No plan survives first contact with the enemy, or teenagers. Adam Gugliemini proved that to Phil Barcafer by edging out the older marine to gain the plaque at this year's Princess Ryan's Star Marines "senior" tourney. The "senior" is actually a misnomer as nearly half of the players in this year's contest were teens.

All of the teens, however, are veterans. Most played in the junior tournaments and many were victors in those campaigns of yesteryear. Of the top six finishers this year only one, Phil, is an adult. The others four -- Nick Henning, Jeremy Gibson, Jeff Ribeiro and Jordan Flawd ­ are all still in high school. There were a lot of adult players, including the ever-popular and jovial Paul Bolduc, who earned the coveted, if dubious, distinction of being the only player to end the game without any points. The grand old marine is a past champion (1999 WBC), and is the man who gave us the famed "thwacking" phrase that has become a staple remark when a marine squad gets toasted.

Another veteran adult marine, Paul Saunders, came up without any points in one game as a marine. In round 2, however, he scored 84 points as the Guard ­ the best Black Guard score of the day. While not enough to get him into the top six finishing spots, he counted himself a winner of sorts this year, by noting that "at least I had positive points this year!"

Among other notable quotes of the day, is the declaration by Ashley Collinson that she felt like she was in command of "Princess Ryan's Powderpuff Marines." She gave her marines this appellation after reaching the third space on the board with more than half of them dead, captured or in sick bay.

Nick Kramer and his team had similarly bad luck on their board. "I'm just playing for fun and I'm NOT HAVING ANY!" he barked after the tenth of his team's 24 marines bought the farm. David Sidelinger lost three marines dead in three combats in a row. As Devin Flawd said later "that was the UGLY table" for the marines. Jordan Flawd really inspired confidence in his team when he bellowed that "All my marines SUCK, so I want to blow them off."

Not all of the marine teams had such bad luck. Nick Henning and Jeff Ribeiro advanced without a lost combat on their table, with three other marine players along for comic relief. They climbed Mt. Yamaguchi, charged in through the back door and both guessed correctly where the princess was hidden. As Nick won the last skirmish, however, he squeaked out the victory. That gave him third place, and left Jeff back in fifth.

 The juniors tourney was equally combative. Alexandra Henning had a particularly good day, and won the prize despite close competition from Angela Collinson (does the designer's heart good to see girls playing ­ and winning ­ this game). Nick Darr and Scott Urich, who came in third and fourth, both won games on "Do or Die" attempts. One of those succeeded without the marines getting a scratch.

Two other games also ended in desperate "Do or Die" rides to glory. In one of those the marine's starship Schenectady was shot down with all hands by starfighters. In the other, the marines had starfighter support, preplanned bombardments and a handful of other dispatches ready to play ­ only to watch their ship explode in a fireball.

But as everyone who plays Princess Ryan's Star Marines knows, "It's better that way."