columbiagames.info

Version 1.1 of the rules for Gettysburg: Badges of Courage is now available from:

The EuroFront rules have been updated to v 1.13. This is a free PDF download from:

http://www.columbiagames.com/cgi-bin/query/cfg/zoom.cfg?product_id=3407

Things are rapidly falling in to place for HârnCon VI, August 29 - 31, 2008 in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

The venue for the weekend is the Marpole Curling Club, which offers a large meeting room as well as a spacious pub, both of which have plenty of tables for gaming.

For those wishing to book accommodations, the Coast Vancouver Airport Hotel offers a special rate for participants at Marpole Curling Club events. The Marpole Club is about 3 blocks away from the hotel. Maps and directions are available on both web sites.

The fee for the weekend will be CDN $30 in advance, or CDN $40 at the door. The advantage of registering in advance (other than saving $10) is that you will be able to sign up to run and/or play games in advance on the web. Advance fees can be paid using PayPal to Brian McNeilly at: bmcneilly@shaw.ca.

The Vancouver Gaming Guild is sponsoring the convention, and we will be using their online registration system to schedule the weekend. You will need to create a profile for yourself in the registration system. As well as a login id, you will be asked to enter your real name, which is used in the game schedule. We don’t use aliases in the schedule since it is much easier to locate “Brian McNeilly” on game day than “Brénan-al-Saél”.

Once you have paid the fee, you will be able to log in to the system, validate your ticket number (which you receive after payment), and input events that you would like to run, or sign up to participate in games already posted on the schedule.

BTW, your login id will allow you to sign on to the VGG Forums, where you can read more about the gaming community in the Vancouver region.

Grant Dalgliesh from Columbia Games will be attending.

I’m in Virginia, heading for Prezcon, which is starting today in Charlottesville. Getting here was a little challenging due to snow at my transfer point in Toronto, ON. De-icing etc. set us back enough for me to miss the train from Washington D.C. to Charlottesville so I stayed the night in Northern VA with a friend and we’re driving to Prezcon shortly.

I’m looking forward to playing in tournaments, playtesting and developing new games, and having a lot of fun. On Saturday night, I’ll be drawing a name at random from all those who entered in Columbia Games tournaments at Prezcon with a grand prize that will include a copy of every historical blockgame.

Sunday, when the convention ends, I’ll be heading back for D.C. where I will rendezvous with my new adopted daughter, Simonee Eden who will be arriving from Ethiopia that very day. I’m planning to get on the very same plane that she’ll be on! I’m still in awe at the fortuitous timing of her arrival coinciding with my trip to the east coast.

The 2006 Hammer of the Scots PBeM Tournament is in the books. We had a terrific tournament that went down to the wire. We began in the fall of 2006 and ended Jan. 20th 2008. Thirty players began the tournament. We played 28 games with the Scots winning 15 of the games including winning the majority of the games in the last round.

George Seary was able to add the PBeM Championship to his three straight WBC Titles. I believe he has been able to win most of his tourney games as the Scots. He was able to go undefeated throughout this tournament as the Scottish rebels. The perception is the Scots are the underdog in this game and it seems that the statistics do not support that position in this tourney.

The other top finishers were as follows: Suzanne Tuch, Bill O’Neal, Hank Burkhalter, Ray Freeman & Paul Barrett. I want to thank all the players and Don for the support of this event.

All known rules questions about Athens and Sparta are now incorporated into version 1.01 of the rules.

Click here to download free.

Columbia Games is supporting the Secret Santa program at www.boardgamegeek.com by offering free shipping and anonymous delivery to secret santa recipients. Enter coupon code “santa” as you check out! Happy holidays!

We’ve posted a fun-filled holiday adventure set in Geldeheim, Orbaal. The PDF file is available on DriveThruRPG.com and RPGnow.com. Maps and information about Geldeheim accompany the adventure.

DRIVETHRU

RPGNOW.com

Happy Holidays from Columbia Games

The Game ranking system on Boardgamegeek.com favors games with a lot of votes by adding 100 “average” dummy votes. This is called Beysian averaging. According the FAQ on BGG this is to prevent a new game from appearing at the top by virtue of a few good reviews (or vice versa). This system severely affects the rankings of small publishers with less than 1000 ratings.

The majority of the Columbia Games block games have average user ratings above 7. But only Hammer of the Scots, EastFront, and Rommel in the Desert are ranked above 7 once the 100 dummy votes are added.

I’d like to see the ranking system changed and I’ve contacted the guys at BGG and expressed my concerns. There is a separate rank listing of wargames which averages the user ratings without dummy votes. This list is helpful (its nice that EastFront is #1) but would still rather a system where no tweaking is necessary. A minimum of 100 rankings before inclusion on the master list ought to be enough to prevent most problems.

In the meantime, I would like to appeal to players of Columbia Games block games to submit your ratings as soon as possible to offset to effect of the dummy votes. To rate a game simply go to its page on boardgamegeek.com. Make sure you’re logged in and scroll down to the bottom to enter your rating. Click submit and you’re all set.

There are several Columbia Games eligible for inclusion in the WBC 2008, all needing votes to make the cut.

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

Last year’s voting left Rommel in the Desert and Napoleon all just a few votes shy of the tally required to be included. A few votes may make the difference!

Hammer of the Scots, Crusader Rex, Liberty, Napoleon, War of 1812, and Athens and Sparta all need your votes.

It took 138 votes to be included for 2007. RitD got 115 (sixth from making the cut), Napoleon got 111 (ninth from making the cut). The number of votes needed to be included was up by +31% from 2006, which indicates how important each vote can be. There’s only 3 weeks left to vote.