GMT Weekend at the Warehouse 2019
I only had a few days at home after my trip to Utah before it was time to leave for GMT Weekend at the Warehouse. Fortunately I had been prepping well beforehand and managed to play two refresher games of Breakout Normandy against a wargaming buddy here in Boise. I had two games scheduled at GMT against different opponents but I would be ready.
Where are all the games?
I'm not a morning person so I must have been excited since I woke up a little after 5 am. After feeding Abby and getting ready I was pulling out of my driveway a few minutes before six. It takes about twelve hours to drive to Hanford, but I like to get an early start. If I can get through Sacramento before four in the afternoon when the traffic starts to get really bad, I can save a lot of time. And more importantly, a lot of aggravation.
That evening I happened to check Facebook and saw a video that someone had put on the GMT group. It showed the warehouse, and things had really changed. Usually the gaming tables are crammed in among all the racks of games. Now there was a lot more space for gaming.
GMT shared their warehouse with another company that did heating and air conditioning. The guy who ran that business retired so GMT was able to get the rest of the building. Now they have a LOT of space. The whole area that used to be the old warehouse is completely empty. When I got there and walked in it was a bit of a shock. It was nice to have more space for gaming but it always used to be cool to be gaming while you were surrounded by games piled twenty feet high to the ceiling. Now to experience the ambiance you had to get up and walk into the next room. I did that a lot.
Gene gives his State of GMT talk before the sale
The weather for the weekend was even hotter than usual. It was mid nineties every day - welcome to the Central Valley of California. The warehouse does not have air conditioning so it can be brutal when it is that hot. There were fans set up everywhere and I had to admit that the open space helped the air circulation and made it more bearable.
My first game was a session of Breakout Normandy with Chris Brooks, a wargamer from Portland that I know from previous GMT weekends and BottosCon's in Vancouver, BC. I took the Allies in the main scenario which covers the first week of the campaign. It was a close game but by the end of day six I had captured my tenth victory point. Since I needed 9.6 VP to win (yes it's a strange number but if you know the game it makes sense) he needed to take something back to avoid a loss. That didn't look likely so he conceded. Since I didn't have any more VP's that would be easy to get I felt lucky to squeak out a win. It was a fun game.
We also had some good conversations about hiking. Chris and his wife are avid hikers and had just done a trip to Canyonlands National Park the week before. I had just done a trip to Canyonlands too so we traded stories about our favorite hikes. His wife stopped by later in the weekend and I got to meet and chat with her too. I'm sure my wife is hoping to come along to GMT sometime so that she can meet all my wargame buddies (you couldn't see it but I wasn't able to keep a straight face while I typed that last line).
Starting position as I take the Germans in Breakout Normandy
Next day I played my friend Larry Davidson. Since he lives on the coast only about two hours from Hanford he usually makes it to GMT weekend and we usually play at least one game. This time we tried a new East Front game called Across the Narva from Revolution Games. It's uses a chit pull system similar to Konigsberg, which we had played at GMT weekend the past fall. That game was ok. We liked it enough to play it twice although I hadn't played it since then. Across the Narva I did not care for at all. The terrain was so restrictive that there was no possibility of maneuver. Everything happened very, very slowly. I thought it was really boring and I have to admit that I was glad when we finally finished. That's a tough thing for me to say as I usally love East Front games.
Saturday is always the biggest day at GMT Weekend. In the morning Gene Billingsley buys doughnuts for everyone and in the evening he brings in pizza. The day starts with his State of GMT talk. It's always good to get the latest news but it does have a tendency to run a lot longer than it needs to. After that comes the high point of the whole weekend, The Sale. It's kind of like going to one of those wineries where you have to take the tour before you can do tastings. You have to listen to Gene's talk before the sale.
Pat hiding his copy of Spacecorp during the sale
This time it was pretty interesting though. A few weeks before GMT had announced in their monthly newsletter that they were going to do a game called Race For Africa. Players would represent various European powers in the nineteenth century, sending explorers, discovering resources, and establishing colonies. Some people viewed this as politically incorrect and an internet mob quickly descended on GMT, criticizing them on sites like Boardgamegeek and Consimworld, as well as via email. Gene said that he even got one death threat and one threat to "find GMT and burn it to the ground". While I understand that some people may not have liked the idea of the game, those kind of threats are just ridiculous.
After about a week GMT withdrew the game proposal. That didn't end things as some people criticized GMT for caving to the politically correct crowd. Sometimes you just can't win.
Gene explained that GMT pulled the game because it was targeted at the Euro market, which is more politically sensitive. He said that if it had been a wargame it would have been different. I believe that is true because they have taken a lot of flak for other games they have done, like Labyrinth and Hitler's Reich. All in all, it sounded like a pretty miserable week for him.
Pat studies his position looking for his chance to break through
On a happier note, next came the sale. Every time I go, I spend the two days before agonizing over what games to get. By Saturday I just about had it figured out. My one quandry was over Spacecorp. I usually stick to wargames but I do like science fiction. It also had gotten very good reviews since it came out. But I struggled with getting a game that was, I hate to admit it, a Euro. Just before the sale I was talking to my opponent for the day, Pat Mulvihill and he said "Come on, you're not getting a Euro." That strengthened my resolve and I didn't get it.
Imagine my surprise when I came back to our table with the games I had bought and there was Pat with a stack of games which included...Spacecorp. "What's that?" I asked him. "Oh that. I bought it for a friend." Right.
We had a really good game of Breakout Normandy. This time I took the Germans. Although the game is well balanced, it's always more tense playing defense. The game was very close. On the last turn it hinged on whether the Allies could take Carentan. Pat bombarded and attacked repeatedly. Each time I would feed in some more reinforcements to replace my casualties. All he needed was one good roll to win big in one battle to take the town. He didn't get one. The dice were with me and I barely held on to win a very close game.
Sunday I left for home first thing in the morning. Sandy was leaving later in the week on a vacation with Shannon and some friends and I wanted to get home and have a little overlap with her. As usual, it had been a fun weekend of gaming at GMT.
