battle cry [Updated October 2007]  

2007 WBC Report  

 2008 Status: pending 2008 GM commitment

Larry Lingle, PA

2007 Champion

Offsite links:

 

Event History
2001    Ilan Woll     56
2002    Philip Shea     52
2003    Josh Githens     64
2004    Barry Shoults     52
2005    Robert Eastman     52
2006    Jeff Cornett     42
2007     Larry Lingle     64

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Philip Shea        VA    05     54
  2.  Ben Knight         MD    06     33
  3.  Larry Lingle       PA    07     30
  4.  Jeff Cornett       FL    06     30
  5.  Robert Eastman     NV    05     30
  6.  Barry Shoults      MI    04     30
  7.  Josh Githens       SC    03     30
  8.  Ilan Woll          CT    01     30
  9.  Jeff Mullet        OH    04     27
 10.  David Metzger      NY    07     21
 11.  Ty Hansen          DC    07     18
 12.  Greg Berry         VA    06     18
 13.  Ted Lange          AE    05     18
 14.  Lyman Moquin       DC    04     18
 15.  Bill Place         PA    03     18
 16.  George Sauer       OH    02     18
 17.  Roy Gibson         MD    04     15
 18.  Tom Morin          MA    07     12
 19.  John Koskl         MD    02     12
 20.  John Elliott       MD    05      9
 21.  Ryan Duncan        MD    02      9
 22.  Jeff Evich         MD    01      9
 23.  Stephen Buonocore  NJ    07      6
 24.  James Terry        NJ    06      6
 25.  Chuck Stapp        NJ    05      6
 26.  Bruce Reiff        OH    04      6
 27.  Ed Kendrick        UK    03      6
 28.  Rich Ogata         VA    02      6
 29.  Brian Conlon       OK    01      6
 30.  Scott Nerney       RI    07      3
 31.  Steve Lollis       MD    06      3
 32.  Bill Edwards       VA    04      3
 33.  Richard Moyer      MN    03      3
 34.  Gene Billingsly    CA    01      3

2007 Laurelists

Ty Hansen, DC
2nd

Tom Morin, MA
3rd

David Metzger, NY
4th

Stephen Buonocore, NJ
5th

Scott Nerney, RI
6th


Past Winners

Ilan Woll ,CT
2001

Philip Shea, CT
2002

Josh Githens, SC
2003

Barry Shoults, MI
2004

Robert Eastman, NV
2005

Jeff Cornett, FL
2006

Larry Lingle, PA
2007
     

Tom Morin gets an assist from his junior staff officer as he battles in the semi-finals.

Larry Lingle (left) marshalls his rebel forces against Ty Hansen in the Final.

A Perfect Field ...

Battle Cry is the most accessible of Richard Borg's Command & Colors series, and arguably represents the stripped down essence of the system. On the penultimate morning of the 2007 WBC it seems to have offered the right combination of simple mechanics and tough tactical choices after a solid week of gaming. It was a little scary to see the sign-up queue stretch right out of the door and round the corner, but scary in a good way.

The tournament format was designed to let everyone play three games before whittling the field down to eight for the single elimination stage. The assumption was that there would be eight or less triple winners at this stage. The pre-defined tie break would cope with more, but turning away unbeaten players would not have been desirable. In the event we dodged the bullet, as there were exactly 64 sign ups and exactly eight triple winners.

Managing the Swiss stage in a timely fashion proved to be difficult, and without Assistant GM James Terry's on-the-fly spread sheet wrangling and data entry backup from his wife we would have been in trouble. Next year I plan to move to a group format in the initial stage to allow the players to get on with fighting American Civil War Battles without delays imposed from above.

The battles in the Swiss Stage were New Market, New Hope Church and Brandy Station. Brandy Station is a swirling cavalry fight, giving both players plenty to think about, and quite a change from the typical scenario. The bidding system for sides was supposed to compensate for unbalanced scenarios during the Swiss Stage, but there was some concern that this was insufficient, and players unfamiliar with the scenarios were at a disadvantage when bidding. This isn't an issue for the single elimination stage battles, when the players switch sides and play twice. One possible solution for next year would be to randomly assign players to the Union or the Confederacy for the initial stage, and select the top players from each side for the single elimination stage. I have seen Richard Borg use this format. If you are going to steal, steal from the best!

This year saw a massacre of the usual suspects, with few of last year's finalists making it through the Swiss stage. The quarter-final was Port Republic, the semi-final was Third Winchester and the final was Big Black River Bridge, which saw rookie Larry Lingle face off against Ty Hansen . This scenario includes a special rule for losses while fording the river. I was hoping for some drownings, but in the event both players treated the treacherous waters with respect. Larry Lingle came through in fine style and beat Ty both times. Worryingly for the rest of us, Larry says that his wife, who didn't come to the WBC, beats him more often than not. I hope she can make it next year.

Thanks to Jean-Baptiste Hebraud for the scenarios Brandy Station, Port Republic, Third Winchester and Big Black River Bridge, which can all be found at www.thewargamer.com/BattleCry, the one-stop shop for all things Battle Cry, and of course thanks to Richard Borg.

 GM      Peter Card (2nd Year)  NA  
    PeterCard2001@yahoo.co.uk   NA

2007 Preview Page | View the Icon Key | Return to main BPA page