Enlightenment IX Results
April 7, 2006

Archives: 2010 |  2009 |  2008 |  2007 |  2006 |  2005 |  2004 |  2003 |  2002 |  2001 |  2000 |  1999

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
Boardgame Players Association Last updated 4/7/2006 by kae.
© Copyright 2005 by the Boardgame Players Association.
Trademarks are property of their respective holders.