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Tedd Mullally and Christian Moffa
contemplate their next move. |
Eric Eshleman moves as GM Weber obrserves.
The event, like many new Euro events, suffered from a shortage
of games as many play to sample the game for the first time and
rely on others to furnish the game. |
The Year's Best New Game ...
Pillars of the Earth was a vendor-sponsored trial event
courtesy of Mayfair games, publisher of the English version of
the game, which is based on the novel by Ken Follett. Strong
attendance at the Tuesday demo indicated much interest in the
game. Once it came time for the initial heat, it was clear that
many had not played or purchased the game. We had a total of
five 4-player games in the first heat, followed by an identical
number in the second heat. The event ran smoothly until the
second heat, when we had to scrounge around for games as it turned
out only one of the nearly 20 players who had appeared for the
heat actually had a copy. We were able to start two more games
on time with borrowed copies (thanks to Steve Fitchett, who did
not play in the heat, but made his game available for others).
Several players had to wait nearly an hour for additional copies
to arrive, and finally the games were completed with ten one-game
winners and two alternates (including one player, Eric Eshelman,
who advanced with two seconds).
Raphael Lehrer and Dan Eppolito paced the winners with the
high scores of 59 in the preliminary heats. Winning scores ranged
from a low of 44 to the high 50s, with a total of five players
cracking the 50-point barrier. Closest game in the preliminaries
was a two-point game, won by Ted Mullally with Chris Moffa in
second. With fewer than 16 winners, the "win in first heat
played" tiebreaker did not come into play as all winners
advanced to semi-final round play. The ten winners and top two
alternates (Eric Eshleman, who scored two seconds and Chris Moffa,
who scored the closest second place finish) formed the field
for the 12-player semi-finals. Although the event was scheduled
in a very comfortable and conservative three-hour time slot,
most of the games finished in two hours or less with only a few
lasting two hours or longer.
For the semi-finals, the rules specified four three-player
games with the winners advancing to the Final. In one, Raphael
Lehrer chose the start player five turns in a row and scored
19 VPs in the last turn to advance. Raphael finished the game
winning by three, 50 to 47, over top alternate Eric Eshleman.
Marvin Birnbaum used the Architect to score a free point a turn
to register a 3-point win, 49 to 46, over Kevin Walsh. The other
two semi-finals were extremely close. A last turn stone shortage
cost Dan Eppolito the win in one, and Greg Thatcher emerged the
victor, with 53 VPs compared to 51 for Dan, who took second in
a tiebreak over Paul Bean. But the closest game of the entire
tournament was a 48-48-47 affair between Alex Bove, Bill Crenshaw
and Chris Moffa. Alex took the money woodworker and secured
the win on a tiebreak with consecutive master builder draws that
enabled him to convert metal into VPs with the bellmaker at the
end. Chris was second, although his narrow defeat earnedhim fifth
place in the overall tournament.
Alex, Greg, Marvin and Raphael had won their opening round
games, so each was undeated going into the Final. Raphael drew
the first player and took advantage with a strong opening turn,
taking the money woodworker, the Aliena card (one wood per turn)
and 8eight gold. While this did not earn him any points, it
put him in a very stable financial position that eventually translated
into a strong position by the game end. Some fortuitous master
builder draws contributed to Raphael's win, as he also executed
his strategy of taking Start Player at every opportunity (he
was Start Player for five of the six turns). By the end, Raphael
had three Sculptors plus an Organmaker and an Architect to score
21 VPs in the sixth and last turn for a score of 45, less than
in his prior two games, but good enough to claim the wood.
Greg Thatcher, who finished second, also benefited from some
favorable Master Builder draws as he acquired the Bellmaker to
go with earlier acquisitions of a Potter and a Sculptor to come
on strongly to place second, five points behind Raphael. Marvin,
who led in the early going, used a Glassblower to score some
VPs but lacked any of the high scoring Turn 6 Craftsmen to keep
pace with Raphael and Greg, and he finished third. Alex, who
like Marvin often had poor luck on the Master Builder draws,
finished fourth despite obtaining the services of a Goldsmith
which provided a substantial boost to his points total in the
final turn.
Statistics were collected based on seating position and, although
we had a fairly small sample, it appears that there is some advantage
to going first and a disadvantage to going last that is not fully
compensated by the extra starting money offered. None of the
four-player games were won by the player in the #4 starting position,
and the point spread (on average) was substantial, with the best
(#1 seat) averaging around seven points per game better than
the worst (#4 seat). Second best was the #2 seat, which won as
many of the four-player games (5) but averaged about three points
per game less than the #1 spot. The #2 seat won one game and
averaged 4.5 points per game less than the #1 seat.
The GM wishes to acknowledge the very substantial assistance
from both Jim Carvin and Chris Moffa, who served as assistant
GMs for the event.
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