washington's war * 

Updated Nov. 23, 2013

 2013 WBC Report  

 2014 Status: pending 2014 GM commitment

James Pei, VA

2013 Champion

 

* We The People prior to 2010

Event History
1994    Andy Lewis      60
1995    Roger Taylor      56
1996    George Seary      54
1997    Thomas Drueding      40
1998    James Pei      40
1999    Marvin Birnbaum     32
2000    Brian Mountford     45
2001    Brian Mountford     32
2002    Marvin Birnbaum     54
2003    George Young     41
2004    John Poniske     43
2005     Chris Byrd     43
2006    George Young     45
2007     George Young     39
2008     Brian Mountford     38
2009     Marvin Birnbaum     34
2010    Keith Wixson     58
2011    Michael Mitchell     68
2012    Keith Wixson     51
2013    James Pei     49

PBeM Event History
2004    Paul Gaberson      46
2008     Dan Leader     50
2012    James Pei     70

WAM Event History
2004    Michael Ussery      16
2005    Marvin Birnbaum       24
2006    James Pei     13
2007    James Pei     20
2011    Tim Miller     28
2012     James Pei     22
2013    James Pei     19

 Laurels

Rank  Name                From  Last  Total
  1.  George Young         VT    13    308
  2.  James Pei            TX    13    277
  3.  Marvin Birnbaum      NY    13    271
  4.  Paul Gaberson        PA    12    198
  5.  Brian Mountford      NY    09    179
  6.  Keith Wixson         NJ    13    172
  7.  John Poniske         PA    09     91
  8.  Mike Mitchell        GA    13     65
  9.  Dan Leader           MA    08     60
 10.  Bill Peeck           NY    12     52
 11.  Chris Byrd           CT    12     52
 12.  Joe Collinson        MD    08     52
 13.  Tom Drueding         MA    11     46
 14.  Tim Miller           GA    12     42
 15.  Philip Burgin-Young  VT    12     38
 16.  Kent Tieman          TX    12     36
 17.  John Faella          RI    10     36
 18.  George Seary         NY    06     36
 19.  Jim Gutt             AZ    04     36
 20.  Eric Kleist          MD    10     32
 21.  Roderick Lee         CA    13     30
 22.  Michael Ussery       MD    11     28
 23.  Pete Reese           VA    08     27
 24.  Ron Jacobsen         OH    12     24
 25.  Michael Pacheco      CA    04     24
 26.  Anthony Burke        NJ    00     24
 27.  Terry Coleman        CA    12     18
 28.  Henry Rice           NM    09     18
 29.  Jim Fardette         ae    01     18
 30.  David Dockter        MN    02     16
 31.  David Tianen         WI    00     16
 32.  Pat Mirk             FL    03     15
 33.  George Galuschak     NJ    13     12
 34.  Bruce Monnin         OH    08     12
 35.  Rob Taylor           MI    05     12
 36.  Paul Barrett         uk    04     12
 37.  Ken Gutermuth        TX    05      9
 38.  Dan Hoffman          NC    13      8
 39.  Derek Landel         NJ    13      8
 40.  Jim Eliason          IA    05      8
 41.  Stuart Tucker        MD    04      8
 42.  Bruce Wigdor         NJ    02      8
 43.  Andy Lewis           DE    00      8
 44.  Jay Meyers           CA    12      6
 45.  Randy MacInnis       NJ    10      6
 46.  Seth Fine            WA    04      6
 47.  Joe Stenken          KY    03      5
 48.  Randy Pippus         on    12      4
 49.  Bill Powers          VA    11      4
 50.  Mark Yoshikawa       CA    06      4
 51.  Bryan Thompson       MD    04      4
 52.  Randall Borra        NY    00      4
 53.  Jim Falling          IL    99      4
 54.  Rob Doane            MD    12      3
 55.  Greg Ottoman         VA    13      2
 56.  Matthew Bacho        MD    04      2

2013 Laurelists                                              Repeating Laurelists:

George Young, VT
2nd

Marvin Birnbaum, NY
3rd

Keith Wixson, NJ
4th

Dan Hoffman, NC
5th

Michael Mitchell, GA
6th

Past Winners

Andy Lewis, DE
1994

Roger Taylor, VA
1995

George Seary, NY
1996

Thomas Drueding, PA
1997

James Pei, TX
1998, 2013

Marvin Birnbaum, NJ
1999, 2002, 2009

Brian Mountford, NY
2000-01, 2008

George Young, VT
2003, 2006, 2007

John Poniske, PA
2004

Chris Byrd, CT
2005

Keith Wixson, NJ
2010, 2012

Michael Mitchell, GA
2011
     

Three-time WTP champ Brian Mountford vs Michael Ussery

2005 WTP champ Chris Byrd vs Derek Landel

 Pandy Pippus vs Mark Yoshikawa

 George Galuschak relives the Revolutionary War.

Still the Master ...

The House Rules changes introduced this year seemed to have an effect on the speed and play balance of the event. The 1782 and 1783 War Ends cards were treated as 1781 War Ends cards. All games ended no later than the end of the 1781 turn. A game could still end earlier via the 1779 or 1780 War Ends card or triggering of automatic victory conditions.

Save for the first round, play balance was close although the Americans held a slight edge in each round. Most of the games were extremely close and judging by the anecdotes many came down to the last couple of card plays. The event ended by 1 am which is far earlier than has been the case.

The Final featured James Pei winning as the Brits over George Young. In the semifinal James won again as the Brits versus Marvin Birnbaum. James was in control most of the game and Marvin never really stood a chance.

The other semifinal was a rematch of the 2012 Final without the Swamp Fox setting. George won as the Americans in a close contest against defending champ Keith Wixson. The game came down to a battle for Montreal on the last card play of the game. The Americans won, causing Canada to be uncontrolled and leaving the Brits with just five colonies.

The sole British win in the quarterfinals was by capture of George Washington. Overall the Americans held a 42-30 edge but when the results from the first round are removed, it was a more reasonable 27 - 22 edge for the Americans. The elimination rounds went 4 - 3 in favor of the Americans. Of course, having James Pei play the Brits in the last two rounds might have something to do with that.

This year nobody bid for the Brits and there were very few no bids. The Americans usually had to give the Brits 2 or 3 PC. The bid did not seem to affect the results at all. That is, there is no magic number. The sole bid of 4 for the Americans was by yours truly versus Pei in the sSemi's. I would have lost just as badly on a zero bid.

I want to thank my assistant gamemasters and finalists Keith Wixson and George Young who helped the tournament run smoothly.

Ass't GMs George Young and Keith Wixson battle in the semis with George downing the defending champ to advance.

The Master takes the measure of the GM in the other semifinal as James led throughout against Marvin.
 GM      Marvin Birnbaum [3rd Year]  NA 
    marvinbirnbaum@hotmail.com   NA

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