A New Class of Laurelists
61 players competed on 20 boards in the two preliminary heats.
2005 was a tough year, however, for those trying to duplicate
their success in last year's inaugural event. Four of last year's
laurelists returned, with two failing to make it past the first
round, and two others (including defending champ Perianne Lurie)
falling in the semis.
Arthur Field and David Platnick led Day 1 qualifiers (11 boards)
with 51 points, while GM Rich Meyer grabbed the high Day 2 score
with 52. Of the 18 prelims for which result sheets were filed,
15 of the 18 winners founded all four colonies. Nine scored the
highest points for developmental advances, while 13 scored the
most points for Expedition Cards in hand at game's end. The results
strongly suggest that next year's event should be run under the
revised rules that require players to discard excess Expedition
Cards prior to drawing above their limit.
The four semifinal games were all fairly close affairs, with
four points the largest margin of victory. Again, one table failed
to supply scoring details. In the other three, the player with
the highest score from Expedition Cards prevailed in every case,
while the leader in development advances finished 2nd, 2nd, and
4th. All three winners also won the three point end-game bonus
for most money, which in Kevin Walsh's case was just enough to
push him past 5th place overall finisher David Newman by a single
point. Arthur Field and team-tournament teammates Chris Johnson
and Daniel Eppolito were the others to advance, defeating Rob
Flowers (6th), Jeff Mullet, and Davyd Field, respectively.
The final round began with some controversy, due to the presence
of two teammates (one of whom, Dan, had selected Goa as
his team event) and extremely loud conditions in the room (as
rounds of both Lost Cities and Alhambra were conducted in the
same venue during the Final's allotted time slot). Kevin won
the flag in the first auction round with a bid of seven, a condition
that would be repeated many times - in all he would wind up with
the flag in five of the eight rounds. Chris and Dan, while each
playing to maximize their own scores, also appeared to be positioning
their auction tiles to limit the appeal of Arthur's buying choices
when he held the favorable last bidding position. The strategy
appeared to throw Arthur off his game through much of the contest,
as after buying two plantations in Round 1, Artie would win only
two auctions (the free spice orange tile, and a Red +1 plantation)
in the next four rounds. Average winning bids rose from six in
Round 1 to ten in Round 4, and stabilized in the 12-14 range
throughout Round B.
Chris' two early failures on colonization attempts left him
in the catch-up role for much of the game. Meanwhile, Kevin's
domination of the flag and the extra actions it provided, plus
an excellent run of Expedition Card draws (he drew cards nine
times during the course of the Fnal), kept him solidly in the
lead throughout. Ultimately, he would finish first in both Developmental
Advances (raising Harvests, Expeditions, and Colonists to the
10 level) and Expedition Card points, and was the only one of
the four to found all four colonies, winning by a final margin
of seven points. Arthur finally got his game going in the B round
to finish 2nd with 39, and Chris' most money bonus at game end
pushed him two points past teammate Dan into third, 37 to 35.
|
Richard Meyer [1st Year]
52 Mill St, Franklin,
MA 02038 
NA