Phil Garland, NC

2007 Champion

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Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Phil Garland       NC    07     10
  2.  Nick Anner         NY    06     10
  3.  Dan Hoffman        NC    05     10
  4.  Bob Dwyer          NJ    07      6
  5.  Chris Byrd         CT    06      6
  6.  Chuck Frascati     MD    05      6
  7.  Jack Stalica       ON    07      4
  8.  Bob Heinzmann      FL    06      4
  9.  John Weber         MD    07      3
 10.  Steve Kelley       OH    07      2

2007 Laurelists
Bob Dwyer, NJ 2nd Jack Stalica, ON 3rd John Weber, MD 4th Steve Kelley, OH 5th Not Applicable 6th

Past Winners
Dan Hoffman, NC 2005 Nick Anner, NY 2006

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New wargames have a tougher time attracting players than most other games because not only do they tend to be longer but they usually can't be learned in a one-hour demo without first reading the rules to familiarize yourself with the concepts.	We recommend that most wargames should not attempt to hold tournaments until they''ve been published for at least a year so that players have had a chance to handle the learning curve in a more gradual manner.

This year started out with the original GM/game designer having to bail for real world constraints close to the convention. He pleaded with me and offered half a candy bar to take his place to keep the event running. I was somewhat reluctant as the event only drew a few people in 2006. But my love of this great game and my friendship with Dave prevailed. I had never GM'ed before and was eager to do a good job. The resources that Don provided were very valuable. I jumped into the experience and am very glad to have done so.

We had 10 entrants of which eight had never played before. Based on this I decided to exclude myself from the field and only play as a spoiler if required. The demo started promptly at 0900 on Thursday (22 years of military service die hard). This is when I discovered I was in for a wild ride. All the participants were great guys. However, a few had not even read the rules and expected the game to be actually taught at the demo as it was a B event. I explained that B meant there would be a demo, but they were expected to have at least read the rules. The good news was we were only playing the 1918 scenario so I was able to dispense with all the rules for Poland, the Central Powers and the Ukraine. 

At 0955 we moved to the Lampeter room to play for real. I randomly assigned pairs and all would have been good had one winner not dropped out. That left me in a spoiler role after the first round. I won and excluded myself from the Final. Before the two semi-final games started I informed the other semi final table that if I won then their table was actually for the wood! 

The strategy for the 1918 game is very simple; do not lose in the political phase. You must invest very heavily in this phase, more so than the campaign game, because the Central Powers are not present. 

Rules questions were many and varied. I was reminded how steep the learning curve is on this game. I tried to play a couple of FTP games at the next table with great guys that handled the many interruptions very well, Mark Hermann and George Young (lost to Mark, beat George)

 My overall experience was very positive. My hat has always been tipped to the GMs for their effort and commitment, more so now after doing it once.