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Saint Petersburg (SPG) WBC 2024 Event Report
Updated November 5, 2024
72 Players Rick Miller Event History
  2024 Champion & Laurels
 

Miller Achieves Second Saint Petersburg Title!

Saint Petersburg has been a well-attended tournament at WBC going back to 2005. For over the past decade, it has had a dedicated and great GM team taking care of it.

2024 saw quite a few changes to this long time tournament. First, a new GM was needed and one stepped up. Ryan Feathers took over for Norman and Amy Rule. Once again, a huge thanks to all they have done to run this tournament over the years! Next, a new rule from WBC expanded the availability of a Quarterfinal. Previously an event needed to pull over 128 participants to have a Quarterfinal, but this was relaxed. The event has often pulled just a little over 100 participants and resulted in over 25 unique winners, meaning many would get turned away at the cut to the Semifinal. Now, with the relaxed Quarterfinal rules, Saint Petersburg could run with a Quarterfinal. Finally, over the years many players have expressed concerns about the Mistress, and somewhat the Observatory, as being too powerful. In the expansion, Tom Lehman designed some rebalanced cards, modifying the strength of the Mistress, Observatory, and a few others. The tournament for the first time in its history decided to try running with those.

A new GM, with some new time slots, new rebalanced cards, and a Quarterfinal! That was a lot going on, but fortunately the players took it in stride. Between some helpful reference sheets and cards, all the games smoothly handled the transitions. Sadly, attendance was down to nearly all-time lows, 30 games played by a combined 72 different players during the Heats. It’s unclear what precisely may have led to this, but hopefully Saint Petersburg sticks in the century, or can return as a legacy or trial event in 2024.

As always, before I get into the rest of the report on the action, I’d like to thank all the people that helped make this event happen. Stepping up to GM a 2nd game wasn’t something I exactly intended to do, but I knew it would be a lot smoother with all the help and assistance I was offered. Chad Martin, Ray Wolff, and Chris Wildes all had volunteered prior to the week to assist in various ways. Ray Wolff was ready to run the demo in case a game ran long but was fortunately not required. Several helped at various points with moving the kiosk, helping tables set up, signing people in, etc. Luke McKinnes, Kieth Levy, Chris Katz, and a few others deserve thanks here. In particular many of the above named individuals helped out greatly for Heat 3, which I unexpectedly had to skip when I had the good fortune to make the Final of Santa Fe Rails. With all the assistance though, the event ran along smoothly with others stepping up to run Heat 3. So again, a huge thanks to all those who helped me run this event, it would have been a lot more onerous of a task.

The games themselves were as varied and interesting as ever. In Saint Petersburg, the scores vary wildly based on how many rounds the game plays over. Almost all 4 player games will play 5, or 6 rounds. In a 5 round game you can usually expect the winning score to be in the upper 40’s to upper 50’s. In a 6 round game you can find winning scores in the upper 70’s to low 90’s most commonly. Even these vary a good bit on how cheap the early workers are, and how powerful the early card flips are. In the past, the best and most powerful thing to get in Round 1 was the Mistress of Ceremonies. Her powerful 6 income and 3 victory points can propel a game to even higher scores than those listed above, and in the hands of a skilled opponent, is nearly a certain win. However, with the rebalanced version, she only provides 3 income but 4 victory points. This subtle change greatly reduces her power. Instead, many found this year that an early Judge was the scariest thing–the 5 income and 2 victory point production was still very strong when encountered early, and it propelled several too nice wins.

We tried to collect a variety of stats, and I’m still hoping to spend more time comparing them to the online stats that Chris Wildes collects for the PBEM St Petersburg tournaments. In those, they play the original edition cards as printed, and so early Mistresses are very powerful. This also leads those to be first in aristocrats to have a huge winning percentage edge over the other seats. (Nearly 50% win rate in a 4-player game, just for pulling the best seat!) Fortunately, I consider it a big win already, that with our limited data from games, we saw a much more even distribution of wins among the seats. For the 26 four-player games where data is available, we had 6 won by first workers, 6 won by first aristocrats, 5 won by first buildings, and 9 won by first in upgrades. The average scores and placements for all the seats was relatively even also. With these stas, and compared to the online stats, coupled with feedback from players and how smooth the event ran, I am hopeful we’ll continue to see rebalanced cards be used in future St Petersburg tournaments.

Here is some of the other data from the Heats. Our lowest winning score was Sam Wolff’s 48 VP. The highest winning score was Andy Latto’s 141 VP, although that was a 3-player game that went many more rounds than the usual 4-player game. Chad Martin’s 105 VP was the best score at a 4-player table. Winners also went in a variety of paths. Keith Levy and Ryan Feathers each managed to win a game with only 2 unique aristocrats. Andy Latto’s 141 VP effort included 10 unique aristocrats, among the 4-player games Amy Rule’s 9 unique aristocrats was the best winning mark. Ryan Feathers was the only player to finish with only a single aristocrat, but he took third place for that effort.

Randy Buehler managed 10 aristocrats in a 4-player game but got pipped and took 2nd place. The closest game had a complete tie, both players with 89 VP and 9 leftover money. The tournament does have additional tiebreakers laid out beyond those in the rulebook, and so Lee Mewshaw won over Lynda Shea on having fewer aristocrats. While the GM had correctly prepared for and listed those tiebreakers in the preview, another small thing emerged that he had forgotten to put a section on the scoresheet for lost victory points for cards left in hand! Players generally avoid this, but occasionally the game ends a round sooner than one would think and so we’ve certainly all been there with having to take -5 VP for a card left in hand. Three times this happened during the tournament, and fortunately players figured a way to indicate it on the sheets margins.

At the end of the Heats, we had 23 unique winners. This is where the low turnout made the scheduled quarterfinal round look pretty silly, the rules for the tournament stated that all winners would advance, and that we’d give byes in the QF to make the numbers work to have exactly 16 players in the Semifinal. With one winner choosing to not advance, 8 players sat down to two Quarterfinal games, while the top 14 seeds went straight to the Semifinal. This is where Saint Petersburg lives in a tough area, had we pulled our more historic average numbers, the Quarterfinal round would have had more like 5-6 games and felt justified. As is, it felt a bit silly and unnecessary. Alas!

Those receiving byes included our two triple heat winners, Eric Brosius and Keith Levy. They were joined by some other multiple heat winners in Lexi Sheaburns, Sam Wolff, and defending champion Chad Martin. The remaining players all had one win, and some other results, and were sorted appropriately for byes. The lowest ranked 8 players settled into the Quarterfinal round, which saw the final new change for this year's tournament: bidding for seat position. Given the online statistics showing the importance of seat position, it seemed correct to allow the players the choice to decide just how important they felt it was to be in various spots.

Quarterfinal

At the first Quarterfinal table, former laurelist Micheal Swinson faced off against Erik Mooney, Kieth Dent, and Matt Lahut. Erik decided he wanted to be first in the aristocrats and bid 4 victory points to have first crack at them, while Matt decided to take first buildings for 3. Keith settled into first upgrades for free, leaving Michael first workers for free also. The game went on 6 rounds. Matt had the observatory and got to 9 unique aristocrats, but it wasn’t quite enough to take down Erik’s 6 aristocrats backed by a ton of building points: (For all these games I am listing the players in order of placements, then laying out how their victory points were earned between those directly produced during the game, the unique aristocrats bonus at the end of the game, points for remaining money, points lost to the bid, total victory points, and then laying out what their initial token was, and in what relative seating order they were in relation to workers being considered first seat):

  • Erik Mooney 93 VP = 75 + 21 bonus + 1 money - 4 bid (Aristocrats, 3rd seat)
  • Matt Lahut 90 VP = 48 + 45 bonus + 0 money - 3 bid (Buildings, 4th seat)
  • Keith Dent 80 VP = 65 + 15 bonus + 0 money - 0 bid (Upgrades, 2nd seat)
  • Michael Swinson 76 VP = 54 + 21 bonus + 1 money - 0 bid (Workers, 1st seat)

The other Quarterfinal game saw laurelists Lee Mewshaw and Joe Harrison take on Ryan Feathers and Christian Wen. Ryan once again tried to pull off a low noble game, getting only two, while trying to ride his Fur Shop and buildings to victory by pushing for a fast five round game.

Joe bid and got to play first nobles, earning a nice Controller in round 1. This game once again proved the need for multiple tiebreakers involving a game with Lee when the game was tied on points, money, least nobles, and had to go to the next line of most buildings.

  • Joe Harrison 45 VP = 37 + 10 bonus + 0 money - 2 bid (Aristocrats, 3rd seat)
  • Lee Mewshaw 45 VP = 35 + 10 bonus + 0 money - 0 bid (Buildings, 4th seat)
  • Ryan Feathers 43 VP = 40 + 3 bonus + 0 money - 0 bid (Upgrades, 2nd seat)
  • Christian Wen 33 VP = 18 + 15 bonus + 0 money - 0 bid (Workers, 1st seat)

Semifinal

With that, the semifinal field was set. Here, the final little hiccup of being a new GM, using a Quarterfinal round for the first time emerged. The schedule got printed to say the Semifinal would start 2 hours after the Quarterfinal, but Saint Petersburg is not a 2 hour game. As such I told players to come back 90 minutes after the start of the Quarterfinal, so we could get the Semifinal and then Final starting a bit sooner and we could all get to bed a bit earlier.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t communicated as clearly as would be ideal, as father/son Ray and Sam Wolff walked in as we were almost starting some of the Semifinal tables as 3-players. Fortunately, it did all work out. Double winners and better were separated as best as possible, while the rest of the field was randomized.

In the first Semifinal, defending champion Chad Martin was up against laurelist Andy Latto, along with Erik Mooney and Rodney Bacigalupo. Rodney bid big to be first in aristocrats, while Chad paid some to be first in buildings. Sometimes one is lucky, sometimes you’re also good. In Chad’s case, he was both in this game, as his score almost looks like an error for a 5 round game that it was. However, he managed to get a Potemkin’s Village for his bid on buildings in round 1, got a Controller as 2nd in nobles, and was rewarded with a Smolny Cathedral from the upgrades despite having last crack at what flipped. All the other players needed other things more, and a beautiful storm of flips let Chad get everything down early for huge income and solid victory point production, and from there his strong play made sure no one would be close to catching him:

  • Chad Martin 67 VP = 49 + 21 bonus + 0 money - 3 bid (Buildings, 3rd seat)
  • Erik Mooney 45 VP = 34 + 21 bonus + 0 money - 0 bid (Upgrades, 4th seat)
  • Andy Latto 42 VP = 21 + 21 bonus + 0 money - 0 bid (Workers, 1st seat)
  • Rodney Bacigalupo 40 VP = 31 + 15 bonus + 0 money - 6 bid (Aristocrats, 2nd seat)

Semifinal number two saw laurelists Rod Davidson and Joe Harrison taking on Lexi Sheaburns and Aaron Blair. This game went 6 rounds. Joe went for a big nobles strategy, ending with 8, although Aaron was close with 7. The bids at this table were a few points for the workers seat, which is a bit atypical, although it was also 2nd for nobles. A couple points were bid for aristocrats, while buildings and upgrades went for free. Aaron hit some good early upgrade and had other good flips to back up solid play as he got the win:

  • Aaron Blair 85 VP = 56 + 28 bonus + 1 money - 0 bid (Upgrades, 3rd seat)
  • Joe Harrison 78 VP = 43 + 36 bonus + 1 money - 2 bid (Aristocrats, 4th seat)
  • Lexi Sheaburns 70 VP = 54 + 15 bonus + 4 money - 3 bid (Workers, 1st seat)
  • Rod Davidson 64 VP = 49 + 15 bonus + 0 money - 0 bid (Buildings, 2nd seat)

The third Semifinal saw triple heat winner and last year finalist Keith Levy up against 2nd overall Saint Petersburg laurelist Randy Buehler. They were joined by Patrick Maguire and Sam Wolff. This table had very little bidding action, with only a single point for aristocrats while the rest of the seats went for free. Sam Wolff rushed for a 5 round game, hoping his early investment in buildings would pay off. He ended with only 2 nobles, and when things finished, he was just behind Patrick’s more balanced game of 4 nobles but still a lot of building points. Randy was banking on another round to make his big nobles game pay off. Sam did at least get his first Saint Petersburg laurels for 6th place for the close effort, while Patrick would also be getting his Saint Petersburg laurels by making the finals:

  • Patrick Maguire 50 VP = 40 + 10 bonus + 0 money - 0 bid (Workers, 1st seat))
  • Sam Wolff 48 VP = 45 + 3 bonus + 0 money - 0 bid (Upgrades)
  • Keith Levy 39 VP = 29 + 10 bonus + 0 money - 0 bid (Buildings)
  • Randy Buehler 34 VP = 14 + 21 bonus + 0 money - 1 bid (Aristocrats)

The last Semifinal was likely the toughest. All four players had laurels in the event. Rick Miller won in 2022, Ray Wolff won the event multiple times and is the all-time leading laurelist. It was sure to be a great game, and it did not disappoint with the tightest game of the round. Nobody hit great flips, and expensive early workers meant the game was a bit of a slog as all were tight on money. It went 6 rounds which would tend to favor observatories, but none emerged early. All players were forced to invest their money into point production and try to eke out the nobles that they could. Ray tried to angle to find a way to end the game in 5 rounds but was unable to do so. This gave Rick just enough time to overtake him for a close win. Ray’s 2nd place was the best of the round, so he was still able to add to his Saint Petersburg laurel lead with 5th place:

  • Rick Miller 70 VP = 56 + 15 bonus + 0 money - 1 bid (Aristocrats, 4th seat)
  • Ray Wolff 69 VP = 64 + 6 bonus + 0 money - 1 bid (Upgrades, 2nd seat)
  • Eric Brosius 66 VP = 43 + 21 bonus + 2 money - 0 bid (Buildings, 3rd seat)
  • Amy Rule 59 VP = 44 + 15 bonus + 0 money - 0 bid (Workers, 1st seat)

Final

Thus, the Final was set. Aaron Blair and Patrick Maguire were earning their first laurels in Saint Petersburg. Opposing them, Rick Mille (2022) and Chad Martin (2023) had won the event the last two years. Players had talked among themselves and already figured out some of the patterns for bidding–noticing that 1st workers was suffering, and that first in aristocrats and upgrades was tending to fare well. Players bid to higher levels and more total points than any of the previous games. Rick decided to gamble and pay 7 for first aristocrats, hoping for some early hit. Patrick took the upgrades seat for 4 points, also hoping for some good early income boost. Chad settled in for buildings for 1, leaving Aaron to take the free workers seat.

Chad was happy when an observatory flipped for him in round 1, which he happily took despite it costing a bit more than the base game version. All groaned except Rick though when the nobles flipped, and he was rewarded with the Judge. As noted earlier, the Judge was the most powerful start now that the Mistress was modified. It wasn’t quite game over given Rick had paid 7 VP hoping for this, it certainly looked good. Patrick was a bit sad when he had to settle for a Church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ as the best upgrade, his workers were perfectly set for a Wharf or Weaving Mill. Due to the late night or for whatever reason, Patrick also missed that he needed to open a worker slot for himself, and in round 2 only Chad and Rick were able to purchase workers. At this point then with Chad and Rick hitting the things they wanted to in round 1, plus getting that extra early worker, it seemed likely to be a battle to see whom would get to join Ray Wolff as the only two time Saint Petersburg champion, while Patrick and Aaron were fighting for the third place plaque. Patrick got lucky to also get a Judge but had to wait another round to play it. Chad did find a Mistress with the observatory for some great points but was struggling a bit to get the perfect nobles and upgrades to make the observatory game sing. Rick expertly used his big money lead to invest in some points, eventually purchasing the rebalanced Academy that makes 9 VP a round. Aaron meanwhile had managed to stack all 5 markets, getting the last one for a single dollar. In the end Rick’s Judge start and shrewd play could not be overcome:

  • Rick Miller 88 VP = 79 + 15 bonus + 1 money - 7 bid (Aristocrats, 3rd seat)
  • Chad Martin 79 VP = 44 + 36 bonus + 0 money - 1 bid (Buildings, 2nd seat)
  • Patrick Maguire 75 VP = 57 + 21 bonus + 1 money - 4 bid (Upgrades, 4th seat)
  • Aaron Blair 64 VP = 42 + 21 bonus + 1 money - 0 bid (Workers, 1st seat)

Congrats to Rick Miller on becoming the second two time Saint Petersburg champion! A big congrats as well to Chad Martin for the best title defense any Saint Petersburg champion has been able to muster.

Congratulations to all the other laurelists as well for their fine play and impressive accomplishments.

Once again, a bit thanks to all those that helped run this event and made it go smoothly. This includes a big thanks to all the players that handled the switch to the rebalanced cards extremely well, and the solid play and sportsmanship this tournament always has. Thanks to all who made this such a great tournament in 2024, I hope 2025 will be even better!

 
2024 Laurelists Repeating Laurelists: 2
Martin, Chad Maguire, Patrick Blair, Aaron Wolff, Ray Wolff, Sam
2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th
 
Some smiles for the camera in Saint Petersburg.. Heats begin including Andy Latto and Rodney Bacigalupo.
Keith Levy working his way to the Semifinal. Finalists with GM Ryan Feathers.
 
GM  Ryan Feathers [1st Year]