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 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...