2010 WBC Diary
John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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This is my fifth annual Geek List, now a ritual I seemed destined to complete each year after returning home from what is probably the best, most intense gaming experience each year -- the World Boardgaming Championships in Lancaster, PA. This was the 20th WBC and, while I haven't been to all of them, I have been to most, probably all in the past dozen or so years dating back to the last Century.
Looking at the numbers, it looks like I played fewer games this year, which is true, but that was not necessarily a bad thing as I have learned the hard way -- rushing from one event to another -- that you really need to pace yourself to get through the entire week without "burning out." Also, I can attribute the drop in games played to the fact I got knocked out early in a couple of events I had done well in the past -- coupled with the fact that I was not in a position to play any games for four of the six time slots where I was GMing one of my favorite games -- Puerto Rico -- for the ninth successive year and (pleased to report) we had 150 gamers for Puerto Rico at WBC for the eighth time in those nine years -- a record that I doubt is equaled or surpassed by any other WBC event over that same time frame.
For those who are unfamiliar with the WBC, please check out the following website:
http://www.boardgamers.org
Here are links to prior years' WBC Geek Lists by me:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/45090/2009-wbc-diary
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/33774/fun-and-games-at...
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/23588/2007-wbc-recap
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/15837/games-played-at-...
Summary
Total Games Played: 27 (15 different games)
Tournament Games Played: 18 (10 different games)
Open Gaming: 9 games played (6 different games)
First-Time Plays: 3
Games Won: 8 (4 in open gaming, 4 in tournaments)
Best Finish: 3rd (Automobile)
Average BGG Rating of Tournament Games Played: 8.6 (2 10s, 6 9s, 2 6s)
Multiple Plays: 4 (Automobile and Hoity Toity); 3 (Founding Fathers); 2 (Hotel Samoa, Puerto Rico, Ra, Stock Car Championship Racing Card Game)
For the record, those games, in order of preference (with my own BGG rating in parens) are Puerto Rico (10), Stock Car Championship Racing Card Game (10), Imperial (9), Vegas Showdown (9), Automobile (9), Princes of Florence (9), Power Grid (9), Hoity Toity/Adel Verpflichtet (9), Ra (6), Stone Age (6). The only two games in my top 10 that were not WBC events this year were Die Macher (10) -- dropped after low attendance in 2009 -- and Traumfabrik/Dream Factory (9).
Now on to a recap of my week, told in roughly chronological order. Note that the entries include several games that I did not play as well as all of those that I did. Apologies in advance if I screwed up on anyone's name.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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NOTE: This is NOT a post about the hotel, it's about a game about hotels that was the first game I played after arriving at the hotel.
Arrived at the hotel just a bit after 1 PM on Tuesday and was surprised to see how packed the parking lot was -- seems to fill up earlier and earlier each year. Had to wait a bit for my room assignment, so I pulled a couple of games out of the car and headed to the opening gaming area. This game, Hotel Samoa, I picked up very recently through GameSurplus after reading a description and some favorable comments on BGG. Had one six-player game under my belt and, although we got one rule wrong, everyone seemed to like the game. At WBC, I roped Chris Moffa, Chris Trimmer, Ben Stephenson and another guy named Wilson (hope I got that name right) into a five-player game (the game scales well for any number from three to six). The theme of the game is well presented, as the players are managing a touristy luxury hotel, trying to attract guests of various nationalities over the course of a 12-turn game. The game mechanics are very smooth and straightforward, as each turn you play a card from your hand with two numbers on it, top number the fixed bid for adding a new room or improvement and low number the bid to attract tourists. High number played gets first pick of the building tiles and low number gets first pick from one group of tourists (kind of like there are two buses coming in from the airport and you get one). There is even a nice tiebreaker card that rotates around the table, clockwise order for building and counter-clockwise for tourists. Most money at the end of the game wins. Playing time less than an hour is possible although we had to take a break while Ben and Wilson checked out the silent auction and returned a few minutes later with their goodies. Served them right, as the two Chrisses managed to finish 1-2, with Chris T coming in just ahead of Chris M. Good game to start off the week with.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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This game is on here because I picked it up as a "freebie" when someone came by the table where we were playing Hotel Samoa and offered us the pick of about four free games. I took this one, but haven't even looked at it yet.
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3.
Board Game: Ra
[Average Rating:7.60 Overall Rank:48]
John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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Got checked into the room and headed back to the open gaming area. Hooked up with a few guys who were waiting around for the first round of tournament games (not starting until 6 PM) and, at a few minutes before 5, we started up a game of Ra on the understanding that everyone would play quickly. The other players in the game with Mike Kaltman (Coyote K on BGG), Curt Collins (Spleen on BGG, haven't asked him to explain that one), and another GCOM guy, Andy Gerb. So, two from Maryland versus two from Pennsylvania. Now, I have played around 50 - 60 games of Ra and have a very poor record, winning maybe only five times and never ever in tournament play, and frankly I expected to get smoked in this game as well. Somehow, this time that didn't happen and I managed to edge out Mike 48-46 for the win. Can't recall much about the game almost a week later, but I think the 5 pts for most/fewest suns may have factored into the final result. At the time, I remember wondering what kind of omens this may have portended for the tournament games.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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This was the only game in the 6 to 9 PM time slot I was interested on playing, and one that I had made the semis twice before but not recently. Looking at the schedule, I figured only one heat and probably no chance of advancement without a win. Two choices of maps, I went for the one with the Expansion Deck (with the French map) hoping for a somewhat quicker game since I was planning on helping out GM Greg Schmittgens with Automobile starting at 9 PM. Opponents included two players from the Columbia, MD GCOM group (Marcy and Ted), Jeff and Peggy who I can't recall having played against before. Game came down to the final power plant auction and who could then be in a position to build and power the most. I got to 16 in capacity but was a dollar short of building the 16th city. Marcy then built to 16, and unfortunately at this point I had to run off to my next game (Automobile) as the game was running long, into the next time slot. Marcy later informed me that Peggy also built to 16 which probably meant I came no better than third. Oh, well, I really wasn't planning on advancing in Power Grid this year.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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This was one of about three new games voted into the WBC back in December last year, out of about 25 which are added -- the rest being classified as "Returning Trials" meaning games that had failed to make the cut for the Century List at last year's WBC. A real nice surprise as the game has only been released in a limited print run of 1500 copies. I had volunteered to help out GM Greg Schmittgens as assistant GM but really wasn't much help at all for the first heat, given the surprising length of the Power Grid game. As my "reward" for being a bit tardy, I found myself paired at Greg's table. (Another assistant GM, Andy Maly, was on hand to make rulings, if needed in Greg's game.) The other players were Bruce (whom I had not played before) and Kathy Stroh, who is someone who was GMed a variety of games at WBC, including Power Grid and, this year, Stone Age. I did not have one of my better games, getting shut out of one of the growing car markets (I believe it was the low price range) and watched while Bruce ran away with the game. I did manage to nip Greg for second, but my score of around 3700 or so was definitely a subpar result for me given I usually expect to get above 4000 in a four-player game.
Greg really went all-out as GM for this event, pimping out some laminated cards he made available that said "Automobile Players License" that was kind of modeled after a drivers license, with an expiration date of the last day of the convention. Also, after input from Andy and myself, he produced a very concise game record sheet that allowed him to track things such as # of loans, character selection, furthest car model, all designed to produce a great GM report that will hopefully enlighten us more on this very interesting game. Fears that there would be insufficient copies of the game proved to be unfounded. Also, our game (maybe because it was a four-player) finished well under the allotted 3-hour time slot. I thanked Greg for running the event, promised to be on time for the second heat the next day, and then headed out to do some more open gaming as there were no more tournament games on the agenda for Tuesday night.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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This -- along with Automobile -- were probably the two games I was looking forward to playing the most at WBC. My copy (pre-order #135) had arrived the week before the convention and, since I had one game already under my belt along with a couple of solo plays, teaching the game to others was a breeze. I had no problem convincing Ben, Pete Putnam and Dave Denton into joining me, this after Pete had PMed me to make sure I was going to have the game at the convention. Can't remember much about the game, except I believe I got Madison and pulled ahead early, using the powerful George Washington card once or twice as well.
This game lasted until well after 1 AM and, even though I didn't have a 9 AM start the next day, I definitely wanted to pace myself, so I did not try to play any more games the first night.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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One of about four or five "must play" events at WBC this year for me. It's probably my fifth favorite game of all-time, one of seven 9s after the top three games which are all 10s using the BGG rating system. I actually helped introduced the game to WBC in its trial year (it got voted in by a margin of just one or two votes,.similar to Automobile) as volunteer GM in 2008. Eric Freeman took over last year and, as he is always quick to point out to me, its attendance figures continued to shoot upward. Don't have stats for 2010, but the first heat was a Wednesday 11 AM start. I was given what tennis players would refer to as a "tough draw," being paired with a former Caesar Raphael Lehrer who is very good at this game as well as many others. Other players were Robert and Alyssa, but I had my eye on Raphael who managed to do much better than I in generating a good income basis in the early rounds. Nonetheless,. I managed to snag the Theater to keep the game close, coming in second -- only about six points back. I recall not having a door-to-door connection and that (plus the fact that the door-to-door connection card came out late in the game) may well have been the difference between winning and losing.
Anyway, as it turned out a second place in one heat just put me on the alternate list, but as events were to develop, that turned out to be my only Vegas Showdown game of the week as I could not make the second heat -- and all spaces for the semifinals were filled before my name came up in the alternate list.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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The first of seven time commitments for me as GM -- running a demo of the game for new players. Since Puerto Rico has been out for over eight years now, didn't know what to expect but was pleased when a couple of new players showed. Then there were two others who had played before, but were looking for a refresher and perhaps a few strategy tips. In the past a couple of people from the demo have gone on to advance in the tournament, but that didn't happen this year.
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9.
Board Game: Ra
[Average Rating:7.60 Overall Rank:48]
John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
-
After my success in the pickup game, I decided to give Ra a shot once I saw there was an afternoon heat I could make without adding too much to my schedule. (Ra is scheduled for two hours, but most games seem to be finished in about an hour and half.) This time things didn't go so well, as I was paired with GCOM founder Keith Levy, reigning Ra EuroQuest Champ Kirk Harris, Phil Rennert and a fifth player whose name I can't recall. Now, over the years, I have probably played about 20 Ra games with Keith, mostly at his location near Baltimore, and can't recall winning a single one of them. This game was no different. Keith went on to win while Kirk, who had done so well last year at EuroQuest, struggled a bit. I am fairly certain I was dead last. Remember one epoch when Phil and I had the high tiles, I drew a bunch of crap, then Phil got all the good stuff. Still think Ra is a high luck game, but if you look at the tournament results, it's often the same people who do well year after year.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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Next up for me was the second heat of Automobile -- last chance to qualify for the elimination games the next day (Thursday). This time it was a five-player game, and since I got there in time, the GM allowed me to play with my set that included the wooden money from Treefrog. However, once again, it was the proverbial "bad draw" as I was paired with Raphael, along with two other Johns (John Wetherell and John Dextraze from Canada) and Chris Palermo, GM of the Superstar Baseball game at WBC. Raphael said that he was new to the game, having been given about a 10-minute demo from Greg, the GM, just before the start of play -- and thus he seemed to be picking our brains about strategy as well as rules for the first couple of turns. Again, not one of my better games as I came in the middle of the pack, but well behind Raphael (who won what was apparently his first game) with John D not far behind. Once again, my score was in the 3500-3700 range while Raphael and John were both well over 4000, meaning I didn't really come that close to winning this game.
After turning in the scoresheet I checked with Greg, the GM, who had established a cut line around 3500 for non-winners to qualify for the semis. Fortunately, my name was a couple of spots just above the cut line, meaning a chance to play for advancement into the final, but with play starting at 9 AM the next day.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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Another old favorite, whose lineage at WBC dates back to 2001 when I volunteered to serve as the game's first GM -- can still look back with pride to the fact that the high water mark attendance-wise (94 in 2002) was during my second and final year as GM before moving to Puerto Rico (rules preclude one person from GMing more than one "Century" event at WBC, although one Century and one trial event is acceptable). Each year, it seemed I could do well enough to make the semis at Princes, but never managed to breakthrough and reach the final table. Closest I came was a three-point loss in the semi, not even good enough for sixth place laurels because there was someone with a close second place finish that year. For 2010, the plan going in -- given the schedule conflicts looming later in the week -- was "one and done" -- play only one heat and not continue, regardless of the result. I was paired with Mike K from Philly, Bill Zurn from California, Dave and 12-year Drew, who was quick to point out with pride that his Dad (Bruce DuBoff) had made the final table in 2009. Bill had nosed me out in a Princes game in EuroQuest in 2009, so I was hoping to perhaps reverse the situation and Mike also proved to be a really strong player. Mike got one of his favorite Prestige cards while I had to labor, winning the Jester bids in turns 6 and 7, to get mine (most Jesters). Mike went on to win the game with a score around 56 or so. In the end, though, I was one short of Bill, kind of a repeat performance of what had happened in my game with him at EQ last year.
So, even though I only came third, I was pleased with the result as it showed I was still reasonably competitive against a couple of strong players. Forgot to ask Eric Brosius about the result, but I am hoping he will post something here on BGG.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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Time for some more open gaming as Princes was the last tournament for me on an action-packed Wednesday. (Given that I was 0-for-6 in tournament games thus far, that was probably a good thing.) This is a game I had heard alot about and had picked up as part of the purchase that included Hotel Samoa and some other new games. While trying to drum up some interest, I was fortunate to run into Kathryn McCorry -- whose husband Tom had just been elected to the BPA Board -- had played before and really liked the game. This made it easier to recruit Beth Raphael and Kevin Walsh to join, making it a four-player game. There are a couple of neat aspects to the game that, in my view, make it one of the better Settlers variants. First, there is the aspect of building rails to new areas, having areas dry up -- a concept first introduced in Settlers of the Stone Age. There's the aspect of a limited build phase on other players' turns -- a necessity given the larger number of production areas -- Finally, to win the game you need to deliver goods cubes via rail lines to other player's cities -- something that requires different resources than those used to build the cities that produce the goods. In our game, at first it looked like the guys against the girls and then, when Kevin built like three cities in the Northwest in one turn, it became kind of three of us versus Kevin. Since Kevin needed to find a way to deliver goods to other players' cities, his game kind of stalled out while the rest of us snaked through to deliver to the cities closest to him. Then, Beth had an even better turn, building two or three cities and delivering two or three cubes on one turn, leaving her with just one city and one cube in supply. Kathryn then caught up and was equal to Beth, while Kevin just had like three cubes left and I was definitely the laggard, with two cubes and two cities in supply. After stalling out for a turn or two, Beth finally got the cards she needed to win the game.
Everyone seemed to enjoy the game although it did seem to take a long time to complete. Perhaps part of this was due to the lateness of the hour and the fact that three of us were playing for the first time. Also, a couple of people commented that there seemed to be less trading than in the regular Settlers game -- perhaps because of the option of buying up to two resources with good per turn. Would be interested in trying the game out with my Settlers/Can't Stop variant (roll four dice instead of two, roller pairs up two production numbers) to see if it would speed things up.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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Despite not winning in either of the two heats, I was part of the 16-player Automobile semifinal that started at 9 AM on Thursday -- note to WBC goers: it's generally easier to advance in the newer trial events, particularly ones that may not have that many players (I believe Greg told me his total head count of unique player for both heats was 36, probably around average or slightly above for most trial events). This time, I was paired with John Wetherell (again), Bob from NJ and Chris from Canada who apparently played the game alot with John D who had finished ahead of me in the prior day's heat. It turned out to be an extremely close game and while I thought I was out of it about midway through, I finished strongly and managed to keep my losses down. I had a tough call on the final turn, whether or not to shut down the aging Sears Autobuggy model or to go in feet-first and build it up. I decided to expand and keep it open to sell more cars, taking out a loan to do so (at this point my thinking was that I had been too gunshy about loans in my two prior games). The key, though, turned out to be the random tile draw for the low-price cars on the final turn. It was a low number and, in fact, no fives appeared in any of the 10 demand tiles for turn four, meaning all four were among the six left in the bag!
I had the scoresheet in front of me and carefully added up everyone's numbers, adding in factories and subtracting out loans and loss cubes. The spread between the four of us was $110 from top-to-bottom, closest game of the 40 or so I have played thus far. Chris, in second, was $40 behind and even one additional car sale via demand tiles would have meant he would have won and put me on the sidelines. I was amazed not only by my win but the unexpected closeness of the final scores. Since everyone got hit by loss cubes, no one finished the game with more than $4000.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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After a little wait for the last semifinal game to finish (delayed by an accidental beverage spill that caused them to relocate to another table), we got started with Greg (the GM) taking notes to assist in compiling what should turn out to be an illuminating play-by-play replay. The other assistant GM, Andy Maly, made it to the final with a much more impressive score that the paltry $3700 or so I was able to manage in the best of my three games. Matt Calkins and John D (the Canadian guy who had outscored me in the second heat) were the other two players. I believe I took Durant the first turn and got the Model T started in addition to the first space, Duryea. I was able to get into high end cars in turn two, a usual strategy I shoot for. Two problems, though, I couldn't manage to get Duryea closed before it had generated a HUGE amount of loss cubes. The cash drain also made it difficult for me to expand my factories. John, who had done so well in our prior game, seemed to be struggling but Andy and Matt were doing well, with Matt gambling on taking out two loans and reaching the ever-popular Hupmobile space. I finally got a second mid-price model going and closed Duryea. This plus Sloan on the third turn helped me manage my loss cubes. Also, without many double factories on the board, I wasn't generating as much cash as either Matt or Andy.
I thought alot about expanding the Model T factory, but in the end decided to close it when I saw I get could get to the Model A space after taking Kettering on the final turn. Then Andy built to Chevrolet, primarily because he saw an opportunity to hit Matt with some more loss cubes. (In addition to Hupmobile, Matt had another low-price model, which of course had put the pressure on me to get to the Model A space.) Even though Andy overbuilt and took some loss cubes for his Chevys on the final turn, he had the game well in hand and won handily with Matt second and me in third. John, unfortunately, was far behind, finishing with less than his starting 2000 at game end, which is a really low score.
I am eager to see what Greg, the GM, comes up with in terms of the play-by-play replay and also statistics on role selection, loans, etc. One of the reasons I was looking forward to this tournament so much was to learn what kind of different strategies people from other areas were trying. One that seemed to come up with in some of the heats and again in the final was for one player to build two models in the same class, one after the other, competing with himself obviously, but also locking out other players. Have to readjust my thinking as I wasn't satisfied with my performance in any of the four games I played at WBC but, on the positive side of things, any time you can play four games of Automobile in less than 48 hours, that's my idea of two great days of gaming!
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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This one is in here as a placeholder for an as-yet-to-be announced, as yet to be published game whose working title, at least for the time it was on display at WBC, is Propliner. The game was designed by Matt Calkins, one of my opponents in the Automobile final. There was a prototype copy set up in the Cafe Jay area for the first two days of the convention, but I didn't get a chance to try it out or observe the game being played. When I wound up being paired with Matt in the Automobile final, I remembered seeing his name on the game design and started talking with him about it. He explained that the theme was about starting a small airline in the 1930s, making it seem parallel to the Automobile game that we had just played. He told me Rio Grande had agreed to publish it with an expected 2012 release date, which really impressed me given that -- with the one exception of Dominion -- RGG has been reluctant to be the lead publisher of games from US designers. So, a real feather in Matt's cap -- I am really looking forward to this one as, while there are tons of great train games, there aren't that many good airline games.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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First heat in the big ballroom, reached the same level as last year (23 four-player games) which was a bit of a surprise as I expected a bit of a downturn since the game has been out for over eight years now. I put myself at table one and proceeded to play with Jason Ley, Kevin Shaud, and Chris Erickson. Drew the statistically disfavored #2 indigo seat and felt I was playing catch up for most of the first half of the game. Jason and I appeared to be playing in tandem, each of us purchasing harbors at around the same time. Things turned around when I won the race to 10 and got the Guild Hall, which enabled me to build out and win the game. Despite the harbor/small warehouse combination, Jason got blocked from the boats repeatedly and, near the end of the game, had eight of the nine coffee in his play area -- something I don't believe I had seen before (at one time I had six coffee in the warehouse at game end, usually not a good sign). Kevin came on strongly to build two large buildings and take second, five points behind me as I was content to max out the Guild Hall instead of going for a second large. Chris, who took copious notes during the game (I allowed this as noone seemed to object), was the big shipper and came in third with Jason in fourth.
The win guaranteed advancement in the tournament, and I was pleased to see that two other players from our game (Kevin and Jason) subsequently advanced as well. With two hours per heat, these days most games have no problem finishing within the time limit. Since I had to rush to a back-to-back event, I had my assistant GM, Malinda, on hand to collect the final scoresheet which enabled me to get signed in for another one of my "10" rated games.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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With two tournament wins under my belt on Thursday, I felt much better heading to the first heat of another one of my favorite WBC events, the Stock Car Championship Racing Card Game, simply known as "McGartlin" which is an amalgamation of the names of the two game designers' last names. There was a real nice turnout of over 30 for the first heat, meaning three races. I was put at a table which included Brian Mongold, a good gaming buddy I know from the Columbia gaming group hosted by Norman and Amy Rule. I got Brian interested in the game after hearing how he was literally thrown into stock car racing at the tender age of 19 when the driver for his father's team up and quit right before the start of a feature race -- and Brian went on to win the race!
Anyway, also in the race was a former WBC winner, Steve Caler, along with his wife Carol. The banter that went back and forth these two made the race entertaining for me, making up for the fact that I wasn't doing very well. Started up near the front and gradually fell further and further back, never got the "Holy Trinity," never seemed to have the right cards and, with alot of high lap counts on the three-action Superspeedway, my chances of catching back up with the leaders was not good. On a positive note, the race was over fairly quickly.
Our race was run by co-designer John McLaughlin, an all-around good guy who has run the event the past two or three years at WBC in the absence of his compatriot, Mike Garton, who was back at WBC this year along with his son Josh. They added a new rule, the "Bump Draft" which means you can use a "Pull Away" to close a gap if there is just one car ahead of you and a gap to the lead or leaders. (Hope I got that right.) They also added a couple of new twists to the track deck so the speed modifiers to challenges are not always the same.
Good to see John again and also Mike, who arrived a bit later in the week for the later heats and the final. Good news from Mike is that they are going ahead with plans to introduce a new edition of the game, which will incorporate some new rules, eight driver decks, at least three different track decks, in a toolbox type layout that will include space to hold some small model cars. The new track deck cards -- which will be backward compatible with the earlier editions of the game -- will include new features that modify the speed challenges that will not be revealed until after the drivers make their decisions to challenge and/or draft off a challenger. Mike said he was hoping to start taking pre-orders in October and get these sent out by Christmas.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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Had some down time after the McGartlin race and gave Stone Age a shot, although I wasn't anticipating playing another heat or advancing. Paired with Peggy (same person from the Power Grid game), Bobbi Warczak (whom I had played before), and one of the Greenville Mafia guys named Carl. Going second in turn order, I went for a "big Tool" strategy and it worked. Got lots of tool modifiers, plus a set of six artificacts for something like 90 bonus points and a final score of around 180 for the entire game. After checking with Kathy, the GM, I found I was on the horns of a dilemna. If I wanted to continue in the tournament, I would have to play a second game right then (it was now 11 PM on Thursday). Of course, at the time I was still hoping to get into the Vegas Showdown semis as an alternate. Since I prefer Vegas to Stone Age (and also because the later elimination rounds of Stone Age would create even more conflicts), I decided to bow out and went across the hall where they were figuring out how many to take for the Vegas Showdown semis. As it turned out, the cut line was at 16 and I was somewhere like #19 on the list of those that showed. Oh well, time to head off for more open gaming.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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Heading into the open gaming area with Hotel Samoa and Founding Fathers under my arm, I ran into Sean Vesey, a gamer from No. Virginia whom I had not seen for a long time. We sat down at a table and were joined by Richard Shay, a very fine Puerto Rico player who had won the tournament at EuroQuest last fall. While I was explaining the rules, up walked Steve from Florida who was attending his first WBC with his wife, Ticy. Steve explained that he had recently bought the game but had not played it yet, so we were happy to have him join us. Now, this is kind of the cool thing about WBC -- you meet people from all parts of the country and, in some cases, all parts of the world. Richard is from MA, Steve from FL, Sean from VA and myself from MD.
The rules explanation went smoothly, and the game ended 12 turns later with Richard and Sean (who were totally new to the game) well ahead of Steve and myself. Now, with three plays under my belt, I am quite comfortable with the rules but still struggling to figure out a winning strategy since I haven't come close so far. Maybe I am spending too much for buildings, not playing the X tile often enough to kick out tourists, who knows.
What I do know is I am quite impressed with this little gem of a game that is rapidly rising up my "Hot 10" list. It's a much better game, than those much more ballyhooed Essen games, stuff like Shipyard, Hansa Teutonica, Carson City, Vasco Da Gama, Tobago, Fresco, games that frankly fell a bit flat, IMHO. It oozes theme and is very quick with some interesting but not overly complex decisions. Only downside is maybe the memory element, i.e., if you can remember what cards people have played you have an advantage -- unless, of course, someone plays the "take 2 back" tile which would leave opponents guessing. Definitely the best game to come out of Norway, wouldn't be surprised to see a bigger company like Rio Grande or Z-Man buy up the rights and put out a US edition. (But with all symbols on the tiles and complete English rules and a help guide you can print out here on BGG, a new edition is not required to enjoy this game.)
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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This was a game that I enjoy and once thought I was fairly good at; a couple of years back, when I was playing maybe 20-25 games a year, I won a tournament at PrezCon and reached the final at EuroQuest. However, one bad loss in a semifinal at WBC quickly disabused myself of the notion that I might actually have a shot at winning. Since last year, I have played the game probably less than four or five times, plus a couple of plays of the newer (and perhaps improved) 2030 version.
Anyway, when the random pairings were announced I was very pleased that one of my opponents was Rob Barnes. Rob has been in my Puerto Rico tournaments for years, and he and his sister Malinda, dad Barry and brother-in-law Vassili form a very tough cadre of gamers. I have had the honor to lose to all of them at WBC except for Rob, whom I had not played in any game before. Other players in the game were Doug M (whom I knew from gaming in GCOM, mainly at the older Columbia location whose hosts have since moved to Elkridge) and Daniel and Brent, the latter two I don't believe I had played before.
Turned out the game came down to a contest between Rob and Doug. The three of us engaged in alot of table talk, while Daniel and Brent were fairly quiet. In fact, Brent was real quiet, playing the passive investor game to the hilt by refusing to take over a country until the very end. He wound up in the middle of the pack, and I ended up dead last with Daniel in fourth. Started the game with two countries (Italy and Germany), took over A-H for awhile, then lost both back at some point. Germany was like a piece of gum stuck to your shoe -- couldn't get rid of it so I wound up having to buy a second bond just to get some money for payouts. Rob seemed to subscribe to the start on investor strategy and seemed surprised when the rest of us did not follow suit for all our countries. Doug did a real good job expanding all over the map with Britain, sending fleets into the Baltic and taking Scandinavia. He once hammered Germany by taking over A-H then shutting down two factories -- not sure what this accomplished in game terms, however, as Rob managed to buy into Russia (which became the 5 country) at just the right time while also maintaining a large stake in UK which was also doing well. Rob managed to pull out a 15-point win over Doug as a result. I, of course, had very little in either Russia or UK which cost me any chance of winning.
Since this was the second of just two heats (the first conflicted with the Automobile semis and final), it turned out to be my only Imperial game of the convention. GM Dave Bohnenberger told me the numbers were down some from last year, which may mean it will need a re-vote to get back in. I hope it does, and I also hope Dave or whoever may succeed him as GM will offer players the option of playing the 2030 version next year. It might spice up the event a bit.
One of the challenges I see with running Imperial in a tournament format (particularly if one includes the 2030 version) is the variable length of the games. If everyone at the table plays Imperial as a straight economic game where you push countries around the rondel as quickly as possible, and there is not alot of attacking, a game can be concluded in around two hours. At PrezCon (another convention I attend regularly), Imperial games are scheduled for two hours which seems to be pushing it. At WBC, where GMs are encouraged to round up, it's a three hour slot. Even so, if there's alot of attacking (and, frankly, I have seen that happen more and more in games at the WBC), then the games can run long. Seems like different playing groups have different styles, some favor the tactical wargame aspect, others the economic/investment aspect. Think you have to be really on top of both to do well.
As for the "no-investor" card variant, there seems to be no interest in allowing it at WBC. Most people think it will slow the game down and that it will create a very static situation with very few changes of control of countries.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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My notes aren't clear on when I played this game, but it seems to have been some time on Friday afternoon in the open gaming area. Played with Bill Cleary, Beth Raphael and Mike Marshall -- all of whom had played before while I was the "newbie." Clueless at the game start, I overpaid for a fireman and was short money for a couple of turns. Then the game began to click, too late to catch either Beth (who won) or Mike, but I did manage to edge out Bill who seemed oblivious to the need to prevent fires. I found the bidding mechanism to be somewhat clever, not sure I would buy the game but it wasn't bad either.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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Later in the afternoon, it was time for the second heat of Puerto Rico. Since I had already won a heat, as GM I decided not to play unless absolutely necessary to fill out a table of four. As it turned out we had an even number -- one divisible by four. With 22 tables in heat two and 23 in heat one, PR was still hanging in there as one of the most popular games at WBC.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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This is the one game at WBC I have been playing the longest, probably back to the early 90s and perhaps earlier, when it was Avaloncon. The event is ably run by Tom DeMarco who, like me, is a real stats freak and actually starting keeping stats years and years ago when he was the assistant to long-time GM Ray Pfeifer. Tom has streamlined the format so it's now three back-to-back games followed by a semi and then a final. I got off to a really bad start, finishing last in my first game, a four-player (harder to catch up with detecting when playing with four than with five). Then, in the second game, I got some breaks and managed to score a win to keep me in contention. Final game, I was paired with Tom, the GM. That game, I didn't win, but I had the best collection at the end and took second over Tom on a tiebreak. Thus, I battled back after the one bad game and was rewarded with a spot in the final.
Now, Adel was the one game that I had historically done well at, probably my best overall performances in reaching three finals over the years -- something I hadn't done in any other event until some recent success at Puerto Rico. However, by the time the semi rolled around, it was like 11:30 Friday night and I was dead tired. My opponents included Raphael, who had beaten twice already, not a good omen, along with newly elected BPA Board member Josh Githens from the Greenville, SC group; Israeli Haim Hochboim and Tom's husband, Anne Norton. Anne was the only one who looked just as tired as I felt, and the game showed it as we came in last and next to last. Haim and Josh seemed to click and the two of them came in 1-2 with Raphael in third. The narrow margin (given there were just four semifinal games and five seats in the final) enabled both to advance to the final game, which I believe was won once again by John Pack with Tom DeMarco in second.
No more gaming on Friday evening, as I headed back to the room. Stayed up real late to get caught up on some GM paperwork, a necessity to ensure things would go smoothly for the final Puerto Rico heat on Saturday.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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Early Saturday morning, hanging out after getting some breakfast -- invited to play with Mike and Beth from the previous day's Speicherstadt game. We were joined by Jeremy Billones, who seemed to have some familiarity with the cards. I didn't expect to do well, particularly since I rushed through the game as I had an event to get to in about 40 minutes. I recall having seen some of the higher level money and VP point cards in a version being playtested by Dave Fair and others at a GCOM session once. As it turned out, I won the game (my first with this new set) and also got signed in for my next event, which turned out to be my final tournament game other than Puerto Rico, which was heavily backloaded into the later time slots this year.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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Final chance to advance in one of my favorite games, and the turnout for this 11 AM Saturday start was a bit disappointing. We had two games of six and seven, respectively, but Mike and John (the game designers) still agreed to take the top three. I drew a spot in the six car field -- so 50% odds of advancing. What happened? Alot of Pull Aways and Bump Drafting and not alot of cooperative passing. I did not have a Draft card at a key moment and then no Pull Aways to close the gap -- alone in last place. Still not too concerned, as there were almost 100 laps left and any kind of a yellow flag would close the gap. As it turned out, the race went to its conclusion with NO yellows -- and while I drew one Pull Away, it was too late. After the race, Mike checked my deck (which I had got two-thirds the way through) and found six of the eight Pull Aways, buried near the bottom. Hadn't done anything wrong, just bad luck kept me from having a decent shot at advancing.
On the positive side, my buddy Brian managed to come home fourth and did get into the final as an alternate. In retrospect, part of my problem was that the SuperSpeedway deck used in the preliminary races at WBC does not generally give you an opportunity to get through your entire deck in a 150-lap race. Thus, for tournaments, the One-Mile Oval provides a better racing experience although the races may run a bit longer.
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