...get ready to get eaten by all the sharks who can magically do 10 things with 1 op and are always 3 steps ahead of you.

Version III won't be out yet, but I'll be giving away 2 free (future) copies as prizes this year.
I'll also be holding a version III playtest, if I can. Contact me if you are interested.

BTW - the only good Team X Member is a Former Team X Member.

Is anything being done with bidding or anything with this game? Is it needed? It's hard to imagine playing a 6 player game with asymmetrical forces tournament style, no matter how long it has been playtested.

No, we're not using bidding.

Last year's win totals by power (first year as a tournament) were as follows...

Ottoman: 3
Hapsburg: 3
England: 2
France: 4
Papacy: 2
Protestant: 3

We were quite happy with that breakdown.

Gorey details on last year's tournament can be found here:
http://www.boardgamers.org/yearbook/hispge.htm

We've started up a BPA-sponsored PBEM tournament too and are not doing bidding there either. The only concession to side preferences is that in these tournaments the strongest qualifiers from the opening rounds get to choose first for sides in the semis and finals.

One thing you'll find about Here I Stand is that it offers many players a chance to hurt a perceived leader. This does help make it self-correcting for play balance to some extent, part of the reason I think it is working well in tournament settings.

People seem to manage to play Diplomacy in tournaments. Is 6 really so different from 7?

hehe.

Someday this will be reprinted, I think I may buy it.

Breakdown and buy or trade for it. The designer did a fabulous job coming up with a gaming system that fit the war - quite rare :-)

I'm quite interested in the asymmetrical forces in this one,yeah. Don't want to wait until 2010 or whenever it'll get through P500 though. I know why they do, but I wish they wouldn't P500 reprints and just reprint them and get them back in stock instead.

On more than one occasion they have done a reprint way before it reached 500 preorders (I assume because its quick and easy).

Was played alot at WAM - and had good reviews from that surly crew.

I wonder if some solid winning overall strategies are starting to develop for this game yet...

You have to manage your hand and work with the cards you draw. And of course be lucky at the right times. I think there's no such thing as a long-term strategy in this game (one reason I like it).

As I was leaving the WBC two years ago (the year this was the program cover), as I was waiting for a cab I was chatting with a couple people, one of whom turned out to be the designer of this.

Sadly, I cannot attend the WBC this year

A picture of two Up Front players last year reviewing the rules prior to play.

Crapgame: "Hey, Oddball, this is your moment of glory. And you're chickening out!"
Oddball: "To a New Yorker like you, a 'hero' is some type of weird sandwich, not some 'nut' who takes on three 'Tigers'!"

Oddball: "We see our role as essentially defensive in nature. While our armies are advancing so fast and everyone's knocking themselves out to be heroes, we are holding ourselves in reserve in case the Krauts mount a counteroffensive which threatens Paris... or maybe even New York. Then we can move in and stop them. But for $1.6 million dollars, we could become heroes for three days..."

Looking forward to it.

Very interested to see how these games between good players end up. I'm wondering how this game is actually balanced between Axis and Allies, I'm not in a position to make a determination yet with my low # of plays.

The only redeeming thing about "Return of the Jedi" was her scenes with Jabba.

That was really Ananda, but I think he has put on some weight since the photo was taken.

Jason

Will he be wearing a one piece or two piece this year?