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Nick Frydas (right) refights
the Great War as the UK resident fights for Europe while in the
US. |
Vince Frattali (right) gets
schooled by John Wetherell as Pat Mirk and John Emery battle
in the background. |
Dave Dockter (left) and Chris
Byrd pair off for their postponed Final on Sunday as WBC winds
down. |
The Opening Guns ...
The Monday start for the Guns of August pre-con was apparently
to many people's liking with attendance up by a third.
Chris Byrd, a rising star in the CDW universe, went through
two former champs, (Nic Anner and Pete Reese) to get to the 2006
PoG Final. That took six rounds (42 hours of card crunching play)
only to come short against a third champion. Dave Dockter won
the die roll and bid 3 for the AP. He played Guns of August and
went for a Western Strategy. Serbs weren't knocked out befoe
Limited War (Turn 2).
Dockter brought Italy in Turn 3 before any Allied troops on
the border - something he never does - but, the CP was not on
the border either. I SR'd a French army into Verona (space south
of Trent?). Got lucky - very lucky - the 50/50 do or die die
roll resulted in a trench on the first attempt.
On Turn 4 Dockter had Russian CAU army in his hand - along
with cloak & dagger. He played that first to reveal that
no Kemel was lurking and then brought in good ole Yudenich. He
managed not to get flip'd on first attack on the fort. On the
second attack he took the fort, but got flipped. Bulgaria entered
then. No German corps were going to the Near East since Serbs
and Italians blocked the path.
Turn 5-6: CP beat AP to total war by one turn - and it was
a race to get Turkish armies and Sinai in the battle for the
Near East. CP won that race and eliminated the Russian CAU army.
Mid game witnessed the Germans forced out of the West into
a Wixson/Hassard Defend the Rhine strategy, mucking about in
the Balkans and Near East and the Russians moving forward.
Late game. American's arrived - one of their armies ended
up holding a critical hex in Italy to fend off a late CP surge.
Russian front was very static - no Tsar would be taking command.
AP grinded the CP in their 3 space double trench line - keeping
the pressure off the Russian ally.
Game ended with VPs at 10 - an Allied victory.
Paths of Glory PBeM Results:
PATHS OF GLORY CHAMPION: Tom Drueding was the last man standing
in a field of 64 competitors in BPA's third POG PBeM tournament.
135 games were logged in all, before Tom defeated the defending
champion Stephan Valkyser of Germany to claim the championship
and top laurels. Past champ Stefan Mecay of TX finished third,
followed by Peter Reese (VA), Chris Byrd (CT) and Holger Janssen
(Germany) respectively.
Chris Byrd won
his first PoG gold ring at WAM V in January 2007 over a field
of 17 which included four former PoG champions. The
field was swelled by a few qualifying games of Barbarossa
to Berlin as well. Highlights included Michael Mitchell's
Trench Digging Russians building seven trenches in ten attempts
against poor Charlie Hickok. In the first round, Four sharks
(three former PoG champions and Mr.Byrd) were paired against
each other in the first round to cut the losers loose to
pursue other wood (a WAM tradition). Byrd defeated Mr.Drueding,
and then Scott Moll to advance to the semi's, while Nick
Anner lost an early game to Dave Dockter. In the other semi
game, Dockter (AP) defeated Castlebury's CP's early blitzkrieg
in the East to try to get the Tsar off.
The
Final was a rematch of this summer's WBC climax with a
different result as Byrd's CP defeated Dockter (AP - bid
of 3 - AP wins ties). The game went the distance - decided
on turn 20 - and VPs were razor thin. Chris played Guns.
Tried a probe in the West, but AP held its ground. CP did
clean out Balkans early (Putnick was AWOL this game). There
was pressure on the Austrians in the east, but not enough
to prevent a blitz against the Italians and their many
French and British armies (who demonstrated a profound
lack of gardening technology - missing the "magic" trench).
CP then took most of Italy, but not Rome and the heel
of the boot where the Italians and a lonely French army
cracked the code on using shovels.
During theis time, the CP was pushed into defending Rhine
and the trench happy Russians stopped the Germans and their
lackeys in the East. The Near East was quiet most of the
game (CP drew Bulgaria and Kemel first draw of Limited War),
until very late when sloppy Allied leadership and strong
CP play resulted in the Russian Army of the Caucasus getting
OOS'd while attempting to defend the poor Brits in Iraq.
About that time the Russian horde lunged forwarded under
Brusilov and hammered the Austrians manning the mountain
line. Romania entered very late, and the Allied HQ again
allowed two Russian armies to be OOS'd. That, coupled with
the turn of events regarding our old friend Yudenich, set
up a nail biting Turn 20 in which there were a series of
trench battles in the Austrian eastern VP, Polish VP and
Konisberg to decide the game. The Russians lost them all,
and, the game.
Chris
took home his fifth BPA championship wood and 2nd-6th place
laurels laurels were apportioned to Dockter, Michael Mitchell,
Melvin Casselberry, Tim Miller and Scott Moll in that order. |