Andrew Choptiany, PA

2013 Champion

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
2012		Jonathan Lockwood		47
2013		Andrew Choptiany		39

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
2012		Dennis Nicholson		50
2013		Timothy Tow		41

Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Andy Gardner       VA    12    179
  2.  Jonathan Lockwood  VA    12    175
  3.  Pat Richardson     FL    11    158
  4.  Ray Freeman        CA    04    133
  5.  Vince Meconi       DE    13    132
  6.  Ed Menzel          CA    13    128
  7.  Dennis Nicholson   NY    12    127
  8.  Bruce Monnin       OH    13    121
  9.  Darren Kilfara     uk    12     99
 10.  Ewan McNay         CT    10     80
 11.  Robert Drozd       IL    13     78
 12.  Andy Choptiany     PA    13     72
 13.  Bruce Reiff        OH    10     71
 14.  Don Greenwood      MD    12     70
 15.  Steve Packwood     MN    11     70
 16.  Michael Kaye       CA    10     64
 17.  Charlie Drozd      IL    12     60
 18.  Alan Applebaum     MA    10     52
 19.  David Finberg      MA    01     50
 20.  Tim Tow            WA    13     45
 21.  Rob Flowers        NC    06     44
 22.  John Sharp         FL    06     40
 23.  Jim Kramer         PA    12     38
 24.  Tim Hitchings      DE    04     30
 25.  Bill Thomson       TX    03     30
 26.  Greg Berry         VA    05     28
 27.  John Pack          CO    12     21
 28.  Glenn McMaster     on    06     19
 29.  Michael Ussery     MD    13     18
 30.  Chuck Stapp        NJ    09     18
 31.  Ben Gardner        VA    13     16
 32.  John Elliott       MD    07     16
 33.  Rob Day            KS    06     16
 34.  Phil Rennert       MD    99     16
 35.  Jim Laws           WA    12     15
 36.  Joe Collinson      MD    03     15
 37.  Ron Dietz          OH    00     15
 38.  Jow Powell         VA    13     12
 39.  Mark Gutfreund     KY    06     12
 40.  John Strand        CO    03     10
 41.  Michael Knautz     WI    00     10
 42.  Phil Watkins       au    13      9
 43.  Karl Bodenheimer   MO    10      9
 44.  Mike Brophy        NC    06      8
 45.  Scott Beall        OR    08      5
 46.  Kevin Shewfelt     CA    04      5
 47.  Mike Bailey        VA    02      5
 48.  Dave Streamo       OH    00      5
 49.  David Rynkowski    NY    13      4
 50.  Bryan Eshleman     NC    01      4
 51.  Bob Hamel          CT    99      4
 52.  Dan Henry          IL    01      3
 53.  Nick Markevich     CA    99      3
 54.  James Pei          TX    99      2
 55.  Sean McKenzie      AK    99      1

2013 Laurelists                                                Repeating Laurelists:
Bruce Monnin, OH 2nd Ben Gardner, VA 3rd Joe Powell, VA 4th Rob Drozd, IL 5th David Rynkowski, NY 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, 2012 Vince Meconi, DE 2010 Andrew Choptiany, PA 2013

GM Vince Meconi checks his standings board. Three-time champ Ray Freeman vs Bob Hamel Joe Powell vs Rod Drozd Jim Kramer vs John Elliott 39 Still in Convoy ... Andy Choptiany won the 2013 War At Sea Championship with an overall record of 6-1-1. Andy was competing in just his fourth full tournament. He defeated three-time champion Bruce Monnin (5-3) in a tense Final. Two-time champion Ben Gardner finished third with a record of 6-1and was the only player to go unbeaten in the five swiss rounds. Joe Powell took fourth with a 5-2 mark. Rob Drozd (4-2) finished fifth to grab the last (AC bonus) plaque. Sixth place laurles went to DavidRynkowski (3-2), who received a copy of the book Mussolini's Navy, given to the highest finisher not winning a plaque. The additional playoff contenders were 7th, defending champion Jonathan Lockwood (3-3) and Bruce Reiff (3-3-0). Rounding out our top10 with 3-2 records were current PBeM Ladder Champ JohnPack in and Charlie Drozd respectively. At the conclusion of the five Swiss rounds, the eight qualifiers were set, with, unusually, no tiebreaker needed: 1) Ben Gardner, 48 Victory Points, 2) Rob Drozd, 40 VPs, 3) Andy Choptiany, 37 VPs, 4) David Rynkowski, 36 VPs, 5) JoePowell, 36 VPs, 6) JonathanLockwood, 32 VPs, 7) Bruce Monnin (32 VPs and 8) BruceReiff, also 32 VPs. In the quarterfinals, top seed Gardner's Allies handled #8 seed Reiff', #3 Choptiany's Axis blew out #6 Lockwood, #7 Monnin's Allies outlasted #2 Drozd, and #4 Powell's Allies maxed out against #5 Rynkowski. In the semifinals, Andy Choptiany's Axis used the 2.5 bid they received to edge Ben Gardner by the razor-thin 0.5 POC margin; Monnin's Allies, bidding 1.5, killed lots of Germans in a big Turn 2 battle and used the resulting momentum to defeat Powell's defanged Axis. The Final rematched Choptiany and Monnin; Andy had already bested Bruce in the Swiss rounds. This time, Bruce took the Allies for 2.5. Andy took the early lead, winning a North Atlantic battle on Turn 1 to gain 2 POC at a cost of two ships while sinking three British battleships. POC remained motionless for the next few turns; Allied LBA could not hit Italian cruisers while Axis LBA managed to sink an Allied ship every turn. Ineffective Allied ASW allowed the U-boat fleet to remain largely intact and sink another Allied ship per turn. However, Bruce managed to carry the game to the last turn. His Allies had convoys in both the North Atlantic and Barents, and needed to land both for the win. Bruce's 10 ASW in the North Atlantic removed all four remaining U-boats enabling him to put that convoy into England for a single POC. The game thus came down to the last die roll against the Barents convoy; the Axis needed to sink or disable the convoy to preserve their 2.5 POC margin. The deciding LBA roll was a 5, disabling the last convoy back to the USA and handing the win to Andy's Axis. In a brief pre-tournament induction ceremony, Jonathan Lockwood became the fifth member of the War At Sea Hall of Fame, joining previous inductees Alan Applebaum, Ray Freeman, Andy Gardner, and Bruce Monnin. Jonathan is a two-time WBC champ, a two-time BPA PBeM Champion, and the all-time leader in tournament playoff appearances, games played, total wins, Allied wins, top 4 finishes, and many other statistical categories. Despite the bulls-eye on his back, Jonathan made the playoffs again this year for the sixth year in a row, another record. The 39-player field was the smallest since 1998, but still managed to log 72 games played. The favorite opening Allied strategy was again Barents on 1 by a wide margin, with a few Mediterranean strategies sprinkled throughout the tourney. Champ Andy Choptiany added to his winnings by scoring the Best Axis Player nod with a 3-0 log, while Ben Gardner earned Best Allied Player props at 5-1. Finally, RobDrozd was our sportsmanship nominee. Facing a new player, he chose to use the game as a teaching exercise, displaying great patience, heedless of his own playoff chances. It was not the first time he has done so. My favorite quote of the tourney came from newcomer Rob Hammand, who lamented, "My dice were so bad I'd have been better off ramming my opponents' ships!" After last year's perfect play balance between the Allies andAxis, this year's Axis competitors apparently rested on their laurels, with theAllies scoring 41 victories to just 30 for the Axis (and one tie). 56 of the 72 games featured an Allied bid ranging from 1.0 to 2.5 POC (a much lower percentage than last year); 16 had no bid and no player bid for the Axis. The average bid this year was 1.38 (all games) and 1.77 (games with a bid), both down from last year's record highs. As always, putting on the War At Sea tournament is a team effort. My thanks go to Assistant Gamemasters Rob Drozd and John Sharp; chess clocks were provided (and largely set up) by Charlie Drozd with an appreciative nod to Alan Applebaum for the original purchase. Is two-time champ Jon Lockood ready to pass the torch to young Ben Gardner? Three titles availed Bruce Monnin nothing as Andrew Choptiany won it all.

 Play By Email 2013

Tim Tow won his first BPA championship, besting a field of 41 in the Ninth BPA War At Sea PBeM tournament. Tim went 5-0 to win the Smgle Elimination event. He began with a win over Jim Laws, and then added Ken Gutermuth, Phil Watkins and Ed Menzel to his victims before bestowing runner-up honors on Robert Drozd in the title game. Ed Menzel (3rd with a 3-1 record), Vince Meconi (4th, 3-1), Phil Watkins (5th, 3-1) and Michael Ussery (6th, 2-1) rounded out the laurelists.

Tim showed versatility in the tournament, winning three times as the Axis and twice as the Allies. Overall, the Allies enjoyed a 22-17 advantage in the tournament, with the average bid to play the Allied side going for 1.7 POC.

The bids broke down as:
0.0 POC: Axis 1-0
0.5 POC: Axis 1-0
1.0 POC: Allies 3-0
1.5 POC: Allies 10-4
2.0 POC: Allies 9-8
2.5 POC: Axis 3-0

Tim took the Allies in the Final with a bid of 1.5 POC. A Barents on 1 strategy was challenged when one of the British battle cruiserss failed its speed roll. A triple nickel air strike roll by the Allies sent three of the heaviest German ships back to port, but the Luftwaffe countered by sinking the Renown and disabling the Hood. However the Allies were able to hold the area while sinking a couple of German ships. The German fleet licked its wounds on Turn 2 while the Luftwaffe shone again, crippling the Ark Royal and sinking the Repulse.

On Turn 3 the Germans contested the Barents when two slow British battleships failed their speed rolls. The resulting battle left the Formidable alone in the Barents maintaining the blockade, with the Allies up 4 POC.

On Turn 4, three Italian cruisers and seven U-boats sortied to the South Atlantic against two battleships and the Eagle, but ASW accounted for four of the U-boats. The remainder managed to sink a battleship. The Eagle's airstrike disabled one cruiser and after the ensuing battle, again a lone carrier remained. Convoy 1A pushed the Allied lead to 7 POC.

On Turn 5, the British left six battleshipss in the North Sea drawing the Axis fleet for a losing fight, and the British maxed out POC at +10. After a failed attempt to break the North Sea blockade with five U-boats against 18 ASW on Turn 6, the Axis conceded.

I plan to run the next event in a Swiss-Elim format with a two month time limit per round. Instead of bidding for sides (which can lead to specialization in one side or the other) I plan to gives the Axis 2.0 POC at the start of each game. Sides will be randomly assigned in the first round, and in any other matchup where both players have played each side an equal number of times. When one player has played a side more often than his opponent, his opponent will be assigned that side.

We will probably start either not long before or not long after WBC.