breakout: normandy  

Updated 11/29/2008

2008 WBC Report  

 2009 Status: pending 2009 GM commitment

Nels Thompson , NY

2008 Champion

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WBC Event History
1994    Jim Doughan      50
1995    Bill Edwards      48
1996    Hank Burkhalter      54
1997    Jim Doughan      53
1998    Don Greenwood      52
1999    Michael Rinella     48
2000    Phil Barcafer     32
2001    Jim Doughan     34
2002     Alan Applebaum     26
2003    Jim Eliason     28
2004    Nels Thompson     33
2005    Andrew Cummins     27
2006    Jim Eliason     19
2007     Jim Doughan     20
2008    Nels Thompson     20

D-Day Mini-Con Event History
1998    Don Greenwood      17
1999    Alan Applebaum     19
2000    Bryan Esleman     18
2001    Andrew Cummins     17
2002     Marvin Birnbaum     23
2003    David Wong     15
2004    Andrew Cummins     15
2005    Don Greenwood     20
2006     Don Greenwood     13

PBeM Event History
1999    Jim Doughan      34
2001    John Crabtree      36
2003    Bruno Passacantando      48
2004    Don Greenwood     47
2006    Tom Dworschak     50
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Don Greenwood      MD    08    322
  2.  Andrew Cummins     UK    08    276
  3.  Nels Thompson      VA    08    238
  4.  Jim Doughan        PA    07    183
  5.  Alan Applebaum     MA    02    180
  6.  Jim Eliason        IA    07    176
  7.  Bryan Eshleman     NC    06    153
  8.  Marvin Birnbaum    NY    02    151
  9.  Tom Dworschak      GA    07    136
 10.  Henry Jones        PA    06    136
 11.  Mike Rinella       NY    07    128
 12.  Brun Passacantando CT    08    104
 13.  Mark Gutfreund     KY    07     96
 14.  Michael Kaye       MD    07     88
 15.  Steve Andriakos    TX    07     85
 16.  Phil Barcafer      PA    01     84
 17.  Scott Fenn         MD    08     83
 18.  Clyde Longest      VA    06     60
 19.  Ken Nied           KS    05     51
 20.  David Wong         NJ    03     50
 21.  Tom Pavy           OH    03     48
 22.  Bill Edwards       VA    99     36
 23.  Harvey Smallman    CA    07     24
 24.  Bryan Stingley     NC    03     24
 25.  Chris Byrd         CT    06     20
 26.  Scott Moll         VA    08     12
 27.  Nick Anner         NY    06     12
 28.  Anthony Daw        UT    06     12
 29.  Anders Egneus     Swed   99     12
 30.  Ron Fedin          PA    04     11
 31.  John Crabtree      CA    01     10
 32.  Tom Drueding       MA    04     10
 33.  Tom Gregorio       PA    06      7
 34.  John Grant Jr      CT    99      6
 35.  Chris Roginsky     PA    04      5
 36.  Dennis Nicholson   NY    03      5
 37.  Hank Burkhalter    GA    99      2

2008 Laurelists                                                  Repeating Laurelists 

Don Greenwood, MD
2nd

Scott Fenn, MD
3rd

Scott Moll, VA
4th

Bruno Passacantando, CT
5th

Andrew Cummins, UK
6th


Past Winners

Jim Doughan, PA
1994, 1997, 2001, 2007

Bill Edwards, VA
1995

Hank Burkhalter, TX
1996

Don Greenwood, MD
1998

Michael Rinella, NY
1999

Phil Barcafer, PA
2000

Alan Applebaum, MA
2002

Jim Eliason, IA
2003, 2006

Nels Thompson, NY
2004, 2008

Andrew Cummins, UK
2005


Scott Moll wins a Round 1 tussle with Mark Popofsky. Moll pulled the upset of the tournament with a late rally to topple four-time champ Jim Doughan.

Jim Eliason (left) and Bruno Passacantando enjoy a rematch of their last game when they met in the 2003 Final. This time Bruno got his revenge.

Still hitting the beach 15 years later ...

With the Allies coming ashore in Breakout Normandy for their 15th consecutive year, the opposition in the field of 20 was extremely stiff. No less than seven champs from previous WBC's were present in the initial line up. Like a fine wine the level of competition has significantly improved with time.

The tournament retained its format from last year's event of a Mulligan round followed by Single Elimination. Player numbers have held up so we will stay with this for next year's hostilities as well..

The strength of the field showed itself with the emergence of three giant killers:

* Scott Moll's Allies despatched defending champion Jim Doughan with a June 12 capture of Caen;

* Bruno Passacantando turning the tables on 2006 Champion Jim Eliason in the rematch of that year's Final by smashing his German's death-grip on Sword beach for another June 12 win;

* And Scott Fenn's Allies astounding 2005 champ Andrew Cummins' Germans with a June 7th capture of both Isigny and Carentan.

As usual, the games teemed with off-the wall events, the three 1's from Coastal Artillery that stuffed the 4th Division completely on Utah, turns ending prematurely on impulse 3 with snake-eyes and turns that defied probability by lasting from C to 11. Strings of bombardments which failed recouped by single bombardments that worked far beyond any reasonable expectation. Units completely paralyzed while moving under air power on the one hand, while with others the air apparently asleep as units parade past unhindered to their destination.

In play the most significant innovation from previous years has been the trend for the Allied player to deploy forces from Utah (90th Division & Corps Artillery) to Omaha to give greater depth and options to the Omaha push.

Bidding for the Germans is up from last year by around six points to an average of 37 supply. The level of bidding also increases in later rounds going from around 31 in the Mulligan up to 54 in the semi-final/Final, as more experienced players want to either play as German or get sufficient recompense as the Allies.

Unfortunately there has been no increase in the percentage of Allied victories which remains stuck at 32% ... identical to last year. Interestingly, the average supply bid for games the Allies won was 32, while the average bid for games the Germans won was 39. It seems that supply point bidding - at least at the level that players are going to is not succeeding in balancing the game. This will be addressed in next year's tournament.

Despite the best efforts of the pack, the Final was contested by two former champs, Nels Thompson (2004) and Don Greenwood (developer). Nels claimed the Germans gifting the Allies 70 supply.the equivalent of an extra turn of good weather impulses. The Allies had an excellent start, all beaches landing successfully, Bretteville and then Verson cleared but the advantage lost to a late weather change which allowed Cherbourg forces to move to cover Carentan. On the 7th the US cleared St Mere-Eglise, regained the advantage but lost it again as a +3 assault into Caen failed twice, the second attempt ending the day. In recompense the 8th lasted from C to 11, Bayeux, Isigny and Foret falling to the Allies. On the 9th, focus of the game moved to Carentan where it stayed for the duration. After some delaying action in Isigny and an early weather change to dry, the advantage came back to the Allies following a deadly air bombardment on Carentan that threatened to deliver it to Don's forces. The allies had three major assaults with some chance to take the city on the 10th and 11th but after this and many bombardments Nels' Germans were still holding out on the 12th.

The opening bombardments were about par, after the Germans had filled Carentan with armor and infantry. An impulse 1 10:2 German bombardment of the 10 units waiting in Carentan for the order to attack netted 4 units spent, including the lead armor. Don passed on an even-odds roll to clear before the final German unit was put into the area, and when he rolled a 3 on an impulse 4 bombardment, he re-rolled it, but again failed the re-roll with a 3 for the game end. Nels Thompson taking the game and the 2008 BKN championship.

Nels Thompson (left) defends against the fittingly British assault of Andrew Cummins who played the role of Eliminator in the semis. Had Andrew won, the event would have been shortened by a round, but Noooooooooooooooo ...

Don Greenwood (left) and Scott Fenn battle in the other semi and hope for a Cummins win. Fenn surprised all by opting to play the Allies. Scott has a reputation as a stellar German player, but his Allied invasion ran into early trouble.
 GM      Andrew Cummins  [2nd Year]  NA
    qp05@dial.pipex.com   NA

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