A couple of interesting adventures at the 2000 World Boardgaming Championships in Hunt Valley:

Kaarin and Karsten Engelmann took their 12-year-old neice, Rebecca Hebner, with them to the convention for the second consecutive year (she told Grandma that if she got to do nothing else back East this year, she wanted to go to that game convention). Rebecca registered for all Junior events, but she decided to play Monsters Ravage America and Circus Maximus with the adults in order to gain strategies and give her an edge in the Junior tourneys. As it turned out, Rebecca made the finals of both adult games (she came in third place of the Monsters Ravage America tournament) and she won her Titan:The Arena Junior event. Of course, the adults who escorted her brought home no wood this year...sigh.

Also, I was assistant GM for the Circus Maximus Junior tournaments. Jake Jacobi, the GM, was concerned about getting enough kids to participate, and he was worried that they wouldn't play aggressively enough (he didn't want it to just be a horse race).

As it turned out, the board held its maximum (13 chariots). There was only 1 light chariot amongst them. It took approximately 3 hours to complete a single lap because the kids were ramming everything in site (we cut the race back to two laps). The kids even joined in the chant of "Alpo" and "Flip" at the appropriate moments (and there were only a few tears, as a result of Jake's wise preparation--every player ended up with a medal). The light chariot ended up winning, despite significant wheel damage, because she managed to do maximum wheel damage to a heavy that was ramming her (on a result of attacker's car damaged). It was great fun (even though I wasn't playing)! - Kaarin Engelmann


I ATTENDED. I WAS DOING SOME OPEN GAMING NEAR ONE OF THE TOURNAMENTS AND WAS ASKED TO FILL SOME VACANT SPOTS. I ENDED UP WINNING A FEW GAMES UNTIL IT BECAME LATE AND I QUIT. - Chuck Frascati


I have two stories from the 2000 WBC. I played 1776 against the defending champ Steve Packwood in round one. The game turned out to be very close and came down to a 1-2 attack on Philadelphia by the Americans (me). I got a +3 die roll modifier due to use of the tactical cards, and after the first round had several attacks at 3-2 or 1-1. At the end, we each had one factor in Philadelphia and one last round of combat (I needed to kill his one factor to win), but I got an attacker lose one factor, so I lost.

The second story involved the Fortress Europa tournament, where I played my brother, Robert Frisby in the Championship. I invaded between Cherborg and St. Milo, and had excellent rolls on turn one to get ashore. However, I then got stormy weather on turns 3 and 5 of the 7-turn scenario and Mulberry damage to boot (reducing my sea capacity in half). My brother Robert was the victor. Brad Frisby


At the WBC 2000 I won first place in Panzergruppe Guderian and Fortress Europa. I also played in Russian Campaign but lost in the first single elimination round. Robert Frisby