2017 PBeM Tournament

Bert Schoose defeats Ed Menzel to win the Afrika Korps email Tournament. Thirty two players entered the tournament with 29 games played. The top six finishers were Bert Schoose, Ed Menzel, Joe Beard, Randy Heller, Gregory Hultgen and Joe Harkins.

In the semifinals Bert Schoose’s Allies defeated Joe Beard’s Axis and Ed Menzel’s Axis defeated Randy Heller’s Allies setting up the final match. Bert’s preference for the Axis was accepted by Ed. Bert’s Axis drove on Tobruch helped along by receiving the first two supplies. Bert maneuvered the Allies into a tight perimeter around Tobruch prudently conserving his supplies for a June I assault. The assault was an Axis success as they suffered no soak off casualties and eliminated two Allied units including a 2-2-6.

The Allies played the typical delay defense as the Axis drove east toward Alexandria. The Axis drive was helped considerably by receiving supplies on their next 6 supply rolls. These supply rolls were interspersed with two turns of pure maneuvering as Bert again wisely used his supplies sparingly. Compounding the Allies problems were the Axis lack of any losses and an accumulation of Allied losses.

With the Axis near El Alamein on their August I turn, the Allied prospects looked grim. So they launched a 2-1 breakout attempt on an Italian 2-3-4 guarding the Tobruch perimeter. A DB gave them hope as it forced the Axis back to Tobruch to deal with the threat. Unfortunately for the Allied cause, this was only a delay as the Axis were able to stabilize the situation by eliminating the two raiding Allied units threatening their supply line through the desert. With November reinforcements, the Axis resumed their eastward march. On Nov II, the Allies left a single 4-4-7 and a 1-1-6 to guard Tobruch putting two other armored units to sea for a potential counterattack near Fuka. The Axis could not achieve a 3-1 on the Tobruch garrison giving the Allies a 2/3 chance to hold the fortress if attacked. Unfortunately for Allies, the Axis did attack and got lucky with a 1-2 exchange on the armor and 5-1 AV on the 1-1-6 to capture Tobruch. That pretty much ended the game although the Allies made four 1-1 attacks across two turns hoping for some miracle dice. None of the attacks worked resulting in the Allies conceding on their December II, 1941 turn.

Luck favored the Axis, but Bert played an excellent game and certainly deserved the win.

2010 PBeM Tournament

The Third BPA PBeM Afrika Korps tournament again drew 26 grognards some 46 years after this game was first published. After 25 games, only 2007 champ Bert Schoose and venerable 1993-94 champ Joe Beard remained. Bert's Axis forces outdid their historical counterparts to allow Bert to capture his first PBeM AFK title.

On a sadder note, John Popiden earned his last laurels in this event posthumously - having passed away during the course of the tournament. Others winning laurels were Ed Menzel, Jonathan Lockwood and Vince Meconi in that order.

2008 PBeM Tournament

The Second BPA PBeM Afrika Korps tournament drew 26 grognards some 44 years after this game was first published. After 26 games, only the GM Bruno Sinigaglio and the defending champ, Ed Menzel, remained. Bruno resorting to his old tricks, took the Allies and trusted to his navy to sink Axis supply, leaving defending champ Menzel in command of the Germans.

In April 41, Germans 21 Panzer occupied the escarpments southwest of Bir Hacheim while the Italians starved the Brits in Benghazi. The 21/3 Recce drove as far west as R31, forcing the Allies to string out from the K18 escarpment all the way to L36. The Malta force sunk the only Italian convoy attempting passage in April.

In May, Rommel landed two supply convoys and brought in the 15 Panzer. On May II the 21/3 Recce moved further west into the escarpments south of Matruh while the Afrika Korps hammered to death a 2-2-6 on G23 at 6-1 with Bologna surviving a 1-3 soak. The Recce unit near Matruh forced the Allies to send two infantry brigades east to counter the threat to the home base while a 4-4-7 demonstrated outside Tobruk.

Rommel decided that the bait was easy pickens and attacked the 4-4-7 on H25 at 3-1 surrounded and a 1-1-6 on H26 at 3-1 while Bologna soaked against the rest at 1-5. The big 3-1 went well with a D Elim, unfortunately Ed rolled an exchange vs the 1-1-6 and Bologna could not resist the offer of spaghetti and wine by the Brits and deserted. At the end of June I, the Brits were hunkered down in Tobruk and screening Halfaya Pass while all else retreated east. The Malta dudes were doing their share, as Ed landed only enough supply to replace the two used in attacks.

On Jun II, the Afrika Korps swung around Halfaya into the escarpments. Bruno countered by falling back out of attack range with most units while leaving a lone brigade at Halfaya, another as a nuisance at K49 and one that was too slow to escape and thus acting as good counterattack bait at R53.

Rommel landed supplies on Jul I and being at full strength decided to isolate the lone 1-1-6 at Halfaya while killing the blocker at K51 and the bait at R53. At the end of July, the unit at Halfaya would starve and Ed would be bearing down on El Alamein with 24 factors while Bruno would be holding with 15 factors at most plus the four scheduled for August. So on Jul I Bruno sent the Recce unit south to enable a 1-2 surround vs 21/5 Panzer on Q52. A two was rolled - it is always better to be lucky than good - the Brits lost four one factor units and the Germans lost a 7-7-10. Ed landed another supply on Jul II and then waited in good defensive positions until the Brit at Halfaya crapped out. On Jul II the Brits dropped all the way back to the El Alamein - Ruweisat line with only ten factors alive.

On August I, the Afrika Korps was at full supply, but could not garner a good attack due to the previous hold up at Halfaya and the fall back by the chicken hearted Brits. On August I four more British cannon fodder brigades strengthened the El Alemein line to 14 factors. At this point, the bad luck rolls by Ed at Tobruk and the good luck roll by Bruno vs the 7-7-10 posed a dilemma for Ed. The Afrika Korps could possibly take the home base before Nov I, but two consecutive supply convoys would need to survive on the Sep I and Sep II turns - the odds were against Ed. So on August II, the Afrika Korps dropped back to Tobruk for the "Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch" and rolled an exchange vs 18 factors. Thus the Afrika Korps ceased to exist and the forlorn wops hanging around at the end of turn surrendered.

Bruno finishes first. Ed finishes second to follow up his win in the previous BPA PBeM Africa Korps tournament. Another BPA Afrika Korps PBeM tournament will begin soon.

2003 PBeM Tournament

In the inaugural Afrika Korps PBeM tournament, Ed Menzel captured the crown defeating Doug Burke in the championship game.

The tournamnet drew 25 players. The top 6 laurelists, in order, were Ed Menzel, Doug Burke, Jonathan Lockwood, Randy Heller, Greg Smith, and Vince Meconi.