Jiang Captures Another Title!

2022 saw the return of WBC after a short hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Orleans returned for its fourth showing, albeit with a new face as the GM (and sadly lacking a monk costume.) Ryan Feathers had attended the demo for Orleans in 2018 and learned the game, went on to take 6th place, and grew to love the game. Knowing Andrew Drummond often pulled triple GM duties, Ryan offered to take over for 2022, and Andrew accepted. (Rather predictably, this did not actually lead to Andrew GMing less games, just different ones.)

As a first time GM, I’d like to quickly thank all the people that helped make it go so smoothly. First off, a big thanks to Andrew Drummond for his advice and help, and agreeing to help be an AGM for the event as well. Next, I have to thank Chris Bizzell. He agreed to help run the demo for Orleans this year and did a great job. We had a small group that learned the game and a couple who played later in the week which is always a good sign. (Warning to those who did, you might find yourself as GM in a few years!) I’d like to thank my friends and roommates Fadi, Luke, AJ, and Chris for helping with some of the simple stuff like grabbing and moving the kiosk around, setting up and putting away games during the Heats, and other small tasks here and there. These little things help make being a GM far less onerous, and I’m really appreciative!

As for the Heats, attendance was down, although it was throughout the con. 2019 Orleans saw 70 unique players play 30 total games across the three Heats, in 2022 that was down to 45 unique players at 19 games in the Heats. There was a lot of discussion among many of the GMs about how much their attendance dropped by and what it might mean for staying in the Century. I suspect Orleans will be on the edge with such numbers, but hopefully it will be enough. Either way, lots of fun was had in those games!

Winners average score once again increased this year from a 149 in 2018, to a 152 in 2019, to a 155 in 2022. The breakdown of that winning score looked like an average of 6.3 guild halls, 3.2 citizens, and 5.5 development level for 53, 63 coins, and 39 goods for a total of 155 victory points (VP). This meant that several players who scored 150 points took a second place, and we even had one third place player at 150! While some scores in the 140’s won games, it was more likely to earn you a 2nd place this year.

The highest score in the Heats was Eric Wrobel’s 184 VP showing in Heat 2, which included a record 7 citizens, and a record 84 VP for his citizens + guild halls. Sceadeau D’Tela managed to build all 10 guild halls in Heat 2, which was the only example of someone putting down all 10 guild halls this year. The record for gold coins was 109 from Andrew Drummond, although his came at a 3 player table. Ryan Feathers put up 95 in a 2nd place effort, while Brooke Hullings has the winning record for a 4 player table during the Heats at 94. Finally, Ricky Boyes put up an incredible 79 VP worth of goods in a winning effort in the 1st Heat.

This year we tracked all the buildings that were built in each game and by whom. We managed to get this data from all the games, so thanks to everyone for helping to fill out the admittedly lengthy score sheets! While a few attempted a no building strategy, they typically fared poorly, and every winner had at least one building. The following is a list of buildings ordered by popularity, and includes how many times out of the 19 games it was built, and how many of those were winners:

• Hospital was built 19 times, 7 by winners
• Laboratory was built 18 times, 10 by winners
• Horse Wagon was built 16 times, 10 by winners
• Library was built 16 times, 5 by winners
• Pharmacy was built 16 times, 7 by winners
• School was built 15 times, 5 by winners
• Windmill was built 15 times, 4 by winners
• Tailor Shop was built 13 times, 4 by winners
• Shipping Line was built 9 times, 0 by winners
• Wool Manufacturer was built 8 times, 3 by winners
• Herb Garden was built 8 times, 1 by winners
• Cellar was built 5 times, 1 by winners
• Gunpowder Tower was built 4 times, 1 by winner
• Office was built 4 times, 2 by winners
• Winery was built 3 times, 0 by winners
• Cheese Factory was built 3 times, 0 by winners
• Brewery was built 1 time, 0 by winners
• Sacristy was built 1 time, 0 by winners
• Hayrick was built 0 times, 0 by winner

This list looks pretty similar to past year’s list of winners, with the notable rise of the Library from 2019. Overall, it seems players have learned the importance of some of the key buildings as many of the top buildings were taken in almost every game. The Hospital was taken in every game! This rush for it seems to have somewhat hurt the winning rate for it however, showing there is much more to the game than simply securing the best buildings.

On that front, there was a lot of discussion this year around what the keys were to doing well. Players exhibited a range of strategies and priorities, and many winners achieved their victories in fairly disparate ways. Making sure to take one’s share of the coins continued to be important, although perhaps less so than prior years. While most winners had at least 50 coins, plenty of players that heavily prioritized coins only got 2nd place, and even a few 3rd and 4th places had well over 50 coins this year. Winners had anywhere from 0 to 7 citizens, 0 to 10 guildhalls, 4 to 6 development level, 39 to 109 coins, 11 VP to 79 VP worth of goods. In other words, nobody seems to know for sure what you need to do to win!

The only constants are that you’ve got to have a good development level. For another year in a row the average winner’s development level has risen, and it’s increasingly getting to the maximum which is 6. Only one winner had a development level of 4, everyone else was either 5 or 6. While it was not recorded as a stat, by observation one of the biggest differences between the strongest players and some of the lowest scores is that the best players basically always make sure to get their draws every round to at least 7, and there often is a fight for the citizen on the Knights track and the subsequent 8 draw. I also generally think the winners are doing a better job of making sure they’re building and managing their bag well. This may look like aggressively culling followers you do not need to the beneficial deeds board, grabbing many monks, or securing a School, but the best players avoid having bad turns via bad draws. Players need to have a plan on how to earn their share of the coins. After that though, it would seem there is still a lot of interesting strategic space being explored every year.

The other main discussion that was had this year was what to do for the future. Orleans at WBC has always banned the bathhouse tile, and that will continue to be done for reasons of balance and to avoid confusion due to the numerous different printings that are out there. However, the main discussion for the future had to do with money. In the original rules, there is a line that suggests money should be limited, and so Orleans at WBC has been played with a hard limit of 212 coins available. In the newest editions of Orleans, this is very much not the case (the rulebook has been modified to now make it clear that money should be unlimited). Every year, and particularly this one, some players are surprised to learn that we are playing with only 212 coins, and it creates unique situations in the later rounds when money runs out. Many players have never experienced this in their home games, so it comes as an unpleasant shock when the money is out in the later rounds. While there were many good reasons brought up by all sides, ultimately it is that reason that we will be switching to unlimited money for future years of this tournament. It is uncertain exactly what the strategic implications of this will be or how it will shift up the values of the various buildings, but hopefully that will make the 2023 event all the more exciting!

As for the 2022 event however, after 3 Heats we had four double winners: Eric Wrobel, Sceadeau D’Tela, Chris Bizzell, and Aaron Blair. 11 others had at least one win. There were two others with at least two seconds. Besides the Heats, the next battle is simply making sure to show up. Sadly, our defending champion and double Heat winner Sceadeau didn’t show up. This, coupled with a few others not being able to show up, helped prove that you should always show up to check in if you’re on the cusp as Nick Henning and Matt Craig were able to make it into the Semifinal on the back of a 2nd place finish during the Heats.

The first Semifinal saw reigning Ceaser Allan Jiang facing off against an Orleans laurelist in Chad Martin and some new faces in Luke McKinnes and Sondajo Walker. This was a tight game between Chad and AJ for the win. Chad did much of the usual “good” stuff. He got his guild halls down, 7 of them. He snagged 3 citizens. He got a whopping 67 of the coins and had a solid number of goods. This gave him a nice score of 145. AJ did not do standard things. He also got down guild halls and some citizens, but he ended the game with a paltry 21 gold coins. Nobody in the Heats won with so few. AJ also built five buildings which is atypical, especially for non-Laboratory strategies. He had the Tailor Shop, Wool Manufacturer, Horse Wagon, School, and Pharmacy. As the first three of those all loosely help make goods, it is perhaps not too surprising then he ended with a nice 69 VP worth of goods and his 156 VP punched his ticket to the Final. Chad’s close finish earned him 6th place laurels once again. Final Scores:

• AJ (8 halls + 3 citizens) * 6 = 66 + 21 cash + 69 goods = 156 VP
• Chad (7 halls + 3 citizens) * 5 = 50 + 67 cash + 28 goods = 145 VP
• Luke (3 halls + 4 citizens) * 5 = 35 + 74 cash + 13 goods = 122 VP
• Sondajo (7 halls + 2 citizens) * 3 = 27 + 36 cash + 38 goods = 101 VP

Semifinal number two pitted 2019’s top two runner ups in 2nd place Lyman Moquin and 3rd place Andrew Drummond taking on all around strong gamer DJ Borton and former Orleans laurelist Aaron Blair . While the previous Semifinal was won in a rather unique way, this one was won in perhaps the most typical of fashions. Drummond got himself an early Hospital and Pharmacy, used it to rapidly get up the development track, and from that position snagged some citizens but mostly was producing cash (79) by game end. Lyman’s Windmill helped him earn some money himself, but it wasn’t enough. Andrew took down the win with 5 guild halls and 5 citizens along with his pile of money for a 161 VP win, tops among the Semifinal. Final Scores:

• Andrew (5 halls + 5 citizens) * 6 = 60 + 79 cash + 22 goods = 161 VP
• Lyman (6 halls + 5 citizens) * 6 = 66 + 57 cash + 19 goods = 142 VP
• Aaron (2 halls + 3 citizens) * 6 = 30 + 50 cash + 50 + 42 goods = 122 VP
• DJ (5 halls + 1 citizen) * 5 = 30 + 26 cash + 51 goods = 107 VP

The third Seminal pitted former champion Ricky Boyes against former laurelists Eric Wrobel and Ryan Feathers. All had placed in 2018 and failed to notch any laurels in 2019. They were joined by WBC newcomer Fadi El-Rachi. This game saw a lot of craftsman taken early, particularly by Ricky who was cogging just about everything on his initial board. On a critical turn, Eric opened by sending someone to the beneficial deeds board, and Ryan snapped up the Hospital that was still there. Wrobel looked down at his followers that were about to take a village action and said, “I was supposed to do that, wasn’t I?” The table concurred he likely was supposed to, and that Ryan was now the favorite. However, he promptly screwed that up by greeding out a Laboratory that was too late. It hurt his tempo on doing all the other things he wanted to, and by the time he was fully set up the game had run out of money, partially on the back of several Trading Day events rewarding all those who had already been getting their guild halls down. A late game taxes event meant some money got returned to the supply, and due to good fortunes Ricky was start player of the next round and got to nab most of it, which likely was the edge he needed to get the win. This was the closest Semifinal of the round top to bottom. Eric’s close 2nd place was enough to earn him 5th place laurels. Final Scores:

• Ricky (6 halls + 2 citizens) * 4 = 32 + 60 cash + 55 goods = 147 VP
• Eric (8 halls + 3 citizens) * 6 = 66 + 52 cash + 24 goods = 142 VP
• Fadi (8 halls + 3 citizens) * 6 = 66 + 39 cash + 26 goods = 131 VP
• Ryan (4 halls + 3 citizens) * 5 = 35 + 61 cash + 32 goods = 128 VP

The fourth Semifinal saw Heat winners and WBC newcomers Chris Bizzell and Dan Elkins joined by the two long time attendees who had “snuck” into the Semifinal as the closest alternates, Nick Henning and Matt Craig. Matt went for a rapid grab of the Hospital and Pharmacy combo that often wins, forcing the rest of the table to rely on other avenues. The craftsman and cogs dried up quickly instead, and Chris began moving rapidly around the board with his Horse Wagon while using his Windmill to get money and move on the development track. Dan was using the Laboratory to generate more cogs and get a load of buildings going to generate goods while Nick quietly played his board and tried to make his sole building of the Winery into a winner. In the end Chris’s balanced approach of doing well in everything and hoarding the most coins got the win. Final Scores:

• Chris (6 halls + 3 citizens) * 5 = 45 + 69 cash + 46 goods = 160 VP
• Nick (9 halls + 3 citizens) * 5 = 60 + 41 cash + 39 goods = 140 VP
• Matt (5 halls + 5 citizens) * 6 = 60 + 57 cash + 15 goods = 132 VP
• Dan (2 halls + 1 citizen) * 6 = 18 + 46 cash + 49 goods = 113 VP

Thus, the Final was set. Andrew Drummond was returning to the Final, eager to improve on his 3rd place showing in 2019. Ricky Boyes was back at the Final, looking to become the first two time champion in WBC Orleans history. Allan Jiang is no stranger to Finals, but this was his venture into one for Orleans. Chris Bizzell was having a great first year at WBC and wasn’t afraid of the talent surrounding him.

Some Finals are rather stoic affairs with players carefully calculating all lines and thinking deeply about their moves. And there certainly was some of that. Generally, though, the table was a riot. Andrew and Chris immediately dove into the friendly banter, going at it for most of the game. Ricky and AJ were joining in some of the jabs and it was a great table to watch and enjoy and remind us that we’re playing all these games because they’re fun and it’s good fun to sit down with so many great gamers to enjoy them with.

However, laurels and legacy were on the line, so it wasn’t just all idle chit chat and chumminess. The kind of “default” opening for most players seemed to be to take an early village action for a craftsman and get to work on cogging the village. Broadly the main point of the first part of the game of Orleans is to get your engine set up. This involves moving up the knight track to get more draws, and hence more actions. It also involves taking the village action in order to improve your options of which actions to take via securing buildings, and also taking village actions in order to improve the efficiency of your actions via securing cogs. All strong Orleans players will wind up taking quite a few early village and castle actions. Much of the goal of openings in Orleans is figuring out how you can take Castle and Village actions consistently every round to get set up.

AJ, Chris, and Ricky all went for the usual route of just locking up a Craftsman and cogging the village. Andrew decided to go for the “Wolff Opening” which consists of getting an early Boatsman and then Farmer, with the goal of ideally being able to take the Castle track faster than any other player while still getting in your village actions. When you draw well, this opening can be quite strong and it’s a nice way to win the Castle track’s citizen and 8th draw. When you draw poorly though, disaster can strike. Unfortunately for Andrew, he hit one of the worst possible draws and was left with a fairly early round or two that was wasted. Falling behind at a table like this can spell doom, and it was an uphill battle all game for Andrew.

The other players were jockeying for the usual things fairly early. Craftsman were at a premium and they ran out in round 4 when Chris took his fourth straight, having cogged a bunch of basic actions on his board. AJ stopped taking them in order to lock in the Hospital, widely seen as the strongest building in the game. Ricky saw the run on cogs happening and decided to get a Laboratory for himself.

Around round 6 or 7, Chris drew poorly. He was start player, he was in position on the castle track to get the citizen, but he failed to draw the needed followers to secure the action. AJ glanced over, noticed the problem, and being the player right after Chris, was all too happy to see he could simply take another Castle action to lock in the citizen and then subsequently get to the 8th draw. As a spectator, it was around this point that I thought it was AJ’s game to lose as he had already secured the Hospital and the School, and now was getting a small early gift via the Castle track’s citizen and 8th draw. As everyone by now knows, AJ has a preternatural knack for not losing games, and this one would be no different.

Poor early draws slowed down Andrews game and he never really recovered from the bad early turns. He tried to make things work with a Windmill to generate money, and he did succeed at limiting everyone else's cash and thus points, but he didn’t find enough ways to generate his own beyond that. His Herb Garden was a desperation attempt to make his early Boatsman pay off better, while the Pharmacy is what he had to settle for as a way to make development progress, but it meant he was spending some of his hard earned cash advantage to do so.

Chris decided to pressure the craftsman early, limiting everyone else’s cogs. Most could not get cogs on their buildings, limiting the value of having them. Unfortunately, this meant everyone else got the priority on the better buildings, and so Chris decided to keep forgoing taking any of them. He continued not taking buildings through the entire game, trying to snag the win with just his improved action board, a farmer lead, and moving about the board to take the highest VP goods. He began to realize he had got beat to all the “good” sources of development track movement, and so also eschewed moving much on that.

Ricky had a few iffy draws early on as he was setting up for the long haul. His early Laboratory at least allowed him to still get cogs when the Craftsman dried up so rapidly, but it took quite a few rounds to get going, and he was only able to get a Wool Manufacturer and Cellar to go with the Laboratory before the buildings had run out. This gave Ricky a fine number of goods to go along with decent number of guild halls, but he never had a good enough plan to secure money, and it’s hard to win Orleans without being close to the cash leader.