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Kevin Keller (left) meets Matt Tolman
in the Final as 5th place laurelist Joe Powell spectates. |
The Final Four participants pose beneath
the Axis & Allies banner before beginning the Single
Elimination rounds. |
Keller takes Second Title ...
Day 1-
The first day saw 17 games played over the course of three
rounds. With quality players matching up in the second and third
rounds, consistent play was the watchword for all who wanted
to advance to Single Elimination play the following day. A few
of the event newcomers that won a first round match came to see
that their Axis & Allies "education" wasn't
complete until they had the pleasure of playing some of the tournament
veterans.
The third round pitted six combatants vying for the four spots
in the semi-final round. Matt Tolman and Dan Pasaric joined previous
event champs Patrick Mirk, Kevin Keller, Joe Powell, and Ty Hansen
in the fight to play another day. Actually, after the 2nd round
of play, the fifth-ranked player Bob Starr (who had a very good
chance to advance) decided to drop out of the tournament, reducing
the possible contenders to the aforementioned six. This situation
highlights the positives of the VT scoring system. It allows
one to lose a game, albeit a close loss, and still have a good
chance to advance.
In the Round 3 games, Kevin Keller (1-1) needed to win against
Matt Tolman (2-0) to continue. He did so in what would be a foreshadowing
of events to come. His buddy Joe Powell (1-1) won his third round
match but also needed Kevin to lose in order to secure his place
in the final four. Joe's fate was sealed in the second round
by a bad loss at the hands of defending champ Ty Hansen. In the
last determining game, Patrick Mirk handled Ty to gain the top
seed for the SE rounds.
During the first day, during each round, I draw out names
of event participants and they receive prizes that were either
donated by myself or by the Table Tactics game company. Al Hurda
won the Revised A&A, while Matt Tolman and Ty Hansen each
received a new copy of A&A Guadalcanal. Receiving copies
of Table Tactics were Michael Corrigan, Dan Pasaric and Marc
Murphy.
The following chart is the player rankings based on the games
from the first day's preliminary rounds:
Player
Rank |
Won-Loss |
TVTs |
IPC
% > |
1. Patrick Mirk |
3-0 |
47 |
52.58929 |
2. Matt Tolman |
2-1 |
48 |
73.48214 |
3. Ty Hansen |
2-1 |
45 |
34.82143 |
4. Kevin Keller |
2-1 |
44 |
54.40476 |
5. Joe Powell |
2-1 |
39 |
22.85714 |
6. Dan Pasaric |
1-2 |
27 |
-44.8214 |
7.Marc Murphy |
2-0 |
31 |
38.54167 |
8. Bob Starr |
1-1 |
24 |
0.267857 |
9. Alex Gregorio |
1-1 |
24 |
0 |
10. Steve Cole |
1-1 |
23 |
-2.08333 |
11. Chris Goodman |
0-2 |
17 |
-72.8571 |
12. Peter Corrigan |
0-1 |
9 |
-8.33333 |
13. Angus McDonald |
0-1 |
8 |
-19.7917 |
14. Colum McCurdy |
0-1 |
6 |
-38.5714 |
15. Adam Kozina |
0-1 |
5 |
-29.1667 |
16. Michael Corrigan |
0-1 |
5 |
-31.25 |
17. Al Hurda |
0-1 |
5 |
-42.8571 |
The top four players (based on the rankings above) advanced to
the Single Elimination rounds of the second day.
Day 2-
After the Preliminary dust settled, the matchups for the
semis were set. #1 seed Patrick Mirk (3-0) drew #4 seed Kevin
Keller (2-1) while #2 seed Matt Tolman (2-1) opposed #3 seed
Ty Hansen (2-1). Early German defeats in the Mediterranean theater
forced Kevin (Axis) to gamble on a "Sea Lion" attack
upon the UK Home Isles in Turn 2. Germany not only seized England
with just one armor unit left, but also was able to withstand
a weak UK attempt to retake the homeland. At that point, Patrick
conceded.
In the other semi, the Western Allies (Ty) established a pipeline
of troops through Norway to help the USSR on the Eastern Front.
This move north allowed the Germans free reign in Africa. The
US (Chinese troops) was actually able to take French Indochina
because of the Japanese focus on India. Bad dice for the Allies
in Karelia S.S.R. caused the pipeline of troops to be seriously
interrupted. The door was then opened for a German armor thrust
to Moscow that succeeded. The Germans also took the Caucasus
on the same turn. The UK then liberated Moscow from the clutches
of the invaders.
In the Pacific, the Japanese finally initiated (and prevailed
in) a large naval battle after the US had moved forward from
Hawaii to take Wake Island. The Soviet recaptured the Caucasus,
stabilizing the Eastern Front, but the Japanese started to finally
push up through the China corridor, taking the center Allied
VTs, and solidified the Axis' (Matt) winning position.
The victories by Kevin and Matt set up a Final rematch of
their third round encounter. Kevin won the first match as the
Axis and opted for the Allies this time.
Final-
The first round saw early dead zoning of territories on the Eastern
Front by the Germans and Soviets. The Japanese sent fleet assets
down to Borneo to swat an early UK incursion. The UK and US massed
their Atlantic fleets off of Algeria in sea zone 12 and the US
built an IC in Sinkiang.
The USSR was active in the Soviet Far East and in China, clearly
a concerted effort to support the US IC build. With the German
Mediterranean fleet moving into sea zone 13, along with the majority
of the Luftwaffe based in Western Europe, the UK was forced to
attack with air and naval forces of its own.
The USSR started slowly pushing westward on the Eastern Front
while the WA massed their combined fleet in sea zone 7.
The Japanese reclaimed their Asian mainland holdings of Manchuria
and Kwangtung from the Soviets. They had however lost French
Indochina to US armor marauding forth from the Sinkiang IC.
The German Baltic Fleet dashed out to sea zone 3, on Turn
3, while the WA fleet was in the Western Mediterranean. That
set up a Turn 4, trans-Atlantic lunge to take Eastern Canada.
In counter to that, the UK fleet entered the Baltic and took
Eastern Europe, cutting off a large German force in Karelia S.S.R.
Japan reinforced Manchuria but by doing so lost Kwangtung
to the advancing US armor. The US Pacific fleet moved south to
Australia putting it in a position to threaten the Indonesian
VTs.
The USSR consolidated its Eastern Front forces in the West
Russia territory thus setting up a massive battle when the Germans
in Karelia decided to attack it. The Germans fell back after
having taken the worst of that attack but they do clear out the
UK forces in Eastern Europe in a separate attack.
The Japanese wiped out the rampaging US armor in China and
then took India and Buryatia S.S.R. They also set up some blocking
ships in the South Pacific to slow the US advance upon their
island empire. The US blew through the blocking ships to take
New Guinea in force.
The USSR took Ukraine S.S.R., West Russia, and Belorussia,
along with the UK grabbing Norway and Eastern Europe. Japan countered
by taking a long cruise to capture the Egyptian VT. The US then
took the VTs of Borneo and East Indies as the Japanese outer
defensive ring crumbles.
In the final round, Soviet armor masses on the doorstep of
Berlin and the US pushes up the gut to take the Philippines VT.
Kevin Keller defeated Matt Tolman for the second day in a row
to become a two-time champ with a win in each of the A&A
editions - Second and Revised.
Tournament
Stats |
Axis Wins |
Allied Wins |
Round 1 |
4 (1) |
4 (1) |
Round 2 |
2 (1) |
3 (0) |
Round 3 |
2 (0) |
2 (1) |
Semi-final |
2 (1) |
0 (0) |
Final |
0 (0) |
1 (0) |
Total |
10 (3) |
10 (2) |
(*) - The number in parentheses is the number of concession
wins that occurred in each instance.
|
Axis |
Allies |
Average VTs in a Win |
16.6 |
16.1 |
Average IPCs in a Win |
89.8 |
116.7 |
Average Rounds in a Win |
5.3 |
6 |
Bidding |
Axis Wins |
Allied Wins |
No Bid |
1 |
3 |
Axis Bid |
2 |
0 |
Allied Bid |
7 |
7 |
Average Bid |
2 IPCs |
5.5 IPCs |
Quality Games-
In what I term "Quality Games" (games that don't end
in a concession), these are the applicable stats:
Tournament
Stats |
Axis Wins |
Allied Wins |
Round 1 |
3 |
3 |
Round 2 |
1 |
3 |
Round 3 |
2 |
1 |
Semi-final |
1 |
0 |
Final |
0 |
1 |
Total |
7 |
8 |
|
Axis |
Allies |
Average VTs in a Win |
15.57 |
15.38 |
Average IPCs in a Win |
85.43 |
114.38 |
Average Rounds in a Win |
5.86 |
6.25 |
Bidding |
Axis Wins |
Allied Wins |
No Bid |
1 |
1 |
Axis Bid |
2 |
0 |
Allied Bid |
5 |
7 |
Average Bid |
2 IPCs |
5.67 IPCs |
As always, I am thankful for the help and support of my assistant
GMs, Kevin Keller and Joe Powell. They quietly keep things on
an even keel and that helps make the event a pleasant experience
for all. I also thank those who participated in the event this
year and I hope that all return for more fun next year!
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Colum McCurdy battles Ty Hansen in
the swiss rounds. |
Peter Corrigan takes on Dan Pasaric
as Round 1 gets underway. |
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