D’Tela Finally Pulls Out A Win!

The third year of the Orleans tournament at WBC has shown it to be firmly established as a mainstay of the Euro game tournaments. We had 70 unique players playing 30 tables across the opening heats. Last year I said the following: “One downside was the 3rd heat at 9am that saw only 28 players make it up for it. In future, I think the early heat will need to be earlier in the week before everyone gets too fatigued to get up for 9.” Your humble GM completely ignored that advice from his past self and again ran a 9am Friday 3rd heat to which only 23 players showed. I hope that Future Andrew listens to Past Andrew more successfully.

This year’s average winning score went yet higher than the 149 set in 2018 as winners averaged a 152 point score this year. Only three of the 35 tables had a winning score under 130. If it is of interest, a complete average winning score was: 6.1 Houses on the board + 3.6 citizens * 5.4 on the tech track for a multiplier score of 53. Add that to 65 coins and 34 goods for a total of 152

Some notable things from the heats included:

• Three players drew bad tables and managed to lose while scoring over 150 points. Well actually two players because Chad Martin did it once, but Andrew Emerick did it twice.
• Ricky Boyes got the best overall score 177, though Eric Wrobel put up a score of 176 twice.
• Andrew Martin was the only player in the entire tournament to get all 10 of his houses on the board.
• On the opposite side, Jack Carroll managed to win without getting any houses down
• In addition, Luke Morris was the only player to get a win without ever playing a building.

A few players came up with interesting strategies that are worthy of mention as well:

• Pat Mirk tried to go all goods in his game, never moving on the tech track or dropping a house. He finished with 92 points in goods, but with few points elsewhere, it wasn’t enough.
• Ryan Feathers, having already gotten two wins, tried in his third heat to win without ever advancing up the tech track. He came close with a score of 141.

There was a lot of talk about openings this year as well. The most traditional opening play is to Village for a Craftsman. The Craftsman allows you to cog the village so you can village/university on turn 2. Other less common openings are village for builder getting you first pick of buildings at the expense of a double action in turn 2 or first turn university that sets up village/monastery in turn 2. However, one of our perennially strong players Sam Wolff came up with a different idea. He suggested that you could open with village for a Fisherman, which then gets you the castle/farm house turn 2. While I’m sure he was not the first to think of this, it was widely discussed this year and will be henceforth dubbed the Wolff Opening. It has the advantage of getting an early lead on farming and castle track at the expense of choice of building (if you draw badly you may not get to village again until turn 4). Just another example of the different strategies that come out at WBC that give you pause to think “Maybe I should try that.”

After the heats, we had 14 players with a win and a second or better. This allowed the top two single winners into the semifinals and when two qualifiers didn’t show (partly because 9am on Saturday is hard to get up for) we went all the way down to the sixth alternate to fill the field. I am a believer in seeding the semifinals based on performance in the heats, though this does fall apart when one of the best players in the tournament only plays one round and sneaks in as the 14th seed. Beyond that though, the seeding felt fair and the semis were ready to go.

The first semifinal had #1 seed Ryan Feathers up against 2018 winner Ricky Boyes, 2017 finalist Lyman Moquin, and alternate Ming Hon. 4 rounds in, early strategies were starting to show. Amazingly, only two buildings had been built across the first 4 turns (Ryan’s hospital and Lyman’s Windmill). There had also been very little activity on the tech track with Ming having grabbed the first citizen but gone no further. Ricky’s ploy was cogs as he had taken a village action for a craftsman in all four of his first turns, and had set up a play at farmers as well as board movement with those cogs.

Lyman set up his midgame with three straight university actions and a school to master the scholar play. He also made a run at the castle track and snagged that citizen. Ming was close behind on the tech track and pulled out a lab and tailor shop to set up some additional points. Ryan added a pharmacy and horse wagon and got a head start on exploring the bottom section of the board. And Ricky maintained his farmer lead while also getting two houses down and heading for the Southwest.

In the late game, Lyman beat out Ming for the citizen on the fishing track, on his way to dominating the citizens overall. Ryan added a winery to try to maximize goods points as he built houses in the Southeast. Ricky finally bought a building (Wool Manufacturer) and went unchallenged for lead farmer as he built in the Southwest. And Ming added an Herb Garden to try and utilize her many fishermen while trying to get houses down in the North. In the end though, Lyman’s coins from the tech and fisherman tracks combined with his citizens were too much to catch up to. Final Scores:

• Lyman (5 huts + 7 citizens) * 6 = 72 + 73 cash + 13 goods = 158
• Ryan (8 huts + 1 citizen) * 6 = 54 + 44 cash + 43 goods = 141
• Ricky (8 huts + 0 citizens) * 5 = 40 + 35 cash + 63 goods = 138
• Ming (5 huts + 3 citizens) * 5 = 40 + 45 cash + 45 goods = 130

The second semifinal had Chad Martin who had pulled off two wins and a 2nd place in the heats against perennial threat Sam Wolff, newcomer Luke Morris, and alternate Daniel Smith. Early on, Sam opened with the Wolff opening and was two up the castle track before the others had any. Daniel got a windmill and a couple of cogs. Chad snagged the Laboratory/Hospital building combo, and Luke went for a Horse Wagon/Tailor Shop play, looking to set up a goods strategy.

By the midgame, Daniel had raced up the scholar track, adding a school and office and using the windmill to have dominating lead in the tech track. Sam added an herb garden and pharmacy and was the first to get his marker out of Orleans to build in the South while also capping the castle track. Luke used the Tailor Shop for a few brocade, but struggled to draw the workers to move on the board. Chad had cogged everything in sight, but was stuck at 2 on the tech track making his hospital less effective.

In the late game, Daniel maintained his tech track lead, scoring the citizens there and moving into the unoccupied Southeast corner of the board also scoring him office points. Sam collected many goods in the Southwest, but was geographically constrained in where he could get more houses down. Chad was hitting his hospital for 3 and then 4, while using a large amount of monks to maximize actions. And Luke, having exhausted the supply of brocade early, focused on converting the spaces left on the board from Sam’s rush to the bottom cities.

In the end, Sam didn’t quite make it to the last spot on the board to build the last (and winning) house. But the battle came down to Daniel’s extra houses against Chad’s extra coins. And when they finished, they both had 156 points. For reasons I cannot defend, I did not have a second tiebreaker written for this tournament, and thus needed to make a ruling on the spot. After consulting my AGM (and without knowing who it would benefit), I decided to define it as most points scored on the multiplier as the second tiebreaker (first is tech track itself). This will be printed so it can be referenced in future. Final scores:

• Daniel (7 huts + 4 citizens) * 6 = 66 + 69 cash + 21 goods = 156
• Chad (4 huts + 4 citizens) * 6 = 48 + 76 cash + 32 goods = 156
• Sam (7 huts + 4 citizens) * 6 = 66 + 39 cash + 48 goods = 153
• Luke (7 huts + 0 citizens) * 5 = 35 + 14 cash + 59 goods = 108

The third semifinal featured Eric Wrobel, who qualified with two 176 point wins, 2017 and 2018 runner-up Sceadeau D’Tela, Andrew Martin who had his own convincing 161 point win, and double winner Brandon Buchanan. One very interesting start of this game was that in the first three turns, no one built a building. Sceadeau took a university, two craftsmen and sent a guy for a book to get the first tech citizen. Eric was the only one not to take a farmer action, but also took two craftsmen and a knight. Andrew jumped ahead with two on the knight track while adding a fisherman. And Brandon took a balanced approach with a farmer, fisher, knight, and scholar.

By the midgame, Sceadeau had gotten a cellar and windmill out and was fairly balanced across other tracks. Andrew had a horse wagon and a cogged wool manufacturer, while also getting to the end of the castle track (though was worst farmer). Eric had a sizable lead in the tech track and was also best farmer while trying the hospital/pharmacy combo. Brandon was the first to leave Orleans, but beyond that was balanced with no buildings and leading no tracks (except scholar – but not tech).

In the late game, Sceadeau added a Laboratory and Gunpowder Tower while spamming the windmill/cellar for $6 a turn. All three other players were also in the far South of the board leaving Sceadeau four late game building spots. Eric went to complete the farmer track and maintained a big lead on tech through his pharmacy, spamming his hospital each turn. Andrew still had a lead on houses and was earning a wool every turn. Brandon got some houses down in the Southeast while picking up a library to try and keep building tech.

However, in the end Sceadeau was able to generate money much faster than Eric was, and that combined with his seven citizens (all off the good works board!) gave him the win. Final Scores:

• Sceadeau (4 huts + 7 citizens) * 6 = 66 + 97 cash + 9 goods = 172
• Eric (4 huts + 4 citizens) * 6 = 48 + 67 cash + 34 goods = 149
• Andrew (8 huts + 2 citizens) * 5 = 50 + 15 cash + 74 goods = 139
• Brandon (7 huts + 1 citizen) * 6 = 48 + 33 cash + 24 goods = 105

The last semifinal had perennial semi-finalist Aaron Blair, double winner Felicia Alfieri, Matthew Hatherell and the GM Andrew Drummond having finally won a heat of the game. In the early game at this table, Aaron started with three early craftsmen cogging up the castle, farmhouse, and village. Andrew used the Wolff opening to rush up the castle track. Matthew took a couple early university actions to get the tech lead while also grabbing the windmill. And Felicia went for the balanced approach moving up one on every track except farmer while securing the herb garden.

By the midgame, Andrew had taken scholars to get a tech track lead while building a hospital that he promptly cogged up. Felicia added a tailor shop and continued a balanced approach to the game. Aaron got to the end of the castle track to draw eight workers while picking up all of the pharmacy, laboratory, and shipping line to start working on tech. Matthew added a horse wagon, while maintaining a balance of other things as well.

Towards the end, Matthew made good use of his horse wagon and got a lot of houses out, but wasn’t able to get an engine going for cash or goods and this kept him a little back of the leaders. Felicia never got any great utility from her Herb Garden and couldn’t draw well enough to maximize the Tailor Shop. Despite his pledge to never take a scholar, Aaron was the only one to get to the end of the tech track with a reasonable number of coins and goods, but Andrew’s 101 coins from his good works board and constant hospital spamming were enough to edge him at the end. Final Scores:

• Andrew (5 huts + 4 citizens) * 5 = 45 + 101 cash + 18 goods = 164
• Aaron (5 huts + 3 citizens) * 6 = 48 + 51 cash + 59 goods = 149
• Matthew (8 huts + 3 citizens) * 5 = 55 + 39 cash + 31 goods = 135
• Felicia (3 huts + 2 citizens) * 5 = 25 + 21 cash + 52 goods = 98

And so, the finals were set. Two veterans of the game in Sceadeau and Lyman and two relative noobs in Daniel and Andrew. Since the GM was playing in the final, the notes from this year are a little less robust than in previous years. However, we still have highlights:

In the first two turns, Daniel took a build on turn 2 to lock down the hospital while getting a craftsman and scholar but got hurt on turn 3 drawing craft/craft/build/scholar. Andrew tried the Wolff opening again, and enjoyed the top of the farmer track for a bit but also had a sub-optimal 3rd turn draw of farm/farm/fish/fish/knight. Lyman opened craftsman then scholar/fisherman and setup farm/village on turn 3. Sceadeau also opened craftsman and followed with craftsman/scholar.

After 7 turns, strategies were beginning to firm up. Andrew had built a Lab/Winery combo and been the only one to move and build outside of Orleans (though he wasn’t able to build in Orleans). He had also snagged the first tech track citizen by sending off a farmer, but had stopped there. Daniel had taken three scholars and a school, though was having trouble drawing the right pieces to activate the hospital every turn. Sceadeau had a Tailor Shop/Cellar setup and had cogged the Cellar to make a monk worth $4 every turn. He had also grabbed the knight track citizen. Lyman built a Horse Wagon/Windmill combo and was fairly balanced on all the tracks.

With about 5 turns to go, the game was looking clearer in terms of victory. Sceadeau had added a Pharmacy and Gunpowder Tower to his tableau and had 47 coins already from his cellar and board exploits. Lyman had walked around the board getting goods, but never drawing into placing houses and had added a wool manufacturer to try and get a bigger goods lead. Daniel’s hospital languished as he only got to four on the tech track at this point despite maxing out scholars. He had 23 coins at this point, but had a sizable lead on houses down with four and had a few more turns with the South of the board to himself. Andrew had prioritized farming and was well up that track while inexplicably buying an Herb Garden despite only having his starting and second turn fishermen in his deck.

At the end, no one was able to catch Sceadeau’s cash lead and he coasted to a relatively easy win and first Orleans shield. Lyman pulled in second on the strength of his goods and still pulling in a reasonable amount of coins. Andrew got third mainly from his wine and the farmer track, as he only got four houses down in the end despite being the first out of the gate. Daniel got the most houses down, but he never maximized the tech or the hospital.

Final scores:

• Sceadeau (6 huts + 5 citizens) * 6 = 66 + 77 cash + 25 goods = 168
• Lyman (5 huts + 2 citizens) * 6 = 42 + 48 cash + 53 goods = 143
• Andrew (4 huts + 2 citizens) * 5 = 30 + 41 cash + 63 goods = 134
• Daniel (7 huts + 3 citizens) * 5 = 50 + 46 cash + 20 goods = 116

Beyond the finals, we continued to collect a variety of statistics on the games in both the heats and the playoffs to see if there was anything that could be derived from the ways the game was played. Some of the conclusions we can reach are:

• The tech track was more important. The average winner had a tech level of 5.4 (up from 4.9 last year). Only thrice did a winner not have at least 5 on the track, and two of those were games with well below average scores.
• Citizens domination was a bigger part of winning this year as well. The average was up to 3.6 citizens, and in only 8 games (down from 17 last year) did the winner have 2 or less.
• Coins are still important. Only 4 winners had less than 40 coins, and the average for a winner was 64
• The very top scores (the 13 games where the winner had 160+ points) tended to have fewer goods. An average of 35 and 6 of those had 25 or less.

We also tracked the buildings played by the winner. We got this data back for 33 of the 35 games played. Buildings in order of popularity among winners were (difference from 2017’s 31 games recorded):

• Pharmacy 14 times (+9!)
Hospital 13 times (+3)
• Laboratory 12 times (+2)
• Horse Wagon 10 times (-2)
• Windmill 9 times (-1)
• School 7 times (-2)
• Tailor Shop 5 times (-3)
• Gunpowder Tower 5 times (-1)
• Wool Manufacturer 4 times (-3)
• Winery 3 times (=)
• Office 3 times (-1)
• Cellar 3 times (+1)
• Shipping Line 2 times (-2)
• Herb Garden 2 times (+1)
• Library 1 time (-3)
• Cheese Factory, Brewery 0 times (-1 each)
• Hayrick and Sacristy have never been used by a winner in any WBC tournament if Ryan is looking for a goal for next year.

One massive change in strategy this year was the huge upsurge in Pharmacy use. Nearly half the winning boards used this building. It coincides with the Library completely falling off only being used once on a winning board this year.

If we look at the strategies in general:

• 15 (up from 10) winners focused on winning through buildings that made coins (Hospital, Office, Windmill, Cellar). They typically had 70+ coins.
• 10 (up from 9) had a balanced strategy pulling from multiple spots for their points
• 2 (down from 9) winners focused on winning through a multi faceted goods strategy. At least one goods building with 6+ guildhalls and scoring 55+ points in goods.
• 2 (=) focused on guildhalls without worrying about the goods portion.
• 2 (=) focused on using efficiency (Herb Garden, School, Lab) to get balanced points
• 2 (up from 1) player won with goods buildings and few guildhalls.

So this year, the coin strategy made a big comeback. It was prominently featured in 15 of the games that were played, including all five of the semis and finals games. However, there were still multiple ways to get to it. Most used a hospital, but also cellars and just windmills were used as well. Not to mention the 10 games that had a more balanced approach. Nevertheless, very few this year used a primarily goods strategy to get a win, which marks a definite turn in the game’s strategy. As players continue to improve, it will be interesting to watch the evolution of the strategies as the game goes on.

Thanks again to everyone who played and I’ll see you all next year.