Getting Back Into the Swing...

Well, I have had very little computer time, as Deanna is hogging our home computer and I had to turn my old school one in the other day (and won't get my new PC laptop until Tuesday).

So I just wanted to sneak in and apologize for the lack of posts this week, while letting y'all know I'll be "back to normal" once school begins.

Much to post about -- bass fishing, gaming, school, moving, dog training (she's getting there, Marty!), etc.

Give me a few, then we'll be back to normal, a post a day, I hope!

Back to School, kinda...

Well, here I am sitting in my room, looking at all the work I have to do.

It's lot...

Go for the Gold...

Had fun Thursday night -- 7 guys showed up at Greg's house, and after the obligatory "What will we play?" discussions, we broke off into 2 games. A 6-player Here I Stand broke out (tournament scenario), while Jeff Burdett and I played the "Lion of Winter" scenario from Warriors of God. It was a close game for a while, then my French got some lucky control rolls (while Jeff's English didn't) and the VPs started to add up. Jeff commenced an epic battle in Ile-de-France, but greater French numbers won over superior English leadership. It was a real bloodbath, however! When VPs got to 23 for the French on Turn 7, we decided to call it a game, and this let Jeff get home earlier than planned.

I was thinking of heading home myself, but I got roped into replacing the Ottoman player in the HIS game. His position was decent, and I got some more Piracy VP, as well as taking Tunis, so I was in the mix when we called it a game. France had invaded England and taken Bristol -- something you don't see much in this game.

Greg has a great downstairs gaming/home theater/kids' rec room set up. He's threatening to do this on a regular basis, and I hope he does! Next time, we'll decide on games in advance, and I think I will go with Espana 1936...

Tonight, I think I'll set my alarm for 2:30 AM to watch the basketball gold medal game between the US and Spain. I'm glad the punky team that played in Athens lost, but I'm really rooting for these guys -- they're not only the best athletes, but they are definitely a team. I expect them to beat Spain by about 30, but am actually hoping for a good game. And, as the saying goes, "on any given day..."

Realtors and Gaming...

Sorry to have been delinquent these past few days -- we've been like busy little beavers on the house...

Man, but it's never ending.

The realtor came by Tuesday night, and we decided to officially put the house on the market September 8th. Still a ton to do before then, and school will be starting. What a drag... The initial price is fair, and I hope we'll be able to get something close to it. Once all fees are paid, I'll be happy to break even. The joys of home ownership...

All this has put a crimp on my gaming and social life, though Deanna and I went out to a movie last night, Tell No One. A nice thriller/mystery, in French, with subtitles. It was good to get out of the money pit for a while, and we haven't had a "date night" for waaaaay too long.

Tonight, I'm going to Greg D's in Irondequoit for what he hopes will be a regular Thursday night get-together. That would be cool! Looks like I'll be bringing Warriors of God and Espana 1936, but would be open for a multi-player game of Here I Stand. Any way, it'll be fun.

Well, I'm still waiting to hear back from the tile guy, and I owe Cheyenne a walk, so ciao for now!

Williamsport, My Own Private Hell...

Williamsport currently has the Little League World Series. It also had my vehicle for the past 8 days.

I got it back today, finally.

Yay for me...

Cost me a lot of money and about 7 hours of my life.

I hate Williamsport...

Deanna and I packed Cheyenne in her van and left at about 9:30 this morning. After about an hour, we popped in a children's book, So B. It. She finished it on the way back, and said it was good, so I'll have to finish it myself sometime.

Around 11:30, got to the big Pennsyltucky rest stop in Tioga. Bathroom breaks for both Deanna and Cheyenne, then back to Route 15 S.

Got to Mansfield, PA a bit after noon. Stopped at McDonald's for lunch. I had the Caesar Salad -- it's actually pretty good. We bought a plain burger for Cheyenne since she was being so good, and gave it to her, bun-less. That pleased her greatly! Ate at a picnic table in a little park there.

Back on the road, and we hit Williamsport around 1:00. The address for the place was "East Willow," between 3rd an 4th. We found 3rd, then the next street was 4th. What the Hell?!?! Doubled back, and found that "East Willow" was an alley. Great, maybe the car guy's next to the abortionist...

We finally found him, by spotting my RAV parked in what looked to be an abandoned lot. I found the guy, and he told me how hard a job it was, as the underside of my engine was in bad shape due to weather (i.e. salt on the winter roads). I paid him, and, thankfully, the vehicle seemed to be working again.

We left the place with Cheyenne riding with me, and Deanna following.

My a/c didn't work.

It was 90F today.

Cheyenne and I were hot.

I think I'm refusing to ever stop again in Williamsport -- McDonald's, gas stations, etc. along the way will have to be in different towns.

Millennium Game Day, No Car...

Yesterday was our monthly meet at Millennium, and our 8th anniversary of the club's founding -- something I started when I moved back to Rochester from the DC area. Bill Peeck and Steve Cuyler mostly run things now, and they got sub platters, pop (soda for the rest of y'all!), and a cake (believe Jack Morrell did this) to celebrate. Most people gave Bill 5-10 dollars for his efforts (and he paid Steve and Jack), though some slackers didn't contribute. Bill was too nice to demand payment for food, but I was ready to call several folks out who wolfed down "free" food (one woman had 2 sub sections, 2 pieces of cake, and a plateful of chips, yet didn't pay...), but Bill told me not to. Oh well, just geeks being losers...

Anyway, I played 2 games of Traders of Carthage, and 1 each of Alhambra, Pacific Typhoon, and Iwo Jima. We had intended to play Kutuzov, but only Jeff Burdett knew the rules, so we decided to push this back until we all knew.

I had fun, and I especially like Iwo Jima's mechanics, though I'm thinking the Japanese almost can't win. I posted the following on CSW, and will be interested to see what the answers are:

Come on, this is a fun little game, and with all the clamor and whining about the handling of the Operations issue it was in, I'd suspect 100s of folks, at least, would have been playing by now. Well, you should be!

Anyway, played again yesterday. My Japanese held on well, and jumped off to a big lead (23-2 at one point), but then the inevitable "wearing down" began, and the final score after Turn 8 was Marines 46, Japanese 25.

I'm still trying to figure out how to get the Japanese to win...

Some observations on why it's so hard for them:

1. The cave/safe to land/beachhead reduction. While Adam's clarification that 1 hit (not 1 damage number) makes it easier for the Japanese to get rid of "safe to land" markers (for a couple turns, anyway), it also makes it easier for the U.S. player to go "cave hunting." Send a plane (or target an artillery) to each area you want to expose/destroy a cave, and odds say you'll get at least 1 hit on 4 dice, destroying a cave. In two turns, all caves in the area are collapsed -- bad news for the Japanese!

***My opponent and I discussed how a nice balancing factor (especially given the confusion I had with this in the initial rules) might be to let the Japanese remove beachheads/safe to lands with just 1 HIT will the U.S. would need to inflict 1 DAMAGE FACTOR to remove a cave***

Thoughts?

2. U.S. Tanks are almost impossible to stop. The only way is to get them with anti-tank defensive fire -- after that, they're pretty much invulnerable. The tanks really only need be concerned with the 4 airfield areas, so infantry can go in first and find out where the anti-tank units are. Once these are no longer a worry, the tanks can pretty much act without regard to their safety, as it takes a Herculean effort for the Japanese to inflict even one hit on 2 or 3 tanks stacked together.

3. U.S. bombardment is the game winner -- the infantry can take 30-35 step losses, if need be, in order to expose the areas the U.S. needs to bombard. Find an area with juicy targets, roll 20+ dice, and the Japanese no longer have a "happy area!" When artillery exposes itself to fire (as it needs to do vs. airfields/beachheads), boom, instant target!

4. The game is a grind, and there just don't seem to be enough Japanese steps to hang on for 9 turns, especially with the "easy" cave reduction. By turn 6 or 7, things get critical for the Japanese, and this gives the U.S.3 turns (at least) of 10 VPs for all 4 airfields.

I imagine the Japanese could win early, by rolling really well and crushing the initial invasion, but once things get going, I'll be damned if I know how to stop them. I think the rue change we talked about above might help, and I'll try it the next time I get to play. This is a real "neat" little game, and I just want to see folks playing and enjoying it, as well as seeing the Japanese winning.

Thoughts?

Right now, I'd bid 10-15 VPs for the Marines -- way too much for balance in a game where 40 VPs wins. Hope to get some "official" help...

Wish me luck getting my vehicle tomorrow (Monday). If I can't, it'll be there all week, as Deanna has school training Tuesday-Thursday, so she can't take me. Any of you want to drive me down? ;-)

Post WBC Doldrums...

A few days ago, I started getting all plugged up, and just wrote it off to ragweed, as that bastard of a plant is sending its nastiness into the air early this year, according to the news. So I began popping Sudafed, yet I was feeling worse and worse.

Actually contracted a bit of a head cold, which is (finally) doing better after about 40 hours of sleep in the past 48. Looking forward to feeling right for the Millennium get-together tomorrow.

I am still "car-less," however, as the work won't get done until Saturday, it seems. So I'll be picking the RAV4 up on Monday -- more than a week after I broke down. When folks have you by the balls, you wish they'd be a little more considerate. Oh well, no sense it getting an aneurysm over something I can't control...

Back to bed.

WBC, Conclusion...

Another fun con, as always (though the ending with the car drama sucked!), and I hope you enjoy reading about the games I played there.

Next year I'll probably do more wargaming, and less eurogaming, but we'll have to see.

There are so many great people that make WBC "the con" for me, above and beyond the fun crowd of friends from Western New York. Hope to see all of you next year, and beyond!

WBC, Day 7 (Afternoon)...

Driving out of Lancaster, I finish up the book I'm listening to, The Devil's Feather, by Minette Walters. Good book that leaves you wondering exactly what they did at the end. I start up my next book, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, by Andrew McCall Smith. It's enjoyable so far, and a nice change of pace from the darkish earlier book.

South of Lewisburg, I stop for lunch at a Chinese place. Mistake. Bad food that won't settle in me for a couple of days. Ugh...

My RAV4 is revving high sometimes, especially when I have it in cruise control and am going uphill. Hmmm... Something more to spend money on when I get back to Rochester.

In Lewisburg I fill up the tank, at $3.67 a gallon, which is considerably cheaper than anything we have in New York. The revving problem is getting worse, and I'm having some difficulty making it up hills at speed. I'm getting worried, and begin putting my hazards on when I travel up hill, to warn folks I'm going slowly. Figure the trip to Rochester is going to take more than 5 hours...

North of Williamsport (between Hepburnville and Trout Run), I'm going up a hill at about 10 MPH -- something is really wrong. I begin to smell a funny smell, and smoke comes out of the engine.

Shit.

I pull over (luckily this stretch had the right lane blocked off so I wasn't right next to traffic). I pop the hood and the engine is smoking.

Lovely.

I call AAA.

Two scuzzy vehicles pull over as I'm on the phone. Uh-oh, figure I'm about to be robbed or something. Keep talking to AAA. I get put on hold as he's contacting a towing company. One of the guys from the scuzzy vehicles walks over and shakes my hand. Tells me Jesus wants us all to help each other. I'm relieved, as I don't think they're out to rob me anymore...


I know they can't help, as I suspect it's the clutch. A couple guys look and confirm that, wish me luck, tell me "Jesus loves you," and drive off. Oh, they offered me some water first, which was nice. Pennsylvania, ya gotta love it!

Still trying to get hooked up with a tow truck, another car pulls over, ahead of me. It looks like Mike Cardwell's car, but I thought he left early morning, so just another good Samaritan (or thief, who knows...). But, lo and behold, it is Mike!

My spirits immediately rose, and Mike hung out with me until the flatbed arrived. We followed it back to Williamsport, left it at a Monro Muffler (all that was open on a Sunday afternoon!), and packed my stuff into Mike's car and headed back with him.

The RAV4 is now at "Automotive Specialists" in Williamsport. It is the clutch. I will be going back down there this Friday to get it. I will be out about a grand.

Oh well, it could have been worse (much worse) if Mike hadn't driven by. I owe him, BIG TIME. We had a nice drive back to Rochester, in a car with working a/c. Man, Mike was a life saver.

And, of course, my WBC adventure ain't over yet...

WBC, Day 7 (Morning)...

Wake up.

Take my crap out to my vehicle.

Shower, dress, and head down for coffee and then the Ingenious semi at 9:00. My last chance to score a wood. I'm at a table with 3 guys who know what they're doing. The game advances, with a lot of defensive plays. All the other players get one (or more) of their colors to 18, giving them multiple plays, I never do. But my colors are all moving steadily up the chart, while they all have one (or more) problems. I play defensively, trying to block off yellow, which 2 players need. I see an opportunity to end the game, and do. Scores are 11-10-9-9. I have 11. Woo-hoo! A final I make that I can actually play out...


We break for 1/2 hour, as one of the finalists, Bruce Reiff, has to pack up and check out. The final board is me, Bruce, Pete Stein, and Andy Latto (of the 4 woods!). Two Cabbies and a shark playing against me, I'll do my best but I could easily pull 4th. Another defensive game, as no one is letting anyone get something "cheaply." Very excellent play here, the best Ingenious game I've ever had, frankly (guess it makes sense in the finals). Andy makes what will be his last play to get up to 11. I'm also at 11, but Andy has the tiebreaker (his #2 is at 14, mine is at 13). Bruce is next, and there are, potentially, 3 plays left to be made. One of them is on purple, which would bump me up to 12, and the win. Bruce, however, gets orange to 18 on his first play, plays again, and I never get another play. Bummer. Final scores were:

Andy 11/14
Rob 11/13
Bruce 11/12
Pete 9

Wow! About as close as you can get! I tasted victory, but it slipped away in the end. And yes, this was one of Andy's 4 woods! I walk over to registration with Pete, pick up my 2nd place plaque, and am happy to not be going home empty-handed.

(Didn't check on Facts in Five, of course...)

Make the rounds to say "farewell" to buddies I won't be seeing for another year, then head out to the vehicle. Leave the parking lot at around 11:00ish for the 5+ hour drive back to Rochester. Another year of great fun, even if my "wins" were disappointing. But, frankly, while I enjoy winning, having fun is much more important, and I had fun.

WBC, Day 6...

Saturday arrives -- always a bittersweet day at WBC, for there is a lot going on, yet you know the end is near.

After coffee, I headed down to the Kaiser's Pirates semis, hoping I could do something right in a semi... The GM/designer, Jim Day, took 12 players (which included a couple of alternates) to make three 4-player tables. The three winners and high second would advance. I was at a table with Joel Tamburo, Carol Caler, and Paul (?). Joel jumped out to a big early lead, and I brought the table's attention to this -- don't go after the merchantmen of the leader, for they can potentially generate points for him. I believe Joel was up by 15+ points over me at that point, and the whining began. Holy shit, but it was annoying, so much so that Carol held up her "No Whining" button every time Joel took his play. Thankfully, I passed him at the end (due to 50 points in prize ships!) and won the semi, 82-77-55-44. Unfortunately, Joel's 77 got him high second, so the whining would continue into the finals.

We started the finals at 11:30, and I had a 1:00 Galaxy semi coming up, figured, no problem. But wait, even though the heats and the semis had been one game, the finals would be played out with the tournament rules -- 3 hands, points for scoring in each round. I knew we'd never make it, and I almost withdrew before we started, especially because I wasn't looking forward to another 90 minutes of whining before I left. Funny thing was, Carol Caler gave me her "No Whining" button for the finals, saying, "You'll need this with that guy!" So, I decided to play as long as I could. I won the first round, so was up 4-3-2-1. About mid-way through round 2, Marty Sample called from the Galaxy room, telling me they were about to start. So I respectfully resigned my position, and it was taken over by Jim Day. I found out he ended up winning (of course...), but I was given 4th, since I couldn't win off of his play. I'm pretty sure I would have won if I had stuck around. Alas... I am getting a nice t-shirt of the German ocean liner turned raider, the Berlin, which will be cool (all 4 finalists got to pick a ship to put on their t-shirt). At least no more whining from Mr. T...

I raced to the Galaxy semis, making it just in time. I was disappointed to have to leave the Kaiser's Pirates game, but this was my team game after all, and, Hell, I need to try to score points for the boys! We were set up in five 4-player games, with winners advancing. My table had two 16ish year old players and Jed Shembeda. The whole Shembeda family is good at Galaxy, and I've played with Jed before and know he's an excellent player. So, I figured my chances to advance were 50/50, as it would be either me or Jed -- unless we completely screwed each other (though, to be fair, I think we'd both rather see the other advance than a kid who squeaked in because we pummeled each other!). Excellent game that went back and forth. Jed made the last play to end the game, revealing his Imperial secret base, becoming Governor there, and playing a "10" on the Imperial world, killing off the ECups. This killed my secret base (-5 points), and since Jed was Imperial Governor, so he bumped up one of his bases on Imperial column. Final score was 12-7-2-1. Before Jed's last play I had him 12-11. Oh well, no shame in losing to a good player and a good guy. No points for me in the team tourney. Ouch...

Hung out for a bit, had a few beers, then went off to the Ivanhoe semis. The starting player got off to a big lead, then was brought back to the pack. The guy next to me kept on duking it out with me for a blue token, even though he had one. This weakened my hand (even though I eventually won the tournament), and allowed the "quiet man" sitting diagonally from me to smash us in 2 straight tournaments and win the game. The winner was Andy Latto, and he went on to win this tourney and 3 others, giving him 4 woods in 2008. Man!

Not a lot of disappointment about Ivanhoe, as I really don't care too much for the game, it was just something to do (though the guy to the left of me played a dumb game -- the multi-player game bane, eh?). Looking for something to do, I heard that the Facts in Five game would be starting shortly. So I headed there, as I like trivia. Here, everyone plays 5 games, and the categories and letters for each game have been done beforehand by Arthur Field, the GM. He tries to make categories/letters that have only a few correct answers. To give you an example, we had Maryland Counties, English Premiere Soccer League cities, last names of Harry Potter characters, German field marshals (von not included!), Casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, London Neighborhoods, etc. These were hard puzzles, and we had 5 minutes for each game. After the game, the sheets were corrected by another player, then passed in. When all 5 games were completed, they were collected and scored again by Arthur and his wif that evening. I did OK, scoring 66 out of a possible 125 points. Had fun, and went out to find more "stuff" to do. Imagine my surprise when, a couple days ago, Arthur posts the results on CSW. The winner scored a 69 and "Rob Winslow was hot on his heels with a 66." LOL! This was a 2-plaque event, so I left a 2nd place "blue wood" back in Lancaster! I never thought to check at registration to see how I did. Guess my fount of useless knowledge is as good, or better than most peoples', LOL again! So, I'll have to pay Don Greenwood to send it out to me. Why not? Facts in Five is now on my list for future WBCs... Could a new favorite game be emerging???

After dinner, I was talked into playing Naval War. I dislike Naval War, and hadn't played for probably 20 years. But, what the Hell, I figured I wasn't winning anywhere else, might as well try here (not knowing about my once and future brilliance in Facts in Five, !). I get to my table of 6, and immediately take a tiny first round lead. Several people at my table are idiots, and play a stupid game. I end up in 3rd when all is said and done, the only good news is that one of the idiots didn't win (a nice guy and decent player did, so that was good). 3 hours of my life I'll never get back. Please shoot me next year if I ever even think about this stupid game...

At the bar that evening John Foley shows up and watches a 4-player Kaiser's Pirates "drinking" game among me, Bob Titran, Grant LaDue, and Frank Mestrve. Bob ends up winning, Grant was second, I was third, and Frank was last. I admit, I don't remember much of this game...

I did have the common sense to pack stuff up earlier in the evening, as I don't even recall going to bed that night. Mixing beer with rum and cokes -- ugh...

WBC, Day 5...

First off, after coffee (of course!) was the semi-finals of Santa Fe Rails. I was seated at a table with Kevin W. from Buffalo, Laurel Stokes (the wife of the "no table talk" guy), and Andy Lewis. A tough bunch, it would seem! Kevin, and I jumped out as the early leaders, but neither of us could stop the game early, as Andy Lewis kept buying branch lines. By drawing a lot of "7" cards, Laurel pulled up with the leaders. We laid a lot of track, and most cities were connected -- something that doesn't often happen at a table with 4 experienced SFR players. I drew both Bismarcks, and there were already 2 tracks heading there, with another track coming back east from Spokane. I didn't play "white" quickly enough, and the track never made it, "cheating" me out of 10 points. I also should have convinced Laurel to take the blue track through Salt Lake to Las Vegas, instead of Sacramento -- she and I owned Las Vegas, and there was NO way I was letting it go to Sacramento, which she and Andy owned. So, my 2 errors cost me 16 points in the end. As it was, after a recount, Kevin had 155, Laurel had 152, I had 144, and Andy had 120. I'm glad Kevin won (if I couldn't!), and Kevin went on to win the finals -- meaning Western New York guys have won this tourney 3 out of the 6 years it's been going!

I walked around for a while and checked out the open gaming tent that had been set up. 3 guys were learning Traders of Carthage, including Steve (?), one of Ron Wuerth's friends, and a fun guy to game with. Not to mention Steve has the rules to about 1,000 games in his head! I was invited to join them, so I did. The game was fun, as you picked up 4 different commodities and tried to deliver them to Carthage, avoiding pirates. Actually, the game play for this card-game was pretty deep. It took me a few turns to figure out what best to do, and in the end I finished 2nd with the scores at 14-13-10-8.

Off to the last Pacific Typhoon heat -- if I don't win this one, no advancing for me, a former champion, 3 years in a row. Well, guess what? 39 points won the game. I had 11. Grrr... Maybe I have to practice more. Wait, I practice all the time...

Hanging my head in shame, I ambled off to the Alhambra semi-finals. I felt like I had a decent shot here to advance, since, for some reason, Alhambra has always been a game I've done well in, luck factor and all. The semis were a 5-player affair, and Nate Hoam of the Cabbies jumped out to an early (~4 or 5 point) lead. After the 2nd scoring round, it was obvious that it was a 2-man game between Nate and me. A white tower for 13 came up, and I had the exact amount -- that would put me into the tower lead and, most likely, win the game for me. Nate was sitting to my right, and he bought it out from under me, preventing my lead in towers! Excellent move on his part, as this proved to be the swing that gave Nate the win, 92-84. An excellent game that went right down to the wire. Oh yeah, another 2nd...

Of course, after that disappointment, I went back out to the open gaming tent and ran into a bunch of Western NY guys. We decided to play, wait for it, Alhambra! LOL! I should have said no, but I wanted to do something. I ended up in, guess what place? 2nd, that's right. The scores were: Grant-92, Rob-86, Bob Titran-72, Bill O'Neal-63, Dave W.-51, Bill Place-46. Another Alhambra game, another 2nd to a guy that scored 92...

I stayed out in the tent and started reading the rules to Iwo Jima: Rage Against the Marines, the game in the special issue of Operations Magazine. Several people came by to chat about it, and Jim Winslow asked if I'd like to try a game. We went for it, muddling our way through the rules, with me taking the Japanese and Jim taking the Marines. By the time the game ended, we had the rules down, and we both saw the mistakes we had made. Jim won (2nd for me again!), and I really want to try this one again, soon.

As I was packing up the game, Bob Wicks and a friend came by asking if I'd like to play Race for the Galaxy. As I love this game, but couldn't enter any heats (conflicts), I readily agreed. They grabbed a fourth, and we were off. Now, I'm not one to whine about my luck, but this was ridiculous -- I didn't see a resource producing planet for the first FIVE hands, sticking me squarely behind the 8-ball. So, I played a development heavy game, and though I finished 4th, my 23 points was only 6 behind the winner's 29. At least it wasn't another 2nd, LOL!

11:00 PM saw me headed back to Ballroom B for Liar's Dice. I sat at a table with Forrest Speck and his son John. 6 of us "lied" it out, and soon enough the only 3 left were Forrest, John, and me. Soon I got booted, and Forrest had a 3 dice to 1 advantage over his son -- but John played great, and ended up winning. A fun game that plays better when the alcohol levels rise. OK, maybe I should be happy with 2nds, as I seem to be slipping...

Late at night. Much beer consumed. Another "friendly" game of Pacific Typhoon begins... 6 of us fight it out. The final scores are 35-25-23-18-15-11. I had 18. Steve Cuyler wins, but whines through the whole game, something negatively commented on by the other players. Steve is an excellent player, but the constant complaining about his cards has gotten real old. Stopped being fun about 1/2 way through, though, mercifully, the game was reasonably quick -- I just wanted to head to bed. It was too late for this...

WBC, Day 4...

Thursday's at WBC have traditionally been Command & Colors: Ancients day (well, at least for a couple of years, LOL!), but I decided to beg out of this tourney since it conflicted with two Galaxy heats and I really had to try to win one, being a good teammate and all... So, I got up, had my coffee, and headed to the "Lampeter" room for a game of Kaiser's Pirates.

I played this one last year, when it was first released, and scored the highest total in the preliminary rounds (over 100!), but ended up finishing 5th out of the the 6th finalists. I really wanted to have a better showing this time around. I ended up in a game with Mark Miklos and Don (?), and the way the tourney is set up the top 12 scorers advance to the semis. I won my table with 70 points, but wondered if that would be enough to make the semis. I will have to check on that throughout the next few days...

Galaxy heat 2 of 4 was up next. I got put at a table with my friend Marty Sample. It's always one of those good/bad things when at a tourney table with a friend -- you know the game will be fun, and you don't mind if your friend wins, but it's not always satisfying beating a bud. As it went, we had another 4-player game, and Marty and I tied, 12-12! The tiebreaker was point value of cards in hand. I had 30, Marty had 41. Oh well, another 2nd, but a good guy was definitely advancing, so that was OK...

I looked at my schedule and saw I could make the 2nd heat of Santa Fe Rails. I decided to play in this one, as the 3rd heat later that evening had a bunch of other games against it, so I wasn't sure I'd be able to play again. I was at a table with Duane (?), Paul (?), and Chris Palermo. It was a wide-open game, even though I bought 3 Branch Lines and never used them, trying to shorten the game! The final scores were in the high range, 183-176-166-158. I had never before (in 3 years!) won a heat of SFR. In this game, the 183 was my score, so I'd be advancing to the semis. Finally!

That evening, there was the 3rd of 4 Galaxy heats. My team game, and one I had yet to win. This time, we had a 5-player game. The final scores were 15-7-7-4-4. I had a "7," but finished 2nd based on card values. Mark Mitchell told me I was a definite for the semis, with three 2nds. Woo-hoo, I'm #2! Well, at least I could blow off the 4th heat and try some other games...

11:00 PM rolled around and I went to check out the Pro Golf tourney. Bruce Monnin runs it, and I hadn't played in a few years, so I decided to give it another shot. Now, this game is pretty much pure luck -- in both the golfer you get and in your rolls. Good golfers have better cards, and high rolls are good while low rolls aren't. I found a foursome with Dave Metzger, Jeremy Billones, and Robert (?). I drew Davis Love III, which, I think, was a pretty good draw. We played the Augusta National course (where the Masters is played), and it was tough, all of us having a few bogeys. Going into the 18th hole, Dave's Jay Haas was -5 while my Davis Love was -4. In one of those "shit happens" moments, Dave's rolling went south, and he scored a double bogey. I shot a par, and won our foursome, -4; -3; E; +3. An exciting finish, now I had to wait and see if -4 would make the cut for the 4 finalists. It held up for a while, but when a foursome came in with both a -8 and a -6, the two -4s on the board were bumped, very close to the end of the round. Oh well, I was close, and it was fun.

Some drinks at the bar with the "Western New York Drinking Club with a Gaming Problem," then off to bed. But up pretty late with no gaming...

WBC, Day 3...

Slept in Wednesday morning, as planned. Recovered a bit from the previous two nights! I must admit, I felt guilty that I wasn't playing Wilderness War, but man, I needed a break from day-long wargames this year.

***Boardgame Geek is down for maintenance now, so no links to games, sorry***

I get up, have coffee, and wander around the Host, shooting the shit with many different folks. As 1:00 approaches, I head off to the Galaxy room, to play in the first heat. Oh man, but this was an unlucky game for me. My secret base died early, and the other 2 players refused to attack the clear leader (not me, LOL!), so the best I could do was eke out a distant second. The scores were 14-6-3-1. Multi-player games can often go against you if inexperienced players make plays that help others -- such as in my Santa Fe Rails game yesterday. But it was OK, there were 3 more heats coming, and the GM, Mark Mitchell, said 1 or 2 seconds might be enough to advance, anyway. Oh yeah, did I mention that Galaxy was my team game this year? I was on "Team Viagra," ranked #13...


I spend some more time just hanging out and catching up with old acquaintances. Later in the afternoon I decide to take a shot at playing Ingenious, a game Pete Stein runs. I like the game, but mainly have played the 2-player game with my wife, while the tourney utilizes the 4-player version. Well, I show up and actually win my board, 13-10-9-8. I'm told by Pete that I'm either in the semis, or, at worst, will have to "dice off" with folks in the same boat as I, depending on how many show up for it on Sunday morning. That sounded fine to me, as I hadn't even planned on playing Ingenious, it just fit nicely into my schedule.

After dinner I ran into Bill O'Neal, and he was between games, so we played a game of Manouevre -- my Austrians vs. his Spanish. It was a pretty good game, but Bill opened things up at the end and ended up winning 5-3. I thought I had a good chance mid-game, but then Bill played a stout defense on his right wing and that led to my army eventually breaking. Again, another fun (and quick!) game.

Next, I headed to another Pacific Typhoon (I decided to play PT over Atlantic Storm each time...) heat, and this game was most excellent! Back and forth all game, and in the end it end it came down to 3 players, including me, with a chance to win. The last battle was won by a player out of the running, and then we counted points. All 3 leaders had 28 points -- a 3-way tie! The tiebreaker is "battle points," and Gary (?) had 22, while I had 20 and Joe Burch had 15. So Gary won, and I had to walk away from another "close but no cigar" game. D'oh!!!

As the evening wore on, I checked the schedule and saw that an Alhambra heat was about to start. I like Alhambra, but there's an awful lot of luck in 4 or 5 player games, so I debated on playing. What the Hell, I went for it, as nothing else was waiting for me. I had a great wall built up, and was ahead in 2 buildings. The final scores were 127-104-89-82 with the 127 belonging to me. This assured me of getting into the semis, so I was glad I stopped in and played.

The 11:00 PM game was one I had to go to -- the Can't Stop tourney. I won this last year, so it would have been poor form to stay away. And besides, I like rolling dice! Well, what can one say about this game? You roll dice and you gamble your position. In Round 1, I gambled well, and won a 4-player game. In Round 2, we played 3-player, and there was a young guy at my board. His buddies were drunk and loud, and while it was funny for a couple minutes, it quickly got annoying. I wanted to win, or have the woman at my table win, just to shut them up. So I took foolish chances (trying to get lucky) to quicken the game. I didn't win, but the woman did. And one of the loudmouths spilled beer all over himself. So it was a Pyhrric victory, eh?

After Can't Stop, it was time for bed. Or was it? Not when one stops by the bar and starts drinking -- this leads to a 1:00 AM game of Pacific Typhoon. It was me, Bill Peeck, Bob Titran, Frank Mestrve, Tom Dunning, and Bill Place. Tom and I tied for 2nd with 25 points. Frank won with 31. Now it was definitely time to hit the sack...

WBC, Day 2...

Woke up early Tuesday morning and had my coffee -- needed to be caffeined up for the Manoeuvre tourney that started at 9:00 AM. This was a tournament with "pods," where you played the other 3 people, and best records advanced to an 8-person quarterfinal. High roll could pick the side he wanted to play, with the caveat that you have to play every nation (assuming you go the distance) and can play no nation more than twice. In my pod, the first game saw me as the British vs. Ken (?)'s French. I won a territorial victory, garnering 25 points. 2nd game was my French vs. Ed (?)'s Prussians. I won a pretty decisive attrition victory for 27 points. The last game saw my French playing Brad's Austrians -- Brad was the guy I played on Monday night. He put up a good fight, but the French overwhelmed them eventually, giving me another 27 point victory. I easily advanced to the quarters as the 2nd seed.

Being the 2nd seed got me in a game with John Miklos, Mark Miklos' son. John is an excellent player, and I had already "shot my wad" with the French and the British. John selected the French, and I wavered between the Prussians, Spaniards, and Russians. I settled on Prussia, and we had a good game. For a while. Then John broke my right wing, and ended up routing me for a 5-1 victory. Ouch! John did go on to make the finals, though he lost his last match. I learned a few tricks, some of which I hope to employ next year!

After hanging out for a bit, I entered the first of 4 Atlantic Storm/Pacific Typhoon heats. We could choose to play either game, and I went for PT. It was a pretty good game, and I had some chance to win, but was stynied at each turn. As the game ended, the winner had 38 points, while I was 2nd at 30. The other scores were 29, 19, and 12. Damn, but I haven't won a heat here in a couple years, gotta get going!

Onto Santa Fe Rails, a monthly favorite at out Rochester meets. We played a 4-player game, and there were a couple of newbies to my left. They fed an awful lot of point opportunities to Steve Scott, the eventual winner, and he picked up 84 cash during the game -- which is huge. Hell, 50 cash is huge, I'd never seen a number as high as 84 before... So, try as I might, I could never make up that deficit (wish the newbies had been to my right...), and I finished in 2nd. Final scores were: 119-114-101-65. Seeing how the winner was spoon feed the victory, I feel like I played an excellent game, even though I didn't win. Oh well...

Now, I began thinking about my day and a half in Lancaster. I had started off with 7 straight victories, but then was saddled with 3 losses in a row. I needed to turn things around, so I went off to have a few beers, and just relax for a bit.

Later on that evening, I decided to play Ivanhoe, since a bunch of Western NY guys were playing. We were all happily buzzed, so why not? Now, this is not one of my favorite games -- it's OK, but it often takes too long for what it is. Luckily, my game finished quickly, and I won. Back on track...

Mike and Bob were in the "monster game room" playing Third World War with Jeff and Chris from Jersey, so I went and checked on their game for a while. After Mike's brake "incident," he finally made it to Lancaster and they all looked like they were having fun.

Ended the night hanging out with the boys at the bar, into the wee hours of the morning. Figured since I was skipping Wilderness War this year, I could sleep in on Wednesday, which I did.

A real fun start to the con, even if I blew it with Manoeuvre...

WBC, Day 1...

I'm baaaack!

Drove down to Lancaster on Monday, August 4th, after dropping Cheyenne off at the doggie hotel. Very uneventful trip -- stopped in Williamsport, PA for lunch, got into Lancaster at around 3:30 PM and was able to check right in. My room, #577, was at the far corner of the hotel, so I figure I made up (some of) the exercise I was missing by not walking Cheyenne.

Got my stuff put away, then headed down to the open gaming areas. Saw the game Manoeuvre being demoed, and I watched for a while, since I planned to play in its tourney Tuesday morning. After the demo I got into a game with Brad (last name not known), taking the British vs. his French. It was back and forth for a while, then my Brits took control of the center of the battlefield and won the game by killing 5 French units. I had a lot of fun, and this got me looking forward to tomorrow's tourney.

A bit later I ran into Lembit Tohver of L2 games, and he was looking for a game of Warriors of God. I know Lembit from the Niagara Boardgaming Weekend, and he's a good guy, so I sat down to play. We choose the 100 Years' War Scenario, and I drew the French. The first few turns saw me take a small lead (around 5 or 6 VPs), but the proverbial shit hit the fan on Turn 4 when Lembit lost most of his leaders while all of mine survived. Then, on the next turn, we rolled high OPs points, and I was able to bump my VPs up to around 20, so Lembit conceded (and I don't blame him -- the board situation was looking grim for the English). A fun game, nonetheless.

Later on, I played some more Manoeuvre with Bill Place, from Pittsburgh. Bill is a regular at WBC, and we've voted him in as an honorary Western New Yorker. Anyway, my Turks were able to beat up on his Austrians, as those Turks have a lot of cavalry that can be deadly if you get them going. Another fun game.

Later that evening we were sitting around sipping beers, so we decided to play Pacific Typhoon. It was a 4-player game with me, Bill Place, Bill O'Neal, and Grant LaDue. As always with this group, it turns into a "screwfest," though I managed to survive and win the game with 36 points. The Bills had 32 (Place) and 26 (O'Neal), while Grant had 14. In this game I did play the atomic bomb card and I rolled a "6," which meant I lost the battle and took -3 VPs! LOL! My plane must have been shot down over Okinawa...

I had never been to a WBC before Tuesday, and it was nice getting some friendly games in early and being able to participate in the Tuesday morning tourneys.

Off to bed to with more to come for Tuesday...

On Vacation...

For a week or so!

On to Lancaster...

See y'all in Amish Country!

This will be the last post for a week or so, as I'm off to the WBC tomorrow morning. Deanna told me that she won't be posting, so y'all will have to wait for me to get back.

I thought about bringing my laptop, then reconsidered -- why would I want to be "connected" when part of the experience is just getting away from the daily bustle and playing games? Short answer is, "I don't want to be connected!"

You see, I love the latest technology as much as the next guy. More bells and whistles for me, please. But I also remember the time before cell phones, before laptops getting the Internet everywhere, and, frankly, that was a more peaceful time. People spoke to each other face-to-face more. There wasn't this big disconnect we have going on today. My 6th Grade students can spend 4 hours texting on their cell phones, yet they can't carry on a 2-minute conversation in person.

Over the years, this has struck me as very sad, and it's getting worse.

Getting online and typing is a chore -- one I enjoy doing here, as it's an outlet, too. But it's nice to get away from the 'Net for a while, nice to bury oneself in the catacombs of the Lancaster Host and hope there's no cell reception. Nice to go back to the days of being around, and communicating with, real people all day. Even if they are stinky wargamers!

See ya the week of August 11th, and yes, I will be full of WBC reports!

Rochester Rattlers...

Watched the MLL's Rochester Rattlers beat the Long Island Lizards last night, 17-13, to win the Eastern Conference in Major League Lacrosse, even with one game left. I really love lax, both the college game, the pro game, and the indoor game. While we only have Division III college lax in town, Syracuse (where I got my MBA) is right down the Thruway, and I've always rooted for them. Our two pro teams, the Rattlers and the Rochester Knighthawks, in the National Lacrosse League (NLL), are perennial powerhouses, and fun to watch.

While the Knighthawks have won their league's championship twice, the Rattlers have yet to do so (and everyone thought they were going to last year, until they lost a heart breaker at home in the semis.). This year, they'll be favored to win (again), and I hope they come through.

Anyway, between packing, organizing, and cleaning, it was a nice break.

More C&C:A

Played 2 more scenarios from C&C:Ancients last night on Vassal -- Bagdaras (sp?) and Trebbia. All I can say, is, I hope I got rid of all my bad die rolls prior to WBC. Damn!

I do realize we're in the "lazy, hazy" days of summer, but I hope there will be some interest in starting a little C&C/Vassal league, per July 30th's post. I'm not getting any bites on Consimworld (folks are ignoring my IMs -- I must really be out of the "in" crowd now, LOL!), but I know there are guys here, besides Marc, who enjoy playing on Vassal. Just let me know!

I'm currently deciding what to bring/not bring to WBC. I've decided to go "euro" heavy in tourneys this year, playing wargames mostly for fun, as I have time. I just don't have the stamina now for 16+ straight hours of Wilderness War. So, my packing will probably be worse than in past years, as I'll want several wargames in there to play for fun, as well as the other assorted stuff. On top of that, Ron Wuerth wants me to do my best to continue "Ron Con," so I'll have to be ready .

In addition, I'm pretty intimidated by all the work I have to get done between now and Monday morning. I'm about to delve into some tonight -- unless, of course, someone wants a Vassal game...