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In
our trial year of running both Manifest
Destiny and Age of Renaissance, attendance bounced
back, with 30 players
participating in at least one
round of Age of Renaissance and
19 players participating in Manifest
Destiny. See the Age of Renaissance or Manifest Destiny Laurelists.
Age of Renaissance
Round
1 got underway Friday evening, with
28 players playing three 6-player
games and two 5-player games.
In the
first 6-player game, defending and three-time Enlightenment champion
Bill Crenshaw was matched up with
previous champions Chris Byrd and John Coussis as well as the defending
WBC champion Mark Smith, perennial contender Carl Damcke, and Mark
Neale. In a
feat that would be managed only five times during the weekend, Bill
managed to buy all the advances as well as have the lowest misery
to take Hamburg to its only victory of the weekend. John’s London
finished 2nd, Carl as Paris was 3rd,
Mark N’s Genoa was 4th, Mark Smith
as Venice was 5th, and Chris Byrd with Barcelona finished 6th.
In the
second 6-player game, former champion Jeff Mullet would begin his
journey to try and regain the crown he won two years ago. Jeff,
like Bill, ended up playing Hamburg. Jeff, however, didn’t fare
as well as Bill as Steve Simmons managed
his first of two wins for the weekend
to lead Venice past, Ted Mullally’s Genoa followed by Eric Eshlemen’s
Barcelona, Jeff’s Hamburg, Sean McCulloch’s London, and Doug Mercer’s
Paris.
In the last of the 6-player games of the round, Eric Wrobel, as
Barcelona, managed a win over our youngest player:, AJ Sudy’s Venice,
Terry Coleman’s Paris, Joe Lux’s London, Pete Staab’s Hamburg and
Kathy Stroh’s Genoa.
In a 5-player game, Ken Gutermuth, a perrenial contender for the
crown, bought all of the advances and won over Kevin Sudy’s Venice,
Tom Browne’s Genoa, Pete Stein’s London, and Pierre LeBeouf’s Paris.
In the
last 5-player game of Friday evening, Arthur Field managed to buy
out with Paris but couldn’t hold on as he took nine misery hits
in the final card play while Greg Stripes’ winning London was Enlightened
during the card play phase. Rodd Polsky’s Venice
(which began a weekend of 2nd place
Venice games) managed a close 2nd
with Arthur 3rd, Marena Tiana’s Barcelona 4th, and Tom Cannon’s
Genoa 5th.
By Saturday morning, all 30 players had arrived and a full field
led to a perfect field of six 5-player games, the preferred number
of the Age of Renaissance upper echelon.
On the
winner’s table, the two top rated AREA players, Bill
Crenshaw and Ken Gutermuth, faced off for their first face-to-face
meeting in two years. Ken used Barcelona’s quick start to stay
just ahead of the crowd heading into the final turn. An Enlightened
Ruler play by Ken on the final turn gave him some daylight that generated
a “bring the leader down” rally lead by Bill “I am
not close” Crenshaw. When the dust settled, Bill’s failure
on an attack of Ken’s New World exploration left Ken as the only
undefeated player after two rounds. Bill’s London fell just
11 points behind, leaving him in good shape to try to capture his
4th Enlightenment crown. Eric Wrobel’s Genoa also finished in
the 90+%, followed by Greg Stripes’
Paris and Steve Simmons’ Venice.
With
a throw-away game already under his
belt, previous champion Jeff Mullet lead his London contingent to a win over Pierre
LeBeouf’s Genoa, Pete Staab’s Barcelona, Jim Vroom’s Paris, and Mark
Smith’s Venice. Mark managed the feat of being the only player
to Chaos out of a game during the weekend.
Previous
champ, Chris Byrd, began his move with a Genoa win followed by
Sean McCulloch, Doug Mercer, Tom Cannon,
and Kathy Stroh.
Another
former champ, John Coussis, got his first win with London. John
managed a rare feat of zero misery at the end of the game to
defeat Rodd Polsky by 9 points leaving Rodd with a pair of very close
seconds. Kevin Sudy, Ted Mullally, and AJ Sudy rounded out the
table with Ted’s 4th place 85% leaving
him a shot still.
The
reigning PbeM champion, Arthur Field, managed to slip ahead in
a tight contest to lead Paris to a win over Eric Eshleman, Carl
Damcke, Tom Browne, and Terry Coleman. The 97% third place
finish kept Carl still in the hunt also.
Pete
Stein used a large misery gap to emerge victorious as Genoa in
the last of the six Round 2 games. Mark Neale finished 2nd,
followed by Toe Lux, Ted Simmons, and
Marena Tiana.
With
two games completed in both Age of Renaissance and Manifest
Destiny, those players wanting to compete in both tournaments
had to make a decision which game
to play on Saturday evening. Of
the players with strong positions
in both tournaments, Bill Crenshaw
decided to play AoR Saturday evening while Arthur Field
opted for the Manifest Destiny tables. This
left Rodd Polsky, with a 98% and
99%, headed up to play on the winner’s
table. Rodd joined
the field that consisted of players
who had all won a major competition
in AoR in the past. Ken
Gutermuth and Jeff Mullet—both of whom prefer to play Barcelona—bid
high, but the tournament’s only 5 bid
gave Barcelona to Jeff. Ken
decided to play Venice, while John
Coussis chose London, Rodd picked Genoa,
Pete Stein went with Hamburg, and Chris
Byrd was left with Paris.
With
the target on Ken, who had two wins,
the game had a strange beginning.
Ken finished four of the first five
turns without any cards, but he used
secondary payouts to stay within
sight of the leaders. Turns
4-6 would be a preview of the disaster
that would strike Ken to ensure he
didn’t win his third game. During
those turns Ken, without moving last,
managed to win only 3 two space doms
and 2 three space doms with 96 tokens. Jeff
managed an Ivory run on Turn 6 and
had a $160 payout coming for Turn
7. Jeff,
bidding 3 to secure his payout, was
hit with Civil War and Black Death
leaving him expanding last with but
1 token. Ken was unable
to buy Holy Indulgence and Jeff ended
up with three tokens. Ken
sitting on two Wool cards, moving
5th with 35 tokens and Barcelona’s
home wool reduced, managed to only
gain one domination marker which
did not include any in Jeff’s Black
Death territories. With
three tokens, Jeff was able to have
more expansion cities then Ken. Jeff
held on and joined Ken with two wins. John made
a late charge, but he was a little
too far behind to catch Jeff. Rodd
edged out Chris for 3rd and Pete
finished 5th, as he couldn’t find
any Timber cards as Hamburg.
Carl
Damcke’s Paris bought
all the advances and the winner’s circle
by narrowly defeating Sean McCulloch,
Eric Eshleman, Bill Crenshaw, Mark
Neale, and Pierre LeBoeuf in the
second game. Ted
Mullally also achieved winner’s
status with Paris. He defeated
Greg Stripes, Joe Lux, Eric Wrobel,
and Doug Mercer in the third game. Paris
also dominated the last game of the
evening, when Terry Coleman soundly
defeated Mark Smith, Steve Simmons,
Tom Cannon, and Ted Simmons. Terry’s
win was large enough to put him in
a position to vie for the crown.
When
Sunday morning came, players once
again had to decide on which game
to play. Bill
decided to double dip by playing Manifest
Destiny, as he was in the AOR lead
using his first three games. Arthur had a chance to win either
event, but stuck with Manifest
Destiny. As Kevin and AJ Sudy were in contention for Manifest
Destiny, they stuck with it.
Since
both of the double winners, Jeff
and Ken, had a low 3rd score,
the field was wide open going
into the last round, anyone with
one win and a
couple others with high second-place
finishes had a shot at the
title. On the road to the championship, 17
people participated in the early
morning round—for one 5-player and two 6-player games.
A 6-player game was the first to finish. In it, Steve Simmons
captured his second win of the weekend,
this time as Genoa. Unfortunately
for Steve, his other two scores were
not good enough to put him in contention
for the title, but this win eliminated
the title hopes of Rodd Polsky and
John Coussis, both of had been in
contention. Eric
Eshleman, Mark Smith, and Joe Lux
rounded out the field.
There
were three candidates with titles
hopes in the second game to finish—Chris Byrd, Pete
Stein, and Ken Gutermuth. Ted
Simmons and Pierre Leboeuf filled out
the table. Ken,
Chris and Ted remained close, with
Pierre and Pete within sight until
a critical turn 6. Turn 6 was the first
of two consecutive turns with significant
leader plays. The
play started innocently enough, with
Chris playing first and collecting
sizable payouts. Pete
then placed a Printed Word leader and
banned religion, since he was in
no position to buy Cathedral. This
move would remove the bullseye from
Chris, as he didn’t have Patronage
yet. Pierre
and Ted then played the three Ocean
Navigation and two Institutional
Research leaders, as well as the
better Printed Word leader. Ted,
Pierre, and Ken were also able to bank
a significant amount of cash. In
the aftermath of the deals, Pete was
left behind, as he collected no money
and would get Alchemist’s Gold from
Ken due to deals Ken made with other
players to get money. After
the dust settled from the purchase
phase, Ted and Ken were in the lead. Chris,
not being able to use the leaders,
went down the Commerce track, getting
Interest & Profits and
holding a significant amount of cash. During the next turn,
even more leaders would materialize
and the wheeling and dealing began
as everyone tried to get money to
capitalize on the leaders. When
purchasing began, Chris ended up
with over $500 and vaulted into the
lead. The table made
a valiant effort to keep the game close
but Chris’s Paris prevailed. Ken
was able to stay close with 85%, to
give him the tournament lead.
At
the
final table, five of the six
players were in contention for wood. Jeff
Mullet bid 5, again, to take his
favorite Barcelona. Terry
Colemand took Paris, Ted Mullally took
Venice, Carl Damcke took Genoa, Greg
Stripes took London, and Sean McCulloch
was left with Hamburg. As
the crowd gathered, it appeared that
Ted or Terry would prevail and that
Jeff—who needed a high 80’s score—would come
up short. Surprises
happen, though, as Terry’s chance at
a win vaporized as he was hit with
War and proceed to lose five
misery boxes when ties continued
to mount the misery. Jeff,
sitting on four wine, received two
wine payouts that he says
he didn’t know were still in the
deck, amassing $160. The
combination of these two events gave
Jeff his third straight win. Ted
finished at 99%, $11 dollars behind
and Terry at 98%, $33 behind.
When
the scores were finalized, Jeff Mullet
had prevailed as the champion for
a second time with 322 points. Ken
Gutermuth finished second with 302,
new WBC GM Ted Mullally was 3rd with
294, Chris
Byrd was 4th with 293, Terry
Coleman was 5th with 291, and
Carl Damcke was 6th with 287. Bill Crenshaw’s
clubhouse position left him just
a point out of the wood with only
three games played.
Barcelona
and Paris lead the way with five
wins each, followed by Genoa and London
with three each, and Hamburg and Venice
with 1 each. Bridesmaids
for the weekend were Venice, with seven
seconds and London with six. We
had 12 different winners. Champion
Jeff Mullett led the way with three
wins. Ken Gutermuth (2nd), Chris Byrd
(4th), and Steve Simmons (8th) won
twice. Bill Crenshaw, Terry Coleman,
Ted Mullally, Greg Stripes, John Coussis,
Pete Stein, Arthur Field, Eric Wrobel
and Carl Damcke each hadh one win. All six of
our laurelists won at least one game. Four of the five Barcelola
wins came from our first and second
place finishers.
Bidding
for capitals was down this year,
as everyone is becoming more comfortable
with playing all of the countries. Out 91 bids made, 51 of
them were for 0. Only one 5 bid
and and four 4 bids were made all weekend. The average bid overall
was 1.1, with only Barcelona (2.4)
and Venice (1.8) averaging over 1.
Ken
Gutermuth, Bil Crenshaw, Arthur Field,
Carl Damcke, and Rodd Polsky were
the only players to buy all
of the advances in their games. Regardless,
Arthur and Rodd did not manage to
win their games. While
many players approached the Chaos
position, reigning WBC champ Mark
Smith was the only player to actually
reach it. Only
three games were hit with a time penalty,
with two running 10 minutes over
the 5 hour time limit and one game
running 20 minutes over. AJ
Sudy was, once again, our youngest
player, while Terry Coleman—who
flew in from British Columbia—traveled
the farthest to participate.
2006
Enlightenment Age of Renaissance
Laurelists
|
|
|
|
|
1st
Place
Jeff Mullet,
OH
|
|
2nd
Place
Ken Gutermuth,
TX
|
|
3rd
Place
Ted Mullally,
NJ
|
|
|
|
|
|
4th
Place
Chris Byrd,
CT
|
|
5th
Place
Terry Coleman,
BC
|
|
6th
Place
Carl Damcke,
IL
|
2006
Enlightenment Age of Renaissance Final
Standings
Players
were involved in 18 games of Age
of Renaissance, with eleven
5-player games and seven 6-player
games. They played 11
Manifest Destiny games, with six
5-player games and five 4-player
games.
Name
|
1st
Round
|
2nd
Round
|
3rd
Round
|
4th
Round
|
Total
Score
|
Overall
Score
|
Jeff
Mullet |
72
|
109
|
107
|
106
|
394
|
322
|
Ken
Gutermuth |
110
|
107
|
28
|
85
|
330
|
302
|
Ted
Mullally |
87
|
85
|
108
|
99
|
379
|
294
|
Chris
Byrd |
47
|
110
|
76
|
107
|
340
|
293
|
Terry
Coleman |
88
|
61
|
105
|
98
|
352
|
291
|
Carl
Damcke |
83
|
95
|
106
|
86
|
370
|
287
|
Bill
Crenshaw |
109
|
99
|
78
|
-
|
286
|
286
|
Steve
Simmons |
108
|
57
|
68
|
106
|
339
|
282
|
John
Coussis |
84
|
106
|
83
|
92
|
365
|
282
|
Rodd
Polsky |
96
|
99
|
79
|
87
|
361
|
282
|
Eric
Eshleman |
72
|
96
|
87
|
93
|
348
|
276
|
Greg
Stripes |
104
|
84
|
84
|
85
|
357
|
273
|
Eric
Wrobel |
107
|
92
|
53
|
-
|
252
|
252
|
Pierre
LeBoeuf |
72
|
90
|
70
|
87
|
319
|
249
|
Sean
McCulloch |
61
|
90
|
92
|
57
|
300
|
243
|
Mark
Neale |
76
|
85
|
82
|
-
|
243
|
243
|
Pete
Stein |
76
|
111
|
56
|
34
|
276
|
242
|
Joe
Lux |
84
|
69
|
82
|
71
|
306
|
237
|
Mark
Smith |
66
|
0
|
75
|
77
|
218
|
218
|
Arthur
Field |
88
|
106
|
-
|
-
|
194
|
194
|
Ted
Simmons |
-
|
59
|
50
|
71
|
180
|
180
|
Kevin
Sudy |
83
|
88
|
-
|
-
|
171
|
171
|
AJ
Sudy |
93
|
65
|
-
|
-
|
158
|
158
|
Tom
Cannon |
44
|
60
|
51
|
-
|
155
|
155
|
Tom
Browne |
79
|
64
|
-
|
-
|
143
|
143
|
Doug
Mercer |
32
|
61
|
36
|
-
|
129
|
129
|
Kathy Stroh |
69
|
56
|
-
|
-
|
125
|
125
|
Pete Staab |
70
|
51
|
-
|
-
|
121
|
121
|
Marena Tiano |
73
|
48
|
-
|
-
|
121
|
121
|
Jim Vroom |
4
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
4
|
4
|
Manifest
Destiny
Round
1 of the Manifest Destiny tournament kicked off on Friday
afternoon with 15 players. Game
1 saw Tom Browne (Quebec) gain 33
points to blow away his competition. Jim Vroom was a
distant second with 23 points. AJ Sudy, Mark Neale, and Terry
Coleman rounded out the table. In
the second game, Kevin Sudy (Virginia)
edged Kathy Stroh by a point to win. Kevin was
the only person to win with Virgina
all weekend, and he accomplished
the feat twice. Pete Stein,
Pete Staab, and Mareno Tiano also participated
at this table.
Having
both the designer and developer in
the third game brought a wild finish. Designer
Bill Crenshaw held onto a slim lead
over John Coussis, Arthur Field and
Carl Damcke entering the final card
play and purchase phase. It lookeded
like developer Ken Gutermuth
was out of the game. Then Patriotism
allowed play of the Oil Crisis, which
put Ken in a position to make a late
charge in a game that would come
down to Research die rolls. With
three dice and Innovation, Bill managed
to get the last two steps he needed
for e-Commerce. Arthur,
moving before Ken, managed a similar
feat on his Breakthrough, stealing
it away from Ken, who had completed
four steps and was finger four
dice, anxious for the roll. The final standings showed Bill
winning, followed by John, Ken, Arthur
and Carl.
The
second round was the largest of the
tournament, with 17 players participating
in three 4-player games and a 5-player
game during a break in the AoR schedule
on Saturday afternoon. In the 5-player
game, Bill Crenshaw won for a second
straight time as Quebec, narrowly
defeating John Coussis and Kevin
Sudy, who finished ahead of Tom Browne
and Kathy Stroh. In the second game, AJ
Sudy managed the first of his two
wins, this one as Pennsylvania, over
Greg Stripes, Ted Simmons, and Carl
Damcke. In the
third game, Arthur Field won with
nine Breakthrough points over Mareno
Tiano, Mark Neale, and Pete Staab.
In the
final Round 2 game, Eric Wrobel
bought out the progressions and prevailed
over Jim Vroom, Pete Stein, and Ted
Mullally.
When
decision time came on Saturday night—players had to choose
AoR or MFD, the only two-time winner (Bill
Crenshaw) opted for AoR, leaving the field open for
everyone to post a good score and
requiring Bill to have a good last
game to win. Only
eight players chose Manifest Destiny over Age of
Renaissance, for two 4-player games. In
the first game AJ Sudy narrowly
beat Arthur Field by a single Breakthrough
point, as both players bought all
the progressions. Jim
Vroom finished third, followed by Mareno
Tiano. In the other game, Kevin
Sudy, not wanting to be outdone by
his son, prevailed for his second
win as Virginia over Pete
Staab, Kathy Stroh, and Tom Browne.
After
the dust had settled, there
were four legitimate contenders for
the crown—Bill
Crenshaw, Kevin Sudy, AJ Sudy each
had two wins, and Arthur with
a win and a 1-point loss.
The
final round saw 10 players participate
to end Manifest Destiny’s
debut at Enlightenment. In
the first game, the four contenders
were matched up with Pete Staab. When the wailing ended, both
Bill and Arthur were sitting with 24
points in progressions and six points
in Breakthroughs. Arthur’s
$90 cash on hand was more
than enough to win the tiebreaker,
but it left him a percentage point
behind Bill in the overall championship. Kevin
finished third, followed by Pete
Staab and AJ. In the other Sunday
morning game, Tom Browne managed his
second win of the weekend in a game
where only two points separated
first and last. Mark
Neal, Mareno Tiano, and Eric Wrobel
were a point behind Tom, with Kathy
Stroh only two points back.
The
final standings left designer Bill
Crenshaw on top with 313 points,
reigning Caesar Arthur Field in second
with 312 and playtester Kevin Sudy
third with 310 points.
2006 Enlightenment Manifest Destiny Laurelists
|
|
|
1st Place
Bill Crenshaw, VA
|
2nd Place
Arthur
Field, SC
|
3rd Place
Kevin Sudy, VA
|
|
|
|
4th Place
Tom Browne, PA
|
5th Place
AJ Sudy, VA
|
6th Place
Kathy Stroh, DE
|
2006
Enlightenment Manifest Destiny Final
Standings
During
the weekend, a total of 11 games
of Manifest Destiny were played,
with six 5-player games and five
4-player games. Only 18%
of the bids were for more than $5,
with $0 and $5 accounting for 40%
and 42% respectively. Quebec
lead the way, with a $7.5 average
followed by Virginia and Mexico at
$5.5. Quebec
lead the way with three wins (50%)
followed by three for Pennsylvania,
a pair each for Virginia and Mexico, and one for Louisianna.
Double
winners prevailed, as five players
won twice (Bill Crenshaw, Arthur Field, AJ Sudy, Kevin Sudy, Tom
Browne) with Eric Wrobel winning once. Only four buyouts of
all the progressions occurred with two in one game. These
were accomplished by Eric Wrobel in his win, AJ and Arthur in their
first head to head game with AJ prevailing, and Mark Neale who
did not manage to win the game. Kevin Sudy
was the only winner who managed to
win without getting at least five Breakthrough points. None
of the winners had Victory Points for most cities, which was only
awarded in six of the 11 games.
Name
|
1st
Round
|
2nd
Round
|
3rd
Round
|
4th
Round
|
Total
Score
|
Overall
Score
|
Bill
Crenshaw |
107
|
107
|
-
|
99
|
313
|
313
|
Arthur
Field |
84
|
109
|
97
|
106
|
396
|
312
|
Kevin
Sudy |
106
|
97
|
107
|
83
|
393
|
310
|
Tom
Browne |
108
|
81
|
72
|
107
|
368
|
296
|
AJ
Sudy |
64
|
106
|
106
|
80
|
356
|
292
|
Kathy
Stroh |
97
|
81
|
81
|
94
|
353
|
272
|
Marena
Tiano |
90
|
72
|
78
|
97
|
337
|
265
|
Pete
Staab |
90
|
67
|
94
|
80
|
331
|
264
|
Jim
Vroom |
70
|
77
|
84
|
-
|
231
|
231
|
Mark
Neale |
64
|
67
|
-
|
97
|
228
|
228
|
Eric
Wrobel |
xx
|
108
|
-
|
97
|
205
|
205
|
John
Coussis |
94
|
97
|
-
|
-
|
191
|
191
|
Carl
Damcke |
75
|
84
|
-
|
-
|
159
|
159
|
Pete
Stein |
93
|
54
|
-
|
-
|
147
|
147
|
Greg
Stripes |
-
|
94
|
-
|
-
|
94
|
94
|
Ted
Simmons |
-
|
91
|
-
|
-
|
91
|
91
|
Ken
Gutermuth |
88
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
88
|
88
|
Terry
Coleman |
52
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
52
|
52
|
Ted
Mullally |
-
|
49
|
-
|
-
|
49
|
49
|
|