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

In answer to last year's concerns about too many games running past the time limit and requiring adjudication, qualification games this year were scheduled for five hours, and half of the eight games played needed all of that time. Nonetheless, the average game this year was shorter than last, taking 3.8 hours to play 6.6 turns. Adjudication rules were also simplified, and thankfully those were only needed to be called upon once.

We had two solo wins, one a Turn 7 Atreides win, and one a Turn 2 (!!) Guild win (only partially assisted by an amateurish error in play committed by the GM himself!) Previously, we had recorded only three solo wins in eight years of play, and those were all accomplished by the Harkonnen, so it was nice to see a couple of new factions getting in on the action. The remaining games were won by two 2-player alliances and four 3-player teams, with only one default condition victory achieved by the Guild. The factions were fairly evenly balanced, with every faction achieving three - five victories, but for the poor Fremen who shared in only one win, continuing to occupy the cellar. (After eight of nine years with losing Fremen records, I am seriously considering introducing a house rule to help that faction compete a bit more effectively.)

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. Phil Barcafer received Best Atreides; Rob Barnes, Best BG; Jean-Francois Gagne, Best Emperor; Bill Dyer, Best Fremen; Stephane Dorais, Best Guild; and Benoit Groulx, Best Harkonnen.

The three Canadians from last year's final game all repeated that appearance this year, with Glenn McMaster drawing the Harkonnen; Benoit Groulx, the Emperor; and Stephane Dorais, the BG. Rounding out the final game were Joe Harrison with the Atreides, Bill Dyer with the Fremen, and Phil Barcafer with the Guild. All six players have previously played in the Final and reside in the top half of the Laurels List, three being former champions.

The Final started out with relative cooperation among the players, Atreides and Harkonnen sharing spice blows, until the Fremen severely weakened the Harkonnen in a big battle over a spice blow. In Turn 3, the first worm appeared and Atreides and the Emperor allied, going for the win in Turn 4. They had a good chance of winning the game at this point, bolstered by timely play of the Lazgun, but they were narrowly defeated, with Harkonnen taking significant losses again.

In Turn 5, Atreides abandoned the weakened Emperor and allied with the Guild. The other four factions all remained unallied in a bid to defend passively by blocking strongholds. The Fremen was weakened by a particularly nasty Weather-Controlled storm, and the Atreides/Guild alliance attempted to win in Turn 7. The BG defeated the Atreides in Habbanya Ridge Sietch, and the Harkonnen, funded by both the Emperor and the Fremen, attacked in Arrakeen. A demoralizing Karama hand swap ensured Harkonnen victory and a continuing game.

The next worm saw the Guild and Harkonnen ally as the strongest remaining factions, with four strongholds already controlled between them. The bulk of the Fremen and Emperor armies attacked, but Harkonnen abandoned Arrakeen to the Emperor, taking the Shield Wall instead (now available as a stronghold for victory, due to the house rules.) The Guild defeated the Fremen in two battles, while the Harkonnen prevailed against the BG in Carthag to declare victory in Turn 8!

In the end, the Guild/Harkonnen alliance shared the requisite four strongholds evenly, with the Harkonnen being declared the champion due to having more tokens on planet. Glenn is the third player to win a second Dune title, but the first to do it in sequential years.

It was good to see Roger Cox back at WBC for the first time since Camp Hill days. He's joined here at right by Joe Doughan as the two ventured into the Dune shark pool.	It takes nerve to sport your Centurion shirt in the multi-player event you won it in, but it takes skill to do it and repeat as champion. Glenn did just that.