die macher [Updated October 2004]  

2004 WBC Report     

 2005 Status: pending December Membership Century Vote

Steve Simmons, NJ

2004 Champion

2nd: Paul Skrabut, FL

3rd: Tom De Marco, NJ

4th: Lyman Moquin, DC

5th: Geoffrey Engelstein, NJ

6th: Al Mink, VA

Event History
2003    Lyman Moquin     14
2004     Steve Simmons     12


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 Laurels
Rank Name

From

Last
Total
 1. Lyman Moquin

DC

04
13
 2. Steve Simmons

NJ

04
13
 3. Paul Skrabut

FL

04
10
 4. Peter Staab

PA

03
  6
 5. Tom DeMarco

NJ

04
  6
 6. Geoffrey Engelstein

NJ

04
  2
 7. Al Mink

VA

04
  1
 6. Thomas Browne

PA

03
  1

Past Winners

Lyman Moquin - DC
2003
 


An oldie but goodie returns ...

The game, a simulation of the German election process, was designed by Karl-Heinz Schmiel, who also designed Tyranno Ex and Attila which are also played at the WBC. Each of five (or four) players take the part of one of Germany's political parties who try to earn points from gaining votes in each of seven randomly-chosen regions, points from getting Media influence, points from gaining workers to help build the party, and points from aligning their party's stand on the issues with the slowly-revealed national consensus.

The second WBC Die Macher tournament started off Friday morning with nine of 2003's contestants, including the top six finishers, showing up to vie with three fresh faces for the plaque.

At the first table, Steve Simmons' CDU party gathered the highest Mandate total (190 out of 242), missing only a few votes in the first two regions and getting an insignificant vote total in the fourth region. The CDU party won in the first, third, sixth and seventh regions. Thomas Browne's PDS party had the second highest total Mandate at 170. John Weber's Green party got the most points for Media markers from its victories in the second, fourth, fifth and sixth regions. Steve also led in Party Members, with its attendant 10 point bonus. And due to his victories in the sixth and seventh regions, Steve was also able to receive the most points for matching the CDU's issues with the National Board issues. Al Mink's FDP party got the second most points due to his victories in the fourth and fifth regions. Overall, Steve gained the victory with 384 points over John's 310 points, Al's 292 points, and Thomas B's 284 points.

At the second table, Lyman Moquin's PDS party grabbed the highest total Mandate, taking 226 out of 284 possible, and beating out Peter Martin's CDU party by 10 points. This was in spite of the fact that the PDS party only was a winner in the second and sixth regions. Peter also finished second to Lyman in points from Party Membership. Paul Skrabut's Green party had the most points for Media markers and the most points from matching the issues on the National Board due to its victories in the first, third and seventh regions. Lyman (the defending champion) earned a trip to the DIM final with a 364 point win, beating Peter M. with 347 points, Paul with 325 points, and William Lentz with 169 points.

And at the third table, Peter Staab's FDP party edged out Geoffrey Engelstein's CDU party by one point, 162 to 161 (out of 234) in Mandate totals. Thomas Vickery's SPD and Tom DeMarco's PDS parties tied for the most points form Media markers, while Tom D. won the bonus for the most points from Party Membership. But Geoffrey posted a large lead in points from matching National and Party issues to get the win with 346 points over Peter S. with 287 points, Tom D. with 283 points, and Thomas V. with 233 points.

The three Round 1 winners (Steve, Lyman, and Geoffrey) and all three third place finishers appeared for the final on Sunday morning. The tie breaker (% of board's total points scored) allowed Paul and Tom D. to advance, while Al ended up in 6th place.

The first region to be contested was Thuringen, worth 26 Mandate. Steve's PDS party was the only one to reach 50 votes, allowing his coalition with Geoffrey's FDP party to take the victory. The second region (tiny Bremen) was virtually ignored by all except Steve, who again produced the maximum of 50 votes (but worth only 15 Mandate) as well as moving up his second Media marker.

The third region was Rheinland-Pfalz, worth 42 Mandate. As the largest of the initial four regions, it was hotly contested by all but Steve. The CDU (Paul), Green (Lyman), and SPD (Tom) parties all reached 50 votes, and the CDU-SPD coalition was victorious. But if the FDP (Geoffrey) party had also been able to reach 50 votes, its tie breaker status would have allowed his FDP-Green coalition to win.

Next up was Sachsen-Anhalt, worth 36 Mandate. All the parties but the SPD reached 50 votes, with the region being won by the CDU-PDS coalition. But the PDS party did not have a Media marker in the region to move up to the National Board, losing out on a chance to earn 15 points. The fifth region was Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, worth 24 Mandate. The CDU party pulled off a "by a nose" victory over the PDS party, allowing both parties to move up a Media marker, but reducing the number of cards moved up to the National Board by the CDU from two to one.

The penultimate region was Hessen, worth 48 Mandate, and the largest of the seven regions in this game. The SPD and PDS parties both reached 50 votes, but the SPD's coalition with the FDP party gave them the victory. And this time neither of the two winning parties had a Media marker in the region to move up to the National Board.

The very important final region, where coalitions are not allowed, was Berlin and was worth 40 Mandate. The SPD was the only party able to reach 50 votes, thereby winning the opportunity to make the last two adjustments to the composition of the issues on the National Board.

As shown in the table below, at game's end Steve led in all four of the point categories and so moved up from his 4th place finish last year to claim the top prize in this year's tournament. Paul moved up from 3rd last year to 2nd and Tom improved his finish from 5th last year to 3rd. Lyman dropped from 1st last year to 4th and new face Geoffrey takes this year's 5th place spot.

Next year, Die Macher may be a Continuing Trial tournament again unless elevated to Century status in the BPA's voting for the 2005 Century additions. If you'd like to ensure that there will be a DIM tournament in 2005, please sign up for the BPA for 2005 before Dec 31st and vote for Die Macher to reenter the Century! If you have any suggestions to improve the tournament, please contact me or next year's GM Steve Simmons. Thanks to all who came out to make this year's tournament successful.

                    CDU: Paul    FDU: Geoffrey    Green: Lyman    SPD: TOM    PDS: Steve
Total Mandate       176          145              152             139         177
National Media       50           25                0              30          60
Party Membership     52           41               73 +6           69          75 +10
National/Party match 50 +5        40 +5            45 +10          57 +5       50 +10
Total Score         333          256              286             300         392
 GM      Tom DeMarco [2nd Year]   720 Wood Lane, Cinnaminson, NJ 08077-3976
   TomAnneTim@Comcast.net   NA

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