Fear and Loathing in Lancaster. A Savage Journey into the Heart of the Ameritrash Dream

Chapter 1:
We were somewhere around Bucharest when the Romanian liquor began to take hold. I remember an aftertaste of gasoline and saying something like "He's either in Varna or Dublin . . ." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around me and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving. And a voice was screaming: "Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?" My brother was pouring beer down his throat. "What the hell are you yelling about?" he muttered. "Never mind," I said. "It's Dracula's turn."

It was Wednesday, almost midnight, and we were about 40 miles south of Lancaster, at the home of my brother, KingPut, the second best Caylus player in the world. Registration for the fabulous World Boardgaming Championship was already underway, and we had to be there by 4 tomorrow to claim our hotel room. We were on our way to Lancaster to find the Ameritrash dream. I was, after all, a contributer to Fortress: Ameritrash; so I had an obligation to cover the story, for good or ill. But what was the story? Nobody had bothered to say. So we would have to drum up our own. Do it now: pure Gonzo journalism. It was a very ominous assignment - with overtones of extreme personal danger. 24 hours earlier I had received an urgent e-mail from KingPut's wife containing an excerpt from his blog.

Getting ready for WBC. To me July 31, 2007 felt like December 25, 1977. I was eagerly awaiting the start of WBC. I would get to play all the “hot” new Euros at Jays Café. But my biggest excitement was to play in the Caylus tournament. In 2006 I had come in 2nd place in Caylus at WBC but I was denied wood even though I played 9 hours of Caylus and had beat out 71 other players because Caylus was a trail event. Leading up to July 31st I felt like Michael Jackson riding the Dumbo ride in Disneyland. A had given up gaming for 9 whole days (to win brownie points with my wife) leading up to WBC. I thought I had lucked out on Friday July 27th when I walked into a Good Will shop and found Wizard Quest for $0.97. Let’s look that up on BGG. From 1979, did they make good designer games in 1979? Settlers didn’t even come out until 1995. Oh, a rating of 5.94 that’s not good. Even Apples to Apples Jr. beats that. But T&T is selling it for $40 and I can always give it to Ubarose.

WBC Day 1. I left work at 3:30 on Tuesday, July 31st and made it up to Lancaster by 5:00 PM. The first heat of Caylus didn’t start until 9:00 so I had a few hours to kill. As I was sitting there alone at Jay’s Café looking at the WBC booklet thinking what I’d do from 5:00 to 9:00. Jay called over and asked me if I wanted to learn how to play Arkadia.

The beverage I drank was definitely, Bottled Sam’s Club (BSCW) water. I think this is a very appropriate beverage for playing my first game at WBC and for playing Arkadia. First of all, water is the most natural, refreshing, thirst quenching drink on the planet. There was one other reason I drank bottled Bottled Sam’s Club Water (BSCW) while playing Arkadia. That was the fact that one of the other guys I was playing the game with was wearing a collar. No, not a Polo Ralph Lauren collar but a priest collar. The thing is this priest guy was the slowest player I had ever played any game with in my life. By the end of the game I wanted to stand up and yell God damn it, for Christ sakes will you put your fucking workers on the board and get your stupid victory points. But being brought up a good Catholic I pulled out my BSCW and said “Okay, I think its still your turn” I realized that he was playing the game with his daughter which means he wasn’t a Catholic priest so maybe I actually could stand up and say for Christ sakes build your building Europriest, guy but since his daughter was there that would be in bad taste.

I took one of my turns around 6:00 then got up and went over bought an Italian sausage sub. I took a couple of bites of the sub but then I had a heart attack. I reached down to drink some of my beer to help prevent the heart attack but all I had was BSCW. So I was rushed over to some Amish hospital where I was brought back to life by some hot looking Amish nurse. I came back to Jay’s Café to apologizes and to explain to other players for taking so long to buy and eat my sub and to have a heart attack and stuff when I realized it was still the Europriest guy’s turn. My rating of Arkadia is a very bland 5.5.


O Christ, I thought, he's gone around the bend. Look what Caylus has done to that poor bastard. I showed the e-mail to my husband. "Hell!" he exclaimed. "This one sounds like real trouble!" "You're going to need plenty of psychological advice before this thing is over," he said. "And my first advice is to load up the CRV with Ameritrash and beer and drive like hell to PA." We spent the rest of the night rounding up materials and packing the car. Somewhere around noon we had lunch at a Terrytown deli, then drove carefully across the bridge and plunged into the heat of the NJ turnpike, heading west.

We finally got to KingPut's house around dusk. We pulled out FURY OF DRACULA. It was a classic affirmation of everything right and true and decent in Ameritrash.

"Your Van Helsing," I said shoving the mini into KingPut's hand. "Can you grasp that?"
He nodded but his eyes were nervous.
"Hell, I forgot all about the Romanian liquor."
My husband handed KingPut the bottle. "As your psychologist, I advise you to drink this."
KingPut swallowed. His eyes cleared. And we were into it. Tearing across Europe on Dracula's trail. No point mentioning the bats I thought. The poor bastard will see them soon enough.

Now, two hours later, Dracula had triumphed, and there was still time for another game, but those terrible Cthulhu creatures in the blue cage kept screaming like my college roommate having sex. "What are those goddamn animals?" "They're just the 3rd grade's guinea pigs," said KingPut, "How about DOWNFALL OF POMPEII?" It was a Euro. Right. We had to go slowly. Challenge them on their own turf. And then everyone was running. There was lava. People screamed like little girls as they were thrown into the volcano.

Chapter 2:
Thursday, almost noon, and we still had more than three miles to go. They would be tough miles. Very soon, I knew, we would both be completely twisted. But there was no going back, and no time to rest. We would have to ride it out.

We pulled into the hotel parking lot around noon. The back of our car looked like a mobil FLGS. We had two baggies of baggies, seventy-five glass pellets, five sheets of errata, a bottle half full of Basil Hayden, a case of Magic Hat, two quarts of peaches, two cases of Red Bull, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored plastic bits . . . and also three boxes of Fantasy Flight, four boxes of Avalon Hill, two boxes of Z-man, two Knizia's, one Hasbo and a Euro. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious game collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can. The only thing that really worried me was the Euro. There is nothing more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of cube confusion. And I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon.

We ran the gauntlet - check-in, badges, WBC mug shots. "Your room's not ready yet," the desk clerk had told us, so we went downstairs to find Dan and KingPut. Dan was playing a war game. A good looking guy walked up to say hello and Dan introduced us to him. I didn't catch his name because I was sitting and was distracted by the universe of colorful buttons, baubles and badges that were decorating his eye level crotch like a Christmas tree. I tried to make out the name on his badge, but the Romanian gasoline was leaving my system. I felt lightheaded and my eyesight blurred. "I think I need something to eat," I said. "Time spent eating is time not spent gaming," said Dan. My husband pressed a cold can into my right hand, and a cold bottle into my left. "As your psychologist, I advise you to drink Red Bull with a beer chaser."

Upstairs, my head began to clear as the Red Bull kicked in. KingPut took a seat and I pulled out COSMIC ENCOUNTER. My husband saw the young man wandering around the open gaming area long before I did and motioned him over. His name was Daniel and was familiar with the Eon version of COSMIC ENCOUNTER and would be happy to be our fourth. We passed around the bits and the beers. I glanced at Daniel. The nice young man's face was changing: swelling. pulsing . . . horrible green jowls, the face of a Zombie. I lunged backwards into my husband. There was nothing there but a Virus. I suddenly felt empathetic and peaceful. I didn't want to fight anyone. We could negotiate and work this all out. But that loathsome Virus just kept spreading, and that fool Zombie whore was willing to ally with anyone. The fear set in. We were all doomed.

The Virus claimed his fifth colony about the same time I noticed the man with the crotch jewelry wandering around the open gaming room. Holy shit. Now that I could see clearly I recognized him. It was Malloc. Weirdness, Malloc and Dan, my daughter's godfather, know each other. Malloc was off to play GANGSTERS or something.

An adorable woman named Ruth stopped at our table and said, "That's my most favorite game ever," pointing at BETRAYAL AT HOUSE ON THE HILL. What the hell! We had nothing but time and games and half a case of cold Magic Hats. We pulled it out and were joined by another man who made me laugh, but whose name I have forgotten. Was it Dave? I quickly reviewed the rules for KingPut, who had never played before. "You move. You flip tiles. You pick cards. Shit happens."

I was in the basement. I could see my unconscious body lying below me as I floated above it. My stinking traitor brother was kicking it over and over again. The bright light appeared and I moved towards it, into the light. It was over for me. It was peaceful. But then I had to reincarnate as a rules lawyer since I was the only one who was dead and therefore could read KingPut's traitor sheet.

I found myself alone at that the table. I don't remember where everyone went. Tournaments? The bar? the bathroom? Then Dan was sitting beside me and we were talking to Zev about Z-man's plans to publish TALES OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS. Dan and Zev were talking about the artist contacted to do the box art, and I was thinking about the last time I played TALES, and the smell of the incense, and how shiny and black Zev's curls looked right now. Did he have new glasses? They looked really nice on him. Jesus! Did I say that? Or just think it? Was I talking? Did they hear me? Zev smiled at me and said, "Thank you." Then disappeared.

It was 2 a.m. Friday morning. I had explained the Arkham Horror rules to KingPut hours ago. "You move. You pick cards. Shit happens." Somehow, all the shit that had happened had gone horribly wrong. We were four, exhausted investigators on the edge of madness with nothing more than a shotgun, a rifle, two pistols and a knife between us, facing a loathsome, twisted Ancient One. A small group of the morbidly curious had gathered to watch the final battle. "Run you fools! There is no way I can hold off this beast with nothing but a pistol and a knife." But somehow we did. The strange vibrations ceased, and the gates closed with a deafening sucking sound.

Chapter 3:
A loud crash. I came awake fast - thinking, what does that mean. I glanced at the clock. 7:30 a.m. Maniacal laughter, then shouting. KingPut was outside his room, the door ajar, a baggy of cubes in one hand, dice gripped in the other.

" The gates have begun to open," he screamed, waving the handful of dice above his head. "Ancient Ones lurk in the emptiness beyond space and time, writhing at the gates between other worlds and my bathroom. The portal must be closed." He hurled the dice into his room.

Shit. Four Ameritrash games in 36 hours had been too much for his anemic Euro system. He was totally twisted. I looked into his room. There was a gaping 2'x 2' hole above his sink where the mirror had been. A gurgling noise issued from its darkness.

KingPut screamed like a little girl. "A Gug!"

"The bailiff!" he laughed uncontrollably, ripping the lid off the Caylus box and plunging his hand inside. "The bailiff will deactivate this glug." He pointed the bailiff menacingly towards the hole.

"Goddamit!" I said. "You've done too much. The first rush is the worst. Just ride the bastard out."

He turned toward me, bleary eyed, waving the bailiff around in quick circles in front of his teeth.

"Look," I said, "you'd better put that goddamn bailiff away and get your head straight. Get back in bed, I'll be back in twenty minutes."
I went to my room and called the front desk about the mirror and the gaping hole in the wall.

My brother was in bed when I returned. Submerged in green sheets.
"Caylus," he snarled.
"You're doomed," I said.
"Don't make me use this." His arm lashed out of the sheets, the baggy of cubes gripped in his fist.
"Jesus," I muttered. At this point I figured he was beyond help - lying in the bed with the biggest baggy of cubes I had ever seen, totally incapable of reason, demanding Caylus.
"Help! You bastard! I need help!" He was reaching across the night stand toward the Caylus box. "I want that fucking game," he snarled.
I grabbed it away from his hand. "You fool!" I said. "Get away from that goddamn game!"
"I want you to throw that fuckin game in the bed with me."
"Not me," I said.
"Bullshit!" he screamed crazily, thrashing around in the bed. He ripped off the sheets and lunged at me, waving the baggy of cubes out in front of him like a man who meant to optimize something.
"MUNCHKIN!" I shouted. "You want this?" I waved a MUNCHKIN box in front of his eyes."
"You bastard!" he hissed. "You'd do that, wouldn't you."
I laughed, still waving the box in front of him. "You'll like it. Shit, there's nothing in the world like MUNCHKIN - forty-five minutes on your knees rolling dice. It'll calm you right down."
He sagged.
I menaced him again with the MUNCHKIN box. "Get back in that bed," I said. "Try to calm down. Fondle some cubes - shit, do what ever you have to do, but let me get some rest."
He shrugged and smiled distractedly. "Hell yes," he said very earnestly, and shuffled back to bed. He had shifted gears; the next phase would probably be one of those hellishly intense introspection nightmares; but nothing physical. I watched the door close behind him, and quietly slipped back to my own room for a couple more hours sleep.

Chapter 4:
Friday afternoon . . . the game library . . . LEONARDO DA VINCI . . . methadone for my poor bastard CAYLUS junkie brother. Malloc stopped by to abuse me for playing the horrible, piece of crap. I flashed the back of a card at him. "The full monty," I explained. Malloc flashed a picture of Opie on his cell phone at me. "Barnes," he said.

Malloc invited us to play STRUGGLE OF EMPIRES. I was Queen Victoria, and we were not amused. How did I get mixed up with this gang of psychotics? Those scumbags were trying to kill us. Then there were accusations. The game had been set up wrong. While people argued and sulked, we escaped with Malloc leading us through the maze of hotel corridors, through his room to the pool bar.

"I advise you to drink many margaritas in the sun," said my husband.
"Twilight Imperium tonight," said Malloc.
"Shit. I have a date tonight to play WARRIOR KNIGHTS with KingPut's friend Cody." I said.
Malloc, laughed, "Cody is one of the eight guys sleeping in my hotel room. I'll work it out." And he did. And we agreed to meet in an hour.

The tequila buzz was wearing off as we attempted to pull out of the hotel parking lot. I had a strong need for Basil Hayden, and the bottle was empty. Twenty minutes of cruising and no liquor store. Finally pulled into a WaWa to ask for directions.

"The clerk said there are no liquor stores," my husband announced, as he got back into the car and slammed the door.
Shit. How can that be possible. I rolled down my window and shouted to a large man in black with tattoos covering his arms, "Where's the liquor store?"
"Jesus Christ!" said Dan, ducking.
"A liquor store." I yelled again, hanging out the window. "I need bourbon. Point me to bourbon."
The man pointed and shouted back.
"What are you doing?" said Dan, pulling me back into the car, his eyes nervous.
I laughed. "He said the liquor store was eight miles that way, in the next town."
"Fuck that." My husband said taking the corner at full speed and heading back to the hotel. "I advise you to drink over priced Makers Mark at the bar."

Twilight Imperium; the black tar heroin of Ameritrash. Holy shit! What can I say. Eight hours of screaming, table pounding, in your face depravity. I tell you, this is the Ameritrash dream in action! We'd be fools not to ride this strange torpedo all the way out to the end.

Chapter 5:
Sunday morning 11 a.m. . . . Memories of Saturday are extremely hazy. All I have, for guide pegs, is an ear full of balaclava lint and handful of crumpled cocktail napkins, all covered with scribbled notes.

Here is one: "WARRIOR KNIGHTS. . . two player possibilities . . . cool knights . . . almost great . . . needs dice"
Another says: "COWBOYS . . . corridor battle . . . best new game . . . $50. No fucking way."

My husband packed up our car. KingPut packed up his. As we pulled out of the parking lot, KingPut rolled down his window and shouted, "MONSTERS MENACE AMERICA. Tomorrow. Your place."

"See you in eight hours." I shouted back. My heart was full of joy. This trip had been different. It was a gross, physical salute to the fantastic possibilities of gaming in this country - but only for those with true grit. And we were chock full of that.

Too little sleep, not enough food, plenty of games, and way too much beer.

I am back from the WBC and the title about sums it up. I am sorry that I did not get a post up form the con but there were not internet connections in the rooms and well I never stopped playing games long enough write one up anyway.


So here it is, Malloc's week of gaming in Lancaster, PA.

Tuesday.

I roll out of the house a little late, about noon and after swinging through the local Beer warehouse managed to get the the hotel at about 1:30pm. This meant I missed the game auction, probably good for may wallet, but I was a little bummed about that. I was the first of of the group of guys we were packing into our hotel room to arrive, so I checked in and started lugging my supplies for the week into the room. I tried this year to brig games that I had not had the chance to play yet and that were, on average, too long to pull off on a weeknight. I also had about 3 cases of beer too last me the week, an air mattress, sleeping bag, toothbrush and deodorant (I try to buck the trend and actually shower at these things) etc etc.

My brother "Bobby Tweaks" and our friend Phil 'The Steak" White rolled in next and I helped lug their pile of shit and more beer into the room, fetched ice and finally we were ready to play a game. Expecting others to arrive rather soon, we grabbed Nexus Ops for a little simple, quick dice tossing action. I like this game, it plays in about 1 hour, can be explained in about 5 min to a newbie and other than some crappy components plays just great. I thank Ubarose for the suggestion to replace the monolith with a shot glass, now you get 2 energize cards and a drink for controlling the center. If I recall, "The Steak" kicked ass in this game, sending me and "Tweaks" packing in a hurry.

After that I jumped in to the Collector/Auction tournament. This old School game is popular with the game group. I actually won a copy of it during the annual Joie-Boardgame Marathon last year, but had never played it. Anyway the game again plays fast and can be explained even faster and I had some time to kill. I rather enjoyed this one for a auction game, it has just enough going on to be a good little filler of a game.

After this G-bub's and the Joie showed up so we lugged in even more shit and beer fromt he parking lot. The only other game that night was the 1st heat of Gangsters. I don;t remember much about this game other than I didn't win and spent most of the game making sure the very manipulative player across from me went down with me.


Wednesday.

Wednesday was going to be my busy day. There were lots of events I wanted to play in, Crusader Rex and Titan to start. CR was at 9 am and I was expecting to get eliminated quickly and head up to have my ass handed to me in Titan that afternoon. As it turns out I won my first 2 games and made the semi's in Crusader Rex. That took 8 hours out of my day. In the semi's there were 3 of us left and one was going to get a bye, I didn't want to spend another 8 hours going for 1st place (I am there not to win but to play games I can not play elsewhere) so I dropped out and took 3rd place. After the Crusader Rex Marathon I needed a break so what did I do? I played Republic of Rome! I had not played this one before but it was high on my want to try list. I was able to get into a game and picked up the mechanics rather quickly. As for actually understanding what I needed to do to win well, that that took more time. The game ended quickly in about 4.5 hours and I think I was 3rd out of 5. It was fun but certainly something that I can only do at a con. On a side note, my buddy Joie played in the other RoR game, his game lasted about 9 hours and in the end Rome Fell and they all lost!

After those two games my brain was more fired than normal so I went and played can't stop, one of the best press your luck games out there and just some good old fashioned dice rolling fun. After hours on Wednesday was another game of Nexus Ops, this time a 4 player game and I think "the Steak" won again, but I can not remember as it is all a big blur (I really was fried that night.)

Thursday

I got up early again on Thursday and hit the breakfast Buffet, with nothing better to do I sat down for some Power Grid. Now my luck at any game tourney goes like this. I always play in games where I am paired with a bunch of good players and one total newbie, or just a fool. This probably has to do with my not sticking in there until the later rounds, but PG was exactly this way. Anyway I was the one who had to bit the bullet and bid on a 6 Plant that I didn't want in order to keep another player from being able to power 15 plants before Phase 2. This action pretty much guaranteed that I would not win on any tie brake. In the end I ended up 3rd on the Tie Break with the winner having like 100k 2nd having like 60k and me at about 7k. Power Grid is a good game but I find that too often it comes down to the flip of the Plants at the end. For example in this game the leader was forced to pick up a shitty 4 plant and could only power 14 (same as me and one of the steam brothers) This put the woman I outbid for the 6 plant in a good spot since she should have been able to get a good plant, except she top decked a bigger piece of shit plant and was only able to power 13, she was done! This seems to be how most games of this end and that doesn't seem right to me.

After PG I goofed off for a bit wasting time until me Team Event, Stock Car Championship Racing card Game. (I like taking bullshit mindless games for my team event, don't ask why) I missed the 1st heat in this one, but you only needed to finish in the top 3 in any heat to make the finals. I had brought along my own car for this and was able to dive the Ricky Bobby Laughing Clown Malt Liquor number 26 to a 3rd place finish. Good enough to get in the finals and so I managed to free up my Friday schedule a lot.

Now that I was qualified, I wanted to go and play some open games. I found my buddy Tom in the open Game room where he camps out for the entire event. (something I am doing more of each year) I had my un-played copy of War of the Ring in my room and Tom agreed to play with me and teach me the game. How much of a dickwad am I for not playing this thing. It was great and will certainly get more playtime this year now that I know how the thing works. Also sometime during the WotR game is when Ubarose finally figured out who I was and came up and said hello. She and her gang of friends began breaking out Arkham Horror on the neighboring table and so I was able to watch that as well while playing WotR.

After Frodo dunked the ring on my ass (next time I will know what I am doing Tom!) I had to go play in another round of Gangsters. This was a great game, with 2 guys who were already in the semi's being placed at my table and a 3rd very good player filling out the group. I was beat up pretty bad by these guys and coupled with some amazingly bad rolls (all 1's until i needed to buy game members then all 6's) I came in a solid 4th. Anyway it was probably the best played game of the whole WBC for me, as everyone knew what to do and it was good fun even if i took it on the chin. I also should take time out to give props to John Pack, the GM for Gangsters who always makes it a great game. This year he had shirts with the different cop playing pieces on them that you could win if you were able to bribe that cop during play. In addition to the shirts he had counters for his new variant game that includes rules for 5 players (the one in the original sucks) and some new advanced rules to make the game a bit more crazy.

Afte gangsters it was pretty late so I went to find some more open gaming. Tom was about to play winners circle, I sarcastically told him it was good (I didn't want to offend the people who were breaking it out and pimping it) and so he played it. Ubarose and clan were still playing Arkham Horror and so I headed back to the room for a bit to get more beer. By the tie I got back (with G-Bubs in tow) Tom had split, after one round of winner's circle he couldn't take it anymore and said he had to goto bed. Uba and clan were still playing Arkham and so I watched them fight the big bad monster (they won). I finally ran into my friend Rolinda and she, rob, and guy named Dan and myself played catchphrase. It is one of those electronic games that works a bit like the old game show $25,000 pyramid. Normally not my 1st choice but at 2am with werewolf as my only other option it was just about right. The game ended up being rather fun and I am glad I played it.

Friday

Friday was a pretty free day for me. I got up a little late and ate breakfast with the intention of heading down to the vendor area to see what was there. Due to this delay I missed out on the $50 copies of Tide of Iron (Damn!), I did pick up Galactic Destiny (its Republic of Rome in Space) and Formula Motor Racing (back in print and $15). After realizing that I blew the cheap copy of ToI, I headed up to the open Gaming area. I found Ubarose again playing through some horrible euro (Leonardo DaVinci I think, can't remember, but it was crap.) After looking over my new game we decided to play Struggle of Empires. Tom was back and wanted to try it, as did Uba and crew. I had not played in at least a year and was up to try it again. We played but we totally fucked up the setup (thank you Martin Wallace for the well written, easy to reference rules!) so I won't go into it and leave it at that.

The SoE debacle caused me to miss the final round of Gangsters, so I had some more free time, and busted out A&A:War at sea with some guys I met there who were itching to play. I had been buying mini's like a crack addict because I am a sucker for anything involving WWII naval combat. It is also a game I can play (with extremely simplified rules) with my 4 year old boy. I remembered to toss my mid sized collection into the car so we were able to play a pretty good game of Jap's VS Brits. This game is super simple, but lots of fun. I could stand some house rules to add some less gamey tactics but out of the box it is playable and the mini's rock. We managed to take out the Hood with the Fatal Flaw rule. (roll 4 6's to hit and that fucker goes up in flames) This pretty much made my day, so I give the game a thumbs up.

That evening I was able to get a 6 player game of Twilight Imperium III going. Ubarose and her gang filled out 3 of the races while G-Bub's, "The Deuber", and myself from my own crew made for 6 players. I was the Space Chick Pirates, Uba's Bro was Sol, G-Bub's was Mindnet, Ubarose and her man were playing Yin as a team, The Deuber was Muaat and Dan was the evil Hacan player. The game ran a bit slow at the start with only 3 of us having played and 2 of us knowing the rules. In the end (8hrs later) the evil Hacan pulled a come from behind Victory by getting his secret objective and taking the planet with the intergalactic porn collection on it. It turned out to be a close game, with 3 of us about 1 point away. Great fun and again all that played enjoyed the game, even the Sol player who took 2nd in the Gaylus tourny last year.

Saturday

After the late night the day before I got a somewhat late start again. Finding myself in the OG room again with nothing planned and a Stock Car Final to attend in a few hours, I was looking for something quick. Uba's Bro. the Deuber and I played the End of the Triumvirate, its a euro but I had heard it was ok for 3 and has combat. After playing the combat wrong due to the ules sucking, I had Bobby Tweaks explain our mistake. We started over and Uba's Bro won via the military victory. I guess for a euro this one was ok. At least you could fight but it was still rather dry, didn't evoke any excitement and well.... you know... euroish. Luckily the game ended quick so I could go and Race.

Ricky Bobby was ready to roll, running in the race along with me was Bobby Tweaks. The final for this game is odd, in that they start using a different set of rules than for the qualifying rounds. This year they used the advanced rules for tire wear (something I like a lot) and the pit window rules. This was all good but no one really understood them. I have read the rules to this game and they are still not very clear. so we all ran a good race, whit nothing much happening for the 1st pit (around lap 80 or so) the second pit (lap 130) was different. 3 player chose not to pit. (I was not one of them) this put them one lap ahead, but they could not draw cards again until the end of the race. this meant that if we passed them we would be on the lead lap but we could never catch them, unless they ran out of cards. Also if a yellow flag came out before you got onto the lead lap you were screwed (except for the lucky dog) since they would all be able to pit. I managed to pass one of the cars and get on the lead lap with 10 laps to go, (read one more turn) when we top decked a yellow flag. One of the cars that didn't pit had un out of gas. Another (and about 6 other players) was knocked out of the race when he couldn't play a pass card to avoid the wreck. This left one of the non-pit players, another driver who managed to pass them (ironically him mother) and myself on the lead lap. Joining us was the Lucky dog (the leader of the 2nd lap) who is allowed to join the back of the pack on the restart (NASCAR rules)
So on the restart I was in 3rd with 4th being the worst I could finish. I played it safe, and went early and dropped a 2 wide card holding a hand full of blocks. (really I forgot that we could still switch lanes and race inside, but I think this works to my advantage anyway) The guy in 4th, now fuming that he couldn't use any of his pass cards dropped hi own 2 wide and the race was basically over. The kids mom ended up passing him to take away 1st. i was a fun race and I will play this one again next year. I will however suggest to the GM that the rules for the final be the same as the rules for the qualifying races. A lot of good players who never saw that kind of pit rules were screwed because they didn't understand the implications of pitting on a green flag while others stayed out. Anyway goo stuff and I got a 3rd place finish for my team event!

After SCC, I ended up back in the OG room. We busted out a copy of Worthington Games new Cowboys game. This game and also some silly looking Yahzee golf thing were the darlings of hte con. Everyone want to get them and play them. Cowboy's is a really simple move your guy around and shoot thing game. It has just enough flavor to be cool, but is really beer and pretzels. For example on your turn you can either move, or shoot. Thats how simple it is. In addition, you get a hand full of 5 screw cards to pay, one on your turn one on everyone else's turn. I have just explained 90% of the rules. For the flavor there are some nice little game maps that can be arraigned to for towns, etc etc. In our game I started in a bedroom in the brothel, and Joie started on the crapper in the outhouse. Good fun stuff.

After shooting up all our friends we played a game of War on Terror, you know that game that the fuckers at Essen thought was too naughty. I picked this up from my FLGS before the con just to play a late night game of this crazy assed game. I was not expecting much, but this thing turned out to be an ok little risk variant. There is enough in there to make sure we play this every year at the WBC. It is fun take that world domination action with a hilarious tongue in cheek theme. Why people made a big deal over this thing on BGG is beyond me.

Slap Shot was up next, as it was 11pm on Saturday. I went down and play this having a great time. For some reason the rules were dumbed down this year, I was not fond of that but anyway you play this one it is great fun. A kid at my table was the 1st to get caught whining and have to goto the penalty box. There is a guy dressed as a ref who will blow the whistle and come over and drag the player to the front of the room where he has to stand for 2 min. Good stuff... I lost as my team got taken apart ad I ran out of time to rebuild it.

Headed back to the OG room for our final Gangsters game. A traditional game with Bobby Tweaks, Joie, G-Bubs and myself. I found Joie still playing C&C:A and so I jumped into a game of Villa Paletti with Uba, Her man and some poor unsuspecting chick we roped into playing with us. This is one of those simple dexterity games, but late night at a con these are good fun.

Joie was finally ready and so we got our Gangsters game going. As usual it was a bloody affair with lots of screaming and cussing. This year we had competition in the form of a group of guys playing lifeboats, but in the end we were louder. The game took a long time I thin we finished it at 5:30 am. At one point G-Bubs looked at his watch and said" Gentlemen, in 24 hours I will be getting up to goto work" Bobby Tweaks played a great game and had us all on the ropes trying to stop him. In the end we all ran out of steam and he took a 10 joint victory.


That was about it for Malloc at the WBC. I did see some interesting things. Jerry Taylor was there with 2 copies of Wars of the Roses. This game looks great, the artwork is fantastic on both the board but especially on the units. I did not get to play but watched a game while playing Crusader Rex. Comments were mixed, most liked it but a few said it was very chaotic. I have it pre-ordered and don't plan on canceling it. Jerry was optimistic for a Christmas release. I also say a pretty cool SciFi based CDG game. Something that is needed, and a prototype of a game where you play repair crews running around a WWII battleship putting out fires and stopping floods.

Well thats about all I got for a trip report, I will have some more comments later about gaming and things I noticed at the con later.


-M

WBC - Best Damn Boardgaming Con on the Planet!

Ahh summer, here in Maryland the humidity is up, the cicadas are singing and its about time we head on up to the land of bad roads and bad teeth to play some board games.

Thats right, it is time for the World Boardgaming Championships, the best gaming con there is.

Its got that old school we come to play games flavor, everything from Titan to Gaylus is there, and the focus is on playing not selling games, pimping games or being part of a secret elite society.

I plan to attend Tuesday - Saturday and will be providing updates to what I see, and the level of smell in the wargame room as the week progresses. So stay tuned faithful reader it is going to be a wild ride.

I spend most of my time goofing off in the open gaming area and drinking beer, but there are a few tournaments I will play poorly in. These are:

Gangsters










Stock Car Championship












We the People

And the best game at the event.....












Slapshot

Stay Tuned!

-M