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Barbarossa to Berlin (BtB) - A
- Thon
34 Entrants participated in the first WBC BTB Tournament.
When the dust settled, the BTBer's had played 28 games and invested
392 hours (seven hours per game per player). Herr Nicholas Pei
emerged as the winner, defeating Allied commander Nic Anner.
BtB, by award winning game designer Ted Raicer, follows on
the heels of his highly successful WWI design, Paths of Glory.
He has innovatively adapted that system to WWI, something most
of us thought was not possible. Ted's elegant card driven game
works very well in simulating the ebb and flow of WWII in Europe
- from the deserts of Egypt to shores of Normandy to the Steppes
of Russia. The game is highly popular, with a very active discussion
board at http://talk.consimworld.com
and usually more than 200 online games occurring at http://acts.warhorsesim.com
(THE online card driven games {POG, FTP, WNW, WTP, HRC, SUC,
TNW, BTB} place) - usually 600 games occurring at any moment
of the day).
BTB has undergone a few tweaks since it first appeared on
the wargaming scene. The living rules are assessable on www.gmtgames.com
One item generating a fair amount of discussion has been the
possibility of early Axis automatic victories, from trying to
drive the Soviets off the map. In our first round of the tourney,
32 players slugged it out. There were one draw, three Allied
victories, 12 Axis wins - many Axis early auto-victories. In
subsequent rounds, and, consequently, probably better match-ups
between more experienced players, victories were almost evenly
split. This experience was similar to what we had at the BTB
tourney at WAM (www.wamconvention.com)
in February. Both tourneys provided evidence of a steep strategy
learning curve to develop an effective Allied defense against
an aggressive Axis player. Ted's subsequent game tweaks and a
bidding system, where victory points are added to what is required
for an Axis auto-victory AND subtracted from the Total Krieg
card, should address any of these remaining issues.
 Back
to the tourney: In the second round, the allied winners were
Tom Gregorio (from TRC fame), Raynald Foret (clearly the best
and only undefeated Allied player of the tourney) and GM David
Dockter. Axis winners were Nick Anner (eventual 2nd place finisher)
and the Pei brothers (Nic and James - real panzer commanders!).
Third round action witnessed fierce, barn burning match-ups.
James Pei (Axis) squared off against Raynald Foret. The game
was a very tense and fluid affair. Raynald managed to parley
James' advances and defeated the renowned card shark. In the
other games, Nic Anner captured Stalin and Moscow using the PGG
card against Dockter and scored a midgame auto-victory. Nicholas
Pei (Axis) dispatched of Tom Gregorio's strong Soviet defense.
With three remaining undefeated players, Raynald Foret, demonstrating
the strong sportsman he is, withdrew from the tourney, so that
we would have only one more game and one more round. That left
only two surviving undefeated players, who both had only commanded
the Axis dark side.
N.Anner and N.Pei faced-off in a marathon championship BTB
game, with Herr Pei commanding the forces of the German war machine.
Herr Pei executed a straight German op strategy. Anner SR'd Stalin
out Turn 1, 6th phase, and then later to Tbilsi. Herr Pei kept
the pressure on, until the snow fell - at which point the Axis
rebuilt the Wehrmacht. The Allies decided to play FDR as replacements,
and, subsequently, FDR was not played until turn 10. Consequently,
no orders were placed with the Soviet tank factories until very
late in the game. In Spring 1942, the Germans performed a needed
panzer refit and renewed the offensive with a fully rebuilt war
machine. Stalingrad and Saratov fell, but the Allies were able
to keep pressure going by utilizing the quagmire southern defense.
A complicated dance of death ensued, with the Allies eventually
suffering a number of permanently eliminated fronts (no corps
in reserve). On turn 12, it became apparent that only German
would be spoken in Europe from that point forward, October fest
would come early and Herr Pei would be calling the shots.
The tournament was an enjoyable, competitive affair with Assistant
GMs Paul Neid and Nic Anner providing strong assistance.
Next year? Same time and location. Based upon input from the
players, we're planning on trying chess clocks - starting in
the secod round - so bring them if you have them. Clocks are
now used in many of the other longer, competitive wargame tourneys.
Although no-one likes change, I've talked to GMs and players
of those other tourneys (ex: VIP). Almost to a person, they all
had initial reservations, but now cannot imagine playing without
clocks. They cite these advantages: (1) Fairness: no more complaints
about the slow play of one player in a game (2) Speed: no more
waiting for slow-pokes to finish (3) Time: more time to play
other games at WBC.
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David Dockter [1st Year]
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