Schoenen King of the Seas

The 2022 Atlantic Storm Tournament saw some changes from previous events. First with yours truly coming out of retirement to host this year’s event. We also had three heats that advanced 18 players to the semifinals. In the semifinals, there were three games played that advanced the top 2 in each game to the six-player final that followed.

The heat games saw the usual wild swings, bad (and good) luck, and plenty of flushed hands. The three semi-final games resulted in the following players advancing the final: Jeff Heidman, Greg Schmittgens, Scott Nerney, Shane McBee, Andrew Bichard, and Trevor Schoenen.

The Final got off to a bit of a slow start as the players carefully jostled for early position. None of the first seven convoys played for were worth more than 4 VPs as there was an understandable reluctance to both not give someone else a shot at a big early lead as well as no one wanting to jump to an early lead as well. Greg won the first convoy and shared points with Jeff and Andrew. The second convoy (only 1 VP) did set off some early fireworks as Greg led out with a Wolfpack and a +1 bonus only to see Scott immediately follow by using Admiral Tovey to change it to combined. The rest of the players (save a Flush from Shane) all followed the Admiral’s lead and Scott won the hand (keeping the more valuable Wolfpack for himself and giving Trevor the Convoy).

Hand 5 (4VP Arctic Convoy) saw our first Storm of the Final as Andrew called for a Surface battle and let out with a “?” for the Allies as well as the Arctic Storm card (which he missed his roll for). Trevor discarded but did successfully roll the storm and took Greg out of the hand. Things got interesting from there as Jeff played the King George V only to see Scott follow with the Tirpitz! Shane, playing last in the hand, wrapped up by using Admiral Donitz to change to combined knowing that even if Scott won the roll, he was in line for some good VPs with the King George V in play. Scott did win and graciously shared VPs with Shane.

Hand 8 saw the first 7VP Convoy played for. Greg led with a ?+2 play for the Allies. After Scott flushed, Shane played a ? for the allies and the Atlantic Storm card (which he missed the roll for). Andrew played 2 for the Allies and also missed the roll and then Trevor played 3 Allied points and stormed out Greg (his second storming of the game). Shane needed a 3 or better on his roll to take the 7 points, but fate had other ideas as the die came up a one. Trevor took the 7 points (the only points of the hand).

A large surface battle followed in Hand 11 that saw the Scharnhorst and Tirpitz both come out early only to see Shane end the hand by playing the Duke of York to fate the Scharnhorst. Shane won the hand and added the 6 Convoy VP’s to his total for the hand and gave Jeff the Tirpitz for his efforts.

Everyone knew scores were close through the next several hands. Points stayed spread out amongst all the players and no one was building a huge lead. The late game saw something that in all the years I have played this game, I’ve only seen once. Not one, but two plays of “Raid on St. Nazaire.” Shane used it in Hand 17 and wound up winning the 3VP Convoy and Jeff led Hand 19 with it trying to win the 4VP Convoy by calling combined and playing an allied Surface ship. His plan almost worked, but Andrew sniped the Convoy away late by playing the Hood along with 4 bonus points. One final Atlantic Storm hit Shane on the last hand of the game. Scott won the single Convoy VP and shared a point with Greg to wrap up the Final game.

The scores wound up close, but Trevor came out on top with 27 points. Even more impressive was the fact that Andrew only won two of the 21 hands played (there was one pushed hand). His 11 Convoy VP’s may not have looked that impressive, but his pile of Spoils certainly was. Shane finished 2nd with 23 points, followed by Scott and Greg with 21 and 20 points, respectively. Jeff finished 5th with 18 points and Andrew rounded out the game with 16.

Thanks to all who played this year. Early chatter for next year indicates that the event should be returning to a 4-heat format (but that is to be determined). I cannot wait to get back at it again.