hammer of the scots [Updated October 2006]    

2006 WBC Report   

 2007 Status: pending 2007 GM commitment

George Seary, NY

2005-06 Champion

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Event History
2003    Phil Barcafer     55
2004    Lyman Moquin     29
2005    George Seary     29
2006     George Seary     25

Block Party History
2004    Bruce Reiff     23
2005    Ric Young     21
2006     Ric Manns     12

PBeM Event History
2006    Hank Burkhalter     31

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Rick Young         NC    06    108
  2.  George Seary       NY    06     96
  3.  Phil Barcafer      PA    05     53
  4.  Bruce Reiff        OH    06     51
  5.  Ric Manns          IN    06     50
  6.  Hank Burkhalter    GA    06     48
  7.  Lyman Moquin       DC    06     43
  8.  Jeff Mullet        OH    06     30
  9.  Stuart Pierce      VA    04     24
 10.  Troy Daniels       OH    06     22
 11.  Bill O'Neal        NY    05     21
 12.  Chris Byrd         CT    06     16
 13.  Tom Drueding       FL    03     15
 14.  Alfred Smith       NC    06     12
 15.  Rob Taylor         MI    05     12
 16.  Tim Hall           UT    03     10
 17.  Ray Freeman        CA    06      9
 18.  Rick Kirchner      KY    05      9
 19.  Sean McCulloch     OH    04      9
 20.  Barry Smith        NY    04      8
 21.  Susanne Tuch       NY    06      8
 22.  Nicholas Benedict  CA    05      6
 23.  David Platnick     VA    06      6
 24.  Brad Bellomo       NJ    04      4
 25.  Mike Zehnal        OH    05      3
 26.  Jake Busch         OH    06      2
 27.  Charles Stucker    IN    06      1

2006 Laurelists

Ric Manns, IN
2nd

Alfred Smith, NC
3rd

Ray Freeman, CA
4th

David Platnick, VA
5th

Lyman Moquin, DC
6th


Past Winners

Phil Barcafer, PA
2003

Lyman Moquin, DC
2004

George Seary, NY
2005-2006


George, Braveheart and the Blocks ...

Repeat, in a different way. That is the best summation of this years tournament. George Seary successfully defended his title, but with an entirely different strategy from the one that won for him last year. He did it by not only being the first person to bid for the Scots, but by doing it in all five games and winning all of them.

Each game, he consolidated his position in the north, ignored any attacks on his isolated southern nobles, then slowly rolled his way down south. None of his games were blow-outs. His total margin of victory for all five games was only ten, but it was still enough for him to run the table and walk away with his second championship Hammer wood .

The tournament again saw most players bidding to play the English. As was the case last year, the English won the majority of games, in many cases entirely eliminating the Scots. Runner-up Ric Manns' first two games exemplified this, as he cleared the board twice, once against past champion Lyman Moquin.

After three rounds of Swiss play, in which most players stayed for all three rounds regardless of record, four advanced to direct elimination. Seary, with a 3-0 record, took on Ray Freeman, who stood at 2-0-1. Manns, at 2-1, faced tundefeated Alfred Smith. Both games finished with identical noble counts, but Seary had ten Scots, while Manns had ten English. This set the stage for a promising Final.

Seary again bid for and won the Scots. The Scots had a good first year, as Wallace marched around, convincing several nobles, by virtue of defeating them in one round of battle, to join the revolt. Turn 2 saw more of the same up north, while Edward showed up in the levy and got Bruce and Galloway to join the English. Seary got to eight nobles by the end of the second turn and the French Knights went into the pool. Turn 3 was bittersweet for the English. While handing the Scots a harsh defeat, Edward I was killed by virtue of the Norse slipping behind him and cutting off his retreat. Turn 4 was rather uneventful, as both sides licked their wounds and worked to strengthen their holdings.

At the start of turn 5, the noble count was even and the Scots had a hand full of Event cards. Normally, this would be a bad thing, but Seary, who had drawn the French Knights out of the pool, brought in King Balliol. While this move cost him several nobles, it gave him the one-two punch of Wallace and the King.

Meanwhile, Manns, who drew Edward II in the Levy, pressed the attack. They fought a huge battle in Fife, with Wallace barely hanging on to win. Still, the Scots hand, full of events, allowed the English to press the Scots north. The press continued in Turn 6, as Seary was busy trying to get back the rebellious nobles.

Turn 7 almost saw Balliol die, which would have ended the game , but he barely won another battle in Fife which cost the English a lot of their infantry. The next turn saw a stalemate settling in as the two sides battled between Fife and Mentieth. The English got a lot of their infantry back onto the board in that Levy.

The last turn started with the noble count even. The English had a good levy and moved north to try to take the noble they would need to break the tie. Wallace went west and grabbed Argyll, giving Seary a 9-6 edge. Seary then tried to cut off Edward II by again sneaking the Norse behind English lines. It not only did not work, but allowed Manns to grab control of Lennox. It was even going into the last card, but Seary was able to retake Lennox with Wallace while King Balliol, still struggling to retake the nobles who had revolted against him, was able to get Ross back to the Scot side. The game ended with Seary controlling nine nobles to Manns' five.


Hammer of the Scots Play By Email

PBeM Tournament commenced October 1st, 2004: The first PBeM tourney of Hammer of the Scots is in the books.  31 players vied for the dominance of the Scottish Nobles in a five-round swiss tourney using the 2.0 rules.  Players bid to play the English by bidding the number of years to play without Edward I.  Games were played on a website that handled the cards and the random draws of the blocks.  There were 52 games played and the English won 28.  There were three draws and 21 wins by the Scots.  Hank Burkhalter remained undefeated in the battle of the unbeatens by edging Rick Young in the final round. 

The final standings were 1st - Hank Burkhalter, 2nd - Rick Young, 3rd - Chris Byrd, 4th - Jeff Mullet, 5th - Suzanne Tuch and 6th - George Seary.

 GM      Phil Barcafer  [3rd Year]   NA
   barcafer@ptd.net   NA

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