WBC

Ubercat · July 31, 2014, 08:55:44 PM

This is my thread for sharing my experiences at WBC (Starting Saturday morning!!!). I already know how to take pictures with my new iPad. To test and ensure that I can also upload pictures to the forum with it, here is a completely unrelated picture of one of our cats. Enjoy.

Staggerwing · August 01, 2014, 05:14:26 AM

WBC?

'Warfare, Biological and Chemical', as in dinner hosted by friends of dubious culinary skills?

bbmike · August 01, 2014, 05:27:46 AM

Quote from: Ubercat on July 31, 2014, 08:55:44 PM
This is my thread for sharing my experiences at WBC (Starting Saturday morning!!!). I already know how to take pictures with my new iPad. To test and ensure that I can also upload pictures to the forum with it, here is a completely unrelated picture of one of our cats. Enjoy.

You can't upload a photo of your cat and not tell us it's name!

bayonetbrant · August 01, 2014, 05:31:46 AM

Quote from: Staggerwing on August 01, 2014, 05:14:26 AM
WBC?

'Warfare, Biological and Chemical', as in dinner hosted by friends of dubious culinary skills?

World Boardgaming Championships

undercovergeek · August 01, 2014, 05:45:48 AM

Quote from: bbmike on August 01, 2014, 05:27:46 AM
Quote from: Ubercat on July 31, 2014, 08:55:44 PM
This is my thread for sharing my experiences at WBC (Starting Saturday morning!!!). I already know how to take pictures with my new iPad. To test and ensure that I can also upload pictures to the forum with it, here is a completely unrelated picture of one of our cats. Enjoy.

You can't upload a photo of your cat and not tell us it's name!

ill go for ubercat

Ubercat · August 01, 2014, 10:19:49 AM

No, dear departed Ubercat is my avatar. The sleeping kitty is big Rupert.

Here's a link for WBC

Ubercat · August 18, 2014, 03:28:56 PM

Here's War of the Ring, ready to start. I've painted about 85% of the minis over the course of the last 6 years or so. This was the second tournament I took part in. The first was Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage. I was eliminated in the first 20 minutes of the first game and had just enough time to pack my game up and run over to make the mulligan round of War of the Ring!

Ubercat · August 18, 2014, 03:37:56 PM

Here's Sekigahara, along with the forearms of either my first or second opponent.

My first 2 opponents beat me, although the second loss was due to a stupid mistake on my part that I should have known better. My 3rd opponent was a winy, bitchy kid of about 16, who needed to be smacked pretty badly. He was pissed at losing his first two games and gave me a lot of attitude and tried to play loosely with the rules. Fortunately I defeated him, as I strongly suspect that the little shit would have gloated if he'd won.

Ubercat · October 04, 2014, 09:26:52 PM

Just because this thread attracted so much attention, here's some more WBC goodness.

Here's For the People, just at game start. I tied with Nick Pei for 4th place in this tournament. Making the quarterfinals in a contest with 28(?) people was definitely my greatest achievement this year.

My first game was against a newer player (Don't recall his name). He drew the South and did not have a good grasp of how to play them. He was in the exact same boat I was in last year in the 2013 tournament. Like me the year before, he tried a desperate attack and threw in the towel when it failed. The game took maybe 2.5 hours.

My second game was against Fred Finkbinder. I drew the South and what followed was an epic 8.5 hour struggle which lasted until turn 10 and 10:30 that night. I waited for an opportunity to take the war north and he finally gave me one. When Grant showed up out west, Fred assigned a Cav leader to his army, rather than the Army of the Potomac which was defending DC. I threw a lot of strength into the Army of Northern VA and went on the offensive against his half blind army. The AnV was able to isolate DC and get some politically useful raids going in several eastern states.

Fred had visions of Grants dancing in his head and went on the offensive in the west with "big boy." He had a lot of success out there but it was all peripheral damage. Lee was busy bleeding him to death in the east. He should have rushed Grant to Pennsylvania to do some damage control. It would have taken a couple of card plays but might possibly have saved him the game. In the end, Lee did so much damage that for about 3 turns I was actually recruiting more troops than him! I finally took DC after attrition had whittled the AoP down to a paltry 2 SP's (Yes, DC was completely isolated, even from the sea). That gave me an immediate Strategic Will victory.

My third game had a 9AM start the next morning. My opponent was the very tough Bill Pettus. It didn't help that I was only able to get an hour of sleep the night before. I was poisoned with adrenaline after the 8.5 hour war and a cold shower before bed hadn't helped any! I typically take my showers at night at WBC and that night the water wouldn't turn hot until I was almost done. I gave it 5 minutes to warm up before I got in and then figured it wasn't going to happen.

Anyhow, enough excuses. Bill beat me after about 4 hours. The table was turned and this time I was the north, trying to hold out until Grant showed up. Bill was looking for an attack opportunity but it took awhile to materialize. At one memorable point he had the last play, with one card left and sat there studying the map for about 5 minutes. I said "I must be doing OK if it's taking you this long." He said "Yes, you're doing very well. I don't see an opening anywhere." He finally played his card, a minor campaign(!), just to build a fort.

About 2 turns later I left a weak spot in Indiana and he jumped on it. Not even Grant could save the day and it was game over. Had I managed to defeat Bill, I was going to concede my next game and happily accept a 3rd place plaque. I was in no shape to continue. I hadn't planned to leave until the next day but my wife needed me home a day early so I had to drive that day.

Bill went on to defeat Herr Dr., who had beaten Nick in the game parallel to ours, and then fell, apparently easily, to James Pei in the final. James is the best player in the world, having won the tournament 13 out of the last 15 years, and also the brother of Nick.

Overall, I was rather pleased with my improvement in the game. In 2013 I was eliminated in the first round by Mike Mitchell, who went on to lose to James in the final. That was the second time that Mike made it to the final and lost to James. They also faced each other in the final of the first tournament 14 years ago. Over the last year I played Mike in about 3 Email games and beat him in one. When I mentioned that victory to James, his eyes got big. "You beat Mike? Oh, he's pretty good!" High praise from the grandmaster!