The inaugural presentation of Medieval at WBC drew 29 players who competed in 11 exciting games over three qualifying heats, a semi-final and a final.The Living Rules were used, and were well received, as were the several examples of "enhanced" game sets brought by players. For those unfamiliar with the game, it is a euro /light wargame covering Europe in the13th Century. The playing board is composed of map cards which are assembled during play, and removed by the Mongols.

After exciting competition in the qualifying heats, eight players advanced to the semi-finals to play in two 4-player games, with the top pair from each table advancing to the finals. The Final was quite a game. Going into the endgame, Forrest Speck appeared to be set to win. However, the last two Mongol cards closed the gap for eventual winner James Jordan, whose play of a Spies card on a critical battle at the end of the game gave him the victory.

This year, my nomination for the Sportsmanship award goes to John Coussis. John mentored players at his table who were less experienced, and did so with a great attitude. This mentoring even extended to showing them plays that disadvantaged him. This is what sportsmanship is all about.

Before presenting the statistical information from the event, I would like to express my gratitude to this years players for making this event the fun time that it was. I look forward to seeing all of you, and more new players, next year.

The games showed some interesting trends. First, witness the distribution of powers that were selected for each game:

% of Games Chosen at Start; France 9.68%, Venice 9.68%, England: 9.68%, Russia: 9.68%, Holy Roman Empire 8.80, Spain 7.92%, Mameluks 7.92%, Almoravids 7.04%, Selijuks 3.52%, Hungary 1.76%, Latin Kingdom 0.88%, Byzantium 0.88%

Second, is the distribution of powers chosen at start by the player who won the game: Holy Roman Empire 45.45%, Russia 36.08%, France 36.08%, Mameluks18.04%, England18.04%, Venice18.04%, Almoravids18.04%, Spain 9.02%

Mongol card targeting was also interesting. Here is the breakdown of Mongol Frequency with success rate: 3D: 22.0%/63%, 3F: 18.8%/70%, 4D: 9.6%/80%, 2D: 9.6%/100%, 2C: 8.0%/40%, 2F: 8.0%/80%, 4C: 6.4%/75%, 3C: 6.4%/75%, 1E: 6.4%/100%, 1F: 4.8%/100%.