The Wargamer

Introduction

I attended this year's World Boardgaming Championships (WBC) to catch up on the latest and greatest in cardboard entertainment. WBC is now six full days of boardgaming, including exhibits, auctions, an expanded vendors area, Boardgame Players Association (BPA) meetings, and, of course, the tournament competitions for about a hundred popular games, both new and old. There was an upgraded Juniors program so kids could join in the fun, and since many grognards make WBC a part of their annual vacation plans this helps make the event family-friendly.

Don Greenwood, the former editor of the Avalon Hill General for so many years, has been devoting his time to organizing WBC for eight years now. For the previous eight years, the event was formerly known as Avaloncon. This year's event was the second year in the new Lancaster, PA, venue. The Lancaster Host Resort provides more room for events than the old venue in Hunt Valley, MD, and still offers room to grow in future years. This year's attendance was about 1,200 registered gamers, with hundreds more wandering in and out to observe the gaming or visit the vendors. More information about WBC and BPA is always available at BoardGamers.org.

I have attended WBC for the past couple of years primarily to get away from computer gaming for a while and reconnect with my boardgaming roots. I did actually participate in an Advanced Third Reich tournament many years ago at Avaloncon, so there is a touch of nostalgia in returning to the board game environment. I continue to be amazed at the sheer variety of games. There are still the classic wargames with hexagonal maps, combat results tables, and hefty rulebooks, and I saw my fair share of faded dog-eared rules, well-used OOB cards, and torn boxes of yesteryear. There are an increasing number of alternative games being played now - card games, block games, positional maps, or maps with zones rather than discrete hexes or squares, as well as various other novel concepts.

It is impossible to stereotype today's wargames, other than to say they are games of strategy and chance. And they are all games being played by an active community.

As I wandered among the many large gaming rooms for two days, a few miscellaneous items caught my eye. The simple act of rolling dice has its own variations. Most players just roll on the board or in a game box, while others use a glass tumbler or cup to determine victory or defeat. Some players use a "dice tower" to drop the dice in the top and have them roll out the bottom. Most of these were rather plain but some were quite fancy and made with polished wood and velvet linings. One that I saw was made of Legos! The manner in which cardboard unit counters are displayed also had variations. Most players just stack their units and move them by hand. Some use large tweezers to carefully manipulate their counter stacks, and some brought their magnetic counters and map sheets that they use at home for hanging their games in progress on the wall. I saw some neat wooden "counter sleds" available from RDoxx.com. I also spotted a flyer for Wargaming Radio at Point2PointSource.com. Listen to Jason and Scott, the "most exciting thing to happen to wargaming since the combat results table!"

Vendors and Game Designers

Our wargame community would not exist without the people who design games and the people who publish and market those games. It was a personal pleasure to meet many of these folks and let them talk about their products. In fact, since they enjoyed talking so much, all I really needed to do was listen and take notes. The rest of this article follows, so join me for a nickel tour of WBC 2006.

Against the Odds. Steve Rawling discussed his Against the Odds Magazine, a relatively new quarterly wargaming journal that investigates military history from a broad perspective. Each issue features a challenging and fun wargame that typically covers a truly desperate situation where one side is facing military, political or cultural annihilation if it loses, but gives players multiple options to alter history. The most recent game was released last month in the 2006 annual issue. Toppling the Reich is a complete military simulation of the struggle of the Western Allies versus Germany in France and the Low Countries, 1944 and 1945. Kulikovo 1380, the battle between the Golden Horde clan of Mongols and the collected principalities that we know as Russia, is scheduled for release in the upcoming December 2006 issue. As a promotional offer, Steve was handing out a free game, Stand at Mortain, the first in a series of Pocket Battle Games from staff developer Paul Rohrbaugh. This is literally a 3x5 card with a map on one side, rules on the other, and unit counters around the edges that players cut out. A die-cut version of these counters is available for free with any purchase at ATOMagazine.com.