conflict of heroes  

Updated 12/7/2009

2009 WBC Report  

  2010 Status: pending December Membership Trial Vote

Steven Pleva, CT

2009 Champion

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Event History
2009    Steven Pleva     16
 Laurels

 Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
   1.  Steven Pleva       CT    09     20
   2.  J. R. Tracy        NY    09     12
   3.  Jason Roach        MD    09      8
   4.  Mark Kolenski      MA    09      6
   5.  Bill Ashbaugh      NY    09      4
   6.  David Middleton    MD    09      2

2009 Laurelists                                           

J. R. Tracy, NY
2nd

Jason Roach, MD
3rd

Mark Kolenski, MA
4th

Bill Ashbaugh, NY
5th

David Middleton, MD
6th


Gordon Stewart and Mark Kolenski have at it.

J. R. Tracy and Bill Ashbaugh wage war side by side.

Better late than never ...

This year Conflict of Heroes (CoH) made its first appearance at the World Boardgaming Championships, as Academy Games unveiled the latest CoH expansion, Storms of Steel (SoS). Unfortunately, Uwe's arrival was delayed with the result that the tournament did not get off as scheduled, but so enthusiastic was its following that an ad hoc crew took over and demonstrated the game until Uwe's arrival for a delayed start. SoS introduces some new mechanics to the popular CoH system. Though these changes were available on line prior to WBC, Uwe Eickert, tournament GM and CoH/SoS designer, walked the 16 participants through the new rules and their implications for gameplay. Academy Games also provided the SoS components necessary for play. The tournament consisted of three rounds, each featuring a new SoS Firefight. Competitors played a given Firefight once, then switched sides, recording wins and losses as well as total casualties suffered and inflicted. This allowed the GM to rank performances and seed matchups round by round.

The first Firefight was The Courier's Satchel, with a Soviet SMG force attempting to deliver a packet of documents to a headquarters in the center of a small hamlet. The Germans had to fight their way through town, try to intercept the courier, capture the documents, and then attempt to exit the map for bonus victory points. This proved to be a subtle chess match with a fairly even split of German and Russian wins.

Round 2 introduced Wind or Sniper? This firefight utilized a village overlay to create a small town in the middle of fields of wheat. It also introduced the new SoS Sniper unit. Here a small German garrison is under attack by a sizeable Soviet force, supported by a pair of snipers concealed in the surrounding grain. It is a very tense situation as the German player desperately tries to identify the location of the snipers while the main Russian attack presses home. Successful Soviet players were able to pick off the German machine guns, weakening the defense enough for the assault to carry the day. Uwe matched previous winning players in this round, with Steve Pleva facing David Middleton, while J. R. Tracy played Bill Ashbaugh. Steve and J. R. both won each end of their firefight, setting up a final round matchup to determine the tournament champion.

The last round featured Wounded Tiger, an interesting setup, where an immobilized Tiger must hold off a Soviet armored force long enough for a prime mover to arrive to tow it off of the map. The prime mover has a panzer escort, which in turn threatens the flank of the Soviet attack. This action saw a lot of German wins, so victory came down to just how well the Soviets could do in a losing cause. In the Pleva/Tracy matchup, J. R. failed to eliminate Steve's Tiger, needing a seven or better on two six-siders, but coming up short. Switching sides, J. R. killed all the Russian tanks but not before Steve knocked out J. R.'s Tiger. Though each won as the German, Steve's Tiger kill was enough to win the heads-up match, and capture the overall tournament victory.

Despite its aborted start, the game was well received and we look forward to doing it again from scratch next year according to schedule.

Low piece density, quick playing times, and ...

... stunning graphics turned heads in the game's WBC debut.
 GM      Uwe Eickert  [1st Year]   NA
   ueickert@gmail.com   419-307-2115

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