britannia [Updated August 2001]

BRI  6 prizes Experienced Swiss Elim Scheduled 
  Rnd1 Heat1  10
  Rnd1 Heat2  15   Rnd1 Heat3  9 Rnd1 Heat4 16  Round 2  20  Semi
  Round 3  15  Final    

  Rnd1 Heat1  Round 3 Maryland 3 Rnd1 Heat2 Rnd1 Heat3 Rnd1 Heat4 Round 2 Maryland 4  

Mark Smith, KY

2001 Champion

2nd: Nick Benedict, ONT

3rd: Ewan McNay, CT

4th: David Gantt, SC

5th: James Jordan, MD

6th: Scott Pfeiffer, SC
Event History
1991    Richard Curtin      39
1992    Duane Wagner      53
1993    Brett Mingo      91
1994    Scott Pfeiffer      73
1995    Randy Schib      69
1996    Scott Pfeiffer      55
1997    David Gantt      52
1998    Jim Jordan      49
1999    Scott Pfeiffer     46
2000    Ewan McNay     62
2001    Mark Smith     42

AREA Ratings:

GM: James Jordan

The First of the Fast Forward History Games ...

It was not a quiet week on the British Isles. It was another great tournament with lots of good solid play and many more even games, including the final. The high scores were off this year as the competitors showed that they had learned from last year's astronomical high scores and whacked away with great gusto at anyone with a high score.

Fortunately, for all the smackings, the Roman's didn't wash on the beach as badly as last year . While there were some long lived Romano-British. one has to admit that Roman-British lasting until turn 13 or 14 is just a bit disturbing.

Ewan McNay returned to capture another Purple high score plaque with 123.5 points. 59 point Romans and 31 point Scots will make a difference. Tim Kniker took the Best Green plaque with a score of 114.5. Tim's troops just did well all across the board, including 10 points for the Jutes! In a curious twist, Tim's score was not the highest of the green scores though. Mark Smith came in second with green with 123.5 points...he was second to the massive blue score of 132 for Neil Whyman. But the 132 yielded to a Best Blue of 135 for John Emory whose Picts alone pulled in 45 points, including 17 at the end. The high red score went to yours truly with a purely lucky score of 130.5.

The semi-finals included lots of past champions, four of whom ended stuck in the same game. Whew, what a game that was! It definitely felt like a final to have Pfeiffer, Gannt, Mingo and Jordan going after each other tooth and nail. Anyway, the final included two former champions, David Gannt and Ewan McNay, one former finalist, Nick Benedict, and Mark Smith. Naturally enough, to give it all away, Mark Smith won the game, but not without a fight! David played green, Ewan red, Nick blue, and Mark purple.

To quote from Ewan, "The big story of the game was that mountains were no place to hide." Time and again rolls that would normally have gone to armies holed up in the mountains went sour. It rather looked like artillery had made an early entrance into the British Isles. Ewan was a primary sufferer in the mountains, losing two armies each in battles in the Orknies, Hebrides and Galloway, each to three stacks, while his armies inflicted no casualties.

Otherwise, the final looked like a fairly normal game. The end proved quite interesting though. The Saxons actually managed to pull off a double defense and stack high against Mark Smith's Norwegians in York, it being quite obvious that Mark was winning at that point (although he didn't believe it.) After fending off the Norwegians, the Saxons headed south to take on the Normans. Nick's Norman dice were very hot though and they rolled up the Saxons like a cheap suit.

Nonetheless, the game came down to Nick winning on a roll to tie for second, but then losing the roll that would have won the game. And at the last it was nice and tight with Mark's purple scoring 106, Nick's blue taking second with 104 and winning the dice off battle against Ewan's red 104 while David's green came last with a still respectable score of 96. All in all, a finely played close game that came down to the final turn.

On choosing colors for next year, well, I really liked the high die roll selecting their color first, so that practice will continue. Also, officially, the final will be random color draw. The winner should be able to play any color well. Each of these tournament rules worked well this year and I'd like to see them continued.

A note on the prizes for next year's tournament. Normally, the winner of the Britannia tournament has their name enscribed on the silver Britannia plaque. In addition to this, by virtue of an anonymous donation by a member of the Britannia community, the winner will also receive a signed, framed print of the Battle of Hastings. Naturally, the usual awards for "Best" color will be given for the top scoring winners in each color in the heats preceding the semi-finals.

The Maryland Ballroom hums to the rise and fall of cultures in one of Britannia's four heats.
 GM      James M. Jordan  [3rd Year]  NA
    NA   NA

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