Age of Renaissance kicked off on Tuesday evening with the first of 2 heats. The winners and enough runner-ups to get to a multiple of five competed to advance to the Semifinals. With the GM choosing to go with mainly 5-player games this year, Capital Bids were expected to be lower. Despite those expectations, the first heat produced the highest bid I have seen when Frank Mestre bid 10 to play Barcelona.

Thirty gamers showed up for the first heat so six 5-player games were played. Not used to five-player games, quite a few people passed on Paris and allowed Paris to go to the veterans with very low bids. While Paris is a tough country to play in the six-player game, it is a strong side in a five-player game. The last game to start was the first to finish as Bill Crenshaw's Parisians outdistanced former champion Rich Curtin's Venetians. Bill combined the most advances with a strong cash payout in the final card play to punch his ticket to advance.

Defending Champion Ewan McNay managed to buy out all the advances and his Parisians cruised to a comfortable win with runner-up Aran Warszawski finishing with just 63% of Ewan's score. Kathy Stroh followed in both Bill's and Ewan's footsteps by purchasing all of the advances except Middle Class to go along with large final card play payouts so her Parisians easily outdistanced Brent Mingo's Barcelona. Harry White also managed a win with the Parisians as he and runner-up Frank Mestre were close to buying out but a misery advantage of seven boxes (250 points) proved too much for Frank to overcome. Barrington Beavis broke the Parisian streak as he led London to a victory with the most advances, lowest misery and most cash in a game that had to be
shortened due to the five-hour time limit. Mark Smith rounded out the first heat winners as his Venetians led the way in advances and cash to defeat Steve Koehler's Genoans.

The Thursday morning heat saw 18 gamers, including some repeats, vye for a final chance to advance that evening. With 18 players, three six-player games were contested. Bids of 5 lead the spending in this heat with two of those bidders choosing Venice and the other Barcelona. In the closest game of the tournament, former Enlightenment champion John Coussis led London to victory over Steve Simmons' Genoans by a mere 2%. John and Steve remained close in advances and cash but in the end, a 100 point misery advantage propelled John to the semi-finals. Eric Wrobel lead the Venetians to the first of two victories in this heat, as his advance lead over Ted Mullally held up despite a huge final payout for Ted's Genoans. In our second time constrained game of the tournament, Harald Henning's Venetians held off defending Enlightment Champion Jeff Mullet's London warriors. Harald led tin advances in a very high misery level game.

With nine game winners in the heats, a 15-player semifinal would determine five players to advance to the finals. Winners Bill Crenshaw, Ewan McNay, Harry White, Kathy Stroh, Barrington Beavis, Mark Smith, John Coussis, Harald Henning, and Eric Wrobel were in. Runner-ups Steve Simmons, Jeff Mullet, Steve Koehler, Rich Curtin, and Brett Mingo also advanced based on their percentage of the winning score. When no sixth runner-up showed for the semis, the field chose to have their GM, Ken Gutermuth, play as an eliminator in order to have three five-player games. The three winners and the two highest placing runner-ups would advance to the final.

In the first game, Harald Henning led the Parisians to victory again as he bought out all the advances and was tied for lowest misery. Steve Simmons, with the Genoans, was the first on the fence for advancement. In the second game, Ewan McNay also led the Venetians to victory with the most advances, falling just two adv-ances short of a buyout. Ted Mullally managed a close second, ensuring his spot in the finals along with Ewan. In the third semifinal, Brett Mingo was able to buy all of the advances as London to maintain a lead over Bill Crenshaw's Genoans despite another of Bill's patented large late game payouts.

So the five qualifiers for the finals were set with Harald Henning, Ewan McNay, Brett Mingo, Ted Mullally, and Bill Crenshaw. Steve Simmons would be the alternate. As the time for the finals approached, Harald was stuck in the finals of the Advanced Civilization tournament. After waiting 15 minutes, the GM made the call to have Steve Simmons play in Harald' s place while Harald went on to win the other tournament.

With all of the participants being veterans of the game, the capital bidding for the finals was extremely low as Ewan and Steve both bid 1 and Brett, Bill, and Ted bid 0. Ewan took Barcelona with the first pick and then Steve surprised everyone by taking Genoa second. Bill then took Paris, followed by Ted's pick of Venice. Brett was left with London. This game started out in the normal fashion of Barcelona jumping out to an early lead and everyone denying the merits of their own position A strong push in the middle of the
game to bring Barcelona down left Ewan without cash and in a deep hole in the critical part of the game. It was a hole from, which he would not be able to emerge.

Steve led the way down the stretch in advances with Brett, Bill, and Ted within a couple of buys. Brett made a very strong last turn push with final card play payouts but in the end, Steve held on to capture his first Age of Renaissance title and first WBC wood. Steve proved that practice pays off as he played Genoa in all three of his tournament games.

Overall, Paris led the way with five victories, all in 5-player games. Venice was second with four wins, two 5-player and two 6-player games. London managed three wins while Genoa managed only one win but it was the one that counted ... in the Final. Perennial powerhouse Barcelona was skunked as it failed to win a single game of the 13 played. Capital bidding was extremely low this year as 26 of the 68 bids placed were for zero while another 15 was for one. The average bid was 1.7. Despite leading the way in victories, Paris was not the first choice in any of the 13 games played. Venice led the way, being chosen first seven times, followed by Barcelona four times, and Genoa and London once each.

2002 PBeM Tournament Results:

Bill Crenshaw has emerged from a field of 57 entrants to claim the 2002 PBeM championship. In the shortest game yet, the Final round lasted only six turns. Genoa jumped out to an early lead with a Turn 2 Crusades play and was able to build this lead before being brought back to the pack by vigilante justice. The game saw a 9-token card purchase in four turns which hurt the chances of slow starters Paris and Venice. In the meantime, Barcelona and London were battling over the satellite play of Oran on Turn 2. Once Pirates/Vikings and Black Death lowered Genoa to four provinces before the turn 6 expansion, it came down to who would have the best dice; Paris moving 3rd, Genoa 4th, Hamburg 5th, or Venice 6th. Paris made a Metal run capturing five Metal provinces with two Metal cards remaining. Genoa played defensively in his expansion bringing down Paris's Metal and forcing Hamburg to roll for North America, leaving his fate to the dice server. Hamburg then made a Fur run, with two Fur cards still out, won all four attacks, and purchased the 9-token card which would end the game if a shortage was rolled. Venice then had a shot at four silk with three Silk cards remaining, but lost three of four attacks. Hamburg got the shortage needed to end the game and a bonus when it came in Fur. Final positions were Bill Crenshaw 1st (Hamburg), Peter Staab 2nd (Genoa), Jeff Mullett 3rd (Paris), Ken Gutermuth 4th (Venice), Kevin Wojtaszczyk 5th (Barcelona), and Chris Kessel 6th (London). The next tournament is scheduled to start January 15th. Check out the details at http://www.geocities.com/aorkg/aorbpa2004/2004home.htm.