WBC '07 Titan Results

Last updated on November 1, 2008.

For more information on Titan see my Titan Home Page.

Multi-player Titan Results

The very short summary is that Aaron Fugei won the multiplayer event and Sean McCulloch won the two player event. Participation was up a bit.

Below is essentially the report I turned into Don for use in the yearbook. I borrowed some stuff from Aaron's after action write up.

This year we played 42 games. 30 of these were four player games (including the four semifinals and the final) and 12 were three player games (and no five player games). This works out to 156 game seats. Last year we had 138 game seats. This is about a 13% increase. The number of participants increased about 18% over last year.

This suggests that the current format is working ok and we don't need to switch to MSME at this time. The two hour dead time seemed to work well. It is long enough to make sure we get a game going at the 4 hour start increments, but not so long that people who finish in the dead time get grumpy about having to wait to start another game.

The other event in our future is the Titan rerelease being done by Valley Games Inc. If it comes out early enough, I'll take a look at any rule changes they make and discuss with some people if we want to switch to their rules, play some games under each set or continue using the current rules. I'll want to make that decision before the end of February so I can include it in my event preview. My expectation is that the release won't occur early enough to use any rule changes for 2008. However, I do expect there to be discussion at the event if the game is out before or at the WBC in 2008.

We had four players attend from Japan. Ted and Alex Lange are just living there temporarily. Akihisa Tabei last attended in 1997. He brought Masahide Hisanaga "Hide" Shinjuku-Ku with him. Hide was very impressed by the WBC and was planning on trying to set up a similar event back in Japan. He was also hoping to bring some of his Titan students along with him next year. Hopefully that will all work out.

As usual, some unusual things happened during the event. Ted Lange's titan survived 25 dice needing 4 or better (only three hits out of six needed) while eliminating Peter Gurneau's titan. David Platnick ended up winning a game with his titan the only character left in the game. In one of the semifinal games, three players (Bob Masso, Aaron Fuegi and Jason Ley) all had 2 warlocks at the same time.

I have some notes from two of the semifinal games.

In semifinal 1 Joe Harrison blocked Tom Johnston and neither player recovered from this. Tom did get a chance to kill Dan Strock, but rolled less than the 5 he needed to reach him. Dan played conservatively and did not risk teleporting near some weaker titans inorder to pressure them. Tom withdrew at a point that allowed Dan's serpent stack to kill Brian Sutton's dragon stack. Brian had a number of 1/3 shots at a hydra but was never able to get one. Brian tried a couple of desperate attacks incuding 2 trolls, 2 rangers and 2 wyverns against 2 wyverns, warlock, gorgon and 9 die titan, but his miracle didn't happen. However everybody had fun in the game.

For semifinal 2 I have contents of some significant battles. Akihisa Tabei attacked David desJardins with angel, 4 rangers, and 2 cyclops against a 6 die titan, warlock, 2 minotaurs, 2 lions and a gargoyle and David ended up with titan, unicorn, 2 minotaurs and angel. Rich Atwater attacked Michael Pustilnik with Angel, Hydra, 2 griffons and 4 rangers against angel, gorgon, 3 cyclops and ranger in the brush and Michael survived with a ranger. This was after things started off well for Rich in the battle. Rich withdrew rather than face titan, unicorn, 2 warbears and 2 rangers being attacked by 2 angels, 4 rangers and a lion. Akihisa attacked Michael with a 6 die titan, warlock, 2 rangers and 3 gorgons against an 8 die titan, hydra, 2 griffons and 3 rangers in the desert and they mutualled. This left Davdid as the winner.

This year was the first year that all players in the final were past champions. Aaron provided me with some notes on this year's final.

No one was eliminated from the game early. David desJardins moved into the lead when he was able to catch Dan Strock's angel stack and end up with a killer stack that included his titan and two angels. Aaron got a giant in his titan stack and David Finberg got a hydra in his. desJardins then was able to chase Finberg's using tower teleport to move to a tower that Finberg was on the left side of. Finberg made a split where he pretty much had to roll a 1 to survive and did. David then rolled another 6 and switched to chasing Aaron.

Aaron got helped a bit when desJardins went for a small chance to kill Aaron's titan with a secondary stack that ended up making Aaron's titan stack a little better. desJardins wouldn't have made this attack if he had correctly remembered the contents of Finberg's angel stack. As he wouldn't have need to weaken Aaron's titan stack. On desJardin's next turn he needed a 4 or better to reach Aaron's titan stack and got it. Unfortunately he didn't also attack Finberg's angel stack which would have given him an angel to summon into the battle. So desJardins' attack was 9 die titan, 2 angels, 2 rangers and two gorgons versus a 9 die titan, angel, giant, 2 rangers and 2 warbears in the marsh without an angel to summon. Both players rolled low in the battle, but Aaron ended up winning with just his titan and an angel earned for the points for winning the battle.

Finberg now had hydras in his titan stack and another stack with a serpent. Aaron rolled a 1 on his next turn to get into a tower and get an ogre so that he could start recruiting again. 2 turns after that he rolled a 6 and recruited a warlock while starting to chase Dan's titan. Dan was able to split and escape while picking up a recruit, so Aaron switched back to recruiting and filled out his titan stack with another ogre and two trolls in short order. At that point Dan gambled on sitting in a marsh which was a good place to be for recruiting on his next turn. But Aaron picked that turn to roll a 6 and teleported in on him. Aaron got about 150 points for eliminating Dan.

Aaron and Finberg continued recruiting for a while until Finberg had 5 hydras in his titan stack and had an another stack with 2 serpents. While Aaron had gotten to 2 wyverns in his titan stack and had an outside stack with a serpent. At this point Finberg had Aaron's titan stack trapped between his titan stack and his angel stack with only a couple of blockers to slow the serpent stack down. Just after the last blocker was eliminated, Aaron rolled a 6 which allowed him to teleport away.

Finberg was able to start up the chase again shortly. Aaron needed to split blockers from his angel stack to protect both his titan stack (which now had a hydra) and his outside angel. Again he rolled a 6 at a key time to let his angel stack escape while his titan stack was able to kill off a dragon stack in a plains below a mountains.

Finberg then made a good roll to threaten Aaron's titan stack and Aaron followed up with a 1 which was the only roll which didn't escape. A couple of turns later Aaron was forced to attack Finberg.

The final battle was a 15 die titan, hydra, 2 warlocks, 2 wyverns and a troll (with an angel available to summon) against an 8 die titan, 5 hydras and a lion in the plains. (The lion was the result of an illegal recruit, but when this was discovered, removing it would have helped Finberg, so he was forced to keep it.) After some extreme luck in both directions Aaron ended up winning.

Ranking information

                      Fin  Sem  Pre                           Opp  Opp  Opp  Opp  Opp  Opp       Game
Name                  Ran  Ran  Ran  1st  2nd  3rd  4th  Kil  1st  2nd  3rd  4th  Kil  Gam  Gam  Numbers
Fuegi, Aaron            1    4   12    2    0    0    0    6    4    7    6    0   15   28    2    7    9
Finberg, David          2    2    4    2    1    2    0    8   19   16   11    0   65   62    6    4   10   17   19   22   33   35
Strock, Dan             3    1    1    3    3    0    0    9   14   17   16    0   58   72    6    5    9   14   21   28   33
desJardins, David       4    3    9    2    0    0    0    7    6    7    9    0   24   30    3    4   13   24
Pustilnik, Michael      5    5    7    2    0    1    0    9    9   19    6    0   32   54    4    5   25   28   32
Sutton, Brian           6    6   10    2    0    0    0    7    5    9    4    0   17   24    3    3    6   30
Vipperman, Jeremy       7    7   11    2    0    0    0    6    6    9    8    0   25   33    3    6   11   26
Masso, Robert           8    8   15    1    2    0    0    3    9   11   12    0   36   50    4   15   19   21   32
Ley, Jason              9    9    5    2    1    0    0    8   12   17   12    0   40   59    5   16   26   29   34   36
Klercker, Nick         10   10    6    2    0    2    0    7    7   12    8    0   21   35    4    1    8   21   31
Johnston, Tom          11   11   13    2    0    0    0    5    7    7    6    0   33   28    2   17   37
Tabei, Akihisa         12   12   16    1    1    1    0    5   11    8    6    0   39   38    4    4   13   20   25
Atwater, Rich          13   13    2    2    3    0    0    6   13   11   10    0   49   57    5    6   16   23   27   29
Nielsen, Eric          14   14    3    2    2    0    0   10   14   12   11    0   44   55    5   12   17   18   29   37
Harrison, Joe          15   15    8    2    0    1    0    4   13   11   13    0   53   52    4    1    4   10   18
Hillock, Kevin         16   16   14    1    2    0    0    3   15   10   15    0   56   55    4   10   25   33   36
Shinjuku-Ku, Masahide Hisanaga   17   17   17    1    1    0    0    4    6    5    3    0   21   17    2   14   22
Rothenheber, Ed        18   18   18    1    1    0    0    3    8    7    2    0   28   24    3    3    7   14
Pounder, Geoffrey      19   19   19    1    1    0    0    3    5    6    4    0   19   23    2   27   34
Wines, Art             20   20   20    1    0    1    0    2   20   18    7    0   73   60    5   10   23   29   34   37
Platnick, David        21   21   21    1    0    0    0    3    2    2    6    0    7   12    1   31
Gathmann, Pete         22   22   22    1    0    0    0    2    0    1    1    0    2    4    1    2
Murphy, Anne           23   23   23    0    2    1    0    0   14   16   11    0   57   60    5   12   16   20   28   35
Weintraub, Jarett      24   24   24    0    2    0    0    0   11    7    6    0   38   30    3    3   21   30
Lange, Alexander       25   25   25    0    1    3    0    2   16   15   10    0   53   52    6    1   11   19   24   27   30   33   37
Rae, Bruce             26   26   26    0    1    3    0    0   17   16    9    0   61   58    5    9   11   16   31   36
Northey, Rick          27   27   27    0    1    1    0    1   20   20   10    0   70   66    6    5    7    9   15   20   28
Smith, Mark            28   28   28    0    1    1    0    1    8    5    3    0   28   29    2   18   26
Meacham, Peg           29   29   29    0    1    1    0    0   17   17   11    0   62   64    6   15   18   23   26   32   35
Effinger, Robb         30   30   30    0    1    1    0    0    8    6   10    0   31   35    3   24   31   32
Beyma, Richard         31   31   31    0    1    0    0    1    8    9    5    0   30   29    2    5   27
Thompson, Justin       32   32   32    0    1    0    0    1    6    3    2    0   23   13    1   17
Lingle, Larry          33   33   33    0    1    0    0    1    2    2    6    0    8   14    1   11
Ticola, Peter          34   34   34    0    1    0    0    1    1    0    1    0    3    4    1    2
Hurda, Al              35   35   35    0    1    0    0    0    6    5    6    0   26   24    2   24   25
Davis, Glenn           36   36   36    0    1    0    0    0    4    1    6    0   13   14    1    1
Betz, Joseph           37   37   37    0    1    0    0    0    3    1    1    0   12    7    1   13
Cornett, Jeff          38   38   38    0    1    0    0    0    2    4    1    0   10   10    1   12
Collis, John           39   39   39    0    1    0    0    0    2    0    2    0    7    5    1    8
Berenbach, Marc        40   40   40    0    0    1    0    1    6    6    4    0   21   25    2    7   36
Lange, Ted             41   41   41    0    0    1    0    1    4    3    2    0   15   11    2    2   22
Cambron, Rick          42   42   42    0    0    1    0    0    2    4    4    0    8   17    1   35
Page, Nick             43   43   43    0    0    1    0    0    2    3    3    0    9   12    1   30
Wolff III, Bruno       44   44   44    0    0    0    0    0    2    1    2    0    7    5    1    8
Gurneau, Peter         45   45   45    0    0    0    0    0    1    1    1    0    4    4    1    2

Final

  1. Aaron Fuegi
  2. David Finberg
  3. Dan Strock
  4. David desJardins

Semis

Table 1

  1. Dan Strock
  2. Brian Sutton
  3. Tom Johnston
  4. Joe Harrison

Table 2

  1. David desJardins
  2. Michael Pustilnik
  3. Akihisa Tabei
  4. Rich Atwater

Table 3

  1. Aaron Fuegi
  2. Robert Masso
  3. Jason Ley
  4. Eric Nielsen

Table 4

  1. David Finberg
  2. Jeremy Vipperman
  3. Nick Klercker
  4. Kevin Hillock

Two player results

The following report was written by Rich Atwater:

We welcome two players from Japan this year, Hide Hisanaga and Akahisa Tabei. Hide performed well in the tournament, besting past champions Bruno Wolff and David DesJardins in the second and third rounds, losing to past champion Aaron Fuegi in the semifinal to end up in 3rd place. Throughout the tournament, he delighted all with whom he came into contact, and he was courteous and considerate to everyone. Thank you to both of our new friends from Japan.

Sean McCulloch got to the final by beating former champion Dan Strock in the first round and newcomer Geoff Pounder in the third. Against Geoff, in the match to see who would face Aaron in the final, he attacked with three warlocks early enough that Geoff's Titan was still strength six, and five out six warlock range strikes on the Titan meant the battle was decided.

In the deciding battle of the final, Aaron attacked a stack with his 6 strength Titan that should have been an easy kill. Two trolls held down the right flank. Aaron put a ranger between them and his Titan on the outside troll, protected by the edge of the battlefield and a line of creatures filling in behind. His Titan swung on the troll and got only two hits, four out of six ones on the dice. Even with this downside, the ranger swung at the other troll, since the Titan and ranger easily kill the outside troll on the next swing. But long odds made their presence felt. The two trolls got eight hits, needing sixes, out of sixteen dice, to kill the ranger and put four hits on the Titan. All was not lost, since Aaron could still escape. Sean's gorgon flew to take the spot vacated by the dead ranger, and gorgon and troll together only got one additional hit on Aaron's Titan. However, the warlock and ranger now adjacent to the gorgon only got five hits, needing six to kill it. Aaron might have been able to kill both the troll and gorgon if he had gotten more hits on his first Titan swing, but now those two creatures had seven hits of life and Aaron had but six dice left. His Titan fell on the next swing, and Sean McCulloch became a first time champion. Well done Sean! We'll be looking forward to having you defend your title next year.

Round 1

Bruno Wolff III defeated Rick Northey
Masahide Hisanaga Shinjuku-Ku defeated Eric Monte
David desJardins defeated David Finberg
Brian Sutton defeated Bruce Rae
Art Wines defeated David Platnick
Aaron Fuegi defeated Nick Page
Larry Lingle defeated Michael Pustilnik
Sean McCulloch defeated Dan Strok
Robb Effinger defeated Akihisa Tabei
Jason Ley defeated Jeff Cornett
Geoffrey Pounder defeated David Gubbay

Round 2

Masahide Hisanaga Shinjuku-Ku defeated Bruno Wolff III
David desJardins received a bye
Brian Sutton defeated Art Wines
Aaron Fuegi defeated Larry Lingle
Sean McCulloch defeated Robb Effinger
Geoffrey Pounder defeated Jason Ley

Round 3

Masahide Hisanaga Shinjuku-Ku defeated David desJardins
Aaron Fuegi defeated Brian Sutton
Sean McCulloch defeated Geoffrey Pounder

Round 4

Aaron Fuegi defeated Masahide Hisanaga Shinjuku-Ku
Sean McCulloch received a bye

Round 5

Sean McCulloch defeated Aaron Fuegi