Gathmann Emerges As Top Railroad Tycoon!

The 2025 WBC gathering for the Union Pacific tournament saw fewer attendees this year as compared to 2023 and 2024. Based on feedback from prior year players, this year appeared to have seen more conflicts with other games enjoyed by our player base. Specifically, several players indicated a recurring overlap with Acquire, preventing them from participating in both tournaments.

The first Heat kicked off with 28 people showing up to play. This was perfect for 7 tables of 4 players each. While in the past we had difficulty meeting this increased player base, this year we had plenty of games available, supporting these players and being able to support more players. With this game being out of print, it is important that players bring a copy of the game, ensuring that all who want to play can do so. The player base did an excellent job of doing this, ensuring that all players that want to play were able to do so.

The second Heat had 16 players; 6 of these were new participants. This resulted in 4 separate tables of 4 players.

The third and final Heat had 10 participants, giving us a final head count of 36 unique players for the event. This resulted in 3 tables of play, 1 board with 4 players and two with 3 players. This is the lowest head count which we have seen in a Heat in several years. Apparently significant conflicts existed with other games.

With only 12 unique winners, the plan was to host 4 tables of 3, advancing the winner from each table to a Fnal table of 4 players. Unfortunately, 2 of these qualifiers had conflicts with other Semifinals, resulting in 2 players advancing who had not had a win. At the conclusion of these games, Pete Gathmann, Jon Stern, Jefferson Meyer, and Richard Meyer advanced to the Fnal.

The Final had a father/son showdown to determine who is the better player in their household. The game started with quite an oddity, the original 4 cards were green, with one black. The first player chose the black, resulting in the green stocks flushing. Amazingly, the green stocks accumulated once again in the draw pile until they flushed once again, triggering the first scoring round of the game.

The game continued with many “strange” actions, resulting in the second payday coming with only a single player, Richard Meyer, having invested UP; this resulted in a 10M payday while the other 3 players got nothing. The third payday was triggered with yet another stock flush, this time with the red stock.

Following this payday, three player Richard Meyer (65), Jeff Meyer (62), and Pete Gathman (63) were running neck & neck with a gap of 2 points. Jon Stern (51) is currently lagging the pack due to waiting to invest in round 2, missing the payday, but in this round, he significantly closed the gap. The final payday delayed almost as long as it could, coming up as the 2nd to last possible card. This resulted in a very close finish, but Pete Gathman (106) was victorious, followed by Richard Meyer (103), Jefferson Meyer (101), and Jon Stern (99). This was an amazing comeback by Jon, especially considering he learned the game with this tournament.

Many thanks to all who attended, showing up with positive attitudes and a desire to enjoy themselves. Hopefully, next year more players can find their way to our tables, allowing them to be exposed to this enjoyable game.