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Caesar Award |
Consul Award | Membership |
Sportsmanship | AARs | Century | GM Committments |
Event Coordination | GM Support | BOD nominations | Event Submissions |
PBEM
  HAIL CAESAR PEI: James Pei won his second Caesar title ten years after his first in true upset fashion—overtaking the record breaking five-championship WBC 2014 performance of Nick Henning to become the BPA Top Gamer of the Year while adding to his record total of 2,146 laurels. It was a result only a rules lawyer or an accountant could appreciate. James lost the 2013 Caesar award when his 36 laurels for a second place fnish in his trademark For The People specialty was not credited because the email event had not officially finished before the yearend while awaiting consolation matches to finish. Those laurels were thus pushed into the next year and proved to be the difference in overtaking Henning's great WBC week a year later. Adding to the irony was that his 176-laurel year topped Henning's WBC haul by exactly seven laurels—the same amount by which he would have won the 2013 Caesar title over Andrew Emerick had they been credited in 2013. As they say, one door closes, another one opens. Complete details on our top Award winners and the tally of our Top 25 gamers for 2014 are available on the Caesar Award page.
HAIL CONSUL BEYMA: For the second time in the same year, Nick Henning was denied in a surprising upset as Richard Beyma surpassed Nick's WBC 2014 total to take Consul honors for 2014. This time, Nick was done in by the loss of 60 laurels for Through the Ages when it was determined that the event should be considered a Pre-Con since it was not possible to laurel in the event by playing in only the Monday heat. The result was even more ironic because Richard scored most of his laurels in Grognard events whose preliminary round was also partially contested in the Pre-Con. However, none of those events required play during the Pre-Con and could be won without Pre-Con attendance. It is a distinction which blurs the lines between which events are eligible for the various metagaming awards and will be revisited by the Board in their 2014 session to determine whether Pre-Con events should be included in Consul scoring in the future. If so, the only difference between Caesar and Consul would be the addition of email tournaments to the former.
ANNUAL DECEMBER MEMBERSHIP DRIVE UNDERWAY: There are only three week lefts to enter your Sustaining or Tribune membership for 2015 by December 31 to get a free WBC souvenir T-Shirt or Cap and full-color yearbook. We urge you to renew memberships for 2015 NOW through the end of the year both to save money with our lowest rates and to vote your choice of the 25 Continuing Trial events and the winner of our annual Sportsmanship Award. Vote to retain your favorite events or introduce new ones when submitting your membership form. Your vote must be postmarked by December 31 to count and be accompanied by payment of 2015 membership dues. Check the full details of membership terms are available online and include payment deadlines and shirt size exceptions. Join us in 2015 as we close out a decade in Lancaster with our last visit to Amish country before departing to Seven Springs, PA in 2016.
NOTE: Those who paid their 2015 membership dues before the December Membership Drive are encouraged to submit the membership form so as to participate in Sportsmanship and Trial Event votes. Simply note the amount as "Pre-paid".
SPORTSMANSHIP NOMINEES: The list of 2014 Sportsmanship Nominees and reason for their nominations is now on line. Before renewing your BPA membership, please check all the worthy candidates there and select one to support on your ballot. Reward good sportsmanship with free lodging at the 2015 WBC.
 2014 AFTER ACTION REPORTS: The WBC 2014 Event After Action Reports complete with the latest Laurel counts and photos as only WBC does them are available. We suggest you peruse them to recall last summer's fun or see what you missed before deciding which events to support with your Trial event votes when renewing your 2015 membership.
2015 CENTURY: The initial lineup of eligible events for the 2015 Century and potential Trial events pending the Annual Membership vote and GM commitments has been updated. It is now closed to additional entries for the Membership ballot but we still seek event forms for Alternate status to fill any vacancies and/or troll for Sponsor support. Our vendors will be sponsoring other new (and old) events before the schedule closes in March. Meanwhile, you can claim any OPEN event by completing the required Event Form after reading the GM Guidelines linked from the start of that event form. Nothing happens at WBC without a willing GM behind it. But please ... do NOT volunteer unless you intend to fulfill the obligation.
GM COMMITMENTS: GMs are reminded to renew their memberships AND submit an event form by January 31st. At that time, events with a satisfactory GM commitment will be assigned and the Orphans List (Preliminary Events List) http://www.boardgamers.org/wbc14/orphans.htm updated. Even if you are not selected to run an event your offer will highlight you as a possible assistant for that event - and willing assistants are in great demand. Some of your fellow members run or assist in as many as a dozen events. They could use some help.
EVENT CO-ORDINATION: Eric Freeman is again volunteering to co-ordinate 2015 Euro events in an attempt to minimize scheduling conflicts. If you'd like to be part of this effort, contact freemaneric@comcast.net.
GM SUPPORT: If you'd like to help out but don't feel confident enough to run an event on your own or don't want to make too long a commitment, you could still be of great assistance. Perhaps you are good at teaching games and would be willing to run a demonstration for a GM who lacks the time or skills to teach. If so, contact conventiondirector@boardgamers.org with a list of games you'd be willing to teach and we will pass along the offer to a grateful GM. Conversely, if you are a GM who uses a laptop at WBC to run their event, you should contact Andy Latto at andy.latto@pobox.com. Andy has developed a spreadsheet that speeds sign-in, does automatic badge-checking for pre-registrants. calculates the qualifying/seeding order for semifinalists, including verifying whether a win is in the first heat entered, and does most of the preparation of the event report form. He even promises it will generate a report suitable for sending in AREA results.
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, 7766 Valley View Court, Hickory, NC 28602 no later than February 28th 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, 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:
  
RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN XI TO BEGIN IN DECEMBER: This will be a single elimination 10-turn tournament with a starting date of Dec. 26, 2014. Entrance is required by contacting johnohlin5@comcast.net by Dec. 19. Check the details at http://www.russiancampaign.com/.
NEDZA WINS DIPLOMACY: Scott Nedza topped David Sherwood in the 2014 BPA Diplomacy tournament by one supply center. The event generated twelve games for a field of 28 players with ten two-way and two three-way wins. Both Scott and David had a pair of two-way wins. Kevin Youells took third with a two-way and a three-way win. Warren Day, Bob Day and Rich Prast took the remaining laurels. See the revised laurel counts on the AAR page.
DIPLOMACY 2015 STARTUP: Fast on the heels of the recent Diplomacy tournament is a second planned event for 2015. Email the GM at DiplomacyDayM@cox.net (Michael Day) no later than Dec. 21, 2014. Be sure to include your full name, e-mail address, and AREA code (if you have one, if not, one will be provided) so the GM can register you on the site http://playdiplomacy.com. Do not register on the site, but contact the GM. Country assignments, usernames, and passwords will be sent out no later than the early afternoon of Dec. 30, 2014. The host website is at: http://diplomacywwi.weebly.com/
VICTORY iN THE PACIFIC: Going into the semifinals, David Sherwood (15th Seed) and James “Lord Vader” Kramer (22nd Seed) each had three upset victories. Both Cinderellas were looking for the magic to continue. Both took the USN in exchange for a bid of 6.5, and both played long games—no blow-outs here. However, the Dark Side was not enough as Lord Vader succumbed to Ray Freeman (5th Seed) at the end of Turn 7 when the score was 0.5 higher than the USN could make up on the last move. David played all the way to the end—and, despite playing with no adjustments, came up just 2.5 PoC short of dethroning Michael Day (3rd Seed). Because they live near each other, Michael and David played face-to-face even though it’s a PBEM tournament. In the Final, Ray Freeman has bid 8 for the IJN using the most popular adjustments (#1: I-Boat Raid and #2b: Individual CPO Withdrawal), giving Michael his first chance to play the blue pieces in this tournament. Ray has been solid Red and is now fluent in Japanese. He definitely plans to remember Pearl Harbor this year. Watch all the action at http://www.gameaholics.com/vitp_bpa/vitp_bpa_single_elim_13.htm!
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Remember... all of the above PBeM fun is free to current BPA members.
Others may qualify with a $10 PBEM membership in the year the event starts.
All multi-day paid attendees to WBC are current BPA members for the balance
of that calendar year. You need not keep your membership current in order to
finish a PBeM event. Players may join the BPA throughout the year.
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
at http://www.abovethefields.com/top_pbem/
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