Facts in Five (FI5)

Round 1 had 63 possible answers in the categories: Stephen King Books;

EPCOT pavilions; TONY Award Best Musicals; Pixar Movies; and Supreme Court Chief Justices with letters C, F, M, T and R/U. Reigning champ Rich Meyer was joined in the lead by Ted Drozd and Roy Pettis with 14 each. Five play-ers were close behind with 12 including Natalie Beach, who alone knew the toughest squares.

Richard Irving made his move in Round 2 with 13 correct in the categories: New York Mayors; George Clooney movies; Rivers in Britain; Popes and Gettysburg Generals with letters B, G, H, O/S and T/W. He was followed by ’99 champ Shantanu Saha and Gregory Schmittgens with 11. Saha was one of only two who remembered Mayor Wagner.

Round 3 proved easier. Categories were: Apollo astronauts; Secretaries of State; Bahamian Islands; Italian Political Regions and island Sover-eign States across A, C, E, S and I / L. This time, Saha, Beach and Pettis led the parade with 11 each. Meyer, who forgot Clinton was a Senator, learned his lesson, recalling she is Secretary of State now.

Round 4 challenged many, but Meyer posted the day’s high score of 16. Categories were: Wood-stock artists; Secretaries of Defense; Yes Band members; Military Ranks and Jethro Tull Album Titles across A, B, M, R and W. When the papers had been graded, Rich Mey-er had defended his title with 43 correct answers to 42 for Natalie Beach, and 41 for Ted Drozd and Rob Winslow.

Richard Meyer, MA

Top LaurelistsRichard Meyer, MA 72Richard Irving, CA 46Aaron Silverman, FL 44Doug Hoylman, MD 42Paul Bean, MA 40Randy Cox, SC 31Ted Drozd, IL 28Winton LeMoine, CA 28Eric Brosius, MA 26Shantanu Saha, NY 24

2010 ResultsRichard Meyer, MANatalie Beach, MDO Ted Drozd, ILO Rob Winslow, NYO Shantanu Saha, NYO Richard Irving, CA

Arthur Field, SC

35 1993-2010

2010 ResultsEric Freeman, PANick Page, onO Jeff Cornett, FLO Haim Hochboim, isO Bill Zum, CAO Bob Basa, on

Craig Moffitt, NJ

37 1999-2010

Top LaurelistsJeff Cornett, FL 114Aaron Fuegi, MA 70Craig Moffitt, NJ 54John Kilbride, PA 42Ananda Gupta, MD 42Eric Freeman, PA 40Chetan Radia, uk 40Rob Kilroy, PA 36Matt Calkins, VA 32Aran Warszawski, is 30

Eric Freeman, PA

Euphrat & Tigris (E&T)

The event again used a variant to address the advantage of the first two players.

Instead of their normal two-action allotment, the first two players received only one action in the first turn. The victory distribution was 4 wins (26%), 3 wins (20%), 5 wins (33%), and 3 wins (20%) for play-ers moving first through fourth, respectively.

Ten winners plus two runners-up manned three semi-final tables. In the first, newcomer Nick Page (4-5-5-5) playing from the fourth position managed to upset 2005 champion Matt Calkins. In the second, Haim Hochboim (9-9-10-11) narrowly defeated Eric Freeman (7-9-13-16). In the third, top-qualifier and two-time champion Jeff Cornett (6-6-7-7) defeated Bill Zurn (5-5-7-7). Eric survived to fight another round by advancing with the best runner-up finish.

In the Final, Jeff had the first choice and selected the third position. Nick (first), Haim (fourth), and Eric (second) completed the choices. First-time fi-nalist Nick started by placing his King by the cen-tral North treasure. Eric also used his one action to place his King in the Southwest. Jeff started the competition for the Northeast treasure by placing his Farmer and Trader by the river delta. Haim took the last open corner in the Northwest with his King. 13 rounds later, Eric’s isolationist monument strat-egy paid off with a score of 7-7-9-10 (lowest in red). Nick was a close second at 7-7-7-8 (lowest in black/

red) and would have been able to win with one extra turn. Jeff 6-6-7-8 (low-est in blue) and Haim 5-5-8-8 (lowest in green) ended the scoring.

Century Events 21

For The People (FTP)

An experienced but wary field battled to see who would play the role of David vs. James

Pei’s Goliath. This time the field decided to fight fire with fire, or, in this case, Pei with Pei. Unlike earlier years when David Dockter faced his usual 6.28 problem (two x Pei), this year the younger Pei set up a classic brother-vs.-brother Final.

Fate seemed to be begrudging James his tenth title as Nick enjoyed great hands for the first three turns. When Lee and the CAV leaders arrived on Turn 4, Nick started the fortification process in the East. Lee formed an army and pushed Union forces back to Manassas. Pope tried to convert AR, but was blocked by a Smith-led corps. The Union played a discarder which found a Rebel Campaign card, just as Lee was poised to lunge north. So far so good.

It all fell apart on Turn 5. James formed another army under Jackson. The two CSA armies maneu-vered in tandem to threaten DC. Union fortifica-tion was incomplete and too late to slow the CSA attacks. With two Campaign cards, James broke through the WVa line into Pittsburgh. Pleasanton failed the critical 4/6 interception into a fortified Pittsburgh to stop the Rebels from raiding into Harrisburg-Philly to cut off DC. Taking advantage of the deadly combo of Lee-Jackson and two CC, James cut off DC and forced an early surrender. Such a promising start to end in a sudden reversal of fortune. Well, they don’t call him the Master for nothing.

James Pei, VA

Top LaurelistsJames Pei, VA 556David Dockter, MN 186Mark Giddings, NY 127Riku Reikkinen, fn 68Trevor Bender, CA 62Stefan Mecay, TX 60Mike Mitchell, GA 59Nicholas Pei, CA 56 Tim Miller, GA 52Chris Byrd, CT 39

2010 ResultsJames Pei, VANicholas Pei, TXDave Dockter, MNO Tom Thomsen, NYO Michael Mitchell, GAO Don Chapell, TX

Mark Herman, MD

24 1999-2010

Football Strategy (FBS)

Defending champ Bert Schoose and perennial champ Bruce Reiff had a

scorefest heat Final. Bruce scored on his first three possessions—but Bert scored on his first four—to end the half with a 24-21 lead. The defenses found themselves in the second half with the only third quarter score a tying Reiff FG. But as Bruce is fond of saying, the fourth quarter belongs to him and he scored two late TD’s to win the heat 37-24 and end Schoose’s brief reign atop FBS.

The Friday heat was lightly attended with just eight players vying for the second shot at the pigskin master. The heat Final went into overtime with Dave Rynkowski missing a win-ning FG which allowed Ray Stakenas to drive the length of the field for the win and a crack at Bruce.

Ray was up to the challenge—kicking the ty-ing field goal to force overtime. Alas, Bruce won the toss with his two-headed coin and drove the field for his fourth championship of the week, his ninth FBS title, and forever changed the lexi-con of WBC by bettering a “Coussis”. A “Cous-sis”, for the uninformed, is having the cheek to GM two events and win them both. John Cous-sis can now retire to anonymity because pull-ing a “Reiff” has replaced him in the GM Hall

of Shame by having the unmitigated gall to GM three events and win them all as Bruce did in winning Battleline, Union Pacific, and Football Strategy—all directed by himself.

Bruce Reiff, OH

Top LaurelistsBruce Reiff, OH 249Bill Cleary, MD 99Ken Whitesell, MD 63Bert Schoose, IL 56Ray Stakenas II, CA 48Kevin Keller, MD 39David Rynkowski, NY 33Paul O’Neil, MD 33Marvin Birnbaum, NY 24Arthur Davis, MI 21

2010 ResultsBruce Reiff, OHRay Stakenas II, CAO Bert Schoose, ILO Dave Rynkowski, NYO Erik Arneson, PAO Nicole Reiff, OH

Bruce Reiff, OH

30 1991-2010

22 Century Events

Formula De (FDE)

The heat venues seemed to favor Melbourne, a quick moving track that rewards good rolls,

and puts a premium on trying to keep pace with the leader. A missed turn can take you from glory to the back of the pack in an instant and with no semi-final round to bank on, advancing alternates are rare. The 2010 Final returned to the large scale track last seen in 2008. This year’s featured extrav-aganza was a re-designed Hockenheim. We used the new track expansion from Asmodee Games. The actual Hockenheim underwent a major rede-sign in 2001, and now alternates hosting the Ger-man Grand Prix with Nurburgring.

The starting grid was filled with ten unique race victors. The qualifiers chose from dozens of 1:64 scale GT style cars, along with the 1:64 scale Formula 1 cars. Every driver opted for the GT style. The start grid was filled with machines ranging from VW GTi, ’63 Corvette, Triumph TVR, Dodge Viper, and Dodge Charger.

Pit boxes were chosen, gear boxes were thrashed, tires were shredded, and brakes were glowing red. In the end, defending champ Jason Levine once again was first across the finish line to wrack up his fourth title in the past six years, suggesting either that the game is not as luck de-pendent as some would have you believe or Jason should spend more time in Vegas. No one walked away empty handed, as drivers were given their

cars as a souvenir of the event. Planning is already underway for a new 2011 Final track.

Jason Levine, NY

Top LaurelistsJason Levine, NY 120Barry Smith, NY 89Lance Fogel, PA 78Roderick Lee, CA 42Robert Kircher, MA 38Mario Veillette, qc 30James Kendrick, uk 30Steve May, MD 30Keith Levy, MD 30Bill Dyer, IL 27

2010 ResultsJason Levine, NYCurt Collins II, PAMatt Bacho, MDO Tony Musella, VAO Jason Wagner, PAO Steve LeWinter, NC

Josh Githens, SC

65 2000-2010

Lisa Gutermuth, NC

2010 ResultsLisa Gutermuth, NCJordan Shea, CTRobbie Mitchell, VAO Nicola Bradford, LAO Scott Nemy, RIO Shannon Keating, IN

Chris LeFevre, AZ

90 2001-2010

Top LaurelistsLisa Gutermuth, NC 78Chris LeFevre, AZ 33Jordan Flawd, PA 33Forrest Speck, MD 30Dan Lewis, DE 30Matt Evinger, PA 30Debbie Gutermuth, NC 30Mike Stachowski, NY 30Bill Place, PA 30Steve Cameron, PA 28

Formula Motor Racing (FMR)

Attendance soared to record levels with 22 Preliminary games ushering 18 heat winners

into the semi-finals, but not before Chris Green-field set a record by losing eight of his 12 cars. All three semi-final races were one-point wins. Shan-non Keating led the six qualifiers with 33 points, followed by Robbie Mitchell, Lisa Gutermuth and Scott Nerney with 32, Nicola Bradford 31 and Jor-dan Shea 30.

2004 champ Lisa got off to a rousing start in the Final by winning the first race and placing with her second car for 12 points. Race 2 resembled a demolition derby with Nicola and Shannon each crashing, Jordan spinning out and Robbie blowing an engine. In contrast, there was no crash in Race 3. At the midway point, Lisa led with 18 points, fol-lowed by Nicola 17, Shannon 16, Scott 13, Robbie 10 and Jordan with just four points.

But Jordan staged a comeback in Race 4 by winning it and also placing third, for 14 points in one shot, but Lisa extended her lead over the pack by winning Race 5 to lead Robbie by eight. Lisa’s lead required that she be shut out in Race 6. This mission was half accomplished when a spin-out ended the day for one of her cars. Lisa then completed the mission herself by play-ing the crash card as her last play only to roll her own car, although she took Jordan out with her. Lisa thus became the first two-time champ with 31 points to Jordan’s 29, Robbie 26, Nicola 25, Scott 24 and Shannon 21.

Century Events 23

2010 ResultsNick Smith, ukBen Gardner, VABrooks Beyma, MDNick Henning, CTO Andy Gardner, VAO Derek Landel, NJ

John Pack, CO

88 1992-2010

2010 ResultsJohn Keating, INRebecca Hebner, CAO Mark Geary, OHO Misha Lavrov, NCO Andres Dunn, MDO Craig Melton, VA

Mark Mitchell, VA

41 2000-2010

Top LaurelistsNick Henning, CT 162Pitt Crandlemire, MA 132Nick Smith, uk 130John Pack, CO 90Bob Hamel, CT 67Thomas Richardson, VA 64Jim Castonguay, PA 54Mark Love, MD 53John Elliott, MD 52Andy Gardner, VA 45

Top LaurelistsJohn Keating, IL 74Rob Winslow, NY 68Joseph Burch, MD 62Jon Shambeda, PA 58Mark Mitchell, VA 48David Buchholz, MI 48Sean McCulloch, OH 42Jed Shambeda, PA 38Steve Cameron, PA 37Martin Sample, NH 35

Gangsters (GSR)

They came, they saw, they squirted …and they got wet and had the time of their lives. Irony

was rampant in what may have been John Pack’s farewell tour with the Gangsters franchise that he would draw record crowds during his last stint at the helm. It started with each player getting a “Li-cense to Squirt” and a loaded squirt gun as they ar-rived in the windy city. Then came target practice and a refresher course in the hit man’s code. It didn’t take long before squirt gun fire echoed between gin joints and through the halls of the Host. The Lan-caster Online reported, “A group playing 1920s gangsters stalked the hallways with water-pistols to soak unsuspecting competitors.”

Mobsters were encouraged to take their new weaponry into other events and find creative ways to apply them there. For each such event baptized, a Tommy Gun sticker would adorn their badge, license, or fedora. For those who reached the Hit Man level (7-9 events), the Silver Tommy Gun award was their prize—an emblem that would strike fear into opponents everywhere (or at least cause them to reach for a towel).

And during all this mayhem, a tournament broke out—fuelled by a record 88 gangsters anxious to make their mark in the annals of crime. Grizzled syndicate boss Nick Smith of the UK crime family held off the challenges of three younger hoodlums to claim his first title during John Pack’s farewell GM per-formance. If this is truly the end, WBC has lost perhaps its best promoter.

Galaxy (GXY)

The demo again taught about ten new-comers the game, and managed to

graduate Michael Wei and young Max DuBoff to the semi-finals and Misha Lavrov all the way to the Final round.

In the Final, 2007 champ John Keating re-gained his title with Rebecca Hebner the hard luck, tie breaker loser. On the last play, Re-becca eliminated the Felowi, hoping to destroy John’s secret base. However, he had chosen the Kha’Farjimmn which survived. Both players fin-ished with nine points but John had 76 tie breaker points to Rebecca’s 63. At least this year she made it to the Final. Twice she had finished sixth previ-ously which is the highest place to not get a seat in the Final—and sadly, doesn’t earn an honor-ary fez cap either. So, once again, the wunderkind had to settle for bridesmaid honors.

This year the Felowi survived the most games by a wide margin. It escaped 15 times while no other world made double figures. Seven of the eight worlds were within a radius of four eliminations for the dubious honor of surrendering the most, with the E-Cups edging the Cylor 17 to 16. The world chosen most as a secret base was the Felowi. There were two worlds chosen the least as secret bases: The E-Cup, which not surprisingly was eliminated the most, and the Divergence, which outlasted three

other worlds. So, unless you chose the Felowi as a secret base, chances are you were not happy about the outcome.

Nick Smith, ukJohn Keating, IN

24 Century Events

Goa (GOA)

The two heats drew 33 players, con-tinuing the field’s recent slide, and

produced only nine winners, so three alter-nates advanced to a 12-player semi-final with three 4-player games also advancing the best runner-up (by percentage of the winner’s score). The three winners were Daniel Eppolito, Chris Trimmer, and Andy Gerb. Defending champ Alex Bove and Rich Meyer both lost by two points, but Alex’s second was one point higher than Rich’s, keeping his title defense alive.

The Final featured two former champions (Alex and Chris), a former finalist (Daniel) and a Euroquest finalist (Andy). Daniel raced down the expedition card track early, getting to the bottom at the end of Round 3 and prompting everyone, in-cluding Daniel, to think this might be a runaway. Andy failed twice on early colony attempts and fell behind. Alex decided to push the spice track first before switching to cards in mid-game. Chris pur-sued his proven strategy of even development and solid money-management in the auction.

Phase B saw Andy get to the bottom of the ship and colonist tracks while Daniel pushed spices and colonists to the bottom. Alex maxed out spices and cards, while Chris was unable to get any track all the way down. Alex managed to take seven actions in Round 7 and was able to overtake Andy and close the gap between himself and Daniel. In the end, Alex pulled out his third title (51 points) with Daniel close behind (47), followed by Andy (44) and Chris (41).

Alex Bove, PA

Top LaurelistsAlex Bove, PA 147Chris Moffa, NJ 84Arthur Field, SC 84Raphael Lehrer, MD 79Rod Spade, PA 49John Kerr, VA 48Chris Trimmer, TX 47Kevin Walsh, NY 45Daniel Eppolito, CA 30Perrianne Lurie, PA 30

2010 ResultsAlex Bove, PADaniel Eppolito, NVO Andrew Gerb, MDO Chris Trimmer, TXO Richard Meyer, MAO Rod Spade, PA

Alex Bove, PA

33 2004-2010

2010 ResultsRichard Beyma, VATom Gregorio, PAVince Meconi, DEGreg Smith, FLO Ed Menzel, CAO Ray Clark, CT

Vince Meconi, DE

35 1992-2010

Richard Beyma, VA

Top LaurelistsEd Menzel, CA 190Vincent Meconi, DE 172Allen Kaplan, NJ 91Dave Zimmerman, PA 78Richard Beyma, MD 64Ted Drozd, IL 62Barry Shoults, MI 56Jim Tracy, OH 38William Place, PA 31Greg Smith, FL 30

Gettysburg (GBG)

Richard Beyma took his first GBG crown by defeating Tom Gregorio.

Richard was playing in only his third Get-tysburg tourney and Tom in just his second. The tournament field apparently believed that the only way to keep defending champ Ed Menzel from winning the playoffs for the fifth straight year was to keep him out of them, which they did by “hold-ing” him to a 9-3 mark in the preliminary rounds. The 68 games played were a record. The South won 43 of them. 13 played the required minimum three games to qualify for playoff consideration. The qualifiers were, in order, Vince Meconi (6-0, 90 Points), Greg Smith (9-5, 72 Points), Richard Beyma (7-5, 70 Points), and Tom Gregorio (5-2, 66 Points).

In the semi-finals, Tom’s Confederates, bid-ding 7.0, killed or flipped very few of Vince’s Union forces on July 1, but began to rough them up on Turn 9. The Federals finally quit on Turn 14 with a KO looming. Meanwhile, Richard bid 5.5 for the rebels against Smith. The South’s infantry proved very resistant to North counterattacks and did not suffer their first step loss until Turn 15; the Union resigned four turns later.

Richard took the South in the Final for 5.5 and his Grey juggernaut rolled over Tom’s Blue. While not suffering a single unit killed or flipped, the Confederates captured Culp’s Hill, Cemetery Hill,

and hex I11 and added 12 points for Union dead and stepped units for a score of 23-10.5, a Southern knockout on Turn 8.

Century Events 25

Hammer of the Scots (HOS)

The predicted Final never materialized—and oc-curred in Round 3 of the swiss phase instead.

Defending champ Lyman found himself facing four-time champ George and for the first time in six years, Lyman earned a win as the English against Seary’s previously unbeatable Scots. Ly-man enjoyed a very effective turn of truce play—getting Bruce and Galloway for “free”. George just couldn’t get the French Knights on the board, but did an excellent “stuff” turn when Lyman win-tered and ended up losing Mentieth to a Wallace “sneak retreat”—sending three English infantry blocks home due to overstacking. However, next turn George’s back was broken when Moray got killed center board, and there just wasn’t enough Scots left to stop a rising English tide. The game went the distance, but in the end the English had the most nobles. A 2-1 record proved fatal to George who lacked enough strength of schedule to qualify for the elimination rounds.

Fred Bauer worked his way to the Final in George’s stead. Turn 2 started much like the first with Lyman sending some tough armor over the border—and then slamming into Argyle’s castle while he was colluding with Moray. In one of those battles, the English knights killed Moray and convinced Argyle he was on the losing side …setting the stage for a bad Scottish turn. This led to Wallace wintering in Selkirk—never a good thing in general—and consequently dispatched the next turn. The game ended on Turn 3 with Lyman’s first successful title defense.

Lyman Moquin, DC

Top LaurelistsGeorge Seary, NY 219Lyman Moquin, DC 139Rick Young, NC 108Hank Burkhalter, GA 87Ric Manns, IN 68Phil Barcafer, PA 53Bruce Reiff, OH 51Bill O’Neal, NY 33Susanne Tuch, NY 32Rob Taylor, MI 30

2010 ResultsLyman Moquin, DCFred Bauer, VAMike Dauer, TXO David Platnick, VAO George Seary, NYO Ray Freeman, CA

George Seary, NY

24 2003-2010

Great Campaigns (GCA)

The Great Campaigns crown returned to familiar hands, as Chris Withers defeated Dave Cross to

capture his ninth GCA title. The SE playoffs pair-ings were Cross vs. Ed Beach, and Ted Drozd vs. Withers. They faced off in the tense cavalry race, Sheridan Rides South.

Dave eliminated defending champion Ed Beach in the latter’s closest game of the week. Dave’s ini-tial movement rolls with Sheridan’s cavalry were so poor, he was forced to leave a cavalry division be-hind. Still, the Union cavalry scored well, eliminat-ing the Hanover Junction garrison, and Dave was at the gates of Richmond with 17 VPs to end Turn 3. Ed’s attempts to pin the Union cavalry on Turn 4 failed, and the Union won by a single point.

Dave and Chris then squared off in a slugfest Wilderness Final from Grant Takes Command. Chris bid 4 to play the Union. Dave’s Rebs started slowly with Hill rolling low and failing to reach Parker’s Store. The Union raced to Parkers with Hancock and dug in. Chris then began to surround Locust Grove. The Rebs came back by blocking further Yank moves toward Locust Grove, and then rout-ing the Union away from Parkers. Chris’ counterat-tack retook the critical store, but Longstreet arrived on the scene and the VP location changed hands again. Parkers changed hands twice, but the Rebs answered by capturing Shady Grove. This led to

a series of lead changes from com-bat losses in minor battles. When the smoke cleared, Chris’ Yankees had squeaked out a one-point victory.

Chris Withers, CA

Top LaurelistsChris Withers, CA 363Ed Beach, MD 246Dave Cross, VA 109Mark Booth, VA 107Rob Doane, MA 96B. Passacantando, CT 84Paul Nied, KS 78Steve Likevich, OH 66Justin Rice, VA 53Michael Pacheco, CA 46

2010 ResultsChris Withers, CADave Cross, VATed Drozd, ILO Ed Beach, MDO Allen Hill, MDO Brad Merrill, ME

Justin Rice, VA

18 1993-2010

Grea

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paig

ns

26 Century Events

Here I Stand (HIS)

Twelve different players won Preliminary games; only Brad Merrill prevailing in both

heats. Semi-final victories were won by Dave Cross, former champ Jeff Burdett, and Nick Benedict (with the first English win of the week). AJ Sudy earned the last Final ticket with amazing siege dice results.

The finalists were: Nick (England), Dave (Ottomans), Jeff (Papacy), AJ (Protestant), Brad (France), and Paul McCarthy (Hapsburgs). VP totals entering the last turn were close: between 17 and 19 VP for five of the six powers. Dave’s Ottoman move is to march across Germany to end the game in Metz (with 24 VP). Brad plays Michael Servetus for a VP, pushing his total to 21. Little did he know the random card discarded from the Protestant hand from this event would be Copernicus! But AJ can just retrieve it from the discard pile with his Home card, right? Not if Luther dies with the Calvin Mandatory Event before his next move. Ouch! This sequence cost AJ 2 VP! To further add to AJ’s difficulties, Dave plays Mary I to bring her to the English throne for the first time in a Final. Dave has timed this play carefully to give the Papacy time to recover, but not enough time to surpass his Ottoman VP total. Despite these significant obstacles, AJ presses for-ward with the Reformation. His strong play pre-vails and he wins in his third Final appearance (based on the tiebreaker over Dave’s Ottomans, who repeat their 2009 runner-up finish). Gotta love those sieges!

A. J. Sudy

Top LaurelistsJeff Burdett, NY 125Alan Sudy, VA 91Dave Cross, VA 72Bryan Collars, SC 62Dan Gallagher, MD 60John Wetherell, PA 60Chris Striker, PA 39Ken Richards, SC 38Rob Seulowitz, NY 36Alan Hill, MD 36

2010 ResultsA. J. Sudy, VADave Cross, VABrad Merrill, MEPaul McCarthy, NYNick Benedict, NYJeff Burdett, NY

Ed Beach, MD

52 2006-2010

Hannibal (HRC)

The 2010 field was, by most accounts, the best competition ever, with no

easy games, plenty of highly-ranked players including seven former champs, plus a tough group of veteran mid-ranked players who have honed their skills.

For a second year, a “Messenger Intercepted” rule change was offered as an option. The rule, making it less likely the powerful Event would fire later in the game, was adopted in only 20% of the matches. An optional Syracuse rule, turning it into a Must Play Event, was only chosen three times. Given the lack of interest, these options will not be offered going forward. Bidding PCs for sides resulted in an average Bid of 1.1 for Car-thage, up slightly from last year. In 16 of the 70 games, no bid was offered, while the bids for Car-thage rose to 3 six times, to 2 in 25 games, and to 1 in 16 games. There were seven bids of 1 for Rome.

42 players were present for Round 1, with Rome winning 11 of 21 games. Thereafter, how-ever, Carthage reigned in each of the remaining rounds, including a healthy 6-2 thumping in the fifth “medal” Round. In all, Carthage posted a 59% winning percentage. Carthage was sacked four times, Rome twice (including a stunning Turn 2 siege). 80% of the games lasted long enough for

Africanus to arrive (the shorter games splitting evenly), and 41 games went the distance to the province count. Of those “accountant” wins, nine resulted in a tied province count.

James Pei, VA

Top LaurelistsJames Pei, VA 344Keith Wixson, NJ 283Jim Heenehan, PA 206Chris Byrd, CT 175Peter Reese, VA 94Randall MacInnis, NJ 85Gary Andrews, NY 62Nick Anner, NY 60Aaron Fuegi, MA 60Stuart Tucker, MD 52

2010 ResultsJames Pei, VASteve Worrel, VARandall MacInnis, NJChris Byrd, CTLyman Moquin, DCStuart Tucker, MD

Stuart Tucker, MD

50 1996-2010

Century Events 27

Imperial (IMP)

Originally scheduled for a 16-player semi-final, those plans were scrapped when only eight

Preliminary games were played. Since several double winners and schedule conflicts prevented advancing all winners and runners-up, only three 4-player games were seated for the semi-final round with the top runner-up (by percentage of winner’s score) also earning a golden ticket. Rob Kilroy, Romain Jacques and 2009 champ Blair Morgen won their tables. Rob Seulowitz also ad-vanced as the top runner-up.

The opening distribution of bonds for the Final was: Blair: AH 1, Italian 1, French 3, UK 2, German 3. Romain: AH 2, Italian 2, French 1, Ger-man 2, Russian 3. Rob S: AH 4, Italian 4, UK 1, Russian 1. Rob K: French 2, UK 3, German 1, Rus-sian 4. This meant that Romain began the game with no Flags. However, in the current fashion, the players chose to begin each nation’s first turn on “Investor”. This resulted in a flurry of early purchases and passing of Flags. After Turn 1, Rob K was flagless and Blair controlled 4! Final scores were: Blair, 193, Romain 122, Rob S. 107, and Rob K. 80 as Blair successfully defended his title.

I have begun to believe, despite its German de-signer and publisher, that Imperial does not belong in the “Euro” track. There seems to be more player conflict with Dune and other classic multi-player conflict-heavy games. I suggest that it be scheduled as such go-ing forward but am hereby passing the GM baton to Dennis Mishler for 2011.

Blair Morgen, NJ

Top LaurelistsBlair Morgen, NJ 60Patrick Maloney, PA 60Rob Seulowitz, NY 30Romain Jaques, qc 30Jeff Bowers, UT 18Tony Defeo, CT 18Mike Wojke, PA 12Jim Doughan, PA 12Peter Eirich, MD 10Rob Kilroy, PA 9

2010 ResultsBlair Morgen, NJRomain Jacques, onRob Seulowitz, NYO Rob Kilroy, PAO D. Bohnenberger, PAO Daniel Barnes, PA

D. Bohnenberger, PA

35 2007-2010

History of the World (HWD)

The finalists managed to eliminate every player with a game, leading to a belated search for

a board and threats to evict a finalist in favor of someone with a game. Despite that setback, the new two-heat format has succeeded in reinvigo-rating the field and returning the event to Sand-man status. Five games plied each heat, advanc-ing 18 and six to the elimination rounds.

2006 champ Craig Yope was unable to recap-ture his mojo, rolling triple 1’s with the Huns, killing Attila at the outset of a disappointing Hun dynasty. However, Charles Stucker starred in the Preliminaries with a 225-point win, earning the highest score and largest margin of victory (35). Eric Kleist scored 55 with France, giving him the largest single empire tally. But the closest game was a semi-final won by Ty Hansen over Dominic Duchesne and 2008 champ Jeff King at 191-190-189. It was so close that all three advanced to the Final. Mark Smith advanced with a six-point win and Scott Smith won the third semi by 25, ending defending champ Henry Dove and 2007 champ Greg Kulp’s attempts at renewed glory.

Fortune did not favor Ty who finished sixth in the Final. His Arabs played both Siegecraft and Weaponry for a +2 on many of his die rolls, but still lost seven battles as his dice yielded only

three rolls over 4 in 30 attempts. Conversely, it was Jeff’s day, as he took the lead with the Ming Dynasty and held it to become our first two-time champ.

Jeff King, ME

Top LaurelistsHarald Henning, CT 126Jeff King, OH 124Rolinda Collinson, MD 90Jonas Borra, NY 84Mike Backstrom, MN 68Gregory Kulp, NJ 64Haim Hochboim, is 60Robert Destro, NJ 60Joe Collinson, MD 58Henry Dove, MD 50

2010 ResultsJeff King, MEMark Smith, KYDom Duchesne, qcJohn Elliott, MDScott A. Smith, PAO Ty Hansen, DC

Kevin Youells, FL

50 1993-2010

28 Century Events

2010 ResultsDavid Rohde, NCTim Keating, INMichael Shea, CTO Sam Atabaki, CAO Deb Lawrence, PAO Shannon Keating, IN

Lee Mewshaw, MD107

2001-02, 05-06, 08-10

David Rohde, NC

Top LaurelistsDavid Rohde, NC 30Keith Levy, MD 30Andy Latto, MA 20Dave Buchholz, MI 20Bob Titran, NY 20Steve Scott, CA 19Tim Keating, IN 18Terri Wicks, CT 18Michael Shea, CT 12Frank Mestre, NY 12

Ivanhoe (IVH)

GMing went much smoother my second time around. I refined registration by

using individual player sign-in cards instead of sign-in sheets. Not only did it speed sign-in, but it also allowed me to sort through and rearrange the cards after each heat to see the order from top win-ner through to the end. Previously I spent a lot of time typing the stats into a database. I’ll still prob-ably enter it all into a data base, but I can do it at my leisure. Until then I can manually sort the cards to produce the stats I need

12 of the top 16 players appeared for the semi-finals, allowing four alternates to step up. Surviving to move on to the Final were David Rohde, Timothy Keating, Michael Shea, and Sam Atabaki. The Final went back and forth with the lead changing hands frequently. Sev-eral times three players combined to block the winning chip.

Despite increased competition in the late evening time slots, an attendance record was set due to many new players who learned the game the same night they played. In one instance, a fa-ther taught his son, who promptly won his first heat. Several people took it upon themselves to teach newcomers each night. Next year, I’ll see if I can find some designated ‘splainers to teach it as a Class C event. One person can’t really do that without help in an event this size. Brian and Nessa Mongold stepped in to run one heat and will take over as GMs in 2010.

Ingenius (ING)

The annual post convention summary dubbed 2010 the Year of the Family. This event verified

that. A check of the attendance sheet for last names came up with: 4: McCorry, Beach (seems like there’s more of them); 3: Keating, Henning, Strock, Wojtaszczyk, Yaure and a whole bunch at two. My apologies if I missed a few family connections es-pecially if they don’t share a last name. I’m actu-ally a little surprised at who’s not there. Where’s the Engelmanns, Hebners and Gutermuths? Only one each? I got more Reiffs than that and there are only two of them!

For the semis we had ten double winners and six players with a first and second who squeaked past a few Strocks, Collinsons and Keatings on tiebreakers. It was not a good day for champs or McCorrys, as Meghan Friedmann was able to edge defending champion Brittany Bernard on Table #1. Meanwhile, Bruce Reiff on Table #2 wasn’t getting any fifth shield in 2010 as Jason Levine dismissed him while beating Meghan McCorry. Table #3 saw Steve Lewinter edge Tom McCorry and on Table #4 Joe Yaure put the McCorry clan out of their misery with a win over Katie. Losers were comforted by these words of wisdom from a bored GM, “losing is better than doing paperwork in the semi-finals.”

The Final saw Jason Levine pull defeat from the jaws of victory, as Steve Lewin-ter got a big triple turn near the end to overtake him. Final score: Steve Lewinter 12, Jason Levine 11, Joe Yaure 10 and Meghan Friedmann 9.

Steven Le Winter, NC

Top LaurelistsSteven LeWinter, NC 30Brittany Bernard, PA 30Andy Latto, MA 30Bruce Reiff, OH 21Chris Johnson, CA 20Jason Levine, NY 18Matt Calkins, VA 18Rob Winslow, NY 18Peter Stein, OH 17Daniel Eppolito, CA 16

2010 ResultsSteven LeWinter, NCJason Levine, NYJoe Yaure, PAO Meg. Friedmann, MAO Tom McCorry, VAO Katie McCorry, VA

Peter Stein, OH

131 2007-2010

Century Events 29

2010 ResultsRichard M. Shea, MANick Henning, CTDale Long, NJO Chuck Foster, IDO Greg Thatcher, CAO Rod Bacigalupo, MD

Jason Levine, NY

216 2003-2010

Top LaurelistsJosh Githens, SC 36Daniel Hoffman, NC 36Richard M. Shay, MA 30Bernard Beckerman, NY 30Kathy Kilroy, PA 30Josh Lanham, MD 30Thomas Browne, PA 30L. Dan Hoffman, MD 30Lucimara Martins, bz 30Nick Henning, CT 18

Richard M. Shea, MA

Liar’s Dice (LID)

The event led the WBC attendance parade for the third time. It all got underway with the

traditional unified cup shake and thunderous smash to the tables of 216 cups.

31 accomplished liars advanced to the semi-finals—only to be further reduced to six re-ally good prevaricators for the Final. The third challenge of the night proved telling as Greg Thatcher lost four dice on a bid of 6 stars to Nick Henning’s challenge. The resulting table talk had barely subsided when the big hit was out-done by an even larger loss. Chuck Foster’s bid of 11-4’s prompted Rodney Bacigalupo to reveal 17 4’s—costing him all five of his dice. Thatcher joined him in the cheap seats on the next chal-lenge. Three rounds later, Chuck nestled into 4th place on a bid of five 4’s.

In Round 9 Dale Long’s bid of seven 4’s drew the first exactor so both Richard Shay and Nick lost a die—enabling Dale to gain on both previously untouched leaders. But his come-back ended on Round 12 with his call of Nick’s exactor bid of two stars. Round 13 evened the odds at two dice apiece with the fourth exac-tor on Richard’s bid of two stars. On Round 14 Richard bid three 5’s and re-rolled one of his dice. Nick called to find the fifth exactor and was now down to his final die. Round 14 was decisive. Nick bid two 3’s with only one showing to lose his last die and proclaim Rich-ard WBC’s best liar in 2010.

Kremlin (KRM)

The four heats drew 14 preliminary games. Not wanting to give newbies

a bad experience, the GM gave up a sure win on Turn 3 by allowing his healthy party chief to be sent to Siberia, despite holding the “Alibi” card. Surely, a three-time champion couldn’t have just forgotten to play the card? Inconceivable! Fortunately for his self-respect, he was able to connive his way back to the top, and use the same card on Turn 9, securing a more perilous win.

Double winners Greg Crowe and Nick Smith led the qualifiers. The Final started slowly, with little movement for two turns. Pete Stein claimed control of the sick Party Chief but was unable to get a wave, characteristically rolling 1 to much guffaws on both attempts while Nestor’s health worsened. He finally went to his reward in Turn 3, giving Crowe control and the first wave through his Party Chief Karrienko. Alas, Karrienko fell ill, and the next three turns yielded only a failed wave, a Sanitarium visit, and another failed wave. He fi-nally succumbed in Turn 7, leaving Steve Cuccaro nominally in charge through a very ill Niewitko. The weakling died on the next turn, bringing Shootemdedsky to the top and putting “I get no re-spect” Stein back in control. Pete rapidly collected two waves and ended the game on the 10th turn when the Politburo was emptied. The self depre-

cating humor of comrade Stein will now have to be put in abeyance. It is hard to emphasize with the travails of a three-time champion.

Pete Stein, OH

Top LaurelistsSteve Cuccaro, MD 154Peter Stein, OH 116Tom McCorry, VA 46Lee Rodrigues, VA 42Ewan McNay, CT 40Llew Bardecki, on 40Marc Houde, VA 35Sean McCulloch, OH 34Nick Smith, uk 30David Buchholz, MI 30

2010 ResultsPete Stein, OHGreg Crowe, MDO Steve Cuccaro, MDO Peter Staab, PAO Mike Stanley, OHO Nick Smith, uk

Steve Cuccaro, MD

41 1991-2010

30 Century Events