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Kaarin Englemann shows some
natural dice
wristage while battling for survival.
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Verity Hitchings, Ewan McNay
and Tamara Houde
plot their turns in a Semi-Final game.
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Evolution of the German Imports
This year two changes were made to boost attendance:
a demo session, and a heat change from Tuesday to Saturday. Both
appear to have helped somewhat, although the timing of the
semi's and Final next year will definitely be changed (more
on that later).
Overall attendance remained steady pretty good for a game
which first appeared in 1992 and has long been out of print.
The initial heat Wednesday drew 24 participants, more than 2004's
total count - but that was the end of the good news. Random
seating paired two past champions and two seasoned contenders
at the same table. Pete Staab, Tom DeMarco, Katherine Hitchings,
and Kaarin Engelmann played a seesaw battle that saw the lead
change three times in six turns with Kaarin winning by four points,
showing again how evenly matched the top players are. Another
winner was Steve Cameron, who won the closest match of the heat
with a mere eight points separating all four players. Rob
Drozd defeated yours truly, while Verity Hitchings won a three-player
game going away. Another perennial contender, Matt Evinger
won his game, as well as Mike Fisher. The second heat early
Saturday afternoon managed only three tables, won by Tom DeMarco
(in a rare four-turn game), Tamara Houde, and Ewan McNay, who
literally ran into the room to enter just as the games were about
to begin.
The semi-final Saturday evening had scheduling conflicts which
led to only eight qualifiers being available, allowing the semi's
runner-ups to advance to the Final. In one game, David
Fritsch rallied from last place after two turns to defeat Kaarin
Engelmann, Jordan Halberstad, and Rob Drozd. Kaarin took
second place by virtue of the 'superior creature' tiebreaker
over Jordan, a newcomer in the event. In the other semi,
Ewan McNay bested three ladies, Tamara Houde, Verity Hitchings,
and Christina Hancock in a game in which 11 creatures died in
one environmental change. More evidence for modified scheduling
next year was the dilemma for Christina and Verity, who were
playing to advance but were also looking forward to playing in
Slapshot. Christina decided to make a risky attack
to try and overtake Ewan, but her plan backfired (or did it?),
giving Tamara second place and a seat at the Final.
So the Final matched Ewan, David, Tamara, and Kaarin.
Probably due in part to the (very) late night start, the game
entered the double-advance stage on the second turn of the
game with Kaarin slightly in the lead. But as so often
happens, leading early can be a curse, as the rest of the
group concentrated on her. Meanwhile, Ewan had remarkable
rolls: in two separate situations he was able to defeat '6'
strength (also known as
"auto-hit") creatures with weaker ones in battle
(due to rolling more dice). He steadily rose from second
on Turn 2 to 1st in Turn 4, where he was able to hold on through
the end of the game at Turn 5.
The demo session brought some new players to the tourney,
so will be continued. I am going to keep the Wednesday
heat, but will be reconsidering the day and time of the other
heat and SE rounds to reduce conflicts and wrap up before the
wee hours. Comments and suggestions are welcome.
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