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It wasn't a good sign when Ric
Manns had to cancel as GM of Liberty due to the impending
birth of his first grandchild. Not that Barry Smith didn't do
a fine job in his stead, but Ric and his Indiana cronies are
strong adherents of the block games and their absence contributed
to a down year for block games at WBC in general and for Liberty
in particular which fell to possible Trial status for 2008. Above,
Barry carves out an enclave for his players to start the swiss
rounds. |
Life, LIBERTY and the pursuit of
Wood!
There didn't appear to be enough table space in Lampeter Hall
to start the Liberty tournament, but with only 13 players
on hand, not much room was needed. This year the average bid
to play the Americans decreased to 0.6 VP, but the balance was
perfect as each side won 50% of the games played. The Americans
won two of the three games played with a 0 bid and the British
won five of the eight games played with a 1-VP bid. Only one
game was played with a 2-VP bid and the result was an American
win. The Americans also won all games where the French appeared
in 1776 and lost all games where the French did not appear. French
entry in 1777 and 1778 resulted in American wins 40% and 50%
of the time respectively.
Once the Swiss part of the tournament was completed, Nick
Benedict, David Metzger, Scott Moll, and Joe Pabis advanced to
the semi-final round. While three of the four semi-finalists
advanced using other tie-breakers, Scott Moll had to win a dice
roll with Llew Bardecki for his ticket.
In one semi-final game, David's British slowly and methodically
killed 13 of Joe's American blocks before winning the game in
1782. In the other game, Nick's British rolled over Scott's
Americans in 1776 before the French could enter.
In the Final, Nick bid 1 VP for the Americans. This set up
a re-match as Nick had beat David in the 1st round as the Americans.
The Final started with Nick drawing amd placing Morgan in
Richmond and then attacking Norfolk and killing the Loyalist
there on the second turn. Nick also killed the Mohawk block
on the third turn. Meanwhile, David drew two supply cards and
used his only action card to attack Charleston with two Loyalist
blocks. However, the attack failed and both blocks had to retreat
to Augusta where they later disbanded.
In 1776, David used the first two turns to move the blocks
in Quebec and BWI to the Atlantic and then sea attack New Brunswick.
Nick retreated to Philadelphia while building replacements in
Philadelphia and Yorktown. Both players spent the rest of the
year building their respective forces. When the year ended,
David had seven blocks in Boston and six in New Brunswick. Then,
Nick rolled a 10 and the French were in.
In 1777, Nick sea attacked a vacant BWI from FWI. He also
captured Montreal after attacking the Loyalist block there. Meanwhile,
David moved his Boston mob to the Atlantic and both players continued
drawing replacements. On the final turn David sea attacked Philadelphia
and used his blocks in
New Brunswick to cut off all retreat routes. This resulted in
the destruction of four good American blocks, but Tarleton died
due to lack of a retreat route in the attack on Baltimore. The
dead pile now had four American and three British blocks respectively
with the VP marker at 16.
In 1778, David continued his assaults with two blocks taking
Baltimore. Meanwhile, four blocks sea attacked the French in
BWI, killing the French ground block and forcing the warship
to retreat to the Atlantic. Nick responded by using his French
to sea attack both Philadelphia and Baltimore with three blocks
each. This forced David to retreat to New Brunswick (from Philadelphia)
and to the hex NW of Baltimore. David then had to use his next
move to force march the survivors of the Baltimore attack into
New Brunswick while Nick consolidated all of the French ground
units in Baltimore. On the last turn of 1778, David sea attacked
a vacant Philadelphia again.
Both players spent 1779 and 1780 playing cat and mouse. David
formed a killer A/B block group but Nick wouldn't give him any
easy kills. At the end of 1780, David sea attacked Norfolk with
this group, but Nick was able to retreat both blocks to Richmond.
In 1781, David attacked Alexandria on the foutth turn to set
up a fifth turn attack on Baltimore. However, storms in the
south torpedoed this plan and when Nick moved a block from Richmond
into Yorktown, it prevented David from disbanding any of the
units in Alexandria. Therefore, Fraser joined the dead pile
due to winter attrition.
In 1782, David recaptured Yorktown but was still unable to
kill the defending block. David also sea attacked a vacant Boston
on the fourth turn to set up a decisive fifth turn battle but
once again there were storms in the north and the attack never
happened. It was at this point that David conceded giving Nick
the victory.
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Barry Smith [1st Year]
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