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Wally Hnativ, Jenn Visocnik, Dave
Rynkowski and Kevin Youells multiply. |
Rynkowski and Youells are joined by
Brian Stone and Joe Collinson on the other side of the Med. |
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Russell Harley, Wayne Saunders, Michael
Mullins and William Kendrick repopulate the Earth. |
Jon Anderson, Elisa Hoeger and Kathryn
Harley spread Civil Unrest in between floods and plagues. |
First Quadruple Champ ...
Attendance dipped to its lowest level since 2003, allowing
three games in the first heat and two in the second. Africa and
Babylon proved the most successful with two wins each, while
Assyria and Thrace each scored one win. The breakdown included
four 8-player and two 7-player games. Nine players in search
of laurels played in both heats with five former champions in
the field. Asia was removed from play. Aside from the 'bottom-three'
shuffle rule, there were no variants used.
Jon Anderson drew notice as the most improved player. Jon
reached the Final for the first time in 2011 but finished out
of the laurels in seventh place. This year he took 4th in the
PBeM tournament, and posted the largest WBC margin of victory
with a 497-point African win over Marc Visocnik. Despite being
near the rear of the pack in the Final, his Babylon persevered,
waited for the right moment, and took second place with a 400-point
purchase in the last round, finishing just 181 points shy of
the title.
Other Preliminary winners included prior champions Greg Kulp
(Africa), Doug Galullo (Babylon), and Kevin Youells (Assyria)
plus Nathan Barhorst (Babylon). The top three runners-up also
advanced in the form of Christina Harley, Shantanu Saha, and
Paul Sampson. Kulp and Sampson withdrew, allowing alternates
Jeff Cornett and Marc Visocnik to also advance to their first
ACV Final. The nation draw set the field as Kevin (Assyria),
Marc (Egypt), Jon (Babylon), Shantanu (Africa), and Christina
(Iberia). Nathan then took Crete, eliciting the first whine of
the day, allowing Kevin to win the pre-game pool. Doug then took
Thrace and left Illyria for Jeff.
Between attacks and trying to maximize the number of cards
actually drawn from the deck, city counts were kept low. While
not always an indicator of success, city averages ranged from
a high of 6.69 per turn for Egypt to a low of 5.85 for Iberia.
Only Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt built a full nine cites, each
managing the feat just once.
The outcome was never really in doubt as Thrace jumped to
an early lead. Africa and Iberia each grabbed the lead for a
turn while Doug rebuilt his hand of trade cards in pursuit of
his fourth ACV title. He then took control and held a lead ranging
between 20 and 200 points for the last seven turns. The last
turn was eliminated by the time limit. Final scores were: Doug
3885, Jon 3704, Jeff 3548, Kevin 3500, Shantanu 3492, Christina
3415, Marc 3404, and Nathan 3238.
The BPA also provides an online ACV tournament. Check us out
at http://bpa-civ.rol-play.com/
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Shantanu Saha, Marc Visocnik, Joe
Maiz and Peter Walsh avoid calamity - or not. |
The finalists forsake Kinderhook to
enjoy cooler days in the Wheatland room |
Play
By Email 2012
Dane Mads Lunau emerged triumphant from a field of 31 in our
first PBeM tournament with a 16-point victory over reigning WBC
champ Kevin Youells!! The game moved at a good pace, and took
just over four months to complete. It was well fought, with four
players vying for the top slot heading into the final round.
Greg Kulp led for much of the game with Iberia, but calamities
and an invasion from Egypt conspired to deny his title. Jon Anderson
led the last two turns, but used all of his trade cards on the
penultimate turn to purchase Theology, and was unable to make
any purchase in the last round. Mads started the last turn in
fourth place, but was holding half sets of Spice and Oil. This
was enough to allow him to buy Theology and Philosophy for the
win. The final scores were:
Mads Lunau Thrace 4353
Kevin Youells Babylon 4337
Jon Anderson Illyria 4273
Gregory Kulp Iberia 4095
Joe Lux Africa 4021
Neil McIver Egypt 3721
Kevin Worth Assyria 3715
Greg Stripes Crete 3305
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