From: Mark Boone Subject: AVALONCON report Well, just got back from Avaloncon and thought I'd pass along my views on it. Overall, I had a great time. The hotel facilities and the organization of the convention were very good. Of the Tournaments I was in, all ran pretty smoothly, except for AoR which needed a consistant method for advancing players to each round.Sales at the AH booth seemed steady with the hot item being "Titan Arena" ($21). Noticed a lot of people playing Air Baron, Hannibal, and AoR too. Games I played were: Age of Renaissance, Gangsters, Across Five Aprils, Pax Britannica, Titan Arena, Atlantic Storm, and Enemy in Sight. Also, caught a demo game for House on the Hill. Below are some capsule comments on some new/demo games: Titan Arena is a card based game spin-off from Titan. Basically you have 8 titan creatures 'fighting' in a arena. There are 5 rounds and at the end of each round, one creature is eliminated; leaving 3 at the end of the game. As players, you bet on the creature you think is going to win (be one of the 3 survivors). Bets are worth more in early rounds than later. You can make 5 bets (1 of which is secret). Person with the highest bet total at the end wins. Each round players draw and play cards to enhance/reduce the power of the current creatures. Each creature has special abilities which the player with the most bets on it can use. Game is easy to learn and fairly short in play time (~30min). Just about everywhere I went I saw it being played or tucked under some gamers arm. Atlantic Storm was another demo game that I played and should be out in November. It is a card based game designed by Ben Knight and covers the battle in the Atlantic during WW2. Players play cards representing air, surface, or sub units in order to either sink or escort the current convoy card in play. Each turn, a new convoy card is turned up. The first player then decides the 'trump' (Air, Surface, or Sub) to be used. Each card has a Air/Surface/Sub value of 0-6. Once trump is named, each player plays cards. The player can play Axis cards (sink the convoy) or Allied cards (escort the convoy). After everyone has played, the total trump value of the Axis is compared to that of the Allies, with the highest total winning. Then the player with the highest trump value on the winning side gets the convoy card and any point value cards played by the losing side. If all cards played are for one side (Axis or Allies), then only the convoy card is awarded. All convoys and most of the player cards have point values, player with the most points at the end of the game wins. This was a fun game, easy to learn, and ran about 1.5 hr to play. Everyone at the table gave it a thumbs up and said they would buy it when it comes out (~$21). House on the Hill is a game by Bruce Glassco where players explore a haunted house, due out sometime in '98. Players play tiles representing rooms to build the house as they explore each level of it. Their goal is to find what is haunting the house and then solve the problem. As players explore, they can find useful items and clues about the haunt. One neat twist is that of the players, one of them is secretly a traitor who will work against them, playing to keep the players from winning. When a player character dies, it comes back as a ghost to additionally hamper the efforts of the remaining players. Game concept was fun and easy to learn, but there are so many combinations of rooms, items, and haunts that it will be a bear to properly playtest. Well that's it for now. Time to get back to my real life. Mark. From: Ed & Sarah Beach Subject: Brief Avaloncon Report The Great Campaigns of the American Civil War tournaments at Avaloncon were bigger and better again this year. We usually get a full after-action report from Ken Lee, gamemaster for the overall GCACW championship, with all of the detailed information on number of players, etc. -- I'll check with Ken and make sure he'll have time to do that report this year. In the mean time I just wanted to congratulate the winners of this year's tournaments and awards: Roads to Gettysburg -- Joe Bellas Stonewall's Last Battle -- Bob Jamelli Stonewall Jackson's Way -- Jeff Otto Here Come The Rebels -- Joe Bellas Stonewall in the Valley -- Trevor Bender Overall Champion -- Joe Bellas "Risen from the Ranks" -- Bob Jamelli "Rookie of the Year" -- Marty Hogan Joe and Jeff drove out from Ohio together; I hope their car was ready for the additional load on the way home! And special congratulations are in order to Marty Hogan, who attended the teaching seminar before the Stonewall's Last Battle tournament -- and then proceeded to run strong and vie for the championship throughout the tournament (he finished a close second). In fact he was the only player to defeat Bob Jamelli during SLB, winning a decisive victory at Brandy Station. Mark Booth gave him a run for his money in the "Rookie of the Year" category, but Marty came out on top. We also played both Long Roads to Gettysburg and the Penisula Campaign. Not sure how LRTG turned out, but the Penisula demo was where I spent most of my time. Joe Balkoski and I had five other players dropping in and taking commands during the weekend. Playing only intermittently, we were able to play 45 turns (April 5 to May 19) thanks to some of the new mechanics we've introduced to simulate lulls in the action over such a long campaign. The Union army was able to crack the Warwick River defense line and pressure the Rebel retreat through Williamsburg. However, McClellan then stalled for several weeks, not daring to force an attack through the Rebel line at the upper end of the Penisula. He was able to secure Norfolk however, after two weeks of attacks from forces based in Fort Monroe. With the ironclad Virginia (Merrimac) destroyed during the attack on Norfolk (it had sortied against the Monitor once, but the battle was inconclusive), the James River was now open to the Union navy. And so, in the second week of May, McClellan finally moved, sending three divisions amphibiously to the Harrison's Landing area followed shortly thereafter by a bridging of the Chickahominy so the rest of the army could join the amphibious forces in Charles City county. Had we continued, the Union would have faced the tough prospect of forcing their way northwest some 15 miles to the outskirts of Richmond against a well-organized and rested Rebel army under Johnston. McClellan was holding out hope that McDowell's corps might be able to march south from Fredericksburg to join him, since so far Jackson's Valley campaign had not gone well for that famous Rebel commander... It was great fun, tremendously exciting at times, and we've made notes on several areas where we could improve some of the Advanced Game mechanics. Quite a productive weekend for the On To Richmond project... If you've never made it to Avaloncon, I encourage you to strongly consider it in the future. It's definitely the premiere event for Great Campaigns players. -Ed Beach __________________________________________ Ed & Sarah Beach email: waveland@smart.net Web page: http://www.smart.net/~waveland Check out the Great Campaigns of the Civil War home page at: http://www.smart.net/~waveland/gcacw.htm From: Winston E Forrest Subject: Some thoughts on AVALONCON On Mon, 4 Aug 1997 21:05:53 -0700 "D. Holte" writes: >> >>This, along with 4 major cons being on successive weekends.. >> > >Gary, > >I've never quite understood this one either - Is it an ego thing >between those that run the Cons? > > >-Danny > Actually, It's probably convention hotel availability. Ever tried to get into one of these hotels during the week from September through May? Businesses heve them wrapped up for meetings and conventions,and the rates are usually higher. My thoughts about the DonCon are mixed. I would like to see more companies in the mix, but I do not want to turn this into a more "commercial" con, with a large dealer area. One of the nice things about DonCon is the competition and emphasis on gaming. One bright spot, IMO, was the numbers of teenagers and women playing all types of games. Though few played the hardcore wargames, many played Age of Rennaissance, History of the World, Civilization, etc. Also, I think that the numbers were down (according to Don by about 100 people), it seemed like there were far fewer than that due to the added space that was available this year. So, once again, I think that the death of this hobby is greatly exaggerated. Winston Forrest WEForrest@Juno.com "Enliven the ancient and also know what is new; then you can be a teacher." - Kung Fu Tzu From: Wray Ferrell Subject: AvalonCon: New Games I thought people might be interested in the new games seen at AvalonCon. After six nights with little sleep I make no claims to the readability or coherency of this note... Titan: The Arena ($20) - Go buy it. A wonderful beer and pretzel game that plays in about 45 minutes. Some luck, but a lot of strategy. Basically, you start with eight monsters. Each round one monster dies, game ends with three monsters standing. The people who had bets left on those monsters left alive total up thier score and see who won. Bets placed in the first round (ie all eight monsters left) are worth five. Bets reduce a point for each round thereafter. 4, 3, 2, 1. Bets in the fifth round (ie four monsters left) are worth nothing. Also, before the first round is over you can place a secret bet which is worth five. Each monster has combat cards running from 0 to 10. Therefore, you want to play high combat cards on your monsters and low combat cards on monsters you have no money on. Each monster can only be bet on once per round. The fun begins in the second and later rounds when multiple players start having bets on the same monsters. Nothing better than having a four point bet on a monster and in the second round someone places a three point bet on him. Now there are two people who have an interest in keeping that monster alive. Whoever has the most money on a monster and plays a card on that monster gets to use it's special power. Powers range from discarding a previously played card on the board, playing two cards in a row, drawing extra cards ect.. And finally to keep things interesting, there are spectators numbered 0 to 11 that can be played on any monster. When played they negate that monster's special ability the next time it would normally be invoked. House on the Hill (NYA) - Scheduled for release in Oct 1998! A lot like the old OOP game Blackmoor Manor. Exploring an old house that is being haunted. Each player begins with four tiles and can lay down one tile per turn. Certain rooms allow you to draw cards. These cards can be items, clues, or a haunting card. Once a haunting card is drawn, you determine what room you found it in and what the last clue found was. This is crossindexed into what is haunting the house. In our game, the haunt was found in the chapel and the last clue item was the girl. Our haunt was that cultists had captured the girl and was preparing to sacrifice her to the dark gods. Upon our arrival they summoned a sprit to attack us. Our job was to find the holy symbol (which would protect us in the chapel) and go rescue the girl or find the silver ring and defeat the monster in combat. To add spice to the game, one of the tiles is a Traitor! tile. Once a player draws this, he keeps it secret and now has a different set of victory conditions. In our game the traitor wanted to take the holy symbol and ring to the chapel where they could be destroyed. Therefore someone in the group COULD be a traitor, but you never know. Really neat game, a little rough, but I look forward to seeing it. Currently there are over fifty haunting so I would think it has excellent replay value. Princess Ryan's Star Marines ($60) - Very nice components, sturdy cards, but for $60 it should be. Basically, one to four marines vs the Black Guard. The game system can play the Black Guard, but is it not near as much fun that way. You have to work your way across the board and rescue the princess before running out of time. Upon entering each square you make a site check. If failed, you do not end up on the square on the board, but on a site drawn from a deck. (Nice feature that means each game plays quite different) Each site has certain conditions that apply to the battles fought there. Always better to make your site check as that is known. Failure means something different which is not always bad, but could be. Then you make a time check. Each site has a number. A time check less than that number means the marines lose a time chit. The marines only have 15 to start the game with and must win before running out of time. Once the last time chit is used, the Black Guard wins. Then the black guard can play a card on the site. Some are hidden meaning the marines have no idea what is there or revealed. Some cards have automatic reinforcements, some have automatic casuality (sp?) checks, ect... Each marine has a special ability which can be tapped once. If the marines stop to regroup (which costs three time chits) all special abilities are available for use again. In each battle, each player picks one of his three marines and a weapon (face down) card to play. Weapons run from 1 to 13. The combat value of the marine is his weapon + flag value. The marine's flag values run from 1 to 6. If the marines win the battle, highest combat marine gets Prestige points and a card. The cards do all sorts of things to affect site, time checks, combat ect.. If the black guard wins, he gets a card and the lowest combat valued marine must make a casuality check. Marine that actually finds the princess wins. Whoever gets the card after a battle, that Marine gets to ask the black guard player a question about where the princess is being held. Thus there is some tension between the marines as you want the marines to win, but your marine to get the glory. A fun game, but the tension between the marines needs to be increased. Too often in our games the marines were a well-oiled machine. "We are expenable, only the mission counts" Given that attitude, the black guard will almost never win. I feel sure some people love cooperative games and will find that sastisfying. Our group thought if the marines had more incentive to be self-serving, ala Republic of Rome it would make the game more interesting. Wray From: aarondf@bu.edu (Aaron D. Fuegi) Subject: Re: AvalonCon: New Games Daniel Blum (tool@MCS.COM) wrote: : In rec.games.board Wray Ferrell wrote: : > I thought people might be interested in the new games : > seen at AvalonCon. After six nights with little sleep : > I make no claims to the readability or coherency of : > this note... : > Titan: The Arena ($20) - Go buy it. A wonderful : > : > alive total up thier score and see who won. Bets placed : > in the first round (ie all eight monsters left) are worth : > five. Bets reduce a point for each round thereafter. : > 4, 3, 2, 1. Bets in the fifth round (ie four monsters left) : > are worth nothing. Also, before the first round is : > : What's the design credit on this one? It sounds a lot like : Reiner Knizia's Grand National Derby (a horse-racing game : published in Europe [by Piatnik, I think]). It is by Knizia as well I am 95% sure. Also, btw there is one slight mistake in the information above. Secret bets (limited to one per player and only able to be placed during the first round) are worth 5 but standard visible bets in the 1st round are worth 4 (NOT 5) and then reduce one point each round thereafter. It is a quite fun b&p game although NOTHING whatsoever like Titan. The cover description of "a fierce game of deadly combat" (I think this is the correct quote) is 100% wrong, though. It is an amusing b&p bidding game. The game I have played it is closest to (although lighter and with less skill and more diplomacy) is Modern Art. : Dan Blum tool@mcs.net Aaron From: ahruneq@aol.com (AH RuneQ) Subject: Re: AvalonCon: New Games >Just a thought..........Remember when new Avalon Hill releases meant new >WARGAMES??? Times are hard for the grognard, eh? > > Pete It's not as bad as you might think.. Avalon Hill also released the ASL '97 Annual for Avaloncon, and we're hard at work finishing up Successors: The Battles for Alexander's Empire, a Hannibal-esque wargame. Also tested at Avaloncon was Atlantic Storm, which, although a card game, is a game of World War II convoy-protection and naval combat. Combined with two new Civil War games coming soon, there's hope for the grognard yet! -J.C. TAHGC From: RayFreeman@AOL.COM Subject: Avaloncon 1997 Report from Avaloncon I arrived Tuesdays night (actually Wednesday morning) about 2:30 AM due to a very late flight from San Francisco. The place was dead. However, there was a fair number of people around the next morning. I played Gettysburg 88 (got killed as the Union in only 6 turns) in the morning, won a game of Storm Over Arnhem in the afternoon, coincidentally against a fellow I had been corresponding with via e mail about my Tigers in the Mist game, and settled in to play Breakout:Normandy that evening in the mulligan round. I sucked poor Bill Edwards (who won the event 2 years ago) into playing me and pestered him with dumb questions throughout while torturing him by consistently rolling 8s and 9s all night. I won by adjudication about 11:30 pm. The general consensus seemed to be that attendance was slightly lower this year. That may be true, however War at Sea and Victory in the Pacific both drew larger fields than last year. There were a number of new games being shown, played, and demoed, including some from GMT (I noticed Barbarossa) and Kevin Zucker was showing off his latest version of Napolean at Bay, with maps by Youst and counters by MacGowan. AH also had a card game called Titan:The Arena. I'm clueless on it. Princess Ryan seemed to be getting little play (I only saw 2 games of it going). This may not be representative as I was very busy playing games myself, getting in 14 full and a few partial games over the duration. Of the 2 player wargames, I'd say (besides ASL) that Breakout:Normandy, Hannibal, and Up Front got the most play. I didn't pay much attention to the multiplayer stuff, only going into the upstairs ballroom once. Interestingly, both BKN and Hannibal were won by Jim Doughan, who is an expert Turning Point:Stalingrad player. Balkoski was showing off his latest GBACW offering, Roads to Richmond complete with hand colored marker map. The War at Sea tourney drew 32 plus players, a very respectable number. The competition was extremely fierce this year. I got hammered pretty good, finishing 2-2. I believe Bruce Monnin was 1-3 going into round 5, and Steve Packwood, last years winner also got beat up as did former champ Phil Rennert. The 4 semi-finalists were Tim Hitchings, Paul Siranni(?), Bryan Eshelman, and David Rynkowski. I must interject here that my two losses were to Eshelman (his Luftwaffe was using nuclear tipped rockets) and Rynkowski (I played the wrong opening and got clobbered). David beat Bryan and Tim outlasted Paul in the semis. David won in about 30 minutes, whereas Tim had to play a grueling 2-1/2 hour nail biter against Paul. I figured Tim was dead meat, as he must have been exhausted, but in the final he eventually prevailed, a well deserved win for a perinneal contender (Tim has been 2nd twice). Rynkowski is the future. He's 14 or 15 years old. Nice to see that. He also brought along his next door neighbor who is also pretty good. Victory in the Pacific started Friday and it was truly brutal. There seemed to be no easy marks this year, certainly I didn't face any. 42 players participated, and I'd say about 24 of them played all 7 rounds. I started off with wins over top ranked Alan Applebaum and 3rd ranked Dave Targonski (both past winners), but then played a risky/stupid move on turn 3 against my roomate Mike Kaye and got crushed. However, those three games averaged an exhausting 6.7 turns. I beat TD Glenn Petroski in round 4, and got by PGG experte and former WAS champ Phil Rennert in round 5 before sucumbing to Ed O'Connor in a grinding 8 turn game which literally went down to the last die roll. In round 7, Mike Ussery's hot dice (and my cold dice and his good play) did me in after only 5 turns. The event was won by Ed O'Connor, who defeated Mike Kaye in round 7 in a 7 turn game that wasn't really very close. Mike had atrocious luck in the Hawaiian Islands on turn 3, getting torn to pieces by Ed's LBA while rolling blanks. Mike only had one hit in his first 56 shots in that battle. He fought on gamely, but was in too big a hole to pull it out. Ed finished at 6-1, losing only to Phil Rennert. Mike was second at 5-2, he also lost to Alan. Alan took third at 5-2, he also lost to Phil. I think Phil took fourth at 5-2, he also lost to Mike K. Mike U. was fifth at 5-2, and I don't know who beat him. I finished 6th at 4-3, mainly by playing everyone above me in the crosstable. Dave Targonski was probably 7th as he had a pretty tough schedule. Last years winner, Bob Kondracki lost his first game and quit. I was very impressed by the quality of the opposition in this years VITP tournament. There were not very many quick victories for anyone. Mike Kaye blew out a couple of his opponents, but for the most part the games were long and very hard fought. In the past, Alan, Dave, and I have always had a couple of pretty easy wins. Not this year. It was a fight for survival all the way. My congratulations to Glenn Petroski for running an excellent event that has really turned into a gauntlet for anyone who thinks they have a chance at the plaque. Glenn also was inducted into the Avaloncon Hall of Fame this year as was Bruce Reiff (who has somehow won 13 plaques), Russ Gifford (TD of the ASL events), and one or two others whose names I've forgotten. One of the highlights of the Con for me was watching grognards (these guys REALLY qualify) Bruno Sinagaglio and Joe Beard go at it hammer and tongs in the Afrika Korps final. I wandered in about midway through the game at around 1 am while suffering from nervous insomnia. They finished at 5:15 am and I watched the whole time. I don't claim to have any idea how to figure out the technical aspects of what they were doing as I haven't played AK in about 30 years, but conceptually it was fascinating. These guys are masters of their craft. Bruno won as the Germans after a successful (and desperation) 1:1 captured Tobruk around 11:30 pm. The campaign down the escarpment to Alamein was just amazing to watch, as Joe, with no unit stronger than a 2, played a masterful delaying action, while Bruno avoided probably a dozen chances to screw up his offensive that most any mere mortal would have fallen into. As usual, Avaloncon was wonderful. I especially enjoy getting to see old friends from the east and midwest who I would never see otherwise and I always manage to make a couple of new friends every year. Finding games to play and people to play them with is never a problem there. I'm already looking forward to next year. From: desper@math.rutgers.edu (Rick Desper) Subject: Report from AvalonCon Avalon Con was a load of fun. I have not ever before played that much Diplomacy in one weekend. Three full-length games, plus one Gunboat game on Saturday evening. First game went pretty well. Landed Germany, one of my better countries. I got to meet Simon Szykman, Pouch publisher and Dip presence, who was playing Italy. I'm not so great at remembering names: Mike Tibbs was Russia, Austria and Turkey were Mark ?? and Vince ??, I don't remember England's name (he didn't last long) and France was Rex Martin. Had I known at the beginning of the game that Rex was one of the original designers of the game, and an employee of Avalon Hill, I probably would have been even more nervous than I started. Nervousness exacerbates a tremor I have, so at the beginning of the game I am convinced everybody thought I was nuts. The game went pretty well: E/F, R/T, central powers scrambling. Due to some unusual builds (only one fleet for England and zero for France in 1901) England was quickly overwhelmed. A/I stalemated R/T until the Russians landed in Ankara, broke the A/I alliance, and overwhelmed Austria. Italy kept France in check until the Turks broke lose. Austria went nuts and tried to invade Germany, but had his supply lines destroyed, so only one army made it. I abandoned the Vaterland and started sinking Russian fleets in Scandanavia (one...two...three...) The game is timed to end between 6 to 8 hours, at which point any coalition which controls 29 SCs can decide who shares the draw. As we passed the 7.5 hour mark, France, Russia, and Turkey were working together to get me down to 5 so they could exclude me. Austria and Italy (1 Sc each) were trying to help me stay at 6 for grins and giggles. The very last move consisted of Austrian A Ruhr moving to a vacant Holland (my SC) while my fleets in Denmark and North Sea cut the possible supports (Russian A Kiel, French A Belgium) so neither could make an attack stronger than the Austrian attack. I survived the year with 6 SCs, and time was called less than a minute later. I got a share of a 4-way. My second game, the next day, featured a Rick & Rick alliance between my Russia and Rick Copeland(?)'s Turkey. We were doing crazy things in the Balkans, but missed out when we took Greece instead of the Ionian in 1902. Italy replaced lost forces with a couple fleets and Turkey was boxed in. In the West, a Sea Lion crushed England in 3 years, but this was followed shortly by a stab by France of Germany. I was attacking Germany sort of from necessity, but he had attacked me in Scandanavia, so my SCs stayed even. But just as my armies were about to swing into Bohemia and Tyrolia, which would have crushed Austria completely, the smooth Austrian talker convinced Other Rick to stab (a decision he later admitted was wrong). Italy was playing a meta-game strategy, to try to ensure that his France from the previous day ranked well, he abandoned the boot to surround France with three fleets. Austria, Germany, and I were mucking about in Germany while I was telling Rick "Look you can take Sevastapol, but not anything else, so why not stab Austria and go for the big gains." He eventually did this, as France carried secret messages to me to ensure that Austria was surprised. The final move saw Italy wiped out as A/I grabbed the boot, Germany wandering around away from the homeland, and my army taking Rumania with Turkish support. At this point England and Italy were dead, Germany was a wreck, and though Austria and I each controlled 6 SC's, neither of us had a single fleet. We called it a 2-way (FT) and hit the bar early. Gunboat was OK, but too slow for my tastes. I'll let Simon describe the game if he chooses. His Italy did much better than my France. There were a lot of miswritten orders, as two of the players were simultaneously playing in the Mach final, and some of us have gotten used to the Judge's parsing as a crutch to ensure every force has an order written. (Gee, how did those Germans get into Burundy anyway?) I was going to sleep late Sunday and just come in for the awards but I woke up at 7 so I went in for the final round. I landed Austria, which fit my crazy mood well. I was hoping for best stab. My first instinct was to go Key Lepanto, but Italy was very new to the game, so I offered to let his fleet land in Greece as long as my fleet was let into the Ionian. The idea was to forego the build in favor of the position. With Russia and Turkey bouncing the Black Sea, this seeked like a risk I could afford. Well, there was a miscommunication which I interpreted as a stab, and Italy took Greece with an army, leaving me with no second build and no decent position. In 1902 the Russians started invading. Having just slugged through three games where I was sweating through on my tactics, I decided 'oh screw it' and tried to slam into Italy. It would have worked had I not been lied to by both France and Turkey on the same move. I went down to one SC, just as Russia was taking Vienna, Budapest, and Norway, and making a fleet move to Armenia which hosed the Turk. Carl(Turkey) convinced me not to become a Russian lackey, so the next year the anti-Russian coalition of IAT held the line at Trieste/Serbia. But the following year the Italian turned, and I popped. The rest of the session I alternated between watching the Russian win my game and watching the 'Show me the Love' table. I can't really explain that one - I think you had to be there. On the whole, I was extremely pleased by the large number of very good players. Only in my last game did I run into a newbie. Even when I was being attacked, I was having fun. I remember Rick Mannus's (Russia) explanation for his army in Galicia. ('They're going to Italy' - 'That's ridiculous!' - 'I know, I don't even believe it myself') I probably gave Russia more than he deserved just because his lies were so poor. On the whole, the Dip tournament was a lot of fun. I really hope I have the time to make the trip from Jersey next summer. Rick From: desper@math.rutgers.edu (Rick Desper) Subject: AvalonCon I forgot to mention the overall winners. Well, that's largely because I didn't write down the names. I believe the winner was Chris Dooley (?) who shared two two-way draws. Also, there were Mach and Colonial tourneys, but I didn't play in either. If anybody has a more complete record or recollection, please post. Rick From: Charles Ryder Subject: Avaloncon 97 Report I originally sent this posting as an attachment which maybe unreadable. Avaloncon 97 Report ------------------- I played in a couple of new tournament this year(Age of Renaissance, Mustangs) plus a few repeats(Assassin, Enemy in Sight, History of the world). I was not as thrilled with Age of Renaissance(AOR) as I hoped I would be. It was OK through the first 2 epochs but seemed to drag through the 3rd. The players seemed to be doing the same actions in epoch 3 as in the first 2 epochs. There did not seem to be much drama or excitement in the game. Hamburg won the game with all the advances. Paris was second. All the rest were within 25 pts of each other. I came in 6th but felt pretty good about it since all the other players were experience and it was the first game for me. I was hoping it would be like History of the World but with less luck involved. AOR does reward smart play and is much less open to luck than is HOTW but AOR did not seem as fun as HOTW. I came in 2nd in a 5 player game of Assassin. It was a fairly close game but only the winner advanced to the finals. I know that a lot of people dislike this game, but I have always enjoyed it, even with its shortcomings. An article in the latest GENERAL has an article with a variant to improve the game. I especially like the fact that the end game is very tense with no one exactly sure when the game will end with the 4th gun card. I came in 4th in a 6 player game of History of the World. 2nd, 3rd and 4th were separated by only 7 pts. I started out well but got handed the Khmers which ended my chance of doing well even with getting the British is Epoch VII. I really enjoy this game even with the heavy amount of luck and dependence of play of the other players. Games last 5-6 hours and are never dull. I did OK in one of the heats of Air Baron,2nd out of 5. The winner had JFK and kept getting it pulled along with Boston. He went into fair wars and grabbed the whole eastern seaboard and won the game in 1 hour. I did not do as well in the Enemy in Sight tournament as I hoped I would. The first hand started with my line being broken! It is hard to fight off the other players when this happens. In another hand I lost 2 ships right at the beginning of the game...drat! This was my 3rd Avaloncon convention and will not be my last. I always enjoy meeting new people and running into previous players from past conventions. Is one of the few venues where you can enjoy some very good gaming with some quite good players. Myself and others that I meet are all having a good time and that is what this convention and hobby are all about. Charles