enemy in sight [Updated Oct 2006]  

2006 WBC Report  

 2007 Status: pending December Membership Vote

Evan Hitchings, DE

2006 Champion

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Event History
1991    Winston Forrest      17
1992    John Kilbride      32
1993    Fred Gosnell      38
1994    Larry York      37
1995    Phil Thomas      49
1996    Fred Gosnell      36
1997    Tim Evinger      64
1998    Winston Forrest      59
1999    Gordon Rodgers     42
2000    Gordon Rodgers     42
2001    Thomas Wojke     55
2002    Michael Sincavage     42
2003    Matt Evinger     50
2004     Bill Peeck     30
2005    Wade Fowble     31
2006    Evan Hitchings     28

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Gordon Rodgers     PA    00     60
  2.  Mike Sincavage     VA    02     48
  3.  Matt Evinger       PA    04     39
  4.  Mike Mitchell      GA    04     36
  5.  Evan Hitchings     DE    06     35
  6.  Bill Peeck         NY    06     32
  7.  Tom Wojke          PA    01     30
  8.  Alan Arvold        IL    04     27
  9.  Wade Fowble        MD    05     20
 10.  Blair Morgen       NJ    03     18
 11.  Pat Mirk           FL    02     18
 12.  Neal Schlaffer     MD    99     18
 13.  Rob Kilroy         PA    01     18
 14.  John Izer          MD    06     12
 15.  Bill Place         PA    05     12
 16.  Dave Long          NC    04     12
 17.  Jon Lockwood       VA    03     12
 18.  Forrest Speck      MD    03     12
 19.  Nick Evinger       PA    02     12
 20.  Larry York         CA    00     12
 21.  Joe Burch          MD    02      9
 22.  Robert Kirchner    MA    01      9
 23.  Kevin Coombs       GA    99      9
 24.  Bill Burch         MD    06      8
 25.  Ben Knight         MD    05      8
 26.  Dale Long          NJ    06      6
 27.  Beth Bernard       VA    03      6
 28.  Rob Navolis        OH    00      6
 29.  Steve Scott        CA    99      6
 30.  Bill Powers        VA    05      4
 31.  Jim Mehl           VA    06      4
 32.  Robert Eastman     NV    04      3
 33.  James Pei          TX    02      3
 34.  Randall MacInnis   NJ    01      3
 35.  Todd Surgoine      OH    00      3
 36.  Mike Windle        DE    05      2
         

2006 Laurelists

John Izer, MD
2nd

Bill Burch, MD
3rd

Dale Long, NJ
4th

Jim Mehl, VA
5th

Bill Peeck, NY
6th


Past Winners

'91 98: W. Forrest,VA
1995: Phil Thomas, MD

John Kilbride, PA
1992

Fred Gosnell, VA
1993, 1996

Larry York, CA
1994

Tim Evinger, PA
1997

Gordon Rodgers,PA
1999-2000

Thomas Wojke, PA
2001

Mike Sincavage,VA
2002

Matt Evinger, PA
2003

Bill Peeck, NY
2004

Wade Fowble, MD
2005
       

 Enemy in Sight had its smallest turnout since the initial Avaloncon and may be nearing the end of its run. If it returns, a move to Saturday night is a possibility with only the Final taking place in the traditional Sunday slot.

 The empty hall behind them reveals its "get away" day at WBC. A four-deck preliminary game in the first round made the Final the last one to start at WBC this year. The two-deck Final finished in half the time.

New Art ... Same Game

This tournament was the last official one using the rules for the Avalon Hill version of the game. Next year the official version will be the 2006 edition republished by Lost Battalion Games which features spiffy new art and most of the old rules. Please note that I sure did miss the Philly contingent this year. Next year, guys, I expect to see you come back into the fold.

One of the first round games took a full four decks to complete (and almost as many hours) and a mere three victory points separated first and second place. Say what you will, but I do not like time limits. Every year I try to avoid them, but next year I'll have to grudgingly implement a time limit to avoid the delays of a long game or else set the Victory Point level slightly lower. Sunday is when most players have leaving on their minds. So why not just limit the game to three decks maximum?

The defending champion, Wade Fowble, failed to get past the 121-point first round performance of John Izer. Five players advanced to the second and final round. The first step in any game is to establish a fire break by putting a slight amount of damage on the player to the right. This year's Final was no different as three players did just that. Eventually it paid off as JM's Brittania suffered from two active fires. The Brittania was within one point of exploding when it struck its colors and then disappeared under the waves as no one had the guts to steal it with a Boarding Party.

This year saw a complete breakdown among the Spanish Fleet. If a player attempted to board with a Spanish ship as the attacker it was guaranteed that player would lose his ship. If a Spanish ship defended against a boarding party it was automatically lost or at least it just seemed to work out that way. Of 16 boarding attempts in two rounds, nine were successful, four were no effect and three ended up in the loss of the attacking ship. Of the nine successful attempts, four were converted into prize points and those players represented the top three players at the end of the game. After the first deck the point spread was just 13 points from first to fifth. Only one point separated first from second with a tie for third and fourth place. It was a very tight contest.

Izer gained most of his points through sinking ships. Burch gained his points through a mixture of sunk and prized ships. Long was hamstrung by starting and ending with the lowest class fleet, sinking only one ship in the last round. When all was finished his largest ship was a fifth rate. Mehl started last and ended last finally scoring on the scraps from the other sharks by sinking the Insurgente. With the lead from the very beginning, Hitchings prized both the Ville De Paris and the burning Temeraire which he had captured just one turn before with a -1 modifier, to gain 60 VP. This occurred with less than five cards remaining. The other four players only got one play each to attempt to knock him back and one of those cards was red. It was not to be. They sniped each other, not Hitchings, trying for second place. Burch tried to gain the necessary VPs to place him in second as he gambled on a last turn boarding party only to loose the Indefatigible to Izer. This insured the latter's second place finish as Burch fell to third. Hitchings had sunk one additional ship worth nine points which pushed him over the required 100 point limit after just two rounds to become this year's champion.

Final Round Scores

Evan Hitchings 35  69  104
John Izer      30  60   90
Bill Burch     30  44   74
Dale Long      34  11   45
Jim Mehl       22   9   31
Bill Peeck * 6th based on best runner up scores in 1st round
 GM      Neal Schlaffer  [16th Year]   NA 
    nschlaffer@comcast.net   NA

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