Akihisa Tabei moves against Ed Rothenheber.	The new Valley Games edition is much in evidence.

Good news for the future department: two first time players in the Titan 2-player tournament were second generation participants Jennifer Sutton and 11-yr old Jonathan Barnes. Welcome to both and hope to see you again next year!
 
The first round saw action on 15 boards, a record during my sx years anyway, and included an upset by Marc Berenbach of past champion Brian Sutton. In one unusual early development, all six warlocks were recruited by Turn 5 in the match between Sean McCulloch and David Gubbay, eventually won by Sean. In one of the more exciting matches of the second round, newcomer Jonathan Barnes faced off against past champion Bruno Wolff. The final battle saw Jonathan attacking into the jungle with a seven-die Titan, five Hydras and a ranger against Bruno's 19-die Titan, two archangels, three serpents and an angel, with a serpent available to recruit. Was it desperation? Bruno handily won the battle.
 
In the third round, there was a match decided by a zero-zero score. David Finberg attacked the Titan stack of Robert Barnes with an angel stack that looked very similar in strength. Attacking was an angel, three Cyclops, one behemoth, a ranger and a gorgon, against a Titan whose strength equaled the angel, three Cyclops, a behemoth, a warlock and a troll. The attacker had no summon available and the defender had no recruit available. The Titan survived, without any recruits, winning by a time loss, the attacker failing to kill all defenders by the end of Turn 7. Robert received no points for the victory and was left with a lone Titan running around the board, trying to avoid any stacks of David's. David shortly thereafter caught up to Robert's Titan before it could find safety in a tower, and the lone Titan conceded without a fight.
 
Would you make this attack? You have a ten-die Titan, three serpents, two behemoths and a gorgon, with an angel to summon, into the jungle from beneath, so not the best defensive side, against a nine-die Titan, warlock, two serpents, two behemoths, a gorgon and a potential recruit on Turn 4. David desJardins made the attack against Bruno Wolff in the third round and was successful, advancing to the semi-finals.
 
In one semi-final, Aaron Fuegi squared off against Sean McCulloch, both past champions. The final battle took place while both Titans were still six-die, and six-hit Titans. Sean had a single warlock and attempted to use the warlock's range strike to off Aaron's Titan, getting four hits by range strike before Aaron was able to prevail. In the other semi-final, the last battle between David Finberg with a ten-die Titan and David desJardins with a nine-die Titan ended in a mutual, both Titans reaching the hit limit on the same strike phase. By tournament rule, the attacker rolls a strike with nine dice, attempting to get five hits of 4, 5, or 6 on a die, a fifty-fifty chance. The roll-off was won by David desJardins, advancing to the Final where it seems that he has a reserved seat every year.
 
The Final was quick, only six turns were needed. David recruited two warlocks then attacked one of Aaron's two stacks on Turn 3. The stack was Aaron's angel, so his Titan was still alive after the angel stack died. Three turns later, David's former angel stack, with the angel now available to summon, caught up to Aaron's Titan and finished the task. For his victory, David also was awarded a new set of the republished Titan from Valley Games, courtesy of Rik Falch. Thank you Rik, come back anytime! Will David desJardins continue to dominate the Titan tournaments, both two-player and multi-player? Come join us next year to find out. See you then!

Marc Berenbach and Brian Sutton move to the battle board.	Sean McCulloch eliminates Dave Gubbay.