My name is Warren aka RedDwarf, most of you will know that I am the IAAPA's Minister of Tournaments and that I am running for club President in the upcoming elections. In this article I'll tell you all a bit about my background and why I joined the IAAPA

     I was born in Adelaide, Australia in May 1969 to an English father and Scottish mother who emigrated from Australia the year before. I grew up in a suburb of the city of Adelaide and for as long as I can remember I have had an interest in history and the two periods of the past that has most captured my imagination have been ancient Rome and WWII.

     With the Roman Empire separated from my birthplace by thousands of miles and nearly two millennia the only contact that I have with the past has been through books, documentaries and the movies. The same can be said with WWII as there were no battles fought on Australian soil (apart from several air raids on Darwin) for me to visit so again books and TV has been my only conduit to the past.

     Along with my interest in not only WWII but of conflict in general came an interest in war oriented board games the first of which was Stratego (at which my older brother always defeated me) and then Risk. Axis and Allies was the natural progression - similar on the surface to Risk but with more strategic depth. Unfortunately around the time I got A&A I had few people to play against and after a few games it went into storage for quite a few years.

     I had forgotten all about A&A, I was working in the local car industry (and I still do - as a quality control inspector) and was very much into sports, which I play all year round in the form of tennis, cricket, golf and cycling so it wasn't until Dec 1997 that A&A entered my consciousness once again.

     However the same problem was still there, a lack of opponents, so I ventured forth on to the World Wide Web in the hope of finding a computer game version of A&A (the CD-ROM was not yet on the scene) and happened to stumble onto the Axis and Allies Online Club which is the previous name of the IAAPA.

     The first thing I read on the old club site was the ranking list which showed current ranks but also conveyed a sense of community from the great way it was written. The next stop was the Havoc (I think it was called the Havoceur at the time) and after reading the stories there I decided that this club was the place for me.

     After several years and a decent if unspectacular win loss record peaking at MAJ before slipping back a ways I entered government service in 2000 and embarked on the glamorous lifestyle of an IAAPA politician - fast cars, women, and money - yup I gave all that up when I became Minister of Tournaments (MoT) in late 2000.

     I had entered service at a historical moment in the clubs history, right at the start of the dues issue. I supported the introduction of dues 100% mainly because in my opinion all members should share in the financial burden of maintaining the club rather than a majority getting a free ride on the back of one or two donating members.

     I believe that I have been one of the clubs best MoT's. The tournaments are the best run A&A events on the internet, the brackets are all on display and are regularly updated I send out new pairing emails as players advance through the tourney rounds.

     Well, a lot of changes have happened to the club in my four years playing A&A at the IAAPA and in my next Havoc article I will list the developments and direction that I would like to bring to the club, until then bye for now.

Rgds,
RedDwarf