hammer of the scots [Updated October 2005]    

2005 WBC Report   

 2006 Status: pending 2006 GM commitment

George Seary, NY

2005 Champion


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Event History
2003    Phil Barcafer     55
2004    Lyman Moquin     29
2005    George Seary     29

Block Party History
2004    Bruce Reiff     23
2005    Ric Young     21

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Rick Young         NC    05     84
  2.  George Seary       NY    05     62
  3.  Phil Barcafer      PA    05     53
  4.  Bruce Reiff        OH    05     48
  5.  Lyman Moquin       DC    04     40
  6.  Stuart Pierce      VA    04     24
  7.  Ric Manns          IN    05     22
  8.  Bill O'Neal        NY    05     21
  9.  Troy Daniels       OH    04     18
 10.  Tom Drueding       FL    03     15
 11.  Rob Taylor         MI    05     12
 12.  Jeff Mullet        OH    04     12
 13.  Tim Hall           UT    03     10
 14.  Rick Kirchner      KY    05      9
 15.  Sean McCulloch     OH    04      9
 16.  Barry Smith        NY    04      8
 17.  Hank Burkhalter    GA    04      8
 18.  Nicholas Benedict  CA    05      6
 19.  Brad Bellomo       NJ    04      4
 20.  Mike Zehnal        OH    05      3

2005 Laurelists

Rick Young, NC
2nd

Bill O'Neal, NY
3rd

Rick Kirchner, KY
4th

Nicholas Benedict, CA
5th

Phil Barcafer, PA
6th


Past Winners

Phil Barcafer, PA
2003

Lyman Moquin, DC
2004


Bruce, Braveheart and the Blocks ...

Well, at least we are consistent. We had the same number of entries this year as last, 29. A total of games were played altogether, a slight incrrease, as more people played in all three rounds of the swiss, but not many more. Where we were not consistent was in the players who reached the elimination rounds, with the exception of George Seary. This year, instead of advancing eight, we only advanced the top four to single elimination.

As with last year, the English were bid for almost exclusively, with most bids being of the 1 or 2 variety to play the English. Some players bid zero for the Scots, but no one actually bid a point to play them. The results of the early rounds were almost even vis-a-vis number of victories for each side, just as happened last year. There was only one draw, as opposed to last year, when there were several.

What was different was how lopsided the victories were. Players crushed or were crushed. There were few close games.

The theme of this year's tournament was smash Wallace, as many players who took the English aggressively attacked on the first turn, hoping to pin Wallace and eliminate him. Many succeeded. All three of the GM's games had Wallace go on the first turn. He was on the receiving end once and the giving end twice.

At the end of three rounds of swiss play, we narrowed the field to only four. One semifinal pitted Rick Young's English at a bid of 2 versus Ric Kirchner's Scots. Young took the fight straight to him and eliminated all the Scots in 1298.

The second game pitted George Seary against Bill O'Neal. Both bid zero for the Scots and Seary got them by virtue of a die roll. They then proceeded to slug it out, with the game going the full length and Seary winning by a 10;4 margin.

This set up a Final of Seary and Young. Both offered the same bids as in the semi's, so Young got the Brits. Young's draw was not great on the first turn, so rather than go after Wallace, he chose to get control of the south and by the end of the turn had Bruce converted. Seary meanwhile was up north, grabbing Angus, Atholl, and Comyn with Wallace and sending in his infantry to get Mar. All in all, a great start for the Scots.

Turn 2 went to the English, as Galloway fell and Argyll defeated a major attack that weakened the Scots and allowed the Brits to get back into things. On one turn, Wallace had to be eliminated due to stacking and the Scots had to make do without him. It took a couple turns for him to come out of the draw pile. The Norse also made their presence felt, conquering Mentieth in 1300. The English made another tremendous defensive stand in 1301 in Atholl, as three blocks held off eight. It seemed that Young always had Edward and always had bad cards.

In 1304, Young had Edward and seven units together, ready to attack, only to face a truce on the last card. They wintered over in Scotland, while Wallace had to run to Selkirk Forest to refresh. Edward surrounded and killed Wallace in 1305, then turned north trying to win back enough nobles to pull out a victory. He faced two large groups, one in Lennox and one in Mentieth. He got through one group, but as he prepared to attack the next, he again faced the Truce card and the game ended with Seary winning Wood, by a margin of 9:5


PBeM Tournament commenced October 1st, 2004:

 GM      Phil Barcafer  [2nd Year]   NA
   barcafer@ptd.net   NA

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