Jarrett Wins First Empire Builder Title

Attendance for the tournament was up slightly with 63 unique individuals playing. With some people playing in multiple Heats there were 114 people who played in the three Heats.

The games played in the Heats were:

• Empire Builder x 9
• British Rails x 4
• Iron Dragon x 4
• Eurorails x 3
• Martian Rails x 3
• India Rails x 3
• Nippon Rails x 2
• Russian Rails
• Lunar Rails

Twenty-five players advanced to the Semifinal with five emerging victorious to advance to the Final: Debbie Gutermuth, Roger Jarret, Eyal Mozes, Rich Meyer, and Dave Steiner.

Eyal had the highest load and went first, followed by Roger, Rich, Debbie and Dave in that order. Initial builds were:

• Eyal – Budapest to Berlin via Wien with track from Wien to Munchen as well
• Roger – Cardiff to Toulouse. On his first regular turn he built to Barcelona
• Rich – Wroclaw to the ferry port next to Antwerp (drawing to Brussels and Antwerp). On his first regular turn he continued on to London
• Debbie – Amsterdam to Wien. On her first regular turn she continued on to Budapest
• Dave – Sarajevo to Krakow and Warsaw

Deliveries were made in the following order:

1. Eyal made the first delivery, which was Bauxite to Berlin for 14
2. Rich then made a delivery of Steel to Brussels for 6
3. Dave delivered wood to Krakow for 18 and drew the teamsters strike which caused Dave to lose half a turn waiting to deliver in Warsaw, then a derailment of London, Arhus, Lodz, Venezia, Belfast or Frankfurt that didn’t hit anyone and then flooded the Danube which washed out Debbie’s river just as she was about to deliver in Budapest. Eyal was slowed down in Wien since he couldn’t cross the Danube
4. Eyal delivered Bauxite to Munchen for 14
5. Roger delivered Coal to Barcelona for 32
6. Rich delivered Copper to Birmingham for 29 then Chocolate to Manchester for 16 on the same turn
7. Dave delivered Wood to Warsaw for 24
8. Eyal pitched his cards and got the Tooling Needed Event
9. Rich was the first to upgrade to a Fast train
10. Debbie delivered Cheese to Budapest for 21
11. Eyal pitched his cards again and got Longshoreman Strike and a Derailment in Glasgow, Ruhr, Zurich, Barcelona, Cork or Lisboa which didn’t impact anyone, Heavy snow in Munchen which impacted Eyal since that was where his train was. There was also snow in Krakow but it didn’t impact anyone
12. Eyal pitched for the third time and got three clean cards
13. Rogers delivered Hops to Milano for 29
14. Roger bought his Fast train
15. Eyal delivered Cars to Wien for 7
16. Dave delivered Wood to Budapest for 12. He rode Debbie’s line to get there
17. Eyal pitched his cards again and got three clean cards
18. Roger delivered Marble to Toulouse for 21
19. Rich delivered Machinery to Manchester for 28 which was 18 plus the 10 bonus for the Tooling Needed Event
20. Debbie delivered Wine to Birmingham for 19
21. Eyal upgraded to a Fast train
22. Debbie delivered Bauxite to Newcastle for 35
23. Eyal rode Rich’s track in order to pick up Potatoes in Szczecin
24. Dave delivered Ham to Roma for 35. The Ebro was flooded but no one had built over it yet
25. On turn 14 Roger delivered Marble to Leipzig for 22
26. Eyal delivered Machinery to Budapest for 22. He drew snow in Prague which slowed Rich down a little bit
27. Roger delivered Chocolate to London for 10
28. Eyal deliver Potatoes to Beograd for 20
29. Roger dumped his cards and got 3 clean cards
30. Dave rode Roger headed to Spain
31. Debbie deliver Cars to Nantes for 21. She then upgraded to a Fast train
32. Dave rode Roger for the second time. Then the upgraded to a Fast train
33. Rich delivered Ham to Birmingham for 33
34. Dave rode Roger for a third time
35. Rich rode Roger into Cardiff and delivered Copper to Cardiff for 31
36. Dave delivered Cheese to Madrid for 30
37. Eyal delivered Labor to Paris for 25
38. Dave flushed and got 3 clean cards
39. Eyal flushed and got 3 clean cards
40. Rich bought the first Super Freight on turn 22
41. Debbie delivered Cars to Barcelona for 19
42. Eyal flushed again, got the gales in the Atlantic and three clean cards. The Gales >didn’t impact anyone
43. Eyal flushed again and flooded the Rhine and got Gales in the North Sea. Rich and Eyal lost one bridge due to the flood
44. Rich delivered Hops to Lodz for 35
45. Debbie delivered Flowers to Madrid for 35 and drew Irish Booming Economy. One the same turn she delivered Machinery to Sevilla for 21. She rode Roger to Sevilla. Then she upgraded to a Super Freight
46. Debbie rode Roger to get back to Madrid
47. Dave delivered Machinery to Lisboa for 23
48. Eyal rode Rich from Parish to Holland to pick up Flowers
49. Roger deliver Oranges to Szczecin for 44
50. Roger upgraded to Super on Turn 29
51. Debbie delivered Oranges to the Ruhr for 33
52. Rich delivered Coal to Madrid for 37
53. Roger took a two turn detour to pick up tourists that he didn’t need because the same card has Fish to Krakow that he is going to deliver instead
54. Dave rode Roger from Lyon to Milano
55. Roger delivered Cork to Oslo for 73. Drew gales in the Med and Adriatic which slowed Dave down
56. Debbie delivered Cork to Newcastle for 55
57. Dave delivered Cork to Naples for 52
58. Eyal delivered Hops to Prague for 27,/li>
59. Debbie dumped her cards and got taxes. Eyal had 22, Rober 79 and paid 10, Rich had 82 and paid 10, Debbie had 108 and paid 15, Dave had 37. She also got Wildcat Strike. She then drew a derailment of Oslo, Berlin, Torino, Napoli, Sevilla, Cardiff
60. Dave was in Napoli and lost a tobacco and a turn
61. Eyal delivered Flowers to Krakow for 23. He then upgraded to a Super Freight
62. Debbie flushed. She got a derailment for Szczecin, Dublin, Kaliningrad, Wien, Toulouse and Newcastle. She hit herself in Newcastle and lost an Oil and a turn
63. Roger delivered Wood to Prague for 18
64. Roger delivered Fish to Krakow for 40 and paid Eyal to get there
65. Rich delivered Cork to Ruhr for 44
66. Roger flushed his card and got 3 clean cards. Roger got beyond gorgeous cards. He was in Prague and got tourists to Madrid and Sevilla and Cork to Aberdeen, which is enough for the win but he will probably need to ride someone to Aberdeen
67. Dave delivered Oranges to Berlin for 42
68. Rich delivered Steel in Prague for 12. Drew Fog in Frankfurt which impacted Roger
69. Dave flushed and got 3 clean cards
70. Dave paid Rich to ride from Berlin to Lodz
71. Rich paid Eyal to ride to Budapest and deliver Fish to Budapest for 42.
72. Dave bought a Super Freight
73. Eyal delivered Bauxite to Birmingham for 31. He then went to Glasgow and delivered Machinery for 26
74. Debbie delivered Oranges to Wien for 42
75. Roger delivered Tourist to Madrid for 35
76. Debbie rode Dave from Wien to her track near Venezia
77. Dave rode Eyal to Wien through Munch to his track near Stuttgart as a shortcut
78. Roger delivered Tourist to Sevilla for 48. He pulled snow in Torino
79. Debbie delivered Fish to Venezia for 42
80. Dave delivered Ham to Stuttgart for 21
81. Debbie flushed and got 3 clean cards
82. Dave delivered Ham to Marseilles for 37
83. Rich delivered Oil to Bremen for 24 then delivered Coal to Hamburg for 12. He then paid Eyal to ride from Hamburg to Berlin
84. Deb Flushed and got 3 clean cards
85. Eyal delivered Imports to Zagreb for 23 then delivered Cheese for 19
86. Debbie flushed and got 3 clean cards
87. Rich delivered Ham to Brussels for 24
88. Debbie flushed and got 3 clean cards
89. Dave delivered Wheat to Berlin for 21
90. Eyal delivered Sheep to Beograd for 51
91. Rich delivered Potatoes to Paris for 20
92. Dave rode Rich from Berlin to Lodz and delivered Bauxite to Lodz for 12
93. Roger rode Debbie heading to Aberdeen
94. Eyal delivered Wine to Prague for 12. He drew derailments for Aberdeen, Haburg, Sarajevo, Porto, Stuttgart, and Paris and nobody was impacted
95. Roger rode Debbie again and delivered Cork to Aberdeen for 63
96. Debbie Delivered Sheep to Ruhr for 22

Roger won with 257, Rich was second with 232, Debbie was third with 189, Eyal was fourth with 149, and Dave was fifth with 86

Everyone had 7 of the 8 major cities connected

There were 4 cards left in the deck at the end of the game and there were no disasters in those 4 cards