here I stand   

Updated Nov. 23, 2012

2012 WBC Report  

 2013 Status: pending 2013 GM commitment

Mathieu Pare-Paquin, qc

2012 Champion

Event History
2006    John Wetherell     56
2007    Bryan Collars     48
2008    Jeff Burdett     48
2009    Jeff Burdett     62
2010    AJ Sudy     52
2011    Justin Rice     54
2012     Mathieu Pare-Paquin     76

PBeM History
2008    Dan Gallagher     54
2012    Larry Mull     67

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Jeff Burdett       NY    10    125
  2.  Alan Sudy          VA    10     91
  3.  Dave Cross         VA    10     72
  4.  Bryan Collars      SC    12     68
  5.  Dennis Mishler     GA    12     66
  6.  Justin Rice        VA    11     62
  7.  M. Pare-Paquin     qc    12     60
  8.  Larry Mull         NV    12     60
  9.  Dan Gallagher      MD    08     60
 10.  John Wetherell     PA    06     60
 11.  Kirk Harris        NJ    11     54
 12.  Jeremiah Peterson  IL    12     42
 13.  Chris Striker      PA    09     39
 14.  Ken Richards       SC    07     38
 15.  Rob Seulowitz      NY    08     36
 16.  Allan Hill         MD    06     36
 17.  Nick Benedict      CA    12     34
 18.  Dan Hoffman        NC    12     28
 19.  Rob Mull           CO    12     24
 20.  Michael Rogazinski NY    08     24
 21.  Steve Caler        OH    08     24
 22.  Charles Hickok     PA    06     24
 23.  Barry Setser       MD    11     20
 24.  Brad Merrill       ME    10     20
 25.  Kaarin Engelmann   VA    12     18
 26.  Rick Cambron       PA    08     18
 27.  Michael Brophy     NC    08     18
 28.  John Vasilakos     VA    11     15
 29.  Paul McCarthy      NY    10     15
 30.  Jeremy Martin      GA    12     12
 31.  Scott Burns        uk    12     12
 32.  Nat Pendleton      PA    09     12
 33.  George Young       VT    08     12
 34.  Jonathan Tarquino  NJ    11     10
 35.  Michael Kiefte     ns    12      6
 36.  Tim Rogers         SC    09      6
 37.  Henry Rice         NM    11      5

2012 Laurelists                                                  Repeating Laurelists: 0

Dennis Mishler, GA
2nd

Nick Benedict, CA
3rd

Dan Hoffman, NC
4th

Jeremy Martin, GA
5th

Michael Kiefte, ns
6th

Past Champions

John Wetherell, PA
2006

Bryan Collars, SC
2007

Jeff Burdett, NY
2008-09

AJ Sudy, VA
2010

Justin Rice, VA
2011

Kirk Harris and David Hood discuss Reformation religion.

Justin Rice, Dennis Mishler and Jonathan Tarquino burn Europe.

Still Standing Room Only ...

Those Sneaky Hapsburgs Do It Again ...
Preliminary Heats

The publication of Here I Stand's sequel, Virgin Queen, was the likely catalyst for the event's dramatic rise in attendance. 13 preliminary games in 2011 jumped to 18 this year, with record turnouts of 54 players in each heat. With the VGQ tournament scenario now available, we allowed players to select to play either HIS or VGQ in these opening rounds. Five HIS games and four VGQ were held each night. Nick Benedict was our only double winner, scoring HIS victories as both the Hapsburgs and France. England was the only power who failed to win a HIS game this week (a big change from their four victories in 2011). Other wins were distributed as follows: Ottoman (Mark Hodgkinson, Melvin Casselberry); Hapsburgs (Mathieu Paro-Paquin, Dennis Mishler); Papacy (Kirk Harris, Peter Card); and Protestant (Jeremiah Peterson, David Hood).

Eight Virgin Queen games were also completed in the two opening nights. These contests give us our first look at some balance data on that title's tournament scenario. We shortened this scenario from four turns to just three since so many players were trying it out for the first time. There were three Ottoman wins (Joel Calden, Michael Kiefte, and Barry Setser with a military win), one English win (Tom Brierton), one French win (Brian Mountford), and two Protestant wins (Chris Striker with a military victory and Jim Doughan with a religious one). The eighth game was the only one to not have an outright winner in three turns; in this one Chip Saltsman's Protestants were awarded victory by tie-breaker over Joel Tamburo's Holy Roman Empire. The weak HRE showing in these eight games can probably be explained by the fact that six HRE players chose the Catholic secret religious preference but none of these players scored any VP from this selection. England and France are likely to score several more wins next year; those two powers had the highest average scores at the end of three turns of play.

Semifinals

It was back to HIS games only for the playoff rounds. 17 winners of Round 1 games joined seven alternates (those with the highest preliminary round total VP accumulation) for the Friday morning semis. Mathieu Paro-Paquin was first to reach the Final, parleying an initial hand of Smallpox, Landsknechts, Diplomatic Overture, and City State Rebels into a one-turn win. Martin Luther and his minions dominated the other semifinals. Three Protestant wins were achieved on Turn 5. Obviously Dennis Mishler (27 VP), Michael Kiefte (24 VP), and Jeromey Martin (23 VP) have the "let the Papacy almost win on Turn 4 and then come from behind with a huge Protestant Turn 5" gambit down to a science! Dan Hoffman (24 English VP) was our first alternate finalist, returning to the Final for the second time. Nick Benedict grabbed the last seat, edging out three-time finalist AJ Sudy (thanks to a tie-breaker for his two opening heat wins).

FINAL

Power selection for the Final was as follows: Dennis Mishler (Protestant), Mathieu Paro-Paquin (Hapsburgs), Michael Kiefte (Papacy), Jeromey Martin (England), Dan Hoffman (Ottomans), and Nick Benedict (France). Both Paro-Paquin and Mishler were playing the same power that advanced them from the semifinals.

Turn-by-turn highlights of the two-turn Final follow.

Turn 4
· Ottoman and Hapsburgs ally, allowing both powers to tie for the lead after one turn.
· Divorce granted for two cards from English (a healthy Edward is finally achieved, but not until the third wife of the turn: Anne of Cleves).
· Koln ceded to Protestant for two mercenaries.
· Pope excommunicates the Hapsburg for the Ottoman alliance.
· France allies with Venice after a diplomatic marriage.
· Spain discovers the Mississippi River; all other efforts in the New World fail.

VP: Hapsburgs 19, Ottoman 19, France 17, Papacy 17, Protestant 17, England 14

Turn 5
· Hapsburg/Ottoman alliance is renewed; Ottoman targets France with a declaration of war.
· Hapsburg is able to strike a deal to get excommunication lifted by Papacy
· France declares war on Genoa.
· Dennis starts a Turn 5 Protestant surge, following the strategy he used to score 27 VP in the semis.
· Protestant Koln holds out from Hapsburg siege, making the Protestant a likely Turn 5 winner.
· However Dennis ends up 1 CP short of being able to publish a third bible this turn. He uses Carlstadt instead but that reformer only succeeds on one of three attempts. Protestant will end turn with 22 VP (1 short of a win).
· Unexpectedly, Mathieu makes two big New World rolls and surges by four VP (Amazon and Inca). Instead of a Protestant win, suddenly the game is over with a Hapsburg victory.

VP: Hapsburgs 23, Protestant 22, France 21, Ottoman 19, England 19, Papacy 15. Newcomer Mathieu Paro-Paquin wins his first WBC plaque in his first WBC. It was the second straight year for a Hapsburg victory.

Next Year: The Virgin Queen NEEDS Your Assistance!
As players signed in for the Tuesday and Thursday heats this year, we polled them as to whether or not they'd like to see Virgin Queen moved into its own WBC event. 65% of those who responded did prefer to see VGQ added as a new tournament. So with that in mind, the plan for next year is to add Virgin Queen as a Sunday/Monday pre-con and to preserve Here I Stand in its usual Tuesday to Saturday format. But such an addition is dependent on VGQ being one of the top vote getters in the annual member voting to select Trial events. So don't forget in December -- Elizabeth is counting on your vote!

Not Laurels but...
This year's Here I Stand event represented the game's seventh appearance at WBC. We've once again consulted our experts in sabermetrics to evaluate the best Here I Stand player of all time.

That rating of HIS prowess is called "The Here Everyone Stands Evaluation System", or THESES for short.

How do you earn Theses? A victory in a semifinal game at WBC is worth 10 Theses (with smaller awards of 6/4/3/2/1 for 2nd through 6th place). Appearances in the Final are worth five times as much, so 50 Theses for being the HIS champ (and 30/20/15/10/5 for the other finalists).

After compiling the totals through 2011, we still only have three players who have cracked the 95 Theses barrier (though semifinalists Bryan Collars and Dennis Mishler are getting awfully close). Here are the totals for everyone with six or more Theses:


 Player

Final Appearances

Theses

Semi Appearances 

Semi Theses 

 Total Theses 
Jeff Burdett 3 105 3 26 131
AJ Sudy 3 85 5 29 114
Dave Cross 3 70 6 42 112
Bryan Collars 2 60 6 31 91
Dennis Mishler  2 60 5 27 87
Justin Rice 2 55 5 18 73
Kirk Harris 2 50 4 18 68
Mathieu Pare-Paquin 1 50 1 10 60
John Wetherell 1 50 2 8 58
Ken Richards 2 35 4 23 58
Chris Striker 3 35 5 21 56
Nick Benedict 2 30 3 19 49
Dan Hoffman 2 25 6 22 47
Allen Hill 1 30 2 14 44
Barry Setser 1 20 4 20 40
Charles Hickok 1 20 2 12 32
Nat Pendleton 1 10 3 19 29
Michael Rogozinski 1 20 1 6 26
Jeremy Martin 1 10 2 16 26
Rick Cambron 1 15 1 10 25
Brad Merrill 1 20 3 3 23
John Vasilakos 1 15 1 6 21
Paul McCarthy 1 15 3 5 20
Henry Rice 1 10 1 10 20
Tim Rogers 1 5 2 12 17
Rick Byrens 0 0 3 16 16
Michael Kiefte 1 5 1 10 15
Jonathan Tarquino  1 5 1 10 15
Peter Card 0 0 5 14 14
Jeff Pattison 0 0 4 11 11
Manuel Bravo 0 0 4 10 10
Mark Mahaffey 0 0 2 9 9
Brian Mountford 0 0 4 9 9
Jim Stanard 0 0 2 9 9
Matthew Beach 0 0 4 8 8
Jeremiah Peterson 0 0 3 8 8
Phil Rodrigues 0 0 3 8 8
Nathan Hill 0 0 2 7 7
Kaarin Engelmann 0 0 2 7 7
Ted Drozd 0 0 3 6 6
John Emery 0 0 1 6 6
Mitch Lake 0 0 1 6 6

Michael Kiefte, Ed Rothenheber and Jeromey Martin seek the Pope.

Most of the "Stand" finalists prefer to sit.
 GM      Ed Beach (7th Year)  NA 
    ebeach@comcast.net   NA

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