The GM provided six nifty Best Faction plaques.	Hey ... my worm counter isn't that cool!

This year's Dune tournament again included nine qualification games, but they ran a little longer than usual, with a mean duration of 7.8 game turns in 4.4 hours.

With the exception of one solo victory (a Guild default win), all of the games were won by alliances, five pairs and three triples. The wins were relatively evenly spread across all the factions, except for the Bene Gesserit, who retained their reputation as the "winningest" faction, participating in six wins. House Harkonnen had an uncharacteristic down year, with only three wins, bringing them down to the level of the Fremen and the Guild.

Tournament rules remained unchanged from 2007, but this year there was heightened concern about the adjudication rules -- four of the nine preliminary games required adjudication. All feedback concerning adjudication for next year is welcome. I am considering eliminating adjudication altogether by allowing Fremen/Guild default victories at the end of every unfinished game, no matter what turn they end.

Best Faction plaques were awarded to the players who gave the best single-game performance with each faction during the preliminary heats, measured in terms of strongholds controlled per turn. Ty Hansen received Best Atreides; Bill Dyer, Best BG; Benoit Groulx, Best Emperor; Jean-Francois Gagne, Best Fremen; Alan Arvold, Best Guild; and Matt Fagan, Best Harkonnen.

There was a strong Canadian contingent in the Final, with Glenn McMaster drawing the Guild; Benoit Groulx, the BG; and Stephane Dorais, the Fremen. Rounding out the finalists were ex-champ Matt Fagan with the Atreides, Rob Barnes with the Harkonnen, and two-time champion Bill Dyer as the Emperor.

The Final got off to a relatively stable beginning, with the five strongholds being shared evenly. However, the Guild was sowing discord right from the start, remaining aloof from early alliances. In Turn 3, a Truth trance discovered that the BG had predicted the Emperor to win on an unknown turn. Meanwhile, a major battle between the the Harkonnen and the Atreides ended in a lasgun-shield explosion eliminating both of their sizable armies, only to find them allying with each other in the next turn's nexus! Such is the nature of Dune.

In Turn 4, three alliances emerged that would remain until the end of the game: Fremen-Emperor, Atreides-Harkonnen, and Guild-BG. At one point, the Guild and BG actually sealed their alliance with a publicly binding agreement, virtually unheard of! The Fremen and Emperor held all the cards, literally, through much of the first half of the game. They struggled for the win a couple of times, but came up just short, hindered in part by the destruction of the Shield Wall. By mid-game, the Guild and BG were gaining power, with the Guild uncharacteristically actively hunting Harkonnen troops for the purpose of killing leaders. However, despite the entry of the Shield Wall as a sixth stronghold in Turn 7, no one alliance was able to achieve victory over the others. In Turn 11, each faction held exactly one stronghold apiece, with Carthag having been controlled by each faction at least once during the game. In the last turns, parity continued, and it became a question of which of the Fremen or the Guild would achieve their default victory conditions. After 15 grueling turns, the Guild finally claimed victory, having successfully prevented any conclusive ownership of Arrakis!

Congratulations to all, and especially to Glenn McMaster on his first Dune championship. See you again next year!

The GM's custom made Dune set included wooden box screens.	The finalists engage in a 15-turn marathon.