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Bruce Beard, sporting his custom
1830 Centurion shirt, stands for a better look at the board as
Peter Elkridge from the UK, attending his first WBC, observes.
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GM Pierre LeBoeuf ups the ante
on a stock payout as his international opponents Barrington Beavis
(UK), Jim McDanold (US) and Jim McCarthy (Canada) watch. |
Event Inflation ... 1830 ... 1856
.... 1870
A reversal of fortune for the 18xx tournament saw numbers
drop from the recent high of 45 participants last year. Only
34 challengers came to attempt to deny three-time defending champion
Bruce Beard his fourth consecutive title. Seven were new
to the tournament, joining 28 returnees from prior years. Four
of the new arrivals qualified for the semi-finals (though only
two actually played). After a very narrow escape in his
semi-final, Bruce Beard won his fourth straight 18xx tournament.
Once again, there were four preliminary rounds, with three additional
games (chosen by respondents to an on-line poll) to the original
three (1830, 1856, and 1870) played. The added
games, 18EU, 1846, and 1861 were in competition
for the final three heats, allowing for greater variety of play. The
tie-breaking rules were changed again from last year, placing
greater emphasis on number of wins, while still allowing a player
to attend only one preliminary and qualify for the semi-finals,
as long as they won. 1830 remained the most popular
preliminary round game, with seven games played, along with three
of 1856, and four games of 1870. Among the
newer games, there were three games of 1861, and one each
of 18EU and 1846. Players in the 1870
games were encouraged to use the alternate start rule (a draw
for the RR that required only the president's share to open,
and for the RR that had a share go with the KATY private), and
all did. The 1830 games in the preliminary rounds
were asked to include the alternate 6 train in games with newer
players to make bankruptcies less common, but none did. Nonetheless,
there were only three of nine 1830 preliminary games that
didn't break the bank.
The first preliminary heat Wednesday morning was designated as
the 1830 heat, and there was a four-player 1856
and a five-player 1870 game to go with three four-player
1830 games. Only one first round game had a bankruptcy. Newcomers
Jim Munson and Dan Mathias joined three returning players (and
both assistant GMs) in the win column. In Dan's game, last
year's runner-up Mark Neale boldly grabbed four of the eight
companies, and had 30 shares of stock, but had to pay $800 for
two diesels out of pocket. Dan's only RR, the B&O, was
good enough to give him a $369 win in a low scoring game. Jim
Munson bested four others to win by $1091 in the 1870
game. The bankruptcy game ended when Chip Eastman went bankrupt
and was won by Jim McDanold, who survived attacks from Craig
Reece and Chris Hancock. The third 1830 game was
an easy $1247 win by Chuck Krueger over Pierre LeBoeuf. No
RR started higher than $76 in that game, and Chuck was able to
take away the NYNH in the orange zone with $300 and a 3 train
when Wayne Schmittberger sold shares to start another RR. The
1856 game featured past champions Barrington Beavis and
Bruce Beard squaring off with two others. Bruce beat newcomer
Peter Eldridge by $763 in a high scoring game, after Bruce allowed
Peter to steal a RR with a 5 train in the endgame for better
stock value.
The second preliminary heat on Wednesday night was designated
for 1856, but any of the six games were eligible for play. As
it turned out, no 1856 games were played in this round. The
21 attendees played two games of 1861, and one each of
1830, 1870, and 18EU, all with four players,
except a five-player EU game. Returnees won all five
games. Herbert Gratz beat Franklin Haskell in the 18EU
game when Pierre bought a share in Herbert's SNCF company before
Herbert had fully committed all of his minor RRs to opening it. The
fifteen minors split 4-3-3-3-2, with the owners of the most and
least minors ending up fourth and fifth, respectively. In
the 1870 game, Jeff Bowers and Andy Roosen each had 80%
of RRs at 375 a share, but Jeff had a little bit extra to post
a 3% win. In the 1830 game, Mark "only"
had three RRs, and the increased RR sharing enabled him to best
Mike Brophy in a comfortable 10% win. Bruce got his second
win, over Peter in 1861, while the other 1861 game
went to the other assistant GM, Jim McDanold, over Rick Dutton.
The third preliminary round on Thursday afternoon had four tables
of four players and a fifth table of three. All games were
available for play, and four of the six saw action. Two
games of 1830 and single contests of 1856 and 1870
were the four-player games, while 1846 had a three-player
game. Chris Robbins overcame early advantages for Pierre
(the KATY private with the SoPac single share operation at $100)
and Andy (three 3 trains in the Cotton Belt when it made its
destination) to win easily. Barrington went back to 1856
in this round, and bested newcomer Chris Byrd comfortably for
his first win. In the two 1830 games, Rick Dutton's
first win was by a sizable 21% when Chris Hancock went bankrupt,
while Bruce Beard tried buying all four 4 trains in his game,
a strategy that helped Mark Neale win his second game, beating
Akihisa Tabei by 5%. Newcomer Peter Eldridge posted a win
in the 1846 game, easily over Dave Metheny and Mark Geary.
The last preliminary heat on Thursday evening, designated for
1870, represented a last chance to win a slot in the semi-final. With
12 different winners in the first three heats already, only four
guaranteed slots remained in the 16-player semi-final. This
opportunity had 4-player games in 1830, 1856, 1861, and
1870. The 1856 game was a wipeout, when Rick
Dutton got control of the government RR with two 5s and a 4,
easily beating Mark Neale (who had no RRs at the end) by 22%. The
1830 board had the final bankruptcy of the tournament,
catapulting Jim McCarthy into the semis with a win. Peter
Eldridge won a second prelim on the 1861 board by 10%
over Jim McDanold. On the last board, Bruce returned to
old habits both in game choice and result, winning 1870
by 25% over David Fritsch.
The 19 preliminary round games produced a triple winner (Bruce
Beard), four double winners (Rick Dutton, Jim McDanold, Mark
Neale, and Peter Eldridge) and eight single winners. Two chose
not to return for the semi-final round. This left us with
eleven winners for sixteen slots, and five open places for the
semi-finals. The second place players were seeded by number
of seconds, followed by how early in the rounds they finished
second, then finally by the percentage of winning score in their
best game. This qualified Andy Roosen, Lane Newbury (two
seconds), Akihisa Tabei, Mike Brophy, and Pierre LeBoeuf (second
in their first prelim), when two other alternates did not appear.
The players were seeded into the semi-finals based on the results
of preliminary round play and the multiple entry-single elimination
tie-breaking criteria established by the WBC. Where players
remained tied, they were placed according to their best percentage
of the winning score or margin of victory. Best margin of
victory percentage seeded spots 4 through 13. Second place
finishes were seeded the same way as the wins. Number of second
place finishes (and when) and best percentage of the winning
score ranked the next twelve players. Absentees placed the
5th alternate (with a single second place showing) in the semi-finals.
Once again, players were allowed to pick which game they'd like
to play. 1856 received only a single vote, but 1870
got four votes; so there was one 1870 and three 1830 semis. With
the 1st 7th 8th 9th players choosing 1870,
the remaining 1830 games were seeded as, 2nd 10th 11th
16thin game 2, 3rd 6th 12th 15th in game 3, and
4th 5th 13th 14th in game 4. The first
(1870) semi featured three-time champion Bruce Beard against
returnees Herbert Gratz and Chris Robbins, with newcomer Jim
Munson completing the field. Both Bruce and Jim grabbed
three railroads, but Bruce's $400+ cash advantage barely overcame
Jim's superior stock position for a narrow $78 (0.9%) win. The
second game pitted the other assistant GM (Jim McDanold) against
the GM (Pierre LeBoeuf), along with past champion Barrington
Beavis, and tourney veteran James McCarthy. Jim was able
to open the Penn on the first round, despite winning an expensive
auction for the C& A private, then made a substantial profit
on the sale of the C&A to the Penn. Jim dumped Penn
shares into the orange zone to open the B&M, and Pierre decided
to take over the Penn (with a 3 train) and run it back to the
brown for train cash. Pierre and James brought in the last
two RRs with only a single 4 train remaining, but Jim had kept
enough money in the B&M to get both the last 4 and first
5. Since James' CanPac was next to go, it got the last two
5's, forcing Pierre and Barrington to stall to avoid bankruptcy. Disaster
was averted, but the game was not prolonged sufficiently for
the diesels to make back their cost, and Jim was able to hang
on for a $277 win (3%) over Pierre, despite having only one RR
and fewer shares. Chuck Krueger faced returnees Andy Roosen,
Mark Neale (last year's runner-up), and Mike Brophy, and his
two RRs bested everyone else's pairs for a comfortable 7% win
over Andy. The last semi had newcomer Peter Eldridge against
veterans Akihisa Tabei, Rick Dutton, and Lane Newbury. Far
East beat West, as Akihisa used four RRs for an easy 13% win
over Lane.
The four semi-final winners advanced to the 1830 Final
Saturday night. It matched (in turn order) Jim McDanold,
Chuck Krueger, defending three-time champion Bruce Beard, and
Akihisa Tabei. Bruce had gone 3-1 in the preliminary rounds,
with Jim, Chuck, and Akihisa posting records of 2-2, 1-0, and
0-1 in the prelims.
In the private auction, Akihisa took the Schuylkill at cost ($20),
Jim got the Champlain & St. Lawrence for $45, Bruce got the
Delaware & Hudson for $75 and the Mohawk & Hudson for
$155, and Chuck won the Camden & Amboy for $250 and took
the Baltimore & Ohio private at $220 (setting the B &
O share price at $100). With the option to buy the 1st company,
Bruce opened the Penn at $71. Akihisa bought five B&O
shares, taking the presidency from Chuck. Jim then opened
the NYNH at $67. In the first operating round, the B&O
bought three 2 trains, the Penn one, and the NYNH one, leaving
a single 2. On the next operation, the Penn bought the last
2, the first two 3's, and Bruce sold the D&H for $140. The
NYNH also got a pair of 3's, placed the Hartford city tile (for
$80), and Jim sold the CSL for $80. Thinking that Chuck
would sell his three B&O shares to start his own RR, Jim
sold one ahead of him, but Chuck bought the sold share instead. Jim
used the proceeds to invest in the Penn, but Bruce then dumped
it on him to open the B&M at $76. At that point, Chuck
sold out his B&O to start the C&O at 71. The active
market enabled Bruce's new B&M to run ahead of the B&O
and get the last 3 and first 4 trains. The second wave of
RRs began when Bruce started the NYC at $90, Akihisa opened the
Erie at $67, and Chuck started the CanPac at $82. Jim and
Akihisa essentially traded RRs when Jim took the B&O from
Akihisa, and Akihisa took the Penn (now on its third owner) from
Jim. Bruce split the trains on the NYC, Chuck bought a 4,
and a 4 from the C&O. The 5 trains were split among
the C&O (Chuck), B&O (Jim), and B&M (Bruce). The
6 trains went to the Penn (Akihisa) and the NYC (Bruce). This
left Jim with a 4 in the NYNH and a 5 in the B&O, Chuck with
a pair of 4's in the CanPac and a 5 in the C&O, Bruce had
a 4 & 5 in the B&M and a 6 in the NYC, and Akihisa had
a 6 in the Penn, but nothing in the Erie (with no track). When
Chuck bought the first diesel, everyone but Bruce needed one
too, which was good enough for Bruce to win by 7%.
I would like to thank everyone for playing, and I hope we can
increase our numbers next year. We will vote again on which
two games to include with 1830, 1856, 1870,
and 1861 in 2009. We will keep the 16-player semi-final
and 4-player Final, but I would like to move the Final to Friday
night next year. If you would like to participate in the
discussion on ways to improve the18xx tournament in 2009, drop
me an email at the address below.
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Chuck Krueger moves in the Final
as Bruce Beard and Akhisa Tabei watch. The Japanese player was
the only returning laurelist to challenge Beard's title defense,
but finished 4th. |
Jim McDanold en route to his
second place finish. The Tennessee native is the second ranking
laurelist behind Beard but has yet to win a championship. |
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