Ahhh ... Host A ... what a fitting location for the gulag.	Stein: "Back in '06 when I won it all ..." Curtin: "Zzzzzzzz ....."

After his three-wave-and-out victory last year, Lee Rodrigues had work commitments and was unable to defend his title (he and the GM had a chat about priorities when he finally appeared on Saturday), leaving the field clear for a new champion. As expected, it wasn't the GM, who while winning the last two of his three heats had to settle for second place when it counted.

This year we played only 10 games in the four heats, despite a slightly larger turnout for the event. Just one of the games had to be adjudicated due to time pressure. Six were won on waves, including those qualifying three of the finalists. Two games were won by attrition, including one game ending on a very early Turn 6 due to hot purge and "health" dice. The remaining slot was filled with the sole turn 10.5 win.

In the Final, Steve took an early lead with control of Nestor and Badenuff (starting as Foreign Minister but quickly moved into the Defense Minister slot). Nestor was able to last until the 4th turn thanks to some luck with both die rolls and his starting Intrigue cards (flu vaccine and one of the two release from sanitarium cards). However, a failure on Turn 2 left Steve with just two waves, and due to a heavy toll with the Turn 4 health dice the Party Chief position went to Goferbrok, who had been lurking in the second level of the Politburo. He turned out to belong to Ewan's faction, and Ewan proceeded to rearrange the politburo more to his liking, moving Shootemdedsky to Foreign Minister and having Protsky replace him as KGB head, as well as replacing Badenuff (still at Defense) with Talksalott.

Goferbrok gave Ewan one (failed) attempt at waving before his waning health put him in the Kremlin wall, after which Protzky became Party Chief. To no one's surprise, Ewan remained in control, naming Strychnin as KGB head and bringing Karrienko back to the Politburo in his starting position as Defense Minister. Turn 5 yielded another failed wave attempt, and the Politburo remained stable until the successful wave ending Turn 6. At this point, Steve took control of Protzky by Adding Influence to get 10+, but to no avail - Protzky didn't survive the health phase. His replacement Strychnin survived health die rolls and card play to wave twice in the next two turns, winning the game and the title for Ewan on Turn 8.

Comrade Martin proclaims his innocence but evokes no sympathy from KGB Head Mitchell.	The finalists gather ... and no finer specimens for the gulag have ever been assembled.