fortress europa [Updated October 2006]  

2006 WBC Report   

 2007 Status: pending December Membership Vote

Bradford Frisby, VA

2006 Champion

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Event History
1991    Randy Schilb        8
1992    Michael Newman      22
1993    Michael Newman      16
1994    Michael Newman      12
1995    Trevor Bender      12
1996    Randy Heller      12
1997    Randy Schilb      10
1998    Paul Koenig      14
1999    Bruno Sinigaglio     13
2000    Robert Frisby     16
2001    Brad Frisby     16
2002    Brad Frisby     16
2003    Robert Frisby     16
2004    Brad Frisby     15
2005     Jeff Martin     10
2006     Brad Frisby     15

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Brad Frisby        MD    06    124
  2.  Robert Frisby      VA    06    106
  3.  Paul Koenig        CA    06     33
  4.  Chris Godfrey      MA    06     33
  5.  Bruno Sinigaglio   AK    05     29
  6.  Jeff Martin        CT    05     20
  7.  Jim Eliason        IA    06     18
  8.  Kevin Hacker       PA    03     16
  9.  Bill Riggs         VA    04     16
 10.  Randy Schilb       MO    00     10
 11.  Alan Hayes         IL    06      9
 12.  James Terry        OH    02      9
 13.  Doug Porterfield   VA    05      8
 14.  Robert Ryan        MI    04      5
 15.  John Grant Jr      CT    01      3
 16.  Randy Heller       MD    00      1

2006 Laurelists

Jim Eliason, IA
2nd

Robert Frisby, VA
3rd

Chris Godfrey, MA
4th

Paul Koenig, CA
5th

Alan Hayes, IL
6th


Past Winners

Randy Schilb, MO
1991, 1997

Michael Newman, MA
1992-1994

Trevor Bender, CA
1995

Randy Heller, MD
1996

Paul Koenig, CA
1998

Bruno Sinigaglio, AK
1999

Robert Frisby, VA
2000, 2003

Brad Frisby, MD
2001-02, 2004, 2006

Jeff Martin, CT
2005


Another Challenger Heard From

Fortress Europa played the invasion scenario for the tournament.  15 players played 22 games during the Grognard Pre-con and the regular free form time.  While bidding was available, most pre-single elimination games did not use bidding.  During the entire set of games, Germans invaded eight times in the 19th Army District, eight times in the 7th Army District, three times in the Netherlands, twice in the 1st, and once in the15th.  The 7th is the historical area and has been a popular choice every year.  Southern France and the 19th had a large increase in invasions over last year. The Germans still held the decisive edge in winning 15 of the 22 games.  Each District leaned significantly to the Germans, except the 7th, which split its games four per side.

During the free form action, several games came down to last rolls.  Dick Jarvinen invaded the 1st District against Alan Hayes.  Reaching the July III turn, Dick had two attacks at 1-1 odds to gain the last needed city, but failed on both.  Melvin Casselberry lost a paradrop opportunity when the weather went overcast on the last turn and, with it, a small chance at gaining a victory versus Jim Eliason.  Robert Frisby fought into Bordeaux and Asterdam on his last turn to claim a rare 19th District Allied victory versus Doug Porterfield. At the end of free form play, Bradford Frisby earned the top seed for the single elimination portion.

In one semi-final, Jim Eliason played Robert Frisby.  Robert bid one air unit to play the Germans and Jim accepted.  Jim invaded the 7th Army District and was able to capture Brest with a 5-1 on the second turn but got the storm on Turn 3, the earliest possible.  Turn 4, facing a strong line, Jim made a paradrop behind the line and several TAC on ground support and a carpet bombing attack wiped out two strong surrounded stacks and took Nantes.  A lucky 3-1 DE took St. Nazaire the following turn. Turn 6 was overcast and saw inconclusive fighting for Rennes.  On Turn 7 a 5-1 on Lorient succeeded and a 4-1 on St. Malo failed. Jim held Rennes with three 8-4s and, as this was impregnable, Jim held the necessary cities to win.

In the other semi-final, Bradford Frisby bid two air unit reductions to play the Germans and Chris Godfrey accepted.  Chris invaded in the 19th District (southern France) near Cannes.  Moving west, Chris took Marseilles.  In early July, Chris took Bordeaux with his second paratrooper drop.  Having stymied the Allied advance in southern France, Bradford was able to rally troops to regain Bordeaux and protect Toulouse.  So the Allieds could not secure victory and Bradford won the game.

In the Final, Jim accepted the Allies and Bradford Frisby's bid of one (less 1one air unit in July) for the Germans.  Jim invaded the 19th District between Montpellier and Perpignan. Jim lost several divisions and his only onboard HQ to German counterattacks. But the weather held and Jim was able to take Marseilles during July I. On July II Jim dropped three paratroop divisions adjacent to a vacant Nantes, (though two of them rolled a 6 and flipped on the drop) and captured the city. Jim also had a couple of divisions only two hexes from Toulouse and captured Toulon, Nice, and Cannes. Bradford succeeded with a 2-1 attack and pushed Jim back from Toulouse, basically ruling out a Marseilles/Toulouse win. Even so, going into the last turn Jim had a better than 50% chance to win. A paradrop on Genoa had a decent chance to capture the city, allowing Jim to win by capturing all the cities in the 19th. But both regiments died on the drop (two rolls of a 6), without even getting a chance to assault. A raid of five RGR/CDO had a decent shot to take Amsterdam but failed. Jim airlifted in a full strength paratroop division into Nantes to bolster its defenses. On the last turn Brad rolled a 6 on a 1-2 to recapture Nantes and win the game and his fourth WBC Fortress Europa championship.

 GM      Douglas Porterfield [2nd Year]   NA
    dporterfield@rhsmith.umd.edu    NA

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