battleline 

Updated 11/29/2008

2008 WBC Report  

  2009 Status: pending December Membership Trial Vote

Bruce Reiff, OH

2007-08 Champion

Offsite Links

  GMT Games

Event History
2001    Peter Staab     54
2002    Kevin Youells     36
2003    Ken Gutermuth     44
2004     Arthur Field     44
2005     Arthur Field     48 
2006     Thomas Browne     52
2007    Bruce Reiff     40
2008     Bruce Reiff     45
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Bruce Reiff        OH    08     55
  2.  Arthur Field       SC    05     40
  3.  Aaron Fuegi        MA    06     38
  4.  Ken Gutermuth      TX    05     36
  5.  Kevin Youells      FL    02     30
  6.  Peter Staab        PA    01     30
  7.  Sean McCulloch     OH    07     24
  8.  Thomas Browne      PA    06     20
  9.  Barrington Beavis  UK    03     18
 10.  Jonathan Miller    DC    02     18
 11.  John Leggat        CA    01     18
 12.  James Tyne         NJ    07     18
 13.  Kate Taillon       SC    08     12
 14.  Bill Banks         KY    07     12
 15.  Mike Nagel         NJ    05     12
 16.  Andrew Cummins     UK    01     12
 17.  Cliff Ackman       PA    01      9
 18.  Chris Yaure        PA    08      8
 19.  Greg Kulp          NJ    07      8
 20.  Keith Schoose      CA    05      8
 21.  Jason Levine       NY    04      8
 22.  Austin Walzl       VA    08      6
 23.  Andy Latto         MA    06      6
 24.  Richard Irving     CA    04      6
 25.  Carol Caler        PA    03      6
 26.  Kaarin Engelmann   VA    01      6
 27.  Eric Kleist        MD    08      4
 28.  Brad Raszewski     MD    07      4
 29.  Alan Kaiser        OH    06      4
 30.  Stuart Tucker      MD    04      4
 31.  Lance Fogel        PA    03      3
 32.  Gordon Elgart      CA    01      3
 33.  David Burkey       PA    08      2
 34.  Mike Stanley       OH    06      2
 35.  Tom Powell-Bullock OH    05      2
 36.  Laurie Wojtaszcyk  NY    04      2

2008 Laurelists                                                 Repeating Laurelists:

Kate Taillon, SC
2nd

Chris Yaure, PA
3rd

Austin Walzl, VA
4th

Eric Kleist, MD
5th

David Burkey, PA
6th


Past Winners

Peter Staab, PA
2001

Kevin Youells, FL
2002

Ken Gutermuth, TX
2003

Arthur Field, SC
2004, 2005

Tom Browne, PA
2006


Phil Rennert (left) beats Ewan McNay in pod #7 and then withdrew.

Battleline is about as close as you can get to a Reiner Knizia wargame design.

Not Again!

Battleline is nothing, if not consistent. We had 44 people show up at the usual 7 pm time slot. 11 groups of four were put together (special thanks to Barry Shutt!!!) for a round robin in each group with the winners advancing. As always, the starting player was chosen for each game at random. More on that later. The winner of each group advanced to the single elimination portion of the program.

In group #1 your illustrious GM went 3-0 with three breakthroughs. In the last game Michael Sosa lost the choice and had to go first in our game. He was also 2-0 with two breakthroughs. After I beat him he complained about what a big advantage it was to go first and how he hadn't lost a game in forever. I agreed to play him a rematch going first after the tournament ended.

In group #2 Chris Gnech beat former champ Arthur Field and decided not to advance. Sorry Arthur -- no mulligans!

In group #3 Eric Kleist won his group to advance.

In Group #4 Kate Taillon, the far, far better half of the Field clan went 3-0 to advance. She ousted former champ Kevin Youells in the process.

In group #5 Chris Greenfield won but elected not to advance.

In group #6 James Miller went 2-1 which proved sufficient to advance.

Group #7 was won by Phil Rennert who also elected not to advance.

Group #8 was won by Chris Yaure who went 3-0 .

Group #9 was won by Craig Moffit who went 3-0. However I must point out my 11-year old daughter Nicole won by breakthrough over multiple plaque guru Andy Gardner!.

Group #10 was won by Austin Walzl on a 3-way tie breaker to advance.

Group #11 was won by David Burkey who also won a 3-way tie breaker over plaque machine Andy Latto!

With the three defections we enjoyed a nice even field of 8 for the single elimination portion. I must live right.

Austin Walzl defeated James Miller, while Kate Tallion downed David Burkey. Kate then beat Austin to advance to the Final.

In the other half of the bracket Chris Yaure defeated Craig Mofft while I squeezed by Eric Kliest. I then scratched out a victory over Chris to meet Kate in the Final.

Kate was ready to go. Arthur was far more nervous as he stuck pins in his Bruce Reiff voodoo doll. It was to no avail. I could do no wrong and Kate could do no right. I drew to inside straight flushes and Kate couldn't find three of a kind. I achieved a "Coussis" for winning two events that I ran and took home a nice matching bookend for my 2007 Battleline plaque.

Oh -- my earlier story. Michael Sosa showed up and brought a chess clock. He wanted to play with 15 minutes per side. I said no problem (if you know me well, you know that Michael was already in trouble). I went first as agreed. When the game was over I still had 13:19 left on my clock. Michael had less than 5 minutes. I could have won faster but I wanted a breakthrough to make a point.

Let the battles begin!

Final: It wouldn't be a surprise to see a Reiff-Field Final between former champions, but this Field is Arthur's better half. Sadly, the evil empire added to his woodpile despite Kate's best efforts.
 GM      Bruce Reiff  [5th Year]  NA
    BReiff@aol.com   NA

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