WBC After Action Reports

My roommate and I strolled into Lancaster on Wednesday night and kicked things off with a fun game of War of the Ring (with expansion) in which he finally regained his WotR mojo and won a game of it for a change.

Thursday morning started with the two of us reviewing the optional rules for the TI3 tournament. Malloc organized the heat into 4 tables of 4 players each. My buddy and I declared up front that we weren't able to advance due to other commitments. My buddy won his table and had a blast while I had a good time in a game that ended in a 3-way tie for VPs which resulted in my placing 2nd.

Kudos to Malloc on a well run tournament and to Will Kenyon for happily providing a lot of rules support at my table for a new player. Malloc and Will went on to the tournament final which... well, I'll let them tell that story.

Next up was a couple of pick-up games of Nexus Ops which I taught to a couple of wargamer friends. Then I ended the night with a planned game of Fast Action Battles: The Bulge.

On Friday morning I had a rematch of WotR against my buddy. I laid the smack down on the Free Peoples, winning before the Ringbearer entered Mordor.

Next up was a good game of Battlestar Galactica which included a player named Chris who I met during the TI3 game and encouraged to open game with us. Chris and I had a good time as the frakkin' toasters putting the screws to the humans.

Then we ended the night with a game of Struggle of Empires, which I taught to Chris and another gamer I had met earlier in the summer in Virginia.

Saturday morning started with a planned game of TI3 with my roommate and a couple of his friends. We had posted on the big white board about the game which netted two more players. One of the added players, Dan, did a good job of winning the game and he joined in on our funny moments of role playing during the game.

Dan joined us for more gaming including one of the funniest games of BSG that I've ever played which also included my second roommate who had finally managed to get to the WBC after many issues at home. One roommate gleefully played an insubordinate Starbuck, another growled as Adama and patrolled the table shouting for the cylons to reveal themselves, while I played up the soft spoken Roslin trying to be inspirational yet loopy. Great, great game that the humans (including me) won a bit handily.

The night ended with a game of Betrayal at House on the Hill which culminated in the little girl, Missy, becoming the traitor. One of our friends had a good time playing Missy as she chased after the heroes while calling for her "Mommy" while wielding an axe! She killed a hero in the basement while the rest of us manage to escape.

I also chatted with Malloc and Will about the game of Android that they were enjoying.

On Sunday morning my roommates and I relaxed with a couple of games of Nexus Ops before hitting the road. I also picked up Storm Over Stalingrad and Kutuzov in the dealer's room.

All in all, it was a great WBC for me, full of back-to-back gaming and meeting a bunch of great gamers. As in the past two years, we never left the hotel, enjoying the hotel food and the cooler full of beer we had brought along. The open gaming had moved this year to their huge showroom which included a ton of big, round tables that were perfect for multiplayer games.

Anyone else want to share their experiences?

Chad

Playing plenty of nice long games, I see...

Those big round tables were great for Wings of War by the way. I got a game up and we had four planes running, but I was hoping for more. Time was running out so I didn't want to recruit a crowd and then leave half an hour later.

Next year I think I'm going to try and organize a mega-game with a dozen or more planes on the table. What would you figure, about six feet across?

Sag.

Sagrilarus wrote:

Those big round tables were great for Wings of War by the way. I got a game up and we had four planes running, but I was hoping for more. Time was running out so I didn't want to recruit a crowd and then leave half an hour later.

Next year I think I'm going to try and organize a mega-game with a dozen or more planes on the table. What would you figure, about six feet across?

Sag.

I missed seeing the WoW game -- guess I wasn't walking around enough. But yeah, I'd say the tables were at least 6 feet across.

I've gotta get to one of these cons and try Merchant of Venus...

Gary Sax wrote:

I've gotta get to one of these cons and try Merchant of Venus...

That's what I did. Saved me thirty dollars.

You're exactly right by the way.

Last year I went to WBC for just one day, and with a friend. We hit the open gaming tent and played anything that looked interesting in a complete frenzy, hurrying to get as much in as possible. If you think it through you can probably guess what happened -- I didn't meet many new people and the games we played were shorter and simpler. The trip was fun, but I missed the main course of the meal -- the night sessions when the heavy hitting happens.

This year I came solo, arriving Friday morning and leaving Sunday morning. Since I was on my own I needed to forge relationships and I did. I played some games in the afternoon (including one in development that I'm trying to get permission to write about a bit) but the real heart of it was the two evening sessions, including a chance to sit in on Ubarose's game of Merchant of Venus. After a really rewarding play (about three hours) I missed winning by just $30. It amused me to no end since I've been joking here for a month or two about wanting to pay that exact amount for a copy of the game.

After that play, Uba laid out the facts in pretty simple terms -- why would you buy Merchant of Venus when it's a play-once-a-year game and you can do it at the cons? She's exactly right, the monkey is off my back because I traveled to a common location and found people with similar interests. Next year I'll sit down and play a round with you.

The second evening was Struggle of Empires, a game that I will not get the opportunity to play with my local group due to it's time requirement and intensity. An excellent session with good people, and good players.

I've already decided to tune my plans for next year -- I will bring the family and spend the majority of the day with them, leaving for WBC at 4pm, when the real value appears in the open gaming room. Instead of Friday-to-Sunday I can do Wednesday-to-Sunday, double my gaming value and get to ride on the Turtle Whirl with the kids at Dutch Wonderland across the street.

Sag.

As a single man, but also poor graduate student, I'd have to scrape an east coast trip together. But time isn't a problem, at least...

I went from Thursday to Sat. This was my first time at both WBC and a game con and I had a blast. I only got to meet the F:AT crew briefly as I had to stick with my friendly local eurogamers most of the time. I did get a chance to play StarCraft for the first time. A big thanks to KingPut for wandering over and teaching us a good part of the game. I'm kicking myself for not getting into a F:AT game of BSG. Next year, guys!

Outside of meeting some of the F:AT people, I did get my first glimpse at the gamer culture that Barnes always talks about. Let me tell you, it can be a bit frightening to play euro games with some of the BGGers in person if you are not prepared for it. Fortunately, there were plenty of old grognards who DO seem to have social personalities to balance it all out at WBC.

NEXT YEAR! I am already looking forward to it and this time I will play games with the F:ATies. I think I will make it a whole week next time.

ubarose wrote:

This year was very laid back. I only played one or two games each day. I played no new games (except for half a turn of Small World-BLEH!)

I see your BLEH and raise you a double-BLEH.

Last Night on Earth
Battle Star Galactica
Merchant of Venus
Arabian Nights (twice)
Arkham Horror (twice)
Mythgardia

It was over too soon.

Now that is just plain show-boating !!!!

Gary Sax wrote:

As a single man, but also poor graduate student, I'd have to scrape an east coast trip together. But time isn't a problem, at least...

You'll have to join my 'I'll Get There One Year' Plan - we've both got quite a journey to get there.

ubarose wrote:

Southernman wrote:

Last Night on Earth
Battle Star Galactica
Merchant of Venus
Arabian Nights (twice)
Arkham Horror (twice)
Mythgardia

It was over too soon.

Now that is just plain show-boating !!!!

Hardly showboating compared to other people. Add Android, TI3 and Struggle of Empires to that list, and then it's comparable to what some other people played. WBC is an awesome con. Wargames, old Avalon Hill, and Ameritrash really dominates the tables.

That was just a green-with-envy comment by me - it's an astounding play list !

Summary of Games Played:
This was the best WBC yet. Lots of long games. At cons everyone has time to do the 3 - 5 hour games.

War of the Ring - Lost as Shadow. I decided to play the Shadow just as the Tolkien wrote it rather than some gamey BGG strategy. I failed to take Helms Deep but Mordor rolled over Minas T. Then I focused on the finding the ring. The Trents took Isengard and the elves took some other Shadow Stronghold so I lost.
CC:A - Overlord - 8 player fun
Atlantic Storm with Dogmatic and Big Ben
Battle Cry with Dogmatic
Caylus - 3 wins - got wood
Twilight Imperium 3 - 2nd place missed finals
Last Night on Earth - Uba and me found all the town folks and beat the Man
Battlestar Galactica. The Humans (Uba, her man and Daniel) survived with 1 Fuel, 1 Morale, 1 Food and 3 Pop but had to survive the 50/50 dice roll with the FTL drive at -3 pop. Me and QueenPut lost. Maybe my favorite game of WBC.
Arkham Horror with Innsmouth - Lost badly with Uba, the Man and A.M. Dan
Moai - with Dr.C, Euro Phil and Dueber
Merchants of Venus - with Uba, the Man and Sag
Drunken late night Life Boats - with AndyJoy and a bunch of drunks
Android - 5 players Malloc, Will K. and G.Bubs
Stuggle of Empires - with Sag, Bobbytweeks, Wargamer Jason and the Man

Southernman, Gary and others thinking about WBC. Excluding travel it's possible to do WBC for closer to $50 days with some planning. The hotels rooms at WBC and fairly cheap. Our crew was able to fit in 7 guys in room that cost $100 or about $15 a night. The food is fairly cheap, even at the hotel. Dinner is $8.00, Lunch $6.00 and if buy your beverages from a beer store you can get by on about $25.00 / a day for food and beverages. The gaming fee is about $70 for the week. The key thing is to find roommates your willing to stay with. The average gamer will live on 4-6 hours of sleep a night so I wouldn't worry to much about roommates.

If you're flying in from any distance like Europe or California, I probably fly into Philadelphia. Philly to Lancaster is 1:45 minutes. BWI to Lancaster is 1:15 minutes but there are many more international flights to Philly.