A new champion in the reign of
Ewan
The 2001 tournament saw a few changes from the reign of Jared;
most obvious was the preponderance of five-player games, in a
response both to previous years' lack of Hamburg victories and
to perceived game balance. This was well received... but a little
more on Hamburg later on.
Numbers
continue to decline slightly, despite the reintroduction of a
third heat, but the level of GM questions declined even more
markedly as everyone seemed very comfortable with the game's
intricacies. Several newcomers and old hands also noted that
the level of camaraderie was extremely high - congrats, all!
The one unfortunate incident - of a player walking out in the
middle of his semi-final (which I still find boggling!) - was
but a small tarnish on the enjoyment seen.
This was not a year to be a known face! Both the AREA leader
and Enlightenment champ, Bill Crenshaw, and the reigning champion,
Ewan McNay, were knocked off in their respective semi-finals
- indeed, Bill never managed to win a game, qualifying as a close
second. That semi-final also produced one of the closest games
that I have ever seen, with first place at 2106 and fifth at
2054! Ewan's semi saw Genoa - Kevin Sudy - take an early caravan
and capitalise on the pounding that Ewan (Paris) received - later
characterised by Kevin as 'whackamole,' with Paris frequently
down to zero cities! With neither Harald Henning nor Tom Taaffe
on the field this year, Olin Hentz bowing out of the semis, and
Jeff Mullet likewise not advancing, only Jim Jordan of last year's
finalists managed a repeat trip to the final table. And from
that table, courtesy of Kevin Sudy - - we have a victim's-eye
view of the championship game:
Put to rest the myth that Hamburg can't win (none of last
years 21 six-player games were won by Hamburg). This year's
champion showed us how. Amid the background noise of gunboat
Diplomacy players, a constant flurry of deal-making was taking
place at the AOR table.
The first two turns were fairly standard, except that players
dumped a total of seven commodity cards, for no payouts - only
London's wool remained in the deck. Genoa declared - and showed
- that he routinely plays all cards every turn to save on stabilization
costs.
On Turn 2, Hamburg played a military card and took Norwegian
timber over the protests of London. Those trees would be the
foundation for the win. An unlikely shortage of stone gave Genoa
a card, but in the corner both Crete and Cyprus had fallen to
the Spanish, giving him four wine provinces...alas, Jim promptly
rolled a wine surplus.
On Turn 3, Parisian Crusaders provoked Genoese pirates, while
a $32 payout of Wool to London convinced Hamburg to instigate
a Civil War in England. Barcelona, having bid 0 and bought off
the surplus, played Wine for 80, provoking an ill-fated war by
Venice - as a result, Barcelona gained a domination marker with
zero tokens. Preparing an extended home area that would remain
inviolate the rest of the game, Hamburg placed nine satellites.
Hamburg had greatly benefitted from the Parisian crusade - eschewing
Caravans, Paris had gone to sea - landing in Seville on turn
2! - and left much of Area III to the
German's tender mercies.
[GM note: when I looked at the satellite placement, I thought
it might be a fatal flaw in causing a lack of available tokens
later on. Shows how much I know.]
On Turn 5 the drunkards in Spain - I mean, master vintners
- were rewarded with a double shortage of Wine and two additional
cards. Hamburg, moving first, was convinced to buy off both shortages.
This was assured by promises of two Timber plays - and still
a third came from Hamburg himself, exceeding any payout that
the Spanish might have
received from their Wine! London agreed not to sell Barcelona
any fool's gold in exchange for the Spanish oracle revealing
an upcoming commodity play, but half the Fur mentioned by the
divination is out of reach of the English six-boat.
In the first big advance race, Hamburg and Genoa bought Cathedral.With
few tokens, Hamburg's purchase is viewed as defensive, and CNN
headline news moved from Barcelona to Genoa. With no need of
religion, the British discover both longbows and gunpowder, at
the expense of Venice who has the misfortune to own most of the
2-value cities. Needing to
maintain a tenuous foothold in the East to fully use these new
weapons, London agreed not to attack the Spice merchants in Acre
if Paris would leave the peasants of the Levant satellite alone.
On Turn 7, London played Alchemist's gold on the perceived
leader, Genoa. Immediately following that play, however, Hamburg
revealed that his agents had been sponsoring the works of Copernicus,
Galilei, Prince Henry, Columbus and Oldenburg (too many for golf,
not enough for a baseball team), revealing the reason Hamburg
had not been able to participate in commodity deal-making of
previous turns. To add insult to this injury - and indeed, perhaps
a fatal blow to the competing
merchants' chances - Timber pays out for the fifth and sixth
time, bringing Hamburg's total Timber revenue for the game to
something like $225. Faced with this mass of patronage moneys
needed and feared, Wine-for-Wool and other deals proliferated,
including effective extortion by Venetian Rebellion-mongers for
much-needed Cloth payouts. A count showed that the total value
of advances owned by the six players fell within a slim 80 point
spread - BUT, all realize that Hamburg,
playing third, is carrying forward hundreds of dollars of patronage
to the final turn - and has bought Interest and Profit to benefit
from this loot.
On Turn 8, therefore, Venice played Civil War on Hamburg,
and in the final turn of the game, the usual squabbling for final
Spice and Silk payouts ensued. Such trinkets were beneath the
Timber lord: with zero payouts in final card play, Hamburg retained
the lead.
1st place Hamburg 1779 (bid 0 chose 6th)
2nd place Venice 1742 (bid 4 chose 2nd)
3rd place Genoa 1681 (bid 3 chose 4th)
4th place London 1591 (bid 3 chose 3rd)
5th place Paris 1471 (bid 3 chose 5th)
6th place Barcelona 1401 (bid 4 chose 1st)
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