war at sea   

Updated 11/17/2011

 2011 WBC Report  

 2012 Status: pending 2012 GM commitment

Steve Packwood, MN

2011 Champion

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Event History
1991    Bruce Monnin      20
1992    Tom Scarborough      23
1993    Bruce Monnin      28
1994    Phil Rennert      18
1995    Ray Freeman      33
1996    Steve Packwood      27
1997    Tim Hitchings      33
1998    Mike Kaye      32
1999    Ray Freeman     45
2000    Pat Richardson     42
2001    David Finberg     43
2002    Andy Gardner     51
2003    Ray Freeman     47
2004    Bruce Monnin     51
2005    Dennis Nicholson     55
2006    John Sharp     46
2007    Andy Gardner     44
2008    Jonathan Lockwood     50
2009    Pat Richardson     43
2010    Vince Meconi     46
2011    Steve Packwood     42

PBeM Event History
1999    Vince Meconi      22
2000    Ed Menzel      39
2001    Jonathan Lockwood      43
2004    Don Greenwood      44
2006    Andy Gardner     46
2008    Darren Kilfara     46
2010    Jonathan Lockwood     43
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Andy Gardner       VA    09    169
  2.  Pat Richardson     FL    11    158
  3.  Ray Freeman        CA    04    133
  4.  Jonathan Lockwood  VA    10    125
  5.  Ed Menzel          CA    10    116
  6.  Darren Kilfara     uk    08     94
  7.  Vince Meconi       DE    10     93
  8.  Bruce Monnin       OH    11     82
  9.  Ewan McNay         CT    10     80
 10.  Dennis Nicholson   NY    11     77
 11.  Bruce Reiff        OH    10     71
 12.  Steve Packwood     MN    11     70
 13.  Michael Kaye       CA    10     64
 14.  Alan Applebaum     MA    10     52
 15.  Don Greenwood      MD    04     50
 16.  David Finberg      MA    01     50
 17.  Rob Flowers        NC    06     44
 18.  Robert Drozd       IL    10     42
 19.  Charlie Drozd      IL    11     40
 20.  John Sharp         FL    06     40
 21.  Andy Choptiany     PA    11     32
 22.  Tim Hitchings      DE    04     30
 23.  Bill Thomson       TX    03     30
 24.  Greg Berry         VA    05     28
 25.  Glenn McMaster     on    06     19
 26.  Chuck Stapp        NJ    09     18
 27.  John Pack          CO    07     16
 28.  John Elliott       MD    07     16
 29.  Rob Day            KS    06     16
 30.  Phil Rennert       MD    99     16
 31.  Tim Tow            TX    04     15
 32.  Joe Collinson      MD    03     15
 33.  Michael Ussery     MD    01     15
 34.  Ron Dietz          OH    00     15
 35.  Mark Gutfreund     KY    06     12
 36.  John Strand        CO    03     10
 37.  Michael Knautz     WI    00     10
 38.  Karl Bodenheimer   MO    10      9
 39.  Jim Kramer         PA    07      8
 40.  Mike Brophy        NC    06      8
 41.  Scott Beall        OR    08      5
 42.  Kevin Shewfelt     CA    04      5
 43.  Mike Bailey        VA    02      5
 44.  Dave Streamo       OH    00      5
 45.  Bryan Eshleman     NC    01      4
 46.  Bob Hamel          CT    99      4
 47.  Phil Watkins       au    10      3
 48.  Dan Henry          IL    01      3
 49.  Nick Markevich     CA    99      3
 50.  James Pei          TX    99      2
 51.  Sean McKenzie      AK    99      1

2011 Laurelists                                              Repeating Laurelists:

Charlie Drozd, IL
2nd

Andy Choptiany, PA
3rd

Dennis Nicholson, NY
4th

Pat Richardson, VA
5th

Bruce Monnin, OH
6th

Past Winners

Bruce Monnin, OH
1991, 1993, 2004

Phil Rennert, MD
1994

Ray Freeman, CA
1995, 1999, 2003

Steve Packwood, MN
1996, 2011

Tim Hitchings, DE
1997

Mike Kaye, CA
1998

Pat Richardson, FL
2000, 2009

David Finberg, MA
2001

Andy Gardner, VA
2002, 2007

Dennis Nicholson, NY
2005

John Sharp, FL
2006

Jonathan Lockwood, VA
2008

Vince Meconi, DE
2010
   

Jon Lockwood faces Reiff the younger. Even War At Sea ... Nicole really is a chip off the old block who obviously gets a lot of training bouts with her dad.

Joe Powell, still glowing from his Football Strategy title prepares for another opponent while Ray Freeman and Ben Collinson mix it up in the background.

42 Still in Convoy ...

Steve Packwood won his second War At Sea championship 15 years after taking his first! Steve (6-2) defeated Charlie Drozd (6-1-1) in the 8th and final round. Charlie also was runner-up in Victory in the Pacific, narrowly failing to become the first player ever to win both at the same con. He should have tried horseshoes instead. Andy Choptiany repeated in third place with a 4-2-1 tally and Dennis Nicholson nabbed the fourth and final plaque with a 4-3-0 log. Pat Richardson 4-1-1, finished fifth and received a copy of the book The German Navy at War: Vol. 1, The Battleships, given to the highest finisher not winning a plaque. The remaining playoff contenders were sixth, Bruce Monnin, (4-2), seventh, Jonathan Lockwood (4-2), eighth, Ray Freeman (3-3), Chuck Stapp and Jim Kramer (3-2).

At the end of the five Swiss rounds, automatic playoff qualifiers were as follows: 1) Charlie Drozd, 45 VPs/4-0-1, 2) Pat Richardson, 43 VPs, 4-0-1, 3) Bruce Monnin, 40 VPs & 4-1-0, 4) Jonathan Lockwood, 38 VPs/4-1-0, 5) Andy Choptiany, 35 VPs, 3-1-1, 6)Steve Packwood, 34 VPs & 3-2-0, and 7) Dennis Nicholson, 32 VPs/3-2-0. Ray Freeman won a tiebreaker over Chuck Stapp and Jim Kramer for the eighth and final playoff slot; all three had finished 3-2 with 30 VPs. Jonathan Lockwood became the only player since the single elimination rounds were expanded to quarter-finals to make the playoffs four years in a row.

In the quarter-finals, top seed Charlie's Axis cruised past Ray, Dennis's Axis upset Pat, Andy's Allies were .5 better than Jonathan, and Steve's Axis crushed Bruce. In the semi-finals, Charlie's Axis overcame Dennis using only nine ASW to sink his first seven U-boats and won anyway. Meanwhile, Steve's Allies defeated Andy.

In the Final, Charlie took the Allies for a 2.0 bid. Key events included Turn 1, when the Germans sailed to the South Atlantic. Gniesenau and Admiral Scheer were crippled and disabled; Scharnhorst and Blucher failed to oil. On Turn 4, the Axis deployed to the Barents, where they won the area and sank Convoy 2B. Finally, on Turn 7 eight Allied ASW rid the South Atlantic of six U-boats, but Axis LBA preserved the win by sinking Convoy 3C. At this point the Allies surrendered, unable to close the gap with a single turn remaining. The Allied bid of 2.0 flipped an Allied 1-POC victory to an Axis 1-POC victory.

The favorite opening Allied strategy was again Barents on 1 by a heavy margin. Charlie Drozd copped Best Axis Player with a 5-0-1 scoreboard, while Jonathan Lockwood nabbed Best Allied Player laurels at 4-1-0, the sixth time he has been so designated. Veteran gamer but first-time War At Sea contestant Jim Fardette won Rookie of the Year with a 12th place finish and 2-0-1 mark. Finally, Rob Drozd was our sportsmanship nominee. Playing a very new and very young player, Rob chose to make the game a teaching experience for his opponent. For the eighth year in a row, no chess clock expired.

The Allies won 43 of the 76 contests, or 56.6%; the Axis won only 30 (39.5%) with three ties. These results contrasted with last year's, when the Axis won a majority of the games. However, this year the Axis won six of the seven playoff contests and the Final was contested by two players who played (and won) most of their games as the Axis. 67 of the 76 games featured an Allied bid. The average bid this year was 1.51 (all games) and 1.72 (games with a bid). The latter was actually down microscopically from last year; on the other hand, bids of 2.5, once unknown, occurred 15 times this year.

As always, putting on the War At Sea tournament is a team effort. My thanks go to Assistant Gamemasters Rob Drozd, Ewan McNay, and John Sharp; John also provided the chess clocks, with an assist from Charlie Drozd.

1997 champ Tim Hitchings looks to recapture that magic against Ken Nied.

Jonathon Lockwood and James Kramer finished 7th and 8th respectively.

 GM      Vincent Meconi  [9th Year]   105 Churchill Ln, Wilmington, DE 19808-4355 
    vmeconi@verizon.net   NA

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