This is standard History Of The World with the printed rules for assigning each Epoch's Empires. It is scheduled for three rounds; round 1 (Thursday night) is open to everyone (there were 72 last year), with the top 36 players advancing to round 2 on Saturday night, and the six winners on Saturday play in Sunday morning's final. All boards will have five or six players.

Advancing into round 2 will be based first on what place you finished, and secondly, on how close you were to the player who finished in front of you. For example, if there are ten boards in round 1, the top three players from each board advance, as well as six of the fourth-place finishers. Note that this assumes all 36 qualifiers show up for round 2; absences will be filled by "continuing down the list" of alternates until all six boards are filled. So, if you want to advance, check with the GM at the start of the second round to see if there are any openings.

The field was down 33% year, mainly due to 50 of the 95 preregistered players not posting. This may be due in part to an
earlier start, potentially preventing players from finishing events which had stated earlier in the day. HWD has now returned to its more popular 6 PM start.

There were 13 boards in the first round, with almost all of the top three finishers from each board advancing to the field of 36. Lauren Hickok led the way with a score of 231 VP in the first round. Ten of the 13 first round boards saw the winners compile over 200 VP. Todd Ornett was the last player to sneak into the semifinals with a score of 164 VP.

The semifinals saw a wide range of winning scores, with Greg Crowe leading the pack with 225 VP and Phillip Rodrigues winning the lowest scoring game with a score of 178 VP. In this game, the 5th place finisher came in only eight VP behind Phillip, thus indicating the incredible closeness of this game.

The finals were another low scoring, tight battle. Greg Crowe scored 48 VP with Russia (after having the Ottoman Turks in Epoch VI) to post a score of 188 VP, which was enough to win the game. Phil Rodrigues's Netherlands scored 50 VP following up on Epoch VI's gains with the Spanish to challenge for the win, but ended up just short with 185 VP. Craig Dudley also made a run with the Manchu Dynasty and Japan in Epoch VII, combined with the leftovers from the Mughals in Epoch VI, to score 58 VP and end with a final score of 184 VP. Roderick Lee's Britain could not overcome having the Incas & Aztecs in Epoch VI and finished 4th with 177 VP. Joe Collinson finished 5th with France and 171 VP, while John Sonderman suffered the "curse of the Romans, never drawing another empire worth over ten SP and finishing last with 164 VP.

Champion Greg Crowe's winning lineup hardly resembled a murderers row of empires: Indus Valley, Carthaginia, Hsiung-nu, Arabs, Franks, Ottoman Turks and Russia. However, the Arabs - Franks combination and the Ottoman Turks - Russia tandem both scored well for Greg. Second place Phil Rodrigues made the most efficient use of his resources, having the least amount of strength of the six players and yet finishing just three VP off the lead.