GEN CON 2008 Results!

Well Guys,

Just got back and I am beat. Had another great time and hope everyone did as well. Probably one of the smoothest GEN CON's to date. Not to mention Larry's presentation of the new Anniversary Ed game. AWESOME!

All the great details will be coming tomorrow...until then...

Have a safe trip home...

Peace,
GS

I really enjoyed playing at GenCon this year. It was great to see so many familiar faces and play against some really fine opponents. Greg, you did another great job of managing the tournaments and keeping things running. I appreciate the amount of work that you go through to organize the events, provide the prizes, and keep things running.

The level of competition in the Masters was pretty even. I don't believe that any team went undefeated. In our first game, we beat the team that eventually finished second. In our third game, we were trounced by a team that had lost their first two games.

I saw a number of different strategies during the game. There were wins by both the Axis and the Allies. KGF was the prominent Allied strategy, but there were also some effective KJF strategies implemented. It will be interesting to see what the bids were. The games I played in went from +2 to the Allies to +5 for the Germans.

Poor Squirecam, he became physically ill after we beat him. It's not as if it was unexpected! Congratulations on taking second place, Charles. There were a lot of really tough, hard fought games over the weekend.

Good luck and good gaming,
Tom

Once again, Greg ran a great tournament. Thanks for all you do Greg.

Thanks also to may partner de jour Bushido Blitz, for a great tournament run. We just had too much to make up with the japanese and we had a chance late but couldnt hold France.

Congrats to the new champions, and to the winners of all the tournaments (though there were far fewer tournaments this year).

I have a suggestion about next year, if you will think about this Greg...

Thursday - 9:00 a.m. Anniversary kickoff tournament. (32 teams). Games (4:45) at 9am and 3pm.

Thursday - 3 p.m. 2nd Ed as usual (and for those losing in AAA)

Friday 9:00 a.m. (games 3 and 4 of AAA. 9 am and 3 pm)

Friday 10:00 a.m. (A&A tournament game (Guad, Bulge, etc)

Friday 5 pm - Masters as usual

Saturday - 8 am Mega

Sunday - Finals

This way, everyone can play in both the Mega and the AAA edition tournaments. If you make the finals of the Mega and AAA, you have a problem, but a good one.

Masters players have a slight conflict (late on Friday), but should be ok.

I used 4:45 (because I think you need the time) and 32 teams (cause 64 might be too much). I really think this will work, IF we can get tournament win conditions. I think we can, given we did so in Revised.

Playing at 4:45 ALSO means we can eventually make the AAA ed the masters game, assuming the 4:45 time limit works.

Thoughts?????

Greg,

This was my 15th consecutive year of your Gencon A&A tournament, great job as always!! You have taken the tournament a long ways in terms of organization and the prizes. I remember when 1st place was a prize, 2nd place was a t-shirt, and that was it. It's amazing to see all the prizes you stack up on the score table now! I really appreciate all the work you put into the tournament.

I like Charles's plan for the tournament start times, and I remember there was talk about a Thursday kick off a few years back. But, I think the problem was a significant amount of players couldn't make it until Friday/weekend. Anyways, I'm all for a Thursday start because I love the new anniversary edition and don't want to choose between it and the master's game.

Eric

EricM wrote:Greg,

This was my 15th consecutive year of your Gencon A&A tournament, great job as always!! You have taken the tournament a long ways in terms of organization and the prizes. I remember when 1st place was a prize, 2nd place was a t-shirt, and that was it. It's amazing to see all the prizes you stack up on the score table now! I really appreciate all the work you put into the tournament.

I like Charles's plan for the tournament start times, and I remember there was talk about a Thursday kick off a few years back. But, I think the problem was a significant amount of players couldn't make it until Friday/weekend. Anyways, I'm all for a Thursday start because I love the new anniversary edition and don't want to choose between it and the master's game.

Eric

Yeah, I think this avoids that problem. You wont have to choose between AAA and the masters/mega.

If you are in the Mega, the only way you have a conflict is if you make it to the finals of both. Then Sunday there is a problem, but this is highly unlikely anyway. In that case, you'd simply have to split up.

Masters folk would have to win games 1, 2 AND 3 before a conflict arose. And then, only for an hour or 2. And then, of course, for a sunday finale. So that's pretty doable too.

Since its only 2 games a day (and only if you win), the games could be 5 hours (like the masters), making it an easy "playtest" to see if it works as a masters game.

Awesome tournament, Greg! It's unbelievable what you put into this great game year after year. Thank you!

Thanks also to Charles for asking me to team up with him. We made a heck of a run, man, just came up one short of the gold.

A brief recap:
RR Game 1 vs Tom and Mike D., Bid: Axis-5 (1-tnk Libya), Axis: Charles/Jeff, LOSS (6 rnds)
RR Game 2 vs Jake and Don, Bid: Axis-5 (1-tnk Libya), Allies: Charles/Jeff, WIN (8 rnds)
RR Game 3 vs Mike and Jim, Bid: Axis-5 (1-tnk FrIndo), Allies: Charles/Jeff, WIN (6 rnds)Semifinals vs Rick, Bid: Axis-5 (1-tnk Libya), Allies: Charles/Jeff, WIN (6 rnds)
Finals vs Nick and James, Bid: Axis-6 (1-inf Libya, 1-inf Ukr.), Axis: Charles/Jeff, LOSS (6)

Clearly we played better as the Allies. We lost as the Axis against a KJF and a KGF. All three of our Allied wins we played KJF. I agree with Tom that the Masters teams were fairly evenly matched.

Had a close 1st round loss against Tom and Mike, who played KJF very well--we held US off of the Pacific, but in the end Kwangtung could not withstand the combined onslaught.
Kudos to Jake, as we both played solo for a while and got in 8 rounds: close game, 181-170. Good to see Mike and Jim again (from Caspian Sub)--lost to their surprise Canadian Shield in the Mega a few years back. Their dice ran cold this time and it never did even out. Had never met Rick before, but he was solid, especially given that he had to play solo, as his partner had to return home for a medical emergency. Finally, Nick & James, well done, a crushing Allied pincer with both bombers withering German IPCs.

Looking forward to more great matches next year!

Jeff

P.S. Great to see Larry and the Anniversary Edition. Can't wait 'til it comes out.

Guys,

HERE IT IS...

For all the Results and Pics, go to:

http://www.geocities.com/headlesshorseman2/GENCONpics.html

Until Next Year…

Peace,
GS

squirecam wrote:Once again, Greg ran a great tournament. Thanks for all you do Greg.

Thanks also to may partner de jour Bushido Blitz, for a great tournament run. We just had too much to make up with the japanese and we had a chance late but couldnt hold France.

Congrats to the new champions, and to the winners of all the tournaments (though there were far fewer tournaments this year).

I have a suggestion about next year, if you will think about this Greg...

Thursday - 9:00 a.m. Anniversary kickoff tournament. (32 teams). Games (4:45) at 9am and 3pm.

Thursday - 3 p.m. 2nd Ed as usual (and for those losing in AAA)

Friday 9:00 a.m. (games 3 and 4 of AAA. 9 am and 3 pm)

Friday 10:00 a.m. (A&A tournament game (Guad, Bulge, etc)

Friday 5 pm - Masters as usual

Saturday - 8 am Mega

Sunday - Finals

This way, everyone can play in both the Mega and the AAA edition tournaments. If you make the finals of the Mega and AAA, you have a problem, but a good one.

Masters players have a slight conflict (late on Friday), but should be ok.

I used 4:45 (because I think you need the time) and 32 teams (cause 64 might be too much). I really think this will work, IF we can get tournament win conditions. I think we can, given we did so in Revised.

Playing at 4:45 ALSO means we can eventually make the AAA ed the masters game, assuming the 4:45 time limit works.

Thoughts?????

Squirecam,

Thanks for the thought behind next years schedule...I like it...! It will be only 5 months until I have this due and before Origins.

Peace,
GS

BushidoBlitz wrote:Awesome tournament, Greg! It's unbelievable what you put into this great game year after year. Thank you!

Thanks also to Charles for asking me to team up with him. We made a heck of a run, man, just came up one short of the gold.

Well, thanks for accepting. We did have a great run, and we worked together better the more we played together, so that was a plus. Perhaps next year will be our year?

squirecam wrote:

BushidoBlitz wrote:Awesome tournament, Greg! It's unbelievable what you put into this great game year after year. Thank you!

Thanks also to Charles for asking me to team up with him. We made a heck of a run, man, just came up one short of the gold.

Well, thanks for accepting. We did have a great run, and we worked together better the more we played together, so that was a plus. Perhaps next year will be our year?

I'm in the Master's next year, so it won't be your year. I'm feeling the dice vibe 12 months ahead of time

EricM wrote:

squirecam wrote:

BushidoBlitz wrote:Awesome tournament, Greg! It's unbelievable what you put into this great game year after year. Thank you!

Thanks also to Charles for asking me to team up with him. We made a heck of a run, man, just came up one short of the gold.

Well, thanks for accepting. We did have a great run, and we worked together better the more we played together, so that was a plus. Perhaps next year will be our year?

I'm in the Master's next year, so it won't be your year. I'm feeling the dice vibe 12 months ahead of time

Third in the Mega and one year away and you're already claiming victory?

EricM wrote:

squirecam wrote:

BushidoBlitz wrote:Awesome tournament, Greg! It's unbelievable what you put into this great game year after year. Thank you!

Thanks also to Charles for asking me to team up with him. We made a heck of a run, man, just came up one short of the gold.

Well, thanks for accepting. We did have a great run, and we worked together better the more we played together, so that was a plus. Perhaps next year will be our year?

I'm in the Master's next year, so it won't be your year. I'm feeling the dice vibe 12 months ahead of time

And who might be your partner for next year...? One of the D&D gurus...?

LOL, I can't help it if they all became retarded this year and played D&D.

And I would have finished better than 3rd place, if Moscow didn't get overrun on turn 4 (despite Germany buying a naval unit on every turn)

squirecam wrote:
Well, thanks for accepting. We did have a great run, and we worked together better the more we played together, so that was a plus. Perhaps next year will be our year?

Sure hope so! For me, it takes a concentrated series of games like last weekend to get my head wrapped around the game again, so I agree, we worked better in the later games. And every year, I learn something new...

A few takes on the weekend as I drive home with 2 1st place trophies in the car of the 4 tournaments played (none of which are mine )...

Nick was so happy last year when he defeated Brian VG and I for 3rd place in the Mega so that he could play in the Masters this year (a good sign for Eric?)

Nick's partner Jim M. last year in the Mega took 1st in the Mega this year playing with his brother. Congratulations!

James N., although an unknown to many, played in the Mega 2 years ago. He worked very well with Nick to win the Masters.

Brian VG took 1st in Guadalcanal after going 0-2 in the Open the day before. Thanks to Jake for teaching everyone how to play Guadalcanal. James N. took Jake out in the 1st round of the Guadalcanal Tournament. Thank you James.

Brian VG and I could not defeat Nick and James in the Swiss round even though James told us what they do for strategy the night before. (A spy in the motel room!)

Anyways, thank you Greg for a well run tournament. It was also great to see everyone there again this year.

Carl