paths of glory   

Updated Nov. 23, 2013

Guns of August Pre-Con
2013 WBC Report    

 2014 Status: pending 2014 GM commitment

Stefan Mecay, TX

2013 Champion

 

Event History
1999    Donald Stone     36
2000    Peter Reese     52
2001    David Dockter     34
2002    Peter Reese     49
2003     Rob Hassard     40
2004    Nick Anner     39
2005    Tom Drueding     34
2006    Dave Dockter     48
2007     Stefan Mecay     35
2008    Riku Riekkinen     42
2009     Stefan Mecay     50
2010    Stefan Mecay     35
2011    Peter Gurneau     27
2012    Riku Riekkinen     29
2013    Stefan Mecay     36

WAM Event History
2003     David Dockter     32
2004     Rob Hassard     11
2005    Marvin Birnbaum     16
2006     Tom Drueding     17
2007    Chris Byrd     17
2008    Tom Drueding     20
2009     Tom Drueding     12
2010     Tom Drueding     16

PBeM  Event History
2001    Stefan Mecay     40
2005    Stephen Valkyser     68
2006     Tom Drueding     64
2009     Stefan Mecay     89
2011    Stefan Mecay     64

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Tom Drueding      MA     11    428
  2.  Stefan Mecay      TX     13    412
  3.  David Dockter     MN     11    328
  4.  Peter Reese       VA     12    276
  5.  Chris Byrd        CT     10    208
  6.  Rob Hassard       NJ     09    181
  7.  Riku Riekkinen    fi     13    174
  8.  Marvin Birnbaum   NY     09    174
  9.  Nick Anner        NY     11    162
 10.  Jim Falling       MI     07    117
 11.  Peter Gurneau     WI     12    102
 12.  Stephan Valkyser  de     05     96
 13.  Tom Gregorio      PA     12     66
 14.  John Sutcliff     uk     13     48
 15.  Michael Dauer     TX     13     42
 16.  Nick Frydas       uk     12     42
 17.  Charlie Hickok    PA     10     39
 18.  John Brown        VA     04     36
 19.  Bob Heinzmann     FL     05     30
 20.  James Pei         TX     04     30
 21.  Ken Gutermuth     TX     09     28
 22.  Steve Brooks      FL     08     25
 23.  Mauro Faina       it     11     24
 24.  Andy Friedmann    MA     10     24
 25.  Rick Byrens       CA     07     24
 26.  Josh Alexander    MI     04     24
 27.  Alex Gregorio     PA     13     18
 28.  Steve Worrel      NC     03     18
 29.  Michael Mitchell  GA     07     16
 30.  Ed McGran         WA     05     16
 31.  Steve Koleszar    VA     13     12
 32.  Kevin Sudy        VA     11     12
 33.  Mauro Gasbarroni  it     09     12
 34.  Mel Casselberry   PA     07     12
 35.  Pat Mirk          FL     05     12
 36.  John Emery        SC     00     12
 37.  Michael Johnson   MA     01     10
 38.  Don Stone         NC     99     10
 39.  Jay Meyers        CA     10      9
 40.  Tim Hall          UT     10      9
 41.  Andrew Maly       MD     00      9
 42.  Tim Miller        GA     07      8
 43.  Johnny Hasay      PA     10      6
 44.  Steve Parrish     VA     08      6
 45.  Lance Roberts     AK     06      6
 46.  Holger Janssen    de     05      6
 47.  Pete Rohn         IL     04      6
 48.  Hank Burkhalter   TN     02      6
 49.  Nick Firer        WI     00      6
 50.  Don Johnson       VA     99      6
 51.  Ric Manns         IN     01      5
 52.  Seth Gunar        NJ     08      4
 53.  Scott Moll        VA     07      4
 54.  Dennis Culhane    PA     99      4
 55.  Bill Pettus       NJ     09      3
 56.  Steve Huskey      KS     00      3
 57.  Joe DiCamillo     PA     99      3
 58.  Doug Austin       VA     06      3
 59.  Rob Winslow       NY     99      2
 60.  Paul Horvath      CA     00      1
 61.  Paul Abrahamse    MI     99      1

2013 Laurelists                                             Repeating Laurelists:

Riku Riekkinen, fi
2nd

John Sutcliff, uk
3rd

Alex Gregorio, PA
4th

Steve Koleszar, VA
5th

Michael Dauer, TX
6th

Past Winners

Peter Reese, VA
2000, 2002

Dave Dockter, MN
2001, 2006

Rob Hassard, NJ
2003

Nick Anner, NY
2004

Thomas Drueding, MA
2005

Stefan MeCay, TX
2007, 2009-10, 2013

Riku Riekkinen, fi
2008, 2012

Peter Gurneau, WI
2011
   

 UK's John Sutcliffe digs in vs Tom Drueding.

Tom Gregorio vs Kevin Sudy

Peter Gurneau vs Peter Eldridge. Those Brits like POG.

First to Four ...

A return to a Saturday start helped reverse a two-year decline in attendance which had shrunk to its lowest point in 2012. After three days of continuous battle, the Guns of August fell silent in preparation for one last test between past champions as the Nest of Spies Finnish assassin Riku Riekkinen faced three-time champion Stefan Mecay. Stefan won the die roll for the bid, and took the AP for 1. Then the carnage began anew.

On Turn 2 Riku played Entrench for Sedan and swept two armies into C-T. Not wanting to chance things, Stefan pulled off the fort line. On Turn 3 he opened with Falkenhayn followed by Place of Execution on Paris, 6a+2 to 9a, but the FR got a 7 hit. Coupled with a FR MO, Stefan was able to drive him off of C-T with a 5-4 result. Riku had five events to play on Turn 3 so by the end, the FR had actually returned to the fort line. The Western Front remained relatively stabilized for the rest of the game.

In the east, the Russians launched a massive attack on the Austrians, but Riku countered nicely, eventually getting a trench in Budapest. Riku was able to easily take Kovno to get Tsar Takes Command off. Coupled with Place of Execution, this allowed Riku to save Rathenau as a 5-card for TW. Riku was also able to clear the Serbs pretty easily, and the Italians got pounded on a little on Turns 6-7, but with an infusion of corps and later a FR army on Turn 7 that front was stabilized as well. Both of the players had WS events come in late (including Italy on Turn 6) so we both got to TW on the start of Turn 7.

Turns 7-10 saw Riku fortifying the west and pounding on the Russians in the east. Stefan countered with fortifying the standard chokepoints (Insterbeg/Grodno in the North, and the three spaces in the east) and both played plenty of RP cards so both armies were fairly intact. Stefan SR'd a few corps to the NE, but Stefan had not played Caucasus in LW and Allenby was a little late so Riku sent his first TK army to try to clear out Baku. The Caucasus arrived just in time and then Allenby arrived on Turn 10 forcing the Turks south in a hurry. Stefan tried to trench Sinai twice and failed. Riku immediately attacked Allenby on Turn 11 with the TK CC on 6a+1 to 6a, got the 5 hit and flipped Allenby which stabilized that front for the rest of the game.

Stefan did one massive attack in the west around Turn 12 with some success, getting about 10-12 damage on Germans, but with ten armies in the west was not quite able to break through. Allied western forces were a little shot up too, so on Turn 13 they both played a lot of RP's and reset the situation. Riku sent another AH army east to pound on Russians and with another corps/all Italians still in their original trenches in Italy, Stefan sent the lone FR army in Italy back to the West. FR mutiny kept things quiet in the west on Turn 14. Riku brought in his 2nd TK army and was setting up on the Caucasus in the east.

Turn 15 had a hand of high ops cards allowing a massive western offensive. The Brits got hammered but the FR with Air Superiority got a 7-5 result on 12a+1 to 16a. With nine armies plus one in Berlin (from the previous massive western offensive) Riku is not worried yet and hits the Caucasus, knocking off the last defending Russian corps, now down to the bare army, plus bringing the GER 11th back from Berlin to Essen to fill in any holes. Stefan hit the west again with a 4-card, this time 12a+1 to 12a on Brussels (with mine attack) and 12a+1 to 12a with the French. This time they both roll high, 7-7 from the brits, and 7-5 with FR, another forcing retreat!

Riku, fully aware of the danger in the west, reinforced the line with GER 11th and shuffled a couple of armies to fill in the weak spots in the line from the pounding. The AP hit the Germans again miraculously winning with the FR a third time, something like 5-4, but with a flipped German army a painful cancellation to hold the line. Riku is able to fix on impulse 4. Stefan commited the BEF finally on the 4th impulse. Riku SR's an army from the east. Now with two 5-cards left, the Russians, who have been hammered most of the game, start launching an attack here and there, plus more pounding in the west. Riku is forced to respond to prevent a possible trench collapse. On impulse 6, Stefan finally plays his last 5-card to fix. The Germans are down to 5 1/2 remaining armies plus a couple of fresh armies in Essen via RP's.

Turn 16 brings no FR Mutiny and Riku has to immediately stabilize the line. Stefan goes all in in the west and gets a couple more 7-7 results or 7-5/5-4 results. Around impulse 3, Riku is forced off the line to try to hold at the Rhein. The western forces pursue as the Russians liberate Warsaw/Lodz and take Konigsberg. The game ends with the Brits forcing their way into Essen on the last impulse of Turn 16 and the VP's drop to 0.

The 2013 Paths of Glory title belongs to Stefan Mecay. Congratulations for becoming the first four-time POG champion!

Johnny Hasay vs Mike Rinella

John Sutcliffe and GM Peter Gurneau watch the finalists.
 GM      Peter Gurneau [1st Year]  NA  
    pcgurneau@earthlink.net   NA

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