Hamel Captures War At Sea Championship!

Bob Hamel won the 2025 War At Sea Championship at World Boardgaming Championships (WBC) with a record of 6-2-0. Bob previously won the WBC title in 2015. In the event’s Final, he edged Jim Bodenheimer who compiled a 5-3-0 mark. Andy Choptiany (5-2-0) took 3rd place, and John Pack (4-3-0) finished 4th. Other playoff participants were 5th place, Bruce Monnin at 4-1-0, 6th Don Greenwood at 4-2-0, 7th Rob Drozd (4-2-0), and 8th your GM at 3-3-0. Additional top 10 finishers were Joe Collinson (3-1-0) in 9th and Tim Hitchings (2-1-0) in 10th. In lieu of plaques, the 5th through 10th place finishers earned books on World War II naval history.

In a brief ceremony prior to the tournament opening, Rob Drozd and John Edwards were inducted into the War At Sea Hall of Fame. Rob, the defending champ and winner of the War At Sea Triple Crown (WBC, PBEM Ladder, and BPA PBEM Championship) was on hand to accept his honor. John was the game’s original designer way back in 1975. John was inducted in absentia, but we thank him for the many, many hours of pleasure we’ve enjoyed from his creation.

34 players entered this year, slightly down from 2024, and played 62 total games, also lower than last year: in fact, the lowest game total since the 1998 Avalon (predecessor to WBC). The total of games was low primarily because a higher than usual number of players withdrew before the event’s conclusion. Only 12 gamers were on hand for all 5 rounds.

The high number of withdrawals, combined with the evenness of the competition meant that by the end of round 4, only one player, Bruce Monnin, had won 4 games. His playoff berth assured, he took a break from round 5. In fact, there were only 5 players still active who had won 3 games, so mathematically they had all clinched Quarterfinal slots, too: Andy Choptiany, Rob Drozd, Don Greenwood, your GM, and John Pack. Nevertheless, all 5 chose to play in round 5. And in an unprecedented situation, only one of the 14 players competing in round 5 had been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. Even players with just 10 Victory Points could theoretically have qualified with a win in round 5.

Games 1 and 2 in round 5 featured only players who had already qualified. Don Greenwood’s Axis edged your GM’s Allies (bidding 2.0) by 3 POC. Rob Drozd’s Axis beat John Pack’s Allies, who had bid 1.5; the bid pushed the winning margin to 2.5 POC. Game 3 featured Andy Choptiany’s Allies (bidding 1.5), who had already clinched, while John Sharp would have made the playoffs had his Axis prevailed. However, the Allies crushed the Axis and eliminated John, though his elimination wasn’t known at the time. Board 4 featured Jim Bodenheimer’s Axis vs. David Gubbay’s Allies, bidding 2.0. The winner would move on and the loser would be out – although again, that fact wasn’t known, and it was Jim’s Axis that prevailed by the maximum margin. Glenn Petroski’s Axis pulled away from Shawn O’Connor’s Allies (no bid), but, although it wasn’t yet apparent, Glenn came up short in the VP total. Randy MacInnis could have been eligible for a playoff tiebreaker with a win, but Jim Kramer’s Axis stopped Randy’s Allies, the 1.5 Allied bid not being a factor. The last Swiss round game of the day to finish featured Bob Hamel’s Axis vs. Ron Haas’ Allies, bidding 1.0. Ron could have been eligible for a 4-player playoff tiebreaker with a win, but Bob prevailed when Ron’s game clock hit zero. Bob had entered the round with only 18 VPs, and the lowest playoff VP total in the history of the tournament had previously been 30. But records are meant to be broken, and Bob’s 28 POC earned him the 8th and final playoff slot.

At the completion of the Swiss rounds, the 8 playoff participants, in order of their seeding, were Bruce Monnin, Andy Choptiany, Don Greenwood, Rob Drozd, John Pack, Jim Bodenheimer, your GM, and Bob Hamel. Only Andy, Bob, and John repeated from last year’s playoffs.

The Quarterfinal had 3 upsets as seeds 1, 3, and 4 were ousted. The only game where the higher seeded player held serve was where #2 seed Andy Choptiany, as his Axis, used the #7 GM’s Allied bid of 2.0 to make the final margin 4 POC. (As it developed, this was the only playoff contest where the higher seeded player came out on top.) Elsewhere, it was #6 Jim Bodenheimer’s Axis squeaking by #3 Don Greenwood’s Allies. The Allied bid of 1.5 was the difference as it turned a raw-POC tie into an Axis triumph. #5 John Pack had just lost to #4 Rob Drozd on Swiss round 5 but turned the tables in the playoffs as his Allies, bidding 1.5, used effective ASW (5 removed 3 U-boats) and air (LBA removed 2 Axis surface ships) on the last turn to propel the Allied win. The 3rd upset had #8 Bob Hamel’s Axis defeating #1 Bruce Monnin’s Allies. Here again, the Allied bid of 1.0 turned a raw-POC tie into an Axis victory for Bob.

As mentioned, both lower seeded players prevailed in the Semifinal. #7 Jim Bodenheimer’s Axis forced a turn 5 resignation from #2 Andy Choptiany, who had bid 1.5 for the Allies. On the other board, #8 Bob Hamel’s Axis used #5 John Pack’s Allied bid of 1.5 to turn a pre-bid Allied margin of 1 POC into a 0.5 POC squeaker for the Allies. It was Bob’s 3rd narrow (<2 POC) win of the day.

The Final featured #6 Jim Bodenheimer vs. #8 Bob Hamel, a rematch of sorts. War At Sea PBEM Ladder Round 116, just recently completed, had #2 ranked Jim unseating #1 Bob. In 2025 at least, Jim and Bob are War At Sea’s top players. Jim took the Allies for a 1.0 bid. Jim opened with a pretty standard Barents on 1 deployment. The Repulse failed its speed roll to the Barents, and the Axis sortied there, coming out of top for a 2 POC lead.

On turn 2, the aggressive Axis challenged the Allies in the South Atlantic with 3 U-boats and 4 Italian cruisers. However, the Allies won the area and the Allies’ 4-3 POC scored knocked the Axis lead down to 1. The Axis sailed again to the Barents on turn 3. The 2 Allied airstrikes disabled the Bismarck and put -6 damage on the Tirpitz. Allied and Axis gunnery both inflicted heavy damage, but the Axis ultimately prevailed after a lengthy battle. Convoy 1A landed in England, but the Axis still picked up 1 POC for the turn, returning to a 2 POC margin. Turn 4 saw a Russian BB and an American CA join the war effort. 2 British 444s failed their speed rolls to the Barents, leading to a battle in the Barents, where the Axis prevailed. The Axis gained another 2 POC for a 4-POC lead overall. All British cruisers had now been sunk.

Turn 5 saw Convoy 2B in the Barents with a 2-carrier, 4-battleship escort. Axis LBA disabled the convoy. Allied ASW in the North Sea removed all 5 U-boats, establishing the blockade. The heavily damaged German fleet repaired Bismarck, Tirpitz, and Gneisenau in Kiel, but Allied bombers damaged Tirpitz again. The remainder of the German fleet headed to the Baltic, where they sank the October Revolution, at the cost of the Blucher. Allies remained in the lead, but their margin shrank to 3 POC. Turn 6 saw the Allies running out of ships. The Axis surface fleet chose to cruise the Baltic and let the Luftwaffe and U-boats harass the Allies in the Barents. U-boats sank the Illustrious and decontrolled the Barents, and LBA disabled 3 British battleships. The POC score remained at +3.

Turn 7 proved to be the climactic turn. All Americans save the New York were available, as was the Marat. With no fast ships available, the Admiralty tried to reinforce the Barents with a 444 but failed. The badly needed Allied convoy was escorted by a single carrier and 4 battleships. The full complement of U-boats were available, enabling the Axis to both neutralize the Marat in the Baltic with 2, and decontrol the South Atlantic with the remaining 5. It thus came down to the Barents, where the Axis won the battle and sank the convoy. The Axis gained 2 POC on the turn for a +5 lead overall before the bid.

First Lord of the Admiralty Bodenheimer considered his options and available forces at the start of turn 8 and conceded to Grand Admiral Hamel. Congratulations again to 2025 WBC War At Sea champ Bob Hamel!

For the 1st time in the history of the event, there were joint winners of both Best Axis Player and Best Allied Player. Don Greenwood and Bruce Monnin shared Best Axis honors at 3-0-0, edging out our finalists Bob Hamel and Jim Bodenheimer. It was Bruce’s 3rd such award. Rob Drozd and Tim Hitchings were co-Best Allied Players at 2-0-0, the 2nd such nod for Tim (his 1st was a mere 28 years ago!) Close behind was Andy Choptiany. Rookie of the Year was Mark Booth, who won 2 of his 3 games.

Axis players had their 2nd best day in tournament history by prevailing in 36 of the 62 contests. There were no ties. The Axis won 6 of the 7 playoff games, including both Semifinal and Final. This year’s 58.1% Axis win percentage was exceeded only at 1992 Avaloncon,. The Axis won exactly 2/3rds, or 66.7%, of the 1992 games. This year, 58 games had Allied bids and 4 games had no bids. The average bid was 1.49 for all games and 1.59 for games in which there was a bid. As you can see, players seem to have coalesced around 1.5 as the appropriate bid for the Allies, even though the bidding range this year remained zero to 2.5. 11 games were affected by bids, including 3 in the Single Elimination Rounds, and included a record 6 games where Allied bids converted raw-POC ties to Axis wins.