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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.
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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 |