royal palace  

Updated 11/30/2009

2009 WBC Report  

  2010 Status: pending December Membership Trial Vote

Raphael Lehrer, CA

2009 Champion

Links

  Rio Grande Games

Event History
2009    Raphael Lehrer     23
 Laurels

 Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
   1.  Raphael Lehrer     CA    09     20
   2.  Robb Effinger      WA    09     12
   3.  David Gagne        qc    09      8
   4.  David Burkey       PA    09      6
   5.  Richard Irving     CA    09      4
   6.  Bill Crenshaw      VA    09      2

2009 Laurelists                                           

Robb Effinger, WA
2nd

David Gagne, qc
3rd

David Burkey, PA
4th

Richard Irving, CA
5th

Bill Crenshaw, VA
6th


The Whitesells, Ken and Jean, join Chris Villeneuve and Jim Vroom.

John Wetherell, Rob Kircher and Dave Rohde staff their palaces.

Battling Rail Barons in the Age of Steam

23 people attempted to influence the nobles in the Royal Palace in the debut of this new game from Rio Grande. It took seven games, run over two heats, to narrow the field to five winners (two others chose not to advance). Those five, plus two alternates, advanced to the semi-finals. (Since only two alternates were available at the prescribed time, the GM sat in as a non-advanceable fourth in one of the semis). In the semi-final games were: Bill Crenshaw, David Gagne, David Burkey, Raphael Lehrer, Richard Irving, David Rohde and Robb Effinger.

The top two finishers from each semi-final game advanced to a 4-player Final. Advancing were: David Gagne, David Burkey, Raphael Lehrer and Robb Effinger.

The Final used the random setup for the palace rooms, which was not used in the previous rounds. The game came down to two players vying for the win. Robb used a strategy of getting a large amount of servants and succeeded in getting most of them into the palace, but, in the end, Raphael won by one point, 60 to 59. The two Davids finished in third and fourth place, Gagne with 50 points and Burkey with 43. Here's a few comments from our winner: Robb played a "massive people" strategy, dominating the majority bonuses by having loads of servants in the palace. I countered by going with a card strategy, picking up a 4-point bonus card in the last turn to seal the win."

Thanks to everyone who played. I doubt the game will return next year, due to the relatively low number of players, but you can change that by voting it in during the December membership drive.

Richard Shay, Richard Irving, Bruce Bernard and David Burkey set up housekeeping.

The finalists in the high rent district: David Gagne, David Burkey, Robb Effinger and Raphael Lehrer.
 GM      Jim Vroom [1st Year]   NA
   NA   NA

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