age of renaissance 

Updated 11/14/2009

2009 WBC Report  

 2010 Status: pending December Membership Trial Vote

Ted Simmons, NJ

2009 Champion

Offsite Links

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Enlightenment Announcement 

 

WBC Event History
1996    Mike May        30
1997    George Sauer      106
1998    Mark Giddings     124
1999    Ewan McNay     115
2000    Ewan McNay       81
2001   Rich Curtin     80
2002   Ken Gutermuth      65
2003   Ewan McNay      47
2004   Steve Simmons      42
2005   Mark Smith      36
2006   Jeff Mullet      29
2007   Kevin Sudy      33
2008    Jeff Mullet      24
2009   Ted Simmons      23

Enlightenment Event History
1998    Bill Crenshaw       31
1999    James Pei       30
2000    Tom Taaffe       41
2001   Bill Crenshaw     34
2002   John Coussis      36
2003   Chris Byrd      34
2004   Jeff Mullet      31
2005   Bill Crenshaw     25
2006    Jeff Mullet      30
2007    Ken Gutermuth     19
2008   Steve Simmons      31
2009    Ken Gutermuth      27

PBeM Event History
2001    Tom Taaffe        32
2002    Bill Crenshaw        57
2003    Jason Levine       57
2004    Arthur Field       63
2006    Harald Henning       43
2008    Mark Neale       48
 Laurels

 Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
   1.  Jeff Mullet        OH    09    356
   2.  Bill Crenshaw      VA    08    325
   3.  Ken Gutermuth      TX    09    258
   4.  Ewan McNay         CT    08    256
   5.  Harald Henning     CT    08    187
   6.  Chris Byrd         CT    07    186
   7.  Steve Simmons      NJ    08    185
   8.  Kevin Sudy         VA    09    138
   9.  Carl Damcke        IL    07    120
  10.  Arthur Field       SC    09     93
  11.  Ted Simmons        NJ    09     87
  12.  Mark Smith         KY    08     84
  13.  John Coussis       IL    05     84
  14.  Tom Taaffe         VA    01     82
  15.  Tedd Mullally      NJ    08     81
  16.  Brett Mingo        MD    05     76
  17.  Tom Browne         PA    09     72
  18.  Mark Neale         RI    08     60
  19.  Jason Levine       NY    05     60
  20.  Jim Jordan         MD    01     60
  21.  Rich Curtin        NY    01     60
  22.  James Pei          TX    99     60
  23.  Rodd Polsky        PA    09     53
  24.  Stephen Koehler    NC    01     48
  25.  Marty Hoff         TX    01     42
  26.  Eric Eshleman      PA    09     36
  27.  Lyman Moquin       DC    02     36
  28.  Nicholas Anner     NY    00     36
  29.  Sean Whitaker      bc    06     30
  30.  Peter Staab        PA    02     30
  31.  Rob Kircher        MA    02     27
  32.  Eric Hupin         qc    05     24
  33.  Nick Henning       CT    02     24
  34.  Marvin Birnbaum    NY    01     24
  35.  Eric Wrobel        VA    09     23
  36.  Mark Frueh         IL    08     20
  37.  Pierre LeBoeuf     MD    05     20
  38.  Ed Lathioor        on    05     18
  39.  Jim Stanard        MD    02     18
  40.  Charles Hickok     PA    02     18
  41.  Robin Barbehenn    MD    99     18
  42.  Greg Stripes       WA    06     16
  43.  Chris Trimmer      TX    07     12
  44.  Terry Coleman      bc    06     12
  45.  Sean McCulloch     OH    03     12
  46.  George Sauer       OH    02     12
  47.  Andrew Cummins     uk    01     12
  48.  Don Greenwood      MD    99     12
  49.  Kevin Wojtaszczyk  NY    02     11
  50.  George Young       VT    06      8
  51.  Jeff Ridenour      CA    05      8
  52.  Eugene Hourany     CA    09      6
  53.  John Boyd          TX    06      6
  54.  Olin Hentz         CT    00      6
  55.  Kurt Miller        MD    00      6
  56.  Chris Kessel       OR    02      5
  57.  Nicole Kaiyan      au    06      4
  58.  Crawford Lopez     VA    01      2

2009 Laurelists                                          Repeating Laurelists

Eric Wrobel, VA
2nd

Kevin Sudy, VA
3rd

Ken Gutermuth, NC
4th

Eugene Hourany, CA
5th

Jeff Mullet, OH
6th


Past Winners

Mike May, NY
1996

George Sauer, OH
1997

Mark Giddings, NY
1998

Ewan McNay, CT
1999-2000, 2003

Rich Curtin, NY
2001

Ken Gutermuth, TX
2002

Steve Simmons, NJ
2004

Mark Smith,KY
2005

Jeff Mullet, OH
2006, 2008

Kevin Sudy, VA
2007


Jon Anderson and Rob Davidson consider their options.

Eric Wrobel (left) wins his heat to advance.

Fortunes at Low Ebb

As befitting a year in which the game fell out of the Century after a 13-year run, there was a lot of chaos. Three players chaosed out and they all seemed to share a table with champion Ted Simmons! Conversely, in the qualifying heats there were three Buy Outs at 2100 in Advances and two more in the Final for a total of five out of 32 player starts. There are rumors of the event seeking a pre-con slot to reverse its declining fortunes should it return by membership vote.

Those were not the only interesting developments. One game saw practically everyone take a different path on Turn 5, with players choosing Cathedral, Ocean Navigation, Industry, and low misery as separate points of emphasis. Industry proved the best path in that instance. Other unusual events were someone owning Middle Class before purchasing Overland East, London not leaving the Island until Turn 5, and an unusual Barcelona Caravan strategy.

Many people appeared for the demo despite the game's age and then put what they learned to the test in a heat. Since there is such interest in the community, I decided to focus the remainder of my write up on the first few turns of the Final to see how a real championship game develops.

The players started by bidding for capitals. Kevin & Ken both bid 3, Eugene 1, and Ted and Eric 0. After a roll off to break the ties, Kevin chose Barcelona, Ken - Paris, Eugene -Venice, Ted - Genoa, and Eric - London. The players then placed their initial token bids with the following results: L-12 (1st), V-13(2nd), B-14(3rd), P-17(4th), and G-24(5th). Only two cards were played: V - Mysticism (+4 misery for all) and B-Stone (+$1 to Paris). Paris bought Caravan and the rest bought boats for $10 in the Purchase Phase. Paris could not stabilize and took another misery hit.

During expansion, London bartered with Paris for St Malo, and claimed Portsmouth, York, and Edinburgh on the island, Venice bartered with Genoa to take Florence in exchange for Genoa taking Milan & Rome, then proceeded to take Vienna and Dubrovnik, and sail to Belgrade using Galley 2. Barcelona expanded to Toledo, Basque, Montpelier, and Valencia and sailed to Granada. He then bought an additional card for three tokens. Paris used Caravan to extend to Cologne, Bruges, Basel, Strassburg, and Dijon which establishes a border with Genoa. Finally Genoa expands to Lyon, Marseille, Milan, Rome, and sails two tokens to Naples. With his remaining six he purchases a card. 

The expansion goes to Barcelona as the first with five new dominations. The Shortage/Surplus rolls produce a surplus of Metal which has majority ownership split between Genoa and Barcelona, and a shortage of Cloth, which is also split at two apiece between Paris and Venice.

Token bids are as follows: P-10, V-10, L-11, B-12, G-13. Paris played Famine (L/P/V +3 misery for one Grain), B/G +4 misery for no Grain), Barcelona played Revolutionary Uprising (P+1 misery for Caravan) and Stone (B/L/P/V $1 ea / G $4), and London played Timber (V+$3). The four players continued to improve their boats, and B/L/V supplemented even further by buying Heavens. Paris expanded to Bordeaux, Nuremburg, Prague and a satellite in St Gali. Venice took Budapest, Salonika, Crete, and Tripoli, London entered the Med with a satellite in Oran, and took Chester, Waterford, Iceland, and Bergen. Barcelona claimed Seville, Lisbon, Fez, Algiers, and West Africa. Genoa completed Naples and claimed Tunis, Sicily, and a satellite in Athens, and bought a card for three tokens. Barcelona received another expansion card and a double shortage of Timber was rolled.

Round 3 bids were V-7, B-9, L-10, P-13,and G-16. London placed Walter the Penniless in the box protecting him from other players patronage. Genoa, solicited some patronage by offering a Wool payout and asking $7 in patronage fees for Dionysus Exiguus. Both B and L bought Patronage and used Exiguus to discount Written Record, London was also able to afford Overland with Walter's discount. Venice ignored the leader and bought Overland at cost. Paris entered the seas with Seaworthy, and Genoa was able to convert the patronage money to get Written Record, and Nationalism. B/G/L also paid to ugrade their boats. 

The race to the East was on! Now you can guess where everyone might have expanded, who would use Crusades, and who had military advantages in Turn 4. You can see how things turned out in the results above.

Mark Smith, Kurt Miller and Ted Mullally admire Kurt's artwork. Kurt did all the art for the game when he worked for Avalon Hill - from box cover to map to counters.

Ted Simmons (standing) completed his Age of Renaissance education by winning it all, 11 years after attending his first Enlightenment mini-con where he and his father have been regulars.
 GM     Ted Mullally [4th year] NA 
   TMullally5@gmail.com NA

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