paths of glory  

Updated Nov. 12, 2014

Guns of August Pre-Con
2014 WBC Report    

 2015 Status: pending 2015 GM commitment

Stefan Mecay, TX

2013-14 Champion

 

Event History
1999    Donald Stone    36
2000    Peter Reese    52
2001    David Dockter    34
2002    Peter Reese    49
2003     Rob Hassard    40
2004    Nick Anner    39
2005    Tom Drueding    34
2006    Dave Dockter    48
2007     Stefan Mecay    35
2008    Riku Riekkinen    42
2009     Stefan Mecay    50
2010    Stefan Mecay    35
2011    Peter Gurneau    27
2012    Riku Riekkinen    29
2013    Stefan Mecay    36
2014    Stefan Mecay    34

WAM Event History
2003     David Dockter    32
2004     Rob Hassard    11
2005    Marvin Birnbaum    16
2006     Tom Drueding    17
2007    Chris Byrd    17
2008    Tom Drueding    20
2009     Tom Drueding    12
2010     Tom Drueding    16

PBeM  Event History
2001    Stefan Mecay    40
2005    Stephen Valkyser    68
2006     Tom Drueding    64
2009     Stefan Mecay    89
2011    Stefan Mecay    64

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Stefan Mecay      TX     14    472
  2.  Tom Drueding      MA     11    428
  3.  David Dockter     MN     11    328
  4.  Peter Reese       VA     12    276
  5.  Marvin Birnbaum   NY     14    210
  6.  Chris Byrd        CT     10    208
  7.  Rob Hassard       NJ     09    181
  8.  Riku Riekkinen    fi     13    174
  9.  Nick Anner        NY     11    162
 10.  Peter Gurneau     WI     14    120
 11.  Jim Falling       MI     07    117
 12.  Stephan Valkyser  de     05     96
 13.  Michael Dauer     TX     14     66
 14.  Tom Gregorio      PA     12     66
 15.  John Sutcliff     uk     13     48
 16.  Nick Frydas       uk     12     42
 17.  Charlie Hickok    PA     10     39
 18.  John Brown        VA     04     36
 19.  Bob Heinzmann     FL     05     30
 20.  James Pei         TX     04     30
 21.  Ken Gutermuth     TX     09     28
 22.  Steve Brooks      FL     08     25
 23.  Steve Koleszar    VA     14     24
 24.  Mauro Faina       it     11     24
 25.  Andy Friedmann    MA     10     24
 26.  Rick Byrens       CA     07     24
 27.  Josh Alexander    MI     04     24
 28.  Alex Gregorio     PA     13     18
 29.  Steve Worrel      NC     03     18
 30.  Michael Mitchell  GA     07     16
 31.  Ed McGran         WA     05     16
 32.  Kevin Sudy        VA     11     12
 33.  Mauro Gasbarroni  it     09     12
 34.  Mel Casselberry   PA     07     12
 35.  Pat Mirk          FL     05     12
 36.  John Emery        SC     00     12
 37.  Michael Johnson   MA     01     10
 38.  Don Stone         NC     99     10
 39.  Jay Meyers        CA     10      9
 40.  Tim Hall          UT     10      9
 41.  Andrew Maly       MD     00      9
 42.  Tim Miller        GA     07      8
 43.  Carl Adamec       NY     14      6
 44.  Johnny Hasay      PA     10      6
 45.  Steve Parrish     VA     08      6
 46.  Lance Roberts     AK     06      6
 47.  Holger Janssen    de     05      6
 48.  Pete Rohn         IL     04      6
 49.  Hank Burkhalter   TN     02      6
 50.  Nick Firer        WI     00      6
 51.  Don Johnson       VA     99      6
 52.  Ric Manns         IN     01      5
 53.  Seth Gunar        NJ     08      4
 54.  Scott Moll        VA     07      4
 55.  Dennis Culhane    PA     99      4
 56.  Bill Pettus       NJ     09      3
 57.  Steve Huskey      KS     00      3
 58.  Joe DiCamillo     PA     99      3
 59.  Doug Austin       VA     06      3
 60.  Rob Winslow       NY     99      2
 61.  Paul Horvath      CA     00      1
 62.  Paul Abrahamse    MI     99      1

2014 Laurelists
Repeating Laurelists:

Marvin Birnbaum, NY
2nd

Michael Dauer, TX
3rd

Peter Gurneau, WI
4th

Steve Koleszar, VA
5th

Carl Adamec, NY
6th

Past Winners

Peter Reese, VA
2000, 2002

Dave Dockter, MN
2001, 2006

Rob Hassard, NJ
2003

Nick Anner, NY
2004

Thomas Drueding, MA
2005

Stefan MeCay, TX
2007, 2009-10, 2013-14

Riku Riekkinen, fi
2008, 2012

Peter Gurneau, WI
2011
   

Ol' Guns, Dice & Butter himself returns to the front vs Tom Gregorio.

Nick Benedict vs the BKN Guru - Andrew Cummins.

Steve Koleszar finished fifth for the second straight year.

First to Five ...

This year's tournament again stemmed the attendance attrition experiened in recent years, and continued the Pre-con tradition of challenging all to a battle of endurance of three 7-hour games. The first Swiss rounds started on Saturday at 3pm to allow more players to make the start of this pre-con. More of these games are going up to and past the 7 hour time limit, and this shows the level of game play is continuing to increase. A few games on Saturday went into the wee hours. Sunday was the marathon day with a 9am start and a 5pm start to finish of the Swiss portion. Limited West front CP strategy was often used, then the CP would turn on the Russians. Stefan Mecay, Marvin Birnbaum, Tom Drueding, and Peter Gurneau were undefeated during Swiss play with Tom Drueding bowing out of the playoff round. This meant five (2-1) players would advance into the playoff round. The famous PoG rolloff took place on Monday morning with seven players rolling for five spots. Carl Adamac, Michael Dauer, Alex Gregorio, Steve Kolezsar, and Johnny Hasay advanced. Les Haskell and David Dockter were denied their chance by lady luck. Everyone had a great time.

The playoffs saw Mecay beat Koleszar, Birnbaum over Adamac, Gurneau best Hasay, and Dauer top Gregorio in the quarterfinals. Round 5 had Mecay beat Dauer, and Birnbaum triumph over Gurneau in the semifinals. The Final was thus set between defending champion Stefan with four titles to his credit vs Marvin - still looking fir his first WBC POG title. Stefan won the bid with 2 for the AP.

The CP attacked in the West, and Stefan responded with the Russians attacking the Austro-Hungarians. Then Marvin tried a new gambit, by SR'ing the German 8th Army from East Prussia to the Serbian combat zone to help the AH. The Serbs fell back slowly into the mountains in the Balkans, followed by the combined German and AH army stack. By Turn 3, the CP was able to remove the Serbs from the map, and permanently removed 1 Serb army. The CP also attacked in the west and removed the BEF from the game as well. This gave time to the Russians to prepare for their attack. Italy came in early on Turn 3, and caused the CP some trouble. The AP beat the CP to Limited War on Turn 3. The Russian attack forced the Germans to bring down another army to save Budapest, and the CP spent many ops trying to entrench, finally getting it done at the end of Turn 5. This time allowed the AP to play many events and reinforcements, and the AP got to Total War first. The Russians shifted their attack north to the German fort line on Turn 6, and by the end of Turn 7, Stefan was able to win an automatic victory, by getting the CP down to 0 VP. Had the CP been able to entrench earlier in Budapest, the early attack on the Serbs might have been more successful as an overall strategy, but it is always good to see new strategies applied in PoG! Congratulations Stefan Mecay for winning your fifth WBC title!

Marvin takes down the GM in semifinal play.

Stefan wins his 5th title vs Marvin as GM Gurneau observes.

 GM     Peter Gurneau [2nd Year]  NA  
   pcgurneau@earthlink.net   NA

2014 Previews | View the Icon Key | Return to main BPA page