2011 WBC - My Second Geeklist
Bobby B. Basa
Canada
Oakville
Ontario
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In August of 2010, I posted my very first Geeklist - a review of my trip to the 2010 WBC.
So why break tradition? What follows is a recount of my trip to the 2011 World Boardgaming Championships!
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Bobby B. Basa
Canada
Oakville
Ontario
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In August 2010, I went to the World Boardgaming Championships with 2 of my gaming friends, Dan and Mike. It was our 2nd time there ('09 being the first), and we all drove there together from Toronto, Ontario. On the way home, Mike told us that he wouldn't be going in 2011.
His loss.
This year, Dan and I had conflicting schedules: He was flying down on Sunday and staying for a whole week, and I was driving down on Tuesday and returning on Friday, due to work and family commitments.
For posterity, Dan wants me to retell the story of his trip there. Here goes:
- Got to Pearson International Airport in Toronto around 11am on Sunday
- Initial flight from Toronto to Baltimore was delayed - got to Baltimore with only 10 minutes to spare to catch the connecting flight to Lancaster
- Sent to wrong gate in Baltimore - missed connection to Lancaster
- When it came time to finally check in for his flight to Lancaster, the person checking him asked him his weight. "Ummm, why do you need to know that?" Dan asked. "The plane only holds 8 passengers, and we have to make sure that we're not over the weight allowance of the plane." Spectacular. Lets just say that on this flight, Dan was pretty much like Shatner was in that Twilight Zone episode.
- Arrived in Lancaster around 9pm
- Realized that he all he had to eat that day was a stale bagel at the Toronto Airport, so after checking in at the Continental Inn he walked to the local Applebees and had some fish and chips
- Got soaked when it started raining on the walk back to the hotel.
- Didnt even get to the Lancaster Host that day. Simply awesome!
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Bobby B. Basa
Canada
Oakville
Ontario
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Here's a quick recap of Dan's Monday:
- Watched a bit of the Paths of Glory and Russian Campaign tournaments
- Played a round of the Gettysburg tourney, got creamed as the Union
- Played a round of War at Sea tourney, got creamed as the Germans
- Watched the King Phillip's War demo
- Learned Combat Commander: Europe in the Open Gaming room
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Bobby B. Basa
Canada
Oakville
Ontario
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On Tuesday, I left my home around 4:30am and had a very smooth ride to Lancaster, pulling into the Continental Inn just after noon.
After checking in at the hotel, I made my way across to the Lancaster Host, got registered, and met up with Dan in the lobby. He had spent the morning playing in a heat of The Russian Campaign, where he lost by rolling poorly in the final turn.
This was the first time that either of us had been at the con on Tuesday, so it was our first experience with the famous WBC Auction and Auction Store.
By the time I got there (~1pm), the store section had been pretty well picked at, but the wargame portion of the auction was in full swing! I ended up winning a copy of We the People for $20, and Dan won unpunched copies of The Price of Freedom and The Caucasus Campaign for $16 and $26, respectively.
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Bobby B. Basa
Canada
Oakville
Ontario
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After a good lunch at Fuddruckers, I hit the Open Gaming room! After a quick stroll through, I met Tony, who was in charge of monitoring the Open Gaming room and making sure that everyone was wearing convention badges. He had a table set up and was teaching Combat Commander: Europe to anyone who wanted to learn. I took him up on his offer, and of course, got my noobish butt kicked.
I've always wanted to learn CC:E, but like a lot of wargames, I was hoping to save a lot of time by finding someone who knew the game already, and have them show me how to play. I was very lucky that Tony was very gracious with his time and patience.
As for the game, I enjoyed it quite a bit. My only other experience with tactical level games is ASL Starter Kit, and this felt significantly different. My inital rating: 8.
While I was doing this, Dan attended the Storm Over Stalingrad demo, and played in the Mulligan round. He got murdered as the Germans.
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Bobby B. Basa
Canada
Oakville
Ontario
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After that, I walked around the Lampeter Room and watched a few games of the Breakout: Normandy tourney. BKN is one those games that I have always wanted to learn, but for some reason I cant wrap my head around the rule book (sorry, DG!)
Lucky for me, I walked by the table where Matthew Ellis, last years 2nd place winner, was hanging out. He must have have sensed my curiosity, because he offered to play a teaching game with me. Right on! We sat down and school was in session!
Now, even though I`ve never digested the rulebook fully, I have played Thunder at Cassino (another game in this `system`), so things started rolling fairly quickly. I played as the Allies, and we went through 3 full turns, with Matthew offering me some heavy strategical coaching through my impulses. I had a great time. Thanks, Matthew!
Maybe next year I`ll actually play in the tourney and be a speed bump for one of the Pros to drive over!
This game is completely deserving of its legendary status. I picked the Deluxe Edition from L2 later that week in the Vendors Room. My Rating: Easily a solid 9, probably will go up with some plays.
By the time I got through with my game, it was past 11pm. Dan and I made a late night Sonic run, and called it quits for the day.
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Bobby B. Basa
Canada
Oakville
Ontario
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Since Tuesday was a 20-hour day for me, I had to sleep in a bit on Wednesday. Dan got up early to check out the King Phillip`s War demo again, and play in the heat that morning. I strolled into Open Gaming around 10:30am, and met a fellow Canadian, Mark Beninger. He offered to teach me Borodino 20 on a suped-up version he had made himself. It had a big map, and large, thick counters that he made himself. Beautiful job, Mark.
The game had a simple system where morale points were monitored on a track. If any one side has their morale go to zero, they lose instantly. I think I had Mark down to 1 morale at one point, but he held on and his French forces finally demoralized my Russian troops into submission.
This was a fun little wargame that plays in about an hour. I ended up picking up the VPG version at the Vendors room. My rating: 7
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7.
Board Game: Asara
[Average Rating:7.15 Overall Rank:457]
Bobby B. Basa
Canada
Oakville
Ontario
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Whoa, hold on! I can see all the Eurogamers out there just about to close the tab to this list because they think I'm just some crusty old grognard that comes to the WBC to just play wargames! Not true! I love good Euros, and good theme-heavy games (i.e. Ameritrash!) as well! Here we go:
I popped downstairs to grab a sandwich, and checked out some of the games that were set up and being demoed by Skip Maloney. He offered to teach another fellow and me Asara, and we took him up on it. 10 minutes later we were up and running.
I'm a pretty big Kramer fan, and this ended up being exactly what I thought it would be: a nice light game, but still with interesting decisions to be made, and just around an hour in playing time. My Rating: 7.
Oh yeah, I got crushed as well.
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Bobby B. Basa
Canada
Oakville
Ontario
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I made my way to Open Gaming again and found Allan Rothberg sitting with a prototype of John Butterfield`s latest design, a Bulge game that is 3 games in one: a 2-player version, an Allies solitaire game, and a German solitaire game. Allan had the 2-player version set up, but I asked him if he had either of the solitaire versions available to try out. He had the German version there, and offered to go through the 1-day scenario with me.
Now, I`m a huge fan of John`s other solitare designs, like Ambush, RAF, and D-Day at Omaha Beach, so I was really stoked to try this out.
We went through the 1-day scenario, which I ended up winning (and, as I was told, I was the first person to ever win it!). I can`t give any details about the system, but I`ll just say this - it`s AWESOME. Thanks, Allan, for teaching this to me!
This will be an instant purchase for me when it comes out. And to everone else that is a fan of John`s design like I am, I got one word for you:
Jealous?
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Bobby B. Basa
Canada
Oakville
Ontario
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Right about when we were finishing up, Dan wandered in. His game of King Phillips's War ended up as a tie on VP, but the GM adjudicated the game as a win in Dan's favour. So does he decide to continue in the next round? Nope, he decides to play in another heat of Storm Over Stalingrad, where he's paired with one of last year's finalists.
And he gets unceremoniously crushed.
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10.
Board Game: Asara
[Average Rating:7.15 Overall Rank:457]
Bobby B. Basa
Canada
Oakville
Ontario
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We went back downstairs, and I offered to teach Dan how to play Asara, along with another gentleman whos name I dont remember.
The 3-player version plays very nice, and felt generally tighter and better than the 2-player version.
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Bobby B. Basa
Canada
Oakville
Ontario
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Next it was off to the Nappy Wars demo. This is one CDG that I've always wanted to learn, but have never gotten around to it.
The GM, Melvin Casselberry, was in the middle of a heat of some game he was competeing in, so he sent his son, Mike, to give the demo. Mike was last years champ, so I definitely didn't have a problem with the change in plans.
Mike gave a very good demo, but I could feel that there was still alot to know about the game and that a 1-hour demo could only scratch the surface of this deep and rich game.
Mike told us that they were having coached games at the tourney, and people with no experience were encouraged to show up and they'd be put at a table with other beginners. This was very tempting, but I was starving at this point, and I needed a good, sit-down meal somewhere...
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Bobby B. Basa
Canada
Oakville
Ontario
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...and that somewhere ended up being the Texas Roadhouse just down the road from the Host. They were having a promotion that night that 10% of the money spent there by WBC attendees would be donated to the Open Gaming Room Library Fund. Very cool.
I had a great meal: Steak, Ribs, Mashed Potatoes, and Deep Fried Pickles as an appetizer. Awesome.
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Bobby B. Basa
Canada
Oakville
Ontario
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The last thing for the night was Stone Age. I went to the demo, which was run excellently by Eric Engelmann. He explained the rules clearly, and gave us a rundown of some of the basic strategies.
I played in the 10pm heat, where I was seated with David Duncan and 2 other gentlemen whos names I cant remember. We had a fun game, but in the end I placed a distant fourth.
I think this is an excellent Euro, very accessible but full of tough decisions. My rating: 8
Stone Age was the last game I played on Wednesday.
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Bobby B. Basa
Canada
Oakville
Ontario
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Dan got up early again and watched an informal demo of Victoria Cross II in Open Gaming.
I couldn't rouse myself out of bed until around 10am. I must be getting old...
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Bobby B. Basa
Canada
Oakville
Ontario
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I like Dominion, and I really like Thunderstone, so I was eager to give AEG's new deck-building game a try. Dan and I played it as only a 2-player game. Still, it was very nice! Lots of confrontation, and a completely different feel than any of the other deck building games I've tried. End result - a crushing victory for me (I had 3 wounds and Dan had 14). My Initial Rating: 8
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16.
Board Game: Tikal
[Average Rating:7.40 Overall Rank:111]
Bobby B. Basa
Canada
Oakville
Ontario
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Next up was a game that I learned at last years WBC, and has grown into one of my favorites, Tikal. We were joined by Eric Engelmann (who taught us Stone Age the night before), and Roni Breza, who was at the con with her whole family. After a quick rules explanation for Dan and Roni, we were up and running.
It was a fun game, and as I remember, a lot of good laughs at the table. When it wasn`t my turn I was at the next table coaching Roni`s kids, Katie and Gregory, and Eric`s son, Noah, in a learning game of Nightfall.
End result of the Tikal game - I can`t remember who won, but I remember who came in last, me. Ugh.
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Bobby B. Basa
Canada
Oakville
Ontario
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Next on the table was my favorite Euro, The Princes of Florence. Roni`s husband, Kevin, joined us. I was the only one who had played before, so I explained the rules.
We got through around 4 turns, but had to call the game because some people had heats they had to get to. I was just glad that I got to introduce this great game to a handful of new people!
It was also cool to meet the Breza`s. They were a wonderful family, and hopefully we get to play some more games together at future WBC`s!
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Bobby B. Basa
Canada
Oakville
Ontario
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I popped downstairs for a quick bite, and to figure out how I`d spend my last evening at the con. I started a conversation with the guys that were eating at the same table as me, and they asked if we`d like to learn Dominant Species in Open Gaming. Sure!
It took about 20 minutes to digest the rules, but once we started playing, things ran pretty smoothly. This is a fine worker-placement / area-majority game. Dan was leading going into the final turn, but had a brutal turn of events as his species went completely extinct in the final extinction phase, so he went from first to last. My result - 4th.
My rating - 8
And that was my last game of the 2011 World Boardgaming Championships.
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Bobby B. Basa
Canada
Oakville
Ontario
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On Friday, I got up and made my way to the Vendors Room. Here's what I ended up buying:
c3i #25
No Retreat! (GMT Version)
ASL WO Bonus Pack #2
WWII: Barbarossa to Berlin Mounted Map
For the People Mounted Map
Empire of the Sun Mounted Map
Slapshot
Breakout: Normandy - Deluxe Edition
Nemo's War
No Retreat 2 - The African Front
Ottoman Sunset
We Must Tell the Emperor
No Retreat Expansion 3 - Solitaire
Borodino 20
The Alamo Remembered
Breakthrough: Cambrai
Map Slip Cover
After I made my purchases I packed my car and headed home. That ended another awesome week at the WBC! Only 51 weeks till the next one!
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