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Well, it's pretty much official.
Dixiecon is pretty much full of Dip retreads these days. We had 26 players who played no Dip at all at the 2009 Dixiecon,
and 22 players that did! And the vast majority of the Dip players played other games in the Iron Man, our tournament
for non-Dip players.
Oh well.
The action began as usual with open gaming on Thursday night.
This year the Thursday pack consisted of Bruce Allen, George Harris, Rich O'Brien and David Hood. Had some traditional
stuff, like Puerto Rico / Ticket to Ride / Dominion, as well as a goofy but fun little game of something called King of Siam.
Friday am we had many more players begin to arrive, including a bunch playing to get in a game of Here I Stand before
the Friday night Dip round. In addition to a little basketball, as usual on Friday afternoon, games seen during this
scene included 1846, St Pete, Claim It, Plague and Pestilence, Bang, Agricola, Outpost, Flux and the Here I Stand gang.
Oh no, the list goes on. Glory of Rome, The Bottle Imp, Tichu, Dominion, Rome v. Rome, High Society, 1848, and
Caylus. Without a doubt this year saw the most different titles played, when you include both the open gaming and the
Iron Man events.
And there was some Dip too, once the round started at 6:30 or so. Conrad Woodring and Richard
Maltz got things going in 1A with an FG alliance that swept to 26 centers between them in 1911, sharing a three way draw with
Brian Ecton's Turkey. Conrad's girlfriend Elizabeth Boudreaux, playing in her first game ever, thought it would be fun
to be in a three way draw. So she did, as Turkey, with the EG of Dixiecon veterans Mollenkopf and Ladd.
Saturday
morning doubled as Round Two and as the Team Tournament for Dip, eventually won by a team that included the eventual Dixiecon
winner Adam Sigal - but that would have won against all the other teams even without his score!
Sigal did
win his game, over a field of pretty good players, though it took until 1916! His France took 18 against a 12 center
second by Dan Mathias in Turkey. 2B saw Ladd and Ecton get another draw, this time with Michael Cannon who had missed
Round 1. Game 2C was, well, it ended as a five-way in 1907, so that is probably all that needs to be said about that
one...
Saturday Iron Man gaming was well-attended and varied. There was hardly room for everyone in the gaming
venue. Titles seen for the first time at the Con included 18Coast-to-Coast (a gigantic game for the 18XX crowd), Chess,
Wasabi, Kremlin (good lord what a dinosaur!), Vinci, Princes of the Renaissance, Twilight Struggle, Fruit Fair, Twixt, Letter
Roll, Britannia, Modern Art, Battlestar Gallactica, Munchkin, and Time's Up. This does not include the many repeats
from Friday.
We had the usual 5pm break for North Carolina style barbeque, then it was back to the boards!
Back to Dip on Sunday morning, where Sigal sealed his Dixiecon win with a draw as England in 3B, while 3A had a strong AI
alliance dominate in the east with Maltz again and long,longtime Dixiecon regular Todd Craig sharing a draw with the France
of another Dixiecon denizen Edwin Turnage. The non-Dip gaming included Campaign Trail (otherwise known as Reiff and
Gutermuth roll lots o dice), Settlers, Agricola, Twixt, Chess, Twilight Struggle, RoboRally, Battlestar, Railroad Tycoon,
Brass, and more of this year's Game of the Con - Here I Stand.
Because the Dip games were both over before time
was called, the Sunday awards ceremony was over very early. So it was off to the Sunday night dinner, this time Japanese
Steakhouse, and then back to open gaming all Sunday evening for about 20 of us. Highlights included Here I Stand that
lasted almost til morning, and the traditional game of prehistoric evolution and Milankovitch cycles, American Megafauna.
Usually the game (well, it's less of a game and more of an experience) does not end - but this year it really did, with
an actual winner, Bruce Allen.
And that was Dixiecon 2009. If you did not make it this year I hope 2010 will
see you back in Chapel Hill. And don't forget our roving western NC housecon coming up this fall, Hickcon. In
its 19th year it looks like we will be at a new location - the spiffy new abode of Debbie and Ken Gutermuth in Hickory!
So if you are interested, please contact David Hood to get on the list.
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