AREA Ratings

GM: Bruno Sinigaglio

Past Winners
Pierre Menard - CT 1991 Rob Beyma - MD 1992 Randy Heller - CT 1993, 1995 Phil Evans - VA 1994, 1997 Bruno Sinigaglio - AK 1996, 1998-1999, 2001 John Grant Jr - CT 2000

still fighting the bulge ... While most of us are fighting a different type of "bulge" problem, WBC remains the place for grognards to meet to vie over the hex ... Battle of the Bulge '81 edition recently held its 12th consecutive Trial event. Old wargames never die, .... A total of 17 games were played in the preliminary rounds by 19 different participants, allowing Battle of the Bulge '81 to crack the 16 player threshold for the first time since doncon was first instituted (Avaloncon and the WBC). Contributing to this milestone was a flexible format and a bunch of grognards looking for something to play after they had been waxed elsewhere. Of the 17 games played in the early rounds, nine were won by the Germans - a testament to the play balance of the BPA eight-turn tournament scenario. Based on the performance formula published prior to the tournament, the highest achievers were as follows: Bob M Ryan 137.5. Steve Likevich 137.3 Bruno Sinigaglio 135.0 Forest Pafenberg 130.0 Mike Mitchell 123.0 Buddy Sinigaglio 122.0 Randy Heller 111.0 Dan Dolan 106.0 In accordance with the tournament format, the highest achievers squared off for the Championship. Steve Likevich played the German side and Bob Ryan played the Allies. The German Initial Attacks were not spectacular, but there were a few good results in the north center and south. In the south, two attacks went well with an Engaged vs. 28/109 at Vianden and an advance 3 versus 28/110 in front of Clerf. In the center, 106/422 was trapped as usual, along with106/423 as a result of an Engaged. In the north the kill results were low, but the Germans did get an important Engaged against both regiments of the 2d ID at Weilerscheid Crossroad. On the 16AM turn, the Allies managed to stabilize the north. In the center, 333 Arty was sacrificed due to the fact that it could not move on 16AM. In the south, Bob took a chance with 9 CCA holding Echternach, where it could be surrounded, but the Engaged battle vs. 28/109 was expected to tie up too many units to allow a good attack vs. the 9CCA. On the 16PM turn, the Germans took advantage of the automatic elimination of 333 Arty with an advance of 4 and good die rolling in the center that permitted the trapping of two other regiments. In the south, additional good dice resulted in the killing of 9 CCA despite the fact that the Engaged battle vs. 28/109 continued to pin major elements of the German army - the Germans could not bring up the necessary firepower to assure the destruction of 28/109, because all available mobile units went for the kill vs. 9 CCA. On the 17AM and 17PM turns, things went from bad to worse to bleak for the Allies as a combination of exchanges and advantageous German advance rolls enabled them to penetrate deeply into the allied center and north. But the allies still had a few tricks up their sleeve as they attempted to put the penetrating Germans out of supply by a combination of positioning bypassed allied units on German lines of communication, conducting low-odds counterattacks in critical areas and attempting to blow German rear echelon bridges. Unfortunately for the Amis, however, the attacks failed and the Germans just managed to stay in supply. Eventually, the Germans captured Bastogne, Parker's Crossroads and the Ourthe River Bridges while eliminating more than 18 US combat units, thus giving them the four objectives required for victory.