history of the world [Updated October 2003]  

2003 WBC Report    

 2004 Status: pending 2004 GM commitment

Mike Backstrom, MN

2003 Champion

2nd: Harald Henning, CT

3rd: Jamie Tang, MD

4th: Rolinda Collinson, MD

5th: Duane Wagner, NJ

6th: Terry Coleman, BC 

Event History
1993    Ben Grimes        53
1994    Gordon Bliss      102
1995    Tim Johnson      105
1996    Keith Levy      102
1997    Bruce Monnin    108
1998    Greg Crowe        72
1999    Jonas Borra        68
2000    Robert Destro       70
2001    Harald Henning       56
2002    Rolinda Collinson       52
2003    Mike Backstrom       49


Offsite links:

AREA Ratings

boardgamegeek

 Laurels
Rank Name

From

Last
Total
 1. Harald Henning

CT

03
126
 2. Jonas Borra

NY

02
  84
 3. Rolinda Collinson

MD

03
  75
 4. Mike Backstrom

MN

03
  68
 5. Robert Destro

NJ

00
  60
 6. Allen Kaplan

NJ

01
  48
 7. Tony Cadden

MD

00
  36
 8. Bob Aarhus

NC

99
  36
 9. Malinda Barnes

NY

01
  24
10. Graeme Dandy

Australia

00
  24
11. Joe Burch

MD

99
  24
12. Jamie Tang

MD

03
  20
13. Kevin Youells

FL

02
  18
14. Paul Bean

MA

00
  18
15. Chris Hancock

NH

99
  18
16. Amdrew Kutzy

NY

02
  12
17. Greg Crowe

VA

01
  12
18. Michael Pacheco

CA

99
  12
19. Duane Wagner

NJ

03
  10
20. Richard Fox

IL

02
   6
21. Ivan Lawson

MD

01
   6
22. Paul McCarthy

NY

00
   6
23. John Rinko

VA

99
   6
24. Terry Coleman

BC

03
   5

Past Winners

1993: Ben Grimes - SC
1995: Tim Johnson - MD

Gordon Bliss - MA
1994

Keith Levy - MD
1996

Bruce Monnin - OH
1997

Greg Crowe - MD
1998

Jonas Borra - NY
1999

Robert Destro - NJ
2000

Harald Henning - CT
2001


Rolinda Collinson - MD
2002
     

The Tides of History ...

The 2003 tournament had a few new wrinkles, the biggest being the change from a first round, semi-final, final format to two heats and a final, with the six finalists taken from the players who won at least one game in the heats (two wins guaranteed entry, followed by the players who had the best win-to-second-place ratios in their wins.) Like last year, players could play either the older or newer version of the game, with the new version used in the final. However, even with this new policy, the number of players was down again this year, with 49 persons playing in at least one game.When the smoke cleared, the six finalists included the last two champs, Rolinda Collinson and Harald Henning, along with Duane Wagner (the only player to win games in both heats), Mike Backstrom, Terry Coleman, and Jamie Tang. The first few epochs went a little slower than everybody had expected, mainly because even the experienced players (not to mention the GM...what do you MEAN, you only need two areas for dominance and three for control in the new version?) had a little trouble getting the differences between the two versions straight. Terry took the early lead with Egypt, and, although he finished well back, turned out to play a key part in the finish as (unbeknownst to anybody at the time) he drew the 6-point Pre-eminence chit.

Mike had the lead (and three Pre-eminence chits) going into the final Epoch, only for Harald to reveal Britain, Reallocation, and a Leader, cashed in nine of his 13 fleets, and ended up with a 60-point turn for a total of 201. Mike finished with Germany, and scored 43 of his own, to bring his own total to 201, and keep the Pre-eminence out of Harald's hands. When the chits were revealed, Mike had 13 to Harald's 8, resulting in a five-point victory for the 11th different tournament winner in its 11-year history. Had Harald scored two more points, or Mike two fewer, the winner would have been decided effectively by a coin toss, as the last two Pre-eminence chits were 3 and 4; a 4 would give Harald a one-point win, while a 3 would give the win to Mike on lower total Empire strengh.

At least one person has expressed interest in taking over as GM next year (unfortunately, I will be in Europe at another gaming event); both of us and Don Greenwood agreed that, considering how hard it was for even experienced players to learn how to play a different version on short notice, that only one version of the game be used next year, and as the Hasbro one is the one in print, that is the one to be used.

 GM      Don Del Grande [3rd Year]   NA
    del_grande@netvista.net   NA

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