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Dolan the Younger seems to be the
new sheriff in town. The heretofore sports gamer held his own
on the wargame side of the street. |
Our four finalists take a break to
mug for the camera. |
There Can be Only One
Congratulations to Jedi Master Doug Smith, who took home his
fourth "Successors" title at WBC this year. Come back,
Jim Gutt! All is forgiven!
Seriously, it was a great Final that went down to the last
cardplay of Turn 5, and each of the four participants had at
least one chance to win at various stages of the game. Special
kudos to newcomer Dan Dolan the Younger, who played a solid game
against wily veterans and held his own. At 2 AM, with only a
few cards left to play and no real hope of winning, he was still
looking for ways to screw his opponents. Well done, Dan - they'll
be ducking you in the first round next year!
Craig Melton finished second by a mere two points after very
nearly winning by stealing Alex IV on Turn 4. The Dreaded Tom
Drueding finished last, but that belies his amazing start, burying
the body in Pella and only missing the Legitimacy autovictory
when Perdiccas died in an Overrun and cost him a precious LP!
With 22 participants (down just a hair from last year's 24),
the event had a good mix of familiar faces, newbies and some
returning veterans we hadn't seen play recently. I'm pleased
to report that the lowest score of any round was registered by
Yours Truly, which indicates that I am now officially No Longer
a Threat.
I also had the opportunity to playtest Version III twice and
show the current v3 rules and cards to the participants - discussion
was vigorous, insightful and very enthusiastic.
Free copies (in pre-order) of version III were won by Newcomer
Rick Cambron, who engaged in a playtest and two rounds of qualifying
games, and Alternate-for-Life Phil Rodrigues.
As an experiment this year, I had preset General pairings
so that all games had the same starting set-up, and, despite
some grumbling from the grognards, in the end each of the four
pairs won at least once. One pair -- Lysimachus and Perdiccas
-- had a strong starting advantage in that it's the perfect combination
to attempt the funeral train to Pella. This was an intentional
design that would ensure that the attempt would be at the very
least a genuine option, and four of the six games saw Alex buried
in his home town. Yet only one of the four buriers earned the
18 Legitimacy to win the game, and two of the other burials were
achieved by players OTHER than the Perdiccas Faction, having
stolen the body on the way! All of which suggests to me that
the experiment was at least a partial success.
Thanks again to the players and playtesters, and especially
to Ralph "The Harry Potter of the South" Gleaton, who
made a return to playing the game after having served his time
in the gulag of GM-dom.
Next year: Will Version III be out in time? Will we rename
the plaque "The Doug Smith Trophy"? And what about
Naomi?
Important Links:
2nd Edition Rules: http://members.aol.com/elgrognard/successors/successors.htm
CONSIMWORLD Successors Discussion Folder: http://talk.consimworld.com:8082/WebX.cgi?14@214.jirfaqbOiO3^3@.ee6c38c
Successors PBeM Tournament:
The tournament began in December 2001 with 24 players vetted
by the BPA for participation. There were three qualifying rounds
and the top four ranking players moved up to a final round. Round
1 ended by 7/14/02 and at that point, eight participants decided
to drop from the tournament. The remaining 16 participants finished
Round 2 by 4/15/03 where another two participants dropped from
the tournament. Mauro Faina joined the tournament at this point
strictly to help meet the goal of having all tables four player
games. He was joined by John Firer who had previously dropped
in order to have four tables of four for Round 3. Round 3 ended
by 7/1/03 with Rob Mull, Henry Rice, Jim Gutt and Stefan Mecay
advancing to the final round.
What is particularly noteworthy in regards to the finalists
is that Henry Rice was the only player advancing to the finals
who came in first place in all three qualifying rounds. The finals
ended on 8/23/04 with Rob Mull grabbing the wood as the number
one finisher. Rice, Mecay, and Gutt followed him in that order.
All four players in the Final Round should be justly proud of
themselves for their overall performances throughout the tournament.
Just getting to the finals was quite an achievement.
Successors BPA PBeM Final Standings
1. Mull, Rob
2. Rice, Henry
3. Mecay, Stefan
4. Gutt, Jim
5. Ellison, Matt
6. Marjomaa, Risto
7. Pei, James
8. Young, George
9. Shipley, Rich
10. Frydas, Nick
11. Melnick, Wayne
12. Wixson, Keith
13. Barrett, Paul
14. Knight, Mickel
15. Faina, Mauro*
Dropped 10
*Entered Tournament during Round 3 to enable a full complement
of 4-player tables
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