LeWinter Stops The 3-peat And Pleases The Mad King!

With 135 players across 59 games, 2019 saw Castles of Mad King Ludwig maintain the same player level as it had in 2018, with the same tight competition to get into the same 16-person semifinals. Triple-winners Dalton Versak and Andrew Emerick led the pack, and 12 other double-winners meant that only two win-with-a-second results snuck in.

Game #1 of the semifinals saw Steve LeWinter win over Felicia Alfieri, Randy Buehler and Ben Isgur 132-125-106-87. Game #2 had Sky Roy win over Bill Crenshaw, Ricky Boyes, and Dalton Versak 126-120-115-94. Game #3 had Andrew Drummond on top over Keith Dent, Dylan Quintana, and Ben Scholl, 112-105-99-81. And in Game #4, Devin Smith beat out April Willis, Duncan McGregor, and Andrew Emerick 110-94-93-85. Anyone who follows our results knows that there wasn’t a single slouch in that list, and all of the semifinals were hard – if blearily, given the end of the nine-day marathon – fought.

The final was then Andrew Drummond, Steve LeWinter, Devin Smith, and Sky Roy. This was Sky’s third appearance in the CMK finals, and he and Andrew celebrated the game by throwing trash-talk at each other constantly, the best of which your humble GM will attempt to reproduce here. Dropped bombs included “I need a sheet of paper to write down the mistakes Andrew is making”; “That’s as good a joke as Sky making this final”; “You’re doing well, Andrew, you have more than half my points”; “I’d say this is evidence that Canadians are good at games, but… Sky.” and “I would continue with the trash talking, but I’m so outclassing you in it that it would be unfair.”

The board set-up included goals for complete rooms, for corridor area, and for both sleeping room area and sleeping room number, setting up blue rooms for immense value. Andrew unfortunately pushed himself out of the game early – he was the first Master Builder and ended the first round taking a 10K blue room for the points instead of joining Steve with a stairs – both reducing his cash-on-hand and allowing Steve to set up the next turn with a cheap dungeon room only Steve could place. Round 2 further pushed Andrew out when, as third buyer, he had few good choices and ended up purchasing a food room for 9K. Very quickly, Andrew had serious money issues while Steve was now flush with cash and still the only person with a basement.

Steve’s strong money position kept him in the lead for most of the game, with Devin and Sky accumulating Utility Rooms to keep their points less obvious. Unfortunately for Devin, one of his cards was for sleeping rooms – which seemed great with the double bonus for them – but he was never able to get one, instead focusing upon placing and completing living rooms. Sky likewise had to fight to get the points he needed out of his cards.

On turn 10, Steve corrected recognized that he needed to end the game before Sky and Devin were able to catch up, and was able to complete a food room to ensure that turn 11 would be the last and ensure his win. Sky came in second with a robust overall board and continues to be the most laureled non-winner, with Devin being third and Andrew coming in last.

Thanks to everyone who played, and we hope to see you next year for more Mad King Ludwig!