D'TELA WINS SIEGELMAN: Despite the worst economy anyone could recall,  the seventh rendition of Euroquest managed to gain attendance with SRO conditions on Friday and Saturday as the Holiday Inn was bursting at the seams with gamers. Top individual honors for the weekend went to Sceadeau D'Tela. The North Carolinian who made his first appearance at WBC in 2008 won the Harold Siegelman Award as the top gamer of the convention with 27 points, besting WBC regular Eric Brosius by four points. Sceadeau won 18 games overall spread over five events, including winning both the Agricola and Dominion tournaments outright. 

Eric won 16 games while participating in eight events but failed to win a tournament to fall four points short. Robert Kircher (the 2007 Siegelman winner), and Alex Bove (the reigning BPA Caesar) tied for third with 21 points each. Rob had a convention-best 19 wins (an alltime Euroquest record) spread over five events without a tourney win while Alex won nine games but tied Brosius with the most events entered at eight apiece. Bill Zurn finished fifth with 19 points on ten wins. There was a three-way tie for sixth at 18 points between Tom DeMarco, Cliff Ackman, and Richard Shay.

Overall, tournament participation was up 15%. Brian Reynold's victory in Settlers made him the first three-time winner of a Euroquest tournament. However, the biggest winner of the weekend may have been Greenville Mafia's Josh Githens who won Ticket To Ride in a Euroquest record 68-player field by winning all four games he played and thereby qualifying for Days of Wonder's 2010 North American tournament and a chance to travel to Paris for the World Championship contest. See all 
the details at http://www.boardgamers.org/specific/eq09.htm

The winners and laurelists for all events will be listed on their respective event AAR pages when the BPA site is updated in December at http://www.boardgamers.org/yearbook

LAST CALL FOR NEW EVENTS TO BE ADDED TO BALLOT: If you'd like to introduce a new event to WBC 2010 (or return one from long ago) NOW is the time to submit an event form to GM that event next summer. Only by doing so by Nov. 30, 2009, will that event be added to the ballot for our Annual December Membership Drive. All events which ran successfully at WBC 2009 will automatically be included on the ballot again, but if your favorite game is missing, don't lament it unless you've done something about it! Take a turn running it yourself. See the list of events already eligible to be run and an updated list of those that will be on the ballot at http://www.boardgamers.org/wbc/orphans.htm and get an event form at http://www.boardgamers.org/forms/SubmitEvent.php.

To reiterate, you need NOT do anything NOW to ensure the return of a 2009 event, but if you want to add a DIFFERENT event, it needs to have a GM submission by the end of this month to have any chance of being voted in by the membership in December. GMs of 2009's events looking to reserve their event again for 2010 need not take any action until December and are requested to wait till then to submit their event forms.

2010 CENTURY LINEUP: The initial lineup of eligible events for the 2009 WBC pending GM commitments is now posted at http://www.boardgamers.org/wbc/orphans.htm. Our usual in-depth analysis of each event has been delayed by late GM reports but will be available during the December membership drive to aid you in deciding what events to support in 2010. Those 2009 Event After Action Report pages complete with the latest Laurel counts and photos as only WBC does them will be available soon at http://www.boardgamers.org/yearbook/

2010 MEMBERSHIP POLICY: There are no changes forthcoming in 2010 BPA membership or WBC admission policies. We will again enjoy a full week of WBC running from Monday morning through Sunday evening with assorted pre-cons during the previous weekend. The Sampler Showcase and WBC Auction and Auction Store will again begin the week before the main tournaments commence in earnest on Tuesday evening. The Showcase will not be a Pre-Con and will be open to all paid WBC attendees. Open Gaming in the popular Showroom setting will commence a day earlier on Wednesday with expanded use of the BPA Gaming library. A small number of events will continue to be run on Monday to augment the Sampler Showcase, but the bulk of Tuesday will remain dedicated to the Auction and Auction Store as in the past.

A normal Sustaining Membership covers all WBC events from Monday thru Sunday for $70. However, all members joining by the Dec. 31 deadline will receive both a free full-color Yearbook mailed in May and a WBC Souvenir T-Shirt upon arrival. Those joining After the New Year will only be able to purchase these items separately while supplies last. The convention schedule will remain separate from the full-color yearbook in a smaller, one-color booklet made available at registration. This policy ensures that everyone who attends WBC will get a printed schedule, while preserving one of the unique traditions that IS WBC—our full color souvenir Yearbook. Check the full details on our membership terms page for payment deadlines and shirt size exceptions.

Prospective BPA members are urged NOT to renew memberships for 2010 until the December membership application is posted with the Ballot for Trial events and Sportsmanship nominees. That page will be updated on or about Dec. 1, 2009.

BPA EMAIL: The WBC Convention Director has a new email address. Doncon99@toad.net is being replaced by conventiondirector@boardgamers.org. Please note the change in your address book.

WAM VIII: The next BPA gaming conference is on Thurs., 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 gaming convention for the two-player historical "card-driven" boardgaming community: players and designers. This year we again 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 tournaments that will be run and all four events 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.

BPA has obtained a very favorable group room rate of $89 per night plus applicable state and local taxes (currently 13%). To obtain this rate you must identify your affiliation with the BPA's WAM gaming conference and make your reservation before January 7th, 2009 (or when our roomblock sells out, whichever occurs first) at 410-560-1000 weekdays between 8 AM and 7 PM EST. For more details see http://www.boardgamers.org/specific/wam10ann.htm

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PBeM NEWS

HANNIBAL PBeM TO START: Pete Reese will be beginning a new BPA Hannibal PBeM tournament on Feb. 1, 2010. Check out the details at http://sites.google.com/site/romevscarthage/home/tournament-rules

GREAT CAMPAIGNS: Congratulations to Ed Beach and Rob Doane, the finalists in the Great Campaigns PBeM Tournament. Ed edged out Mark Booth and Rob Doane beat Patrick Pence to advance to the championship. Credit to Mark, for a nip-and-tuck semifinal against Ed. And likewise to Patrick, who is our rookie of the year. He faced a tough path through several sharks just to advance to the tournament's final four. Rob and Ed will be playing the Rebels in the White House campaign game for the championship. And we'll be looking to start a new tournament as soon as Battle Above the Clouds begins to ship. Check out the details at http://www.wargamereplays.com/gcacw/gcacw08pbem.html

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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/