SEASONS
GREETINGS: As a special holiday gift to all members of the WBC extended family, the BPA Board of Directors has belatedly wrapped up its 2005 session with numerous policy changes which should profoundly affect your membership plans and votes for the coming
season. Regardless of your boardgaming preferences, we hope you'll all find a gift to your liking among the following announcements.
CENTURY 2006: For 2006, a fundamental
change has been made in how the Century
will be determined. Instead of culling
the bottom 10% of the Century each year and readmitting many of
those same ten events by membership vote, the base Century 100 will
be determined solely by the prior year's performance. Consequently,
no new games will be added to the Century without first appearing
as a Trial event and earning Century status in competition with
all other events. It also means that no Century event will have
that status without having drawn a minimum acceptable field of players
in the preceding year. The annual membership event vote now determines
only which events are allowed as the 25 Continuing Trials. It also
means, contrary to our initial October listing, that the following
events have been added as the last ten events of the 2006 Century:
Tyranno Ex
Panzerblitz
Enemy In Sight
Win, Place & Show
Battleline
Waterloo
Anzio
Risk
Down in Flames
Superstar Baseball
LEGACY
EVENTS: In combination
with this change, the
Board of Directors
can now augment the list
of Century events by awarding
Legacy status to
any non-Century event with
a ten-year history of
maintaining
satisfactory player totals
AND GM compliance with all
BPA
requirements/deadlines by
a two-thirds majority vote.
Such events
become additional Century
events and retain that
status as long as they
maintain satisfactory player
totals AND GM compliance.
Legacy status
which admits the following
four events to an enlarged
Century in 2006
has been granted to:
March
Madness
Attack Sub
Auction
Facts In Five
BPA
MEMBERSHIP DRIVE: December
means it is time to
renew your
membership in the BPA. Joining
before January 1st
gains the least
expensive admission to the
World Boardgaming
Championships with savings
of as much as 37% off the
At the Door rates. Associate
memberships cost
only $10 and allow free play
in BPA 2005-06 PBeM
tournaments, voting in
our annual event survey and
$10 discounts to
pre-registration rates for
all of BPA's conventions.
See http://www.boardgamers.org/bpaterms.htm
for details.
EVENT STATUS: Check out next
year's Century and
eligible Trial
candidates on the Orphans
Page at
http://www.boardgamers.org/wbc/orphans.htm before
casting your vote. This year's survey
takes on added significance as the
results will
determine the 25 eligible
Continuing Trial slots from
among
approximately 40 old and
new candidates. Now is your
chance to
determine the events to be
held at WBC 2006. When
renewing your
membership, be sure to vote
for up to ten events for
Trial Event
eligibility. Give special
consideration to both the
Continuing Trial
list and the Alternate List
(new events with GM
commitments) which is
appended to the bottom of
your Membership Form at
http://www.boardgamers.org/bpajoin.htm.
HAIL CAESAR: Arthur Field
banked 72 Laurels from his
second straight
Harold Siegelman Award at
Euro Quest II and never
looked back in
running away with top Laurelist
honors for 2005,
besting 2004 Caesar
James Pei by 34 in overtaking
Pei's 56-laurel lead
going into WBC.
Arthur outscored Pei by 80
in the six days of WBC to
claim his first
Caesar title. He also managed
to hog the top honors
all for himself by
sweeping the Consul competition
by 52 Laurels over his
nearest
competition, Dennis Nicholson,
for sole bragging
rights over his BPA
realm. Ex-Caesars Pei and
Marvin Birnbaum finished
second and third in
the metagaming competition
with Nicholas Anner, Bruce
Reiff, and Bill
Crenshaw rounding out the
top six. Field thus became
the first Caesar
to reign using Euros as his
weapon of choice - taking
1sts in
Battleline, Saint Petersburg
and In the Shadow of the Emperor
for 80 of his 224 laurels. See
all the details at http://www.boardgamers.org/wbc05/caesar05.htm.
SPORTSMANSHIP: The third
leg in the BPA triple crown
of special awards
is now open for your votes.
The 2005 Sportsmanship
nominees are listed
at http://www.boardgamers.org/wbc05/sportman.htm.
When renewing your
BPA membership be
sure to vote for our Sportsman of
the Year. Reward
good sportsmanship ... vote
a deserving recipient a
free room in
Lancaster next summer.
ANNUAL GM RALLY: Prospective
Game Master volunteers
are asked to submit
their events for WBC 2006
at this time. Numerous event
openings are
listed on the Orphans Page
at
http://www.boardgamers.org/wbc/orphans.htm.
Any event
listed as Open
will not be held
unless a GM commits to it by Feb.
28th. GM commitments
must be made by current members.
GM reservations for
non-members will
be cancelled on January 1st
and their event listed as
Open. All GMs are
urged to reread the newly
revised GM Guidelines at
http://www.boardgamers.org/gmguide.htm paying
particular attention to the tie-breaking
rules for MESE events which have been
modified since
the prior distribution.
SAMPLER SHOWCASE: The
newest entry to WBC week is this
Pre-Con
featuring official BPA tournaments
in Attika and Die
Macher as well as
a ten-game open gaming event
with demonstrations and
open play of games
new to WBC. The latter will
serve as introductions to
new games and is
open to games of all types
- not just Euros. A formula
similar to that
used at the popular Euro
Quest Wild Card event will be
used to win an
assortment of non-plaque
prizes with raffle chances
earned just for
playing in the event. The
more you play, the more
chances to win. The
actual games to be used will
be announced in March. If
you ever wanted
to introduce a new game to
WBC, here is your chance.
Sampler Showcase
will start on Monday and
run into the official start
of WBC on Tuesday
evening. One Pre-Con admission
covers participation in
all three events.
GROGNARDCON: We haven't forgotten
our wargamer friends
either. Our
sixth Pre-Con event is this
opportunity for fans of
the classic hex
wargames to get an early
start on their week of
gaming. Grognardcon
opens on Saturday and runs
through the start of WBC on
Tuesday. GM
Bruno Sinigaglio, the original
grognard himself, will
act as temporary
GM for all of the Free Format
Scheduling wargame
events and pair
opponents for preliminary
matches of Afrika Korps,
Anzio, Bulge '81,
Fortress Europa, Gettysburg,
Panzerblitz and Waterloo.
None of these
events will conclude during
the Pre-Con. Their normal
GMs will continue
to run them during the week
so that later arriving
players may
participate for the elimination
rounds at week end.
TRIBUNE STATUS: Perhaps the
best news concerning these
Pre-Cons is that
despite rising costs, BPA
has held the line on prices
again and has
even lowered them for those
contemplating attendance
for the full week.
Tribune and Sponsor level
memberships now include
admission for WBC and
ALL Pre-Cons during WBC week.
EURO QUEST III RESULTS: Congratulations
to Keith Levy
and the members
of GCOM for another outstanding
mini-con as Euro Quest
posted a 20%
attendance gain in its third
rendition with a good
time had by all.
Leading the fight for Laurels
was the reigning Caesar,
Arthur Field,
who took the overall Harald
Siegelman Trophy for the
third straight
year. The individual event
winners were:
Wild
Card: Eric Freeman
Ticket to Ride: Tom Dunning
Settlers of Catan: Dan Hoffman
Saint Petersburg: Peter Staab
Ra: Joe Jaskiewicz
Puerto Rico: John Kerr
Princes of Florence: Rod
Spade
Power Grid: John Downing
Medici: Arthur Field
Louis XIV: Arthur Field
Goa: Christian Moffa
Carcassonne: Steve Boone
Complete
details will be available on the GCOM site http://euroquest.gamesclubofmd.org/ in
the coming
weeks.
D-DAY VIII RESULTS: Don
Greenwood rallied behind a
stubborn German
defense of Carentan to come
from behind to defeat
Clyde Longest's
Allies in a clash of 4-0
unbeatens to win the 8th
running of D-Day. In
winning, Greenwood became
only the second player to "run the table" at
the Breakout Normandy mini-con by
winning all five
rounds. The event
itself was one of the strongest fields ever with 20
players logging 46
games ... 11 more than the most recent WBC tournament.
Complete details
are available at http://www.boardgamers.org/specific/bkn05.htm.
WAM: The next BPA gaming conference
with laurels up
for grabs is Winter
Activation Meeting January 27th-29th
at Hunt Valley
Inn in Hunt Valley,
MD, for fans of the card driven
wargames Hannibal, For
the People, Paths
of Glory, Wilderness War and
We The People. A $99 room
rate applies if
you identify your affiliation
with the BPA's WAM
gaming conference and
make your reservation before
December 27th, 2005 (or
when our roomblock
sells out, whichever occurs
first) at 410-785-7000
weekdays between 8
AM and 7 PM EST. Get all the
details at
http://www.boardgamers.org/specific/wam06ann.htm
THE TENTH SEAT: For a more
detailed look at the inner
workings of the
Board of Directors, we invite
you to view this new
page of Q&A
pertaining to the running of
WBC at
http://www.boardgamers.org/tenthseat.htm.
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, a member must be
nominated in
writing by at least three members;
one of which must
be
himself/herself. Nominations
must be signed and
received at BPA, 1541
Redfield Rd, Bel Air, MD 21015
no later than February
28th to be
eligible for election in that
year. 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
1st 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.
======================
PBeM NEWS
EMPIRE OF THE SUN: Beginning
December 7th, Mark Herman
will be hosting
the newest BPA PBeM tournament
for his new card driven
WWII game Empire
of the Sun using the 1942 Campaign
Game and v1.3 of
the rules plus
optional Progress of the War
rule (available on http://members.tripod.com/~MarkHerman/index.html),
campaign bidding
rules to determine side, use
of ACTS system for all
card and dice
interactions. Double elimination
tournament (play
until you have two
losses). Check out the details
at http://members.tripod.com/~MarkHerman/EoTSTournament.html.
WE
THE PEOPLE: Keith Wixson
will be starting a new
PBeM tournament on
January 2nd for this card driven
classic played via
the ACTS site. See
the details at http://mysite.verizon.net/vze4bc94/wethepeople/
All players buying Associate
memberships now to play
in these new Email
tournaments starting in December
will be given 2006
memberships as well.
==============================
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 admission
to all BPA gaming
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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Subscribing takes only a
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and on the BPA web site
but will otherwise be unavailable to
those who do not join the list
in this fashion.
Visit the BPA website at http://www.boardgamers.org
Don Greenwood
