THIS WEEK 

In North American Diplomacy

Friday, June 25th, 2004

*-To increase the enjoyment of people playing 

competitive Diplomacy in North America-*

ORIGINS RUNS THIS WEEKEND

Origins runs this Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, at the large gaming convention at the Columbus Ohio Convention center. Last year this was the tournament with the most boards of Diplomacy besides WDC and DipCon. Tournament Organizer/Director  Dan Mathias is expecting a large turnout from the regulars, and the casual convention players, along with added players from the newest yahoogroup, CincinnatiDiplomacy.

EDI BIRSAN WINS MASSACRE

Edi  Birsan posted the only solo in the 11 board Boston Massacre and coupled it with two other draws to win the event. Melissa Nicholson ran a smooth event, and the commentary on the MADip and diplist was all favorable. New Englanders David Maletsky, Jim Burgess, and Amanda McLean-Thomson all did extra duty filling in boards to make sure all visitors had complete games.

33 players took part. Best Country winners were Edi Birsan (2), Andy Marshall (2). Luke Dwyer, Doug Moore and Andy Bartalone. Nathan Campbell was recognized for Outstanding play by a novice. 

BARTALONE SEIZES MASTERPOINT LEAD

Andy Bartalone raised his NADF Masterpoint total to 118.49 at the Boston Massacre passing Edward Hawthorne as the overall leader. Hawthorne remains in second at 111.07. Andy Marshall (108.34)  and Doug Moore(109.21) are giving chase.

TWO EVENT DATES SET

HUSKYCON II

The Woodring home on Long Island will host the Second HuskyCon. Aug 13 � 15. Graham Woodring (signing himself a Weasel of Destruction) provided the detailed invitation in Closing.

VANCOUVER DIPLOMACY CON

Mike Hall released details of the British Columbia event August 27 �29.  His announcement is in Closing

PEERIBLAH ON SEATTLE

The final article in Closing is by Larry Peery. He extols the magnificence of my home town, Seattle, in connection with Diplomacy. He mentions some ancient history

JOIN THE NADF

The NADF built the Player Directory to help people find people to play with in their area. Name, email, and zipcode.  Willingness to be listed is the only membership requirement. The only privilege of membership is the right to participate in the All-Star voting. All-Star voting begins next week.

Please support the NADF by providing your name, email, and zip code or postal code to  [email protected].

 EVENTS

2004 Origins

June 24-26, 2004
Origins (Columbus, Ohio)

http://www.originsgames.com/

Contact - [email protected]

2004 WBC/Tempest

August 6 � 8, 2004

Tempest in a Teapot (Hunt Valley, Md.)

http://www.boardgamers.org/yearbook/index.htm

Contact [email protected]

HuskyCon

Auust  13 � 15, 2004

Woodring Home � East Setauket, NY

Contact -g[email protected]

Vancouver Diplomacy Con

August 27 �29, 2004

Dip n� the Ocean (White Rock, BC)

http://members.shaw.ca/diplomacyvictoria/

Contact -  -[email protected]  or  [email protected]

2004 Events

NADF MASTERPOINT TITLES

(New awards in CAPITAL LETTERS)

NADF Diplomacy  Expert  =  Total of 3 points with 1.5 GP and .8 non GP points

NADF Diplomacy Master = Total of 30 points with 15 GP and 8 non GP points

NADF Grandmaster = Total of 300 points with 150 GP points and 80 non GP points

WEASEL ANNOUNCES HUSKYCON

Husky Con 2004 will take place at my home on Long Island in East Setauket,  New York from August 13-15.  Everything is entirely FREE.  Free  accommodations, free food, free registration, as supplied by my very generous  father.  However, I'd just like to let everyone know that if we do run out of an initial cache of food and alcohol, we plan on doing some sort of  collection thingy to buy more, because, surprisingly enough, money does not  grow on trees.  Anyway, it's all free, you just have to get here. 

 

Accomadations: At the moment, we have 5 extra beds in my house, not including a few futons  lying around, a big couch, and a few air matresses.  The beds are  first-come, first-serve.  Everyone else will have to sleep in my carpeted  basement, although I am looking into finding places to stay with some local  players (shouldn't be too hard).  I have plenty of sleeping bags and  blankets and whatnot if people do have to sleep on the floor (it's all  carpeted, so it's not that bad). 

 

And best of all, it's free.  Highlights of the tournament: -I will be using a draw-based scoring system (smaller the draw, more points  you get). -The first round will be on Friday the 13th, starting at 7 pm.  The second  at 10 am on the 14th; the first and second rounds will have no time limit.   And the third round will end at a time chosen by me, and will begin at 9 am. -Each board will manage its own time. 

 

All the meals will be excellent home-cooked meals provided by my parents. -In my basement is a giant Diplomacy board, painted on the back of a  ping-pong table, measuring roughly 8'x4' -We have many other board games and video games including: a Poker table  that seats 8 comfortably, Munchkin, Colonial Diplomacy, Ghettopoly, Cosmic  Encounters, Settlers of Catan, D-Day, Tactics II, Axis & Allies, and a lot  more.  

 

How to get here: The first option is to fly in to Long Island/MacArthur airport--Southwest  does fly there.  Flying into JFK is another possibilty.  For people flying  in, pick-ups can and will be arranged, you just have to give me your flight  itinerary at least (preferrably) a week in advance.  Obviously last minute  reservations can be dealt with if completely necessary.

 

From NYC:

Coming from the city, you can take the Long Island Rail Road out of Penn  Station to the Stony Brook Station, at which pick-ups are very easy.  Driving Directions (thanks big time to Brian Shelden for providing these):  From Boston: Take the Mass Pike to I-84 to I-91 to I-95 South.  Take the 2nd Bridgeport  Exit (exit 29?); the one with the big picture of a Ferry and that says  "transportation center."  Follow the "Alt. to Ferry" signs, which basically say to take a left off the  exit, go under a railroad tressle, and turn left again onto -- I think --  Railroad Street. Follow this street along the tressel straight through two  lights. Stop at the guardhouse and talk to the nice man.  Please give him  your weapons; no guns are allowed on the ferry.  (JK.)  After you get off the Ferry, go right (West) on West Broadway/25A.  After 2  miles, you'll come to a light with a Church across the street, and a  firehouse on your left, turn right onto Main Street.  Right after the first light, take the slight right onto Caroline Ave.  At  the stop sign, turn right onto Dyke Road.  At the first stop sign you come  to on Dyke, turn left onto Maple Rd. and go all the way to the end.  At the  end, turn left onto Bluff Ln.  At the corner of Bluff and Oak, turn right  into a private driveway, my house is at the bottom of the hill on the right.

From Baltimore:
Take I-95 to the Delaware Memorial Bridge.  After the bridge, take the NJ  Turkpike to exit 10.  This will put you on NJ 440 E.  Follow NJ 440 over the Outer Bridge Crossing into Staten Island, where you  will be on NY 440.  Take NY-440 until it hits I-278.  Take I-278 E towards the Verizano Bridge.  Take the Verizano Bridge into  Brooklyn.  Off the bridge, stay on I-278 (now also called the Brooklyn  Queens Expressway, or the BQE) as opposed to getting on the Belt Parkway.  Follow I-278 north (it might be called a different direction here; it's a  circle).  Keep right when you get near the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel signs, or  you'll end up in Manhattan.  Pass all the bridges to Manhattan; enter  Queens, and get on the Long Island Expressway/I-495 E (towards Riverhead,  NOT towards the Queens/Midtown tunnel.)

Take the LIE to exit 62 Nichol's(spelling?) Rd. North.  Take Nichol's all  the way north until you come to a T-section, and turn right onto 25A.  At  the first light, take a left onto North Country Road (Not sure that's the  right name, but it's definitely the first light).  At the fourth stop sign  (there'll be a post office across the street), turn right onto Main Street.  Take the first left onto Dyke Road.  At the second stop sign, turn left onto  Maple Road.  At the very end of Maple, turn left onto Bluff Ln.  At the  corner of Bluff and Oak, turn right into the private driveway, my house is  at the bottom of the hill on the right.  Do listen to traffic on AM-880 on the 8s and AM-1010 on the 1s, and AM-1240? on the 5s as you get close.  * If the Outer Bridge Crossing is screwed up, take exit 13 instead   of exit 10. * If the BQE is screwed up, take the Belt to the Van Wyck to the LIE   off the Verizano. * If the Verizano is screwed up? bleep.  Either take the   GW to the Cross Bronx (yuck) to the Major Deegan (I-87) to the Triboro   bridge to the Grand Central Expressway to the LIE.  Or cut through   Manhattan.  :-\   So that's about it.  Come to my house, eat great food, drink good beer and  wine, have lots of fun and play with my three Husky dogs (Maletsky knows  what I'm talking about).  Did I mention it's free?  All you have to do is  show up?  Allll right.

Mackey aka "Graham" aka "Weasel of Destruction"

VANCOUVER  BRITISH COLUMBIA

Vancouver Diplomacy Con

This is thee Vancouver Diplomacy event. After a few years of house games it is time to step onto the North American stage.... Thus the "British Columbia Diplomacy Society" or BCDS as we will also be known as, presents:

Dip 'n The Ocean '04!!!

The Con will take place 27-29 Aug in Vancouver's shadow at White Rock, BC. Travel access to the Con site is very simple. It's right across the boarder from Blaine, Washington. If flying, you can travel to Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Then, we have rides arranged for you to get to the site, just email us with your details. Check out the Con site web page:  Ocean Promenade Hotel

http://www.oceanpromenadehotel.com/

There will be 3 rounds, one Friday, one Saturday and one Sunday. The final standings will be comprised of all 3 rounds. Scoring will be along the lines of the PTKS system with a total of 120 points to be won. A solo gets them all or the draw splits them up. An additional point will be awarded for each center you have at the conclusion of the game.

There will be open gaming saturday night along with a trip to downtown Vancouver for thoughts interested with Riaz as your guide.

Less than 10 minutes from the beach / tournament site.  

Brand new hotel, has all the standard amenities.

Rooms with:

2 Queen's is $89.99 (4 people allowed).  

One Queen $79.00. 

No shuttle service, but taxis easily arranged, about $6.  

 

There is a 2 week cancellation period.

 

Bed and Breakfast Listings for White Rock:
http://www.bbcanada.com/bb_search_results.cfm?searchon=white+rock&selector=location&x=38&y=13

Attendee's List:

You can reregister by contacting either Mike or Ben and you can use PayPal to pay contact Ben for payments. Mike [email protected] or Ben [email protected]

BEAM ME UP, NATHAN!

 A SoCal Peerispective on the Forthcoming WAC Con II

By Larry Peery

            You�ll be hearing a lot about next January�s WACcon II (Second Annual Washington Athletic Club Con) to be held in Seattle from January 21-23^rd 2005 in the months to come, but here�s a hobby Old Fart�s take on what�s up up there!  In a word, plenty!

            Like hundreds of thousands of other Americans my first visit to Seattle was in 1962 for the Fair.  About all I remember was the Space Needle and the monorail.  In truth, there just wasn�t a lot to remember about Seattle in those days.  The big name in town was Boeing; which was building the nation�s jet passenger liners and bombers at a rate that Boeing execs must dream about today. A few years later a number of future Dip legends including Conrad von Metzke, Rod Walker, and (humbly) myself visited Seattle once again, this time for a Model United Nations meeting. 

            Washington State and Seattle in particular have long been hotbeds of Diplomacy fandom.  Perhaps the first big name in the hobby up there was Doug Beyerlein, who still appears from time to time to keep in touch.  For a brief history of the early days of the US Diplomacy hobby read Jim Meinel�s excellent article at http://www.diplomacy-archive.com/resources/postal/ushobby.htm  I hope you noted Jim�s references to the early links between the Diplomacy hobby and sci-fi fandom.  It�s true, names like Asimov, Bradbury, Ellison, Pournelle, and Zelazny criss-crossed the hobby�s early literature frequently.

            I mention this because one big draw that Seattle has now (thanks to Paul Allen, a man who obviously has too much money and time on his hands) is its brand new Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame.  When Boeing packed up and moved its headquarters to Chicago recently, it left the field of battle to Microsoft, a field that Paul Allen is rapidly filling with monuments to� hmmm, MS, himself, or modern pop American culture? Take your pick.  Located near the foot of the Space Needle, the new Museum is a fascinating trip back in time to the future.  Nearly every major paper in the country has or will shortly be reviewing the newest kid on the block. The Chicago Sun-Times hailed it in an article entitled �Beam, with joy� and USA Today raved in �Sci-fi museum blasts off.�  Since I haven�t had an opportunity to inspect it yet; I don�t know if any of the sci-fi writers represented in the Hall of Fame have any of their Diplomacy related writings on display. If not, it�s a pity.  I know there are original items written by some of them in the Diplomacy Archives, if you know where to look.

            But that�s another story. For now, just plan on taking a trip to Seattle for WAC Con and save a day to drop in on Paul Allen�s latest creation.  Oh yeah, and take a side trip to visit the Seattle Museum of Flight.

            Given the breadth and depth of skill and commitment to the Diplomacy hobby in the Pacific Northwest at the moment, and given the great success of this year�s Portland DipCon,  I�m sure Nathan and his people will be doing their best to put on a world class Diplomacy event in Seattle next January.  There�s a lot of pride in the Pacific Northwest to go with all that Starbucks coffee and Oregon pinot noirs.

For more information:

http://www.diplom.org/Face/Seattle/index.html on the WAC Con

http://www.wac.net on the venue

http://www.sfhomeworld.org on the Sci-Fi Museum

http://www.museumofflight.org Seattle�s world class aviation museum.