Roberto Fournier, Tammy Wyatts, York Dobyns and Joe Delaney use a rare map.	Rex Lehman, Christina Harley, Rachael Day, Kevin Youells and William Kendrick
Wayne Saunders, Jon Anderson and Doug Galullo	Elisa Hoeger, Bill Banks, Trella Bromley and Jennifer Visocnik

2013 was a watershed year for ACV. Kinderhook added enhanced lighting, air conditioning, and a fan, so the room was much more comfortable than in the past. It was also much fuller. Whether it was caused by additional exposure from the PBeM tournament, or the general increase in attendance at the con, or the GM's sterling reputation (ahem), our event grew 50%. This turnout was the highest in 21 years, and the second largest ACV tournament on record.

32 appeared for the first heat. This very pleasant surprise yielded four full 8-player games. The day's winners were Christina Harley (Thrace), Steve Spisak (Assyria), Ron Clement (Assyria), and defending champion Doug Galullo (Iberia). Ron posted the highest score of the day, as he put up 4664 en route to a 558 point win in one of the three preliminary games that went to completion. The highlight was listening to Nathan Barhorst (designer of our PBeM tourmnament website) whining about being beaten by a 13-year old girl. Good job, Rachael!

Day 2 drew ten new players and 12 others braving their second heat in an 8-player and two 7-player contests. In order to keep a uniform playing field, Crete was removed from the 7-player games. This seems to have been a boon for Illyria which won both of the 7-player games. Board winners were Shantanu Saha and Kevin Youells (Illyria), and Seve Spisak (Babylon) who took his second heat of the week. Without question, Russ Harley committed the cruelest move of the heats. After a string of bad calamities, Jenn Visocnik was knocked backwards on the AST after Russ hit her with both secondary effects of Iconoclasm and Heresy.

With Steve winning two games, there was an additional space open in the Final, with York Dobyns and Jeff Cornett advancing based on the closest runnerup scores. The mark to make the Final was 96.62% of the winners score, as York was only 11 points behind in his game, and Jeff trailed by 143.

We use two different methods for selecting countries at WBC. In the heats we draw cards for order of nation selection. If you reach the Final, a much more Stoic philosophy is taken, and it is expected that you are qualified to play any country, so we draw chits, then allow trading. Some years there is no movement whatsoever, but this year it resembled a bazaar with all sorts of changes going on. Babylon, Egypt, Iberia, and Thrace all changed hands, and there may have been more that were missed. Once all of the pre-game maneuvering was done, we ended up with Jeff (Africa), Kevin (Iberia), Steve (Illyria), Doug (Thrace), Christina (Crete), Ron (Assyria), York (Babylon), and Shantanu (Egypt).

As the game began, familiar borders were reached, and common deals were made. The exception to this was the discussion between Thrace and Crete. Since Crete moved to Asia Minor first, Thrace grabbed several typically Cretan areas in the Balkans, then complained when Crete wouldn't give up Troy. This led to Thrace declaring "war for the rest of the game" on Crete. The war failed to lead to any actual attacks, though. Thrace later declared "war" on Iberia, then Assyria as well, with similar results. This prompted one player to comment: "Just wait a turn, he'll be mad at someone else" about the Thracian leadership.

Egypt was seemingly knocked out early, as he had become the victim of both famine and flood on Turn 6, followed by earthquakes during the next two turns. As the first round of purchases came in, Iberia jumped out to a small lead. This was, of course, held against him and he was punished by secondaries from that point forward. As the game progressed Assyria and Thrace traded the lead back and forth. Thrace bought Monotheism to expand his kingdom while Assyria went with Military to "protect" himself. Full fledged fighting broke out in Round 15 as Thrace was dropped to six cities during movement and was bumped on the AST by the Assyrian who was not swayed by the Thracian offers of deals and peace.

Meanwhile, Egypt was quietly building his comeback. With Mining and Coinage, he was able to increase his civilization card purchases, buy trade cards from the "9" stack for five straight turns, and work his way into a close second place by the penultimate turn.

In the end, Assyria and Thrace continued their battles, Africa and Iberia pounced on the Illyrian, and Egypt was left alone. As the trade cards were turned in, Egypt was able to acquire Clothmaking, Philosophy, Monotheism, and Theology for an amazing 755 points of advances. This was more than enough to clinch the victory for Shantanu. This victory was especially sweet, as he has been in nearly every Advanced Civilization Final since the Avaloncon days. It could not have gone to a more deserving person, and we are happy to add him to the ranks of ACV champions.

Congratulations to Shantanu on his breakthrough win, and thank you to everyone who turned out this year. Possible changes for next year include ending the heat games at the 1500 point space on the AST. See you next August!

The BPA also offers a pbem tournament for Advanced Civ. The next one will begin in March, 2014. Full details are available at http://bpa-civ.rol-play.com/.

Final Scores:

1) Shantanu Saha Egypt 4482

2) Doug Galullo Thrace 4414

3) Ron Clement Babylon 4323

4) Kevin Youells Iberia 4001

5) Christina Harley Crete 3906

6) Steve Spisak Illyria 3362

7) Jeff Cornett Africa 3060

8) York Dobyns Babylon 2394

1) Jenn Visocnik demonstrates her poor city building skills. The Egyptians reduced this shortly afterwards.

Play By Email 2013

Is there a new powerhouse nation? When ACV players speak of the traditionally strong countries, they think of Babylon, Egypt, or Assyria. But Thrace? Never! It is considered a dog, and taken with the seventh or eighth pick. However, that perception may be changing as players using Thrace have won four of the last five BPA Championships - Greg Kulp at WBC 2010, Mads Lunau in 2012 PBeM, Doug Galullo at WBC 2012, and now Kevin Youells in 2013 PBeM.

28 new and returning players made up the 2013 tournament so there were eight 7-player games in the preliminary rounds. Each player participated in two concurrent games, and the winners of each game advanced to the Final. Greg Kulp won both preliminary games with Babylon and Egypt. His double win allowed for the top runner-up to advance, which admitted Jon Anderson. Also advancing with wins were Shantanu Saha, defending champion Mads Lunau, James Gundy, Kevin Worth, Kevin Youells, and Romain Jacques. Five of these worthies were repeating finalists from the previous year.

Egypt led the way with three wins, while Illyria(!) and Babylon garnered two wins each, and Africa won the remaining game.

The Final was unique from the start, as Jon Anderson opted for Asia instead of Creten with the last selection. The Asians and Assyrians did not make room for each other, opting to fight on Turn 2, as they each lost a unit in Cappadocia. This continued in the next round, dooming these two civilizations to also-ran status from the very beginning. Their war continued throughout the game. The Assyrians were driven off the continent, and forced to create a new homeland between Iberia and Illyria after being the beneficiary of Civil War. While this was going on, Illyria and Thrace raced to occupy the empty Cretan territories, and both benefited from the extra space and city sites. Babylon and Asia built a strong border and game-long agreement. Africa, Egypt, and Iberia all claimed their due with little conflict.

Five different players held the lead at various points in the game. Africa led for the first four turns, until Iberia made his move. The Iberians were in the lead for Turns 5 and 6, until struck by the first Civil War. Illyria took over on Turn 7, followed by a Thracian push to lead Turn 8. From there, the lead bounced back and forth between Iberia (Turns 9 and 12), Egypt (Turns 11, 13, and 14), and finally Thrace, who pulled away in the last three turns.

Why did certain civilizations prosper, while others declined? Obviously, Asia and Assyria were done in by their unending jihad. Once the Civil War came into play, things got more complicated. Assyria was the beneficiary of three Civil Wars, two from Iberia, and one from Illyria. Once the Assyrians arrived, they did not go away, which created a scarcity of farmland and city sites in the west, constricting Iberian growth. Iberia eventually ended the game with nine cities, but it was due to holdings in the Middle East, Crete, and Egypt. In addition to not leaving Germany, Assyria fought Illyria, killing several units and seizing Rome at one point. Eventually Illyria was attacked by Africa and Asia, guaranteeing him a place in the lower floors of the standings. Babylon had a card problem - he drew the most calamities. At one point he had eight cities, only drew six cards due to empty stacks, and four of them were calamities!

Thrace had been languishing far back in the point totals through the mid-game, until becoming the only Mining owner. This pulled him back into third, when he was attacked by Asia and Egypt. After buying Military, Thrace pushed back against Egypt, who was eventually driven completely off the Mediterranean coast by combined attacks from Africa, Iberia, and Thrace. Turn 15 was pivotal, as only Thrace, Asia, and Illyria advanced on the AST. This was enough to give Thrace an advantage and a lead that he would not relinquish.

In the end, the top two laurelists from the prior year fought for the championship again. This year Kevin got his revenge on Mads and held on to enough of his 300-point lead in the last turn to claim the prize.


The ending positions were:

1) Thrace Kevin Youells 4583
2) Egypt Mads Lunau 4360
3) Iberia Kevin Worth 4192
4) Africa James Gundy 3935
5) Illyria Romain Jacques 3681
6) Babylon Greg Kulp 3653
7) Asia Jon Anderson 3502
8) Assyria Shantanu Saha 2125

Meanwhile, the 2014 PBeM tournament rages on. We have 38 players enrolled and are making good progress, as the games are all currently in Rounds 12 or 13. It is too early to project the winners, but the Final will probably host a mix of seasoned veterans and some new blood. Sign-ups for the next event will begin in January. Follow along at http://bpa-civ.rol-play.com/