breakout: normandy  

Updated Feb. 5, 2014

2013 WBC Report  

 2014 Status: pending 2014 GM commitment

Michael Kaye, MD

2013 Champion

 

WBC Event History
1994    Jim Doughan      50
1995    Bill Edwards      48
1996    Hank Burkhalter      54
1997    Jim Doughan      53
1998    Don Greenwood      52
1999    Michael Rinella     48
2000    Phil Barcafer     32
2001    Jim Doughan     34
2002     Alan Applebaum     26
2003    Jim Eliason     28
2004    Nels Thompson     33
2005    Andrew Cummins     27
2006    Jim Eliason     19
2007     Jim Doughan     20
2008    Nels Thompson     20
2009    Nels Thompson     20
2010    Nels Thompson     16
2011    Marvin Birnbaum     21
2012    Kevin Hammond     18
2013    Michael Kaye     26

 

D-Day Mini-Con Event History
1998    Don Greenwood      17
1999    Alan Applebaum     19
2000    Bryan Esleman     18
2001    Andrew Cummins     17
2002     Marvin Birnbaum     23
2003    David Wong     15
2004    Andrew Cummins     15
2005    Don Greenwood     20
2006     Don Greenwood     13

 

PBeM Event History
1999    Jim Doughan      34
2001    John Crabtree      36
2003    Bruno Passacantando      48
2004    Don Greenwood     47
2006    Tom Dworschak     50
2011    Don Greenwood     38
2012    Mark Gutfreund     36
2014    Andrew Cummins     30

 

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Don Greenwood      MD    13    388
  2.  Nels Thompson      VA    13    324
  3.  Andrew Cummins     uk    14    316
  4.  Michael Kaye       MD    14    237
  5.  Marvin Birnbaum    NY    13    211
  6.  Alan Applebaum     MA    02    204
  7.  Jim Doughan        PA    09    187
  8.  Jim Eliason        IA    12    185
  9.  Bryan Eshleman     NC    11    169
 10.  Mark Gutfreund     KY    14    167
 11.  Tom Dworschak      GA    12    156
 12.  Henry Jones        PA    14    144
 13.  Mike Rinella       NY    13    140
 14.  Scott Fenn         MD    14    130
 15.  Brun Passacantando CT    12    128
 16.  Kevin Hammond      NY    13     93
 17.  Steve Andriakos    TX    10     88
 18.  Phil Barcafer      PA    01     84
 19.  Clyde Longest      VA    06     60
 20.  Ken Nied           KS    05     51
 21.  David Wong         NJ    03     50
 22.  Tom Pavy           OH    03     48
 23.  Bill Edwards       VA    99     36
 24.  Peter Brunken      de    14     24
 25.  Harvey Smallman    CA    07     24
 26.  Bryan Stingley     NC    03     24
 27.  Tom Gregorio       PA    10     22
 28.  Scott Moll         VA    10     22
 29.  Chris Byrd         CT    06     20
 30.  Matthew Ellis      uk    10     18
 31.  Nick Anner         NY    06     12
 32.  Anthony Daw        UT    06     12
 33.  Anders Egneus      sw    99     12
 34.  Ron Fedin          PA    04     11
 35.  John Crabtree      CA    01     10
 36.  Tom Drueding       MA    04     10
 37.  Kevin Wojtaszczyk  NY    11      8
 38.  Hank Burkhalter    GA    10      7
 39.  John Grant Jr      CT    99      6
 40.  Chris Roginsky     PA    04      5
 41.  Dennis Nicholson   NY    03      5
 

2013 Laurelists                                           Repeating Laurelists: 

Nels Thompson, NY
2nd

Don Greenwood, MD
3rd

Kevin Hammond, WA
4th

Mike Rinella, NY
5th

Marvin Birnbaum, NY
6th


Past Winners

Jim Doughan, PA
1994, 1997, 2001, 2007

Bill Edwards, VA
1995

Hank Burkhalter, TX
1996

Don Greenwood, MD
1998

Michael Rinella, NY
1999

Phil Barcafer, PA
2000

Alan Applebaum, MA
2002

Jim Eliason, IA
2003, 2006

Nels Thompson, NY
2004, 2008-10

Andrew Cummins, uk
2005

Marvin Birnbaum, NY
2011

Kevin Hammond, WA
2012

Michael Kaye, MD
2013
   

Grant LaDue and Eric Tolentino

Paul O'Neil faces 1999 champ Mark Rinella.

Still hitting the beach 20 years later ... via Canada

This was the year that the other shoe dropped in the Breakout Normandy Tournament. The L2 version of the game has been available for a couple of years but the shark pool that is the player tournament group have previously by and large stuck to the tried and tested Avalon Hill rules set. It might have been helped by the substantially larger turnout this year (up to 26 players thanks to a demo and B rating) but L2 was the variant of choice, not by a small margin, but convincingly so (nine AH to 17 L2 games). Having crossed this rules set Rubicon, with no one objecting to playing L2, next years event will be purely L2. Of course a player with the AH set can still use it with L2 rules so this shouldn't dissuade anyone from playing - and the L2 game is every bit as exciting and tense as the original version as we've seen in this tournament.

The bidding this year fell back from the peaks of previous events with most people opting to play out of the box - 0 in the L2, 35 in AH. The exceptions being attempts to force Allied or German technicians out of their comfort zones. Ignoring the Mulligan round which had a lot of training games, the overall split of results was 11 German wins to six Allied. Perhaps even in the L2 game the Allies need some bidding love to achieve their fair share of results.

No Breakout event would be complete without a discussion of the curious events that took place on the route to victory (or defeat). Games with no weather changes as against multiple weather changes each day. The three-impulse 8th which often seals an Allied player's fate versus the ten-impulse 8th which allowed me to overcome my four-impulse 7th against Steve Koleszar. Cold dice doomed my further progress against Marvin in the second round while sealing his fate against Don Greenwood in the third. While we all rail against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune the dice throw at us, it is this variability that keeps us coming back to the game for the strange situations and challenges that inevitably arise.

The field of players this year was strong, with seven former WBC champions in contention. Mike Kaye's route to the top was not easy, facing defending champion Kevin Hammond in a nail-biting semifinal where he needed a +3 roll as the Allies (with advantage) to clear Caen in the closing impulses of the game. Recognising that this was going to be his best shot for the game, he characteristically went for it and secured his place in the Final with a fortuitous roll.

In the L2 Final, the bidding reached 30 for the Allies, demonstrating Nels Thompson's reluctance to face Mike Kaye's Allies. An early decision point came with Nels rerolling an attack to clear Bretteville on the 6th rather than hold it against the potential loss of the magic bridge. This, combined with a decision to fight for St Mere rather than reallocating into Omaha put the Allies on the backfoot. Stir in weather changes on the first three days with unrelenting German counterattacks into Isigny and you have a real bare-knuckle game. Caen was the key with Nels initally successfully enveloping the strongly held city, taking Troan, Bourguebus, Verson and Evercy. But Mike struck back, reclaiming Verson and reestablishing access that guaranteed the city would not fall. This gave the veteran contender his first BKN title after decades in the trenches while denying Nels an unprecedented fifth BKN championship.

Kevin Wojtaszczyk and Michael Kaye anticipate a good dice roll.

Bob Basa faces two-time champ Jim Eliason in the opening round.

 Play By Email 2014

Andrew Cummins, relieved of his GM hat and responsibiliies during the email wars, has won the 8th BPA PBeM tournament over a field of 30 in 29 hotly contested games. In doing so, he has become only the second player to win the BKN triple crown with titles at WBC, the PBeM crown and the now defunct D-Day mini-con.

The Final took on a decidedly international and historical flavor with UK's Andrew commanding the Allies against German Peter Brunken's Wehrmacht. Despite nearly losing Juno Beach on D-Day, Andrew was able to clear Omaha and contest St Mere Eglise on the 6th. This led to the fall of Carentan on the 8th, usually a fatal blow to German hopes. Andrew finished them off by isolating Foret on the 10th—all but ensuring his last required VP.

In contrast to the most recent WBC, this event—which started in 2012—used the original AH version as the default, leaving use of the L2 version to those who mutually opted for its use. The other laurelists were the 2013 WBC champ, Mike Kaye, in third followed by veterans Scott Fenn, Henry Jones and defending champ Mark Gutfreund.

 GM      Andrew Cummins  [7th Year]  NA
    AndrewJJCummins@gmail.com   NA

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