Matthew Jesser takes his move as Greg Kulp watches.	Ty Hansen, Jamie Tang and Paul Bean count their armies.

As it says repeatedly in the BPA literature, in order to guarantee yourself a slot in any given tournament, you must bring a copy of the game. The finalists this year managed to eliminate every single player in the event who had brought a copy of the game, leading to a scramble for a board Saturday afternoon, along with (tongue in cheek) GM threats to evict the lowest ranked finalist in favor of someone with a game. So, next year, please be kinder to your neighbor who brought a game and pass them the British instead of the Americans in Epoch 7.

As you can see, attendance was up, as we hit 50 players for the first time in six years and revisited Sandman territory. We had five games in each heat, advancing 18 and six to the elimination rounds.

The preliminary heats provided some highlights. Charles Stucker won his game with 225 points, giving him both the highest score in the tournament and the largest margin of victory, as he won by 35. Craig Yope had the misfortune of rolling triple ones as his first roll of the Huns, killing his leader immediately, to loud cries of anguish. Steve Dickson dominated his game, gaining the pre-eminence marker from every single epoch except the first. Eric Kleist scored 55 points with France, giving him the largest single empire score. The other games were won by Joe Collinson, Ty Hansen, Joe Powell, Greg Romano, Jeff King, Scott Smith, and Greg Kulp.

Our closest game came in the semi-final round with Ty Hansen victorious with 191, over Dominic Duchesne at 190, and Jeff King at 189. The score was close enough that all three advanced to the Final. Mark Smith moved on to the Final with a six-point win and also won the impromptu "best legs" competition held at his table. The less said about that, the better. Scott Smith won the third semi in convincing fashion with a 25 point victory in a game that ended defending champion Henry Dove and 2007 champion Greg Kulp's second attempts at a title. This game also featured the Great Flood when a cup of water got spilled on the board and causing a move to a dryer clime. No wonder there were no boards to be had at the Final! Kudos to Hasbro on the quality of their game parts, though, as there was no lingering damage to either board or cards.

2008 champ Jeff King was the only finalist who had set foot in the third round previously. Everyone else were scoring their first HWD laurels. Mark started the game with a most unusual hand as all three of his major events were minor empires. He started with Allies and Hittites, scoring an impressive 13 points in the first Epoch. Later rounds brought the Safarids and Japanese to his banner. Fortune did not favor Ty that day. During Epoch 4, he played both Siegecraft and Weaponry with the Arabs giving him a +2 on many of his die rolls. He still lost seven battles as the dice turned cold, yielding only three rolls over 4 in 30 attempts. While choosing cards for Epoch 6, John handed the very powerful Spain to Dominic who was holding onto a one-point lead at the time. However, it was Jeff's day, as he took the lead with the Ming Dynasty and held onto it throughout to becme the first two-time HWD champ.

Many thanks to Asst. GM's Greg Kulp for running the demo, and Craig Yope for administrating the first heat. And a big thank you to everyone who played. We'll see you next year with a copy of the game!

The finalists enjoy their history lesson.	Jennifer Drozd, Kevin Youells amd Jeff King watch the epochs pass.