|
|
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.
|
|