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WAM
2007 Overall Results
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1st: Chris
Byrd
2nd: Dave
Dockter
3rd: Michael Mitchell
4th: Melvin Casselberry
5th: Tim Miller
6th: Scott Moll |
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1st: Keith
Wixson
2nd: James Terry
3rd: Stuart Tucker
4th: Bruce Monnin
5th: Doug Austin
6th: Charles Hickok |
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1st: Peter
Reese
2nd: Bill Edwards
3rd: Keith Wixson
4th: Paul Gaberson
5th: Andy Maly
6th: Ken Gutermuth |
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1st: James
Pei
2nd: George Young
3rd: Roderick Lee
4th: Paul Gaberson
5th: Terry Coleman
6th: Pete Reese |
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1st: Nick
Anner
2nd: Pete Reese
3rd: Doug Mercer
4th: Paul Gaberson
5th: Scott Moll
6th: George Young
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1st: Stuart
Tucker
2nd: Jeff Finkeldey
3rd: Chris Bauch
4th: Ken Gutermuth
5th: Terry Coleman
6th: David Dockter
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1st: James
Pei
2nd: Mike Mitchell
3rd: Trevor Bender
4th: Henry Russell
5th: David Dockter
6th: Chris Byrd
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WAM
2007 Write-Ups
 Paths
of Glory. Chris
Byrd won his first PoG gold ring at WAM
V in January 2007 over a field of 17 which
included four former PoG champions. The field
was swelled by a few qualifying games of
Barbarossa to Berlin as well. Highlights
included Michael Mitchell’s
Trench Digging Russians building seven
trenches in 10 attempts against poor Charlie
Hickok. In the first round, Four sharks (three former PoG champions
and Mr. Byrd) were paired against each other in the first round
to cut the losers loose to pursue other wood (a WAM tradition).
Byrd defeated Drueding, and then Scott Moll to advance to the semi’s,
while Nick Anner lost an early game to Dave
Dockter. In the other semi game, Dockter
(AP) defeated Castlebury’s
CP’s early
blitzkrieg in the East to try to get the
Tsar off.
The Final
was a rematch of this summer’s WBC climax with a different
result as Byrd’s CP defeated Dockter (AP —bid of 3—AP
wins ties). The game went the distance—decided on turn 20—and
VPs were razor thin. Chris played Guns. Tried a probe in the West,
but AP held its ground. CP did clean out Balkans early (Putnick was
AWOL this game). There was pressure on the Austrians in the east,
but not enough to prevent a blitz against the Italians and their
many French and British armies (who demonstrated a profound lack
of gardening technology —missing the “magic” trench).
CP then took most of Italy , but not Rome and the heel of the boot
where the Italians and a lonely French army cracked the code on using
shovels.
During
theis time, the CP was pushed into defending Rhine and the trench
happy Russians stopped the Germans and their lackeys in the East.
The Near East was quiet most of the game (CP drew Bulgaria and Kemel
first draw of Limited War), until very late when sloppy Allied leadership
and strong CP play resulted in the Russian Army of the Caucasus getting
OOS’d while attempting to defend the poor Brits in Iraq. About
that time the Russian horde lunged forwarded under Brusilov and hammered
the Austrians manning the mountain line. Romania entered very late,
and the Allied HQ again allowed two Russian armies to be OOS’d.
That, coupled with the turn of events regarding our old friend Yudenich,
set up a nail biting Turn 20 in which there were a series of trench
battles in the Austrian eastern VP, Polish VP and Konisberg to decide
the game. The Russians lost them all, and, the game, giving Chris his
fifth BPA championship wood.
 Twilight
Struggle. The five-round swiss tournament
of Twilight Struggle was
the big event at the Winter Activation Meeting
this year, with 30 of WAM’s
43 players testing their mettle in the popular
new game on the Cold War. Despite concerns
of imbalance, the bidding for sides reflected
caution—and a
fair amount of inexperience, with the average
bid being 1 VP to play as the Soviets. In
48 games, only twice did a player bid to
play as the Americans, but the bids climbed
as high as 3 VPs only four times. Many of
the victories were so lopsided that early
VP bidding had minimal impact. However, in
one game where the Soviets gave away two
VPs, they lost the game by one VP on Turn
10. In another game where the Soviets gave
away a VP, they only managed to get to 19
VPs in mid-game—and
later lost at the end by 1 VP.
In 29
of the 48 games, the decision came early: 17 Soviet automatic victories,
one US automatic victory, five resignations, two times when the Soviets
controlled Europe, one time when the Soviets caused Nuclear War,
three times when the Americans won using the Wargames card, and the
Quagmire card caused one defeat because a scoring card never got
played (hmm, better check the FAQ to see if that is possible—and
if so, beware holding those Scoring Cards too long!). Overall, the
Soviets won two-thirds of all the games, including a majority of
those that went to endgame scoring.
Because
the Thursday night mulligan round allowed players to ignore a loss,
after four rounds there were still three 4-0 players. Strength of
schedule determined which two players faced each other for the plaque:
Keith Wixson and Stuart Tucker. James Terry was left at the altar
to play the top-rated 3-1 player.
Neither
Wixson nor Tucker had a smooth road to the final round. Tucker was
the beneficiary of one of the aforementioned Soviet overbids in one
game, while Wixson was the beneficiary of the other. Tucker favored
playing the Americans and racked up 25 percent of the weekend’s
American wins. Wixson’s brush with near defeat as the Americans
in Round 2 convinced him to stick to the Soviets for the rest of
the tournament. Tucker had to salvage one game with a risky Brush
War in Pakistan at the optimal moment in front of an Asian Scoring
Card, seizing victory from the game’s lead playtester.
Tucker’s
After Action Report of the Final shows just how much wear and tear
occurs at a sleepless WAM weekend, as the synapses became fried toward
the end. Wixson was gracious enough in the recounting of endgame
victory points to only call Tucker a cheater in jest, when an error
of mathematical sign was found for the Central American points to
shift the victory into Wixson’s proper hands at -7 VPs as the
Soviets.
 Here are
excerpts from Tucker’s AAR, explaining loss: “The
Formosa Fade. That’s what I’m calling my disaster Sunday
morning. In truth, the brain fade was bound to happen somehow after
three days of non-stop gaming (I think I got a total of no more than
13 hours of sleep in all over the course of Thursday to Sunday).
I managed
to play rather well all weekend long (10-4). However, in the Final
against Keith on Sunday morning, I forgot that the Formosa Resolution
would not count for the final endgame scoring of Asia. That cost
me 4 points when I ignored Keith’s subtle takeover of Pakistan,
thinking it didn’t matter that much. I also missed his reduction
of my control of Greece at a time when I wasted a point in Mexico
that could have recontrolled Greece. That mistake on Turn 9 cost
me another 4 points when I couldn’t retain my domination of
Europe. And I lost by a grand total of 7 points. The Formosa Fade
will forever live in infamy for me.
Mind you,
I could have lost that final MANY times before final scoring, due
to my horrendous luck in the Space Race. He had two deals to get
a Wargames victory (thankfully I got it on the turn 9 deal). On Turn
10, if he had been dealt the Central America scoring card, I was
done in the Headline phase. As it was, I had to manage the play of
that scoring card, as well as Africa in the final turn, putting me
behind the curve on Ops. He also could have won on his space race
play when he had 16 points and a chance to get 4—that was about
the only roll I remember him failing—and of course, I failed
my space race roll to get 1 VP during the previous three turns, which
is why he was in that position. I needed the Africa Scoring points
in Turn 10, even if I’d have preferred the card be dealt to
him rather than me. Without the card at all, I might have lost to
-20 VPs mid-turn.
Keith’s
such a gentleman though. He pointed out the DEF CON effect of the
Korea War on an early turn before I blundered into Thermonuclear
War. I returned the favor when I noted that by playing Summit (despite
his dr modifiers) he could himself blunder into Thermonuclear War.
Five games
later, I’ve become very impressed with the subtleties of this
design—for example, another reason I lost was that De Gaulle
essentially gives the Soviets permanent access to Algeria (the only
spot they could reach once I Voice of America’d them out of
the continent). Now that’s pretty damn cool from the standpoint
of history."
Congratulations
also go out to the other 5-0 player, James
Terry, whose only fault was that his defeated opponents failed to
get quite as many wins as Tucker’s and Wixson’s. The
final rankings for TWS players with winning records:
1. Keith Wixson, 5-0, 60 tournament points, 4 Soviet Wins, 1 American
2. James Terry, 5-0, 59 TPs, 4 Soviet Wins, 1 American
3. Stuart Tucker, 4-1, 52 TPs, 4 American Wins
4. Bruce Monnin, 4-1, 51 TPs, 2 Soviet Wins, 1 American
5. Doug Austin, 3-2, 44 TPs, 2 Soviet Wins, 1 American
6. Charles Hickok, 3-2, 42 TPs, 2 Soviet Wins, 1 American
7. Terry Coleman, 3-2, 41 TPs, 2 Soviet Wins, 1 American
8. Chris Bauch, 3-1, 40 TPs, 2 Soviet Wins, 1 American
9. Michael Mitchell, 3-1, 37 TPs, 2 Soviet Wins, 1 American
10. George Young, 3-1, 36 TPs, 2 Soviet Wins, 1 American
...and
21. Pete Reese. At 1-0 he had other fish
to fry. He went undefeated all weekend
long (if we forget his Mulligan round loss
in Twilight
Struggle) and decided to play for the Wilderness War plaque instead.
  Wilderness
War. 17 players vied for the WAM 2007 Warclub
provided by GM Keith Wixson. 19 games were
played in the four-round Swiss, and the last
man standing was Peter Reese. Reese defeated
Ron Fedin (2005 WBC Champ), James Pei (2004
WBC Champ), Paul Gaberson (2003 WBC Champ)
and Bill Edwards in the Final.
French
dominance continued. The French won 13 games (68%) to the Brits’ six.
There was a bid of 1 VP to play the French in 14 games and a bid
of 2 VPs to play the French in one game (a Brit win). The other four
games (all French wins) had no bid at all. The average French score
in their wins was 5.7 VPs. On the other hand, the British wins almost
all came in later rounds by top players. The Champ was 2-0 as the
Brits, and played them in the Final. Also earning WNW laurels were
Keith Wixson, Paul Gaberson, Andy Maly and Ken Gutermuth who finished
third through sixth respectively.
Early
1757. Brits
looked at their hand and concluded Janus the god of luck had annointed
them. In their initial hand was the 3 Highlander, the 1 Highlander,
a Brit Regular, a campaign card and an amphibious card. Was expecting
a SHORT game. French started with drive to HCN and sieged it with
their second card. Parliament had decided that North America was
the critical theatre for 1757. The Brits played the regular card,
got Amherst and sent him to New York with three Regulars, Then
played the 1 Highlander card and sent Forbes to New York and the
Highlander to Halifax. The French then started raiding. Card 3
the 4 x Highlander + Wolfe and Murray showed up in Halifax. With
this play the French concluded Louisbourg was not a good place
to be and evacuated it Wolfe and his mob then landed while Amherst
took his mob to HCN. Wolfe too Louisbourg in two tries meanwhile
the French started raiding with the first three tries successes
(argh). Brits held over Vaudreill.
 Late
1757. Fortune
continued to smile on the Brits. First Montcalm was sent to Ohio
for another Amphibous card (which just arrived this turn—the
French had the other two so were not worried about a landing) permitted
Wolfe and everyone to land at the gates of Quebec. The French had
immediately started moving Montcalm back and when Wolfe landed
they used a campaign card to put Montcalm and the army (which moved
from HCN) together around Montreal. Wolfe then moved to siege Quebec
(which looked like a real winner as the Brits also had a fieldworks
card). Then disaster occured when Janus the fickle god of chance
showed his favor to the French when the French made their desperate
attack v. Wolfe sieging Quebec the dice result was French 6 British
1. To add insult to injury Monckton (who covering Wolfe’s
bungled retreat) stuck his head up and was clipped with a musket
ball. The Brits retreated one space less seven steps to five for
the French. End of year the Brits went back to Albany, the French
wintered in Quebec (they had destroyed the southern fort along
the Lake Champlain route) and Wolfe slunk back with his forces
to Alexandria (I could not stand another battle with Wolfe’s
force). The French raids pretty much used
up their indians (Brits were up to two militia in the southern
zone) but they did end up with three points for raids for 1757.
French held over Quiberon which turned out to be a very good choice
as Brits played surrender causing a reshuffle.
Early
1758. Brits
got last regular card, placed Bradstreet
and three regulars in Alexandria along with Wolfe and Murray. French
got a regular card placed them with Montcalm in Quebec. Montcalm
deployed defensively to Winooski with his entire army (including
a couple of French Marines (1-4s). Amherst with a gigantic pile
of troops observed him from Albany (additionally provinicals had
been added). Wolfe moved up to Allegheny South and built a fort.
The French raided and picked up the marine detachments out west
to avoid Wolfe.
Late
1758. Wolfe
then moved to Upper Monogahela where disaster
truely struck. A lone indian at Mingo Town intercepted and in the
skirmish both Wolfe and Bradstreet were killed leaving Murray in
charge of a BIG army he could not command. Still he managed to
haul troops to Ohio Forks and finish the fort. Meanwhile the French
did minor adjustments and began forming up a force to defend Niagara.
Then with two cards left (the Brits had Foul Weather and Bigot)
the French made a fatal error (the joys of face to face play).
Instead of moving Montcalm and his troops into winter quarters
they spent a card to further adjust their forces out west (looking
at the map they could see the Brits needed two cards to get everyone
out west to winter quarters) so they had no worries. However the
British exposure was only two or three steps and the French exposure
was on the order of 10 steps (including three regulars permanently
lost). So the penultimate Brit card was
Bigot and the French army got to starve and freeze over the winter
in Winooski. At that point the French conceded.
  We
The People. This game served well again in
its capacity as a time-filler among the rounds
of the other events taking place at WAM.
Twenty players entered the WTP event, run
as a swiss, last-man-standing elimination
event with the plaque going to the final
player without a loss. In the winner’s
bracket, the usual suspects knocked down
contenders. By Sunday morning, four players
remained undefeated: Paul Gaberson, George
Young, James Pei, and Pete Reese. With the Wilderness
War plaque also within
his grasp, Reese decided to drop out of the
WTP competition. This left Pei to match up
against Gaberson for the right to play Young
for the plaque. Pei reached this point via
a draw against Randall MacInnis and wins
over James Terry and Stuart Tucker. Gaberson
had vanquished Chris Byrd, Pete Reese (in
the mulligan round), and Terry Coleman. Young
had defeated Terry, MacInnis, and Roderick
Lee. Against
Gaberson, Pei (bid 3 PCs to be the Americans)
managed to draw Campaign cards in four of
the first five turns. The Americans had four
unanswered plays at the end of 1777. The
British Regulars Advantage was lost in 1779.
The War ended in 1780 without a single colony
under British control.
In the
Final, Young won the bid at 4 PCs to be the Americans, only to be
hobbled by never seeing the Declaration of Independence and French
Alliance. Benedict Arnold turned coat in 1777. The British Regulars
advantage was lost in 1778, but on the turn it mattered most, the
final turn (1779), Pei had a Campaign card and managed to control
six colonies to win the game and the plaque.
Of 22
games played, the Americans won 11. There were draws and nine British
wins. Over the course of the tournament, bids for the Americans increased,
to 3 and 4. Bids averaged just under 3 for the event. After losing
to Pei, Tucker heard Pei say that he believed 4 PCs was a fair bid
to be the Americans. Certainly, Pei showed his proficiency in keeping
alive Washington against Tucker. Tucker had established a four-pronged
attack that established a loose ring around Washington in Albany.
But Pei managed to maneuver his other generals on the flanks at the
right times to catch the British advances in dangerous terrain, killing
many of them due to lack of a retreat. Despite having overwhelmingly
better cards than Pei, Tucker’s British managed to lose most
of their CUs by 1778 and he resigned—all while Washington rested
in Albany.
The top
six WTP players earning WAM laurels were:
1. James
Pei, 4-0-D, 47 Tournament Points, 3 American wins, 1 British, 1 Draw
2. Geoge Young, 3-1, 37 TPs, 2 American wins, 1 British
3. Roderick Lee, 3-1, 33 TPs, 1 American win, 2 British
4. Paul Gaberson, 3-1, 28 TPs, 1 American win, 2 British
5. Terry Coleman, 2-1, 23 TPs, 1 American win, 1 British
6. Pete Reese, 2-0, 21 TPs, 2 British wins
 Hannibal. Fourteen top-notch Hannibal players made time at a very busy
WAM to enter the Hannibal tourney. However, many
didn’t have time
to devote themselves fully to completing
the event. The existence of Thursday’s mulligan in other events,
plus a very popular Twilight
Struggle new event, left several players in a now-common Saturday
dilemma: what championship to pursue. The
old favorite, Hannibal, just
didn’t have the same luster as the inaugural Twilight Struggle championship
or the coveted Wilderness War plaque.
Three
undefeated players ceased their pursuit of the Hannibal crown
early. The eventual winner by default, Nick Anner, pulled to an unchallenged
3-0 on Saturday evening. However, the path to victory wasn’t
without its bumps. In his first round game, the once-upon-a-time
WAM champ, Stuart Tucker in a game that was leaning towards Tucker’s
Carthage until the turn 8 Messenger Intercepted favored Anner’s
invasion of Spain. Then, a turn 9 deal of Syracuse, Numidia Revolts,
and Diplomacy to Anner’s Romans left Tucker’s wiley Adriatic
Pirates move coming up one province short.
In Anner’s
second round game, his Carthage was blessed with a turn 9 Messenger
Intercepted and Philip’s offer of Macedonian alliance, allowing
him to salvage the 9-9 province count for victory against George
Young.
Anner’s
third round game found him begging for an opponent. Pete Reese (2-0)
decided that his undefeated record would be sacrificed while he pursued
the Wilderness War plaque. Doug Mercer (2-0) made a similar
decision, while Charles Hickok (the last 1-0 remaining) decided early
on Saturday to try the new games in the room. This left Paul Gaberson
(1-1) as the most willing challenger to try to bring Anner back to
the pack of those still willing to play onward. Here Anner’s
Carthage excelled, with a turn 5 Philip, turn 6 Syracuse, and 3 Messenger
Intercepts to put Gaberson on the verge of suing for peace for lack
of PCs, when he threw in the towel and resigned on turn 8.
Once again,
Carthage proved to be dominant (winning eight of 13 games). Bidding
continues to almost universally favor Carthage by just under 2 PCs,
though once Mercer bid 2 for the Romans. The top HRC players were:
1. Nick
Anner, 3-0, 32 Tournament points, 2 Carthaginian wins, 1 Roman
2. Pete Reese, 2-0, 22 TPs, 1 win of each
3. Doug Mercer, 2-0, 20 TPs, 1 win of each
4. Paul Gaberson, 1-2, 14 TPs, 1 Carthaginian win
5. Scott Moll, 1-1, 13 TPs, 1 Carthaginian win
6. George Young, 1-1, 13 TPs, 1 Carthaginian win
For
The People. We had a good turnout of 12 people
in the FTP tournament, even though it was
not an official event this year. A total
of 14 games were played including two mulligans
during the highly attended, early Thursday
start. Things heated up on Friday as all
the main tournaments started in earnest.
Don Chappell, our Librarian, made the trek
from Texas to play many games of FTP. Many
long matches were observed over the weekend
as more and more players became comfortable
going the distance.
Most of
the games were played using the new 2006 edition rules with all the
optional rules. This year, with the inclusion of expansion cards
and optional rules, the balance has swung slightly in favor of the
Yanks, as eight Union and six Confederate victories were recorded.
1st through 6th place respectively were James Pei, Mike Mitchell,
Trevor Bender, Henry Russell, David Dockter and Chris Byrd.
Highlights: Don
Chappell played three consecutive turns of random discard from Chris
Byrd’s Rebels. But alas, he was not able to stop Chris from
winning when his Union hand went cold. Déjà vu for
Chris when he ran into James Pei’s Union in the 2nd round.
He suffered the same fate as in his previous game when James played
Railroad Degradation, War in the West, and Locomotive Shortage in
three consecutive turns. However, this time Chris was not able to
surmount the Union steamroller. But to his credit, the young Byrd
was able to pull off several raids against the Master. The Rebels
resigned on Turn 8 when Lee’s army was finally trapped in Dayton
Ohio without any LOC.
Trevor
Bender, the only other person to hold the coveted WBC FTP plaque
besides the Master, was able to attend due to a fortuitous business
trip to the area. He played against the renowned Paths of Glory champ,
Tom Drueding. In a grueling 7 hr match, Trevor’s Union was
able to win by the State count victory condition. Final SW was Union
118 vs Rebel 7. Union blockade was at 4!
Henry
Russell, the FTP iron man at WAM, played several games deep into
1864. In one game, against Roderick Lee, his Union won on Turn 11,
forcing the Rebels to resign when Richmond was burned. In another
game, against Tim Miller, Henry’s Union drove the Rebel SW
down to 0 on the final turn even though he lost a high strength AoP
in 1862. Then in yet another long game, this time against Doug Mercer,
Henry lost on turn 13 when Doug’s Union won by the state count
victory of 8 states and SW of 81.
David
Dockter played perhaps the longest match against Trevor Bender in
another grueling 8 hr+ game. David’s Rebel force was forced
to resign on Turn 12 when the CSA SW went down to 0. Trevor once
again raised the Union blockade to a very high level early on, ending
with the rare level 5! His new nickname is now Blockade Bender!
David
also played an early “grudge” match against Don “AA
Cartel” Chappell to settle their different views. Don proved
his point, but David won the match. Not exactly sure if any anybody’s
thinking has been changed.
Mike Mitchell
played a hell-raising game against Trevor Bender. On turn 7, Mike’s
Union drew a perfect hand of major campaign and all 3 cards, which
he used to good effect. Union was able to force the Rebels to concede
in Spring 1863 when Federal forces took the CSA capital of Richmond,
converted the State of Virginia, eliminated AoNV, and was about
to torch Fayetteville and take MO. In addition, Blockade Level was
raised to 3 with all the eastern ports blocked off. If this
was not enough, Trevor was forced to play the EP card that turn with
Mike holding the FI card that he did not have to play.
The resulting
SW swing was huge. CSA lost Richmond -12, capital -15, VA -15, Fort
-1, AoNV -5, Fortunes of War -3, EP card -10, and Fayetteville
-3 for a total of 64 SW! The Union gained +12 for Richmond, +1 fort, +2
for FoW, +3 for Fayetteville, and lose -5 -3 for EP for a total of
+10 SW. A swing of 74 SW in one turn!
The big
turning point was when Mike trapped a Rebel Army with Lee and 3 Cav
generals in Illinois with no supply line. Trevor also messed
up placing Lee in an army where Lee was second in command so he was
unable to use his 1-Op cards effectively without demoting ASJ. He
spent over a whole turn correcting that mistake which costs him double
attrition on his Army and about 9 card plays. Ouch!
 March
Madness. In the wacky, play anything that isn’t nauled
down atmosphere of WAM, eght hardy (and perhaps partially tipsy)
guys on Friday night struck up a quick and wet tournament of perhaps
the all-time best card-driven sports game: March Madness.
Sporting a field of eight teams all with identical 96 ratings,
Terry Coleman, Chris Bauch, and Bruce Monnin crashed WAM again.
While Stuart Tucker finished off another game of Wilderness
War, he swept through the deck and rolled dice effortlessly,
leaving the tough task of scoring to Terry. That proved to require
an instant replay camera, but in the end it was determined that
Tucker’s 1986 Kansas team had indeed won by 1 point over
Coleman’s 1960 Ohio State. Top-ranked (how can identically-rated
teams be differentiated?) Ken Gutermuth’s 2006 Memphis team
won by 19 over Bob Heinzmann’s 1998 North Carolina. Bauch’s
2005 Louisville defeated Monnin’s 2003 Arizona. The hometown
favorites, Jeff Finkeldey’s 2002 Maryland, despite heavy
rooting counter-rooting, managed to slip by David Dockter’s
1989 Michigan. In the second round, Tucker’s Kansas managed
to again win by a single point landslide against Bauch’s
Louisville. Finkeldey’s Maryland defeated Gutermuth’s
Memphis. In the championship, Tucker put aside his shaky beginning
to run away with the Final by 15 points. Kellogg was named the
tournament MVP on the basis of his hot 3-point shooting all tournament
long.
1. Stuart Tucker, 3-0
2. Jeff Finkeldey, 2-1
3. Chris Bauch, 1-1
4. Ken Gutermuth, 1-1
5. Terry Coleman, 0-1
6. David Dockter, 0-1
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