Andy Finkel (left) in the process of taking 2nd place laurels back to Britain.	Dan Dolan (left) vs JR Tracy with nary an elk or squad leader in sight.

The inaugural event for this third game in Richard Borg's series (Memoir '44 and Battle Cry are the others) saw players gather to play the first round in 4-player groups where each player played the other three in their group in the same scenario and the best in the group advanced to the second round. The scenario for the first round was the epic battle of Cannae. Side selection was handled by plays bidding Command cards they were willing to give their opponent which would increase both their hand size and their Command Value. The players were advised at the start that the designer thought the scenario was a 0 or 1 card bid to play Carthage. In the end, Carthage won 37 of the 54 games. When Carthage won, they won by an average score of 7 to 3.75 while Rome won 7 to 5. The average bid was one card to play Carthage but there was no correlation between cards bid and who won. Rome won several games receiving no cards and lost one of the three matches where they got two cards.

With nine group winners automatically advancing to the second round, we also took seven runner-ups which worked well as it meant that all groups where two people tied with 2-1 records to lead the group were able to advance. The second round was another group stage where the 16 players were broken down into 4-layer groups again. This time the scenario was Zama. The designers handicap call was a bid of 1 to 2 cards to play Rome. The average bid for the 24 games was 1.25 cards. However, again the cards bid didn't guarantee victory. Carthage won some games receiving no cards and lost some where they got two cards. The numbers were closer with Rome winning 14 of the 24 games. The average wins were Rome 8-4.25 and Carthage 8-5. Only the winner of each group advanced. One group was so closely contested that it may have been possible to have a three-way tie for the win with all the tie-breakers the same. However, the luck gods relented and Tony Curtis' Carthaginians came storming back to take the battle from Allen Kaplan's Romans and the group. Allen Kaplan does get an honorable mention for having the most unique set; it was a painted and mounted miniature set.

The semi-finals were two games against the same opponent in the same battle, Castulo, switching sides. In one match-up, Andy Finkel faced Bill O'Neal. The Romans won both plays but Andy's were quicker only losing five victory banners while Bill lost seven. The other semi saw Tony Curtis win both sides against Rob March to advance.

A very friendly Final ensued as both parties agreed to an hour and a half break before starting the Final; Andy to make his scheduled dinner with his wife and Tony to help me cart our goodies to the vendor booth. The Final was so friendly that they were able to set-up and play the battle, Baecula, twice in an hour. I normally see players get tighter and slower when they get to last round. I'm glad the players were able to relax and enjoy the experience. Tony won both games and the tournament. Actually, Tony went undefeated by winning all ten games; the other three semi-finalists had lost one game during the first round and two of them had also lost a game during Round 2.

I want to thank all the players. The tournament flowed very smoothly. I only had to call time on a few games and I did not see any of the players purposely delaying. If I'd known it was going to be so easy to run, I would have arranged some pick-up games in the tournament room. Look for next year's tournament to use new scenarios and not just as a free handout like the Truceless War ones this year.