Feathers Wins First Championship!

2023 was the fifth running of Orleans at WBC. Player numbers have slowly declined over the years, but the players who continue to show up are fairly dedicated, often attending multiple Heats. This year we had 46 unique players participating in 22 opening round games. Heat 1 was the best attended with 38 players, while the other Heats pulled 23 each. Most games were played 4 player, although a handful of 3 player games were required during the Heats.

Before covering the rest of the action of the tournament, I’d like to thank everyone who helped me out with GMing. It makes a huge difference to me, even if a lot of the assistance may be minor to others, and overall, it makes for a very smooth convention experience. Chris Bizzell, Fadi El-Riachi, and Luke McKinnes once again helped with setting up games, moving around the kiosk at times, collecting scoresheets, or packing up games when people had to rush to other events. They also did the usual AGM things of answering rules questions as needed and the like. Thanks so much!

Orleans is scheduled in a two hour block, and for another year in a row all games completed within that timeframe….but it’s tight. I appreciate all the players who help make this happen. Slower play certainly could result in requiring a game to go to adjudication, and I’m glad no game required it. As I’ve stated, I realize the two hour block makes the game go slightly faster than some would like, and probably keeps a handful from participating, but from all the feedback I’ve gotten, a three hour block would totally kill participation and the event. Every game once again proved that we fit in a two hour block–but I and the other Orleans players appreciate the other GMs and players that understand when we’re running to make the start of the next event!

The demo this year was lightly attended, and mostly featured folks looking for some quick refreshers on the rules. Coupled with the fact we’re playing in a tight time block; it is not the most beginner friendly tournament. The GM is considering switching Orleans to an A class event in the future based on the sparse demo interest and the fact that the Heats are already almost entirely filled with experienced players in a tight time block as is.

The one big change to Orleans at WBC in 2023 was that we switched to unlimited money. In prior years, we played with a hard cap of 212 coins in the game, and once they were collected, no more were available. This was done based on some original rulings from when the game was released. Newer editions of Orleans explicitly state that money is to be unlimited, and so we’ve now switched to that rule too. There was concern leading up to the convention that this might ruin the competitive game.

Discussions happened leading up to the first Heat of how this might warp the game, and there was some mild concern that one could simply just nab a Hospital from the first move of the game and ensure a win.

Fortunately, it turned out those fears were incorrect. The feedback by the end of the week was entirely positive, and nobody seemed to be clamoring for a return to the money cap. The game works very well with unlimited money and there’s still a lot to do and consider. Strategies were once again varied and mixed throughout the Heats, and players won in a variety of ways. The main difference is that overall scoring was predictably up quite a bit since there was now more money–but scores did not increase by a huge margin, as pursuing the extra money meant players focused a bit less on goods this year. The average winning score in 2022 was 155, while in 2023 it rose to 165. The breakdown of that winning score (vs 2022) looked like an average of 5.9 (6.3) guild halls, 3.6 (3.2) citizens, and 5.2 (5.5) development level for 49 (53), with 87 coins (63), and 29 (39) in goods for a total of 165 (155) victory points (VP). You can see a huge shift in how many coins players were able to earn without the cap, but many other categories took a bit of a hit in that pursuit that led to the more modest overall score increase.

Scores in Orleans with unlimited money are a little hard to compare to each other, since the order the events come out in can have a large impact on the overall scores. When things like Trading Day and Income events come early, players have had less time to set up to score big off of them, while when they come late everyone gets a lot of points. Regardless, there were some interesting results overall due to this unlimited money and increasing skill level of the players.

The Heats saw two players nearly hit 200 VP: Chad Martin with a 198 VP in Heat 1, and Ricky Boyes with a 197 VP in Heat 2. Scores that would once safely get a win in past years like Andrew Martin’s 174 VP could now be only enough for a 2nd place. The best 3rd place score was Ryan Feathers’ 157, which still is more than last year’s average winner! Finally, David Stiffler was unlucky when his 147 VP was only good enough for fourth place.

During the Heats, 3 players managed to get out all 10 of their guild halls: Chad Martin, Luke McKinnes, and Patrick Mirk. In that game Chad also managed to nab 6 citizens and get to the max development level, setting the high water mark for that VP category with 90. The most citizens during the Heats was 7 and was achieved by Andrew Martin and Sam Wolff. The most money was achieved by Patrick McGuire with an incredible 119, although Ricky Boyes and Ryan Feathers got close to that with 116 and 114 respectively. The most goods VP was 62 achieved by Rob Flowers and Bailey Burdett, although neither won their game – nor did Sondajo Walker (57), Mike Horn (57), or Aaron Blair (56). Chris Bizzell’s 55 was the best by a winner.

This year we once again tracked all the buildings that were built and by whom. We managed to get this data for 21 of the 22 games during the Heats (one game did not have building data but had the rest of the VP stats). Once again, a handful of players did attempt a no building strategy, but once again every winner had at least one building. The following is a list of buildings ordered by popularity (how many times it was built), and of those how many times it was by the winner:

• Hospital was built 19 times, 8 times by winners
• Horse Wagon was built 18 times, 6 times by winners
• Library was built 17 times, 3 times by winners
• Pharmacy was built 17 times, 4 times by winners
• Windmill was built 17 times, 9 times by winners
• Cellar was built 15 times, 6 times by winners
• Laboratory was built 15 times, 5 times by winners
• School was built 15 times, 3 times by winners
• Office was built 14 times, 8 times by winners
• Tailor Shop was built 14 times, 2 times by winners
• Herb Garden was built 11 times, 1 time by a winner
• Wool Manufacturer was built 8 times, 3 times by a winner
• Shipping Lane was built 5 times, 0 times by a winner
• Brewery was built 3 times, 1 time by a winner
• Gunpowder Tower was built 2 times, 0 times by a winner
• Winery was built 1 time, 0 times by a winner
• Cheese Factory was built 0 times
• Sacristy was built 0 times
• Hayrick was built 0 times

Overall, this list looks fairly similar to last years. The major jump was seen by the Office which saw a lot more use this year. This is hardly surprising as the Office mostly allows one to earn a lot of money late in the game, and so was the building most obviously impacted by the switch to unlimited money this year. Players seem to have mostly learned which buildings are useful and help lead to wins, with many of the top buildings getting built in nearly every game. The main cautionary tale from both 2022 and 2023 seems to be that the Herb Garden and to some extent Shipping Line are built fairly regularly but are not helping lead to victory.

As for winning, once again winners took a variety of paths still to get there. When players ask for advice on how to do well in Orleans, there are a few basics that still hold up. First, basically every winner gets up the knight track relatively early, and certainly by the halfway point in the game. More draws from your bag means more actions and more actions is more points. Beyond getting more actions, you also want to make your actions better. To that end you’ll generally see players fight for early craftsman and builders, since craftsman let you take actions with less followers, and many buildings give you better actions to spend your followers on. Finally, the other general trend among stronger players is that they do things to make sure they don’t have bad turns due to draws. Ensuring this happens has a variety of solutions, but some of them include getting lots of wild monks, aggressively thinning your bag via beneficial deeds, and/or getting buildings like the School or Pharmacy.

Beyond that? A lot can work. Winners this year fluctuated from having 0 to 10 guild halls, 0 to 7 citizens, 3 to 6 development level, 62 to 119 coins, and 8 VP to 55 VP in goods. There’s a lot of ways to win once you do those basic things! The only constant year after year is that winners do have a strong development level, with almost all reaching that 5 or 6 multiplier for their guild halls and citizens. This is where taking a lot of Scholars can help, and also why buildings like the Pharmacy, Windmill, and Library are built so often.

After 3 Heats the field was set. Only one player declined to play in the Semifinal due to a conflict, and the rest of the qualifiers all showed up. Only one alternate got in, which left Nick Henning as the only Heat winner to not advance. His sole heat win had him as the lowest ranked winner. The advancement point this year therefore was a 1st and a 3rd or better.

The Semifinal field as a whole was filled with the usual suspects. Only three players made it for the first time in the events history: Tricia Wolff, Michael Swinson, and Randy Buehler. Sadly, Aaron Blair failed to make it five straight Semifinal appearances, ending the only streak of making it every year. Ryan Feathers and Ricky Boyes now own the longest streak of making the Semifinal, each having done so for four straight times, while Sam Wolff and Lyman Moquin tie the overall record of four Semifinal appearances by making it through again in 2023. Players were randomized and the Semifinal was underway.

Semifinal number one featured last year’s runner up Chris Bizzell taking on former laurelist Sam Wolff along with Andrew Martin and Mark Jensen. This was a tight and well-played game. Everyone got some buildings, all players hit at least development level 5, and everyone got a good amount of cash. Mark was relying on his Hospital to give him enough of a cash edge to win, but it wasn’t enough for either. Chris used the Tailor Shop and School to end with a 2023 record 68vp in goods…which also wasn’t enough. Sam Wolff utilized a Windmill and Horse Wagon to put up a competitive game, and even nabbed 5 citizens. This effort was enough to nab laurels for him once again….but sadly it was only 6th place, matching his best effort from 2017. Andrew Martin utilized the power of the Laboratory to cog a lot of actions, getting out 8 guild halls and also using his Library for development level, and his Cellar and Office for a ton of money–116. This got him a ticket to the Final. Hayrick was built 0 times, 0 by winners

Semifinal number two featured Lyman Moquin trying to make it to his third semifinal against former laurelist Ryan Feathers. This pair had previously faced off in 2019 where Ryan got 2nd to Lyman, and Lyman went on to take 2nd overall. They were joined by Tricia Wolff and Dan Ottey. This game started out in the usual ways with everyone getting some craftsman, grabbing a building or two, and moving up the knights track. Tricia focused on a Windmill and the Horse Wagon, along with sending a lot of followers to the beneficial deeds board. This may have been slightly too much as she ended with 6 citizens but got far fewer goods and guild halls down than you’d expect from a Horse Wagon. Dan used his Tailor Shop to end with the most goods vp but didn’t have enough time to use his Cellar for lots of money and didn’t get a lot of moving around done. Lyman set up the Laboratory along with a Hospital and School but found things a bit slow to get going, an issue that the Laboratory sometimes has. Ryan focused hard on moving and building guild halls, managing to get all 10 down, which paired excellently with his Office that paid him a ton of coins. In the end this approach proved good for a convincing win. Final Scores:

• Ryan (10 halls + 3 citizens) * 5 = 65 + 86 cash + 30 goods = 181 VP
• Lyman (6 halls + 2 citizens) * 5 = 40 + 73 cash + 23 goods = 136 VP
• Dan (3 halls + 2 citizens) * 5 = 25 + 42 cash + 51 goods = 118 VP
• Tricia (3 halls + 6 citizens) * 4 = 45 + 61 cash + 7 goods = 113 VP

Semifinal number three featured Ricky Boyes looking to return to the Final for a third time. Dan Elkins, Fadi El-Riachi, and Michael Swinson were all seeking their first Orleans laurels. This was the closest Semifinal top to bottom with the scores being separated by a mere 11 VP. Michael sought to run the classic Hospital + Pharmacy combo for a bunch of coins and added a School to assist. He made a lot of money but struggled to do enough else with limited guild halls exploiting that 6 development level. Dan focused on his Library to provide him books and otherwise played a solid all-around game, doing a bit of everything. Fadi used a Windmill, Laboratory, and a Cellar to get a bunch of money and set up lots of strong moves late. Ricky didn’t care that the players with the most goods weren’t winning in the heats, he set a 2023 record with 64 VP of goods in this game off of his Horse Wagon and Tailor Shop, with an Office as well. While the goods leaders in the heats couldn’t convert, it proved just enough for Ricky to take a very close table, while Dan nabbed the 5th place laurels on the tiebreak over Fadi. Final Scores:

• Ricky (5 halls + 4 citizens) * 4 = 36 + 45 cash + 64 goods = 145 VP
• Dan (6 halls + 3 citizens) * 6 = 54 + 49 cash + 33 goods = 136 VP
• Fadi (6 halls + 2 citizens) * 5 = 40 + 74 cash + 22 goods = 136 VP
• Michael (3 halls + 4 citizens) * 6 = 42 + 78 cash + 14 goods = 134 VP

Semifinal number four featured last year’s champion Allan Jiang against two times in a row 6th place Chad Martin along with returning semifinalist Luke McKinnes and new to the Orleans Semifinal Randy Buehler. This was the highest scoring Orleans game I’ve seen at WBC. The winner put up an astounding 209 VP, the fourth place player’s 156 VP is probably the best fourth place score ever. They had a lot of late events that led to very high scores, but also some extremely strong play. Luke earned some craftsman and focused on getting down guild halls, and succeeded in placing the most, but failed to get any building to assist him in doing much else and struggled to get enough books to raise his development level. Randy ran the classic Hospital + Pharmacy combo very well and put up a nice game. Sadly, nice game wasn’t cutting it at this table. AJ invested heavy in his engine and secured the School, Horse Wagon, Wool Manufacturer, and Office. He moved about the map, built 7 guild halls, made a lot of wool, and earned a lot of money from the events and his office. At most tables this would have been good for a win. Chad however set the WBC Orleans scoring record by winning the race on the knight track, and also investing in his own engine via buildings: Laboratory for cogs everyone, the Library for books, Cellar for money, and Windmill for both. These extra cogs proved the difference as Chad racked up his absurd 209 VP. Final Scores:

• Chad (6 halls + 3 citizens) * 6 = 54 + 127 cash + 28 goods = 209 VP
• AJ (7 halls + 1 citizen) * 5 = 40 + 94 cash + 49 goods = 183 VP
• Randy (5 halls + 5 citizens) * 6 = 60 + 87 cash + 16 goods = 163 VP
• Luke (8 halls + 2 citizens) * 4 = 40 + 71 cash + 45 goods = 156 VP

Thus, the Final was set. Ricky Boyes was back for his third time, having previously won it all in 2018 and taking 3rd place last year. Between Ryan Feathers and Chad Martin, they had the last 3 sixth place finishes, but both were making their first visit to the Orleans Final. Andrew Martin was joining his father, happy to be getting his first laurels in the event.

The Final were seated with Chad 1st, Ricky 2nd, Ryan 3rd, and Andrew 4th. Interesting divergent paths started almost immediately. Chad, Ryan, and Andrew all opened the first two rounds by taking two craftsman. Ryan cogged his Village and then Castle actions, while Chad and Andrew cogged Village and Monastery. Ricky decided to open the game by building the Hospital and then Laboratory, hoping to secure the key buildings he wanted.

Then, very interesting things happened. This would be a good time to talk about the one other big development this year. The GM had to brush up on the seldom used torture rules at multiple times during the Heats and Semifinal. In the past, players tended to respond to early harvest events by delaying their engine building to take a farmer and wheat, so they could pay the harvest in wheat instead of the 5 coin penalty. After all, who wouldn’t want to pay something worth 1 VP instead of 5 VP of coins? Experts however have increasingly been ignoring this tempo hit and just paying the money, electing to free up their early rounds to continue setting up their engine. This normally is not an issue. You start with 5 coins after all and can happily pay them the first time that harvest event shows up.

The problem is obvious though: what happens when a second early Harvest event arises? This is where in the past almost everyone would just find a way to secure a food good. This year? Players began electing to explore the torture rules…and it turns out some of the penalties are not that bad. Some are unthinkable; a built guild hall, losing a building tile, or losing a cog. But you can also pay development track points, followers, or you can even pay with your unbuilt guild halls, just lowering your max you can possibly build. While players occasionally did build all 10 guild halls in some games, this is a rarity. Therefore, players in the Heats and Semifinal explored these less onerous payments by electing to torture during a harvest and not worry about gathering goods ot pay for them.

This culminated in the wildest moment I have seen in an Orleans game, much less the Final. Round 3 of the Final saw a Harvest come out. These four players were all experts. None blinked or fretted for a moment, they all paid their initial 5 coins and continued gathering buildings and craftsman. Round 4 brought the bad news: another harvest. Now here is where many players would grab that farmer to avoid torture.

Not a single one did. Several players sent some of their followers off to the beneficial deeds board to collect money (you can partially pay the harvest and then undergo torture to make up the difference), but every single finalist elected to torture for some amount. Chad and Ryan were each short one dollar and each paid one unbuilt guild hall, capping themselves to a maximum potential of 9 guild halls. Andrew was short 2 dollars and paid with 2 unbuilt guild halls. Ricky was short the full 5 dollars. He sacrificed 2 of his guild halls, and also opted to lose 3 followers. He knew at the time he personally didn’t need any of the followers in his bag, and so thought this would help him thin things out. He lost 2 craftsman and 1 scholar. Therefore, the table collectively in round 4 of the Orleans Final tortured 9 things away: 6 guild halls and 3 followers!

Unfortunately, a short while later Ricky realized he made a blunder. While he did not miss those followers in his bag, the return of two craftsman to the game meant the other players could take them, and when you build a craftsman, you get a technology tile….but the Laboratory Ricky built also was competing for that same pool of limited technology tiles. By increasing the craftsman supply, Ricky inadvertently cost his own laboratory some later utility, and aided his opponents in getting their games set up.

As could be expected in a Final, the players ruthlessly exploited this. Ryan and Chad had taken to building some buildings. Ryan grabbed an early Office and Tailor Shop, while Chad got the Windmill, Cellar, and Horse Wagon. With these extra craftsman, they were able to place some cogs on some of these buildings, further increasing their value. Andrew picked up a Brewery and Library to assist on money and books, while also starting a game long focus: earning citizen tiles, many from the beneficial deeds board.

Ryan won the race for the citizen on the castle track, aided by the fact he was the only one who had cogged the castle to race for it. Andrew and Chad both were pumping out monks though, dramatically helping them get consistent draws from their bags. The monks act as wilds and allowed both of them great flexibility by the mid-game on in taking whatever actions they desired. Ricky achieved this draw protection shortly thereafter through the combination of having thinned his bag via the torture, getting rid of his followers to beneficial deeds, and picking up a few monks. Ryan evened out his draws by later adding a School and Pharmacy.

A plague event happened somewhere during the early to mid-game. To Ricky’s dismay, yet another craftsman was returned to the supply, giving another cog to someone. Ryan was delighted, as fortune would have him as the start player for the next round where he could nab another cog for himself. At that point it seemed it was likely Ryan’s game to lose: He had won the race for the castle track, and therefore had 8 draws to everyone else’s 7. Ryan also had maxed the craftsman track, meaning he had 5 cogs on his board improving his actions. Finally, Ryan also had the building lead at 4. Any one of those things could be hard to overcome, but having the lead in cogs, buildings, and draws meant it would be hard for anyone to do things more efficiently, and ultimately Orleans is a game of doing things efficiently.

None of the other players were just going to concede the game though, and things stayed fairly tight. Andrew continued his focus on citizens, winning many from racing up the development track faster than others via scholars and his Library, while also winning the boatsman track. Andrew also was expertly setting himself up in the beneficial deeds board, making sure to send his followers off to collect more citizens. While the table partially needed to remove followers to keep their draws consistent, Andrew was capitalizing. By the end the entire beneficial deeds board was filled, and Andrew had achieved a WBC record 9 citizens! 9 is an absurd number, the best in any of the 2022 and 2023 games was 7. There are only a maximum of 15 citizens in a game of Orleans, so for one player to hog 9 of them in a 4 player game was truly impressive.

Ricky made sure to begin moving in a lucrative direction, picking up some high VP goods, while making sure to use his hospital for lots of cash. He managed to also slightly hem in Ryan’s ability to get out his last guild hall. Chad meanwhile was racking up the cash with his Cellar and Windmill, plus he was trying his best to contest the guild hall lead and was jointly rewarded with Ryan when some late trading day events emerged.

Ryan’s end game focused on hitting the same couple of actions over and over: building guild halls, moving, using his office to get money for those guild halls, and making cloth at his Tailor Shop. He had managed to get moving at a good time and just eked out the most guild halls for the bonus citizen. He also spent a few late moves using his Pharmacy to finish the development track, and the late Trading Day events coupled with his Office helped him catch up in money, his one weakness. In the end, it proved to be enough. Final Scores:

• Ryan (8 halls + 3 citizens) * 6 = 66 + 64 cash + 56 goods = 186 VP
• Chad (7 halls + 1 citizen) * 4 = 32 + 115 cash + 31 goods = 178 VP
• Andrew (3 halls + 9 citizens) * 6 = 72 + 78 cash + 18 goods = 168 VP
• Ricky (6 halls + 1 citizen) * 5 = 35 + 77 cash + 40 goods = 152 VP

Congrats to Ryan on becoming the 5th Orleans champion in 5 years! It’s always a bit skeevy when a GM wins their own tournament, but for Ryan it completed a journey that began with attending a demo in 2018, falling in love with a game, playing and studying it, volunteering to run the event, and now finally taking home the shield. A huge congrats to the other finalists as well. Chad’s on an impressive three year run of earning laurels in Orleans, one of these years he’ll take it all. Andrew deservedly notched his first Orleans laurels in the most stylish way with those 9 legendary citizens. Ricky joins Sceadeau as the only players to make 3 Orleans Finals and cements himself as one of the best Orleans players at WBC.

Thanks once again to all who helped run the event in 2023, and to all the players for making it a great event. Hopefully Orleans will stick in the century and be back in 2024 for another well fought tournament. It will be interesting to see how players continue to adapt to the unlimited money, and how the general skill level rises and adapts. It will be interesting to see where things go next!