Strasburg resounds with the clash of swords in the War of the Roses.	The finalists pause to record their battle for posterity.

The Kingmaker Championship was decided by five players who advanced via three rounds of qualifying preliminaries. Nick Benedict and Justin Thompson, former champions who quickly sized each other up as their main threat, were joined by three newcomers: Mike Wallschlaeger, Warren Bender and David Huss.

The Final started with everybody in a reasonable position and it would be tough for one person to take command early. An early parliament was called near Shrewsbury and all decided to stay except Mike who sent his noble's home. As nobles moved away from the Parliament space, the factions started attacking each other. I was attempting to keep Nick Benedict in check so I attempted to influence Warren and David to attack him. They did and he suffered some loses. The Queen, Edward, King Henry, George and Clarence were killed early which left only three heirs on the board. At that point Nick created the kill Justin coalition with Warren having the King of York, Richard and I having Edmund. Nick was attempting to kill my noble and heir at all costs. I understood his decision (as I had worked against him after the Parliament) to take me out and decided to play along with his game.

I had started the game with four ships and Edward (second in the White Roses line) was in Carisbrooke castle. No one was able to get enough strength to get Edward so he sat there for quite a while. After10-12 assination attempts against Edmund, I decided to kill him so the assassination attempts would stop. They didn't stop! Nick was hell bent to kill my main noble Mowbray. I had 100 foot solders with Mowbray (which are only good for one attack or unlimited defense) so if Mowbray died I would go from 300+ troop strength to nothing and be out of the game. I was able to move out and pick up Edward and move south towards Penzance. At that point the Assassination attempts stopped. With 45 minutes to go, Mike and David were trying to crown Beaufort King in the north. Warren had the King with Lord Stanley who was the Constable of the Tower of London. He was called to the Island of Douglas with the King. Under the tournament rules he needed to move his Noble off the Island and back to the mainland as soon as possible. He was able to move a ship to move him off the island and he played a refugee card to allow for more time off the mainland. I moved my stack by sea to Wales and attacked him on Douglas. He was outside of the castle so I had a 2-1 attack. I won the battle but he played his Kings Pardon card. This allowed him to keep his heir, noble and his awards. He got on his ship and sailed to Wales were he brought reinforcements to firm up his position. On my last turn I was able to send in an assassin to attempt to kill the King. It failed. Mike, sitting to my left ,pulled his event card and it was Royal Death. With only two heirs on the board Mike had to roll a 6 (with two Dice) to kill Richard of York or an 8 to kill Edward. He rolled an "8" and ended the game on a royal death event card! What an ending! In hundreds of Kingmaker games I have never seen that finish to a game. It was glorious! I lost to Warren Bender who after the royal death had the last heir in the game. Congratulations to Warren who took hisfirst title.

1st Warren Bender 93 (Sole King)

2nd Mike Wallschlaeger 40

3rd David Huss 38

4th Justin Thompson 30

5th Nick Benedict 28

I want to thank the BPA for allowing me the privilege of being the GM for Kingmaker for so many years. I have decided to retire as GM and move on to Rome vs. Rome in 2010 so Kingmaker will need a new GM as well as membership votes to continue at WBC.

Warren Bender and David Huss plot their strategy in the Final ...	... while Mike Wallschleger and Nick Benedict catch some ZZZZ's.