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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
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