This year's National Block Party drew 33 players from across six states.  Attendance was not down much even with the tough economy.  This year we had tournaments in traditional block games and three events in games that uses wooden components.  We also had scheduled demos and scheduled open gaming opportunities along with unlimited open gaming.  The designer of Prussia's Defiant Stand made his first trip to Block Party for the gaming and had his deluxe set of PDS on display.  A Euro game designer was also on hand demoing his latest designs.  Overall, it was a good time and the commraderie and competition was terrific!
FAB: The Bulge saw a drop in attendance this year.  Only three players signed up to participate in this event.  The final was a rematch of last year's final between Mike Updike & Bill Beswick.  Mike's Germans were behind through the open movements of the game.  The Americans held a VP advantage and then the Panzers began rolling.  Mike was able to drive north to the river Meuse and secure the plaque for a second year.  FAB: Sicily will be out and maybe a change of scenery will renew the interest in this event.
Crusader Rex began the weekend on Friday at noon.  Eight players signed up to play the Third Crusade.  Players bid the number of block that were removed from the Saracens and added to the Franks.  It did not take long for Ron Draker to make an impact on the tournament as he eliminated the past champions in the first two rounds.  Ron advanced to play Wes Chapman in the final.  He took the Saracens and was dominating the game from the beginning.  Overall, the Saracens won five of the seven games played in the single elimination event.
Seven campaign managers tried their hand at the historic 1960 Kennedy-Nixon election.  Players could opt to bid to play Kennedy by bidding cubes to place in the bag.  There was a total of six games played and it was an even split between the GOP and the Democratic party.  Three games saw players win more than 300 electoral votes the other games were within 20 electoral votes that can be decided by flipping a state on election day.  Scott Bowling was able to win this event by playing Kennedy in the final.  He was able to flip Tennessee on the last play and thus take the elction and the plaque by three elctoral votes.
Hammer of the Scots started Saturday off right with eleven players vying to control the destiny of the Scottish highlands.  This event also drew several new players to the tournament.  Players bid the number of years to play without Edward I to play the English.  The Scots won a majority of the games played.  Ron Draker advanced to the final to play Ric Manns.  Ron took the Scots and Ric played the English.  The game was a see saw affair with the Scots building a slight lead and then late in the game the English made a come back by wintering the King and then killing Wallace.  The game came down to last turn and Ron's ability to break through the Scottish bottleneck secured the victory and his second plaque.
Liberty was back after a one year absence in a Single Elimination format with two rounds on Saturday starting in the afternoon.  Eight players signed in to play in this game of the American Revolution.  The Americans won 5 of the seven games including one in which there wasn't any French entry and one where the French entered on the next to last turn.  Ron Draker and Mike Sims squared off for the final.  The game was a very good one as Ron, playing the US never got the French, but focused on killing British units.  This prevented George III from putting down the rebellion as Mike finished with 27 vp's just two shy of claiming victory.
Friedrich drew six players, but two would drop out to create a even four player game.  Bill Beswick played Prussia, Karsten Klint was Russia, Ron Draker was Austria and Mike Sims was the French player.  The Prussians were not able to knock out any of the other powers.  The game was close as Austria was able to win right before the Russians.  This made Ron's fourth victory for the weekend, shattering the record held by several people of two titles in a year.
The Euro Iron Man event featured play across three euro games on Saturday.  This event is sponsored by the Strategy Gamers of Louisville.  Puerto Rico drew seven players.  Dave VanOver from Michigan and Tom Cleaver of IN won their respective games and came out of the event with 5 points each in the overall event.

Carcassonne was played by seasoned players and a new one.  It was actually much closer than anticipated.  With the River and Tower expansions included, the game took a little longer than a normal game.  Even though the Tower expansion tiles were in play, we didn't actually play the tower rules.  The game played rather quickly meaning that no one took a long time with their turns.  As with all games of Carcassonne, trying the right tile at the right time can make the difference between winning and losing.  This game was no different.  Floyd and Carol had pieces on the city and Floyd just happened to draw the tile to finish it.  Not only did this tile finish the city, it allowed him to place a farmer which scored 12 points at game's end.  The city itself scored 22 points.  John was able to score 18 points with a single tile by complete two cloisters.  The luck of the draws later in the game seemed to go to Floyd as he drew much needed tiles to complete cities, control cities, or place farmers in strategic areas.  During final score, though, Floyd beat Tom by only two points.  Overall, it was very fun and the new person to the game (Carol) seemed to enjoy it.

Settlers of Catan was the last event of the Iron Man competition.  The three players that had a shot at winning the overall event were the only ones which decided to play Settlers.  The other Euro competitors broke into a wide variety of open gaming.  Craig Springstube, David VanOver and David Burris were the players in that order.David VanOver created the largest army in the mid game and the longest road a turn later.  David and Craig were within a point of each other with David Burris not having any luck at all.  David was leading in the Iron Man, the other players were not going to help any either.  David VanOver continued exapnding his roads and building his army.  Craig went on creating his cities and was able to finish his last city right before David VanOver was able to get his last victory poiint.  Craig Springstube was able to take the Iron Man plaque home.
War of 1812 drew eleven competitors in a free form style event.  The second edition was the default edition with the WBC variants.  Players played both editions and it was early Sunday morning when the final was down to Wes Chapman and Mike Sims.  Wes was the defending champion and faced Mike who has been a prennial winner of the event.  Wes played a considerably aggressive American strategy.  His foray into Canada found the British in a fluid defense or at times solid as a rock.  Wes was frustrated by the British defenses as the King's soldiers were able to drive the Americans from the field in the first year winning 25-8.
Nine players participated in the 2010 Commands & Colors event.  The event was played in a free form format using any scenario, but most games used the Raphia scenario fronm the Greek expansion set.  It seemed that much of the battles were focused on the flanks.  Sunday morning brought a playoff between Richard Diem of KY and Karsten Klint of OH for the right to face perennial heavy weight Mike Updike in the final.  Karsten took an early lead and Richard hung in there and was able to make a come back to get to the final for the first time.  Mike played the Selecuids and Richard took the Ptolemics.  The Ptolemic moved across the entire front with heavy assault.  Selecuid put up a valiant defense with massive heavy attacks of both the heavy infantry and cavalry.  Ultimately they could not break the Ptolemic steamroller and Richard had his first plaque and a well deserved win.  Thanks to all that participated and made this such a great event.
Richard III Columbia's newest game on the Wars of the Roses was our last event on Sunday.  Eleven players sought to unite England under their leadership.  Players did not bid due to the newness of the game.  There were eight games played and the Yorks held a 5-3 record over the day.  Ron Draker and Ric Manns squared off for their second final of the weekend.  Ric's cards and dice were scorching and the Yorks overthrew Henry and sent him into exile after turn one.  The rest of the game his cards provided him with a tremendous advantage that Ron was unable to overcome.