June 2003

!!! Announcement of 2003 EPGS Elections !!!

From Your President, Bob Hranek

For anyone who's complained how bad the current mis-management is,
For anyone who's looking to change our venue,
For anyone who's looking to play Junta as a LARP,
Here's Your Chance!

We're looking for a few good people (honestly, isn't it time we had a woman President!) to keep EPGS going (and growing?) throughout 2004 (the usual 18-month sentence). Tasks we've had people take of include:

President
Treasurer
Editor
Webmaster
Publicity

The EPGS voting schedule is:
1) I will accept written (with your name included) and emailed (to rhranek@comcast.net) nominations from now until our 2nd June meeting (June 21st).
2) I will announce the confirmed (they have to be willing to take it) candidates at our 2nd June meeting (June 21st).
3) I will accept written (with your name included) or emailed ballots from throughout the afternoon of our July meeting.
4) I will announce "the chosen ones" by the evening of our July meeting.
5) We all keep on gaming...

P.S., I am willing to keep the Presidency for one final term, but you know we'll be staying at Oxford Valley Mall until at least 2005 (insurance and reservations must be completed in advance) if that happens.

GMT East 2003: Convention Report

By Bob Sohn

About a month ago during April 25 - 27, I was able to attend a nice, intimate, company-specific gaming convention held in the northern suburbs of New York City. From the con's title, obviously GMT was the company running this event along with organizational support from Allan Rothberg of NYC Chitkickers and Metrogamers. This was the second year for GMT East which was inspired by the success of GMT West at GMT's corporate HQ of Hanford, CA. For the weekend, GMT charged $40 entrance fee with cheaper rates for 1 or 2 days. The convention hotel, White Plains Crowne Plaza, was a reasonable $110 per day which I split with Dave Bohnenberger.

From EPGS, the attendees included me, Dave and Mike Nagel (if I missed someone, my apologies). I was surprised that we didn't have more EPGS members attending this con since I see several members who play GMT games at our meetings all the time. I was able to meet up with some friends from Boston that I regularly meet at WBC. Gaming celebrities included GMT Vice President Andy Lewis and game designers Ted Raicer (Paths of Glory, Reds!, WW2: Barbarossa to Berlin) and Mark McLaughlin (The Napoleonic Wars, Avalon Hill's War & Peace). I'm sure I missed other "famous" gamers whom I didn't recognize. For the 3 days, the total number of attendees was around 55-65. It was thought that the attendance was low because of conflict with Richard Berg's BROG Fest Deep South being held over the same weekend in South Carolina. Last year the number of attendees was limited to the first 50 attendees, and they were at that limit. This year, the convention limit was raised to 100, and they didn't hit the number. However, with more notice and de-conflict with BROG Fest, next year's GMT East may approach or pass the 100 attendee limit.

On Friday morning, I traveled to White Plains after a detour to my work's corporate HQ in northern New Jersey. I took Friday as a vacation day, but had an opportunity to do an informational interview that I couldn't pass up. The long and short of it was that I arrived at the White Plains Crowne Plaza in a business suit, and I was thinking how the heck I was going to change into more comfortable gaming gear. First on arriving at the hotel, I went to the convention room to see what was happening. Less than 10 people were there before noon, and I saw Andy Lewis playing Phalanx's Waterloo (he said that it was "market research"!). After registering, I really needed to get out of my suit, but Dave had yet to arrive and I wasn't sure of his ETA. I decided to see if the hotel would let me in anyway. At the front desk, I "claimed" that I was rooming with Dave and could I please check-in. With nary a question, they took my credit card and I managed to check-in easily. Within the hour, Dave managed to check-in also, and was surprised that the hotel had allowed me to register since he had not even told the hotel that he was going to have a room-mate. I guess it pays to be dressed in a suit and tie.

Now, on to the games played. I managed to play 7 games over the weekend. I played Rome, Saratoga, and Downtown with Dave. We discussed how this was just like being at EPGS, except that we drove about 150 miles and paid the entrance fee and hotel charge for the privilege. The Hannibal versus Rome game in Rome was relatively insipid. We didn't get to play the other games in the trifecta offering. Saratoga was moderately fun, but I still don't get all the hoopla around this game. We had playtester Chris Janiec who kindly taught us the dogfight intro scenario in the playtest copy of Downtown. That was a lot of fun splashing both of Dave's USAF jets. Next when Dave and I alone tried to do the intro bombing scenario we had less success because we really didn't know the rules, but we both agreed that we should P500 this game (for more information on P500, please go to http://www.gmtgames.com/p500/gmtp50.asp to get this game published by GMT). Saturday and Sunday, I managed to play people other than Dave in For the People 2, WW2: Barbarossa to Berlin, Galaxy, and Avalon Hill's Atlantic Storm. This was a blast to play face-to-face with "new" players in these great games.

At the con, there were quite a few games of The Napoleonic Wars, Wilderness War, Paths of Glory, Down in Flames series, and Great Battles of History series being played. Less frequently, I saw games of Reds!, For the People 2, Guilford Courthouse, Rome, Saratoga, Battle Line, Formula Motor Racing, Clash of Giants, This Accursed Civil War, Phalanx's Waterloo, etc. Additionally, I saw other wargames, Euros, and a baseball game being played, but can't recall their titles.

One of the most fun aspects of this con was all the demos that you could see and test-drive. The latest GMT game, Rise of the Roman Republic, made a "cameo" appearance with the map and counters, but without box and rules. The following playtest games all were in evidence at the con (games on P500 at GMT as noted): Europe Engulfed (P500), Manifest Destiny (P500), Downtown (P500), Ardennes 44 (P500), Wellington, Rise of Rome, and NYC Metrogamers' It Never Snows in September.

Additionally, Andy was kind enough to bring my GMT Ultimate Sales orders - I picked up Corsairs & Hellcats, an extra WW2: Barbarossa to Berlin, an extra The Napoleonic Wars, Caesar in Alexandria, C3i #14, and Rome - can't beat 50% discounts! It looked like Andy was able to sell quite a few of the GMT game stock that he had available for sale. As door prizes, Andy provided framed copy each of the box art from Wilderness War and Corsairs & Hellcats to the attendee who played the most games over the weekend and who played the most games with selected gamers.

The site was reasonable with two rooms for gaming and all the tables were taken at the height of the convention on Saturday. We had to share the hotel foyer with a modeling show (believe me, it wasn't that kind of modeling and Victoria Secret it was not), a wedding and a business meeting, but overall we had a discrete location that was sufficiently private (except for the very loud, inane wedding music on Saturday night). We got some questions from people who were curious as to what we were doing. I actually met someone in the hotel elevator who upon seeing my mounted game boards and finding out what they were, mentioned that he had played Avalon Hill's Luftwaffe a long time ago. The hotel is located near the White Plains Mall which is about the same chic level as King of Prussia Mall. I was fortunate enough that there was a Nordstrom where I could pick up casual sandals (since I forgot to bring anything other than dress shoes). The mall also had a gaming store that had a varied collection of wargames and Euros. Dave and I didn't pick up anything there though. The mall's food court was similar to the millions of other food courts, and there was an Outback and MickieD's near the hotel. Finally, several of the gamers' SOs spent significant time at the Mall. Not sure if any of these gamers had to declare Chapter 11 afterwards.

When Sunday arrived, it had been a nice 3 days. I had to leave by 1 PM since I wanted to go back home and see the family before I went away for another 3.5 days on a business trip to Chicago. The trip back was relatively uneventful, except for the traffic jam trying to get across the George Washington Bridge on the Hudson River. However, seeing that there seemed to be traffic backed-up on the New Jersey Turnpike basically from the Philly entrance to the George Washington Bridge, I felt that I got off lucky. Funny enough, Dave and I left White Plains at the same time, but he took the Tappan Zee Bridge, and yet we still met each other at a rest stop in northern New Jersey when we both took a pit stop.

My bottom-line in comparing GMT East to other conventions (I have been to WBC, Origins, PrezCon, and ShoreCon) is that I will go back for GMT East 2004, but not to Origins or PrezCon. I have to go to WBC because of friends that I see once a year at this "event," and I'm not sure about ShoreCon (so convenient, yet do they do anything besides RPGs and CCGs?). The pros for GMT East include focused convention, intimate number of attendees, short driving distance, and availability of all the demos and playtests. The cons include the focus on GMT company games only and relatively small cadre of players. To me, GMT East is more manageable than WBC or Origins in size. Certainly, GMT East is closer in distance than Origins (Columbus, OH) and PrezCon (Charlottesville, VA). Best of all, it focused almost exclusively on wargames, unlike Origins and ShoreCon. It's almost like an EPGS meeting where only GMT games would be allowed, and no "make me barf" Rio Grande's Puerto Rico is played (although I'm sure someone was playing it surreptitiously somewhere).

For further information on GMT East 2004 and pictures from this year's convention, please link to http://www.consimworld.com/ and the discussions under Game Convention folder. Next convention for me will be WBC (http://www.boardgamers.org/) in Baltimore from July 26 - August 3.

Games People Played

Here is a nearly-complete list of games played at the last two meetings:

5/17/03

Game (Publisher) Number of plays

Advanced Squad Leader (AH) 1
Alhambra (Queen) 1
Amun Re (Rio Grande) 1
Axis and Allies (MB) 1
Barbarossa to Berlin (GMT) 2
Battle for Hue (Simulations Design) 1
Entdecker (Mayfair) 1
History of the World (Hasbro) 1
La Revolution Francaise (Azure Wish) 1
Mamma Mia (Rio Grande) 2
Mare Nostrum (Descartes/Eurogames) 1
Metro (Queen) 1
NFL Strategy (Tudor) 1
Paths of Glory (GMT) 1
Princes of Florence (Rio Grande) 1
Puerto Rico (Rio Grande) 2
Ra (Rio Grande) 1
Samurai Swords (MB) 1
Scotland Yard (MB) 1
Settlers of the Stone Age (Mayfair) 1
Starship Catan (Kosmos) 1
Tally Ho (Rio Grande) 1
The Last Spike (Gamma Two) 1
The Napoleonic Wars (GMT) 1
Tichu (Abacus) 2
Top Race (ASS) 1
Transamerica (Rio Grande) 1
Who Stole Ed's Pants? (Eight Foot Lama) 1

6/7/03

Game (Publisher) Number of plays

1853 (Hartland Tefoil) 1
Acquire (3M) 1
Advanced Squad Leader (AH) 1
Alhambra (Queen) 1
Amun Re (Rio Grande) 2
Axis and Allies - Pacific (Hasbro) 1
Blackbeard (AH) 1
Brawl (Cheapass) 3
Brittania (AH) 1
Carcassonne (Rio Grande) 2
Evo (Descartes/Eurogames) 1
Fist of Dragonstones (Days of Wonder) 1
For the People (GMT) 1
Heroclix (Wizkids) 2
History of the World (Hasbro) 1
Lord of the Rings - The Confrontation (Fantasy Flight) 1
Metro (Queen) 1
Meuterer (Adlung) 2
Modern Art (Mayfair) 1
New England (Gold Sieber) 1
Ohne Furcht und Adel - AKA "Citadels" (Hans Im Gluck) 1
Paris Paris (Rio Grande) 1
Puerto Rico (Rio Grande) 1
Ra (Rio Grande) 1
Risk 2210 (Hasbro) 1
Scarab Lords (Fantasy Flight) 1
Settlers of Catan Card Game (Rio Grande) 1
Settlers of the Stone Age (Mayfair) 1