17 players entered the Great Campaigns of 1863/4 tournament for the second straight year. Scenarios from GTC started and ended Friday's qualifying rounds, with Sheridan Rides South up first in the morning and Battle of the Wilderness as the nightcap. In between, rounds of The Battle Continues (a Roads to Gettysburg scenario from Skimisher 1), Fort Stevens (a Rebels in the White House scenario from Skimisher 2), and Piedmont (also Skirmisher 2) were contested. Balance was excellent; bids were low throughout the tournament and there were 12 Confederate wins and 11 Union.

Old GCACW veterans Forrest Speck and Ken Lee joined us; Forrest reactivated his AREA rating with a very creative win at Sheridan Rides South over Dennis Mason. Mike Pacheco also returned for two rounds and posted wins in both; taking 5th place in the tournament. This year's GCACW Rookie of the Year, Dennis Nicholson, posted a win over Ed Beach in Sheridan, knocking out three forts near Richmond on the last turn. Ed and Dennis squared off again in the nightcap with the Wilderness scenario. Ed's creative use of wooded roads allowed him to disrupt Dennis's Union defensive lines and take the rematch.

The semi-finals matched Paul Nied and Chris Withers in Strike Them A Blow. Mark Booth and David Cross were in the other semi. Chris had to knock Hancock out of his strong position south of the Po River to turn the tide in his game. David and Mark played well into the final turn before Mark finally prevailed.

The GC2 final was GTC's Bloody Spotsylvania with Mark Booth playing the Union and Chris Withers taking the Confederates. Grant started with the slows and only rolled a 1 in the opening Union Activate Army Leader action. Then the Union tried to slip in-between a gap in the Rebel lines but was routed back. Another Rebel attack later in the turn on Sheridan set the Union back even more with the destruction of an entire cavalry brigade. The die continued to roll against the Union with two days of rain slowing the Union advance. When the skies cleared, the Union tried to capture Spotsylvania Court House but was thrown back by Confederate counterattacks. Grant conceded the day. We've planned an ambitious new single-tournament format for next year which will combine GC2 and GC3 into one event; Chris will probably be our first and last champ to ever sweep the GCACW events at WBC.