hammer of the scots     

Updated 11/15/2011
2011 WBC Report   

 2012 Status: pending December 2012 Membership Trial Vote
Malcolm Smith, VA
2011 Champion

Links

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 Laurels 

Event History
2003    Phil Barcafer     55
2004    Lyman Moquin     29
2005    George Seary     29
2006    George Seary     25
2007    George Seary     17
2008     George Seary     23
2009    Lyman Moquin     16
2010    Lyman Moquin     24
2011    Malcolm Smith     24

Block Party History
2004    Bruce Reiff     23
2005    Ric Young     21
2006     Ric Manns     12

PBeM Event History
2006    Hank Burkhalter     31
2008     George Seary     30
2010    Hank Burkhalter     22

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  George Seary       NY    10    219
  2.  Lyman Moquin       DC    11    157
  3.  Rick Young         NC    06    108
  4.  Hank Burkhalter    GA    10     87
  5.  Ric Manns          IN    09     68
  6.  Phil Barcafer      PA    05     53
  7.  Bruce Reiff        OH    06     51
  8.  Fred Bauer         VA    11     33
  9.  Bill O'Neal        NY    08     33
 10.  Susanne Tuch       NY    10     32
 11.  Malcolm Smith      VA    11     30
 12.  Rob Taylor         MI    10     30
 13.  Jeff Mullet        OH    06     30
 14.  Ray Freeman        CA    11     27
 15.  Phil Rennert       MD    09     24
 16.  Stuart Pierce      VA    04     24
 17.  Troy Daniels       OH    06     22
 18.  Mike Dauer         TX    10     21
 19.  Nicholas Benedict  CA    07     18
 20.  Chris Byrd         CT    06     16
 21.  David Platnick     VA    10     15
 22.  Tom Drueding       FL    03     15
 23.  Tim Hall           UT    11     13
 24.  Keith Wixson       NJ    10     12
 25.  Joe Pabis          VA    08     12
 26.  Alfred Smith       NC    06     12
 27.  Ron Draker         VA    11      9
 28.  Rick Kirchner      KY    05      9
 29.  Sean McCulloch     OH    04      9
 30.  Barry Smith        NY    04      8
 31.  Steve Lollis       MD    08      6
 32.  Derek Miller       VA    07      6
 33.  Brad Bellomo       NJ    04      4
 34.  Paul Barrett       uk    08      3
 35.  Mike Zehnal        OH    05      3
 36.  Jake Busch         OH    06      2
 37.  Charles Stucker    IN    06      1

2011 Laurelists                                          Repeating Laurelists 

Lyman Moquin, DC
2nd

Fred Bauer, VA
3rd

Ron Draker, VA
4th

Ray Freeman, CA
5th

Tim Hall, UT
6th

Past Winners

Phil Barcafer, PA
2003

Lyman Moquin, DC
2004, 2009-10

George Seary, NY
2005-2008

Malcolm Smith, VA
2011

Ray Freeman and Tim Hall battled to 5th & 6th place laurels.

Somehow, I'm not seeing Mel Gibson.

New Clan Rising . . .

Attendance held steady with totals similar to those of the past five years with only slight defection to competing events . . . but play was quick, quality and . . . bloody! Sadly, former champs Barcafer and Seary were among the missing along with several other contenders, but that of course left an opening for new blood to ascend. In particular, the KGB based group in Alexandria, VA has started accumulating laurels at a ferocious rate and we will speak of them again.

The tourney generated 24 matches with 14 Scot victories and the bidding reflected it. Over the years, there has been a progressive downward trend in overall bidding, with a majority of bids at S0 (12), six bids for the English above 0 (exactly one bid for English of 2). With the latest edition of the rules, and the "nerfing" of the Scottish blocks, there appears to be a fairly equal board. It seems the weighting goes to having fun with Wallace punishing English nobles.

There were several returning laurelists in the mix, including defending champion Lyman Moquin (1), KGB's Fred Bauer (2) and Ray Freeman (6) from last year. Going into Round 4, Lyman squared off against rising force and KGB member Malcolm Smith, while Fred's opponent, Phil Rennert, opted out to play in another event, so usher in pinch hitter, Ron Draker, as the eliminator. Who, it turns out, was aptly named, eliminating Fred with the English!

Consequently, the semi-final game between Lyman and Malcolm became the de facto Final, and, it didn't seem like it was going to be a real match. Lyman took the English with an E1 bid, but that didn't seem to matter too much, as the King appeared more often than not. Going into the last turn, the Scots never made it to the magic "eight" nobles to actually get the French or their King onto the board. And with a moderately good wintering, Lyman finally got a "3" to take the initiative and trap Wallace in the North.

For those of you that haven't played this game, "trapping" Wallace is sort of a mixed bag. Yes, he can't run. But that means that he HAS to fight. The resulting bloodbath sent the remnants of the English army scattered across the northern half of the board, but nearly every block of merit was packing one or two pips. Going into the last round of the last turn, the English AND the Scots each had seven nobles under control.

Malcolm's final card play sent the Norse block, with a single pip, deep behind enemy lines to attack a single block in Mentieth - who, unfortunately ALSO only had one pip and even MORE unfortunately happened to be the Noble Lennox - who didn't know what hit him. The Norse showed up, fired a single shot, and Lennox woke up Scottish. Not only that, when Mentieth returned home to winter, he also went Scot. He got a "twofer" and the 2011 crown.

The new Mulligan format worked well, but I think that next year we will create a "loser" bracket to allow people to continue to play competitively as others drop out - and to allow more flexibility in letting those that missed the early games enter with some shot at wood. Thanks again for playing - I laughed, I cried, I died! And a big congrats to Malcolm ... savage Highlander that he is.

 GM      Lyman Moquin [1st Year]   NA
   moquis@aol.com   NA

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