manifest destiny [Updated October 2006]  

	2006 WBC Report    2007 Status: pending 2007 GM commitment
AJ Sudy, VA 2006 Champion Offsite links:	Event History 2005    Harald Henning     46 2006     AJ Sudy     46 Enlightenment History 2006    Bill Crenshaw     19	Laurels Rank Name From Last Total 1. Bill Crenshaw VA 06 48 2. Harald Henning CT 05 40 3. AJ Sudy VA 06 36 4. Kevin Sudy VA 06 24 5. Ted Simmons NJ 05 24 6. Arthur Field SC 06 18 7. Brett Mingo MD 05 16 8. Peter Pollard TN 06 15 9. Ed Rothenheber MD 06 9 10. Tom Browne PA 06 9 11. David Nicholson ON 05 8 12. Peter Staab PA 06 6 13. Dave Long NC 05 4 14. Kathy Stroh DE 06 3
2006 Laurelists Bill Crenshaw, VA 2nd Kevin Sudy, VA 3rd Ed Rothenheber, MD 4th Pete Staab, PA 5th Peter Pollard, TN 6th Past Winners Harald Henning, CT 2005  Age of Renaissance vetersns Kathy Stroh, ted Mullally and Mark Neale populate the sequel's heats.  Manifest Destiny's appeal is that it is quicker playing and with less accounting than its predecessor.  Finalists (from left to right): Pete Staab, Bill Crenshaw, AJ Sudy, Kevin Sudy and Ed Rothenheber. No Let Down in Year 2 The 2006 version equaled its debut with 46 different players playing in heats and 17 advancing to the semi-finals.  Winners were fairly evenly distributed among the starting positions, with Pennsylvania and Mexico each having five wins, Louisiana four, Virginia two (including the Final) and Quebec one. A.J. Sudy, Bill Crenshaw, Pete Staab and Ed Rothenheber won their semi-final tests and advanced to the Final along with Kevin Sudy, who tied Pete in their semi-final contest but lost on the cash tiebreaker. In the Final, Louisiana (Kevin) got out of the gates early, gobbling territories with tokens while others invested in Pioneers.  Virginia (A.J.) cashed $60 of Tobacco on Turn 2 and used Homestead Act to leap frog to Northern California where he built a city.  Pennsylvania (Pete) played its turn order priority chit to play Hudson's Bay and used Trading Post to take the city Quebec (Ed) had built in Minnesota.  Mexico (Bill) avoided the Turn 1 Destiny card squeeze by completing Patriotism.  Before he could cash Gold, Mexico lost Guerrero by Quebec's Revolutionary War play - which was not played as Fur after Pennsylvania took Minnesota - and left Mexico and Virginia both with the $40 Gold payout. Era 2 saw Ed surge into the lead as Kevin took the brunt of various bad cards, including Spy, Trustbusters and Civil War.  AJ wisely bought Safety Net early on as his profit lagged and sparred with Louisiana over Think Tank, ultimately settling for collaborating with Bill on Electricity after playing Edison.  Ed claimed Motion Pictures and the rich got richer.  By the time Era 3 arrived, Ed's Profit had ballooned to 155, lapping downtrodden Kevin's 50, and he looked close to unstoppable after he went on a Textile run and used his priority marker to play Immigrants and cash $100. A concerted effort in Era 3 spearheaded by IRS reined Ed in somewhat, but he could have won on the penultimate turn had he made his research roll on e-Commerce and used the Depression discount on Safety Net.  Instead, the respite opened the door to other players.  Bill, who was trailing throughout, drew Martin Luther King and made the roll to finish Urban Renaissance before Pennsylvania could do so.  AJ chased Ed's e-Commerce and Kevin played Yankee Ingenuity to claim Think Tank and then got a big leg up on Rock 'n Roll.  Going into final expansion, AJ and Bill were in prime position to catch Ed and Kevin and Pete had more ground to make up.   AJ took Bill's Gold city, winning a 2-1-1 roll when Bill whiffed with snake eyes.  The pain was greater next turn when AJ, moving second, cashed Prohibition after making a deal with Kevin to forego playing a Destiny card.  Money was flying as all the big products except Tourists (much to Bill's chagrin) paid out.  AJ played one Oil card for Bill and Bill then cashed the other two Oil cards to get total payments of $120.  Bill played Racial Unrest (which he held all game) to break his Profit tiebreaker with Ed.  He then played Spy on Ed, but drew Dust Bowl, which was of no help.  Pete played Ore, giving him and AJ both $75 and Black Tuesday for the event ­ either of which likely would have ensured a Bill victory had Spy been directed there.  Ed then played World War, which hit Bill twice after his Profit bump and both AJ and Pete who each had a whopping $360 in cash.  It was neck and neck going into Investment.  Kevin completed Rock 'n Roll but AJ spurned his leader licensing collaboration efforts (which AJ did not need but would have given Kevin an extra VP).  AJ just needed to roll a 5 to complete e-Commerce and in dramatic fashion rolled 4 dice individually ­ a 4, another 4, a third 4 and a fourth 4!  No Yahtzee, as his Innovation roll was a 6, giving him the B/T and the W. When the dust settled, AJ had 33 VPs and $40, Bill had 30 VPs and $45, Kevin had 30 VPs and $25, Ed slipped to 29 VPs and $0, and Pete had 26 VPs and $60. Congrats to A.J. on a game well played (and taking out the GM Designer and his dad, both of whom he regularly plays)! Sportsmanship award: 2005 finalist and Prezcon champion Pete Pollard won the Sportsmanship award for honoring his commitment to collaborate with Bill Crenshaw on a Breakthrough on the final turn in the semi-finals, even though living up to his word cost him a chance for the win.  Pete ended up losing by a point and was the closest runner-up not to advance to the Final (which earned him 6th place laurels).
GM      Bill Crenshaw [2nd year]   NA    WCrenshaw@cox.net   NA