World Boardgaming Championships to be held in Lancaster, PA

[W8taminute]

Anyone planning on attending this year?  The event starts on July 27.  The link below will take you to the scheduled events page. 

Has anyone from here attended in the past and if so is this event worth checking out?

http://www.boardgamers.org/wbc/schedule.htm

[bayonetbrant]

I know a bunch of people who go and absolutely love it.  They are also all regular entrants into the tournaments there.

(warning - all second-hand knowledge ahead)

WBC is a great place to play a metric monkeyload of games, as long as you're in a bunch of registered events.  Open gaming has supposedly imrpoved, but not up to the level of the Board Room at Origins.  The tournaments at WBC are the main draw and you will get to play a LOT, but plan to play a LOT b/c there's not much else going on - small vendor area and few other events (by design, mind you).

[LongBlade]

I have been.

It's one of the few places on the planet where you can walk through a hotel and find someone with a game set up and ready to go. You can literally sit down with a stranger, have them teach you the game if you don't know it, and simply start playing.

WBC, of course, claims to have the world title of best boardgamer. Like boxing (used to be? is? I don't keep up with it) there is at least one other competitor offering championship play. Not that it matters. WBC is a lot of fun. If you have a favorite game and think you're pretty good at it, it's a great place to go and try your hand against other competitive players.

If you have a favorite game and aren't very good at it, some of the guys will help you tune up your game. The guys going there are like MetalDog with Warlock - they play these games until they know them inside and out. Much like Chess, they'll know the opening moves, the lynchpin territory on the map, all of it.

You may also get to run across some of gaming's "rich and famous." (I use that term somewhat loosely)

For instance, the year I went, Ted Racier attended. If you don't play WWI wargamers you may not recognize the name. But if you do play WWI wargames, you'll know he is one of two game designers who dominate the field. A real nice guy. And there will be several of these types of guys there. But, as the introvert thread shows, they probably won't advertise their presence.

http://www.wargamer.com/article/1745/ted-raicer

[W8taminute]

You guys make it sound very appealing.  I like the fact you can find someone with a game ready to go and play them.  Registering for a few games sounds like something I would like to try. 

So for example, suppose I wanted to play in either a PanzerBlitz or Squad Leader (the basic game, not advanced) tournament.  Do I need to bring my copy of the game to play?

[Ubercat]

I'm going for 8 days and have plans to take part in about 5 tournaments plus a sh*t ton of open games.

You may get to play ASL if you don't bring your copy. If you bring it, though, you'll have much greater odds. For some reason, they don't do ASL as a tournament, but do regular Squad Leader.  :o

Here's a useful tool to plan tournaments. http://www.boardgamers.org/wbc/sviewer/ Select any games from any of the menus and you can see the days and times they run and check for conflicts.