britannia [Updated October 2006]  

2006 WBC Report     

 2007 Status: pending 2007 GM commitment

Ewan McNay, CT

2006 Champion

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Event History
1991    Richard Curtin      39
1992    Duane Wagner      53
1993    Brett Mingo      91
1994    Scott Pfeiffer      73
1995    Randy Schib      69
1996    Scott Pfeiffer      55
1997    David Gantt      52
1998    Jim Jordan      49
1999    Scott Pfeiffer     46
2000    Ewan McNay     62
2001    Mark Smith     42
2002    Ewan McNay     42
2003    Nick Benedict     48
2004    Nick Benedict     34
2005    Richard Curtin     34
2006    Ewan McNay     45

 Laurels

Rank  Name               From  Last  Total
  1.  Ewan McNay          CT    06    221
  2.  Nick Benedict       PA    05    168
  3.  Scott Pfeiffer      SC    06     73
  4.  James Jordan        MD    02     72
  5.  Mark Smith          KY    06     70
  6.  David Gantt         SC    03     70
  7.  Richard Curtin      NY    05     60
  8.  David Yoon          NY    06     41
  9.  Llew Bardecki       ON    06     40
 10.  Jonathan Squibb     PA    00     40
 11.  Bruce Young         SC    02     36
 12.  Rick Kirchner       KY    05     24
 13.  Ralph Gleaton       SC    04     24
 14.  Randy Schilb        MO    00     24
 15.  Richard Jones       UK    02     18
 16.  Jonathan Price      NJ    00     12
 17.  Mike Mullins        MD    05      8
 18.  Brett Mingo         MD    02      6
 19.  John Strand         CO    03      5
 20.  James Tyne          OH    05      4
 21.  John Emery          SC    04      4
         

2006 Laurelists

Llew Bardecki, ON
2nd

Barry Smith, NY
3rd

Scott Pfeiffer, SC
4th

Mark Smith, KY
5th

David Yoon, NY
6th


Past Winners

Richard Curtin, NY
1991, 2005

Duane Wagner, NJ
1992

Brett Mingo, MD
1993

Scott Pfeiffer, SC
1994, 1996, 1999

Randy Schilb, MD
1995

David Gantt, SC
1997

Jim Jordan, MD
1998

Ewan McNay, CT
2000, 2002, 2006

Mark Smith, KY
2001

Nick Benedict, CA
2003-04


 Designer Lew Pulsipher looks on during the demonstration as the new FFG version of Britannia is explained.

 The new version of the game was probably largely responsible for a new surge in attendance this year.

 Finalists Ewan McNay (left), Llew Bardecki, Scott Pfeiffer, and Barry Smith (seated at left) contest the last board.

Reborn ...

45 people, more than the tournament has had in four of the last five years, journeyed through the looking glass following the glittering promise of the new Britannia just published by Fantasy Flight Games. FFG's repackaging of the classic game was universally admired by the crowd for its eye-catching graphic design. Only one mistake was universally declared by all, whoever decided that the Romans should be yellow when the board background had also been changed to yellow was clearly out of their mind. In the minds of most players, the Romans are purple and shall remain so for many years.

But a change in color did not affect game designer Lew Pulsipher's rewrite of the rules. Lew set out to rationalize the multiple versions of the rules that had been created, encourage more historical accuracy into the game play, and correct some of the clear imbalances of the game. Thus, the raiders floating at sea for hundreds of years that nearly drove the placid Lew apoplectic when he saw it at this tournament are no more, and shockingly, King Arthur will be visiting Scotland no more.

As to balance between the colors, there was evidence that it may have been addressed. More years of statistics will be needed, but this year's tournament numbers are promising. In the original Britannia, red and purple wins dominated the tables each year, with green years occasionally showing up, and blue frequently only grabbing one win, if any. This year, in the 17 heat games, yellow (also known as purple) and green each had four wins, while red and blue had five each.

While the distribution of color wins was a promising statistic, the closeness of many of the games also gave evidence of the rebalancing of the game. One of the heat games resulted in a tie, advancing two winners to the semi-finals. Another of the preliminary games came down to a win by two points in which the win was secured by a Saxon infantryman taking out a Norman cavalry in single combat. In the semi-finals, another tie occurred, with it being one retreat away, on the last battle of the game, from having been a 3-way tie. And another semi-final came down to a 1 point win.

Naturally, the balance in the colors did not prevent blowouts in some scores. As usual, high scoring plaques were awarded for each of the colors in the preliinaries. Ewan McNay came back with a multi-plaque performance again, garnering an astonishing blue high score of 338, and a nearly equal red score of 294. A newcomer, Daniel Farrow, showed very well with green, pulling in a score of 253 in a game with several old hands present. Lastly, championing the yellow (purple), Ted Simmons, who has played many games but not won before, won in fine fashion with a top yellow (purple) of 244 points.

Low scores did not abound, but, as Lew keeps reminding the crowd, Britannia is a dice game, and sometimes those dice turn against you. For that, we have the Ethelred the Unready award. Eric Kleist went to the semi-finals with a handsome blue win in the 2nd round. But a 3rd round game proved not so propitious as the dice turned against Eric's Saxons and he pulled in at the end with 184 points.

And at last, let's go to the Final. Although many nwcomers were drawn to the republished game, apparently experience in the old game still tells in the new with four of the usual suspects populating the Final. Ewan McNay (Blue), Scott Pfeiffer (Green), Barry Smith (Yellow) and Llew Bardecki (Red) met Sunday morning. In a dramatic opening, eight of Barry's legions were killed, with three of them being lost when six of Llew's Brigantes came streaming from the north and descended like locusts on March. Such was their wrath that they killed all three legions and the fort they garrisoned, and then had to lose a unit to starvation.

However, Llew's weakly defended Brigantes left behind in the north attracted an attack by the Picts. Boudicca's rebellion though, a new feature of turn 1 of the game, passed with a whimper, Boudicca storming into Essex and being cast back by the legions with no losses. Meanwhile, Scott's Welsh, as has become the norm with the new Britannia, retired to submission to the Romans after killing three legions.

But Barry's spending of the blood of the dead legions paid off with his acquiring every Roman point possible on turns 1-3.

After the passing of the Romans, the Germanic tribes came ashore in usual fine fashion, with the newly named Saxon leader Aelle building a fort in the Downlands surrounded by his mighty army. Apparently, distracted by the Saxons coming ashore to the south, the Brigantes signed a deal with the Angles and submitted when but a single Angle sauntered into the halls of Strathclyde.

The deal left a crowded invasion for the Angles. But that distracted them not at all from their prime target as 10 Angles piled onto King Arthur, protected by two cavalry and two infantry, and dramatically slaughtered all of the Romano-British with a single roll.

Meanwhile in the north, Ewan's Picts, untouched by the Romans, and able to spread out and grow, maxed out their population, presenting a huge wall before the Scottish invasion. Barry's Scots killed a few Picts, but his dice turned cold and Ewan's Picts rolled back the Scots into the sea, with a little help from some restless Angles in the south. And so, at turn 9, there were no Yellow pieces on the board, and none to return until turn 12 when the Dubliners appeared.

A quiet mid-game was primarily of interest because of Llew's creeping Brigante presence. The submission deal with Ewan's Angles allowed them to grow. Unfortunately for Ewan's hapless Picts, the only avenue for growth left to the Brigantes was to the North. By turn 10, Scotland became the northern kingdom of the Brigantes with Strathclyde, Dalriada, Alban and Dunedin being held strongly.

With the quiet mid-game, it looked like Scott's Danes would have a completely full board to attempt to storm. But a successful round of raids on turn 11 softened up the coast, and the armies ashore ran to hide from the impending Dane invasion on turn 12. Scott's Danes swept through and killed many of Ewan's Angles and a few of Llew's Saxons, but unlike their more successful raids, the Danes were bled with nearly every battle and ended with few forces left to defend their newly acquired gains.

Turns 13 and 14 were a mostly kingless swirl of chaos as the nations fought each other for enough breathing space to survive and grow. But Scott's Danes, Barry's Dubliners, Llew's Saxons, and Ewan's Angles balkanized England sufficiently for Cnut, even with his weakened armies to still achieve a very short-lived kingdom.

Turn 15 dawned. A red-green deal yielded Scott's Welsh sending a mighty army of four units out to York to defend against Barry's Norwegians. Meanwhile, the Normans faced a thin shield wall to the South with Llew's Saxons having been thinned out by the strife throughout England in the previous three turns.

Of course, when nine of Barry's Norwegians, along with the leader Harald Hardrada, descended on York, the mighty Welsh army shredded like mist, taking only one Norwegian with them. Heartened by their victory, the Norwegians then went to easily take the rest of their points, knocking more of Scott's Welsh out of North Mercia and March for an invasion with a quiet denouement.

Llew's Saxons decided to defend King Harold by sheltering in the friendly hills of Wales and left a tissue thin defense of the coast, with only one Burh, the new wooded towns constructed by the Saxons, sitting on the coast. Scott's Jutes in Kent and Sussex felt very lonely. Ewan's Normas swiftly took advantage of the opportunity given to tear apart the Saxons. But Scott's mighty Jutes took ill to the incursion by the Normans and killed two cavalry and two infantry, casting William back to Essex.

Turn 16 greeted exhausted armies everywhere. Ewan's Picts managed to struggle back into and hold their homelands. And a desperate grab at the end captured the last island for Llew's Norsemen, but the empty lowlands yielded a victory for the Normans as they spread out. At the last though, the Normans were cheated of kingship by the last battle in which a Saxon infantryman killed one of the last Norman cavalry in another deadly single combat.

When the results were tallied, Ewan's blue had scored 234, Llew's red 228, Barry's yellow (purple) 222, and Scott's green 204. The win makes Ewan the 2nd 3 second 3-time winner after Scott Pfeiffer.

 GM      James M. Jordan  [8th Year]  NA
    jmj@ieee.org   NA

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