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AGM John Emery starts the proceedings
with a well attended demo. |
Designer Jim Day brought his big guns
to bear ... |
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... 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.
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Stan Buck, Jeff Miller, and Bob Murray keep lookout.
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