merchant of venus

Updated 11/30/2008

 2008 WBC Report  

 2009 Status: pending 2009 GM commitment

Ewan McNay, CT

2008 Champion

Offsite Links

 

Event History
1991    Duane Wagner      24
1992    Kathy Stroh      21
1993    Michael Anchors      41
1994    David Thompson      43
1995    Greg Mayer      56
1996    Tom Stokes      48
1997    Mark Hunter      78
1998    Greg Mayer      80
1999    Steve Crenshaw     67
2000    Debbie Otto     68
2001     Bill Crenshaw     72
2002     Charley Hickok      60
2003     Luke Koleszar      64
2004     Eric Wrobel      64
2005      John Koskl      50
2006     Eyal Mozes      39
2007      Kathy Stroh      47
2008     Ewan McNay      57
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Bill Crenshaw      VA    08     96
  2.  Eric Wrobel        VA    05     60
  3.  Debbie Otto        MO    00     56
  4.  Eyal Mozes         NY    08     54
  5.  Joe Abrams         CT    08     54
  6.  Luke Koleszar      VA    05     52
  7.  Ed Wrobel          VA    03     52
  8.  Steve Dickson      CA    07     48
  9.  Chuck Foster       TX    06     42
 10.  Kathy Stroh        DE    07     40
 11.  John Koskl         NC    05     40
 12.  Lance Ribeiro      NH    05     40
 13.  Charles Hickok     PA    02     40
 14.  Jeff Bakalchuck    NY    02     40
 15.  Steve Crenshaw     VA    99     40
 16.  Greg Mayer         MO    99     36
 17.  Ewan McNay         CT    08     30
 18.  Duane Wagner       NJ    07     24
 19.  Peggy Pfeiffer     FL    07     16
 20.  Rich Meyer         MA    04     16
 21.  Phillip Shea       VA    08     13
 22.  Kevin Wojtasczyck  NY    07     12
 23.  Vassili Kyrkos     NY    04     12
 24.  Abby Cocke         MD    02     12
 25.  James Hopkin       CA    00     12
 26.  Frank McNally      MA    06      9
 27.  Tom DeMarco        NJ    03      8
 28.  Gary Dickson       CA    02      8
 29.  Lauren Hickok      PA    00      8
 30.  Ray Stakenas Sr    NC    05      4
 31.  Jim Fardette       AE    04      4
 32.  Lynn Ribeiro       NH    01      4
 33.  David Fritsch      VA    08      3
 34.  Ken Gutermuth      TX    06      3

2008 Laurelists                                                Repeating Laurelists:

Joe Abrams, CT
2nd

Eyal Mozes, NY
3rd

Phillip Shea, FL
4th

Bill Crenshaw, VA
5th

David Fritsch, VA
6th


Past Winners

Duane Wagner, NJ
1991

Kathy Stroh, PA
1992, 2007

Michael Anchors, MD
1993

David Thompson, NE
1994

Greg Mayer, MO
1995, 1998

Tom Stokes, NJ
1996

Mark Hunter, MO
1997

Steve Crenshaw, MD
1999

Deb Otto, MO
2000

Bill Crenshaw, MD
2001

Charlie Hickok, PA
2002

Luke Koleszar, VA
2003

Eric Wrobel, VA
2004

John Koski, NC
2005

Eyal Mozes, NY
2006

Philip Shea, Rich Meyer and GM Richard Irving arriving at shuttleport.

Charley Hickok, Ewan McNay, Ken Gutermuth, and Tom Browne pick up cargo.

Shop Till You Drop Out of Orbit

Much misfortune faced the competitors at the Merchant of Venus tournament - but much triumph was also experienced.

In the first heat, one player, Chris Entwistle, asked to be taught the game. Other players quickly brought Chris up to speed during the sign ups. As the table assignments were being made, Chris said he wanted to play and was quickly assigned to a game. Despite finishing third in his heat, he compiled a quite respectable $1860 score. Good Job, Chris! At the other extreme, at another table, the record for futility was set by Mr. Y (whose name will be held in a secure location-in a mayonaise jar on Funk & Wagnalls porch since noon yesterday!). Mr. Y had attempted a high-cost Freighter strategy which did not pan out, finishing with a final score of $120. OUCH! Tough game! The former record holder, Mr. X, was glad to have his non-name expunged from the records.

Players advancing from the first heat were Gary Dickson, Mark McCandless, Eyal Mozes, Philip Shea, Bill Crenshaw, John Henry, and Charles Hickok.

In the second heat, an event occurred which caused the permanent retirement of the fictional "Water in the Gas Tank" and "Wrong Way Corrigan" Awards. (But like Brett Favre, they may unretire next year!). Norm Newton, starting from the Space City in The Cloud, was trying to go the fashionable Western part of the Galaxy by Galactic Base. But Navigation Circles can make this journey perilous (a 2 or 3 is needed to avoid getting stuck), but if you roll 1,1,1 as Norm did, it probably doesn't matter much - few pips were wasted. So Norm tried again -1, 1, 1 was thrown again, so back into The Cloud he went. On his third attempt, again trying to go the Westside - yep, ANOTHER 1, 1, 1!!! (Odds of three such consecutive rolls are over 10 MILLION to 1 against!) Back to stuck on the Navigation circle! Finally on his fourth attempt, Norm did make a better roll: 1, 1, 4! Still, he could not go where wanted to, and he was forced twice as far out of his way! But at least he moved more than three pips! The GM commented that he might never leave The Cloud. Just then, Gary Libby, won the game! I have to doubt that anyone will roll as poorly as Norm did n ANY WBC tournament ever again!

Advancers from Heat 2 were Tom Browne, Ewan McNay, Mike Brophy, Chuck Foster, Ken Gutermuth, and the aforementioned Gary Libby.

In the third and last heat, the GM still had not played a game. The first heat I sat out since I had seven perfect tables of four players each. During the second heat, I played the semi-final in Up Front, my favorite wargame, through the indulgence of the GM Jim Burnett and my opponent Ralph Gleaton and the aid of my Assistant GM, Roderick Lee. (Even though I lost to Ralph, it was my best result in Up Front, so I was pleased.) In the third heat, I finally played and won. Through a random draw, three previous heat winners drew the same game in that heat. Bill Crenshaw survived that particular Battle Royale.

Heat 3 saw the following players advance in their last chance: Richard Irving, Richard Meyer, Joe Abrams, and David Fritsch. Bill Crenshaw won a second game.

There were 17 separate game winners, but fortunately only 16 appeared for the semis, so four 4-player games were played. In Game 1, Philip "Mr. Freighter" Shea, struck again and ran away with a relatively easy victory using his usual big haul strategy. Richard Meyer was only $48 short. In Game 2, Joe Abrams edged David Fritsch, who finished shy just $75. Game 3 was even closer as Bill Crenshaw had the necessary goods on board his ship to win, but was beaten to port and $3000 by Eyal Mozes. In the last semi, Ewan McNay won by the largest margin of victory in the semis, a mere $107.

In the Final, Ewan McNay built a solid trade empire featuring ports at four adjacent systems: Trapped Rogue (1a), Poison Planet (2), Shuttlestop at the Cloud (5) and Water World (8). A perfect 4 stop loop! Using a transport, he was able to cruise to a relatively easy victory. Joe Abrams made one last ditch effort to hit a telegate cure, but it was not to be.

In addition to the usual plaques, the GM awarded a choice of Science Fiction and Fantasy movies to the finalists and 5th place finisher.

As usual, the #1 rule of the tournament was strictly obeyed: Have Fun!!!!

Finalists: (Ranked by result in Final)
1) Ewan McNay $3093
2) Joe Abrams $2711
3) Eyal Mozes $2502
4) Philip Shea $1535

Semi-finalists: (Ranked by result in Semi-final game)
5) Bill Crenshaw $3042
6) David Fritsch $2985
7) Richard Mayer $2952
8) Charles Hickok $2893
9) Mike Brophy $2582
10) Chuck Foster $2453
11) Richard Irving $2435
12) Tom Browne $2145
13) Ken Gutermuth $2140
14) Mark McCandless $2011
15) Gary Libby $1760
16) Gary Dickson $1081

Finishers (Ranked by best result in Heat game)
17) John Henry $2034
18) Laureal Stokes $1925
19) Bob Woodson $1915
20) Duane Wagner $1871
21) Chris Entwistle $1860
22) Michael Holmquist $1833
23) Alex Giesing $1817
24) Roderick Lee $1751
25) Peter Staab $1723
26) Jomatahn Squibb $1681
27) Debbie Gutermuth $1602
28) Luke Koleszar $1592
29) Wade Fowble $1574
30) Malinda Kyrkos $1508
31) Jason Wagner $1397
32) Roy Pettis $1345
33) David Metheny $1342
34) David Weinstein $1340
35) Nikki Bradford $1280
36) Tony Newton $1274
37) Stephane Dorais $1272
38) Sean McCulloch $1196
39) Claire Brosius $1103
40) Eric Engelmann $1095
41) Heather Maloney $1080
42) Kevin Wojtaszczyk $1048
43) Bill Duke $1024
44) Patrick Maloney $1015
45) Norm Newton $970
46) Tom Vickery $890
47) Patrick Shea $870
48) Paul Bolduc $840
49) Paul Gaberson $796
50) Tom Stokes $770
51) Greg Zegalia $750
52) Reiko Brooks $634
53) John Ellsworth $582
54) Frank McNally $580
55) Ahmet Ilpars $520
56) Bob Hamel $170
57) Mr. Y $120

 GM      Richard Irving  [7th Year]   1505 Caceras Circle, Salinas, CA 93906
    rri12@sbcglobal.net   NA

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