"Garden Party" lights bring illumination to the Reformation.	Dennis Mishler and Chris Trimmer show 'em how its played in Texas.
Justin Rice, Jim Stanard and Charley Hickok debate religion with dice.	Peter Pollard eyes his hand while planning a surprise for Mark Hodgkinson.

"You Shall Jilt No More!"

Opening Heats

The inaugural Virgin Queen tournament launched during the Sunday precon and attracted 44 players. This dedicated tournament followed up on the successful use of VGQ as an optional scenario for the preliminary rounds of the Here I Stand event the previous year. We had six full 6-player games in the first heat and five more in the second heat. About half the attendees were new participants who hadn't previously entered Here I Stand. However, seven of the winners in the first round were former HIS finalists: Justin Rice, Jonathan Tarquino, Kirk Harris, Mathieu Pare-Paquin, Nick Benedict, Dan Hoffman, and Michael Kiefte. The other winners were Jeff Heidman, Chris Trimmer, Justin Morgan, and Tom Vickery. Several players came into this round with strategies aiming for quick knockout automatic victories. We saw two Protestant military victories, two Spanish military victories, and even two Spanish Gunpowder Plot wins in just 11 games! Although not victorious, Jeff Gray should be commended for leading the Holy Roman army all the way to a conquest of Istanbul. The wins by power differed greatly from the eight VGQ games held the previous year: there were five Spanish wins in 2013 but none in 2012. Likewise the Ottomans who won three games last year failed to taste victory in 2013.

Semifinals

Having warmed up with the opening heats on the first day of the tournament, ten of our game winners joined eight alternates in the semifinals the next morning. With a more veteran group of players, the heat was turned up immediately. Within one semifinal game there were five successful assassinations. The most rare marriage result, "Husband Murdered" kept appearing: we had five such doomed unions by the end of the tournament. And assistant convention director Kaarin Engelmann was having nothing to do with the possibility of being jilted at the altar by Justin Rice's Queen Elizabeth. After her Spanish assassin achieved the incredibly difficult task of slaying Elizabeth, Kaarin turned to Justin and loudly declared "You shall jilt no more!"

That vicious game was the closest of the tournament. Newcomer Max Duboff managed to secure the first-ever Holy Roman victory by a tiebreaker with final scores of:

· Holy Roman: 25, Max Duboff

· Ottoman: 25, Ed Rothenheber

· England: 25, Justin Rice (quite a feat without Elizabeth's help!)

· Protestant: 24, Michael Kiefte

· Spain: 24, Kaarin Engelmann

· France: 23, Henry Russell

Ed and Justin were close enough to secure two of the three wildcard slots for the Final.

The rest of the semifinals were dominated by Elizabeth and her Sea Dogs. English wins were achieved on Turn 5 by Jim Stanard (28 VP) and Jeff Heidman (27 VP). The third alternate for the Final was Mathieu Pare-Paquin who steered the Ottoman to 25 VP in the semi that Jim Stanard dominated.

FINAL

Power selection for the final was as follows: Jim Stanard (England), Jeff Heidman (Protestant), Max Duboff (Ottoman), Justin Rice (Spain), Mathieu Pare-Paquin (HRE), and Ed Rothenheber (France).

Turn-by-turn highlights of the three-turn Final are included below.

Turn 3

· Spanish fleet at Messina defeated; Ottomans take Malta soon thereafter.

· Dutch Revolt comes out before Protestants make headway (+3 VP to Spain)

· Metz revolts from France and is successfully sieged by HRE.

· Catholics ascendant in Scotland; France becomes new ally.

· Dee hunts for the Philosopher's Stone (but in retaliation the HRE loses a card to Witchcraft).

· Sir Francis Drake's piracy nets 2 VP and 1 treasure.

· Marriages are quite profitable: Philip II to Marguerite de Valois (+1 card); Henry III to Elisabeth of Austria (+1 card); Navarre to Anna of Austria (+2 VP); Charles IX to a Protestant Louise of Lorraine (+2 VP).

VP: Spain (17), Ottoman (16), Protestant (16), France (15), England (13), HRE (13),

Turn 4

· Spain pays a card of tribute to the Ottoman to receive a peace deal.

· Le Testu controls the weather (Storms card) slowing down Drake so Le Testu can finish circumnavigating first.

· Henry of Navarre is captured by the Spanish in the Siege of Lyon.

· Although the HRE agreed to a hands off policy with the Ottoman, the deal is broken late in the turn. The HRE plants an Informant and then succeeds in assassinating Grand Vizier Mehmed. In retaliation the Ottoman pay War with Poland.

· Protestants make headway in the Netherlands with Sea Beggars event and a rebellion in Dunkirk.

· Lots of successful Patronage: Ottoman/Sinan +3 VP, Spain/El Greco + 2 VP, Protestant/Palladio +2 VP, France/de l'Orme +1 VP, Dee +1 VP. Finally Mercator becomes the Father of Modern Science (+2 VP and Ravelin science bonus).

VP: Ottoman (20), France (19), Spain (18), Protestant (17), England (17), HRE (17).

Turn 5

· Despite the Holy Roman Treachery with the previous turn's assassination, the two powers ally during announcements. Ottomans go back to war with Spain.

· Ottomans fail for the third time to build the Suez canal. The die roll was "1" each time!

· Spain begins to focus on England: Armada built and Informant and Jesuit go to England

· Drake scores another VP in piracy and finishes the second Circumnavigation

· HRE patronizes Tintoretto and finishes foreign war with Poland.

· HRE plays Holy League late in the turn and succeeds in gaining alliances with the Papacy and Venice. This will turn out to be enough VP for them to just reach 25 VP.

VP: HRE (25), Ottoman (22), France (21), England (20), Protestant (19), Spain (16). Mathieu Pare-Paquin wins the inaugural WBC plaque for Virgin Queen and becomes the first player to have a title in both VGQ and HIS (he won HIS last year).

PLAY BALANCE

Between 2012 and 2013 we have now held 23 games of Virgin Queen at WBC. Victories by power are as follows:

· Ottoman: 3

· Spain: 5

· England: 4 (including two in the semis)

· France: 3

· HRE: 2 (including one in the semis and one in the Final)

· Protestant: 6

For the moment it doesn't look like we're going to have to make any play balance tweaks to even out the powers; the Holy Romans who are trailing in wins are making up for that nicely by winning when it really counts.

Virgin Queen GM and designer Ed Beach (center) presents his initial laurelists from left to right; James Stanard, Justin Rice, Ed Rothenheber, Mathieu Pare-Paquin, Max DuBoff and Jeff Heidman.