Shay Wins Title As Feather Repeats 2nd Place Finish!

2025 was the best attended Santa Fe Rails tournament in the history of WBC with 51 unique players. Heartfelt thanks to everyone who came to a demo or teaching game this year and decided to take the plunge and give this wonderful game a try. In the future we’ll do our best to keep the learning options open to ensure more people get a chance to play.

Some of the interesting facts from the Heats:

• Only 2 double winners this year with Ryan Feathers scoring 2 dominating wins with 50- and 35-point margins and Ewan McNay with the biggest margin of victory at 51 points and a closer win
• Tom Bissa annihilated last year’s 270-point record with a whopping score of 305 (!) in a 3-player game including a ridiculous 84 points from 4-point cities
• It was a year of very close Heat games as 9 of the 21 games were decided by 3 points or less
There were only 3 crazy short games of the 21 this year, with the quickest being Grant LaDue’s 41-36-27-26 win in the first Heat
• Even counting that 41-point game, only 2 winners managed the feat without scoring at least 30 points in coins which might be an interesting strategy tip for the future

With the increased player counts and reduced double winners we had 19 (!) unique winners in the Heats. Fortunately for scheduling 3 of them had conflicts so we could take all 16 winners in the room without needing to turn anyone away. While we’re not at the stage of running a QF, if we keep growing 5-10 players every year we may eventually get there.

Semifinal #1 saw a bunch of seasoned gamers with past GM and Champion Rob Kircher, Puerto Rico GM Richard Shay, Perennial contender Ewan McNay, and Renowned laurel hunter Randy Buehler. This was the only game in the tournament where the winner scored the most points from 4-point cities as Rich outlasted the others for his first Santa Fe Final berth.

1. Rich Shay: 137 in cities + 48 coins for 185 points
2. Rob Kircher: 138 in cities + 35 in coins for 173 points
3. Randy Buehler: 114 in cities + 55 in coins for 169 points
4. Ewan McNay: 115 in cities + 43 in coins for 158 points

Semifinal #2 had 2 former champions in Grant LaDue and Tom DeMarco as well as new player Jonathan Towne. However, they were all outplayed by Mark Jensen who managed to take 77 points in the 7s to steal the closest of the Semifinal table

1. Mark Jensen: 168 in cities + 46 in coins for 214 points
2. Tom DeMarco: 168 in cities + 35 in coins for 203 points
3. Grant LaDue: 161 in cities + 40 in coins for 201 points
4. Jonathan Towne: 172 in cities + 29 in coins for 201 points

Semifinal #3 was a couple of new players to the tournament this year in Byung Chun and Patrick McLafferty up against a couple of longstanding veterans of the tournament with Walter Neumann and Steve Shambeda. Byung used his beginner’s charm to coast to the biggest win of the Semifinal with 129 points combined in 6s and 7s

1. Byung Chun: 159 points in cities + 53 in coins for 212 points
2. Patrick McLafferty: 160 in cities + 23 in coins for 183 points
3. Steve Shambeda: 127 in cities + 26 in coins for 153 points
4. Walter Neumann: 101 in cities + 46 in coins for 147 points

Semifinal 4 was a very loaded table with 3 former champions in Andrew Drummond, Michael Shea, and Ricky Boyes, and then also Ryan Feathers who was going for the 3-peat in 2nd place tournament finishes in Santa Fe. Ryan crushed the table to get his chance to add another 2nd place Santa Fe finish to his resume

1. Ryan Feathers: 110 in cities + 37 in coins for 147 points
2. Ricky Boyes: 83 in cities + 45 in coins for 128 points
3. Andrew Drummond: 95 in cities + 24 in coins for 119 points
4. Michael Shea: 79 in cities + 36 in coins for 115 points.

For the second year running, the Final ended up being comprised of 4 players who had never won the event before (despite Ryan having finished in second place the past two years). Each of them was hungry though now that Century status was achieved after 2024, there were 3 plaques in play for the winners (as well as Maple themed prizes for all).

The Final started off with some excitement as yellow was dead ended in Oklahoma City on the first round, but Ryan branched it in turn 2, having dropped El Paso as his first card. Mark played Albuquerque and used a 2X on turn 2 to score a few early coins (but not a square). Byung got down Spokane and Duluth with Blue starting on the northern path and Rich opened with a Dallas and a Boise looking the weakest of the early plays.

After 4 rounds the play was a little clearer, with more cutthroat train play. Yellow never finished the path to El Paso Ryan set up and instead ran out of trains in Tucson, having also gotten down through Dallas to San Antonio. Green was in Duluth but also branched down through Sioux Falls towards Denver. Red was on its way out West having gone through the El Paso that yellow missed, and white was looking tough to find a way out of the Midwest.

Rich had 2X twice to have a healthy 23 coins, but still weak in cities. Ryan added a Dallas to his pile to share goals with Rich. Mark dropped a Bismark and Amarillo while spending a couple coins on branches and Byung added a Canada to solidify his (appropriate) Northern ambitions.

After turn 6, some trains were a little more set with Red getting through Los Angeles to San Francisco, but Blue had barely started to Billings and Green was still stuck outside Denver. White was dead ended in Oklahoma City, though available to be branched in the south towards El Paso.

Cards and coins after 6 turns were the following:

• Ryan had Mexico (6), El Paso (5), Salt Lake City (0), Dallas (4), Denver (8) and 21 coins for 44 visible points
Rich had Boise (0), Phoenix (12), Denver (8), Dallas (4) and 16 coins for 40 visible points
• Mark had Los Angeles (7), Bismark (0), Albuquerque (5), San Antonio (4), Amarillo (8) and 15 coins for 39 visible points
• Byung had Spokane (0), Duluth (6), Canada (0), Minneapolis (6) and 16 coins for 28 visible points

Turns 7-8 saw Black emerge and start driving towards El Paso alongside a white branch in the same direction. Red finished just outside Sacremento, Green nearly emptied its trains taking a long way out West through Salt Lake-Casper-Boise, but Blue still had a ton of remaining trains.

Mark had added the other Duluth and branched Blue in there, Byung only added Durango being hard up for good scoring cities to play, Rich added Mexico and Salt Lake City and Ryan matched more of Rich’s cities with a Phoenix as well as adding a San Francisco.

Turns 9-10 saw the short lines all come out with Brown getting down to San Diego, Purple getting out to Salt Lake and Casper, and Black deciding on Dallas rather than San Antonio. Blue got out to Spokane but turned back for Bismark from there. White still had a lot of trains left but with a single red and a single black blocking the San Antonio-El Paso route it was stuck and Blue had 2 branches but enough to make it to Canada through Bismark if not sent elsewhere.

Cards and coins at this point were:

• Rich had Sacremento (14), San Francisco (14), Boise (6), Phoenix (12), Mexico (6), Salt Lake City (10), Denver (16), Dallas (8) and 25 coins for 111 visible points
• Ryan had San Francisco (14), Mexico (6), Phoenix (12), El Paso (5), Salt Lake City (10), Dallas (8), Denver (16), Amarillo (8) and 26 coins for 105 visible points,/li>
• Mark had Los Angeles*2 (14), Duluth (12), Butte (6), Bismark (0), Albuquerque (5), San Antonio (8), Amarillo (8) and 18 coins for 85 visible points
• Byung had Canada (0), Spokane (6), Duluth (12), Durango (6), Minneapolis (6) and 30 coins for 60 visible points

After this point, players got their final cities down, and Ryan’s San Antonio didn’t get him enough points to catch Rich once he added a 15-point Casper. Mark and Byung were too far behind to catch up, though connecting Bismark and playing cities helped.

Final scores:

1. Rich: 107 in cities + 29 in coins for 136 points
2. Ryan: (3 years in a row!): 97 in cities + 25 in coins for 122 points
3. Mark: 83 in cities + 22 in coins for 105 points
4. Byung: 59 in cities + 40 in coins for 99 points

Congratulations to Rich on joining the collective of Santa Fe Rails champions and maybe if he tries just a little harder Ryan can break through next year to join him.