Stranger Wins Fifth Title!

The Squad Leader tournament had twenty-three players this year’s with 26 games played. The majority of the games played were at the Squad Leader level, but a few games were played at Cross of Iron and Crescendo of Doom levels. As always, George Bott was here again and played the most games for the week, topping the list with 10 games. George has continuously provided support for the tournament by helping to recruit new players and to teach some when needed.

The free form play went throughout the entire week. This year it seemed that everyone waited until after the first weekend to find the Squad Leader tables and play a game. Though the tournament had a ‘late start’, we still finished well with many of the games played Thursday and Friday.

The four players who qualified for the Semifinal were George Bott, David Brooks, Eric Stranger, and Pete Pollard (only because a fourth player did not show). The Semifinal games started at 9AM Saturday with Eviction Notion II as the scenario; David (as the German) and George (Russian) playing and Pete (as the German) and Eric (Russian) playing. Eviction Notice II has the Germans defending on board 3 with the 3-hex two-story ‘hotel’ as the victory location. The Russians enter on a modified board 2 (no hills) and must quickly engage the attack in order to push the Germans out.

Eric Stranger’s Russians were pushed back a few times in the beginning of the game as Pete’s Germans were able to get some key shots off as the Russians pushed into the board 3 village. Eric finally has enough forces facing off with the hotel to start breaking some of the defenders. However, the game came down to the last turn with the Russians making a mad dash into the thinly defended hotel and they were able to secure the win in the last close combat in the second story holdout for the Germans.

The other Semifinal game David’s troops made George pay for almost every attempt to make a foothold close to the hotel. George continued to press the attack, but David was able to break up much of the attackers forces that it became obvious that it was impossible for George to secure a victory. David joined Eric in the final match, David’s first sortie into a final match for Squad Leader.

The two games played for the final round to determine the first through fourth place finishers was Tooth and Nail Squad Leader scenario. This scenario pits a large Russian force supported by four T-34 tanks, but with only two leaders against a much smaller German group with good leadership and with a small reinforcement group of assault engineers.

The game for the third and fourth place game pitted Pete Pollard’s Russians against George Bott’s Germans. Pete’s attack on the German forward positions quickly reduced them and the T-34’s sped up to the second line of defense. Here, Pete’s luck changed. He shifted one tank to the north to support the attack on the stronghold in the woods, but it never made it because it overran a position and was immobilized. A second tank, attempting to remove a squad from a stone building malfunctioned its main gun, making that tank worthless. By then, the German reinforcements arrived. Pete did get a lucky shot on the German STG III and destroyed that, but the German defenses held against Pete’s last attempt to take the victory locations. George Bott’s multi-line defense held up well against the Russian attacks and George won the 3rd place plaque.

The Final was against Eric Stranger (Germans) and David Brooks (Russians). The Russian attack saw early setbacks as the German artillery was able to disrupt the Russian advance. The Russians progressed with the attack, bolstered by the T-34’s. Eric’s defenses started getting pushed back. David continued the attack, but the German defenses held. Between the German forward observer removing 4 Russian squads from play and a lone German squad shrugging off numerous attacks to hold a key victory location, the German defense finally erected a stone wall that the Russian wave broke upon. Coupled with the powerful reinforcements, Eric’s German defenders were able to prevent the Russians from securing a win.

With a gentleman’s handshake, the Final was over and Eric Stanger won the Squad Leader tournament for the fifth time. The event closed with David Brooks in 2nd place and George Bott in 3rd.