SPORTSMAN
OF THE YEAR: The third leg in the BPA triple crown of annual
awards has been claimed By Bruno
Sinigaglio of Fairbanks, AK,
in what was the heaviest membership
voting turnout to date for the
award. Known for a “game till
he drops” attitude,
Bruno is always the first to
volunteer for any chore and
would GM the entire convention
if we let him. Come to think
of it, we have, as evidenced by the new Pre-Con named
for him this year—Grognardcon—where he will provide temporary
GM chores for no less than eight
of the classic wargames’ Preliminary
rounds this summer. Katie McCorry
finished second in the membership
vote. Rounding out the top six
finalists, all with double digit
vote totals, were Stuart Tucker,
Bob Jamelli, Keith Hunsinger
and Charles Stucker in that order.
See the details.
ANNUAL
CALL FOR GMs: Prospective Game Master volunteers are asked
to submit their event forms for
WBC 2006 now. Many openings are
listed on the Orphans page for
both Junior and adult events. Any
event listed as Open will not be
held unless a member commits to GM it by Feb. 28. Prospective
GMs are
urged to reread the newly revised GM Guidelines, paying
particular attention to the tie-breaking rules for MESE events which have been
modified since the prior distribution. See the upcoming Century and eligible
Continuing Trial events on the Orphans page.
WBC
TRIALS LINEUP: The event lineup for WBC 2006 is now complete,
pending GM and sponsor commitments.
The Annual Survey of the membership
admitted five new events (Wellington,
Here I Stand, Commands & Colors:
Ancients, Caylus, and Street Soccer)
while welcoming back 20 returning
favorites in the New and Continuing Trials
category in the heaviest voting yet recorded
in the December membership drive with even
100 votes insufficient to make the cutoff.
See the voting totals.
WAM: The
next BPA gaming conference with
laurels up for grabs is Winter
Activation Meeting Jan. 27-29
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. Get all the details.
ENLIGHTENMENT
IX: The ninth annual meeting of our Age of Renaissance
minicon gaming conference convenes
March 17-19 at Marriott’s Hunt
Valley Inn and features the
added bonus of a Manifest Destiny
tournament starting at 4:30 on Friday.
BPA has obtained a very
favorable group room rate of $99
per night plus applicable state and
local taxes (currently 13%). To obtain
this rate you must identify your
affiliation with the BPA’s Enlightenment
gaming conference and make
your reservation before Feb.
15 (or when our roomblock
sells out, whichever occurs first)
at 410-785-7000 weekdays between
8 am and 7 pm EST. Get the details.
BPA
MEMBERSHIP DRIVE: BPA thanks everyone who renewed their
membership during our most successful
membership drive ever. Although
it is now over, you can still
join or renew your BPA membership
throughout the year and enjoy
considerable savings over WBC
At the Door rates. An Associate memberships costs only
$10 and allows free play in all BPA
PBeM tournaments which launch
in 2006, voting in our annual
Board election and $10 discounts to pre-registration
rates for all of BPA’s
conventions. Upgrading your membership
to Tribune level grants free
admission to any and all WBC pre-cons.
See our BPA
Terms page for details.
EURO
QUEST III RESULTS: Complete event
details and photos are now available
on the GCOM
site.
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 Feb. 28 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 1 a statement not
to exceed 100 words summarizing what
they can contribute in service to the
Board of Directors of the BPA. See
the nomination
form.
======================
PBeM NEWS
PATHS
OF GLORY CHAMPION: Tom Drueding was the last man standing
in a
field of 64 competitors in BPA’s
third POG PBeM tournament. 135 games
were logged in all, before Tom
defeated the defending champion
Stephan Valkyser of Germany to
claim the championship and top laurels. Past
champ Stefan Mecay of TX finished
third, followed by Peter Reese (VA),
Chris Byrd (CT) and Holger Janssen
(Germany) respectively.
AGE
OF RENAISSANCE CHAMPION: Congratulations to our reigning
Caesar, Arthur Field, who outlasted
63 competitors in
the 2004 AOR PBeM
tournament to rack up a commanding
lead in his bid to repeat as Caesar
in 2006. In a tightly fought final game, Arthur (Paris),
took the lead
in turn 7 with an Enlightened Ruler
play followed by two misery cards
and then held on in the 8th and final
turn to overcome Sean Whitaker’s
2nd place Genoa, Pierre LeBeouf’s
3rd place Venice, Carl Damcke’s 4th
place Barcelona, and Mark Neale’s 5th
place London. Carl had the mid-game lead with a Cathedral
purchase going last to make a wine
commodity run but was unable to hold on in the
last two turns. Sean
and Pierre, stayed within striking
distance all game but couldn’t pull
off a large, late payout to overcome
Arthur’s late lead. With only two wool
plays in the first six turns, Mark
did well to stay within sight of the
pack. Final scores were Paris 2290, Genoa 2010, Venice 2007,
Barcelona
1942, and London 1769.
VICTORY
IN THE PACIFIC: The first round of the Victory in the Pacific
PBEM tournament is finished. Unlike the previous tournament,
the top seeds prevailed—winning 17 of 18 matches. The
2nd seed was the lone member of the top half to lose his match.
The Allied and Imperial Navies finished the round with identical
records too. The remaining 18 players move on to the second
round! Check the current status of all games at our VIP
PBeM page.
BREAKOUT
NORMANDY #5: Tom Dworschak, playing
as an Eliminator to avoid byes,
has defeated Steve Andriakos in
the fifth, and now final, round
of the 4th BKN PBeM tournament.
It is the second straight time
that the top-rated AREA player
has been pressed into service to
carve a round off the tournament by defeating one
of the three remaining unbeatens,
having eliminated Don Greenwood
in similar fashion in the last
tournament. Tom’s victory means
that the 4th tournament is now
drawing to a close with Greenwood and Bryan
Eshleman battling it out for the
championship. So, its time to announce
the fifth Breakout Normandy PBeM
tournament which will commence on
Feb. 17. Entry is free
to
all current BPA members. All rules
and details are available on our
Breakout Normandy PBeM page.
Send your opening bid to doncon99@toad.net to
enter.
==============================
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 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 the BPA
Terms page 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.
========================================================
SUBSCRIBE: If
you have not yet subscribed to
our new mailing list, please do so
as we are unable to add you ourselves.
To receive our free monthly
newsletters you MUST rejoin
the BPA mailing list by
visiting http://lists.boardgamers.org/mailman/listinfo/bpamail
to confirm your
address and your desire to be
on this list.
Subscribing takes only
a moment, ensures your privacy,
and increases likelihood
of receipt. The
newsletter will continue
to be posted in the WBC
folder in the
Conventions section of
Consimworld and on the BPA web site
but will otherwise be unavailable to
those who do not join the list
in this fashion. Here
are previous newsletters: Nov.
2005,
Dec.
2005.
Visit the BPA website at http://www.boardgamers.org
Don Greenwood
