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Steve LeShay explains his game during
one of eight demo sessions. |
First time players were the norm in
the four heats. |
Simply Amazing ...
27 players competed in the first Amazing Space Venture
competition with 47 starts and 13 games over a grueling three-day
period before a "Lord of the Universe" was finally
proclaimed. Using two-player rules (draw and place
three tiles) throughout to speed up play, all but one game was
resolved well within a two-hour time limit. The four heat
format was ideal for this introductory coached event. As anticipated,
scores were close for each heat with the largest margin of victory
43 points (a three-player game) and the closest game decided
by a mere four points (a four-player game).
In the final contest, two veteran wargamers, Roger Knowles
of Willowick, OH and Bob Menzel of Mount Pelier, VT advanced
from the semi-finals for head-to-head competition beginning at
10:10 p.m., Saturday.
Roger jumped off to an almost unbelievable 50-1 lead by quickly
exploring four planets and playing three Explorer cards from
his hand on the first four turns. To this point, Bob's only
score had been to draw and place the first Sun tile for one point.
Bob finally drew and placed some tiles to his liking
and was able to move one of his space ships to a planet tile
and play Madame Maxine on her Home Planet X'am. That
discovery, with an "abundant land and water" environment,
allowed him to close the gap to 50-19. But on the next turn
when he tried to steal one of Roger's planets with a UFO, Roger negated
the move by playing a "conspiracy" card.
Several turns later, with Roger still leading 68-37, Bob called
a "troika summit" thus effectively moving one of Roger's
space ships away from the action, and then upgraded one of his
own space ships to a Colony ship. At that point the
game's momentum changed dramatically. In one of the biggest
moves of any game ever played, Bob moved his space ship
into a worm hole and out of another worm hole, played a Cyber
Jump Special Action card to move again, and discovered a 5-point
corner planet ten squares away from where he initially began
his move! That closed the score to 97-87, but it was still
Roger's game to lose.
The game remained close with Bob getting a bonus for having
a strong empire (six or more discovered planets within his home
sector). Then on the last move, he was able
to trap Roger's space ship with an "electromagnetic web"
environment on another corner planet, Cephai. Roger scored
the points for discovery, however, and when the final pirates,
space probes, space stations, and planets were tallied, Roger
had won by only three points, 163-160.
Both players agreed that what had begun as a potential wipeout
ended in an exciting, nail-biting, hard-fought conclusion worthy
of two champion players. No one knew for sure until the
final count who was going to win. In the true spirit of intergalactic
friendship, Roger who already owned a copy of Amazing Space
Venture, gave his first prize of another copy of the
game to runner-up Bob. And, after handshakes all around, he
was proud to accept the first Amazing Space Venture (Captain
Rookie) Award Certificate from Game Master (and game designer)
Steve LeShay.
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