Thirteen unlucky "Militzionares" surrounded two tables for the fourth running of the Junta Tournament. Each table had three hours to complete as many turns as possible; once time was called, play would complete at the end of that round. The top seven players would advance to a Sunday final. Play sped along at a good clip, especially with the fear of the implementation of the fast coup rules. We did use them twice at Table 1, and though the results were as what the players thought they should be, it seemed there was too much of a probability that it could have gone the other way. Perhaps the table should be reviewed to reduce the chance that a smaller force can defeat a larger.

The GM played in a seven-player game at Table 1. At the beginning of it, Jim Garvey was able to play influence cards that gave him a whopping 18 votes in the Chamber of Deputies. Even if the rest of us wanted to oppose him, he would still become El Presidiente. After Jim's second term in office, Steve Munchak grew weary of being left out of the annual budget and launched a coup against the establishment. Others, more out of the excitement to see how the coup phase worked, then out of a real Casius Belli against the president, joined in the coup. Shells flew against the presidential palace and the brigades left their bivouacs. It appeared that the regime never had a chance until Phil Watkins's, commander of the 2nd Brigade, suggested they might remain loyal, for the right price. But negotiations stalled and Phil soon joined the rebels assuring their success. The succeeding Junta elected Steve as the new president.

Turn three found Ted Simmons vowing, "Never again will we have a two-termer" then launching a coup from his headquarters against Steve's soon to be short-lived regime. Once again the outcome was certain, and the First Rebel became the next president. Ted's administration was a period of relative peace in the Republic, as turn four saw no violence of any kind; this all changed in turn five, a year with no less than four Presidents! It began with Ted succumbing to a vote of No Confidence when the GM's "requirement" of two pesos from the Annual Budget was left un-honored. Phil was elected as an interim president but was then immediately assassinated. Bill Lenoir then assumed the reigns but this presidential neophyte was unable to stave off a coup and was replaced by a Junta led by Steve, his second successful coup.

Due to time constraints, everyone realized that turn 6 would be our last. This resulted in a frantic search around the table for those who still had cash in hand. The outcome was no less than four assassination attempts, with Jim, Phil and Ron Wuerth all falling victim. Of course the money flowed down hill, and in a final coup, the GM and Ted agreed to split the balance of money from the final victim in a backroom deal. The resulting finish was: Jim 1st (with 24 Pesos (p)), Ted 2nd(18p), Ron 3rd(15p), Bill 4th(14p), Trevor (GM) 5th(12p), Steve 6th(8p), and Phil 7th(5p). Several players at this table came up to me later and said this table played the most enjoyable game of their WBC stay!

The second table during the preliminary round was able to complete nine turns before time expired and resulted in a much closer game with the following finishes: Zachary Fietsch 1st(with 28 Pesos (p)), David Weinstein 2nd(25p), Scott Harris 3rd, (24p) John Elliott 4th(21p), Bruce Bernard 5th(13p), and Steve Quade 6th (5p). Now fewer than four players were able to breach 20 Pesos in this game.

The Junta final was held Sunday and consisted of the top seven seeded players who showed up for the 9:00am time slot (with the GM bowing out). The final round began violently and chaotically, as the initial president's budget resulted in a coup, an interim presidency from Junta vote, then finally Ted Simmons becoming the third president on only the second turn by a crafty campaign speech and unanimous vote of the other players. Real-life banana republic dictators could have taken a lesson from Ted, as he managed to hold the reigns of power all the way through turn 7, which was to be the last due to time limits. In a final bid for power, former champ David Weinstein flipped the First Rebel and led a coup that seemed destined to overthrow the president, but he reckoned not with an opportunistic Air Force commander, and the people of Los Republic des Bananas themselves, as peasants, farmers, laborers, and a great number of other rabble all unexpectedly rallied to the presidents flag, helping him put down the coup and maintain office.

At the final tally, both David and his left-hand man Phil Watkins discovered they had the same amount of cash in the bank, the only means for determining victory in the game. It was determined however that David should be considered the champ, having both more money in hand and political influence, as well as having stayed president for a duration far longer than any other player could ever remember seeing before. Final results were: Ted 1st (with 14 Pesos (p)), Phil 2nd (14p), Bill Lenoir 3rd (12p), Bruce Bernard 4th (11p), David 5th (9p), Zachary Fietsch 6th (7p), Ron Wuerth 7th (1p). Based on the closeness of the Peso count, it would appear that Ted's secret to success was his ability to evenly distribute the dough in order to stave off any violent reactions against his regime, and still hold on to just the fraction of money he needed for victory. Bravo!

Alas, the GM cannot guarantee another cross country trip in 2003 so Junta will return to the Orphan List next year. Perhaps another sombrero-waver can return the attendance to Century levels.