D-Day VIII Results
Nov. 30, 2005

Requiem for the Champ

2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998

Don Greenwood, who won the inaugural D-Day mini-con in 1998, reprised his role as top dog by sweeping the field at 5-0 to claim 60 laurels against one of the event’s strongest fields. With 20 players on hand, including several talented newcomers, the competition may well have been the best to date. Anytime you send players of the quality of ex-champ Bryan Eshleman and Mark Gutfreund home with 1-4 records, you know it was no walk in the park.

For only the second time in eight years we managed an even number of players—eliminating the need for byes and allowing everyone a chance to play in every round. Even when players dropped out in the latter rounds they did so in pairs. In all, 46 games were played—eleven more than at this year’s WBC—thereby cementing the mini-con’s claim as the top tournament for serious players of this game.

Greenwood became the second two-time D-Day champion and only the second to run the table. Alan Applebaum also won five in 1999 and no one else had done it before or since. Overall, the Germans reclaimed a slim 24-22 edge in play balance, primarily on the backs of the top three positions, Greenwood, Clyde Longest and Nels Thompson, who went a combined 12-1 with the field gray. Greenwood and Longest both went 4-0 with the Germans to split the Rommel honors. Leading the Allied crusade was Ken Nied in 4th place with a 4-1 record to take the Eisenhower role followed by Henry Jones in 6th place with a 3-1 Allied slate.

Bids were again artificially lowered by Ken Nied who remained true to the tan and olive green throughout—claiming a single supply point twce and never venturing higher than 14. Elsewhere, the bidding increased with an average bid for the tournament of 29 to play the Germans. Bids ranged from a low of 1 to a high of 70!

No After Action Report is complete without a few war stories. I think the best one I heard was Ken Nied’s game against Chris Byrd. Ken’s Allies whiffed on all the pre-invasion bombardments on or adjacent to Omaha Beach and had to come ashore facing interdiction from three coastal guns. Not one of the seven landing units survived interdiction and all immediately went to D1 without firing a shot. Then he lost the Montebourg magic bridge. Game over? Not quite. His first Naval bombardment of Caen on June 7th spent everybody. Then his flyboys turned the interdiction tables on the Germans by interdicting every unit of the 12SS that tried to make it into Caen on the trail of tears, allowing him to take the city shortly thereafter.

As for my exploits: My Round 1 opponent was Scott Moll, an excellent wargamer with more than a few BPA plaques on his wall. He took the Allies with a bid of 14. Fortunately for me, this was only Scott’s second game of Breakout ever because he brought a hot hand. Of my five games this was the only one where I was clearly outdiced. Try as I might to keep a cork in it, the ol’ whineometer was feeling the strain by the third day. I particularly remember the bridge rolls…I would average three rolls to blow a bridge and he would build them back with one.

After he had done this five straight times, I got the feeling this would be a long weekend. Nevertheless, I persevered for the win although he took it down to the final roll of the 12th and well past midnight. I could only remember one other instance where a new player had pressed me that strongly…Ray Freeman back at the 1998 WBCs. As I told Scott, I was glad I got him in the first round instead of the fifth because I doubt I would have prevailed had he had a few more games under his belt.

My Round 2 opponent was Mike Kaye who I knew to be an excellent Allied player, having gone 4-1 in 2003. I got the Germans for a bid of 26 which I think reflected more of his desire to play the Allies than mine to play the Germans. This time I was the beneficiary of hot dice and Mike was in early trouble. To his credit, he fought back well and in fact could have won the game. The contest was decided by an assault on Caumont which failed to clear the area by a single step with even dice. Had he won that dice roll, I think I would have been hard pressed to hold on. As it was, I still needed to muffle his bombardments of Carentan at the end to move on. I entered Round 3 feeling very fortunate to have survived.

In Round 3, I was paired with Nels Thompson, a past champion, with a strong and widely known preference for the Germans. By this time, I was pretty tired and more than willing to play the Allies, which I think are easier to play in terms of concentration. Nevertheless, I knew Bryan would not let the Germans go at practically any price. When the bid reached 70 I accepted the Allies, although I was tempted to see how much higher he would go, but afraid to find out. In any case, the bid was meaningless other than putting us in our respective seats.

Although my initial landings were all saefly ashore, they really were nothing special and constituted no great threat anywhere. It was a fairly vanilla start which a German player of Bryan’s caliber can easily take in stride. But momentous Impulses soon followed that would decide the game. About Impulse 4, Bryan took the magic bridge on his first attempt against my four-bridge opening. I declined a reroll with the Advantage that I’ve seen many players take and which I thought Bryan expected me to make.

Instead, I landed the last regiment of the 4th and assaulted St Mere at 7-5, rolling a +4 to clear the area! Game breaker. Lucky? You bet! Instead of being in a virtual armed prisoner camp on Utah, I was now primed for an assault on Carentan on the 7th. But, it got better. The next Impulse brought a Weather Change. Not wanting him to use it to bolster Carentan’s defenses, I gave up the Advantage for a reroll. When the day ended without further mishap, it proved a wise decision.

On the 7th, I was blessed with nuclear dice, twice bombarding Carentan to maximum effect and Overrunning it—taking Catz and Periers in the same assault. The last regiment of the 4th then assaulted and took Area 41 on the next Impulse to complete the isolation of the Cotentin peninsula. I had 8 VPs by Impulse 2 of the 7th! I’d like to report that I had at long last played the perfect game and could finally retire having achieved nirvana. Sadly, I must admit to getting swept away by my good fortune and succumbing to greed.

Instead of accepting a -1 drm after the Overrun to ensure the weather and safeguard my impressive gains like any sane conservative player would do, I pressed my luck and opted for a +3 drm to extend the day. Needless to say, I promptly rolled a weather change and had cause to regret my decision as the day was extended no less than five times and seven Impulses by that drm. Even so, I continued to roll better than I deserved and hammered Caen heavily while gaining an easy contest of that area and crossed out of Omaha and into Trevieres as well. Nels conceded early, and I was off to Euro land for some R&R before the next round. It was probably the most devestating early Allied win I’d ever seen.

Round 4 saw me back in action as the Germans against Chris Byrd with a bid of 31. Having been blessed by the dice two straight games I was expecting my luck to change and was surprised that it didn’t. I again got the better of the early dice rolls and was in a strong position. Nevertheless, Chris kept plugging away with an effective and conservative Allied attack that churned out steady gains. Suddenly, on the 10th, I found myself in considerable trouble—needing to hold Carentan to survive and with Chris in excellent assault positions. It was more than a little disconcerting to realize that I no longer had the upper hand in a game in which I thought the dice had favored me. Fortunately for me, fate continued to smile on me and blew coldly on his bombardments as Carentan held on for the win. In our post mortem, both Chris and I concluded that he had regained the driver’s seat until his dice deserted him on the 11th.

Round 5 pitted me against the last other undefeated player, Clyde Longest. I didn’t particularly want to be the Germans again, but I noted that he had won all four of his games as the Germans so I wasn’t anxious to feed his comfort level by giving him a fifth try. As a consequenece, I got the Germans with a bid of 40 that I didn’t really want to win and soon had cause to regret. Clyde’s landings were truly devastating and had me on the ropes early—pressed hard on both flanks and the center. The lone bright spot came when he surprisingly gave up the Advantage to reroll an assault that cleared Utah. That reprieve was fleeting however as I gave it back to reroll the following assault which had cleared St. Mere. When the Bretteville garrison was disrupted and three attempts at the magic bridge came up empty I was in deep trouble that soon got worse.

Villars fell early on the 7th when I failed an 84% bridge demolition and that threatened the loss of Caumont also, setting Lehr off on the trail of tears with devestating results. A double impulse into Caen contested it and the Advantage was soon regained with the hat trick on Omaha while St Mere fell on schedule. Clyde’s attack plan had been a thing of beauty executed with the skill of a surgeon. The German position as the end of the 7th approached was a veritable shambles. It was concession time, but I’ve seen such positions reversed before so I soldiered on and my new friend, the dice, lent a hand here and there. Reduced to desperation, I tried a +1 shot vs the spent assaulters of Caen and rolled seven hits. Although it didn’t seem so at the time, this proved crucial when Clyde surrendered the Advantage to reroll it. In hindsight, I think it was his only mistake. I clung to that Victory Point for the rest of the game and with the Allies stalled at 8 for several days it proved to be the difference.

I got a huge break on the 8th when the Isigny bridge fell on the first try—thus, redirecting his offense out of Omaha instead. It cost me Foret but was worth it, because the resulting delay put his artillery out of position for the end game at Carentan. Somehow, while all this was going on he failed to exploit his early capture of St Mere and Carentan remained uncontested on the 9th thanks to a short day, some failed bombardments and distractions elsewhere. Nevertheless, my position was still all but hopeless until his +7 assault on Carentan on the 10th was repulsed. Suddenly, there was a light at the end of the tunnel—a chance where previously there had been none. I still needed some remarkably cold dice on his bombardments, but somehow he was stopped cold, and I had survived.

Next year, I am contemplating a change in format to two rounds each on Friday and Saturday and one on Sunday to relieve the stress of playing three games in one day. This would require an earlier (noon) start on Friday. I’d like to hear pros and cons on what such a change means to you.

2005 Laurelists

1st: Don Greenwood, MD

2nd: Clyde Longest, VA

3rd: Nels Thompson, NY

4th: Ken Nied, KS

5th: Chris Byrd, CT

6th: Henry Jones, PA

Final Standings for the weekend were:

Place

Name

Record

SoS

1st

Don Greenwood

5-0

[SoS 13]

2nd

Clyde Longest

4-1

[SoS 17]

3 rd

Nels Thompson

4-1

[SoS 15]

4th

Ken Nied

4-1

[SoS 13]

5th

Chris Byrd

3-2

[SoS 14]

6th

Henry Jones

3-2

[SoS 12]

7th

Nick Markevich

3-2

[SoS 11]

8th

Andrew Cummins

3-2

[SoS 10]

9th

Scott Fenn

3-2

[SoS 10]

10th

Mike Kaye

2-2

[SoS 14]

11th

Nick Anner

2-2

[SoS 11]

12th

Scott Nolan

2-3

[SoS 14]

13th

Jim Eliason

2-3

[SoS 13]

14th

Ron Fedin

2-3

[SoS 10]

15th

Jason Levine

2-3

[SoS 8]

16th

Scott Moll

1-3

[SoS 8]

17th

Mark Gutfreund

1-4

[SoS 10]

18th

Bryan Eshleman

1-4

[SoS 9]

19th

Todd Bogan

0-3

[SoS 7]

19th

Nathaniel Bogan

0-3

[SoS 7]

Boardgame Players Association Last updated 11/30/05 by kae.
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