14 years separated Rich Curtin's championships in 1991 and 2005, so perhaps we shall call this year the Return of the King. Rising as if from the mists of Avalon, Rich's squirrelly tactics brought him victory as he calmly paced himself in the Final while the other players were distracted with infighting.

Rich has a reputation for always trying something new. In one game, that meant his Brigantes weren't huddling to the north when the Romans were on the march. Instead, they decided to vacation all along the coast of England, spreading all the way down to Avalon. Kudos to Rich for always making Britannia an interesting game to play.

High score honors this year became a bit monotonous. Llew Bardecki won the Purple high score (120.5), but then Ewan McNay won Green (139), and Red (139.5), and Blue (112). At least Blue was close! Ewan just scraped by Norm Newton who scored 111 with Blue in a fine showing. Hmm, I think we'll all be working on making the high score plaques a little better distributed next year.

Also distributed this year was the Ethelred the Unready plaque for the lowest score in a game where the player was really trying but things just didn't come together. Sometimes the dice don't come together and a player gets caught between two folks just going for their points, with the player in the middle. This year there were many fine contenders for this dubious honor including the excellent Mark Smith with 66 points and Llew Bardecki with 75, but three-time champion Scott Pfeiffer was crowned as Ethelred with 51 points in a game that just didn't go right at any turn.

Next year, plaques will also be distributed each round to the winner of the closest game of the round. I've always admired the games that are incredibly tight and are just pulled out by a point (or less in some cases.)

Anyway, it was a good year, although only 34 players joined, there were many new faces and the demostration attracted a good turnout. At least a couple of the folks showing up for the demonstration also played in the tournament. As always happens, a number of veteran players ended up distracted by other tournaments. They vowed to be back next year.

Perhaps the new version of the game will bring new faces into the tournament too. This may be the last year of the Britannia version 1 tournament. Britannia 2 looks like it's on track to come out for next year, as Lew Pulsipher has word that Fantasy Flight Games has put it on a fast track. Apparently, print versions of the cover for the game showed up at GenCon this year.

So, perhaps a new game next year, and new prizes too. There's a lovely computer version of the Bayeux Tapestry that shall go to the winner. We can get Lew Pulsipher to award it, perhaps along with a signed copy or two of Britannia 2.