circus maximus [Updated October 2002]

CMS  6 prizes Beginners Mult Ent Sing Elim Scheduled 
  Rnd1 Heat1  18   16  Rnd1 Heat2  10
  Rnd1 Heat3  9  Rnd1 Heat4   9
   Round 2  Final  9

  Salon B

Steve Katz, VA

2001-2002 Champion

2nd: Bill Beckman, SC

3rd: Tim Dolan, NJ

4th: Carl Walling III, PA

5th: John Tighe, NJ

6th: Francis Spencer, MD

Event History
1991    Tim Flanigan      54
1992    Jeff Barnum      67
1993    Barry Smith      35
1994    Mike Stanley      47
1995    Mike Pantaleano      72
1996    Bruce Monnin      64
1997    John Jacoby      72
1998    Mike Stanley      84
1999    Frank Sinigaglio     74
2000    Mike Stanley     85
2001    Steve Katz     76
2002    Steve Katz     71


AREA Ratings


GM: John Jacoby

Best GM Award 2002

Past Winners

1991: Tim Flanigan - IA
1992: Jeff Barnum - MI
1995: Mike Pantaleano - DE

Barry Smith - NY
1993

Mike Stanley - OH
1994, 1998, 2000

Bruce Monnin - OH
1996

John Jacoby - VA
1997

Frank Sinigaglio - NJ
1999

Steve Katz - VA
2001
       
 

blood amongst the kisses

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: "But he can't attack me from there, can he?"

Fifteen entrants qualified for the finals and when 14 arrived to do the deed, a bloodbath was assurred. Five lights and two mediums provided the fodder for seven heavy chariots. The Roman SPCA was not happy about the prospects.

To no one's surprise, the race started violently with the heavy Zebra attacking the medium Blue which evaded. The heavy Bear had more luck against the light Gold, who took seven hits to his left wheel at the cost of one hit to the Bear's right. The Bear then added injury to insult with a point of damage to the Gold horses for good measure. Unity broke down when the heavy Leopard got carried away by the feeding frenzy and attacked the heavy White horses for four hits.

On Turn 2, Orange burned 22 of his remaining 24 endurance when his chit was drawn first and his boxed-in chariot had no place to move. The brakes they put on these things! The badly damaged Gold, realizing his days were numbered and thirsting for revenge, whipped the Bear driver to no effect. Enraged, he repeated the whipping against the heavy Zebra drver who swerved into an involuntary attack into the Blue horses for four hits. The heavy Leopard took two hits out of the Pink horses and then went after Gold's wheels. Gold took six hits on its right wheel - those discount wheel salesmen will get ya every time - while Leopard suffered two hits to his left wheel which cracked some more when Leopard rolled snakeeyes for a third hit. The White heavy did three damage to Zebra horseflesh which Zebra then repaid in kind with four hits on Gold animals.

On Turn 3, the heavy Leopard learned that aggression does not always pay when he took three hits to his own right wheel while inflicting none on his Green medium target. Not deterred, Leopard aimed at the Green horses and dropped their #4 horse in his tracks. Thus inspired, Leopard attacked Black's team for six hits. This was too much mayhem even for the Gods as all remaining attacks in this turn and the next failed.

Turn 5 saw them enter the back stretch led by Yellow with Pink, Gray, Zebra, Black and White in hot pursuit and the rest of the field trailing still in the corner. Leopard renewed the bloodshed with one hit on Black horseflesh. The heavy Zebra put five points on the Pink right wheel which quickly cracked further to six damage and then flipped from the accumulated wheel stress.

Turn 6 sees the end of the Orange endurance thanks to Gray's whip. Leopard fells the damaged Black horse and adds two more hits versus the White team.

Bear opens Turn 7 with one hit vs the Red horses. Brown takes four bites out of Yellow's horses and then continues to draw the SPCA's attention with five more hits on the Red team.

Turn 8 saw Yellow 19, Brown 20, and Gray 21 enter the second turn with the rest of the pack falling behind. Gray lashed the Brown horses for five endurance (reducing them to a total of six left). Brown was jostled at 1 over the limit but managed to attack the Gray horses for one hit.

Turn 9 saw Gray's endurance dropped twice more by Bear and Red. The next turn Gray attacks Bear who evades against the wall but suffers three damage to his horses on the next attack. Zebra put an additional hit on the Orange team.

Turn 11 opens with the dropping of a Blue horse by Zebra as White takes another horse hit courtesy of Red. The next turn sees an attack on Red forcing him to brake, and reducing his endurance to 2, before Zebra puts the beast out of its misery for good. Brown loses endurance and Green takes two horse hits.

Turn 13 proves unlucky for Black who flips while straining in the curve and takes an early exit.

Entering the last corner, Yellow (moving only 9 and out of endurance), Brown, Gray, Bear, White and Zebra are leading with the rest far behind. Turn 14 costs Gray his whip as Brown relieves him of it, but nonetheless puts a hit on the Brown horses. Brown returns the favor with one point of damage to the Grays. Turn 15 costs Zebra two horse hits and Bear one courtesy of White. Gray's attack forces Brown to use the last of his endurance, which he responds to by killing a Gray horse.

By this time, the speed of the race is very slow due to the sorry condition of everyone's remaining horses, but five leaders still remain in contention. Turn 18 finds Brown but four squares from victory, Gray 20, Bear 24, and Zebra and White still in the last curve. Bear needed a 6 whip to catch Brown but rolled a 1, thus ending his chances. The Brown Heavy staggers over the line to take first for an unprecedented back-to-back CMS championship for Steve Katz. Zebra kills a Gray horse - and Gray's troubles increase when he fails to cut it loose in his turn.

Turn 19 has Bear, Zebra, Gray and White limping down the backstretch. Zebra adds four damage to Bear. Gray manages to cut loose from his dead horse and move all of two spaces. Second is still up for grabs with the contenders 4, 5, 7 and 18 spaces away. Turn 20 sees the Bear's chit drawn first and he limps ovber the line for second. White passed Zebra by one space for third. Gray took fifth, leaving Blue and Red to fight it out for 6th - a race won by Blue's double digit endurance.

Thus ended one of the bloodiest races in CMS history. The first five places went to heavy chariots. The only surviving light finished 7th.

The Used Chariot Wheel Manufacturer's Guild was overjoyed. With 27 wheel hits, the smithies would be busy tomorrow. As for the fans, they were delirious. 83 hits on the horses had left four of the animals dead and the emperor declared free hamburgers for the multitude.

The final result was as follows:
 1st Brown Steve Katz Heavy
 2nd Bear Bill Beckman Heavy
 3rd White Tim Dolan Heavy
 4th Zebra Carl Walling III Heavy
 5th Red John Tighe Heavy
 6th Blue Francis Spencer Medium
 7th Red Mike Stanley Light
 8th Yellow Russ Price Light
9th Leopard Brian Conlon Heavy
10th Green Tom Stokes Medium
11th Orange Alfred Wong Light
12th Black Frank Sinigaglio Heavy
13th Gold Steve Munchak Light
14th Pink Tom Saal Light


For more details on the game Circus Maximus we suggest you visit: http://pbem.brainiac.com/circmax/


 The Junior version drew a record 31 little charioteers - making it the most popular of the juniors events at WBC. Many thanks to Kaarin Englemann and Rebecca Hebner for taking over this difficult event. When the dust settled, the winners were:

1st. Lissa Rennert

2nd. Matt Beach

3rd. Rebekah Broh-Kahn

4th. Jacob Hebner

5th. Nick Dalt

6th. Alex Henning

This year we had record turnout, which is both a blessing and a curse when it comes to a Juniors tournament. We had prepared two boards and two sets of chariot miniatures, which meant we could accommodate only 24 of the 31 Juniors who came to play. In order to include everyone, we asked for volunteers to play on teams-taking turns moving the chariot and rolling dice. I am happy to say that everyone was able to partake in chariot mayhem (and there were only a few arguments about whether or not a horse should be whipped or an attack should take place)! Despite the fact there were two boards, all of the Juniors were racing together-when the red chariot moved on one board, the red chariot moved on the other board also, and whichever chariot on either track crossed the finish line first was the winner, and so on.

Initially, Frank Sinigaglio, former Circus Maximus champion and excellent assistant GM, and I didn't pay close enough attention to the type of chariots the Juniors had selected. This meant that one board ended up with fast and light or medium chariots, while the other one ended up with heavy chariots-motivated by blood lust and attacking instead of moving. Before long, it was evident that the Juniors who thought Circus Maximus was simply a horse race would thoroughly trounce the ones who thought it was roller derby. (Remember, they were all racing for the same finish line.)

We paused after turn three and rearranged the chariots a bit. Three of the heavier chariots were moved to the fast board and vice versa. We were impressed that we had no complaints. Five-year-old Lissa Rennert with a light chariot running at 24-even without whipping-went from far in the lead on the fast board, to right in the middle of a pack of caroming heavy chariots on the other and still maintained her confidence (and managed to gain back her lead). The change worked out well in terms of the time required for each board each turn and keeping the packs together.

It must have gone well because the chanting of "Alpo", "Pink" (for the Pink chariot), and "Flip" could be heard well out into the corridor. After 4-1/2 hours, the race had to be adjudicated, even though the Juniors had only managed to finish 1-1/2 laps (of a 2-lap race)! Overall, we handed out 22 medals and some miscellaneous awards, including the Alpo Award (a bag of dog food), which went to Sarah Welker who had her horses chewed up by attacking chariots and the Roadkill Award (a stuffed animal with chariot marks on it), which went to Daniel Winemiller, Patrick Crowe and Zack Dunn who were killed by being run over on the track after their chariot flipped).

Overall, the tournament went well (only a few tears), but everything took too long. (Even the children were starting to fade toward the end.) Frank and I are already discussing creating a variant that we'll use next year to expedite play, while still allowing all of the children who sign up to participate.

A special thanks goes out to Frank Sinigaglio and Rebecca Hebner for acting as assistant GMs and Jake Jacoby for providing the boards, chariots, and medals.

 GM     John M. Jacoby [4th year] 102 Deerwood Rd., Charlottesville, VA 22911
   NA NA

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