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Egizia
has been remarkably stable for a game that did not make the cut
in its debut year. |
Fresh Blood ...
This year the heats produced a more normal result in terms
of advancement to the semi. Last year, a first heat win was required
to advance, due to the lack of any double winners, whereas this
year, there were four double winners; Randy Beuhler, Cary Morris,
Kyle Smith, and Andrew Emerick. This placed the cutoff point
for advancement at any win rather than a first heat win only.
The four double winners were separated for the semifinals,
and only two survived to reach the Final - Cary Morris and Kyle
Smith. Two-time Caesar Randy Beuhler was bested by WBC newcomer
Keith Dent, while Andrew Emerick, the defending champion, was
taken down by Elaine Pearson, just as she had done in the semifinals
two years ago.
To
kick off the Final, Keith drew the coveted first seat, followed
by Cary second, Kyle third, and Elaine fourth. Next year will
probably feature some sort of bid for seating in the elimination
rounds.
The first round featured a relatively weak set of cards -
only the +2 sphinx card, a 2 stone quarry, and 3 green food stood
out. None of the 3 stone quarries flipped. As a result, the trip
down the river was slower than usual, with Cary, Kyle, and Elaine
all stopping at the Sphinx. Kyle and Elaine both elected to opt
into starving lightly, for 2 and 3 points respectively.
After the first round, Elaine led with 9 points having built
in all 3 zones, followed by Cary and then Keith at 3 points,
and finally Kyle at 1 point.
Predictably, the second round card row was rich, though notably
one of the 3 stone quarries went out of the game. Cary, Kyle
and Elaine all boosted their stone production this round, while
Keith elected to slowboat, picking up both a green and yellow
food card, a spot at the Sphinx, and several crew strength. After
the building, Elaine and then Keith led at 14 points, followed
by Cary at 11 while Kyle continued to hang back at 6.
In the third round, Cary managed to snag the excellent move
upriver card, while Keith made the difficult decision to skip
the Sphinx with his +2 cards there to improve his stone production
from 3 to 9. Elaine had problems of her own to fix, needing to
skip the Sphinx as well to pick up a yellow food card, not having
previously obtained any additional food at all. This round finished
with a three-way tie for first, with Keith, followed by Elaine,
followed by Cary all at 20 points. Kyle remained behind, but
not by much, at 16.
The fourth round featured everyone but Kyle visiting the Sphinx,
who opted instead for a 3 stone quarry and 3 green food. All
the players decided it was time to start picking up points, and
so all the building sites were filled in an effort to generate
some points. Going into the final round, Keith led, but just
barely, with 39, followed by Kyle at 36, Cary at 35, and Elaine
at 32.
Elaine opened the last round to pass on the Sphinx to pick
up a point card, while everyone else piled into the Sphinx. Cary
used his place two ships card to pick up the often critical and
sometimes trap card allowing you to build first everywhere. Again,
all the building sites got filled, and everyone built as much
as they could.
Going into the final scoring Kyle led the pack at 68, Cary
had 62, Keith had 59, and Elaine had 53. Unfortunately, Kyle
couldn't put up many points in final scoring. He only picked
up 2 from the graves, 10 from the 2 bricks in each building site,
and 6 for most green fields. 7 bricks in the Pyramids was missed,
bringing him to 86.
Cary then flipped over a solid stack of scoring cards, picking
up 6 from 4 bricks in the columns, 7 for 3 people at the end
of the grain track, 4 for finishing the grain track, 7 for finishing
both tracks, 8 for having the most brown fields, plus 2 for graves
and 3 for unused stones, bringing him to a total of 99 points.
Keith had a decent set of cards, scoring 4 for joker strength,
6 for one column, and 10 for both columns, and 7 for having four
bricks in the obelisk, but he missed on most yellow fields, bringing
him to 86, tying Kyle.
Finally, Elaine flipped an excellent set of cards, getting
9 for blue crew, 6 for permanents, 7 for 3 people at the bottom
of the stone track, and 7 for the 7th level of the obselisk being
complete. She also picked up 2 points from unused stones and
2 bonus points at the graves, bringing her to 86 as well.
Thus, Cary Morris won, and the three-way tie for the remaining
spots was broken by the order they arrived, thus making Kyle
Smith second, Keith Dent third, and Elaine Pearson fourth.
Attendance remained stable, even though the final had a full
complement of new faces as compared to last year. We look forward
to seeing even more of you sailing down the Nile next year.
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Elaine Pearson and an unidentified
hitchhiker outnumber Redie Smith. |
GM Andrew Emerick and his finalists. |
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