Bpamail Mailing List: BPA January News

[Don Greenwood (doncon99]

SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR: The third leg in the BPA triple crown of special 
awards has been won by Steve Okonski of Fulton, MD who led 26 nominees in 
the annual voting. Andrew Maly and Jeff Paull finished tied for the 
runner-up slot. Check out the details at 
http://www.boardgamers.org/wbc/sportman.htm.

WINTER ACTIVATION MEETING: The next BPA mini-con is WAM III for the fans 
of card driven wargames Barbarossa to Berlin, Wilderness War, For The 
People, Paths of Glory, Hannibal and We The People. CDW devotees will get 
to see no less than three demonstrations of new card driven wargame 
designs: Ed Beach's Reformation game, Mark Herman's WWII in the Pacific 
and Dave Dockter's Russian Civil War design. WAM is January 28th-30th in 
Hunt Valley, MD. WAM special Room rates of $84 have been extended to all 
pre-registrations booked by January 21st. For details, see 
http://www.boardgamers.org/specific/wam05ann.htm.

EVENTS SURVEY: BPA's Annual Membership Drive has concluded with a 9% 
increase in membership and a far greater increase in voter participation 
in the Annual WBC Events Survey. This year's vote took on added 
significance as eligibility for both the last ten Century slots AND the 
25 Continuing Trials events were decided by membership vote for the first 
time. This resulted in record voting totals which admitted three new 
events to WBC 2005: St Petersburg and Sword of Rome as Century events and 
Pirate's Cove as a Trial event. The remaining 32 slots were filled by 
returning events. See http://www.boardgamers.org/wbc/results.htm for more 
details. Membership in the BPA will remain open throughout the year at 
2005 price levels. Those joining before July 20th may still save $10 off 
prevailing WBC door prices and pre-registration fees for other BPA 
mini-cons. See http://www.boardgamers.org/bpaterms.htm for details. 

ANNUAL GM CALL TO ARMS: the Orphans Page has been updated to reflect 
eligible events and current GM commitments with their initial requested 
times. Numerous openings are listed; those events will be replaced by 
alternates with GM commitments unless a GM commits by Feb. 28th. GM 
commitments must be made by current members. See 
http://www.boardgamers.org/wbc/orphans.htm for the full list. The WBC 
Eurogames discussion board has been created and several GMs have joined 
and begun cooperating.  All GMs and prospective GMs of Euros (those games 
in the genre of Puerto Rico, Al Hambre, Amun Re etc.) are invited to join 
the group at WBCEurogames [at] yahoogroups.com. This attempt to better 
co-ordinate scheduling for a Euros track to minimize conflicts with 
similar games is voluntary but encouraged. Those GMs who have already 
submitted event forms are free to change the requested times accordingly 
anytime before the Feb 28th deadline. 

BoD NOMINATIONS: All BPA members are hereby notified of their right to 
nominate members for the three Board seats whose terms expire at the next 
WBC. To appear on the ballot, a member must be nominated in writing by at 
least three members; one of which must be himself/herself. Nominations 
must be signed and received at BPA, 1541 Redfield Rd, Bel Air, MD 21015 
no later than February 28th to be eligible for election in that year. 
When contemplating nominations, members are urged to consider that the 
BPA conducts most of its business by email and needs Board members who 
are able and willing to offer their time and skills to the organization 
in a timely manner. Board members should be considered more for their 
ability to contribute to the running of a successful company than for 
their attachment to any particular game or group. Besides forwarding a 
signed nomination for himself/herself, each nominee should submit by 
March 1st a statement not to exceed 100 words summarizing what they can 
contribute in service to the Board of Directors of the BPA. The 
nomination form is on line at http://www.boardgamers.org/bpanom.htm.

WEB SITE MOVE: We anticipate in January moving the BPA Web site to a 
different (more responsive and stable) hosting company, so it's possible 
boardgamers.org may be temporarily inaccessible sometime that month. Rest 
assured we'll work out any kinks that should occur during that migration.

======================

BPA PBeM NEWS

SARATOGA: The December start for the Saratoga PBeM tournament has been 
delayed until January 15th due lack of a sufficient field. A minimum of 
four more players are needed to get this event off the ground. The Above 
the Fields "Simultaneous Reveal" Play By web Browser site has been set up 
specifically for this tournament. More news on Hank Burkhalter's new 
email aid play site will be provided in January. Details are available at 
http://www.gmt-amrevseries.com/pbem/pbem.html

THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN: The 6th BPA TRC PBeM Tournament is scheduled to 
begin Feb 7th as a Single Elimination event with three-month rounds. The 
event will feature exclusive use of the 4th edition rules and map and use 
random seeding and byes in the opening round. Check out the details at 
www.russiancampaign.com/BPATourneyVI.htm. 

WE THE PEOPLE: Paul Gaberson has defeated Caesar himself proving that 
james Pei can be beaten and winning the WTP PBeM title in the process.  
His Brits were able to capture Washington on the first card play of '77 
with a Major Campaign. A heated five-way battle for second place 
continues to determine the final laurel tally. A detailed report of the 
championship match will eventually appear on the BPA WTP results page. 

VICTORY IN THE PACIFIC: Rob Flowers USN defeated the highest remaining 
seed (#7), Tim Tow in the semi-finals while Michael Ussery bucked 
tournament omens to win as the high seed as the IJN over Darren Kilfara 
by 5 POC in eight turns. In the consolation match, Darren claimed third 
as the USN in a close game (winning by just 1.5 POC after the bid) over 
Tim Tow. Larry Meyers took fifth place laurels while Alan Applebaum took 
6th. In the championship match, Rob Flowers (orignally the 14th seed) 
took command of the IJN and locked up the northeast corner and ran the 
score up high enough that, after seven turns, the USN, under Michael 
Ussery (seeded 11th), had no hope (despite a bid of 4). Congratulations 
to Admiral Flowers who wins the BPA plaque and an automatic invitation to 
the next Top 10 Invitational. Read all the details at 
http://www.gameaholics.com/vitp_bpa/vitp_bpa_single_elim_03.htm. Get 
ready for the next tournament -- starting September 15th! 

UP FRONT: Congratulations to Jeff Matthews whose Germans repeated as the 
BPA UPF PBeM champ by besting Eric Taylor's Americans by squad break in a 
501 point DYO City Fight. Grabbing third-sixth place laurels were 
Jean-Luc Brouillet, Dale Martin, Lance Ribeiro and Brian Carr 
respectively. 

ROYAL TANK CORPS: Nels Thompson defeated Jim Tracy as the British swept 
the semi-finals and finals to win the 16-player tournament.  Nels was 
able to open a gap in the lines and drove deep initially as is standard 
for the British.  Jim responded differently and almost pulled a stunning 
victory. The Germans typically pull back and regroup and wait for their 
Stoss units to make a comeback. Jim counterattacked and fell one die roll 
short of cutting off the British army and victory. Also winning laurels 
were Andrew Choptiany, Ric Manns, Robert Mull and Wayne Melnick who 
finished third through sixth respectively. 

SQUAD LEADER: This 26-player event has entered the semi-final round with 
four players still vying for wood. Bill Thomson (TX) opposes John Blazel 
(WI) while Michael Pacheco (CA) takes on David Van Bronkhorst (VA) in 
"Reconnaissance in Force".  

PANZERBLITZ: Eduardo De Nucci, Fred Schwarz, Peter Bertram, John Sharp, 
Wayne, Arenz, Joe Avinger, Jim Pyle and randy MacInnis have all moved on 
to the Quarter-Finals of the first PBZ PBeM tournament. See 
http://www.panzerblitz.org/?form=tournament_1 for details. 


==============================

All BPA PBeM tournaments require current BPA membership when the event 
starts. All multi-day paid attendees to WBC are current BPA members for 
the balance of that calendar year. Associate Calendar year memberships 
enabling play in all PBeM events starting in that year cost only $10 and 
earn discounts for admission to all BPA gaming conferences. You need not 
keep your membership current in order to finish a PBeM event. Players may 
join the BPA throughout the year. Fees for Sustaining and Family 
memberships which include free admission to WBC are now at the 2004 
rates, but will increase on January 1st, 2005. Members are reminded they 
can upgrade their current memberships at any time by remitting the 
additional funds. See http://www.boardgamers.org/bpaterms.htm for details.
 
To stop BPA email newsletters, simply reply with the word "STOP" but you 
MUST include the actual name and email address to which this message was 
sent. However, if you want to be kept informed of the World Boardgaming 
Championships, advise us of any change in address - either snail mail or 
email and adjust your email filters not to block mail from 
doncon99 [at] toad.net.

Visit the BPA website at http://www.boardgamers.org