Dickson Wins Sixth Championship After Ten Years!

Before going into more details of the action, here are the statistical numbers for the event this year:

• 17 players competing in the event, a 23% decrease from the 22 from the prior year
• The total games played, 35, decreased (27%) from 48 games from the prior year
• The weather roll was not reported (NR) in 2 of the games
• Other games saw a weather split - Clear 20 times and light mud occurring 13 times
• The Russians won 15 of the 35 games, a 43% clip, down from the 60% last year
• The weather for the Russian wins: 9 clear, 5 light mud and 1 NR
• Moscow was not captured (an automatic Axis win) in any games this year versus 5 games last year
• The weather for the Axis wins: 11 Clear and 8 light mud
• The average bid trended upward to 9.5 this year compared to 8.5 in 2024
• The high bid was 20, once, with the Russian winning once
• The low bid was 0, twice, with the German winning both times

Day One: 5 games:

• John Ohlin beat Mike Mishler as Germans
• John also beat Paul Toro as Germans. As a Russian, Paul used eight points of units along the line from the Baltic Military District to Lvov
.
• David Pepin beat Bob Jamelli as Russians (who conceded in turn 4)
• Shawn O'Connor beat Art Dohrman (using the original 1974 rules) as Germans
• Alan Zasada beat Bruce Cota (in a late match) as Germans

Day Two: 4 games:

• David beat Mike (dropping a paratroop into Riga) as Russians
• John beat Gary Dickson as Germans
• Alan beat Mike as Russians
• Gary beat Alan as Germans

Day Three: 9 games:

• George Karahalios beat Patrick Mirk as Germans
• John beat Richard Beyma (In part by walking into an undefended Bucharest and 8-7 sea invasion failure) as Russians
.Alan beat Richard (in part because 8-7 sea invade success but gets killed in subsequent combat) as Russians
• Richard beat Mike as Germans
  • (Richard Beyma played three (3) games at once as the German on Day Three versus John, Alan and Mike winning one and losing two)
• George beat John (in a game where they are playing option rule Moscow 1942) as Russians
• Shawn beat Bruce as Germans
• George beat David as Russians
• Art beat Mark Gutfreund as Germans
• Alan beat Shawn as Russians

Day Four: 5 games:

• Gary beat George (who resigned as the Russians on turn 3) as Germans
• Mike beat Alex Gregorio (Mike as Russian used "Zoo-55" setup) as Russians
• Bert Schoose beat Gary (conceded as Germans after Sep/Oct Russian turn) as Russians
• Alan beat John as Germans
• George beat Shawn as Russians

Day Five: 4 games:

• George beats Mike as Russians
• Shawn beats John as Russians
• Mike beats Gary as Germans (due to Gary making one ill-advised change to a Bert Schoose Russian setup. Gary surrendered when clear weather was rolled (no VP recorded)
• Art beats Mark (Game sheet not found)

Day Six: 3 games:

• Richard's Germans beat George (in part because he did a sea invade with the 8-7 in hex FF21, used a stuka against a 2-7 in FF22 getting a 7:1s for the kill. Then, he attacked Stalino in 2nd impulse and got a DR to kill the 2W)
• Gary beat Richard as Russians (VP erroneously recorded as -0- which is a German victory)
  • Richard Beyma played two (2) games at once as the German on Thursday versus George and Gary), winning once and losing once
• Alan beat David as Germans

Day Seven: 2 games:

• David beat Art as Russians
• Alan beat George as Germans

Semifinal 1:

• John Ohlin (German) versus Gary Dickson (Russian)
• Bid was 12 RP
• The weather was Light Mud
• John employed a "heavy north" strategy but fell short of capturing Moscow
• Gary Dickson was the victor (-3 VP) who advanced to Final

Semifinal 2

• George Karahalios (German) vs Alan Zasada (Russian)
• Bid was 7 RP
• The weather was Light Mud
• Russian held Bryansk on Turn 4 but left Tula open
• German 7-7 walked into Tula, also wrecking the rails between Bryansk and Tula / East
• German attacked and took Stalino on Turn 4, 2nd impulse but was only adjacent to it
• Russian attacked with units in Stalino and adjacent (German halved) but could not use the four (4) Guards (8-4, 7-4 x 3) at Bryansk because rails were wrecked by the 7-7 which walked into Tula
• Russian successfully sea invaded with 4-7 in first impulse into HH17 to set up attacking of German adjacent to Stalino; he got an AR so 4-7 was eliminated
• 1:1s versus Stalino and adjacent failed
• 2:1 versus 7-7 failed
• VP = +1
• George Karahalios (German) won and advanced Final

Finals:

• Gary Dickson (German) versus George Karahalios (Russians)
• Bid +5
• This was a rematch of a game between the two players from earlier in the week. Gary won that earlier match handily taking advantage of a weak setup in the Kiev Military District

The German used a new setup

• North:
  • Gary made slow progress due to bad die rolls. After 1st turn attacks, the Russian had 2x 5-3s, 6-3 2-5 and a 3-3 available in the north
  • The Finland attack failed allowing both Russian armies to defend on the rail behind the river on C10
  • A panzer rolled by Tallinn and a 4-4 sea moved to it
  • A 6-7 which had moved to the woods hex N20, then moved to hex N17 to get 7:1 versus screening armor
  • 7-7 and 8-7 armors moved to adjacent empty Vitebsk. to convert the rail,/li>
  • The 4-4/4-6 reinforcements from first impulse turn 2 are brought to AGC to ensure a 4:1 attack on the 6-3 which fell back from the Baltic Military District. Gary rolled a C which resulted in locking his adjacent units in place since these cannot convert rail. This would have a major issue on converting rail if the German had not also converted the rail line through Brest and Minsk
• South:
  • German made average progress in the Odessa and Kiev Military Districts, electing not to break the Bug at all to get a 5:1 at the unit in the second line of the juncture (W24) to keep the Russian units from escaping
  • The Russian had a 6-3 in the mountains, a 5-3 "C" that could get in the Lvov Hills and a 3-5 that could get out via 2nd impulse to U22
  • Gary cleared the Lvov Hill 5-3 defender in T24 with a 3:1 surrounded
  • He got 5:1s versus the rest of the Bug River line. Two cavalry defenders retreated to one hex away to allow them to be attacked on the 2nd impulse
  2W at Kiev was attacked 4:1 and got a C
  • All other attacks, mostly attrition, succeeded
  • 2:1 vs 3-5 behind Dnepro retreated a 3-5 to the neck of the Crimea (GG21)
  • 6-3 attacked 1:2 out of the mountain and got a forward retreat into R26, getting supply from the rail out of the swamp

Russian defense

• North:
  • 2W in Leningrad, 2-5 at the Smolensk river bend and a 5-3 in Bryansk
• South:
  • 1st line
    • 4-3 X19 (one hex from Kiev), but still doubled
    • 6-3 AA19
    • 2-7 (one hex West from Dnepro, screening Dnepro)
    • 4-3 FF20
    • 3-5 GG21
  • 2nd line
    • 3-7 in Z18 doubled behind Dnepr River
    • 4-3 in BB17 doubled behind Dnepr River
    • 4-3 doubled in Dnepro
    • 5-3 in GG18
    • 5-3 in Sevastopol
  • 3rd line:
    • 2W at Kharkov
    • 4-3/2W at Stalino
    • 3-7 in HH16 (anti-invasion duty)
    • 2-7 in Rostov

Sep/Oct is Clear. This gives the Germans 3 Stukas and full movement but also means the last two turns are Snow. It is now or never time for the Germans.

North:

• AGN takes 2W Leningrad
• 3 Armor attacked 2-5 at the Smolensk river bend with infantry help 7:1
• They advanced in the second impulse to 4:1 Bryansk (DE)

South:

• AV 6-3 in AA19. This was a big decision for the Germans since it would take 42 factors that could not attack on second impulse.
• 5:1 vs 3-7 in Z18. The German used 4 panzers that could move and attack Kharkov 2W at 7:1
• 5:1 vs 3-5 in Crimea, then 1:1s Sevastopol from mountain hex JJ22 = Contact

Russian made critical mistakes:

• 5-3 in Bryansk should have been in Kharkov
• 3-7 in HH16 (anti-invasion duty) should have been in HH22 forming a 3 line defense of Sevastopol. This unit or a 4-3 or 5-3 could have railed because the rail was open to the Crimea.

At game's end the German held onto Kharkov, Leningrad, Sevastopol, and Bryansk but did not take Dnepropetrovsk or Stalino.

After two Snow turns of attack and counterattacks, Gary was at -1 VP, just enough to win.

Congratulations Gary