Tom Cannon and Doug Galullo were newcomers to the tournament.	Ted Mullally and Jason Levine were Enlightenment veterans.

In an effort to boost its sagging attendance, Age of Renaissance was moved to a pre-con slot using the unique scoring system perfected over ten years of Enlightenment mini-cons. This system allows players to play in up to four rounds and drop their lowest score. Ultimately, you score tournament points based on a % of the winner's score, so staying close to the leader is more important than relative position. However, Each round, the tables are seeded based on the prior round's position; i.e., all winners at one table, all runner-ups at another, etc. Seeking new blood, many of the regulars got more than they bargained for.

The first round saw 20 entrants in four 5-player games. Eugene Hourany edged out Jason Levine by 4 points to win as Paris. Eugene's misery lead and cash overcame a 340-point advance deficit to Jason.

David Hood and Jeff Mullet both bought all the advances in their game but David's Misery advantage and cash fueled an easy Venice win.

Doug Gallulo, a relative newcomer to AOR, began his impressive string of wins with most advances and low misery as Barcelona overcame Winton Lemoine's imposing cash reserves - some $300 more than anyone else.

The last game saw the return of Bruce Reiff to AoR after a LONG absence with a win as London. He defeated both Michael Rogozinski and Kirk Harris who both had 99% of Bruce's score. Bruce was able to buy all advances and hold off the late commodity payouts of Michael and Kirk.

Round 2 dropped to 18 players so three 6-player games were played:

At the winner's table, Doug Gallulo became the target by gathering his second win, this time as Genoa, with three players at 95% of his score, Winton Lemoine, David Hood, and Jason Levine.

Jeff Mullet got into the win column as Venice in game #2 as he bought all the advances and literally crushed the table. The closest player had 49% of Jeff's score.

The third game, however, came down to the wire as Mark Smith, with his favorite Venice, edged Ken Gutermuth for the win with his advances wiping out Ken's cash and Misery lead.

Round 3 once again emplyed three 6-player games.

At the winner's table, Doug was shown how heavy lies the burden of leadership as he was chaosed out of play. Mark Smith's Venice was again able to gain the win over Ken Gutermuth as Mark led in advances and tied for lowest misery.

Tedd Mullally entered the win column in game #3 as Genoa with the lead in advances, Misery and cash over Doug Mercer .

Kurt Miller came in for the Sunday evening round and won handily as London, crushing the field with the runner-up registering only 63% of his score.

This set up the Final round with six people still having a chance to claim victory. Doug and Mark led the contenders with two wins apiece. With other events starting Monday morning, only 14 players remained for one 5- and two 4-player games.

Tedd Mullally gained his second win in the first game as he led Paris to victory over Jeff Mullet's Barcelona.

David Hood also joined the winner's club a second time as he narrowly topped Winton "second place" Lemoine who had a solid tournament but couldn't quite get a win. Despite that he still scored higher overall than double winner Mullally to take fourth place laurels.

The last game saw Doug Gallulo crush the field by 36% over the runnerup for his third win to handily claim his first AOR title in a year when new blood claimed three of the top four laurel positions. The tournament saw a resurgence of Venice as which managed to win five of the 13 games with Barcelona, Genoa, London, and Paris each winning two. Only poor Hamburg - odd man out in the 6-player games, could not manage a win.

Peter Eldridge, David Hood, Craig Reece and Jeff Mullet dodge chaos.	GM Ken Gutermuth had less success than his recent Enlightenmnt exploits.

Age of Renaissance 2010 PBeM Tournament Results

Carl Damcke as Paris played a steady game and broke into a big lead on Turn 7 with good leaders and many commodity payouts. Genoa (Thomas Browne) made a strong push on Turn 8 collecting over $250 in silk but it was not quite enough and too late. A game long feud between London (Ewan McNay) and Barcelona (Mark Smith) hurt both of their causes and benefited Paris. Venice (Phil Watkins) came in last despite Crusading on Turn 3 and having two turns as the sole owner of Holy Indulgence. Dan Leader won sixth place laurels for being the highest non-qualifier in the semi-finals.

Final scores of Final game:
Paris 2200 (2100+160-60)
Genoa 2077 (1900+267-90)
Barcelona 1475 (1490+185-200)
London 1230 (1210+80-60)
Venice 1178 (1160+168-150)

For more details, see http://gregstripes.com/aor/2008_progress.html