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2006 champ Tony Curtis enjoys a break
from the GMT sales booth. |
Terry Cotter reveals his secret weapon
in the center. |
Blocks & Blades ...
The first round was the pod system wherein 4-player groups
were formed with each player playing all the others in their
group in the same scenario, Agrigentum. The best performer in
each group advanced automatically as did the best four runner-ups
for the event as a whole. Side selection was handled by players
bidding victory banners. Rome held a 47-25 win advantage overall.
Rome wins were by an average of three while Carthage's were by
two. At no bid, it was 35-16, but at +1 to Carthage it was 8-6
Rome and at 2 to Carthage it was 2-0 Carthage.
The second round was more pod round-robins. The battle was
Raphia from the 1st Expansion. Only the winner of each pod would
advance to the semis. The Persians won overall 15-9 but it seemed
to really depend on the players involved. In some groups, just
one side was winning. In another, one player won with both sides
despite the rest being one sided. All three returning champions
were knocked out in this round with Chad Mekash taking out not
one, but two, former champs in his pod.
The semi-finals were conducted as two-game matches, playing
both sides of a battle against the same opponent. The battle
was Foraging Party from Expansion 2. Chad Mekash Chad advanced
out of his bracket over John Grasse as his Barbarians were able
to capture three victory banners to John's two before the Romans
took the field. In the other semi, Terry Cotter, John Grasse's
regular opponent, took on Allen "C&C:A Miniatures"
Kaplan. Terry captured the win with both sides.
The Final battle was River Stour from the 2nd Expansion between
Chad Mekash and Terry Cotter. Terry was the Barbarians first
and lost 6-1. I don't know if Chad knew how to handle the Barbarian
Chariots going in or learned from watching Terry, but he lost
by only 6-5 to take the championship.
We had our largest turnout yet with 48. We are still drawing
a large core group of players who are strong players yet welcoming
to newcomers. We stretched the players a little further in their
need to understand the game to win this year in our scenario
selection. We will push it a little further going forward so
check the scenario selection early for more practice time next
year.
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Allen Kaplan's painted miniature set
remains a big draw. |
Elephants sure beat blocks. |
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