here I stand   

Updated 11/30/2011
2011 WBC Report  

 2012 Status: pending 2012 GM commitment
Justin Rice, VA
2011 Champion

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Event History
2006    John Wetherell     56
2007    Bryan Collars     48
2008    Jeff Burdett     48
2009    Jeff Burdett     62
2010    AJ Sudy     52
2011    Justin Rice     54

PBeM History
2008    Dan Gallagher     54
2012    Larry Mull     67
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Jeff Burdett       NY    10    125
  2.  Alan Sudy          VA    10     91
  3.  Dave Cross         VA    10     72
  4.  Bryan Collars      SC    12     68
  5.  Justin Rice        VA    11     62
  6.  Larry Mull         NV    12     60
  7.  Dan Gallagher      MD    08     60
  8.  John Wetherell     PA    06     60
  9.  Kirk Harris        NJ    11     54
 10.  Jeremiah Peterson  IL    12     42
 11.  Chris Striker      PA    09     39
 12.  Ken Richards       SC    07     38
 13.  Rob Seulowitz      NY    08     36
 14.  Allan Hill         MD    06     36
 15.  Dennis Mishler     CT    07     30
 16.  Rob Mull           CO    12     24
 17.  Michael Rogazinski NY    08     24
 18.  Steve Caler        OH    08     24
 19.  Charles Hickok     PA    06     24
 20.  Barry Setser       MD    11     20
 21.  Brad Merrill       ME    10     20
 22.  Kaarin Engelmann   VA    12     18
 23.  Rick Cambron       PA    08     18
 24.  Michael Brophy     NC    08     18
 25.  John Vasilakos     VA    11     15
 26.  Paul McCarthy      NY    10     15
 27.  Scott Burns        uk    12     12
 28.  Nat Pendleton      PA    09     12
 29.  George Young       VT    08     12
 30.  Jonathan Tarquino  NJ    11     10
 31.  Nick Benedict      CA    10     10
 32.  Dan Hoffman        NC    07     10
 33.  Tim Rogers         SC    09      6
 34.  Henry Rice         NM    11      5

2011 Laurelists                                                  Repeating Laurelists: 0

Kirk Harris, NJ
2nd

Barry Setser, MD
3rd

John Vasilakos, VA
4th

Jonathan Tarquino, NJ
5th

Henry Rice, NM
6th

Past Champions

John Wetherell, PA
2006

Bryan Collars, SC
2007

Jeff Burdett, NY
2008-09

AJ Sudy, VA
2010

Justin Rice, VA
2011

Six years later, Ed Beach's demos still draw a crowd.

The sixth set of Here I Stand finalists.

Still Standing Room Only ...

In its sixth year at WBC, tournament attendance remained strong: whether attracted by the Renaissance battlefield or theological debates. Seven games were played in the opening heat for the third straight year. We continued to use the play balance adjustments to the tournament scenario first introduced in 2008, though this year we added a new rule that delayed the addition of the Copernicus card to the deck until Turn 5. Military powers dominated. The winners were Justin Rice (Hapsburgs), Brad Merrill (England), Dan Hoffman (Hapsburgs), Jeremiah Peterson (England), John Vasilaskos (Ottoman), Henry Rice (England), and Nathan Hill (Hapsburg-Papacy in a 3-player game).

The Protestants and French were able to join the ranks of victorious powers in the second heat, but the Hapsburgs were the dominant power that night. Victories for Charles V and his Holy Roman colleagues were won by Kirk Harris, Justin Morgan, and Andero Kuusi. The other Thursday winners were Dennis Mishler (Protestant), Manuel Bravo (France) and Barry Setser (Ottoman). All 13 preliminary games went at least two turns for the second consecutive year and most were completed well before the allotted five hours.

Ten of the 13 winners joined eight alternate players (those with the highest preliminary round total VP accumulation) for the semi-finals. Henry Rice was first to collect his ticket to the Final, hitting on an amazing run of piracy results to secure a one-turn Ottoman win. John Vasilaskos' Ottoman pirates also did well in the second semi, scoring nine Piracy VP over two turns, but it was not enough to defeat Barry Setser, who advanced to his first Final with the Protestants. The closest game was the only three-turn contest. Justin Rice could have won with a successful conquest on Turn 5; it failed however, leaving Justin's 21 VP entering the last turn just 1 VP above four of the other five powers. In the end Jonathan Tarquino squeaked out an English win, besting Kirk Harris (another Ottoman) by 1 VP.

Power selection for the Final was as follows: Henry (Ottoman), Jonathan (England), Barry (Papacy), Kirk (France), Justin (Hapsburgs), and John (Protestant). Both Rices and Tarquino were playing the same power that advanced them from the semi-finals. Justin Rice is the only finalist with former HIS laurels to his credit.

Turn-by-turn highlights of the two-turn Final are included below.

Turn 4

· Hapsburgs get cards on both their initial colony rolls.

· Divorce granted for two cards from English (but Anne Boleyn is a loving stepmother)

· Hapsburgs get two cards for phony DOW on Venice and first impulse play of Paul III. They turn out to be Smallpox and Andrea Doria, both received from the Papacy after he drew them from England for the divorce!

· Hapsburgs get one card and two mercs for ceding Cologne to Protestant

· France takes Milan; Hapsburgs capture Metz. Scots tenaciously defend Edinburgh (hitting on all four dice).

· 11 CP are added to St. Peter's with the Michelangelo event.

· Hapsburgs add a third colony, conquer the Maya, and get the Mississippi and Great Lakes. End 1 VP from victory.

VP: Hapsburgs (22), Papacy (20), France (18), Ottoman (16), Protestant (14), England (9)

Turn 5

· Hapsburgs get all four cards from colonies and the Maya (Copernicus is included in those in his hand).

· Ottoman allies with France and receives a card from the Papacy.

· Hapsburg cedes Trier to the Protestant.

· Genoa flips to France with Andrea Doria.

· Protestant plays Printing Press early for the second turn in a row.

· Papacy plays Unsanitary Camp on his ally's stack (the Hapsburgs) in Vienna. Will the Ottoman siege fail anyway after Roxelana calls Suleiman home? No sir, Treachery is played and Vienna falls! However a countersiege by the Hapsburgs late in the turn flips it back to the Hapsburgs.

· Elizabeth is finally born to Anne of Cleves. No sign of a male heir though.

· Hapsburgs play Copernicus and gain a 1 VP exploration with Orellana for the victory.

VP: Hapsburgs (23), France (21), Papacy (19), Protestant (19), Ottoman (16), England (13). Justin Rice wins his first WBC title in just his second appearance in a HIS Final.

Next Year: The Rest of the Sixteenth Century

With the expected publication of Virgin Queen, sequel to HIS, in early 2012, next year's tournament may offer the option to play either HIS or VQN in the opening rounds. Players will express their preference for one game or the other (or that they are happy with either) and be paired accordingly. However we'll continue to stick with HIS for all semi-final and final rounds for the next few years (until sufficient play balance data can be collected on Virgin Queen.)

Not Laurels but...

This year's event represented the game's sixth appearance at WBC. For the second year in a row, our contacts at the Elias Sports Bureau have computed a special statistic to evaluate the best Here I Stand player of all time.

That rating of HIS prowess is called "The Here Everyone Stands Evaluation System", or THESES for short.

How do you earn Theses? Well a victory in a semi-final game at WBC is worth 10 Theses (with smaller awards of 6/4/3/2/1 for 2nd through 6th place). Appearances in the Final are worth 5 times as much, so 50 Theses for being the HIS champ (and 30/20/15/10/5 for the other finalists).

After compiling the totals through 2011, we still only have three people who have cracked the 95 Theses barrier (though Justin Rice did make a strong improvement in his standing). Here are the totals for everyone with 6 or more Theses:

 Player
Final Appearances
Theses
Semi Appearances 
Semi Theses 

 Total Theses 
Jeff Burdett 3 105 3 26 131
AJ Sudy 3 85 4 23 108
Dave Cross 3 70 5 36 106
Bryan Collars 2 60 5 27 87
Justin Rice 2 55 4 17 72
Kirk Harris 2 50 3 17 67
John Wetherell 1 50 2 8 58
Ken Richards 2 35 4 23 58
Chris Striker 3 35 4 17 52
Dennis Mishler 1 30 4 17 47
Allen Hill 1 30 2 14 44
Barry Setser 1 20 3 17 37
Charles Hickok 1 20 2 12 32
Nat Pendleton 1 10 3 19 29
Michael Rogozinski 1 20 1 6 26
Dan Hoffman 1 10 5 16 26
Rick Cambron 1 15 1 10 25
Brad Merrill 1 20 3 3 23
Nick Benedict 1 10 2 13 23
John Vasilakos 1 15 1 6 21
Paul McCarthy 1 15 3 5 20
Henry Rice 1 10 1 10 20
Tim Rogers 1 5 2 12 17
Jonathan Tarquino 1 5 1 10 15
Rick Byrens 0 0 2 14 14
Peter Card 0 0 4 12 12
Jeff Pattison 0 0 4 11 11
Mark Mahaffey 0 0 2 9 9
Brian Mountford 0 0 3 8 8
Matthew Beach 0 0 4 8 8
Manuel Bravo 0 0 3 8 8
Nathan Hill 0 0 2 7 7
Kaarin Engelmann 0 0 2 7 7
Jeremiah Peterson 0 0 2 7 7
Ted Drozd 0 0 3 6 6
John Emery 0 0 1 6 6
Mitch Lake 0 0 1 6 6
Jim Stanard 0 0 1 6 6
Phil Rodrigues 0 0 2 6 6
Jeromey Martin 0 0 1 6 6

The Second BPA PBeM Tournament

The second BPA Here I Stand PBeM tournament was the largest event in the game's history, either live or email and generated more than double the number of player starts in any previous tournament with players toeing the line 234 times.

The semi-final round advanced the five semi-final winners and one alternate. Advancing were Rob Mull, Jeremiah Peterson, Scott Burns, Kaarin Englemann, and Bryan Collars. Rob's brother, Larry, advanced by virtue of winning the tie breaker of highest VP scoring non-winner in the semi-final. Only Jeremiah and GM Bryan were prior laurelists in the game.

Unlike the preliminary rounds, the Final was played using the full campaign game. Power selection was decided in order of the highest VPs scored in the semi-final. The powers selected were Ottoman: Bryan; France:Jeremiah; Hapsburgs: Rob; Protestants: Kaarin; England: Scott; and Papacy: Larry in that order. The opening turns were typical of full campaign games as the Turks cautiously advanced in Hungary, while the rest jockeyed for position by snapping up the easily defeated independent keys and the Protestants successfully spreading the gospel throughout Germany. An unlikely Circumnavigation of the world by the French explorer Verranzano gave Jeremiah an early advantage. Turn 3 saw things shift radically as the Schmalkaldic League formed early, putting the Protestants and Hapsburgs at war while the Turks were bearing down on Buda with the large Hapsburg army biding its time in Vienna. Armageddon was forestalled though as multiple complimentary card plays by the Mull brothers dealt the Turk army a serious defeat that effectively removed them from the game. Meanwhile the others were guiding their powers through marriages, explorations, and religous publications and slowly gaining VPs. Turns 4-5 were once again jockeying turns as players tried to position themselves for the win. First came the Protestants only to be beaten back by the Pope and Hapsburgs. Then the Hapsburgs put Istanbul under siege, while the hapless Turks could just sit idly by and watch. Turn 6, saw very intensive, and at times contentious, diplomacy as the players feverously tried to stop the Hapsburg juggernaught while at the same time not allowing the French to benefit. After all the prayers had been answered that were going to be, it was neither the Hapsurgs nor the French who emerged victorious at game's end, but rather the Papacy who reigned supreme. Larry's Papacy deftly charted the last turn with timely religious actions coupled with outstanding dice that saw him rise quickly to the top of the VP track with 25 points. Jeremiah's French scored 24 and held off Rob's ever dangerous Hapsburgs with 23. Kaarin's Protestants scored 19, followed by Scott's English with 17, and Bryan's Turks brought up the rear with 16. So congrats to Larry Mull whose deft play, good humor, and lucky dice brought home the wood of the second BPA HIS PBeM tournament.

 GM      Ed Beach (6th Year)  NA 
    ebeach@comcast.net   NA

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