Steve Stanton - Aug 3, 2006 8:31 pm (#21457 Total: 22070) O wa some pow'r the gifte gie us, to see ourselves as ithers see us I attended the auction for the first time Tuesday. Highly recommended (bring big boxes for your loot ). The general comment was that the 'lesser' priced games went for marginally higher prices than expected while the collector's items went for less than initially expected. Several copies of Titan went for just shy of $100 as I recall. Two copies of AH's The Longest Day were last up for bidding and the unpunched copy went for upwards of $200 (I think). There were also 3 shrink copies of The Age of Renaissance that each went for about $95 on average as memory serves. Nothing went unsold even though there were about 4-5 $1.00 pity bids to ensure that. The auction stayed just about exactly on schedule. Rob Seulowitz - Aug 6, 2006 4:28 pm (#21464 Total: 22070) Bitter, overly critical, and rarely clever, funny or constructive posts. Nothing Succeeds Like SUCCESSORS Just a quick word of thanks to the 24 (count ‘em, TWENTY FOUR!) players at WBC who turned out to play SUCCESSORS, especially to those who came to learn the game. Thanks also to the many people who expressed support for keeping the title on the roster. Next year I’ll try again to set up a coached game to educate new and inexperienced players. Congratulations to Doug Smith for his third career victory as Champion of Champions. Doug’s talent for ruthlessly manipulating his opponents is surpassed only by his ability to disguise cowardice as strategy. I am, of course, kidding. Actually, it was a great final, with all four players in position to win at various times throughout the game. Ahmet Ilpars in particular dominated most of the game both strategically and tactically, a fact belied by his last place finish. Ross Jones and Phil Rodriguez both had multiple opportunities to take the lead on the final turn, and only Doug’s cunning and Jedi mind tricks preserved a narrow Turn 5 win. Ahmet deserves recognition not only for his marked improvement in play, but also for his generosity in providing a copy of Plutarch’s “Life of Alexander the Great” for the winner. Sadly, it was in Turkish, but he promises to translate it personally over the phone on request. A plethora of prizes and freebies were given, including the dozen free T-Shirts as advertised (Picturing the SUCCESSORS cover art with the motto “We Are All Champions”), custom counters to selected players who brought copies of the game, and handsome inspirational plaques to all four Finalists. A Certificate of Appreciation was also presented to the game’s Sponsor, JR Tracy. He wept manly tears of humble gratitude. A full write-up, complete with photos and stats, will be completed soon. I imagine a somewhat abbreviated version will go on the official WBC web page. I look forward to seeing you in 2007! Ed Beach - Aug 6, 2006 9:11 pm (#21482 Total: 22070) Working on Here I Stand two-player variant and GCACW Chickamauga Here I Stand at the World Boardgaming Championships 2006 By all accounts the first-ever Here I Stand tournament at WBC this week was a resounding success. I’ll give sort of a narrative summary now. More detailed analysis of the play balance and a full recap of the final game will follow over the next week or more. I took lots of notes, so it is going to take a while to analyze and present everything we saw. The week started with the Tuesday evening demo. I did expect a decent turnout, so I was glad to see that they had assigned me the table with lots of adjacent space to stand around. However even that would prove insufficient. We had 37 people at this first demo. Definitely standing room only, and I had several people later in the week tell me that they had given up when they saw how big the turnout was. It went well however. I handed out the upcoming C3i article “Learning Here I Stand in 20 Minutes or Less” and was able to cover all of the basics (though I didn’t go into any detail about the mechanics of Reformation attempts or debates). Many people wanted to give it a try, and I encouraged them to join the tournament heat that followed directly after. That first night we had 35 entrants; I played too to give us the ideal number of 36. Fortunately the random distribution of players gave us a playtester at 4 of the 6 tables. Those tables all progressed nicely thanks to the guidance of Bryan Collars, Ken Richards, Allen and Nathan Hill, and Matthew Beach. This night required a bit of patience from everyone, since so many of the players were still new to the game (we had 3 players from our current series of PBEM games, but it was probably the first HIS game for at least half the players). The tournament scenario went the distance to Turn 6 at three of these tables; there was a Turn 5 Ottoman win at 24 VP at the fourth table. The final two tables moved slowest and decided to declare a winner at 22 VP (instead of the usual 23) so we could all be finished in close to the allotted 5 hours. Wednesday night was easier all around on the GM: the demo that night had a very manageable 23 players in attendance, and we had exactly 36 show up to play (leaving me free to roam to any table that needed assistance). 20 of the players this night were new from Tuesday, giving us a total attendance for the event of 56. We also had two more playtesters join us (Barry Setser and Joel Tamburo), along with the first HIS player I’ve ever met from Istanbul (Ahmet Ilpers). With a full night of HIS under everyone’s belts, the games went faster this evening. 4 of 6 games went the full three turns, only one game was ended at 22 VP, and we finished about 45 minutes faster. When the dust had settled from the preliminaries, we had twelve different single game winners: Jim Stanard Mitch Lake Chris Striker Robert Mitchell Barry Setser Ed O’Connor Dan Hoffman Ken Richards Charles Hickok Brad Merrill Peter Card Roger Whitney These 12 would join the 12 at-large players with the highest total VP accumulation for the Thursday night semis. At this point the win totals were: Ottoman: 3 Hapsburg: 2 England: 1 France: 1 Papacy: 2 Protestant: 3 Ed Beach - Aug 6, 2006 9:12 pm (#21483 Total: 22070) Working on Here I Stand two-player variant and GCACW Chickamauga HIS Semis All but 4 of the 24 qualifiers were able to attend on Thursday; we had just enough alternates to fill those missing slots. Players were able to select their preferred power based on their ranking this night (instead of by random draft order like in the prelims). Perhaps based on the above results, the Ottoman was picked first at 3 tables and the Papacy was picked last at 3 tables. Here in the semis, the level of play picked up all around. All 4 games were finished in just 4.5 hours. Remarkably, France, which had shown so poorly earlier in the week, won three of the games. The Hapsburgs were the winner in the final game. HIS experience was crucial at this point: playtesters Bryan Collars, Ken Richards, and Allen Hill were all winners. The fourth winner was Charles Hickok. Chris Striker and John Wetherell were selected to join them in the finals based on their scores of 24 and 23 VP here in the semis. Ed Beach - Aug 6, 2006 9:12 pm (#21484 Total: 22070) Working on Here I Stand two-player variant and GCACW Chickamauga Finals So going into the finals, England was the only power with only 1 win. Chris Striker was picking his power last and assumed he’d be left with England. Therefore it was a surprise when John Wetherell selected them with the fifth pick. Here was the power selection: 1: Bryan Collars (Protestant) 2: Ken Richards (Ottoman) 3: Charles Hickok (France) 4: Allen Hill (Hapsburgs) 5: John Wetherell (England) 6: Chris Striker (Papacy) I kept notes on every diplomatic action and card play throughout the finals. What I’m going to do is replace the outdated Series Replay on my HIS web site with a new one walking folks through the final a move at a time. So for now just highlights. In the first two turns we had: -- First turn unholy alliance between Protestants and Ottomans; Ottomans play Calvin’s Institutes in exchange for Protestant play of Akinji Raiders. -- At the start of the second turn, England plays Dissolution of the Monasteries to draw 2 cards. Copernicus ends up being one of these card draws. -- All spaces in England (up to the Scottish border) reform on Turn 5. In retaliation the Papacy debates Coverdale and Tyndale … burning them both. By turn’s end the reformed faith is no where to be seen in England. Entering the final turn, VP totals were 21-21-19-21-19-17. Extremely close. The strong lead held mid-turn by the English and Protestants has been erased by the debating skills of Cajetan and Pole. In the final turn, England shows their determination to return England to the Protestant faith. John plays Printing Press as the event as his first action of the turn. It’s a desperate religious struggle all turn; the Papacy launched 4 more debates. The turning point was probably when Ignatius Loyola was defeated by Nicolas Cop; one of two debate wins for Cop in the turn. By turn’s end, 9 English spaces are Protestant. So when the dust settled at the end of the final turn with all cards played, England held the lead. But only by 1 VP over the Hapsburgs and France, who were each sailing west to try and conquer the Inca. If either side succeeded, the game would be theirs. Allen picked Pizarro as his conquistador, meaning he only needed an 8 on two dice. He rolled a 7. One pip short! France (needing an 11) failed too. So on these final die rolls, John Wetherell protected his English lead and was an upset winner of the tournament. England, the power no one had wanted at the start of the night, had won. Final win totals by power were: Ottoman: 3 Hapsburg: 3 England: 2 France: 4 Papacy: 2 Protestant: 3 Well played by all. It was a joy to watch it unfold. Rob Seulowitz - Aug 6, 2006 9:54 pm (#21486 Total: 22070) Bitter, overly critical, and rarely clever, funny or constructive posts. The Longest Week This was perhaps my busiest Doncon week ever, mixing the ASL Precon, 2 days of extended family vacation, GM’ing and Assistant GM’ing two multiplayer games with 6+ hour heats and trying to playtest not one but two home-made game designs. In between, I found time to learn “Age of Steam,” get in 1 round of “Twilight Struggle,” teach my 17-month-old boy to swim and get in at least 1 truly goofy game (i.e. anything Dan Dolan has tucked under his tattooed forelimbs) before having to flee the premises on Sunday. I greatly appreciate the responses from everyone who took the time to look at or playtest the game designs I brought, and to the many people (“many” can mean “more than three” you know) who asked after the fate of my War of the Roses game. I actually saw someone there with what at first glance looked like a much better idea for that conflict, but I didn’t get a chance to get his name or get into his game in any depth – if you are reading this, contact me please. As for my newest hack jobs, the cold war spy game looks like it actually works, and with some revisions to the math and aggressive editing it might be viable. Anyone interested in more info can contact me via email. I’ll elide over any complaints about the venue – it’s still better than the HVM. However, there is one thing I’d like the board to think about in terms of improving the experience for many attendees. It’s not a “problem” per se – more like a “challenge.” And that’s how to help gamers with small children get more out of the event. If you have kids too young for the Juniors and unable to be left on their own in your hotel room, than you either have to leave them at home, or you or your spouse gets trapped in the room for the evening once bedtime comes. It may be merely because I’m a member of this demographic, but it seems to me that more and more of my fellow gamers are getting caught on this dilemma. I don’t have any solution. Finding ways to occupy and/or care for the under-8’s during daylight hours can be easily done if we want to spend the money on providing resources to do that, or find ways to get volunteers, such as offering membership discounts to people who have put in X hours of such activity [note the use of the past tense there, Don!]. But the nighttime issue is not easily solved. However, I’m sure that any investment at all in this issue, even simply kicking ideas around, will have a positive impact on the Con – if nothing else, it will reinforce to people in this demographic that the BPA is committed to making the WBC a family-oriented event. Thanks again to the board for running the best gameshow in the country, and to everyone who makes this Con the center of my year (even Team X, you visigoths!) Highlights: 1. SUCCESSORS Final: The best single game I never played, with a well deserved win for Doug Smith. 2. CASH & GUNS at 1AM Sunday morning: A Dolan Classic. (Dan: We can get UWO on the Trial list next year – start the campaign NOW. Or are you just a gutless Pnorf?) 3. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, CANDYMAN: Deliciously evil. You’ll eat your heart out. Disappointments: 1. Paul Sidhu, Chase Bramwell, Steve Katz, Henry Rice and Brett Mingo not being there. 2. ASL: Smallish turnout, screwy ranking system. Perry’s idea to fix this next year is brilliant. 3. REPUBLIC OF ROME Final: Double Evil Omens, Cataline Conspiracy and only 1 Officer in Rome – yikes! Always a bitter pill when Rome falls, but GM Sean Larsen made the right call on how to handle rankings. We’ll find a way to solve this problem yet. 4. Utterly failing to kill a Dolan in CIRCUS MAXIMUS: I missed Tim’s Light Chariot on multiple attacks. It’s not like he’s a small target! Vince Meconi - Aug 6, 2006 10:27 pm (#21491 Total: 22070) Flash GM Report for War At Sea John Sharp of Sarasota, FL, won the War At Sea championship plaque on Thursday, in his first Final 4 appearance. John finished 6-1-1 and bested Ewan McNay of Milford, CT (6-1-1) in the final. Their match was one of the most sweat-inducing finals ever, with the POC marker staying on zero virtually the entire game. The game came down to the last die roll in the last sea area on the last turn, as John’s Axis LBA disabled Ewan’s final Allied convoy. Failure to land the convoy meant the POC marker remained at zero, giving the game to John on the basis of the 1-POC Allied bid. John was playing in only his 4th WBC WAS, while this was just Ewan’s 2nd! Third place went to Ed Menzel (Fullerton, CA, 5-2) and the GM took 4th (5-2). Mike Brophy of Battleboro, NC got the 5th and final plaque. Mike and Ewan were the only 2 players to go undefeated in the Swiss Rounds with 4-0-1 logs each. Mike's finish was his best since the inaugural War At Sea event at the 1991 Avaloncon! The rest of the playoff contenders were 6th, Glenn McMaster (Troy, Ontario, 4-2), 7th, Greg Berry (Fairfax, VA, 3-2), and 8th, John Pack (Parker, CO, 3-3). 9th and 10th places went to Bob Jamelli (3-1) and Tim Hitchings (3-2). Chess clocks continued to be less and less of an issue, with many games finishing in less than half of the 1:55 alloted time. Moving to quarterfinal playoffs instead of semifinals seemed to work well. In the quarterfinals, Ewan McNay beat John Pack, the GM defeated Glenn McMaster, John Sharp edged Mike Brophy, and Ed Menzel bested Greg Berry. In the semifinals, Ewan McNay clobbered the GM and John Sharp axed Ed Menzel. Ewan’s success prompted Ed to suggest a tightening of the immigration laws. (For those of you who have never met Ewan, his British accent is a giveaway!) Sean Druelinger achieved the unusual double of Rookie of the Year and Best Axis Player at 3-1-0. Ewan added Best Allied Player (6-1-1) to his 2nd place wood. Total entrants were 46 and 87 total games were played. Play balance shifted slightly towards the Allies, who won 45 games to the Axis 37; there were 5 ties. 50 games featured Allied bids, while 3 iconoclasts bid for the Axis. The remaining 34 contests had no bid. My thanks to Assistant GMs Bruce Monnin, Frank Cunliffe (who ran our demo), and John Sharp (who provided the chess clocks) for their help. I saw Don Greenwood Sunday afternoon and told him it was the best con ever. But I guess I say that every year! Ewan - Aug 7, 2006 3:59 pm (#21515 Total: 22070) AAR - WBC # And after that comment, I suppose I should post my own AAR. ** Live by the dice… die by the dice. In most games, rolling 6s is good. That’s the case - well, mostly - in War at Sea, for sure; and this year I got to play the whole day that game requires, rolled 6s throughout, and felt like the village idiot who suddenly found a magic sword as I wandered haplessly through battle felling unjustly unlucky opponents before falling at the last - see my report in that folder. That was Thursday. Before then, I’d gotten to play several other tournaments. First among them was the newly-rereleased Britannia, which is great (and beautiful): mostly cleaning up the rough edges of the original, a little new chrome that adds interest for some of the long-term players, and a lot of new faces in the tournament - all good stuff. Tuesday evening, for the first time, there were no ‘big’ games - AoR, Britannia, or their like - to play, so I got to play Auction and Gangsters - thanks to ‘the Instigator’ for giving me a refresher, and for rolling poorly to end up on $9900 - victory criterion, $10000 - while I managed to roll 10 on two dice for the lucky win. And on Wednesday evening, I played a game of Age of Renaissance which a lobotomised monkey could have won with my position: playing Paris, I get a Fur shortage T1 for a card - turns out to be Fur, for a $28 payout from nowhere. T2, I get Crusades… and so it went. Luck is good. Even in Brit, my Belgae - eternally doomed to act as a minor turn one roadblock in the previous version - acquire both weaponry and armour, slaying legions and burning forts in a glorious rebellion. And playing Merchants of Venus - I love this game, but it always seems to have Semis that conflict with Britannia; this is the third year in a row that I have been unable to play in the Semi, sadly - I get some good dierolls at critical moments to seize cargo before it can be stolen, finishing up ahead by a turn or so. Note that all of these games ask one to roll high in order to gain an advantage. {Well, OK; I did also learn and play Oltre Mare, which I hugely enjoyed and was sad to find that the Semi also conflicted with Britannia, and which involves no dice. Thanks to Winton Lemoine for running that - it got only a marginal turnout, and may not make it to century, but everyone there thought it was a great game with a good level of thought, novelty, and interaction; here endeth the plug.} This has to end soon, right? Well, yes and no. Friday, my Britannia second heat continues the charge; this time, playing Red, I manage to get the Angles cut down enough that my Brigantes never submit, and so are able to support the Saxons in dominating England through the middle game; when the Norsemen establish a strong presence, even William’s Normans can’t gain back enough ground to prevent a second heat win. Of course, rolling 6s is still good, and it’ll continue through the Brit Semi-final - now playing the Yellow of Rome, the Belgae fail to burn even a single one of my forts and we civilise the whole island while the Picts try - and fail - to claim independence in the north and so are too weak to defend against my Scots. However, in the AoR final - which I seriously debated skipping, after the acrimony that has occurred in the past several years and heavily tarnished a great game - the run of success comes to an end when Jeff Mullet plays a great game as Barcelona to blow away the field which includes a turn one Crusade-playing London of Bill Crenshaw. Only my play of Enlightened Leader at the start of what ended up being (thanks to 2 shortage rolls awarding cards) the final T6 was a highpoint, bringing me enough of a misery lead to finish second and bringing the game in at around 5 hours; otherwise my Venetian game suffered assaults from all sides and sank. Hmm. Seem to have started rolling low dice. Which leads to: Tyranno Ex. My Brit semi finished an hour ahead of schedule, so I frantically scanned the program. What to run and play. Nothing was standing out, and I was actually considering taking some time off from gaming - I know, I know, heresy - when I saw ‘TYX’ and recalled stopping by what looked like an interesting game last year, and chatting briefly with/learning the game by observing the GM’s game. Ran - literally - to the heat, made it in time to get a three-minute refresher from Christina Hancock and the GM Jeff Finkeldey. Thanks, guys. Now, in this game it’s essential to roll low. This, I manage to do sufficiently well that I win more than my fair share of combats and somehow scrape a win - we’re back to that magic-sword-wielding village idiot. I cram in a game of Acquire, which turns into a duel between myself and Matt Calkin (I hope I am remembering that name correctly) sitting in opposing seats, but the fools-and-Englishmen factor kicks in one more time and I find myself running back to the TYX Semi after getting past Matt, sorry that I have to drop out of the Acquire Swiss system but I promised to turn up for the Semi. Where I find myself once again facing Christina, as well as Tamara Houde and Verity Hitchings - all of whom are clearly waaaay better than I at the game, scarily so, to the point where I don’t even understand the strategic conversations half of the time, and the other half find that my grand plan is for naught because I forgot we’re past the point where creatures can gain strength, or some such. No matter: I can roll low dice (2s in particular, it seemed; I managed not to roll a single 1 on 18 dice twice in a row, but 2s I had in abundance). And the opposition are wonderful, overwhelmingly friendly - I had more fun this WBC than ever before, because there was only one opponent the whole week who was not a great pleasure to face. After a break while the rest of the table went to play an hour of Slapshot, we reconvened at midnight on Saturday for the TYX final; one of my opponents in the Sunday-morning Brit final sees me waiting and wishes that it may be long and arduous . It’s not: besides Tamara (with her built-in extra brain; that has to be an unfair advantage, right?) the finalists are David Fritsch and Kaarin (who, like Bruce and Arthur, needs no surname). Even better, Kaarin has brought food! I actually think I mostly have a sense for what I am supposed to be doing by now, although I am forced to expend my special ‘5’ token in round 2 to keep my creatures alive and once again make a costly mistake in forgetting the transition point after which they can’t gain strength, in round 4, allowing David to take the lead. But that ‘5’ play meant that I came under attack from Kaarin’s 6-strength, auto-hitting creature. She’s putting out 6 automatic hits - can I roll 7 or more 4s-or-lower on 8 dice to avoid dying? Yes, I can. Twice in a row, in fact, to not only avoid death but defeat the enemy dinosaur, get stronger, and score! That pushed Kaarin down, and so in the final round a further auto-hit creature attacked me: now I need 5 3s-or-less on 7 dice, twice. No problem. Apparently there is some wormhole in the cosmic probability field occurring in the Limerock room. That's the final straw, and I can’t be caught - Wood! In a game far removed from my usual haunts, at that. The silly grin on my face was only partly due to the 3 a.m. finish time. And finally, Sunday morning and the Britannia final: the other finalists are Scott Pfeiffer, the 3-time-champ; Llew Bardecki; and Barry Smith, the latter having knocked off second-seed Nick Benedict in his Semi. I draw Blue, with whom I have finished last in two previous Brit finals - but that was at least under Brit 1 rather than the revised version, and Blue gets to have a little more fun in the new ruleset, a belief supported by my experience in the first heat. Or at least, that’s the theory: this game, my Tyranno Ex dice appear to have followed me as the Belgae fail to kill anything - even Boudicca, who rolls 7 dice needing a 5 or 6 and scoring 6 VP every time she does so, fails to roll a single one and is cut down without a single point. Erk. Worse, Llew’s Brigantes wipe out 3 legions and a fort in their first turn and are then allowed full breeding once submitted, while my Picts have to submit without burning even a single fort and are denied breeding as well as having a legion in their back field. It’s a black day for Blue. Fortunately - and possibly uniquely - this actually brings me some sympathy, and the Picts manage to enlist Angle aid in eliminating the Scots and dominating Scotland for a few turns, while the Angles negotiate a dubious deal with the Brigantes: the Brigs submit, giving the Angles a huge point haul for no effort and sufficient forces to dominate England, but also allowing a massive Brigante which then turns on my Picts when I seem to be clawing back into the game. One key battle suggests that I may, however, live by the dice in this game: 5 Brigantes attack a 3-high Angle stack in Essex on about turn 9, only to have the Saxons fail to score a single 5 or 6 on 8 dice while the Angles roll 4 hits on 6 dice, killing off 4-of-5 Saxons without any losses themselves and establishing their dominance until the Danes arrive. When said Danes do arrive, the Brigantes are still submitted, so the Angles can stack up and survive for a while, although every Dane-Angle battle results in mutual death and a tide of blood over Northern England; the Angle defense probably puts Scott’s Green forces in a hole for their own winning chances. Barry, who has been out of the game completely since the Angles killed off all of the Romano-Brits and Scots on turns 7 and 8, returns to the game in T13 with a Dubliner major invasion; that mostly hits Brigantes, but the two sides are soon joined in cutting down Picts and Angles while the Danes and Saxons (thankfully for my upcoming Normans) squabble in southern England. In the endgame, it’s close. Llew has huge Norse and Brigantes, very good Irish, but has not been scoring much at all with the weak Saxons; he makes a 9-point play when the Norse get to the Hebrides and hold it, and the Brigs remarkably hold Strathclyde all game, but he still needs to kill off a couple of Picts and Normans; when the Picts win a 2-1 against the Norse in Moray, that’s a big swing to the Blue. Yellow is also in the mix, as his Dubs and Norwegians have had almost no opposition, but Svein arrives to kick the Dubs out of York and in turn receives the gentle ministrations of Harald; average Norman luck should be enough. But there’s a final twist in the dice: as the Normans arrive, 6 opposing dice roll 3 6s and 2 5s to slaughter not only Normans, but 3 of the 4 Norman cav; William, who had gone into Kent leading 2 cav and two infantry against 3 Jutes (yes, the Jutes held Ken throughout, as the Saxons were too weak to evict them), has to retreat at the cost of 3 visitation points that looked to be in the bag. And the Normans are down to 6 units… scary stuff. Thankfully, the last Angles provide a little defense against the Norwegians, and Harold had been so cowardly in running to Wales that he could not get back to reach William; in the end, there are just too few people left in England to fight off the beaten-up Norman forces, and they spread out to claim a tight Blue victory. I must have been living right; it was a wonderful week. Arthur Field - Aug 7, 2006 4:40 pm (#21516 Total: 22070) AAR Well, hard to match Ewan's phenomenal week, but here goes... Arrived Tuesday and hotel staff very nice. Stored our stuff and went out and found an Amish farm and bought real shoo fly pie from real Amish kids. Brought it home. Will be tonight's treat. Tikal. Great round. Enjoyed the game very much. Followed it up with a heat of Medici and one of Ticket to Ride. In Medici, I only snagged a single card in the first round! That may be a record. So I went for the lowest score possible--tried to go negative just to see if it could be done. In TTR, came in a very close second--just a single point, to a fellow new to the WBC. Great way for him to start. Wed was busy. Won my Louis 14 heat with some great cards. I was dealt the card that lets you buy a card and the card that lets you switch a card. Gave me 2 delays per round. Sweet. Managed to get in an El Grande and slid into 2nd. A newer player let the winner score 32 uncontested points, which was great for that guy, but not so good for the rest of us. Ah well, just a game. Then I won a heat of Auction with a lucky draw on a 3 lot sale. That led to the Auction semi-final. Naturally, I get Ken again. 3 years in a row. Random draw my butt. Joke is, we both lose to Bud, in about 6 minutes. Rich collector paid Bud (my teacher) scads of $ and he wins with a set of Clocks just to rub our faces in it. Good for him; he gets to play Reiff, not me. From there, it was off to UPAC. (I was going to play in Nappy 5 if I lost my UP heat, but I got lucky.) Won my Amun Re heat. Jeremy Billones did a tip top job as GM. Ran his best event ever. Had a great time playing UPAC. Bill Beckman did a fine job of running it and John Jacoby provided very nice prizes. Came away with 2nd and a lovely train print. Many thanks for that. Grats to Fred Minard who beat me by $1 and got his first wood since 99. Yay for him!!! Great chat with Keith Hunsinger in bar. Thanks for the beer Keith. Thursday: Today was actually Louis 14, not yesterday. Missed St Pete because of Amun semis and finals. This was probably the conflict I minded most. I really wanted a chance to defend my St Pete title, but never got to a single heat. I informed Tom D I wasn't going to make it and he said the whole room would be saddened. How nice of him. Nice to see Ann won. She's a great player. Amun finals came down to last play. It was a really great game. Rafael's first tournament and he did a bang up job, as did Andrew and Greg. I also missed Web for the second year, which I very much enjoy. Goa in afternoon. Won my heat. A great game of Manifest Destiny in evening. Managed to beat Bill Crenshaw--always a plus. Squeaked out the win over Staab on the tie-breaker. Spectacularly fun game and Bill C runs a great board and a very nice tourney. Ended with a game of Pro Golf at Master Ken's table with Mrs. Lewis, Mr. G, and Lisa G. It is always inspiring to watch Ken roll dice. Anyone who ever doubts his results need only sit at his table. Odds defying rolls of 5-6 over and over. Friday: Goa semi. Jason Levine, a newbie, smashed us. Love Jason to death. Close score anyway. Came in 3rd (?) by 2. Had he let me buy the duty tile, I would have won. So close, yet so far...Hope he finds another game next year, lol. Steve S also played great. Squeezed in a heat of PRO. Went out to dinner at Thai place. Something wrong with food. Wife and I both got sick immediately. Tried to play Battle Line, but kept having to run to bathroom. First pod was me versus Sean McCulloch, who, for some reason, did not forget I beat him in finals 2 years ago. Payback time. Came down to last 2 cards and my draw. One of them I win, the other he does. He did. At least I got to play in the RA "so you lost at BattleLine" heat. Had a personal best score of 71. They let me get all the monuments and I got lucky draws. Then a fast game of Lost Cities. Saturday: Ra semis: Not quite as lucky, but close. Ended up tying for first and losing on Sun tiles. At start of third round I said I see a "2, 3, 4" in my future. Sure enough. But the perfect tie was good enough for 5th(?) place and a lovely papyrus artwork, again courtesy of Jake J. More thanks to him. Semis in San Juan. Lost round 2 to Bruce. Edged out Jeff Mullet for 3rd place. Lots of fun. Another heat of PRO and a bye into the semis. Went out to pool and ate and met some nice people and told them all about WBC. They seem intrigued. Then I introduced them to Bruce and Jeff. That probably put the kabosh on it--lol. Went back and gave them a program book. They had a 13 year old. They come to LH every year in August. They play games. Who knows? Squeezed in another Lost Cities. Ran Facts in 5. Had a great time, but need more time to do better job scoring and collating. Kate Taillon and Jessica Greenwood helped much. Louis 14 semi-final and then Tikal semi. Tied Barb Flaxington for first; we both advance. She and Chris Moffa are great gamers and wonderful people. They even let me have some pizza. Gotta love em. We all tried to coordinate the Louis and Tikal finals, which conflicted. Nice of everyone to try and do this for me. Sadly, because of some slower players in Tikal semi and Louis final, it didn't work. Those are the breaks. They voted to start the Tikal final without me. Odd, it was my kid who cast the vote to start. He ended up winning. Hmmm.... Won Louis 14 in a strange ending. Opponent got 9 (?) identical shields, which won him that category but deprived him of the others. I won by 2 points. Might still have, but who knows? Those random dice gods wandered by the room. Missed the Tikal finals, got a bit miffed they started without me. But, what can you do? Just a game; need a time turner next year. Davyd won. Again. Good for him. Sat up chatting with Ken Richards until 2. Sunday: Overslept the Armistice so missed getting the Caesar plaque. Scott Pfeiffer says he has it. Wonder if I will ever see it; his home is like a black hole. PRO semis. Eric and Barb played great games. Ken Whitesell unwittingly helped Eric early and Eric jumped on it. He is such a great player, he isn't going to turn down 2 consecutive helping moves. Later, Ken made a very smart move in the game that brought him back in contention, but it was too late for the both of us. Should have just played Lost Cities....lol Transamerica. Made the semis, but lost to Kathy Stroh in that round. Started the tournament with her, and ended with her. What a perfect start and finish. A nicer, better player is hard to find. What a fantastic 5 days. So many great people. So much fun. Only sorry about all the conflicts and too many choices, but since I managed to play a game almost every single hour, no complaints at all. Looking forward to helping the Euro scheduling effort Eric Freeman will be heading. Need extra day so I can play in Manifest Destiny semi next year. (Thanks to Harald for inviting me to play in the pick up semi, but even that conflicted.) The Hennings are great people and players. Ditto the Simmons and Sudys. Many kudos to the young adult set. Hebner, Hennings, Simmons, Field, Gemmel, etc. They were excellent gamers, well behaved, fun to be around and are the future. Great GMs. Great administration and well run tournament. Thanks from the entire Field clan to everyone. John Coussis - Aug 7, 2006 4:42 pm (#21517 Total: 22070) "Pacific Typhoon" - The Pacific War Sequel to Atlantic Storm, on the GMT Games P500 List Now!!! WBC Highlights (and their corresponding sarcastic lowlights) Another fun-filled WBC has come and gone. Here are some of my highs and "lows"... High: Getting in a game of Paths of Glory Low: Losing my game of Paths of Glory in 15 minutes High: Tourning Gettysburg Monday (my 2nd time) Low: It was !@#$%!^ hot!!!!!! High: Playing the new Card Hockey game Low: Very poor printing on my 1st deck (good news is they were replaced, so I've got a "good" deck now) High: Another great Atlantic Storm tournament Low: Coming in 2nd in the tournament losing on the lousy convoy point tie-breaker High: Giving the Multi-Player GM seminar Low: Trying to explain the new tie-breaker rules High: Seeing all my friends again Low: Seeing Pete Stein again High: Having time to get a game of Napoleonic Wars in Low: My Napoleonic Wars game going until 4:00 AM High: Talking to people about the upcoming sequel to Atlantic Storm called "Pacific Typhoon" Low: Pacific Typhoon is not yet at 500 orders (you gotta work with me people, let's go!!!!!!) High: Playing March Madness Low: Not getting a chance to beat Mark Yoshikawa at March Madness High: The Slapshot Tournament Low: Winning my Slapshot game and having to stay up another hour for the semis High: Seeing more kids playing games Low: Seeing more kids playing games better than I do But, of course, the biggest high of all was simply being there, having fun, and getting home so I can start counting the days to next year. Thanks to Don and the board and to all the players/members for making this happen for all of us! Jeff Cornett - Aug 7, 2006 6:46 pm (#21521 Total: 22070) WBC Napoleon GM So is my last name now redundant? In 2006, it is unlikely I will win consul, since I think Bruce (I never met a plaque I didn't want to eat) Reiff swallowed the competition in so many events. I had a 1, 1, 2, 3, 4; compared to Bruce's 1, 1, 1, .... As for the Consul competition, let's just summarize it this way: they made me carry my plaques onto the airplane. Otherwise, my suitcase would have exceeded the weight limit (true story). 1st in: Euphrat & Tigris (team game). Close finals, won on tie-breaker. 1st in: BattleCry. Barely made it out of swiss as last seed at 2-1. 1st in: Medici. Only 2-2 overall record -- advanced as best 2nd place in the semi-finals. 1st in: Slapshot. Don't know how this happened. Just happy to beat Doug!!! 2nd in Titan 2: Beat 3 defending champions, yet lost to another FL rookie like myself. 2nd in Napoleon: Right flank destroyed by six 1's on seven dice. Enough said. Oh yes, being on a roll, but only after rubbing my raffle ticket on my lucky shirt, won a door prize in the after-action meeting. Bottom line is 144 points for Consul -- unless the standings gave me a surprise 5th or 6th in Ivanhoe or Ticket to Ride (made the semis but not the finals). This means exactly 144 for Caesar as well since, living in Florida, it is hard to do the minicons. Will Bruce outscore me for Consul? The point value of his wins will decide that issue. Our team won 14 points. All 4 of us scored points, so that is at least worth an honorable mention in the writeup. Vince Meconi - Aug 7, 2006 9:52 pm (#21529 Total: 22070) GM Report for Gettysburg '88 Direct from Grognard Ghetto (aka the subarctic Marietta Room), here is the GM Report for Gettysburg ‘88. Thanks to the Grognardcon’s additional opportunity to game, Gettysburg ‘88 set new records for entrants (33) and total games played (45). Ed Menzel of Fullerton, CA defeated 3-time champ Allen Kaplan (Howell, NJ) to capture his first Gettysburg crown. Ed finished 6-1 while Allen had a 5-1 log. The GM inserted his foot in his mouth a few days before the final when, seeing that Ed had just captured first place wood in Victory in the Pacific, asked him, “Do you think you made the right choice in picking Gettysburg as your team game rather than VITP?” Clearly, Ed had lots of wins left in him! Greg Smith (4-4) of Boca Raton, FL took third, and Dave Zimmerman (3-2) of Myerstown, PA finished 4th. Dave has now entered the Gettysburg tourney at the WBC and Avaloncon a dozen times, finishing in the top 5 nine times — without winning! One of these days he’ll come out on top, for sure. Preliminary games were played from Saturday through Friday. Friday night, the 13 players who had played the required minimum of 3 games to qualify for the Final 4 were ranked, with the top 4 advancing to single-elimination. The top 4 were, in order, Allen Kaplan (4-0), Ed Menzel (4-1), Greg Smith (4-3), and Dave Zimmerman (3-1). Ted Drozd (3-2) tied Dave for the 4th playoff spot, but Dave won the tiebreaker because he defeated Ted in a preliminary round game. The GM (5-2) was the other player who had won 3 games, finishing 6th. Doug Porterfield finished a close 7th in his first tournament. In the Saturday semfinals, #1 Allen Kaplan took on #4 Dave Zimmerman, while #2 Ed Menzel battled #3 Greg Smith. When the GM suggested that he might need to switch the pairings to avoid rematches, Allen said, “Don’t bother; I’ve already played all 3 of them.” He modestly omitted the fact that he had already defeated all 3 of them. Allen won his semifinal, too, bidding 3 for the Confederates, but still managing to score a 22-11 automatic KO aginst Dave Zimmerman’s Union at the end of July 1. Meanwhile, Ed Menzel’s Union, the recipient of a 4.5 bid from Greg Smith’s Confederates, prevailed after a 5-hour slugfest. In the final, Allen Kaplan took the Confederates for a bid of 3. On Day 1, the Confederates forced Ed Menzel’s northern troops off Cemetery and Culp’s Hills, but on Day 2 the North rallied and first cracked, then eliminated 2 Confederate infantry units. It was downhill from there for the Confederates, who resigned on Turn 12. The South won 26 games to 19 for the North, but this apparent narrowing of play balance is misleading. The Union actually won all 7 of the games using the short July 1 scenario, leaving the Confederates with a 26-12 advantage in games using the campaign scenario. Clearly, the bidding should be higher than it is. In fact, in 20 games there was no bid at all. Grognardcon clearly was a winner, not just for Gettysburg ‘88 but for the other events as well. The only downside is that I’m going to have to dress warmer next year. Hats off to Bruno Sinigaglio for running that one. In addition to Bruno, I’d like to thank my Assistant Gamemasters, Ed Menzel, Greg Smith, and Ted Drozd. A nicer bunch of guys exists nowhere. Greg in particular was willing to help the event by playing anyone, whether or not it would contribute to his making the playoffs; he even taught several newcomers how to play. Keith A. Hunsinger - Aug 7, 2006 10:42 pm (#21533 Total: 22070) "Voice" of Slapshot at WBC. Personal after action report I'll pitch in another personal AAR. Had a great time!!! I second Bruce Monnin's comments that I could have pulled up a chair between the bar and the registration desk, talked to friends, and still called it a good year. But I got some games in to boot and that was the icing on the cake. Went from first back to worst, finishing last in B-17. Had two bombers shot down over Germany and came home with the POW Medal. Did pick up a great copy of the WW II crew manual which I had the wing sign! Good night. Took a second consecutive second place finish to Bill Rohrbeck in WSiM. Curse you Red Baron!!!, I'll get you one of these days! Made it to the finals of Atlantic Storm for the first time. While I finished sixth of six I was only 6 points behind first. Usually the spread from first to last is 20-25 points but in this final the points were 20-20(tie decided on convoy points)-18-17-16-14. Closest game anyone could remember seeing. Felt good anyway. Had a good run with the reading of the rules in Slapshot. Added three additional penaties for whining, to the traditional two minutes in the penalty box and buying breakfast for a grumpy Don Greenwood (who again made an appearance in the best Saturday night of the year!)! You will now be forced to read the collected theological works of yours truly (OK it is a small volume), you will be required to attend a three hour lecture on the modern symphony orchestra given by Arthur Field (we missed you Arthur), and finally you and the loved one of your choice will be placed between a free buffet table and a hungry Bruce Rieff!. Bruce objected to this but my cheers out numbered his boos! Sunday's chapel service was great, thanks to the Brosius' for their musical accompiament. Had good talks with Arthur Field in the lounge, Coussis, Bud, Jeff, Mike, Mark, Paul, Bruce, Bruce, Tim, Bill, Ken, Debbie, and...................................... The list goes on and on! Thanks again to Don for a great year Finally thanks to all of you for allowing me to serve you for the last three years on the board of this great organization. I enjoyed the work even the dull parts and continue to be ready to help in other ways. See you next year! Ken Whitesell - Aug 8, 2006 6:36 am (#21537 Total: 22070) AAR - Wow, what a week! Tuesday started with a bang - at least to my wallet. Lots of good stuff at the auction and the auction store. I managed to walk away with player's copies of Anzio and Stalingrad, and a complete set of vol 9 of The General. (All I need now is vol 10 - which I missed because I wasn't paying attention - and a couple of issues in vol 11 and 12 to complete my collection of "The Greenwood Years".) In the evening my team registered for AoA and got in some early flights. Chris, our team member who had AoA as his team event, got shot down three times that evening - once each by the rest of us on his team. (Those three losses turned out to be the difference between him qualifying for the final round or not. Anyone thinking that we would help a team member advance in their game doesn't know us very well.) I also got in some games of "Lightning North Africa". Lost all three games I played as the German. It's a great little game, but I'm missing something on how the German's should be played. A first-turn attack on Tobruk is extremely inviting, but I've never had it succeed. Sitting and building my forces up for a later assault didn't work either, so I'm not sure what the proper first-turn play is. (I know you should _definitely_ attack Tobruk if you've got the right mix of cards in your hand, but I've never seen a hand that good on turn 1.) Wednesday I spent some time in the JR's room with my daughter. (Side note: Big Kudos to Mrs Pack - she did a _wonderful_ job in that room - both by my own observation and by all reports I've heard.) She hopped into a game of Guillotine, not fully realizing it was the JRs event. After winning her game, she didn't want to play it any more, so dropped out. Wednesday evening I got toasted in FBS by Rob Beyma - 52-27. The rust was evident as I hadn't even looked at my game since last year. My play was ugly, and the only good thing I can say about that game is that Rob is a pleasure to play, and I would gladly sit across the table from him on any game. Thursday is Up Front day. Also a game I pull out once a year now, usually to go 2-3 or 3-2 in the swiss rounds and fail to qualify for the SE portion. This time I go 4-1 and easily qualify - but then get slaughtered by Paul Wright in the first elimination round to end my run. Ray Stakenas II, our team member having Up Front as his team game, fails to qualify, being our first official 0 score. Ray I manages to finish 2nd to Paul to grab the "first-loser's" plaque. Friday is back to Football Strategy to try and salvage some self-respect. My first round opponent was a teaching game - he had never played the game before, but had attended the demo. Those are the dangerous types, because you _never_ know what they're going to call. Finding myself down by 10 at the half, I abandon ball control to go aerial. I got the lead, and as he started to gamble to get back into the game, things just got out-of-hand. (I don't remember the final score - just that I had a 30-point 4th qtr.) Back to BC for my second round game against Frances, only to need to switch to aerial again at the half. A win, then on to face Paul O'Niell in the heat final. This time I decided to play aerial against Paul the entire game. (Note: I've probably played Paul at least 20 times through the years - we were both in the same division in the Baltimore league for a number of years, so I know his game well.) It was a good / tight game, but my defense shut him down and I hung on for the win and a chance to play Bruce in the "Super Bowl". Saturday morning it became official that Chris wouldn't advance to the final round of AoA, making our second 0 score. Ray I did, but had to drop to play in the final heat of Puerto Rico - his team game. Having nothing better to do, I decided to hop into the third heat as well. I won my game - I have no idea how, advancing to the quarter finals. (Ray I didn't, making him our third official 0 score.) I finished second in my quarter-final game - close enough to be the first-alternate for the semi-finals. Saturday evening, Bruce and I got together for the FBS finals. I've also played Bruce a number of times throughout the years, going 0 and whatever. He's also the 6-time champ at FBS, so I had no expectations of winning this one. I decided to play aerial against his ball control, and knew I was going to have to play an extremely conservative game to stay in it. We traded possessions a couple times in the first qtr, but no score. I managed a drive early in the 2nd qtr to go up 7-0. He then ran the kickoff back to my 40, where three plays later the game is tied 7-7. I knew if I wanted to stay in this I had to take control of the game, so I put together a 16-play, 7-minute drive to go up 14-7. He drove down to my 26 right before the half, but missed the FG, so I'm up at the half 14-7. A scoreless third quarter, marked by his decision not to go for the FG on a 4th and 2 from my 6. However, late in the 4th qtr, he does manage to score another touchdown to tie the game. I get the kickoff with about 3 minutes left and an opportunity to win with a FG. I drive down the field to his 21, where my kicker splits the uprights for the winning score as time expires. I win! I beat Bruce for the plaque! (Better yet, it was each of our team games, not that anything really needed to be added to this one.) Sunday morning I head down to the Puerto Rico semi-finals to see if anyone fails to show. There was one no-show, giving me a spot. I end up at a table with Arthur Field, Eric and Barb (Sorry, the last names escaped me) I truly was the minnow among sharks. My only hope in that game was to not throw it too badly, and other than one serious mistake on round three, I think I mostly accomplished that goal. It was a learning experience of the 1st degree for sure, but I definitely didn't deserve that seat. I believe I finished 5th in that 4-player game. Only 51 weeks to go! Thanks to everyone who made it such a wonderful time, especially the GMs: Jim, Nate, John, and Doug. Herr Dockter - Aug 8, 2006 7:23 am (#21539 Total: 22070) Enjoy the chaos....Triumph of Chaos: Russian Civil War from Clash of Arms: www.triumphofchaos.com. Great con as always. Looking forward to WAM in Jan in Baltimore. Highlight had to be Slapshot. Love it when we drag new people to the RANGERS!! table, and they try to figure out the rules. Rules? I did forget one - the whining rule, and, oh did my table call me on it. Next thing I knew I hauled like a sack of potatoes (feet first) by one of the Dolan boys to the penalty box. Didn't get our act together and get the cheerleaders ordered. Next year more planning will be required (my usual beating by Master Pei in For the People crowded out my planning for the event). Missed March Madness and Puerto Rico this year, but did squeeze in a St.Petersberg round - and got thump'd. Ran into one of my Nest of Spies mates Padawan Pei midweek (prior to meeting the Brother Peis in the semi's/finals of FtP - always a hoot). He was in some multiplayer event. He said that late in the game, the players realized he was "one of THOSE Nest Pei's" and then proceeded to give him a whipping. Good to see PoG attendance increase from 34 to 48 - I think we will be moving it to a 3 PM on Sunday start in 2007 - allowing players to fly into some airport in the morning. Looks like all the Card Driven Wargames did fine again - and great to see the HUGE turnout for Twilight Struggle. Big thanks to Don, the Board and all the warhorse GMs. Bob Runnicles - Aug 8, 2006 7:55 am (#21540 Total: 22070) Elchfest for the Century in '07!!! Great tournament this year, had a great time - I somehow managed a first (for Elchfest - again ), a second for Formula De (VERY exciting final, took over second place on the last corner and the finish line was within one roll at 6th gear - didn't have much car left though!) and a fifth for Settler Of Catan (one of the few tourneys that HAS woods for fifth & sixth - won all three heats going in (which is probably how I secured fifth), our semi table got smoked by Ken Nied (IIRC) building up so that every time anyone rolled a 9 he got four mineral and two grain (ping! instant upgrade!) and there were far too many nines being rolled..... Very fun convention; as usual my doubts about how much fun I might have (my gaming compass prior to the convention had been pointing at rpgs and minis most recently) evaporated within the first few hours (although we had a HELL of a time sorting out the room - but that's another story). Anyway, my timeline goes like this: Day 1: Pirate's Cove. Learned this one the weekend before the trip and enjoyed it; came third out of four. Then finished off the night with Elchfest; played Rebecca Hebner in the final after prior champs Dan Dolan was knocked out by Dan Jr and Jeff Paull was eliminated by yours truly. Rebecca had been playing really well all night but 'twas to no avail.... A wood on day one, that's how to start a convention Day 2: Started off with Pirate's Cove (again), came fourth out of five but at least this time the first four were all within one point of each other! Then played Formula De heat 1 and won that, enough to advance to the final. Was going to play Union Pacific but fell asleep in the room dozing and although I woke up in time to make it I was too comfy to move - oh well. Went on to play Lost Cities instead and won my round there fairly comfortably, just couldn't make any more rounds and I doubt one round was good enough to advance. Then finished off the night with Ivanhoe and won that round too, which got me into the semis. Day 3: Started off with the ASL Starter Kit tourney; won round 1 fairly easily but went out in round 2 when my elite Americans failed to produce any smoke and I just couldn't get into position to attack. Scenario felt imbalanced to me (not sour grapes, honest!) as only one (maybe two?) American player was able to pull off a win, although he also went on to take home the wood so kudos to him. Don't recall doing much else that day besides reading up the rules for Federation Commander the next day. Day 4: First off was the Ivanhoe semi; came down to a last play between myself and another player for the red tournament that would have won it for either of us; sadly he managed to take it by a point or two and I had no answer. Then went to the Federation Commander demo only no-one showed up (sadly - there were probably 20+ people waiting). Eventually one of the guys from Ad Astra games (who were there demoing the Honor Harrington game, an extremely realistic 3D space game that was simultaneously calling to me and turning my brains to jello) took up the slack and ran the demo; as it turned out the GM never showed for the event either although we ultimately found out he had a death in the family earlier in the week and was out of state! No idea what this will do to the event's chances next year. Eventually went to the Saratoga demo, and from there to the Haunting House demo before deciding to give the Saratoga tourney a shot. Wasn't too bad, lost on round one to a British marginal victory, but I was suffering from a bad case of Sciacca-itis and my dice abandoned me. Overall impression I got (probably completely inaccurate but it's how I felt) was that the event is pretty clique-y, never really felt comfortable and one of my opponents friends (who was also in the tournament) was major-league kibbitzing from the table behind us, reminding my opponent of rules, suggesting things he should do - I probably should have turned around and told him to shut to f*** up but I didn't. My opponent was also unfortunately the GM for the Hammer Of The Scots final and kept having to run off to monitor the progress there - in the end it was a far from ideal game and I was actually happy to lose as it freed me up from having to worry about showing up for round 2. Day 4: Settlers Day! I somehow managed to win every heat I played and sailed into the semis; this was also enough to pretty much guarantee (although I didn't know it at the time) a fifth place finish at the minimum. Anyway, I talked about this somewhere up above. After that it was a case of waiting for the Formula De final, also discussed above. A good day overall, no outright wins but a couple of woods Day 5: Street Soccer in the morning; managed to make it to the semis here as well but was starting to suffer both from hypothermia (first time I played anywhere all week that was that cold) and also time pressure as we needed to check out. Still, almost pulled it off after coming back from 3-0 down to 3-2 and nearly forcing a sudden-death period, just couldn't quite get the ball across the line one last time. Good stuff though, and I'd be happy to play it again given a chance. Did anyone else have any hotel issues? We got severely dicked around with our room and it certainly put a downer on the start of the tourney....it's a good job we weren't voting *this* year on whether to stay at the Host or not as I don't know if they'd have secured my vote - last year was great. Dan, are you saying that Elchfest STILL won't make the Century next year? That's messed up; we had 50 players overall and I didn't get out of the room until I'd been playing for what? Two and half hours? Three? Isn't there anyone we can lobby on this? Already looking forward (like so many others!) to next year already! Bob Craig Yope - Aug 8, 2006 8:45 am (#21542 Total: 22070) WBC Axis & Allies GM- I make and sell die towers. See post #21001 in the WBC folder for some pictures of my towers. My first Wood (and the usual great time)! A History of the World surprise- Heat game: Had a good hand of cards (four minor kingdoms/empires) and then pulled Spain Epoch 6 and then Russia Epoch 7. My score stood up. The next morning should have been the semis, but two winners dropped out to make it the finals. That was great since the finals (even if I got to it) was scheduled to be on Thursday which is when I would be running my event. Final game: Had another good card hand that converted my board position that was earned with the Romans (only scoring 24 pts.) and the Arabs (25 pts.) into 37 pts. for the Vikings along with Fujiwara and another good minor card (Migrants Africa/Crusades- I can't remember. Maybe Kevin does.). The rest of the table finally turns their attention to the surging Yellow tide by giving me Inca/Aztecs in the 6th Epoch but once again I get 37 pts. by combining them with the Safavids. Four capitals combined with the presence the I regained in India with the Safavids and the continued presence I got in the 5th Epoch by amphibing China with the Fujiwarans! Blue passes me the Manchus (much to Kevin's disgust) and I once again get my points and ride out the last epoch for the win. Skill will only get you so far. A good hand of cards will put you over the top. Thanks to Kevin Youells for running the event. I followed that success up with a win in Football Strategy over Ray II- my first ever! It was only my third time playing the game and I won by scoring a touchdown on the last play of regulation on a third and goal play from the four yard line. I then stopped him in overtime and march down for the winning field goal. The first half witnessed three lost fumbles by me and two interception thrown by him. He then proceeded to miss three field goals during the game. It was crazy! I ran my event Thursday and Friday (Axis & Allies). I had more player in the first round (23 + me) than I had all last year (19). Congratulations go out to Joe Powell for finally getting first place in the A&A event. He was as giddy as a school girl! Thank you to all who participated, including the purpled-hatted wonder himself- Keith Levy. Thanks to all the "legends" who put on that tolerant smile when I come along and bend their ear. I appreciate the education that you (Stuart, John C., Terry, Bruce M., etc.) impart upon my everytime. I sold all my die towers by Friday evening, so thank you to all who purchased. While game designers may swap ideas about mechanics or graphics, Ken Nied and I talk shop about sound-deadening materials and the size of our towers. Now I just have to figure out how many towers I can build between now and next year? How many days left till next year? Craig Ed Beach - Aug 8, 2006 9:00 am (#21543 Total: 22070) Working on Here I Stand two-player variant and GCACW Chickamauga GCACW Tournament Recap Writeup is from Dave Cross (our GM). I'm just posting it here for him. -Ed 9 commanders showed up throughout the day on Wednesday to exercise the new scenario victory conditions for the 1862 Bull Run Campaign from Stonewall Jackson’s Way. In a vicious attack, the Confederates smashed the Union corps defending both flanks. The Union center and reinforcements raced to Manassas Junction just ahead of Jackson and withstood the first assault. However, Jackson prevailed and the Union survivors barely made it across Bull Run. With the casualties the Union forces had sustained, it was determined that they would not be able to successfully prevent the Confederates from entering Fairfax County in force. In the Thursday and Friday heats, we primarily focused on scenarios from Grant Takes Command. These preliminary rounds brought back a mix of veterans and newer players. Unfortunately, several regular players at this event were unable to attend WBC this year. Still the action was stiff. It is readily evident that the PBEM ladder is allowing many players to sharpen their skills. After two days of battles, 7 players advanced to the elimination round with last year’s champion, Chris Withers, receiving the BYE with 5 wins. The quarterfinals featured tense battles in The Wilderness. Three players advanced to the semifinals to join Chris; Ed Beach, Jay Myers, and Dave Cross were defeated this round. Next up was the battle at Bethesda Church. Chris came from behind to take the lead from Steve Likevich (3rd in 2005). In a well setup counterattack with assault and grand assault which would likely have achieved a win if successful, Steve only needed to lose the battle die roll differential by 2, but alas, he lost by 3. In the other battle, tournament newcomer Justin Rice (but a very experienced PBEM player) defeated Rob Doane (2nd in 2005). The final battle of the tournament was Bloody Spotsylvania. Justin’s Union forces pushed hard and momentarily captured Spotsylvania Court House. He was pushed out but was still in a good position, but Chris’s strategy of “positive combat dice rolls” in the majority of the battles worked yet again, and the Union Army suffered massive casualties in frontal assaults against the fortified positions. Will anyone ever defeat Chris in a final? Next year, we are looking at revising our schedule to have preliminary rounds on Wednesday and Thursday with semi-finals on Friday and finals on Saturday to give players as much flexibility as possible with other events. We will still have a training session on Wednesday for new commanders prior to the tournament. During the week, Ed had a draft map for the area around Chattanooga, TN on display and many people dropped by and expressed interest in the Western Theater project. Hopefully development will be much further along when we see everyone next year. Kevin Youells - Aug 8, 2006 8:21 pm (#21570 Total: 22070) W. Melbourne, FL History of the World report Again, only the Hasbro version of the game was used. Most of the Demo time was used explaining the differences between the Avalon Hill and Hasbro versions, and I was able to teach the game to two newcomers. Given the results, I plan on utilizing the demos again next year, and keeping History of the World as a "B" rated event. 44 players joined us for the first round. Eight preliminary games were played, with players being evenly split into five and six player games. Six of the eight winners participated in the final. David Bohenberger led all players with 221 points scored in a five player game. TJ Halberstadt had the highest six player score with 204. The highest single epoch score was Gregory Kulp's 63 with the British, combined with the Leadership and Reallocation cards. Unfortunately for him, he lost the game when the pre-eminence markers were scored at the end. In the final, Craig was fortunate enough to be able to draw both the Romans and Arabs. His use of the minor empire cards complemented his existing positions quite well. Despite being dealt the Vikings and Aztecs/Incas in epochs five and six, he was holding onto an one point lead going into the final turn. Chris drew and kept Russia for the opportunity to score first. He got an impressive fifty point score with the Russians and set the bar for the rest to follow. Next was Craig who had been passed the Manchu Dynasty. Despite losing most of his army to a single unit in an ill-fated Chinese campaign, he was able to use this early-scoring empire to score 40 points based mainly on gains he had made eariler. Jamie had been passed the Netherlands by TJ. She had the Reallocation card, but not enough troops and scored 37 which was enough to put her into third place. Jamie gave france to Kevin, who combined it with a Leadership card and the Nippon minor empire to score an epoch-high 53 points, but still was five points behind Craig. Duane had received Britain from Craig, as he had nobody else to pass it to. He did his best with it, but was still unable to catch the leaders. TJ was our last player of the game, and was "rewarded" for his good score earlier by being given the United States. As usual, the US was the touch of death in this game, and TJ was only able to manage 36 points for the round. At the end of epoch seven, we scored the pre-eminence markers. Craig's final score of 191 was enough to hold on for a four point win and his first ever WBC wood. Congratulations to Craig, and I would like to thank everyone who participated for making this a smooth, fun tournament to run. The only change that I forsee for next year is moving all rounds to 7pm starts. Feel free to give me any feedback or suggestions that you have. Joel A Tamburo - Aug 9, 2006 12:32 am (#21573 Total: 22070) Learning each day how much I don't know Hi all, The time has come for my WBC After Action Report. I came up by car together with John Keating and his son Tim (we drove from Chicago-about 700 miles). We arrived on Monday, and spent the early part of the day at Gettysburg (man was it hot!!!). The evening we spent in Lancaster, getting dinner (and a good one at that) at the Olive Garden and going to see Ant Bully at the theater. With the preamble complete, on to the convention. First things first, congratulations to Ken Whitesell on his election to the Board!!! I am certain Ken will be great in this role. Of course, I will run next year.... The auction was great; fun and well run. I was able to snag copies of Command and Colors Ancients and Mark H Walkers Lock and Load: Band of Heroes. I followed up the auction with play of Atlantic Storm, Oltre Mare and Gangsters (kudos to John Pack and John Coussis for well run events as usual). Tim hooked up with the other kids, and had a great time as well. As the convention went on, more games were played (including the Atlantic Storm game Ewan mentioned in an earlier post) as well as Dune, Here I Stand, Galaxy, Twilight Struggle and others. I did hang out more in Here I Stand, as John Keating my friend advanced (I did not), and Ed Beach ran a tremendous event. Ewan, should I mention the song you sang during Galaxy that had everyone in the room laughing themselves silly (I was laughing so hard my eyes were tearing up)? I did make the Finals in Dune, but took 6th (oh well). That was pretty much the best I did gaming wise. On another level, like every year WBC was to me like an extended family gathering. I spent a good amount of time making up time with old friends and (hopefully) making new ones. Sunday, when it was time to leave, was somewhat sad in that I was taking leave of people I would not see for another year. It made me wish WBC would never end. Finally, the hotel. I won't go into details just now, but suffice it to say my hotel experience was far worse than any posted here. I should add that the board is aware of the issues reported with the Host this year, and I fully expect will be speaking to those issues once they have time to decompress from the convention. Justin Thompson - Aug 9, 2006 4:10 pm (#21635 Total: 22070) Convention Director for PrezCon "The Winter Nationals" War of 1812 AAR War of 1812 after Action Report Let me start by saying it was a pleasure Game Mastering this excellent century event! The event had 24 different players playing for the 1812 wood! All the big hitters were lined up to take there shot at the title. Dave Metzger (Defending Champion & 3 time winner), Rick Young, Matt Calkin, Jeff Cornett, Scott Cornett, George Seary and many other’s were lined up to fight the War of 1812! As we started we had 24 players who played the first round with the American holding a slim 7 to 5 advantage in wins. Scott Cornett won his game in record time and set the bar for the rest of the field. As we play a Swiss format were you play 3 games and are matched up with winners after each round it was surprising to find 3 undefended after the third round. The fourth player to join the semi finals would come out of the 2-1 crowd. The Semi-finalists were Dave Metzger, Scott Cornett, Rick Young and Justin Thompson. Rick Young was 2-1 (With is only lose coming to Dave Metzger) was seeded last and had to play Dave again! The Semi-Final Game was decided by 1 Victory Point. It was the closest victory of the event. Rick Young had won his way into the Final! He had a hard Mountain to climb but he was up to the challenge. Great job Rick! Scott Cornett landed in the chair directly in front on me. He played the Americans and I was those Brits. We both started well but after the start of 1813 it became obvious I needed to take the lead and attack. Scott was well defended with 30 pips. I had 29 and was the attacker. He rolled only 3 hits which took me down to 26 pips. I rolled and hit him for 7 hits! Wow I had taken the advantage. That advantage lasted only that brief moment as he rolled 7 hits on me. I then rolled 1 hit and it was over. Scott had won his way to the final for the first time. The final had Rick and Scott ready to fight out a nail bitter. It last one year as Scott rolled his way to the 2006 1812 World Championship! I left the room for 10 minutes and it was over before I could return. Scott is an excellent player and deserved this Championship! 1. Scott Cornett (Champion) 2. Rick Young 3. Dave Metzger 4. Justin Thompson We played 31 games and had a blast do so. The Americans held a slim lead in victories 17 to 14. I will be stepping down as the GM of this great in 2007. I am taking back Kingmaker GM duties. Once again thanks to all who played and Congrats to Scott Cornett! J. R. Tracy - Aug 10, 2006 11:07 am (#21708 Total: 22070) "I no drive just for drive. I drive for to finish in front." - Milka Duno, Le Mans My DonCon: PreCon - ASL. Went 4-1, losing to Steve Pleva who in turn lost to Gary Mei, leaving it Gary, Steve and myself for first, second, and third. Mark Pitcavage came through for that most coveted of all prizes, the ultra-rare Sand Plaque. Somewhere in there I enjoyed a game of Thurn and Taxis, a train game traveling in postal guise. Good fun as Andy Lewis kicked our collective asses. Monday - wrapped up the ASL event, then a bit of Shifting Sands, pulling off a Fool's Mate of the sort that occurs early in the life of a CDG. I like the possibilities - the side theaters add a little distraction to the channeled fight up and down the coast. I also participated in a demo game of Parthenon, a trading game in the islands off ancient Greece. I didn't care much for the game but appreciated the enthusiastic and friendly demo staff, and had a tableful of fun opponents. There must've been another game in there somewhere but it's lost in the memory shuffle. Tuesday - First, a superbly run auction. Then, a lovely game of Successors, featuring one of my highlights from the week. I lured Greatjon Dolan's Perdiccas, bearing the body of Alexander, all the way to Pella. Sure, if he buries it he leaps out to a substantial lead, but if I beat him and steal the body, *I* can bury it for the autowin! I lose by a pip, but it was worth a shot. That fight and Dan's epic trek across Anatolia made for great drama and a great game. I also managed some SuperStar Baseball, Ra!, Atlantic Euchre, Elchfest, Royal Turf, and some funky game which I assume is Liar's Dice but started with a 'p' - excellent late night fare. Wednesday - Dr. Rob shocks me with a nifty certificate of appreciation from the Successors crew - who can't say Sugar Daddying is its own reward? I helped out Ken Dunn with an ASLSK playtest, chatted with Adam Starkweather a bit, played more SSBaseball, got in a game of Duel of Ages, looked in on a very ambitious ASL minicampaign in the open gaming area, and tried NHL Ice Breaker. The is a card-driven sports game described as 'War on ice'. Superficial at first glance, it actually features a little bit of strategy and hand management. The Greatjon's Rangers beat my Bluejackets, but not before I came roaring back from a four goal deficit. Thursday, and my day of departure - After a very late night Wednesday I had to scramble to check out and make the C&C: Ancients event at 11:00am. I'm glad I did, because it was a great cap to my week. I went 3-0 in the opening round to advance, and while I managed 2-1 in the next round I was knocked out on tiebreakers. Six games in about six hours, plus time for lunch! Andy did a great job for this first-time event, and I enjoyed meeting the likes of Peter Perla, Mark Guttag, Rob March, and my three other opponents (George, David and ____) whose names I neglected to write down. With only a couple games under my belt going in, I had a lot to learn, but hot dice and great cards allowed me to hang in for longer than I expected. I'll definitely give this a shot next year and will likely try Mark's Memoir'44 event as well if schedule permits. Good times, good gaming fellowship with faces old and new, and several new (to me) events - another great WBC. My only regrets are missing the dealer room, and after finally trying Superstar Baseball, missing Randy! Those are great sheets, Randy, and I love the way Chris Palermo has tweaked the event. Already counting the days 'til next year..... JR