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GMT Weekend Fall 2022

The trip to Hanford for GMT weekend usually takes me less than twelve hours. Half of the drive, through Idaho, Oregon and Nevada is pretty easy with light traffic. The other part, from Reno to Sacramento then down Hwy 99 to Hanford is pretty busy. I don't enjoy it but it isn't terrible since they have expanded most of that stretch to three lanes in each direction. As long as I get through Sacramento early in the day it isn't too bad and with an early start I can make it by 2 pm. Traffic is usually still moving rather than stop and go.

It didn't work that way this time. Typically I leave home at 5:30 or 6:00 am. This time I didn't get away until 7:00. Then US95 had a lot of truck traffic. It's only a two lane highway and several times I got stuck behind a semi for a long time before I could pass.

The serious delays started with road constructon in McDermitt Nevada of all places. Only one lane was open and I had to wait fifteen minutes to go through. That also meant that traffic bunched up with...you guessed it...a lot of trucks. More construction on Interstate 80 near Donner Pass held me up for another half hour. That meant I didn't get to Sacramento till 3 pm. It was stop and go the whole way on the Capitol Freeway and then Hwy 99 until I was past Elk Grove.

The worst was yet to come. There was a bad accident in Stockton right at 5 pm. Three lanes had to go down to one and a half. Cars could get by the partially blocked lane but trucks and vans and even big pick up trucks had to go from three lanes down to one. It took me an hour to go five miles. When I finally got to the hotel in Hanford the total trip time was fourteen hours. I've been coming to GMT weekends since 2010 and this was by far my worst trip down here.

Because of the great fall weather we were having this year, I came down a day early. I spent Wednesday hiking in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

My first scheduled game was on Thursday with Steve Carey. He designed a game on the Battle of South Mountain using the Blind Swords system. I had talked to him about it at Consimworld Expo back in September. The game, A Greater Victory, was scheduled to come out just about the time of GMT weekend. We agreed to play it then, and he was going to bring a copy along for me to buy so I wouldn't have to pay for shipping.

On Thursday morning I got an email from Steve. He had food poisoning the day before and had been in the hospital. He wasn't really in condition to play wargames. So I had an easy day watching different games and kibitzing. I could also take my time wandering throug the warehouse trying to decide what I would buy at the big sale on Saturday. I ran into Steve in the hotel lobby that afternoon and he definitely looked like he had just had a really bad day. I spent the evening working on the Dog Blog entry for my hiking the day before.

Next day I had a game scheduled with Larry Davidson. We have a tradition that every GMT weekend we set aside a day to play an East Front game. This time it was Donnerschlag, a new game from Vuca Simulations on the Stalingrad relief effort. I bought the game at Consimworld Expo in September. Vuca games all have beautiful components so I was anxious to give it a try.

It was the first time playing for both of us so it went slowly. Our noses were frequently in the rule book. The game was a lot of fum but we did encounter a few rule ambiguities. It's understandable, since the game was from a German company and the rulebook was written by a non-native English speaker. It was well done but a few times the phrasing of the rules was a little hard to figure out.

We played all day and into the evening, only taking a break to go out for our traditional linner (combination lunch and dinner) at Black Bear Diner. We finally quit one turn before the end of the game. Larry had to go to work the next day and had a two hour drive to get home. I appreciated that he had come all that way just for the day to play our game.

The position in the game was close, and could have gone either way. In fact it was so close that our rules questions could easily have swung the game one way or the other. We decided to just call it. It had been fun learning the game and playing, but we needed to ask some questions on BGG. The designer is very responsive so we will probably get answers. Hopefully we can have a rematch sometime. GMT weekend next spring??

Before heading back to the hotel I checked out what else was being played. The most interesting was a game of Western Empires with nine players (it's designed for 5-9). Players take their turns simultaneously so it looked pretty wild. Everyone seemed to be having fun but it's probably not for me. It's not really a wargame and the action looked a little too crazy for my tastes.

Saturday of course is always the most exciting day of GMT weekend. It's the day of The Sale. It starts with Gene Billingsley's State of GMT talk at 8:30. I like to get there before it starts for my last look around the warehouse so I can decide which games I'm getting. I was hoping that I would get up early enough. I needn't have worried. I woke up at 5 am. Anyone who knows me and how I am not a morning person will recognize that me waking up that early on my own is a really big deal. Even taking my time I was at GMT before 7:30. Latisha, the old office manager, used to be very strict that the sale was AFTER Gene did his talk. But she retired during Covid and the new office manager, Aracelli, isn't quite so strict. When I got there she had all the order sheets out already. I talked to her and she said it was fine if I grabbed my stuff before the talk, as long as I wrote it down and turned it in. That was all I needed to hear and I was off into the warehouse.

I ended up getting five GMT games and a couple of Vae Victus folio games. A good haul but less than usual. At 50% off it's really a good deal. There were a couple of other games that I would have liked to get but I did show some unusual restraint. Maybe I'll get them next time when I come back in the spring.

After the sale I played No Retreat: The Russian Front with Terry Yoder. It was rematch. In the sping we had played and I lost badly as the Germans. This time we switched sides and although Terry played well I won as the Russians in the Barbarossa scenario. I didn't think that I played that well so I wonder if that scenario is balanced.

I still haven't made up my mind about No Retreat. It has a small map and only a few counters so it claims to play quickly. It does have some clever ideas but somehow having so few units just doesn't feel like the Eastern Front. I expect grand, sweeping maneuvers and encirclements. It's hard to get the feel that you're fighting the largest land war in history with less than ten pieces on each side. I'm not sure how often I will go back to this game. And I have two other games in the series that I haven't even tried yet. I'll have to think about whether I want to keep them or not.

And that was fall GMT weekend. I wanted to get home early the next day. Sandy had to leave Saturday morning for Montana for a Quiltworx class. Our friend Deborah came to stay with Abby until I got home. I needed to get back reasonably early in the evening to relieve her. I got everything ready ahead of time on Saturday night. Full tank of gas. Car packed. I slept in a little so I would be well rested for the drive but was on the road before 8 am. There was more traffic than I expected for a Sunday but I still made good time and was home in eleven hours. That was a lot better than the fourteen hours it took me to drive down.

And oh yeah. Abby was really happy to see me. We should get a lot of walks in during the next couple of days while Sandy is gone.