WBC 2010 Prelude

The 2010 edition of the World Boardgaming Championships starts today with some pre-con events (mostly wargames). I will be spending most of the day in Pounder's car on the 8 hour drive from Toronto to Lancaster, Pennsylvania where there will be no board games played (even wargames) but I imagine there will be lots of board game discussion. One of the things sure to come up is what we intend to do over the course of the next week.

What do I intend to do? Well, it's summarized in a nice little chart below. It's probably too small to read in its embedded state, but I think you can click on it to enlarge it. Chances are I'll end up deviating from this plan a fair bit (Pounder has 8 hours to convince me of something, I'm sure) but here's my preliminary schedule.

Important things to note that went into the creation:

• Vegas Showdown is my team game, so my number one priority is to try to make the semifinals. There are two heats, so I must go to the first one and if I lose that I have to go to the second one. So, they're both on the schedule.
• Vegas Showdown round 2 is at 9am. Vegas Showdown semifinals are at 11pm. The same day. I must admit, I'm not a fan of that scheduling quirk. I hate waking up early.
• I've only scheduled two demos on here. This is my 4th year at WBC so I've attended demos for a lot of the events already so I'm running out of games that look interesting to me and I don't know them already. The two this year should be Merchant of Venus and Factory Manager.
• If you've read my summaries from previous years you'll know I keep wanting to play Empire Builder but never manage to. It didn't make the cut this year either. I really like crayon rails and I think I'm very good at it, so it seems like something I should really try to make room for. Conflicts this year for the three heats? {Merchant of Venus Demo + Queen's Gambit, Vegas Showdown heat 1, Factory Manager Demo + Factory Manager} Also, the semifinals are at the same time as Vegas Showdown heat 2... I may try to open game Factory Manager so I can squeeze it in.
• No Titan this year. Normally I try to play 1 game of both 2 and 4 player Titan for a few reasons. I like the game and never get to play it; I want to inflate their attendance numbers so it keeps being two events; I really like the Titan crowd. Alas, 2 player Titan starts with Vegas Showdown heat 1, so it's right out. I may try to squeeze in a 4 player game if something goes awry but it's not in the schedule for now.
• I put all 3 heats of Stone Age on here. I don't know why. I'll need to look things over and replace at least one of those. Especially if I win the first one!
• I got cocky and scheduled 4 different finals on here. Vegas Showdown, San Juan, Lord of the Rings: the Confrontation and Le Havre. Le Havre is the biggest stretch but I can't see waking up at 9am on a Saturday so there's no point in scheduling something realistic there.
• I really, really, really want to be the LIAR'S DICE CHAMPION OF THE WORRRRRRRRLD but I can't this year. It conflicts with the Vegas Showdown final, and I can't imagine not making that...
• In retrospect, I wish I'd picked Lord of the Rings or San Juan for my team game since it seems Vegas Showdown is just screwing everything up. But it is probably the game I'm best at.
• Mark my words... If I don't get into a game of Empire Builder this year I'm making it my team game next year. Then I'll feel obligated to play it!
• Look Mom, I left a hole to eat lunch on Wednesday and supper on Friday. Two whole meals! I feel like such a responsible young man now.

Now, at WBC I tend to have no free time at all for anything but sleeping and eating waffles at 3am, but I've been browbeat by Andrew and Jeff at work to try to make updates about what's going on throughout the week. I make no promises about the quality of the writing (it's likely to happen at 5am after the post-waffles game) but I'll try to get something up every day.