1775 A Revolution in gaming…..
1775 continues its expansion in popularity at WBC by increasing its participants from 39 to 40 this year. Academy Games Birth of America series, (1754, 1775, 1812), allows players for each side to strategize together either the British or American factions in an attempt to control the most colonies. Although the game can be played as either a two, three or four player game, 1775 in tournament format, each side as a faction controlling either the British or American moves his or her forces from a random draw bag each turn.
Once again, following the format of last year, the mulligan round was set on the first Sunday afternoon. Last year’s event drew 26 participants that mostly had never played the game. This year 22 folks showed up ready to test their skill and new found education from the demo event in the afternoon. Given the high number of new players, pairings were made up of mostly experienced players with games verses those still learning without games. In the end, the British side won 5 of the 11 mulligan round matches with the three closest matches being Joe Yaure as the British beating Bill Place 5 to 4; Jeff Lange as the Americans beating Paul Bean 7-6 and Ed Welsh as the British defeating Chris Greenfield by the score of 6 to 5.
In Round 1, many of the vanquished returned. Those that won the mulligan round were not required to play round 1, so many of the games had players with little experience playing opponents of similar skills. In all, 22 men and women faced off with the American side winning 6 of the 11 contests. Five of those contest were by a single colony, with another two being decided by two. Additionally we had one game decided with a tie breaker as it ended in a 6-6 colony tie. The tie breaker consisted of each side totaling the number of blocks in their factions with Sam Burdett winning 67-41 on the tie break as the Continentals.
In Round 2, every Mulligan winner as well as Round 1 winners were now eligible to continue. So 20 folks took their seats in the 10 games of Round 2. Five games went to the Americans and five to the British. Most games were quite close with three one colony margins and three with two colony margins. There were no ties that had to be resolved with a tie break.
Round 3 began with mostly very experienced veterans, six games, and 12 contestants. Joe Harrison, last year’s runner-up, finished in a tie with John Faella. Joe eked out a 43-40 tiebreaker. Dave Schneider, last year’s winner, defeated Bill Place 8-3 as the British. Greg Hultgren’s Brits defeated Marc Nelson 5-4. Sam Wolff’s Americans defeated Steve Altbacker 7-2. Finally John Conlon’s Brits defeated Liz Nelson 8-1.
Round 4 started with five players, so John Faella played as an eliminator vs John Conlon. John Faella’s Americans proved too much for John Conlon’s Brits and he was eliminated with a score of 7-0. Joe Harrison defeated Greg Hultgren 7 to 2 as the British, David Schneider beat Sam Wolff 7 to 2 as the American.
Final: Interestingly this resulted in a rematch of last year’s final. David Schneider as the British vs Joe Harrison as the Americans in the Quebec scenario. The Quebec scenario is vastly different from the campaign game as it only uses half the map, and is centered on control of province or colony cities in specific areas. In the end after over 12 hours of continuous play in 5 rounds, a very close fought final game went to Joe Harrison’s British 8-3.
Academy games will be listing the top two finishers on their website, presented the top three finishers with a 50% off coupon, and are listing the two finalists in future editions of the game rulebooks to honor their accomplishments.
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An intense battle for control of the colonies
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Eventual Finalist Joe Harrison looking for the right draw
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Eventual Finalist David Schneider stockpiles troops
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Finalist Schneider and Harrison with GM Jeff Lange
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