2004 brought another excellent and hard fought Samurai Swords tournament despite a cutback in heats from three to two. We had hoped to increase our numbers by offering a Saturday start, but our numbers stayed the same. The GMs would like to hear from likely players on what the best times would be.

We were fortunate to have four preliminary games with five players in each. All of the prelims were decided by the sword and not the clock, although the time pressure may have encouraged some to strike early and hard. It is a tribute to the passion for the game that all the qualifiers and the best alternate showed up to contest the final. Two of the qualifiers, Dan Mathias and Charlie Hickok, had to play a second heat to qualify after doing no better than third in the first heat.

The five finalists were: Jeff Ridenour (1st with 36 ), Charlie Hickok (2nd with 15), Frank McNally (3rd with 14), Dan Matthias (4th with 0) and Greg Wilson (5th with 0). The initial set up was critical. Each player had a center of gravity for his forces. Jeff was in the north near Shinano, Frank in the East center near Kii, Dan scattered his armies between the Izu peninsula in the north, Shikoku, and Kyushu. Greg positioned himself on the center of the Honshu peninsula, Shikoku, and Kyushu. Charlie took the end of the Honshu peninsula and part of Kyushu. The initial set up advantaged Jeff and disadvantaged Dan, Greg & Charlie. Their problems got worse when they could not come to a successful detente and expand successfully.

The tone was set when Greg bought Ronin on turn 1, forgetting that armies could not be attacked on turn 1. As a gesture of good sportsmanship, the other four players insisted he could reallocate his money to reinforcements instead of being heavily handicapped for his rules mistake. Charlie, while proposing this idea, was sure those Ronin were aimed at him and remembered. Turn 1 passed with Jeff and Frank consolidating as the other three failed to gain much ground. The only other item of note was that Charlie ran into small forces that couldn't miss and lost heavily.

Remembering Greg's Ronin, Charlie abandoned his usual caution and bought swords to go first, Ronin, and the ninja. He succeeded in eliminating one of Greg's armies but his forces were very weak. Next Dan expanded as best he could. Greg tried to kill one of Dan's armies but failed. The highlight of the turn was his banzai attempt to take out one of Charlie's very weak armies that had only a daimyo and a bowman. Meanwhile, Frank and Jeff expanded their holdings.

Turns 3 and 4 found the continual growth of Jeff's territory and the power of Frank's armies. At this point, Charlie, who had the weakest forces, decided to stay out of as much trouble as possible and rebuild. Meanwhile, Greg and Dan fought it out on Shikoku and the adjacent part of Honshu with Dan gaining the upper hand and finally eliminating Greg's last army and inheriting his remaining five provinces. Simultaneously, Jeff concentrated two of his armies against Dan's isolated army in the Iyo peninsula and killed it. Frank made his move to hinder Jeff and got one of his armies ninjaed in return.

Due to lack of time, we decided Turn 5 would be the last turn, Charlie, who had successfully rebuilt by skulking around the edges, bid highest to go last and attack at will to gain the most provinces. There is a risk to this strategy though ... no one had the ninja due to tied bids. Dan went first and expanded at the expense of the rest of the players and then hid his remaining two armies in a fort and on an island. Frank decided to attack Dan and win by eliminating his armies. When the dust settled, Dan had one weak army on an island and Frank had a stronger one on the mainland. In the best tradition of th game, this position resulted from wild amphibious assaults, cold and hot streaks in battle, and lots of diplomacy. Frank's all out attempt to win paved the way for Jeff. Dan's last army failed its waterline stand and with his elimination, Jeff had the win. Poor Charlie didn't even get his turn. In compensation, Charlie was second since he had one more province left than Frank. Jeff won a fine victory by staying out of the mess created by Dan, Greg, and Charlie. Frank was a real contender, but he was rebuffed by Dan's inspired defense at the end.

For info on the game of Shogun / Samurai Swords, review the clarifications on the BPA Preview website and the following websites: http://www.gamereport.com/tgr16/samuraiswords.html (review with some errors) and http://www.gracefulboot.com/board_games/iShogun.html (rules).