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Enlightenment XII Still Going Strong

Enlightenment XII survived the economic downturn with 30 diehard players in attendance. 28 of them playied in at least one round of Age of Renaissance. It was the second straight year that Enlightenment had outdrawn WBC as the heart of the Renaissance in both total players and games played. In all, there were a total of 17 games played with seven 6-player games and ten 5-player contests.

Friday evening saw 27 players kick off Round 1 of the weekend with three 5-player games and two 6-player pairings. Ewan McNay and Rodd Polsky won the 6-player games while Ken Gutermuth, Bill Crenshaw, and Jeff Mullet held sway in the 5-player contests.

Ewan, bidding six to narrowly top Chris Byrd in order to select Barcelona, won over Chris, Steve Simmons, Kevin Sudy, Pete Staab and Pierre LeBeouf. Ewan tied Kevin in Advances and was in the middle of the misery pack. Kevin couldn't overcome his misery burden and Chris was too far behind in Advances. 

In the closest game of the opening round, Rodd held onto a 14 point edge over Arthur Field to be the only winner not ranked in the top five AREA players to win in the first round. Rodd led in Advances to overcome a higher misery burden and finished ahead of Arthur, Greg Stripes, Terry Coleman, Carl Damcke, and Mark Smith. The top four players were separated by only 58 points.

In our lowest scoring game of the entire tournament, three-time champion Bill Crenshaw edged David Hood by 27 points - using higher Advances to offset a misery and cash deficit. Rounding out the table were AJ Sudy, Eric Wroebel, and Eric Eshleman.

Jeff Mullet and Derek Landel both managed to obtain all the Advances in game 4. Jeff and Derek were tied in Advances and misery but late commodity runs gave Jeff an advantage of more than $400 to win. Ted Simmons also overtook Derek to finish second with a strong commodity run of his own. They were followed by Kathy Stroh and Stefan Mecay whose Twilight Stuggles dominance did not translate so easily to the Renaissance wars.

With what ended up as the highest score of the weekend, Ken managed to end three consecutive turns at the end of Era 2 with 6 silk, 4 silk, and 6 spice to build a commanding lead and finish with a score of 2996. Newcomer John Stevens finished in second, followed by Tedd Mullally, Tom Browne, and Eric Kliest.

Round 2 held steady with 27 participants as Charlie Hickock joined the ranks to replace the departing Eric Wrobel  There were once again two 6-player and three 5- player games. At the winner's table, Rodd Polsky defied the odds, defeating the top four ranked AREA players to become the early target as the first double winner.  On the next to last turn, Rodd made a grain run, capturing 5 grain which then went into a double shortage. With the play of both grain cards, Rodd was able to build a lead and defeat Ken Gutermuth, Bill Crenshaw, Ewan McNay, and Jeff Mullet. Joining Rodd as Round 2 winners were Eric Eshleman and Tom Browne at the 6-player tables, and Ted Simmons and Derek Landel at the 5-player games.

Ted Simmons led the Parisians to a win over David Hood, 2003 champ Chris Byrd, past Caesar Arthur Field, and newcomer John Stevens in a close game with only 6% separating 1st and 4th place,

Darek Landel once again bought all the Advances but this time was able to turn those purchases into a Barcelona win overcoming Greg Stripes, Steve Simmons, Tedd Mullally, and AJ Sudy.

Cash and low misery propelled Eric Eshleman into the winner's circle as his Genoa hordes defeated Pete Staab, Stefan Mecay, Mark Smith, Pierre LeBeouf, and Eric Kliest.

Tom Browne also entered the winner's circle in the last game of Round 2 as he led in Advances and misery to win as Barcelona. Charlie Hickock, Kevin Sudy, Kathy Stroh, Terry Coleman, and Carl Damcke provided the opposition.

With three rounds of Manifest Destiny and two of AoR completed by the 6:30 Saturday evening start, exhaustion started to take its toll as the third round fell to 23 participants in three 6- player and one 5-player game. Tom Browne took an 18-point win over the leader Rodd Polsky to allow the contenders to breathe easier that the tournament wasn't yet a fait accomplis. Ken Gutermuth and Jeff Mullet joined Tom and Rodd with their second wins in the mulltiple victory club while Arthur Field took the 4th win of the evening to set up a very tight race on Sunday morning.

At the winner's table, Tom Browne, Rodd Polsky and Eric Eshleman all managed to secure all the Advances and Eric was just 10 misery points ahead of both Rodd and Tom. With a potential third win in Rodd's sights, everyone anxiously awaited the cash counts as Rodd and Tom saw a significant amount of money come their way in the final card play. Fortunately for the meaningfulness of the Sunday round, Tom's $548 in cash overtook Rodd by $18. Eric was third followed by Ted Simmons and Derek Landel. Rodd's high second place finish put him in the clubhouse with the lead and a score of 313. Impressive but not yet a lock.

Jeff Mullet, joined Derek Landel as the only players to buy all the Advances twice, outdistanced his table with strong payouts in the final card play. He was followed by Pierre LeBeouf, Carl Damcke, Terry Coleman, Eric Kliest, and John Stevens.

Holding onto payout cards for the countries expanding before and after him, Ken negotiated non aggression pacts to pay out money on the next to last turn. Ken was then able to make the Ivory run and end with 4 silk. As his luck held, he drew the silk card to go along with the Ivory payout he already had to build a lead that could not be caught. Greg Stripes finished second followed by Chris Byrd, Steve Simmons, Pete Staab, and David Hood.

In the final game of Round 3, Arthur Field led in Advances to add a win to his pair of close finishes and remain in contention for Sunday. He defeated Tedd Mullally, Mark Smith, Kathy Stroh, Bill Crenshaw, and Ewan McNay.

After three rounds, for the first time in Enlightenment history, the five contenders would be at the same table. Rodd's strong second place finish in his third game saw him playing at the winner's table again to round out the 5-player board. With Jeff Mullet, Tom Browne, and Ken Gutermuth each having two wins and Arthur Field with a win and a close second, the championship would be decided at the winner's table on Sunday morning.

As we got ready to start the final round, the only round where you had to choose between Manifest Destiny and AoR, Tom Browne had to decide which championship he would pursue. Tom had two wins in each of the tournaments so far. Tom elected to play AoR leaving 15 people in the AoR final round with the tournament championship riding solely on the leader table. In the other two games, Carl Damcke and Mark Smith managed to salvage a win on Sunday morning.

Carl lead in advances and cash to edge Eric Eshleman for his first win of the weekend. Eric's strong second place finish put him in contention to finish with a plaque for the weekend. Eric was followed by Chris Byrd, Greg Stripes, and Pierre LeBeouf.

With no NCAA basketball distractions on early Sunday, Mark Smith was able to keep his mind on the game and managed his first win of the weekend by leading in Advances and misery. Mark defeated Terry Coleman, the Simmons duo, and John Stevens.

As we started the final table, based on the current scores, Tom, Jeff, and Arthur needed a win to take the title while Rodd could still capture the crown with a win or an Arthur win in a very close game. Due to his two large wins, Ken could capture his second title in three years with a close second as long as Rodd wasn't the winner.

The game was very well played and as we entered the halfway point of Epoch III, it was a very close contest. Ken made a speculative run on Grain that paid off as he drew the grain card on the turn that saw all the leaders come out. Ken was able to use the leaders and also purchase Cathedral to take a lead that he would never relinquish. Jeff Mullet finished second followed by Arthur, Rodd, and Tom. With his three wins, Ken posted a score of 329 to win Enlightenment for the second time. Rodd Polsky held on to 2nd with 313, followed by Jeff Mullet in 3rd with 302, Arthur Field in 4th with 299, Eric Eshleman in 5th with 298, and Tom Browne in 6th with 291.

Genoa led the way with six wins followed by Barcelona and Paris with five each. Venice, had only one win while London and Hamburg went winless despite six second place finishes by London. We had 12 different winners with champion Ken Gutermuth leading the way with three wins with three different countries (Barcelona, Genoa, and Venice). Rodd Polsky (2nd), Jeff Mullet (3rd), and Tom Browne (6th) had two each. Other winners were Arthur Field (4th), Eric Eshleman (5th), Carl Damcke, Mark Smith, Ewan McNay, Derek Landel, Bill Crenshaw, and Ted Simmons.

With more six-player games than normal, Capital bidding increased slightly with 38 of the 92 bids going for zero. There were three 6 bids, two 5 bids and four 4 bids with Barcelona receiving the only 6 bids and Barcelona and Genoa each getting a five bid. Barcelona led the way with a 3.0 average bid, followed by Venice 1.6, Genoa 1.5, Paris 1.2, London .6, and Hamburg .3.

Eight Players managed to buy all the advances with three of them being in losses (Derek, Rod, and Eric). Players buying out included Ken Gutermuth, Rodd Polsky, Jeff Mullet (twice), Derek Landel (twice), Eric Eshleman, and Tom Browne.

For the first time in recent history, no one managed to reach the CHAOS space on the misery track.

1st: Ken Gutermuth, NC	2nd: Rodd Polsky, PA	3rd: Jeff Mullet, OH
4th: Arthur Field, SC	5th: Eric Eshleman, PA	6th: Tom Browne, PA

The Final Standings were as follows:

1998, 2001, 2005 Bill Crenshaw, VA	1999 James Pei, TX	2000 Tom Taaffe, VA	2002 John Coussis, IL	2003 Chris Byrd, CT
2004, 2006 Jeff Mullet, OH	2007, 2009 Ken Gutermuth, TX	2008 Steve Simmons, NJ

Game designer/GM Bill Crenshaw reclaimed the Manifest Destiny Enlightenment crown with back to back, last to first, come from behind finishes in the final two rounds to be the only three-game winner (scoring an impressive 35, 36 and 36 VPs in those wins).  In the third round Bill cashed all three Oil cards for $300 on the final turn to come from way back to first. 

In the finals, Bill, playing Pennsylvania, cleverly lost eight consecutive expansion attacks over two turns before the last expansion to seemingly take himself out of contention.  He came back strong and was able to cash $225 with two Ore payouts, plus $70 in Technology and $40 in Tourists to buy 14 Progression VPs in the final Investment Phase and finish with 36 VPs and cash to spare. 

Two-game winner Pete Staab (Quebec) took second and was $5 short of winning the final game (and the tournament) on the next to last turn.  Since he was short, Pete sacrificed himself to grab Storytelling to prevent Stefan Mecay (Mexico) from winning the game, but Stefan returned the favor in the final turn using Yankee Ingenuity to snag Urban Renaissance out from under Pete (who had four steps and was investing earlier), dropping Pete to last.  Stefan finished second in the final game and 4th overall, after nearly winning the prior turn.  AJ Sudy (7th overall) played a very solid game as Virginia and finished 3rd in the final round.  Ewan McNay (Louisiana) also had a shot at winning on the final turn and finished 4th in the game (with a record setting $305 in cash left over) and 5th overall.  Tom Browne (3rd overall and the only other two game winner beside Pete) and Arthur Field (6th overall), sat out the final round to play AoR.  Congratulations to all!

25 players participated and winners were surprising evenly distributed among the starting positions with Pennsylvania and Virginia each having four wins, Mexico and Quebec three and Louisiana two.  Hope you can join us next year!

1st: Bill Crenshaw, VA	2nd: Peter Staab, PA	3rd: Tom Browne, PA
4th: Stefan Mecay, TX	5th: Ewan McNay, NY	6th: Arthur Field, SC