advanced squad leader [Updated October 2007]  

 Recon Pre-con 2007 WBC Report    

 2008 Status: pending 2008 GM commitment

J. R. Tracy, NY

2007 Champion

Offsite links:

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Consimworld Multi-Man Publishing

Event History
1991    Mike McGrath        91
1992    Perry Cocke      112
1993    Mike McGrath      120
1994    Gary Fortenberry      130
1995    Gary Fortenberry      130
1996    Tom Morin      110
1997    Jeff Coyle        81
1998    Bret Hildebran        81
1999   Steve Pleva        43
2000   Bret Hildebran      42
2001   Paul Sidhu      32
2002   Paul Sidhu      35
2003   J. R. Tracy   

24
2004   Gary Mei      36
2005   J. R. Tracy      27
2006    Gary Mei      24
2007   J. R. Tracy      18

 Laurels

 Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
   1.  J. R. Tracy        NY    07    240
   2.  Gary Mei           NJ    06    228
   3.  Paul Sidhu         NJ    04    204
   4.  Steve Pleva        OH    06    132
   5.  Brett Hildebran    OH    00     96
   6.  Kevin Valerian     MD    03     84
   7.  Jim Stahler        VA    03     48
   8.  Mark Pitcavage     OH    06     36
   9.  Jim Mehl           VA    07     30
  10.  Ron Duenski        NJ    04     24
  11.  John Stadick       VA    00     24
  12.  Aaron Cleavin      PA    99     24
  13.  Mattias Ronnblom Sweden  07     18
  14.  Lance Roberts      AK    06     18
  15.  Zeke Crater        VA    05     18
  16.  Ken Mioduski       MD    06     12
  17.  Bill Stoppel       VA    05     12
  18.  Gary Trezza        NY    04     12
  19.  Tom Ruta           MA    01     12
  20.  Rich Summers       WI    00     12
  21.  Joe Chacon         VA    07      9
  22.  Eric Givler        PA    07      6
  23.  Scott Romanowski   MA    05      6
  24.  Vincent Alonso     VA    03      6
  25.  Ray Woloszyn       NC    02      6
  26.  Andrew Robin       NY    00      6
  27.  Tom Morin          MA    07      3

2007 Laurelists

Mattias Ronnblom, Sweden
2nd

Jim Mehl, VA
3rd

Joe Chacon, VA
4th

Eric Givler, PA
5th

Tom Morin, MA
6th


Past Winners

Perry Cocke, MD
1992

Mike McGrath, VA
1991, 1993

Gary Fortenberry, TX
1994-1995

Tom Morin, MA
1996

Jeff Coyle, VA
1997

Bret Hildebran, OH
1998, 2000

Steve Pleva, CT
1999

Paul Sidhu, NJ
2001-2002

JR Tracy, NY
2003, 2005, 2007

Gary Mei, NJ
2004, 2006


Is anyone more prepared to go to war than an ASL player?

Mattias (left) made his trip from Sweden worthwhile with second place laurels.

Fog of War Experience

Attendance dropped to an all-time low as ASL moved from the pre-con to the regular convention, but the fun factor increased significantly due to the new format this year. Everyone loved the brand new, limited intelligence scenarios featured in every round. And why shouldn't they? How can you beat brand new scenarios that are fun and balanced and in which you don't know the other player's Order of Battle or the exact VC? Additionally, players were informed what boards were needed and that all scenarios would be east front, Russian vs. German, so they could limit the amount of ASL equipment they needed to bring.

 OK, so maybe the scenario in Round 1, The End, was tough on the Russians, but that was OK because the Russians were competing against the other Russians (and the Germans against their comrades) as only the four best of each nationality would advance. The Russians got points for how soon they crossed the River Spree on the way to the Reichstag, and for controlling certain buildings across the river. Casualties lost and inflicted served as the tiebreaker. Past champion JR Tracy just squeaked in as fourth best German, while local boy Rob Schoenen edged out world-traveler Ray Woloszyn on the tie breaker for fourth-best Russian. The German player had 100 points with which to buy his OB, and only 30 minutes to do so and set up a defense, but everyone enjoyed the process despite the pressure.

The next three rounds were still limited intelligence, but were now the standard single elimination format. The Round 2 scenario The Meatgrinder featured a small on-board German force that was quickly reinforced. The Russians could achieve an instant victory by crushing the on-board Germans or they could hold out and keep the Germans from controlling buildings. This scenario broke 50-50 with Germans Mattias Ronnblom and Joe Chacon defeating Tom Morin and Jeff Evich respectively, and Russians JR Tracy and Jim Mehl defeating Eric Givler and Rob Schoenen respectively in some very close matches. From a GM perspective it was fun to see several pairs of eliminated players from Round 1 matching up against each other in this scenario just for fun.

The semi-finals saw Russian victories by JR Tracy and Mattias Ronnblom over Jim Mehl and Joe Chacon respectively in the Round 3 scenario 7 Graves for 7 Brothers.  In both games the Germans had exited enough VP to win (they knew what they needed) but the Russians were able to exit a Lee in the last player turn to snatch victory away by one point (the Germans knew the Russian tanks were worth points but not how much).  Lee counters were provided by the GM, since they had not been announced as part of the needed equipment.

The final round saw the consensus choice as top matchup of the tourney, between JR Tracy and Mattias Ronnblom in The Far Bank, a remake of an old SL scenario that featured a river crossing in German assault boats in the face of minimal partisan resistance and a Russian counterattack. JR won with the Germans by one point, not knowing till the end if he had enough and actually courting defeat by firing his flamethrower into a melee.

To quote the tournament champion:

"I give the format a big double thumbs up -- it was one of the best tournament experiences I've ever enjoyed. The advancement criteria of the opening round allowed the TD to accommodate a wide range of players and still knock out the whole event in a day and a half. The limited intel was a total hoot. I can't say enough about the guys who tested these."

And I can't say enough about the good sports who graced this tournament. Everyone seemed to have fun. Thanks to our playtesters and thanks to Bruce Probst for updating The Far Bank and preparing a cheat sheet for the boat rules. And special thanks to Ken Dunn for his hard work as assistant GM. We plan on doing this again in 2008 and hope to see fans flocking to this format.

 GM       Perry Cocke  [1st Year]    NA
    perrycocke@comcast.net     NA 

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