GMT's Winds of Plunder made its debut at WBC this summer. A game of the golden age of piracy in the Caribbean, each round, players bid wind cubes to try and manipulate the wind so they can sail to one of 12 ports to acquire VP tiles. These VP tiles add victory points to their score as well as increase their ship's weapons, crew, provisions or provide them with a treasure card to help find buried treasure. Players can also score victory points by earning Port Reputation bonuses and in the tradition of being pirates, board opponents. During their turn, players have three Action Points which they can use to draw or play an Action card, add Wind Cubes to their supply, or draw a Gust of Wind.
 
The demo introduced the game to several new players. After the general introduction to the game, the players were allowed to go through a couple of rounds to get actual experience in game play. The description I completed for the 2008 Event Previews listed that "Demo will be given before the event for people who have not played the game to give them understanding of how to play the game and then be able to participate in the event." How true this was as three of the four players who reached the Final learned the game at the demo. An added bonus was to have Tony Nardo, developer for Winds of Plunder, on hand at the demo to answer questions and offer tips on play.

A total of four games with four players each jettisoned a semi-final round. Only the winner of the four games would advance to a four player Final.
 
Stats:
Average point total for win was 63, with two games having max total of 64.
Minimum total for win was 61.
Average point total for second place was 59.75, with max total of 63 and minimum of 54.
Two games won by difference of only one point. The Tie Breakers were listed on the information sheets, but did not have to be used.
First place winner was holder of the most weapons advantage marker in three of the four games. This seemed to be the strategy that people sought. Not only does the holder of the most weapons advantage marker allow them to board any other player, it also stops other players from placing Reputation markers at the port where they are currently located. Those MISFIRE! or BUY WEAPONS action cards are always useful.
James Tyne completed the clean sweep by being holder of all three advantage Markers in his game. One other interesting event in this game was the case of one
round where the holder of the Blackbeard tile, holding a modest four wind cubes at the time, intentionally picked a wind direction that would be unfavorable to most of the players. The holder did this in the hope of drawing his opponents into spending some of their wind cubes. Instead, no one bid any cubes. When there is a tie, in this case a tie at zero, the Blackbeard tile holder chooses the wind direction. The holder then chose a tied direction other than the one he originally set on his dial, a direction that afforded him the best protection from the current points (and weapons) leader.
 
The winners of the Round 1 games were: John Ellsworth, James Tyne, Ryan Myslinsk and Danielle Zack. Fifth and Sixth places were determined by point total of players who came in second place. Fifth place went to Chris LeFevre with a score of 63 and sixth went to Forrest Speck with a score of 62.
 
The Final had John starting Round 1 as holder of the Blackbeard tile at Turks & Caicos port, James at Santo Domingo, Ryan at the northernmost port of San Salvadore, and Danielle at Jamaica. It was close through the first eight rounds. The winner was going to be decided on VP tile scoring in the last (ninth) round and end-of-game bonuses. James bid 11 wind cubes in the wind voting phase of the ninth round to guarantee that he got to pick the wind direction, but also that he was the holder of Blackbeard's tile. He used the advantage of Blackbeard's tile to allow him to go last in this final round. Unknown to the other players, this was his strategy as he was in last place after he sailed, then did the perfect play with his action cards to first use PUT THE CREW TO THE TEST! where he gave up one Crew, but gained three more Action Points. His next card play was HEAVE, YE SCURVY DOGS! where he used the advantage of being in last place to pay one Crew to sail a second time. This moved him from last to first place.
 
End Game Items for James were:
Weapons  7
Crew        3
Provisions 3
Booty       2
Wind Cubes 7
 
Holder of the Most Weapons Advantage marker was James at 7
Holder of the Largest Crew Advantage marker was John at 4
Holder of the Most Provisions Advantage marker was Danielle at 5
Ryan was the pirate who found the most treasure with his Booty total at 5
 
Final scores were James 63, Danielle 61, Ryan 59 and John 50.
 
Congratulations also go to James for drawing the "Queen of Spades" to win a free Winds of Plunder game donated by GMT as a door prize for all entrants of th tournament.