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Murray Cowles (left) checks out the
new Sicily extension for Anzio provided by Tom Oleson
at right which helped fuel the event's record attendance. |
Bill Scott (left) and Alan Hayes try
their hand at the Sicily scenario during Grognardcon as the Heritage
room abounds in classic hex wargames. |
Year 8 of the Renaissance
The Anzio event this year again had change introduced
by venerable grognard Tom Oleson. Tom's efforts, time, dedication,
and innovation have, over the past few years, completely invigorated
the Anzio experience. This year he came equipped
not only with complete new countersheets for the game and an
updated rulebook with new OOB cards, but also yet another countersheet
for a new tournament scenario for the Sicilia portion of the
new maps he published two years ago. All at his own expense!
The new Sicilia scenario quickly became very popular. It
has units with undetermined strength (Italians), is only six
turns long, and can be a three-player game. In fact, there
were more scenarios of Sicilia played than the traditional fifteen
turn Anzio scenario (27 vs. 12). There were several
new players introduced to the Anzio event (and the game
for the first time as well) through the Sicilia scenario.
The increase in the number of contestants and the number of
games played was not only due to the Sicilia scenario, but also
to the inclusion of Anzio in the Pre-Con 'Grognard Wargames'
event. Bruno Sinigaglio graciously agreed to GM the event
during the Pre-Con due to the GM not being able to arrive until
Monday.
The points scoring system to advance four finalists to the
Semi-Finals the last few years was once again used. A winner
of the 15-turn Anzio scenario earned 15 points and the loser
one. The Sicilia scenario was worth five points for the
winner and one to the loser. However, a winner also gains
one bonus point for each win a loser previously had. In
addition, only the best three games counted for each player. This
effectively deals with the issue of a contestant playing more
games than any other and/or a player only being involved in matches
with less experienced players.
At 5:00 PM on Friday the four highest scoring players entered
into the single elimination portion of the tournament. Those
four players were:
1. Bob Ryan 60 pts
2. Tom Oleson 58 pta
3. Bruno Sinigaglio 53 pts
4. Paul Fletcher 41 pts
The semi-finals opened with Bob (German) vs. Paul (Allies). Bob had the
16th Panzer guarding the beaches at Termoli so Paul came ashore at
Terracina. The Germans threw all they had
into a first turn counterattack and managed to cut through to
the Beachhead and the Port. The Allies had no choice other
than Surrender at that point.
The second match of the semi's was Tom (Allies) vs. Bruno
(German). Amazingly, even though Bruno had the 16th Panzer
on the mountains outside of Termoli, Tom decided to come ashore
there anyway! This was an absolute first in the history
of the Anzio event. Bruno, non-plussed as always,
setup his counterattacks and reached deep into his pocket for
a secret weapon, a very old and dirty Avalon Hill die. He
then proceeded to roll three 1's on three straight attacks effectively
rolling up the Beachhead! Tom, always the gentleman, smiled
through the entire ordeal and then offered his Surrender. The
die was examined by the GM and found to be legal in all respects.
So, the semi-finals which had started at 5:00 PM, were finished
within thirty minutes; another first for the Anzio event.
The Final began Saturday morning with Bob's Allies landing
at Terracina. Bruno brought up all the Germans he could
muster to counterattack the beachhead. In fact, he committed
so much to the counterattack that he was leaving the South of
Italy dangerously open for large Allied gains. Bruno had
his AH die again and after three turns of constant attack, he
rolled up the Beachhead. The last counterattack was so heavily
committed that had it failed, the Allies would most likely have
been able to connect to the Beachhead at Terracina. Bruno
thus won his first Anzio Wood in a long and illustrious
gaming 'career'. After the match was finished, he was not
shy in letting everyone know that he was the lowest active AREA
rated player of Anzio. He even went so far as to
sign onto the internet via WI-FI and walk around with the laptop
letting all who would listen know that he was in fact telling
the truth. Only Bruno could get away with such a stunt.
However, the tournament was not quite finished yet. The
Consolation game saw Paul vs. Tom playing another new 21 turn
scenario Tom has developed which combined the Sicilia six turn
scenario with the Anzio fifteen turn scenario. This match
went the full distance and came down to a last turn German counterattack
that saw Paul win through to claim 3rd Place. His Germans
were able to muster enough factors to counterattack and re-capture
control of Cassino on turn 21. Tom's re-cap of the match
was this:
Paul Fletcher (Axis) and Tom Oleson (Allies) disputed 3rd
place with the new 21-turn scenario (July-December 1943). Sicily
developed historically except that the Allies lost their rangers.
Tom invaded at Salerno, pushed steadily north, capturing Cassino
(which would've won the game) Dec II. A furious battle
raged there, while the Germans contained and then crushed a Dec-III
invasion north of Rome. The last combat of the game saw
the Germans barely retaking Cassino.
Lastly, many thanks are due to Bill Morse for the time he
contributed in logging all matches, keeping score, posting results,
etc. The tournament would not have been successful without
his efforts.
PBeM Tournament
22 players took part in BPA's Anzio PBeM tournament hosted
by Bruno Sinigaglio's BPAClassics.com. The laurel winners were
as follows:
1st. Bob Ryan, MI
2nd. Tom Oleson, WA
3rd. Steve Likevich, OH
4th. Paul Fletcher, CT
5th. Bryan Jackson, NY
6th. John Ellsworth, IL
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