My 2014 WBC Schedule, Honest

I finally got around to finishing off my scheduling spreadsheet for WBC this year. I'd wanted to update it to make it faster (right now when you select a game it checks every other game to see if it overlaps when I should just build a table of connections and only check other games it can influence) but I ended up deciding I just wanted to get a look at things for myself this year and be done with it. So I stuck with old and slow and put together a little something...

Just like every year I couldn't find time to squeeze in Empire Builder. I have this (possibly irrational) fear of playing some of the more 'real time' games at WBC. I worry that the shortcuts my group uses for these sorts of games (like the mid-turn parse and the no destructive track) will make it difficult or unpleasant to play the game in a semi-competitive setting. It's the same reason we walked away from Gangsters a few years back after getting taught the game before a heat. Being on the clock in a new game is extra stressful and not being able to take things back or count ahead is rough. And yet I still added in two heats of Galaxy Trucker this time. Maybe I just like that game enough to risk running into real time issues? I do worry about how to handle people double fisting it (and I worry that I will accidentally do so myself!) Maybe I'll end up getting enough Galaxy Trucker games in open gaming that I can drop it from my schedule? I do prefer playing with expansions, after all...

This is the first year I haven't found a spot for Queen's Gambit in my schedule and that makes me sad. Even though I haven't won a game since 2008 I still like playing the game. I wonder what I put against it since I didn't consciously exclude it... The first heat is up against my team game (Le Havre) so it's a non-starter. The second heat conflicts with Galaxy Trucker... Hmm... The third heat conflicts with Agricola, which I added in to my schedule this year since I've started playing it again in person and online. But I don't know that I need/want to play all the heats and I can probably drop this one for Queen's Gambit if I don't back out of Galaxy Trucker. Bottom line... I should still bring my copy of Queen's Gambit since I'll probably convince myself to play it over one of those!

A Few Acres of Snow disappearing due to a lack of GM is annoying, but it does open up being able to play two games that have conflicted with it the last two years. I can plan on having time to play in both the San Juan and Through The Ages elimination rounds this year! Woo! There's certainly no guarantee I make them, but I can slot them in for now because there's nothing else really against them.

On top of those two games the only final I've put on my schedule is Le Havre. It's my team game, so I feel obligated to schedule it even if I won't make the finals. I do plan on making the finals since I've done so every year thus far, but anything could happen! And it's not like I'll be getting up at 9am on Friday morning for anything other than Le Havre, anyway.

I only put two demos on the schedule this year, and they're for games that have existed forever but haven't run demos in the past. Ace of Aces and Pro Golf. Both games have been things I've wanted to try but didn't know how to play and 'C' events haven't always worked out the best for me. Part of the reason for not including any other demos is I already learned how to play 2 of the new games this year and have even put them on my schedule! Spyrium and Concordia both were fun enough (Concordia more-so) that they seemed worth giving a spin. I assert that trials tend to be softer fields than established games and I'd like to win something! Also, they fit into empty holes. That may be more important.

I may or may not plan on sleeping in all day Saturday. Even if I don't explicitly plan for it to happen it always seems to happen anyway. Looking back at my old posts it looks like I've started playing games on Saturday at 1pm, 11am, ???, 8pm, 7pm, 3pm, and 9pm. So even putting a game in at noon seems extreme. Looking at it makes me feel like maybe I'm too old for a full week of games but in reality I know that by Friday night it's more likely I'm just up playing games until 4am. When else are Robb and I going to play TOBOGGANS OF DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM?!?

There are also way too many food holes in my schedule this time around. Not a single day is booked from 9am until midnight! I must be slacking something fierce. Or maybe I just want to eat at Red Robin? Yum!