history of the world   

Updated 11/15/2011
2011 WBC Report    

 2012 Status: pending 2012 GM commitment
Kevin Youells, PA
2011 Champion

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Event History
1993    Ben Grimes        53
1994    Gordon Bliss      102
1995    Tim Johnson      105
1996    Keith Levy      102
1997    Bruce Monnin    108
1998    Greg Crowe        72
1999    Jonas Borra        68
2000    Robert Destro       70
2001    Harald Henning       56
2002    Rolinda Collinson       52
2003    Mike Backstrom       49
2004    Haim Hochboim       55
2005    Mark Pitcavage       42
2006    Craig Yope       44
2007    Gregory Kulp       39
2008    Jeff King       32 
2009    Henry Dove       45
2010    Jeff King       50
2011    Kevin Youells       46
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Harald Henning     CT    03    126
  2.  Jeff King          OH    10    124
  3.  Kevin Youells      FL    11     97
  4.  Rolinda Collinson  MD    05     90
  5.  Jonas Borra        NY    02     84
  6.  Henry Dove         MD    11     80
  7.  Gregory Kulp       NJ    11     74
  8.  Mike Backstrom     MN    03     68
  9.  Haim Hochboim      is    04     60
 10.  Robert Destro      NJ    00     60
 11.  Joe Collinson      MD    09     58
 12.  Mark Pitcavage     OH    05     50
 13.  Allen Kaplan       NJ    01     48
 14.  Craig Yope         MI    06     40
 15.  Mark Smith         KY    10     36
 16.  Jamie Tang         MD    06     36
 17.  Peter Busch        OH    04     36
 18.  Tony Cadden        MD    00     36
 19.  Bob Aarhus         NC    99     36
 20.  Patrick Gorman     PA    09     30
 21.  Greg Crowe         VA    11     27
 22.  Dom Duchesne       qc    10     24
 23.  TJ Halberstadt     IN    08     24
 24.  Christina Hancock  NH    04     24
 25.  Malinda Kyrkos     NY    01     24
 26.  Graeme Dandy       au    00     24
 27.  Joe Burch          MD    99     24
 28.  Terry Coleman      CA    04     23
 29.  Nathan Barhorst    MI    11     20
 30.  Bill Boynton       ME    05     20
 31.  John Elliott       MD    10     18
 32.  Paul Bean          MA    00     18
 33.  Chris Hancock      NH    99     18
 34.  Eric Kleist        MD    08     16
 35.  Michael Mullins    MD    07     16
 36.  Bill Beswick       IN    09     15
 37.  Duane Wagner       NJ    06     14
 38.  Scott A. Smith     PA    10     12
 39.  James D. Long      PA    07     12
 40.  Rachel Power       MI    04     12
 41.  Andrew Kutzy       NY    02     12
 42.  Michael Pacheco    CA    99     12
 43.  Matthew Beach      MD    09     10
 44.  Evan Davis         IN    05     10
 45.  Richard Beyma      MD    08      8
 46.  Chris Trimmer      TX    06      8
 47.  Ty Hansen          DC    10      6
 48.  Keith Altizer      FL    04      6
 49.  Richard Fox        IL    02      6
 50.  Ivan Lawson        MD    01      6
 51.  Paul McCarthy      NY    00      6
 52.  John Rinko         VA    99      6
 53.  Ray Bergeron       NY    11      5
 54.  Scott Bowling      IN    05      5
 55.  Aran Warszawski    is    08      4
 56.  Rachel Harley      VA    07      4

2011 Laurelists                                                  Repeating Laurelists 0

Henry Dove, MD
2nd

Nathan Barhorst, MI
3rd

Greg Crowe, MD
4th

Gregory Kulp, NJ
5th

Raymond Bergeron, NY
6th

Past Winners

1993: Ben Grimes, SC
1995: Tim Johnson, MD

Gordon Bliss, MA
1994

Keith Levy, MD
1996

Bruce Monnin, OH
1997

Greg Crowe, MD
1998

Jonas Borra, NY
1999

Robert Destro, NJ
2000

Harald Henning, CT
2001

Rolinda Collinson, MD
2002

Mike Backstrom, MN
2003

Haim Hochboim, Israel
2004

Mark Pitcavage, OH
2005

Craig Yope, MI
2006

Gregory Kulp, NJ
2007

Jeff King, ME
2008, 2010

Patti Swift, Henry Dove, GM-in-waiting Craig Yope, Jamie Tang, Dave Casciano and David Anderson are all true believers. Each played in both heats.

Marc and Jenn Visocnik, Alan Hayes, John Selders, Harald Hennng and Matthew Beach composed the second of 15 games in the tournament.

The Tides of History ...

The inevitable competition from other events whittled away some of our regulars this year, but History of the World continues to be a strong event drawing 34 for Tuesday and 27 for Wednesday's heats. As usual, we had a mix of familiar and new faces. The most notable of the newcomers was Nathan Barhorst who learned the game at the demonstration and received his graduate training in the Final.

As always, the preliminaries provided some entertaining highlights. Powered by Spain and an amazing 71-point turn with Russia, Nick Pei scored a tournament-high 229 points, besting Dave Casciano's 209, which would have won any other game. By contrast, the lowest winning score was 190 from Greg Crowe. Greg Kulp managed to lose his French Jihad on the first die roll. One unlucky player unleashed a Pestilence, and killed nothing but three of his own units. Everybody already knows that the Aryans are the worst empire in the first Epoch. Dave Earls went to the extreme to prove this as he scored a total of one point with them! In the same game "The Barbarians, drunk and full of vigor, emerged out of the mountains of Tibet and won seven out of seven battles. Rome came in and conquered back the territories only to have the Barbarian's descendants come back and take seven of seven battles again!"

The 11 game winners and seven closest runners-up formed an 18-player semi-final. Fortunately, unlike last year, we did not eliminate everybody who had brought a copy of the game and had three boards available for use. First round game winners were Dominic Duschesne, Nick Pei, Rob Brode, Greg Crowe, Kevin Youells, Joe Collinson, Chris Bauch, Jeff Miller, Nathan Barhorst, Harald Henning, and Christina Harley.

The semi-finals advanced the three winners: Ray Bergeron, Kevin Youells, and Nathan Barhorst and the three closest runners-up: Greg Crowe and former champions Greg Kulp and Henry Dove.

This was the first year in a long time that HWD had qualified for six plaques and thus become "Sandman" eligible. As our finalists arrived at the table, there were many jokes about competing only for the first and sixth place plaques. In Epoch 2, Greg Crowe's Carthaginians launched a sea attack against Eastern Anatolia. Counting the defensive terrain bonus, the defender was able to use four dice. Not surprisingly, the assault failed, and was labeled a "Sand Attack".

Henry jumped out to a quick lead with Egypt in Epoch 1. Despite the Sand Attack, Greg Crowe took the lead in Epoch 2 while Greg K, Nathan, and Henry were tied three points back. Kevin should have taken a nice lead after playing the Romans, Leader, and Mayan minor empire in Epoch 3, but only came away with 26 points after a combination of poor dice and a stubborn fort caused ten unit losses during the turn. Nathan took the lead with the Han Dynasty and Civil Service to score 30. He followed them with the Byzantines to hold the lead after four Epochs with 80 points. Due to being in fourth place after the Romans, Kevin did not get saddled with the Khmers, but had the opportunity to draw his own card and kept the Arabs to score 37 while the Khmers were shipped off to Henry. As a side note, poor Henry was the depository for every small empire passed in the entire game. His largest nation was the 9-strength Sassanids in Epoch 3, and he ended the game with a total strength of 44. Epoch 5 saw a lead change as Kevin managed to grab a ten-point lead with the Chola.

The empire selection phase of Epoch 6 was pivotal as Kevin managed to persuade another player that despite being in third place, Henry's board position was too strong and that he deserved the Incas/Aztecs. Henry did score 35 with them, so Kevin may have been right. Meanwhile, mighty Spain went to Greg C, Portugal to Nathan, the Ming Dynasty and 36 points to Greg K, the Turks to Ray, and the Timurids to Kevin.

As Epoch 7 began, Ray drew the Manchu Dynasty and passed to Greg K. Greg K pulled Germany and shipped it off to Kevin, Greg C passed Russia to Nathan who then gave Henry the Netherlands to continue his small nation traditions. Henry was thus forced to give Britain to Ray, leaving Kevin to draw the last card, which was the dreaded United States. But since he already had a card, Greg C became the unfortunate recipient. Scores for the Epoch were decent, but not phenomenal as die rolling proved far from stellar. Russia with Jihad and Weaponry scored 40. The Manchu brought in 45 with Weaponry and Leader. The Netherlands used the Japan minor empire and Reallocation to score a strong 46 putting them 30 ahead. Britain, with both a Leader and Population Explosion fared worse than usual, losing six units while attempting, and failing, to take Portugal and only gained 38 points. The United States brought in 42 with Weaponry and Pestilence. Finally it was time for Germany to move. With Reallocation and Naval Power, the result was pretty much assured as they scored 43.

The final scores were Ray 144, Greg K 173, Greg C 175, Nathan 183, Henry 187, and Kevin 205.

Many, many thanks to all of the players in this event over the last six years. It's been a blast, but Craig Yope will be taking the GM reins in 2012. Please be gentle!

The finalists enjoy their history lesson.

Henry's Sassanids attempt to point the way to victory.
 GM      Kevin Youells [7th Year]   NA
    kevinyouells@gmail.com   NA

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