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 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...