Steve Koleszar eschews Titan battles to be a grognard again.	Jon Lockwood offers another clinic on the Palevda Gambit.

In a year of record WBC attendance, the grognards who turned out for Afrika Korps fell to their lowest total in the past 14 years, and with that decline fell out of the Century for the first time. Not surprisingly, the final four for the 20th tournament featured the usual veteran faces, with three-time and defending champion Vince Meconi facing off against 2007 champion Bert Schoose in one semi-final, while GM Jonathan Lockwood (the 2003 champion) took on up and coming journeyman Bill Morse in the other playoff slot.

Lockwood took the British with no supply bid needed. Morse's opening attack offered Lockwood the chance to use his infamous Palevda Gambit opening, which Lockwood declined because of the opportunity to occupy the N19 escarpment and hamper German flanking efforts. As things turned out, this did not matter. Aided by a rare PERFECT supply run, Morse was able to drive the British into Tobruch with minimal casualties and mount an aggressive eastward drive towards Alexandria. By early August, the Germans were at the El Alamein line. Realizing his situation was desperate, Lockwood unleashed 1-2 and 1-1 counterattacks against two 7-7-10 Panzer regiments, hoping to kneecap the Afrika Korps with an exchange on the 1-2 and a D Elim or exchange on the 1-1. The 1-2 gained the exchange, but the 1-1 yielded an "Attacker Eliminated", enabling Morse to execute an automatic victory counterattack on the next turn to take Alexandria, sending Morse to his first AFK Final.

Schoose took the British without a supply bid. Much as in the other semi-final match, Meconi was able to drive the British into Tobruch and mount an eastward offensive with minimal casualties. However, Schoose's adroit use of delay units, combined with a less than perfect supply run for the Germans after July, enabled Schoose to hold until his November reinforcements could join the fray. Unfortunately for Meconi, he did not realize that the influx of two 4-4-7s and three 2-2-6s, combined with the other remaining 2-2-6s, enabled the British to mount a 3-1 counterattack against one of his 7-7-10 panzers, resulting in an Exchange. The British were able to follow this with further attacks to reduce the Afrika Korps. Faced with a dwindling attack force and an aggressive British counteroffensive, Meconi fell back to Tobruch and launched the "Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch" (1-1 attack) vs the Tobruch defenders. The resulting exchange gave the Germans possession of Tobruch, but at a prohibitive cost.

In the championship match, both sides wanted the Germans, to the point where Morse bid one "sunk" supply for the privilege. This became a critical factor early when Morse's first two convoys were "sunk". When he finally got a supply on his third roll, Bert used his one automatic "sunk" result to take out that convoy as well. The precarious German supply situation forced Morse to resort to flanking maneuvers south of Tobruch in an effort to force the British out of their initial blocking positions. Schoose then demonstrated once again why Afrika Korps is known as "The Unforgiving Game" by isolating one of Morse's 7-7-10 panzer regiments. A desperation 2-1 German counterattack on the second turn of isolation managed to break the isolation at the cost of Ariete in an exchange. Schoose then isolated the 7-7-10 a second time using his June reinforcements. Morse was compelled to resort to a 1-1 counterattack to break the isolation but this attempt failed, resulting in the elimination of the isolated 7-7-10. This drew the German concession, and made Bert a two-time champ and the first player ever to win both the WBC and the PBeM titles in the same year!

Greg Smith counting Movement Factors in the game of maneuver.	Finalists John Morse and Bert Schoose mug for the camera.

The Third BPA PBeM Afrika Korps tournament again drew 26 grognards some 46 years after this game was first published. After 25 games, only 2007 champ Bert Schoose and venerable 1993-94 champ Joe Beard remained. Bert's Axis forces outdid their historical counterparts to allow Bert to capture his first PBeM AFK title.

On a sadder note, John Popiden earned his last laurels in this event posthumously - having passed away during the course of the tournament. Others winning laurels were Ed Menzel, Jonathan Lockwood and Vince Meconi in that order.