WAIT UNTIL NEXT YEAR!

Last year we left the sad story of the Kremlin GM with a ray of hope as he broke his four-year losing streak. This year bigger things were expected, which of course also brings greater chances for even more cruel twists of fate.

Things got off to a promising start when the GM won a game in the first heat. (Ask any GM, subsequent heats are much more fun when you've already got a win in the bag). This unexpected result broke one of Kremlin's great traditions as no one beat the GM in the 6PM heat after learning the game at the 5PM demo. A new one has been found: the wife/ girl friend wins her first heat, while the male significant other tries again and again with no success. This year the For Better or Worse Award goes to Linda and Jeff Pattison.

One other game of note in the preliminaries featured the fastest death of beloved Party Chief Nestor Aparatschik that anyone can think of. After a spirited round of bidding to decide whether he was going to visit the Sanatorium at the start of the game, it turned out Nestor had quite a few points on him. Out came the Assassination card, and Nestor didn't make it out of the first Cure phase.

Out of the 14 heat winners, twelve punched their ticket for the semi-finals setting up two tables of six. The GM's table had several veteran players who've seen him play before, so in a change of pace he went for the early win. While he didn't get it, naturally, he did do well enough to advance to the final, along with Jerry Ohlinger and Charles Davis. Llew Bardecki and Barry Shoults advanced from the other table, with newcomer Linda Pattison getting the final spot on a dice-off.

Thus the stage was set for disaster. The GMs Intrigue cards included the Release from the Sanatorium and the Bee Hormone Cure, which dictated another early game strategy. Eight points was enough to control Nestor at the start, but even in the Sanatorium he didn't make it past the first health roll. The GM's 10 pointer was the next Party Chief, but he was sick, missed the Wave Roll and died in the second Health roll.

But lo and behold, the next Party Chief has no sick markers on him, it's a free wave for the highest bidder. Seven points for the GM is all that's needed to beat Charles Davis' 6 points. That leads to free waves on turn 2 and 3- two down, one to go!

After the third turn Charles adds two points to the Party Chief, giving him temporary control at 8 points. But what nobody knows is that the GM can go to nine. The GM bides his time letting others think Charles has control, thus the Party Chief gets through the Purge and Spy Investigation phases untouched. It's now time for the Health Roll. The Party Chief is a healthy 72-year old ... a veritable lad in Kremlin circles. An 11 or higher on a twenty-sided die and the Party Chief stays healthy and the third wave is automatic. A 2 through 11 makes him sick, and he'll have to roll for the wave. Only a 1 on a twenty-sided die will kill him. It's the GM's turn to do the health roll. He takes the die and rolls . . . a "1"!

After that, both Jerry Ohlinger and Charles Davis had their chances but couldn't make their wave rolls. As the bodies piled up in the Kremlin Wall, the GMs final desparate attempt to pull it out fell apart as his KGB head died on the last turn, making the Assassination card useless. Llew Bardecki filled the vacuum and had his man on top at game's end.