Jonathan Lockwood vs 2013 laurelist David Glowny.	Rejean Tremblay vs Chuck Stapp
New champ Geoff Heintzelman vs Dan Long	Michael Shea downs Gareth Williams in the semifinals.

This year marked 70 years since the D-Day landings at Normandy, and 10 years since Memoir '44 was released as a tribute to it. Thus, it probably was inevitable that we'd have a D-Day theme.

For this year's tournament, Memoir's creator, Richard Borg, updated six familiar D-Day scenarios, mostly from the base game. The most conspicuous additions were new unit types, such as machine guns, Big Guns, and landing craft - as well as the most recently introduced Supported Infantry and Supported Armor (or, as somebody said, "tanks with benefits"). In addition, some card counts and medal objectives had been increased, and some terrain had been shifted. Because of the various special units and terrain types, a user-friendly help sheet was distributed to each player, and before each round, Richard or the GM reviewed that scenario's new elements. The players all deserve to be commended for absorbing a good deal of new information. There were questions during play, as always, but no problems.

Mulligan Round ... D-Day Begins: Pegasus Bridge. Pegasus is the first scenario in the basic Memoir '44 instruction book, and is often used to teach the basics of the game to beginners. But here, unlike the original version of this scenario, the Germans had three armored units in different corners of the board, and an extra card in their hand. In addition, each side had a pair of Special Weapons infantries, and the battle went to 5 medals, instead of 4. We had 40 players for the Mulligan, which was identical to last year's count. For the Allies, Eric Martin and 2010 champion John Skiba notched a 5-0 shutout. Daniel Long gained the only 5-0 win for Axis. The Allies won 27 of the 40 games (68%), with an average score of 4.38-3.00.

Round 1 ... D-Day Begins: Pegasus Bridge. Dawn broke and 38 of our best fighters tried again to take Pegasus (again, the same count as last year). The record was similar to the previous evening, with the Allies winning 29 of the 38 encounters (76%) by an average score of 4.42-2.58. Allied 5-0 shutout wins were gained by Marvin Birnbaum, Chris Kalmbacher, John Kirk, James Miller, Robert Powers, Michael Shea, and Chuck Stapp. Marvin's and John's were notable because they shut each other out. This round's biggest Axis wins were 5-1 victories by Carl Moon and Michael Shea. Out of 39 Pegasus matches in the Mulligan and Round 1, there were only three in which the Axis won both games; interestingly, 2013 laurelist Tim Hitchings played in two of them.

Round 2 ... Sainte Mere-Eglise. On this revised map, the American paratroops have already landed, the Germans have armor on both their left and right, and the three town hexes in the middle have become a temporary majority medal objective. The Allies won 20 battles in 34 tries (59%), by an average score of 4.88-4.56. Eight of the 17 matches were sweeps. 2004 champ Steve Lollis scored the round's only shutout, as Axis, while 2005-06 champ Joe Harrison had the best Allied score, at 6-1.

Round 3 ... Sword Beach. The Germans have a Big Gun and a mortar infantry, while the British have a Destroyer and a pair of bunker-busting Hobart's Funnies. Because a couple of players had dropped out, we only had 16 players for this round, so no eliminators were necessary this year. This scenario played out evenly, with the Allies winning nine of 16 games (56%), by an average score of 4.88-4.38. Five of the eight matches were sweeps. The biggest Allied win was a 6-1 score by GM Sam Edelston, avenging his loss in the 2012 Final to Eric Caron, while the biggest Axis win was notched by 2010 champ John Skiba, at 6-2. After three rounds, we had three players undefeated at 6-0: Joe Harrison, Geoff Heintzelman, and Gareth Williams. (Geoff had lost a split match in the Mulligan, but re-entered and swept rounds 1, 2, and 3.)

Round 4 ... Gold Beach. Another amphibious landing scenario. The British have a pair of bunker-busting Hobart's Funnies, and several of their units are on Landing Craft. The Germans have an artillery front-and-center to push them back into the Channel, and a Big Gun in the rear to ensure that safety will be hard to find. Most of the players who made it this far in the tournament were perennial contenders. Mike Shea swept John Skiba, 6-4, 6-3; Mike's Allies had easily eliminated John's center artillery in Game 1, but in the rematch, though John busted Mike's artillery bunker, his 18 dice were only able to hit it once and retreat it all the way to the back row. Gareth Williams, eliminated Ty Hansen, 6-2, 4-6. Joe Harrison knocked out Barry Shoults, 5-6, 6-3. Geoff Heintzelman sent GM Sam Edelston off to desk duty, 6-3, 4-6, gaining his clinching medal by going Behind Enemy Lines to kill off a solitary infantry figure that was hiding way off in the corner. The Allies won five of the eight games, with an average score of 5.13-4.38. Barry, Sam, and Ty all finished the tournament at 5-3, and within two medals of each other.

As we entered the semifinals, the GM checked the standings. Joe led the pack at 7-1, with 45 medals. Behind him were Gareth, Geoff, and Mike - all tied with 7-1 records and 44 medals. Time to see what carnage could be wrought at Omaha.

Round 5 ... Omaha First Wave ... semifinals. The original version of this scenario is notoriously one-sided, at about 80-20. The new tournament version moved one German artillery to the rear and changed the other to a shorter-range Flak 88 anti-tank gun. As in all of the other scenarios, each side was given some special units. The stage was set, and the battle lines were drawn. Geoff won his first game against Joe, 7-6. In their rematch, Geoff sensed imminent defeat, so his Germans launched a desperate Infantry Assault on their right, just when Joe had run out of cards to defend, and Geoff was able to steal a second 7-6 victory. Meanwhile, Mike opened with a devastating 7-2 win as Axis over Gareth. However, Gareth pulled out a 7-5 win in the rematch, ending the game with a successful Ambush - and in so doing, clinched third place.

The Final was going to be perennial contender Mike Shea against second-time WBC contestant Geoff Heintzelman.

Geoff came to WBC for the first time last year, but he's known as a strong player in the Memoir '44 Online world. Mike is dangerous at a variety of the Commands & Colors games - he won C&C: Napoleonics in 2011 and was runner-up at BattleLore in 2009. Interestingly, in last year's Memoir tournament, Geoff and Mike tied for 7th place, with 5-3 records and 40 medals. Now, it was time for them to tangle again for higher stakes.

Two-time champ Joe Harrison falls to new champ Geoff Heintzelman in the semifinals.

Round 6 ... Juno Beach ... Final. Traditionally, the German Left flank at Juno is hard to defend, but hopefully the addition of a fifth card, a Big Gun, and a Supported Armor unit might even things out a little. The first game was, indeed, more even. Geoff's Germans put up a stiff defense as Mike's Canadians fought their way up the beach. But with an Armor Assault, Mike killed a singleton infantry and took ground into a medal town. Then a Barrage of offshore fire demolished the German Big Gun, and that was the beginning of the end. An Allied infantry went Behind Enemy Lines to capture the last medal to give Mike a 6-5 win.

The rematch was a completely different story. This time, Geoff came up the right flank with devastating cards - a pair of Infantry Assaults, an Ambush, Direct from HQ, and more - while Mike's Germans had no cards to order that flank. Moreover, Geoff's dice were simply homicidal as he cleaned out the forward bunker and the two enemy infantries on his right. The German armor couldn't get over fast enough to make a difference, so they had no way to stop the Canadians from gaining that flank's third objective and an astonishing 6-0 victory. This, Geoff won the championship match in a split decision, 11-6.

NEXT YEAR'S TOURNAMENT ... VOTE FOR SCENARIOS!

For the 2015 WBC Memoir tournament, Uncle Sam wants YOU to vote!

The GM is applying to run the Memoir tournament again next year. He has created a special thread on the Days of Wonder Memoir '44 English Forum - http://www.daysofwonder.com/en/msg/?th=29861 - where people have been asked to suggest scenarios for the 2015 WBC Memoir tournament.

Nominations will close on November 30.

Shortly after December 1, the GM will post a link to an online survey where you can vote for the actual tournament scenarios. This link will be posted at that same web address. All necessary instructions will be posted there, too. Any Memoir player may vote, whether you have ever attended WBC or not, whether you plan to play in next year's tournament or not. If you have questions, you can email Sam at the address below.

Voting will end at midnight on January 31, 2015. The chosen scenarios will be announced in the 2015 Event Preview on this site.

MULTI-PLAYER OVERLORD GAMES

In addition to the tournament, as usual, we had several multi-player Overlord games scheduled. These are always a highlight, because many players only have a chance to play them at conventions. They also tend to be a source of great battle stories.

This year, we started our multi-player agenda on Thursday with two battles from the new D-Day Landings expansion. The full expansion includes six "extended Breakthrough" maps - 23 hexes deep, instead of the Breakthrough format's usual 17 ­ that can be lined up next to each other to create a giant 14-foot-wide map of the Normandy coast. We played the three American maps Thursday morning, and the three British/Canadian maps Thursday afternoon, with Richard Borg explaining things to large crowds of players before each game.

Each map is designed to be played by one player per side, with its own Breakthrough deck, so a 3-map game would normally be for six players. However, our philosophy was that anybody who wanted to play, would play, so we doubled people up and had about 12 each in morning and afternoon games. So much was going on that we didn't take many notes on the games.

D-Day American Landings. Omaha, Utah, and the American Airborne drop. Our first look at a Memoir map that filled two side-by-side 8-foot tables. A hard go for the little green men - not much headway on the beach. The Germans took this game by a lopsided score of 37-19.

D-Day British/Canadian Landings. Sword, Juno, and Gold Beaches. This time, it was the Allies' turn to score big, as they took out some of the German Big Guns and captured most of the beaches. Chalk this one up for the Allies, 41-24.

D-Day Operation Neptune ­ The Mother of All Memoirs. Saturday afternoon. Six maps. Four big tables. Most of the player slots were doubled up, so we had a good 20 people playing. Periodically, a passer-by would stop, look, and say, "Wow!" Heavy losses for the Allies across the board, as they had a hard fight to get off the beaches. They covered their quota of medals on Juno and American Airborne. The British captured all three beach sections on Gold, but their forces were positively lacerated, as the Fraulein playing Axis kept uncannily rolling reinforcements. German Big Guns fell at Sword and one of the American maps. At the end of this Longest Day, it was close, but the Germans had more medals, 63-60.

In other action, we also played three conventional Overlords:

Push To the Roer. This year's Friday Midnight Madness scenario was composed by Eric Mosso. It used lots of special units, with winter limited mobility rules. Sam Edelston commanded the Allies, teamed with Field Generals Manuel Bravo, Tony Gonzalez, and John Skiba. Eric Caron led the Germans, with Jim Dougherty, Dave Rennert, a teen player named Jonathan, and late-game substitute Eric Mosso. The Allies initially targeted a tank destroyer and other heavy units in and close to their near-right section, and attacked a forward anti-tank infantry and a 2-hex town objective at the center of the board, which led to heavy skirmishing in all those areas. This scenario allows each side to bring in several reinforcement units, beginning on its fifth turn, so the Germans brought in several armors, which led to heavy combat on the center-right. In addition, some German reinforcements began approaching the Allied left, but the Allies finally got some orders there and eventually pushed to the far end of the board. With a few instances of help from friendly dice, the Allies were able to prevail, 17-11. The scenario is available online at http://www.daysofwonder.com/memoir44/en/editor/view/?id=14089

Rzhev. As we looked at the people who showed up to play this scenario, we realized that four of them were named David, so it became Team Dave against the rest of the world. Team Dave's Germans featured a Brooks, a Rennert, and not one, but two Glownys (the senior one of whom commanded). The Russians were led by Eric Mosso, aided by Geoff and Daniel Heintzelman, Sam Edelston, and Jim Dougherty. For most of the game, the Russians had little to order their right flank, and too few hits in the center. The ice on the river was thin - a tank and infantry fell through. And around their fifth turn, the Germans turned into killing machines, grinding up the Russian units at a steady pace. After nine turns, the Germans held a commanding 14-5 lead, though a Russian Finest Hour was lucky enough to conclude four kills before Team Dave destroyed another Russian tank to complete the 15-9 slaughter. The Germans scored six kills each on their left and right, while the Russians got four of their kills on their left.

Because that battle had gone so quickly, we shuffled the players and played it again. John Skiba led the Allies, assisted by Daniel Heintzelman and Mark. Geoff Heintzelman led the Germans, assisted by Eric Mosso, Joe Harrison, and Sam Edelston. The Russians had a few very timely cards and merciless dice, which allowed them to take out most of the Panzers and to gain a big edge on their left and center. There wasn't sufficient time to conclude the battle, but it was agreed that the Russians had the winning position.

Peleliu Landings. It was WBC first-timer Antonio Gonzalez (with David Rennert, Lee W., and Jim Dougherty as the Marines trying to gain a beachhead, while Sam Edelston (with Eric Mosso, Eric Caron, Manuel Bravo, and Jonathan) tried to beat them back into the sea. On their third turn, the Allies launched a devastating air strike against the unmoved Japanese armor, scoring seven hits, which took the main Japanese tank force almost entirely out of the battle. However, the Japanese infantry rolled very effectively. They had ten medals after their 5th turn, and a big Their Finest Hour rolled eight orders and three kills. Thus, the Japanese subdued the Marines, 13-6.

The GM wishes to thank AGMs Mark Guttag and Gareth Williams for their help at the tournament. He also thanks Antonio Gonzalez, Geoff Heintzelman, Daniel Heintzelman, Eric Mosso, John Skiba, and everyone else who helped with the tournament and the Overlords. Also, extra special thanks to Richard Borg for creating the special scenarios ... and also for bringing help sheets, explaining less familiar units to the players, bringing extra badges and tokens, generously donating copies of D-Day Landings as prizes for the two top players, and of course for leading the three jumbo D-Day Landings battles. Thanks, also, to Days of Wonder for continuing to support and expand this wonderful game.

Sam Edelston's Allied invaders in the mega D-Day game.	To the victor goes the spoils ... even if he comes from Duke.

Designer Richaard Borg has a captive audience for his explanation of the new D-Day landings scenarios.