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GM and designer Mark McLaughlin rarely
competes but is always present to teach with his giant board
and miniatures. |
Observers Fred Schachter, Lane and
Ben Hess join the finalists for the championship round. |
18 Unhappy Austrians Walk Into
A Bar
This was a bad year to be an Austrian emperor. None of the
18 guys who donned the Hapsburg mantle managed to lead their
hosts to victory. Even the Prussians managed to win three of
the 18 games that were played -- and these were full-on, legitimate
wins (not the default "Prussian byes" either). As for
the other powers, Russia won four games and England five. The
French took only six of the 18 contests -- but numbered among
them, however, was the most important -- the last one.
Yes, it was a French victory in the Final that won the wood
for Scott Fenn this year, and his toughest opponent was Ed Rothenberg
-- who took Austria about as close to the gold as anyone did
all week. Pat Duffy (Britain), Brian Sutton (Prussia) and Richard
Beyma (Russia and fresh off his 2-player win) all fought well
-- and on their own, abandoning Austria to a one-on-one struggle
with the French in 1805. The Russians, rather than aid the Austrians,
dove into Turkey, thus opening up another Imperial flank on the
unhappy Hapsburgs. Austria, piqued at this, offers to submit
if the French will return the occupied duchies -- and France
accepts.
As the Russian invasion of Turkey bogged down, the Russians
look for cheap shots -- and with the help of the English, invade
Spain. Kutuzov takes Barcelona, but is in turn trapped with
his back to the sea. An English offensive in Italy fares no
better. England's woes are made worse by the successive hammer
blows of an Irish Revolt, the Anglo-American War and several
successful sorties by the French Navy. The French, together with
the Turks, Danes and Swedes, invade Russia, where the steppes
are empty thanks to disasters in Turkey, Spain and a Persian
War -- empty of everything except snow, that is. Russian Winter
wipes out half of Napoleon's invading army. Still, although
hungry and more than decimated, by the end of Turn 2 the combined
Imperial forces hold all of Russia save the capitals.
As the game moves to Turn 3, Russia joins the French -- and
Austria comes in on the Coalition side! The turn is marked more
by a flurry of diplomatic alliance breaking and buying back of
allies than of battles. A French invasion of England by Lannes
looks good at first, but the French are massacred by Wellington,
who follows up by landing on the continent.
On Turn 4 Prussia jumps into the war and drives into Belgium,
but is repaid by a Polish Uprising. (At least he didn't have
to fight Napoleon, who was trapped in the Russian wasteland with
no way to rejoin any real army). Turn 4 ended with Russia vowing
to rejoin the coalitionbut that proved too little, too late --
as the game ended in a French victory with the French roll of
a "6."
And Austria, unhappy Austria, came in second.
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Mark McLaughlin [5th Year]
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