nd in almost every game I played, especially the
two-player games. Lost in Auction and Win Place & Show on Tuesday night,
Wednesday took an early beating in Circus Maximus, lost again in Auction
(silly mistake on my part at fault here), lost in a Kremlin game and
went down in Greed (though I managed to post a score for the first time
ever). 

Thursday tooks a nasty 2-3 hit in my team game of War At Sea, lost out
on a tie brealer in Atlantic Storm and shot a good round, but not good
enough to make the Pro Golf Skins game final. This finals may have been
the closest on record, with the Skins divided up 3-3-3-2 after 11 holes.

Friday, slept through the Awards ceremony, but arrived just in time to
claim my award for The BOARDGAMER being Best Amateur Magazine and to
grab a chocolate donut (no jelly filling). Got crushed at Wilderness
War, as though I took Louisbourg and Quebec as the British, the French
took New York and then doubled back to retake Quebec. Another 2nd place
in Atlantic Storm followed, a spirited Battleline event (2nd in my pool
of 4) and a middle of the pack finish in Decathlon (I can't believe my
guy got injured during the Shot Put, fot Pete's sake). 

Saturday, got blown out by 38 points as a favorite in March Madness.
Then finished 3rd (I think) at my group at Formula Motor Racing. Won my
heat of Win Place & Show in a runaway, and would have pulled off a
surprise win in the Finals is Hannibal had gotten lucky and avoided the
roadblock in the last race. Then made the playoffs in Slapshot before
bowing out and getting to bed before 1 AM for the first time all week. 

Sunday attended the After Action Meeting and then lost in the first
round of Enemy In Sight. Finally, I showed up to be the victim in the
ceremonial "tossing of the defending champ" in Wrasslin Battle Royal. 

All in all, 16 different events, no success. At least, as I told
everyone who asked me, I had a load of fun. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andy Lewis - 08:33pm Aug 5, 2002 PST (#4571 of 4678) 
Most recent played for fun: Replay Baseball (tons), Flagship, Puerto Rico, coaching 
tee ball

I managed 4 tournaments on Tuesday evening. Only won in Carcassone which
I couldn't advance in due to time conflict of course. Elchfest was a ton
of fun - Dan you got lucky that double double turn didn't come through
:-0 

Starship Troopers started Wednesday morning. This is much more an
experience event than a tournament. It's great fun. I've told Ben that
I'll help run the bugs next year so that more people can enjoy the fun.
Come on out. 

I followed this up by getting killed by Bill O'Neal in Paydirt. I
couldn't even accomplish my goal of losing by less than 21. A good
medium pass versus a terrible medium pass defense made it easy. 2 INTs
on screen passes and two fumbles lost on 36s really made it hard, but it
was a fun time. 

I then ran Union Pacific. The crowd was bigger this year than last and I
managed to screw my own rules up even. I got it figured out though for
next year - much cleaner wording; check the website in the near future.
I want to thank all the players for bringing games. I actually had more
than enough in the first round this year (unfortunately most of the game
owners were beat in the first round and we had to scramble for games in
the later rounds). We had 21 4 player games which forced me to add
another round. Good thing I did since we had two of the games end in
first place ties. We still got the whole tournament in in about 6 hours.
The correct rule will cut this down. 

I managed to get Galaxy and $Greed in on Wednesday night too. It was a
great game of Galaxy with Stuart and me getting "in to it" leaving it
open for someone else to win. If anyone observed our game, there were no
hard feelings we were just having a good time. 

Missed a tourney Thursday morning watching the kids and getting the
booth set up. I did it more for the kids than the booth so I didn't
break my commitment to playing before working. It was nice to see the
Nappy Wars flying off the table. A third heat of Galaxy didn't prove any
better for the team; still not in the semis. Another round of Carcassone
which didn't work out too hot; I scored 28 or 29 when third place in the
4 player game had 60. Pro Golf was fun. I got to sit with Ken Gutermuth
for the first to let his luck rub off on me. I guess it worked the other
way around and he didn't qualify for the skins game for the first time
in 9 years; I did my part to keep the Manly Men down. 

Friday I had to stand in for Carrie as the Flagship GM as she was March
Madnessing away (what an effort she made for the team this year playing
in all 4 heats). I think the players enjoyed themselves although it took
longer than I thought to complete the tournament. A format change for
next year is in order. Down in Flames started before Flagship ended.
Fortunately both where in the same area so I could still fly some
planes. The luck gods where with me big time. I managed to take the wood
which broke my 4 year drought. I did have to skip the last Galaxy heat
so I hope my team forgives me. My Decathalon run was good until I
injuried myself in the 1500 run (1 in 216 chance). 

Battle Cry was Saturday morning. Sign up in the dark was fun.
Fortunately dawn broke before the games started. I lost in the first
round to the 2nd place finisher. I wish I could take solace in that but
it was Bud ;-) I got into the Galaxy semis by the virtue of showing up
while 24 people ahead of me in line didn't. Luck held and I advanced to
the finals. I was taken there by much better players. I thought I had a
chance but in the end I don't think there was any combination of plays
where I would have come out ahead. 

My gaming came to end with Slapshot on Saturday night. Another fun game
was had although I didn't make the playoffs of the first round even. I
did however convert a great person to the dark side; she agreed that
Slapshot was a lot more fun with open hands! The best outfit competition
level was certainly turned up notches unknown with somebody showing up
in full hockey gear including skates. 

Do we really have 359 days left? I invite all to attend. The people are
just great. I got to play against a ton of friends (some who I hadn't
played in many years). I had to leaive extra early for tournaments
because I ran into so many people on the way who I wanted to touch base
with again. 

Gary Phillips - 09:26pm Aug 5, 2002 PST (#4578 of 4678) "You're
frettin', you're sweatin', but did you notice you ain't gettin'?" A WBC
AAR. 

Arrived Thursday and played Reds!, Nappy Wars, and a couple of games of
Puerto Rico, all in open gaming. 

Friday played in the Wilderness War tournament, which was extremely well
run and organized. I won my first game but lost in the second round. I
bid 0 VP both times and played the French both times, in the first round
because my opponent chose the Brits as high die roller, the second when
I chose the French as high die roller. My apologies to both my
opponents, as I have forgotten your names. I think I did ok, as those
two games were my third and fourth ever played, but I am looking forward
to playing next year with a few more games under my belt. (WBC PBEM WW
tournament, here I come.) Friday evening I got to play Prussia's Glory
with Volko Ruhnke, which was my first opportunity to play if ftf and was
one of the many games I was hoping to play. 

Saturday played Reds! with Matthew Miller. Despite it being his first
time playing it ftf he more than held his own as the Red player, winning
the short game victory conditions, then agreeing to playing on to see
how the late game shook out. Saturday evening was somewhat disappointing
as I was looking for lighter fare after a day of wargaming, but although
I saw a lot of games being played was unable to find a game that I could
join, finally ending up playing Settlers with some Diplomacy players who
were unwinding. After that I ended up playing Werewolf until dawn, which
was interesting. (It was in the open gaming area, not the infamous
'adult' game.) I left that morning after attending the Armistice, not
having the stamina or time left to start any new games. 

Pros: Well run and organized con, opponents were gracious, the people as
a whole are interesting and nice people, got to put faces with names (Hi
Allan!), and the emphasis on games and playing games was a bonus. 

Cons: minor stuff really. If I think of anything I'll put it on the
survey. 

Two things I will do differently next year: 1) go to more events. I only
planned on two, and then skipped one of them to play something else in
open gaming. 2) I'm already regretting I didn't find time to play CWBS,
SGBOH or PoG. If I had managed my time and efforts better I would have
gotten in at least one or maybe two of those. Time to start planning for
next year... 

Jason Levine - 11:23pm Aug 5, 2002 PST (#4590 of 4678) 

Now finally for my "good post"...my WBC report :) 

It started Tuesday with a 1 point loss to Rob Winslow in a very close
game of Atlantic Storm...thoroughly enjoyed that game. Then it was on to
a game of Queen's Gambit against Christian Moffa....I was 1 of only 2
people playing the Naboo side to win the first night (it was definitely
a Maul night). I had a huge advantage drawing not only a Jedi card, but
also an Obi Wan's fury card in the initial draw...can we say a Jedi at
full health running through the palace :) Again I had a very enjoyable
game...which unfortunately ran too long for me to make Carcassone...damn
Anakin having to roll high at the last starfighter space. Then it was
off to Win, Place and Show and there I got to face the 2 Bruces...and
pulled off a win...with Bruce and Bruce gettting place and show :) 

Wednesday started with a fun game of Starship Troopers. Andy Lewis said
it best...it is more of an experience than a tournament. I love Ben
Knight's "fog of war" by controlling the bugs and having then appear
only when the troopers can see them. I feel good that I survived this
year with both my characters...after getting eaten alive by the bugs
last year :) Next year I am looking forward to my 2 re-rolls I will be
gettting. Next up was El Grande where I was trying to retain my title.
When Stu Hendrickson allowed everyone to "just pick a table and
sit"...everyone moved and didn't want to sit with me :) Finally I got
into a game and ended up losing by a single point...one player decided
to be kingmaker and play a card to help out the winner...but I still
qualified for the semis. Very enjoyable and close game...better than my
typical blowout game...I like tense action a lot more. Next it was
Football Strategy where I was leading Dan Dolan Jr. 10-6 until he scored
a TD and then played 7 I's in a row...getting 3 interceptions (2 for
TD's) and beating me 34-10. I learned a big lesson in that game...switch
to play 5 when your opponent thinks you will use play 17 :) Next was
Princes of Florence where I was with Judy (who still liked me at that
point). I won the game by 3 points...gotta love that 2nd seat :) After
Princes I played Acquire...where Brett Mingo ended up edging me out and
winning the game. Of course Wednesday would not be complete without a
chance at "rolling the bones" in a game of Greed. This year I improved
on my 7 straight 0's with a score of 600! Made my night. 

Thursday rolled around and I started with March Madness and had the
worst luck ever against Devin Flawd. On my best player (an "A" bench) I
roll a 1 while Devin rolls a 6. I use my re-roll and get a 2 while he
gets a 4. To top things off...my only other good player...I roll a 1 and
he rolls a 5...giving my right forward 2 fouls. My "B" level right
forward scored a pathetic 4 points for the game. My "A" bench gets
demoted to a "B". I lose by 30 points. Had fun for about a
quarter...then I felt like fans of anyone who happened to play against
the Maryland Terrapins last year...had to throw that in to make Don G.
smile when he reads this :) After this I decided to play 2 rounds of War
at Sea. Both times I took the Axis and let my opponent have the allies
for 1-1/2. In the first game against Bobby Clinton I thought I was
completely out of it when after he rolled a 6 on a 3-3-6 and I attack
the Barents...he smokes me. First he disables both 3-5-7's and then he
sinks all 3 2-2-5's and a 1-2-7. Didn't look good for Germany this game.
I get lucky by using my U-Boats every turn and sinking a few of his
carriers and 1 of his convoys. This puts me into a position to attack
the South Atlantic on Turn 7 with all of my remaining ships (1 Italian,
Tirpitz, both 3-5-7's, the Zeppelin, and 2 1-2-7's) except the Bismark
which I send into the Baltic all alone to fight the Marat. It sinks the
Marat and I win the South Atlantic battle big time (as Bobby's forces
were spread out that turn). In Turn 8...I send everything to the North
Atlantic...his weakest spot...and hope for the best. Whoever wins this
battle will win the game...he starts out disabling 3 of my ships...and I
get damage but no disables. I think it is over. After 4 attacks...now I
am up 2 ships to 1 (got some fortunate die rolls). I win the battle and
the game by 1/2 POC. In the second game Dennis Nicholson rolls 5 6's on
his speed rolls to the Barents on turns 2-4. Let's just say that I
decimated him. But I became cautious and since he got all 3 of his
convoys into Russia it was close. This was also due to the fact that in
Turn 7 he rolls 4 6's and 5 5's on a 13 die ASW in the North Sea. I
couldn't force him to spread on Turn 8 and end up winning by 1/2 POC
again. Vince Meconi later tells me that there were only 5 games that
ended and the bids changed the result...I happened to win 2 of those
games :) Next was Medici where Scott Cornett took a commanding lead in
turn 1 and ran away with the game. If I forsaw this...I might have
played a 3rd game of WAS instead :) Seriously though...Scott played well
and with a few inexperienced players he was able to win by 20+ points!
Next was Carcassone where I ended up winning...and also teaching a new
player about the game in the process. That is always the best part of
WBC...to teach a new player and know that he will come back and play the
game again. Then it was Aladdin's Dragons where everyone at my table
tied with 6 pieces and the winner (not me) had 2 scrolls...I only had 1.
Then it was another game of Acquire where I played a "speed game" with
Ken Gutermuth, Debbie Garver and Kevin Wojtaszczyk (SP?...and I've know
him since college...LOL). Ken won and I took another close
second...earning me enough points to make the semis. Then the four of us
and Kevin's wife Laurie played a "speed game" of Ra! Laurie...who we
taught the game to while we played...ended up winning by a landslide...I
came in a pathetic fifth! Then it was off to Pro Golf...I shot a -14 in
the regular round an dgot to touch the famed "fuzzy dice". It came down
to the last hole...Terry Coleman was leading 6-4-3-2...there are 4 skins
on the line on hole 18. I needed a 44 or better on the dice...I
roll...there are boxcars showing...I win!...no wait...one of the 6's
tips at the last moment and becomes a 3...I lose! Now I really know how
Ken feels every year :) Thursday ended with some werewolf with kids,
college kids and adults all playing...it was a lot of fun. Gary Presser
sure knows how to make the game interesting. 

On to Friday...slept in and woke up at 11:05. Luckily I couldn't play
one of my favorite games...Robo Rally...because I qualified in El Grande
and was able to sleep. But...at 11:10 I was racing to get dressed and
make it to El Grande for the semis...got to defend the title! Luckily
Stu waited for me and I got to play. I won my semifinal in a blowout and
advanced to the finals for a second straight year. Sure enough in the
finals the first thing Mark Guttag does is beat on me. Mike Hazel does
the same thing. Sure stinks being the defending champ :) Mike runs out
to a lead early...but after the first scoring I am in the lead. I extend
my lead after the second scoring. It looks like I will repeat as
champion. I got the infamous 1-13 combo on turns 8+9. It was all but
over. Then Mark get the score the castle card and sneaks up. He scores
the castle again in the final scoring and slams an area. I end up losing
by a single point! If I only choose a different area to put my pieces in
the I would have won the game...so close but yet so far...my second
loser wood this year :) Congrats to Mark...it was a nice complement when
he told me that it took all the other players beating on me to keep it
close...and that I was the best player he has ever seen in the game...I
appreciate that. He played great also. After the disappointment in El
Grande I went to play in my team event...Battleline. I start off with 2
breakthroughs on Lee Presser and Andrew Cummins. Then I have to face the
mighty Bruce Reiff in a winner advances game. I have him on the
ropes...it looks like I can't lose. He starts taking only tactic cards.
The card I need to seal it is the next one in the deck. He then plays
his Alexander he pulled (as I notice there is only 1 tactic card left).
I have a stunned look on my face as he laughs at me and tell me how he
denied me team points. It is true...because if I would have beat him I
would have earned at least 1 team point out of the deal. This is a big
deal and I will get back to it later...note...I left Debbie & the Boys
to rejoin my team from last year Baby Seals...so Bruce kept calling me a
traitor and told me he would stop me from getting team points...he was
right :) I then play my Princes semi final and lose to eventual champ
Arthur Field...I still want to play him in a game where I can have the
2nd seat...since I got the awful 3rd seat :) Finally it was Decathlon
where I pulled a groin muscle trying to lift the shotput :) I woulda
been a contender but instead Raefer needed some reafer...and I failed to
place. Then it was more werewolf and the now infamous run-in with Judy. 

Saturday came and I slept until noon...I am sensing a pattern
here...stay up late playing werewolf (5:30 friday)...and miss the early
morning games. It would have either been the elimination round of
Queens' Gambit or Battle Cry...but I missed then both. Too bad...I love
those "card driven" games :) Then it was Attila where Sue "the drunk
lady" (unsure of last name) won. She knows I am joking about the drunk
thing! She had a huge lead...but Mike Hazel ended up tying her as we all
worked to deny her points in the final scoring. I missed Origins so I
then played the most popular game at the convention...Puerto Rico.
Unfortunately there was a newbie on my left so he ended up help the
players to his left...which included Tamara McGraw and another newbie.
The second newbie ended up winning the game. If turn order was different
I think I would have won. It was a tight game. Then somehow I got in a
"speed game" of Euphrates and Tigris with Peter Staab, Kevin W., and
Lauren Hickok. We taught Lauren the game as we played and I ended up
winning. Then it was off to the great final of Win, Place and Show. I
had a good lead after the first race, so Stuart Tucker denied letting me
get Indian Giver for race 2. Bruce Reiff then took the lead. It was a 2
way race between me and Bruce Reiff with Stuart and Bruce Monnin
trailing by about 30,000. I race 5 I took the Roach and it almost
won...if that happened I would have won by a landslide...but his 2nd
place finish only put me about $15,000 ahead of Bruce and kept me
$30,000 ahead of Stuart. Then the final race...Bruce convinced Anna
Marie to bid me up and take Captain Ahab away from me...that was the
beginning of the end. I think about betting Mona Lisa...but scratch it
out and bet Hannibal...huge mistake. Mona Lisa wins the race and Stuart
take the game. That was one fo the most enjoyable games I played.
Afterwards Stuart told me that I was a really impressive player. That
means I lot coming the from person who wrote a great article about the
game in an issue of the General a few years ago! Then it was Slapshot
where I got to play on the table with Bruce (the GM), Don (the Con
Director) and Tom Dagliesh (the Designer). What an honor it was. Even
better was to see Don crack a smile during the game :) :) :) I won my
table and advance to the finals. There I made the playoffs but hurt my
team and came in fourth in the process. Rich Curtain took a
victory...but the highlight was 2nd place finisher Mike S. (not sure on
spelling) of the Pretzel Boys who kept acting like a pirate...it was a
blast. Of course...there is nothing that will compare to the few minutes
we spent talking with Keith Hunsinger on the phone and showing how much
we care about him and each other as a group. That was something special
and gave me goosebumps! Then it was more werewolf for the final night. 

Sunday was another good day. I ended up coming in second to Jeff Cornett
in the semifinal of E&T (I passed on Acquire to play). It was really
close...if there was one more tile in the bag...I get to play and I end
up winning. Can't ask for more than that...I do hate being the 3rd seat
though...that loss of play makes a huge difference in a close game. It
was a great game though...and to lose by 1 tile draw to the eventual
champ is not bad at all. Then it was on to the final event of the
con...Wrasslin' Battel Royal! I had to face Dan Dolan Jr. (a former
champ) and he throws me out of the ring. Unfortunately for me...no one
had explained to me rule 11.5 (which states that you may play a card
that you can't really play...and cheat if no one catches you). So in
really he never really threw me out of the ring and I felt so silly. But
I will always remember rule 11.5 from now on :) Then...I went to watch
Scott Cornett play his final of Speed Circuit...if he gets 1st or 2nd
then my team (the Baby Seals) loses the team tournament...if he gets 3rd
or worse we win. It comes down to the last turn and the car behind him
needs to roll 9 or less twice to overtake and get 2nd. Of course the guy
rolls a 10 the first time and Scott gets 2nd. I am officially the Jeff
Mullet of the team tournament because Bruce knocked me out of
Battleline. Next year I know to pick my strongest game...El
Grande...which would have gotten me 4 points. Anyway...congrats to the
Central Florida Game Club who ended up getting 17 points and beating my
team by 1 point (we had the tie breaker if they only got 16). They are a
great bunch of guys :) 

All in all it was a great convention again. It was great to see old
friends and make new ones. I am looking forward to next year already!
Hope everyone else had as much fun as I did. That's all for now :) 

Jason 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Randy Cox - 09:15am Aug 6, 2002 PST (#4612 of 4679) 

Since everyone else is doing the con recap thing, I'll post mine, just
for the change of pace :) 

Wednesday night. Climbed abord the northbound Crescent at 11:30 and got
to Baltimore Penn Station around 11:30 the next morning. Hopped the
light rail, switched at Mt. Royal and took the short (less than
half-mile) stroll from Pepper Road to HVI. In the hotel by 12:30. Then
the issues with the hotel started (no room, started giving rooms to
other arriving guests [including non-smoking rooms], finally got them to
give me a poor room, standard stuff). 

First game, Wallenstein a German wargame which took 2.5 hours and, while
having some interesting mechanics, isn't worth it at 1.25 hours per game
year. Next up, filled in as last player needed for Princes of Florence
at the GM's table. Close game (first place was 54 points, by Mike Hazel,
I had 53, the next three were 52, 49, and 45). Fun game, but it took way
too long. Ate at the HVI (early bird special at $14.95). Great salad.
Not much else. After that, back to open gaming for Mause-Rallye, a kids
game not really worth the time. Then, a perennial convention game,
Personal Preferences. Fine party game where you get to talk about
everyone at the table. Ended it up with a tremendous team party game of
Inklings. 

Friday... as always, breakfast at Cinnamon Tree. On to open gaming with
Dice Run which is a fun racing game in the vein of Breaking Away.
Followed that with a horrendous simultaneous-play hand-gyration game
called Hands Up. Not recommended. After a short break, it was
Affenraffen, a game much like the old TV show Concentration, except that
everyone plays simultaneously and looks at face down tiles (one at a
time), searching for magic pairs. Quite fun and very quick. Then, as
some of our party entered Puerto Rico (or was it Princes of Florence),
it was a game of the ultimate screw-your-buddy game (even better than
Dip), Intrige. We got a couple of rules wrong, but it was great fun
bribing each opponent for offices in their principalities. Off to Cafe
Jay for TransAmerica, the game which should have won Spiel de Jahr.
Superb game, and met a pleasant new gamer there, always a plus. Out to
Chilis for dinner and back in time for a pick-up game of Puerto Rico
which was close, as usual. At that point, I had to retire to prepare for
my event the next morning. 

Saturday... Cinnamon Tree again. Then I began setting up Superstar
Baseball in Salon B. At 8:15, it went black (totally black, no emergency
lighting down there). We were a little behind schedule when the lights
came back on at 9, but it went smoothly. I made the playoffs, so I
played five games there and, of course, had to be around for the final
game. So, it was 5 p.m. and I'd not yet played any real (read as:
"open") games. So, the requisite hand of the world's best trick-taking
game, Mu was in order, followed by a hybrid dinner from the Pizza joint
and Cafe Jay (pasta marinara). Not a great meal. This led up to the
third and last tournament I played in, Facts in Five, which is always
lots of fun. I made the final six and ended up fourth. Back to open
gaming to try out the preview copy of the upcoming People Magazine Game,
which was very good. A party game with some Pictionary, charades, and
impersonations. Good fun. A game of Liars Dice filled the time before a
couple of games of Catch Phrase. 

Sunday... as is always the case, Sunday is just a time killer before
heading out of town. Because the southbound train doesn't leave until
5:59 p.m., I actually hung around until about 3 this year. Waited while
the extremely long Puerto Rico quarter/semi/finals took place (note:
should have had 8 tables of 5 in the quarters, reduced to 8 for two
tables of 4, taking top two at each table for the final game...would
have allowed more people to be eliminated faster). Grabbed a bowl of
soup at the bar (not recommended) and headed out. 

Final tally. 3 tournaments (7 total games), 17 open games, plenty of
time to sit around talking. All in three days. 


Andrew Maly - 10:22am Aug 6, 2002 PST (#4619 of 4679) 
Thirty days has September, April, June and Montana, all the rest have 
cold weather, except in the Summer, which isn't often...

My WBC (since it's so in vogue):

Arrived early Tuesday. Played a pickup game of Napoleon's War, four
player. The three Coalition players don't realize they're playing for
themselves, so I, as France get whomped. It also didn't help that they
drew an extra half a dozen cards between them. I invade Austria, but
then the opportunity to destroy the British fleet is there and Britain
winds up with about 3 squadrons on the board at game end. My roommate
shows, so I go off to move in, and Peter Reese fills in.... 

My room was fine. Nice location, housekeeping did a wonderful job. Maybe
its our reputation for taking care of the staff that puts up with us (my
roommate and I) for the week. Nary a complaint there. 

Back to the game, and I find that Peter has rectified the situation.
Thanks Pete. So I can't play this game... I proceed to get yahtzeed out
of Austria, badly, get used as a hand puppet, and Russia wins on turn 3.
Still, a very fun learning game. 

On a different take, I ran into a guy who, well let's just say we don't
see eye to eye. Took some time to talk to him, and while I don't think
things are necessarily great, I walked away with a good feeling, and I
think he did as well, which, in my mind is a convention highlight. 

Set up the teaching of Clash of Giants. That goes well. 16 show for the
mulligan round. I won my game. I play the Jumbo Elchfest and pull my
hamstring.... (really). Then off to Elchfest. Great fun as always, and
great thanks to the patience of the players who are willing to wait
because there are so few copies of the game. My roommate is the center
of controversy, again (hey, he was right this time), but does the right
thing, and Dan Dolan loses in the finals. How good is that? Go check on
the final game of CoG (which I allowed to flex because one of the
participants was doing a demo at 8PM), and the game literally came down
to the last die roll. 

Wednesday - Clash of Giants. All day. I do an aw-carp as the GM, but get
the situation rectified. I play three tight fought games and get into
the finals. Visions of Coussis are dancing in my head. I can't sleep
that night. I open game, but I forget which games I play which night,
there are so many. 

Thursday - War at Sea. One and out in a very exciting game, where I
rampaged in the South Atlantic, but couldn't touch the convoys, and the
Allies ASW went bonkers. Caught up with my now awake opponent for the
CoG finals. A gut wrencher with wild swings of fortune. The Coussis is
complete, and my convention is now gravy. Open Game. Up Front. I go 2-1,
losing to Larry Davidson in a tight match. More open gaming. 

Friday - Wilderness War. Ron Fedin. I treated him unkindly in luck a few
years back. He returns the favor, and I learn a few more things I've
been doing wrong. Still a good game, and Ron, a class act. I manage to
get into Flagship. Go 3-0 and then lose to Marvin Birnbaum (the eventual
champ). Cats, now and forever. I get out just in time to play Up Front,
and lose, but a wonderful 1 point loss to Stefan Hess. Play Speed
Circuit, which I hadn't played in 26?! years. Always like the toys. The
GM was wonderful, and so were all the patient players who put up with
the day-glow strip on my bumper. I'm 4th going into the last corner of
lap two, try to risk it, and spin out. I clear the corner, I'm now in
next to last, so I retire the car. Great fun, and I'd pull that stunt
every time in the situation I was in. Open game. 

Saturday - Settlers of Catan. I do better than I thought, winning two,
and qualifying for the semi's, but I bow out as we have 17 for the
semi's, and I didn't feel like helping the GM figure out tie-breakers.
Open Game. Give up my slot in Slapshot to find some people, come back to
play a pickup game of Slapshot. Play Werewolf, get to be the first
player killed, give another brilliant defense to save my bacon (I was a
villager) and then play my usual village idiot for the remainder of the
games. 

Sunday - Open game until 7, go out to dinner with friends and head home
after that. Definitely looking forward to next year. 

Open Gaming I indulged in (some multiple times):

Napoleon's War (excellent), Citadels (not too excited about, but only
one play), Trans-America (great), Funkenschlagen? (excellent, even if we
mis-played a rule that extended the game longer than it should have
gone), Dogs Life (cute, but too long for what it is), Babel (great),
Viva Pamplona (ruined by the bull not snorting until it passed tomato
hill), Dragon's Gold (excellent), Montgolfiere (good, but a bit random),
Fluxx (noooooo!!!!), Democrazy (a better alternative to Fluxx), Pit
(silent, to appease a guy who hates the game), Starship Catan (good, but
not a lot of interaction), Werewolf (I like, but then the group dynamic
is critical) 

Is it next year yet? 


Rich Shipley - 12:05pm Aug 6, 2002 PST (#4633 of 4679) 
Played: The Napoleonic Wars, Tigers in the Mist, Tunisia. Playing: GBII

If anyone is interested, here's my con report: 

I ran the Empire Builder Series tournament starting Tuesday. I had a
good game of British Rails going, but stalled at the end and took
second. The tournament drew 43 overall, which is about the same as last
year. The new format (swiss double elimination - you have to win two
games to get to the finals) seemed to work. 

I tried a heat of Atlantic Storm the next morning and lost pretty badly.
Followed by running the next round of EPB when I again got out to a
great start in Eurorails before getting stuck in England with Gales and
took another second. Played a heat of Carcassone and won with 114
points. Went on to lose in the first round of Union Pacific. 

After that I looked for Mark McLaughlin to talk about the web site and
found him at the giant Napoleonic Wars table. I ended up taking over for
the Russian player and had two large army groups on a parallel advance
through Prussia and attacked Napoleon with a combined Russian/Prussian
force. Napoleon brought in another nearby army group by interception and
I played "To The Guns" to bring in the nearby Russian/Austrian/Danish
force. After one round of battle I played "To The Death" to extend the
battle another round. Almost 100 total dice were rolled and Napoleon was
left with only a couple generals. My favorite moment of the con. 

Thursday started with the third round of EPB that produced the last
three of five finalists. I played Iron Dragon with my wife Jamie and Rob
Stribula and got trounced. I then went to run Carabande Junior and had
18 participants. Most of the kids were very good (with a few minor
exceptions) and we ran four races at each of two tables. Much thatnks to
Jeff Ribiero who came in to assist. Congrats to Alex Henning for her
victory. I then found a pickup game of The Napoleonic Wars and played
until after midnight. My wife had gone home by then, so I found Jason
Roach in the Empires in Arms room and got a ride home from him after
observing for a bit. 

Friday started with my team game (my first time on a team) of RoboRally
in the garden room (where Jamie was playing in the Adv Civ Final). The
first round was brutal and lasted the full four hours. I usualy play the
game as a race with occasional conflict. In this game when I was the
first to get to the third flag most of the other players (on the
instigation of last year's champion Jeff Ribiero) went to the fourth
flag with one even archiving on it so that he would pop up in front of
me when he died. After many rounds of fighting, I shut down on a
conveyor and then went around the board to get to the final flag. The
finals followed with a pretty competitive board. About halfway through
(with me in around fourth place) I told the GM that I would prefer to
end at 5 so I could make another tournament. I feel like a bit of a clod
now for doing so, but after that draining first round with no break I
really wanted to get to something else. I promise I won't do that next
year. I ended up in second place after the clear leader hit the fourth
flag (I was glad because the tie breaker on a time limit game would have
given me the win if he hadn't and I had asked for the time limit).
Second place gave me my first WBC plaque ever. 

After that it was Down in Flames where I started by teaching a friend to
beat me in the game followed by being trounced by someone else. 

Saturday was Settlers where I tied for second in a very long 10-9-9-9
first round game. I won the next one with both the Army and Road cards.
And in the third tied for second where I would have won on the next roll
of the dice. After being knocked out, I went to the demo of Guerilla and
took second in the first round to the GM who declared he was ineligible
to advance. I went on to take second in the final (so close!) I really
liked the game and hope to play next year. 

Sunday was the Empire Builder final which had to be called for time. I'm
either going to try to keep the final to four players in the future or
I'll have to put the game on a clock. Jim Yerkey ended up defending his
title and taking the big train poster donated by Jake Jacoby. While the
game was going on, Jamie and I learned Settlers of Neurenburg with a
couple other friendly gamers. A game of Call My Bluff while Jamie was
playing Citadelles finished out the con. 

Can't wait till next year! 

Rich 

Arthur Field - 06:45pm Aug 6, 2002 PST (#4663 of 4679) 

TIKAL REPORT 

72 gamers braved the jungles of Tikal over 3 heats lasting 2.5 hours
each. Many players were new to the game. 44 played in the first heat and
over 20 played in 2 heats (but only two prior round winners, preference
being given to others). The third heat competed with the popular Puerto
Rico, but still drew 23 players. There were 3 ties for first place and
the GM was immensely grateful he had a tie-breaker rule. Players were
ranked based upon the previously used equalizing formula of final score
divided by cumulative board score. It will be used again; it was the
fairest system. James Hopkin, Arthur Field and Kevin Garber, last year’s
finalists (Jaeger was absent), advanced to the semi-finals. They were
joined by Mario Lanza, Chris Terrell, Phil Rennert, Allyson Field,
Holliday Jones, Brendan Kerr, Anne Norton, Dan Hoffman, Frank Sinaglio,
Davyd Field, Ross Jones, Scott Pfeiffer and Paul Murphy. Brendan Kerr
was new to the game. Allyson Field is 12 and may be the youngest player
to qualify for a Tikal semi-final. Scott and Phil were unable to make
the start and Brian Jones and Sandy Wible stepped in as alternates. This
proved critical. The semi-finals lasted 3 hours. Table 1: defending
champ Garber handily defeated his competition with the high score of the
semis, a whopping 132. An unusual event occurred in that game when it
was discovered one player had forgotten to place a tile in the first
round, revealed in the third round. The G.M. declared a re-start. Since
the other players agreed it was an innocent error, no other sanction was
imposed. At Table 2, Davyd Field won through. Table 3 saw alternate
Brian Jones edge James Hopkin by 3 points, while keeping Dan Hoffman and
Allyson Field at bay. (The G.M. was very proud of his daughter’s
performance in the game against fine players.) At Table 4, Arthur Field
swooped in on an undefended temple of Brendan Kerr’s and capped it to
grab a 120 to 105 victory. The finals evidenced every conflict of
interest possible. Arthur and Davyd Field are father and son. Arthur was
a playing G.M. Davyd and Kevin Garber are teammates and this was both
Arthur’s and Kevin’s team game. Kevin and Brian Jones are close,
longtime friends. So, naturally, everyone immediately stabbed everyone
else in the back. Kevin seized the lead by placing the first tent in the
middle of the board, rather than his usual edge play. Arthur countered
by building a tent in the corner and constructing a quick temple. In a
crucial move, which probably cost him the game, Arthur elected to cap
the temple as a 9 and move his leader, rather than spend the extra 2 MP
and get the 10. This cost him 3 points over the course of the game. He
did it because he thought Kevin or Davyd would take the 10. But Brian
quietly built himself an unchallenged 10 and scored it twice. After
round 1, Arthur led with 27, to Brian’s 26, Davyd’s 25 and Kevin’s 24.
Hard to get much closer. Arthur captured the northwest corner of the
board. Brian drew the only natural triple treasure in the game. Davyd
and Kevin drew the exact same three treasures each. Davyd then went on
to draw a total of 6 non-matching treasures, a virtual statistical
impossibility. Brian’s 9 points of treasures helped pushed him into a
slight edge over Arthur at the end of round 2. He kept his head down and
the scores stood at 74, 72, 56 and 50 at the close of round 3 with
Arthur back in the lead. Given Kevin’s talent for coming back from
significant deficits, it was anybody’s game. However, Davyd and Kevin
got into a temple battle over an 8 which neither would surrender and
neither would cap. It probably cost them the game. It also freed up
Brian to develop a corner of the board for himself. Arthur bid enough to
get behind Brian and force him to play last in the critical final
scoring round. This may have been a mistake. After considerable thought
on everyone’s part, machetes were taken to the remaining jungle (and all
fellow opponents’ backs) and the final score was revealed. Brian won
with 111 to Arthur’s 107. Davyd Field placed third with 87 and Kevin
scored 76. A great game was played by all 4 and much slapping of backs
took place after (with care being used to avoid cutting one’s hand on
the protruding knives). 

Brian Youse - 10:10pm Aug 6, 2002 PST (#4672 of 4679) 
Now Playtesting: ASL Journal #4 Scenarios and Company Commander 
(a beer-n-pretzels WWII card game)

As to games, I played in the Wilderness War tournament, won the first
round based on a stellar first hand where I had so many British
reinforcement cards I had to not use two of them. I got Wolfe and
B'street (can't recall his name) and drove them right up to Pittsburgh.
I can't recall getting as lucky as I did in this game. In my second
round, I am again the Brits by die-roll and am b**chslapped into the
next decade by my opponent. Crushed. Well, I understand the "Ambush"
card better now. 8^) 

That's the last of the "war" games I played all week. I played about
four games of Puerto Rico (must buy), a game of Starfarers of Catan
(nice toys, too long), one game of Armada (new Euro-Game on Pirates, it
SUCKS. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME!), about 8 hands of some zombie card game
Dolan foisted off on me. I agree with my friend Ken, it's a great game
if a hand only takes 10 minutes and you're pretty tired. Once you "know"
what the cards are, the humor goes away a bit. Got in a game of
Crimelords, a euro-type submission MMP has which is looking pretty good.
Quick, fast-playing, just have to hammer out some cards and
costs-of-cards issues. 

I worked the booth some (not nearly as much as Lu Ann, bless her) and
watched/played with the kids a lot (both finally got over their fears of
going under water, by the end of the week Kyler is a fish...). 

I'd nominate Lu Ann for some kind of award. She would get up, get the
kids ready and roll me out of bed in time for stuff, man the booth for
about 7 of the 8 hours it's open each day (WAY too long, btw), then we'd
go to dinner, then she'd take the kids all night while I gamed. 

I don't tell her enough, but she's the greatest and without a doubt made
my WBC one of the best i've ever had... 

GAMES I PICKED UP: 

Reds by GMT (Andy and I to play TDB at his hacienda some weekend)
Dresden and Killing Grounds by NES (man, those maps are awesome!) Armada
by Euro Games (anyone want a copy for $20?) 

Some smaller games for the kids. Card games (Mammamia and pig race(?)
plus some game with a bell in it Hally Galli or something?). 

Without a doubt, the winners of WBC were: 

Nappy's War. Plenty of them being played all weekend. Hammer of the
Scotts. A whole lot of these being played this weekend, looked to be a
brisk seller. Puerto Rico. If you couldn't get in a game of this you
were not trying. 

We moved a -lot- of Operation Michael's and even received some good
praise on the game from Mr. WWI Ted Racier. Thanks, Ted. 8^) 

That's about it. Can't wait for next year. How far away are Winter
Offensive (MMP's ASL tourny) and PrezCon (WBC-lite?) 

Brian