Jenna Sunderlin and Brian Carr are just two of 84 players in the Monday heat.	Another wargamer sells out to the Euros ... Nicholson, turn in your helmet!

The tournament got off to a rousing start by attracting 84 players for the Monday heat. Three heats later, that number nearly doubled in a grueling format that used two rounds in each heat with a combination of early morning and late-night starts to suit every taste. Special thanks to Kathy Stroh, the previous GM, who helped at critical registration times.

13 players qualified automatically for the semi-finals with consecutive wins in one heat - a new and unique form of advancement qualification to be sure. One opted for other diversions, leaving exactly 12 to advance, much to the dismay of the alternates on hand who were hoping to fill a fourth table. Starvation was the clear winning strategy in the preliminaries, but proved far less successful when opposed by a table of double win qualifiers. Two of the three semis were won via culture symbols (green background) civilization cards.

The Final matched four very strong players with 20 titles between them for the one-of-a-kind World Champion leather cup. Cary Morris, whose resume was the least cluttered with past titles, was nonetheless the ranking laurelist in this game. While each was tempted to use the starvation strategy, they knew this would make them a target for the other players. After a few turns, Nick nonetheless decided to starve. Eric settled for a balanced strategy. Greg tried blitzing to stop the starver. Dice rolls began improbably poorly around the table, until Nick started a ritual of cup-contained roll, stroking his chin, and revealing the dice. Cary elaborated the ritual to great effect.

Throughout, the game remained too close to call. The final scores were extremely tight: 143, 135, 135, and 134. Cary won with a very balanced strategy, generating 81 board points, six culture cards for 36 points, five points for five tools, five for five huts, 12 on six people, and four leftover resources. It netted him his third WBC title.

Brian Mountford, Tom McCorry, Roni Breza and Shira Levy.	The finalists attempt a luring pose but fail badly.

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2011 Euro Quest Laurelists
Virginia Colin, VA 1st Raphael Lehrer, CA 2nd Cliff Ackman, PA 3rd Bill Zurn, CA 4th Rodney Bacigalupo, MD 5th