Paul Sampson vs Ted Lyng	Chris Withers is denied by Riku in the Final.

With WAM attendance down from its strong showing in 2012, it was inevitable that attendance for TWS would take a hit as well. After all, TWS has been one of the top draws for WAM for several years. Its showing of 20 players this year was nearly three-fourths of the WAM field. Certainly, there was no lack of passion among the participants, with a number of games making it to the Final War deck, and a handful being decided by final scoring after Turn 10. The intensity was fueled by the fact that both the previous WAM TWS champs, Chris Byrd and Stefan Mecay, were absent—which meant that with the right amount of guile and luck, one big upset could potentially put you in the Final. The smaller field also meant that one mistake could knock you right out of the running, as we needed only four rounds to crown a champion.

The first round got off to a rousing start when Marvin Birnbaum forced Mark Yoshikawa to blow up the world on Turn 5. Charlie Hickok steered his Soviets to a similar victory vs George Galuschak on the very same turn, but gained a few more style points, since his victory was punctuated by Kruschchev banging his shoe on a table. Not to be outdone, Randy MacInnis managed an auto-victory with the USSR on Turn 3. Responding with US automatic wins were Keith Wixson over Bruce Monnin and David Amidon over Roderick Lee. And in true WAM tradition, there were a number of games that came down to the last turns. Derek Landel built up an 18-point lead over Terry Coleman, only to see Terry charge back within 7 by Turn 9. A timely play of the Wargames card allowed Derek to escape with a narrow victory that both players called their most exciting game of the event. Michael Sosa repeated this ploy almost exactly in defeating Kirk Harris. Two games came down to Final Scoring, with Doug Austin and Michael Mitchell defeating Bill Edwards and Larry Fryer, respectively.

Doug would continue his excellent play with a win over another good player, Jeff Finkeldey, in Round 2. That, however, was the end of Mr. Austin's WAM adventure, as he left for home before the last rounds. Also improving to 2-0 were Keith Wixson, Marvin Birnbaum, Randy MacInnis, and Michael Mitchell, whose Final Scoring victory over Charlie was one of the tenser contests of the tournament.

The marquee matchups had Marvin bulldozing again to a Soviet auto win, this time versus Randy, and Michael pulling out a Final Scoring victory against Keith. They would meet for the title. Meanwhile, several early-round losers had gone on a winning streak to put them in striking distance of laurels. Jeff had the perfect combo to force Mark Yoshikawa to DEFCON 1 and a loss, enticed Derek into his own mushroom cloud, and might have done the same to Greg Ottoman, had not the latter resigned on Turn 7. Similarly, Keith forced a resignation from Randy in the last round—a consolation of sorts for not making the championship game. Bill bounced back from his opening-round loss with three straight wins over Terry Coleman, Bruce Monnin and Roderick Lee (who finished 2nd at WAM 2011). All of these results would seem to point to a thrilling Final but it was not to be. Marvin jumped out to a huge lead. All of his early coups were successful, and for Michael, just the opposite was true. Marvin sprinted to an automatic victory on Turn 3, and achieved his second WAM TWS crown, and the first since 2008.

We played with 2nd edition TWS rules, but also included the two additional influence in Canada for the US from the Deluxe version. Also, the holder of the China Card at the end of the game was awarded only 1/2 victory point, to avoid any chance of a draw. Only seven games used the optional cards from the Deluxe set, and no one played with Chinese Civil War rules - the consensus at WAM seems to be that with seasoned players, the main effect of these rules is to keep the China Card out of the game altogether.

Unlike last year, when the US held a slight edge, the Soviets won going away, by a margin of 20-12. Much of the blame for this can be laid at the feet of our champ, Marvin Birnbaum, who led the Russian blitz with a perfect 4-0 Soviet slate. His counterpart, Jeff Finkeldey played the US in all four games, finishing with the best American record at 3-1.

2013 WAM Laurelists