Confederates by a whisker ...
2003
saw the Saturday morning tournament draw a record 64 attendees
in this, its third year. Considering the format change this year,
64 was the perfect number.
Gamers were randomly grouped in 16 groups of four. Each played
one game versus the other three players in their group. The scenario
played was Glorietta by Richard Borg. It is not in the published
game but readily available on line. The scenario is played until
you destroy five of your opponent's flags versus the normal six.
This makes Glorietta the perfect tournament scenario. Fast and
furious and using all three branches of the armies included in
the game. Play proceeded very quickly and got under way at about
9:15 a.m. with the last game endeing around 11:30 a.m. Time pressures
have been added to the tournament mix and have drawn favorable
reviews. Grace under pressure, and with bad die rolls is needed
to compete in BATTLE CRY.
The winner of each of the 16 groups advanced to the quarter
finals. Again we randomly seeded four groups of four. Each gamer
again played each of their opponents one time in First Bull Run.
This scenario is in the published scenario book in the game.
The quarter final scenario is played to the standard six flag
kill. Even with that, the second round got under way about 11:45
a.m. and ended around 1:30 p.m.
The
four winners were randomly seeded and paired against one opponent.
They played a pair of Glorietta games against that opponent and
the combined score of the two games were used to determine the
winner. Our two winners then again played two-head-to head games
of Glorietta for first and second place while the two losers
faced off in one game to determine third.
Our victor was Josh Githens of the Greenville Mafia who collected
his third first place wood of the week. 22-year-old Josh went
undefeated in ten games to collect the title over runner-up Bill
Place. Defending champion Philip Shea was victorious over Ben
Knight to take third. All four walked away from the tables in
time to make their 4:00 p.m. events.
In reviewing the tournament results, it was found that the
Confederates went on to win 14 of 24 games of First Bull Run.
But incredibly, the Confederates won 52 times while coming up
losers 51 times in Glorietta. Can a scenario be more balanced
??? Next year we will use Glorietta throughout the tournament.
This should speed the tournament a little and rule out unbalanced
scenarios and the complaints that go with them.
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