hannibal: rome vs carthage [Updated October 2007]  

Omens Pre-Con

2007 WBC Report  

 2008 Status: pending 2008 GM commitment

James Pei, VA

2007 Champion

Offsite links:

  Laurels
Consimworld GM Site GM Site

Event History
1996    Thomas Drueding      58
1997    James Doughan      52
1998    Karsten Engelmann      52
1999    Jung Yueh     46
2000    James Pei     41
2001    Aaron Fuegi     35
2002    Peter Reese     41
2003     Keith Wixson     44
2004    Chris Byrd     46
2005    Nick Anner     39
2006    Jim Heenehan     34
2007     James Pei     31

PBeM Event History
2001     Aaron Fuegi     37

WAM Event History
2003    Stuart Tucker    11
2004    James Pei    19
2005    Chris Byrd    21
2006     Jim Heenehan    12

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  James Pei          VA    07    236
  2.  Keith Wixson       NJ    07    157
  2.  Chris Byrd         CT    06    157
  4.  Jim Heenehan       PA    07    128
  5.  Peter Reese        VA    06     94
  6.  Nick Anner         NY    05     60
  7.  Aaron Fuegi        MA    01     60
  8.  Jung Yueh          MA    99     50
  9.  Doug White         PA    04     44
 10.  Mark Giddings      NY    01     40
 11.  Gary Andrews       NY    07     38
 12.  Scott Moll         VA    06     36
 13.  Derek Miller       VA    05     36
 14.  David Dockter      MN    02     36
 15.  Craig Melton       VA    03     34
 16.  Stuart Tucker      MD    06     34
 17.  Charles Hickok     PA    03     30
 18.  Randall MacInnis   NJ    06     25
 19.  Jim Doughan        PA    06     24
 20.  Eugene Lin         WA    05     24
 21.  Jim Eliason        IA    03     24
 22.  Tim Hall           UT    05     22
 23.  George Seary       NY    99     20
 24.  Doug Mercer        MD    04     18
 25.  Henry Rice         NM    04     18
 26.  Ed Rothenheber     MD    02     18
 27.  Phil Barcafer      PA    99     15
 28.  Lyman Moquin       DC    05     12
 29.  Scott Moll         VA    05     12
 30.  Matthew Bacho      MD    04     12
 31.  Ahmed Ilpars     Turkey  07     11
 32.  Raymond Gorka      NY    07     10
 33.  Jim Heenehan       PA    06     10
 34.  Robert Vollman     ALB   00     10
 35.  Jim Heenehan       PA    05      9
 36.  Paul Gaberson      PA    06      8
 37.  Thomas Richardson  VA    06      6
 38.  Robert Hassard     NJ    02      6
 39.  John Rinko         VA    99      5
 40.  John Firer         WI    01      3
 41.  Trevor Bender      CA    01      2

2007 Laurelists

Jim Heenehan, PA
2nd

Gary Andrews, NY
3rd

Keith Wixson, NJ
4th

Raymond Gorka, NY
5th

Ahmet Ilpars, Turkey
6th


Past Winners

Thomas Drueding, PA
1996

James Doughan, PA
1997

Karsten Englemann, VA
1998

Jung Yueh, MA
1999

James Pei, TX
2000, 2007

Aaron Fuegi, MA
2001

Peter Reese, VA
2002

Keith Wixson, NJ
2003

Chris Byrd, CT
2004

Nick Anner, NY
2005

Jim Heenehan, PA
2006
       

Ewan McNay faces a real legionaire in the form of defending champ Jim Heenehan whose headware is a camera magnet.

No one can accuse GM Stuart Tucker of coasting with an easy schedule when he's facing ex-champ Pete Reese.

Omens of Caesar ... Damn Messenger!

Pei First to Win Two

This year Rome restored balance to the conflict, winning 25 of 49 games. Bidding continues to favor Carthage, but this year by only 1.2 PCs, with the maximum bid for Carthage at 3 PCs (seven occurrences). Only twice did a pro-Roman need to bid away PCs for his choice. However, the champion this year succeeded five times as the Roman.

James Pei's road to become the first two-time WBC Hannibal champion has been a long, arduous journey, filled with intercepted messengers, unlucky initiative rolls, and years of near success. Yet, it is no surprise that the first to accomplish this feat would be the top AREA-rated player--and he'd do it by defeating two former champions along the way.

James' first round victory was a bare 10-8 win over Ahmet Ilpars, and came with an assist of the Messenger Intercepted on three occasions, including the seventh and ninth turns. His second round victory was a quick drubbing of Gary Dickson, who called it quits after losing Hannibal in a Turn 3 battle in Massilia after suffering heavy attrition to a pair of epidemics and two Alps crossings. Pei faced former champion Keith Wixson in his third round game. Here, Pei's Scipio Africanus barely survived a double envelopment loss to turn around on the same turn and double envelop and kill Hannibal, resulting in Wixson's resignation.

At the start of Round 4, three players remained undefeated. Pei crossed swords with one of them in reigning champion Jim Heenehan. This time, Pei aggressively invaded Africa early, gaining control of the Numidias in Turn 3. After many lost battles reduced Carthage's armies, Hannibal sailed back to Africa on Turn 5, but despite a 12-9 card advantage against Marcellus, Hannibal was defeated. Heenehan resigned, down 4-12 in the province count.

The final round matched Pei against newcomer Raymond Gorka, whose 3-1 record and high tournament point standing stood as the best among players Pei had yet to face. Pei yielded the choice of Carthage to Gorka for a 2-PC price. On Turn 4, Philip joined Carthage. Pei sent Scipio Africanus into Africa, where he survived several nearly disastrous battles, but finally wiped out all Carthaginian CUs from Africa. Hannibal sailed back to Africa and after several battles managed to kill Africanus. However, on the final turn, Pei's Nero was unstoppable as he secured an 11-7 province victory.

Once again, the GM managed to fall just shy of a plaque, this time due to having not had the privilege of losing to Pei (who contributed a strong strength of schedule tie-breaker to those earning plaques ahead of Tucker).

During the convention, much discussion centered around the overwhelmingly imbalancing effect of a late-turn Messenger Intercepted. As a result, future conventions are likely to involve a tournament rule designed to lessen the likelihood of such occurrences. Furthermore, the tie-breaker points system will be modified to ease implemention. With some 14 HRC tournaments in the AREA records, AREA ratings are a satisfactory "strength of schedule" measure.

Top players (tourney pts., win-loss record, primary side):

1. James Pei, 63 TPs, 5-0, all Roman.
2. Jim Heenehan, 55 TPs, 4-1, 3 Roman wins.
3. Gary Andrews, 51 TPs, 4-1, all Carthaginian
4. Keith Wixson, 47 TPs, 3-2, 2 Roman wins.
5. Raymond Gorka, 43 TPs, 3-2, 2 Carthaginian wins.
6. Ahmet Ilpars, 41 TPs, 3-2, 2 Carthaginian wins.
7. Stuart Tucker, 41 TPs, 3-2, 2 Carthaginian wins.
8. Roderick Lee, 40 TPs, 3-2, 2 Carthaginian wins.
9. Ewan McNay, 40 TPs, 3-2, 2 Carthaginian wins.
10. Randy MacInnis, 38 TPs, 3-2, 3 Roman wins.
11. Glenn McMaster, 33 TPs, 3-0, 2 Carthaginian wins.
12. Terry Coleman, 31 TPs, 2-2, 1 Carthaginian win.
13. Larry Luongo, 30 TPs, 2-3, 1 Carthaginian win.
14. Gary Dickson, 29 TPs, 2-2, 2 Carthaginian wins.
15. Tom Drueding, 22 TPs, 2-0, both Roman.
16. Bill Banks, 21 TPs, 1-4, 1 Carthaginian win.
17. Henry Richardson, 17 TPs, 1-3, 1 Roman win.
18. Pete Pollard, 14 TPs, 1-1, 1 Carthaginian win.
19. Scott Marcotte, 13 TPs, 1-1, all Roman.
20. Chris Trimmer, 13 TPs, 1-1, all Roman.
21. Lyman Moquin, 12 TPs, 1-1, all Carthaginian.
... Ten other players, all with no wins.

 GM      Stuart Tucker  [6th Year]   22 Courthouse Sq #507, Rockville, MD 20850 
    econedit@aol.com   NA

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