GM Back On Top At Galaxy Trucker!

Galaxy trucker made another appearance at WBC in 2019, thanks to our generous sponsor. It appears he got a little less bang for his buck this year, since attendance was well down. Our first session on Monday was well attended, but the other 2 were not. Perhaps there was some conflicts with other games, or perhaps people are just less interested. There was definitely some conflicts with the semifinal times, so pushing that around a bit might help.

The initial rounds went fine, but the semifinals had sparse attendance. Instead of going off with up to 12 heat winners, we only had 6 appear out of the 12, so we went with the 6 winners and 2 alternates as 2 games of 4, advancing the top 2 from each heat. We will need to make clearer the tiebreakers for next year, something we realized we didn't have clear.

In the first semifinal, the rough road card in the final round was remorseless fate, and the first card was a combat zone for guns. Because of that, the rest of the field was massacred by a wave of cannon fire, while your humble narrator escaped unscathed. Andrew had a diplomat to escape the carnage, but had to give it up to survive the loss of crew row. While the rest of trip was less exciting, the initial damage was enough to push Felicia and Dave F into the final.

On the other side it was a much closer race, with Chris and Dylan initially thinking themselves the leaders, until the realized they weren't counting loans. That bumped Dylan out and David desJardins in.

The finals were a study in cowardice. Dave F had a solid first round, jumping out to around a 20 dollar lead when everyone else hit troubles. But Felicia returned the favor in round 2 with a solid round of cargo, avoiding any dangerous threats. With a dangerous rough roads card of remorseless fate, she quickly abandoned the race in the third flight, preserving her cash lead, and forcing someone else to finish to top her score.

The removed tiles included most of the hyperspace boosters, and Dave F monopolized them, attaching 4 to his ship, able to power 5 engines. David desJardins guessed incorrectly on which alien to grab, not grabbing the manager or diplomat, and quickly paid the price when he came up one short against a big pirate. That damage quickly snowballed, forcing him out soon after. Dave F came down to no engines with one card left in the race (having jettisoned 5 to hyperspace uses), but it wasn't an open space so he finished, with the race bonus easily pushing him into first.

A very close final, and showing that the difficulty level in the final still seems reasonable for the class of players we are seeing.