Wolff Captures San Juan Title!

San Juan was able to hold strong and increase to 69 players! This includes 1 person who joined after the first game, which goes to show that you may join or leave at any point except for the middle of a game. All but 23 players played 3-4 games, and 26 players played the entire 4 games! I appreciate our growing fanbase of players and enjoy seeing new faces each year! And if you do not know the game, feel free to come out to the demo, where I give an overview of the game, and then simulate most of (if not an entire) a full game between 2 players. I mean, who doesn’t like easy-to-learn card games where you battle it out to build the most victorious buildings, and thrown in a bit (or more) of luck!!! If you like games with themes and mechanics similar to Puerto Rico and Race for the Galaxy, you will certainly love this! If not, spend 20 minutes with me and you are sure to pick it up and enjoy playing along.

There were four continuous rounds of 2-player games and every player who won at least 3 times advanced to the elimination bracket. The second edition of the game appeared in many more games this year, gaining some popularity amongst players. There are new buildings and some text changes to existing cards. Players have the option of playing either edition, which aids in exposing more players to it.

After the initial 4 rounds, there were 18 players who beat out 3 opponents to advance, one more than last year! Of those 18 players, 8 players had a 3-0 record and the remaining 10 had a 3-1 record. Of those with a 3-1 record, 5 lost in the first game, and 2 lost in the second game. And, of those with a 3-1 record that lost in their first game, 2 went on to the top 8 (and have their own knockout game detailed later on) and 1 went on to win 3rd place!!! This goes to show to not let an early loss define you. Our top 3 from last year (Keith Dent, Owen Kyrollos, and Jordan Vo’ Shea) made repeat appearances in our fighting knockout bracket. Another important note: make sure to turn in your index cards and results! We continue to have incidents where one of those cards went missing or were not filled out with event results.

In order to accommodate this extended bracket, there were 3 additional feeder games in the first round, which fed into the next round of 8 games (top 16). From there, the numbers work out nicely for 4 rounds, until only 1 is victorious! Of the 17 games played in this bracket, outside of the Final, the average High score was 36.5 points and the average Low score was 30 points. Interestingly, these were exactly 3 points lower than the previous year. Of the winning scores, 5 were above 40, and 2 were even below 30 points. Of all of the 17 games, there were no tie-breaker games that needed to be resolved this year!

Unlike last year, when half of the battles were decided by less than 5 points, all but 5 games ended within 5 points! Even further, of those 12 close games, 6 had a final score within 2 points! Always keep playing until the end, as you never know what will happen! I continued to keep track of which 6-point building people built. Of all games, City Hall was by far the most popular (being built 21 times), then Guild Hall/Palace were next (11 and 13 respectively), and Triumphal Arch continues to be the least popular, being built only 5 times. Of winning scores, City Hall/Palace were the most popular, and City Hall being the most popular amongst losing scores. Interestingly, the win/lose ratio of each 6-point buildings (for each building, the ratio between those that won or lost) were basically 50% for all but Palace. For that extra special 6-pointer (that gives you 1 extra point at the end for every 4 points you scored before that), they had a 85%-win rate (11 part of winning scores and 2 part of losing scores). And 9 out of 17 games had both opponents building at least 1 of the same 6-point buildings, and 1 Semifinal game that both built City Hall and Triumphal Arch.

Some more things of note from the elimination bracket: 1/2 of the 3-0 winners (from the qualifying round) advanced past the first round. Sam Wolff ended up playing 2 more games than any other person. He played in the fourth game in the qualifying round and was in 1 of the 3 feeder games in the bracket. He fought his way through the entire field, with his 4 elimination games being those decided by less than 5 points, his score gap growing as he went (from 1 point to 2 to 4 to 5). This all culminated in his Final game debut!

I as GM did have a first within the elimination bracket, an error that we will be working to counter in the future. In one game, a player had built a Palace. However, their opponent noticed (in the next round), that the player had actually been short 1 card. Unfortunately, another build phase had already occurred, so the move could not be totally reversed. Ultimately, the GM decided to have that player pitch 2 cards (1 card short plus 1 penalty- which was their entire hand). What will probably happen in the future will be that if the error is caught within the round, it will be reversed. However, if it is noticed after the current round, it will have to stand. But stay tuned to what is decided!

Of our top 4 this year, only 1, Keith Dent, was in our top 6 last year. This year, we continued with the tradition of letting 3rd and 4th battle for 3rd , even though we had a hiccup with forgetting this rule and then having to track them down (thankfully it was within 15 minutes of starting the Final game). Thank you, Lisa Gutermuth and Keith Dent, for your patience and flexibility in this! Their opponents, Rob Kircher and Sam Wolff, both won their games by 5 points utilizing the Palace. Rob also had a Guild Hall while Sam utilized the City Hall and Triumphal Arch. Sam and Lisa’s game was the one where they shared both the City Hall and Triumphal Arch! In their 3rd versus 4th game, Keith ended up being victorious over Lisa. Lisa had all 3 monuments, Chapel (with a couple of cards) and Palace and 35 points, while Keith had City Hall, Triumphal Arch, Chapel (with more cards) and 44 points.

Now onto the Final game between Rob Kircher and Sam Wolff: *Indicated Person used Library ability to double their advantage/ability

Round 1

• Rob (R) Built Prefecture, and Sam (S) also Built Prefecture
• S Prospected
• R Councilled

Round 2

• S Built Gold Mine, and R declined to build R Prospected (N/A for Gold Mine) S Councilled li>

Round 3

• R Prospected (N/A for Gold Mine) S Built Poor House, and R Built Library (!!!) R Councilled*

Round 4

• S Built Quarry (and drew 1 for Poor House), and R declined to build R Prospected* (N/A for Gold Mine) S Councilled

Round 5

• R Built* Carpenter and S Built Chapel (and drew 1 for Poor House) S Prospected (N/A for Gold Mine) R Councilled

Round 6

• 1 card under Chapel (S) S Prospected (N/A for Gold Mine) R Built* City Hall (drew 1 for Carpenter) and S Built Archive S Councilled

Round 7

• 1 card under Chapel (S) R Built* Victory Column (drew 1 for Carpenter), and S declined to build S Prospected (N/A for Gold Mine) R Councilled

Round 8

• 1 card under Chapel (S) S Built Palace (drew 1 for Poor House) and R declined to build R Prospected* (N/A for Gold Mine) S Councilled

Round 9

• 1 card under Chapel (S) R Built* Triumphal Arch (drew 1 for Carpenter) and S Built Smithy S Prospected (N/A for Gold Mine) R Councilled

Round 10

• 1 card under Chapel (S) S Built Hero (drew 1 for Poor House) and R Built Chapel (drew 1 for Carpenter) R Prospected* (S gets Indigo Plant for Gold Mine) S Councilled

Round 11

• 1 card under Chapel (R), 0 under Chapel (S) Sam questions if this is a big mistake? R Built* Quarry (drew 1 for Carpenter) and S Built Statute (drew 1 for Poor House) S Prospected (S gets Victory Column for Gold Mine) R Councilled

Round 12

• 1 card under Chapel (S), 1 under Chapel (R) S Built Triumphal Arch (drew 1 for Poor House) and R Built Gold mine (drew 1 for Carpenter)

The below tables show the Final scoring as well as the Roles/Library Abilities Used:

Very interesting round and role choices, no Producing to Trading at all! And in each round, Councilor was the 3rd role chosen! Of the 10 Gold Mine attempts, only 2 were successful, at the end of the game. And both opponents used Building Power (Carpenter versus Poor House) to gain cards from building, helping to pay for future purchases! Using Chapel all but 1 available round, and the Palace helped Sam to counteract Rob’s double 6-point buildings!

Thank you everyone for your support, I enjoyed playing with you, and I look forward to seeing you in the coming year!