The opening round started in Lampeter ...	... and drew more converts as the day wore on.

2009 was the inaugural year for Twilight Imperium III at the World Boardgaming Championships and the turnout was about as good as anyone could have expected.  The tournament drew 25 players willing to take on the rest of the universe for their right to rule it. This in spite of a scheduling snafu that had the heat and the Final being played on the same day, an amazing time commitment for all of those involved. 

We held seven preliminary games and took one second place finisher to fill out the eight seats for the Final.  The heat was timed at five hours with players finishing the current action round after time was called.  Due to the large time commitment for the Final we had two qualifiers give up their seats to runners-up alternates.  I used the built in Twilight Imperium Tie Break rules to rank the second place finishers who would be eligible for the Final.

The Final was played by six winners:  Michael Buccheri, Ben Stephenson,  Joe Harrison,  Ryan Myslinski, Dan Raspler, and Mike Rogozinski . Will Kenyon  and Martin Predmore completed the field as alternates.  We played on a custom spiral galaxy map (Designed by jgbaxter) that consisted of four spiral arms each containing two races' home systems.  All the arms joined in the center and Mecatol Rex was located in a separate smaller galaxy joined via four different wormholes (See Image).  The Map used special rules for the gravity wells located in each arm as well as having a special 2VP public objective (Regional Control) available for controlling all the planets in a player's home arm.   At the start of the game each player was given a choice of three races to play. They picked one and gave the other two back to be shuffled in for the next player's draw.  The Races played were: Michael Buccheri - The Naalu Collective, Will Kenyon - Yssaril Tribes, Ben Stephenson - The Clan of the Saar, Martin Predmore -  Saardak Norr, Joe Harrison - The Embers of Muaat,  Ryan Myslinski - L1z1x Mindnet, Dan Raspler - The Barony of Letnev.

The game was a tightly contested affair with three players in striking distance of victory at the end. However, when the space dust settled it was Dan "Dutch" Raspler who was able to claim the title of WBC's first Twilight Imperium World Champion. Dan, who was in the lead for a large part of the game, had stalled and was falling back to the pack in the later rounds. However, his patience was rewarded and in the last round he took advantage of chance to finally score his secret objective, allowing a four-point, come from behind play, to end the game with ten points.   Joe Harrison, the victory points leader, and favorite to win on the next turn would have to settle for second place with nine points.   For those who are keeping score, the total play time for the Final was a whopping 11 hours.

In addition to the first ever Twilight Imperium Wood issued at the WBC, Dan went home with a set of custom colored ti3 units (Gold, Silver and Glow -in-the-Dark). Joe scored himself a signed copy of the Shattered Empires expansion. 

This being the first year for TI3, and with a green GM to boot, there were many lessons learned. In 2010 the plan will be to run two timed heats and a Final, all on separate days, with the Final starting early in the day to accommodate the long play time. 

Final Game Scores

Dan Raspler - VP 10;  Joe Harrison -  VP 9; Will Kenyon - VP 8; Michael Buccheri - VP 7;  Mike Rogozinski -VP  5; Ryan Myslinski -VP 4; Martin Predmore - VP 2; Ben Stephenson - VP 2

Taking center stage takes new meaning as the Final unfolds in the Showroom.	Exploring the universe - one tile at a time throughout the wee hours of the morning.