Contents 1 is an association of boardgame enthusiasts incorporated as a non-profit company BPA in the state of South Carolina for the express purpose of hosting the annual gaming conference known as the World Boardgaming Championships, or WBC for short. It offers tourna- ments, vendors, an auction, demonstrations, seminars, open gaming, and Juniors programs. In ad- dition, for those who can’t get enough, we offer Play-by-Email-Tournaments. We love boardgaming competition—from wargames and Eurogames to racing, sports, and rail games, and we make no apologies for it. It’s what we do. And we’ve done it better than anybody else for 15 years. This year- book documents BPA events of the previous year. Aside from the back cover, it does not contain scheduling information for the upcoming convention. Schedules and event previews will appear in a separate program and online at boardgamers.org. In fact, on our website, you’ll find more pre- and post-event information than any place on the net—over 1,000 pages of it. It’s not very lucrative or cost effective, but we think it demonstrates our commitment to this hobby. To help support BPA, take a moment to subscribe to our FREE e-mail newsletter via the website and continue to spread the good news about our association and its activities. Credits Convention Director: Don Greenwood Webmaster & Publicity: Kaarin Engelmann Board Chairman & Treasurer: Ken Gutermuth Secretary: Bruce Monnin Assistant Treasurer: Peter Stein Incorporator: Scott Pfeiffer Contents BPA Logo: Mark Simonitch Team Tournament Top 25 .............Inside Front Cover Cover Art: Kurt Miller 2013: Year in Review .................................................2 Photography: Debbie Gutermuth, Charlie Kibler Century Events ..........................................................3 PBeM Coordinator: Hank Burkhalter Trial Events ..............................................................57 Online Discussion Board: John Kranz Board of Directors ...................................................63 Kiosk Prints: Jeff Billings Play-By-Email Champions .....................................64 Legal Counsel: Ralph Gleaton Team Champions ....................................................66 Printing: Lost Battalion Games Core Cadre ...............................................................67 Insurance: Phil Barcafer Caesar Award ..........................................................70 Exclusive Show Vendor: Decision Games Consul Award ..........................................................71 Security: Ken Whitesell GM of the Year .........................................................72 Juniors Room Monitors: Joanna Melton, Sportsmanship Award ............................................73 Jenna Sunderlin Recollections ............................................................74 Juniors Program Coodinator: Laurie Wojtaszczyk Patrons ......................................................................78 AREA Ratings: Glenn Petroski, Bruno Wolff Hobby Service Award ............................................80 Team Handicaps: Stuart Tucker, Jeff Cornett 2014 Pre-Cons ..............................Inside Back Cover Auction: Bruce Reiff, Ken Gutermuth, Jeff Omens; Event Starts .......................................Back Cover Mullet, et al Religious Services: John Poniske Proof Reading: Bruce Monnin Signs and Tech Support: Roy Gibson Web Personal Scheduler: Steve Okonski Team Logos: David Dockter, Kaarin Engelmann Sampler Showcase: Tom McCorry Library Coordinator: Keith Levy Social Networks Answer Person: Scott Nerney Registration Staff: Charlie Kibler, Judy Kibler, Cher Gibson and Tara Greenwood Sponsors: Alliance Distributors, Aran 1541 Redfield Rd., Bel Air, MD 21015-5739 Warszawski, David desJardins, Haim www.boardgamers.org • [email protected] Hochboim, James Doughan, Ken July 29-August 4, 2013 • August 4-10, 2014 Gutermuth, Rick Northey, Jerald R. Tracy Lancaster Host Resort, Lancaster, PA 2 2013: Year in Review Century Events 3 hat a difference a year makes! WBC 2013 came 139-1 odds to edge the Ski Patrol team Wwas perhaps the best yet. It was certainly by attendance tiebreakers after rallying to tie 2013 Results 2013 Results the largest, having topped our previous atten- the Finnish team with a pair of bonus points Bruce Beard, MD Kelly Czyryca, MD dance by a resounding 6%. The Host was at the for scoring in events they had not previously Akihisa Tabei, jp Dan Shmueli, NY top of its game to make amends for a dismal won. The surprise team of wanna-be’s weren’t Peter Eldridge, uk David Platnick, VA 2012 wherein the elements and faulty air con- on anyone’s radar—appearing on none of the Stephen Yu, WA Ed Ericson, AR ditioning combined to yield a trying and hot Bracket Busting contest entries. Dave Meyaard, Tom McCorry, VA O Zach Snyder, PA O experience. In contrast, a nearly flawless effort another Young Turk, tied the record for Top Walt Collins, PA Jeremy Lennert, CA was made in hosting the 15th WBC and guests Ten predictions with six in winning the annual Pierre LeBoeuf, MD Nick Ferris, MD were greeted with the gift of free breakfast Prediction contest. vouchers throughout the week as a make good Randy Buehler’s two-year stay atop the BPA 61 1991-2013 128 2011-2013 gesture. Even the weather co-operated, with the Laurels list came to an end as Andrew Emer- mildest temperatures anyone could remember ick emerged as our newest Caesar—besting top Top Laurelists Top Laurelists during our eight years in Lancaster. career laurelist James Pei by 29 laurels thanks Bruce Beard, MD 452 Andrew Emerick, CT 58 In all, more than 50 states and Canadian to a combination of mini-con standings and a Jim McDanold, TN 120 Matthew Beach, MD 50 provinces plus 17 nations sent participants in delay in the completion of Pei’s PBeM specialty Jon Kwiatkowski, NC 104 Kelly Czyryca, MD 40 2013. The record crowd was reflected in tourna- past the WBC “fiscal” year. The cessation of Paul Hakken, NJ 103 Luann Stubbs, PA 30 Spencer Hamblen, MD 96 Bill Zurn, CA 30 ment participation with no less than 23 events mini-con activity as a bankable head start in Barrington Beavis, uk 90 Dominic Blais, qc 30 drawing triple-digit participation and five the laurels race should make this competition Mark Neale, RI 72 Dan Shmueli, NY 24 more knocking at the century door with 90+. even closer in the years ahead. Meanwhile, Akihasa Tabei, jp 58 Lissa Rennert, MD 24 Average participation in the 156 tournaments Ken Gutermuth overcame schedule handicaps Bruce Beard, MD Jeremy Vipperman, TN 54 Kelly Czyryca, MD Robbie Mitchell, VA 20 Pierre LeBoeuf, MD 54 Randy Buehler, WA 18 rose to 56.8 players per event, buoyed by 203 caused by Board meetings and Auction finance players for Stone Age, 205 for Lost Cities and obligations to post his best week in years to Can’t Stop, 249 for Ticket to Ride, and 265 for Li- take Consul honors—besting defending Consul 18XX (8XX) Seven Wonders (7WS) ar’s Dice. Twelve reigning WBC champions suc- Nick Henning by a mere four laurels. Another newcomers swelled the largest field -player preliminary games replaced the previ- cessfully defended their titles, led by the Mas- charter member, Larry Lingle, won Top GM 14since 1994 with four of them win- 4ous 7-player game format in the qualifiers to en- ter, James Pei, who extended his latest For The honors for his captainship of Pirate’s Cove. ning preliminary games. Bruce Beard’s hance the game’s strategic choices—knowing that People streak to five years to maintain his hold But it was a newcomer who stole the third 2012 fall from grace was brief, reclaiming his title some of the cards they pass may return to them. on WBC’s longest current winning streak. Curt leg of our Triple Crown as Emily Wu charmed and winning for the eighth time in nine years. Nine players won both qualifying rounds. The for- Collins II (Union Pacific) and Sean McCulloch the membership to take the Sports(wo)manship Round length was restored to six hours, returning mat change made for tighter games, but a single a 3-day format. 1830 remained the top choice by a quarterfinal match of 5-player games proved to (Battleline) emerged as his closest pursuers— vote for getting married at WBC and spend- 16-6-6-5-4-3-2 margin over 1846, 1880, 1861, 1856, be the greater trial for the 40 who advanced. Not both retaining their third straight title. ing her honeymoon in wargame tournaments. 18EU, and 1870, respectively. surprisingly in an event this size, no former lau- Elsewhere, the fair sex doubled their pre- Geoffrey Allbutt has himself a keeper and The four preliminary rounds filled 13, 10, 10 relists enjoyed such success again. The semifinals vious market share with ten claiming titles in should be commended for keeping his priori- and 9 tables to yield a quadruple (Beard), three returned to 4-player games where Ed Ericson’s 2013—up from five, six and eight in the pre- ties in order. triple (Anthony Lainesse, Rick Dutton and Kevin Science-heavy 62 points was the highest score of vious three years. Newcomer Trella Bromley 2013 may be remembered as when the Karg), nine double and 13 single winners. 22 of the the round and earned him the top seat at the Final. (RBN), Angela Collinson (CMS), Jessica Brown badges took on a personalized look with pho- 26 victors elected to advance so the semifinals ex- The three-game “Gauntlet of Doom” Final (LBY), Tammy Wyatt-Johnson (LLM), Janet Ot- tos of the members. Others may recall it as the panded to five games with 11 of 2012’s semifinalists rounds started with a 6-player test including cards tey (RA!), Julie Ehlers (SET), Kristen LaDue year the 23,540 sq ft Expo Center debuted as making the cut again. from the Leader expansion. The victory went again Tabei outbid Eldridge for the C&A in the Fi- to Ericson, followed by David Platnick, Kelly Czyry- (SLS), Carol Haney (AVU), Hilary Haagen an overflow Open Gaming site. Relatively few nal, after letting McCorry take the M&H private. ca, and Dan Shmueli. Game 2 saw Ericson again (TTR) and Stefany Speck (PRC) lorded it over people made it out to the Expo Center to check Beard took the B&O private at cost. Much wheeling pursuing a bold Science gambit.