successors  

Updated 11/26/2008

2008 WBC Report    

 2009 Status: pending December Membership Trial Vote

Doug Smith, PA

2006-08 Champion

Offsite Links

AREA Warhorse Simulations Boardgamegeek
GMT AREA Boardgamegeek

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
2008      Doug Smith      12

PBeM Event History
2004    Rob Mull      24
 Laurels

Rank  Name               From  Last  Total
  1.  Doug Smith          PA    08    131
  2.  Jim Gutt            AZ    04     91
  3.  Rob Seulowitz       NY    08     81
  4.  Ross Jones          SC    06     70
  5.  Henry Rice          NM    04     60
  6.  Rob Mull            CO    04     50
  7.  Ahmet Ilpars      Turkey  08     42
  8.  Craig Melton        VA    08     31
  9.  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.  Dan Dolan Jr        NJ    08     18
 15.  Mark Hinkle         NH    04     18
 16.  Ralph Gleaton       SC    03     18
 17.  Francis Czawlytko   MD    08     17
 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

2008 Laurelists                                          Repeating Laurelists:

Dan Dolan Jr, NJ
2nd

Rob Seulowitz, NY
3rd

Ahmet Ilpars, Turkey
4th

Francis Czawlytko, MD
5th

Craig Melton, VA
6th


Past Winners

Doug Smith, PA
1998, 2003, 2006-08

Jim Gutt, AZ
1999-2000

Robert Seulowitz, NY
2001-2002

Henry Rice, NM
2004

Ross Jones, SC
2005


The Final Final: The starting Generals were: Rob Seulowitz (ASP): Perdiccas and Antigonus; Dan "Mad Dog" Dolan II (HORSE): Craterus and Peithon; Doug "Megadiadochus" Smith (LION): Lysimaches and Antipater; Ahmet "Satrap of Sakarya" Ilpars (STAR): Ptolemy and Leonatus [USURPER]

Our four finalists: Soon-to-be five-time champion Doug Smith, Ahmet "the mad Turk" Ilpars, Dan "A Dolan is always a dangerous opponent -- often to himself " - Dolan, and our esteemed GM and benefactor Rob Seulowitz whose legendary wisdom rivals that of Herodotus himself.

The Body Has Been Buried

Personally, I blame Ross Jones.
Due to Ross' unexcused and cowardly absence, Perennial Champion Doug Smith was able to cruise to a third consecutive (and fifth lifetime) Successors title with nary a bead of sweat darkening his high, wide forehead. Fortunately, this would be the last ever title claimed by Mr Smith -- at least for the Avalon Hill version of the game we have loved for lo the last 12 years, which has been officially retired now that GMT has republished the game. The new edition is substantially different - more of a re-boot than a re-issue -- and I strongly encourage players who have only played the original to learn the new game before next-year's WBC. Fortunately, there is already a beautiful VASSAL module available for it (see the "Links" section at the end of this report), and an online tournament will be announced shortly.

Qualifying Games
2008 saw an all-time low attendance of only 12 unique players, but that was only to be expected given the timing of the re-issue, which was originally expected to be out in early July.

Game 1
Winner: Francis Czawlytko (Crowned Heracles)
Francis returned after a two-year hiatus and whipped the sharks at his table (myself, Mark Giddings and Craig Melton) with a well-timed play of "Treachery" to steal Heracles at the end of Turn 3.

Game 2
Winner: Doug Smith (Turn 5)
In the best-fought game of the qualifiers, Doug shook off challenges from Phil Rodrigues and the always dangerous Ahmet Ilpars to pull out the win. Special kudos to Frank McNally, who was nearly wiped off the map on Turn 4 but made a strong recovery on Turn 5 to get back into the game. Most gratifyingly, in its last year of regulation play, the "Salvation in the 11th Hour" card drew blood, killing Phil's Cassander in Egypt at the start of Turn 5 to give Doug an escape from certain doom. (Note: The "Salvation" card does not exist in the new game but that doesn't mean it won't find its way back into this tourney!)

Game 3
Winner: Dan Dolan the Lesser (Crowned Heracles)
Dan elbowed his way into his second consecutive Final appearance against previous finalists Phil Rodrigues and Craig Melton.

Game 4
Winner: Rob Seulowitz (Adjudication)
Ahmet Ilpars held the Silver Shields and snuck Peithon into Babylon to grab the body, but got sandwiched by my Generals (Peridiccas and Eumenes) and paid the ultimate price for his sneakiness.

The Final
Francis was unable to play in the Final, allowing Ahmet Ilpars (as the 1st Alternate) to take his place.

Turn 1
Dan allowed Ahmet to go first, expecting him to collect Heracles while he planned to move Craterus West to take Phoenicia and Cyprus for their fleets. Instead, Ahmet immediately sent Leonatus to begin the siege of Rhodes and attacked Dan at Tyre: Craterus won the battle against Ptolemy but at the cost of his life. Elsewhere, I cunningly fed Hemlock to Cleopatra who, as fate would have it, Doug intended to marry off to Lysimachus on his next cardplay. Dan also looted Ecbatana -- on the next two turns, Babylon and Susa would likewise be plundered!

Turn 2
Ahmet unsheathed his sword, tossed away his "Champion" marker (why do we even give him one?) and sailed off to Macedonia to defeat Antipater at the gates of Pella. Doug had to abandon Asia Minor to swing Lysimachus back to Macedonia, which emboldened me to bring the body out West. Originally intending to spike it in Damascus quickly, Dolan declined to let me visit his City and brought Peithon and a large army over to greet the funeral procession, so Antigonus turned toward Celanae.
Rob [to Doug]: "Are you un-assing Phrygia?"
Doug: "I got things going on"
Lysimachus defeated Leonatus at Larissa, rescuing his position but leaving a token force to delay my funeral train.
I had a slight Legitamacy lead over Doug, and hoped to snag a pair of Royals he had thoughtlessly left vulnerable to an attack, but he managed to avoid them out of harm's way. Had he not done so, I would have had the force and cards to attempt the funeral in Pella. Sigh. Instead, Antigonus slipped in to Heraclea to bury the body before the dread Lysimachus could return East and take it.
I ended the turn by stealing Heracles with "Treachery" -- Turn 3 would make or break my game.

Turn 3
Armed with the third "Treasure City Looted" card and the arrival of the Silver Shields, I once again made my way West. I needed to take Phrygia to get "King of Asia" and the Win, but Lysimachus had a huge honking army. Eventually our two armies would clash in Celenae to decide the game -- if I won, Phrygia would fall and the game would be mine. Despite careful maneuvering to draw him into a space of my choosing, we ended up with my 21 SP to his 25. In the end, he won the battle by one pip, killing Antigonus and condemning Heracles to the Day Care Center in the Sky.

Meanwhile, Dan was on the verge of subjugating Egypt, allowing Ahmet to maintain control through the end of the Turn so that he would have the fleet strength to invade Greece at the start of Turn 4.

Turn 4
Having taken my best shot, my only hope now was that Ahmet could get his Rhodesian Army to Greece before Doug could seal the Automatic VP Victory. By now, Doug held all of Europe, the Hellespont and parts of Asia Minor, and was tied for the largest fleet. If Ahmet could capture Athens, Doug would be dropped to third place and I might be able to sneak in the win with Alexander or, if Dan took points off me in the West, hold out for Turn 5.

Sadly, it was at this point that Dan's recessive mad-dog Dolan genes came to the fore: He launched a narrow-odds assault on Rhodes which he won but which took Ahmet completely out of the game. In addition, the Rhodean fleet was dispersed in the failed naval interception that allowed Dan's army to land, so Dan was left with only 2 fleet points against Doug's 4, and was not able to move north into Asia Minor or Greece. With his southern flank safe, Doug was able to concentrate his forces in Asia Minor, with more than enough scrubs scattered around to protect his VP from Unrest and Barbarians. I made a last-ditch effort to take points from him and lost: Doug held his 24 VP for the round and was named the Winner.

Conclusion
And so it comes to an end, the 12-year struggle for Alexander's legacy. Next year we hope to see a surge in interest as the new game reaches out to both new players and veterans. Once again, my thanks to all the great players who have made this event the center of my WBC experience since my very first trip to Hunt Valley in the Pleistocene age, particularly bygone GMs Jeff Paull, John Firer and Ralph "Harry Potter" Gleaton. Next year "Successors" returns in a new form -- look for the WBC Preview page and the "Successors (3rd Edition)" folder at ConsimWorld to provide more information on the changes.

Poor Peithon has no escape!

Olympias and the Pips perform to capacity crowds in Rhodes

Links
Successors page at GMT: Includes downloadable version of the rule book and this excellent VASSAL module.
Successors (3rd Edition) page at Board Game Geek
Successors (3rd Edition) folder at ConSimWorld

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

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