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Big Fish in a Small Pond
Battlegroup™ has its first world champion, Chris Czyrca.
Chirs faced a strong challenger in Evan Seary. The two finalists
emerged from a field of thirteen challengers to battle it out
for the title of world champion during the Boardgame Players
Association® World Boardgaming Championships 2006 at Lancaster
Pennsylvania.
The first game of the final match opened with Evan winning
the right as first player and choice of sides, picking the allies.
Evan opened fast with the big American 'flattops' smashing
the Japanese carriers as they appeared piecemeal. At one point,
Evan had swept the seas clear of axis vessels and was assured
winning the first game. Chris never lost his cool and surged
back onto the seas with reinforcements. Hopelessly over matched,
he took aim at the Wisconsin and Washington with a massive attack
by submarines, destroyers, land-based aircraft and salvo fire
from Hyuga and Haruna sinking the two big battleships before
the end of the first game. The final score was Evan 57 and Chris
35. Chris had denied Evan the two fast battleships in the next
game by sinking them, thus improving his chances to win.
The second game Chris tried to take out the North Carolina
with an all out initial sortie, but repeated attacks failed to
put the big battlewagon under the waves. Evan returned the North
Carolina to the yards for repair so she rejoined his fleet. Undaunted,
Chris launched a second attack with two Hail Mary air strikes
from the Aquila and Zuiho - (axis carrier air power was still
suffering from the pounding it took in the first game.) The air
strikes were intercepted by Evan's carriers and shot-down. Next
Chris sortied his battleships to support an invasion. The USS
Guam steamed into a minefield, hit a mine and sank. The North
Carolina was hit by Nagato and damaged and the resulting magazine
explosion finished her. Chris won the Invasion Sortie and is
now ahead in points.
Evan had been holding back to build up an irresistible and
hopefully championship winning attack. The Hornet and Enterprise
now launch air strikes that sink Zuikaku and Yamato. Another
sortie catches Kaga as she is joining Chris's fleet and sinks
her with an attack by B-25 land based bombers. Now definitely
behind on points, Chris sorties the Axis fleet for a daylight
action and sinks Enterprise with a lucky air strike from the
Aquila. In the same attack, Hornet is torpedoed by a submarine
and sinks. Chris wins the Sortie and is ahead on points at the
end of the game 92 to 85. The match now stands at one win for
Chris and one win for Evan.
Round 3 opened with Evan getting six ships as reinforcements.
He attacks and damages the Nagato with a mine, but fails to win
the sortie. In a second sortie he sinks Nagato with an air strike
from the Victorius and manages to sink the Soryu with an air
strike from the Hermes after Soryu's CAP is committed to stop
the air strike from the Intrepid. Chris however is undaunted
as he seizes the initiative from Evan through the skillful use
of radio triangulation and flying scout boats. Even though he
is heavily outnumbered, Chris pounds away at Evan's fleet, sinking
ship after ship with well timed attacks, finally sinking the
Repulse using torpedo boats and the Hood with salvoes from Vittorio
Veneto. By that point Chris was in complete control of the seas
winning the third game handily 54 to Evan's 37.
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Jeff Billings [1st Year]
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