Rob Barnes ponders the next appearance of the worm.	1994 champ Paul Weintraub leads an early heat.

Eight qualifying games were played in the three heats, all 6-player games for the first time since 2001. Perhaps because there were no 5-player games, the average game this year was up in duration, to 8.1 turns in 4.6 hours. Adjudication rules were unchanged, but only one game exceeded the time limit and required an adjudicated finish.

This year, the wins were shared more than usual, with no solo wins of any kind. We had five 3-player alliance wins, two 2-player alliance wins, and one 2-player alliance Guild default victory. The Atreides were the "winningest" faction, sharing in five victories, and continuing a four-year streak of win-rate improvement. The Emperor, Guild, and Bene Gesserit factions formed the pack with four wins apiece. The Fremen were next with three wins, taking them out of the cellar this year, which is particularly ironic since this was the year we conducted a poll for deciding whether or not to add a house rule to help boost the Fremen's power. Surprisingly, House Harkonnen dropped from first to last place this year, with only two wins. (An interesting pattern has developed for the Harkonnens ­ for the last 10 years, Harkonnen have alternated from 1st or 2nd place one year to last place or second-to-last place in the next. Since they were last this year, it will be interesting to see if they can return to first in 2011!)

As mentioned, we conducted a poll concerning the possibility of adding a house rule specifically to help the Fremen faction a bit. Over 10 years of records, the Fremen have had the lowest win percentage by a significant margin every year except two: 2006 and this year. Overall, the Fremen have only a 20% win ratio, compared to 36-38% for the Atreides, Emperor, and Guild, 42% for Harkonnen, and 47% for the BG. This means a player who randomly draws the BG in a game is almost 2.5 times more likely to win than the player who randomly draws the Fremen!

15 players returned their questionnaires (giving a better than 50% return rate). Five responders considered the Fremen to be the weakest faction (relative to the others), while five considered them to be below average, and four considered them to be average. No one considered the Fremen to be an above average faction. Nine of the responders believe something should be done to increase the Fremen's relative power, and of those, seven leaned toward some way of decreasing the Fremen's battle support costs. (Since we play with all advanced and optional rules, many believe that costs incurred with advanced battle rules hurt the Fremen, who tend to be a relatively poor faction. The opinion on whether or not the Fremen should have an additional power to offer allies was evenly split, and somewhat surprisingly, a majority of the responders do NOT favor introducing a bidding system for faction assignments, in spite of the disparity in faction strengths. Based on these results, I believe I will be introducing a simple house rule to decrease the Fremen's battle support costs next year.

As always, Best Faction plaques were awarded to the players who gave the best single-game performance with each faction during the preliminary heats, measured in terms of strongholds controlled per turn. Joe Harrison received Best Atreides; Joe Abrams, Best BG; Phil Barcafer, Best Emperor; Ty Hansen, Best Fremen; Jean-Francois Gagne, Best Guild; and Alan Arvold, Best Harkonnen.

In the Final, Joe Harrison returned again as the Atreides, Joe Abrams drew the Bene Gesserit, Jean-Francois Gagne was the Emperor with compatriot Stephane Dorais as the Fremen, newcomer Wray Ferrell got the Guild (after drawing the Guild in every game he played during the week already!), and Phil Barcafer, the lone prior champion at the table, snagged the Harkonnen.

This game was turned on its head early, with the Fremen ousting the Harkonnen from Carthag in Turn 2, and the BG defeating the Atreides in Arrakeen in Turn 3. They went on to hold these conquests for most of the game, until the next big shake-up in Turn 8. In a dramatic show of strength, the Fremen defeated the Harkonnen in Sietch Tabr by declaring Feyd Rautha a traitor and winning big. After that, Stephane held TWO strongholds himself all the way through Turn 7, seeming to hold a position of dominance on the board. Things were relatively stable through the mid-game, with the Guild and others scrambling militarily and diplomatically to prevent the lead alliances from securing the win. Finally, in Turn 8, the Shield Wall was destroyed and the sixth worm was revealed, making the Shield Wall a stronghold for the purposes of victory (house rule). After many battles and extreme loss of tokens, an alliance of the Emperor and House Atreides finally emerged victorious in Turn 11. JF Gagne as the Emperor was declared the winner with the second tiebreaker.

Congratulations to all, and especially to first-time champion Jean-Francois Gagne. Thanks for another great year, and we hope to see everyone again next year!

Wray Ferrell and Phil Barcafer press home their points.	GM Brad Johnson oversees his finalists.