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A Shark's Tale - The Tom Dunning Euroquest 2007 Experience
Tom Dunning
United States
Kenmore
New York
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A Shark's Tale
Alternate Title: The Tom Dunning [Euroquest] Experience
Thursday 11:00pm: crawl out of bed after an odd sleep time to get myself ready for the early morning drive. Shower, pack, close down the apartment. Notify Rik [my rider] to expect me late as I'm an hour behind schedule. Me and Willie Nelson; On the Road Again ~4:00am.
I picked up Rik Van Horn South of Rochester ~6:00am after missing his exit and not figuring that out for ~15 miles. No matter, there's plenty of slack built into our schedule.
We stopped for home made cinnamon rolls just South of the NY/PA border at the Acorn. I was so excited about the cinnamon rolls I forgot to gas up. I was thinking I might have to put it in neutral and coast to the bottom of the Alleghenys but we did find a mountain top filling station.
We did McMuffins for breakfast further South in PA and ate in the van as we were anxious to arrive at Euroquest [hereafter EQ].
We arrived at the Days Hotel ~1:00pm. We had plenty of time to check in, unpack the van, get a cot for roommate #3 [mystery guy from BGG - Dave Denton], grocery shop @Wegmans and score some Andy Nelson's BBQ for lunch before the 3:00 Official start of the Wildcard [hereafter WC] Tournament.
Day 1:
I only have a 90 minute window to get in WC games before my first Tournament game @4:30. So I have a game of Alhambra set up and waiting to go when the clock on the LCD projector hits 3:00pm. I managed to get in games of both Alhambra and Can't Stop before the First Ra Heat at 4:30. Unfortunately, I lost them both.
I figured the Ra Tournament was probably my best chance for Wood. I've won Ra twice @WBC and once at EQ before. While I had high hopes for this Tournament I also had doubts. I hadn't won a Ra Tournament since '03. I've made the Final twice @WBC since '03 but could only finish 2nd and 4th.
The specific game Tournaments start out better for me than the Wildcard as I win my First Heat of Ra. For some reason I don't remember the Heats in detail. The names and faces of the vanquished are lost to me. Maybe I should've been a hit man or worked for the IRS 
Next is my largest scheduled time block to get in WC games. I play Pillars of the Earth, Louis XIV and Can't Stop and I can't buy a win. I've played five WC games without any Sharks in them and don't have a single win. I more or less decide to give up on the WC Tourney for the year. The best I could hope for doing the WC Tourney part time [I spend most of my time in the game specific Tournaments] was 5th or 6th place anyway.
I get a Salad for dinner from the onsite Chili's. I've never played in BPA Puerto Rico Tournament because they've always been set them up with an extra round compared to other Tournaments. This year at EQ they stopped that practice so I played my first Tournament game of PR. I only lost by 4 points and came in fourth out of four, a very close game. It's not like I had any personal expectations for the PR Tournament.
As I'm not worrying about the WC any longer I don't have to scare up a WC game before the midnight deadline. I find three players looking for fourth for Thurn and Taxis [hereafter T&T] but that's not something I really wanted to play. I troll the room a bit longer and remember that I've almost figured out what Nick Anner does in T&T to beat me every time. Thurn and Taxis is a Tournament game at EQ this year. I decide to join that threesome and give my new theories a tryout. Sam Atabaki [a Shark] is at the table. The table is complemented with a Donna something or other and a second Fish. Yep, I figured out what Nick has been doing. I beat the table by a wide margin. An interesting result of this game was every time I was seated with Sam for the rest of the Con, Sam would object or complain  I looked at the schedule and realized I just might be able to shoehorn T&T in there.
I get back upstairs ~1ish and Rik is there. We talked about the day's events and turn the lights out ~1:30. Roomate #3 was out playing Werewolf. He wouldn't get in until 4ish. Turned out Dave is a shift worker [like me] who works for the Postal Service. Dave is having trouble adjusting to the Con schedule.
Day 2:
Roommate #3 is dead to the world when Rik and I head off to the free Continental breakfast at the Days Inn. Nothing to write home about but an English muffin w/ peanut butter and oatmeal do me just fine.
Day 2 starts well. The Second Heat of Ra results in another win. I don't really remember the game, but the photographic record shows me playing a difficult table: Rob Kircher [a Shark and the GM of Santa Fe Rails @WBC], John Weber [a near Shark and the GM of Puerto Rico @both WBC and EQ] and Eyal Mozes [a Shark but maybe not in Ra]. The second win in Ra means I'm already in the Final. I can blow off the third Heat. I have an hour to kill before the First T&T Heat so Elvis left the building for Starbucks, mmm caffeine.
The First T&T Heat had Your Humble Narrator seated with Rob K.[Shark] again and a couple of Fish. I suppose I should explain the difference between Sharks and Fish at some point. The Sharks are the players that are going to win the Tournaments. The Fish are the players that aren't. Generally speaking, Sharks can recognize other Sharks, either from past experience or how they play. If you recall the "Highlander" movies it's a lot like that: an extra sense that recognizes the other Sharks. While we're using "Highlander" references; the Sharks all know "There can be only one!" for every Tournament. Generally speaking, the Fish don't have a clue who the Sharks are unless someone gives them one. Just because a player is a Fish doesn't mean he or she will always be a Fish. Heck, I was a Fish for my first five years @Avaloncon/WBC. Am I a Shark at any game? Hell no! But I do know what waters are safe for me to swim in. I also have an idea of what games I'm still a [hang my head] *ahem* Fish in. Getting back to the First T&T Heat; Rob paid me back for the previous Ra Heat and beat me in a close one. A close Second Place meant I was still very much alive in the T&T Tournament.
Freed from having to play the Third Ra Heat I head over to the Second Power Grid Heat. I immediately identify the Shark at the table as Bill Crenshaw. I'm good at Power Grid but maybe not Shark good. I'll find out soon enough. I get in position to beat Bill by virtue of being able to power 16 cities. Unfortunately, I've spent too much money on resources all game long and can only build 15 cities. Bill wins a three way tie with most money. I come in third. Third Place means I have next to no chance to advance with only one heat remaining. I guess I found out. There's a heat of Caylus in an hour but why would I do that? After all, I [usually] know which waters are safe for me to swim in
That leaves me with four hours before the Ra Final. Friday, on our way to Wegmans, Rik and I saw a 14 piece dark meat special for $9.99 on the sign @KFC. Rik had earlier claimed to be a carnivore so I suggested we split that special at some point during the Con. I scanned the room for Rik and he was putting away a game. Next, we were on our way to pick up lunch. We brought lunch back and ate in the Con room. There was enough for both of us to have leftovers for late night. As I had time to spare I packed up the leftovers and brought them up to the room. After I came back down to the Con room I played a game of [I think] Blue Moon City to give Rik another opportunity to add to his WC standing. He was doing well in the WC at this point. No pressure on me to win. I relax in the run up to the Ra Final. I stroll around the room and find the WC leaders all playing a game of Traumfabrik together. I'm a little jealous on two counts: One, it's a Reiner Knizia auction game I rarely get to play. Two, this looks like the strongest table in the room right now.... Raphael Lehrer, Eric Freeman, John Weber, etc. I hang around and get to play a game of Alhambra with them after they finish Traumfabrik. I had heard the Gaming Gods were smiling upon Eric so far this Con. After seeing the way the tiles came up for him in this game it may have been true. Eric is far too good a player to mess it up. Yet another WC win for Eric.
It's getting close to 7:00, time for the Final. I'm sitting in the Tournament area wondering where the rest of the Finalists are. I see Rob K. [He's in the Final] and he tells me the Final is in the 'Final Room' across the hall. The 'Final Room' is the room where the Breakout Normandy Tournament was held the past few years.
I get over to the 'Final Room' and it's not good... the room still retains the faint odor of wargamer from years past and there are five Sharks here: Your Humble Narrator, Rob K., Sam Atabaki, Alex Bove[my Ra rival since the '05 WBC Final where he beat me on a tie breaker], and Alex's best bud and understudy Mike Kaltman. It may be a table of Sharks but I'm loose and start in on the table talk right away. I somehow manage to get everyone to expend their bid tiles and leave me alone to race Ra with four spaces left on the track. I pull a bad tile or two [killers] before filling the track. As I pulled no Ras and still have four open spaces on the track I pass on this lot and race Ra again. Every tile I pull from the bag that isn't a Ra elicits groans and complaints from the rest of table. This time I fill the track without any killers, complete three different Civs and get the one Pharaoh I need to get First in Pharaohs alone and ditch two of my rivals. I have a huge lead after the First turn. I played competently and take little risk for the remainder of the game. The safe play during the Second and Third turns along with my large First Turn lead were enough to secure the win.
They took me up to the front of the main room to present me my Plaque. It's a moment of glory but it also has consequences: I've been outed as a Shark to all the noobs and Fish!
I have an unscheduled hour to bask in the warm afterglow of victory. Winning early in a Con is a blessing because I've done what I came to do. Now I could just open game, maybe play those new Essen games and just settle down for the remainder of the Con. *sigh* Unfortunately for me, I'm not that kind of guy. I came for the competition and there's still plenty of that around. I head off for the Second T&T Heat. I finish a close Second Place again, not bad but not good enough to advance. There is a Third Heat but there's a conflict with TTR. This is probably the end of the line for me in T&T as I like my chances in TTR better.
Trying hard to relax [that might be a contradiction] and smell the roses I play in a late starting game of Wits and Wagers. I team up with Donna something or other from the practice T&T game the night before. Wits and Wagers is a lot of fun. We bet shrewdly and come in a close second out of about a half dozen teams.
Trying hard again to relax and smell the roses I played a late night game [12:15 start time] of Cuba with Rik and a couple of strangers. Cuba is one the new Essen games and Rik has played it the night before and proceeded to teach us the game. It's pretty cool but I feel I'll need to study all of the buildings and their potential interactions before I really have a clue about the game. I think I came in 3rd out of 4. Rik, who had played the night before, won. I probably got to bed ~3:30.
Day 3:
I was up late the night before because I wasn't excited the morning Tournament Heats [Imperial, Princes of Florence and Caylus] and had decided to sleep in. I had long since missed the free Continental breakfast and even Mickey D's wasn't serving McMuffins at 11:00 so I had to settle for lunch. I almost walked into a Baja Fresh when I noticed a college sub type place in the same plaza. This place had a special in the window: a greasy cheesesteak with a twist - pepperoni! So I had Buffalo style comfort food [greasy cheesesteak] and sampled the local cuisine [cheesesteak w/ pepperoni] at the same time.
I figured the Ticket to Ride Tournament was my second best shot at Wood. I won this Tourney in '05 and find I win all variants of the game an unreasonably high percentage of the time.
I got back to the Con in time for the noon First Heat of Ticket to Ride [hereafter TTR]. I got into a five player game of Marklin, I was the only Shark at the table. One woman ahead of me chose four long routes. I was undeterred and also took four longs, keeping three. The other player to take four longs wound up starting her North/South connection in the Center of the board so I more or less had the long Eastern builds to myself! Unfortunately she also took the short path between Munchen and Lindau [and Konstanz beyond] and I had to spend ~8 extra turns acquiring the necessary cards and expending the actions to build the roundabout way to Konstanz. I was last on the points track for the first 3/4 of the game. When I finally did start to build North they all took notice too late.... about one turn before I ended the game. As I knew I was behind where I should be because of the roundabout building I never spent a turn to run a passenger until my last turn. It wasn’t a large margin win. Hopefully the Fish learned something.
Next up was the First Heat of Settlers. I made the Settlers Final last year at EQ and had been playing a lot of Settlers lately. I had great hopes for this Tournament. But this is where I believe I paid for being outed as a Shark. The Robber lived on my hexes for the first 3/4 of the game. Sometimes I wasn't the primary target but it seemed I always got at least a piece of the Robber action. It only relented after I was well out of it. I made a valiant effort at game's end and clawed my way into third place. I'd have to do better than 3rd in both of the remaining Heats to advance.
Next up is the Second Heat of TTR. I get placed into a five player game of TTR Europe without Sharks. Things turned ugly for me about midway through. I get cut brutally and can't make my two minor tickets. I try drawing additional tickets but that just compounds my situation with another undoable ticket. I shift to the Screw the Tickets/ Build Large Sections of Track strategy but I'm too far into a standard build plan. I get beat to building the big eight length Northern tunnel and my new strategy is more or less shot. I am able to catch a couple people who had no idea it would end this soon and finish 4th out of 5 from an untenable midgame situation. Definitely not good enough to advance even with my previous First place. I should have played the Third Heat of T&T instead!
Next on my schedule is the first heat of St. Petersburg [hereafter SPB]. This heat is scheduled for 90 minutes and the last 30 minutes of it conflict with the first 30 minutes of the last TTR Heat. I get there early and petition the GM for a table of fast players or an early start time if I can find like minded players. I find some like minded players including Sam Atabaki [a Shark]. We get started a few minutes early. I get an early Mistress and play her in the second turn. An early Mistress in SPB usually means a win. I don't think they can stop me. But, most of the way through the game we discover a bunch of the Blue cards are missing. With no real alternative after discussing it with the GM we decide to press on and finish the game as is. The game eventually ended in a tie. I lost on the money tiebreaker. Had this game gone the distance the Mistress should've won it for me. I still had very high [100%] Second Place finish. A win in a later Heat should get me into the Final. When the game was picked up they found the missing Blue cards under the box.
At the next TTR Heat I was seated at a 1910 Mega game table. I really don't remember much about the game other than there was another Heat I was trying to make right at the scheduled end of this TTR Heat. Fortunately, Keith Levy [who was running the Second Heat of Settlers I was hoping to make after TTR] came over and asked who wanted in on that Settlers Heat and that he would get us in late if necessary. Keith even said "Take your time". I felt the pressure melt away. I won that Heat of TTR but I don't remember how. What I do remember is that two wins in TTR guaranteed me a spot in the Final
The Second Heat of Settlers went a lot like the First Heat of Settlers did for me. I was abused by bad dice and the Robber. I finished fourth. Coupled with my previous third place finish I could forget about advancing in this Tournament.
The last Tournament game of the day was the Second Heat of SPB. Mike Kaltman had a First Turn Mistress - effectively an auto win in SPB. I played a masterful game and came in a close second. No cigar.
This was far and away the busiest day of the Con for me. I was beat. When Rik came by asking If I wanted to be the fourth player to round out a game of Thebes at 12:30 I asked if it would be short. He assured me it would be. I was too tired to object so I played. One of the other two players had obscene luck with tile draws early in the game. Towards the end of the game I had obscene luck with tile draws. As it was later in the game I was pulling more tiles than the guy who had the luck early. I won, but it was pushing 3:00am when we finished. I gave Rik some sh*t for getting me into a long game when I had a 9:00am Final but it's half hearted. I did enjoy the Thebes game.
Rik and I packed up what we could that night and hauled it out to the van. I wanted to check out before my 9:00am TTR Final. After loading the van I decided to shower at night as I knew I might not get the shower if I waited until morning and the thought of a 7+ hour drive without having showered for over 24 hours was threatening to keep me awake even though I was tired. I think I asked for a 7:45am wake up call. It did not take long to get to sleep.
Day 4:
The morning arrived too early, but not painfully early. I got up, brushed my teeth and hair, packed up the little that was left and got it into the van. I had plenty of time so I did the free Continental breakfast one more time. I got downstairs and Alex and Mike were at the desk checking out. We exchanged small talk and pleasantries and then they were off to their vehicle with their stuff and I was checking out.
The TTR final was across the hall in the 'Final Room'. A very different looking Final Table as the other four Finalists are women. Bad news: one Finalist was stuck in traffic and still 10-15 minutes out. The Third SPB Heat starts right when this Final is supposed to end. I mention my potential scheduling problem and suggest starting in ten minutes with or without our missing party. That went over like a lead balloon so I find one of the Con Directors and he agrees to put at least one game of the SPB Third Heat on hold for me. I go back and tell the ladies all is well, I no longer have a problem. Our missing Finalist rushes in a few minutes later and the next thing I hear is "He wanted to start without you". I think I rolled my eyes. The previously missing Finalist was too busy settling in and thanking us for waiting to take notice or either the comment or my reaction to it.
The Final was the 1910 Mega game. The one player I tagged as a Shark here was Virginia Colin. She was in the EQ TTR Final I won two years ago and had won the EQ TTR Final herself last year. I kept three tickets that I could line up in a path from Seattle to Chicago via Denver and Duluth. The early game featured four of the five players vying for lines into the Northwest. I was able to secure what I needed early and was clear of the fray when it got ugly. At least one player had to do a long roundabout to complete tickets [something like LA to Vancouver via Kansas City]. After I made my first three tickets good I drew more tickets and kept three of the four. A very good haul indeed, as long as I could make it to New York, Montreal and San Francisco. I did manage to hook up my next three tickets and was feeling pretty good about my chances. Somehow I failed to notice when Virginia picked up additional tickets and she was actually holding seven! I had figured her for the longest train bonus and me for the most tickets completed bonus. I didn't realize she would tie me for most tickets. I lost a close one. Virginia and I finished ~50 points ahead of the rest of the table. This was a missed opportunity but not a total loss. I have another twelve Laurels and another story to tell.
With all competent players at the TTR Final we finished in under an hour. There was no need to hold up a SPB game for me. My game of SPB also doesn't take long and I get the win I needed.
While waiting for two or three of the other Third Heat SPB games to finish I hang out with Alex, Mike and JJ. The Sharks are circling at the front of the room. We're checking out the LCD projector display and discussing the HLS competition. Alex is leading by a couple of points but it will be decided by the currently running Settlers Final and yet to start SPB Final. Alex noted that the five players from the Ra Final were the top 5 for the HLS at that moment in time. I think back to that game and realize it may have been the toughest table of the Con: Rob won T&T and went on to win the HLS and finish second in Settlers, Sam won Puerto Rico, Alex won Goa, Mike finished second in Ra and Goa, and Your Humble Narrator won Ra and finished second in TTR; a table of Sharks indeed!
One of the SPB games finished and our discussion moved to the upcoming SPB Final. We had to inform JJ that he no longer had a chance to make Final as there were now three 2-game winners and I had a higher 2nd place [100%] than JJ did. While not happy about the news JJ thanks us for informing him. As he didn't have a good reason to hang around JJ packs up and heads for home. Another SPB table finishes and the winner also had a previous win. The SPB Final will consist of four 2-game winners. I'm out 
But I already had a plaque. And this isn't a total loss... I have 5th place and four Laurels locked up. Without a reason to hang around I take my cue from JJ and decide it's time to hit the road. I find Rik and tell him not to start another game. I circulate and say my farewells and see you laters. The end of any Con is bittersweet. I've had such a great time, played some games I'll never forget and renewed so many friendships... but it's over now, *sniff*
We leave the site ~1:00. Too early to find out the results the SPB Final and the HLS. Seven hours North to Rochester and Buffalo. You know, Andy Nelson's BBQ is north of here and we haven't had lunch yet
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Drexel Hill
Pennsylvania
Donna "something or other"? Wow, never been called that before! And I thought "Davis" was a pretty simple last name to remember!
T'was annoying to be so close to winning in Wits and Wagers, only to lose by ONE BLOODY POINT! Of course, Steve's "purple meeple eater" (?whatever) team was one point behind US, so I guess that was fine. Close game. Lots of EPGS-ers in your report, Alex and Mike are great guys but definitely sharks. (now they're gonna pound me next EPGS meeting, uh-oh)
I'm definitely one of the fish you described, but I notice you didn't mention I was in that TTR final! Nyah.
BTW, that other fish at the T&T pickup game was Milo, a fellow EPGS-er. Poor Milo, he won one game his first night and got clobbered the rest of the con. Still managed to have some fun, as did we all. Hope to see you there next time!
-d
Kenmore
New York
No disrespect or slight was intended
I'm bad with names.
I'm lucky I remembered Donna
td