October 4 2000 RussCon Report

This weekend, Millennium III, a somewhat yearly, mostly historical miniatures convention here in the city of Austin, Texas, was the venue for a Battle Cry tournament hosted and judged by yours truly. Great Hall Games of Austin, Texas supplied a set of the game as a prize, but with the twist that figures were painted and assembled by myself!

The tournament was held in the afternoon and evening sessions of the convention on September 30th and was preceded by demonstrations in the morning session to introduce the game to the curious and to prospective participants.

Several people were on hand for the demonstration games but, due a shortage of assembled sets available for play, only six people were able to actually play in the tournament. (Attendees that knew the game were encouraged to bring sets, but only one person actually did so. A shame, because we thad to turn away four players!)

The six players were divided into two teams: A Blue team and a Grey team with the announcement that the tournament would be held over three rounds: a First (or Opening) Round which pitted members of the Blue Team against members of the Grey Team in round-robin play over the course of four games, each lasting one hour in duration (which included set-up time); a Play-off round, which pitted the two top members of the Blue and Grey teams against their own teammates in a match over one scenario; and a Final Round, which saw the top Blue and Grey players facing off in match play over one scenario. The All- Out Offensive Card was banned from tournament play.

Note: The team/round-robin format was used in the First Round so that scenario imbalances would be offset by members of the same team playing the same side in each game. This allowed the game results to be comparative among team mates and for providing data about the balance of each scenario.

The scenarios for the First/Opening round were
1. Pea Ridge
2. Kernstown
3. Antietam
4. Chancellorsville

Each player had a chance to play a member of the opposing team in the first three scenarios, with Blue players playing Union and Grey players playing Confederates. In the fourth scenario, contestants drew lots to see which opposing team member they would repeat a game against, with the twist that they would switch sides (with Grey players playing Union and vice-versa). As it turned out, all players drew the same opponent they had in the first scenario.

Results for the first four scenarios were as follows, with Blue teammates listed first, then Grey. First names only...

1. Pea Ridge:

Russ U6, Kevin C1
A stunning upset for Kevin, who I knew to be a solid player.

Liz U3, Cameron C6
New players, aged 13 and 10, who beat me in the Bull Run demo as Rebs!

Scott U5, J.P. C6
An excellent show by novice Scott against the experienced J.P.

2. Kernstown:

Russ U6, Cameron C3
Russ I also knew to be well-versed, though Cameron played well, too.

Liz U0, J.P. C6
J.P. felt rather embarrassed to win such a crushing victory.

Scott U4, Kevin C6
A close, see-saw contest for most of the game until Kevin clenched it.

3. Antietam:

Russ U5, J.P. C6
This was the first time these club-mates had ever played the game together!

Liz U1, Kevin C6 Another blow for Liz.
Kevin also admitted embrassment over the victory.

Scott U5, Cameron C6
Another fine performance by Scott, but still not enough to clench victory.

4. Chancellorsville: Luck of the draw pitted original contestants.
But the sides each played changed.

Russ C2, Kevin U6
Kevin exacts a nearly equal revenge against Russ!

Liz C6, Cameron U3
Another reversal of fortune! Liz wins her first game!

Scott C2, J.P. U6
J.P. concluded the round with yet another victory, and a handy one at that.

Final scores:

J.P. (G) 24
A perfect score. *yawn!* ;)

Kevin (G) 19
Made it to the Play-off by the grace of one flag over teammate Cameron!

Russ (B) 19
The top Blue player barely matches the bottom Grey player!*

Cameron (G) 18
Most methodical player of the tourney, his age and experience belied his ability.

Scott (B) 16
Though he never won a game, Scott made it to the Play-off against Russ.

Liz (B) 10
Her first (and only) victory over Cameron was the most watched game of the tourney!

*It is my understanding that the scenarios played generally favored Confederate victories, which is why the teammate comparison method was used for scoring. This list should really be broken into two columns (one Blue, one Grey) for a more accurate comparison of the standings

Play-off Round

The Play-off round pitted the top two players in each against one another in a single scenario match. The hour-long time-limit was dropped in this and the Final to allow each player the time they needed to finish their game. No player came up against the time-limit in the First Round, though some were close. I never had to even mention it.

The scenario played was Gettysburg: The Wheatfield and Devil's Den. Scores are as follows:

Russ/Scott
C6/U2
U6/C2
Superior play by Russ made him undisputed victor of the Blue Team

J.P./Kevin
U6/C4
C4/U6
J.P.'s first loss in tourney! The match tie was broken by Team standing at match start.

Final Round

So far, all the contestants had played back-to-back games since 2:00 p.m. At the end of the Play-off, the time was 7:30 p.m. The players suggested a break for dinner and, since both were in agreement, I honored their wish. The doors to the gaming area were scheduled to be open till midnight, so it was decided that the Final Round would commence at 9:00 p.m.

The scenario for the Final Round was Gettysburg: Pickett's Charge. The final scores were:

Russ/J.P.
U3/C6
C3/U6
J.P. Resumed his string of succes with solid wins over Russ and pronounced the winner!

Russ, who had played extremely well throughout the tourney, blamed his first loss on sheer impetuousness. As the Union, he left the comparative safety of the fence line and supporting artillery in an attempt to break the back of the Confederates at their start line. A couple early flags had whetted his appetite, but J.P. roundly punished his audacity.

The second game began promisingly enough for the Confederacy under Russ' charge, with another pair of early flags and clear headway against the Union center. Unfortunately, J.P.'s artillerists and a rally at the Union baseline sealed his fate. The Rebs even managed to call up a cavalry unit as reinforcements, but they served mainly to give the Union an easy flag as they withered before the Union guns and muskets clustered near the Bloody Angle.

By then, a small crowd of hardy historical miniaturists had gathered and gave J.P. a small round of applause as he received his accolades, a game, and the prized hand-painted figures from the set.

Congratulations again, J.P.!

Notes: Everyone in the tournament seemed to agree that the removal of the All-Out Offensive card from the deck made the games much more of a contest. [Actually I was never asked, and I wouldn't have minded if the All-Out Offensive card had stayed in since I usually prefer playing games by their standard rules. I wasn't bothered by Brady's decision to leave it out, though. --RussW] Most seemed pleased at the way the tournament rules smoothed out the imbalance of the scenarios via use of match play and by comparing flag tallies against teammates who had played the same sides in the same scenarios. Newbies and veterans alike seemed to enjoy themselves and certainly got a good solid four hours of game play at the very least. It should also be noted that no admission fee was charged to the contestants. The only stipulation was that players in the tourney be versed in the game. Printouts of the FAQ (found on various sites on the net), Greg Nichols Quick Reference Chart (thanks, Greg!), and naturally the rulebooks and myself, were all available for consultation if neccessary. Though many question were asked, all were covered in the FAQ and rulebook. Everyone also had a copy of the Tournament Rules which was browsed and queried but not disputed.

Brady

P.S.: A couple miniaturists from San Antonio's Lone Start Historical Miniaturists (Blake and Jose) asked for a demonstration of the game the following morning and I did not disappoint them. Each played in a match of Bull Run against the other and walked away with a favorable impression of the game. Both understood the limitations of the game from a realism standpoint, but enjoyed the game enough that members of the club who played or were watching from the wings actually picked up several sets. Their idea was that they would use the game to draw friends further into their hobby and then introduce them to more realistic games.

Commercial note: Rob Smith of Great Hall Games reported that his stock of the game (6 copies) was sold out at convention's end as a result of the favorable impression that the game generated among tournament contestants/watchers and the demonstration given to the San Antonio players.

Meta Party Game Results

Since I won last week's meta party game, I picked this week's, and here are the rules I emailed out:

This week the game's purpose is to get people to play games they haven't played before. You don't have to show up by any particular time or do any preparation (unlike last week).

Get 1 point each time you do one of the following:

1. Play a game you have never played before (doesn't matter if other players in the game are newbies too or not)
2. Play a game in which all the other players have never played before (you are the only one who has played it)

Thus, being the teacher to newbies is rewarded as well as being a newbie.

To aid me in judging this, if you want to play, I'll supply cards so you can write down all the games you play that qualify, and hand it to me before you leave. Otherwise I have no idea whether person X has played game Y... If you are claiming status as the sole teacher in a game, be sure to verify with the other players; don't just assume they haven't played.

Ties are broken by #newbies you taught.

Seven people submitted entries: Clayton, Dan, Jerrie, RussW, Steve, Tim, William. We all got 2 points. By the tiebreaker, Dan wins, since he taught 4 people Great Museum Caper. (Looking in the results book, it appears Fred also played 2 games and taught Tim & Alfred in Zero.)

I am pleased to pass the meta party devil baton to Dan! Dan, your mission (should you choose to accept it), is to come up with some meta party game for next week. If preknowledge is appropriate, send out an email beforehand to the russcon list. If you really want to make my job easier, you'll write up the results and email them to me by mid-afternoon Thursday, or you can leave me with sufficient info to do it myself (if you're a lazy bastard). Good luck! This Report will self-destruct in 5 seconds. Oh wait, no it won't. Oh well.