I wish I had taken notes during the event, because some of the particulars are already a bit hazy in my mind. But without question, World DipCon 8 was my best tournament result ever. I played three of the four rounds of Diplomacy and shared, in this order, a five-way, a four-way and a three-way draw. Just the fact that I was never eliminated would have made it my best result ever. The worst part is that I cannot remember what countries I played in each game, and who I played with.

I do remember causing great disappointment to Andy Marshal in my first game (I think I was France to his England) when I voted for the five-way. In retrospect, I really had a decent shot at a solo or perhaps two-way, but I chickened out. I also recall, to my great suprise, that I never performed a major stab on any long-term ally. In each game, I selected an ally and stuck with him until the end. That's not to say I never looked at the possibility. I always look at the options, its just that I never saw a stab as in my best interests.

Overall, I placed nineteenth out of the seventyish players, which I think is pretty darn good, and I'm very proud of it. However, the greatest pride came from my reciept of the "Players Choice" award. Apparently, David Hood (the Tournament Master) informally polled many participants and my name came up as the player they "most enjoyed playing with." To me this was a great honor. It kind of makes you wonder what is better, to defeat all of your peers, or be recognized and appreciated by your peers. I wouldn't have traded this one for first place in the tournament... Hmmmm. Okay, maybe I wouldn't trade it for second place.... The award came with a beautiful wooden plaque that had a laser engraved Diplomacy conference map. A double treat since, as many of you know, I love to collect map memorabilia as well.

However, I cannot overlook the outstanding performance of The Knobby Kneed Rubes. During the team round of the tournament, my team, made up of Warren "Goz" Goesle, Scott "Henry Miller" Morris, and Jamie "Jamie" McQuinn, came in third out of twenty or so teams. Pretty good work, guys!

Other highlights of the weekend included play testing Steve Koehler's Migrane Dip variant. See a recent back issue of Diplomacy World for his perfectly symetrical Dip board [the variant will be featured in the next issue of The Pouch Zine as well. --Ed.]. I think it has potential for more play, especially if someone is able to code the Internet electronic judge for it. I do not think it would be possible to form a stalemate line on this map. On the other hand, it needs more play testing to see if in fact anybody could actually win the game either.

I had recently purchased a copy of Eurorails, and I roped Scott Morris and Pete Rauch to play with David Hood and me. David beat us handily, and Scott, while enjoying the game, decided it was not for him. "I never got to stab anybody...."

I also had an opportunity to start two games of Settlers of Catan. This widely popular game has intrigued me for several years. I'm so glad I finally got a chance to play it. It was quite fun. I said I started two games, but we never got a chance to finish them, something kept coming up and interrupting. So, it wasn't until this last weekend with some local gamers that I was finally able to finish a game.

At the Hobby meeting it was decided that the 1999 Dipcon would return to Origins in Columbus, Ohio, and that the 2000 World Dip Con would be held at Avaloncon. I volunteered to serve on the committtee for both events, primarily as the Internet publicity co-ordinator. So as soon as either of those events has information to distribute, I will put them on a Web page for The Pouch.

Unfortunately, my camera broke, and I lost all of my pictures of the event.

So, what can I say? It was a tremendous weekend. I highly recommend it to anyone. I hear DixieCon, the annual event, is this good every year and again, David put on a well-run event and I had a great time. Especially, as I have said, because I got an opportunity to meet many of you face-to-face. See you at the next one!

Jamie McQuinn (jmcquinn@delphi.com)

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