manifest destiny  

Updated 3/26/2009

2008 WBC Report  

 2009 Status: pending 2009 GM commitment

Harald Hnning, CT

2008 Champion

Offsite Links

 
Rio Grande Games Rio Grande Games

Event History
2005    Harald Henning     46
2006     AJ Sudy     46
2007     Bill Crenshaw     46 
2008    Harald Henning     39

Enlightenment History
2006    Bill Crenshaw     19
2008    Ewan McNay     28
2009    Bill Crenshaw      25 

PBeM History
2007    Tom Taaffe     36
2008    Bill Edwards     35
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Bill Crenshaw      VA    09    180
  2.  Harald Henning     CT    08    107
  3.  Arthur Field       SC    09     80
  4.  Ewan McNay         CT    09     58
  5.  Tom Taaffe         VA    08     46
  6.  Peter Staab        PA    09     42
  7.  Kevin Sudy         VA    07     40
  8.  AJ Sudy            VA    06     36
  9.  Bill Edwards       VA    08     30
 10.  Kathy Stroh        DE    08     30
 11.  John Coussis       IL    08     28
 12.  Tom Browne         PA    09     25
 13.  David Hood         NC    07     24
 14.  Ted Simmons        NJ    05     24
 15.  Stefan Mecay       TX    09     21
 16.  Peter Pollard      TN    08     19
 17.  Jeff Mullet        OH    08     16
 18.  Bob Heinzmann      FL    07     16
 19.  Brett Mingo        MD    05     16
 20.  Kate Taillon       SC    07     12
 21.  Ed Rothenheber     MD    06      9
 22.  Scott Burns        UK    07      8
 23.  David Nicholson    ON    05      8
 24.  Peter Staab        PA    06      6
 25.  Shawn Fox          TX    08      5
 26.  Dave Long          NC    05      4

2008 Laurelists                                        Repeating Laurelists 

Bill Crenshaw, VA
2nd

Arthur Field, SC
3rd

Jeff Mullet, OH
4th

John Coussis, IL
5th

Pete Pollard, TN
6th


Past Winners

Harald Henning, CT
2005, 2008

Alan Sudy, VA
2006

Bill Crenshaw, VA
2007


Ed Kendrick ... beware the designer shark looming to your right.

Arthur Field gets a payout from banker Tedd Mullally.

Manifest Destiny finally moved off the 46-entrant level that it had drawn like clockwork for three years in predictable fashion by dropping 15% in reaction to shaving one of its four heats. It had no visible effect on the outcome as the usual suspects continued to dominate. Four laurelists returned and all six added to their former totals.

Aside from Louisiana, which was shut out, winners were evenly distributed among the starting positions, with Mexico and Pennsylvania each having four wins, and Quebec and Virginia three each. Bill Crenshaw (Mexico), Arthur Field (Va.) and Jeff Mullet (Pa.) each won their semi-finals and advanced to the Final with John Coussis (Louisiana) and Harald Henning (Quebec), who, although finishing third in his semi, was closer to the winner than Pete Pollard or Kevin Sudy, the other semis runners-up. Harald made the most of the opportunity.

The Final started with a wide variety of bids: $10 (Jeff); $10 (John); $0 (Bill - holding both California Gold Rush and Natives); $0 (Arthur); $15 (Harald). Pa. dumped Hudson's Bay Company on T1 after being disappointed in not getting Quebec. La. cashed Louisiana Purchase on T2, and Mexico's PT Barnum gave him a high enough # to go first and cash CGR for $70 in Gold on T3. Breakthroughs started slowly, but Quebec finished Patriotism before Pa. could steal it with TJ and Yankee Ingenuity. Pa. nailed Mech on one roll instead. Mexico floundered with Storytelling, with two costly misses, as he continually took profit hits while holding World War, Spy and two Destiny cards. Late-moving Va. was late into the Pioneer game and collaborated with Pa. on T4 for Turnpike and with Mexico on T6 for Motion Pix.

The board grew congested with La. rushing west as usual. Quebec took a few lumps after cashing RTA on T4, but still had a solid position. La. took Arizona and later built a tourist-filled city. Mexico stayed south except for some Livestock in the Northwest. Va., starting with no tobacco, eventually got Mexico to cash tobacco for livestock.

La. got a jump on Electricity, moving last and buying an Era 2 card and eventually finished it. Mexico drew Edison and went for Motion Pix. Amazingly, Think Tank was left open for Quebec when Va. and Pa. collaborated on Turnpike instead. Quebec responded by nailing Think Tank in two rolls, and the powerful Patriotism-Think Tank combination ultimately proved insurmountable.

La. hit Quebec with Civil War, which temporarily slowed Q's progress. Mexico kept pace with timely leader draws and when Va. got the missing step to Motion Pix, Mexico staked out Urban Renaissance, later collaborating with Va. on the former and Quebec on the latter. La. and Pa. did their best to stay close with various Ore runs, but Pa.'s hot Breakthrough dice rolls were more than offset by lame competition rolls and La.'s card draws were not exciting.

Va., sitting on a pile of cash after a double tobacco payout, made a big move by paying full freight for Airplanes and gobbling up three foreign markets, but Trustbusters and Depression prevented the big score. La. went for e-Commerce and despite drawing both Urban Ren leaders agreed to stick with e-Commerce instead in exchange for a trustbusted Gold, which paid out. On the next to last turn, Quebec negotiated an Urban Ren collaboration with Mexico during turn order that enabled Quebec to get Urban and still expand last. After that card play phase, Mexico had enough cash to get to 29 VPs, but the missing Storytelling rolls proved fatal as he couldn't get to 30.

In the last expansion Mexico used most of his tokens taking Northern California from Quebec, but otherwise Quebec, who had most cities nailed, emerged largely unscathed. When the dust settled, Quebec used Patriotism to cash Prohibition for $100 in Gold (even after losing Northern California) and ballooned to 38 VPs (five points more than have been scored in any other MFD WBC Final), buying all progressions for 30 VPs, six VPs for B/Ts and two more for most cities, turning a nailbiter into a blowout. The closeness was reflected by the remaining scores, with Mexico at 32 and $55, Pa. at 30 and $105 ($5 short of 33), Va. at 30 and $55 and La. at 30 and $50.

If that guy is going to have a lucky stuffed tiger, Kate, go get my teddy bear!

Could this really be the finalists? Ok, never mind, Stein is just passing by.


Manifest Destiny 2008 PBeM Tournament Results

Bill Edwards, as Mexico, riding a combination of timely collaboration and good research rolls, rolled to victory in the second Manifest Destiny PBeM tournament.  Bill overcame a rough start, as defending PBeM champion Tom Taaffe, holding Monroe Doctrine and Remember the Alamo, paid $10 to pick Virginia.  Bill held Native Sovereignty but his $10 pick netted him Mexico instead of Virginia.  Pete Staab, who held California Gold Rush and was hoping for Mexico, settled for Louisiana (and later discarded CGR).  Stefan MeCay chose Pennsylvania (starting with Louisiana Purchase), leaving Bill Crenshaw excited to get Quebec for free (since he was holding Revolutionary War and Manifest Destiny).  Quebec got off to a dominating start, collaborated with Pa. to get Patriotism, and had an obscene amount of cash after $150 in Fur payouts.  Virginia embarked a one-man Crusade to bring Quebec back to the pack.  Although successful in slowing Quebec, Quebec's retaliation limited Virginia's progress despite Virginia's normally potent Mechanization-Electricity combination.

At the end of Era 2, Quebec narrowly avoided Civil War as Virginia held the card rather than risk it boomeranging.  Quebec than played Spy stealing Martin Luther King from Louisiana and breaking up a planned Louisiana-Virginia collaboration.  Louisiana retaliated by sabotaging Quebec's e-Commerce start.  In the meantime, Pa. (who was doing well but done in by a lack of Pioneers) and Mexico collaborated on a 3-leader deal that vaulted both close to the lead. 

On the next to the last turn, four players played priority chits, leaving Quebec, who had played Supreme Court (#64), choosing last.  La. and Mexico played early to finish breakthroughs as Pa. chose last to plan for expansion, leaving Va. fourth and Quebec third.  Quebec then made his second big cash in of the game, using Immigrants to take over Virginia's Oil and Tourist City in Oklahoma and cashing $150 in Tourists, plus another $70 in Technology.  Quebec and Pa. tried to put together a deal that would have allowed one of them to have an excellent chance of winning, but any combination would have put Mexico over the top as well as the latent Mexican President guarded against bad cards.  Quebec generated enough money to buy to 30, forcing Pa. to play World War and the $60 hit held Quebec back.

In the meantime, Mexico drew JFK to finish Urban Renaissance in one turn (acing out La. and Quebec), played Yankee Ingenuity to start Rock n Roll, and then rolled all four missing steps to pick up Rock and Roll as well and vault him over the top with 32 VPs.  Bill Crenshaw's Quebec was second with 27, followed by Pete Staab's Louisiana with 26, Stefan Mecay's Pennsylvania with 25 and Tom Taaffe's Virginia with 22.

 GM      Bill Crenshaw [4th year]   NA
   BillCrenshaw@verizon.net   NA

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