The Good Time That Was Had by All

By S. Craig Taylor, Jr.
August 7, 2003

For the second week in a row, the Lost Battalion Gamescrew was at a gaming convention; in this case, THE WORLD BOARDGAMING CHAMPIONSHIPS right here in the Baltimore area. This convention, formerlycalled AVALONCON when it was run by The Avalon Hill Game Company, has long-since evolved into the place to be for gamers who wish display their awesome expertise at certain games. The tournaments nowinvolve the products of many different game publishers and the skill levels of the competitors can bedownright intimidating! There are even a host of “junior events” for younger competitors and team events that allow local gaming groups to display their collective prowess in a definitive way that is far more than mere bragging rights. Although there are plenty of open games and demonstrations, the heart of this convention remains the grueling tournaments. To an extent seen at no other convention, the WBC is about playing games. By Sunday, some of the better players were almost immobilized by the weight of their many victory plaques.

Being a new company (we’re just starting our third month since we opened our electronic doors); we devoted our efforts to demonstrating the BATTLELINES™ game and manning our booth. By next year, there should be enough experienced BATTLELINES™ players around to make running a tournament feasible but this year we concentrated on teaching thegame. We ran “official” scheduled demonstrations every evening in the “Caf Jay” and numerousunofficial demonstrations, including two four-player games and one six-player game in the opengaming areas. Special kudos to Becky Mauder, our lead artist, who personally manufactured our banner, monogrammed table cloths, table skirts, sales paperwork and, for all I know, bent the metal to construct our cashbox. Debbie Billings helped in the booth, releasing most of the rest of us to play games. We all enjoyed meeting, talking and even playing with many of you there.

I especially enjoyed seeing many old friends and former co-workers such as Don Greenwood, who was with Avalon Hill for a quarter century, was my boss for twelve years there and who now ramrods the convention with his usual gruff competence. In fact, behind his back, many people call the convention “DONCON;” but we’ll never tell him that, will we? Charles Kibler, who used to do most of the game artwork for Avalon Hill, could also be found haunting the registration booth, taking pictures of the winners for the game event “totem poles” and for next year’s program booklet. Vince Frattali, akaubergamer “Vinnie the Ninnie,” also served some time in the registration booth. Of course, while these guys were there from time-to-time, they left most of the real work to their wives and young ‘uns. Such are the ways of the world.

Jeff teamed with Ray Pfeiffer, who used to do play testing for Avalon Hill, especially enjoyed the four-player game against Mick Uhl, with whom I worked at both Avalon Hill and MicroProse, and moi. Mick and I were on the verge of victory and then both drew one order each for two Turns in a row while Jeff and Ray recovered and then smashed us. To be perfectly honest, I took much less pleasure from this particular game than Jeff.

Katrina Koniev, back from the secret mission behind enemy lines that kept her from HISTORICON, was back with us this time, passing out her special signed but playable cards; in this case, a different one from the card she dispensed at ORIGINS. On Saturday, she handily defeated (we’ll avoid using the “humiliation” word, just to spare his tender sensibilities) designer and daddy Jeff, surely the convention’s highlight for her. See the revealing pictures included with this article. She tried to build on that victory and run amok, playing two games against John Caskey, but he managed to eke out victories both times. Now, she’s gunning for me with murder in her eye, but I’m no fool and plan to avoid her like the plague whenever there is time available for a game!

By Sunday, Becky decreed that I should not be allowed near the cash box if the company’s finances are to remain afloat. Vince Frattali was an early buyer of our Drive on Stalingrad RTP and had it delivered in three separate clear plastic boxes instead of our now standard “VCR tape” box and he managed to talk me out of a free box, in one of my weaker moments at the convention. Mark Herman, formerly of SPI and Victory Games, claiming it was all the money he had in the world, managed to con a discounted Streets of Stalingrad RTP Set from me and Richard Berg, who has designed games for almost everybody, finagled a freebie to review before Becky and Debbie calmed me down and banished me from the booth to the wilds of the open gaming area.

In all, we had a great time, did some great business and look forward to next years WORLD BOARDGAMING CHAMPIONSHIPS .