definitely a Hershey fan
A sweet aspect of John Jacoby's Circus Maximus event is
that he rewards the first driver into each turn with a Hershey's
Kiss. The candies replace the dolphins which were upturned in
the Roman Colosseum to record the number of laps run.
Best Quote of the Tournament: "DEAD DRIVERS DON'T
EAT CHOCOLATE."
The finals of Circus Maximus had 14 entrants qualified,
which should have been a bloodbath. When only eight drivers showed
up, a much more peaceful event was forecast. When the chariots
chosen were revealed, there were six light and two medium chariots
running. There were NO HEAVY Chariots. It was rumored that the
Roman SPCA was the true sponsor of the race. Boy were they wrong.
The
race started quietly with all chariots out of the starting gate
with no attacks. Turn 2 had the medium White chariot starting
the carnage by putting three hits on Blue's left wheel. He also
traded a hit on Red's left wheel for one on his own right wheel.
On turn 3 White demonstrated once again how to damage two wheels
with one attack... two hits on Orange's left wheel
for two more hits on his own right wheel. The other medium chariot,
Gold, seeing three hits self-inflicted by White, decided
that horses were safer targets. Blue evaded, but Red found that
four hits were enough to kill his #4 horse. The kinder, gentler,
little race was fast turning ugly.
On turn 4 Gold attacked Blue's wheels but managed only one
hit on his own left wheel. Gold then put a hit on Blue's
outside horse. White missed the Green chariot wheels. Red failed
to cut loose his dead horse. On turn 5 Gold missed the
Green, Purple and Yellow chariot wheels. White put two hits on
the Red horse while he could not evade. After cutting loose,
Red was down tone and a half horses and was studiously ignored
by the medium chariots for the rest of the race for obvious reasons.
On turn 6 Gold successfully (?) attacked Green's wheels:
three points of damage were inflicted to Green's right wheel,
at a cost of one more damage to his own left wheel. When Gold
entered the 9 speed lane at 6 over, his right hand horse strained
a hamhock and took one damage. Turn 7 and 8 were spent with all
of the light chariots braking out of Gold and White's way.
At the halfway point in the race, Blue, White and Green all
had three hits on a wheel and Orange had two. Gold had two hits
on both wheels. Red had only one wheel hit but was short a horse
and making do with a pony for his third. Only Purple and Yellow
had undamaged wheels, but it was not through any lack of trying
by other drivers. The Chariot Wheel Manufacturers Guild was torn
between thoughts of joy at the profits to be made in repairing
all of those wheels, and the thought of a mass chariot flip spectacle
since no one was slowing down.
On turn 9 the light chariots joined the fight with Purple,
Red and Yellow attacking. The result was a wound on White's
driver. Not much of note happened thereafter until the final
turn was entered on turn 12. Orange, in a desperate attempt to
take the lead, flipped after entering the turn at 13 over the
speed limit. With 10 points on his large muscular driver, he
decided to body surf his way home. On turn 13 Yellow lashed White
and lost his whip. This turned out to be what lost yellow first
place.
Green, threw caution to the wind and went nine over in the 8
lane. Since this ran him out of endurance, he flipped. The surfing
competition was on between Orange and Green. Red seeing a strong
driver surfing by with faster horses than his, trampled
Green...but only got two hits. Green still lived and was only
two turns from the finish line.
On turn 14 Blue came from the back of the pack and went through
lane 8 at 11 over. Unlike the other suicidal drivers, he passed
his corner roll with a '6' three-die roll modified to 4 by his
CDM. White attacked the second place Yellow unsuccessfully.
He then put two hits on the left hand wheel of the leading Purple
chariot and followed that with two hits on the Purple horses.
Red hit the Gold horses for a point of damage. The Green dragged
driver had only two points left but he was only four squares
from the finish line. Purple whipped his horses and came up one
day late and a dollar short. His horses were over the finish
line but his chariot was not.
On the final turn all of White's attacks failed. Gold decided
that the only way that he could improve his position was to attack
purple's wheels and flip the chariot onto the driver so that
the driver would die by being dragged over a wreck. Purple took
three more hits on his left wheel for a total of 5 at a cost
of two to Gold's right wheel. Both passed their wheel checks.
Yellow, who, having lost his whip, could not could not increase
his speed over purple, and was helpless to affect the finish
when purple went next. The Green driver would have taken 3rd
place except that he expired as he passed the finish line. The
Orange driver survived his drag to the finish line.
The final result was as follows:
1st |
Purple |
Steve Katz |
Light |
2nd |
Yellow |
Tom Saal |
Light |
3rd |
Blue |
Anthony Musella |
Light |
4th |
Orange |
Alfred Wong |
Light |
5th |
Red |
Mike Hazel |
Light |
6th |
Gold |
Carl Sykes |
Medium |
7th |
White |
Barry Smith |
Medium |
8th |
Green |
Jeff Power |
Light |
The Chariot Wheel Manufacturers Guild was overjoyed with the
results of the race. With a total of 21 wheel hits
distributed over eight chariots, not one chariot had flipped
by failing their wheel check and testimonials were sung from
every chariot dealer. There were many new wheel warranties written
the next day for all wheels sold in Rome.
For more details on the game Circus Maximus we suggest
you visit: http://pbem.brainiac.com/circmax/
The
Junior version drew 17 little charioteers - making it the most
popular of the juniors events at WBC 2001. When the dust settled,
the winners were:
1st.
Jed Shambeda
2nd. Angela Collinson
3rd. Erin Treadway
4th. Erica Kirchner
5th. Jordan Flawd
6th. John Miklos
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