Gilbert Collins - Aug 7, 2011 7:41 pm (#36451 Total: 36677)  
Mr. Madison's War

My thanks to all of the people who came by the table to ask questions
and support the game. Enthusiasm was high and the comments were
favourable.

Thank you developer Dave Stiffler for the support. I will be giving more
reports on the games reception at WBC in the Mr. Madison's War folder
under the Napoleonics topic.


Rick Young - Aug 7, 2011 9:35 pm (#36452 Total: 36677)  
500 orders for FAB: Sicily so far, thank you for the support :) 
	 
Leaping Lemmings AAR

We had 50 players sign up for the inaugural running of the lemmings.

Mary Ellen Powers was the only player to win in two different heats, and
Jeff Pattison wins the eager-leaper award, having played in all four
heats (winning one). 

Twelve leapers advanced to the semi-finals, and there were some
interesting events transpiring there. 

Mary Ellen Powers edged out Forrest Speck 19 to 17 at her table, with
Jack Beckman (16) and Jeff Miller (11) bringing up the rear. This win
gave her an impressive 3-0 record going into the finals. Would her
dominance continue? 

RJ Gleaton, representing the Greenville Mafia with pride, took 1st place
at his table, edging out Tony Curtis 17 to 15, with Faith Wobbeking
(also scoring 15) and Meghan Friedman (12) bringing up the rear. RJ
walked up to the finals table with his 2-0 record, brimming with
confidence. 

Andy Lewis beat out Jeff Pattison 19 - 17, with Pam Gutermuth (15) and
David Metzger (12) bringing up the rear. Andy had the dubious
distinction of getting his 'Don' lemming killed twice, both times when
Don was staged at the cliff edge and ready to score massive points with
a stylish dive. Andy managed to win despite this dual setback, and
brought his 2-0 record to the finals table. 

The stage was set and the eagles sure must have been hungry, as RJ's
clan lost six of their ten members to the talons of doom. Mary Ellen
contributed to the eagle buffet with five of her own clan, and Andy also
lost three to the ever hungry raptors. 

There were lots of clever tactical moves, with RJ playing the 'Boo!'
card to scare one of Mary Ellen's lemmings into an eagle's zone. Mary
Ellen, for her part was snatching up pellets, and managed the rare feat
of buying a Special Action for three favors. Andy covered RJ on the
cliff edge, but RJ wasn't having any of that nonsense, and used his
'King of the Hill' card to shift his lemming to the dominant position
and take a beautiful four-point dive. 

In the end though, Andy prevailed, and the game finished with Andy
having 18 points, Mary Ellen with 12, and RJ with 11. It was a great
game and a fun way to end the tournament. Let's go for more glory and
honor in 2012, see you all back in Lancaster then


jeff mullet - Aug 7, 2011 9:37 pm (#36453 Total: 36677)  

I always have a great time at WBC, and this year was no exception. But I
probably laughed more, joked around more and generally had more fun-time
aside from the gaming this year, than in any other year I've gone.

Thanks to everyone I shared some laughs with this year. And as always,
thanks to the board, the GMs and the friends who make it such a good
time.


Mark 'Plaque Check' Mitchell - Aug 7, 2011 11:16 pm (#36454 Total: 36677)  
"Oh what dark times are these when passing ruffians can say 'Nee' to old women" 
	 
Yeah, Jeff's right. But the big question of the day is: How many times
did Nicole Reiff say "plaque check" to Bruce on the drive home?


Gregory Schmittgens - Aug 8, 2011 9:02 am (#36455 Total: 36677)  
IJADG! 	 

52 games played. 400+ buttons distributed. 20 pounds of jerky distributed.

Was it just me (I have a defective sense of smell), or was personal
hygeine (i.e. bathing) better this year?


Kevin Youells - Aug 8, 2011 10:13 am (#36457 Total: 36678)  
Avalon Hill player in Camp Hill, PA 	 

HWD report

History of the World Event Report

Competition from other events whittled away some of our players this
year, but History of the World continues to be a strong event drawing 34
for Tuesday and 27 for Wednesday's heats. As usual, we had a mix of old
and new players. The most notable of the new was Nathan Barhorst who was
taught the game at the demonstration and ended up placing third in the
tournament. 

As always, the heats and semi finals provided us with some entertaining
and exciting moments: Powered by Spain and an amazing 71 point turn with
Russia, Nick Pei scored a tournament-high 229 points, besting Dave
Casciano's 209, which would have won any other game. By contrast, the
lowest winning score was 190 from Greg Crowe. Greg Kulp managed to lose
his French Jihad on the first die roll. One unlucky player unleashed a
Pestilence, and killed nothing but three of his own units. Everybody
already knows that the Aryans are the worst empire in the first Epoch.
Dave Earls went to the extreme to prove this as he scored a total of one
point with them! In the same game “The Barbarians, drunk and full of
vigor, emerged out of the mountains of Tibet and won seven out of seven
battles. Rome came in and conquered back the territories only to have
the Barbarian's descendants come back and take seven of seven battles
again!” (Thanks to Dave Earls for the quote. Want your name in the
report? Write me something!) 

The format for this year took the eleven game winners and seven
runner-ups for an eighteen player semi-final. Fortunately, unlike last
year, we did not eliminate everybody who had been kind enough to bring
their copy of the game and had three boards available for use. First
round game winners were Dominic Duschesne, Nick Pei, Rob Brode, Greg
Crowe, Kevin Youells, Joe Collinson, Chris Bauch, Jeff Miller, Nathan
Barhorst, Harald Henning, and Christina Harley. 

The semi-final advanced three winners, Ray McCarthy Bergeron, Kevin
Youells, and Nathan Barhorst and the three closest runner-ups, past
champions Henry Dove, Greg Kulp, and Greg Crowe. 

This was the first year that HWD had qualified for six plaques, and as
our finalists arrived at the table Saturday afternoon there were many
jokes made about only competing for the first and sixth place plaques.
In Epoch 2, Greg Crowe's Carthaginians launched a sea attack against
Eastern Anatolia. Counting the defensive terrain bonus, the defender was
able to use four dice. Not surprisingly, the assault failed, and was
labeled a “Sand Attack”. 

Henry jumped out to a quick lead with Egypt in Epoch 1. Despite the Sand
Attack, Greg Crowe took the lead in Epoch 2 while Greg K, Nathan, and
Henry were tied three points back. Kevin should have taken a nice lead
after playing the Romans, Leader, and Mayan minor empire in Epoch 3, but
only came away with 26 points after a combination of poor dice and a
stubborn fort caused ten unit losses during the turn. Nathan took the
lead with the Han Dynasty and Civil Service to score 30. He followed
them up with the Byzantines to hold the lead after four Epochs with 80
points. Due to being in fourth place after the Romans, Kevin did not get
saddled with the Khmers, but had the opportunity to draw his own card
and kept the Arabs to score 37 while the Khmers were shipped off to
Henry. As a side note, poor Henry had every small empire passed to him
the entire game. His largest nation was the 9 strength Sassanids in
Epoch 3, and ended the game with a total strength of 44. Epoch 5 saw a
lead change as Kevin managed to grab a ten point lead after the Chola. 

The empire selection phase of Epoch 6 was pivotal as Kevin managed to
persuade another player that despite being in third place, Henry's board
position was too strong and that he deserved the Incas/Aztecs. Henry did
score 35 with them, so Kevin may have been right. Meanwhile, mighty
Spain went to Greg C, Portugal to Nathan, the Ming Dynasty and 36 points
to Greg K, the Turks to Ray, and the Timurids to Kevin. 

As Epoch 7 began, Ray drew the Manchu Dynasty and passed to Greg K. Greg
K pulled Germany and shipped it off to Kevin, Greg C passed Russia to
Nathan who then gave Henry the Netherlands to continue the small nation
theme. Henry had to give Britain to Ray, and Kevin drew the last card,
which was the deadly United States. But since he already had a card,
Greg C became the unfortunate victim. Scores for the Epoch were decent,
but not phenomenal as die rolling became an issue. Russia with Jihad and
Weaponry scored 40. The Manchu brought in 45 with Weaponry and Leader.
The Netherlands used the Japan minor empire and Reallocation to score a
strong 46 putting them 30 ahead of Kevin at the time. Britain, with both
a Leader and Population Explosion fared worse than usual, losing six
units while attempting, and failing, to take Portugal and only gained 38
points. The United States brought in 42 with Weaponry and Pestilence.
Finally it was time for Germany to move. With Reallocation and Naval
Power, the result was pretty much assured as they scored 43 to finish
off the tournament.

The final scores were Ray 144, Greg K 173, Greg C 175, Nathan 183, Henry
187, and Kevin 205. 

Many, many thanks to all of the players in this event during the last
six years. It's been a blast, but Craig Yope will be taking the GMing
reins for History next year. Please be gentle!


Mark Yoshikawa - Aug 8, 2011 10:43 am (#36458 Total: 36678)  
Softball season is over, play-off's this week. Football starts in four weeks 
>Was it just me (I have a defective sense of smell), or was personal
hygeine (i.e. bathing) better this year? Maybe it was because the air
conditioning was actually working this year..... And they took the doors
off the Conestoga rooms so that you were not in a hot box...... Maybe
talking to someone about the Gevenva Conventions worked after all!


Keith A. Hunsinger - Aug 8, 2011 11:04 am (#36460 Total: 36678)  
President of Shigeki Maruyama fan club. 
	 
Great year! Things have been tough in real life (details not important,
many of you have also experianced tough times). This year let me unwind
in ways, I didn't even know I needed to do. Thanks to all for a great
year!


Kevin McPartland - Aug 8, 2011 1:16 pm (#36462 Total: 36678)  
"Lots of nuance in this deceptively simple game." - Lewis Goldberg on 
Conquest of Paradise 	 

>And they took the doors off the Conestoga rooms so that you were not in a hot box... 

This was indeed a big improvement. Wish somebody thought if it years
ago. You'd have thought that this would have created a noise problem- in
both the Conestoga rooms and in Lampeter- but it didn't seem to create
any increase in noise.

Kevin


Justin Rice - Aug 8, 2011 1:40 pm (#36463 Total: 36678)  
Ask me about "Impeach the President" 	
 
Yeah, the temp in Conestoga was much better this year, and I also
noticed that Lampeter smelled better.


Bruce Reiff - Aug 8, 2011 2:00 pm (#36464 Total: 36678)  
"(Mike) Brown's only good personnel move was being Paul Brown's Son. 
Otherwise Mike would probably be an assistant manager at Skyline 
Chili and telling the boss to install pay toilets." 
David Whitley AOL Columnist 7-27-11 	 

Another Great Year

I've never seen Don so happy, especially with the beatdown he took in
Football Strategy, AGAIN, this year. A dominate 24-17 performance.
Debbie has a picture of the Can of Whoop Ass I brought to open on Don (I
did in the 4th quarter when a late first down inside Don's 20 sealed the
game). 

Like Jeff, I had a great time despite my patheticness in the
tournaments. Hence Don's actual smile on Sunday morning (and Saturday
night). 

The kid? Yeah, she's the Slapshot champ. And when she came back to the
room at 2:30am she made sure that I heard about it!

barcaboy4@aol.com - Aug 8, 2011 3:26 pm (#36467 Total: 36678)  
aka. Mike Gentile 
	 
As usual WBC week was AWESOME!

Small but not insignificant improvements:

Conestoga doors open

Lancaster Open Gaming all week

Open gaming colored kiosks

Average temperature (inside) almost always somewhere between comfortable
and cool (never hot, only cold to some folks)


Rob 'One Stroke Above Par' Seulowitz - Aug 8, 2011 3:31 pm (#36468 Total: 36678)  
he first rule of Tautology Club is the first rule of Tautology Club 
	 
Breaking radio silence to post a quick ARR

Many thanks to all of you who asked after me and the family. Some
apparently mistook my long absence from CSW as indicative of unhappy
events - in fact, we are all well but I have an extended work-day these
days and no access to the Forum away from home. 

Wonderful to see so many dear friends and frenemies again. 

This year I spent more time than usual with the kids so my game-time was
limited, but every moment was golden. 

Didn't play many new games but I played a bunch of older games that were
new for me, including Merchant of Venus (liked it but it needs more
combat!) and Bohnanza (silly but fast). 

this year I finally got the SPI classic Spies on the table - I've been
lugging it with me for 9 years and this time it paid off. We messed up
the rules a tad, but we figured out how it works and had a good time.
There are some really great ideas in it and definitely merits more play
(perhaps it needs just a few tiny tweaks here and there). 

I had the ultimate Kremlin experience of Purging a healthy, young Party
Chief on an unmodified 19 to stop an instant win and followed that up
with another 6 straight purges (setting the new long distance
marksmanship record for Commissars: 9 inches) before being relegated to
Political Theorist for the final turns. If only Pete "Baby Crusher"
Stein had been on the receiving end I would have achieved Satori. 

I played a truly wacky game of Here I Sit - there were three Newbies at
the table, including the Pope. Gareth W (a very experienced player) as
the Hapsburgs worked a deal that he would declare a phony war on Venice,
the Pope would intercede to pick up the key and then lend the Hapsburgs
the three fleets on the next turn. Well, "BattlePope" (as Gareth later
tagged him), took him up on it, then stomped on Naples with my Ottoman
anti-Mercenary card help and then played "Master of Italy"! He came
within a Red Rosary Bead of the Domination win on the first turn, which
would have been hilarious. 

Most of my time was spent in open gaming, where I had my best-ever game
of I'm the Boss (finished 4th - w00t!). 

Lastly, grats to long-time Successors runner-up Craig "Coach" Melton,
who finally took the prize this year. Craig's kids are, by the way,
often available for babysitting during the Con - they are charming,
responsible and extremely reasonably priced. 

As for the inevitable debate to come on on the continuing decline in the
quality of the facilities, here's a picture my wife took that captures
the essence of the fine hotel which hosts the best Boardgaming
Convention in the Universe:


Rob 'One Stroke Above Par' Seulowitz - Aug 8, 2011 3:48 pm (#36469 Total: 36678)  
The first rule of Tautology Club is the first rule of Tautology Club 	 

Help me out here 

During a very very serious game of Royal Turf, one player found himself
backing a horse all alone (the always enticing Albino), and that horse
had naturally fallen into last place. 

On Mike Gentile's turn, he rolled a result that could catapult the
lagging Pale pony back into the race. 

Mike was offered a dollar if he moved Albino rather than advance one of
his own horses. 

In a magnanimous gesture unprecedented in WBC history, Mike accepted the
offer, and duly move said horse (upon receiving the cold hard cash, of
course). 

I'm sure you will all join me in seeking to ensure that Mike recieves
official recognition for this selfless act of Good Sportsmanship. 

(When Mike later won that game, he announced his score as "1700 pounds
and 1 dollar.")


Kevin Youells - Aug 8, 2011 3:49 pm (#36470 Total: 36678)  
Avalon Hill player in Camp Hill, PA 
	 
Advanced Civilization AAR

Advanced Civilization Event Report

Attendance dipped slightly, down to thirty this year, possibly due to the combination of changing the event back to Class A, and the elimination of the Tuesday night heat. Next year, ACV will return to Class B and run a Tuesday demo as part of the quest for new players.

Before launching into the full event report, here are the nation
statistics: 

Nation Wins Average Finishing Position 

Assyria 2 2.67 Illyria 2 3.80 Thrace 0 4.00 Crete 0 4.16 Africa 0 4.33
Babylon 0 4.67 Egypt 1 4.83 Iberia 1 5.50 

The two preliminary heats consisted of five total games. The winners
were Zvi Moshowitz (Iberia), Kevin Youells (Two wins, Illyria and
Assyria), Sean Bryan (Assyria), and Nathan Barhorst (Egypt). The final
field of eight was rounded out by Jennifer Visocnik, Harald Henning,
Christina Harley, and Jon Anderson. Positions were chosen by random draw
with trading allowed. Everybody seemed happy with their selection except
for Kevin who was anxiously trying to pawn Illyria off on some other
poor sucker contender, but to no avail. The choices were Africa/Zvi,
Iberia/Nathan, Illyria/Kevin, Thrace/Sean, Jon/Crete, Assyria/Jenn,
Babylon/Harald, and Egypt/Christina. 

There was the general discussion of borders at the beginning of the
game, and it was apparent that Assyria was going to be in trouble early.
Her normal territory was looked at hungrily by both Babylon and Crete,
and they combined to limit her growth from the Stone Age on. Another
dispute was between Africa and Egypt over the territories near Cyrene.
The rulers of Illyria and Iberia probably didn't make matters any better
by encouraging Africa's claims, but they sure had fun doing it. 

As the game progressed, the calamities became a major factor. Africa was
the primary victim of thirteen calamities, including a nasty Civil
War/Epidemic combination on turn 9. Zvi lost twenty units to Crete, and
did not have Medicine at the time. Insult was added to injury the next
turn when he caught another round of the flu bug and was reduced to zero
cities. To his credit, he never gave up trying to win the game despite
going backwards on the AST. Three turns later, it was Crete's turn as he
was stuck with both Famine and Iconoclasm & Heresy in addition to being
chosen for the full secondary effects of Epidemic by Thrace. This
combined to drop Crete to zero cities. 

Crete had chosen to play a highly aggressive game, and one of his
strategies was to take full advantage of any player having no units in
stock and sacking the undefended city. He did this to Egypt on turn 13,
then both Crete and Illyria did it on turn 14, knowing that the Egyptian
queen was holding several Spice cards. Nathan then uttered the quote of
the tournament when he leaned back in his chair and announced “I'm
looking for Spice.” 

Turn 14 was also brutal for Assyria as she had Civil War and Barbarians.
She was only able to rebuild to four cities the next turn as she had to
clear her territory of both Barbarians and Cretans. 

By this time, Illyria had used Mining to catch up to the pack and was
becoming a force in the game. Crete and Thrace had previously purchased
Military, and Crete had launched multiple attacks into Illyria. Kevin
chose to respond by purchasing Monotheism instead of Military for
defense. The powerful effects of this buy helped push the Illyrians to
victory as he used Monotheism as a diplomatic tool, and Babylon had to
rearrange his entire purchase for the turn to buy Theology to avoid
becoming the target for Monotheism. Babylon had been working his way to
the Black Sea to attack Thrace, but Sean chose to eliminate the
Babylonian coastal presence so Harald could not launch any attacks. This
had the unintended consequence of helping Kevin as he cut individual
deals to give immunity from Monotheism to any player who did not attack
him. In the end, Kevin was able to hold on for a slim victory over
Harald.

The final scores were: Kevin/Illyria 4406, Harald/Babylon 4313,
Sean/Thrace 4090, Christina/Egypt 4070, Nathan/Iberia 3800, Zvi/Africa
3328, Jon/Crete 3288, Jenn/Assyria 3033. 

Many thanks to all who joined us to play! Let's do it again next year.

For those who are interested, the BPA also provides an online ACV
tournament. Check us out at http://bpa-civ.rol-play.com/


Gilbert Collins - Aug 8, 2011 4:46 pm (#36471 Total: 36678)  
Mr. Madison's War at WBC

This year was a terrific Con. I loved last years, but this one was even
better. I noticed a lot of 'prototype' games this year. 

My thanks to the people who came by and observed "Mr. Madison's War -
That Incredible War of 1812" which I was show casing in Lampeter. 

I was honoured to have Jerry Shiles and Kevin McPartland play my game.
These guys were a real joy to watch. Kevin is the designer of "Conquest
of Paradise". Kevin and Jerry have their own game "Amateurs to Arms" in
the works and the publisher will be Clash of Arms. 

Mr. Madison's War is on GMT's P-500 list and hopefully will reach 500
very soon. 

Photo below of Jerry (left) and Kevin playing 'Mr. Madison'. That's my
son Matt on the right. (Creator of the color version of the map) 

Great Con and agree, opening up the side rooms in Lampeter was a good
idea.


David desJardins - Aug 8, 2011 8:16 pm (#36474 Total: 36678)  
Burlingame CA 
	 
I got to play Galaxy Trucker plus expansions with a friend and a pick up
player, on Sunday after most people had left. Another friend of mine
might run this as an event next year.


Dave Long - Aug 8, 2011 9:17 pm (#36475 Total: 36678)  
B17 - Debbie Does Dusseldorf 	
 
Put up a Geeklist on my WBC week.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/70735/daves-wbc-adventure


Keith H Levy - Aug 8, 2011 10:08 pm (#36476 Total: 36678)  
ave Fun, Learn, Share, Grow, Play 
	 
WBC Thank You

I had a Fantastic Week. Spending a week with hundreds of friends and our
WBC family is a incredible experience. 

I would like to thank Don for his passion, dedication and continued and
unwavering support of our wonderful Hobby. 

I would like to thank Paul Bean and Anthony Raimo, for thier assistance
with running the Open Gaming Theatre during the week. Things went so
sooothly that open gaming seem to run itself. Thanks to Don, the
Guttermuth family and Rick Bynaker for assistance with Library break
down and inventory. I thank the others (whose names I do not recall )
that helped with Library set up and moving the Juniors games. 

With the consisitant increase in WBC attendance, we will hopefully be
able to find some Open Gaming overflow space for next year. 

Thanks to everyone for a great WBC!!


Keith H Levy - Aug 8, 2011 10:40 pm (#36477 Total: 36678)  
Have Fun, Learn, Share, Grow, Play 
	 
Wind Up Films WBC Documentary

Sneek Peek trailer on Facebook.

See if you can spot anyone you know.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wind-Up-Films/160429884011245


Joel A Tamburo - Aug 8, 2011 10:51 pm (#36478 Total: 36678)  
Learning each day how much I don't know. 
	 
Yep. the words "Lancaster Host" and "outgrow" are starting to be heard
in combination.


John Weber - Aug 8, 2011 11:02 pm (#36479 Total: 36678)  
Geek List Posted, Preliminary AAR Report for Puerto Rico

Just posted a Geek List on a very fun week at this year's WBC. 
Direct link here:

http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/70732/2011-wbc-week

As far as the Puerto Rico tournament was concerned, we had a field of
140 -- while this may seem like alot, it's actually our second lowest
attendance in its 10-year history, ten less than last year. Nonetheless,
due to some loyal players who attended multiple heats, we had at least
17 tables in each of the three heats. 

To celebrate Puerto Rico's 10th year at WBC, I presented some special
prizes to those players who had supported the event in each year. These
special prizes, consisting of engraved marble slabs featuring part of
the game art, went to Mike Backstrom, Barbara Flaxington, John Jacoby,
Cheryl Mallon, David Platnick, Bob Stribula and Kevin Walsh. I had
prepared an 8th one for another player who did not show, keeping it for
myself as I also qualified. 

This year's winner was the guy who has been the most consistent
performer throughout the history of the event, Dave Platnick. Dave, who
had finished runner-up three years in a row from 2004 thru 2006, had an
impeccable record of making the elimination rounds in all but one year,
and reaching the semis or better in eight of 10 years. This year he went
undefeated through the entire tournament. 

Second was first-time WBC attendee Edward Fear, who had shown some
prowess last fall by winning two tourneys at EuroQuest -- but this was
his first demonstrated success at Puerto Rico. Ed impressed when he won
games in all three heats and then survived a tough semifinal battle that
included the defending Champ. For the first time at WBC, the special
colonist tiebreaker came into play as Ed nosed out Sceadeau D'Tela, 18
colonists to 17, after both were tied on VPs and the doubloons/goods
tiebreaker. Rounding out the final table was Jason Ley, a player whom I
had taught the game back in 2002 when Puerto Rico made its debut as a
coached event. 

Rounding out the top six were Ken Horan, who stuck around when his
semifinal game finished, despite the fact he lost by 7.5 points in
Dave's semifinal game and seriously doubted that would be one of the two
best seconds. However, when the other results came in, it was the
closest second so Ken took home the fifth place plaque, with Eric
Freeman taking the coveted sand plaque for sixth place despite being on
the short end of a 10-point defeat to Ed Fear in their semifinal game. 

Many thanks to assistant GMs Barb, Malinda and Dave, also to defending
Champ Luke Koleszar who helped out a bit with the move record for the
final, and also offering some strategy tips to beginners at the demo. 


Ewan - Aug 8, 2011 11:31 pm (#36480 Total: 36678)  

Lots to say thanks for this year; certainly top of the list is a
thankyou to all of those who treated my 8 year-old, Aidan, with kindness
and courtesy - he is begging to be allowed to come for more than 1 day
next year (and I expect that will be a successful act of supplication).
When he got to the point of running off to the showroom and *teaching* a
game to others, I knew things were fine! 

The usual, but important, thanks to Don, Kaarin and others for the work
behind the scenes; and to Debbie for indulging my request that the beer
I had just received from my NZ friend Llew Bardecki receive its own
photo (Yeastie Boys, "Rex Attitude.") 

Sort-of thanks to the schedule random die rolls that this year left a
huge gap in my schedule on Saturday afternoon: that turned into the
ability to play in heats of Lost Cities and Titan the Arena... both of
which I managed to win, as well as their subsequent rounds - in the case
of Lost Cities, winning 4-of-5 SE rounds only to fall at the final
hurdle when the cards finally deserted me. The final game of the final
match was ludicrous: a starting hand of 10-9 in each of red, yellow,
blue and green, that I showed to Ivan in amused despair. Of course,
having picked the blue 9 to play... my next *seven* draws were blue
handshake, handshake, 4, 7, 5 and 6; I think I ended up scoring -2 or
something and losing by a hundred or so . Thanks along the way to Thomas
Melton, whose enjoyment at gaining his first plaque by finishing ahead
of me in TtA more than made up for having lost. Saturday turned from an
easy day, with some email and work, to a non-stop 10-hour brain-hurting
slog. Fabulous! [In fact it was one of the better weeks, winning-wise:
lost the semi of Atlantic Storm to Andy Gardner on a tie-break, and had
to skip the semis of MOV, ING and RRY - that last one especially hurt
after the fun of last year's final, and I had to skip out on both Brit
and the GSR semi to even get a heat game of RRY in** - which *all*
conflicted with Britannia's semi and final. Yeah, I know, no sympathy.
But maybe more semis held before Saturday at 9 a.m., please?] 

{**Which also had the bonus of a follow-up game of Eleminis, complete
with My Little Pony (™) voices and declamations of trash. You had to be
there; thanks to Josh Githens, Alysson Field, Rebecca Hebner and the
rest for letting me join the, ah, fun. Rebecca also contributed to my
TtA experience; she wandered by the final table and asked "Ewan, don't
you feel *old*?" Well, gee, thanks. Yes, I was older than any two other
players combined (and I think I must be at least three times Thomas'
age) but apparently old age and treachery still get a vote.. while I am
here, I did enjoy the formal outfits for the Werewolf prom, too.} 

Major thanks to all of the GMs - especially Jim Jordan and Vince Meconi,
both of whom consistently go above-and-beyond - and to Laurie and Joanna
in the juniors' room, which really is a thing of wonder. And to Greg &
Micah Hultgren, who not only flew in from CA but joined (with Jim &
Randy Schilb) to add yet another WBC tradition, of one evening being
taken for conversation, wine, and excellent food (at John J Jeffries,
should anyone be looking for a fine dining spot in Lancaster -
recommended). Getting to play the Brit final with both Micah and Jim at
the close of the week was gravy. 

Just a splendid week all-around. Thanks, all.


Joshua Gottesman - Aug 9, 2011 9:41 am (#36482 Total: 36678)  
R.I.P., Jerome Gottesman 06/20/1929 - 10/18/2009 	 

2 new gamers

I am creating a new generation of gamers within my family. My brother's
16 year old nephew came up for Saturday-Sunday and my sister's 14 year
old nephew came up for 1/2 of Friday - Sunday. Still, even with the
limited exposure, they both say they had a great time and how they want
to come back next year. They also think my brother's other son (also 14,
he was away at camp) should come next year. My sister's son wants to go
to Euro Quest in November, which has moved to a location about 2-3 miles
from where he lives. 

They mostly played simple stuff, Settlers or Catan and Ticket to Ride,
and mostly open gamed with themselves (they want to change that next
year) although they did get into one game of Magic with others. The
younger one picked up Ticket to Ride Europe and I gave him a Gettysburg
game (he's been there 3 times and really likes it). He also stopped in
on the Rail Baron tournament where he said the players were very excited
to see him because there weren't many younger people playing the game.
The older one is a budding wargamer. He's smart as a whip and very much
into politics and history. I gave him a copy of 1960: The Making of the
President which he really wants to play, and of his own volition he
picked up Jena 20 from VPG and Deathride: Mars-La Tour from ATO. He's
very into the German Unification period of history. 

It was great for me to get some bonding time with the boys, too. With
them on the east coast and me in Las Vegas, I don't get to see them a
lot. And I think gaming is a great way to bring families closer
together. 


Grant LaDue - Aug 9, 2011 2:03 pm (#36484 Total: 36678)  
ou can't have eggs, bacon, spam, and sausage without the spam. 	
 
We aren't within a mile of outgrowing the Host. Historicon was tapping
out at 3000 people before they seriously thought about moving (and an
ugly thing *that* has been!).


Mr. Winslow - Aug 9, 2011 2:14 pm (#36485 Total: 36678)  
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of a
rriving in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid 
in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly 
proclaiming, "Wow, what a ride!" 	 

>We aren't within a mile of outgrowing the Host. 

I don't think the problem is "outgrowing," rather that the Host gets
dumpier and dumpier and seems unable/unwilling to fix the problems. 

Yes, the Conestoga rooms were better, but they weren't great (still
stuffy). There were times (Labyrinth tourney, for instance) when
Lampeter began warming up -- come on, better to be too cold on a 90F day
than too warm, as one can always throw on a sweatshirt. The little rooms
off Rio Grande's area (Strasbourg and Limerock are the ones I was in)
were warm and stuffy. I left a demo in "Terrace" as 3 guys around the
game were dripping sweat onto the board. No thanks... 

My room was very humid -- like the A/C unit was pumping in HUMID cool
air. Not comfortable, and many items (like pillowcases) felt a little
damp. Also, there was a constant drip over the toilet, and the Host's
answer was to put my towels next to the sink (so they wouldn't get wet),
not to fix the drip. I reported the A/C and drip problem 4 different
times, but nothing was done (expect to move the new towels, LOL!). 

And, just to point out how much the Host really doesn't care, the door
keys had a Christmas theme on them. WTF?!?! One would think they could
afford generic room keys and not have to reuse their holiday ones.
Sheesh... 

Now, I don't need luxury when I'm at WBC, but I would expect that basics
-- like working A/C in the summer, rooms that don't drip water, and
attention to problems -- get taken care of for $104/night. 

I'm at the point of giving them one last chance (maybe, I do plan to
look around at other "non-Host" options for 2012), but, must say, that
as one who has defended them in the past -- "We're just there to play
games" -- I'm pretty much out of patience with how unprepared and
unresponsive they are to our needs. 


Grant LaDue - Aug 9, 2011 2:22 pm (#36486 Total: 36678)  
ou can't have eggs, bacon, spam, and sausage without the spam.

Ah well, that's a much different argument, and one I can't entirely
disagree with. The bar was much better this year (except for Monday).
Often I found the Lampeter too cold, but that's *vastly* better than the
alternative. Still, the place is beat up. I don't know how the
Continental is, and personally I find staying down the street just as
convenient and cheaper. 

The real problem with moving is that (as HMGS found out), venues of that
size in the right areas are usually *much* more expensive.


Ewan - Aug 9, 2011 2:37 pm (#36487 Total: 36678)  

Given that we're locked into the Host through 2015, all mostly
irrelevant but it was pretty quick to pick up this particular topic
after WBC ended, this year.. 

..after the Host sold out in a day, we moved two doors down to the
Country Inn this year; we'll be back there next year, as it was (i)
cheaper, (ii) cleaner and (iii) functional (working a/c, spacious,
comfortable beds). But the gaming space did, agreed, seem to be better
climate-controlled this year; and nothing was scheduled in Host A or B
for me, a bonus!


Mr. Winslow - Aug 9, 2011 2:42 pm (#36488 Total: 36678)  
ife should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of a
rriving in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in 
broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, 
"Wow, what a ride!" 	 

>Given that we're locked into the Host through 2015, all mostly irrelevant 

I would imagine there are certain minimum standards that must be kept to
keep the contract valid. One would believe that acceptable climate
control during a Lancaster summer would be one of them. Yes, I worked in
facilities' management many moons ago...

>But the gaing space did, agreed, seem to be better climate-controlled 
this year 

Better in some ways, just as bad (or worse) in others.


Martin Sample - Aug 9, 2011 2:54 pm (#36489 Total: 36678)  
Sometimes I wish we could just hit 'em over the head, rob 'em, and throw their 
bodies in the creek. 	 

I blame CABS for the leaks in the Host roof and the shitty WiFi coverage.


Dan Dolan - Aug 9, 2011 3:32 pm (#36497 Total: 36678)  
Developing: LAWN WARS: The game of competitive lawnmowing 
	 
The Host is a 50's hotel. It kinda makes me think this is how hobbits
would build a hotel. It feels like a hobbit warren. 

I think it is a pretty decent place. I had a problem with my AC unit and
went to the front desk and a while later a man came and fixed it. 

As for dampness. I take it nobody ever left the confines of the hotel to
realize it was incredibly hot and muggy outside. 

You guys gotta at least walk to the pool once during the week to see
what the outside world is like during your absence. 

Another great week in the books and only what...355 days till next year?


Justin Rice - Aug 9, 2011 3:33 pm (#36498 Total: 36678)  
Ask me about "Impeach the President" 
	 
You guys clearly spend too much time in your hotel rooms.


Joshua Gottesman - Aug 9, 2011 3:36 pm (#36499 Total: 36678)  
R.I.P., Jerome Gottesman 06/20/1929 - 10/18/2009
 	 
I expect basic cleanliness for whatever I pay. There were 3 of us in our
room. Not once did the cleaning staff leave 3 washcloths, and 1 day they
left washcloths with holes in them. We were out of shampoo (the hotel
brand) on one day. I'm not expecting 5 stars, and more than 1 would be
nice.


Grant LaDue - Aug 9, 2011 3:36 pm (#36500 Total: 36678)  
You can't have eggs, bacon, spam, and sausage without the spam.
 	 
My only real complaint is that it was only two days long in apparent i
nternal time. More!


Dan Dolan - Aug 9, 2011 3:47 pm (#36501 Total: 36678)  
eveloping: LAWN WARS: The game of competitive lawnmowing 
	 
The place had a shower a bed and a place to store my games.

Anything more is a bonus.

I'm not the hotel connessieur <sp> but I don't go there for top quality
rooms. I go to the Host for top quality gaming. And that gaming is 5
stars for me.


Peter Stein - Aug 9, 2011 3:57 pm (#36502 Total: 36678)  
WBC- the best nine days of losing anywhere!!!
 	 
Actually I thnk the weather as a whole was crappy. Friday i went out to
my car and it was raining and then thought that wasn't the first time I
had done that in the rain. Though it's not like I spent much time
looking out the window so maybe it was just the black cloud hovering
over me when I was outside.


Joel A Tamburo - Aug 9, 2011 4:29 pm (#36504 Total: 36678)  
Learning each day how much I don't know.
 	 
Actually the weather was pretty mild after Monday - the clouds rolled in
and the heat largely abated. 

As to the Host, the personnel aspects were better. As was already said
the bar was better staffed as was the breakfast area in the mornings.
The physical building problems are per the manager (who I got to spend
time with in the lounge - very nice lady) a capitalization issue right
now. The slow economy is leaving them short funds for improvements and
the like (to me however having enough linen is not a capital improvement
which I pointed out). 

And yes the words "host" and "outgrow" are starting to get said
together. Remember the only way Historicon (spit) was able to stay there
up to 3000 was they could use the Expo Center and we cannot (it being
open air and boardgames being paper, well you know). We're hitting new
highs each year in attendance and this year were probably in the
1600-1700 range. We're already consistently using up the Host meeting
space (even the horrid Host A and B ). So an outgrow scenario around the
time our contract is up is not unfeasible.


Grant LaDue - Aug 9, 2011 4:41 pm (#36505 Total: 36678)  
You can't have eggs, bacon, spam, and sausage without the spam. 
	 
Four years from now? Sure. I'm not sure I agree about the Tennis Barn
though. I don't recall it being swelteringly hot in the dealers area at
Historicon, and it was packed. Things could go in there.


Joel A Tamburo - Aug 9, 2011 4:52 pm (#36506 Total: 36678)  
Learning each day how much I don't know. 
	 
Grant, the problem is humidity. Nothing made of paper can be in there
because it will deteriorate. Thus we cannot put tournaments in there and
cannot put the vendors in there either. 

Really if the Host wants a good long term capital project it would be to
fully enclose the Expo center, provide it with HVAC units and also an
enclosed walkway going back to the main buildings.


Peter Stein - Aug 9, 2011 4:55 pm (#36507 Total: 36678)  
WBC- the best nine days of losing anywhere!!! 	 

First I've ever heard the Expo Center wasn't an option. What you put
into it, well I suspect Don will be along to explain that. 

One good thing I can say about the Host- it's nice seeing soem of the
same help year after year. I recognized one or two of the waitresses
from Year One and a couple of others. 

Nice improvement at the bar. Not perfect, but better. But the WiFi-
yeeesh. . . .


Mark 'Plaque Check' Mitchell - Aug 9, 2011 5:20 pm (#36508 Total: 36678)  
"Oh what dark times are these when passing ruffians can say 'Nee' to old women" 	 

>And what was with the water stations downstairs? There used to be one
in Ballroom B, Marietta and Paradise 

There was a water station outside of Marietta on Saturday. Don't know
about the rest of the week. And in the small rooms across the hall from
Marietta there were pitchers of ice water and cups on the counters.


Dan Dolan - Aug 9, 2011 5:24 pm (#36509 Total: 36678)  
Developing: LAWN WARS: The game of competitive lawnmowing 	 

We could always bring back the tent.


Joshua Githens - Aug 9, 2011 6:01 pm (#36510 Total: 36678)  

Wi-Fi

I suppose that the Wi-Fi at your house and/or office would work
perfectly fine with hundreds if not a thousand smartphones, computers,
iPads, etc trying to access it around the clock. 

As for the roof, we in Greenville can neither confirm nor deny our part
in that matter.


Richard Irving - Aug 9, 2011 6:19 pm (#36511 Total: 36678)  

Host Problems

It seems like every year both the ice machines in the 200-400 wing were not dispensing ice. One seemed to work but had a large block of ice blocking the chute. The other one didn't seemed to be working at all. What's more EVERY year those two machines never work. At least the ones on the 500 and 000 wings worked--and since my room was at the extreme end of 400 wing, they weren't too hard to reach or on the way to Paradise Terrace/Ballroom area.

I didn't have a problem with the temperature or humidity. Paradise
Terrace gets hot when the sun streams in the afternoon--but this year my
demo was on an overcast day. 

The wifi was spotty but strangely, sometimes my roommates Powerbook or
Ipad would connect while Windows laptop would not. I blame Bill Gates
for that. But I was mostly using it to keep up on the Consimworld WBC
forum, which was eerily quiet last week. 

There was a ceiling tile that fell out one night in the 400 wing. It was
replaced by the next morning. 

BTW, the website says the Expo Center has a "newly installed HVAC system
and lighting". http://www.lancasterhost.com/default.aspx?pg=group_events
It is still off the beaten path. 


Bruce Monnin - Aug 9, 2011 6:45 pm (#36512 Total: 36678)  
Editor of MMP's Special Ops Magazine 	 

I found a way to get plenty of wash cloths in my room. I tipped the staff.


Bruce Reiff - Aug 9, 2011 7:08 pm (#36513 Total: 36678)  
"(Mike) Brown's only good personnel move was being Paul Brown's Son. 
Otherwise Mike would probably be an assistant manager at Skyline Chili 
and telling the boss to install pay toilets." David Whitley AOL Columnist 7-27-11 	 

>I found a way to get plenty of wash cloths in my room. I tipped the staff. 

Yep, worked in our room too.


Randy Heller - Aug 9, 2011 8:06 pm (#36516 Total: 36678)  
MACHETE DON'T TEXT! 
	 
I am so friggin grateful for a functioning shower head this year.

And to the parents of the teenagers in short shorts lying all over each
other on the hallway sofas into late hours of the night and early
morning...

Where were you?

One teenage tailhook experience and that's the end of the WBC.


Dave Stiffler - Aug 9, 2011 8:14 pm (#36517 Total: 36678)  
Developer for Mr. Madison's War or "That Incredible War of 1812"
 	 
I'd like to publicly thank Karen for her act of kindness on Monday. I
showed up for the Manoeuver tournament with severe pain in my left knee,
to the point I could only walk with the help of my walking stick I was
using as an impromptu cane. 

Karen disappeared for a while and came back to the tournament area with
a small foot stool that I think she actually brought from her own room,
and I was able to elevate my leg and get some relief. I toted that stool
from spot to spot over the course of four games. A few hours later the
pain and swelling put me in the ER with a final diagnosis of gout in the
knee. 

Thanks Karen, for going the extra mile when you could have simply said
"hope you feel better" and walk away - it was greatly appreciated! 

Perhaps I have a new t-shirt for next year "I went to WBC and all I got
was this lousy gout"

VR/Dave


Jeromey Martin - Aug 9, 2011 8:25 pm (#36518 Total: 36678)  
He who disdains the fall in infant mortality and the gradual disappearance 
of famines and plagues may cast the first stone upon the materialism of 
the economists. --Ludwig von Mises. 	 

>And to the parents of the teenagers in short shorts lying all over each
other on the hallway sofas into late hours of the night and early
morning... 

I fail to see the problem. Are parents not supposed to let their
children stay up late while on vacation? Where's the parental manual
posted online?


Andrew Maly - Aug 9, 2011 10:10 pm (#36521 Total: 36678)  
my stomach was making the rumblies... that only hands would satisfy
 	 
Ice Machines - When an entire hotel tries to fill ice chests, they tend
not to function properly. 

The Tent - I saw three unregistered guests using the tent to play games.
Schmittgens provided them with "Stickin' it to the Man!" buttons. 

Dave, do you mean Kaarin? Not surprising at all. 

I have no clue on how many people were there, but I was happy to see a
lot of people who I've never seen before. Means we're growing.


Andrew Maly - Aug 9, 2011 10:11 pm (#36522 Total: 36678)  
my stomach was making the rumblies... that only hands would satisfy 	 
And Then the Wheels Fell Off


A recap of the 2011 WBC “Automobile” Tournament 

“Hey, kids! Let’s run a car company! All the cool kids are doing it. How
hard can it be? Maly won it last year.” And after being soundly thrashed
in the first heat, Mr. Gentile was not heard from again… At least Greg
Schmittgens had the courtesy to hang around and provide buttons and good
cheer. 

Automobile saw a 33% increase in attendance this year, bringing in a
strong blend of faces from last year along with an able group of
newcomers. A large overall number of entrants played in multiple heats.
Maybe it was the 3rd heat. Maybe it was the general availability of the
game over last year. Or maybe it’s because the game is a quality design.
Whatever, the reason, it’s a good sign for the industry. 

One might think that a game that gives each player only 12 actions, and
at least 1/3 of them are pre-determined (produce cars) would result in
single strategy or similar results among games. Hardly. The 16 games
played in the heats featured 12 five-player games and 4 four-player
games. The non-stats junkies in the crowd can skip a few paragraphs at
this point. 

The statistics provided for characters are for the five player games
only. One game did not report character selection nor most advanced
model, and one game forgot to include character selection for the 4th
turn, so those numbers weren’t included in the calculations. 

The average winning score in the preliminary heats was $4,360. The high
winning score was $5,080 by Matt Calkins, who also managed to turn in
the 2nd highest winning score in the tournament, $4,910, followed
closely by Elaine Pearson’s $4,900 victory. The lowest winning score was
$3,730, turned in by last year’s finalist, John Weber. But a win is a
win. The largest margin of victory was posted by Bill “The Cat” Zurn,
$1,420; and the average margin of victory in the heats was $330.
However, if you take out the dominating performances of The Cat, Matt
($890), and Paul Brink ($840), that leaves an average margin of victory
of $165, or approximately the profit off selling two mid-size vehicles. 

The most advanced model built was the Chevrolet Six (occurred in two
games) and the “least” advanced model built in the preliminary rounds
was the Hupmobile R. (Sorry, Mayfair fans, you’re going to have to track
down a copy of the Treefrog board). 

To this GM, the statistics on character selection were a bit surprising.
In a five-player game, there will be 20 character selections over the
course of the game. For the games with full recording, the average
selection of each character was: Ford – 3.5 times per game, Kettering -
3.5 times per game, Sloan – 2.4 times per game, Howard – 3.9 times per
game, Durant – 3.4 times per game, and Chrysler 3.3 times per game. Only
two characters were selected a single time during any preliminary game,
and this occurred to Ford once and Sloan once. Amongst five-player game
winners, they selected: Ford – 0.7 times per game, Kettering – 0.5 times
per game, Sloan – 0.7 times per game, Howard – 0.8 times per game,
Durant 0.5 times per game, and Chrysler – 0.8 times per game. Six fully
recorded games featured winners who selected the same character multiple
times. Those selections included Ford (1), Kettering (1), Sloan (1),
Howard (2), Durant (0), Chrysler (2). The astute will notice that totals
seven, and that is because Matt managed to pull a double-double in one
of his victories. 

Non-statistics junkies, please resume reading here. 

Yes, Matt Calkins managed to win his game in all three heats. Other heat
winners in the not already mentioned included Dave Tianen, Justin
Morgan, Dvd Avins, Lyman Moquin, Rod Spade, Chris Gnech, John Corrado,
Eric Cheatham, and that guy that Mike Gentile tried to make fun of. 

Thursday morning arrived bright and early for 13 of the 14 finalists.
Greg Schmittgens and Tom Bissa knew they would round out the field of 16
courtesy of Matt, but one eligible finalist was torn between wheels and
rails, and chose rails. The beneficiary of his decision was Jeremy
Oppenheim. 

The four best performances were split between the four semi-final
tables. The other semi-finalists were seated randomly. This wound up
matching Matt against last year’s champion in the semis. And then the
wheels fell off. Matt had indicated earlier that he hoped he hadn’t used
up all his luck in the heats. He didn’t, but he ran into three opponents
who never gave him an opportunity to exploit. In the closest of the four
semi-finals, a $390 spread from 1st to 4th, Matt wound up in 4th place,
but almost pulled it out on the last turn with a bold loan-parts factory
– build strategy. The game came down to the bonus tile draw for mass
market cars. When a “2” appeared, it sank the defending champion,
leaving him with two unsold Model T’s on the lot. (Funny how the game
mirrors history). It also left the fortuitous Jeremy Oppenheim with a
$70 victory over John Corrado. 

In the other semi-finals, Dvd Avins and Rod Spade managed to win their
tables by approximately $400, but the largest margin of victory was by
“The Cat”, besting his nearest competitor by $760. 

After a short break, the four finalists met back in Vista C for the
final. The competition level was high, as even color choice became fair
game. The finalists were gracious and patient enough to let the GM
record the final game. There are a few mistakes in the recording, and a
few “better” note taking techniques were learned as the game went on.
The players benefitted as the GM kept a running total of each build
type, which made the decision process a bit easier for each of the
players. 

As a side note, I’ve tried to keep consistent in format, but use a bit
of shorthand to keep the typing reasonable. Once a player buys a
particular model of car, I only refer to it as a class of car (H) for
high end; (M) for mid-size; (L) for low-end budget cars. Only one player
owned and operated two factories of the same class at the same time, and
I’ll indicate which model for actions there, either (F) for Ford or (D)
for Dodge. All distributors start on the M space. 

Random Player Starting Order 

1st – Bill Zurn (BZ) 2nd – Rod Spade (RS) 3rd – Dvd Avins (DA) 4th –
Jeremy Oppenhiem (JO) 

Turn 1 

Demand Tiles / Select Characters: BZ – 3, Ford; RS – 2, Durant, builds
Duryea x 1; DA – 5, Chrysler; JO – 4, Howard 

Action 1: Ford – Takes 2 R&D cubes; Howard – Builds Olds Curved Dash x 1
and a Parts Factory; Durant – places 2 distributors; Chrysler – Takes 2
R&D cubes 

Action 2: Ford – Builds Maxwell Model L x 2 and a Parts Factory (special
ability); Howard – Builds Sears Autobuggy x 1; Durant – Builds Ford
Model T x 1; Chrysler – Builds EMF 30 x 2 

Action 3: Ford – Produces 7M; Howard - Produces 3M, 2L; Durant –
Produces 3M, 2L; Chrysler – Produces 5M 

Sell via Howard - 2L 

Sell via Distributors – Ford – 2M; Durant – 2L 

Executive Decisions – Ford – Advertise M; Howard – Advertise M; Durant –
Close Duryea; Chrysler and then all others Pass. 

Sell via Demand – Chrysler does not sell 2M 

Losses – Ford +1; Howard +3; Chrysler -1 to a net of 1. 

Turn 2 

Demand Tiles / Select Characters: DA -3/3, Ford; BZ – 2/2, Durant,
builds Crane-Simplex x 1; JO – 5/4, Sloan; RS – 5/2, Chrysler 

Action 1: Ford – places 3 distributors; Sloan – places 3 distributors;
Durant – places 3 distributors; Chrysler – Builds Dodge Four x 1 

Action 2: Ford – Takes Loan #1, Builds Overland 4-90 x 2 and a Parts
Factory (special ability); Sloan – Produces 3M, 4L; Durant – Produces
2H, 7M; Chrysler – Build Buick H x 1 

Action 3: Ford – Takes Loan #2, Produces 6M, 9L; Sloan – Produces 2M,
1L; Durant – Produces 2H; Chrysler – Produces 3M, 4L(D), 4L(F) 

Sell via Distributors: Ford – L, L, L; Sloan – L, L, M; Durant M, H, H,
H, H; Chrysler L(F), L(D) 

Executive Decisions: Ford – Price cut L x 2; Sloan – Advertise M; Durant
– Price cut M; Chrysler – Price cut L(F); Ford – Advertise M; Sloan –
Pass; Durant – Pass; Chrysler – Advertise L(D); Ford, Chrysler – Pass 

Sell via Demand: Ford -2M, $1020; Sloan -2L, $700; Durant -2M, $400;
Chrysler -1L(D), -1L(F), $790 

Losses – Ford +1, net 4, $100; Sloan +6, net 5; Durant +2, net 5;
Chrysler +3, net 3 

Turn 3 

Demand Tiles / Select Characters: JO – 4/2, Ford; BZ – 5/3, Kettering;
DA – 2/2, Chrysler; RS - 3/3, Durant, Build Packard Twin Six x 1 

Action 1: Ford – places 2 distributors + Builds Sears Autobuggy x 1;
Kettering – builds Hupmobile R x 2; Durant – places 3 distributors;
Chrysler – places 2 distributors 

Action 2: Ford – Produce 5L, 3M; Kettering – Takes Loan #1, Produce 2H,
4M, 9L; Durant – Produce 2H, 3M, 4L(D), 4L(F); Chrysler – Build Lincoln
x 1 

Action 3: Ford – Produce 2M; Kettering – places 3 distributors; Durant –
Close Ford Model T; Chrysler – Produce 2H, 7M 

Sell via Distributors: Ford – M, M, L, L, L, $600; Kettering – M, M, L,
L, L, H, H, -1 distributor, $1,000; Durant – M, L(F), L(D), L(F), L(D),
$550; Chrysler – M, M, H, H, -1 distributor, $700 

Executive Decisions: Ford – Close Olds Curved Dash; All players pass in
order 

Sell via Demand: H tile = 3; Ford - $650; Kettering - $900; Durant
$1,100; Chrysler -2M, $450 

Losses/Interest: Ford +4, net 6; Kettering +4, net 10, $50; Durant +3,
net 4; Chrysler +2, -3, net 6, $100. 

Turn 4 

Demand Tiles / Select Characters: BZ – 2/2, Sloan; RS – 5/5, Ford; DA –
5/3, Chrysler; JO – 3/3, Howard 

Action 1: Ford – places 2 Distributor; Sloan – Build Hupmobile R x 1;
Howard – Build Pontiac Six x 2; Chrysler – Produce 2H, 5M, 9L 

Action 2: Ford – Build Dodge Four x 1 + Parts Factory; Sloan – Produce
2H, 4M, 12L; Howard – Produce 7M, 9L; Chrysler – Close Lincoln 

Action 3: Ford – Take Loan #1, Produce 2H, 7M, 6L; Sloan – Produce 2H;
Howard – Close Sears Autobuggy; Chrysler – Take 2 R&D cubes 

Sell via Howard: 1M, 1L - $250 

Sell via Distributors: Ford – L, L, L, M, M, H, H, $1,000; Sloan – L, L,
L, M, H, H, H, $1,050; Howard – L, L, M, M, -1 distributor, $500;
Chrysler – L, L, M, M, $500 

Executive Decisions: Ford – Close Packard Twin Six; Sloan – Price Cut L
x 2; Howard – Price Cut L; Chrysler – Price Cut L; Ford – Advertise M;
Sloan – Advertise L; Howard – Pass; Chrysler – Advertise L; All
remaining players pass 

Sell via Demand: Ford -2L, $850; Sloan -1L, $1210; Howard -1M, -4L,
$590; Chrysler -1L, $1120 

Losses: Ford +3, net 7; Sloan +5, -8, net 7; Howard +0, net 9; Chrysler
+3, -4, net 3 

The final accounting: 

Jeremy: Final Cash $2,090 + Factories $1,300 – Loans $0, - Cubes $360 =
$3,030 

Dvd: Final Cash $2,120 + Factories $2,300 – Loans $1,300 – Cubes $120 =
$3,000 

Rod: Final Cash $2,260 + Factories $2,300 – Loans $650 – Cubes $280 =
$3,630 

Bill: Final Cash $2,300 + Factories $3,150 – Loans $650 – Cubes $280 =
$4,520 

And with that Bill Zurn of Los Gatos, CA is the 2011 WBC Champion in
Automobile. 

Thanks go out to all who entered the tournament this year. The events
aren’t successful without you. A special mention goes out to Matt
Calkins who was the event’s nominee for sportsmanship. Having gotten to
compete against Matt both years, I know he’s an excellent gamer and a
fierce, yet fair player. Seeing him run through the heats and then fall
in the semi-finals was tough, even if I was playing against him. Yet he
could only congratulate Jeremy, John, and myself for having outplayed
him. He took it all in stride, with class, and dignity. It’s people like
that who make all the effort of running a tournament worth it.


J. R. Tracy - Aug 10, 2011 9:22 am (#36527 Total: 36678)  
"I no drive just for drive. I drive for to finish in front." - Milka Duno, 
Le Mans 	 

Another great week, especially the last couple days when I was joined by
my daughter. My Geeklist is here: 

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/70763/wbc-2011-more-doncon-than-
you-can-shake-a-stick 

I also noted fewer water stations, but I also noticed they were
regularly topped off. In years past they often ran dry in the evening
and weren't refilled until the following day.

JR


John Coussis - Aug 10, 2011 2:34 pm (#36528 Total: 36678)  
Trying to swing like Moe 
	 
2011 Atlantic Storm

2011 Atlantic Storm Game Report

2011 saw 115 brave souls return to the waters of the North Atlantic (and
a few opted for the warmth of the Pacific). 35 preliminary heat games
saw the usual craziness mixed in with more than one lucky die roll. 31
of the 35 appeared for the six semi-final games which saw three games
having to be settled by tie-breaker, including Bruce Young defeating
Bill Place on the second tie breaker (lowest convoy number) to advance
to the final. 

The final was once again filled with Atlantic Storm Veterans (and a
couple of past champions) as Andy Gardner, Justin Thompson, Bruce Young,
Tom Bissa, Rob Eastman and Eric Monte battled it out for the title. 

The final got off to a fast start as Andy called a Surface battle for a
3-point convoy and then promptly flushed his hand. Bruce put 2 Allied
points out which drew out the Scharnhorst from Rob hoping Eric had
nothing. Alas, Eric produced the Renown (4 Allied points) and took the
Scharnhorst for himself giving the convoy to Bruce. 

Hand 3 saw the first big sub battle over a 7 point convoy. Rob’s Escort
group and +2 bonus won the day as he rolled an always welcomed 6 for the
Escort Group. 

Hand 6 brought the vaunted SC42 convoy (7 points, full convoy) into
play. Eric led the hand calling an air battle and playing 2 Allied
points. Andy discarded and Justin followed up with the Victorious (?
Allies). Bruce, Tom and Rob all were in the sad position of having to
discard. Justin took home the prize with a die roll of 5. Two hands
later Justin was again the beneficiary of good dice fortune, only it
wasn’t him rolling. Both Rob and Andy produced 1’s with their die rolls
handing Justin a 6-point convoy having played only a 3 point German
card. At the half-way point, Justin showed a big lead with 20 visible
(Convoy) points. Bruce was second with 10 while the rest were struggling
to get off the mark. 

Rob took a big chunk out of Justin’s lead on hand 11 rolling a 6 to win
an air battle for a 7-point convoy and pocketing a 2-point spoil as
well. 

The defining moment of the game came on hand 16, which saw a 5-point
1941 convoy pushed twice. The third time around for it gave a
hard-fought victory to Tom. However, both Eric and Justin benefited
greatly from the large pile of spoils that had built under the convoy. 

Justin sealed his victory on the last hand as Rob changed the original
sub battle to combined with Admiral Tovey. He then proceeded to put the
Duke of York (8 Allied) down along with Raid on St. Nazaire (prohibits
German play). Eric followed with a ?+1 and then Andy set 8 Allied points
down. Justin calmly put his two cards down to show the King George V (8
Allied) along with 4 Allied bonus points. Bruce had one last chance to
win as he put two ?? +4 for the Allies, but could only must 4 points
with his dice. 

With that Justin Thompson became the 2011 Champion with 29 points. Rob
finished 2nd with 22. Bruce, Tom, Eric and Andy finished out the
positions in the final. 

Thanks to all who played. I’m already looking forward to more excitement
next year. 


Bruce Monnin - Aug 10, 2011 4:13 pm (#36529 Total: 36678)  
Editor of MMP's Special Ops Magazine 
	 
PRO GOLF Report

Pro Golf saw an unusual stability in its entrants this year, as 63
participants teed off from the Hopewell room, the exact same number as
last year. Of those 63, 47 returned from last year, while 16 entrants
showed up with their new PGA cards. The Final Four Skins games was once
again free of members of the BPA Board of Directors, though usual
suspect Ken Gutermuth and not so usual suspect Andy Lewis both finished
in a tie for fifth place at four under par along with John Coussis, Paul
Bean and James Kramer, Jr. 

For the second year in a row, no playoff was needed to select our four
golfers in the Skins game. In a below average scoring year, Daniel
Pappas led the field at six under par after the 75 minute first round
was completed on the 18 holes of the 2002 version of the Augusta course.
The threesome of Paul Risner, Danny Lewis and Bruce Young were right
behind at 5 under par. 

These top four players then took on the local Lancaster Host Golf Club
for the 12 hole Skins game. Bruce Young (playing Phil Mickelson) jumped
out to an early lead when he birdied the first hole. The next three
holes were halved, making the crucial par five fifth hole worth four
Skins. Danny Lewis (playing Tim Herron) was the only player to eagle the
hole, grabbing a huge early lead. 

The remaining seven holes were all halved, and extra holes were needed
to determine who would win the last seven Skins and thus the tournament.
The tension mounted as the 13th hole was also halved. On the par 5 14th
hole, the door was left open when first Danny Lewis and then Bruce Young
could only manage to earn pars. Daniel Pappas (using the immortal Kenny
Perry?) sank his birdie putt, and become the 2011 champion when Paul
Risner could not match his effort. 

Be sure to join the fun again in 2012, and maybe even get in a little
practice in the 2012 Second Annual PBeM tournament which should start
sometime this spring (right before the Masters). We need more entrants
to ensure that 2011 champion Dennis Nicholson does not become a two time
PBeM champion. 


Joel A Tamburo - Aug 10, 2011 6:24 pm (#36533 Total: 36678)  
Learning each day how much I don't know. 
	 
I would suggest notifying Don or Kaarin of hotel issues also, as they
will be meeting with the host to discuss things to work on for next
year.


Bob Basa - Aug 10, 2011 6:39 pm (#36534 Total: 36678)  

owdy all,

Had a great time last week at the WBC. It was my 3rd time in as 
many years, and I plan to keep it a yearly tradition!

For anyone interested, here's a link to the recounting of my week:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/70776/2011-wbc-my-second-geeklist

Cheers.

Dave Long - Aug 10, 2011 7:55 pm (#36538 Total: 36678)  
B17 - Debbie Does Dusseldorf 
	 
Dominant Species Report - 2011

Forty-six players, not including Mike Gentile, played at least one heat
of the WBC debut of GMT’s Dominant Species in an effort to Adapt,
Compete, and Dominate their way to victory over the advancing ice sheet.
Balance was the watchword of the tournament, as of the 13 games spread
over three heats, generated 13 different winners. And, during the 13
games, each order of animals won at least one game, with the Reptiles
scoring 3 wins, and the Birds and Amphibians scoring a pair of wins. Two
games failed to report who played what (I’m looking at you, Games 8 and
9). 

The first heat was played Tuesday evening, and 30 participants showed up
and competed in six different games. Each player was given an
opportunity to bid for their animal, rather than accept the vagaries of
Random Selection. Bids were for a victory point deduction at the end of
the game, after final scoring. Bids generally ranged in the zero to two
range, with a high bid of 5. Heat two, on Wednesday morning, drew 18
players, with 9 new contestants joined by 9 returnees from the night
before. The final heat occurred an hour after heat two finished, and
drew 7 more new players, along with 7 repeaters, to reach our final
total of 46, with 61 separate player starts. 

Eventual champion Dennis Mishler claimed the highest score in the heats,
nailing down a 212 score in Game 9, John Emery claimed the silver medal
score in the heats, finishing his Heat 1 game with a score of 207 for
the Insects, with his son Kevin taking third place honors with a 199
score as the Arachnids in Heat 2. John and Kevin joined Assistant GM Tim
Rogers in not only being Made Men in the Greenville Mafia, but winning
the unofficial Iron Men Award, participating in all three heats. Tim,
while he did not advance out of the Heat Round, was nominated by the GM
for the Sportsmanship Award, as his Heat 1 table found him grouped with
4 players who had never played before and had just come from the Demo.
Rather than exploit his superior knowledge of the game for a likely
chance to advance, Tim ‘coached up’ his opponents so well that he
finished 4th out of the five players at his table. 

The semi-finals were contested on Saturday at noon, with 8 of the 13
winners able to attend, and with tournament rules calling for 16 in the
semis, the two alternates who bothered to show up, Tom McCorry and Jeff
Pattison, rounded out the ten semi-finalists. In Game 1 of the semis,
Alternate Tom McCorry laid back in the early going with his Arachnids,
then staged a furious rally to win his table. In the other semi, John
Emery again rode the Insects to victory. The four other Final Table
seats went to high scorers in the two semis – Kevin Emery, Dennis
Mishler, Tracey Casselberry, and Lane Hess. 

In the Saturday night Final, Tom McCorry, John Emery, and Dennis Mishler
each bid three to have first choice. Tom won the random selection and
took the Insects out from under John, who, picking second, selected the
Amphibians. Dennis Mishler chose the Arachnids. Tracey Casselberry bid
two and got the Reptiles, who she had steered to victory in Heat 1,
while Kevin Emery got the Birds for one, and Lane Hess settled for the
Mammals for a bid of zero. 

Tom’s choice of Insects was fortuitous, as Parasitism was the very first
Dominance Card turned over, and he jumped on it to give him a quick
action pawn advantage, while also placing a target on his back.
Immigrant Species also made a devasting appearance, killing off 20
diffenrent species of the players. On Turn 2, the main event in the
Domination phase was Kevin’s play of Evolution to swap out two species
on the Tundra to garner the Survival card for his birds. 

Turn 3 saw Tom Blight a wetlands, which gave him dominance on that
terrain tile, which then let him score the tile and choose Catastrophe,
hurting the Amphibians. John turned right around, and using Mass Exodus,
migrated three insects right off the Wetland onto a barren tundra, which
led to those insect species’ extinction. 

Turn 4 was the pivotal point of the game in this observer’s opinion.
Dennis had grabbed the first player away from Tom, and when Omnivore
came up, he was well positioned to rectify the action imbalance by
grabbing that card. Tracey, who had been lagging behind, started her
comeback by scoring 7 points off a fertile card. Her comeback continued
in a major way on Turn 5, when she grabbed the Intelligence card, giving
her and Lane an extra action. However Dennis made the best use of his
scoring, adding 12 points from Ecodiversity as well as grabbing the
Survival Card to vault into a 72-63 lead over Tom’s insects. 

Turn 6 saw only three cards left to be played-Predator, which Lane
grabbed, Habitat, which Kevin chose after debating whether to trigger
the Ice Age card. At that point, Kevin had 7 dominance cones, which
would have netted him a very nice score, but Habitat, let him get two
more dominances. The last two scoring actions belonged to Tom McCorry,
who scored a neutral sea zone where no Animal Order dominated, and then
he chose to PASS his last scoring opportunity by choosing a vacant
tundra, stunning all his opponents. Tom explained later that he felt he
was not secure in his current second place scoring, and that he wanted a
chance to chase down Dennis. 

So we went on to the last, unexpected turn. Dennis’ possession of the
Survival Card was too much for Tom to overcome, and Tom’s choice did
hurt the Amphibians, who he viewed as his main threat for second.
However, adroit play by the two higher orders-Reptiles and
Mammals-almost cost Tom. Lane’s Mammals scored an impressive 60 points
in the final round+Ice Age+Final Scoring, but he was outdone by Tracey’s
outstanding score of 88 points in the last round. Kevin, who, if he had
chosen Ice Age, might have made the huge leap, was hurt by the gutsy
call by Tom to extend the game. 

So, after the ice had settled, Dennis Mishler was the Inaugural Dominant
Species champ, with a score of 160. Tom McCorry held onto second by
three points with a final score of 124. Lane Hess and tracey Casselberry
both netted 121 points with big final rounds, with Lane taking third due
to the Food Chain tiebreaker. The father-son duo of John and Kevin Emery
finished with 97 and 96 points respectively, and I believe I heard
muttering about Dennis’ bed being stuffed with a horse head from the
Mafia nation. Or maybe it was ‘Congratulations, Well played.’ 

In closing, I, as the GM, want to thank all the participants, as each
and every player displayed outstanding sportsmanship. It was a pleasure
to helm this tournament, and I hope next year will see more of the same.


Eric Brosius - Aug 10, 2011 9:27 pm (#36541 Total: 36678)  
WBC GeekList

I have started (but not yet finished) a GeekList about my WBC experiences. 
Here's a link:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/70767


Bruce Monnin - Aug 10, 2011 10:07 pm (#36543 Total: 36678)  
Editor of MMP's Special Ops Magazine 
	 
2011 Warriors of God WBC Report

WARRIORS OF GOD

Warriors of God saw its second consecutive year of increased attendance.
The first sign that interest in this game is growing came from the 30+
people who showed up for Terry Coleman’s teaching session. This was
followed by 36 participants showing up for first round tournament
action. Fortunately, exactly half of these people brought a copy of the
game with them, so none had to be turned away. 

The first round saw the English side dominate, winning 13 of the 18
games played. The French made a comeback in the second round, winning
six out of nine games. The English regained the upper hand in the
quarterfinals, semifinals and finals, however, winning six of the final
seven games. 

In the semifinals, Rob Winslow (the only laurelist from last year to
return to the top six this year) won as the English against Stan
Myszak’s Frenchman, while Greg Hultgren’s English duplicated the feat
against Derek Landel. 

The final game saw Rob Winslow play the English against Greg Hultgren’s
French. The game was extremely close early with the French looking good
in the victory point count. The fickle dice soon turned against the
French, as Turns 4, 6 and 7 saw large numbers of French leaders deaths.
Rob’s English, with their numerous healthy leaders, took advantage by
taking Ile-de-France on Turn 8 and holding it through the end of the
game. Not even Joan of Arc could change the tide for Greg, and Rob’s
lead grew until he achieved a 30+ VP automatic victory on Turn 11. 

Besides the championship plaque, Rob also received a $30 gift
certificate from Multi-Man Publishing. Greg was awarded a $20
certificate for his runner-up performance. Since Stan Myszak was awarded
the third and final plaque, the final $10 gift certificate was awarded
to fourth place finisher Derek Landel. 

Be sure to join the fun again in 2012, as Warriors of God attempts to
increase in attendance for the third straight year. 

Final Results: 1st - Rob Winslow 2nd - Greg Hultgren 3rd - Stan Myszak
4th - Derek Landel 5th - Steve Smith 6th - Robert Sohn


Jeff Burdett - Aug 10, 2011 11:13 pm (#36544 Total: 36678)  

Praise for the Host

I really like the place. It's not perfect, and I wish wi-fi worked
better, but I really think it's perfect for what we want. I think it's
great that we can: plop a game down anywhere at anytime and play it,
carry beer or spirits all over the place (including their cash bar),
stuff four dudes or dudettes into a room, park for free, not worry about
scary locals crashing the joint. All for 100 bucks or less if you're
willing to have roommates. As for amorous teens, my own will be lounging
around in a few years - hopefully with more clothes but not much
supervision. Would it kill the tourney if some teenager was assaulted?
Of course - but that could happen anywhere.

Viva la Host!


Jack Beckman - Aug 11, 2011 6:01 am (#36545 Total: 36678)  
Dare to be Stupid 
	 
It's a dump. I'll be staying elsewhere from now on. The "towels" only
could be called that based on the fact they were hanging on the towel
rack - I could see right through them (when we could get them). Even
tipping did no good; we had to hunt down the housekeeper and beg for
towels and washcloths. 

The thermostat didn't work - blew cold or cold. They did at least fix
it. Of course, it was also a "backwards thermostat" (the repair guy's
words) and had "hot" written on the left and "cold" on the right.
Really? 

The bedding was as thin as towels, and popped off the bed just by lying
on it. 

The wifi was worthless. I understand they have a ton of devices all
coming in at once. But maybe they need to beef up their system. Or do
they only expect 5% of their customers to use it? 

I'm also not fond of the myriad of stairs needed to get from any room to
any other - my knees can't take it any more. 

I'm sure my perception is colored by the fact that I was sick and had to
spend the first three days *in* the room - I may have been less likely
to notice some of the shortcomings had I not been stuck in there.
Instead, they were probably magnified for me. 

In any case, I really dislike the hotel and hope when the contract is up
they can find a better place. I understand that may not be possible
within the given budget, but I hope it will be. 


Kevin McPartland - Aug 11, 2011 9:18 am (#36549 Total: 36678)  
"Lots of nuance in this deceptively simple game." - Lewis Goldberg on 
Conquest of Paradise 	 

>I really like the place. 

>>It's a dump. 

I think that the worst aspect of the Host is its total lack of
handicapped accessibility. It is so bad, the place is downright hostile
to the physically impaired. You can't even get in the front door without
being confronted with stairs, and no way around them! Moving from any
space to another involves going up stairs, then down, then back up. 

There was talk of the Host installing an elevator to connect the
Lampeter level with the main lobby level and the open gaming area. This
would have helped the situation tremendously, but they didn't get around
to it- again. Instead, the ancient lift to Lampeter broke, and nearly
tossed my wheelchair-bound friend head-over-heals. 

The situation is a disgrace. We should demand that the Host begin to
make some effort to bring their facility up to standards, or find
another facility.

Kevin

Roger Taylor - Aug 11, 2011 9:41 am (#36551 Total: 36678)  
"...by responding to the personals ads, they're not only cheating 
on each other, they're cheating on each other WITH each other!" - 
Crow T. Robot, on the Pina Colada song 	 


>In any case, I really dislike the hotel and hope when the contract is
up they can find a better place. 

An HMGS insider tells me that there are very few alternatives to the
Host that have the desired location, size, and price; and if one exists
it might be completely booked for the summer. Historicon can't go back
to the Host because another con snapped up the slot instantly after
Historicon was abortively moved to Baltimore. 

Regarding the stairs: Believe it or not, the stairs were intended to be
a feature, not a bug. The Host's design was based on a ski chalet(!).
Did you not feel the ambiance of the Alps?


Martin Sample - Aug 11, 2011 9:42 am (#36552 Total: 36678)  
Sometimes I wish we could just hit 'em over the head, rob 'em, 
and throw their bodies in the creek. 	 

>We should demand that the Host begin to make some effort to bring their
facility up to standards, or find another facility. 

While in no way condoning the difficulty of handicapped access, hasn't
it been like this since the first year we were there? Our contract isn't
up for another three years IIRC, and we've renewed at least once since
we first started using the place. This isn't grounds for breaking a
contract. 

BTW, I heard about the Lampeter lift incident. I hope your friend is OK.

Overall, the Host hasn't changed much since we first started going
there. It's a known quantity, warts and all.


Dan Dolan - Aug 11, 2011 3:44 pm (#36583 Total: 36678)  
Developing: LAWN WARS: The game of competitive lawnmowing 
	 
That's right ... I'm back baby!

ELCHFEST 2011

There was another record turnout for this year’s event. 67 flickers
would test their mettle in the waters of Lancaster. A plethora of faces
both new and old surrounded the sign in table as the excitement built
waiting for the contest for the most coveted plaque at WBC and the only
one that requires actual skill. 

Last year’s winner and three time champion Dave Meyaard was there as was
Brandon Bernard another past champion. The finalist from last year
Rebecca Hebner was also looking to claim top honors after missing out by
the closest of margins last year. It was going to be a stellar field of
flickers. 

A special shout out goes to fellow TEAM X member Greg Shmitgens for
making buttons for every competitor. The button said it all, “ There
will be flicking.” 

The first round took awhile as usual due to a shortage of games (please
bring one next year . You know you want to buy a copy so why wait?) But
once the backup was past the action was nonstop. The first several
rounds tend to see the newer players dropping from contention and the
level of play increased as the numbers decreased. 

Some of the big names were moving into position for a run at the title.
Last years Champion Dave Meyaard and previous winners Brandon Bernard
and yours truly were looking to reclaim the title. Last year’s finalist
Rebecca Hebner was waltzing easily through the early rounds with a look
of determination that didn’t bode well for her opponents. Asst GM Josh
Githens was also looking very good early on as he quickly dispatched his
early round opponents and was feeling good about his chances. 

Newcomers to the top 16 included Claire Pfeifer, Scott Smith, Eric
Brosius and John Roizin. It was here that I managed to knock Dave
Meyaard out ensuring there would be a new champion this year and the
remaining players suddenly sensed this could be their year. 

When Brandon Bernard beat John Roizin, this set up another match between
two ex-champions. He and I had never played but I knew from watching him
he was a very good player capable of making spectacular shots. 

Also in this round Scott Smith knocked out Claire Pfeifer and Josh
Githens and Rebecca Hebner also advanced. 

I managed to narrowly beat Brandon on a 3rd game miracle shot to advance
to the semi finals and had to face last year’s finalist Rebecca Hebner
to advance to the final vs Josh Githens.

Rebecca and I always seem to meet in this event. Last year she knocked
me out in the first round so I knew I had my work cut out for me. After
winning the first game I made one mistake and Rebecca stormed back to
take the second setting up a third game to advance to the finals. It was
a nail biter that was decided when Rebecca knocked her moose down
allowing me to get an advantage that held up. 

The finals saw Josh Githens looking to rise to the top of the flicking
world and for me a chance for my third Coussis. 

I took the first game in a squeaker and Josh blew me away in the second
game with a just about perfect series of shots to even things up. 

Game three saw both of us moving across the table at good pace and the
action in the center of the table when both moose were near the other
was some of the most dynamic I’ve ever seen. Josh had a significant
advantage and looked to be cruising to his first title when disaster
struck. An errant flick knocked his moose into the tepid Lancaster
waters. 

I realized that this was my chance and made the most of my three penalty
shots to even things up. We were both about 5 inches from winning and it
would be anybody’s game. Josh closed in on the island and I made a shot
I had no business making to get to the point where I needed to make a
last shot for the win. 

Once again … the only plaque at WBC that requires skill belongs to me.
My third Coussis! 

I’d like to thank everyone who attended and hope to see them all again
next year when they try to pry the title from my hands.


Herr Dr. - Aug 11, 2011 4:25 pm (#36584 Total: 36678)  
Working on a CDW of Spanish Civil War 
	 
COngrats mr.dolan. I hope that was your Team X event; I bet heavily on 
Team X this year.


Joshua Gottesman - Aug 11, 2011 4:31 pm (#36585 Total: 36678)  
	BookmarkEmail to Friend
R.I.P., Jerome Gottesman 06/20/1929 - 10/18/2009 	 
A reminder to those who stopped by the VPG booth and picked up one of our 10% off coupons. They are good now and will be good until the end of the month. It was great getting our games in front of so many new people, and apparently some die-hard VPG fans, too.

And hey, I sold 2 copies of Strike Force One plus the Expansion! Whoda thunk it?

Joel A Tamburo - Aug 11, 2011 4:43 pm (#36586 Total: 36678)  
earning each day how much I don't know. 
	 
Kewl!

Glad to hear Elchfest did well and that VPG also did well.


Roger Taylor - Aug 11, 2011 4:44 pm (#36587 Total: 36678)  
"...by responding to the personals ads, they're not only cheating 
on each other, they're cheating on each other WITH each other!" - 
Crow T. Robot, on the Pina Colada song 	 

>And hey, I sold 2 copies of Strike Force One plus the Expansion! Whoda 
thunk it? 

Really. I thought Strike Force One's only value was to win valuable prizes 
at Consimworld Expo.


Dan Dolan - Aug 11, 2011 4:51 pm (#36588 Total: 36678)  
Developing: LAWN WARS: The game of competitive lawnmowing 
	 
ELCHFEST was indeed my TEAM X team game.

I scored 9 pts for TEAM X. However the others were sorta kinda crushed
like bugs in their team games.

But we did have jerky and cool buttons and mouse pads.


Andy Lewis - Aug 11, 2011 4:56 pm (#36589 Total: 36678)  
Sports Game Junkie, Enjoy the Games! 	 

Good thing Greg S's team game for Team X wasn't Founding Fathers. It
would be terrible to think their chances were ruined by a 14 yr old.


Mark Yoshikawa - Aug 11, 2011 5:35 pm (#36590 Total: 36678)  
oftball season is over, play-off's this week. Football starts in four weeks
 	 
Good thing Greg S's team game for Team X wasn't Founding Fathers. It
would be terrible to think their chances were ruined by a 14 yr old.

Yea....a TALL 14 yr old!


Dan Dolan - Aug 11, 2011 6:29 pm (#36591 Total: 36678)  
Developing: LAWN WARS: The game of competitive lawnmowing 
	 
Greg switched from FF to Washington's War.

Might not have been the best move.


Vince Meconi - Aug 11, 2011 10:21 pm (#36597 Total: 36678)  
WAR AT SEA GM REPORT

Steve Packwood of Eagan, MN won the 2011 War At Sea Championship on
Thursday, August 4 with a record of 6-2-0. This is Steve’s 2nd War At
Sea championship -- the other was in 1996! Steve defeated Charlie Drozd
of Vernon Hills, IL (6-1-1) in the final. Charlie also was runner-up in
Victory in the Pacific, narrowly failing to become the first player ever
to win both at the same con. Andy Choptiany of Philadelphia, PA,
repeated as 3rd place finisher with a 4-2-1 tally and Dennis Nicholson
of Pawling, NY nabbed the 4th and final plaque with a 4-3-0 log. Pat
Richardson (Warrenton, VA/4-1-1), finished 5th and received a copy of
the book The German Navy at War: Vol. 1, The Battleships, given to the
highest finisher not winning a plaque. The remaining playoff contenders
were 6th, Bruce Monnin (Minster, OH), who had a 4-2-0 mark, 7th,
Jonathan Lockwood (Reston, VA/4-2-0) and 8th, Ray Freeman (Berkeley,
CA/3-3-0). Rounding out our top 10 were Chuck Stapp (Freehold, NJ) in
9th place at 3-2-0 and 10th place, Jim Kramer (Wiconisco, PA, 3-2-0). 

At the conclusion of the Swiss round games, automatic playoff qualifiers
were as follows: 1)Charlie Drozd, 45 VPs/4-0-1, 2) Pat Richardson, 43
VPs, 4-0-1, 3) Bruce Monnin, 40 VPs & 4-1-0, 4) Jonathan Lockwood, 38
VPs/4-1-0, 5) Andy Choptiany, 35 VPs, 3-1-1, 6) Steve Packwood, 34 VPs &
3-2-0, and 7) Dennis Nicholson, 32 VPs/3-2-0. Ray Freeman won a
tiebreaker over Chuck Stapp and Jim Kramer for the 8th and final playoff
slot; all 3 had finished 3-2-0 with 30 VPs. Jonathan Lockwood became the
first and only player since the single elimination rounds were expanded
to quarterfinals to make the playoffs 4 years in a row. 

In the quarterfinals, top seed Charlie Drozd’s Axis cruised past Ray
Freeman’s Allies, Dennis Nicholson’s Axis upset Pat Richardson’s Allies,
Andy Choptiany’s Allies squeaked past Jonathan Lockwood’s Axis by 0.5
POC, and Steve Packwood’s Axis crushed Bruce Monnin’s Allies. In the
semifinals, Charlie Drozd’s Axis overcame Dennis Nicholson’s Allies
using only 9 ASW to sink the Charlie’s first 7 U-boats and won anyway.
Meanwhile, Steve Packwood’s Allies defeated Andy Choptiany’s Axis. 

In the final, Charlie Drozd took the Allies for a 2.0 bid. Key turns in
the game included turn 1, when the Germans sailed to the South Atlantic.
Gniesenau and Admiral Scheer were crippled and disabled; Scharnhorst and
Blucher failed to oil. On turn 4, the Axis deployed to the Barents,
where they won the area and sank Convoy 2B. Finally, on turn 7 eight
Allied ASW rid the South Atlantic of 6 U-boats, but Axis LBA preserved
the win by sinking Convoy 3C. At this point the Allies surrendered,
unable to close the gap with a single turn remaining. The Allied bid of
2.0 flipped an Allied 1-POC victory to an Axis 1-POC victory.
Congratulations again to champion Steve Packwood! 

42 players entered and 76 total games were played. The favorite opening
Allied strategy was again Barents on 1 by a heavy margin. Charlie Drozd
copped Best Axis Player with a 5-0-1 scoreboard, while Jonathan Lockwood
nabbed Best Allied Player laurels at 4-1-0, the 6th time he has been so
designated. Veteran gamer but first-time War At Sea contestant Jim
Fardette won Rookie of the Year with a 12th place finish and 2-0-1 mark.
Finally, Rob Drozd was our sportsmanship nominee. Playing a very new and
very young player, Rob chose to make the game a learning experience for
his opponent. For the 8th year in a row, no chess clock expired. 

The Allies won 43 of the 76 contests, or 56.6%; the Axis won only 30
(39.5%) and there were 3 ties. These results contrasted with last
year’s, when the Axis won a majority of the games. However, this year
the Axis won 6 of the 7 playoff contests and the finals featured two
players who played (and won) most of their games as the Axis. 67 of the
76 games featured an Allied bid; just 9 had no bid. The average bid this
year was 1.51 (all games) and 1.72 (games with a bid). The latter was
actually down microscopically from last year; on the other hand, bids of
2.5, once unknown, occurred 15 times this year. 

As always, putting on the War At Sea tournament is a team effort. My
thanks go to Assistant Gamemasters Rob Drozd, Ewan McNay, and John
Sharp; John also provided the chess clocks, with an assist from Charlie
Drozd.

Editorial comment regarding the hotal: the quality is iffy, but I don’t
care very much as I prefer cheap because I’m there to play games. Given
that my drive took all of 58 minutes this year (less going home), how
can I complain? However....the accessibility issues are a problem. I
admit to not paying any attention to this aspect previously and only
noticed it as a player in another event I GM’d had significant
difficulty. Before we shrug it off, consider that with the aging of many
members of our community, this will certainly become more salient as
time goes on.


Mark Guttag - Aug 11, 2011 10:24 pm (#36598 Total: 36678)  
Fairfax, VA 	 

>The thing with Lampeter is that it may look partly empty at one time
and then shortly later be packed again. That's the effect of having one
set of events tail off (eliminate players thus opening table space) but
then the next set moves in and everything is full again. 

Joel, 

I agree with your general point. However, starting sometime Friday
afternoon, Lampeter pretty much stayed at least half empty through the
remainder of the weekend. I tend to think this is a result of so many of
the wargame tournaments starting Wednesday and Thursday. If you take
look at the pocket schedule: 

http://www.boardgamers.org/wbc/wbc11cl.pdf 

you can see that there are a lot more tournaments that about half of the
tournaments are semi-finals (blue) or finals (gold) in Lampeter on
Friday, particularly after about 4 PM (16). And Saturday, semifinals and
finals dominate the Lampeter schedule. 

Mark

Kevin Wojtaszczyk - Aug 12, 2011 9:52 am (#36601 Total: 36678)  

With respect to the open gaming, the convention name is 'World
Boardgaming Championships', so one would figure the tournaments are more
the focus and open gaming is just an add on. The showroom is a large
enough space when looking at the convention as a gaming tournament
convention in my view. If people come to just open game and not play in
events, then possibly their focus isn't in line with the overall
convention purpose, so trying to add more open gaming space to a
tournament convention will just increase the open gaming attendance and
reduce the tournament gaming attendance and possibly push the WBC to
'World Open Gaming Fest' instead of the tournament gaming it was
originally built as.

(as step in front and shield Dan...)


Joshua Gottesman - Aug 12, 2011 9:58 am (#36602 Total: 36678)  
R.I.P., Jerome Gottesman 06/20/1929 - 10/18/2009 
	 
I respectfully disagree, Kevin. To call the convention the "World
Boardgaming Championships" is a bit of a misnomer, as only a small
fraction of the people who play games actually show up at the
convention. Even with 100 people playing Ticket to Ride, that's a
miniscule percentage of those who play it worldwide. Okay, maybe the 4
guys who play 1776 represent the world population of 1776 players, and
even there I doubt its more than 1/3 of them. 

In any case, this is the "Championship of mostly Americans who actually
show up to be in these tournaments and if it is really a championship
how come so many people who have never played are in the tournaments"
and that's really hard to put on a t-shirt. Its just another gaming
convention which has a fancy name. Open gaming is part of that.


David Bohnenberger - Aug 12, 2011 10:10 am (#36603 Total: 36678)  
Negativity sucks. 
	 
I think the only problem comes near the end of the week, when the
convention reaches its peak and all the losers who didn't make the
semifinal rounds shuffle into open gaming looking for something to do. 

But despite record attendance, It didn't seem to be as much of a problem
this year. One of the reasons, I think, is that a lot of euro events
seemed to have heats scheduled just before the semis on Saturday. This
is a great idea, and is especially helpful for those who can only attend
on the weekend..


Dan Dolan - Aug 12, 2011 10:10 am (#36604 Total: 36678)  
Developing: LAWN WARS: The game of competitive lawnmowing 	 

WBC is the place where one goes to play for the world title in these
games. 

We need not apologize for the fact that 4 guys are playing for the title
in 1776. If Nrzhtz Bmxyzth wanted to play for the 1776 title he could
load up his game on his burro and leave the lovely dunes of Khyzklestan
and travel to Lancaster to try for the title. If he doesn't that's his
tough luck. Ya can't win if you ain't in.


Eric Brosius - Aug 12, 2011 10:10 am (#36605 Total: 36678)  
"World" Boardgaming Championships

While you're right about some games (and Ticket to Ride is probably a
fine example,) I suspect that Much of the world's Pro Golf action occurs
in BPA-sanctioned play. 

Check out this GeekList: 

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/46390 

I agree that the tournaments are the main driver of WBC, but there's
lots of synergy between tournaments and open gaming. Plenty of people
start with open gaming, but then get hooked on tournaments. I endorse
making the best provision possible for open gaming, as long as it
doesn't hurt the tournaments. And I think that's just what WBC
management is trying to do. 


John Pack - Aug 12, 2011 10:12 am (#36606 Total: 36678) 
 
You are good. But it is not enough just to be good. You must be good for
something. You must contribute good to the world."--Gordon B Hinckley If
the World Boardgaming Championships were "just another gaming
convention," I wouldn't bother flying across the country (16 of the last
18 years). I have two ordinary gaming conventions right here in Denver. 

The WBC is definitely a different breed. There is no other convention
with its kind of tournaments, quality of competition, and event
reporting. The WBC thinks of a 50-player Euro tournament as small and
might even trim such an event from the Century. "Ordinary gaming
conventions" are hard-pressed to get 20 (at Tacticon, a 1,500 gamer
affair around Labor Day in Denver, the largest boardgaming event drew
12). 

The WBC is awesome -- for those of you who can get out of our hotel
rooms and into an event! (I read the reports on the Host and wonder
about y'all. During the WBC, hotel rooms are just a place to store the
game collection and catch one catnap for 30 minutes each day. Anything
more is gravy.)


Martin Sample - Aug 12, 2011 10:12 am (#36607 Total: 36678)  

ometimes I wish we could just hit 'em over the head, rob 'em, and throw
their bodies in the creek. I would disagree with Kevin but for a
different reason. I attribute part of the annual attendance we have been
seeing to the increase in Open gaming space. 

One can't ignore the fact that both Origins and GenCon over the years
have made strides to increase this component in their conventions as
well. There are many people who do nothing but open game. They didn't
come to the older WBCs because the Open gaming space was more limited. 

Part of the strain on the open gaming space occurs at the end of the
week when people are knocked out of tournaments. I haven't looked at the
schedule, but I wonder if either moving some events to later in the week
whose format still allows them to finish by Saturday night OR maybe a
second sort of Showcase Sampler might alleviate some of the strain. 


Kevin Wojtaszczyk - Aug 12, 2011 10:22 am (#36610 Total: 36678)  

True the name isn't perfect at this time, but there are already a number
of players who come from different countries to play in specific events,
which have those events more in line with the convention name. 

In the end the WBC isn't just some other gaming convention. It is
different than most of them since it's focus is on tournament play. So
increasing the tournament status to draw more top players from around
the world would be more in line with the convention's goal than
promoting larger open gaming spaces. I'm also not sure increasing the
amount of attendees just for them to come and open game is actually a
good thing. Keeping a cap on the size of open gaming will keep the focus
on the tournaments and not fill up the hotel with too many people who
aren't playing in tournaments. 

Albeit, there are attendees I'd have to agree to disagree with on such a
topic. I guess if I ever run for a board position, these posts would
definitely show my view of the convention. 

And heck, we can now move off all the Host bashing to some tournaments
vs open gaming banter.


David desJardins - Aug 12, 2011 11:07 am (#36612 Total: 36678)  
Burlingame CA 
	 
I would not like to see open gaming completely dominate the convention,
but I think we're far from having that problem. The auction is much more
of a problem, imho.


Robert Flowers - Aug 12, 2011 11:09 am (#36613 Total: 36678)  

It's perhaps a better discussion within the various genres, but I've
been wondering how best to still run tournaments when you get to the
weekend crunch of semis and finals? 

I personally wouldn't want to volunteer to run an event starting
saturday (because I'd like to hope I might actually be participating in
some of those semis and finals). 

I've kind of been kicking around the idea in my head of some sort of
unofficial tournament that anyone can pick up and run, but it hasn't
really fully formed yet. I was originally thinking of it as an idea for
those who get kicked out of the advanced rounds of the precons, but this
was less of a problem this year with some events starting earlier on
Monday.


Peter Stein - Aug 12, 2011 11:15 am (#36614 Total: 36678)  
WBC- the best nine days of losing anywhere!!! 	 

>Good point -- but you need a hotel room to justify keeping the parking s
pace all week! 

Don't give anybody any ideas!!!


Mark Guttag - Aug 12, 2011 11:57 am (#36615 Total: 36678)  
Fairfax, VA 	 

>I'm also not sure increasing the amount of attendees just for them to
come and open game is actually a good thing. 

I respectfully disagree. If open gaming were not available at WBC, I
would not attend. In fact, next year, I am considering only open gaming
with the possible exception of Facts in Five and Slapshot. This year
because of work commitments, my time spent playtesting and developing a
game, and the particular games I played in the months leading up to WBC,
I did not feel adequately prepared to play in the tournaments I had
planned to play in. 

Also, because I had been frantically working to finish a project a work
and playtest materials on Monday, I came into WBC both sleep deprived
and in need of some time away from tension. 

Fortunately, the first game I played at the convention was Wilson's
Creek, an old S&T game, with my friend John Vasilakos in the open gaming
area. We played over two days by recording our ending positions on
Tuesday and re-setting up on Wednesday using our recorded positions.
This was a wonderful experience as lots of friends and interested
observers (including the game's developer Tom Hudson!) stopped by to
look at our game with its bright yellow map. 

In contrast, on Thursday morning, for the first time I qualified for the
2nd round of Commands & Colors: Ancients, but actually dreaded the
thought of playing 3 games in the 2nd round. And C&C:A is one of my
absolute favorite games and it has taken me years to finally qualify for
the 2nd round. But I was just not looking forward to 4 more hours of
tournament pressure. This was probably not helped by the fact that at
least one of the players in our pod of 4 was a slow player and that
C&C:A needs to have a tight time limit for each round to finish in a
reasonable amount of time (In friendly play with evenly matched
opponents, I've played some scenarios that can take 30 minutes to 2
hours depending on the card draw. But in the tournament, the games
really need to be about an hour, no matter the card draw). 

>Keeping a cap on the size of open gaming will keep the focus on the
tournaments and not fill up the hotel with too many people who aren't
playing in tournaments. 


Unfortunately, those "too many people" would include me and several of
my friends. I also think that keeping a cap on open gaming would
actually be counterproductive for the tournaments, particular with
respect to wargaming. 

I think that without the relief valve of open gaming, there is just too
narrow a band of wargames that are currently featured at the WBC, i.e.,
mainly (but not only) two player games that can be played in under 3
hours. 

We have already reached the point where a 2-player wargame with a 3 to 4
hour round and 16 players is in danger of being dropped from the WBC if
it is not part of Grognardcon or has a sponsor. Yet, such a tournament
takes 12-16 hours to complete, almost two full days of gaming. Also,
it's almost impossible to put together a tournament for a 3-4 hour
wargame that draws 16 players outside of WBC. 

Multi-player wargames that last 3-4 hours also have problems returning
as tournament to the WBC even with 20 or more participants which
represents at least 4 or 5 tables of players, despite the fact that the
WBC may be one of the few places that may players can play such a
multiplayer wargame in person. This situation also affects me
personally, because 2011 may be the last WBC for one of my friends. Last
year he was interested in playing both Wellington and Kutuzov, so he
came to the WBC for most of the week. In constrast, this year, there was
only Wellington and it was earlier in the week so he just stopped by for
the weekend mainly to see his friends. 

So I look at open gaming as a chance for players, including my friends
and myself, to play games that have little chance of making it as
tournaments at the WBC. 

I've also seen how tournaments such as World at War (a one very long
round tournament) and the Battles of the American Revolution (multiple
games in one tournament) with non-traditional formats have thrived at
the WBC. So I think there are opportunities for to do some creative
things in opening gaming. For example, I know that Andy Lewis is
interested in doing a Epic C&C:Ancients multi-player team tournament
which might not be approved as a WBC tournament format but could be
offered in the open gaming area as a one day event to see if there is
interest. 

>Albeit, there are attendees I'd have to agree to disagree with on such
a topic. I guess if I ever run for a board position, these posts would
definitely show my view of the convention. 

As you can see from my comments above, I am one of the attendees that
would strongly disagree. And I am someone who has been a GM and has won
wood. I also respect running good tournaments at the WBC and I have a
long record of fighting for a particular tournament format as the GM of
Memoir '44 because I thought it was a fairer and more interesting format
even though it made the tournament slightly longer. So I am not against
running competitive tournaments at WBC. 

Mark

Mark Guttag - Aug 12, 2011 12:01 pm (#36616 Total: 36678)  
Fairfax, VA 	 

>It's perhaps a better discussion within the various genres, but I've
been wondering how best to still run tournaments when you get to the
weekend crunch of semis and finals? 

>I personally wouldn't want to volunteer to run an event starting
saturday (because I'd like to hope I might actually be participating in
some of those semis and finals). 

One way might to be to have teams or pools of GMs run some of the
tournaments on Saturday so no one person is stuck running a tournament
for several hours in a row thereby preventing the GM from participating
in a semi-final or final. 

Mark


Jeff Schulte - Aug 12, 2011 12:04 pm (#36617 Total: 36678)  
www.jerseygamers.com 	 

I completely agree with Mark. The open gaming is a nice relief valve
from tournament play, as well as an opportunity to play games that have
almost no chance for a tournament. 

I generally only play in one to two tournaments each year and fill the
rest with open gaming. I see open gaming as a big attraction for many
that go to the WBC, and obviously many agree because it has been growing
the last few years. The tournaments are the core of the con, but the
open gaming is a very nice feature. 


Martin Sample - Aug 12, 2011 12:06 pm (#36618 Total: 36678)  
Sometimes I wish we could just hit 'em over the head, rob 'em, 
and throw their bodies in the creek. 	 

It would probably take someone with more time than I have, but one way
to validate the theory that open gaming is driving up the attendance
increase would be to look at cumulative tournament attendance before and
after the auditorium was opened and see how it compares.


Robert Flowers - Aug 12, 2011 12:35 pm (#36619 Total: 36678)  

The idea of a "GM Pool" was kind of what I was thinking of for running
games on the weekend. Maybe the some of the top games who didn't quite
make the cut for the century could be the candidates. 

No official plaques or WBC backing, just maybe 3 rounds of single elim. 

And maybe we can use some of those tables in the back of Lampeter. 


Bob Sohn - Aug 12, 2011 12:38 pm (#36620 Total: 36678)  
xit 8A, Cranbury, NJ; Avatar: Korea at night, divided; 
Abraham Lincoln was a CDGer: "...it may as well be understood, 
once for all, that I shall not surrender this game leaving any 
available card unplayed." 	 

I agree with Mark G's post on open/tourney balance.

I've done the "fit every open time available with all tourneys all the
time" before in past cons, but I'm moving to more open gaming and then
peppering it with tourneys. More relaxing and feels more like a vacation
(to me). 

I would just wish for more qualifying options on Saturday or Sunday
morning for those of us who don't make semis.


Jeff Burdett - Aug 12, 2011 12:40 pm (#36621 Total: 36678)  

I agree with the earlier guy - let's bitch about the auction!!! I know
this comes up every freaking year, but why do we have to waste time on
the magazine lots in the auction? I know, there were fewer this year -
but why are there any? This really irked me this year, because the
auction closed so early I wasn't able to submit items that would have
gone for 40+ dollars and had to watch junk go for less than five. I have
a couple of suggestions: 

- anything submitted for auction that went for less than 20 bucks in
previous years has to go to the store - raise the maximum for the
auction store (I'm not even sure why the maximum exists??). This is
especially true since the auction has closed so early.


Mr. Winslow - Aug 12, 2011 12:40 pm (#36622 Total: 36678)  
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of 
arriving in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid 
in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly 
proclaiming, "Wow, what a ride!" 	 

>I'm moving to more open gaming and then peppering it with tourneys.
More relaxing and feels more like a vacation (to me). 

Me too. 

>I would just wish for more qualifying options on Saturday or Sunday
morning for those of us who don't make semis. 

Me too, though not Sunday, as I have to leave that morning to rescue my
dog...


Jeff Burdett - Aug 12, 2011 12:43 pm (#36623 Total: 36678)  

And another suggestion for the auction - could we go in some order? That
way you could plan to be there around a certain time and be able to
avoid all the junk. Maybe just cull out the collectibles, and then go in
lot order.


Herr Dr. - Aug 12, 2011 12:57 pm (#36624 Total: 36678)  
Working on a CDW of Spanish Civil War 
	 
"...One way might to be to have teams or pools of GMs..." 

We've been doing that for years with PoG; also did it with Wash War this
year. We always have a grand poo-pah GM and then a band of brothers that
split up the work. Works very well. 

I don't see any issue with the open gaming; current mix works well - and
I agree that the heavy focus of WBC needs to remain on the tourneys or
we would morph into some gencon/orgins thing (yuk).


Martin Sample - Aug 12, 2011 1:04 pm (#36625 Total: 36678)  
Sometimes I wish we could just hit 'em over the head, rob 'em, and throw 
their bodies in the creek. 	 

>I agree with the earlier guy - let's bitch about the auction!!! I know
this comes up every freaking year, but why do we have to waste time on
the magazine lots in the auction? I know, there were fewer this year -
but why are there any? This really irked me this year, because the
auction closed so early I wasn't able to submit items that would have
gone for 40+ dollars and had to watch junk go for less than five. I have
a couple of suggestions: 

Note, I am not one of the head auction guys, so take these with a grain
of salt. 

As one of the people who has sorted the majority of the stuff for the
last several years, there were WAY less magazines than in the past .
Many of those you saw in the store WERE submitted for the auction and
rejected. And after seeing how cheap the old issues of the General went,
I think next year even they will go to the store based on some
conversations we had during the auction. Not too long ago they used to
fetch a decent price, and the ones this year were in binders, which we
thought might get decent money. Wrong. It happens. 

After that, there was hardly any mags at all. Sometimes the description
doesn't tell us it's a mag til it we see it when it shows up. And by
then it's too late to toss it in the store because it messes up the
record keeping. 

>anything submitted for auction that went for less than 20 bucks in
previous years has to go to the store - raise the maximum for the
auction store (I'm not even sure why the maximum exists??). This is
especially true since the auction has closed so early. 

I can't speak to the maximum and why it sits where it does. As far as
culling based on prior years, sounds good in principle. But that means
someone has to look up not just the 600 plus lots, but ones that might
get "researched" and rejected. Ken already spends a LOT of time not just
before the con but DURING the con reconciling all this stuff. 

<And another suggestion for the auction - could we go in some order?
That way you could plan to be there around a certain time and be able to
avoid all the junk. Maybe just cull out the collectibles, and then go in
lot order. 

Lot order sounds fine in principle. But let's say Lot #10 is a copy of a
non collectible. So is lot#500. If a person loses on bidding on lot #10,
they have to wait til #500 to bid on the same item. Or, lot #11 is a
rail game. So is lot #501. The interested bidder only is interested in
rail games. He has to wait til lot #501 to bid again. 

And sorting in lot order - and maintaining that order as the stuff is
checked in, moved to staging tables, and then moved to the podium will
be more work. 

If you don't want to spend all day there, buy it on Ebay, or give
someone a high bid amount who WILL be there. I know people already do
that a lot. It ain't perfect. Someone is always going to have to spend
longer there than they do. 

I am sure Ken and/or Bruce will weigh in on these issues.


Jeff Burdett - Aug 12, 2011 1:46 pm (#36626 Total: 36678)  

arty - I should have prefaced my comments by saying I realize how much
work is put into the auction, and I do appreciate that. I'm not sure my
suggestions would entail that much more work, since each entry is
checked for value anyway. And instead of auctioning off in lot order,
perhaps they could be bunched by smaller categories - like magazines,
WWI games, WWII games, etc. Again, doesn't seem like it would be that
much more work, and would make it less dangerous to go take a leak and
miss the one thing you might have been interested in.


Bruce Reiff - Aug 12, 2011 1:47 pm (#36627 Total: 36678)  
"(Mike) Brown's only good personnel move was being Paul Brown's Son. 
Otherwise Mike would probably be an assistant manager at Skyline Chili 
and telling the boss to install pay toilets." David Whitley AOL Columnist 7-27-11 
	 
WBC Auction

Jeff - what Marty has said is pretty much spot on. If we were to go in
lot order I gaurantee that the complaints from the 'seperate the euros
from the wargames' crowd would drown out the go in lot order complaints
by a large margin. As Marty points out, we don't necessarily even
receive things in lot order and it would be a huge burden to try and
organize them that way. 

Magazines - we are clearing as many to the store as we can. I can tell
you that any generals that are in volume #'s of 10 or higher will be
rejected from the auction next year and forced to the store (unless it's
a really big lot). A few years ago we sold a whole set for several
thousand dollars - the price has come way, way down and as Marty said
the binders used to sell well. We do our best, but sometimes we're just
flat out wrong. You should have seen the list of things we did
reject..... 

Auction Store maximum is designed for two things - one is to put the
good stuff in the auction and the other is to keep people from
embarassing themsleves. We had a record amount of stuff NOT sold this
year becuase people think that the THEIR Luftwaffe or Trivial Pursuit is
worth $30. If they didn't have a lid then they'd try for even more.
Already this year I heard bitching about how overpriced things were in
the store. No cap is just a disater waiting to happen - imho. 

Also one thing that most people didn't know about is that we sold a lot
of items from Gerald Leintz's collection this year and that took up
quite a bit of space and caused the auction to close more quickly this
year. Hopefully we don't have anymore estates coming in anytime soon. 

Ideally we'd love every item in the auction to sell for $30 or more, and
we're working towards that. I do ask you to remember that we are all
volunteers and are doing our best.


Bruce Reiff - Aug 12, 2011 1:53 pm (#36628 Total: 36678)  
"(Mike) Brown's only good personnel move was being Paul Brown's Son. 
Otherwise Mike would probably be an assistant manager at Skyline Chili 
and telling the boss to install pay toilets." David Whitley AOL Columnist 7-27-11 	 

>perhaps they could be bunched by smaller categories - like magazines,
WWI games, WWII games, etc 

More likely would be by company - at least in the wargame section. We
already do seperate Sports and Rail.


Jeff Burdett - Aug 12, 2011 1:55 pm (#36629 Total: 36678)  

Thanks for all your help Bruce - I know the auction is a logistical
nightmare and you guys do a fabulous job. My comment on bitching about
the auction was tongue in cheek - everything has room for improvement
though . 

Lot numbers may not be the best way to organize, but how about more
categories as I suggested above? The only reason I suggested the higher
max for the store is that the auction itself closes so early, it leaves
items with higher value disqualified (believe me, I intend to enter my
stuff immediately this year, and I hope you are ruthless with my "junk"
in sending it to the store )


Martin Sample - Aug 12, 2011 1:55 pm (#36630 Total: 36678)  
Sometimes I wish we could just hit 'em over the head, rob 'em, and throw 
their bodies in the creek. 	 

>I'm not sure my suggestions would entail that much more work, since
each entry is checked for value anyway. 

Well, checked in the sense that Ken and Bruce, having sold ( and bought
) thousands of items over the years, have a good idea off the top of
their heads what they are worth. When sorting stuff by category, on a
few occasions we whipped out a smartphone and looked it up to see if it
merited collectible status or not. But this was a VERY small number of
items. The collective wisdom of the auctioneers gets it close the vast
majority of the time "off the top of their head". There is no "research"
per se. 

Martin Sample - Aug 12, 2011 1:58 pm (#36631 Total: 36678)  
Sometimes I wish we could just hit 'em over the head, rob 'em, and throw 
their bodies in the creek. 	 

As Bruce points out, the Auction ended earlier this year both in terms
of sign ups and the actual event because of the large number of lots
from the estate auction. IIRC it was about a third of the number of
lots. We were surprised it ended around 4PM, as in the past it has
usually pushed 5PM. And some lots never got dropped off. Maybe next year
Ken will edge the number of lots assigned up a bit. Between that and
maybe not having an estate take up a huge number of lots, it won't close
out as fast.


Mark Guttag - Aug 12, 2011 2:13 pm (#36632 Total: 36678)  
airfax, VA 	 

>Magazines - we are clearing as many to the store as we can. I can tell
you that any generals that are in volume #'s of 10 or higher will be
rejected from the auction next year and forced to the store (unless it's
a really big lot). A few years ago we sold a whole set for several
thousand dollars - the price has come way, way down and as Marty said
the binders used to sell well. We do our best, but sometimes we're just
flat out wrong. You should have seen the list of things we did
reject..... 

Bruce (and Ken), 

I thought you did a really good of screening items for the auction this
year. I saw very few items that I would have considered only Auction
store appropriate. The only reason I didn't stay for more of the
auctions was because there were fewer items that I was interested in,
and that is mainly due to the size of my game collection not the quality
of what was offered for sale. 

I also think that the Auction Store worked great; the extra space made
it a much less hectic experience. I was also impressed with how fast the
Auction Store space was converted into gaming space once the Auction
Store closed.

Mark


Joel A Tamburo - Aug 12, 2011 2:35 pm (#36633 Total: 36678)  
Learning each day how much I don't know. 	 

Thanks for the additional Auction detail Bruce. A number of us had
wondered why it closed to new items so quickly - now we know. 

As to Auction Store maximums, hopefully those whose items did not sell
this year get the message and next year use lower pricing.
 

Martin Sample - Aug 12, 2011 2:38 pm (#36634 Total: 36678)  
Sometimes I wish we could just hit 'em over the head, rob 'em, and throw 
their bodies in the creek. 	 

My favorite are the optimist Auction Store sellers who list the same
price for 9:30, 12PM, and 2PM. 

They should have to pay extra to get their games back, as should anyone
whose games don't sell. Might encourage some more realistic prices.


Gregory Schmittgens - Aug 12, 2011 3:02 pm (#36635 Total: 36678)  
JADG! 
	 
I'd like to go in a totally different direction from something Mark G
said above - "I did not feel adequately prepared to play in the
tournaments I had planned to play in" 

Disclaimer - I really focused on tournaments this year. I'm not a super
competitive guy. I just enjoy the games that have tournaments and I
enjoy knowing when Game X will be played. 

For me, "preparing" means sitting through a play or two of the game
before the convention to make sure I'm refreshed on the rules and
hopefully don't make a completely boneheaded play. 

I get the impression that Mark expects more from his preparation - a
level of skill that exceeds knowing the rules. Not just how to play -
how to win. 

How do you prepare? When do you think you're prepared enough for WBC
tournaments?

Ewan - Aug 12, 2011 3:13 pm (#36636 Total: 36678)  

>How do you prepare? When do you think you're prepared enough for WBC
tournaments? 

The first part, sadly, is 'I don't, these days' - not quite true, as I
get some online practice in for Britannia and Ingenious, but that's
basically the case. The second - well, I think that depends only on
one's tolerance for failure, and also on the tournament. I was reading
some GeekLists on WBC this past week; people have different experiences.
For example, Sean McCulloch noted that he played Brit for the first time
in a while, and got schooled; that seems to me to be ideal and what we
should encourage, if - as in Sean's case - it's not going to bother you
overly. Games I have learnt at WBC in this fashion include War at Sea,
Auction, Titan the Arena, and this year March Madness. [In two of those
I now have 'loser wood,' so at least some of the lessons stuck!] On the
other hand, another GeekList noted an example of really horrendous
behavior toward a relative novice when their move was not as expected.
That needs to be smacked down hard, but may also put someone off; my
perception (and it's only that, no data) is that the risk of such
encounters is greater in large-field Euro games where there may be less
of a community around the game. So I can see that any given person might
want to prepare more for that kind of environment - but then again, not
sure how you really do so except for just jumping in, or maybe spending
days on BSW . 


Roger Taylor - Aug 12, 2011 3:36 pm (#36641 Total: 36678)  
"...by responding to the personals ads, they're not only cheating on each 
other, they're cheating on each other WITH each other!" - Crow T. Robot, 
on the Pina Colada song 
	 
I'm another one who spends most of WBC in open gaming these days. I
think I played in a record-low two tournaments this year (Labyrinth and
March Madness). 

My usual motivation in entering tournaments is to play games I want to
play more than I get opportunities to play at home. I have entered
tournaments with very little experience in a game precisely to remedy
that. I usually hold my own if the rest of the field is inexperienced,
as with a new game. But I'm too much of a dilettante to learn all the
deep strategies and tactics of most games, so some of my tournament
games can get ugly. But hey, that's cool, and I'm sure my victorious
opponents would agree -- provided they were two-player games (see
below). 

>On the other hand, another GeekList noted an example of really
horrendous behavior toward a relative novice when their move was not as
expected. 

Most mistakes in a multi-player game will benefit one player more than
the others. Anyone who can't handle that fact of life
*coughPuertoRicocough* should play two-player games for blood instead.


Joel A Tamburo - Aug 12, 2011 3:36 pm (#36642 Total: 36678)  
Learning each day how much I don't know. 
	 
The auction is indeed well run. It is actually a tribute to the staff
that they get a large number of lots processed and sold in the
relatively short time allocated to the auction.


Gregory Schmittgens - Aug 12, 2011 4:07 pm (#36649 Total: 36678)  
IJADG! 	 

Ewan mentioned 'tolerance for failure' and 'really horrendous behavior'.

Tolerance for failure: Maybe I have a limit, but I've never found it.
Not even close. 

Really horrendous behavior: Unfortunately, I know two (local) gamers who
attended WBC. . .once. And never will again because of horrendous
behavior in multiplayer Euros. Shame on us.


Peter Stein - Aug 12, 2011 4:54 pm (#36650 Total: 36678)  
WBC- the best nine days of losing anywhere!!! 
	 
Based on several events that I've seen held during precons the past few
years, I think they learned their lesson. 

And IIRC I don't think the people who own the Host now owned it then.
But I could be wrong about that.


Ewan - Aug 12, 2011 5:21 pm (#36651 Total: 36678)  
Shame on us.

Indeed. There's only one gamer with whom I simply will not play at WBC;
but in that case, behavior long ago crossed the line where if I were
smaller, shy, or among fewer friends I would not come back due to simple
fear of being attacked. On the plus side, that's only one, in a
multi-thousand population and an environment where the stress and
competitive levels are high: the norm of WBC behavior is really pretty
damn good, and I think getting better both because of group norms and
because of efforts by Don and others to be very upfront and proactive
about being willing to enforce expulsion. My now-wife came to a PrezCon
maybe ten-twelve years ago, and almost ran out of the room from the
looks she received and the ambience; I think we have as a group in fact
come a long way; she still won't come back. The Juniors' room is another
examnple of Don, the Board, and WBC in general making things better.
Doesn't mean that there's not more to be done. 

Sean: mostly over email using an online map (see e.g.
http://marjola.net/br1/britannia.cgi?load=britgame2011-2 ), and I'd be
delighted to get you into a game if you want; but there is also an
active group arranging games and tournaments at
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/eurobrit/ . I have been meaning for
a year or two now to get a BPA email tournament up and running, and this
might be the year.


Robert Frisby - Aug 12, 2011 6:37 pm (#36652 Total: 36678)  
Game Master Report for 1776

In the first Semi-Final game, Greg Tanner bid 14 strategic towns to play
the British against Robert Frisby. Tanner had defeated Frisby's British
forces two days earlier. In this Semi-Final, the armies spent most of
the game maneuvering for position and fought few battles. The most
notable battle prior to the last turn took place in Boston when a
Continental force of about 9 SPs cleared Boston by eliminating 4
entrenched British SPs. The game also featured two naval battles. Early
on the Continental fleet blockaded Philadelphia and then survived an
attack from one British battle fleet. The Continental fleet then impeded
British naval movement a second turn before a second British assault
knocked it out of the game. The British brought in most of their
reinforcements in Philadelphia and fanned out from there. They occupied
14 towns on the last turn. The Continental forces reached a handful of
British controlled strategic towns. In the first battle, the
Continentals eliminated the British garrison in Fort Stanwix in an
attack at favorable odds. This made it unnecessary to resolve the
remaining battles, all of which involved less favorable odds for the
Continentals. 

In the other Semi-Final game, Steve Packwood bid 14 to play the British
against David Dockter. On turn one the British abandoned Quebec and the
Continentals soon thereafter abandoned Fort Ticonderoga and sent their
main army to New York. The British responded by deploying most of their
troops in the northern regions while removing virtually all of their
British regulars from the southern regions until the last quarter. By
the last turn, they controlled 16 strategic towns, including all of the
strategic towns in New England. Concluding that only two of the 16
British controlled towns were vulnerable to attack on the last turn, the
Continentals conceded. 

The Final between Steve Packwood and Robert Frisby was a rematch from
the 2008 and 2010 Finals. Packwood defeated Frisby in 2008 and Frisby
defeated Packwood in 2010. In this year's Final, Packwood bid 15 for the
British. The armies did not fight any major battles until the last turn
of the game. By then the British occupied 19 strategic towns. The
Continentals mustered enough troops to attack five of the 19 British
controlled towns. They needed to eliminate the entire British garrison
in all five cities to win the game. They had a 4-1 (-1 DRM) in Wyoming;
a 2-1 in Norwich; a 3-2 in Hartford; a 3-2 (-1 DRM) in Richmond; and a
3-2 (-1 DRM) in Hillsboro. The Continentals lost the battle at Hillsboro
when they obtained an "NE" following an adverse tactical card result.
The British victory there made it unnecessary to resolve the other four
battles. 

This year the players bid either 14 or 15 strategic towns to play the
British in all 14 games. The bid was 15 in eight games and 14 in six
games. The British won five of the eight games where the bid was 15. The
British won three of the six games where the bid was 14. The bid was 14
in both semi-final games, and the British went 1-1. The bid was 15 in
the final, and the British prevailed. It thus appears that we can
achieve reasonable play balance with bids in the 14-15 range. 

None of the players used chess clocks this year, even though the event
preview provided for their use. This did not seem to cause any problems;
therefore, we will likely stop providing for their use in the tournament
rules and procedures.


Grant LaDue - Aug 12, 2011 9:39 pm (#36659 Total: 36678)  
ou can't have eggs, bacon, spam, and sausage without the spam.
 	 
I'm not going to get into the argument about whether the auction deserves "protection" or not. People's opinions are by-and-large too entrenched to get a meaningful discussion. My auction thoughts:

1) The Auction is an all volunteer event. 

2) Whenever you've got a question about how it's run, always remember
rule 1) first. 

3) Within the constraints of 1) remember that time is short. Mistakes
*will* be made, things *will* be miss-assigned. 

4) It takes a remarkable amount of time to research everything that goes
into the auction and evaluate what categories they fall under. Even
worse, whole groups of games cross over between categories, and could
legitimately go into either one. 

5) The published list is merely of those games that have been
registered. Games and entire lots fail to show up, and descriptions can
easily be off/incomplete/down right wrong. A significant amount of
guessing will *always* be involved. 

6) Prices are very very difficult to predict. Auctions are unpredictable
by their nature. Prices are determined by many factors, and change
radically from year to year. In the four years I've been really watching
the auction, magazine prices have dropped precipitously, without any
readily apparent cause. 

7) Along the same lines, the amount of time the auction takes is very
*very* difficult to predict. In particular, I think year's auction was
faster than normal because quite an unusual number of lots had very
light bidding. Items that go for small amounts go quite quickly. 

8: Never forget 1). 

9) If you pay attention to online prices and what you may be interested
in, you can get nice prices at the auction. Know what you're looking for
and what it may go for before you go. Harder to do at the store, but
it's still wise to have good rough ideas in your head. It's a lot more
fun if you don't look them up as you go.


Kaarin Engelmann - Aug 13, 2011 9:32 am (#36669 Total: 36678)  

Lancaster Host is already sold out for WBC 2012. The Host will take 
names for callback Waiting List in the event of cancellations.


Mark Kalina - Aug 13, 2011 3:07 pm (#36678 Total: 36678)  
Blue Iguana Games - Game Publisher - www.BlueIguanaGames.com "An 
honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over 
his fellow citizens" 	 

My take

I like the site for convention purposes - I stay elsewhere

I play in one or two tournaments

I open game

I won't sit hours on end for an auction - life is too short

I couldn't attend this year due to conflicting schedules

I regretted not being able to attend

I am sure when I return next year not much will have changed

I am sure the continued opinions we have witnessed about the WBC will
continue as long as it exists 

I haven't heard much about the food offerings this year? Something else
for folks to "chew on" as it were.... 

I don't think I missed any of the points of contention about the
convention! 

In the end, I just want to play a game!