war of the ring  

Updated 11/26/2010

Middle Earth Pre-Con

2010 WBC Report  

 2011 Status: pending 2011 GM commitment

Chris Trimmer, TX

2010 Champion

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Event History
2006    Phil Rennert     21
2007    Kevin Wojtaszczyk     26
2008    Chris Trimmer     28
2009    Kevin Wojtaszczyk     23
2010    Chris Trimmer     24
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Chris Trimmer      TX    10    106
  2.  Kevin Wojtaszczyk  NY    10     92
  3.  Phil Rennert       MD    06     30
  4.  Jason Levine       NY    08     24
  5.  George Young       VT    07     24
  6.  Jacob Hebner       CO    10     18
  7.  Nick Anner         NY    07     17
  8.  Lyman Moquin       DC    08     16
  9.  Andy Latto         MA    07     16
 10.  Scott Marcotte     NY    10     12
 11.  Ty Hansen          DC    09     12
 12.  Chris Yaure        PA    07     12
 13.  David Pack         CO    06     12
 14.  Hans Kirketerp     dk    10      9
 15.  Michael Sosa       FL    09      9
 16.  Mary Ellen Powers  VA    09      9
 17.  John Pack          CO    08      8
 18.  David Pack         CO    10      6
 19.  Dick Jarvinen      OR    06      6
 20.  Jim Doughan        PA    07      4

2010 Laurelists                                          Repeating Laurelists:

Kevin Wojtaszczyk, NY
2nd

Scott Marcotte, NY
3rd

Hans Kirketerp, Denmark
4th

David Pack, CO
5th

Jacob Hebner, CO
6th

Past Winners

Phil Rennert, MD
2006

Kevin Wojtaszczyk, NY
2007, 2009

Chris Trimmer, TX
2008, 2010

GM Chirs Yaure does the Hobbit thing.

David Metzger, he of many plaques, is turned aside by Chris Trimmer.

Alternating Champs

It was another good turnout for the Middle Earth Pre-Con. A bunch of old faces and a few new ones competed in games on Sunday and Monday of the pre-con. A total of 27 games were played, with 11 in Round 1, eight in Round 2 and five in Round 3. The breakdown of winning sides had two FP military victories, eight FP ring dunks, seven SP military victories and ten SP corruption victories. Dwarven rings bidding ranged from 1-4 given to the FP for the person to play the SP and a few bids of 1 or 2 given to the SP to play the FP. There were also a number of 0 bids as the players did not have side preferences worthy enough to bid for. Some notable plays had a timely Power to Great stall attacks on both Rivendell and Lorien by Seth Gunar. Martin Sample brought along his collectors edition version of the game which was an impressive sight to see, though it didn't prove lucky for him, falling on corruption on the final move to dunk the ring with a 3 hunt tile draw. Jacob Hebner had luck of the hobbits with a Turn 1 smeagol, then Turn 7 Isildur's bane smeagol tile, followed by shelob's lair getting discarded via breaking of the fellowship and one more smeagol tile draw from foul thing from the deep in his Round 1 game! Lastly, 2008 champ Chris Trimmer managed to kill off Strider/Aragorn or Gandalf in all three of his preliminary games while going 3-0!

The semi-finals featured Chris Trimmer vs Denmark's Hans Kirketerp and defending champ Kevin Wojtaszczyk vs Scott Marcotte. Chris's SP military slowly tied the noose around the FP. Hans managed to almost turn the tide in Gondor as Strider appeared via the Dead men event, killing six SP units on the die roll. Chris regrouped his remaining forces, and counterattacked Strider's new found army before they could crown him king, once again preventing a sixth FP die in his games. A power too great and cirdan ships slowed down the SP military might, but the FSP could not gain enough movement to be a threat and the SP methodically squeezed the life out of them for a military victory. In the other semi-final, Scott gave Kevin two Dwarven rings to have him play the SP. Scott ran the table in the preliminary rounds with the FP and hoped to continue his streak of FP wins. Early C's pushed the FSP out to a quick seven spaces out from Rivendell, but that left minimal defensive dice for the FP military. Kevin rolled a number of army movement dice early and combined with the lack of FP military dice, he launched a Turn 2 assault on Lorien, managing to kill off Galadriel just as she arrived on the scene. This left the FP with four action dice, which limited their future action rolls and stalled the FSP movement as the C's/W's failed to show up for a couple straight turns. Kevin quickly moved to crush Helm's Deep and then blitzed through the Dale, Erebor and Woodland, adding Peligar for a SP military victory.

The Final was a repeat of last year's with Kevin vs Chris as the last two champions paired off once again. Since Chris played the Shadow all four games to date, the Dwarven ring bidding went high for the Shadow. Chris started it off with three rings for the FP to play the Shadow and Kevin raised to four rings for the FP to play the Shadow, which Chris accepted. Four initial army/musters for the FP had Chris use a ring immediately to roll into a C. While Kevin began with a couple musters to get Saruman into play and began mobilizing his armies. The Elves were rushed down toward War and Kevin blitzed Dol Guldur toward Woodland and a misty mountains reinforced Moria plus some Isengard regulars up to Rivendell. Chris managed to recruit an elite into both strongholds before they were sieged and had musters to plant a trebuchet into each too. The FSP wasn't getting much traction and was found two spaces out of Rivendell, with Chris choosing the mountain pass and Gandalf being taken as a casualty with the 1r tile. At the start of Turn 3, both Rivendell and Woodland realm were under siege with SP forces from Mordor massing in the Old Forest Road and the S&E troops mobilizing. The FP got a Will and promoted Gandalf the White in Fangorn and proceeded to muster in the Ents as the SP got one last Voice usage out of Saruman. Then the wheels fell off the SP war machine. Chris flipped two Ent cards, launching 15 dice into Orthanc and almost managed to take out Saruaman. ( only one Isengard regular survived the assault ) A daylight minimizing deadly strife combat card play kept Rivendell under FP control and set the table for a SP muster requiring 4th turn. After allocating one eye, Kevin ended up rolling four more, and no muster dice! Orthanc had one regular, Moria and Dol Guldur were empty and the bleak outlook for the FP was dramatically changed. The FP had five action dice to the SP's four as Kevin moved troops to reinforce Orthanc and strengthen the Woodland seige as he over extended his lines. Chris noticed the opportunity and went for a FPMV with the Elves from Lorien heading toward unoccupied Moria and Dol Guldur! With just a Palantir and Army die left and armies at least two spaces from either stronghold, Chris returned the favor of last year's final, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, as the Lorien Elves marched uncontested into Moria and Dol Guldur for a FP MV!

A big thanks for everyone who attended the tournament and I hope to see you all back again next year. Just remember the event will remain an Advanced event, so make sure you learn the rules and play a few games before next year or you'll have to skip the tournament and learn the game in open gaming.

Hans Kirketerp's first trip from Denmark netted a 4th place finish.

The last two champs meet in the Final under Craig Melton's view.
 GM     Kevin Wojtaszczyk (3rd Year)  NA 
    kwojtasz@gmail.com   NA

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