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Quite a Debut!
 The
debut of Europe Engulfed as a first-time trial event at
WBC went very well in 2004. With one of the game's designers
(Rick Young) as the GM and the game's developer (Bill Cooper)
as the assistant GM, and 27 gamers signed up to play.
Round 1 had eleven games going at once, which to my knowledge
is the largest number of EEG games ever played at the same time
in a single room. It was an awe inspiring sight!
Attrition gradually overtook the field and by the 4th and
last round of the preliminaries, only 12 remained, battling over
six game boards.
The one-map Tournament Scenario was the chosen scenario. This
scenario is designed to play in three hours, and some games did
finish in that span, but play was methodical and intense, with
the honor of holding the first EEGWorld Championship plaque at
stake. Because of this the GM's were needed to adjudicate a few
games each round as some games remained unfinished at the 4-hour
mark.
The semi-finals pitted Bill Powers (Soviets) against Barry
Eynon (Axis) on one board and Stuart Pierce (Soviets) against
Carl Adamec (Axis) on the other. Stuart shocked everyone after
going 3-1 as the Axis in the preliminaries by bidding VP for
the privilege of playing the Soviet side. Both games were remarkably
similar, with the Germans driving across the Don and taking Voronezh,
then driving north and reducing the Soviet Heavy Fortifications
of Moscow, seizing the Soviet capital.
Bill Powers and Stuart Pierce struggled valiantly to contain
the Axis beast and to counterattack and retake areas from the
Axis, but Barry and Carl each managed, with a combination of
skill and timely luck, to hold back the Soviets and garner the
wins for the Axis side.
For the Final Round, Carl Adamec took the Axis against Barry
Eynon. Barry made the south weak, trying to lure Carl into driving
towards Baku. Carl took the bait and did indeed drive towards
Baku, and in fact occupied it during the Sep/Oct 1942 Game Turn,
but a tactical error forced him to expend a Special Action more
than he had intended, which left his forces exposed to Soviet
counterattack.
Barry drove west on his turn, capturing first the Don River
Bend, and then using his one Special Action to drive south and
take Krasnodar from the lone Italian Corps that had been detailed
to protect the supply line of Carl's Panzer formations. Nov/Dec
1942 saw Carl desperately try to break out of the encirclement,
only to fall short, seeing his panzer armies surrender en masse
and leaving him in a desperate position.
Carl fought valiantly, and used some timely and brilliant
delaying tactics and local counterattacks, as he watched, waiting
and hoping for Barry to make a fatal mistake as Barry pushed
the Soviet armies ever closer to Berlin. Barry never made that
fatal mistake, and Carl ended up conceding in late 1943 as the
Soviet spearheads entered Slovakia, enroute to the heart of the
German Reich.
All told, 35 complete games of EEG were played over the six
rounds. Thanks to all that joined in and played this tense one-map
scenario. We congratulate Barry Eynon as the first BPA World
Champion of Europe Engulfed. Join us in 2005, either in
Lancaster or Columbus, and see if you have any luck in keeping
Barry from repeating his excellent 6-0 record over the six total
rounds (wow!).
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Rick Young [1st Year]
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