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El Grande was voted in another year as a Trial event, and we maintained steady attendance, so the event will likely be on the ballot again next year.
Last year, I had announced a change allowing players to opt for an open Castillo. In last year’s tournament, 13 of the 19 tables played open; this year it was 17 of the 18 tables that opted to do so.
In the Heats, Dan Adams was the only double-winner this year. We had 11 other unique winners, and one of those had to leave the convention early, so several alternates were eligible to advance. We ended up with four Semifinal tables, so the best 2nd place player would advance along with the four winners to the Final.
At the first table, newcomer Bronwyn Woods had a 5 point win over former champion Tim Mossman.
At the second table, another former champion, Eric Freeman beat DJ Borton by 4 points to advance.
At the third table with previous champions Jay Fox and Alex Bove, Matt Stankey ran away with the game, outpacing his nearest opponent by 20 points.
At the fourth table, newcomer Leighton Hoskins eked out a 1 point win over Jeff Meyer. Jeff’s close finish allowed him to also advance to the Final.
For the Final, we had two former champions (Eric and Jeff) and three newcomers.
No terribly disruptive cards came out on the first turn. Leighton went early and spread thinly across the board. He picked up some points when Jeff scored his own home province. Bronwyn placed the 4/0/0 on New Castile, where it remained for the rest of the game.
On the second turn, Leighton played his 1 power card, apparently angling for a play of the 13 power card during turn 3. Matt and Jeff both scored regions, giving Jeff the lead at 13, while Matt and Leighton were at 6 apiece. The “Dial-a-Score” card was burned by Bronwyn, starting a bit of a trend for the game.
On the third turn, the Royal Advisor came up, so Leighton settled for playing 7 instead. Jeff went first with a 12, followed by Bronwyn with an 11. Over half the pieces placed this turn went in the Castillo, and Matt burned a Castillo score card. Leighton got stuck with a Veto for next turn. At the end of the first scoring round, the scores were Jeff 27, Bronwyn 22, Leighton 21, Matt 19, and Eric 16.
Turn 4 Matt went first with a 9, and did score the sixes and sevens, earning 10 points and Bronwyn 6 points, placing them 2 and 1 points ahead of Jeff. Bronwyn had the best board position, and Leighton was close, but thinly spread. Others were working more on the Castillo.
For Turn 6, Jeff took the King with the 13 and locked down not his home region in Old Castile, but Matt’s home region in Basque County, where Jeff held a slim lead. Lots of cubes got dumped into the Castillo.
On Turn 7, Bronwyn started down the 2-1-13 road. Jeff’s board position was eroded by the other players, and Matt burned another scoring card.
On Turn 8, Jeff set up a scoring opportunity for Eric which scores 8 for Eric and 4 for Jeff. This put Jeff in the lead by 4. Matt moved his Grande from Basque County (where it had only scored once all game) to Valencia. Everyone’s board positions were roughly equal, apart from Bronwyn who was setting up for the last turn.
For Turn 9, Bronwyn took the King, locked down a 1st place (but not home region) and mostly ducked out of the Castillo contest. Jeff wrecked some positions with an Intrigue card. Matt burned a scoring card and took a slim lead in the Castillo.
During the last Castillo drop, everyone managed to take first place where they chose, except for Bronwyn, whose troops went to the same place as Matt’s and only managed to hold 2nd place. Matt got the biggest score of the round, and at the end Matt and Jeff were tied for points at 76. The first tiebreaker is largest number of cubes left in the court, for which Jeff had one and Matt had zero.
The ending scores were Jeff 76 (1), Matt 76 (0), Bronwyn 68, Eric 64, Leighton 57. Jeff managed his 2nd win at El Grande!
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| Grand Ballroom full of El Grande Players. |
Eric Freeman enjoying hisgame en route to the Final. |
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| Deciding what would be the right next move. |
Finalists with GM Rob Flowers. |
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Flowers, Rob [20th Year]