Fw: [18xx] 2016 World Boardgaming Championships (WBC) 18xx Tournament Write-up
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J C Lawrence
Sep 4, 2016, 2:09:24 PM9/4/16
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The game summary below is worth tracking through in detail.
-- JCL
Begin forwarded message:
Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2016 13:02:48 -0400
From: "'Tom McCorry' tommc...@gmail.com [18xx]" <18...@yahoogroups.com>
To: <18...@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [18xx] 2016 World Boardgaming Championships (WBC) 18xx
Tournament Write-up
New Venue, New and Familiar Faces, Familiar Result
The 2016 running of the WBC 18xx Tournament was another success. Our
tournament room was a great improvement over the Limerock and Strasbourg
rooms we used at the Lancaster Host. We had cell phone and Wi-Fi
coverage, plenty of space between tables, and starting on Sunday, great
views of the Seven Springs slopes and sunshine from the Alpine room.
While our numbers were down slightly from the previous year (61 -> 51),
I attribute most of that to the convention expanding to a full nine
days and more competing tournaments being run on Saturday and Sunday.
We had our usual international field with players from the US, Canada,
Finland, UK, Austria, Japan, and more. Each of the qualifying rounds
had an average of eight 4-player games being played. 1830 was still the
most popular title with 14 plays throughout the tournament. Second was
1846 with 8 plays and 1861 with 4 plays. 18Dix and 1880 had 3 plays
each followed by 18NY and 1862 with two plays each. Rounding out the
field were one play of 1856 and 18EU. I suspect with the addition of
just a few more people, the games with the fewest plays will jump
dramatically since they were frequently on the bubble to play.
The statistic that I enjoy the most as a GM is that we had 26 unique
heat winners! So more than half the field won at least one game over
the course of the four qualifying rounds. Of the non-winners, many had
solid second place finishes. The 2016 "Missed it by that Much!" award
goes to Glen Pearce with 3 seconds and one third place finish. We only
had three multiple heat winners this year: The Canadians Anthony
Lainesse, who went a perfect 4-0 including a thrilling $9 win (0.44%
margin of victory) over Kurt Kramer, and Francois de Bellefeuille, who
had 2 wins. Annual favorite Bruce Beard had 3 wins and a fourth place
finish.
With twenty-six winners and only twenty places in the semi-finals, we
were once again in danger of a heat winner not advancing to the
semi-final. The tie breaks are most wins, win in your first heat
played, win in your second heat played, win in your third heat played,
win in your fourth heat played, margin of victory. We had 21 people
qualify through the third tie-break (win in second round played) so it
was going to be close. In the end we only had 21 heat winners present
for the start of the semi-finals and did not need to use a tie break
when Grant LaDue opted to participate in another tournament he was
interested in that morning so all twenty heat winners present and
wanting to play made it to the semi-finals.
The semi-finals consisted of 5-player games of 1846, 1862, and two 1830
games. The winners advanced to the finals and the runners-up played in a
consolation game for the fifth and sixth places plaques. Francois
advanced in his bankrupt finish 1830 games with Spencer Hamblen the
alternate. Newcomer Jonathan Coveney scored a solid win over the
undefeated Anthony to advance to the final. Bruce Beard, strategically
avoiding the 1830 players, advanced from his 1846 game with David Long
the alternate. Finally, Peter Eldridge advanced from his 1862 game with
Mark Geary the alternate. In the consolation game, Antony's slide in
the playoffs continued as 2012 Champion Spencer claimed the fifth place
plaque and Mark claimed the WBC-coveted sand plaque and was eligible to
join the annual sandman parade on Thursday.
For the final, we again had a truly international field with players
from the US, Canada and the UK. Here is an outline of what transpired
(thanks to Bruce for the notes):
Private Auction: Francois (F)-C&A 165, Bruce (B) - MH 115, Jonathan
(J)- DH 75, Peter (P)- Schuylkill 20, F- CStL 40, B- pass, J- pass, P-
BO 220 (par at $100)
Stock Round 1: F- PRR at 67, B- C&O 67, J--NYNH 67
2 rounds paying with one 2 train.
Stock Round 3: J bought last three 2s on NYNH and dumped it on F with
four 2s and started BM at 100
B&O floated and bought a 3T.
BM floated and bought three x 3T.
F took CStL rip with NYNH, train tight
C&O ran and paid 70 and bought a 3 and a 4 (no rip)
PRR ripped C&A for 250 and bought a 4T (no run)
Stock Round 4: F now floated the NYC at 760.
NYC had to buy the 3rd 4T and NYNH bought the 4th.
At Start of Stock Round 5 it looked like:
* B&O (P)- 3T and money
* BM (J) 3 x 3T and $300ish
* C&O (B) - 3 and a 4 and $150ish
* NYC, PRR and NYNH (F) with a single 4 each (NYC has money)
Bruce traded in the M&H for an NYC share
B&O bought the first 5T and BM lost a 3T to train limit.
NYC bought the 2nd 5.
Stock Round 6: Bruce had priority and floated Erie at $100.
J floated CPR at 100.
Erie bought 5 and 3 from C&O.
CPR bought 6
BM bought 6
C&O paid $220 and trade 4T on D.
F had 3 RRs and 1 train. He had NYC buy across the 5T from NYNH using
money from hand (which allowed him to sell NYNH shares and dump now
train-less NYNH on Peter.
Peter could only raise $1000 and went Bankrupt.
(Bruce: "If Peter death spirals 3 rounds he can dump a train-less B&O
on me but then NYNH is in brown and F buys back 5 shares at $10 and
gets another 5T. Peter elected to finish last then rather than last 2
hours later").
The final scores were Bruce $1400, Jonathan $936, Francois $609, and
Peter 110. Bruce's 33% margin of victory tied for the highest in the
tournament and earned him his 11th WBC 18xx title (fourth in a row).
Thanks to everyone who participated, especially our new players. I also
want to thank all the players who were involved with the 18xx gaming in
the spacious open gaming hall during the week. 1822 was the popular
pick-up title this year with 1817, 1831, 18Africa and a large scenario
18OE among other games I saw played. I really enjoyed the two 1822
games I hosted: one with Mikaela and Antero from Finland and some of
the locals and a 7-player running with many of the tournament
semifinalists and finalists. Turns out the 7 player game length was not
significantly different from a four- or five-player game but the bid
values and strategies were much different. I plan to host another
7-player 1822 open gaming session next year. We will use the same
tournament format and I will conduct the annual voting for games to
include in next year's tournament. I look forward to an expanded field
next year at Seven Springs.
Tom McCorry
WBC 18xx Game Master
(P.S. If anyone is interested in attending next year (22-30 July 2017
with the 18xx Tournament running from 22-24 July), I'll be glad to
provide info and pointer on travel and logistics. In the end this
turned out to be one of the least expensive tournaments I've ever
attended and given I attend 10-14 gaming events around the world in a
year, that is saying something).
-- JCL
Begin forwarded message:
Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2016 13:02:48 -0400
From: "'Tom McCorry' tommc...@gmail.com [18xx]" <18...@yahoogroups.com>
To: <18...@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [18xx] 2016 World Boardgaming Championships (WBC) 18xx
Tournament Write-up
New Venue, New and Familiar Faces, Familiar Result
The 2016 running of the WBC 18xx Tournament was another success. Our
tournament room was a great improvement over the Limerock and Strasbourg
rooms we used at the Lancaster Host. We had cell phone and Wi-Fi
coverage, plenty of space between tables, and starting on Sunday, great
views of the Seven Springs slopes and sunshine from the Alpine room.
While our numbers were down slightly from the previous year (61 -> 51),
I attribute most of that to the convention expanding to a full nine
days and more competing tournaments being run on Saturday and Sunday.
We had our usual international field with players from the US, Canada,
Finland, UK, Austria, Japan, and more. Each of the qualifying rounds
had an average of eight 4-player games being played. 1830 was still the
most popular title with 14 plays throughout the tournament. Second was
1846 with 8 plays and 1861 with 4 plays. 18Dix and 1880 had 3 plays
each followed by 18NY and 1862 with two plays each. Rounding out the
field were one play of 1856 and 18EU. I suspect with the addition of
just a few more people, the games with the fewest plays will jump
dramatically since they were frequently on the bubble to play.
The statistic that I enjoy the most as a GM is that we had 26 unique
heat winners! So more than half the field won at least one game over
the course of the four qualifying rounds. Of the non-winners, many had
solid second place finishes. The 2016 "Missed it by that Much!" award
goes to Glen Pearce with 3 seconds and one third place finish. We only
had three multiple heat winners this year: The Canadians Anthony
Lainesse, who went a perfect 4-0 including a thrilling $9 win (0.44%
margin of victory) over Kurt Kramer, and Francois de Bellefeuille, who
had 2 wins. Annual favorite Bruce Beard had 3 wins and a fourth place
finish.
With twenty-six winners and only twenty places in the semi-finals, we
were once again in danger of a heat winner not advancing to the
semi-final. The tie breaks are most wins, win in your first heat
played, win in your second heat played, win in your third heat played,
win in your fourth heat played, margin of victory. We had 21 people
qualify through the third tie-break (win in second round played) so it
was going to be close. In the end we only had 21 heat winners present
for the start of the semi-finals and did not need to use a tie break
when Grant LaDue opted to participate in another tournament he was
interested in that morning so all twenty heat winners present and
wanting to play made it to the semi-finals.
The semi-finals consisted of 5-player games of 1846, 1862, and two 1830
games. The winners advanced to the finals and the runners-up played in a
consolation game for the fifth and sixth places plaques. Francois
advanced in his bankrupt finish 1830 games with Spencer Hamblen the
alternate. Newcomer Jonathan Coveney scored a solid win over the
undefeated Anthony to advance to the final. Bruce Beard, strategically
avoiding the 1830 players, advanced from his 1846 game with David Long
the alternate. Finally, Peter Eldridge advanced from his 1862 game with
Mark Geary the alternate. In the consolation game, Antony's slide in
the playoffs continued as 2012 Champion Spencer claimed the fifth place
plaque and Mark claimed the WBC-coveted sand plaque and was eligible to
join the annual sandman parade on Thursday.
For the final, we again had a truly international field with players
from the US, Canada and the UK. Here is an outline of what transpired
(thanks to Bruce for the notes):
Private Auction: Francois (F)-C&A 165, Bruce (B) - MH 115, Jonathan
(J)- DH 75, Peter (P)- Schuylkill 20, F- CStL 40, B- pass, J- pass, P-
BO 220 (par at $100)
Stock Round 1: F- PRR at 67, B- C&O 67, J--NYNH 67
2 rounds paying with one 2 train.
Stock Round 3: J bought last three 2s on NYNH and dumped it on F with
four 2s and started BM at 100
B&O floated and bought a 3T.
BM floated and bought three x 3T.
F took CStL rip with NYNH, train tight
C&O ran and paid 70 and bought a 3 and a 4 (no rip)
PRR ripped C&A for 250 and bought a 4T (no run)
Stock Round 4: F now floated the NYC at 760.
NYC had to buy the 3rd 4T and NYNH bought the 4th.
At Start of Stock Round 5 it looked like:
* B&O (P)- 3T and money
* BM (J) 3 x 3T and $300ish
* C&O (B) - 3 and a 4 and $150ish
* NYC, PRR and NYNH (F) with a single 4 each (NYC has money)
Bruce traded in the M&H for an NYC share
B&O bought the first 5T and BM lost a 3T to train limit.
NYC bought the 2nd 5.
Stock Round 6: Bruce had priority and floated Erie at $100.
J floated CPR at 100.
Erie bought 5 and 3 from C&O.
CPR bought 6
BM bought 6
C&O paid $220 and trade 4T on D.
F had 3 RRs and 1 train. He had NYC buy across the 5T from NYNH using
money from hand (which allowed him to sell NYNH shares and dump now
train-less NYNH on Peter.
Peter could only raise $1000 and went Bankrupt.
(Bruce: "If Peter death spirals 3 rounds he can dump a train-less B&O
on me but then NYNH is in brown and F buys back 5 shares at $10 and
gets another 5T. Peter elected to finish last then rather than last 2
hours later").
The final scores were Bruce $1400, Jonathan $936, Francois $609, and
Peter 110. Bruce's 33% margin of victory tied for the highest in the
tournament and earned him his 11th WBC 18xx title (fourth in a row).
Thanks to everyone who participated, especially our new players. I also
want to thank all the players who were involved with the 18xx gaming in
the spacious open gaming hall during the week. 1822 was the popular
pick-up title this year with 1817, 1831, 18Africa and a large scenario
18OE among other games I saw played. I really enjoyed the two 1822
games I hosted: one with Mikaela and Antero from Finland and some of
the locals and a 7-player running with many of the tournament
semifinalists and finalists. Turns out the 7 player game length was not
significantly different from a four- or five-player game but the bid
values and strategies were much different. I plan to host another
7-player 1822 open gaming session next year. We will use the same
tournament format and I will conduct the annual voting for games to
include in next year's tournament. I look forward to an expanded field
next year at Seven Springs.
Tom McCorry
WBC 18xx Game Master
(P.S. If anyone is interested in attending next year (22-30 July 2017
with the 18xx Tournament running from 22-24 July), I'll be glad to
provide info and pointer on travel and logistics. In the end this
turned out to be one of the least expensive tournaments I've ever
attended and given I attend 10-14 gaming events around the world in a
year, that is saying something).
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