Chattanoga Rail Gaming Challenge

January 16-18 2004

by Peter Eldridge

I flew from Gatwick to Atlanta on Thursday morning and took the shuttle bus to Chattanooga. The event was held in the Country Inn and Suites hotel. The hotel is just off the Interstate road and is part of a commercial district a few miles from the centre of Chattanooga. I met Barry and Ruby Beavis there who had already arrived on Wednesday and visited the tourist spots. I had a short break for food at Gondolier Pizza with some of the other players. Then I sat down to play the new game, 1844, based in Switzerland. It is reasonably complex and seems to be around six hours long. I had my usual luck with a new game compounded by lack of sleep: victory! Afterwards I went across the road to find a cheaper hotel for the night. I retired after midnight having been up for 25 hours.

The event officially opened on the Friday morning. We had a board listing times and games where players could put down their names. I chose to play 1844 again now that I understood how it worked. It was no surprise when I came third of five.  Lunch break was taken at the Gondolier Pizza again. I had a minority taste: I took milk in my coffee. Luckily they were able to find some.  In the afternoon I tried 18EU and improved to second of four. I went for a drink with Simon Craddock afterwards at Applebees. I couldn't tell how much Glenlivet was in the tumbler because of all the ice but the waiter assured me "There's plenty of liquor in there". When the third tumbler had no ice but was half full of malt whisky I could see he was right.

Saturday morning started with the announcement that one of the players had collapsed from food poisoning and had been in hospital all night on a drip. It was thought that he had picked it up at the Gondolier Pizza. The dish to avoid was vegetarian lasagne so maybe I had not had such a narrow squeak.

The top scoring players so far had managed three games each on Friday.No-one had yet won the "It wasnt my fault" award for the first bankruptcy. My first game on Saturday was 1841. This is a good game for high scores and bankruptcies. I was not feeling too well after my drinking bout so things went really well for me and I had a clear win in front of Mark Derrick, the organiser. We had a spectacular bankruptcy in this game to claim the above-mentioned award. There were other games of 1841 played over the weekend but the others must have been rather more sedate as there were no further bankruptcies. There was some time after the game ended so Mark Derrick gave me a lift to a nearby shopping mall on the other side of the interstate. I found some new shoes there and started to walk back. After a while I realised that I couldn't remember which way I had arrived.  All the roads looked much the same and with no footpaths I realised I was lost.  I bought a map, found someone to say where I was and then it was easy apart from there stillbeing no footpaths!

The evening game was an experimental one. 18GL has 1826 style rules based on a map of the area round the Great Lakes. This was a completely new game to me but I managed to win it ahead of four others.

My Saturday results were so good that I was on top of the leader board on Sunday morning. Only one more game would count. I played in an 1826 with David Hecht (the designer) and two others. We had to play quickly as they were catching a plane that afternoon. David commented that he had not seen his game played properly until he had seen it played by the Kentish Mafia. I tried to copy the methods of Stephen Webb but could only manage second. Paul Hakken, who won the 18xx at the 2003 World Boardgaming Championships, had been third now leapt into first place. Unfortunately, he left before the final count up. Russell de C who had been lying second in the competition made the mistake of starting a game of 1870. His game hadn't finished by the time he had to go.

In the end I finished second and received the Runners Up plaque and the plaque for Biggest Win for the 1841. The second place prize was a prototype copy of 18MEX.  The player with food poisoning managed it back to the hotel in the evening.

On Monday Barry drove Ruby, Simon and me back to Atlanta and on the way stopped at Kennesaw to visit a museum. The Andrews Raid of 1862 started at Kennesaw when some Union soldiers stole a locomotive and headed north to Chattanooga. They intended to destroy the Confederate supply line from Atlanta to Chattanooga. The story inspired Buster Keaton's film "The General" and Disney's "The Great Locomotive Chase". The raid failed but the participants earned the first Congressional Medals of Honour. The museum included the General engine itself. At Atlanta it turned out that I was on a different flight to Barry and Ruby. We amused ourselves by playing Simon's game Cartagena and seeing how long it took for kibitzers to ask to join in. Two children had to be almost dragged away by their mother.

Overall it was a very good tournament created by the effort of Mark Derrick. I thoroughly enjoyed it.