|
|
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. |
|