breakout: normandy [Updated December 2007]  

2007 WBC Report  

 2008 Status: pending 2008 GM commitment

Jim Doughan, PA

2007 Champion

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WBC Event History
1994    Jim Doughan      50
1995    Bill Edwards      48
1996    Hank Burkhalter      54
1997    Jim Doughan      53
1998    Don Greenwood      52
1999    Michael Rinella     48
2000    Phil Barcafer     32
2001    Jim Doughan     34
2002     Alan Applebaum     26
2003    Jim Eliason     28
2004    Nels Thompson     33
2005    Andrew Cummins     27
2006    Jim Eliason     19
2007     Jim Doughan     20

D-Day Mini-Con Event History
1998    Don Greenwood      17
1999    Alan Applebaum     19
2000    Bryan Esleman     18
2001    Andrew Cummins     17
2002     Marvin Birnbaum     23
2003    David Wong     15
2004    Andrew Cummins     15
2005    Don Greenwood     20
2006     Don Greenwood     13

PBeM Event History
1999    Jim Doughan      34
2001    John Crabtree      36
2003    Bruno Passacantando      48
2004    Don Greenwood     47
2006    Tom Dworschak     50

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Don Greenwood      MD    06    298
  2.  Andrew Cummins     UK    06    272
  3.  Jim Doughan        PA    07    183
  4.  Alan Applebaum     MA    02    180
  5.  Nels Thompson      VA    07    178
  6.  Jim Eliason        IA    07    176
  7.  Bryan Eshleman     NC    06    153
  8.  Marvin Birnbaum    NY    02    151
  9.  Tom Dworschak      GA    07    136
 10.  Henry Jones        PA    06    136
 11.  Mike Rinella       NY    07    128
 12.  Brun Passacantando CT    04     96
 13.  Mark Gutfreund     KY    07     96
 14.  Michael Kaye       MD    07     88
 15.  Steve Andriakos    TX    07     85
 16.  Phil Barcafer      PA    01     84
 17.  Scott Fenn         MD    07     67
 18.  Clyde Longest      VA    06     60
 19.  Ken Nied           KS    05     51
 20.  David Wong         NJ    03     50
 21.  Tom Pavy           OH    03     48
 22.  Bill Edwards       VA    99     36
 23.  Harvey Smallman    CA    07     24
 24.  Bryan Stingley     NC    03     24
 25.  Chris Byrd         CT    06     20
 26.  Nick Anner         NY    06     12
 27.  Anthony Daw        UT    06     12
 28.  Anders Egneus     Swed   99     12
 29.  Ron Fedin          PA    04     11
 30.  John Crabtree      CA    01     10
 31.  Tom Drueding       MA    04     10
 32.  Tom Gregorio       PA    06      7
 33.  John Grant Jr      CT    99      6
 34.  Chris Roginsky     PA    04      5
 35.  Dennis Nicholson   NY    03      5
 36.  Hank Burkhalter    GA    99      2

2007 Laurelists

Nels Thompson, NY
2nd

Mike Kaye, MD
3rd

Steve Andriakos, TX
4th

Mike Rinella, NY
5th

Mark Gutfreund, KY
6th


Past Winners

Jim Doughan, PA
1994, 1997, 2001, 2007

Bill Edwards, VA
1995

Hank Burkhalter, TX
1996

Don Greenwood, MD
1998

Michael Rinella, NY
1999

Phil Barcafer, PA
2000

Alan Applebaum, MA
2002

Jim Eliason, IA
2003, 2006

Nels Thompson, NY
2004

Andrew Cummins, UK
2005


Two frequent adversaries - Scott Fenn and GM Andrew Cummins from the UK - enjoy another tense battle.

Nels Thompson is either putting a lot of English into that dice roll or he's getting ready to throttle Mike Kaye.

Still hitting the beach 14 years later ...

Few contenders can have as rocky or well deserved a road to victory as Jim Doughan in this year's competition, beating en-route the previous 2004 and 2005 winners (Nels Thompson and Andrew Cummins ­ GM) together with Designer Don Greenwood and strong pbem player Steve Andriakos.

The format this year moved from Swiss to Single-Elimination plus Mulligan, with the effect of stemming the fall-off of attendance seen over the past few years.

An optional alternative scenario start (post 6th June invasion) was introduced to reduce first turn luck but this proved to be unpopular with the players, only being used in 15% of games.

Game balance this year was firmly tilted towards the Germans with around a third of the victories going to the Allies. Despite strong bidding for the Germans moving from an average of 28 in the first and mulligan rounds through 31 in the second and 44 in the Final, the tilt to the Germans remained unchanged.

The games were full of incident, Rinella managing to snatch an early loss in the Mulligan as the Allies losing a succession of high-odds attacks on the 7th with an early weather change featuring an SS rampage! Steve Andriakos demolished Marvin Birnbaum when Carentan fell to the Allies on the 8th and was then promptly recaptured by Steve's Germans. My game against Nels Thompson generated an envelopment of Caen after a long 9th with a German collapse as the city fell when they failed to break the British ring of steel. Mike Kaye's Allies kicked last year's winner Jim Eliason out of contention in the second round with Bayeux, Caumont and Torigny falling in a single impulse following a German collapse in Villars.

In the Final, Nels Thompson played the Germans to Jim Doughan's Allies for a bid of 50 supply. The Allies landed well, with all of the beaches in good order and Sword and Merville cleared. During a single impulse of wet on the 6th, Nels counterattacked Merville from Troarn at 5:6 and failed, in a move he was to regret.

On the 7th, Jim cleared St. Mere Eglise and contested Caen, forcing Lehr and 12th SS to run interdiction and sending several defenders retreating out of the city at D2. Carentan was also contested on the 7th. Nels ran defenders under interdiction to defend here -- units that should have been moved during the overcast impulse of the 6th.

The German center was denuded with defenders sucked into Carentan and Caen on either side. Nels began a risky gambit to draw impulses out of Jim's plan by defending forward. Jim cleared Treviers and Colombieres, then re-cleared Treviers after Nels retook it, following up by clearing Isigny, via Treviers and Colombieres. Nels had to cover St. Lo and moved his lone fresh defender (the corps artillery) from Foret back into the area. Jim repaired the Grandcamp causeway and contested St. Lo on a +1 assault with a unit of 1st Division. Nels had no fresh units adjacent to St. Lo, and a Lehr armored regiment was stopped in Caumont by interdiction. Jim followed up with a +2 assault by a unit from the 29th Division that cleared St. Lo, and Nels resigned, the Germans in a hopeless position giving Jim Doughan the 2007 crown—his fourth—making him the undisputed master of Normandy.


PBeM Tournament:

BREAKOUT NORMANDY #5: Tom Dworschak has won the 5th rendition of the PBeM tournament, outlasting 49 other players in a six-round Single Elimination tournament. The victory was his fifth as the Germans in a tournament once again dominated by German play despite bidding for sides. The Germans won 29 of 51 games. Steve Andriakos took second when he lost the dice off for the Germans. Both players had submitted bids of 37 Allied supply to play the Germans. Also earning laurels were Harvey Smallman, Michael Kaye, Jim Eliason and Scott Fenn who finished third through sixth respectively. Details are available at http://www.boardgamers.org/specific/bknpbem05.htm.

 GM      Andrew Cummins  [1st Year]  NA
    qp05@dial.pipex.com   NA

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