39 vicarious Great War Generals battled for three Swiss preliminary rounds and the right to be numbered among the best eight to advance to the quarter finals and hopefully, the two rounds beyond. .

Nick Anner, suitably attired in period head dress, won the overall tournament with five wins and a draw. Nick bid two VP to play the Allies against Tom Drueding's Central Powers. This was a marathon 12-hour match between two very good players. The action began in France with enough pressure by Tom to cause Nick to resort to mixed FR/BR stacks down the line in France. Nick put up a strong forward defense of Sedan, a key space for any CP advance. The "Everyone into Battle" card was used to good advantage by Nick to tidy up the line while saving at least a dozen ops points in one turn. Action then moved to Italy, with a long campaign resulting in the CP overrunning the north of Italy, but a lone French army and the Italians holding onto Rome and the boot.

Tom was able to play the "Tsar Takes Command" and the "Fall of the Tsar" cards, albeit one turn after Nick's play of Romania. The game ended with a very static West Front, Allies retaking Venice, and little effective action in the Near East, except for the ANA unit taking Medina on the last turn of the game. Given the bid of "2" and the fact that the Allies win draws in the last three rounds, Nick won with an ending VP tally of 12.

The tournament format allowed draws and even the controversial Peace Terms rule during the prelim rounds. Of 51 games played, Peace Terms were offered in three with two of these resulteing in accepted terms and drawn games. Two of the accepted Peace Terms games were by four of the top eight advancing players, suggesting that discretion is the better part of valor in tournament POG.

The betting man would do well to put his money on the Allies. 65% of the non-drawn games ended in Allied victories. If the first round of above average CP wins is discounted, then 74% of the games in rounds 2-6 were Allied wins. The average bid to play the Allies was 1.5 victory points ceded to the CP player, but this ranged from 0 to 4. It may be that this average bid should be higher given the preponderance of Allied wins.

Although POG between experienced players can take on an almost Chess-like or Bridge-like quality, plenty of newer generals still suffered supply attrition because of openings in their lines. While many games were played under the gentlemanly "warnings" conventions, the rest were still "no quarter-given" matches. ... somehow fitting in an era that saw the end of chivalry.

PBeM Results:

VALKYSER TRIUMPHANT IN POG: Stephan Valkyser of Germany defeated Virginian John Brown in the final of BPA's 2nd PBeM Paths of Glory tournament to claim top honors in the 68-player field. Defending champion Stefan Mecay of Texas finished third, ahead of James Pei (TX) 4th, Marvin Birnbaum (NY) 5th and Rob Hassard (NJ) 6th.