Calkins Ends Henning's Reign As Automoble Mogul

Automobile has a consistent, fervent following. 43 Manufacturers, Salesman and Entrepreneurs pushed their skills to the edge in two preliminary heats. The Demo drew a dozen or so players, mostly new folks, with a couple just looking to refresh themselves with the flow of play. Many of those new folks came to the Heats. While the GM requested the sharks be “nice” to the noobs, we settled on being “polite”.

Improbably, we had even tables of 4 players in both Heats, 7 tables in Heat 1 and 6 in Heat 2. No space issues this year as compared to 2017. While the Alpine room is a bit off the beaten path, it is a great tournament room. The 13 tables yielded 13 unique winners. A few drops, allowed 6 second place players a seat at the semifinals.

Stat junkies, and aren’t all gamers stat junkies, should take note of role choices. Howard, with his car selling ability is the clear favorite, selected almost every single round (95%). Durant and Ford, were popular (76%, 71%). Chrysler and Kettering, dropped off a bit this year (59%,55%). Alfred P. Sloan still gets little love, selected a mere 36%.

The semifinals were mostly dominated by the top seeds out of the heats. Boards 3 and 4 were fairly easy wins for Matt Calkins and Robert Crenshaw. Board 2 was a squeaker, with Francois de Bellefeuille winning by a mere $10. But all the drama was on Board 1, where Anthony Lainesse defeated perennial finalist/champ, Nick Henning. Such was the excitement that there was talk of just naming Anthony the tournament winner right there. Clearer heads prevailed, and the Final was actually played.

With the table set, a first time champion would be crowned this year.

Martin Wallace’s games are sometimes more about avoiding mistakes than about purely winning moves. Automobile follows this model. By Turn 3, loss cubes appeared to be haunting everyone, in particular Anthony. The exception was Matt. Otherwise, the game flowed smoothly, if a bit slowly. The player in the lead was not obvious to me, and I suspect to the players. The leader must have still been up in the air on Turn 4, as Matt made a slightly unusual decision, taking a late loan. Not sure if he would have won without it, but it certainly helped secure the win.

Finals scores: Matt (4840), Francois (4300), Anthony (3690), Robert (3560)