Monday, May 29, 2000

Babycon VII

A funny thing happened after Babycon last year. I was really excited about doing the annual report and vowed to get on it. Then, we put our house up for sale and things went haywire. We moved in July and somehow I misplaced the Master Tote Board. Then Carol dropped our printer and scanner so I couldn’t scan in any Babycon pictures. Well, a few weeks ago I unearthed the Tote Board and realized it was time to get the Babycon Eight invitations out, so here we are.

Erik and Paul arrived early, so we got a few games in on Friday afternoon before the main group arrived. Friday night, we dined at Old Shanghai, a local Japanese-Chinese restaurant. Some had Chinese while others had sushi, and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. Happily, Dan brought his fiancee, Becky, whom most of us had never met.

As decorations, I had taken game bits (cards, tokens, tiles, etc.), scanned them, blew them up to monstrous size, mounted and displayed them upon the walls. Upon arrival and before departure, each guest was asked to identify which game each bit came from. Eric Haas won handily on Friday, correctly guessing 23 of 25. The post-Babycon contest found Glenn the winner with 17 of 23 identified.

Our third annual Team Robo-Rally game was a bloodbath. After the valiant sacrifice of his entire team, except for Carol who drove herself into a pit, Bob got the enemy flag to within three squares of his home base before Dan killed him. Afterwards, it was Bob against most of the other team who quickly crushed him and won the game.

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On Sunday morning, we played a small fleet encounter (16 ships) of Wooden Ships and Iron Men prepared by Glenn. The French (!) handily beat the British in a quick and bloody encounter.

As you can see by the enclosed information, it was the year of Paul Czarnota. Paul set new records in every category by winning the most games at any Babycon, having the longest winning streak, and accumulating the most points. Happily, Paul is unable to attend this year. (Just kidding about the happily part. We want revenge and won’t get it.)

This was the last Babycon at Teakwood Circle. Our townhouse served us well for seven Babycons and we will miss it. We hope that our new house will do as well and that you will join us for Babycon Eight.

Thanks to everyone who attended.

Bob