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Attendance at the 11th Virgin Queen tournament was 34 players—we would have matched last year’s total if scheduled GM Michael Kiefte had not been a last-minute cancellation (just like some of the marriage results this year!). Game designer Ed Beach stepped in as the replacement GM. The Tournament Scenario setup and force pool sheets provided by Justin Rice were a great addition to speed up the event.
There were nine games in total in the Heats. All games had the full complement of players except for one five-player game in the first Heat and our first use of the 2-player Tutorial Scenario as one of the four games in the second Heat. Michael Dauer was the only winner in both Heats, including an England win where he reached 31 VP. The remaining winners in the first Heat were Kip Brailey (Spain), Nick O’Toole (Spain Military), Eugene Hourany (England), and Paul Toro (Protestant Military). New winners in Heat 2 included Amelia Dauer (Ottomans), Geoff Albert (France), and Paul Grosser (Spain in Tutorial).
Two games were played in the Semifinal as we were just shy of 36 entrants. Our eight winners from the first two Heats were joined by four other qualifiers (in order by seed): Mike O’Toole, Yannick Poirier, Aaron Lipka and Eric Stranger. The first Semifinal game to conclude was a two-turn VP win by the Ottoman player, Eugene Hourany. The other Semifinal took considerably longer, lasting four turns and ending with less than an hour to spare before the Final’s time slot. Yannick Poirier led the high-scoring affair with his HRE earning maximum religious VP to reach a total of 28.
Yannick’s VP total was more than sufficient to secure the first power selection in the Final and he chose Ottoman. Following Yannick in selection order were Eugene Hourany (England), Eric Stranger (Spain), Paul Toro (Protestant), Mike O’Toole (HRE), and Amelia Dauer (France). Both Eric and Amelia were playing their powers for the first time, having specialized in other powers in previous tournament games. A few moves in the first turn of the Final set the tone for what was to come later. First, Yannick had his Ottomans ally with Mike’s Holy Roman Empire, directing all the Ottoman efforts against Spain. Second, Eugene patronized John Dee, and when he was awarded a VP and a science bonus, Eugene chose Map Projection instead of the more common play of Cryptography. VP at the end of the first turn were: Ottoman 18 (having taken Malta), Spain 12, England 16 (3 VP from Drake’s piracy), France 15, HRE 14, and the Protestant 16 (the marriage of Navarre to Anna of Austria netted 2VP for both those powers).
The second turn saw England jump out to the presumptive lead, with Frobisher following Drake around Cape Horn and heading west to circumnavigate. With additional VP from their piracy and the Dutch Revolt, once those two sea captains finished their circumnavigations, England was a threat to win the game here on this second turn. Reading the situation well, Yannick decided he had to take advantage of a weakened Spain (who had lost a card earlier in the turn to Ottoman piracy). Yannick went for a three-card play to attack Naples: Gregorian Calendar was played for a double-move and his second card play was Untimely Death against Santa Cruz. If his siege of Naples succeeded, he would be one key from a military victory. On the second attempt it did fall, and the Ottomans sailed across the Tyrrhenian Sea to put Genoa under siege. On Yannick’s final card of the turn, Genoa fell as well, and Yannick – who had playtested Virgin Queen almost 15 years earlier, but never before attended WBC, was our new Virgin Queen champion.
The results for the other players were Eugene Hourany (England, 24 VP), Mike O’Toole (HRE 18), Amelia Dauer (France 16), Paul Toro (Protestant 14) and Eric Stranger (Spain 12).
Play Balance
We continue to monitor play balance in the tournament scenario. In the twelve years that Virgin Queen has appeared at WBC (once in a combined event with Here I Stand), we have now played 151 games. Victories by the four powers that appear in every game are as follows:
- Spain: 30 (12 by VP, 9 by Gunpowder Plot, 6 by military victory, 3 by religious)
- England: 34 (including 1 by military victory)
- France: 20 (all by VP)
- Protestant: 34 (including 12 religious and 13 military victories)
At least 17 of the games were only 4 or 5-player games, but even after not appearing as player-powers in all games the other two sides have scored a competitive number of victories:
- Ottoman: 19 (including 5 by military victory)
- HRE: 14 (1 by military victory, including 3 wins in tournament Finals and numerous Semifinal wins)
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Beach, Ed [5th Year]