Mike Arnold, Phil Pendleton, Rob Seulowitz and Randy Pippus take a mulligan.	Henry Rice, William Herbst, Phil Rodrigues, and Craig Melton try to succeed.

It was a year of many changes for Successors at WBC in 2009 - not only did we premiere the new GMT Revised Edition, but many of the usual suspects were missing, including past Champion Ross Jones and previous finalists Ahmet "Satrap of Capadocia" Ilpars and Dan Dolan the Younger.  Most notably, Thrice Champ Doug "Jedi Master" Smith was unable to advance due to a work commitment that abbreviated his WBC stay.

Fortunately, the new release brought a burst of new blood into the event, and we enrolled a respectable 23 players.

The first round saw five of seven tables burying the body in Pella, which is partly due to the increase in new players. To the inexperienced hand, it looks like a slam dunk maneuver, but only three of the factions that started the game with the body completed the burial and only two of those won on Legitimacy.  The consensus was very strong that the Optional Attrition Rule (rolling on the Attrition table if over-stacked rather than simply losing 1 CU) would be an improvement, and future WBC tournies will definitely be using it.

New-to-WBC SUC Seth Gunar was the highest ranking qualifier, winning a very tough 5-turn game against strong players, with returning 2004 Champ Henry Rice ranking second with an instant VP win on Turn 4 against three wily WBC veterans.  Rounding out the Final table were former GM and Harry Potter Wannabe Ralph Gleaton and Stan Buck, another new SUC player at WBC.

For the Final, we would play with the optional rule 23.5 ("Seleucus and Eumenes") - I also stirred the pot a bit by removing the "Pontic Fleet" card and replacing it with three special cards:  "Cleitus the White" (treat a Naval Combat as though you have a General Rating of 3), "Cavalry Superiority" (modifies combat and interception) and the return of "Salvation in the 11th Hour."  Tragically, although "Salvation" was played, it failed to draw blood ... tsk, tsk.

I gave the Finalists the opportunity to choose Generals via reverse draft, but they overwhelmingly preferred a random deal which resulted in the following sides:

In Turn 1 Henry took Rhodes for an early lead and set himself up as the Usurper in Turn 2. Was he goading Ralph into taking the body to Pella?  Ralph, who had drawn the Silver Shields on Turn 1, appeared to bite, taking a heavily armed wagonload of bones and gold West in Turn 2.  Stan's Craterus appeared poised to keep Perdiccas and Antigonus separated - their combination would surely make the Juggernaut a near inevitability, yet somehow Ralph was able to slide Perdiccas around to the scenic route through Capadocia, allowing him to rendezvous with Antigonus unmolested.

It now appeared it would be a short game indeed, as either Ralph's Antigonus would thump Henry's Lysimachus in Thrace and spike the body in Pella for the win, or Henry could win an unlikely battle victory and stuff the body on the Rebound.

Ralph is no fool, though, and unleashed "Condemnation" on Henry before approaching the straits.  This left him precious little time to get to Pella, but clever  Henry played "Treachery" to steal the body and bury it himself without a fight.

Thus Turn 2 ended, without an instant Legitimacy win but with Henry in a commanding position:

Henry was now the leader in Leader in Legitimacy AND the Usurper, not to mention Strategos, thus getting two Macedonians and four Mercenaries in reinforcements!  Add to that his five Fleet points and his victory was almost assured.

Stan, who held Heracles, made a valiant effort to win the Regency before Henry could get to the Instant VP win, and fell just short - if Henry had missed any of three subjugation rolls in Greece, Stan would have taken it with his final card-play ("Diplomacy").  Stan also pulled off a dry-gulching of Antigonus, whom  Ralph had sent to challenge the fall of Babylonia, only to get hit with both "Mutiny" AND "Silver Shields" before the battle with Craterus - Antigonus was crushed, and Ralph effectively knocked out of the game.

Stan gets a nod, too, for being the only player to hold his "Champion" status at the end of the game.

Congratulations to Henry Rice, who joins Doug Smith, Jim Gutt and myself as a repeat winner in this event!

Special thanks to Keith Wixson for Assistant GM'ing, particularly during the Final when he helped to identify all my rules errors, sometimes even before I made them.

A new version evokes interest in any upgraded components.	GM Rob Seulowitz and his finalists before the showdown.

Links
Successors page at GMT: Includes downloadable version of the rule book and this excellent VASSAL module.
Successors (3rd Edition) page at Board Game Geek
Successors (3rd Edition) folder at ConSimWorld