samurai swords [Updated October 2005]  

2005 WBC Report  

 2006 Status: pending December Membership Century Vote

Justin Thompson, VA

2005 Champion


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Event History
1999    Jack Jaeger     20
2000    Justin Thompson     20
2001    Charles Hickok     26
2002    Charles Hickok     27
2003    Tom Agostino     28
2004    Jeffery Ridenour     17
2005    Justin Thompson     16

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Charles Hickok     PA    05    100
  2.  Justin Thompson    VA    05     90
  3.  Tom Agostino       CA    03     40
  4.  Frank McNally      MA    04     36
  5.  Jeffery Ridenour   CA    04     30
  6.  David Huss         NY    99     30
  7.  Dan Mathias        MD    04     27
  8.  Lance Fogel        PA    05     18
  9.  David Hood         NC    01     18
 10.  Jack Jaeger        VA    99     18
 11.  John Koskl         MD    02     18
 12.  Alan Sudy          VA    05     13
 13.  Harald Henning     CT    05     12
 14.  Larry Luongo       NJ    02     12
 15.  Ed Rothenheber     MD    01     12
 16.  Bill Beckman       SC    00     12
 17.  Robert Sacks       NY    99     12
 18.  Stephen Munchak    VA    01      9
 19.  Richard Beyma      MD    00      9
 20.  Rob Buccheri       MD    03      8
 21.  Greg Wilson        NJ    04      6
 22.  Mark Franceschini  MD    02      6
 23.  Eric Kleist        GA    01      6
 24.  James Gundy        FL    00      6
 25.  Tom Bivens         MD    99      6
 26.  Brooks Beyma       MD    05      3
 27.  Charlie Squibb     PA    04      3
 28.  Jonathan Tivel     VA    02      3
 29.  Gary Andrews       NY    01      3
 30.  Dewayne Curry      WV    00      3
 31.  Chris Storzillo    NJ    99      3
           

2005 Laurelists

Lance Fogel, PA
2nd

Harald Henning, CT
3rd

A. J. Sudy, VA
4th

Charles Hickok, PA
5th

Brooks Beyma, MD
6th


Past Winners

Jack Jaeger, VA
1999

Justin Thompson, VA
2000

Charley Hickok, PA
2001 - 2002

Tom Agostino, CA
2003

Jeffrey Ridenour, CA
2004


Shogun Again

We had 16 contestants with two games in both heats. After the swords were sheathed, we had five qualifiers who all returned for the Final. Several of the finalists had won or placed well in previous years. As always, the game started with the forces of the five players scattered across Japan. The first phase of the game requires a player to successfully disengage from the others and establish a well positioned power base. Lance and AJ sucessfully concentrated; Lance on the islands and end of the peninsula and AJ in the center of the peninsula. Charles, the GM, and Justin had a poor starting selection and when Justin made plain that he could only play the cental position anchored by the Kii intersection, Charles had an unpleasant choice. Since early combat usually leads to an early exit, Charles chose to try to pull a position together in Shinano and beyond. This entangled him with Harald who was also in the north. Negotiations were gritty between the two and during the first turn Harald moved his armies closer to Charles, crowding him. At this point Charles was faced with accepting a disadvantaged position and playing for time and potential allies against Harald or striking as hard as possible. Given the tenor of the game, potential allies seemed scarce and faced with Harald's reputation (laurels galore), Charles decided to attack immediately rather than accept an untenable start.

Charles bid to go first and took Ronim, temporary shock troops, and forfeited his early build up. On Turn 2, Charles' attack on Harald was an overwhelming sucess that destroyed an army. Harald expanded and prepared to extract revenge. Meanwhile, Lance and AJ formed an alliance that consolidated their positions and bore down on Justin who fortfied his position. On Turn 3, Charles bid successfully to go first and took the ninja/assassin with his meager resources. Against the odds and by stripping two of his armies of their troops, he managed to destroy Harald's second army. With Harald down to his last army, anyone destroying it would put him out of the game and inheirit all his resources, which were substantial. Harald again expanded and gathered his forces. Meanwhile, Lance and AJ advanced against Justin who used all his diplomatic wiles to split their alliance, and then tried to ally with Harald to no avail. By now the opportunity to win the game in the shambles left by Charles and Harald began to rule the direction of the game. The leaders had to abandon their plans and seize the day.

On Turn 4, Charles used his paltry resources to fortify his best army in a hope to weather the storm. Harald, Lance and AJ all tie bid for turn order. At this point, going last in a turn followed by going first can win the game. Harald, however, choose to go first so he could clout Charles. Lance won the toss to go last, an advantage that he had enjoyed for three of the four turns. Lance also got the ninja. Harald blasted Charles' only army with troops and took over the fort in Shinano. Since Justin couldn't split the Lance-AJ alliance, he grabbed as many of Harald's provinces as he could to increase his resources and dropped his armies back to protect them. AJ then killed Charles' second army and drove into Harald's empire. Lance then finished off Charles to end the turn. At this point everyone wanted to kill Harald's last army since they would then inherit enough provinces to win the game.

On turn 5, AJ made a very high bid and used it to go first. Lance got the ninja but tied with Justin for swords; Justin chose to go second, and Lance third in what appeared to be the last turn of the game. Justin once again tried to split Lance and AJ. He was also rejected by Harald who refused to ally with him after Justin had taken so many provinces from him in Turn 4. All the players also bought as much Ronin as they could afford and deployed them secretly. AJ lead off with an excellent double attack on Harald's last army but the dice were against him and Harald was clearly going to survive the onslaught. At this point, Lance made his only mistake in a flawless game by using the ninja against AJ's losing army to stop the battle that AJ was losing anyway. This ruptured the alliance between AJ and Lance; and without saying anything, AJ, having fallen short in his drive to be Shogun, left his armies within reach of Justin. To win, Justin would have to destroy all three of AJ's armies and take one other province. One, two, three, and all of AJ's armies were destroyed in hard fought battles; in a very close battle, the needed last province fell and Justin was Shogun for the second time.

For info on the game of Shogun / Samurai Swords, review the clarifications on the BPA Preview website and the following websites: http://www.gamereport.com/tgr16/samuraiswords.html (review with some errors) and http://www.gracefulboot.com/board_games/iShogun.html (rules).

 GM      Charlie Hickok [2nd Year]  NA 
   cnh3@comcast.net  NA

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