From: BillR54619@aol.com
Subject: Convention Notes: BPACon

Okay - time get out another convention AAR. This one is going to be pretty
good, 'cause there is a lot happening. Let's start with Doncon first, since
that's fresh, and probably of the greatest interest here on CONSIM-L.

It was opined that attendence was down a bit this year. However, there were a
lot more events scattered throughout the hotel, and this may have led to that
impression more that was warranted. Breaking out of the AH straightjacket did
give the boardgame vendors a chance to do their vending booths a bit more
lavishly than they could do at Origins. GMT, DG, and Avalanche Press all had
sizeable booths and demo games to go with them. MMP had a similar setup,
quite modest really, in the ASL gaming area. Rio Grande games and a game shop
from Charlottesville rounded things out. GMT was in the downstairs hallway,
occupying a corner across from the overpriced food line. DG had the same
cloak room that AH used for a sales booth last year. Avalanche had a nice set
up across from GMT. GMT's demo game was Tigers in the Mist, although they
also had PoG games going all over the place, with Ted Racier racing around
from room to room. Avalanche's main demo was their Panzer Grenadier tactical
game, though they seemed to have several tables going.
Oh yeah - and other than a static display of the new Monarch Avalon game
boxes, showing Diplomacy, Acquire, "Battle Cry" (I'm assured that this is a
different game than the one I played as a kid), and I can't remember what
else - Hasbro wasn't there.

I attended a GMT-sponsored meeting on Friday evening, where the president and
some of their designers discussed their corporate plans. They see themselves
as filling the hole left by AH, and have picked Don Greenwood up together
with Mark Herman and some other members of their design bullpen. They talked
about upcoming games. Ted Racier is going to be working on an eastern front
operational game using area movement rules similar to Breakout Normandy and
Tigers in the Mist. (Shades of 1812, for you oldtimers out there) In order to
keep your production up, you have to do certain stupid actions that Hitler
and Stalin command you to do.
Mark Herman is slotted to do a WtP-type Vietnam strategy game. Greenwood is
supposed to do a kids game, and there is also a game on Austerlitz and a
Saratoga spinoff on Eutaw Springs and Guilford Courthouse (half map games).
That's all I can remember.

On the gaming front, I broke into the rankings for the first time ever, in
the Napoleon's Last Battles tournament. Came in third. I had the honor of
meeting Steve Bucey and knocking him out of the first round, in a game of
Quatres Bras. This tournament was structured a little differently. Once sides
were assigned, you were either French or PAA for the entire tournament. I got
to be French, which was good for me because I like being French and I like to
attack better than defend. It also meant that the second round, the Wavre
scenario, was the long pole in the tent for me. I won the game by a mere two
points, something like 76-74 or 74-72. (I was amazed that I won at all. Wavre
really stinks for the French. But my opponent, David Metzger, had never
played this scenario before.) So when David's brother John amassed 400
victory points as the French, getting his entire army off the board without
the Prussians having gotten much of anything off, I was screwed. David
advanced to the last round, to play and beat his brother, while I got to play
the consolation game against the 11 year old GM's son.

Now, you all know that I've commented in the past about the kid-friendliness
of Doncon. And indeed, I had such a grand time playing Ian the GM's son that
they put me in for the sportsmanship award. Well, let me tell you the story.
The final round was a combined Quatres Bras/Ligny scenario using the Campaign
Game command rules and stuff. (These rules, of course, are what make
Napoleon's Last Battles one of the greatest games ever published.) I did my
normal thing, moving the III Corps and the Imperial Guard to the left to turn
the Prussians, or at least to fight them out in the open. I got I Corps
released on turn 3, and II Corps cleared Quatres Bras easily, as I had done
all day. I probed Ligny and St. Amand, got into Ligny without clearing the
town. I never got into St. Amand. Ian, uh, looked for units to pick off by
surrounding them. I didn't give him much to work with, but my die rolling in
the early part of the game was not particularly good on the Ligny sheet, and
I suffered some exchanges.
What he did not do was to pull the II Corps to cover his right flank, and
even though time was a wastin', I did managed to flank him with the Old
Guard.

By this time, the game had gone on for what seemed like an eternity (It
lasted 6 and a half hours.) Ian was very verbal, claiming victory, and
getting excited every time he won a big die roll. Meanwhile, my plan was
working, but time was running short. I was up above 20 SP losses, and the
Prussians had about 22 left to go before demoralization kicked in. I was
licking my chops on QB, within 2 points of breaking Wellington and Orange.
But I was running out of time. There were only three turns left in the game.
I had to do something.

So I pulled a real desparation measure. I pulled the entire II Corps out of
command, and sent it down the road to Ligny, replacing it with the I Corps,
which went under Ney's command. I pressed my attack from the left, and began
to rack up losses, pushing the Prussian SP tally to within 7. The Guards
artillery and Young Guard had been in the fight for some time, but I had yet
to commit the Old Guard. And I never did. II Corps saved the day, arriving
just in time to demoralize the Prussians. And I would have broke the British,
gaining a decisive victory, but Ian (with a little bit of coaching) managed
to pull his division leaders back to rally his destroyed units. The score
ended up something like 68-49, with the Prussian II Corps way demoralized,
their I and II Corps nearly surrounded, and Blucher in the middle of the
maelstrom.

After that kind of win, I was in now mood for serious high pressure
tournament play. On Saturday, my choices were Peloponnesian Wars, Fortress
Europa, Blue and Gray, and A House Divided. I chose Peloponnesian Wars, just
in time to get in the eighth slot. It was an excruciating experience
attempting to learn the rules of this complicated and in many ways unfinished
game, and still get done by 12:30. As it stood, my opponent was just as
clueless, even more clueless than I was, and I advanced into the semifinal
round. Well, in the semifinals, I played Brian Mountford, who was last years
champion, and Brian had this really complicated strategy that involved
putting a Spartan Army in the square next to Athens (to pin the Athenian
army), marching up to Larrisa to destroy the Thessalian army, marching
another force all the way to some Godforsaken little fortress down on the
Aegian coastline, ravaging about 31 Athenian supply centers as he went, then
going for the jugular by sending a small force to Byzantium. The auguries
were lovely on both sides, and he did this all in the first turn. My forces
were totally blown in the process of warding off all these attacks, and I
lost a bunch of battles and seiges. By the end of Turn 1, my bellicosity was
down to 2, and in the second turn, Brian went for Byzantium a second time.
Once again, I managed to fend off this attack on my lifeline, and once again
my die rolls went south. I was eliminated at the end of Turn 2.

Chris Rudzinsky, who I had played in Fortress Europa the year before, beat
Brian in the final round. Chris and I bantered a little bit, and I mentioned
that I didn't have the stomach for the FE experience this year, and he just
laughed and said that he'd probably be down there in FE if it had not been
scheduled at the same time as Peloponnesian Wars. As it was, I went down and
looked to see what was going on in FE. There was a little more variety of
play this year, with a couple of successful invasions of Pas de Calais and a
couple of folks trying for Biscay. Still, there was John Grant doing his John
Grant thing in southern France, and later on, I saw Bruno Sinogaglio in the
final round, invading Southern France and apparently winning.
O temps, O mores.

Of course, by Saturday night, I was ready for something totally mindless and
got into Gunboat Diplomacy. David Hood was our GM, and there was no press
allowed. I pulled Russia, and ended up in a futile contest to hold Rumania,
while the Brits ran around to pick off StP. I ended the game taking revenge
on both England and Germany, with all of Scandinavia and Turkish control over
Sev and Mos. The Turk won, and I got to help throw the game his way. I
counseled the German and Austrian players at the end of the game, regarding
their strategic errors. The German really hosed me down when I pulled out of
Sev, just gave it to the Turk, in order to try to set up a defensive line
anchored on Warsaw and Moscow, and the bum cut my support by moving A Sil -
War while the Turk pushed into Moscow. The Turk expressed his gratitude by
supporting my A Warsaw for the rest of the game, while I pushed the German
out of Denmark, and even took Edinburgh away from Germany with my fleet.

I've gone on long enough that I'll have to do Historicon in a separate
message. Here are some editorial comments:

1. Doncon is a great convention. Hopefully it will remain solvent and the
game companies will continue to help it go. I don't know how to get the
message across
to Hasbro, but this is their convention, too. They need to be there. If not,
their competitors are going to run it.

2. I gather that there is a good bit of maneuvering as to what games get in,
and what games stay in. This is probably the best reason to join BPA, because
only by joining will you get a vote. I've yet to join BPA, in part because
the $50 dues are really high, and in part because it is easier from a cash
flow perspective to just buy a three-day pass (given that I will hardly ever
be able to go on Wednesday or Thursday).

3. If you do get in, vote for Napoleon's Last Battles. Both NLB and
Peloponnesian Wars will be up for review, having had only 8 players apiece. I
wouldn't mind seeing Peloponnesian Wars go down to a demo game, since there
don't seem to be a lot of people who play this game enough to support a
tournament (even though it is a good game in many ways, and could probably
stand a revision). But NLB is another matter. The GM in NLB will probably go
to Mount St. Jean as the final game next year, assuming it stays in. I
personally would have rather seen Wavre be a single elimination winner take
all scenario than treating it like a heat with the highest score advancing.

4. There ought to be team games at Doncon. There are a lot ot titles that
can't be done any other way.

Bill R.

From: "Silverman, Aaron" <Aaron-Silverman@deshaw.com>
Subject: World Boardgaming Cham-peenships!

Hm, I'm surprised at the lack of reports on it- I know some of you guys were
there 'cause I saw ya!  Anyway, for now I just have time to send props out
to some of my homies:

First to Jim & Ted, for letting me in on the ride & room, and to Ted for
letting the world in on PoG!

To Dave Fox, for teaching me TCS ('cept for that fire-triggered overwatch
fire rule!  :)  ) and introducing me to Gene B. and Berg (agin)

To Alan Emrich, for teaching me Totaler Krieg (sorry I slept through the
tournament though)

To the guy from Avalanche (whose name I left at home), for supporting the
chit-kickin' Army of the Hudson!

To Gene Billingsley, for supplying us with a barrel o' monkeys (I predict a
GMT leveraged buyout of Hasbro by 2010)

To Poppa Koz, for supplying my only PoG victory (so far),

To Poppa & Son Koz, for teaching me Blackbeard (Arrrrrrrr!) and the
associated ego boost (see:  PoG above)

And of course to Don Greenwood, for putting the whole shebang together!

. . .and anyone else I forgot.

Peace out, yo.

From: Bruce A Monnin <monninb@bright.net>
Subject: WBC Report

Alan,

If you are interested, here is my report on DonCon that will be in the
October issue of the BOARDGAMER.  If you wish to post it on
Web-Grognards, be my guest

Look for more detailed coverage of the World Boardgaming Championships
in the next issue of the BOARDGAMER.

We arose at 4:30 am on a Tuesday morning in late July, in order to avoid
traffic and make the long trek from western Ohio to Baltimore for the
World Boardgaming Championships, the successor to Avaloncon.  As it
turned out, it would be the first of many short nights of sleep in the
coming week.

Late Tuesday afternoon, we arrived in Hunt Valley, ready to begin the
boardgaming orgy that I so look forward to and enjoy.  It was decided
that a hearty supper might be a good idea  before a week full of fast
food, so it was off to the Outback Steakhouse.  Before we  were done,
the crowd had grown to approximately 14 people.  A few lobster tails and
beers later, I was ready for the convention to begin.

There were a few games going Tuesday night, but nothing that interested
me, so it was off to the BPA board meeting.  A few details of the BPA
operations were discussed and candidate for the BPA board of directors
made their campaign speeches.  No major announcements here, which was
good news itself.

After the meeting, I had a chance to look over my schedule for the
weekend.  I noticed that due to scheduling conflicts I was lined up to
play in a lot more of the sports and leisure time games than the more
serious two player type wargames.  Though the sports and leisure games
are always a lot of fun, the more serious events often provide the
greater satisfaction and longest memories.  I decided I may have to work
hard to even things out next year.

The convention began in earnest on Wednesday.  I started out with a heat
of Circus Maximus.  Circus Maximus is a game where I like to get into
the early heats.  This game attracts many newcomers as well as many
players who play only once a year.  Thus, the early heats tend to be a
little confused, offering a chance for an experienced player with a fast
team to run away from the field before they can organize any
resistance.  That was my strategy here, and it worked out perfectly as I
was able to sneak away early with three other chariots.  I spent much of
the race on the inside rail, avoiding the fracas on the outside and
saving my endurance.  I was almost foiled when a trailing chariot parked
in front of me on the final stretch, forcing me to sideslip around him
during my turn.  Fortunately, I had enough endurance left  to strain for
an extra 11 movement point on the last two moves and win the race by 3
spaces.  A great start, as since I was qualified for the finals, I would
be able to play in other events during the subsequent Circus qualifying
heats.

Wednesday afternoon was the first heat of Auction.  I finished second of
the four at my table, not good enough to get me into the Saturday
semifinals.

Wednesday night I entered the Wrasslin Tag Team tournament.  We lost the
first match quickly, but were dominating match #2.  Just before we got
the pin, time ran out and we lost on adjudication.  You can never trust
the refs in Wrasslin!

Thursday morning was my moment of decision.  After eight straight years
of competing in War At Sea, including four years of GMing the event, I
decided to skip a year and try my hand at Across Five Aprils.  I had
done well at this game in 4 PBeM games and in winning an eight man
tournament at Origins in 1998, but to really know if you are any good at
a game, you need to play against the level of competition only found at
the WBC.  So, it was off to Across Five Aprils.

I chose to play the Confederates in this tourney, where you actually
compete against the others playing the same side.  In the first round, I
came across Brian Conlon in Bull Run.  Brian is known as one of the
better Union players around.  Brian immediately took the advantage, but
after a hard ought game I was able to limit myself to a marginal loss.
The next round was Bentonville, and early chit draw went against me.
Again, I had to struggle to pull out a draw, but this is a scenario
where the Rebels should get a victory of some sort.

So, entering into the final preliminary scenario of Pea Ridge, my
personal favorite.  I needed to make up some ground, so I needed a first
day substantial victory.  I sent most of my forces to the area around
Elkhorn Tavern and the Union HQ, surprising my opponent who had not seen
this strategy before.  Another nailbiter as the game came down to the
last turn on day one, but I was able to sneak out the substantial
victory and just barely advance in the quarterfinals.

The quarterfinal game was Bentonville again, which is highly dependent
on the luck of the chit draws in the first two turns.  My luck was
excellent, and I rolled to victory over my opponent who was helpless to
stop me.  As it turned out, I barely advanced to the semifinals, as two
other Confederate opponents also had large victories.

The semifinals was Pea Ridge, and I was matched up against the same
opponent who I defeated in Pea Ridge in the semifinals.  He was not
fooled this time, and the early chit pulls went against me.   I
sacrificed my entire army in order to take Elkhorn Tavern at the end of
day one to force a second day.  I ended the game with a substantial loss
and only Pike’s Indians left at the end of the game.  The tourney was
over for me.

Or so I thought.  The other semifinal was moving a little slower and the
Union player realized he needed a day one win to advance to the finals.
So he took some gambles, which continued to pay off, and pulled off the
upset, which allowed me to advance to the finals.

The Pea Ridge finals between myself and Michael Sincavage was an
immensely close and tense 3 hour affair.  My attempt to win on the first
day by taking the Union HQ came up just short, and this attempt probably
cost me in the attempt to secure the second day win.  Eventually, this
game came down to the last turn, and was decided on a 50-50 chance of
who’s combat chit would be pulled first.  Michael got the chit pull he
needed, and I settled for the second place plaque.

This had to be the most exciting and intense 15 hours of gaming I have
experienced in a long time, and I will remember it for a long time.

Unfortunately, this made me late for the start of Pro Golf.  However,
eventual winner John Coussis allowed me to caddy for him in the Skins
Game final four, making me 2 for 2 in caddying Pro Golf (my services
will be for sale next year).  So, off to bed at 2:30 am.

Back up for 7:00 am breakfast on Friday.  I decided this year to eat
good in the morning at the expense of a half hour of sleep each
morning.  By Saturday, I would be questioning the wisdom of this.

Friday morning was March Madness.  I drafted late and received very
mediocre teams.  I still managed to pull some upsets and give the
eventual winner of the heat a tougher than expected game.  A great time
that I heartily recommend to everyone.

After that was Enemy In Sight.  I think that to say I received a first
round exit pretty much sums up my performance here.

Friday night was a Win Place and Show heat followed by Decathlon.
Again, no great results for me here, although my driving companion and
roommate Keith Hunsinger just missed winning Decathlon when two late
finishers just beat him out.

Saturday morning was March Madness again.  Same story as I drafted late
but performed well, though not good enough to make my first appearance
into the elusive Final Four.

Saturday night was the Auction second heat.  There was an even multiple
of four players, so as a gracious GM I stepped aside and did not play.
This took a lot longer than usual as one of the board went through the
entire deck.  One of the semifinals also went through the entire deck,
as did the finals.  Congratulation to George Sauer on winning this
unusually long event.

Saturday night, of course, is the perennial favorite, Slapshot.  Over
one hundred participants again this year.  I once again failed to
advance past the first round, failing to even make the playoffs this
year.  Unlike other years, instead of staying up to witness the finals,
it was off to bed for some much needed sleep.

Sunday morning started very early with the 7:00 am worship service.
Then it was off to the mayhem of the Circus Maximus finals.  I decided I
would not get away as easily with the light fast chariot, so I went with
a normal chariot with one speed and a +2 driver.  I then rolled low on
the setup and was driving a very slow chariot.

I survived the first straightaway acceptable damage, and then tried to
lay low.  I was succeeding, until one of the heavy chariots decided to
ignore the leaders and move inside five lanes to take a shot at me.  The
result was a dead horse and much diminished hopes.  A couple of heavy
chariots seized the lead and never looked back, although I managed to
sneak  back into contention before that same heavy chariot again gave up
his shot at the leaders to kill another of my horses (I must have upset
the guy at some point in the past, I guess).  I limped along until I ran
out of endurance, and claimed ninth place overall.

I did have one highlight as after the After Action Meeting Don Greenwood
presented me with the best GM plaque from War At Sea in 1998.  So I at
least got to bring home some year old wood.

All in all a successful weekend plus once again.  The scheduling did not
work out well for me this year, though I’m not sure why.  I had more
free time this year than other years.  Poor planning on my part, I
imagine.  You can bet I’ll be back again next year, as soon as the board
of directors selects a date and location for next year.  A good bet is
to look for the Hunt Valley Marriott again, around the usual time at the
end of July, beginning of August.

Bruce Monnin

The 1999 World Boardgaming Championships
(Or, "How having fun can be so exhausting.")
by John Coussis

        With the sale of The Avalon Hill Game Company the day after the
end of Avaloncon '98 the first question on most everyone's mind was
"What about next year's convention?"  Well, as those of us in the hobby
know, Don Greenwood initiated the Boardgame Players Association (BPA)
with the idea that if the players wanted to continue the convention,
then that's what would happen.  Eleven months and hundreds of BPA
members later the convention previously known as Avaloncon was reborn as
the World Boardgaming Championships (WBC).  It was exciting for me to
see just how enthusiastic everyone was about continuing this convention
and that everyone was willing to "put their money where their mouths
were."

        So, with the decision made to have the WBC, it was time for me
to decide just what I was going to do at it.  Over the last couple of
years I had run both the London's Burning and Decathlon tournaments at
Avaloncon.  I did make a bit of a change this year, however.  While I
did run Decathlon again, instead of London's Burning I volunteered to
run Atlantic Storm.  Most of us in the Windy City Wargamers know this
game very well and play it as often as we can, so my decision to run it
was pretty easy.  What was not so easy was trying to balance what
tournaments I was going to participate in.  With over 100 games to
choose from, trying to fit everything in that I wanted to do was
impossible.  As the following will show I think I did the best I could
within the limited time.

Tuesday

        The adventure began Tuesday morning at O'Hare as I boarded the
United 757 taking me to Baltimore.  The flight was uneventful and on
time (although my luck with traveling would not be so good getting home,
more on that later).  Once at BWI airport I found Jim Rochford, Dan
Henry, and a few others that were all heading to Hunt Valley so most of
us got a shuttle van and arrived the Hunt Valley Inn around 3:30.

        After checking in and registering for the convention it was time
for the fun to begin.  My first tournament was Age of Renaissance.  This
was pretty much the only thing going on Tuesday night that I was
interested in.  I was assigned to a game and met my fellow competitors.
I knew almost immediately that this was going to be fun as three of the
five other players at my game were from outside the U.S. (two from the
UK and one from Sweden).  I took Barcelona in the game and things got
off to a relatively quiet start.  Everyone made gradual progress and I
got lucky with a couple of big silk payouts that put me into an early
lead (a bad situation to be in) but not so far ahead as to put me out of
reach.  The first conflict came when the Venetian player (the man from
Sweden) and I were the first two to get Overland East.  I had a couple
of control markers in Area V and was ready for a gradual expansion when
my friend from Sweden suddenly moved in. The difference in playing
styles suddenly became evident when I reacted rather surprised and
angry.  I told Venice "You could have at least talked to me before you
did that!"  He simply responded that the Swedish style is to go head
down, hard nose to take what you want.  While I think a bit of diplomacy
can work wonders, if that's the way it is, then so be it.  A turn or so
later I found out just how hard nose Swedish players can be as he
declared war on me and beat me out of four provinces.  By the time it
was over, he had control of every province in Area V.  Now, since by
this time we were already into the Epoch III deck (we were going through
cards extremely fast) I knew the Black Death card was out there and that
Area V was just begging to be hit.  Unfortunately no one played it in
the next turn!  This led me to conclude that not only did Venice have
all of Area V, but he had the Black Death card as well.  I pretty much
figured it was over by then and just kept going through the motions to
finish up.  I was in for a surprise on the next turn as it was Hamburg
that had the Black Death card, and just played it a turn late. Area V
was cleared out, and Venice's income slowed.  I managed to get the first
token into the Far East (India) on the last turn and waited to see how
things would turn out. Well, Venice moved after me and I saw that he was
going after gold provinces. He had two of them and went after his third
in India against me.  He had a 50/50 chance and made it.  He took his
third gold area and that made the difference in the game as he had two
gold payout cards in his hand and collected $180 for them.  When the
final scores were tallied I came in second to Venice by only $36!  I was
so close and yet so far.  Oh well, the game was fun and I enjoyed
meeting some of the European players.

Wednesday

        The first heat of Atlantic Storm was scheduled for Noon on
Wednesday so I got down to the assigned room around 11:00 in case anyone
came that wanted to learn the game.  While only a couple of people came
for my lesson, 39 showed up for the first heat.  The games went very
well, and we had the first eight semi-finalists when it was over.  Once
my duties with Atlantic Storm were done I decided to get in a game of
Monsters Ravage America.  Well, the game should have been called
Monsters Ravage John as I failed to get into the final monster battle.
Oh well, at least I didn't get sent to Hollywood.

        After a bite to eat I decided to forgo the first heat of Titan,
The Arena even though it was my team game to play Air Baron.  I got into
a pretty good game, and even found myself playing against Bill Levay (he
used to work for AH and now is with Hasbro developing their computer
adaptations of AH board games).  Bill was nice enough to give me some
inside info (well, maybe not that inside) on what is coming up.
Diplomacy should be in stores the first week of November, and other
computer titles will follow shortly.  Bill also brought the boxes and a
couple of maps of the first five Avalon Hill games that Hasbro is going
to put out.  On display were Diplomacy, Acquire, Battle Cry (used to be
Command & Colors), a Europe-only version of Axis & Allies, and a revised
Stratego.  All the boxes looked very nice, and it will be interesting to
see how Hasbro markets the games.  Anyway, back to Air Baron.  After
some position jockeying, I managed to take control of the four western
hubs and hoped to hold them long enough to accumulate enough cash to win
the game.  Well, after a turn and a half of fighting off attacks, I
pulled the right chit from the cup and got myself enough money for the
victory. It was a bittersweet victory though, since the semi-final round
that I had qualified for was at the same time that the Atlantic Storm
final rounds were scheduled.  I didn't think it appropriate to not be at
the finals of my own tournament, I did volunteer for it.

        Happy from my Air Baron victory I headed over to see if the
first heat of Titan, The Arena was still going on.  It had just finished
up, but the GM was there and we talked for a bit.  He explained to me
the format he was using in the tournament.  Rather than just one game,
each group of players would play two games and the total combined scores
would determine the winner.  A nice little change.  The other
significant change that the GM made was not so nice, in my opinion.
Rather than a straight "win and advance" format, the tournament was set
up such that players received points depending on their places in the
individual heat games.  The total points a player accumulated over the
four heats would determine which players advanced.  My issue with this
format was that it turned the event into a five-round game rather than a
multiple-entry game.  A player could play in all four heats and never
win a game and make it to the finals over a player who only played once
and won.  Like I said, I didn't agree with the format, but what was I
going to do about it?  After a bit of open gaming I decided to call it a
night.

Thursday

        Thursday was a pretty slow starting day for me.  I didn't have a
heat of Atlantic Storm until 7:00 PM and there was nothing else starting
in the morning that I wanted to get into.  So, I wandered around for a
bit.  First thing I did was pick-up a new game "Paths of Glory" from
GMT.  It is a WWI game using the same cards/board format of We the
People, Hannibal, and For the People.  I also headed over to see a new
card racing game about NASCAR that a small company was selling. The game
turned out to be rather interesting and fun to play.  Nothing
spectacular, but it was worth buying a set for trials back home.

        Around 2:00 it was time to get serious and play Titan, The
Arena.  At first I thought I might have gotten a break by being put at a
table with three teen-age kids. Well, little did I realize that these
"kids" were all friends and pretty much worked together through the
game.  I came in third and only got four qualifying points.  I would
need to play (and win) at least one more heat.

        After the Titan Arena games were done I got some dinner and then
set up for the 2nd heat of Atlantic Storm.  There was a better turnout
for the 2nd heat as almost 50 people came to play.  Fortunately the heat
was rather uneventful and required little of my attention as I began to
read the Paths of Glory rules.

        After a bit of open gaming it was time for the first of the
late-night sports games, Pro Golf.  I know that there is not a whole lot
to these sports games, but I have to admit, I really have a lot of fun
playing them.  Especially when I've had a few drinks (as was the case
for Pro Golf).  The tournament was set up that everyone played 36 holes
and the four best scores would advance to an 18-hole "skins" game.  I
managed to roll the dice well enough to earn myself a spot in the
four-player final.  For those of you that don't know how a skins game
works, each hole is worth one "skin".  The player that makes the lowest
score on a hole wins the "skin".  If two or more players tie for the
lowest score, then the "skin" is carried over to the next hole and that
hole is then worth two "skins" and so on until someone wins the "skins"
and then the next hole is worth one again.  This continues until all 18
holes are played and the winner is the player with the most "skins".
This Skins game was quite intense and it all came down to the 18th hole.
I had four "skins" (no pun intended) and two others were tied with five
each (the other player only had one).  The 18th hole was a par-5 worth
three "skins" so if one of the three of use won the hole, we would win
the tournament.  I was third in the rotation behind the two leaders.
Both of them made pars on the hole and I stepped up knowing that a
birdie could win me the match (the other player could tie me and prevent
me from winning).  I rolled the big green dice for my 1st shot and hit a
great drive.  I then hit my second shot onto the green giving me a
chance to putt for an Eagle.  Well, I didn't make the eagle but I did
manage to birdie the hole putting me, temporarily, in the lead.  The
last player was this 10 year-old kid that only had one "skin".  There
was no way for him to win, but if he birdied the hole, he would take the
win away from me.  It came down to the last roll of the dice and he
needed to roll very high to beat me.  Fortunately he came up short and
had to settle for a par.  So with that I was crowned the 1999 Pro Golf
Champion.  Maybe not all that impressive, but I did get a plaque and a
T-Shirt out of it.  By this time it was about 3:00 AM and I had to run
an Atlantic Storm heat at 9:00, so I headed to bed.

Friday

        Oh man!  Getting up at 7:30 to set up for the Atlantic Storm
heat was rough (since I agreed to teach the game I had to be there at
8:00).  I did manage to survive, though, and the heat went through with
little incident.  There was one thing that did come up, however.  Some
players had come up with a different way of selecting the convoys to
play for.  Rather than flipping over the two cards, the current "dealer"
would select two and look at them secretly and then only show the one
that was chosen keeping the other one hidden.  Now I don't object to
variants, but my interpretation of the rule is pretty clear.  The rule
says "selects two convoys and flips them over."  Now, "flips them over"
to me means over on the table for all to see.  I made it clear that's
the way the tournament was to be run and everyone played that way.

        Once the Atlantic Storm heat was done I had some open gaming
before the next heat of Titan Arena.  I got into a pretty good game of
TTA and even managed to win when it was over.  Although I must admit I
really should have been ashamed of myself.  I don't know exactly how it
happened but by the time the game was over I had managed to con three of
the four other players into doing just what I wanted them to.  I don't
know why I did it (well, maybe I do) but I have to admit I felt kinda
bad about it.  But then I reminded myself that I had won, and I quickly
felt much better.

        Before heading down to the sports room to run the Decathlon
tournament I got into a heat of the Stock-Car Racing card game.  I must
say the more I played the game, the more I enjoyed it, although this
heat didn't exactly go very well for me.  I was close to the lead and
hopeful that I could make a move to the front when suddenly the cars
behind me decided it was time for me to go.  Working together (drafting)
two, then three cars passed me by.  Just like that I went from third to
seventh place (out of eight).  I never could recover and I think I
finished sixth (only because the two behind me had car problems and fell
out of the race).

        The last order of business for Friday was Decathlon.  This was
the third year I've run this tournament, and it is always a lot of fun.
About 45 people turned out and there was plenty of beer going round as
all of us "finely tuned athletes" ran the decathlon.  I'll spare you the
ugly details, but suffice to say that I got injured early on and didn't
even come close to winning.  Oh well, it would look bad for me to win a
tournament I was running.

        After Decathlon I was all set to get some rest when I ran into
some people that really wanted to play Slapshot.  Well, I couldn't turn
that down and got into the game. Even though it did keep me up until
3:00 I guess it was worth it since I did manage to win this pick-up
game.  You'll see later that my Slapshot luck didn't last into Saturday
night, though.

Saturday

        Saturday started early again as I had another Atlantic Storm
heat to run at 9:00. By this time I've gotten about 10 hours of sleep
over the past three days and I have to admit I was starting to drag a
bit.  Once the last Atlantic Storm heat was done, I finished up the
paperwork and found that the tournament had drawn 117 players.  Down
from last year, but still not too bad.  32 people had won a game during
the heats and while it would have been great if all 32 showed up for the
semi-finals, I knew some would not.

        After Atlantic Storm I had a bit of down time so I went back to
the room for a quick cat-nap.  Around 3:00 I headed downstairs to get
into the last heat of March Madness.  Despite winning my first two games
I had to drop out of the tournament at 5:30 since I had qualified for
the Titan Arena semi-finals at 6:00 and I really wanted to be there for
that.

        My semi-final of Titan Arena went very well.  I was one point
behind the leader after the first game and as the second game started I
felt pretty good.  I managed to stay with the leader and towards the
last couple of rounds everyone was doing their part to make sure that
she would not win.  By doing this, I managed to score enough to win my
semi-final and get me into the last game.

        The final was pretty exciting.  I was in third place after the
first game, five points behind the leader.  Unfortunately things started
to go wrong for me as crunch time came about.  My secret bet was exposed
by the Head Referee card and even though I tried my best to convince
everyone that taking me out would not stop the leader from winning, the
guy that had the last play just didn't want to listen to me and pretty
much wiped me out. I finished fourth overall and while I did get some
points for the team, there were only plaques for the top three finishers
so I got shut out.  Painful as it was, I did have a good time playing.
Although I think I'm going to look for a different team game next year.
The last thing on the Saturday agenda was the craziness of Slapshot.
Over 140 people turned out for the Saturday night finale and everyone
had a great time.  Although as I said earlier my Slapshot luck ran out
the day before as I managed to finish last at my table.  I did win the
Sturat K. Tucker Memorial "I got Pucked Award" since not only did Tiny
Tim manage to score on my goalie, he even took Le Goon away from me as
well (if you know Slapshot you'll understand why this is so funny, if
you don't, well just trust me).  After  Slapshot I hung around a bit
talking to some folks and then headed for bed.

Sunday

        OK, another 4-hour night of sleep and its time to get ready for
the final rounds of Atlantic Storm.  28 of the 32 possible
semi-finalists showed up so I was pretty happy. You can read about the
semi-finals and finals either in the WBC yearbook or on their web pages.
I will tell you that the final was pretty wild as one guy sprang out to
a huge lead and managed to hold on to the end.

        I didn't have any finals to play in Sunday morning and once
Atlantic Storm was complete it was almost time for the After Action
Meeting.  The meeting was pretty well attended and Don Greenwood and the
rest of the BPA board spent time answering a lot of questions.  I was a
bit disappointed, though, as some people decided to air their own
problems about what games were played, when things were scheduled, and
the length of the convention rather than acknowledging all the hard work
that had gone into putting the convention on.  The basic response to
most complaints was "tell the board and if enough people agree, then
things will change."  Unfortunately, some folks felt that if things were
not their way, then things must be wrong.  I'm not too worried, though,
the majority of the people were very happy with the convention and are
looking forward to next year's.

        Once the meeting was over I talked to Stuart Tucker about a game
that he has designed.  It is a card/board game based on the Spanish
Civil War.  He had shown it to Louie, Dan Henry, and I the year before
and I told him that we would still be interested in playtesting it for
him.  He told me that he is in the process of revising it, but as soon
as it was ready he would get in touch with me.  So, in a few months I
may be calling a few of you to see if you're interested in testing this
game.

        I wasn't leaving until later in the day so I managed to get into
a pick-up game of Junta.  I had never played this before, but I found it
to be rather fun.  There were only five of us and since I did have to
head out around 5:30 we didn't quite finish.  Oh well, it was a good
ending to a fun, but exhausting, week.

        By the time I got to the airport I was counting on an uneventful
trip home, but here's where everything seemed to suddenly go wrong.  The
flight I was supposed to take was scheduled to leave around 8:45
Baltimore time.  When I got to the airport I noticed that it was running
about 30 minutes late, no big deal, right?  Well, when it was almost
time to bard an announcement came that the plane was having engine
problems and would not be going anywhere.  They told us that another
plane was coming in from Chicago around 11:45 and that they would turn
that one around and get us going around 12:30 AM.  I wasn't too happy
about that but it was better than nothing.  Just as I was getting
comfortable waiting for the later flight another announcement was made.
The second plane was ready to take-off from Chicago when suddenly it
developed mechanical problems.  Oh man!  This pretty much sealed the
deal for the night.  I went to the counter and United set me up at one
of the airport hotels for the night.  They did even buy my dinner and
breakfast the next day.  So, I had to spend another night in Baltimore.
At least I had nothing else going on and managed to get a good night's
sleep.  Monday morning around 10:00 I finally boarded the flight that
took me home.  I missed work that day, but I got over it.

        All in all I had a terrific time at the WBC.  Between playing
the games and seeing a lot of the friends I've made there over the years
it was very enjoyable.  Getting past the little travel problems I had
and not getting enough sleep was not too tough as I had all the fun
memories to look back on.  I also have one other thing to think about,
doing it all again next year!