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Enlightenment XIII...End of an Era

Enlightenment XIII marked the end of the longest running BPA mini-con. 25 players made an appearance for at least one game of Age of Renaissance. The players are to be congratulated for their support of this fading favorite. Even in its final year in a terrible economy, they managed to draw the requisite minimum 25 players for a quality tournament. Rising costs and the lack of sufficient pre-registration commitment brought about the decision to pull the plug on this dedicated play weekend. Although we did manage sufficient participation to keep the conference going another year, it was decided that the event had been "on the bubble" too long and that it was better to go out on a good note rather than risk drawing players back for another try only to have them disappointed by the turnout. Pre-registration is important to event organizers as costs are directly proportional to the number of players who book within our room block. Those who "walk on" at the last moment, though welcome additions, do not contribute to the lowering of costs by booking rooms after the deadline that do not count for satisfying our roomblock commitment. Then too, BPA is committed to providing quality boardgame tournaments and that means promising the public a high likelihood that their travel will be rewarded with participation worth the trip. When pre-registration totals fall well below the total needed, discretion becomes the better part of valor.

Friday evening's opening round found 24 players contesting four 5-player games and a 4-player match.  Terry Coleman, Ken Gutermuth, Steve Simons, Carl Damcke, and Eric Wrobel emerged as the early leaders with opening Round victories. In the first game finished, Ken's Barcelona was able to purchase Interest & Profits and Industry on the last turn to fend off a challenge from Greg Stripes' Paris and earn his first win of the weekend. Pete Staab managed his misery to stay within striking distance and finish third as Venice. Kurt Miller had an early lead as Genoa but couldn't withstand the anti-leader coalition onslaught that brought him back to the pack. Jeff Ridenour ran into misery problems as London. 

In one of the closest games of the weekend, Steve Simmons' Barcelona held off Mark Smith (Venice), Bill Crenshaw (Genoa), and Tom Browne (Paris) as the top four remained within 85 points. Eric Kliest's London was not able to maintain that pace. Eric Wrobel, who had won his first two games of Manifest Destiny earlier on Friday continued his winning ways, buying all advances as Paris, to narrowly top Eric Eshleman's Barcelona who also managed all advances.  Rounding out the table were Pierre LeBeouf as London, Ted Simmons as Genoa, and newcomer Brian Fender as Venice. Tedd Mullally bought all advances as Genoa but couldn't overcome his misery deficit as Terry Coleman's Paris passed Tedd by 19 points.  Rodd Polsky as Venice, Jeff Mullet as London, and Kevin Sudy as Barcelona rounded out the table. In our only 4-player game of Round 1,  Carl Damcke's Paris bought all the advances and won by a comfortable margin.  John Stevens' Genoa, Derek Landel's Venice, and Rob Kircher's Barcelona kept close proximity to each other in the pack but couldn't threaten Carl.

Saturday morning found another 24 participants answer the bell with Mike Cannon joining the action while Eric Kliest was not up to the morning session. There were once again four 5-player games and a 4-player match. At the winners table, Terry Coleman emerged victorious to become the early target as the first dual winner. Joining Terry in the Round 2 winners circle were Bill Crenshaw, Mark Smith, Ted Simmons, and Jeff Ridenour. Eric W. took an early London lead at the leaders table but it proved his undoing as he was devastated with Civil War, Alchemist's Gold and Black Death on the same turn. When the bodies were buried, Terry's Venice emerged at the head of the pack.  Steve Simmons couldn't get the late payouts to make up the difference and finished second as Genoa.  Ken, with Barcelona took third while Carl, as Paris again, finished 4th. With the only buyout of the second round, Bill, with Paris, finished ahead of Pierre, Rodd, Pete S, and Derek. Mark finished with some large payouts to outdistance Greg, Eric E., Tedd M., and John for his first win of the weekend. Ted S. got back to his winning ways as defending WBC champ buy leveraging a 150 point misery lead into a 50 point win over Rob, Kurt, Tom, and Jeff M.  The top four players all resided within 5% of each other. Jeff R. rounded out the Saturday morning winners by narrowly topping Brian by 19 thanks to his 300 misery lead. Mike Cannon was also within 38 while Kevin Sudy, victorious in Manifest Destiny, continued to struggle in AOR.

With three games of Manifest Destiny and two of AoR completed by the 6:30 Saturday evening start, exhaustion started to exact its toll but the third round nonetheless saw all 25 players manning five 5-player games.  Terry Coleman, who ranked just 44th in AOR laurels going into the weekend, pulled off the incredible by winning his third straight game.  Ken Gutermuth kept Terry within sight by gaining his second victory.  Greg Stripes, Tom Browne, and Jeff Mullet joined the winners circle with their first triumphs of the weekend. At the winner's Table, Terry overcame a deficit in advances and misery with a late Spice run leaving him with the largest single game cash total of the tournament.  Jeff R took 2nd followed by Bill, Mark, and Ted S. Ken used a late Fur run to catapult ahead of his board and keep his fading hopes alive for another Enlightenment championship.  Eric E, Rodd P. Mike C, and Kurt M fell to the typical Ken Late commodity run. Greg Stripes emerged with a rare London victory to get into the winner's club by defeating Steve S, Pierre, Brian, and Rob. Tom Browne finally broke out of his "close but no cigar" weekend, edging out Pete to keep his hopes alive for a plaque.  Pete was followed by Kevin, Tedd M, and Carl. Jeff M, avenged the loss of his beloved OSU Buckeyes in the NCAA tournament by Defeating Eric W, Derek, Eric K, and John.

For the first time in several years, Sunday morning saw only two with a shot at the title, undefeated Terry Coleman and defending Enlightenment champ Ken Gutermuth. In the Enlightenment format which has a decision point in Round 4 with MFD and AOR overlapping on Sunday, Ken had a tough decision to make, sitting in second in both tournaments.  He decided to play Manifest since he was at Terry's table in AOR and was sure to get Terry's undivided attention - since the latter did not have to win his fourth game to win the tournament provided he could prevent Ken from gaining his third win. This decision by the #3 laurelist gave Terry Coleman his first Enlightenment and AoR crown. 

With AoR thus decided, Jeff M joined Ken at Manifest, leaving only 14 players for Sunday morning's anticlimactic AoR Round 4. Tom Browne managed to join the double winners edging Greg Stripes at the winner's table. Pete finished third while Terry finally tasted defeat at 4th and Jeff R finished last. Mark Smith avenged Kentucky's loss and claimed second place overall, as he managed his second win by buying out and holding off John Stevens, Ted Simmons, and Mike Cannon. Eric Eshleman finished the weekend with his first win on a buyout to defeat Rodd, Steve, Pierre, and Carl. Terry, with his three wins posted a score of 320 to win his first Enlightenment.  Mark Smith took 2nd with 309, followed by Tom Browne in 3rd with 307, Ken Gutermuth in 4th with 302, Greg Stripes in 5th with 297, and Bill Crenshaw in 6th with 291.

1st: Terry Coleman, CA (320)	2nd: Mark Smith, KY (309)	3rd: Tom Browne, PA (307)
4th: Ken Gutermuth, NC (302)	5th: Greg Stripes, WA (297)	6th: Bill Crenshaw, VA (291)

In a rarity for the final Enlightenment, the last three woods for both events were won in pairs by the same players, as Ken managed 4th, Greg 5th, and Bill claimed 6th in both tournaments. Overall, 18 games were played: fifteen 5-player contests and three 4-player games. With mainly 5-player games, Paris led the way with seven wins followed by Barcelona with five. Genoa had three while Venice managed only two and London but one. We had 13 different winners with champion Terry Coleman claiming three wins, and Mark Smith, Tom Browne, and Ken Gutermuth two each. With no six-player games, Capital bidding decreased slightly with 42 of the 87 bids being zero.  There were no bids over 3 and only 16 3 bids.  Barcelona led the way with a 1.9 average bid, followed by Paris 1.2, Venice 0.8, Genoa 0.6, and London 0.3. Six Players managed to buy all the advances with two occurring in losses (Eric E and Tedd M).  Players buying out included Eric Eshleman (twice), Tedd Mullally, Mark Smith, Bill Crenshaw, Eric Wrobel, and Carl Damcke. For the second straight year, no one reached the CHAOS space of the misery track.

The Final Standings were as follows:

1998, 2001, 2005 Bill Crenshaw, VA	1999 James Pei, TX	2000 Tom Taaffe, VA	2002 John Coussis, IL	2003 Chris Byrd, CT
2004, 2006 Jeff Mullet, OH	2007, 2009 Ken Gutermuth, NC	2008 Steve Simmons, NJ	2010 Terry Coleman, CA

Kevin Sudy won the Manifest Destiny tournament at Enlightenment, coming on strong by winning his last two games to track down early leader Eric Wrobel, who had won his first two games and finished third overall.  Jeff Mullet won his first and his last game, beating Eric and thereby overtaking him for second place. Game developer Ken Gutermuth, who had a win and a tie finished 4th, while Greg Stripes parlayed his first ever MFD win and a close second to finish 5th overall and game designer/defending champ Bill Crenshaw narrowly grabbed the 6th, and last, plaque over Rob Kircher.

In the final game, Kevin, as Virginia, rode his early high Profit, shrewd negotiating skills and timely breakthrough rolls to victory. Rob, as Louisiana, came out of the gate as a research maven, hitting Mech on Turn 2 and Turnpike on Turn 3 as everyone else flailed. Ken, as Pennsylvania, quickly took over the VP lead, taking Rob’s cities as fast as Rob could build them. Bill, as Mexico, struggled mightily, with bad research rolls and low Profit (including a total of 10 Profit reductions as a result of holding too many cards). In the middle of Era 2, Kevin, already owning Motion Pictures, played Edison, filling in the step to Electricity that Ken was missing. When Ken refused to collaborate, Kevin Civil Warred him, which Ken countered with Lincoln and Kevin nullified with President. After much deliberation Bill pointed out that Lincoln gave Ken his missing step to Patriotism. Kevin allowed Ken to collaborate on Edison, giving Ken the missing Electricity steps and allowing Kevin to snag Storytelling before Bill or Rob (and leaving them without anything to research). On the last turn, Kevin got $70 as a secondary payout on Gold from a Gold-Tourists deal between Bill and Rob and timely played World War to hit Ken for most VPs, Rob for highest Profit and Bill for most cash, followed by IRS on Bill (who had used Trading Post to take five cities the prior turn and appeared to be poised for a late run), Depression and Sabotage. Kevin then hit his Rock ‘n Roll Research roll to get to 30 VPs, beating Rob by 3 and Ken and Bill by 5.   

1st: Kevin Sudy, VA	2nd: Jeff Mullet, OH	3rd: Eric Wrobel, VA
4th: Ken Gutermuth, NC	5th: Greg Stripes, WA	6th: Bill Crenshaw, VA

Former Enlightenment Manifest Destiny Champions

2008 Ewan McNay, CT	2009 Bill Crenshaw, VA	2010 Kevin Sudy, VA