here I stand  

Updated 11/30/2009

2009 WBC Report  

 2010 Status: pending 2010 GM commitment

Jeff Burdett, NY

2008-09 Champion

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Event History
2006    John Wetherell     56
2007     Bryan Collars     48
2008    Jeff Burdett     48
2009    Jeff Burdett     62

PBeM History
2008    Dan Gallagher     54
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Jeff Burdett       NY    09    120
  2.  Bryan Collars      SC    07     62
  3.  Dan Gallagher      MD    08     60
  4.  John Wetherell     PA    06     60
  5.  Dave Cross         VA    09     42
  6.  Alan Sudy          VA    08     41
  7.  Chris Striker      PA    09     39
  8.  Ken Richards       SC    07     38
  9.  Rob Seulowitz      NY    08     36
 10.  Allan Hill         MD    06     36
 11.  Dennis Mishler     CT    07     30
 12.  Kirk Harris        NJ    09     24
 13.  Michael Rogazinski NY    08     24
 14.  Steve Caler        OH    08     24
 15.  Charles Hickok     PA    06     24
 16.  Rick Cambron       PA    08     18
 17.  Michael Brophy     NC    08     18
 18.  Nat Pendleton      PA    09     12
 19.  Justin Rice        VA    08     12
 20.  George Young       VT    08     12
 21.  Dan Hoffman        NC    07     10
 22.  Tim Rogers         SC    09      6
 23.  Jeremiah Peterson  IL    08      6

2009 Laurelists                                         Repeating Laurelists 

Dave Cross, VA
2nd

Kirk Harris, NJ
3rd

Chris Striker, PA
4th

Nat Pendleton, PA
5th

Tim Rogers, SC
6th

Past Champions

John Wetherell, PA
2006

Bryan Collars, SC
2007

Jeff Burdett, NY
2008-09

Ken Richards seems a little dejected by his position. There a lot of that to go around during this time period.

John Emery demonstrates the correct amount of wristage for John Wetherell, John Vasilakos and AJ Sudy.

Standing Room Only ...

In its fourth year at WBC, Here I Stand grew by almost 30% to a field of 62 players, despite the fact that the game has now been out-of-print for a year and defying the normal trend of new games losing attendance in their subsequent years.  The Tuesday night heat attracted 42 entrants, giving us seven games in a heat for the first time. We continued to use the play balance adjustments to the tourament scenario that had evened out the win totals by power in 2008.  But that trend didn't extend into this year, somehow we had six Protestant winners in the seven games this night.  Several noted that it was probably a side effect from this summer's celebration of the 500th anniversary of Jean Calvin's birth.  Others who were less into this "Jubilee theory" noticed that a host of experienced players were using the Protestant's ability to quickly catapult from the back of the pack into the lead to get themselves into the semi-finals.  Winners of this night's games included: Mark Mahaffey, Roger Whitney, Dave Cross, John Emery, Ken Richards, Tim Rogers, and Pete Corrigan (who won as the Hapsburgs).

Thursday night we set another record for heat attendance with 45 players.  This time the Protestants were held back; the distribution of wins was: one Ottoman, three Hapsburg, one French, two Papal, and just one Protestant.  The most notable game was our three-player contest in which Mary I made her first WBC appearance.  The extra burnt debaters in England propelled Jeff Burdett to a Papal win (and seemingly built up his Catholic kharma for later in the week, see below).  Nat Pendleton scored the only one-turn preliminary round win (with the Hapsburgs), needing only 90 minutes to polish off his foes.  Amazingly, all the players at this table felt a need for more Here I Stand action: they immediately set up the full, campaign game and proceeded to play it until 2am that morning!  Rounding out the Thursday winners were Justin Rice, Bryan Collars, Adam Sigel, Dennis Mishler, Darren Kilfara, and Ted Drozd.

The winners of Round 1 games joined the at-large players with the highest total VP accumulation for the Friday morning semis. In the first semi-final, Dave Cross ran his two-year HIS tournament record to an amazing 5-2, capping a one-turn win with successful expeditions to the Amazons and Inca.  He also accomplished the feat with the Hapsburgs -- the fourth different power he's won with over this two-year span. The next semi-final to finish was a French victory by Kirk Harris, who rode New World explorations by Cartier and Roberval to a two-turn victory.  The final two semi-finals went the full three turns, leaving the composition of the Final in doubt until the last die was cast.  Nat Pendleton prevailed again as the Hapsburgs in the first of these games, knocking back Mark Mahaffey in a brutal Schmalkaldic War that dropped the Protestant from first to fourth place. Tim Rogers won the last game with a come-from-behind Protestant win that left three players tied for second at 22 VP.  One of those players would qualify for the Final - defending champ Jeff Burdett - sneaking in based on his seeding from the preliminary rounds to keep his title defense alive.

With first pick going into the Final, Tim Rogers stuck with the Protestants; after all he had won two games as that power earlier in the week.  Choosing second, Dave Cross elected to play the Ottoman in the Final for the second straight year.  Our full lineup (in order of selection) was:

1: Tim Rogers (Protestant)
2: Dave Cross (Ottomans)
3: Nat Pendleton (England) 
4: Kirk Harris (French)
5: Chris Striker (Hapsburgs)
6: Jeff Burdett (Papacy)

Here are the highlights of the three-turn Final 

TURN 4

* Hapsburgs ally with Papacy (receiving a squadron); England allies with Protestant. Pope's asking price for divorce (two cards and two mercs) is too much for England.

* Ottoman gains two piracy VP on the first card play, but the Hapsburgs quickly retaliate and destroy Barbarossa's fleet.

* A fluctuation down in cloth prices causes the Hapsburg to lose Diplomatic Overture; Protestants retrieve this card from discard later in the turn.

* Three independent keys/electorates fall (English take Metz, French take Milan, Protestants take Trier).

* Michael Servetus appears and aids French science.

* Anne Boleyn repulses Henry and they never consummate the marriage.

* England discovers the Amazon.

VP at end of turn: Ott: 18, Hap: 17, Eng: 13, Fra:16, Pap:16, Pro: 17.

TURN 5

* Papacy and Ottomans cut a deal: two cards of tribute leave Rome for Istanbul. In return the Ottomans start a phony war against Venice (bringing it into the Papal camp) and release the architect Michelangelo for work in Rome.  He isn't a big success; it seems he'd rather just carve sculptures.

* The Ottomans also help the Protestants by dumping Printing Press early in the turn during their move on Tunis (which does fall to the Turkish army).

* Henry marries Jane Seymour, but again no heir is born.

* The religious war is turned up a notch with the start of inquisitions.  This turns nasty for the Protestant: both Bullinger (2VP) and Latimer (1VP) are burnt at the stake.

* Hapsburgs really start to press the Schmalkaldic War; Protestant is forced to play Printing Press for CP late in the turn to ward off this threat and finish the German Bible.

* Finally, late in the turn, Edward VI is born to the renowned and lovely Anne of Cleves.

* England conquers the Inca!  Cartier and Orellana pick up minor discoveries for France and the Hapsburgs.

VP at end of turn: Ott: 21, Hap: 19, Eng: 20, Fra: 20, Pap: 21, Pro: 17.

TURN 6

* Alliances galore:

Hapsburgs with England, France, Papacy (receives the Venetian fleet)

England with Protestant

France with Papacy

Protestants even yield a card to the Hapsburgs

* However despite the alliances, the turn starts on a bloody note: the Ottoman and Hapsburgs have major battles in Austria and Hungary (won by the Hapsburgs) and England invades France.  Henry VIII's army is defeated moving on Paris, so he turns his attention on Rouen instead.

* Ottomans begin pirating the undefended Papal coasts, managing to steal a card and a few VP from the Pontiff.

* About halfway through the turn, Nat decides the Reformation must reach England.  So he publishes the Book of Common Prayer, even though most of England is still Catholic.  The Reformation attempts fail and the entire island erupts in revolt!  Henry, unable to deal with the widespread chaos, soon dies and leaves the realm to Edward. 

* The Papacy then seals the deal by having Eck burn Coverdale to push the VP from burnt debaters to 5.

* Other mainstays of the Reformation period die as well: Luther and Francis I.  France fails in their final attempts on Metz, but the Hapsburgs are able to conquer Buda.

* The Hapsburgs also conquer the Maya, but it is too little, too late -- the Papacy is too far in front to be caught. 

 VP at end of turn: Ott : 21, Hap: 21, Eng: 20, Fra: 21, Pap: 25, Pro: 18.

Jeff Burdett wins his second game of the week based on the strength of burnt debaters, this time without the aid of Bloody Mary.  With the win he becomes the first two-time Here I Stand champion and the first to record back-to-back championships.  And he was playing the Papacy only because all five other players had passed on that power!

Stats from this year's tournament

Question: Which power did people most want to play?

If a power is selected first in a game, I am assigning it a score of "1". The power picked last gets a "6". Based on this scoring, for the whole tournament, the results were as follows (with the 2008 number in parentheses): 

Ottoman 2.55 (2.00)
Hapsburgs 3.40 (3.24)
England 3.50 (3.53)
France 3.90 (4.29) 
Papacy 4.58 (4.76) 
Protestant 2.63 (2.65) 

So the Ottomans were once again the most sought after power; the Papacy the least preferred (unchanged throughout all four years of the tournament).  However this was the first year it was close enough that I had to add another decimal of precision to see if the Ottomans or Protestant were the players' overall first choice. The Ottomans lost a lot of ground this year and all the other powers except the Hapsburgs gained popularity.  Perhaps we're seeing an effect of having the Natural Enemies rule only affect the Ottomans and Hapsburgs this year?  Regardless, it is a good trend.  The popularity of various powers is evening out.

Question: Did choosing early lead to victory?

For the entire tournament, the winning player chose third on average (the numerical average was 3.2 this year, a slight rise from the 3.1 from 2008). So getting to play your power of choice was still somewhat helpful, but not a significant advantage.  

Question: Did earning a higher seed and choosing early in the semis and Final help?

Yes!  The winning power in the five games of the later rounds had an average choice number of 2.8, lower than the 3.2 listed above.  But this hasn't been a significant trend; only in two of the four years has this held true.  And this year's Final was won by Jeff Burdett who was stuck with Papacy as the least desirable choice! In fact this average choice number for our four Finals is 4.3; could it possibly be a disadvantage to choose your power early???

Question: Did the player choosing last ever win?

Yes, Jeff Burdett did this as the Papacy in the Final (see above) and Ken Richards did this as Protestants in an opening heat game. 

 The breakdown of wins by selection position over the 20 games were as follows: 

First choice: 5 
Second choice: 1 
Third choice: 8
Fourth choice: 2
Fifth choice: 2
Sixth choice: 2

Not much luck for those picking second this year!

Here I Stand is one of the few wargame events which has grown in the years following its debut at WBC.

The event has outgrown the Kinderhook room with several tables in the Terrace called upon to handle the overflow.

 GM      Ed Beach (4th Year)  NA 
    ebeach@comcast.net   NA

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