Incomplete Dispatches from WBC 2025

I attended the 2025 World Boardgaming Championships this summer in Seven Springs, PA and felt that it deserved a post on here. This was my first event of this sort that I've ever attended. Conventions, Tournaments, Conferences, etc. You name it, I haven't been to it. And not just for board games or war games, but anything (video games, books, or so on). In all my life, I've only willingly paid for a ticketed event once (it was a live podcast at DAR Concert Hall in DC). I've never been to a live concert. All of this shapes up to make me sound like a recluse, but it's more so just indicative of what I know and that I have (until now) preferred to spend my time and money elsewhere. For whatever reason, I had very little expectations of actually enjoying myself/the trip since this is a world I'm not exactly all that plugged into, despite keeping up with the communities and different companies online. I am happy to report, though, that I've had my opinion on conventions and tournaments handily upended thanks to WBC 2025, and the people I met while I was there.

I arrived in the middle of the tournament, perhaps three or four days into the week plus of festivities, and I stayed for three days. In that short time, I spent more time (as a proportion of the entire time that I spent there) pushing around cardboard than I have in a good long while, certainly since I've been working on this blog. There wasn't a day that I was there that I didn't end the evening getting back to my tent (I decided to camp) before 10:30 PM. It was a wargame marathon - of sorts - and it turned out to be everything I could've hoped for.

I didn't take very close notes of what was happening or what I was doing while I was there. This was partly since I myself was trying to get a sense for what was happening the entire time that I was in PA, but now that I've got my footing for WBC, I'll be able to take closer notes next year. (Hint: I will definitely be returning).

So, what did I see/what did I play? I spent most of my time in the Winterbury room where they had wargames set up. I made way over to the corner where there was a copy of Where Eagle's Dare and The Devil's Cauldron set up for a joint campaign game of Operation Market Garden. I was instantly hooked, and fortunately enough for yours truly, the two gentlemen running the game (Joe -- the Allied Commander -- and Matt -- the Axis Commander) kindly welcomed me into their game. I arrived shortly after morning of the 2nd day of Operation Market Garden and I stayed near enough to the game to see the entire day go by (over the course of several actual days of gameplay). The system that they put together for moving this game along was ingenious. In particular, it let them progress the game whether there were 5 people pushing around pieces of cardboard or one super-human(Joe) managing the whole process solo.

There were a lot of interesting troop dispositions along the map. I arrived in time to see Kampfgruppe Walther try to interdict movement along the Club Route for XXX Corps (where the Allies get their reinforcements) and ultimately fail in its attempt. 

Nijmegen

Now, curiously, it seems I didn't get a single photo of that action against the British 231st Brigade, but I did manage to get photos of the action around Nijmegen and the showdown at Arnhem. Pictured to the left is the shot of the British Airborne on the south side of the river. The cubes represent British and Axis forces that are located on a blow-up map of the city. Shortly after taking this photo, the cubes were obfuscated by various light and heavy barrage counters. Needless to say that despite the ahistorical landings and placement of forces in this game, it'll be interesting to see how day three of the campaign goes the next time that it's set up. (I'll have to read up on the rules again before attending WBC 2026). With the British AT on the south side of the river and the German defense in depth on the north side of the bridge, it'll be hard to see how this ends up any other way than a blood bath.

But, that was just the great mega-campaign for GTS and Operation Market Garden. I also had the great fortune to play a short game of PanzerBlitz, Versailles 1919 (also with Joe and Matt), and to also sit with a few of the great names with The Gamers who I've known of for years to watch them play Battalion Combat System.

All in all, this was a trip that couldn't be beat. Next time, I'll have more photos and more notes at the ready. Anyway, that's all of this WBC. 

My thanks to everyone who I met who made this a tournament to remember: Callie, Tony, Chip, Mark, Don, Jim, and especially Joe, Matt, & Curtis.