atlantic storm [Updated October 2003]  

2003 WBC Report  

 2004 Status: pending 2004 GM commitment

Scott Buckwalter, MD

2003 Champion

2nd: Andy Gardner, VA

3rd: Ben Knight, MD

4th: Dan Mathias, MD

5th: Stan Buck, MD

6th: Cliff Ackman, PA

Event History
1998    Ric Manns      155
1999    Roy Gibson     116
2000    Bob Eastman     129
2001    John Coussis     126
2002    Robert Barnes     126
2003    Scott Buckwalter     140


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 Laurels
Rank Name

From

Last
Total
 1. Scott Buckwalter

MD

03
90
 2. Henry Richardson

VA

01
60
 3. Bob Eastman

OK

00
60
 4. Robert Barnes

WV

02
50
 5. John Coussis

IL

01
50
 6. Rob Winslow

NY

02
45
 7. Pat Mirk

FL

02
45
 8. Ben Knight

MD

03
41
 9. Roy Gibson

MD

99
40
10. Andy Gardner

VA

03
36
11. Eric Stranger

OH

99
24
12. John Elliott

MD

02
20
13. Dan Mathias

MD

03
18
14. Josh Gifford

SC

00
18
15. Jamie Tang

MD

02
13
16. Stan Buck

MD

03
12
17. Peter Busch

OH

99
12
18. Rob Mull

CO

02
10
19. Dwayne Curry

OH

01
10
20. Marty Sample

NH

00
  6
21. Cliff Ackman

PA

03
  6
22. Steve Squibb

PA

99
  4

Past Winners

Ric Manns - IN
1998

Roy Gibson - MD
1999

Bob Eastman - OK
2000

John Coussis - IL
2001

Robert Barnes - WV
2002
 


Third Tie-Breaker Time ...

The icy waters of the Atlantic were again the scene of some treacherous battles as 130 of the WBC's best naval commanders headed out to decide the fates of those vital convoys. As in previous years, there was no shortage of strange happenings during the early rounds:


* Bruce Young played his entire hand of six cards on a single convoy.

* A four-way tie in one game that Rob Winslow won by virtue having the most convoy points.

* Bill Place destroying his competition by scoring 45 points with the runner-up only scoring 27.

* The final convoy in one heat was tied six (6!) times. Three times due to tied die rolls

* Rob Kircher needing anything but snake-eyes on his DR to win a hand and his game, only to be bitten by that dreaded pair.


Once the heats and semi-finals were concluded, the last six players standing, Andy Gardner, Stan Buck, Cliff Ackman, Ben Knight, Dan Mathias, and Scott Buckwalter set sail in the final game. Ben got off to a hot start winning points in the first two hands. Stan took convoy SC107 all by himself in round 3 by having the fated card for that convoy and rolling an unbeatable 6. Round 4 saw the first "bad-blood" drawn as Scott sent Cliff away with an Atlantic Storm. Scott then benefited by Andy's bad die roll to take ON 202, ONS 18. Ben was back strong in round 5 taking ONS154 in a surface battle by playing an Admiral and two big surface ships. Dan returned to the scoring in round 7 in an air battle over HX112. His German bomber wing rolled a big 6 to take the convoy that everyone but Scott played on. Round 9 was another big one for Ben as only Stan was able to play 2 allied points on convoy SC7. Everyone else discarded and Ben, with the last play, put out 3 German points to take the convoy and the spoil.

Our first tied battle came in round 10 during an air battle for SC94. Cliff and Scott each had die rolls at the end, and each rolled a 6 to send SC94 around a second time. The second battle was again an air battle that was started by Scott. He thought his 3 German points would be enough to take it all for himself, and it almost was except for the "?" card that Andy was able to put down (on the same side, however). Andy rolled a 4 to take the convoy and a spoil for himself. Unfortunately, he had to give Scott two spoils as well. This brought us to the 12-way point in the game. The scores now were Ben 16, Scott 13, Andy 11, Stan 8, Dan 5, and Cliff 3.

The second half of the game began with our third straight air battle - this time over Arctic convoy PQ16. Andy was hopeful that his 1-point German card would be enough, but Dan had the last laugh as he played the fated card for that convoy and took it for himself. Ben fell victim to the "leader's curse" as he was stormed out by Stan in round 14. Cliff took convoy HG73 by playing Admiral Tovey and changing the play to Combined. The Victorious was true to her name as Cliff and Stan shared the victory. Ben got a measure of revenge in the next round, a surface battle over PQ 12, QP 8. Stan began the hand by playing the Lutzow. Scott followed up with the Rodney and the Arctic Storm. However, the storm passed Scott, Andy, and Dan before ending up in front of Ben. Ben played the King George V and rolled low enough to take Andy out of the hand. Scott took the convoy and a spoil and gave the small spoil to Ben. The next two rounds were also surface battles. However, Cliff and then Scott each won these convoys unopposed as everyone had already played their big surface ships.

Round 19 proved to be the longest and most heated battle of the game. ON 67 was up for grabs and Dan started the submarine battle with a "?" play for the allies. It got down to Scott and Andy going back and forth for about 10 minutes negotiating and discussing the "optimal" play for both of them. Eventually, Andy decided to go against Scott and play another "?" for the allies. Before the die rolls, the count was Germans 5, Allies 4. Cliff had a die roll for the Germans, while Dan and Andy each had die rolls for the allies. In one of those amazing 216-1 shots, all three dice came to rest with a "1" facing up. ON 67 was tied and passed to Ben to begin anew. ON 67's second time around was another wild affair as Andy played Admiral Donitz to change the sub hand to Combined and followed-up with the Tirpitz. Andy won the convoy and shared the spoils with Ben and Dan.

PQ 17 was the final convoy of the game. A wild combined affair that Cliff began with the Victorious and two bonus cards. Scott and Andy both went German and then Dan and Ben sided with Cliff's Allies. This left Stan in the difficult position of essentially deciding the game. At this point the scores were very close between Ben, Scott, and Andy. If Stan played allied, he would in essence give the game to Ben. If he played German, it would be close between Scott and Andy. For reasons known only to Stan (and he's promised to take them to his grave) he decided to play German. Sure enough, this resulted in Andy and Scott taking points in the last hand. Now came the time for the final tally. Andy, Scott, and Ben all looked at each other with little smiles on their faces as each of them announced their scores. All three had 24 points. So, it came time to go to the tie breaker, most convoy points. Ben had 14, Scott had 15, and Andy had 15! A 2-way tie for the win! We now had to move to the second tie breaker, the lowest convoy card number won. Scott benefited from taking the 1940 convoy HX79 (C3) to beat out Andy who's lowest convoy card was OB 318 (C9).

So, in the tightest final in Atlantic Storm's history at WBC, big congratulations to Scott for taking home the victory. Thanks to everyone for playing and a big thanks to our finalists for a great game that will be hard to top, but I'll be back again in 2004 to try.

 GM      John Coussis  [5th Year]  NA
    Jcoussis@attbi.com   NA 

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