WBC 2004 After Action Report

Pre con
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I found out I was voted in as one of the new BPA Board of Directors. (Hee Hee Hee?.. now my evil plot to get Naked Twister included as a tournament event is under way.)

Tuesday
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I arrived early. I checked in my games for the action. I got into a game some open gaming. I played Axis and Allies D-Day, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It is very different then regular Axis and Allies and I heard several gamers saying it was a simplified version of Breakout Normandy. I came in on the second round of play and I played the US on the Allies side. The Germans won the battle this time around. I went to the Auction at 1 PM. The room was already close to full and we had to add more chairs. There was soon over 200 people and they had to open the wall to make space. The Cabs did an excellent job of running the auction and all my games sold. Around 5 PM it was time for more open gaming. I learned St Petersburg in Café Jay and enjoyed it quite a bit. Then I found out we were playing incorrectly, so I was anxious to try it again, but never got the chance. With extra time for dinner I thought I would try out Andy Nelson?s, since everyone is always raving about it. The pit beef was good. I think next time I will try the Ribs. My first tournament at 9PM game was my team game Ra. The game was very close and was a three way tie for first. I won on the tie breaker of the highest sun. Then I played in the Age of Mythology underground open gaming tournament. I had fun which was the main point. We had four games going, which I though was pretty good for an unofficial 3 hour tournament scheduled at 11PM. I did not get to sleep until 3:30AM

Wednesday
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I woke up at 7AM. BPA Annual Meeting at 9 AM. It?s official, WBC is moving to Lancaster and the three new board members are announced. At 10AM I played Princes of Florence and realized that I blew two separate opportunities to win the game and ended up coming in last. Attika was at Noon. One of the other players was going to connect but his three opponents were unable to stop him even with us having three turns to do so. Medici was next at 3PM. I came in second. Next was Princes of Florence again. If at first you don?t succeed?. This time I placed second.

At 7PM I played Union Pacific. Again, more fun. I showed at 10:30PM to assist John Weber with running San Juan. Only having played the game once, I helped with set up and crowd control. We ended up using two of the salon, since we had to many players to fit in one. Unbeknownst to me, until Winton Lemoine came to get me, John actually put me in a game to play in the room that was packed to capacity with San Juan players. Luckily Winton was very familiar San Juan rules, so I bequeathed as an assistant GM, since I was not able to answer any rules questions. Got to sleep by 2AM



Thursday
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Woke up at 5:40. Had to be at my first BPA board meeting at 7AM. Sorry can?t discuss the details, or I will have to kill you. J I took a well needed two hour nap in a friend?s room. I attempted to guise myself as a ?shocked? electrical lab tech for Power Grid, but the hair treatment did not quite work the way I had planned. Oh well, I got some comments about the purple hair anyway. I had lots of fun and attracted attention to Power Grid, which was the purpose of the whole idea anyway. I ran the first Heat of Risk at 1PM. I lost my first player casualties as one of the guys from Israel, had a stomach ulcer that decided to start acting up at the beginning of the Risk tournament. He was coughing up blood and he had to excuse himself from playing as his roommate took him to the hospital. See my Risk write up for tournament details.

At 4PM I tried my Medici for a second time. At 6PM it was another go at RA. AT 8 PM I did the Power Grid Demo. Around two dozen people showed to learn. It was diffic