successors [Updated October 2007]  

2007 WBC Report    

 2008 Status: pending December Membership Trial Vote

Doug Smith, PA

2006-07 Champion

Offsite links:

AREA Boardgamegeek Laurels
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Event History
1998    Doug Smith      32
1999    Jim Gutt     16
2000    Jim Gutt     16
2001     Robert Seulowitz     17
2002     Robert Seulowitz      16
2003      Doug Smith      18
2004      Henry Rice      17
2005      Ross Jones      18
2006      Doug Smith      24
2007      Doug Smith      22

PBeM Event History
2004    Rob Mull      24

 Laurels

Rank  Name               From  Last  Total
  1.  Doug Smith          PA    07    121
  2.  Jim Gutt            AZ    04     91
  3.  Rob Seulowitz       NY    05     77
  4.  Ross Jones          SC    06     70
  5.  Henry Rice          NM    04     60
  6.  Rob Mull            CO    04     50
  7.  Ahmet Ilpars      Turkey  06     39
  8.  Craig Melton        VA    07     30
  8.  Tim Miller          GA    03     30
 10.  Michael Day         AZ    01     30
 11.  Keith Wixson        NJ    07     29
 12.  Phil Rodrigues      VA    06     22
 13.  Stefan MeCay        TX    04     20
 14.  Mark Hinkle         NH    04     18
 15.  Ralph Gleaton       SC    03     18
 16.  Francis Czawlytko   MD    04     15
 17.  Dan Dolan Jr        NJ    07     12
 18.  Jim Doughan         PA    00     12
 19.  Matt Ellison        OH    04     10
 20.  Nick Firer          WI    00     10
 21.  Tom Drueding        MA    07      9
 22.  Chris Storzillo     NJ    05      6
 23.  J. R. Tracy         NY    00      6
 24.  Dennis Mason        ME    99      6
 25.  Risto Marjomaa    Finland 04      5
 26.  Peter Card          UK    00      4
 27.  Tom Constantine     ME    06      4
 28.  Michael Mitchell    GA    99      3
 29.  Brian Mountford     NY    00      2

2007 Laurelists

Craig Melton, VA
2nd

Dan Dolan Jr, NJ
3rd

Tom Drueding, MA
4th

Keith Wixson, NJ
5th

Phil Rodrigues, VA
6th


Past Winners

Doug Smith, PA
1998, 2003, 2006

Jim Gutt, AZ
1999-2000

Robert Seulowitz, NY
2001-2002

Henry Rice, NM
2004

Ross Jones, SC
2005


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

 GM      Robert Seulowitz [1st year]    26 Downer Ave, Scarsdale, NY 10583  
    rseulow@optonline.net   NA

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