kaiser's pirates  

Updated Nov. 22, 2014

2014 WBC Report  

 2015 Status: pending December 2014 Membership Trial Vote

Jim Day, MD

2014 Champion

Event History
2007    Joel Tamburo    33
2008    Phil Barcafer    41
2009    John Emery    41
2010    Kevin Emery    39 
2011    Matthew Bacho    40
2012    Jim Day    35
2013    RJ Gleaton    39
2014    Jim Day    44

 Laurels

 Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
   1.  Jim Day            MD    14     50
   2.  Matthew Bacho      MD    11     42
   3.  Joel Tamburo       IL    09     40
   4.  John Emery         SC    10     35
   5.  RJ Gleaton         SC    14     33
   6.  Kevin Emery        SC    10     30
   7.  Phil Barcafer      PA    08     30
   8.  Bryan Collars      SC    13     27
   9.  Daniel Lawall      NJ    12     24
  10.  Ernie Chambers     VA    14     18
  11.  Mike Horn          FL    13     18
  12.  Mark Hinkle        NH    14     14
  13.  Rob Winslow        NY    08     13
  14.  Carl Sykes         SC    14     12
  15.  James Kramer       SC    13     12
  16.  Scott Beall        OR    12     12
  17.  Greg Schmittgens   KS    11     12
  18.  Nick Kiswanto      VA    10     12
  19.  Eric Ritter        PA    09     12
  20.  Stan Buck          MD    08     12
  21.  Tim Rogers         SC    11     11
  22.  Michael Sana       SC    14      9
  23.  Ben Collinson Sr   MD    13      9
  24.  Bill Beckman       SC    11      9
  25.  Andy Lewis         DE    07      8
  26.  Gus Collars        SC    13      6
  27.  Mark F. Smith      SC    10      6
  28.  Bruce Young        SC    10      6
  29.  Roberto Sanchez    NY    09      6
  30.  Steve Caler        OH    07      6
  31.  Richard Bliss      CA    12      4
  32.  David Rohde        NC    09      4
  33.  Melody Thompson    SC    12      2
  34.  Frank Mestre       NY    07      2

2014 Laurelists
Repeating Laurelists: 

Ernie Chambers, VA
2nd

Carl Sykes, SC
3rd

Michael Sana, SC
4th

Mark Hinkle, NH
5th

RJ Gleaton, SC
6th

Past Champions

Joel Tamburo, IL
2007

Phil Barcafer, PA
2008

John Emery, SC
2009

Kevin Emery, SC
2010

Matthew Bacho, MD
2011

James Day, MD
2012, 2014

RJ Gleaton, SC
2013
     

AGM John Emery starts the proceedings
with a well attended demo.

Designer Jim Day brought his big guns to bear ...

 ... against Michael Sana,
a thorn in his side up to the last card.

 The finalists in battle formation.

Sinking Ships During the Great War ...

Designer overcomes Young opposition with last play.

First and foremost, the GM needs to thank everyone, especially Dan Lawall and John Emery, who made this tournament happen after I was called home from WBC early in the week. I am grateful, and I know our growing player base is, too.

Just like last year, victories were spread throughout the field - in 17 matches across three heats, only Mark Hinkle managed to win twice (Mark was one of two people to do so last year). 14 of those victors, including the three 2013 finalists who participated this year, played in the semifinal, joined by the two highest-scoring alternates. One high-stakes semi pitted the two most recent champions (KPR designer Jim Day and 14-year-old R.J. Gleaton) against each other. Day won the game, and his seat in the Final, besting runner-up Gleaton by a mere five points. Joining Day in the Final were two more veteran players - Ernie Chambers and Carl Sykes - and newcomer alternate Michael Sana (the 13-year-old roommate of defending champion Gleaton). Apparently the young 'uns down there in Mafia country play some Kaiser's Pirates. The veteran makeup of this year's Final table contrasted sharply with the 2013 Final, in which all four players were newcomers to the event.

Sykes apparently thought he was scheduled to play Texas Hold 'Em and showed for the Final in tinted glasses. Alas, his cunning plan backfired when he found himself unable to distinguish the subtle background color differences between attack and defense cards and reacted to an attack by playing the wrong type of card, much to the amusement of the table -- to quote their notes, "Carl's amber colored glasses cause confusion about card colors, but only for Carl." Nonetheless, Sykes managed to straighten out his play and win the first round, followed in order by Day, Chambers, and Sana.

As is so often the case, however, Sykes's reward for winning the first round was a bullseye painted squarely on his chest, as his opponents avoided giving him point-scoring opportunities during the next deck. At one point late in the round, however, Sana attacked Sykes's Shipping Lanes, sinking and scoring two merchantmen but failing to successfully board the third, after which Sykes was able to make a Safe Passage roll and get on the board, scoring the merchantman and a raider he had sunk previously. "Remember I helped you . . ." admonished Sana. Day won the second round handily, his score doubling that of Chambers, his nearest rival (101-51).

Going into the last round, Day had the upper hand with seven points, compared to five points each for Sykes and Chambers, and three for Sana. Second place in the round would give him the championship outright. Unfortunately for Day, everyone played conservatively, thwarting their opponents' scoring opportunities. One of the niceties of The Kaiser's Pirates is that you can only score as many high-point German ships as you have managed to score lower-point allied merchantmen, a rule that has foiled more than one would-be Kaiser. In this case, designer Day fell victim to his own rule as he tried desperately and repeatedly to sink the 3-point sailing ships lined up in front of Michael Sana. Each time Day attacked, Sana countered successfully with a defense card until, on the last round, Day came at Sana and his single remaining card one more time, good-naturedly threatening "If that's another defense card, I'm going to knock it out of your hand." It wasn't, but Day failed the roll and took third for the round. Chambers won the deck and tied Day on overall round points, but Day's big second round gave him the tie-breaker and his second championship in three years, followed by Chambers, Sykes, and Sana.

The 2013 finalists Hinkle and Gleaton rounded out the laurelests.

Stan Buck, Jeff Miller, and Bob Murray keep lookout.

 GM     Tim Rogers [3rd Year]  NA
   stetson@mindspring.com   NA 

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