Laura DeWalt, one of the last entries, on her way to a second place finish.	Doubling up on tables during Dominion ... two games and eight players per table.

Ruling a smaller Dominion ...

The tournament format changed slightly with the introduction of the expansion sets - with Intrigue being featured in the preliminary and quarter-final rounds, Seaside in the semi-finals, and a mixed board of Intrigue and Seaside for the Final. The tournament also moved back to GM determined card sets, rather than random draws prior to the event. This seemed to work well again, as there were less time issues requiring adjudication.

Preliminary Round:
As in previous years, copies of the game were still the limiting factor for attendance. With only 28 copies of Intrigue available, the field was limited to 112 and some had to be turned away due to the lack of games.

The statistics for this round continue to follow the previous trends. The effect of starting turn order remains evident with only 11 wins out of 56 games coming from the fourth position, while there were also15 second place finishes from the last turn position, so again almost half of the players managed a top two finish from the last position. With the scoring system now favoring a top two finish more heavily, advancing continues to be more about consistency between the two games, than about an 'advantageous turn order'.

Ending conditions definitely favored Provinces this year. Out of the 45 games that recorded their ending condition, 35 ended due to the expiration of the province deck, while only ten ended by exhausting three non-province piles. This year, all ten games that ended by exhausting three piles were at different tables, while only 12 tables ended both games with provinces - whereas last year 80% of the tables had identical ending conditions for both games.

Quarter-finals:
Because of the smaller field, only 48 players qualified for the quarter-finals with six double winners, 14 with a win and a second and 26 with either a first and third or two seconds. The cut-off was at the first and fourth place totals. Only two of the seven players at that mark advanced automatically, but the four alternates who came all found space in the quarter-finals, which still had only 41 players preent. This again shows the importance of checking the qualifier list, and coming to a tournament as an alternate if you really want to play!

Twelve quarter-final tables played their way through two more sets of Intrigue. Experience definitely seemed to show through as 2009 finalist Edward Fu was the only person to garner two wins in both the preliminary and quarter-final rounds. Six other players also won both of their games in the quarter-finals, while only four players managed a first and second. The semi-final field also consisted of one player with a first and third, three players with two seconds. Once again, the cut-off point was at the first & fourth place finish, where Alex Henning was the lucky one of five to advance.

Semi-finals:
Similar to 2010, the semi-finals were a mix of domination, and contention. Edward Fu continued his winning ways as he won both games at his table over Joe Brumfield, Alex Henning and Camille Eustice. Randy Buehler gave a similar dominating performance over Ziad Munson, Jeff Finkeldey and Verity Hitchings with two victories of his own. At the other two tables though, the victors were not so clear. At one, Laura DeWalt and Gordon Rodgers traded firsts and seconds between the two games against Eli Zlotowski and Brian Pappas. Laura held the tie-breaker over Gordon, giving her the advantage heading to the Final, with just one table still remaining. At the last table, Josh Githens, Rob Renard, Michael Wojke and Aidan Czyryca struggled for position. Aidan won the first game handily in a very close battle that put Michael in second, Rob in third and Josh as low man. In the second game, Rob and Michael went first and second, leaving Aidan to pick up third place. With two firsts and thirds and a dual-second at the table, the battle ended up with them all eliminated from contention, allowing Gordon Rodgers to take the last seat in the Final.

Final:
The last round was contested with five cards from Intrigue and five from Seaside. For Game 1, the cards in play were Courtyard, Native Village, Ambassador, Great Hall, Swindler, Conspirator, Pirate Ship, Scout, Outpost and Treasury.

Random seating for the first game gave Randy the advantage of first turn, followed by Laura, Gordon and Edward. Randy also started the game with the only 2-5 copper split, allowing him to pick up a Courtyard and Treasury in his first two turns. Laura went for a Swindler and a Scout. Gordon took a more monetary route with a Pirate Ship and a Silver, and Edward picked two Ambassadors. Randy's early Treasury seemed to give him a good lead, as he gained the first gold on Turn 4, and followed with a Province on Turn 6, before anyone else had even gotten gold. Laura tried to catch up with a Treasury of her own on Turn 5, and then Outpost purchases on the next two turns. Gordon's Pirate ship attacked twice to build coins for later for himself, while Edward used his Ambassadors to start thinning his deck by discarding coppers and estates over the next four turns, and putting them into his opponents' decks.

By Turn 11, the end game was approaching, as there were only one Treasury and two Great Halls left in play. Randy still held a lead by virtue of the only province purchase, but things were about to change. Edward's compact deck was about to kick into high gear as he gained an Outpost the previous turn. Turn 11 saw Randy gain another gold, while Laura started looking for victory points by buying a Duchy. Gordon grabbed a Great Hall, while Edward took the final Treasury, and a Gold on an Outpost turn. Turn 12 saw the endgame run continue as Randy and Gordon both gained Duchies, Laura took the last Great Hall, while Edward started to make his move by purchasing a Province of his own, and a Conspirator. Ed's strategy though failed him when Laura used her own Outpost to take the last two Ambassadors after Randy took his second province, thereby ending the game before Edward was able to really start running his deck through. It turned out to be a smart move for Laura as her 17 Victory Points gave her second place behind Randy's 23 and ahead of Gordon's 12 and Ed's 8.

The cards for the second game were Embargo, Pawn, Masquerade, Smugglers, Wishing Well, Baron, Caravan, Salvager, Tactician and Nobles. This time Edward started with a Caravan and a Masquerade. Gordon went for a Caravan and Silver. Laura had the only 2-5 copper split and went for the Embargo and Tactician, while Randy went for money again with a Baron and a Silver. His Baron started paying dividends quickly as he captured the first province on Turn 3. Caravan chaining was common for Edward allowing him to get a province on Turn 5. Laura's Turn 3 Tactician netted her a Nobles on Turn 4, while Gordon's Turn 4 Tactician purchase, appeared on Turn 5, to allow him a Turn 6 province of his own. Randy's Baron though came through for him again allowing him a Turn 6 province as well to maintain his advantage.

Gold purchases didn't come until very late in the game with both Ed and Gordon picking up the first Golds on Turn 9. On Turn 10, Edward tried again to catch Randy with another province, but the Baron kept paying off .. allowing Randy his third province buy. Laura's Tactician on Turn 10 tried to pay dividends for her on Turn 11, as she picked up both a Province and her second Duchy. Turn 12 saw both Gordon and Laura use their Tacticians again, which pretty much announced the approach of the end game. Turn 13 saw all four players buy Provinces to exhaust the province deck, while Gordon and Laura's extra buys got each an Estate as well. Randy's extra province was once again the difference in a close battle. He finished with 32 points, compared to 27 for Ed, 26 for Laura and 21 for Gordon.
The two victories gave Randy the clear victory, while Laura's second and third garnered her second place.

The Future:
I would like to again thank everyone for participating. The games moved smoothly, with no real issues or questions about the structure. The introduction of the expansions seemed to be received favorably, although the availability of sufficient copies continues to be an issue. I'll be looking to mix up the Dominion sets used even further next year - perhaps bringing the base game back for a round, and definitely looking at including newer expansions for the later rounds. The original set or Intrigue will remain the main sets for the preliminary and quarter-finals just because they are more readily available (as they are the stand-alone sets).
One of the most common questions I was asked though was 'is this good enough to advance?' Under the current structure, it's been hard to tell, but with three years of data I am starting to get some solid numbers. I'll be looking at trying to simplify the rules for this next year, so that players will have a better idea of whether they qualified for the next round or not. Check out the event preview next year to find out what sets we'll be using and to watch for other changes.

For the Dominion player who has everything.	Even Juniors are emboldened by Dominion.

2011 Euro Quest Laurelists
Haim Hochboim, Israel 1st Jon Senn, PA 2nd Dan Eppolito, CA 3rd Mary Ellen Powers, VA 4th Jeff Mullet, OH 5th