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The Hottest New Trial Event
Perhaps it was a favorable late-night time slot, perhaps it
was the "intriguing" nature of this new Alea/Rio Grande
game, but for whatever reason Louis XIV proved to be one
of the more popular Trial events at the 2005 WBC, drawing a total
of 66 players, who squared off in 10 and 11 tables of four, respectively,
in heats on the first two nights. A number of players took advantage
of the event's Class C "coached" status to learn the
game during play, and as it turned out, five of the 21 preliminary
round games were won by "coached" players who were
taking the game out for a test drive.
Bob Heinzmann and Rich Meyer paced the 16 semifinal qualifiers
with wins in both heats. This meant there were 19 different winners,
and the three players who lost the first heat but won the second
topped the alternate list. When two of the qualified players
did not appear, it meant that the top two alternates (Mike Kaltman
and Steven Caler) were into the semis, both having a second place
in the first heat to go with a win in the second. The unlucky
third alternate who was left out was Greg Thatcher, one of the
"coached" players who lost in the first heat but returned
the second night to register a win.
Highest score in the preliminaries was 58 (turned in by Arthur
Field). Two players (Tom Dunning and Robert Cranshaw) were able
to complete the most missions (nine) but only Robert went on
to win his game; Tom actually finished second (with 53 points)
in the game won by Arthur. The high shield VP count in any one
game was 25 by Greg Thatcher in Greg's first round game where
Greg unfortunately completed only three missions and fell short
on the final score. One game actually saw the supply of shields
exhausted, something that was apparently not contemplated by
the game designer as we could find nothing in the rules to address
it. We ruled that each imaginary shield was worth an additional
VP, a la Puerto Rico when the shipping VPs are exhausted.
The largest margin of victory in any one game was 15, turned
in by Brendan Tracey in one of the coached games. One game went
to the most influence marker tiebreaker, with Eric Brosius edging
Mike Kaltman, our first alternate. The closest game from top
to bottom was a 43-40-40-40 affair, where Joe Nemet advanced
in a "coached" game wherein one of his victims was
Caesar himself, James Pei. Finally, credit needs to be given
to David Buchholz, one of the "coached" players, who
nosed out his "coach," assistant GM Jason Wagner, by
one point. Other winners of coached games were Eric Freeman and
Patrick Shea.
The four semifinal games were all very competitive. In one
game, Steve Caler used a high shield count to overcome his main
rivals, Eric Brosius and Nick Anner, each of whom had completed
more missions. In another semifinal, Mike Fitzgerald collected
the maximum number of mission chips to complete four (!) of his
tournament-high nine missions in one turn. But, it was not enough,
as Evan Tannheimer used a higher shield count to win the game
by four points, and Mike even lost out on a tiebreak for second
to Stan Hilinski. Rich Meyer claimed his third straight win with
shield count making the difference in a three-way battle with
Mike Kaltman and Eric Freeman. The closest semifinal game was
won by Tom Browne, with a score of 49 to 48 for Bob Heinzmann
and Patrick Shea (Bob nosed out Patrick for second on the tiebreak).
Bob, therefore, was a deserving fifth place winner (with wins
in both heats and a narrow loss in the semis) and Stan Hilinski
(as the next closest second place finisher in the semis) took
sixth place laurels.
In the Final, Evan Tannheimer in the #1 seat took an early
lead, completing two missions (including a very valuable Hard
mission) on Turn 1. Steve Caler in the #2 position had trouble
getting all his influence markers in play, had some poor luck
in his mission cards, and never seemed to get on track, finishing
far back in fourth. Rich Meyer and Tom Browne battled the whole
way in an effort to catch Evan. Tom was able to find a way to
get all 16 influence markers in his personal supply while going
last in the final turn. Rich and Tom managed to match Evan's
total of seven missions. But once the shields were counted and
the bonus shields were awarded, Evan was the winner with 55 VPs
to Rich's 52 and Tom's 50.
Stats from the 26 tournament games (all 4-player games) showed
that the best-to-worst seats in terms of number of wins and points
per game were #2, followed by #1, then #4 and finally, #3. The
#2 seat won nine games, three times that of the worst (#3) seat,
with a 3 1/2 point higher scoring average. The average number
of missions completed was 6.3, with seven (42 times) and six
missions (25 times) being the most common. The average number
of shield VPs per game was 12.4.
The GM wishes to acknowledge the vital assistance offered
by the following individuals who served as undocumented assistant
GMs: Jason Wagner, Brian Stallings, Denise Stallings and Steve
Lollis.
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John Weber [1st Year]
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