manifest destiny   

Updated 11/15/2011
2011 WBC Report  

  2012 Status: pending December 2012 Membership Trial Vote
Bill Crenshaw, VA
2011 Champion

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Event History
2005    Harald Henning     46
2006    AJ Sudy     46
2007    Bill Crenshaw     46 
2008    Harald Henning     39
2009    Jeff Mullet     31
2010    Arthur Field     23
2011    Bill Crenshaw     14

Enlightenment History
2006    Bill Crenshaw     19
2008    Ewan McNay     28
2009    Bill Crenshaw     25 
2010    Kevin Sudy     14

PBeM History
2007    Tom Taaffe     36
2008    Bill Edwards     35
2010    Stefan Mecay     36
2011    Bill Crenshaw     29
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Bill Crenshaw      VA    11    232
  2.  Arthur Field       SC    11    122
  3.  Harald Henning     CT    10    119
  4.  Kevin Sudy         VA    11     82
  5.  Jeff Mullet        OH    10     73
  6.  Ewan McNay         CT    09     58
  7.  AJ Sudy            VA    09     54
  8.  Peter Staab        PA    11     51
  9.  Stefan Mecay       TX    10     51
 10.  Tom Taaffe         VA    08     46
 11.  Peter Pollard      TN    11     42
 12.  Bill Edwards       VA    10     36
 13.  Kathy Stroh        DE    08     30
 14.  John Coussis       IL    08     28
 15.  Tom Browne         PA    09     25
 16.  David Hood         NC    07     24
 17.  Ted Simmons        NJ    05     24
 18.  Robb Effinger      WA    10     18
 19.  Derek Landel       NJ    10     18
 20.  Bob Heinzmann      FL    07     16
 21.  Brett Mingo        MD    05     16
 22.  Eric Wrobel        VA    11     15
 23.  Carl Damcke        IL    11     15
 24.  Steve Smith        NE    10     12
 25.  Tedd Mullally      NJ    09     12
 26.  Kate Taillon       SC    07     12
 27.  Ken Gutermuth      NC    10      9
 28.  Ed Rothenheber     MD    06      9
 29.  Scott Burns        uk    07      8
 30.  David Nicholson    on    05      8
 31.  Pat Mirk           FL    10      6
 32.  Rob Kircher        RI    11      6
 33.  Greg Stripes       VA    10      6
 34.  Shawn Fox          TX    08      5
 35.  Bob Woodson        NV    11      4
 36.  Dave Long          NC    05      4
 37.  Mark Neale         RI    10      3
 38.  Eric Monte         NY    11      1

2011 Laurelists                                               Repeating Laurelists: 0

Kevin Sudy, VA
2nd

Bob Woodson, NV
3rd

Eric Wrobel, MD
4th

Pete Pollard, TN
5th

Eric Monte, NY
6th

Past Winners

Harald Henning, CT
2005, 2008

Alan Sudy, VA
2006

Bill Crenshaw, VA
2007, 2011

Jeff Mullet, OH
2009

Arthur Field, SC
2010

Eric Monte, Eric Wrobel, Harald Henning and Kevin Sudy in the second heat.

GM and designer Bill Crenshaw's finalists, which included him as he won his game for the second time.

Winding down ...

Attendance continued to drop with its fourth straight decline but the quality of play was better than ever as the remaining sharks fought amongst themselves. Interestingly, Louisiana - the traditional also ran - reversed its fortunes, winning four of the five games played, including the Final.

With tables randomly assigned, the first heat saw Pete Pollard as Louisiana win the "table of death" over perennial finalists Bill Crenshaw and Kevin Sudy, and game sharks Eric Wrobel and David Hood while Bob Woodson, also as Louisiana, beat Michael Mullins, 2006 champ AJ Sudy, Rob Davidson and David Stoy. Bill and Kevin both came through in Heat 2, with Bill winning with Quebec (the only non-Louisiana victory) over Bill Dickerson, 2009 champ Jeff Mullet, David Hood, and Rob Woodson and Kevin besting Eric Monte, two-time champ Harald Henning and Eric Wrobel (who advanced to the Final based on his two-game score).

In the Final, Bob paid $10 for first choice and took Pennsylvania. He went first on Turn 1 and played Manifest Destiny and Ben Franklin to take an early lead. He later played another Patriotism leader to become the only player to complete an Era 1 breakthrough in Era 1. Pete chose second, paying $5 for Mexico and cashed California Gold Rush for $40 on Turn 3 rather than get greedy. He expanded unimpeded and was able to get a good textile payout as well. Kevin choose third and opted for his favorite and native home, Virginia, despite not having a tobacco card. Eric got Canada going fourth and was able to cash his Remember the Alamo card. Bill was left with Louisiana and started with Native Sovereignty, President and World War. Fortunately for him, the first turn Manifest Destiny play enabled Bill to buy both Telegraph and Westward Ho on Turn 1 and still have enough tokens to get the expansion card, which turned out to be a Westward Ho leader and a free pioneer. Holding Native Sovereignty and not intending to play it without a sweet deal from Virginia that never materialized, Louisiana was able to expand inland with less fear of the natives wreaking havoc on his profit. Louisiana also left a few alleys to avoid expansion confrontation with Virginia and Mexico.

Quebec cashed Fulton for Steamships, but never quite got around to expanding very far westward. Pennsylvania was boxed in early but went on a livestock rampage in Era 2 (mostly at Louisiana's expense) to increase his profit. Mexico kept rolling along and also had relatively early Steamships, allowing him to grab most of the good territories reachable by sea. Virginia was able to negotiate for a tobacco payout to keep up and Louisiana was able to largely maintain its early profit lead (without fear of an inopportune Word War) and supplemented his cash with Motion Pictures.

At the end of Era 2, Pennsylvania made a deal with Mexico to play Textiles in return for taking Mexico's city in Hawaii without retribution. Pennsylvania then played the 60's (apparently they were the 1860's because they came before Civil War hit) to get a $100 Tourist payout as well as discounts on Leisure and Culture progressions. He also received an ore payout and looked like he was going to pull away. Virginia hit Pennsylvania with Civil War and Louisiana followed up by playing World War as an Era 3 card that hit Pennsylvania for $90 and Virginia and Mexico for $30 each. Louisiana, going last, also hit his e-commerce roll and played his turn order priority chit.

In the last expansion, Louisiana won the roll for Hawaii's city and then drew a tourist card to complement his technology card and also cashed some oil money. He was sitting on over $400 in cash when all of the remaining disaster cards came his way. He had enough to buy to 29 VPs and was halfway to Storytelling when Sabotage hit that step. He managed to make the research roll to hit 30 VPs with $55 cash left and end the game a turn early, with a virtual dead heat for second as Virginia had 25 VPs and $0, Pennsylvania had 24 VPs and $90, Quebec had 24 VPs and $25 and Mexico had 24 VPs and $5. We would be telling a different story if Louisiana had missed his research roll!

Final scores: Bill Crenshaw (La.) 30 VPs/$55/ 65Profit; Kevin Sudy (Va.) 25 VPs/$0/65 Profit; Bob Woodson (Pa.) 24 VPs/$90/ 100Profit; Eric Wrobel (Que.) 24 VPs/$25/100 Profit and Pete Pollard (Mex.) 24 VPs/$5/85 Profit.

Manifest Destiny 2011 PBeM Tournament Results

The tournament consisted of two preliminary rounds leading to a Final. Arthur Field and Rob Kircher each won two games to advance while Pete Staab, the game's designer Bill Crenshaw and Pete Pollard each won once and had to rely on best overall scores to reach the Final. Carl Damcke narrowly missed the cut and thereby took 6th place laurels.

In the Final, Bill Crenshaw, playing Mexico, came from behind for a narrow victory over Pete Pollard (Louisiana), Arthur Field (Pennsylvania), Pete Staab (Louisiana) and Rob Kircher (Quebec). Somehow Bill managed to accumulate 14 VPs on the last turn, to get to 30 VPs, without even playing a product payout card! The other players bolted to fast starts as Bill floundered early. Arthur finished Mech before Bill and used Homestead Act to get established in Northern California and build a city to grab $40 from Mexico's expected California Gold Rush play. Pollard expanded at will for an early Profit lead and still managed to claim Turnpike. Rob used Yankee Ingenuity to finish Patriotism and Staab cashed Native Sovereignty early and then finished Think Tank before Bill. Bill finally claimed Storytelling toward the end of Era 2 as Arthur made a big move, having completed Electricity by collaborating with Rob the turn before and then cashing $90 in Tobacco while sitting on $150 to start, and playing MLK to get a big jump on Urban Renaissance. Pollard played Spy on Arthur and Staab directed Civil War to Pollard, much to the latter's chagrin, who had played Abraham Lincoln earlier in Era 2 (Arthur's free Pioneer and city being enough of a disincentive to avoid CW). Bill, expanding last, played his priority token and Sales Catalogue to set up his expansion. During investment Bill decided to take on Arthur for Urban Renaissance, holding Yankee Ingenuity as well as controlling turn order. During expansion Bill went on a city rampage, taking four cities to claim the most, and setting up a potential $100 Technology payout from President. Bill, having drawn JFK to help with Urban, then negotiated an agreement with Arthur (who only needed $130 to win) to collaborate and use Arthur's leader (FDR) and chose to move last again. Pete P, moving first, played Prohibition to net himself $60, to Bill's $90. Staab, trying to regain most cities and reign in Bill, used Riots against Bill twice, but Bill, anticipating a Quebec Tourist payout that would net him another $70 (and needing to preserve most cities to have a chance to get to 30 VPs), bit the bullet and used President defensively, foregoing the Tech payout. Bill then played the Wright Brothers in addition to JFK, and after collaborating with Arthur on Urban and licensing FDR (as previously agreed) had enough cash to buy Tolerance, Safety Net, Airplanes and Television, to hit 30 VPs and escape with a $15 win over Pollard. Final scores:

1st .. 30VP/$20/110Profit - Bill/Green/Mex
2nd .. 30VP/$5/100Profit - Pollard./Purple/LA
3rd .. 27VP/$80/90Profit - Arthur/Blue/PA
4th .. 27VP/$0/80Profit - Staab./Yellow/VA
5th .. 25VP/$15/95Profit - Rob/Red/QU

 GM      Bill Crenshaw [7th year]   NA
   BillCrenshaw@verizon.net   703-966-5003

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