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Three-time WTP champ Brian
Mountford vs Michael Ussery |
2005 WTP champ Chris Byrd vs
Derek Landel |
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Pandy Pippus vs Mark Yoshikawa |
George Galuschak relives the
Revolutionary War. |
Still the Master ...
The House Rules changes introduced this year seemed to have
an effect on the speed and play balance of the event. The 1782
and 1783 War Ends cards were treated as 1781 War Ends cards.
All games ended no later than the end of the 1781 turn. A game
could still end earlier via the 1779 or 1780 War Ends card or
triggering of automatic victory conditions.
 Save
for the first round, play balance was close although the Americans
held a slight edge in each round. Most of the games were extremely
close and judging by the anecdotes many came down to the last
couple of card plays. The event ended by 1 am which is far earlier
than has been the case.
The Final featured James Pei winning as the Brits over George
Young. In the semifinal James won again as the Brits versus Marvin
Birnbaum. James was in control most of the game and Marvin never
really stood a chance.
The other semifinal was a rematch of the 2012 Final without
the Swamp Fox setting. George won as the Americans in a close
contest against defending champ Keith Wixson. The game came down
to a battle for Montreal on the last card play of the game. The
Americans won, causing Canada to be uncontrolled and leaving
the Brits with just five colonies.
The sole British win in the quarterfinals was by capture of
George Washington. Overall the Americans held a 42-30 edge but
when the results from the first round are removed, it was a more
reasonable 27 - 22 edge for the Americans. The elimination rounds
went 4 - 3 in favor of the Americans. Of course, having James
Pei play the Brits in the last two rounds might have something
to do with that.
This year nobody bid for the Brits and there were very few
no bids. The Americans usually had to give the Brits 2 or 3 PC.
The bid did not seem to affect the results at all. That is, there
is no magic number. The sole bid of 4 for the Americans was by
yours truly versus Pei in the sSemi's. I would have lost just
as badly on a zero bid.
I want to thank my assistant gamemasters and finalists Keith
Wixson and George Young who helped the tournament run smoothly.
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Ass't GMs George Young and Keith Wixson
battle in the semis with George downing the defending champ to
advance. |
The Master takes the measure of the
GM in the other semifinal as James led throughout against Marvin.
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Marvin Birnbaum [3rd Year]
NA 
NA