Greenville Mafia Keeps Title!

Heat 1:

We would have 27 players, which is slightly above average for the two previous years we have run this Heat.

Bill Dickerson won on the die roll as France in one turn at 4VP in the 4-player game, Bart Pisarik’s Russia coming second at 1VP on tie-break with the rest of the coalition. Defending champion Pete Morzinski’s French vaporized the Coalition armies in Vienna with To The Death, conquering Austria on T1, then deployed Napoleon and Castanos to the Russian border to prepare to conquer Russia on T2. This plan was thwarted by a Russian Winter that lasted the whole of T2, but the French had Rally and The Weather Gauge and were able to conquer Britain instead to make Peter the 11th player to win with double figure VP at 13VP, a club also joined by Eric Alexopoulos at 11VP, also as France.

Kevin Emry would take a turn longer to win with 13VP as France, Bruce Young’s 4VP as Russia being the only bright spot for the coalition.

Things did not go so well for the Greenville Mafia in game D where David White launched Napoleon in a T3 assault into York, Michael Dauer’s Wellington then drove him to Edinburgh, but a second attack managed to wipe out everyone on both sides except the Emperor. The game would be won the same turn by Herbert Sparks as Prussia at 4VP, with Ethan Shipley-Tang second as Austria.

The final game of the Heat saw Gareth Williams as France have the lead at 5VP on T1 and T3 but be overwhelmed by Francis Czawlytko as Austria at 8VP, with John Emery as Prussia with 6VP and newcomer Ameila Dauer at 3VP as Russia. She might have done even better had the 15 minutes of instruction her father had given beforehand included what keys were. For various reasons this omission did not become apparent until later in the week.

Heat 2:

The second heat had 34 players, the most since 2017 including an entire table of new players from Patrick Duffy’s demo. So many in fact that I sat down and coached. That game would be won by Tom Blessing on T3 as France with 7VP, Bruce Cota fighting back as Austria to get to 2VP in second.

In a four-turn game David White as Russia would have the roll on T1 with 2VP as Russia, assisted by a card from William Kendrick as Britain but Eric Alexopoulos as Austria spending against. The next turn saw Peter Morzinski’s Prussia join the Imperial Camp, but also Napoleon gets routed twice and ultimately killed along with Davout. David would improve to 4VP, but also not get the roll.

In Turn 3, Emperor Commands would come out for the third time, this time for the benefit of the French rather than the British or Swedes. Russia would agree to play Talleyrand as the CPs rather than the event to break the Turkish pact in exchange for the Turks evading out of Kiev. The Turks did not get the memo, blew their evasion roll and won the resulting battle with 4 hits out of 5. There was no Victory roll at the end of T3 with Cliff Staffanson’s French now ahead and Austria joined the Imperial Camp to get her keys back.

In the fourth and final turn Russia would play Metternich for the second time to counter a Prussian Pact attempt, the Danes would play a Serbian Revolt that was defeated on the first try, the Swedes would fail to Dos del Mayo Spain and Napoleon would launch a full invasion of Russia.

The Russians failed 5 out of 6 evasions and suffered 6 flag overruns before being eventually being conquered to give Cliff the auto win with 7VP, William coming second with 6VP.

There were two more French wins by John Emery on T3 with 9VP with Mike Heckman as Russia second with 3VP, and Ed Rothenheber with 8VP on T2. The rest of the evening was extremely low scoring; Robert Frisby as Prussia would go where only two other players have been before and win with 2VP on tie-break over Scott Fenn’s Austria and Richard Beyma managed a T1 win as Russia with 3VP.

Heat 3:

For the final Heat, we also had the most players since 2017 with 28. Again, we had a table for the newcomers and less experienced where I slotted in as Prussia and tried to remain an impartial adviser. Fortunately, Amelia Dauer as France did have David White to assist, though that advice consisted of persisting in trying to Capitulate Austria way beyond the point I would have given up and leaving Napoleon trapped in Prague. Tom Blessing (Austria) and Austin Haydon (Russia) proposed an informal truce where they would not interfere with France if she dealt with Alex Gregorio’s Britain who was doing well in Spain and winning the first two turns. Later they would devote their attention to carving up Imperial aligned Turkey whilst all my Prussian’s could do was pick up Spain and one of the Nordics. Game would finish on T4 with Amelia at 6VP and Alex at 5VP.

Meanwhile Patrick Duffy would get a T3 win as France with 4VP over Tim Klepaczyk’s Prussia at 2VP. Embarrassment all around was avoided in Richard Beyma’s T3 victory as France with 10VP. The GM coming back to the check on things in the middle of T2 and realising that he should have won the first turn as he had 6 VP and Kip Brailey’s Britain was Subject Neutral.

Finally, Michael Dauer Capitulated Austria on T1 on his way to a T2 win as France at 13VP; Robert Frisby would get another tight win with 3VP as Prussia on T4 on tie-break over Jesse Boomer’s Russia and Ed Rothenheber would get to 6VP as Britain in the only 3 player game.

Semifinal:

Unusually all the Semifinals bar one ran long, three going to T5 and one to T4. The first Semifinal to finish was the one 4-player game where Robert Frisby’s two heat wins enabled him to choose Britain and Francis Czawlytko Russia second. The evening would be taken however by Herbert Sparks who got France with the 3rd pick and was able to win the game in one turn with 4VP after two members of the coalition declined to spend cards on the peace roll. I do not know which, but we believe in naming and shaming as well as pointing and laughing so let the record show that the other member of the coalition was Bruce Young.

In a 4 turn game dominated by the Greenville Mafia {Kevin Emery (Frace), Peter Morzinski (Britain), Andrew Brown (Austria), David White (Russia) and where Austria was able to prevent being Capitulated by Russia on T3 thanks to Hussars and Grenzers, the actual win would be taken by Ameila Dauer’s neutral Prussia on T4 thanks to drawing Emperor Commands twice (+once for her Turks).

Richard Beyma secured a near end T5 victory for France with 8VP, being ahead throughout the game but never getting the roll and the coalition conceding with a few cards plays left. His principal victim being Ethan Shipley-Tang as Austria who finished on-5.

Another T5 game was tied 1-1-1-1-1 at the end of T4 but rapidly went the way of Ed Rothenheber’s France after Russia then Prussia defected to the Imperial Camp. France would finish with 10VP for the best result in the Semifinal.

The final Semifinal saw John Emery pick France first and Geoff Allbert pick Austria second. This did not work out for him as John was firmly in control even if it took the full five turns to end the game with 8VP. The coalition were hit by Scarce Forge twice, were never able to establish a defensive line and the Swedes were the only ones capable of winning a battle. Gareth Williams came in second as Russia with 3VP to clinch 6th overall.

Final:

The Final would feature two previous champions in John and Ed, one player who had not won laurels in this event since 2008 (Richard), one person making their first appearance in the Final (Herb) and one person in their first year playing (Amelia).

The full AAR of the final comes from Mr. Emery himself.

Turn One: Napoleon and the French made a dash for Vienna. (mostly because the Spanish held Capitulation); but they were stopped at a 40 dice battle in Linz, even though the French played Dysentery.

The Austrians rolled in the south, taking Milan, and killing Massena and his entire army. In the aftermath of the Linz battle, the Russians moved forward, killing Lannes and his entire army.

The Prussians quietly took the Turks, and did not do much else.,/p>

The Brits lost two squadrons in the initial clashes in the mid-Atlantic, despite the play of Nelson. As a result, the British were able to pact the Swedes, build a fleet, and acquire some Frigates from the Russians, in exchange for Parliament. They were also able to take advantage of Imperial defeats to flag Rome and Granada.

The only positive thing that happened to the French is that they were able to pact the Danes; whilst the Spanish were able to take a Lisbon on the second siege.

The Russians had the roll and spent a card, but Austria, Prussians, and Britain, all spent against the Russians, so there was, in fact, no roll. Turn 1 scores were France 0, Britain 3, Austria 0, Russia 3, and Prussia 2.

In the interphase, the Russians reinforced their positions at Ratisbon and Salzberg. The Austrian’s prepared for another offensive in the south. The British brought Moore and four to Gibraltar. The Prussians and Turks consolidated their positions. The Spanish prepared for the British assault on Madrid, the Swedes – who had taken Christiana on the first turn – consolidated their positions as well.