Late Surge Foils Repeat

Galaxy Trucker attendance held steady from last year, with the same number of winners in the first round (12). The semifinals used 4 tables of 3 for the semifinals once again with a four person final. People seemed to still be happy with a fairly wide open set of qualifying options, and then bumping the complexity for the later rounds.

There was one minor controversy during the semifinals around claiming the starting positions. The rules of the tournament need to be more clear and the GM should make it clear to players before we begin. Next year, the GM expects to go with a verbal call for next year, unless there is strong feedback as the table setup at WBC is not very conducive to grabbing the numbers.

The final was closely contested between Nick, Karl, David, and Shenandoah. In the first round, the rough road was Stiff Competition, leading to less cargo than usual. Karl went down to 1 crew to grab a spaceship, and then both Hennings went to Hyperspace to avoid a cargo zone, leading to David getting shot up. At the end of the first round Nick and Karl were neck and neck, with David 7 behind.

In the second round, the rough road was Paranoia, and 3/6 were rolled to remove slots from the ships. More interestingly, an intruder was present in one of the initial piles. Notable features from the build phase included a routered armory from Nick, and a scattering of illegal tiles. David managed to reserve the perfect thruster to use on his ship and then proceeded to forget to attach it.

During the flight Nick grabbed another lucrative ship. On the last card, Karl was hammered by slavers while Nick killed them for the reward. Nick pulled into the lead with about a 20 credit lead over David.

The third round turned over Piercing Projectiles. Unfortunately, the card was a dud with very few effects in the round. In the visible piles there were enemies with a strength of 10, 11, and 12 as well as additional round 4 cards. Karl finished building very quickly but hadn't been advancing the timer, leading to lots of time for others.

Some big enemies quickly made an appearance, leading to some fast cash for Karl. However, after a predator cleaned out his ship, Nick gave up with a fair amount of flight left. Thankfully for everyone left, nothing too devastating came up after that. With the large bonus from finishing and a bunch of cargo on board, David surged into the lead with 88 to Nick's 80.