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Ron Fedin and Keith Wixson display
the special ceremonial period weapon replicas Keith provides
as extra prizes. |
Gary Phillips and Bruce Monnin check
their hands to see what fate has in store for them in the preliminaries. |
First to Two Titles
2003 Champion Paul Gaberson became the first double winner
in the event, breaking a string of five different champs in as
many years. Gaberson went undefeated in beating Michael Ussery,
Bruce Wigdor, Bruce Monnin and Randy MacInnis in the preliminary
rounds, George Young in the semi-finals and 2004 Champ James
("The Master") Pei in the championship game. MacInnis
was the other semi-finalist, surviving his loss to Gaberson in
Round 4 by gaining tiebreakers in upset victories over #2 Seed
Tom Drueding in Round 2 and #1 Seed/defending Champ Keith
Wixson in Round 3.
Here are some highlights:
* Young was the only 2006 laurelist to make it into the top
six this year. A complete or near complete turnover of the
laurelists in this tournament every year has become something
of a tradition.
* Attendance was up 17%, increasing to 35 from 30. There
were six new players. Since attendance for the other CDGs appeared
to be generally down, the future of the event in this timeslot
appears to be bright.
* There are preliminary plans to add a quarterfinal round next
year.
* MacInnis won the Biggest Upset Award for his win over the defending
champ.
* The Top New Player Award went to Grant LaDue who went 3-1,
losing only a close game to the GM.
* After last year's relatively good results for the Brits, the
French came back strong winning 61% of the 46 games played (as
compared to 52% in 2006). The average bid to play the French
crept up to 1.02 VPs from .93 VPs last year (it was 1.11 VPs
in 2005). There were 23 bids of 1 VP to play the French and 12
bids of 2 VPs.
The French record in the 2 VP bid games was seven wins and five
losses and in the 1 VP bid games it was 14 wins to nine losses.
In the eleven games without bidding there were seven French wins.
* Perhaps the most interesting story this year was that Gaberson
is really the only player to have embraced a bid of 2 VPs. He
was involved in half of the 2 VP bid games, making that bid in
all of his games and accounting for five of the seven French
wins in the games with that bid (in his other win he played the
Brits when his opponent also bid 2 and won the rolloff). Something
tells me that this might start a trend!
* For the third year in a row the eventual winner had to defeat
The Master and that game went down to the final card and die
roll!
* Prizes: In addition to the plaques, the Champ received
a Missouri River War Hatchet and the runner up received a Ball
Head Warclub. The losing semi-finalists each received Ceremonial
Medicine Arrows. A book, a DVD and some period 54mm toy soldiers
were also awarded.
Championship Game:
I don't have a formal AAR this year as the game was played
very late at night and the players and I were too exhausted to
remember the game that clearly. As mentioned above, the championship
game of Gaberson (French) against Pei (British) went down to
the final card and die roll. The final turn saw a large
British army under Wolfe driving up the Champlain Valley towards
Montreal against the much weaker main French army under Montcalm,
while another British army secured Ohio Forks which had already
been abandoned by the French. Quiberon had been played so the
Brits had more cards, but towards the end of the turn Paul had
skillfully maneuvered Montcalm between Wolfe and the British
supply line and it became apparent that Montreal would not fall.
There was no margin for error, however, as VPs only stood at
FR1 once the Forks were secured; James needed 2 VPs to win as
Paul ran out of cards.
The first point was easy enough because Paul just gave it
away. As Wolfe moved against Montcalm to force a battle, a small
French force with Regulars under Drucour inexplicably attempted
to intercept to slow the Brits down. The interception failed,
but James realized that Paul was willing to give up a VP so he
bore down on Drucour and wiped his force out. VPs were therefore
at zero, which is a French victory if it ends that way, as James
was down to his final card. He used it to activate Wolfe and
Rogers' Rangers to raid Sorel with a 5/6 chance at success and
a VP to put him over the top. This is a standard British
play late in close games but Paul had obviously forgotten about
it with fatigue setting in. But James rolled a "1"
and the raid failed miserably. Perhaps the guy hasn't sold his
soul to the devil after all.
Here are some observations of the game by the the new and
only two-time champ:
What I want to take away from the experience is the memory
of struggling with a man who is undoubtedly the finest player
of card driven war games on the planet, taking him to the last
card play where I had a 1 in 6 chance of winning and being rewarded
with the victory. What I would like to forget is the fact
that with three cards left to play I had about a 90% chance of
winning and I managed to play that down to the 17% chance I ended
up with.
If my mind had been a little clearer I think I would have
known that it was going to be my night. James is often accused
of being able to control the die with some form of Zen mind control
but his usual mastery was definitely missing in our game. I'll
relate one sequence where a lot of operation cards were burned
which is always to the advantage of the French player. During
the first turn after Montcalm was able to take Ft. William Henry,
James hit me with Vaudreuil Interferes and off Monty went to
inspect Louisbourg. James had already played a British Regulars
reinforcement card so Murray and 18 strength points were waiting
at Halifax. This was the first big decision of the game
for me: can I afford to leave Montcalm there? The chance
of getting Montcalm trapped for good was 39%. I decided
to take a chance and played Small Pox on Murray's army and I
was successful in getting two hits so they were down to 16 strength
points and Monty's odds improved to 22%. James immediately
sent the Royal Americans battalion from Philadelphia to Halifax
to make up the loss. At this point I decided I couldn't
risk losing Montcalm in early 1757 so I shipped him back to Quebec
and moved Villiers to Quebec just in case it was all a bluff. Of
course it wasn't as Murray immediately made the amphibious move
and I withdrew the garrison inside for the siege. No siege
rolls were made in what was left of early 1757 because James
was out of cards (he had used the Amphib card and had also played
Massacre when Montcalm took the fort).
In Late 1757 I got Bastions Repaired so I was looking forward
to stretching out the siege. There were no British reinforcements
so Murray was going to be doing all of the work. The first
siege roll was successful and I immediately removed the siege
point. The next attempt failed. Two more cards were
required to get siege level 2 and the first assault. The
die rolls were something like 4 for me and 3 for James. I
was on the 9-12 column and he was on the 13-16 column so with
losses 3 to 3 the assault failed. Perhaps this was the harbinger
of things to come for James and the evil die. Other things
had been going on and we both needed to get units into winter
quarters so cards were running out fast. When he eventually
got around to making the next assault attempt I don't think he
had many cards left. This time I was on the 6-8 column and
he was still on 13-16. Again he rolled low and I rolled
high so again we both got three hits. This eliminated all
of my units but in a siege it isn't a win. He was now out
of cards and as I recall needed to use the Quiberon card to move
Loudoun and the main army in New York into winter quarters. Murray's
army suffered attrition at Louisbourg.
That sequence was a lot of fun for me and not so much for
James I suspect. Of course Louisbourg fell in early 1758
and Quiberon managed to jump back into the British hand almost
immediately so I suffered with only seven cards for the last
few turns. But in the end James ran out of cards and had
to attempt that last card play raid with Wolfe and the Rangers. If
it hadn't taken six or seven cards to reduce Louisbourg perhaps
the final result would have been different.
Of course if I could count to two at 2:00 a.m. I wouldn't
have thrown away a VP I couldn't really afford to lose and I
would have won even if the final raid had been successful. Fortunately
for me, fate decided to reward a fool and I'm not too proud to
take it and run.
Wilderness
War 2007-2008 PBeM Tournament Results
Final Standings:
1. James Pei
2. George Young
3. Adam Deverell
4. Ron Fedin
5. William Edwards
6. Peter Reese
Total Players: 62
Total Games Played: 118
2008 WBC Champ James "The Master" Pei bested a field
of 62 players to win the 2007-2008 Wilderness War PBeM Tournament,
a six round Swiss-Elimination format competition which began
in early 2007 and took approximately 18 months to complete.
Pei defeated George Young in the Final to win his second PBEM
crown. Pei defeated Henry Russell, Jim Winslow, Kevin Worth,
Grant LaDue and Ron Fedin in his march to the championship game.
Pei, Young and Fedin went undefeated in the four Swiss rounds,
while Adam Deverell advanced to the semi-finals with one Swiss
loss by earning the necessary tiebreakers in wins over Jim
Lawler, Tom Thornsen and 2007 WBC Champ Paul Gaberson. Deverell's
loss was to Fedin in Round 4. Young defeated Alan Poulter, Patrick
Duffy, Bill Edwards, Rob Winslow and Deverell.
For his efforts, Pei was awarded a Buffalo Jaw War Club in addition
to the plaque. Deverell defeated Fedin in the Consolation Match
for 3rd place.
The 118 games played broke down as follows: 60 French wins
and 58 British wins. In the French wins the higher rated
player won 22 times, while in the British wins the higher rated
player won 43 times. Bidding broke down as follows: one game
with a bid of FR3 (French loss), ten games with a bid of FR2
(French record was 4-6), 95 games with a bid of FR1 (French record
was 50-45), nine games with no bid (French record was 5-4)
and three games with a bid of BR1 (French record was 2-1). In
the Final Pei played the French with a bid of FR1 after Young,
who had the initial bid, passed.
The tournament website is http://mysite.verizon.net/vze4bc94/index.html.
17 players vied for the WAM 2007 Warclub provided by GM Keith
Wixson. 19 games were played in the four-round Swiss, and the
last man standing was Peter Reese. Reese defeated Ron Fedin (2005
WBC Champ), James Pei (2004 WBC Champ), Paul Gaberson (2003 WBC
Champ) and Bill Edwards in the Final.
French dominance continued. The French won 13 games (68%)
to the Brits' six. There was a bid of 1 VP to play the French
in 14 games and a bid of 2 VPs to play the French in one game
(a Brit win). The other four games (all French wins) had no bid
at all. The average French score in their wins was 5.7 VPs. On
the other hand, the British wins almost all came in later rounds
by top players. The Champ was 2-0 as the Brits, and played them
in the Final. Also earning WNW laurels were Keith Wixson, Paul
Gaberson, Andy Maly and Ken Gutermuth who finished third through
sixth respectively.
Early 1757
Brits looked at their hand and concluded Janus the god of
luck had annointed them. In their initial hand was the 3 Highlander,
the 1 Highlander, a Brit Regular, a campaign card and an amphibious
card. Was expecting a SHORT game. French started with drive to
HCN and sieged it with their second card. Parliament had decided
that North America was the critical theatre for 1757. The Brits
played the regular card, got Amherst and sent him to New York
with three Regulars, Then played the 1 Highlander card and sent
Forbes to New York and the Highlander to Halifax. The French
then started raiding. Card 3 the 4 x Highlander + Wolfe and Murray
showed up in Halifax. With this play the French concluded Louisbourg
was not a good place to be and evacuated it Wolfe and his mob
then landed while Amherst took his mob to HCN. Wolfe too Louisbourg
in two tries meanwhile the French started raiding with the first
three tries successes (argh). Brits held over Vaudreill.
Late 1757
Fortune continued to smile on the Brits. First Montcalm was
sent to Ohio for another Amphibous card (which just arrived this
turn - the French had the other two so were not worried about
a landing) permitted Wolfe and everyone to land at the gates
of Quebec. The French had immediately started moving Montcalm
back and when Wolfe landed they used a campaign card to put Montcalm
and the army (which moved from HCN) together around Montreal.
Wolfe then moved to siege Quebec (which looked like a real winner
as the Brits also had a fieldworks card). Then disaster occured
when Janus the fickle god of chance showed his favor to the French
when the French made their desperate attack v. Wolfe sieging
Quebec the dice result was French 6 British 1. To add insult
to injury Monckton (who covering Wolfe's bungled retreat) stuck
his head up and was clipped with a musket ball. The Brits retreated
one space less seven steps to five for the French. End of year
the Brits went back to Albany, the French wintered in Quebec
(they had destroyed the southern fort along the Lake Champlain
route) and Wolfe slunk back with his forces to Alexandria (I
could not stand another battle with Wolfe's force). The French
raids pretty much used up their indians (Brits were up to two
militia in the southern zone) but they did end up with three
points for raids for 1757. French held over Quiberon which turned
out to be a very good choice as Brits played surrender causing
a reshuffle.
Early 1758
Brits got last regular card, placed Bradstreet and three regulars
in Alexandria along with Wolfe and Murray. French got a regular
card placed them with Montcalm in Quebec. Montcalm deployed defensively
to Winooski with his entire army (including a couple of French
Marines (1-4s). Amherst with a gigantic pile of troops observed
him from Albany (additionally provinicals had been added). Wolfe
moved up to Allegheny South and built a fort. The French raided
and picked up the marine detachments out west to avoid Wolfe.
Late 1758
Wolfe then moved to Upper Monogahela where disaster truely
struck. A lone indian at Mingo Town intercepted and in the skirmish
both Wolfe and Bradstreet were killed leaving Murray in charge
of a BIG army he could not command. Still he managed to haul
troops to Ohio Forks and finish the fort. Meanwhile the French
did minor adjustments and began forming up a force to defend
Niagara. Then with two cards left (the Brits had Foul Weather
and Bigot) the French made a fatal error (the joys of face to
face play). Instead of moving Montcalm and his troops into winter
quarters they spent a card to further adjust their forces out
west (looking at the map they could see the Brits needed two
cards to get everyone out west to winter quarters) so they had
no worries. However the British exposure was only two or three
steps and the French exposure was on the order of 10 steps (including
three regulars permanently lost). So the penultimate Brit card
was Bigot and the French army got to starve and freeze over the
winter in Winooski. At that point the French conceded.
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