Past Winners |
Harald Henning, CT
2005, 2008
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Alan Sudy, VA
2006
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Bill Crenshaw, VA
2007, 2011
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Jeff Mullet, OH
2009
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Arthur Field, SC
2010
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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
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