C06 was destined to be an intense and hard-fought game, with 3 players
in contention for a spot in the Round of 16.
Avenger, ranked #4 through Round B, started the game off as Red, 
leading Locutus of Borg into battle.  "Resistance is futile."  
The Wall, listed at #25, took control of Green.  His explorer-hero, Sir Jean,
sent his turn reports back to his "Dearest" in his distant homeland.
Blue is taken by Gem, who holds the #20 ranking and sends the Knight of Ice
to lead the Crystal Kingdom into battle once more.
Gandalf the White exchanges his cloak for the Black garb of the northwest,
and tries to improve his #69 ranking, and marches forth himself
to lead the Hobbits and continue his trademark Tolkien theme.

The Wall (Green) makes an interesting Turn 1 production choice, 
and kicks off the air war by building Pegasi immediately - but surrenders any
chance of a second hero!  The other players build typical light units.  
On Turn 2 the Borg's second hero, "Drone", is hired.
Gem brings forth a heroine "Crystal Cloud" *and* matches the Wall
with a pegasus factory.  Gandalf is joined by Bilbo the Wise, and
chooses elephants for his heavy build, but in a fateful decision,
installs them in a border city.

At the dawn of diplomacy on Turn 3, the Borg reaches 9 cities,
joins the race for air power with a griffin factory, and in terrifyingly 
rational Borg fashion immediately declares peace with Gem and 
war with The Wall.  "The Borg, merciless and direct, had stated 
their intentions, and would wait for responses."  The game is clearly 
off to a very interesting start, both strategically, diplomatically, 
and in the roleplaying arena!  The Wall sends another great letter 
back home, but is off to a slow expansion (8 cities) with only 1 hero.  
Gem is off to a faster start with 10 cities, and takes advantage of the 
Borg peace offer by claiming a spare city that the Borg had claimed, 
yet accepting the treaty anyway.  Gem thus gains a foothold on the island 
between Red and Blue, muscling in on Red's natural territory.  
Perhaps it was a fateful moment of opportunism, though, for the peace 
that followed would be uneasy at best...   

The Wall is thus forced to ask Gandalf for an alliance.  Gandalf is off 
to the fastest start, finishing Turn 3 with 13 cities, but short
on cash.  He accepts a treaty with The Wall, but in a bizarre twist also 
asks Gem for peace too, and even speaks alound the idea of building up their 
respective forces while the Borg and The Wall beat on each other, so that
later they can turn on their current allies.  Needless to say, The Wall
is displeased by this!  But it was to prove a prophetic thought...

The military action heats up on Turn 4 as the Borg (with 10 cities) takes 
advantage of the Wall's lack of a second hero, and steals The Wall's 
second gold ruin, financing another griffin factory and taking the 
lead in high-powered production!  The Wall kills off the second Red hero 
"Drone" in return, and is up to 11 cities, but the damage is done, 
his position is weak, and his alliance is strained.  Will he survive?
Gem revs up to 14 cities and builds griffins himself, matching The Borg again.
Gandalf's expansion stops at 13.  It is clear that this game will be fought as
hard in diplomacy as in battle, as tensions rise between Gandalf and Gem...
This phase continues in Turn 5, as The Wall scrambles for defense and 
Gem continues to have minor border disputes with The Borg while preparing 
for war with Gandalf and the Hobbits.

By Turn 6 it appears The Borg underestimated The Wall, as they comment:
> In the north, the Borg drones retreat from the overwhelming force that
> threatens it.  The Borg are learning new words every day - yesterday they
> learned the word 'compromise', and today they learn the words 'tactical
> withdrawal'.  Perhaps tomorrow they will learn the word 'reinforcements'!
The roleplaying begins to slack off among the others, but the 
diplomacy continues, as Gandalf keeps pushing for a three-on-one war 
against the highly-ranked Avenger (to whom, we will find out later,
Gandalf lost in Round B).  While much is being said, where is the bloodshed?

The action arrives on Turn 7, with naval battles between The Borg and The Wall,
and Gem's heroine Crystal Cloud makes a spectacular aerial pillaging 
raid on 3 of Gandalf's cities simultaneously, before vanishing into vapor.
Stunned, Gandalf is forced to regroup.  But just when you thought a 
north-south war was imminent, on Turn 8 The Borg takes offense at some 
production installed by Gem, and sends threatening diplomacy to his ally!  
Gem objects, and the Borg sends a very Borg-like but not entirely diplomatic 
message to back up his point.  The Wall continues to surprise The Borg
with a solid defensive effort.  In reaction to The Borg, Gem switches 
to neutrality with Gandalf (conveniently *after* disrupting much of 
Gandalf's production) and prepares for a possible conflict in the east
with the Borg!  Gandalf holds back and frees Gem up to fight The Borg.

Chastened, the Borg apologizes to Gem, while continuing his naval 
skirmishes with The Wall.  The Wall continues to fight back, though, 
and no cities change hands.  Gem captures a city from the Borg "to ensure 
border peace". [ Yeah, sure... :) ]  And Gandalf continues to lay low, 
giving Avenger a chance to feel the pain of being on the wrong end of 
Gandalf's own "No-Front War"! 

By mid-game, not much has happened on the surface, but time and conflict
are taking their toll.  How will the Borg survive a two-front war with 
only 9 cities?  The Wall picks up on this and picks up some slack in the 
roleplay - writing to "my love", he says in an unforgettable style:

> I believe that blue's attack startled red.  We should both
> profit from this and use this time of weakness to crush the vile
> wretched plague infested rodents that are the red army.

But the peace between Green and Black also grows more strained, 
as Gandalf requests an alliance with Gem!  However, Gem accepts peace 
with the Borg again, after "crystallizing" another Borg city, to reach 16!  
Turn 11 sees continued fighting between the Borg and the Wall, as Gem 
moves against Gandalf once more.  Outmaneuvered by Gem, 
Gandalf is forced to overbuild his vulnerable elephant factory,
and considers withdrawing from the game!!

On Turn 12 the Borg (8 cities) continues to assail The Wall (11 cities),
but The Wall lives up to his name, holds off The Borg again - and starts 
to go after Gandalf too!  The plot of this war has more twists and tangles 
to it than a bag of pretzels!  Gem again gets the better of his neighbors,
taking 4 cities from Gandalf with only one battle - and warning The Wall 
to stay away!  But Gandalf, stuck in a two-front war of his own now,
trades Gem city for city, regaining 3 cities he just lost.  But Gandalf 
cannot recover the lost production or the income...

The Wall continues to fend off The Borg, while seeking peace with them so
he can fight Gandalf - and prevent Gem from getting all the spoils of war.
Gem's economic warfare continues to whittle away at Gandalf, who no longer
has any powerful production.  But Gandalf turns around and declares his 
intent to stay in the game after all, and kicks off a new kamikaze strategy!

Just when you thought you understood what was going on, 
Gem sends a truce offer to Gandalf, looking for a peace so that they can 
both fight The Wall.  [ Or rather, looking to get Gandalf and The Wall 
to kill each other off... :) ]  Gandalf accepts, and receives a safe city 
in the south so that his armies can maneuver without fear of elimination.
Conflict then breaks out between Gem and The Borg again, as suddenly the
north-south war becomes an east-west war!  But with every switch in strategy,
Gem has gained in power, and by Turn 14 he has just over half the map under 
his control, though no one else appears to notice.  With Gandalf down 
to 4 cities, Gem puts some muscle behind him and achieves a significant 
tactical victory on Turn 15 by sending in a commando raid to sack 
The Wall's pegasus factory.  And by Turn 16, it is no longer a question of 
who will win, but rather, whether Gem's victory can be contained!  

Turns 17 and 18 are the high points of an already eventful game.  On Turn 17,
Gem avenges the loss of many navies by defeating Locutus of Borg himself,
capturing a key city, and finally achieving a decisive advantage in the east!
The Borg reports that Locutus has been "broken down into component parts", 
presumably to be recycled after the Borg transit through the closest 
wormhole:  "A Borg escape module was being readied for the
remaining drones, and would be ready very soon."  The Borg predict
that they will hold 3-4 cities at the end.  Will they?
Meanwhile, a small voice in the north, Gandalf, wants to know why Gem's 
forces are sitting on their shared island, and not going after The Wall?

Before we find out about Gem's response, though, The Wall comes out of his 
tactical torpor, and both the Green and Black heroes die in battle!  
Gandalf chimes in with a hilarious comment to The Wall:

> Good job Denis, but should I say I was looking for 
> this hero exchange?  Maybe I shouldn't because I presently forgot why 
> I was loocking for this heroes exchange..."  

Even more funny, Gandalf then requests that Gem return the three cities 
that had been loaned to the Crystal Kingdom when Gem agreed to support 
Gandalf against The Wall!  Needless to say, given his need for a 
Top 16 ranking, Gem's response to all this is to step up his 
offensives on all fronts!  With 3 heroes dead within 3 moves, Gem is left 
with the only surviving hero, and he proceeds to go on a massive rampage 
in an attempt to "unify the kingdom".  He picks up 5 cities in one turn 
and betrays his ally Gandalf at  just the moment when Gandalf expected 
generous favors!  But Gem's only favor is to leave Gandalf with 1 city 
and a chance to survive the round!  In the quote of the game, 
Gandalf laments his repeated fate:

> I think I'm cursed... [Hegemon], my ally at the beginning of Round A, started 
> unexpectedly to attack me when we were officially discussing if and how
> we could extend our alliance. [Avenger], which whom I had a non-aggression
> pact in Round B, attacked me and killed my hero I left in a city after
> reflexion being sure he wouldn't break his words. And now in Round C
> [Gem], which whom I was OFFICIALLY allied until the end of the game, broke
> his honnor in attacking me and taking cities that he wasn't diplomaticly
> allowed to... Could someone tell me what I did to get a such terrible
> curse? Please, I want to know why...

Gandalf will receive his answer later, but for now Gem's forces are 
unstoppable, and everyone else scrambles to hold off the inevitable for
as long as possible.  In the end, Avenger's Borg Collective gets their 
4 cities, The Wall keeps 11, Gem finishes with 32 of 48, and Gandalf 
finally survives an entire game, with 1.

This game features a sharp, though not entirely tactful, postgame analysis 
by the three main survivors.  The Wall learns that building Pegasi on Turn 2 
and foregoing a second hero can be a difficult mistake to recover from.  
Avenger / The Borg seems to have made a wrong turn in going after the distant 
Green before securing his border with Blue, ending up with a two-front war 
and a big risk of losing his spot in the Round of 16.  Gem, coming off a 
difficult defensive struggle in Round B, needed a big win, and got it!  
He emerged victorious by first taking advantage of Red's slow start and 
early war with Green, and then by picking on first one, then the other 
of his neighbors, until he had the strength to take them all on...
And as for Gandalf... well, none were able to fault Gandalf's tactics,
and at least one reader feels that if Gandalf can finally learn never 
to trust his allies to the point of letting down his own defenses, 
he will be a formidable player indeed!

-------------------------

With regard to the Round C Awards - This was an interesting game to read, 
but not as interesting as I might have made it seem.  The action is all
on the diplomatic/tactical side, rather than roleplaying, and you have
to read between the lines to get the story out of it.  Each player
had a character of a sort, but I just didn't quite see anyone clicking
into the sort of form that would get a nomination from me this round.  
Everyone had a lot of potential, and all players had great moments,
but there was a shortage of consistency.  The Wall had perhaps the best
highlights with his letter-writing, but unfortunately Sir Jean didn't
write home every turn, and then he was killed in action without even
a final word to his beloved.  Gandalf confined himself almost entirely 
to diplomacy.  Gem and The Borg were in character and interesting, 
but usually bare-bones.  The level of detail that we always find in a 
Little Puppy or Dark Lord Pi is missing here.  I tried to honor this
game as much as I could with this summary, since I will not be giving 
it any nominations.