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Victory By The Back Door ...
Attika made it's debut at this years WBC as a sponsored
trial and won its spurs by qualifying for the 2005 Century. Many
thanks to Jay Tummelson and Rio Grande games for sponsoring it.
Although I anticipated an attendence in the 70-80 range, I
was satisfied with mid-50's. There were lots of strong new euros
this year, so competition for gamers was steep. On the positive
side though, my goal of having exactly 16 winners came to fruition,
setting up a "perfect" 16 player semi-final and a four
player final. Actually truth be told, there were 17 winners,
but I won twice, so there were technically 16 unique winners.
I mention this just so the whole truth is out there, not just
to brag. (ahem).
I really wanted to keep within my two hour time-limit. Attika
should be, at the most, a 90 minute game. So after spending 15
minutes assigning tables and getting set up, I gave everyone
a strict 90 minute time limit to finish their games. Anything
over that would be adjudicated. This would give everyone at least
10 minutes to get to the next tourney. Fortunately, every game
finished in time and no adjudication was needed. However, without
my poking and prodding several slower tables along, it may have
been an issue. In fact, between the two heats, three tables finished
with less than one minute left.
So having got to my 16 semi-finalists, we were theoretically
all set. But of course three winners disappeared. I had posted
at least ten alternates on the Attika kiosk, but only
two showed. Since three-player is very different from four-player,
I was a little disappointed. So after giving a couple of extra
minutes in case my watch was off, we were ready to assign tables.
Just then, I see George Sauer (who just happened to be the ninth
alternate) walk by the door. He was drafted into the semis and
we were once again at the magical 16. Let that be a lesson. Always
check to see if you are an alternate, even if you didn't win.
Many multi-player events are eventually won by alternates who
did not win a qualifying preliminary.
The hard fought semis produced Luci Martins, Daniel Broh-Kahn,
Cliff Ackman and myself as the four finalists. It was a very
tough game. Of course everyone claimed they were in a terrible
position and they had no chance of winning. Since Luci was the
Liars Dice champ, she was the one we really had to watch
out for when it came to bluffing about her position! Eventually,
we were all in a position to win by connecting temples except
for Cliff, and it was his turn. Since I was next, he had to stop
me. And in stopping me, he set himself up to win on his next
turn. Since I couldn't win, I blocked Daniel from winning on
his turn. Now Daniel couldn't win on his turn, but Luci was still
in a postion to draw and possibly win on her turn. No such luck
as Daniel promptly blocked Luci. Of course Daniel and I pointed
out to Luci that Cliff would win on his turn if she didn't block
him. She did her job and now it was to Cliff. Cliff took his
turn and now it was up to me. Since we had all blocked each other
in turn, nobody noticed that I had a second possible way of connecting
temples. Using my amphore and going in the patented "back
door" route, I could hear a collective groan as they realized
what I was doing.
And so I "pulled my first Coussis" and won my own
event. Thanks to all who participated and I hope to see even
more of you play at our new digs in Lancaster!
[Editor's Note: Jeff Mullet is hereby penalized six laurels
for mis-use of the WBC lexicon. Everyone knows that to pull a
Coussis you have to win both of the events you GM. You only managed
a half-Coussis!]
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Jeff Mullet [1st Year]
21683 Ringgold So
Rd, Circleville,OH 43113
NA