Amidon Triumphs in Imperial Struggle!

Again, we had 17 people in the Imperial Struggle tournament this year, with new and repeat players. This year we used a mulligan round at the start of the day and picked up more players in the first Round. Bidding was still around 1 or 2 TRPs for the French. After three Rounds we were down to four players

The Semifinal pitted Chris Byrd (2nd place in 2024) against David Stengle. This time David Stengle advanced to the Final. The other Semifinal involved David Amidon and Conrad Eisen. Conrad was new to the tournament and fought hard but lost in the end, setting up the Final as a conflict of the David’s. Stengle was able to keep it close to the Revolution Era, but Amidon finally pushed the Automatic Victory for the Championship.

About 2/3 of the games ended in an AV in the Empire Era and a couple of close games went to final scoring. This represents the tension that develops between long term position and the short term danger/opportunity of an Automatic Victory, and not necessarily and overwhelming victory.