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