D-DAY IV Results

Andrew Cummins of the UK emerged as the fourth D-Day Weekend Breakout Normandy tournament champion in as many years as the event once again defied the field to post a repeat winner. With many strong past contenders absent as Marvin Birnbaum, Bill Edwards, Ken Nied, Phil Barcafer and Ron Fedin all missed their first Veteran's Day weekend tournament, a relative newcomer to the game emerged as the spoiler. Tom Dworschak, a recent convert from Turning Point: Stalingrad - the predecessor of Breakout in the series - served notice that he is already a top contender in Normandy also. The Georgian scored four wins with the Allies, the last coming against undefeated Jim Doughan, to give the title to Cummins.

It was the third time that an undefeated player was ousted in the final round. So far, only Alan Applebaum in 1999 has succesfully run the table at D-Day. Dworschak finished second, his lone loss coming as the Germans at the hands of Andrew Cummins. Doughan's exit from the unbeaten ranks dropped him to third, while defending champion Bryan Eshleman from Kernersville, NC took 4th with a 4-1 record also.

Play balance improved with the two sides splitting 38 games, a major Allied improvement over their 16-26 record last year. The average bid climbed from 9.5 in 2000 to 13, partially explaining the improving Allied fortunes, although Dworschak's four Allied wins may have been a bigger factor. Joining Dworschak in the Allied camp were Walter Garman and Andrew Choptiany who played all nine of their games as the Allies, winning five. The Germanics in the field were Alan Applebaum and Scott Fenn who played all of their games as the Germans.

What would an After Action report be without a few war stories? Enter Tom Dworschak of Atlanta (3-1), whose BKN career began
in June 2001 with a first-round loss in the BKN PBEM II tournament. This relative newcomer was all that stood between a perfect slate and three-time WBC champ Jim Doughan's first D-Day crown.

Tom took the Allies with 18 SP, making the standard landings and para-drops. The British 6/3 went D1 in Merville, and despite good bombardment rolls the landings were stuffed on Omaha twice at +3 as well as Juno. Overlord continued to deteriorate as the 7:8 assault into St. Mere was repulsed and a weather change on A3 ushered in five overcast impulses. What a script for disaster against everyone's acknowledged master of BKN defense.

But the Allies' fortunes briefly improved on June 7 as a successful capture of the 50/51 bridge allowed the 4th and 90th to clear St. Mere, the German NW whiffed in Pont L'Abbe, and the follow-on para stomp in Pont L'Abbe cleared the area but both paras retreated D2 to Utah Beach. However, Allied snake-eyes ended the day on impulse 3 with Sword, Juno, and Omaha still contested. Why are they still playing you might ask?

June 8th saw the Omaha CA hat-trick fail, Sword cleared and Caen stalemated, as well as an American bridgehead into Carentan, the latter sufficient to prompt Jim to send all of Lehr to Zone E.

The fireworks came on the 9th. The Allies overran Tilly and killed three units, forcing Jim to request a reroll; the advantage was well spent as the Germans retained control of the area. Jim reinforced Tilly with several SS units, and then launched the five remaining fresh SS units into Caen, garrisoned by only a single fresh infantry and spent armour brigade. The British armour retreated D1 to Juno, forcing Tom to bolster the tenuous Allied presence in Caen with another infantry brigade. In his next impulse Jim cleverly dispatched 21/22 Panzer from Caen, through German-controlled Douvres and into Juno, hitting the spent armour there at 4:3 and achieving an overrun. With Juno under German control, Tom had no choice but to use the advantage, and the reroll repulsed the panzers back into Douvres.

An Allied disaster apparently loomed. But wait - a quick review of the center revealed that with virtually all of the German reserves either elsewhere or already committed, 2 CA Armour and 3 CA/7 in British-controlled Bretteville had an unimpeded path directly to Aunay via Verson and Evercy. Tom dispatched 2 CA Armour from Brettville to Aunay; Jim responded by activating the sole fresh German unit in the vicinity, moving 30 Brigade from Villars to Verson to Evercy. But this sole spent unit was not enough to resist the two British Divisions waiting to come ashore on Gold and Juno. The 7 Armoured Division landed and overran Evercy, and with the 51st Division offshore waiting to further exploit the breakthrough, Jim conceded, giving Tom his fourth tournament win as the Allies in a most unexpected fashion.

While it is no doubt comforting to us mere mortals that even Doughan can have an occasional brain cramp, a bigger gift was yet to be bestowed. With the last unbeaten player vanquished, the road to victory was suddenly open for the other once-beatens. A scoring check revealed that the crown was Cummins' if he won his final match against Greenwood. If not, Doughan would win despite his fifth round gaffe. Suddenly, Greenwood was beset by conflicting emotions and had to weigh carefully whether he wanted to deliver yet more wood to Doughan's mantle. After some initial misgivings, he decided that having the master beholding to him for his crown was even better than denying it to him and set to the task of winning it for him.

Alas, it wouldn't be easy. Greenwood's Allied landings were a disaster with three beaches stuffed, the Advantage lost, and all four units of the 4th division disrupted by coastal guns before they set foot on Utah. A weather change and blown Utah/St Mere bridge completed the dismal opening. Game over against a top player, right? Almost ...

The Allies declined to lengthen the day on the 7th, fearing German assaults on their disrupted beaches, but fate intervened and started delivering better dice rolls and the 7th actually went ten impulses. Given their dire situation, the Allies decided to go for Caen and contested it on the 7th. The 8th saw the hat trick on Omaha recapture the Advantage while lucky rolls took St Mere. But the US naval guns which failed to hit anything in the entire game whiffed against Carentan as did the IX AF. Back to Caen.

The 9th and 10th were spent hammering Caen with generally good results as the Germans fed everything into the meatgrinder. Finally on impulse 6 with Caen fully stacked with disrupted units, Don opted for one more bombardment before making the assault which would (hopefully) clear Caen. He rolled a 4 ending the day. As this was the last game still going and there was some pressure to come to a conclusion so others could depart, Don showed that his lobotomy was not quite healed when he conceded with but 3 VPs and visions of vast German reinforcements flooding to Caen's relief on dawn of the 11th.

Only on the drive home did the realization set in what a colossal dufus he was to concede the game when he still held the Advantage. A reroll could have saved the day. Sure enough, as soon as he got home he rolled the dice - extending the day and scoring five hits on Caen. Only then did it hit him what a tremendous opportunity he had wasted. Not only did his next roll clear Caen which could not have been reinforced, it won back the advantage and opened the way to vacant Bourguebus, Potigny and Aunay sur Odon. A potential 9 VP swing in one impulse! Andrew's entire right flank was spent so his ability to prevent any of this would have been limited to desperation measures subject to allied interdiction.

Greenwood took home sixth place wood but felt that it was indeed the booby prize he deserved. Duh!

Standings

 Player

Record

Schedule Tie Breaker
1. Andrew Cummins

4-1

16
2. Tom Dworschak

4-1

15
3. Jim Doughan

4-1

15
4. Bryan Eshleman

4-1

12
5. Jim Eliason

3-2

15
6. Don Greenwood

3-2

14
7. Henry Jones

3-2*

10
7. Walter Garman

3-2

10
9. Alan Applebaum

2-2

12
10. Matt Fagan

2-2

10
11. Andrew Choptiany

2-2

9
12. Bryan Thompson

2-2*

6
13. Tyler Gingrich

2-3*

12
14. Dennis Nicholson

2-3

11
15. Jason Levine

1-4

12
16. Scott Fenn

1-4*

9
17. Bob Jamelli

1-4*

 9

* = Bye