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2006 was the tenth straight
year that the War At Sea field topped 32 entrants. The
use of chess clocks keeps the event running on schedule through
eight rounds! |
Mike Brophy (right) defeats
Jon Lockwood en route to an unbeaten record in five rounds of
swiss play in an event where almost everyone seems to have lots
of experience. |
Dice At Sea
John Sharp of Sarasota,
FL, won the championship plaque on Thursday, in his first Final
4 appearance. John finished 6-1-1 and bested Ewan McNay of Milford,
CT (6-1-1) in the Final. Their match was one of the most sweat-inducing
Finals ever, with the POC marker staying on zero virtually the
entire game. The championship came down to the last die roll
in the last sea area on the last turn, as John's Axis LBA disabled
Ewan's last Allied convoy. Failure to land the convoy meant the
POC marker remained at zero, giving the game to John on the basis
of the 1-POC bid. John was playing in only his fourth WBC War
At Sea event, while this was just Ewan's second! Third place
went to Ed Menzel (Fullerton, CA, 5-2) and the GM took 4th (5-2).
Mike Brophy of Battleboro, NC got the 5th and final plaque.
Brophy and McNay were the only two players to go undefeated
in the Swiss Rounds, with 4-0-1 logs each after tying each other.
Mike's finish was his best since the inaugural War At Sea
event at the 1991 Avaloncon! The rest of the playoff contenders
were 6th, Glenn McMaster (Troy, Ontario, 4-2), 7th, Greg Berry
(Fairfax, VA, 3-2), and 8th, John Pack (Parker, CO, 3-3). 9th
and 10th places went to Bob Jamelli (3-1) and Tim Hitchings (3-2).
2006 was the first year of expanded playoffs, and the addition
of quarterfinals seemed to work well. All three rounds of playoffs
were completed by 10:30 PM Thursday. In the quarterfinals, Ewan
beat Pack, the GM defeated McMaster, Sharp edged Brophy, and
Menzel bested Berry. In the semi-finals, McNay clobbered the
GM and Sharp axed Menzel. Ewan's success prompted Ed to suggest
a tightening of the immigration laws. (For those of you who have
never met Ewan, his British accent is a giveaway!)
Sean Druelinger achieved the unusual double of Rookie of the
Year and Best Axis Player at 3-1-0. Ewan McNay added Best Allied
Player (6-1-1) to his second place wood.
46 players entered this year and 87 total games were played.
Play balance shifted slightly towards the Allies, who won 45
games to the Axis' 37; there were five ties. 50 games featured
Allied bids, while three iconoclasts bid for the Axis. The remaining
34 contests had no bid.
My thanks to Assistant GMs Bruce Monnin, Frank Cunliffe (who
ran our demo), and John Sharp (who provided the chess clocks)
for their help.
The official War At Sea FAQ and Errata in effect
for this event can be found at http://www.markevich.com/was/rules99.html.
For
those of you not already on the War At Sea email list
of post tournament wrap-up news, here are excerpts from the
current version:
40 players opened the competition shortly after 9 AM on tournament
day. Upsets were plentiful from the start as the higher-seeded
player won only 12 of the 20 first round matches. In fact, five
of the top 10 seeds did not make it to Round 5. The expansion
of the playoffs to eight quarterfinalists and the discontinuation
of the "playoff bracket" meant the most wide open Round
5 ever. No fewer than 16 of the 22 players who answered the bell
for Round 5 could have made the playoffs with another win, and
a 17th player, Greg Berry, couldn't play Round 5 but already
had 30 VPs. Of those 17, only two, Ewan McNay at 4-0, 40 Victory
Points and Mike Brophy, 4-0, 38 VPs, had clinched spots. They
played each other with Ewan taking the Allies, and tied. In the
next bracket, 3-1 Ed Menzel took on 3-0 Bob Jamelli. Nobody had
beaten Bob, but he'd skipped Round 3! Ed was seeking his second
playoff berth, while Bob was trying to break into the playoff
ranks. The game wasn't close, with Ed's Allies prevailing after
just four turns. Next, Glenn McMaster matched up with Ed O'Connor,
both having 3-1 scorecards and seeking their first playoff berths.
Glenn's Axis sank two convoys and turned in a 3-POC win. Finally,
Vince Meconi (3-1) met Jim Kramer (2-1-1) in a rematch of last
year's Round 5 struggle between the good friends. Vince was looking
for his second playoff appearance while Jim sought his first.
Last year it was Jim with the hot dice as the Axis, but Vince
turned the tables on him in 06. In the next bracket, 2-1-1 John
Sharp matched up against 1-0-2 Matt O'Connor, with each player
hunting for playoff nod #1. John's Allies won going away. Also,
former champions Steve Packwood (2-1-1) and Pat Richardson (1-1-2)
had at it. Pat's Allies came out on top this time around. In
the last playoff-eligible bracket, John Pack (2-2 and seeking
his third playoff slot) opposed rookie Tom Richardson (2-0 after
skipping the first two rounds and entering, to hear him tell
it, as an afterthought!) His third time was not the charm, though,
as John's Allies turned in a solid 4-POC triumph. Finally, Tim
Hitchings (2-2) faced David Rynkowski (2-2). Tim is a five-time
playoff contender while David was trying to break into the playoff
ranks. Tim's Allies rolled with a 7.5-POC margin after the bid.
With the preliminary rounds completed, the playoff situation
looked like this. Ewan McNay (45 VPs) and Mike Brophy (43) had
previously qualified. Ed Menzel (40), Glenn McMaster (40), and
Vince Meconi (40) were in for sure, with strength of schedule
placing Ed 3rd, Glenn 4th, and Vince 5th. John Sharp (35) was
6th. For the last two slots, all players with 30 VPs were eligible
for a strength of schedule tiebreaker. However, Ed O'Connor had
a conflict and declined to advance. Bob Jamelli and Greg Berry
had the highest two schedule strengths, but Bob withdrew also,
making room for John Pack. Tim Hitchings and Pat Richardson came
up short on the tiebreaker. In the quarterfinals, #1 Ewan McNay
faced #8 John Pack and #4 Glenn McMaster opposed #5 Vince Meconi.
Normally, #2 would play #7 and #3 contest #6, but to avoid a
rematch, #2 Mike Brophy took on #6 John Sharp and #3 Ed Menzel
sat opposite from #7 Greg Berry.
Ewan took just 10 minutes to dispose of Pack. Ewan took the
Allies for a bid of 1.5. John sailed to the South Atlantic and
lost the area with four ships sunk and five disabled to the Neutral
Port, at a cost of just one Allied ship. With most of his remaining
fleet bottled up, John resigned and lost his chance to repeat
his 1994 feat as the only player ever to make the semi-finals
with 30 VPs. The Turn 1 South Atlantic disaster sounds rare,
but this actually wasn't the first time it has happened in the
playoffs. In the 1998 semi-finals, Tom Scarborough's Axis fleet
sailed to the South Atlantic on Turn 1 and lost the area to Matt
Romaniecki's Allies, with half his ships sunk and the other half
stuck in the Neutral Port. He, too, resigned after just a few
minutes of play. Meanwhile, John Sharp upset Mike Brophy in the
second quarterfinal matchup. Taking the Allies for no bid, John
eked out a 1-POC victory. At the other extreme, Ed Menzel's Axis
cruised to a 10-POC victory over Greg Berry's Axis; Ed didn't
even need the 1.5 bid. Vince Meconi's hot dice enabled him to
prevail over Glenn McMaster's Axis by three POC after the 1-POC
bid.
The first semi-final rematched McNay's Allies, bidding 2.0,
against Meconi. Ewan had won as the Allies against Vince on Round
3, and this one was no different. The Axis took heavy losses
and could not win an area on Turn 1 and were therefore behind
the 8-ball from the start. On Turn 4 they made it a contest when
the Axis LBA sank a convoy and U-boats got a second in the North
Atlantic. But Allied ASW maintained the blockade throughout and
the Allies won comfortably by four POC after the bid. At this
point, Ewan's success caused fellow semi-finalist Ed Menzel to
suggest tightening the immigration laws. We love ya, Ewan! In
the other semi-final, John Sharp scored his second upset, clobbering
Ed Menzel by ten POC. John had the Axis without benefit of a
bid.
The McNay-Sharp finale, which was played Thursday right after
the semi-finals, paired two relatively new players. Ewan's prior
experience consisted of two games at last year's WBC, while John
was playing in just his fourth tournament (including a 1-4 mark
his first year!) But their play in the Final was nevertheless
very chess-like. Ewan took the Allies for a 1.0 bid. The POC
marker scarcely moved from zero the entire game and the match
came down to the last sea area on the last turn. The Allies had
a large fleet and Convoy 3C in the Barents; the Axis countered
with all remaining German units to the Barents save a cruiser
in the Baltic to preserve the POC. U-boats broke control of the
area but missed the convoy with their torpedoes. With the POC
tied elsewhere on the board and too few units for the Axis to
claim a flag, it came down to the last die roll, an airstrike
on the convoy. If the Allies could land the convoy they would
win, but the die showed 5, disabling the convoy back to the USA.
The POC marker remained at 0, but the bid pushed the margin to
1 for John's Axis.
Our total of 46 entrants was somewhat lower than last year's
record total of 55, but still robust by historical standards.
87 total games were played. Play balance shifted slightly in
the Allied direction, as the Allies won 45 contests to the Axis
37, with five ties. 3 games featured a bid for the Axis, compared
to 34 no-bid contests and 50 with an Allied bid.
Sean Druelinger gained our Rookie of the Year nod with a 3-1
record, and doubled his honors with the Best Axis Player designation
at 3-1, just ahead of Mike Brophy and John Sharp at 3-1-1 each.
Ewan McNay's 6-1-1 scoresheet, just the third time a player has
won six games as the Allies, earned him Best Allied Player. Following
were Ed Menzel at 4-1 and John Sharp at 3-0.
It is the GM's considered opinion that almost all players
have no difficulty whatsoever with chess clocks. Clocks did not
expire once (for the third year in a row); in fact, the majority
of the games played appeared to take less than half of the 1
hour and 55 minute allotted time. Every round started on time,
and play was so rapid that we completed all eight rounds on Thursday
and didn't need to extend the playoffs to a second day.
Play Balance and Bidding
Play balance shifted slightly towards the Allies this year. The
Allies won 45 games (51.7%), the Axis 37 (42.5%), and there were
five ties (5.7%). Here's a breakdown of this year's bids:
Bid Games Axis Wins Allied Wins Tied
Axis 1.5 1 0 1 0
Axis 1.0 2 0 2 0
No Bid 34 14 17 3
Allies 0.5 2 0 2 0
Allies 1.0 18 7 10 1
Allies 1.5 23 13 10 0
Allies 2.0 7 3 3 1
Totals 87 37 45 5
As you can see, generally the higher the bid, the better chance
the Axis has of winning - which is the outcome bidding is designed
to accomplish! Collapsing the categories brings things into sharper
focus:
Bid Games Axis Wins Allied Wins Tied
Allied <1.5 57 21 32 4
Allied 1.5-2 30 16 13 1
Totals 87 37 45 5
The Allies won almost three out of five games where there
was an Axis bid, no bid, or an Allied bid up to 1.0. In contrast,
the Axis won about 55% of the games with Allied bids of 1.5 or
2.0.
The increased importance of bidding in tournament play can
be seen in the following numbers. Bidding altered the outcome
of nine games: one Allied win became an Axis win, two Allied
wins converted to ties, three ties moved to Axis wins, and three
Axis wins by less than 2 POC became Axis wins by 2 POC or more.
Those nine games affected by the bid comprise almost one out
of every five of the 50 games where there was an Allied bid.
War
At Sea PBeM Tournament 2004-2006
The 2004-2006 War at Sea
PBeM Tournament finished this
summer with Andy Gardner of Virginia topping Robert Drozd
of Illinois in the 7th and Final round. 44 players participated
in the event with nearly half of them starting with a 5300
or higher AREA rating. The format was five Swiss Rounds
that advanced the top six to the Single Elimination Phase. The
other laurelists were Rob Day, Mark Gutfreund, Rob Flowers
and Mike Kaye who finished third through sixth, respectvely.
Full results of the tournament can be found at http://www.geocities.com/kjlshewfelt/2004_was_bpa.html.
War At Sea Junior
2006
Six youngsters received their baptism of fire in a real
wargame tournament as grognard John Sharp attempted to school
the next class of wargamers. Apparently the apple doesn't
fall far from the tree as young Ben Gardner emerged as the
War At Sea Juniors champion. Must be in the genes
... or maybe a little home spun practice with dad. The other
future admirals included Chris Czyrca, Cameron Graf, Ryan
Burchfield, David Rennert and Jack Doughan. Future threats
all. |