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Bitter Woods (BWD) WBC 2018 Report
Updated October 17, 2018
22 Players Bruno Sinigaglio 2018 Status 2019 Status Event History
2017-18 Champion Click box for details. Click box for details.
 

Rebounding Back To The Century

It was rebound year for Bitter Woods at Seven Springs. Just three years ago we played 50 games at doncon. Last year we fell below 16 players, but this year we climbed back above 20 entrants.

This year's finalists included four perennial antagonists: Johnny Hasay, Bill Morse, Marty Musella and Bruno Sinigaglio. John and Bill were partnered in one semi-final whilst Bruno and Marty faced off in the other.

In both semifinals the American players, Bill and Bruno, had fairly easy games as John and Marty's Germans rolled some pretty bad dice. John tried his normal southern strategy, but the good rolls he needed were spent when he played Bruno in a preliminary game. Marty was hampered in his game, because the 106/424 lived through 16AM and fully blocked the center of the board. John and Marty went down to defeat.

That left frequent final contestants Bill and Bruno, back at it again. This game would be the fifth time Bill and Bruno met in the Bitter Woods Championship match. The game started badly for Bill playing the Germans in the 8-turn Scenario. The first turn attacks for Bill's Germans were not great, but featured five firefights and a built bridge at Dasburg on the road to Clervaux.

Eventually, the firefights began to take a toll, and a number of times Bruno had to use artillery units to hold the front line with other artillery units providing fire support. Bruno was able to build a fort in Bastogne and that relieved anxiety in the south, but Bill worked his Germans through the center and was able to bring pressure on Parker's Crossroads. Bruno held off Bill at Parker's Crossroads with two flipped units and five arty battalions until the 82 Airborne arrived.

Of course, Bill should have won this game as he should have won all the others, but he always has a turn when he is snakebit. In this game he was snakebit twice. The first time is when he rolled backwards on the 17AM breakout causing Peiper to die. The second time it was on 18AM. It started out great on 18AM when Bill dropped VDH next to three arty units cancelling their support. Then Bill attacked across the Warche at Malmedy and rolled a Defender back 3, which allowed an advance to Francorchamps that trapped units in Stavelot and 1711. Now Bill just needed to roll anything but a 6 on a 2-1(-1) surround at Stavelot. Even a roll of 5 would yield a firefight and would kill the lone step in Stavelot, which was holding on with arty support. Of course you know that Bill rolled that 6 causing a massive Engaged logjam that lasted for three more turns. To make matters worse, Bruno blew the fuel dump in 1808. Nearby, Bill's intern Alex Gregorio was overheard thinking that Bruno should "rot in hell" for doing this to Bill.

Alas, these things happened to “Snake-Bit” Bill and Bruno prevailed to win the championship.

2018 Laurelists Repeating Laurelists: 5
Bill Morse Marty Musella Johnny Hasay Michael Mitchell Vince Sinigaglio
2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th
John Clarke and Johnny Hasay in action.
Marty and Bruno at it again.
GM Bruno Sinigaglio [2nd Year]  NA
 Brunofjs@hotmail.com  NA