The Tides of History ...
The
2003 tournament had a few new wrinkles, the biggest being the
change from a first round, semi-final, final format to two heats
and a final, with the six finalists taken from the players who
won at least one game in the heats (two wins guaranteed entry,
followed by the players who had the best win-to-second-place
ratios in their wins.) Like last year, players could play either
the older or newer version of the game, with the new version
used in the final. However, even with this new policy, the number
of players was down again this year, with 49 persons playing
in at least one game.When the smoke cleared, the six finalists
included the last two champs, Rolinda Collinson and Harald Henning,
along with Duane Wagner (the only player to win games in both
heats), Mike Backstrom, Terry Coleman, and Jamie Tang. The first
few epochs went a little slower than everybody had expected,
mainly because even the experienced players (not to mention the
GM...what do you MEAN, you only need two areas for dominance
and three for control in the new version?) had a little trouble
getting the differences between the two versions straight. Terry
took the early lead with Egypt, and, although he finished well
back, turned out to play a key part in the finish as (unbeknownst
to anybody at the time) he drew the 6-point Pre-eminence chit.
Mike had the lead (and three Pre-eminence
chits) going into the final Epoch, only for Harald to reveal
Britain, Reallocation, and a Leader, cashed in nine of his 13
fleets, and ended up with a 60-point turn for a total of 201.
Mike finished with Germany, and scored 43 of his own, to bring
his own total to 201, and keep the Pre-eminence out of Harald's
hands. When the chits were revealed, Mike had 13 to Harald's
8, resulting in a five-point victory for the 11th different tournament
winner in its 11-year history. Had Harald scored two more points,
or Mike two fewer, the winner would have been decided effectively
by a coin toss, as the last two Pre-eminence chits were 3 and
4; a 4 would give Harald a one-point win, while a 3 would give
the win to Mike on lower total Empire strengh.
At least one person has expressed interest
in taking over as GM next year (unfortunately, I will be in Europe
at another gaming event); both of us and Don Greenwood agreed
that, considering how hard it was for even experienced players
to learn how to play a different version on short notice, that
only one version of the game be used next year, and as the Hasbro
one is the one in print, that is the one to be used.
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