Malinda Kyrkos, John Keating and Carol Caler ply the North Atlantic on U-Boat patrol. 12 ladies graced the field but none made the Final. No Sea legs for our lady sailors?	Ben Gardner and Paul Risner are up against it with the game's designer, Ben Knight, in the game. Or are they? Risner made the Final. Wha' happened, Ben?

2012 was another busy year in the Atlantic shipping lanes. 117 players worked their way through the usual horrific warfare that composes the preliminary heats. The early highlights included:

· Doug Kolpien putting the fate hammer down on Mike Coomes four times in one Pacific Typhoon game
· Joel Tamburo winning a heat by nearly 30 points ... maybe there are ethics in gaming!
· Several multi-push hands that led to the inevitable ultra-point payoffs

When the fog cleared the surviving six finalists were Pat Mirk, Paul Risner, Keith Layton, Lawrence Hiemenz, Jeff Spaner and Eric Buetikofer. Nary a champion among them and only Mirk possessed prior ACS laurels.

The Final got off to a rousing start as Pat chose between a pair of 7-VP convoys. He opted for SC44 and called a Surface Battle leading with the Gneisenau. Keith gambled with the Hood and Lawrence backed that bet with the King George V. Alas, the bet proved a poor one as Jeff produced the Bismarck, taking the Hood for himself and putting the Germans well ahead. Properly discouraged, Eric discarded and Paul weaseled some big points for himself with a 1-point German play. Jeff missed his big chance when he only rolled a 5 with the Bismarck's two dice (thus giving Pat control since his 5-point play preceded his). Surprisingly, Pat handed the KGV to Jeff (who had taken the Hood by fate) and kept the 7-point convoy for himself.

The pace slowed in the second hand with the appearance of the first Storm card (victimizing Jeff). Paul eventually took the HG53 and shared a spoil with Keith. Hand 3 was pushed and thus HX79 became the object of Hand 4 as well. Pat was the beneficiary of some largess from Lawrence and received a 7-point payoff from the spoils attending the convoy.

Hand 7 brought the first Arctic battle and some serious firepower expended over PQ13. Pat, Keith and Lawrence went German and were opposed by Jeff and Eric. However, Eric doubled down with a Combined Battle only to see Paul trump him with a Tirpitz-fueled 10 to take control.

At mid-point, the visible (Convoy) points were: Pat 12, Paul 10, Eric 7, Keith 4, Jeff 3 and Lawrence 0. Paul started the second half with an air battle over ONS154 and was rewarded with a 6 die roll to win another convoy, but Pat was cut in on the spoils. Another large surface battle followed over SC122. The Allies came away the victor when Jeff couldn't replicate Paul's earlier success with the Tirpitz and mustered a mere 4 on the dice. Lawrence controlled the hand, but Pat again collected spoils.

Hand 19 gave Pat his last points as he played the fated Wolfpack against SC121. A 6 die roll gave Pat control and denied Jeff, Pat's main rival at this point, any points. Jeff took Hand 20, and that proved to be the penultimate hand due to an earlier push, but it was too little too late. The last hand was a surface battle for HX84 (1940). Pat was kept at bay by a storm with Keith taking the last points scored.

When the tonnage was counted, Pat Mirk's laurel lead proved decisive as he amassed 33 points for the title. Jeff took second with 29 followed by Paul 21, Keith 18, Eric 18 (and fewer Convoy points) and Lawrence 15.

Looks like Joe Collinson is pleased about being in charge of splitting the spoils.	Eventual champion Pat Mirk warms up against Ruth and Matt Evinger.