princes of florence   

Updated Nov. 23, 2013

2013 WBC Report  

 2014 Status: pending 2014 GM commitment

David Platnick, VA

2013 Champion

Event History
2001    Arthur Field     65
2002    Arthur Field     94
2003    Eric Brosius     88
2004    Eugene Lin     77
2005    Ian MacInnes     82
2006     Eric Brosius     57
2007     Eric Freeman     72
2008    Alex Bove     67
2009    Thomas Browne     58
2010    Rob Flowers     47
2011    Randy Buehler     61
2012    Jason Levine     57
2013    David Platnick     59

Euro Quest BPA Event History
2003    John Kerr     31
2004    Brian Reynolds     24
2005     Rod Spade     25
2006    John Kerr     24
2007     Lyman Moquin     24
2008    Brian Reynolds     26
2009     Legend Dan Hoffman     35
2010    Edward Fear     31
2011    Aran Warszawski      34

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Rod Spade          PA    12    130
  2.  Eric Brosius       MA    09    100
  3.  David Platnick     VA    13     75
  4.  Legend Dan Hoffman MD    09     72
  5.  Alex Bove          PA    13     60
  6.  Eric Freeman       PA    11     57
  7.  Aran Warszawski    is    11     50
  8.  Brian Reynolds     MD    08     50
  9.  John Kerr          VA    06     50
 10.  Arthur Field       SC    02     50
 11.  Doug Kaufman       MD    06     49
 12.  Jason Levine       NY    12     48
 13.  Eugene Lin         WA    04     44
 14.  Tom Browne         PA    09     42
 15.  Andrew Gerb        MD    10     41
 16.  Ian MacInnes       NY    05     40
 17.  Tom Johnston       IL    12     39
 18.  Lyman Moquin       DC    13     36
 19.  Davyd Field        SC    09     36
 20.  Greg Thatcher      CA    11     33
 21.  Randy Buehler      WA    11     32
 22.  Rob Flowers        MD    10     30
 23.  Chris Senhouse     MA    09     27
 24.  Edward Fear        NY    11     23
 25.  Winton LeMoine     CA    08     22
 26.  Doug Smith         PA    02     22
 27.  Bruce DuBoff       NJ    12     18
 28.  Boaz Gura          NJ    07     18
 29.  James Carvin       PA    03     18
 30.  Donna Rogall       MD    04     17
 31.  Joe Nemet          PA    05     16
 32.  Clyde Kruskal      MD    03     16
 33.  Mike Kaltman       PA    13     12
 34.  John Corrado       VA    12     12
 35.  Eric Sokolowsky    MD    11     12
 36.  Holliday Jones     MD    04     12
 37.  Stuart Tucker      MD    03     12
 38.  John Weber         MD    03     12
 39.  Ken Horan          PA    13      9
 40.  Sam Atabaki        CA    06      9
 41.  Mike Turian        WA    10      8
 42.  Bill Zurn          CA    09      8
 43.  Kevin Walsh        NY    07      8
 44.  Richard Fox        IL    06      8
 45.  Andrew Greene      VA    05      8
 46.  Scott Nicholson    NY    05      8
 47.  Nathaniel Hoam     OH    04      8
 48.  Robert Cranshaw    RI    11      6
 49.  Jeremy Oppenheim   VA    10      6
 50.  John Lewis         RI    07      6
 51.  Brian L Jones      MD    04      6
 52.  Doug Galullo       MD    11      4
 53.  Tom DeMarco        NJ    09      4
 54.  Greg Shirah        MD    09      4
 55.  Eyal Mozes         NY    07      4
 56.  Greg Crowe         VA    05      4
 57.  Anne Norton        NJ    02      4
 58.  Brian Jones        NC    01      4
 59.  Bruce Rae          bc    13      3
 60.  Peter Walsh        PA    12      3
 61.  Jason Long         PA    09      3
 62.  Yoel Weiss         NJ    07      3
 63.  Bruce Reiff        OH    03      3
 64.  Randy Cox          SC    01      3
 65.  Jeff Mullet        OH    10      2
 66.  Robert Kircher     RI    08      2
 67.  John Brier         NY    05      2
 68.  Marc Houde         DC    01      2
 69.  Justin Veazey      MD    01      1

2013 Laurelists                                                  Repeating Laurelists: 0

Alex Bove, PA
2nd

Mike Kaltman, PA
3rd

Kenneth Horan, PA
4th

Lyman Moquin, DC
5th

Bruce Rae, BC
6th

Past Winners

Arthur Field, SC
2001 - 2002

Eric Brosius, MA
2003, 2006

Eugene Lin, WA
2004


Ian MacInnes, NY
2005

Eric Freeman, PA
2007

Alex Bove, PA
2008

 Thomas Browne, PA
2009

Rob Flowers, MD
2010

Randy Buehler, WA
2011

Jason Levine, NY
2012

Doug Mercer, Eric Freeman, John Dextraze, Eric Brosius and Tom DeMarco

Gregory Crowe, Zachary Felix, Chris Senhouse and Winton Lemoine man Table 6.

 Dan Hoffman and Lyman Moquin entertain Stephane Dorais, Alex Bove and Peter Eldridge.

 David Platnick, Barrett Straub, Mary Ellen Powers and Tom DeMarco set out to buy stuff.

Victory at Last!

In any Princes of Florence game, most of the players aim for victory by putting in as many works as they can. I conduct a demo each year so new players can learn the game -- we had a group of about 10 this year -- and that's what I tell people to focus on in their first few games. You can win by bidding high for the things you want and putting on many works that score a lot of points, or by bidding frugally and putting on fewer works worth fewer points, but avoiding the need to convert so much of the Work Value to cash. But there's a third approach -- one that requires the person trying it to go all in with little opportunity to adjust if things go wrong. This strategy involves getting three Builders, filling your principality with free buildings, getting the right Prestige Cards, and using Bonus Cards to make the few works you put on big ones. Last year Jason Levine used the Builder strategy to gain a close win in the Final, the first time the Builder strategy had won since Princes of Florence began to be played at WBC.

We were fortunate this year to have exactly 40 players in each heat. This allowed us to play 5-player games (in my opinion, the best number.) None of the Heat 1 games needed a tiebreaker to determine the winner, though some were close. A few players achieved wide margins of victory, though. David Platnick, a frequent finalist even though he had never won the tournament, won his heat by a margin of 13 PP (even though he was sitting in the fifth seat.) Lyman Moquin did almost as well, winning by 10 PP.

In Heat 2, Mary Ellen Powers tied Jennifer Horan on PP in one game but ended with 200 florins to Jennifer's zero to win. Mike Kaltman got by David Platnick by a margin of 67 to 64, and Jeffrey Senley nosed past top-ranked Rod Spade, 56 to 55. Jason Long won a second game to become the only double winner in the preliminaries, leaving us with 15 winning qualifiers and a host of alternate runners-up.

Unfortunately, we did not have 25 appear for the semis, so we were limited to playing five 4-player games. In the elimination rounds, we bid for seating order. There's little agreement about which seat is best in a 4-player game, though most people prefer the second seat in a 5-player game. You can view the data at this link: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1023089.

The players in Seat 2 won all four of the games that had no bids for seating order. Mike Kaltman won by 2 PP over Aran Warszawski, who had only 100 florins and thus declined his chance to start an auction. He realized later that he might have won if he had given up a PP to get something. David Platnick won by another huge margin, scoring 79 PP, a full 16 ahead of his nearest rival. Alex Bove snuck past Bruce Rae 59 to 58, earning Bruce 6th place honors for having the closest loss in the semis. And Lyman Moquin bested Rod Spade, 67 to 65. In the one game with bids, Ken Horan bid 200 florins for Seat 3 and won. Go figure!

The Final featured three players from Philadelphia (Alex, Ken and Mike,) who commented on the chances that so many people from the same city had made it through. Alex, who likes to put on a lot of works, bid 300 florins for the second seat. Lyman bid 200 for the first seat and Ken bid 100 for the third seat.

In last year's Final, the first item auctioned was a Builder, but this game started out more conventionally, with Ken taking a Jester for 1200. The Builder was next, though, and David paid 700 for it (200 less than the Round 1 Builder cost last year.) Alex paid 800 for a Recruiter, getting an early start on the "lots of works" plan. In the Action phase, David gave up a chance at a Profession Card to build a Workshop and put on a work. It seemed he might be headed for a Builder strategy. Could it work again?

In Round 2 David bought a second Builder, but the price rose to 800. This time Lyman put on a work and gained three PP for Best Work, outmatching Mike for the honor. David didn't get a Builder in Round 3, though, as Ken bid 800 for one. The price must have been too rich for David's tastes, but he consoled himself with a 200 florin Prestige Card.

The Round 4 Builder went to Lyman, this time for only 600. It seemed David's strategy might have to be a hybrid given the energetic bidding for Builders, and he settled for a cheap Forest. But he got his third Builder in Round 5 and built two buildings for no money to surge into the lead.

The Builder strategy was now on in full force, and David bought a second Forest (gaining three PP) in Round 6, and followed it with a Best Work for 23 Work Value, using the "each Prestige", "each Forest" and "each Building" Bonus cards. He picked up a second Prestige Card in Round 7 and won going away. His auction buys were three Builders, two Forests and two Prestige Cards. The final scores were David 63, Alex 55, Mike 55, Ken 54, Lyman 50 (with Alex beating Mike on the tiebreaker by 100 florins.)

Congratulations to David on his first POF WBC title. Thanks also to everyone who took part. If you're interested in Princes of Florence, come to WBC next year and join us. I'll explain the game during the demo and you can join in the fun.

The five finalists in the shopping game. How come no women?
 GM         Eric Brosius  [10th Year]   NA 
      public.brosius@comcast.net    NA

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