Renaissance in half the time
This
year's VINCI tournament saw a turnout of 32 unique players
with three 5-player games played in the first heat and one 5-
and four 4-player games played in the second heat. From this
collection of talent, 13 players moved on to the semi-finals
playing one 5-player and two 4-player boards. The winners of
the three boards joined by the runner-up who finished closest
to the winner in points moved on to the final.
The tournament used the second edition rules which make only
one notable change (as opposed to clarifications) from the first
edition and that is to reduce the Specialization chips to one
and increase the Barbarian chips by one. One shortfall in the
rules that we ran into during play is the lack of a tie breaking
mechanism. Since I had not provided a tournament rule to address
this situation it was decided that a coin toss was the fairest
method to break the tie for second in the final (which was the
only time a tie in the score was of consequence and needed to
be broken).
The four finalists were John Charbonneau, Frank Cunliffe,
Keith Layton and Henry Rice. Keith went first and took Livestock
w/ Heritage and Militia as his starting empire. John picking
second took Diplomacy and Field General, Henry going third took
Messengers and Livestock and Frank choosing last took Slavery
and Portbuilding. After Round 2, the score was Henry 29, Frank
23 and Keith and John 21. Round 3 saw the first changes in empires
as Keith, John and Frank all declared their empires to be in
decline. The new empires chosen were: Keith, Revolutionaries
and Militia paying two VP to make this choice; John, Astronomy
and Barbarians along with the two VP that went with the pick;
Frank, Rebirth and Heritage paying two VP for the combination.
Henry changed empires during Round 4, taking Weapons and Mining
along with two VP. After Round 4, the score was Henry 47, John
45, Keith 42 and Frank 29. At the end of his Round 5, Frank used
his Rebirth ability to decline and choose a new empire without
a transition turn, his new empire had Espionage and Messages
(paying two VP) as its abilities. Henry took his empire into
decline during Round 6 and chose Medicine and Slavery (gaining
two VP). After Round 6, the score was John 71, Keith 63, Henry
61 and Frank 42. Round 8 saw both John and Frank taking their
empires into decline, John taking Mining and Agriculture and
Frank picking Field General and Portbuilding w/ Heritage (paying
two VP). After Round 8 the score stood Henry 87, John 84, Keith
83 and Frank 57. Keith made his last empire change during Round
9, taking Currency and Field General (paying two VP) and Henry
changed Round 10 taking Agriculture and Agriculture w/ Heritage
(gaining four VP). After Round 10 the score was John 109, Henry
107, Keith 101 and Frank 83. During Round 11 John gained enough
points to go over 120 and win the game, finishing the game with
a final result of John 123, Henry and Keith 117 and Frank 97.
Congratulations to John Charbonneau our 2001 champion and
my thanks to everyone who participated in the tournament this
year.
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