For more information on Titan see my Titan Home Page.
This is pretty much what I sent in as my WBC report.
This year we had 16 four player games, 10 three player games and no five player games in the preliminary rounds. This is down a bit from last year where we had 32 preliminary games. Only six games were played on Friday.
I am looking to make a scheduling change for next year. Since a lot of crazy stuff happens in the finals because people are tired after playing the semis and finals back to back, I want to split them up between Friday and Saturday. In order to help drop in players, I want to have games on Tuesday evening (overlapping the demos). So the preliminary part of the event would run Tuedays evening through Thursday night. The semis would be Friday morning and the finals Saturday morning. This is subject to approval by the powers that be, but is what I plan to submit for the event for 2013.
Akihisa Tabei again gave old style counter sheets to the four finalists.
I'd like to thank David des Jardins for recording the final and a rough copy of that data will be available on the web.
In semi 1, Steve Koleszar was leading with good brush legions and a legion with two minotaurs, but had to withdraw because of the heat in Lampeter. (For those of you not there, the AC had been damaged by a lightning strike earlier in the week and had issues for most of the week.) That left Brian Sutton in the lead. Then Brian's titan legion with two warbears and two angels was forced into the mountains and attacked by Akihisa Tabei with angel, two minotaurs and two trolls with an angel to summon. Aki took the angel from his other legion but forgot to enter it on the turn it could come in (and hence was returned to the original legion), allowing Brian to survive with his titan and two angels. One of Dan Strock's legions was attacked by Aki and he was able to get an archangel. Dan had just two legions at that point. (two rangers, angel and archangel and titan, two warbears, warlock, giant and unicorn) At this point Brian's titan was in a tower with two warlocks and an angel (and multiple serpent legions) when Aki moved next to that tower with titan, warlock and five rangers. Brian needed to roll a five or six to reach Aki's titan with a serpent legion, but only rolled a four. Brian fled the tower, to a marsh. Aki needed a five or six to reach Brian, but only rolled a two. Then Dan rolled a six and teleported on Brian's titan. Dan ended up with titan, archangel, unicorn, warlock and two warbears. Aki made a desperate attack the next turn, but didn't get a miracle.
In semi 2, Johathan Barnes got his five high titan legion trapped between two six high brush legions belonging to Aaron Fuegi and Bruce Rae. Bruce attacked Jonathan's titan on turn three, and with some good rolls, won handily. For a while the game proceded with few points being earned, but with the remaining players all mustering well, especially Aaron. Then Bruce was able to win a few battles and get teleportation. Bruce attack Aaron's titan in the hills with his first six. Again Bruce got good rolls, but still ended up getting stripped of recruiters. Bruce had titan and two angels after the battle, but was able to get into towers to get some warlocks, while Kevin Hillock was mustering serpents. Bruce was able to muster well with his other legions, getting some hydras, serpents and unicorns. He used these other legions to pin down Kevin's few legions. Bruce was then able to attack Kevin's titan (with three serpents) with his own serpent legion, summoning an archangel and one a close battle. Bruce felt this was the best Titan game of his life.
In semi 3, Tom Johnston was able to recruit all ten colossus, which is very rare. Perhaps even more rare, is that David Finberg was able to defeat Tom after a long drawn out game despite of facing ten colossus. Nicheal Pustilnik and Jason Ley had each withdrawn after their positions became hopeless.
In semi 4, Pete Gathmann was eliminated when David des Jardins attacked his titan legion with his own titan legion containing rangers and gorgons. David got lucky to win the battle and survived with a twelve point titan and two angels. Sean McCulloch attacked him the next turn. At a key point in the battle David played for a win rather than a mutual (since he would not advance even if he won the roll off) and Sean ended up with a twelve point titan and two angels. Shortly afterwards Sean got his titan into a tower, at which point Justin Childs resigned.
For the final we moved to a cooler location as Lampeter was very warm when the final was set to begin.
In the final, all four players were in the game for a long time. On turn thirty three, Sean McCulloch resigned as his titan legion had been stripped and his only other legion was out matched by many others on the board. Immediately after this, David Finberg attacked guardian, warlock and five rangers, belonging to Dan Strock, with his titan, a serpent, two behemoths and three gorgons. David's titan was still a six despite the game having been going for a long time. Despite David's advantage, the battle went south and ended up being a mutual. Several turns later Dan was able to catch Bruce's twelve point titan, an ang, two behemoths and a gorgon with two giants, two warbears and two rangers to finish him off.
David desJardins recorded the final.
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
Strock, Dan 1 1 1 4 0 1 0 11 15 22 11 0 63 63 6 2 4 12 14 16 24
Rae, Bruce 2 3 10 1 2 0 0 5 6 10 6 0 26 33 3 6 12 17
Finberg, David 3 2 5 2 1 0 0 5 3 8 4 0 14 22 3 5 7 26
McCulloch, Sean 4 4 15 1 0 0 0 2 5 4 3 0 18 14 2 11 13
Hillock, Kevin 5 5 2 3 2 1 0 10 16 14 7 0 58 55 6 4 8 13 15 22 25
Tabei, Akihisa 6 6 9 1 2 0 0 5 16 14 16 0 63 62 4 2 3 24 25
Childs, Justin 7 7 12 1 1 1 0 3 13 13 10 0 49 48 4 6 10 14 16
Johnston, Tom 8 8 16 0 3 0 0 3 20 12 11 0 64 54 5 5 6 14 21 24
des Jardins, David 9 9 4 2 1 0 0 7 11 17 16 0 52 57 5 3 20 22 23 25
Fuegi, Aaron 10 10 7 2 0 0 0 6 12 7 4 0 38 30 2 4 14
Pustilnik, Michael 11 11 11 1 1 1 0 4 14 14 5 0 48 44 4 15 20 24 26
Sutton, Brian 12 12 13 1 1 0 0 3 7 11 9 0 31 33 3 13 17 21
Ley, Jason 13 13 3 2 1 1 0 5 9 15 15 0 38 53 4 16 19 21 26
Gathmann, Pete 14 14 6 2 0 0 0 7 5 7 4 0 19 23 2 1 22
Koleszar, Steve 15 15 8 2 0 0 0 4 0 3 0 0 2 6 2 9 18
Barnes, Jonathan 16 16 17 0 2 2 0 3 19 20 18 0 73 72 6 3 10 12 17 19 25
Cornett, Jeff 17 17 14 1 0 0 0 4 1 1 1 0 2 5 1 11
Atwater, Rich 18 18 18 0 2 1 0 1 20 13 13 0 69 54 5 1 15 19 22 26
Rothenheber, Ed 19 19 19 0 1 4 0 2 16 21 12 0 64 71 6 2 3 10 19 21 23
Poletti, Lauren 20 20 20 0 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 5 3 1 9
Metzger, Alexander 21 21 21 0 1 0 0 0 13 9 3 0 42 29 3 4 6 18
Barclay, Ryan 22 22 22 0 1 0 0 0 3 2 1 0 10 7 1 8
Latto, Andy 23 23 23 0 1 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 5 4 1 7
Northey, Rick 24 24 24 0 1 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 4 5 1 18
Gubbay, David 25 25 25 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 6 5 1 11
Weintraub, Jarett 26 26 26 0 0 1 0 1 5 3 1 0 15 11 1 13
Lange, Ted 27 27 27 0 0 1 0 1 2 4 0 0 8 9 1 5
Harrison, Joe 28 28 28 0 0 1 0 0 3 5 7 0 14 20 2 10 11
Melton, Craig 29 29 29 0 0 1 0 0 2 2 1 0 8 8 1 1
Berry, Jay 30 30 30 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 0 0 5 3 1 9
Ricchiuto, Anthony 31 31 31 0 0 0 0 0 5 3 5 0 18 16 1 2
Poletti, Derek 32 32 32 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 1 0 10 7 1 8
Wolff III, Bruno 33 33 33 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 1 0 11 9 1 20
Lange, Alexander 34 34 34 0 0 0 0 0 2 4 1 0 9 9 1 5
Lingle, Larry 35 35 35 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 4 0 9 11 1 23
Rinko, John 36 36 36 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 0 8 8 1 1
Poletti, Don 37 37 37 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 5 4 1 7
Michael Pustilnik has become a first time champion, and interrupted the chain of wins by either David desJardins or Aaron Fuegi. His course was far from easy. He had to best former champions in 4 out of 5 matches, perhaps the toughest tournament ever in terms of opponent rank. In early action, Dan Strock won the roll off after a mutual in the first round, but lost to David in the third round. Aaron won over former champion Sean McCulloch after a mutual in the second round.
Jason Ley made it to the final with warlock power, but did not recruit any warlocks by an opening roll of six. In his first game, he rolled a 4, took his titan next to the adjoining tower, then rolled a 1. In the second game, it was a 5 to the nearby brush followed by a 1. In the third game, against Aaron, 1 followed by 1. His warlock strength had a strong effect on all games, in either the final battle or in threats that limited opponent movement.
Here's a problem. You have a nine high titan with one unicorn, two dragons and 3 colossus. Do you move to the plains underneath the mountains when you know the other titan, also nine high, sits in the mountains with five hydras and an angel, with an angel to call? It appears as if the colossus legion has more overall strength, so Ed Rothenheber made the move. Michael was in the mountains, and attacked to have the summon instead of waiting to be attacked. The range strike also proved important as he had two colossus in the front row wounded to 8 and 5 with the angel plus range strikes. Two hydras were killed during the next move, but strikebacks killed both wounded colossus. A summoned angel helped kill the last colossus and a dragon on the next attacker move, and poor rolling results left two hydras alive but wounded. When the unicorn and the summoned angel died fighting each other, the wounded hydras put four hits on Ed's titan and expired at the same time. Now it was unwounded titan on four hit titan, and Michael managed the five hits needed on the first blow. Ed was not able to get nine hits on nine dice.
The next game Michael played against highly rated David desJardins and it turned into a question of which original stack held the titan and which the angel. Michael started with a 6, but declined to teleport and reveal his titan. David used a ranger kill stack to clear the upper circle and move his titan 3 troll stack in position to get a warbear. But this stack was immediately threatened and had to move on a non-parity roll to the mountains. A rather weak stack with a minotaur then moved to just below the upper circle, and David had to move again to avoid being weakened. Michael's titan then had an opportunity to attack the other titan in the hills, but Michael was still unsure which stack contained the opponent titan, and an attack into the hills, if it turned out to be the angel, would be subject to counterattack by the other stack. So the first opportunity passed without an attack, but on the next turn, after David had no good options to move out of the hills, the attack came 7 on 5 and the outcome was pretty much determined by numbers.
In the final, the critical battle came at the hour and a half mark with only Michael adding a pip to his titan up to this point. Jason's titan, for the first time in the tournament unable to recruit a warlock, with 2 rangers and 3 lions, was attacked by a split off stack of 2 gargs and 3 cyclops with an angel to summon. At the most opportune moment, the Cyclops rolled just enough sixes to kill the two rangers and expose the titan. The next two swings by an angel put the six high titan, well, six feet under, and crowned a new champion.