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Dorian Key on his way to winning wood
at his very first WBC. |
Graham Cosmos and Kevin McCarthy watch
Darren Kilfara attack. |
To the Gates of Moscow ...
The exciting Final was preceded by two heats of three Imperial
French and four Tsarist Russian victories. This was
followed by a two game semi-final Friday, with each side winning
once.
During these preliminaries, Darren Kilfara distinguished himself
by scoring an impressive 15.5 Victory Points win as the Southern
French, eclipsing the North French under Napoleon, by seizing
the border fortresses as well as Kiev and most of the Pripyet
Marsh Duchies. Andrew McCarthy, also a South French
player, despite a most adverse situation in which the Imperials
ultimately lost by suffering an automatic defeat through Attrition
losses, was able to precipitate a Tsarist "Will to Fight"
resolution through aggressive play and almost turn the tide for
the French cause.
In another memorable game of the initial heats, Harry Theodore
scored 14 VP as the Tsarist 1st Army as he and Mitch Lake
went on to a Russian victory.
The four finalists were Melvin Casseberry, French North, Pat
Duffy, French South vs. Dorian Key, Russian North (1st Army)
and Phil Pendleton, Russian South (2nd Army). Remarkably,
both Pat and Dorian, although experienced gamers, had begun their
Kutuzov initiation by attending Developer Fred Schachter's
Tuesday demonstration of the game. Talk about a couple of "quick
learners"!
The initial French onslaught caught a lone 2-Strength Point
Cavalry in Tilsit which was unable to evade Napoleon's 8 SP Army. Dorian's
unfortunate dice rolling continued when Wittgenstein's 4 SP Army
could not evade and all but that Russian Leader was eliminated
in Schlavii. Napoleon then turned north in an attempt
to by-pass the powerful Russian Baltic Fortress of Riga (nicknamed
the "Gibraltar of the North") but was frustrated by
timely play of the Tsarist "Bridges Blown" Event Card.
Napoleon's Army, supported by Davout and Ney's respective
forces, assaulted Barclay's Army entrenched in Dunaberg. Once
again, the Russians failed to make their evasion dice roll and
Barclay, with his entire force, was annihilated.
To the South, Phil and Pat jousted with the Russian fortresses
of Grodno and Brest falling to Pat's Army South with a "Scorched
Earth" marker being placed in Minsk to impede the Imperial
advance. Pat also played the "Hapsburg Offensive"
Event Card to enhance the Austrian Army under Schwarzenberg and
advance it towards Kiev.
For all the preceding defeats, French Morale remained high
while accumulated Morale Loss Markers caused a reduction of Tsarist
Morale from "Vive L'Emperor" to "Marchez Vous"
but a single level away from "Les Grognard" Morale
and its "Will to Fight" Marker, whose play could result
in the possible mutiny of the entire Russian Army and an immediate
defeat.
Dorian then played the "Truce" card, which forced
the French advance to grind to a complete halt. Melvin's
Army North's drive was halted as was Pat's advance on Kiev. This
triggered a "Will to Fight" resolution; but the Russian
die roll resulted in their remaining in the game. When
hostilities resumed Fortress Smolensk fell to the still aggressively
advancing French. However, that ended Turn 1.
Turn 2 commenced with the players realizing that if Russian
Morale could be dropped another level, a second "Will
to Fight" resolution would be triggered and then capture
of either St. Petersburg or Moscow would be sufficient to precipitate
a third potential Tsarist surrender dice roll and an automatic Imperial
win. However, Russian play of the "Pay the Devil
His Due" Event Card to raise their Morale one level, back
to "Marchez Vous", avoided that potential way to defeat.
Melvin's Northern French, with aid of the "Mild Weather"
card, continued advancing deeper into Russia. When
the "Bridges Blown" Tsarist Home Card again destroyed
the way into Jacobstadt across the Divina River (twice in a single
game!); Napoleon's Army simply by-passed the place and rather
than advance on Moscow, which was becoming increasingly well
garrisoned, drove north and in the process surrounded and destroyed
6 SP's and Barclay in Vitebsk by occupying every Duchy Barclay
could have retreated into.
After this battle, more reminiscent of a WWII Eastern Front
panzer encirclement than a 19th century engagement, Napoleon's
Army marched on an undefended St. Petersburg. The
Russians had overly focused on defending Moscow!
Dorian's Tsarist First Army placed a "Scorched Earth"
marker upon his own capital to attrition the menacing Imperial
Army, scrounged up a defense force by moving SP from the hinterland,
by sea, through purchase and out of the Regroup Box thanks to
timely play of the "Raise the Serfs" Event earlier
that turn to raise a force which barely, just barely, flung the
Emperor back from the gates of St. Petersburg.
The next turn saw Kutuzov himself take over St. Petersburg's
defense with additional troops and an Entrenchment (all of whom
survived rolling for Attrition due to St. Pete's "Scorched
Earth" marker). Melvin's French, rather than
seek bloody battle against a now daunting force turned around
and force marched southeast to assault a leaderless Moscow!
Napoleon's first attack on Moscow's garrison, through some
remarkable Russian battle dice results and play of the "Too
Old for This" event card to deprive Melvin of a leader battle
bonus of 10 dice (through Melvin's earlier play of the "What
Price Glory?" Battle card), was repulsed. More
troops and a replaced and entrenched Barclay now faced the emperor.
But French ambitions were not over yet! For Melvin
obtained most timely aid when his erstwhile ally Pat dispatched
a South Army under Murat to lead the now cardless Northern Imperials
in an Army Group for another close run battle to seize the vital
Key Capital City of Moscow.
However, that Imperial assault also failed and with it the
French Team of Melvin Castleberry and Pat Duffy conceded defeat. Next
turn would see Winter and a Grand Army but a shade of its former
self. The emperor's ambitions to conquer Tsarist Russia had failed,
by a slim margin, with Turn 2 defeats assaulting both St. Petersburg
and Moscow.
Phil Pendleton's Second Tsarist Army and Dorian
Key 's First Tsarist Army had emerged victorious from WBC's inaugural
Kutuzov competition.
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Curtis Baer takes a break from his
Case White Campaign Game in the lobby to see how the other half
lives. |
Developer and GM Fred Schachter (center)
gathers his finalists for battle on the big map with Mark's painted
miniatures. |
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