2008 WBC Report  

Mark Miklos tangles with 1812 master Dave Metzger in the Final.	After eight years of steady attendance, 1812 attendance has hit an all-time low.

Shortly before WBC, Columbia released the third edition of War of 1812. Although its mapboard is identical to the second edition's and its rules can be freely downloaded from its publisher's website, the many changes to its counters make it difficult to easily upgrade to the new edition. There are now artillery units, separate militia units, more dragoons, and the warships work in a completely different way.

Since most players didn't know a new edition even existed, let alone have experience playing it, the TD made the second edition the default, but players could use the third edition if both agreed. 80% of the games contested were with the earlier edition. Next year he plans to make the third edition the default.

Of the second edition games contested, the Americans won seven of twelve games. For the third edition games the Americans were a perfect three of three.

As published, to win one side must have at least a ten-point lead in victory points after any of the three years 1812, 1813 or 1814. To prevent indecisive games, the tournament declares the Victory Point leader after 1814 the winner, ties going to the Americans. Bidding for sides is done with post-1814 Victory Points.

Five games ended in 1812, four won by the Americans. Seven finished in 1813, five won by the Americans. One ended normally in 1814 with a win for the British. Two others were decided by the tournament conditions. In one, Steve Raszewski's British nipped Wesley Chapman 22-21. The other ended with Scott Beall's British having a 26-23 edge over Jim Kramer. But Scott had bid three points to play the British, making the final score 26-26 and turning his win into a defeat!

Another exciting game was Ric Mann's British versus James Miller's Americans. After 1812 Ric had a 20-11 lead, missing a rare early British victory by one point. But in 1813 Jim more than reversed the situation, ending the game with a 22-8 win.

After three rounds there were two undefeated players and two with one loss. One of the 2-1 players could not continue, and Rob Doane graciously stepped aside so that there would only be two players left for a Final.

The Final was played with a second edition set. In 1812 David Metzger's Americans invaded Mark Miklos' Canada. Three battles were fought, two in Montreal and one in Quebec. In all three battles Mark suffered from horrendous die-rolling, getting a total of just two hits out of 30 rolls. In return, David inflicted 20 hits on the British. After the first year David had a 23-15 lead and would have had the necessary ten point lead to end the game if he had won a one-to-one naval battle on Lake Champlain. In that battle Mark's poor die-rolling continued, but David's was worse: it took twelve rounds before Mark rolled a hit to make David's Naval unit non-operational. But that was too little, too late, and Mark resigned rather than continue the hopeless position, making David Metzger a five-time War of 1812 champion.