gettysburg   

Updated 11/15/2011
2011 WBC Report     

 2012 Status: pending 2012 GM commitment
Ted Drozd, IL
2011 Champion

Links

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Event History
1992    Michael Uhrich     19
1993    Kevin McCarthy     17
1994    Allen Kaplan     18
1995    Vince Meconi     10
1996    Allen Kaplan     16
1997    Kevin McCarthy     22
1998    Kevin McCarthy     22
1999    Vince Meconi     10
2000    Vince Meconi     12
2001    Kevin McCarthy     18
2002    Vince Meconi     11
2003    Vince Meconi      8
2004    Allen Kaplan     28
2005    Jim Tracy     27
2006    Ed Menzel     33
2007    Ed Menzel     31
2008    Ed Menzel     33
2009    Ed Menzel     35
2010    Richard Beyma     35
2011    Ted Drozd     42

PBeM Event History
2006    Barry Shoults     26
2008    Vince Meconi     28
2011    Mike Pacheco     36
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Ed Menzel          CA    11    207
  2.  Vincent Meconi     DE    11    176
  3.  Ted Drozd          IL    11    102
  4.  Allen Kaplan       NJ    08     91
  5.  Richard Beyma      MD    11     88
  6.  Dave Zimmerman     PA    09     78
  7.  Barry Shoults      MI    07     56
  8.  Mike Pacheco       CA    11     54
  9.  Jim Tracy          OH    11     54
 10.  William Place      PA    08     31
 11.  Greg Smith         FL    10     30
 12.  Tom Gregorio       PA    11     27
 13.  Doug Porterfield   VA    11     24
 14.  Bill Thomson       TX    11     18
 15.  Dan Overland       MI    11     12
 16.  John Clarke        FL    09     12
 17.  Rob Doane          MA    08     12
 18.  Tom Grode          AZ    06     12
 19.  Michael Uhrich     PA    99     12
 20.  Chuck Stapp        NJ    03     10
 21.  Kevin McCarthy     OH    01     10
 22.  Bert Schoose       IL    08      9
 23.  Dennis Nicholson   NY    11      6
 24.  Bruno Sinigaglio   AK    04      6
 25.  Ray Clark          CT    10      4
 26.  Wayne Morrison     FL    02      4
 27.  Robin Chiang       CA    08      3
 28.  Joel Ferich        PA    05      3
 29.  Buck Karpowitz     DC    03      3
 30.  Ken Whitesell      PA    00      3
 31.  Pete Pollard       TN    02      2
 32.  Bryan Van Nortwick NC    01      2
 33.  Roger Knowles      OH    01      1
 34.  Victor Hutcherson  MD    00      1

2011 Laurelists                                          Repeating Laurelists 

Richard Beyma, VA
2nd

James Tracy, OH
3rd

Doug Porterfield, VA
4th

Ed Menzel, CA
5th

Vince Meconi. DE
6th

Past Winners

Michael Uhrich, PA
1992

Kevin McCarthy, OH
'93, '97-'98, '01

Allen Kaplan, NJ
'94, '96, '04

Vince Meconi, DE
'95, '99-'00, '02-'03

Jim Tracy, OH
2005

Ed Menzel, CA
2006-2009

Richard Beyma, MD
2010

Ted Drozd, IL
2011
   

A couple of Rays - Freeman and Clark - join the record field of 42 players - possible only at WBC.

Mark Gutfreund proudly displays his Avaloncon t-shirt, and his ability to still wear it, for Ed Menzel.

Grognards Indeed

Ted Drozd won his first GBG title by unseating defending champion Richard Beyma in the Final. Richard was playing in his third consecutive Gettysburg Final. Ted finished with a 7-2 record and Richard was 8-2. 2005 champ Jim Tracy took 3rd at 6-3 and Doug Porterfield finished 4th with a 3-3 mark. The 42 total entrants was a 20% increase over 2010's record total and the 61 games played was just slightly off last year's record pace.

Preliminary games were played at the Grognardcon on Saturday and Sunday, and at the WBC proper from Monday through Friday. Friday night, the 15 players who had played the required minimum number of games (3) to qualify for the playoffs were ranked, with the top four advancing to the single-elimination rounds. The top four qualifiers were, in order, Richard (7-1, 71 Total Points), Jim (5-2, 64 Points), Ted (4-0-1, 55 Points), and Doug (3-1, 51 Points). Richard was the only player to repeat from last year's final four. 5th place went to four-time champ Ed Menzel (6-5), who took home the book Brigades of Gettysburg, awarded to the highest finisher not winning a plaque. Other top ten finishers were 6th, the GM (5-3), 7th, Ray Clark (5-3), 8th, Mark Gutfreund (3-3), 9th, Jeff Lange (3-1), and 10th, Tom Gregorio (2-2).

In the Saturday morning semi-finals, #1 Richard slugged it out with #4 Doug and #2 Jim squared off against #3 Ted. Richard's Confederates, bidding 10.5, scored a July 2 automatic victory over Doug's Union; 60-25.5. Meanwhile, Ted's Blue received a Turn 18 concession from Jim's Grey, who had bid 13.

In the Final, Richard again took the South for a bid of 10.5. The USA scored an early victory by eliminating the CSA's Anderson division on the first day, but Reynolds' and Slocum's corps were cut off due to a confusing ZOC situation on Cemetery Hill. On the second day, the South defeated the isolated corps in detail and continued to push forward, but obtained few hits on the remaining Union troops. The arrival of Sedgewick's VI Corps turned the tide. The Union cavalry worked its way around the flanks, and Confederate losses began to mount. The CSA was facing a surrounded hilltop situation on the night of July 2 and conceded. Casualty VPs were virtually identical at that point, but the Union held 15 of the 16 territory VPs plus the 10.5 bid. Ted was Rookie of the Year playing in his first tourney in 2003 and has had six Top Five finishes prior to this one.

Richard's 8-1 mark as the Grey earned him the Best Confederate Player designation, ahead of Jim Tracy at 6-2 and Ray Clark at 5-1. Best Union Player was champion Ted with a perfect 7-0 log. No other player managed more than two Union wins and only Chuck Stapp had both two Union wins and a winning record as the Federals.

The South won 42 games to 19 losses. 50 games used the campaign scenario, with the Confederates on top in 38. 11 games used the short July 1 scenario, with the Federals winning seven. Six of those 11 July 1 scenario games were played in pairs, with the best total score determining the winner for Victory Point purposes; they are considered separate games for AREA reports. In the campaign scenario games, there were 43 Confederate bids ranging from 3.0 to 13.0 Victory Points. There were no bids in the 11 July 1 scenario contests. The average bid was 4.32/Confederate for all games and 6.13/Confederate for games in which there was a bid. Both averages were the highest on record.

Average game length clocked in at 3 hours and 21 minutes, equalling 2008's longest sinced we began timing games in 2004. Game length ranged from an 8-hour marathon between veterans Kevin McCarthy and Dave Zimmerman (Kevin's Union forces prevailed) and a 15-minute July 1 sprint in which Ted Drozd's Union knocked off brother Charlie Drozd's Confederates.

Again this year, first thanks go to Bruno Sinigaglio for running the Grognardcon from Saturday afternoon through Tuesday afternoon. Thank you also to Assistant Gamemasters Ted Drozd and Ed Menzel, for helping run the tournament. Finally, Bill Morse deserves continued appreciation for completely automating the scoring for all the Grognardcon games, including Gettysburg '88. Thanks again for the work of these four gentlemen, who made the GM's job immeasurably easier.

Four-time champ Ed Menzel and 2005 champ Jim Tracy find it difficult to regain championship form in a record year for GBG.

Defending champ Richard Beyma finds his reign cut short by Ted Drozd in the Final.

 Play By Email 2011

Mike Pacheco has won the 3rd Gettysburg '88 BPA PBeM Championship. Mike won five in a row as the South and defeated the pride of Austin, TX, Bill Thomson, in the final match. Mike entered the Final as the #8 seed with Bill at #6. Mike bid 5.5 for the Rebels. The South held only a slight edge as July 3 dawned, but pulled steadily away until the North resigned on Turn 21; the Union stil held LIttle Round Top and hex I11, but their losses were too great to overcome. The final tally had the Rebels with 61 Victory Points (kills 48, flips 5, and territory 8) and the Federals with 39.5 (kills 22, flips 4, territory 8, and bid 5.5). Mike is no stranger to the top ranks of PBeM play, having turned in a 2nd place finish in our first PBeM tournament. For his part, Bill recorded his highest ever finish in tournament play with a 4-1 log. Competition is obviously keen in this event as there have been three different winners in as many tournaments.

Other laurelists were 3rd, Dan Overland of Flint, MI (3-1), 4th, Ed Menzel (Fullerton, CA (3-1), 5th, Dennis Nicholson (Pawling, NY (2-1), and 6th, Tom Gregorio,(Blue Bell, PA (2-1), His 3rd place finish marked Dan Overland as our Rookie of the Year. Mike Pacheco's aforementioned 5-0 tally as the Grey earned him Best Confederate Player, and Dan Overland's 3-1 record as the Blue resulted in Best Union Player honors. Four of our top five, #1 Mike Pacheco, #2 Bill Thomson, #3 Dan Overland, and #5 Dennis Nicholson, turned in their best ever tournament finishes.

The CSA took 22 tournament contests to the USA's 11 (two games involved a withdrawal that took place before sides were chosen), but went only 4-3 in the last three rounds. Bidding stats were as follows: 28 games with a Confederate bid; zero games with a Union bid; and seven games featuring no bid. Bids ranged up to 6.0. The average bid was 2.91 for all games and 3.64 for games in which there was a bid. The higher seeded player won 20 contests and lost 15.

Thanks go to Ed Menzel and Ted Drozd for volunteering as Assistant GMs for this event. Also, Bill Thomson's website contains the results of our event plus assorted other Gettysburg goodies. Thanks, Bill. Check it out at: http://www.wargameacademy.org/G88/2009-PBEM/index.html

 GM      Vincent Meconi [8th Year]   105 Churchill Ln, Wilmington, DE 19808-4355
   VMeconi@verizon.net    NA

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