princes of florence [Updated October 2004]  

2004 WBC Report  

 2004 Status: pending 2004 GM commitment

Eugene Lin, WA

2004 Champion

2nd: David Platnick, VA

3rd: Doug Kaufman, MD

4th: Holliday Jones, MD

5th: Nathaniel Hoam, OH

6th: Legend Dan Hoffman, MD

Event History
2001    Arthur Field     65
2002    Arthur Field     94
2003    Eric Brosius     88
2004    Eugene Lin     77

Euro Quest Event History
2003    John Kerr     31
2004    Brian Reynolds     24


Offsite links:

AREA Ratings

boardgamegeek 

 Laurels
Rank Name

From

Last
Total
 1. Arthur Field

SC

02
50
 2.  Eugene Lin

WA

04
44
 3. Eric Brosius

MA

03
40
 4. Doug Kaufman

MD

04
37
 5. David Platnick

VA

04
32
 6. John Kerr

VA

03
30
 7.  Brian Reynolds

MD

04
30
 8. Legend Dan Hoffman

MD

04
28
 9. Tom Johnston

IL

03
24
10. Davyd Field

SC

02
24
11. Doug Smith

PA

02
22
12. James Carvin

PA

03
18
13. Donna Rogall

MD

04
17
14. Clyde Kruskal

MD

03
16
15. Rod Spade

PA

04
12
16. Holliday Jones

MD

04
12
17. Stuart Tucker

MD

03
12
18. John Weber

MD

03
12
19. Nathaniel Hoam

OH

04
  8
20. Brian Jones

MD

04
  6
21. Anne Norton

NJ

02
  4
22. Brian Jones

NC

01
  4
23. Andrew Gerb

MD

04
  3
24. Bruce Reiff

OH

03
  3
25. Randy Cox

SC

01
  3
26. Marc Houde

DC

01
  2
27. Justin Veazey

MD

01
  1

Past Winners

Arthur Field - SC
2001 - 2002

Eric Brosius - MA
2003
 


crowning a new prince ...

Princes of Florence featured a new GM and new time slots for 2004. Original GM Harold Siegelman passed away unexpectedly a few months before the 2003 tournament. Stan Hilinski stepped in to fill the gap for a year before Eric Brosius took over for 2004. This year's tournament was shortened from four heats to three, and the finals were moved from Saturday to Friday night to reduce conflicts with other Euro games. Five players showed up for the demo session on Tuesday night and most of them went on to enjoy participating in the tournament. A total of 77 players competed, playing 25 games in three heats.

The 2004 tournament featured 5-player games where possible. With five players, competition for desirable items is more intense, bidding more spirited and the range of strategies wider. Despite the pressure, most games were competitive. Twenty-one out of 25 games in the heats were decided by six PPs or fewer. This includes one first-heat game for which the winning score was recorded on the score sheet as 98(!) I spoke to one of the players in that game after the heat and learned that Work Value points were converted to Prestige Points at 1 for 1 rather than at 1 for 2 as specified in the rules (all of the players benefited from this rules alteration.)

The second heat featured a notable victory by Alan Kaiser, who finished with 53 PPs, just ahead of Doug Kaufman, Doug Smith and Eugene Lin, in second, third and fourth place with 52 PPs each. This was a tough table; Doug Smith played in the POF finals in 2001 and 2002, Doug Kaufman made the finals in 2002 and 2004, and it appears Eugene can play a little bit as well! In another second-heat game, Michelle Hymowitz and Alexander Safford both finished ahead of the other players with 56 PPs and 400 florins. Ties are broken in favor of the player with the lowest numbered Profession card on the table at the end of the game. Michelle won because she had #3 on the table while Alexander's lowest Profession card was #8. Michelle went on to earn a second win in the third heat by a margin of 10 PPs (getting a Jester for 200 florins in the midgame didn't hurt.)

Twenty out of 25 qualifiers were present for the semi-finals, but only one alternate showed up (many thanks to Tom DeMarco!) Rather than draft non-qualifiers to complete a field of 25, I chose to run five 4-player semi-final games. As announced previously, players bid for seating position in the semifinals and finals. Because perceptions of inequity among the various seating positions are not as strong in the 4-player version, bids were low. In two games, all bids were zero. In the other three games, the favored position was third (with two bids of 100 and one of 200.) Second position received three bids of 100 and first position received one bid of 100. The semifinal games were all close, with no margin of victory larger than four PPs. Dan Hoffman ("Legend Dan Hoffman" as it said on his badge) finished second to Doug Kaufman by 100 florins in one game to take sixth place in the tournament after both finished their game with 62 PPs. Eric Brosius, the 2003 winner, finished third in his game, which Holliday Jones won by accumulating 64 PPs using a Builder strategy.

The final game was a 5-player game. Eugene Lin considered himself fortunate to obtain the coveted second seat for a bid of only 300 florins. Eugene produced six works and won Best Work three times to win by three PPs over David Platnick, who suffered his first loss of 2004 after two wins in the heats and one in the semi-finals. David also produced six works and won Best Work three times, but he had to play a low-Work Value work in Round 1 to win one Best Work, and as a result he earned 6 PPs fewer than Eugene from producing works. The other players put on fewer works, and though each of them fulfilled the requirements for a Prestige Card, it wasn't enough to close the gap.

I recorded the final game. It is currently available on line at http://home.earthlink.net/~jcw222.

 GM      Eric Brosius  [1st Year]   NA 
    public.brosius@comcast.net   NA

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