Jeff Coyle meets Paul Gaberson in Round 1.	Dave Long ponders the English on that blue die.
Mark Popofsky downs John Stevens in the opening round.	Doug Bryant and Craig Yope battle as Robert Malcomson engages Antero Kuusi in the background.

The 11th running of the EOS tournament saw 32 contestants. These numbers have not ever been seen before. It was heartening to see renewed interest after these many years. The tournament featured as always the 1943 scenario which continues to demonstrate solid balanced results. The early rounds with so many new players on hand were hard to judge, but in the later rounds the statistics were 50-50 Japanese to Allied wins with the Final between Dennis Culhane and Craig Yope decided in favor of the Japanese.

Craig's summary of the final encounter follows.

"Dennis smacked my Commonwealth super stack in Akyab with a nasty air raid that took out five of the six ground steps. That was early in the first turn and pretty much sealed my fate for the rest of the game. I fought back to take four ports in New Guinea and Rabaul by the end of Turn 2 but I stumbled in my sequencing/planning early in Turn 3 and Dennis was going to have five cards to play after I was done. Even if I had done things right and finished off New Guinea, he had plenty of chances to take back multiple places.

After my concession he talked about most likely shooting down to the South and cutting supply between the U.S. and Australia. He still had a Northern India hex he hadn't taken, any of the many New Guinea hexes, and even Rabaul or Guadalcanal depending on my final disposition.

The early resolution of the CBI allowed him to shift resources into the central Pacific. Only his weak hand in the second turn allowed me a glimmer of hope. A third turn return to ISR killed any momentum I had. Plus, I miscalculated my Biak amphibious assault based on the use of Australian 12-12 units. Again the lack of true game experience bit me as I finally realized that those units take two ASPs.

A desperate attempt to get strategic agreement was met with a quick counter of an ISR card from his hand. I resigned at that point knowing that it was untenable."

And that is how it went in our farewell to the Host. I look forward to seeing everyone next year in Seven Springs.

Richard Phares, Mark Herman, Rory Aylward, Pablo Garcia and Gary Gonzalez enjoy the designer's live designer's notes.