hannibal: rome vs carthage [Updated October 2005]  

Omens: 2005 WBC Report  

 2006 Status: pending 2006 GM commitment

Nick Anner, NY

2005 Champion


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Event History
1996    Thomas Drueding      58
1997    James Doughan      52
1998    Karsten Engelmann      52
1999    Jung Yueh     46
2000    James Pei     41
2001    Aaron Fuegi     35
2002    Peter Reese     41
2003     Keith Wixson     44
2004    Chris Byrd     46
2005    Nick Anner     39

PBeM Event History
2001     Aaron Fuegi     37

WAM Event History
2003    Stuart Tucker    11
2004    James Pei    19
2005    Chris Byrd    21

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  James Pei          VA    05    186
  2.  Chris Byrd         CT    05    145
  3.  Keith Wixson       NJ    05    136
  4.  Peter Reese        VA    05     90
  5.  Nick Anner         NY    05     60
  6.  Aaron Fuegi        MA    01     60
  7.  Jung Yueh          MA    99     50
  8.  Doug White         PA    04     44
  9.  Mark Giddings      NY    01     40
 10.  Jim Heenehan       PA    00     38
 11.  Derek Miller       VA    05     36
 12.  David Dockter      MN    02     36
 13.  Craig Melton       VA    03     34
 14.  Stuart Tucker      MD    04     33
 15.  Charles Hickok     PA    03     30
 16.  Eugene Lin         WA    05     24
 17.  Jim Eliason        IA    03     24
 18.  Tim Hall           UT    05     22
 19.  Randall MacInnis   NJ    04     22
 20.  George Seary       NY    99     20
 21.  Doug Mercer        MD    04     18
 22.  Henry Rice         NM    04     18
 23.  Ed Rothenheber     MD    02     18
 24.  Phil Barcafer      PA    99     15
 25.  Lyman Moquin       DC    05     12
 26.  Scott Moll         VA    05     12
 27.  Matthew Bacho      MD    04     12
 28.  Robert Vollman     ALB   00     10
 29.  Jim Heenehan       PA    05      9
 30.  Paul Gaberson      MD    04      6
 31.  Ahmed Ilpars     Turkey  03      6
 32.  Robert Hassard     NJ    02      6
 33.  John Rinko         VA    99      5
 34.  John Firer         WI    01      3
 35.  Trevor Bender      CA    01      2

2005 Laurelists

Derek Miller, VA
2nd

Eugene Lin, WA
3rd

James Pei, VA
4th

Lyman Moquin, DC
5th

Tim Hall, UT
6th


Past Winners

Thomas Drueding, PA
1996

James Doughan, PA
1997

Karsten Englemann, VA
1998

Jung Yueh, MA
1999

James Pei, TX
2000

Aaron Fuegi, MA
2001

Peter Reese, VA
2002

Keith Wixson, NJ
2003

Chris Byrd, CT
2004


Omens of Caesar ... Deal Me a Championship

The Year of Rome's Revenge.

After years of Carthaginian dominance, Rome got its revenge this year reversing the 57%-43% advantage Carthage has traditionally maintained in the tournament. The turnaround was marked by the overthrow of the old guard who had maintained this pro-Carthage advantage as by the end of Round 3, only one of the top eight seeded players remained undefeated with a chance for the gold. The other three contendors were either rookies or lower seeded players. Moreover, the one remaining seeded player was Tim Hall who himself has been a strong Roman player. He backed up the Roman rejuvenation with an early round, early turn sack of former champion James Pei's Carthaginian capitol (also winning "Best Sack of an Enemy's Capitol" in the process).

Yet, the entire tournament was won by Nick Anner (who also earned Best Roman player going 3-0 as Rome and 2-0 as Carthage as he went 5-0 to pick up 1st prize. He won despite losing Hannibal a couple of times when playing Carthage - once on turn 6 (an overconfident Scipio Africanus was later eliminated when he lost a battle without a retreat spot). Nick's most interesting game was his Round 4 encounter with rookie Derek Miller. Both were 3-0. Derek drew Carthage. As I checked the game from time-to-time, I was startled to see Rome having half of Africa and Carthage having most of Italy. Spain was up for grabs as well. One of the weirdest games I had ever witnessed. "the World Turned Upside Down," I thought. It came down to Nick winning a close battle at a slight disadvantage in Apulia that eventually led to a narrow province count win. Rome Triumphant!

Another interesting battle was fought the evening before by James Miller Miller's Rome was hanging onto a narrow 10-8 province lead into the final turn. Carthage got a bad break when it did not draw a single "3" card thereby ensuring the mighty Roman fleet would not be challenged in this make-or-break battle. Carthage sent Hannibal to Ligeria hoping to lure Scipio Africanus up there, decisively defeat him, and get into Italy to pick up an extra province. Alas, Scipio defeated Hannibal in a nail biter and, as Hannibal had no retreat was destroyed. Carthage flipped over his cards as further play seemed futile. I was thinking I had never seen such a critical battle fought on turn 9 in Ligeria as I walked away to pack up my game. Yet, ten minutes later, I learned that Carthage had pulled out the win after all! Classic Punic perfidy as one of Carthage's revealed cards was a diplomacy event that Miller overlooked in the flush of his recent victory (and it being after midnight). Carthage then flipped Sardinia and got a most unlikely win. The game won a prize for its most
intriguing ending.

Lyman Moquin retained his Best Carthage tie-breaker by nixing Jim Heenehan's challenge by playing the last three cards as Rome (thanks to Mr. Messenger) against Jim in Round 5 to turn Jim's 10-8 Carthage lead into a 9-8-1 Roman victory. All Hail Rome!

As Acting Tournament Director for Day 1 for Stuart Tucker (who was flying back from California even as Tim Hall's catapults were braking down James' Pei's crenellated towers) , I can attest to the event being great fun by all - especially those playing Rome. Next year, I expect the veteran Carthaginian players will be out for revenge.

Jim Heenehan

 GM      Stuart Tucker  [4th Year]   NA 
    econedit@aol.com   NA

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