Long out of print, Gettysburg still attracts a criwd at WBC.	Ed Menzel (left) and GM Vince Meconi share a laugh in the Final.

MENZEL SCORES A THREE-PEAT

Ed Menzel of Fullerton, CA won his third consecutive Gettysburg '88 crown in a row, defeating GM Vince Meconi in the Final. Ed finished with a 9-2 mark; the GM went 8-1. Rob Doane (Chicopee, MA) took third (3-3) and Bert Schoose (Naperville, IL) finished 4th at 3-1. Greg Smith finished 5th, Dave Zimmerman 6th, Doug Porterfield 7th, and Bill Thomson 8th.

Preliminary games were played from Saturday, 8/2 (thanks to Grognardcon) through Friday, 8/8. Friday night, the 12 players who had played the required minimum of three games to qualify for the Final 4 were ranked, with the top four advancing to single-elimination. They were, in order, the GM (7-0), Greg Smith (5-2), Ed Menzel (7-2), and rookie Rob Doane (3-2), in a tiebreaker over Bert Schoose (3-0). Greg, however, graciously withdrew because he had a plane to catch Saturday afternoon and did not want to play in the semi-finals knowing that he would have to withdraw if he were victorious. His departure opened the way for Bert Schoose to claim the last playoff spot. As is frequently the case, the playoff slots were determined by hairbreadth margins. The 5th through 9th place finishers - Dave Zimmerman (3-3, 6th place), Doug Porterfield (2-4, 7th place), Bill Thomson (4-1, 8th place), and Ted Drozd (2-3. 9th place), could each have made the playoffs had they reversed any one of their losses!

In the semi-finals, #1 Meconi faced #4 Bert Schoose, and #2 Ed Menzel squared off against #3 Rob Doane.

The GM's Confederates, bidding 3.5, were able to prevail on the second day with the Union surrendering on Turn 13. Ed Menzel took the Confederates against Rob Doane with a bid of 3.0. Union losses mounted so rapidly that they conceded at the end of Turn 10.

The GM grabbed the Confederates in the Final for a bid of 5.0. His Confederates had routed Ed's Union troops in the preliminaries, but a repeat was not in the offing. In fact, in each of Ed's three championships, he has won the Final against an opponent who had beaten him earlier in the event. This time, the Union was so dominant that they ended July 1 still in command of both Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill, without having suffered a single elimination or flip to their 3- and 4-factor units. The Rebels held on until Turn 18, but threw in the towel at that point with just a single undamaged infantry division remaining.

The field of 33 entrants equaled the highest ever, as did the 49 total games played. The South won 32 games to 17 for the North. 44 games used the campaign scenario, with the Confederates on top in 31 and the Union in just 13. Four games used the short July 1 scenario, with the Federals winning three. One game featured the rarely used July 1/July 2 scenario won by the Union. 36 games had Confederate bids, ranging from 1 to 5.5 Victory Points, with the South prevailing 25 times to the North's 11. The Union bid for sides three times and lost twice. There was no bid in ten games and the Blue and Gray split those contests. The average bid was 2.29/Confederate for all games and 2.87/Confederate for those games in which there was a bid.

Champ Ed Menzel also garnered both Best Confederate Player laurels (5-0) and best Union Player (4-2). Third place finisher Rob Doane copped Rookie of the Year honors.

Thanks go to Grognardcon El Supremo Bruno Sinigaglio and an excellent quartet of Assistant GMs: Ted Drozd, Ed Menzel, Greg Smith, and Bill Thomson.

2008 PBeM Tournament:

BPA PBEM Championship II has now been completed, which means that BPA PBEM Championship III will be kicking off in the near future! I'll send
details in a forthcoming e-mail.

As for the current tourney, your GM proved the oldest maxim in gaming, that it's better to be lucky than good, by defeating Ed Menzel of Fullerton, CA in the Final. It was a tale of two different days; Ed's Confederates, bidding 5.0, looked unbeatable on July 1, but it was all Union on July 2. At the end of turn 8, the Rebels had knocked the Federals off both Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill, losing only Pegram (with McIntosh flipped) in the process. The Union had retreated to the Peach Orchard-H7 line, down two infantry, two artillery, and two cavalry divisions, with another four infantry divisions flipped, including Wadsworth, sitting forlornly on McPherson's Woods, surrounded by Confederates. Truly, things looked grim for the Union. The sole bright note for the North was that they had taken the chit from the South by attacking a 10-stack at even odds and rolling a 7-1. The reroll resulted in no losses for the Confederates, but the loss of that chit was to exact a heavy price on July 2.

From Turn 9 through Turn 12, the Confederates launched 12 attacks, winning only three. They lost two +5 attacks, a +4, a +3, and two +2s. The combined dice were 48-70 against them. Meanwhile, the Union made five 10-10 attacks on Turns 9-11, scoring a double flip on four of them and a single flip on the other! For good measure, they scored a double flip on a 10-8 battle on Turn 12. At that point, the Confederates surrendered with only five units left on the board.

Third place went to Bill Place of Pittsburgh, PA, followed by Allen Kaplan of Howell, NJ in 4th, Ted Drozd of Chicago, IL in 5th and Robin Chiang of Fremont, CA in 6th. Rounding out the top 10 finishers were Barry Shoults, Doug Pratto, Greg Smith, and Doug Porterfield, in that order.

PBeM Championship II totaled 17 Confederate victories to 10 for the Union. 21 of the 27 contests had a Confederate bid, ranging from 0.5 to 5.0. The Confederates won 12 of the 21 games where they bid. Six games had no bid, with the South taking five. The average bid was 2.2 overall, or 2.8 if only the games where there was a bid were taken into account. Ted Drozd and Allen Kaplan shared Best Union Player honors with 2-1 marks, while the GM
and Bill Place shared Best Confederate Player at 3-0 each. Dennis Nicholson was our Rookie of the Year in 15th Place.

I want to thank Ric Manns for maintaining our tournament website and Assistant Gamemasters Ted Drozd and Ed Menzel for their help. Fortunately, we
had few if any rules disputes or adjudications.

Here is the final report for the tournament, with sides and bids:

Round 1 - All Games Completed
5 Ted Drozd (U) defeated 27 Brad Jones (C, 1.0)
8 Bill Place (C, 1.5) defeated 25 Bob Jamelli (U)
16 Dennis Nicholson (C, no bid) defeated 17 Bob Menzel (U)
18 Lance Roberts (C, 3.0) defeated 15 Alan Heath (U)
19 Doug Porterfield (U) defeated 14 Jeff Lange (C, 3.0)
20 Greg Smith (C, no bid) defeated 13 Bruno Sinigaglio (U)
21 Jean-Louis Dirion (U) defeated 12 Jeff Miller (C, 2.0)
22 Robin Chiang (C, no bid) defeated 11 John Dietrich (U)
23 Doug Pratto (C, 4.0) defeated 10 Mark Gutfreund (U)
24 Mark Guz (C, no bid) defeated 9 Joel Ferich (U)
26 Bill Thomson (U) defeated 7 Tom Grode (C, 2.0)
28 Charlie Drozd (U) defeated 6 Jim Tracy (C, 3.0)

Round 2 - All Games Completed
1 Barry Shoults (U) defeated 16 Dennis Nicholson (C, no bid)
2 Allen Kaplan (U) defeated 18 Lance Roberts (C, 3.0)
3 Ed Menzel (C, 4.0) defeated 19 Doug Porterfield (U)
4 Vince Meconi (C, no bid) defeated 20 Greg Smith (U)
5 Ted Drozd (U) defeated 21 Jean-Louis Dirion (C, 0.5)
8 Bill Place (C, 2.0) defeated 24 Mark Guz (U)
22 Robin Chiang (C, 3.0) defeated 28 Charlie Drozd (U)
23 Doug Pratto (C, 5.0) defeated 26 Bill Thomson (U)

Round 3/Quarterfinals - All Games Completed
2 Allen Kaplan (U) defeated 23 Doug Pratto (C, 4.0)
3 Ed Menzel (C, 3.5) defeated 22 Robin Chiang (U)
4 Vince Meconi (C, 1.5) defeated 5 Ted Drozd (U)
8 Bill Place (C, 2.0) defeated 1 Barry Shoults (U)

Round 4/Semifinals - All Games Completed
3 Ed Menzel (C, 3.0) defeated 2 Allen Kaplan (U)
4 Vince Meconi (C, 3.5) defeated 8 Bill Place (U)

Round 5/Finals - Game Completed
4 Vince Meconi (U) defeated 3 Ed Menzel (C, 5.0)