Robert Woodson (left) of Nevada and Barry Smith of New York put their blocks to the test as east meets west.	Susan Ellsworth was the only woman in the field to give the blocks a try. Stu Hendrickson provided the opposition.

Impressive Debut

Bob Heinzmann overcame the odds and took down the two sharks with the biggest teeth in the last two rounds to win the inaugural WBC Fast Action Battles tournament. Bob played against Scott Moll in the Final after barely squeaking by the pre-convention favorite, Kevin Garber in the semi-finals. Scott's Germans had a terrible opening turn, making no headway against the American lines on the 16th of December. He was ready to concede but Bob talked him into playing on. Big mistake.

On Turn 3 the tables were turned and Scott had broken through, ripping a huge hole in the American line and now Bob had to be talked into not conceding. The end of Turn 5 saw the American line stabilized, German spearheads isolated and Bob holding on to the narrowest of wins. It was an excellent contest between two true gentlemen, either of whom would I would have been proud to proclaim champion.

Next year we will try a slightly different bidding system, bidding extra asset pulls instead of extra fuel. This was suggested by the players and I look forward to putting it into use in 2009. The average bid this year was 1.2 fuel assets to play the Americans, and the Americans won 54% of the matches, though they won overwhelmingly in the first round (the Germans won more than 50% of the matches if the first round was excluded).

We may also try a different scenario, that will allow both sides to attack and defend. The scenario is being tested now for possible inclusion in C3i magazine.