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Brad McCandless, Chris Shabsin and
Russell Harley |
A far cry from Tactics II ... |
Second Chance Profits ...
Dominant Species survived last year's air conditioning
failure as the glaciers returned plenty of cool air to Lancaster
Host's Lampeter room for the 2013 entrants manipulating insects,
arachnids, amphibians, birds, reptiles, and mammals in the struggle
to adapt in the face of a rapidly approaching Ice Age.
This year's heats generated 13 games over three sessions.
This equaled last year's game total, but a smaller field resulted
in all but one of the preliminary heat games being 4-player affairs,
with only one 5-player game in Heat 2.
Players
again bid for animal choice, rather than random selection. Bids
in the first heat were suppressed, with one 5, one 4, two 2's
and two 1's, among 16 players. Jason Arvey, John Emery, Chris
Shabsin, and Jonathan Squibb recorded the first wins of the tournament.
Unfortunately, a faulty scoresheet meant that your GM was aware
of the bid order, but not the ANIMAL order. So, the winning animals
of this heat were lost to history.
In Heat 2, bids went higher, with bids of 7, 6, 5, 4, two
3's, four 2's, and several 1's making the pre-game decisions.
2011 champ Dennis Mishler (Insects), Kevin Emery (Arachnids),
Michael Parsons (unknown-scoresheet malfunction), Rob Davidson
(Birds), and Nick Vayn (Insects) won their games. Kevin was singleminded
as the Arachnids, finishing the game with every element covered
with grubs. So, with six grubs, he was dominant anywhere grubs
appeared.
The bids calmed down in Heat 3 with only a 6, a 4, two 2's,
and two 1's bid for choice. Tom McCorry (Insects), Chris Trimmer
(Mammals), Robb Effinger (Arachnids), and Kevin Emery (Amphibians)
recorded wins. Kevin's win was his second as he became the only
multiple preliminary winner.
The semifinals on Saturday used 4-player games to determine
a 6-player Final. Joining the preliminary winners as alternates
were 2012 champ JR Geronimo and Geoff Entwistle, who played multiple
heats and managed at least one runner-up game. JR (Arachnids),
John Emery (Insects), and Robb Effinger (Arachnids) earned their
way to the Final with Round 2 wins. The field of six was completed
with runners-up Geoff Entwistle, Tom McCorry, and Chris Shabsin.
John Emery had to bow out at this point to honor another Final
commitment. The beneficiary of that schedule conflict was his
son, Kevin, who otherwise had missed being the sixth finalist
by one point. As it happened, John's withdrawal turned into a
good thing for the Emery plaque collection.
The Final - Or "Just Another Bug Hunt?"
Tom McCorry and Kevin Emery led the Final bidding with 5 for
the Insects and Arachnids, respectively. Geoffrey Entwistle and
JR Geronimo bid 2 for the Reptiles and Mammals, leaving Chris
Shabsin and Robb Effinger with the Birds and Amphibians for free.
The Scoring Cards on Turn 1 elicited a collective shudder
from the players, as the deal contained Catastrophe, Blight,
and Predator among the first five cards. The end result of these
disasters is what you might expect with 18 dead species after
the first turn. Tom blighted the desert, and Kevin triggered
the Catastrophe on the Mountain, setting JR and Geoff back. Chris
and JR had unwisely speciated, and they footed the lion's share
of the butcher's bill, losing 13 of the 18 extinct species. Geoff
was reduced to one lonely reptile clinging to a foothold in the
Savannah.
On Turn 2, Kevin was able to grab first scoring spot and nabbed
the all-important Omnivore. Parasitism also was present, and
when Robb took it, Kevin had five action pawns to four for Tom
and Robb, and three for the higher animals. Despite this, Tom
had the lead at round end with 21 points to lead Kevin by five.
Poor Geoff couldn't get out of the starting blocks, as competition
and the Predator card reduced him again to a single species.
Turn 3 was all about jockeying for board position. Chris made
a strong move into the Tundra, grabbing six points for the Survival
Card. Geoff managed to expand his species count, but the big
gainer was Robb's Amphibians, who scored 20 points via Wanderlust
and Domination cards to take the lead with 36 to Tom's 31.
Turn 4 was the start of the Great Bug Jihad of 2013. While
Kevin was walling off the upper left of the board with his own
grub empire, Tom, took the Wasteland action. With meat as a choice,
and with the mammals meat supply entirely too close to the Ice
Sheet, J.R. declared that from henceforth, he would become the
world's pest control guy and proceeded to pursue Tom's insects
wherever they went in a reinactment of Starship Trooper.
Robb snuck in three scoring actions while J.R. was busy smashing
anything with six legs to extend his lead to 17 over Kevin.
Turn 5 recorded the warmest Cold Snap on record, which killed
only two species, and Kevin took advantage of the grub-heavy
areas to overtake Robb for the lead at 75-69. Players had to
not only migrate due to the threat of Cold Snap, but Immigrants
caused a general shedding of element discs as well.
Turn 6 proved to be the turning point of the game and with
the action advantage, Kevin was well-positioned to take advantage.
After everyone had placed their pawns, Kevin had his fifth to
place and noticed that no migration actions had been taken. Seeing
a number of Tundra spaces empty, and with grubs to support him,
he migrated onto five tiles and scored a whopping 21 points for
the Survival Card to jump to a commanding postion. The other
big mover this turn was Geoff, who had slowly been expanding
his reptiles, and scored 45(!) points this turn, aided by a 24
point Fertile Scoring card. In the process, Geoff jumped from
fifth to third.
After Turn 6's grab of the vacant Tundra, Kevin played defense
for the Survival card, and scored another 21 points to salt away
his win. J.R.trailed the field largely due to his exuberance
in squashing bugs. Kevin made the most of his opportunities -
starting with a paternal assist in the form of his father's schedule
conflict which allowed him a second bite at the apple.
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David Glowny and Geoffrey Entwistle. |
GM Dave Long oversees his finalists. |
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