kremlin [Updated April 2009] 

KRM  HMW  
  17     18  
  14   19    9   14
 

  Host A     Terrace, Table #7

Lee Rodrigues, VA

2008 Champion

2nd: Steve Cuccaro, MD

3rd: Ewan McNay, NY

4th: Andy Latto, MA

 5th: Pete Stein, OH

 6th: Nick Benedict, CA
Event History
1991    Jim Fuqua      25
1992    Sean Cousins      20
1993    Jim Fuqua      49
1994    Caleb Cousins      42
1995    Sean Cousins      36
1996    Sean Cousins      20
1997    Tracy Graf      46
1998    Chris Geggus      46
1999    Bruce Glassco     38
2000    Tom McCorry     45
2001    David Buchholz     51
2002    Steve Cuccaro     50
2003    Llew Bardecki     56
2004    Steve Cuccaro     48
2005    Steve Cuccaro     40
2006    Pete Stein     39
2007     Pete Stein     33
2008     Lee Rodrigues     34

Steve Cuccaro, MD

2009 GM
Links

  Laurels

Laughing at the Cold War ...

What's the best part about playing KREMLIN? Hard to say...There's nothing quite like having the KGB chief purge half of the Politburo, except maybe killing them by rolling low on the health die. A trial that sends the Party Chief to Siberia can give you a warm glow, too. It's all good.

KREMLIN is a tongue-in-cheek look at the old Soviet Politburo. Each player controls a Communist party faction, and has (secret) influence over 10 of the 26 current Politburo members and up-and-coming politicians. Your goal is to get your people into the office of Party Chief and keep them there long enough to wave three times at the October Parade; failing this, you must hold the top office when the curtain comes down at the end.

You will need to figure out which politicians your opponents control and purge them when you can, play an Intrigue card or two to protect your own people, let your opponents move your secret supporters into position, and when all else fails, hope for a handy epidemic to shake things up. This will require both skill to get enough votes to win the Party Chief position and luck on the purge and illness die rolls. However, your opponents are all trying to do the same... and there's no guarantee that the man you are guiding to the top is really under your control.

We will continue to have four heats to advance six players to the Final, and will again use the Heats: Most Wins criterion. This year I am adding a new GM tiebreaker in response to players who, after winning the first game they played, felt that they had to make a choice between playing again or a guaranteed advance to the finals. Since the last thing I want is to discourage people from playing the game, the new tiebreaker is:

Most heats played.

Since this GM tiebreaker takes precedence over the average finish tiebreaker but still falls behind the five regarding number of wins and number of heats played before a win, it should solve the problem without affecting most players.

ADVANCEMENT TIE-BREAKERS: In Multiple Entry, Single Elimination events for multi-player games, players possibly qualify for Single Elimination play in the second round by winning any of up to four preliminary Heats. Occasionally, players may advance wihout winning a heat. Players can enter one or more Heats without limit. All events for most multi-player games consist of three rounds; an opening Round consisting of two to four Preliminary Heats, a semi-final and a Final. The sem-ifinal round will advance a predesignated optimum number of players to fill the second round; i.e., 25 players for a five-player game, 16 players for a four-player game, etc. but in all cases will advance no more than half of all players which participated in the Preliminaries. If insufficient players advance to warrant a semi-final round, the scheduled semi-final will instead become the Final.

Heats: Most Wins (HMW) - Standard tiebreakers used to trim the field or identify alternates to complete the field, as listed below in the following order:
1. Most Wins (e.g., total in all heats entered);
2. Win in first Heat entered;
3. Win in second Heat entered;
4. Win in third Heat Entered;
5. Win in fourth Heat Entered;
6. GM specific tie-breaker, most heats played;
7. Average finish in all heats entered (e.g., a 2nd and two 3rds = 2.67 and beats two 2nds and two 4ths = 3); and
8. High dice roll.

Kremlin has no rules for ranking players other than the winner, but for the purposes of the average finish tiebreaker in the Heats, I will assign ranks based on the number of successful waves. In the Final round, the following chart will be used to determine 2nd through 6th place.

Points are to be awarded to each player based on the following:

* Each successful wave: 4 points
* Each failed wave: 1 point
** if it would have been a 3rd wave: +1 point
* Each Parade Phase that your Party Chief is in the Cure: 1 point

If the game is not decided by waves:

* If at anytime on the last turn you control a Politician that is:
** Party Chief: 10 points
** In the 1st level Politburo: 3 points each

Points are cumulative. In a Final decided on waves, ties will be broken by counting the points for Politician control, or failing that, randomly.

There will be a set of House Rules on the exact meanings of the various intrigue cards. The GM will have several copies available at the tournament, but anyone who is interested may request the email of a .DOC file from the address below. In addition, the following FAQ and errata will be in effect:

3/3.2 The Defense Minister may not call a Trial to resolve a Spy Investigation against himself or investigate himself.

5. The Foreign Minister must (not may) nominate a Politician from the 2nd Level if there are no other Politburo members on the 1st level. A Foreign Minister in the Sanatorium can be nominated to become the party chief. However, he will not become Party Chief if two nominations fail ( it would be the nominating politician ).

D. Random Recipients - Delete the last sentence: "If a random ... 1 to 6".

D. Q. If Intrigue card 17 results in a tie for most influence on a politician, is it really fair to give control to the player declaring first since the player with the card has an advantage in knowing he should declare first? A. In a case like this, resolve the matter by high dice roll as cited in the rules for simultaneous declaration.

Declaring IP: IP declarations will be considered simultaneous as long as there are no actions (die roll, a player adds influence, another vote announced, etc.) taken in between. EXAMPLE: Green starts Turn 4 in control of Industry Minister Nikotin with 4 IP. During a trial of the Defense Minister, Green directs Nikotin to vote Guilty. Blue then declares 4 IP on Nikotin, but this does not change control since Green placed the IP first. Blue then declares 5 IP and changes Nikotin's vote to Not Guilty. If, before the next politician votes, Green declares 5 IP on Nikotin, this is considered a simultaneous declaration, and the tie would be broken per the rules. Note that if a tie is broken at a particular IP, it is too late for another player to tie at that IP.

Cure Phase: A sick politician in his strength may be sent to the Cure, even if he wouldn't age anyway.

Purge Phase: If two or more players attempt to play 1st Purge cards in the same turn, the player with the highest die roll gets to play his card. Players must signify which 1st Purge card they want to play, but do not have to show it face-up until after the die roll.

Health Phase: Any flu cards must be played at the start of this phase. In other words, the flu must affect all Politburo members.

Replacement Phase: The Party Chief may perform any side-to-side or up and down movement unless the rules state otherwise (i.e., politicians may not move up or down more than one level per sponsor).

Parade Phase: Attempting to wave is not optional.

Add Influence Phase: In order to prevent a number of potential problems, you may not play Intrigue Cards, nor may you declare already-recorded IP during this phase unless you are declaring 10+ on a politician. In this phase, IP declarations are sequential, not simultaneous.

HOW TO WIN:
1) The first player whose faction gets three waves at the October Parade wins.
2) At the end of Phase 6 of any turn, if there are fewer than eight Politburo members, the player controlling the highest active Politburo member wins. (If this Politician is uncontrolled, no player wins.)
3) At the end of the 5th phase of Turn 11, the player who controls the Party Chief wins. (If the Party Chief is uncontrolled, no player wins.)

 GM      Steve Cuccaro (4th Year]   NA
    cuccaro@fastmail.fm   410-294-3127

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