End of Game Statements
Andy York (Arachnids): Wow, never expected as a standby, and first time player, to win this one. I must say the previous player set me up for the win, I just took what bedrock he'd laid and did my best with what I was dealt. Thanks to Chris for his patience when my version of HotW wasn't the one he was using, and for doing his usual great job of GMing!
Kevin Wilson (Royal Manticoran Historical Society): First, thanks to Chris for running another game of History of the World. HotW is one of my favorite games. That it lends itself reasonably well to play-by-mail allows us to get in some plays. Chris, I hope you continue to offer the game and you can sign me up anytime you do.
Congratulations to Andy on his strong performance in the last epoch which took you to the win. You were dealt a strong hand and played it well.
I wish I kept better records of my games than I do. I’m fairly sure I’ve experienced the “doom of the Romans” before. In fact I would be interested to know if anyone has gone on to win a game after playing the Romans in epoch 3. At least for me, the “doom” certainly reared its ugly head this time. For the three epochs after epoch 3, I found myself with just about the weakest empire played in the epoch. The only reason it wasn’t the three weakest possible was because the Khmers were a no show in epoch 4 so I got the T’ang instead, almost as weak and as late in the epoch. With the three empires I played over the next three epochs (T’ang, Cholas & Incas/Aztecs), my 22 VP lead simply couldn’t hold. That’s just the way it is when you’re given the Romans.
While I wasn’t surprised I was given empires I was in the subsequent epochs that brought me back to the pack, what did surprise me was being pass the USA in epoch 7. Granted, I was still in the lead going in to epoch 7 but only by 2 VP over Andy Y and 11 over Andy L. I had 7 armies in 6 lands over 3 regions. Andy Y had just played the Mughals (the last of the epoch and a strong one to boot). He had 26 armies/fleets in 19 lands over 7 regions and was obviously a bigger threat. I can understand why Andy L didn’t pass Andy Y the Netherlands as they went early in the epoch. But I can’t understand why Greg passed the US to me and not to Andy Y. I didn’t have enough units on the board for going early in the epoch to make that much difference for me. There were enough players with reach of my VP total that getting anything other than France or Britain I wasn’t going to put a lot more VP on the board. The fact I finished ahead of the others by 1-7 points was a miracle.
Chris Geggus (Great Explorers Grabbing Samples): Poor last turn after so much hope and expectation. Don't think I would have won it after that great turn from Andy Y., but I wanted to have the least number of forces to try to prove a point. Didn't work.
Should also have a big shout out for the North Sea Fleet that stopped so much colonial aggression on that last turn.
Thanks Chris and well done Andy - a convincing win indeed.