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2007 champ Bert Schoose (right)
tangles
with Mark Gutfreund in the Preliminaries.
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A pair of former champs met in the
semi-final,
with Vince Meconi (left) besting Jon Lockwood.
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once more behind the sand dunes
with the grognards...
This year's tournament produced a different mix of semi-finalists
from last year's "Tournament of Champions." This
year was the debut of versatile journeyman wargamer James Tracy,
who had always been competitive in years past, but always just
missed the cut for the semi-finals. That changed this
year, as he joined a trio of former champions in the advanced
rounds.
The first semi-final matched Tracy as the Germans (with a
one-sunk supply bid) against defending champion Popiden's British. Tracy's
supplies were below average, made even worse by his bid for the
privilege of playing the German side. Undaunted, he
resorted to a well executed maneuver strategy from April through
the end of June, corralling the British inside the Tobruch perimeter
and driving towards Alexandria, using the threat of outflanking
the British to compensate for his lack of supplies. Indeed,
Popiden nearly overlooked the deadly surprise that Tracy was
preparing to unleash, namely a series of automatic victory overrun
attacks that would have enabled the Germans to take Alexandria
early and convert the game into a siege of Tobruch (and probable
German win). Fortunately for Popiden, he spotted the
threat and was able to counter it. Realizing that
his chances of taking Alexandria prior to the arrival of the
British November reinforcements were now slim, Tracy massed his
forces against Tobruch for the last resort "Holy Hand Grenade"
(1-1 all-out attack on Tobruch) in August 1941. Unfortunately
for Tracy, fate handed him an "A Elim", sending Popiden
to the championship match and Tracy to an eventual fourth place
finish, his personal highwater mark in this event.
The other semi-final match pitted GM Lockwood's British against
Vince Meconi who was looking to become the first three-time AFK
champ. Vince opened by sending the 21/3 Recce unit
racing along the coast road in order to prevent Lockwood from
using his infamous Paleveda Gambit defense (which sends two 2-2-6's
and a supply into Cyrenaica to set up a supplied blocking force
and hamper Axis maneuver). Lockwood responded by converting
to a Modified Standard British defense, which features 7/3I/Mtr
occupying N-19, thus delaying the German ability to outflank
the British positions in the western passes. To make
the situation more complicated for the Germans, they had three
of their first five supplies sunk (they would eventually eight
convoys). Lockwood made the situation worse for Meconi
by setting up a series of three defensive positions outside of
Tobruch, forcing the Germans to expend a supply unit for each
one. He then strung out delaying units on the road
to Alexandria to either force additional expenditure of German
supplies or compel the Germans to take the time to eliminate
them through isolation. He set up his El Alamein line
with his remaining forces and awaited the German advance. Meconi,
like Tracy, realized that he could not take Alexandria by November,
and also massed his forces for the inevitable 1-1 assault on
Tobruch. The first attempt on August II was an "A
back 2", nearly exhausting German supplies. A
convoy arrived on September I, however, and Meconi's second 1-1
assault was rewarded with a "D Elim", drawing a concession
and sending Vince to the Final.
The Final was a rematch of a previously played 34-turn marathon
game several years before (the maximum game length is 38 turns). Popiden's
Germans had average supply results from April through June (two
sunk), and engage din an initial siege of Tobruch rather than
an all out assault. His first attack of 6-1 surrounded
on May I eliminated a 2-2-6 at no cost to the Germans. His
next attacks on May II eliminated another 2-2-6 with a 5-1, and
one of two 1-1-6 infantry with an exchange on a 1-2 attack. After
a brief pause on June I, Popiden resumed the attack on June II,
but sustained heavy casualties in the process, getting an exchange
on a 3-1 surrounded against 2/3 Armored (4-4-7), another exchange
on a 3-1 surrounded against a 1-1-6, and a "D Elim"
on a 1-1 surrounded versus the remaining 1-1-6. The
Germans were now down to 24 factors and seven units (including
one still at their home base in Tripoli). Popiden
then resorted to his own version of the Holy Hand Grenade in
July I, launching a 1-1 attack against a 4-4-7 and 3-3-7 in Tobruch
that resulted in an exchange, with devastating casualties. Even
though Ariete was able to advance into Tobruch following the
subsequent 3-1 attack on the remaining 1-1-6 (which also resulted
in an exchange), this left the Afrika Korps with only four units
totaling 10 factors remaining on board. Even worse,
the British were now in position to seal up Ariete inside Tobruch
and produce a siege of their own until the November reinforcements
could arrive. Popiden conceded the match at this point,
making Vince Meconi Afrika Korps' first three-time champion.
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The Final matched a pair of two-time
champions with Vince Meconi (right) topping John Popiden for
his third title. |
After 30 qualifying games, it all
comes down to this. Vince Meconi became the first to reach three
titles after only 19 years. |
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