Boardgame Players Association Newsletter — January 2010
Jan. 13, 2010

YOSHIKAWA WINS SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR: Mark Yoshikawa won the BPA's 2009 Sportsman of the Year Award with 17% of a record 323 votes caste.  The California native and everyone's favorite Slapshot referee was nominated in both Slapshot and B-17—events in which he has a long record of service. A B17 assistant GM, he created a database of his own design to provide results and statistics of the B17 missions as play progresses which adds much color to the competition and the After Action meeting of this unique event. And who hasn't laughed at his uniformed enforcement of the "No Whining" rule as he escorts offenders to the penalty box in the annual Saturday night craziness? As if that wasn't enough, Mark is always among the volunteers in the Junior room. For being such a good sport, Mark will be our guest with a free room at WBC 2010. Finishing second with a respectable 12% of the vote was Ben Knight. He was followed by Jason Levine 11%, Bryan Collars 10%, John Ohlin 9% and Mark Gutfreund at 8%. More details are available at  http://www.boardgamers.org/wbc/sportman.htm.

WBC TRIAL EVENTS ANNOUNCED: BPA thanks its members for a record turnout in the Annual Membership Drive and their participation in the voting process which qualified this year's Continuing Trial events. The 2010 Drive showed a 30% increase over 2009 and topped our previous best Membership Drive results by over 10%. The top 25 events are now eligible for inclusion in WBC 2010 upon receipt of a suitable event form by Feb. 28 from a current BPA member willing to serve as the GM. Events for which no such GM is forthcoming will be replaced by BPA from those events on the Alternate list. Vendors and sponsors may also select events from the Alternate list. To be added to the Alternate list, an event must have an event form submitted to BPA by a willing GM who is a current member.

Battleline once again managed a landslide victory. In addition, A House Divided returned after six years absence. Two designs from Martin Wallace made the cut—Automobile and Brass, but Naval War, Panzergruppe Guderian, and Republic of Rome fell just barely below the line. View the current WBC 2010 lineup on the Orphans Page, which will be updated weekly between now and March when GM submissions end. The complete voting results are available at http://www.boardgamers.org/wbc/trialvote.htm

Vendors/Sponsors are likewise reminded to submit or authorize their 2010 Trial Events by Feb. 28. We also are in need of a few Juniors events and Seminar speakers. Contact us with any suggestions for same.

GM RESERVATIONS: All WBC GMs are reminded that their event "reservations"  for events they ran in 2009 expired on Jan. 1. To retain GM status of your event, you must submit a new event form and renew your membership. Many events are currently listed as OPEN on the Orphans List for lack of a GM's submitted event form.

QUEEN COMES TO WBC: BPA is pleased to announce the initial presence of a major European games publisher at WBC in 2010. The publisher of Alhambra, Shogun and Chicago Express among many others will be hosting a major dedicated demonstration area similar to Cafe Jay to introduce their extensive game line to an American audience. To get an advance peek at their games see http://www.queen-games.de/ or check out their link in our Exhibitor section whenever visiting our home page.

LANCASTER HOST SOLD OUT:
Not surprisingly, coming on the heels of our best Membership Drive results ever, Lancaster Host has sold out for Thursday, Friday and Saturday of WBC at the earliest time during our six years there. You can still get reservations for the other days, but those seeking accommodations for the full week are advised to secure lodging at the nearby Continental Inn while they last. See http://www.boardgamers.org/hotellan.htm.

WAM VIII: The next BPA gaming conference is on Thursday, Jan. 28, through Sun., Jan. 31, 2010, in Timonium, MD at the newly renovated Holiday Inn.  The Winter Activation Meeting is again the week before the Super Bowl. The focus of this four-day event is to provide a forum for the two-player historical "card-driven" boardgaming community: players and designers. This year we will abandon the Open Play format that we have used in former years in favor of a more structured event. We will be offering the following titles as fully sanctioned BPA tournaments with full laurels to be won: Paths of Glory, Twilight Struggle, Hannibal and Combat Commander. These are the only official events  and each will have a set schedule. However, for those who are able to arrive by Thursday, "Open Thursday" will still offer flexibility.  Thursday will be devoted to “open” first rounds and nothing will be formally scheduled on that day. Upon arrival, attendees may seek out the GMs and have a Round 1 opponent assigned for any tournament (this would NOT be a Mulligan). On Friday and  Saturday, each of the tournaments will have formal rounds scheduled (including Round 1). Anybody who played a Round 1 game on Thursday would be exempted from playing in the scheduled Round 1 for that tournament. Participants are also welcome to open game to their heart's content, so bring your other CDG titles along. For more details see http://www.boardgamers.org/specific/wam10ann.htm

TEAM TOURNAMENT LOGOS:
Those who enjoyed the humorous Team logo renderings of Dave Dockter in 2009's record setting Team Tournament may enjoy his update of past Team champs at http://www.boardgamers.org/teamhistorylogos.htm.
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2009 PATRONS: The BPA's list of 2009 Patrons is now posted at http://www.boardgamers.org/wbc/patrons.htm. Please report any inaccuracies to conventiondirector@boardgamers.org no later than Jan. 31 to ensure an accurate listing in the upcoming Yearbook.

BoD NOMINATIONS:
All BPA members are hereby notified of their right to nominate members for the three Board seats whose terms expire at the next WBC. To appear on the ballot, members must be nominated in writing by at least three members including themself. Nominations must be signed and received at BPA, 7766 Valley View Court, Hickory, NC 28602 no later than Feb. 28 to be eligible for election in that year. NOTE: Email nominations are NOT acceptable, nor can a member nominate more than one member for the Board. When contemplating nominations, members are urged to consider that the BPA conducts most of its business by email and needs Board members who are able and willing to offer their time and skills to the organization in a timely manner. Board members should be considered more for their ability to contribute to the running of a successful company than for their attachment to any particular game or genre. Besides forwarding a signed nomination for himself/herself, each nominee should submit by March 1 a statement not to exceed 100 words summarizing what they can contribute in service to the Board of Directors of the BPA. The nomination form is on line at http://www.boardgamers.org/bpanom.htm.

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PBeM NEWS

HANNIBAL PBeM CANCELED: Unfortunately, the GM for this event has had to cancel his plans. It has been removed from our event calendar.

WILDERNESS WAR PBeM TO START: Veteran GM Keith Wixson will be starting the 4th BPA Wilderness War PBeM tournament on ACTS starting the first week in February. The format will be Swiss Elimination with eight players advancing to the elimination round after four rounds of Swiss play. The rounds will be 12 weeks in length and players are expected to average one card play per day. For details see http://mysite.verizon.net/vze4bc94/index.html and contact Keith at keith.wixson@verizon.net to register.

ADEL VERPFLICHTET PBEM PROGRESS:  Preliminary Round 2 is complete just before Round 5 is set to begin.  The Round 2 winners were: Steve Fitchett, Greg Thatcher, Raphael Lehrer, Peter Staab, Aran Warszawski, Dan Leader, and Tom Dunning.  Only two games remain in Round 3.  The race to qualify for elimination play is a tight one—those with 10 points or more are looking good.  Those with 8 or 9 can probably still make up the distance... With 15 possible points, the current leaders are John Pack (14), Derek Landel (12), Steve Fitchett (12), Alex Bove (12), Peter Staab (11), and four with 10 points each (Tom DeMarco, Greg Thatcher, Aran Warszawski, and Bob Hamel).  Two games in Round 2 saw four players cross the line while none of the games saw just a single finisher across the line. Tom Dunning finished the furthest over the line at 11 spaces. The player with the best set won six of 7 games.  Peter Staab won with the worst set (4 cards).  Check out all the action and up to date standings at:  http://www.gameaholics.com/adv_tournament.htm.

WAR AT SEA #8 TO START: Only six of the original 41 players remain in the current War At Sea tournament.  Bruce Reiff and Jonathan Lockwood are battling in one half of the bracket for the right to play in the  championship game.  Alan Applebaum has also reached the Final Four in the other half of the bracket, but he has to wait for the winner of the current Karl Bodenheimer/Michael Kaye matchup to battle against Tim Hitchings to determine who he will play. Few wargames can claim to run email tournaments as quickly as War At Sea which will commence its 8th BPA rendition on February 15, 2010 under its fourth GM, Dick Jarvinen. This time a new format will be used as Double Elimination makes a rare appearance. Check out the details at http://www.firish.com/WaS/

GREAT CAMPAIGNS PBeM TO START: Signups are now being taken for the 2010-11 Great Campaigns of the American Civil War PBeM Tournament. This year's event will feature games from the just-published eighth game in the series, Battle Above the Clouds. We'll play four preliminary rounds (all scenarios from BATC), with the top performers advancing to single-elimination play. All skill levels—from newbie to shark—are welcome, and we'll pair folks by AREA rating (at least for the first two prelims). A 2010 BPA membership and a copy of Battle Above the Clouds is required. See http://www.wargamereplays.com/gcacw/tournament/gcacw10pbem1.html for more information, or e-mail Justin Rice at gcacw.gm@gmail.com to enter.

MECAY WINS MANIFEST DESTINY:
Stefan Mecay, continuing to find new worlds to conquer, quickly improved on his recent laurel finishes in Manifest Destiny by winning the 2009 email tournament just a shade too late to avoid going down in history as the first event to end in 2010. Other laurelists were Derek Landel (Pennsylvania), Carl Damcke (Mexico), Harald Henning (Quebec), defending PBeM champ Bill Edwards (Virginia), and Mark Neale in that order. Complete details plus updated laurel standings are available at http://www.boardgamers.org/yearbook/mfdpge.htm

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All BPA PBeM tournaments require current BPA membership when the event starts. All multi-day paid attendees to WBC are current BPA members for the balance of that calendar year. Associate Calendar year memberships enabling play in all PBeM events starting in that year cost only $10 and earn discounts for pre-registered admission to all BPA gaming conferences. You need not keep your membership current in order to finish a PBeM event. Players may join the BPA throughout the year. Members are reminded they can upgrade their current memberships at any time by remitting the additional funds. See http://www.boardgamers.org/bpaterms.htm for details.

BPA members who would like to see an email tournament for their favorite game are encouraged to step forward as the GM of such an event. BPA does not run tournaments. Rather, we are an organization of gamers lending support to one another so such events can happen. No one cares as much about your hobby as you do. Get involved. See the requirements to host a BPA email tournament at http://www.abovethefields.com/top_pbem/

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Don Greenwood
WBC Convention Director

Boardgame Players Association Last updated 1/13/10 by kae.
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