Once again, rookies and veterans alike returned to the big (cold!) hall in the Hunt Valley Marriott to tread upon the sands of Normandy. Everyone enjoyed the games as well as meeting their old friends which many only see in this annual trek.

This year, the WBC tournament continued the tradition started at the last D-Day tournament in November where the bidding changed from bidding victory points to bidding supply points. The game starts at 9.6 victory points with
each player auction bidding supply points for the opportunity to play the Germans. The average bid over the 48 games played was +4.8 supply points. There were 29 Axis victories and 19 Allied victories. The tournament started with more German victories early in the tournament. However, the final round saw only two German victories against four Allied wins. I don't
know if the bidding ultimately kicked in to bring play balance or it just became easier to win with the Allies as the field of players tried to shake off their grogginess from the grueling schedule of continuous games. The bids ranged from +20 to -5.

This tournament saw more blowouts than usual, even between the veteran players. Luck saw many swings during the tournament. Don Greenwood, the perennial grognard, was beaten in less than 90 minutes in the mulligan round by Bryan Eshleman (which was a face-to-face rematch of their PBEM tournament game where Don beat Bryan!). Last year's champion, Mike Rinella, was beaten quickly by Don Greenwood in the second round. And Scott Marcotte beat Andrew Cummins
quickly in Round 4 by taking St. Mere Iglis on June 6 and Carentan on June 7, with Caen holding on by a thread.

Jim Doughan took the Germans with +20 bid in the 4th Round, forcing Alan Applebaum to play with the Allies (something he doesn't do often). But Alan ripped through Jim's defense, taking Tilly on the first turn and putting Caen in great danger. Jim did put up a stout defense, with the game not decided until June 12th with Carentan finally falling for the Allied win.

But this year's tournament belonged to Phil Barcafer. Phil lost in the Mulligan round to Alan Applebaum and then never looked back again on his way to his first BKN wood. Phil won the first two rounds as the Axis against Steve Squibb and
Chris Roginsky. Phil then played the third round against the GameMaster, needing a "+5" dice roll to take Carentan on the last turn, which he did.

Phil, keeping the Allies for a second time, beat an unbeaten Rick Kirchner in the fourth round, in a game with lots of weather changes. Phil had to use the Advantage on Juno Beach. But he cleared St. Mere Iglis on June 8 and took Caen. But, the German forced a re-roll with the Advantage and retained Caen. However, the Allies eventually prevailed.

This set up a final game between Phil and Alan Applebaum, the highest BKN AREA rated player and the guy who had beat him soundly in the Mulligan round. Phil started the game off with a decidedly different strategy. During the paradrop phase, Phil had the four US Airborne units attack the St. Mere Iglis coastal unit at 7 to 5, needing at least 3+ on the dice to clear
it. He failed, but gave up the Advantage, rerolled it, and won by 5. St. Mere was clear before anyone hit the beaches. By succeeding with the paratroop attack, Phil opened Carentan to an attack at dawn on June 7th, capturing it early on June 8, and putting about ten German units at D2. Phil also was able to take Tilly, and ended up winning. Alan made a brilliant counterattack through Merville, trying to take Sword beach. The attack failed though, and he capitulated with the Allies holding 9.6 points on June 10. The dice also helped Phil, as he got a short June 6th, long 7th and 8th, a weather change on the 3rd impulse of June 9 and overall better rolls. We all knew Phil was a good player; this year he came up with the other half of the prerequisites - luck. Another new WBC BKN champion. BKN has proved exceedingly difficult to win twice, let alone back-to-back.

In the end, everyone had fun. Next year, Jim Doughan will take over the WBC BKN Game Master duties. The competition, the tactics, and the number of friends that were made at WBC BKN only continues to increase. Hope to see you all at WBC BKN next year!