battle cry  

Updated Nov. 23, 2013

2013 WBC Report  

 2014 Status: pending 2014 GM commitment

Pete Stein, OH

2013 Champion

 

Event History
2001    Ilan Woll     56
2002    Philip Shea     52
2003    Josh Githens     64
2004    Barry Shoults     52
2005    Robert Eastman     52
2006    Jeff Cornett     42
2007     Larry Lingle     64
2008    Jeff Cornett     48
2009    Steve Lollis     32
2010    Nicole Reiff     44
2011     Lyman Moquin     49
2012    Jeff Cornett     44
2013    Peter Stein     33

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Jeff Cornett       FL    13    132
  2.  Philip Shea        VA    11     66
  3.  Ben Knight         MD    12     60
  4.  Lyman Moquin       DC    11     48
  5.  David Metzger      NY    12     45
  6.  Pat Mirk           FL    12     33
  7.  Robert Eastman     NV    05     33
  8.  Steve Lollis       MD    09     33
  9.  Peter Stein        OH    13     30
 10.  Nicole Reiff       OH    10     30
 11.  Larry Lingle       PA    07     30
 12.  Barry Shoults      MI    04     30
 13.  Josh Githens       SC    03     30
 14.  Ilan Woll          CT    01     30
 15.  Jeff Mullet        OH    04     27
 16.  Bruce Reiff        OH    13     24
 17.  Roy Gibson         MD    11     21
 18.  Aiden Powers       VA    13     18
 19.  Joe Powell         VA    12     18
 20.  Michael Dauer      TX    08     18
 21.  Ty Hansen          DC    07     18
 22.  Greg Berry         VA    06     18
 23.  Ted Lange          ae    05     18
 24.  Bill Place         PA    03     18
 25.  George Sauer       OH    02     18
 26.  Jim Bell           MD    13     12
 27.  Bill O'Neal        NY    09     12
 28.  Bill Alderman      VA    09     12
 29.  Tom Morin          MA    07     12
 30.  John Koskl         MD    02     12
 31.  Terry Coleman      CA    09      9
 32.  John Shaheen       MA    08      9
 33.  John Elliott       MD    05      9
 34.  Ryan Duncan        MD    02      9
 35.  Jeff Evich         MD    01      9
 36.  Scott Sirianna     NY    10      6
 37.  Stephen Buonocore  NJ    07      6
 38.  James Terry        NJ    06      6
 39.  Chuck Stapp        NJ    05      6
 40.  Ed Kendrick        uk    03      6
 41.  Rich Ogata         VA    02      6
 42.  Brian Conlon       OK    01      6
 43.  Mike Stanley       OH    13      3
 44.  Eric Martin        MD    10      3
 45.  Jack Morrell       NY    09      3
 46.  Scott Nerney       RI    07      3
 47.  Bill Edwards       VA    04      3
 48.  Richard Moyer      MN    03      3
 49.  Gene Billingsly    CA    01      3

2013 Laurelists                                             Repeating Laurelists:

Aiden Powers, VA
2nd

Jeff Cornett, FL
3rd

Bruce Reiff, OH
4th

Jim Bell, MD
5th

Mike Stanley, OH
6th


Past Winners

Ilan Woll ,CT
2001

Philip Shea, CT
2002

Josh Githens, SC
2003

Barry Shoults, MI
2004

Robert Eastman, NV
2005

Jeff Cornett, FL
2006, 2008, 2012

Larry Lingle, PA
2007

Steve Lollis, MD
2009

Nicole Reiff, OH
2010

Lyman Moquin, DC
2011

Kevin Keller and Nick Avtges

Chuck Stapp vs Bill Banks

The Powers brothers made a habit of tormenting their elders that day. Here, Robert shows how Aidan came by his prowess.

 Alex Bell's rebels charge Tom Avtges' yankees. Neither would make it into the elimination rounds this time.

The Grinch who Stole Battle Cry

... Lovingly submitted by his fellow Cabbie & Mentor

Our story begins with our villain, one crotchety Peter Stein, waking up in his usual ill humor in his Columbus condominium after a long night of beating puppies and kittens at the Columbus Humane Society. Peter kicked so many cute little puppies that his feet were sore and it made him extra cranky this day. Nevetheless, he got dressed and packed for his favorite vacation. After berating a girl scout for knocking at his door, he made his way to Lancaster to inflict additional pain on the world to make himself feel better about his Barbie doll-less childhood.

Peter arrived at The Lancaster Host and was overjoyed to find no young ballet dancers underfoot. Growling at the doorman as he entered the building he quickly went to his cave. There he put on his favorite WBC GM shirt that was two sizes too small. The collar was too tight and it added to his foul mood. Pete then left for a family 'throw the cats at kids' festival in New Jersey.

Peter, refreshed and relaxed from his family festival visit, proceeded to lose day after day every event he entered. During Can't Stop he was seen throwing dice at GM Rebecca Hebner and mumbling something about 'that damn kid' failing to realize that she's not really a kid anymore. During the Thursday skins game of Pro Golf (which he managed to make by beating young Jessica Finkleday (yes, Jessica, I know but it makes for a better story than martini's at the bar). When he lost he went after Mark Yoshikawa while screaming "I'll get you kid and you're little dog, too!!" while chasing him out the front door.

But the highlight in this tale of woe occurred Friday night. During Liar's Dice a group of youngsters made the mistake of playing next to Peter's table. They were laughing and having a good time when Peter took exc eption to their mirth. He swore that he would stop their fun. So when they started to serenade the first losing player ushered out of the game Peter jumped from his perch and swooped in. He stole the dice, the cups, and the box. He even stole the roast beef sandwich from their table! But the youngsters wouldn't let him spoil their fun and returned to their frivolities. Peter couldn't understand why they were still in such good humor. Grumbling, he returned to his cave to plan his revenge on the morrow.

True to form, the sun arose on Saturday, much to Peter's disappointment, and he stumbled into the Paradise room joining 32 other would be generals for the Battle Cry tournament. Richard Borg, the designer, was on hand to help with the rules and is planning on providing new scenarios for next year's event. Check the 2014 event preview for details.

A bright light entered the room in the form of the Powers family - dad Michael with sons Robert and Aiden in tow. Cheerful lads - excited at the prospect of partaking of the gaming universe and all its wonders. Peter just glowered at the little urchins from his dark, dank corner. The GM explained the new format - four rounds of swiss play with three wins required to progress further. The new format seemed to be well received.

After three rounds, four players remained unbeaten - defending champ Jeff Cornett, Jim Bell, Cabbie Mike Stanley and everyone's hero, the saintly GM, Bruce Reiff. The remaining pairings were set and the tense final preliminary round began. Peter, already in a foul mood, having lost to Michael Powers (remember the Powers' family?) was playing the newly minted Sportsman of the year Peter Eldridge - who, true to form, maintained a cheery disposition throughout this unfortunate ordeal. Peter managed to growl and grumble his way through the match to qualify for the single elimination part of our program. Joining him with the four 3-0 players were Craig Yope, Bill Banks, Nick Avtges, David Glowney and Aiden Powers.

Fractured Fairy Tales ­ The Story of Knight of the Round Table Aiden Powers

For those of you that don't get that reference Google "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show". The GM randomly drew four of the 3-1 players to play a round of 16 game to whittle the field to an Elite Eight. The rest were dismissed until the quarterfinals. In this additional round of the guantlet, Banks defeated Yope and won the right to play the GM while Glowney defeated Avtges only to meet Jeff Cornett. That left our hero, young Aidan Powers (did I mention that Aidan is only 11 years old!) vs. old Mike Stanley (whom is collecting social security) setting up what has to be the biggest age differential in the history of battle, and the evil Peter Stein (no, we haven't forgotten about him) vs. Jim Bell.

Bruce and Jeff quickly defeated their opponents (setting off a rush in Las Vegas where the bookmakers were predicting a Final pairing). Peter stole all of Jim's pieces (tossing them in his sled) to win his game. Young squire Aiden squared off against Mike. Aiden, in a brilliant move, knocked Mike's Geritol to the floor to down the old warrior, but then chivalrously helped him cross the street.

This set up young Aiden vs. behemoth Reiff and evil Peter vs. thrice-crowned Jeff Cornett. Surely our story of good and evil would end here at the hands of veterans Reiff and Cornett. However. young Aidan, not at all intimidated, bravely charged the Reiff positions and quickly dispatched the giant in true 'David & Goliath" fashion in a 5-2 rout. 11 year old Aidan Powers had upset the GM and self-professed favorite to advance to the Final. Meanwhile, in the other semifinal, in a match reminiscient of Godzilla vs. King Kong with no one wanting a winner, the evil Peter, like the Winter Warlock, had just enough magic left to send the defending champ to the showers.

So our story finally comes full circle. The young shining squire Aiden tries to slay the kicker of puppies, purse snatcher of old ladies, crusher of dreams, the Grinch Peter Stein. The protagonists agreed to play First Bull Run. Aiden wanted the Confederates so Peter just cackled and said "I'll get you my pretty" and took the Union with a snarl.

Undaunted, Aiden quickly attacked on his left flank and crushed Peter's right. Dad Michael nervously paced the room like a gazelle at a lion convention. Peter just smiled a wicked grin, waiting to spring his trap and crush the dreams of the youngster 'cause it will hurt more if he thinks he's winning.

Meanwhile, a passing bystander observed the gathering gallery of spectators and inquires "Is this the Final?" with a surprised tone. I answered "Yeah, the kid beat me in the semis to get here". The guy says "what, are you supposed to be good at this or something" and Cabbie minion Jeff, without hesitation says "We used to think so..." Score one for Jeff, Aiden and the mystery man as we all had a good laugh at my expense.

With the left flank firmly under control and a flag lead, Aiden charged the hill in the center to strike the final blow against evil. His forces fired and destroyed one wicked unit and crippled another leaving him but one piece and its flag short of victory. One more hit and the title was his. But now it was Peter's turn, and although he needed three flags, his characteristic frown morphed slowly into an evil grin.

That's when it all went wrong. For while Aiden was crushing Peter's left flank, our anti-hero had quietly moved his forces into the center where he unleashed his evil plan. A Forced March in the center ran all of his units to the base of the hill. He destroyed one gallent unit and then another, leaving Aiden's general alone in his hex. The evil Peter had one unit left with three dice. He could either shoot at three infantry or one, lone, general. Surely our young hero, who was holding an Assault Center card assuring him the victory when Peter missed, could dodge one last bullet from the worst die roller this side of Mark Yoshikawa.

<insert pleasant music>

Somewhere bunnies hop, dolphins swim, kittens purr, children play and birds sing. But not in the Paradise room. Not that Saturday afternoon. Not at the 2013 Battle Cry tournament. Not vs. the Grinch. Peter had decided that he would use his three dice versus the general needing a single saber hit. A 42% chance. Vegas would have lost millions betting that Peter couldn't pull out a 42% chance. 42% - Stein??? Wrap your mind around that.

The result of the roll? Calvary, infantry, and ............. a freakin' saber. I beat my head on the table, Jeff moaned, Michael Powers cringed, and Peter unleashed his evilest laugh. Aiden? He stuck out his hand like the little champ he is and congratulated the Grinch on stealing his Christmas. Aiden had come up one die short in his quest to win the title. However, he did assure us that the hobby's future is in good hands. We can't wait to see Aiden and his family next year. Stein? Not so much .....

Gee ... I wonder who won this semifinal? Can you tell who is happier?

Aidan's hand is crushed by the big meanie.
 GM      Bruce Reiff (1st Year)  NA  
    bdreiff@aol.com   NA

2013 Previews | View the Icon Key | Return to main BPA page