Enemy in Sight has traditionally been one of the last shots for wood and travel plans on getaway day have cut short its potential players. Some theorize that changing the event to Class B and providing heats might reinvigorate the field to its previous high numbers.	GM Neal Schlaffer oversees his last Final. At 17 years with the same event he was the dean of WBC GMs. Unable to attend for more than a day in recent years, he thinks another GM with more time could reinvigorate the field.

To say it has been fun would be an understatement. I have run the tournament for 17 years - since he game was first published. We have had as many as 64 players and as few as 25 which dropped it from the Century 100 and onto the in again/offagain bubble. We have had tournaments last five hours for just the first round. We've even had two publishers. I've seen you and your kids grow up and older playing the game. There has been some past criticism about the use of single elimination and the Sunday get-away slot. Well, here's the chance for someone to step up and run the game the way they want. I am stepping down and perhaps it is for the best. Perhaps with a different format it will regain its former glory. I hope so.

This year 32 players began the day with fiveadvancing to the final round which lasted three decks. Many were old hands at the game with a sprinkling of new faces. In the second deck action Matt Evinger (ME) prized the Guerrier captured from Bill Alderman (BA). He sank the damaged HMS Java at sea with a 4+1 hit and sank the Thunderer in Bill Powers port on a die roll of 6 to propel himself into a very slim lead over BA. ME manage to lose the Royal Sovereign to John Speck (JS) which JS eventually prized.

Third deck action saw BA as the first player to breach the 100 VP level with the capture and return of the Mars - a 26-point prize. He also managed to sink another ship ensuring an easy 116 point victory. But, this was not meant to be as he took the brunt of the third deck vengeance and lost his entire fleet thereby losing 15 VPs and coming in second with 101 VPs. Had BA not lost the 15 VPs there would have been a tie for first and another deck to play. In the end ME bided his time, sank a small 8 VP ship, then played a Refuse Battle, just a few cards short from ending the game, to take the Santa Ana back and gain 30 VP and the number one slot.

Evinger won with a total of 116 points to Alderman's 101. Powers took third with 94, Speck fourth with 87, Cannon fifth with 61 and Hitchings brought up the rear with a mere 49. Mike Cannon (MC) had the worst luck of all the players in drawing cards and ended up having, at one point, five Boarding Parties with nothing to shoot. Two rules modifications will be made in future copies of EIS to address this issue and assist players in getting rid of multiple "worthless" cards (see below).

Recommended rules change for Lost Battalions' rule booklet:

Page 9, rule section 7.3.3 Boarding Party Resolution ADD: "7.3.3.1 A player may play more than one Boarding Party as part of his boarding attempt.  For each additional Boarding Party card played, beyond the first used to initiate the boarding party attack, the boarding attempt die roll is modified by +1."
 
Page 11, rule section 7.7 BLOCKADE CARDS   between " ... exiting Ships still in Port." and "A player may not blockade . . ." ADD: "A player may use more than one Refuse Battle Card as part of his attempt to run a Blockade.  For each additional Refuse Battle beyond the first use to initiate the running of the blockade the die roll is modified by +1."