Five times a Champ ...
Eight hardy Gettysburg '88 enthusiasts, led by Gamemaster
Allen Kaplan, kept this event alive for another year.
Competition was conducted in a single-elimination format using
the three-day campaign scenario with all optional rules except
replacement Union generals.
First time entrant Ted Drozd scored the day's biggest upset
when he knocked off two-time champ and frequent finalist Allen
Kaplan in the first round. In Drozd's semi-final matchup against
defending champion Vince Meconi, his aggressive Union play on
July 1 had Meconi's Confederates backed up to the northeast corner
of the board. However, the thin Union line could not hold and
the Confederates scored a Day 2 knockout.
Meanwhile, in the other half of the draw, veteran Chuck Stapp
blitzed his first two opponents to gain the other finalist slot.
In the final, Meconi took the Confederates for a bid of three
victory points. On Day 1 it was all Union, as Stapp's forces
surrounded and eliminated the Rodes infantry division, forcing
Meconi to hand over the initiative chit in the process. With
the initiative in hand, and after killing a Confederate artillery
unit and sustaining almost no losses, while keeping the Rebels
from
taking either Culp's Hill or Cemetery Hill, the Union looked
to be firmly in the driver's seat.
However, as can happen in gaming, the dice went all one way
on Day 2. The Confederate attacks carved up the Union ranks again
and again, while their counterattacks could not crack the Confederate
two-division infantry stacks. As the day wore on, the Union finally
began to score, to the point where the end of the day found every
Confederate infantry division flipped. However, so many Union
troops had gone down by that point that the Rebels managed to
score a Day 2 knockout. Meconi was very happy his chewed up troops
did not have to fight on July 3.
The defending champion thus successfully defended his crown,
winning Gettysburg for the fifth time overall.
Gamemaster Allen Kaplan had wavered between a single-elimination
format, with a Saturday afternoon start to catch Civil War devotees
after the completion of the Battle Cry event, and a switch to
the freeform format increasingly favored by other 2-player wargaming
classics. He indicated that a change to the latter format is
likely for next year.
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