San Francisco or Bust ...
We had a very successful year. 36 engineers ran the western
trains which was a record number and a 63% increase over last
year. Over the two heats we played nine games with eight
winners opting to advance to the semi-finals.
The playing styles varied greatly in the preliminary games. In
4-player games, Andy Lewis had the most cash (80) with the highest
winning score 194. Bob Wicks had the lowest winning score
(125) while never getting the short trains out. In the 5-player
games, Rob Kircher had the highest cash (64), Mike Backstrom
took top score with 161 and Chris LeFerve only needed 66 points
to win in a short game.
The first semi was a very tightly contested battle, just
15 points from top to bottom. Cash was a tight race between
Chris LeFevre (58) and Bill Peeck (55). Mike Backstrom
didn't play any city cards below 5 and topped out the five cities
with 13 connections. The game played just about all the
trains to help Bob Wicks with ten connections with seven city
cards. Bill was very balanced with his city card play and
tied Bob in the end with 166 points to advance to the Final.
Semi #1
Bob Wicks 166
Bill Peeck 166
Mike Backstrom 160
Chris LeFevre 151
In the other semi-final game cash was scarce. Everyone was
playing defensively. Stan Hilinski was tops in cash with
a mere 40. Both past champ Andy Lewis and Rob Kircher, known
for collecting, combined for 41 between them. Andy had a
rough game - never drawing a 7-point city card. Stan used
Denver, Amarillo and Dallas as the cornerstone for collecting
60 points from 4-point cities. Rob was centered in the southwest
using Phoenix and Las Vegas as his power base for ten connections
to 6-point cities.
Semi #2
Rob Kircher 168
Stan Hilinski 152
Roger Whitney 124
Andy Lewis 91
The Final had two new faces present with Stan Hilinski
and Bob Wicks earning their first laurels. Rob Kircher and
defending champ Bill Peeck have been frequent finalists. The
game started off with the Kansas Pacific Railway running north
to Duluth in the first four moves which would be a costly forgotten
train in the end. Rob went for the cash early, trying
to turn his cards over for better. Bill played mostly southern
cities while working the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe lines. Bob
flew under the radar playing the northwest cities of Seattle,
Portland and Boise. In the 12th turn, the Great Northern
Railway was established for both Stan and Bob to both play 2X
cards to run the train through Portland and Seattle netting 12
cash for both. Rob and Bill were caught napping and
neither bought a branch for the Kansas Train sitting in Duluth. Both
had Amarillo and Denver cards in play. As a result the Great
Northern Railway ran out of trains to end the game. Cash
was pretty close. Rob was ahead with 44, but Portland brought
Bob to parity with 44 also. Stan and Bill collected well
with 32 each. In the summation the combo of Sacramento,
Portland and Seattle for 42 points in 7-point cities gave Bob
the win.
Final Scores:
Bob Wicks 147
Rob Kircher 137
Bill Peeck 132
Stan Hilinski 122
I would thank everyone for playing. Please remember
to vote for your favorite games in December. Since Santa
Fe Rails crossed the 32 player threshold, I will be taking
a minimum of 16 semi-finalists next year for four 4-player games
with winners advancing to the big game.
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