14 Players turned out for the tournament on Tuesday andWednesday, a decrease of five players from the previous year. I assume the decline was due to the mandatory Tuesday night start which generally hurts attendance at most any event. Four regulars were missing (two from the Con entirely). Murray Cowles, Rick Young and Jim Winslow provided invaluable
support as assistant GMs. This year we played round 1 on Tuesday night, and three rounds on Thursday. Unlike last year, a fifth round was not necessary.

A total of 15 games were played, with but four players in the fourth round. The Germans won six, or 40%. This is a similar proportion to last year. Sides were bid for in eight of the games. Following the trend from last year, no one bid for the Germans. The average bid for the US was 1.12, with the range being 0.5 to 2.0. In games with bids, the Germans record was 4-4, an improvement over last years 3-5-1. Three players specialized in one side exclusively. Winner Rick Young went 4-0 with the Allies. Murray Cowles scored 1-2 as the Allies, and Jim Winslow went 2-0 with the Germans, sitting out a couple of rounds to play Clash of Titans, and perhaps missing his chance to win this event! Of the top four finishers, the Allied player went 6-0, while the German player managed a respectable, but less impressive 5-2. US strategy again revolved around keeping the Germans from entering Bastogne until 18-2, and holding Vielsalm strongly with the 7th Armored Division to protect the Trois Ponts and Grandmenil Panzer Release Areas.

Rick Sciacca and Murray Cowles faced off in round 4 for the 3rd place plaque in a grudge match. Rick had beaten Murray in an earlier round and Murray was lusting for revenge. Normally, I wouldn't pair two guys a second time, but both of them were eager to mix it up again.

Rick had lost a very close game to me in round 3 after I made a couple major errors and allowed him to sweep around my flank not once, but twice. I have to point out that his attacks to open the holes were very well conceived, however. I thought I was cruising, then two turns later was leaving scratch marks all over the board as Rick maneuvered brilliantly to threaten multiple breakouts. The dice turned on Rick at a critical time and I was able to barely hold my position together and keep him one area away from the Meuse.

But back to round 4. Rick blasted Murray's defenders apart on the first five impulses and seized Bastogne on 17-2! When Murray's desperation counterattack on 17-3 produced heavy US casualties and little else, Murray had to surrender. Good thing Rick wasn't commanding Panzer Lehr back in 1944.

Rick Young and Ray Freeman made it to the championship game by surviving Bryan Eshleman. Bryan had both of us in trouble early in our games, but somehow we managed to wriggle out of our difficulties and win our respective games ...I in round 2 and Rick in round 3.

The championship game was anti-climactic with Rick selecting his preferred US side for a bid of 1.5 VP. The German first impulse attacks were very effective except at Marnach (naturally). Ray got off to a decent start, although breakthroughs at Marnach and Lutzkampen were not in the cards. Unfortunately, the bridges were not cooperating.

On 16-2 Ray successfully attempted the 2-1 gambit on St. Vith, killing the engineer and capturing the town. However both blown bridges stubbornly stayed down. The bridges were repaired on 16-3, however the delay allowed Rick to shift the 526 Mech and 9 arm north to make a counterattack at St. Vith. He lost some factors, but plugged the one serious flaw in his
position.

On 17-1, Rick continued getting good bridge results as attempts to cross at Echternach and Goesdorf resulted in blown bridges. Feeling he had no choice, Ray committed the Special Forces to Wiltz whereupon Rick promptly rolled a 10 on the bridge demo attempt! The Germans cleared St. Vith to their relief, but disaster struck in Wiltz as the engineer survived a 9-1
attack! More bad news for the Germans at Lutzkampen survived at 9-2.

Having pretty much stymied German progress on the 17th, Rick pulled back into Bastogne and Rambrouch and stuck nine SP in Vielsalm to block any direct attempts to free 2 SS Pz.

The Germans massed for three major attacks on 18-1, sending nine SP vs six in Bastogne, and losing six while killing zero. At Houffalize, the US held easily against a 7-3 attack as did Noville at 9-3. After five more impulses of relatively futile attacks, Ray threw in the towel on the third impulse of the19th. The US front line was Martelange, Bastogne, Bertogne, La Roche,
Grandmenil and Vielsalm, and the US had no less than 19 SP committed in these areas. In addition, the front line was fully backstopped with a second line. Under the circumstances, resignation was definitely in order.

Congratulations to Rick Young on his dominating performance. He seemed to win all of his games with ease, only being in brief trouble against Bryan Eshleman.

For more info on Tigers in the Mist see their webpage at http://members.home.net/rayfreeman3/index.html.