Tournament Play at the WBC

I wanted to take a brief moment to comment on some of the things that I learned from tournament gaming at the WBC.

1. I am still terrible at Chicago Express/Wabash Cannonball. Three games with 5/4/5 players and I end up in 5th, 4th, and 4th place. But don't think that I am going to give up on the game. Stuff it Rob! (Just kidding). In two of the three games, I had a great time losing. It was only in the first game when I got stuck in the downward spiral of cash poor/stock poor = lose. In this 5 player game, it was my share that was split in the opening round of the game. Unable to figure out what to do next, I floundered for the rest of the game. I knew that I was going to lose and try as a I might to remember Costas's words of advice, I could not pull out of the terrible situation.

Still, Dan bought a copy of the game, and I have a copy, so I hope that with some more games under my belt that I will get better at it.

2. I am getting pretty good at Age of Steam. Yeah, I said it. I am proud that I am getting better. My first game was against Martin, one of the Steam Brothers for Pete's sake! I also played against Peter and Erin, both accomplished train gamers. And I came in second! Yay! It was a tough game, but given all the talk about the invincibility of those Canadian Gamers (who are great players and great people, btw), I was looking forward to a good game.

In the second game I was pitted against Dan (whom I know is good), Jon, and Nathalie. It was another incredibly tight game. I ended up losting because of a silly mistake (I took urbanization and didn't use it. I originally took it for defensive purposes but it should have been used offensively as well).

What I learned from these games is that I need to shake up my linear progression theory of Age of Steam. Locomotive is a powerful action and it will get you up that income track quick. But the faster you bump your loco, the better you need to plan your shipments. I need to imagine my networks further out into the future. And I need to make riskier or more intricate starting moves to faciliate this quadratic progression.

3. Tournaments are good and bad. Tournament play is good because it brings out good players and has them play their best. They are bad because they bring out the worst in people. I heard more yelling at tables, heard stories of people walking away from games, and even I was slightly annoyed at myself for messing up the end of the Age of Steam game. The tournament system is largely unnecessary, in my opinion, and open gaming would serve the same purpose (good gaming), but tournaments do allow for a schedule and that faciliatates a guarenteed opportunity to play a game. In sum, the WBC and tournament play is good, but please remember why we are here. I think that some people forget that fact and others, the problem people, are there because they need to win.

Jim told me that he has had games ruined for him because of these events. I pray that that will never happen to me. Last year, Dan had a poor experience during a Manifest Destiny tournament and I don't blame him. I don't think that anyone could ruin Age of Steam for me, but they could definitely ruin my experience. I am very thankful that all of my tournament games were filled with good sportsmanship, great moves, and friendly banter.