wilderness war [Updated October 2002]

WNW  3 prizes Experienced Single Elim Continuous 
 
  9  Round 2 12  Round 3 15  Round 4 18  Round 5 21 Final 
        

   Valley

Rob Winslow, NY

2002 Champion

2nd: Roger Taylor, VA

3rd: John Haas, PA

4th: John Vasilakos

5th: Doug Smith, PA

6th: Peter Reese, VA

Event History
2002    Rob Winslow     50


AREA Ratings


GM: Keith Wixson

Our top vote getter in the Annual Century new event vote for 2002

The inaugural WBC Wilderness War Tournament was a rousing success, drawing an even 50 participants. Things went much smoother than I had any reason to expect since it was my first time as a GM. The ceremonial Pipehawk (shown at right) for first place went to Game Developer and Assistant GM Rob Winslow; no surprise there. Rob had a scare in Round 2, but appeared to have a relatively easy time of it otherwise. The other finishers were unknown to me as WNW players before the convention, but all turned in impressive efforts (the other finalist, Roger Taylor, crushed me in Round 2).

The format was single elimination play of the AM Scenario in a single day. The rounds were scheduled for three hours starting at 0900 on Friday. That seemed a little tight, as the Assistant GMs and I, unfortunately, had to adjudicate a handful of games to keep everything on schedule and the vast majority of the games that were not blowouts appeared to go close to the full three hours. The tournament finished up at 0100 the next day even though we avoided having six rounds when two of the surviving six players dropped out after Round 3. In the future this may need to be a two day event and the rounds will more than likely need to be lengthened to 3.5 or four hours.

If the results of this tournament are any indication, and I personally believe that they are, the AM Scenario is very balanced and well suited for tournament play. Of the 46 games played, there were 24 French wins. The British did a little better in the later rounds, but not by much. VPs were bid in only 11 games, and the record of those players who bid a single VP for a particular side was quite poor. All five players who bid to play the British lost as did four of six who bid to play the French. Of course this is a new game and these numbers may change at future conventions as players gain experience. Significantly, about a third of the games were sudden death blowouts (evenly split between French and British wins), which might indicate that there were quite a few inexperienced players on hand.

Other additional prizes were a paperback of Parkman's "Montcalm and Wolfe", a Rodger MacGowan print of the game box and some souvenirs from Fort Niagara. The other Assistant GM, Greg Schmittgens, had WNW buttons made for the first 30-35 people who showed up.

I would like to thank the Assistant GMs for their help, Game Designer Volko Ruhnke for designing an awesome game and for being on hand to lend moral support and Bob Titran, who contributed the Niagara prizes. I would also like to thank the players, who made running the tournament such a pleasant experience for me. And finally, I would like to acknowledge the sportsmanship of the unofficial King of the Card Driven Games, Peter Reese, who, even though he had a shot at his third championship of the Convention, selflessly dropped out when we were down to five players so that we could avoid an extra round on Saturday. This allowed Third Place Finisher John Haas, who had to leave the convention that night, to have a shot at First Place. My hat is off to Peter.

 GM      Keith Wixson  [1st Year]   NA
    keithwixson@aol.com   NA

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