Lyman Moquin, Tom Bissa, Bronwen Heap, and Tom Cannon make lots of old cars.	Andrew Maly, Anthony Daw and Mike Gentile try their best to foil the UAW.

"Hey, kids! Let's run a car company! All the cool kids are doing it. How hard can it be? Maly won it last year." And after being soundly thrashed in the first heat, Mr. Gentile was not heard from again... At least Greg Schmittgens had the courtesy to hang around and provide buttons and good cheer.

Automobile saw a 33% increase in attendance, bringing in a strong blend of familiar faces and an able group of newcomers. Maybe it was the extra heat. Maybe it was the greater availability of the game. Or perhaps it's because it is a quality design. Whatever the reason, it's a good sign for the industry.

One might think that a game that gives each player only 12 actions, a third of which are pre-determined (produce cars) would result in a single strategy or similar results among games. Hardly. The 16 preliminary contests included 12 5-player and four 4-player games. The non-stats junkies in the crowd can skip a few paragraphs at this point.

The statistics provided for characters are for the 5-player games only. One game did not report character selection nor most advanced model, and one game forgot to include character selection for the fourth turn, so those numbers weren't included in the calculations.

The average winning score in the preliminary heats was $4,360. The high winning score was $5,080 by Matt Calkins, who also managed to turn in the second highest winning score, $4,910, followed closely by Elaine Pearson's $4,900 victory. The lowest winning score was $3,730, turned in by 2010's bronze medalist, John Weber. But a win is a win. The largest margin of victory was posted by Bill "The Cat" Zurn, $1,420; and the average margin of victory was $330. However, if you take out the dominating performances of The Cat, Matt ($890), and Paul Brink ($840), that leaves an average margin of victory of $165, or approximately the profit of selling two mid-size vehicles.

The most advanced model built was the Chevrolet Six (occurring twice) and the "least" advanced model built in the preliminaries was the Hupmobile R. (Sorry, Mayfair fans, you're going to have to track down a copy of the Treefrog board).

To this GM, the statistics on character selection were a bit surprising. In a 5-player game, there will be 20 character selections over the course of the game. For the games with full recording, the average selection of each character was: Ford - 3.5 times per game, Kettering - 3.5 times per game, Sloan - 2.4 times per game, Howard - 3.9 times per game, Durant - 3.4 times per game, and Chrysler 3.3 times per game. Only two characters were selected a single time during any preliminary game, and this occurred to Ford once and Sloan once. Amongst 5-player game winners, they selected: Ford - 0.7 times per game, Kettering - 0.5 times per game, Sloan - 0.7 times per game, Howard - 0.8 times per game, Durant 0.5 times per game, and Chrysler - 0.8 times per game. Six fully recorded games featured winners who selected the same character multiple times. Those selections included Ford (1), Kettering (1), Sloan (1), Howard (2), Durant (0), Chrysler (2). The astute will notice that totals seven, and that is because Matt managed to pull a double-double in one of his victories.

Non-statistics junkies, please resume reading here.

2010 silver medalist Matt Calkins managed to win in all three heats. Other heat winners not already mentioned included Dave Tianen, Justin Morgan, Dvd Avins, Lyman Moquin, Rod Spade, Chris Gnech, John Corrado, Eric Cheatham, and Mike Gentile's aforementioned target of jest.

Thursday morning arrived bright and early for 13 of the 14 finalists. Greg Schmittgens and Tom Bissa knew they would round out the field of 16 courtesy of Matt, but one eligible finalist was torn between wheels and rails, and chose rails. The beneficiary of his decision was Jeremy Oppenheim.

The four best qualifiers were split between the four tables with the others seated randomly. This wound up matching Matt against defending champ Maly in the semis. And then the wheels fell off. Matt had indicated earlier that he hoped he hadn't used up all his luck in the heats. He didn't, but he ran into three opponents who never gave him an opportunity to exploit. In the closest of the four games, a $390 spread from top to bottom, Matt claimed last place, but almost pulled it out on the last turn with a bold loan-parts factory - build strategy. The game came down to the bonus tile draw for mass market cars. When a "2" appeared, it sank the defending champion, leaving him with two unsold Model T's on the lot. (Funny how the game mirrors history). It also left the fortuitous Jeremy Oppenheim, the last qualifying alternate, with a $70 victory over John Corrado. In the other semis, Dvd Avins and Rod Spade won by approximately $400, but the largest margin of victory was by "The Cat", besting his nearest competitor by $760.

The competition level was high for the Final, as even color choice became fair game. The finalists were gracious and patient enough to let the GM record their attempt for glory although the players benefitted as the GM kept a running total of each build type, which made the decision process a bit easier.

As a side note, I've tried to keep consistent in format, but use a bit of shorthand to keep the typing reasonable. Once a player buys a particular model of car, I only refer to it as a class of car (H) for high end; (M) for mid-size; (L) for low-end budget cars. Only one player owned and operated two factories of the same class at the same time, and I'll indicate which model for actions there, either (F) for Ford or (D) for Dodge. All distributors start on the M space.

Random Player Starting Order

1: Bill Zurn (BZ)
2: Rod Spade (RS)
3: Dvd Avins (DA)
4: Jeremy Oppenhiem (JO)

Turn 1

Demand Tiles / Select Characters: BZ - 3, Ford; RS - 2, Durant, builds Duryea x 1; DA - 5, Chrysler; JO - 4, Howard

Action 1: Ford - Takes 2 R&D cubes; Howard - Builds Olds Curved Dash x 1 and a Parts Factory; Durant - places two distributors; Chrysler - Takes two R&D cubes

Action 2: Ford - Builds Maxwell Model L x 2 and a Parts Factory (special ability); Howard - Builds Sears Autobuggy x 1; Durant - Builds Ford Model T x 1; Chrysler - Builds EMF 30 x 2

Action 3: Ford - Produces 7M; Howard - Produces 3M, 2L; Durant - Produces 3M, 2L; Chrysler - Produces 5M

Sell via Howard - 2L

Sell via Distributors - Ford - 2M; Durant - 2L

Executive Decisions - Ford - Advertise M; Howard - Advertise M; Durant - Close Duryea; Chrysler and then all others Pass.

Sell via Demand - Chrysler does not sell 2M

Losses - Ford +1; Howard +3; Chrysler -1 to a net of 1.

Turn 2

Demand Tiles / Select Characters: DA -3/3, Ford; BZ - 2/2, Durant, builds Crane-Simplex x 1; JO - 5/4, Sloan; RS - 5/2, Chrysler

Action 1: Ford - places three distributors; Sloan - places three distributors; Durant - places three distributors; Chrysler - Builds Dodge Four x 1

Action 2: Ford - Takes Loan #1, Builds Overland 4-90 x 2 and a Parts Factory (special ability); Sloan - Produces 3M, 4L; Durant - Produces 2H, 7M; Chrysler - Build Buick H x 1

Action 3: Ford - Takes Loan #2, Produces 6M, 9L; Sloan - Produces 2M, 1L; Durant - Produces 2H; Chrysler - Produces 3M, 4L(D), 4L(F)

Sell via Distributors: Ford - L, L, L; Sloan - L, L, M; Durant M, H, H, H, H; Chrysler L(F), L(D)

Executive Decisions: Ford - Price cut L x 2; Sloan - Advertise M; Durant - Price cut M; Chrysler - Price cut L(F); Ford - Advertise M; Sloan - Pass; Durant - Pass; Chrysler - Advertise L(D); Ford, Chrysler - Pass

Sell via Demand: Ford -2M, $1020; Sloan -2L, $700; Durant -2M, $400; Chrysler -1L(D), -1L(F), $790

Losses - Ford +1, net 4, $100; Sloan +6, net 5; Durant +2, net 5; Chrysler +3, net 3

Turn 3

Demand Tiles / Select Characters: JO - 4/2, Ford; BZ - 5/3, Kettering; DA - 2/2, Chrysler; RS - 3/3, Durant, Build Packard Twin Six x 1

Action 1: Ford - places two distributors + Builds Sears Autobuggy x 1; Kettering - builds Hupmobile R x 2; Durant - places three distributors; Chrysler - places two distributors

Action 2: Ford - Produce 5L, 3M; Kettering - Takes Loan #1, Produce 2H, 4M, 9L; Durant - Produce 2H, 3M, 4L(D), 4L(F); Chrysler - Build Lincoln x 1

Action 3: Ford - Produce 2M; Kettering - places three distributors; Durant - Close Ford Model T; Chrysler - Produce 2H, 7M

Sell via Distributors: Ford - M, M, L, L, L, $600; Kettering - M, M, L, L, L, H, H, -1 distributor, $1,000; Durant - M, L(F), L(D), L(F), L(D), $550; Chrysler - M, M, H, H, -1 distributor, $700

Executive Decisions: Ford - Close Olds Curved Dash; All players pass in order

Sell via Demand: H tile = 3; Ford - $650; Kettering - $900; Durant $1,100; Chrysler -2M, $450

Losses/Interest: Ford +4, net 6; Kettering +4, net 10, $50; Durant +3, net 4; Chrysler +2, -3, net 6, $100.

Turn 4

Demand Tiles / Select Characters: BZ - 2/2, Sloan; RS - 5/5, Ford; DA - 5/3, Chrysler; JO - 3/3, Howard

Action 1: Ford - places two Distributor; Sloan - Build Hupmobile R x 1; Howard - Build Pontiac Six x 2; Chrysler - Produce 2H, 5M, 9L

Action 2: Ford - Build Dodge Four x 1 + Parts Factory; Sloan - Produce 2H, 4M, 12L; Howard - Produce 7M, 9L; Chrysler - Close Lincoln

Action 3: Ford - Take Loan #1, Produce 2H, 7M, 6L; Sloan - Produce 2H; Howard - Close Sears Autobuggy; Chrysler - Take two R&D cubes

Sell via Howard: 1M, 1L - $250

Sell via Distributors: Ford - L, L, L, M, M, H, H, $1,000; Sloan - L, L, L, M, H, H, H, $1,050; Howard = L, L, M, M, -1 distributor, $500; Chrysler - L, L, M, M, $500

Executive Decisions: Ford - Close Packard Twin Six; Sloan - Price Cut L x 2; Howard - Price Cut L; Chrysler - Price Cut L; Ford - Advertise M; Sloan -Advertise L; Howard - Pass; Chrysler - Advertise L; All remaining players pass

Sell via Demand: Ford -2L, $850; Sloan -1L, $1210; Howard -1M, -4L, $590; Chrysler -1L, $1120

Losses: Ford +3, net 7; Sloan +5, -8, net 7; Howard +0, net 9; Chrysler +3, -4, net 3

The final accounting:

Jeremy: Final Cash $2,090 + Factories $1,300 - Loans $0, - Cubes $360 = $3,030

Dvd: Final Cash $2,120 + Factories $2,300 - Loans $1,300 - Cubes $120 = $3,000

Rod: Final Cash $2,260 + Factories $2,300 - Loans $650 - Cubes $280 = $3,630

Bill: Final Cash $2,300 + Factories $3,150 - Loans $650 - Cubes $280 = $4,520

And with that Bill Zurn is the 2011 WBC Champion in Automobile and owner of his first WBC shield.

A special mention goes out to Matt Calkins who was the event's nominee for sportsmanship. Having gotten to compete against Matt both years, I know he's an excellent gamer and a fierce, yet fair player. Seeing him run through the heats and then fall in the semi-finals was tough, even if I was playing against him. Yet he could only congratulate Jeremy, John, and myself for having outplayed him. He took it all in stride, with class, and dignity. It's people like that who make all the effort of running a tournament worth it.

Anthony Daw, Jeremy Oppenheim and Gregory Schmittgens play with cars for fun and profit.	Detroit's Final Four go for the wood; Bill Zurn, Jeremy Oppenheim, Dvd Avins, and Rod Spade.