great campaigns  

Updated 11/30/2008

2008 WBC Report  

 2009 Status: pending 2009 GM commitment

Ed Beach, MD

2008 Champion

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Event History
1993    Ed Beach*      22
1994    Ray Rooks*      22
1995    Bruno Passacantando*      22
1996    Paul Tisevich *      27
1997    Jeff Otto*      22
1998    Bruno Passacantando *      13
1999    Ken Lee*     18
2000    Chris Withers**     19
2001    Chris Withers**     20
2002    Chris Withers**     18
2003    Chris Withers**     19
2004    Chris Withers**     16
2005     Chris Withers***     26
2006    Chris Withers***     19
2007     Chris Withers***     22
2008     Ed Beach***     17 

* Stonewall Jackson's Way      ** Combined into GC2      ***Combined GC2 & GC3 into GCA

PBeM Event History
2000    Ed Beach      17
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Chris Withers      CA    08    312
  2.  Ed Beach           MD    08    127
  3.  David Cross        VA    07     85
  4.  Paul Nied          KS    04     78
  5.  Mark Booth         VA    04     75
  6.  Steve Likevich     OH    08     66
  7.  B. Passacantando   CT    03     66
  8.  Rob Doane          MA    08     57
  9.  Michael Pacheco    CA    04     36
 10.  Scott Spurgeon     ON    00     36
 11.  Justin Rice        VA    08     30
 12.  Pat Duffy          NJ    02     29
 13.  Dennis Mason       ME    04     18
 14.  Robert Dwyer       NJ    04     15
 15.  Ken Lee            PA    03     12
 16.  Jay Meyers         CA    07      9
 17.  Steve Sandy        OH    02      9
 18.  Ed Karpowicz       DC    01      9
 19.  David Dockter      MN    00      9
 20.  Jim Pyle           VA    00      9
 21.  Brad Anderson      OH    02      6
 22.  William Cooper     NJ    00      6
 23.  Brad Merrill       ME    08      3
 24.  Rod Coffey         MD    05      3
 25.  Dennis Nicholson   NY    04      3
 26.  Marty Musella      VA    03      3
 27.  Forrest Speck      MD    01      3
 28.  Mike Metcalf       NC    01      3
 29.  Hugh Mater         NJ    00      3
 30.  Doug Pratto        MA    00      1
    

2008 Laurelists                                       Repeating Laurelists 

Rob Doane, MA
2nd

Justin Rice, VA
3rd

Steve Likevich, OH
4th

Chris Withers, CA
5th

Brad Merrill, ME
6th


Past Winners

Ed Beach, MD
1993, 2008

Ray Rooks, MD
1994

Bruno Passacantando, CT
1995, 1998

Paul Tisevich, FL
1996

Jeff Otto, OH
1997

Ken Lee, PA
1999

Chris Withers, CA
2000-2007


 

It took 15 years but Ed Beach, the designer of the series, finally reclaimed the championship he last won in 1993.

BPA treasurer Bruno Passacantando (right) returned for a try at a third championship but was denied the elimination rounds.

The Champ is dead; long live the champ!

The year 2000 brought change to The Great Campaigns of the American Civil War (GCACW) series tournament play. Instead of trying to pack an ever expanding series of games into a five-day tournament it was decided to consolidate down to two events. Additional campaign games were added for those who love truly looonnnng games. The first tournament was titled '1862' which encompassed four games: Stonewall Jackson's Way, Here Come the Rebels,  Stonewall in the Valley and On to Richmond. The remander of the series covered the later years of the war and was contested under the label 1863.

In 2005, the two events were merged into one due to declining attendance and now covers the entire series.

 

 

 

 

 

This year's tournament continued the 2007 format. We played six straight preliminary rounds on Wednesday and Thursday with a mix of scenarios, primarily from Grant Takes Command. We added a scenario from Stonewall in the Valley, McDowell, due to significant enjoyment of this scenario in the online tournament. We had a total of 17 commanders in all. This included about eight newcomers or rusty returnees appearing at the Demo round with many of them playing several rounds in the tournament. After two days of battles (29 games played), we advanced four to the semi-final round.

The biggest news was that after many years of winning the various GCACW tournaments, Chris Withers did not make it to the elimination round. However, we must congratulate him for all the success he has had in the past. This year, the semi-finals saw Rob Doane as the Union beat Steve Likevich and Ed Beach as the Confederates defeat Justin Rice in the Wilderness. In the Final, Ed Beach led the Confederates to victory in Bethesda Church. Ed reported that throughout the tournament, his opponents marched poorly against him. Also congratulations to Brad Merrill for his outstanding "Risen from the Ranks" performance showing great improvement this year.

The battles this year were relatively straight forward with no real wild situations reported. Probably the biggest variety occurred in McDowell since it is a very long scenario in number of turns (but few units) with lots of options for Stonewall Jackson to run up and down the Shenandoah Valley. Overall, the Confederates won the majority of the scenarios in every round.

Next year, Justin Rice has agreed to GM the event as my Army Reserve commitments really make it difficult for me. Based on the trends from the last few years, we may change the format to just having preliminary rounds on Wednesday to advance four to the semi-finals. The training session on Wednesday for new commanders prior to the tournament will certainly continue as we have gained many newcomers over the past few years. Also, we will consider once again having a larger campaign played as many people find those more interesting than the tournament (myself being one of them).

During the week, Ed once again had the Battle Above the Clouds playtest materials on display for the area around Chattanooga, TN. Dave Cross and Justin Rice set up and played a few turns of the campaign game. We didn't get very far but did get a feeling of how the restricted terrain really affects play. Hopefully this game may be available next year.

 GM      David Cross [3rd Year]   NA
    davecross@erols.com   NA

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