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Nick Benedict vs up-and-coming
second
generation Alex Gregorio. |
Carl Adamec vs UK's Nicholas Frydas |
Attrition in the Great War ...
The event mirrored the terrible attrition of the war it portrayed this year. It appeared to be 1918 with many missing faces in the trenches as the field dropped to its lowest level ever with Cornwall adequately housing the field.
Three Swiss rounds were played with the added option in the first round for novice or inexperienced players to avoid playing the sharks if they wish. This was appreciated by a number of people. The three Swiss rounds yielded three unbeatens (Tom Gregorio, Michael Dauer, and Nick Frydas), and five players with a 2-1 record. So slim were the ranks that the usual quarterfinals were dropped as such. Instead, the top four players went directly to semifinal play, while the bottom four 2-1 players waged a lower brackets semifinal of their own for fifth and sixth place. The POG dice off was retained to match these players against each other, and the tournament was shortened by a round. The tournament historical scenario was used again.
Semifinal action saw Tom Gregorio’s CP narrowly defeat Nick Frydas’s AP, where Nick’s resurrected Russian Army declared “The Empire Strikes Back!”, as they fought back the CP while Michael Dauer dispatched Evan Woodham.
That left undefeated players Tom Gregorio and Michael Dauer matched for a fifth round. Tom Bid 0 for the AP, and Michael agreed to play the CP. This year all six playoff games were won by the CP, and I think this will affect future bidding.
Michael’s CP started with a Defend the Meuse strategy, where the CP takes and holds Brussels, Sedan, Metz, and Strasbourg in the West, while taking out the Russians in the East. Both sides got into a dance of death in the east on Turn 2, as the CP tried to encircle a Russian army. Turns 3-4 saw the Russians attack with two large stacks of armies from southern Russia, and in a move that would prove to be very important later in the game, the CP was able to make a quick strike east, gaining three VP spaces, and playing ‘Tsar Takes Command’, before he had to fall back into Germany to hold back the Russian attack. The AP was able to take advantage of a weakly held Trent, and the Italians were able to take this space and hold it. Turns 6-13 saw continued AP pressure across the board, and the AP ran the war status up to 30 to bring the US into the war on Turn 12! Allenby appeared in the near east and helped take Damascus and Medina from the Turks. The CP was on the ropes at this point. Turn 14 proved to be the turning point, as the CP was able to play ‘Fall of the Tsar’ and ‘Bolshevik Revolution’ because the Tsar had taken command earlier and the war status was high enough. From this point on the Russians had to fall back and play for time, so the French and British could breakthrough in the West. The game was super tight on VP, and the CP needed two VP to win. Michael was able to siege two VP forts at games end on Turn 20. The game hung in the balance as Michael rolled two dice to resolve the sieges, the first die stopped and was in Michael’s favor, as the second die kept spinning. The second die slowed to show a 1, but touched the side of the box and flipped to a 5, meaning Michael took both VP spaces, the game and his first WBC shield. One of the best games I have seen played. Both players deserve credit for playing a Final worthy of a championship.
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LBG's Jeff Billings vs Jack Jung |
GM Peter Gurneau oversees his finalists. |
 2016 PBeM Tournament
 After three long years in the trenches and 185 games in six rounds, the sixth BPA POG Email tournament has concluded with Nick Anner topping five-time WBC champion Stefan Mecay.
Nick got the bid roll, and went 0 for AP, Mecay took the AP for 1. August saw initial split attacks, the 1st on BEF and 2nd and 3rd on Sedan, pulling out the withdrawl card and seeing two armies advance to Sedan. The turn saw some attacks on Nancy, the Austrians and German 8th taking a beating. Falkenhayen used for ops pushed Molke as an event. The CP took a 4 card for rps though so were able to keep up the pressure in September.
September saw attacks on Nancy from Metz and Strassburg force a retreat. An allied line formed at c-t, bld, calais, dijon.
Fall 15 saw Trench played by Limited War allies, the CP in 3rd turn of moblization keep reinforcing German armies and played events to Limited War while pushing to Cambrai, through Bar le Duc, but not taking c-t.
The Early game saw the French dead pile high but the AP put as many T2s down as possible, including in c-t. Many ops were spent on nevers, with the CP finally getting a trench there. This occurred a bit too late to make a play for either trenchbusters on paris or closing out italy. So when total war came, HL was used for RPs and ops spent on the east front. Even with poor rolls the German armies punched through the Russian lines. Similar poor rolls for the Allies on the west front attacks meant that the Germans remained at full strength for the Tsar Takes Command.
Mid game saw both sides fully mobilized, with Allenby never getting down to Egypt as his forces went directly to the west front from London. The near east remained mostly stagnant barring MO's. The serbs reduced to one army in Monastir were held by one AH army and some bu cp. MEF and Salonika remained unplayed, with the big cards being used for ops and rps. CP had to play War Status to get to Fall of the Tsar, which occured with Romania neutral.
The final turns saw several 7 results against the Germans on the west front, the Russians rebuild and push back enough in Prussia to prevent Bolshevik. The Germans just played a lot of RPS and hung in for the Turn 20 ending, and with the lack of US armies and a commanding vp position the Allies didn't make enough gains in time.
It was Anner’s first tournament win in a decade, but his eighth overall, proving that old soldiers still retyain the right stuff. Other laurelists in descending order were Michael Dauer, Italy’s Mauro Gasbarroni, Germany’s Moritz Eggert and UK’s Paul Hubbard.
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Peter Gurneau[3rd Year]
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