Century Events 3

Top LaurelistsBruce Beard, MD 190Jon Kwiatkowski, NC 104Paul Hakken, NJ 103Barrington Beavis, UK 90Jim McDanold, TN 80Mark Neale, RI 60Richard Fox, IL 50Pierre LeBoeuf, MD 50David Fritsch, VA 40Dave Metheny, PA 25

Top LaurelistsJustin Childs, FL 88Matt Calkins, VA 42Phil Bradley, IL 38David Gantt, SC 38Jason Ley, WA 36Gary Moss, MD 36Steve Shambeda, PA 33Ed Kendrick, UK 30Jon Shambeda, PA 30Bruce Reiff, OH 24

Acquire (ACQ)

Jim Garvey started the Final by opening Tower. Phil Bradley, playing third, opened Continen-

tal. Jim started Luxor on his next turn and Mindy Kyrokos, not to be left out, opened Imperial. Ja-son Ley started American on his second play, and then Worldwide on his next play. Jim started Festival on his fourth play.

Mindy blended Imperial into Luxor, netting first, with second split between Jim and Phil. She restarted Imperial on her next play. Jason merged next—Continental into Tower, but had to split first with Phil. Jim was the first to run low on cash, but he didn’t lose his hold on Festival when it merged into American, netting him $3,000. Phil was the next to fall victim to low cash, but when Jason merged Continental into Luxor Phil replenished his cash with a second-place bonus. Jason later reestablished Continental. As Mindy was left out of two mergers in a row, she couldn’t buy for four turns. Jim ran short, too, missing two buys and even Phil had to skip a turn. Jason just added to his holdings in Festival and Continental, and then merged Imperial into Luxor. Phil instigated the next two mergers, Continental into Luxor, fol-lowed by Worldwide into Luxor. Festival was the final merger, going into American.

At the final tally, Jason finished with $54,300, Phil had amassed $41,500, Mindy came in fourth with $38,200, and Jim finished last with $31,500.

2007 ResultsJason Ley, WAPhil Bradley, ILMindy Kyrkos, NYO Jim Garvey, NYO B. Berkenstock, NJO Ken Lee, PA

Anthony Daw, UT

93 1991-2007

18XX (8XX)

Saturday’s Final matched (in turn order) de-fending two-time champion Bruce Beard,

last year’s runner-up Mark Neale, 2003 champ Paul Hakken, and Michael Fox, playing 18xx at the WBC for the first time. In the prelims, Bruce went 3-1, with Mark, Paul, and Mike posting re-cords of 2-0, 2-2, and 1-0.

In the private auction, Bruce got the C&SL for $55 and the D&H for $100, Mark took the M&H for $150, Michael took the B&O private at $225 (setting the share price at $100), and Paul took the Schuylkill at cost and the C&A at $225. With the option to buy the first company, Bruce opened the PRR at $67, as did Mark with the NYNH.

On the third stock round, Paul started the NYC at $82. The next round, Michael chose the C&O at $67 and Bruce bought three shares of B&O to force Michael to run it. Bruce then sold his private companies into the PRR and used the proceeds to take the B&O away from Michael. The B&M ($67-Mark), Erie ($100-Paul), and CP ($100-Bruce) followed, leaving Bruce with three companies, two with lots of money.

Before diesels, Bruce had two 4’s, a 5, and a 6 on three RRs, Mark had a 4 and a 5 on two RRs, Paul a 4 and a 6 on two RRs, and Michael a 5 on his only RR. All players got diesels, but Bruce’s stock and

train advantage won the day. Final scores were Bruce (8645), Mark (6935), Paul (6568), and Michael (6403).

Jason Ley, WA

2007 ResultsBruce Beard, MDMark Neale, RIPaul Hakken, FLMichael Fox, ILAkihisa Tabei, JPO Rick Dutton, MD

Pierre LeBouef, MD

45 1991-2007

Bruce Beard, MD

4 Century Events

Top LaurelistsDoug Galullo, FL 266Joe Gundersen, IN 186Kevin Youells, FL 144Eric Gundersen, NJ 131Shantanu Saha, NY 83Harald Henning, CT 50Ted Mullally, NJ 50John Morris, MD 40Chris Robbins, UT 30Rodd Polsky, PA 30

Top LaurelistsJ. R. Tracy, NY 240Gary Mei, NJ 228Paul Sidhu, NJ 204Steve Pleva, OH 132Brett Hildebran, OH 96Kevin Valerian, MD 84Jim Stahler, VA 48Mark Pitcavage, OH 36Jim Mehl, VA 30Ron Duenski, NJ 24J. R. Tracy, NY

Advanced Civilization (ACV)

After seven years in the Final round, Kevin Youells finally struck gold playing Crete. It

started with the traditional random drawing of sides. Once enjoined, the game progressed with the typical declarations and negotiations for na-tional boundaries.

Africa, Thrace and Egypt played good games but never quite reached the pinnacle of success required to threaten the leader. Russell Harley’s Africa reached six cities early in the game, but remained there until the last three turns, finally reaching eight. This continual low city count took him off the glide path to success, relegating him to fourth place. Robert Vollman’s Thrace did well in the early game, achieving eight cities early, only to languish in mid-game with five or six cities. Chris Robbin’s Egypt did well for most of the game, but suffered from many calamities and lower city counts in the mid-game.

In the early game, Youells avoided the curse of calamities through careful trading and whin-ing about being in last place. In mid-game, he established a steady state empire with nine cities and was able to purchase a gold card regularly. In the late-game Youells’ advanced empire easily

withstood the few assaults against it. Crete received nine calamities in all, but of those, six were from Barbarian Hordes and had no effect. In the end, Crete was so far ahead that players unanimously voted to concede.

2007 ResultsJ.R. Tracy, NYM. Ronnblom, SweJim Mehl, VAJoe Chacon, VAEric Givler, PATom Morin, MA

Perry Cocke, MD

18 1991-2007

2007 ResultsKevin Youells, FLChris Robbins, UTShantanu Saha, NYRussell Harley, WAR. Vollman, ABO Rich Jenulis, OH

Joe Gundersen, IN

30 1991-2007

Advanced Squad Leader (ASL)

Returning to WBC proper, ASL used new, lim-ited intelligence scenarios. Round 1’s The End

scenario was tough on the Russians. Regardless, the four best Russians and the four best Germans advanced. In Round 2’s Meatgrinder scenario, the Russians could achieve an instant victory by crush-ing the small on-board German force or by keep-ing the Germans from controlling buildings. The scenario broke 50-50, with Germans Mattias Ron-nblom and Joe Chacon defeating Tom Morin and Jeff Evich and Russians JR Tracy and Jim Mehl de-feating Eric Givler and Rob Schoenen.

Russians JR Tracy and Mattias Ronnblom defeated Jim Mehl and Joe Chacon, respectively, in the Round 3 scenario 7 Graves for 7 Brothers. In both games, the Germans had exited enough VPs to win (they knew what they needed), but the Russians were able to exit an M3 Lee in the last player turn to snatch victory away by one point. (The Germans didn’t know how many points the Russian tanks were worth.)

In the Final, the consensus choice for top matchup of the tourney—JR Tracy and Mattias Ronnblom—faced off in The Far Bank, a remake of an old SL scenario that featured a river crossing in German assault boats in the face of minimal partisan resistance and a Russian counterattack. JR courted defeat by firing his flamethrower into a melee. He ended up winning with the Germans by just one point.

Kevin Youells, FL

Century Events 5

Bert Schoose, IL

Top LaurelistsJon Lockwood, VA 119 Vince Meconi,DE 118Bruno Sinigaglio, AK 102Randy Heller, MD 78Ed Menzel, CA 58Bert Schoose, IL 57John Popiden, CA 57Lane Newbury, TX 48Greg Smith, PA 38Doug Burke, MD 24

Top LaurelistsJim Munson., UT 30Daniel Leader, MA 30Kevin Boles, AL 30Peter Pollard, TN 30John Vasilakos, VA 22Tom McCorry, VA 20Buck Markowitz, DC 18Allen Hill, MD 18Andres Dunn, MD 14Bob Runnicles, FL 12

Afrika Korps (AFK)

In the Final, 2002 champ Jon Lockwood’s Germans took advantage of perfect ear-

ly supplies to drive Bert Schoose’s British into Tobruch with no casualties and begin a swift drive towards Alexandria. Opting to eliminate the delaying units opposing him, Lockwood had stormed up to the El Alamein line by June II 1941. There he established a 3-1 proof defensive line, with the Afrika Korps facing a smaller British force and awaiting the supplies to catch up before begin-ning the final push into Alexandria. Those supplies didn’t arrive for another six turns, as the British navy successfully hamstrung Lockwood’s forces, leaving him open to a low odds counterattack.

Realizing that his only chance was to kneecap the Afrika Korps by eliminating the 7-7-10 Panzer regiments, Schoose unleashed a series of 1-1 coun-terattacks to drive back the Germans. The first 1-1 counterattack was a D Back 2 on 21/5 Panzer. Lockwood fell back and reestablished the 3-1 proof line. Schoose’s next 1-1 counterattack achieved an exchange on the 7-7-10.

Schoose followed up on the August I 1941 turn with a 4-1, 1-2 combination attack which elimi-nated 21/3 Recce. Lockwood retreated to Tobruch. After receiving supplies in early September, Lock-wood made a 1-1 assault on Tobruch to regain the initiative, but he failed. Thus, Schoose denied Lockwood a second AFK championship and de-clared victory.

ASL Starter Kit (ASK)

Although Tom McCorry was an ASL playtest-er, he didn’t have an easy road to victory in

his 4-0 run during the tournament. The first two rounds featured new scenarios that will even-tually see publication in Operations magazine. The first, No Monumental Acclaim, split evenly between the attacking Americans and defend-ing Germans. McCorry’s Germans stood strong against past runner-up Allen Hill. Teenagers An-dres Dunn and Jonathan Squibb were among the successful Americans.

In Round 2, masses of Italians attacked first-line Americans in Going to New York and split even-ly between the two sides. McCorry saw his Italians matched against the Americans of last year’s third-place finisher John Vasilaskos. John’s poor setup doomed him, despite some hot dice in the mid-game. Round 3 featured scenario S20 Joseph 351 and paired SL grognard Pete Pollard versus Squibb and McCorry versus Dunn. Experience won out in both games.

For the final round, Pollard and McCorry played S2 War of the Rats. Pete’s Germans couldn’t mount a convincing attack. His assault engineers repeatedly failed to lay smoke to cover the attack, and his elite Germans repeatedly broke or were

pinned by Russian conscripts, even in the safety of stone buildings. The final Close Combat ended with a Russian conscript managing to kill an assault engineer and 9-1 leader.

2007 ResultsBert Schoose, ILJon Lockwood, VABill Morse, VAO John Popiden, CAO M. Gutfreund, KYO Bruno Sinigaglio, AK

Jon Lockwood, VA23 1991-2007

2007 ResultsTom McCorry, VAPete Pollard, TNAndres Dunn, MDO Jon Squibb, PAO John Vasilakos, VAO E. Filipkowski, MD

Perry Cocke, MD18 2004-2007

Tom McCorry, VA

6 Century Events

Top LaurelistsMartin Sasseville, QC 69Pierre Paquet, QC 66Richard Irving, CA 39Mario Veillette, QC 24Michael Holmquist, WI 24Peter Staab, PA 18Craig Moffitt, NJ 12Keith Altizer, FL 12Charlie Kersten, OH 9Ilan Woll, CT 9

Top LaurelistsBill Crenshaw, VA 313Jeff Mullet, OH 263Ewan McNay, CT 238Chris Byrd, CT 186Ken Gutermuth, TX 179Harald Henning, CT 172Carl Damcke, IL 120Steve Simmons, NJ 116John Coussis, IL 84Tom Taaffe, VA 82

Age of Steam (AOS)

Dominance in the card-driven wargames may come at the knee of Master Pei and Nappy

Wars/Up Front crowns may go through Greenville, but the French Canadians command Age of Steam. Will anyone give them a game in 2008?

The Final was a defacto invitational game since all three of the former champions qualified, along with Mario Veillette, a former laurelist. The game was played using the basic Rust Belt map. As early as the setup, it was apparent that the game would be a rough one, as very few good deliveries were available on the first turn. Further, the central por-tion of the board had great potential for crowding.

For the first turn, Pierre, Mario, Martin and Richard went in that order. Through the rest of the game, bidding for turn order was the norm. Pierre, Richard and Martin had $2 income at the end of the first turn while Mario had $0. After the second turn, Richard did not have enough cash to pay his interest and expenses; thus, he took a $2 reduction in income, leaving him with $3, while the others all had $4.

On Turn 3, Richard was down to $0 income, with Pierre, Martin and Mario increasing to $8. In Turn 4, Richard went bankrupt. At the end of the game, Martin had amassed 90 victory points to retain his championship, Pierre had 74 victory points to come in second for the second year in a row, and Mario had 63 total vic-tory points.

Age of Renaissance (AOR)

Five former Laurelists—including last year’s WBC and Enlightenment champ Jeff Mul-

let—and Chris Trimmer sat down for the Final. It was a marathon session that went deep into the wee hours of Saturday morning, which is highly unusual for a six-turn game! By the end, players could be heard saying wild things like “You’re scary! Expand!” They were also making deals for War, where the winner could choose what he liked!

The pressure began in Turn 2, when Kevin Sudy, as Paris, went for the quick gains of Holy Indulgence. All others had to sacrifice a crucial dom to his holiness. This, and a severe lack of wool in Era 1, swiftly neutralized London, who had to sit through the torturous two-hour grand bazaar when 11 leaders came out (five of them Kevin’s!), and everyone struggled with the math. Ultimately, Kevin stripped Jeff of the crown.

Tournament attendance increased for the first time in eight years. More players meant that the GM stayed busy—there were six winners at five tables in the first heat! Further, there was a “never seen before” TIE in the first round!

To accommodate the tourney’s growth, there has been discussion about adding a Semi-Final

round, which would allow more winners to advance but would in-crease the time required to win. Re-gardless, expect to see more demos to encourage additional new blood.

2007 ResultsMartin Sasseville, QCPierre Paquet, QCMario Veillette, QCO Richard Irving, CAO M. Imbeault, QCO Cody Sandifer, MD

Pete Staab, OH40 2004-2007

2007 ResultsKevin Sudy, VAJeff Mullet, OHChris Trimmer, TXO Harald Henning, CTO Mark Smith, KYO Steve Simmons, NJ

Tedd Mullally, NJ33 1996-2007

Kevin Sudy, VA Martin Sasseville, QC

Century Events 7

Vassili Kyrkos, NY John Coussis, IL

Top LaurelistsNate Hoam, OH 36Vassili Kyrlos, NY 30Michael Mullins, MA 30Bruce Reiff, OH 30Holliday Jones, MD 20Luke Koleszar, VA 18Matt Calkins, VA 18Richard Meyer, MA 18George Sauer, OH 18Tom Dunning, NY 14

Top LaurelistsJohn Coussis, IL 131Ken Rothstein, NY 82Robert Sohn, PA 74Chris Storzillo, NJ 70Brandon Bernard, PA 64Michael Musko, IN 50Jack Jaeger, VA 50Jonathan Fox, FL 40Peter Busch, OH 36Richard Fox, FL 34

Alhambra (ALH)

Those who had previously tasted an Alhambra Final, fared poorly this year. In the first round,

Jennifer Drozd beat out last year’s winner, Mike Mullins, while Davyd Field tossed aside 2005 champion Nate Hoam. Rob Kircher settled for beating Chris Moffa, a 2006 laurelist; Laurel Stokes edged out Andy Latto in a contest that included 2006 laurelist Matt Calkins; and Malinda Kyrkos defeated GM Debbie Gutermuth and Jeff Mullet, another 2006 laurelist.

Advancing to the second round were 18 ta-ble winners and two alternates. Vassili Kyrkos, one of those alternates, advanced into the Fi-nal after beating Rob Kircher by a single point and Brian Kowal beat Davyd Field by just four points. Luke Koleszar won his table by the big-gest spread, with 131 dwarfing the 73 of Michelle Barger, who came in second.

After the first scoring round of the five-player Final, Vassili enjoyed a slight lead with 13 points to 10 each by Luke Koleszar and Faisal Kassam. By the second scoring round, Brian Kowal had made up ground to be a contender with Luke and Vassili. Brian accomplished this by taking the lead in two of the six color buildings and sec-onds in two others. In the last scor-ing round, the difference between Luke and Vassili was just five points. Vassili’s wall earned him just enough to put him over the top and crown him champion.

Air Baron (ABN)

In the Final, John Coussis (Purple) concentrat-ed on spokes in the West, acquiring Seattle and

San Diego and placing Jumbo Jets on them very early in the game. While the other players got involved in fare wars, Purple purchased all of the Denver spokes and continued to amass cash from his Seattle and San Diego spokes, and from Jumbo profit draws.

After a dozen or more $1 payouts, the Gov-ernment Contract moved from Yellow to Purple for a mere $5. Before Purple could begin to show a profit for his $2 contract, the Bid came out again and went to Green for $6, where it stayed for the rest of the game.

After about an hour, Purple, with a fat stack of cash, tried to end the game by wrapping up the West. After adding control of San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix to his existing control of Den-ver, he only needed $60 in cash, but fell $4 short. In the next round, he survived challenges from both Orange and Yellow and found himself $10 short of victory.

He decided to get out of Fare Wars and collect profits for a while. Although he drew no profits of his own, others drew enough to put him over the top. Alas, before his turn came around again, an-

other Fuel Hike robbed him of the winning cash. However, one turn later, Purple was able to collect enough profit to declare victory with $8 to spare!

2007 ResultsVassili Kyrkos, NYLuke Koleszar, VABrian Kowal, WIO Faisal Kassam, ABO M. Amitrano, VAO Robert Kircher, RI

Debbie Gutermuth, TX84 2004-2007

2007 Results John Coussis, ILTom Bissa, MICraig Melton, VAB. Bernard, PAO G. Schmittgens, KSO Pat Richardson, VA

Henry Richardson, VA70 1996-2007

8 Century Events

Top LaurelistsRobert Ryan, MI 162Paul Fletcher, CT 125Mike Sincavage, VA 114Tom Oleson, WA 94Stephen Likevich, OH 74Bruno Sinigaglio, AK 32Carl Walling, PA 30Paul O’Niel, MD 21Mark Bayliss, UK 17Chris Harris, VA 16

2007 ResultsSam Atabaki, CACurt Collins II, PABrian Kowal, WIO Nick Anner, NYO Greg Crowe, VAO Mike Kaltman, PA

Jeremy Billones, VA57 2003-2007

Bruno Sinigaglio, AK Sam Atabaki, CA

Top LaurelistsArthur Field, SC 83Nick Anner, NY 51Evan Tannheimer, MA 42Sam Atabaki, CA 30Andrew Gerb, MA 27Greg Thatcher, FL 24Rich Meyer, MA 21Curt Collins II, PA 18Davyd Field, SC 18Brian Kowal, WI 12

Anzio (ANZ) 

Venerable grognard Tom Oleson supplied players with new coun-

tersheets for the game, an updated rule-book with new OOB cards, and an extra coun-tersheet for a Sicilia scenario.

In the Final, Bob Ryan’s Allies started by land-ing at Terracina. Bruno Sinigaglio brought up all the Germans he could muster to counterattack the beachhead. In fact, he committed so much to the counterattack that he left southern Italy danger-ously open for large Allied gains. Bruno had his AH die again, and after three turns of constant at-tack, he rolled up the Beachhead.

The last counterattack was so heavily com-mitted that had it failed, the Allies would likely have been able to connect to the Beachhead at Terracina. Since it did not fail, Bruno—the low-est active AREA rated player of Anzio—was able to take home his first Anzio Wood.

In the consolation game, Paul Fletcher (Axis) and Tom Oleson (Allies) played the new 21-turn scenario (July-December 1943). Sicily developed historically, except the Allies lost their rangers. Tom invaded at Salerno, pushed steadily north, and captured Cassino, which would have won the game on Dec II. A furious battle raged there, while the Germans contained and then crushed a Dec III invasion north of Rome. The last combat of the game saw the Germans barely retaking Cassino.

Amun-Re (AMR)

Former champions Arthur Field and Nick Anner faced each other at one of the four Semi-Final

tables. After the Old Kingdom, both were tied with Robert Cranshaw at 12 VPs. In the end, Matt Calkins ended with the most cash, while the other players all tied for second cash, and for the second time in three years Arthur was knocked out of the semis by another former champion. Two of the other semis went to tie-breakers, with Curt Collins advancing on Most Pyramids, while Greg Crowe watched alternate Sam Atabaki edge him on the penultimate tie-breaker, Most Cash.

In the Final, Curt built a 15-13-9-3 lead with Memphis, Mendes, and Buto. The New Kingdom was marked by high bidding; Sam saw a bid of 15 for Memphis topped by Brian Kovel’s 21. High sacrifices fueled the cash pool (14 in round 5 and 21 +3 in round 6). At the end, Sam had the most cash (edging Curt 54-50), and played three power cards to pull out a 36-34-30-29 win.

Statistics show that seat position is not re-lated to achieving victory. A halftime lead has shown to be only slightly better than most cash

(8-13, 27-31). Raphael Lehrer posted a tourney high 46 in the second heat, after achieving only 20 in heat 1. Ta-ble averages in the heats ranged from 31.2 to 40 (similar to previous years) with the semis at 38.3/36.5/34.8/34.3 and a Final of 32.3.

2007 ResultsB. Sinigaglio, AKRobert Ryan, MIPaul Fletcher, CTO Tom Oleson, WAO John Clarke, FLO Steve Foren, FL

Bob Ryan, MI33 1991-2007

Century Events 9

2007 Results D. Sidelinger, CTJ. Fleckenstein, VAO A. Cummins, UKO Jim Doughan, PAO Carol Caler, OHO B. Heinzmann, FL

: Rob Mull, CO30 1991-2007

2007 ResultsSteve Scott, CAStephen Cuyler, NYRob Kircher, RIJohn Elliott, MDO Bill Place, PAO John Coussis, IL

John Coussis, IL118 1998-2007

David Sidelinger, CTSteve Scott, CA

Top LaurelistsBill Edwards, VA 56David Sidelinger, CT 40Daniel Hoffman, NC 40John Conlon, OK 33Steve Caler, PA 32Buck Karpowitz, DC 30Brian Conlon, OK 28Greg Courter, MI 24Rob Schoenen, PA 20Frank Cunliffe, PA 20

Top LaurelistsRoy Gibson, MD 100Rob Winslow, NY 95Scott Buckwalter, MD 90John Coussis, IL 78Henry Richardson, VA 60Bob Eastman, OK 60Robert Barnes, WV 50Pat Mirk, FL 45John Elliott, MD 44Ben Knight, MD 41

Attack Sub (ATS)

Argentina pulled an upset in the Falk-lands during Round 1’s scenario D,

taking eight games to the Brit’s seven. In Round 2, the Soviets scored a minor upset over the Americans in scenario B (Search and Destroy), winning eight to seven. Only Round 3’s Scenario A (Sub Duel) had the favored side as the victor, with the Brits winning nine to the Soviet’s five.

In the Final, Dave Sidelinger chose Sub Duel and Jim Fleckenstein picked the Brits. The Brits got off to a good start, fixing their sensor mal-function with their first draw, then both sides began a sonar duel, both gaining minimum contact level 1 on the other. The Soviets took a quick shot with the Ivan Rogov, and a lucky hit sank the Valiant. Down to just the Swiftsure, the Brits aggressively went active, quickly gain-ing level 2 contact on the Rogov and level 3 on the Skvortsov. Without sensor cards, the Soviets closed range with the Rogov to contact 1, fired a torpedo that missed, then a second that hit, but only did one sensor and one attack damage.

Wounded but still in the fight, the Swiftsure fired back at contact 4, an almost certain hit, but only drew an attack malfunction. The Rogov closed to contact 3 and in a close-range knife fight both subs exchanged torpedoes which missed, then Rogov got the final hit, send-ing Swiftsure to the bottom. Both skippers played boldly but luck favored the Soviets.

Atlantic Storm (ACS)

For the second year in a row the champion-ship came down to the tie-breaker. Some

of the fun from the heats included Joel Tam-buro scoring a whopping 60 points in the first heat!; Steve Foren and John Elliot were tied in total points AND convoy points so Steve won because he had taken convoy C1; One game where the Bismarck was played three times and its average dice rolls were less than 5; and one game that saw the final convoy pushed three times.

As in 2006, the Final started slowly, as no one wanted to put large-value convoys or ships into play. This led to a total of nine “Stein-Flushes” (discarding your whole hand) during the first five rounds. Rob Kircher did it three hands in a row.

At the halfway point, no one had a big lead. Hand #11 was tied. Some good points were scored when it went around a second time. The action sped up in the second half when Stephen Cuyler briefly pulled ahead on convoy points. Steve Scott saw his big chance late in the game, as he played for a seven-point convoy and took it down with little opposition.

When the smoke settled, Steve Scott and Stephen Cuyler were tied with 25 points. Scott emerged victorious, with 19 convoy points to

Stephen’s 16. Rob Kircher finished with 19 points, followed by John Elliot’s 17 and Bill Place’s 15.

10 Century Events

Top LaurelistsJeff Mullet, OH 45Bruce Reiff, OH 44Jim Castonguay, PA 34Nate Hoam, OH 30Brock Heathcotte, AZ 20Lucimara Martins, MD 18Fred Minard, PA 12Dan Broh-Kahn, MD 12Cliff Ackman, PA 11Eugene Lin, WA 9

2007 ResultsJon Lockwood, VAJohn Schoose, ILAndy Joy, MDO Bruce Reiff, OHO S. McCulloch, OHO Tom Browne, PA

Bruce Reiff, OH33 1993-2007

2007 Results B. Heathcotte, AZBruce Reiff, OHO Jim Castonguay, PAO Fred Minard, PAO Lyman Moquin, DCO Cliff Ackman, PA

Jeff Mullet, OH37 2004-2007

Jon Lockwood, VABrock Heathcotte, AZ

Top LaurelistsBruce Reiff, OH 70Arthur Field, SC 38George Sauer, OH 34Jon Lockwood, VA 22James Tyne, OH 20Ray Stakenas II, MI 20Andy Gardner, VA 20David Brooks, TN 20K. Wojtaszczyk, NY 20Jeff Mullet, OH 18

Auction (ATK) 

For Wednesday’s SE round, John Schoose—17-year old son of three-

plaque winner Bert—advanced by amass-ing $9620, the high score of the tournament.

Random draw for seating in the Semi-Final normally places GM Bruce Reiff with Arthur Field and Ken Gutermuth. This time, though, they all made separate boards, and visions of meeting in the Final crossed more than a few minds. But, ‘twas not to be. In the first game, Andy “jump for” Joy won handily and Arthur was out. In the second, John Schoose used Tap-estry, Queen Anne and Glassware to advance. In the third, Jon Lockwood kicked Gutermuth and the CABbies to the curb. In the fourth, Bruce somehow managed a win with only $5920 for the lowest winning score of the tournament.

For the Final, John Schoose got some early cash, but he also got burnt by a Bank Refuses to Pay, which Jon Lockwood gobbled up. Andy managed a quick purchase of Miniatures, but that’s where Jon took over. He sold a couple of items for 100% and the special value deck bought his Jewelry.

Suddenly he had over $5000 in cash and a set of Tapestry. By Turn 5, it was over in the quickest Auction Final since 1993. How did Bruce perform? He ended with what he started with: $2000. With this win, Jon improved 26 places to fourth on the Laurels list.

Attika (ATK)

After a disappointing decline in attendance as a Pre-Con event, Attika moved back to it’s

regular spot in 2007. Although attendance didn’t make it to the hoped-for levels, there were plen-ty of sharks on the prowl. The three-player final came down to defending champion Bruce Reiff, perennial finalist Jim Castonguay and wargamer Brock Heathcotte.

Brock’s previous experiences at WBC exclu-sively involved longer wargames. However, this year, he was pressed for time and limited to a few short Euros. Brock said he was more used to conflict simulations, so he wasn’t really expect-ing to be competitive. The GM explained that when Bruce and Jim play each other in Attika, it’s really like a wargame, so he should do fine.

Sure enough, almost from the first turn, Jim and Bruce were going at it, blocking each other from making optimal moves. In a very short time, Brock had both of them on the ropes with some very good moves. Now was the time for Bruce and Jim to work together and stop Brock from winning, right?

Wrong. Both players wanted the other to stop Brock, but neither would budge. In the shortest Final of Attika ever, Brock had a cakewalk. I had to wonder if Brock had flashbacks of tanks, artil-

lery and broken supply lines, as he walked away a winner while Jim and Bruce were still debating “who started it.”

Century Events 11

Top LaurelistsPaul Risner, FL 169William Rohrbeck, NH 102Keith Hunsinger, OH 90Dave Long, NC 60Richard Moyer, MN 60Stephen Quirke, WI 55Judy Krauss, PA 42Eric Stranger, OH 40Jim LeVay, MA 40John Conlon, OK 40

Top LaurelistsPhilip Shea, VA 188Joe Powell, VA 150Kevin Keller, MD 132Phil Rennert, MD 96Pat Mirk, FL 90Tim Rothenhoefer, MD 68Brian Fitzpatrick, VA 54Ty Hansen, DC 40Charles Michalek, NV 40Andrew Murphy, PA 36 Dave Long, NCTy Hansen, DC

B-17 (B17)

Paul Risner went from first to next-to-last in this year’s tourney, while Dave Long took the num-

ber one spot. Dave flies missions against/with Jim Miller. Jim has caused Dave to wind up near the bottom of the standings year after year, but Dave takes an incredible toll on Jim, too. It’s like they show up each year to kick each other in the butt and then laugh about it. Thus, Dave had named his planes this year based on the amount of grief he has suffered in the past. With partial censorship, the names were DENIAL (No *#$? Way Jim Shoots Me Down), DEPRESSION (I Scored 64 On My First Mission. I’m So *@!%), and ACCEPTANCE (*&!@% It. We All Know Paul’s Gonna Win). Perhaps it was acceptance that made all the difference!

A consolation prize went to Dave Gantt for his last-place score of 24. Medals for Overall Per-formance went to Kevin Coombs (Bomb Wings); Steve Munchak (Navigator Wings); Jon Izer (Pilot Wings)—with zero crew lost, he won a tie-breaker over Eric Stranger and Kevin McCarthy; Steve Munchak (Co-Pilot Wings); Dave Long (Flight En-gineer Wings)—with 11 kills; Roger Knowles (Ra-dio Operator Wings)—with two kills; Dave Long (Ball Gunner Wings)—with six kills; Rich Moyer (Port Waist Wings)—with five kills; Josh Weintraub (Starboard Waist Wings)—with three kills; Dave Long (Tail Gunner Wings)—with nine kills; and Evan Hitch-ings (Prisoner of War)—with 19 total POWs.

Axis & Allies (A&A)

Five players were still 3-0 after three preliminary rounds. The top four, based on tie-breakers,

advanced, with Tim Rothenhoefer, just missing with two fewer Victory Territories captured. Kevin Keller, 1999 champion, also missed by finishing 2-1. In the first Semi-Final game, 2003-2004 cham-pion Philip Shea played the Axis and defeated 2006 second-place laurelist Andrew Murphy by a score of 13 VTs (81 IPCs) to 11 VTs (85 IPCs), with the Al-lies receiving a bid of 9 IPCs. In the second game, relative newcomer and eventual champion Ty Hansen played the Axis and defeated 2006 cham-pion Joseph Powell by a score of 13 VTs (70 IPCs) to 11 VTs (96 IPCs), with the Allies receiving a bid of 5 IPCs.

Thus, for the Final, Ty took on top laurelist Philip. Ty achieved victory as the Allies—the un-derdogs in the tournament—by a score of 14 VTs (96 IPCs) to 10 VTs (70 IPCs) in five rounds, with the Allies receiving a bid of 7 IPCs.

Compared to 2006, there were fewer con-ceded games in 2007 (12-9), but there were also more games played without a bid (11-17). Overall, the Axis won more than twice as often as the Allies (20-9). With no bids, the Axis won

12-5 and with an Allied bid, the Axis won 7-4. The one time a player bid for the Axis, the Axis won. Average Axis bid was 3 IPCs, while the average Allies bid was 4.55 IPCs.

2007 ResultsDave Long, NCRich Moyer, MNEric Strager, OHKevin Coombs, GABruce Peckham, NYMike Windle, DE

Dave Terry, MD42 1992-2007

2007 ResultsTy Hansen, DCPhilip Shea, VAJoseph Powell, VAAndrew Murphy, PAO T. Rothenhoeffer, MDO Kevin Keller, MD

Craig Yope, MI22 1999-2007

12 Century Events

Top LaurelistsRandy Heller, NH 168Tom Gregorio, PA 121Bob Ryan, MI 116Phil Evans, VA 94Steve Likevich, OH 48Forrest Pafenberg, VA 45Mike Mitchell, GA 38John Grant Jr., CT 35Rich Ogata, VA 30Bruno Sinigaglio, AK 24

Tom Gregorio, PALarry Lingle, PA

Top LaurelistsPhilip Shea,VA 54Ben Knight, MD 33Larry Lingle, PA 30Jeff Cornett, FL 30Robert Eastman, NV 30Barry Shoults, MI 30Josh Githens, SC 30Ilan Woll, CT 30Jeff Mullet, OH 27David Metzger, NY 21

Bitter Woods (BWD)

Newcomer Ed Witkowski proved to be this year’s wild card by defeating seasoned player

Marty Musella, but it was past champs, Tom Gre-gorio and designer Randy Heller who squared off in the Final. Randy’s Germans fell flat on the opening turn, but by Turn 3, he had recovered. A key Angriff attack along the Beho-Gouvy road net trapped two full strength American units. On the 17 AM turn, Tom was confronted with a 2-1 (-1) attack in front of Stavelot and a 3-1 (-1) attack on Malmedy. The latter had the potential to trap several of Tom’s units NE of Malmedy. Lucky for Tom, Randy’s die rolls fell flat. Tom aggressively counterattacked in the north, destroying no less than six German infantry units.

In the south, Tom retained possession of Bas-togne with the aid of the Middleton leader unit. The climax of the game came with the opportunity to capture Parker’s Crossroads on the 18th of De-cember. Randy needed either a 2-1 (-1) at the Salm-chateau bridge or a 3-1 (-1) on a surrounded unit at Gouvy to result in a defender retreat to open up a road net for mechanized exploitation. His die rolls failed to cooperate. The Germans succeeded in capturing the Victory Point town of Trois Points, but only eliminated nine Ameri-can units. In a valiant and suc-cessful effort, Tom forced Randy to throw in the towel on 19 AM, thus returning the crown to the 2002 champ.

Battle Cry (BCY)

It was a little scary—in a good way—to see the sign-up queue stretch right out of the door

and round the corner on the penultimate day of the convention. The tournament format allowed everyone play three games before whittling the field down to eight for the SE stage. If there were more than eight triple winners, unbeaten play-ers would be eliminated based on tie-breakers. We dodged the bullet, as there were exactly eight triple winners. Battles during the Swiss rounds were New Market, New Hope Church, and Brandy Station.

This year saw a massacre of the usual suspects, with few of last year’s finalists making it through to SE. The Quarter-Final was Port Republic, the Semi-Final was Third Winchester, and the Final was Big Black River Bridge, which saw rookie Lar-ry Lingle face off against Ty Hansen. This scenario includes a special rule for losses while fording the river. (The GM was hoping for some drownings, but both players treated the treacherous waters with respect.) Larry came through in fine style, and beat Ty both as the Union and as the Confedera-cy. Larry created a bit of anxiety for the rest of us when he reported that his wife, who hadn’t come to WBC, beats him more often than not. We’ll have

our hands full if she makes it to the convention.

Thanks to Richard Borg and to Jean-Baptiste Hebraud for provid-ing several of the scenarios.

2007 ResultsTom Gregorio, PARandy Heller, NHSteve Likevich, OHO B. Sinigaglio, AKO Ed Witlowski, VAO Johnny Hasay, PA

Randy Heller, NH21 1999-2007

2007 ResultsLarry Lingle, PATy Hansen, DCTom Morin, MAO David Metzger, NYO S. Buonocore, NJO Scott Nerney, RI

Peter Card, UK64 2001-2007

Century Events 13

Top LaurelistsDon Greenwood, MD 298A. Cummins, UK 272Jim Doughan, PA 183Alan Applebaum, MA 180Nels Thompson, VA 178Jim Eliason, IA 176Bryan Eshleman, NC 153Marvin Birnbaum, NY 151Tom Dworschak, GA 136Henry Jones, PA 136Jim Doughan, PA

Top LaurelistsSteve Raszewski, MD 48David Huss, NY 30Jeff Spaner, MD 30Chris Greenfield, NY 22Rob Mull, CO 20Stephen Shedden, TN 18Matt Bacho, MD 18Andrew Fedin, PA 15Frank Mestre, NY 12Kevin Brownell, ME 12

Breakout Normandy (BKN)

Few contenders had as hard a road to victory as Jim Doughan. He had to beat 2004 champ Nels

Thompson; 2005 champ and GM Andrew Cum-mins; and Don Greenwood, designer and 1998 WBC champ, three-time D-Day victor, and 2006 PBeM winner.

In the Final, Nels bid 50 supply to play the Ger-mans. Jim’s Allies landed well. During a single wet impulse on the 6th, Nels counterattacked Merville from Troarn at 5:6 and failed, in a move he was to regret. On the 7th, Jim cleared St. Mere Eglise and contested Caen, forcing Lehr and 12th SS to run interdiction and sending several defenders retreat-ing out of the city at D2. Nels ran defenders under interdiction to defend Carentan on the 7th, units that should have been moved during the overcast impulse of the 6th.

At this point, the German center was denuded, with defenders sucked into Carentan and Caen. Nels began a risky gambit to draw impulses out of Jim’s plan by defending forward. As he had to cov-er St. Lo, he brought his fresh corps artillery from Foret. Jim repaired the Grandcamp causeway and successfully contested St. Lo on a +1 assault with a unit of 1st Division. Jim followed up with a +2 as-sault by a unit from the 29th Division that cleared St. Lo, and Nels resigned, the Ger-mans in a hopeless position giving Jim the 2007 crown—his fourth—making him the undisputed mas-ter of Normandy.

Brawling Battleships Steel (BBS)

The legendary curse of Mata Hari struck veteran player Patrick Mirk in the Final when Andrew

Chitwood made him the victim of both Mata Hari cards (draw two cards from an opponent’s hand) and then used the Radio Intercept card (draw two cards from the discard pile) to play Mata Hari on him once again! Mirk wasn’t out, though, as he was able to fill his hand the next turn.

As for the rest of the game, Stephen Shedden spent the first hand setting up dreadnoughts for other players to sink. At the end of the first round the score was Steve Raszewski 19, Andrew Fedin 11, Mirk 5, Chitwood 4, Mestre 3 and Shedden 0. As he was the main target for the second hand, Raszewski tried in vain to play defensively. Fedin assumed the duty of damaging ships that others would sink. At the end of the round the score was Shedden 26, Raswewski 19, Mestre 19, Mirk 16, and Chitwood and Fedin 11 apiece.

In the third hand, Chitwood sank ships at an as-tounding rate, scoring over 40 points in destroyed battleships before his demise. Such visibility drew attention away from Shedden, and then a flurry of attacks sank all his ships, reducing his score to 0 and knocking him out of the round. Shedden con-tinued a spirited defense, as Raszewski, Mestre

and Mirk tried to knock him out of the lead. In the end, the score was Rszewski 35, Shedden 33, Mestre 28, Mirk 24, Chitwood and Fedin 11 each.

2007 ResultsJim Doughan, PAN. Thompson, NYMike Kaye, MD S. Andriakos, TXO Mike Rinella, NYO M. Gutfreund, KY

:Andrew Cummins, UK20 1994-2007

2007 ResultsS. Raszewski, MDS. Shedden, TNFrank Mestre, NYO Pat Mirk, FLO A. Chitwood, TNO Andrew Fedin, PA

Jeff Billings, MD33 2004-2007

Steven Raszewski, MD

14 Century Events

Top LaurelistsSteve Likevich, OH 122Forrest Pafenberg, VA 82Bob Ryan, MI 57Phil Evans, VA 52Bruno Sinigaglio, AK 51Bill Morse, VA 48Frank Sinigaglio, NJ 21John Grant, Jr., CT 20John Clarke, FL 19Randy Heller, MD 15

Mike Fox, IL Steve Likevch, OH

Top LaurelistsEwan McNay, CT 237Nick Benedict, PA 192James Jordan, MD 80Scott Pfeiffer, SC 73Mark Smith, KY 70David Gantt, SC 70Richard Curtin, NY 60David Yoon, NY 41Mike Fox, IL 40Llew Bardecki, ON 40

Bulge ‘81 (B81)

Forest Pafenberg expects bad dice in the playoffs. In the 2003 Final, he

killed none of Steve Likevich’s Ameri-cans on the 16AM turn—a 1 in 802 chance. True to form, Paffy’s Germans had a horrible opening in the Final, playing the eight-turn tournament scenario developed by Randy Heller. Out of 13 attacks, Forest only managed to kill one Ameri-can and trap another. If an advance 4 versus the Bloody 110 had not occurred, allowing the Ger-mans to capture Clerveaux, Paffy would have been shot at sunrise by the Fuhrer.

Paffy tried to take advantage of his success at Clerveaux, but Steve was able to blunt the offensive by holding adroitly in the rough ter-rain between St. Vith and Clerveaux. As a result, Paffy’s attacks in the center resulted in Engaged daggers into Paffy’s heart or attacker retreats on low odds attacks.

Soon Paffy realized that Bastogne or Parker’s Crossroad was not going to fall, so he surprised Steve with an all-out sledgehammer to capture Stavelot and the Fuel Dump within. Unfortu-nately, the dump in Stavelot is evacuated on the Allied 19AM turn as it was historically, so Paffy had to take the town on the German 19AM turn. As fate would have it, Paffy blew a 50-50 die roll to cap-ture the town on 19AM and finished the game with three victory points—one short.

Britannia (BRI)

Although wins per color were very even in 2006, Green and Red reigned supreme in 2007, with

six and five victories, respectively. Blue and Yel-low had only two wins apiece. High score honors demonstrated Ewan’s ability to score prodigious sums. He had the high Green and Red scores, with 293 and 292 points respectively. Rick Kirchner had a 245-point blue game and Kevin Sudy had a 241-point yellow game.

In the Final, Mike went from having the last in-vasion to having the first with the Romans. Ewan came out in fine fashion with the Welsh declaring that they would hunker down to five spaces and submit if not attacked. Barry’s foray with Boudicca managed to burn London and garnered the Sussex fort on an overrun. Meanwhile, Nick’s Brigantes huddled in the Pennines, Galloway, and Strath-clyde. Northern England was empty by Turn 15. A single Angle in Cheshire was all that contested Mike’s Norwegians. Barry’s Normans went up against a Saxon shield wall, losing all but one cav-alry and three infantry.

By game end, few armies remained. The Sax-ons, seeing in William a tasty and ill-defended tar-get, removed him from the game, putting Red in second place. Ultimately, though, Mike Fox’s Yel-

low held the winning spot, with 233 points, Nick’s Red had 229, Ewan’s green had 217 and Barry’s Blue had 204. Can you believe it was only Mike’s fourth game of Britannia!

2007 ResultsSteve Likevich, OHF. Pafenberg, VABob Ryan, MIO Bill Morse, VAO B. Sinigaglio, AKO Bill Riggs, VA

Steve Likevich, OH21 1991-2007

2007 ResultsMike Fox, ILNick Benedict, CAEwan McNay, CTBarry Smith, NYJim Jordan, MDO Sarah Sparks, ON

James Jordan, MD35 1991-2007

Century Events 15

Top LaurelistsRichard Jones, UK 50L. Dan Hoffman, MD 50Scott Buckwalter, MD 42Robbie Mitchell, VA 39Debbie Gutermuth, TX 33Katie McCorry, VA 30Jennifer Drozd, IL 30Jay Fox, NJ 30Laurel Stokes, NJ 27Steve Crenshaw, VA 20

Top LaurelistsRob Winslow, NY 20David Burkey, PA 20Nick Page, ON 12Jay Fox, NJ 12Jordan Flawd, PA 8Dan Hoffman, MD 8Lance Fogel, PA 6Steve Cameron, PA 6Patrick Shea, VA 4Matthew Amitrano, VA 4 Robbie Mitchell, VARob Winslow, NY

Carcassonne (CAR)

In an effort to align our tournament with the official Carcassonne World Championship for-

mat, 2007 brought a two-player, single elimina-tion competition. The Saturday schedule made it possible for weekend players to participate. As it turned out, two of the top three players only attended on Saturday!

It took six rounds to crown a winner. The highest single game score of the tournament was recorded in the first round when Chris Greenfeld beat defending champion Katie McCorry 189-116. By the start of Round 5, we had five players re-maining. The GM played as an eliminator (not eligible to win in the tournament) to even out the numbers, but he was beaten by eventual runner-up Meredith Mattingly. Thus, three players ad-vanced to the next round.

In the final round, Steve Oksienik lost to the GM eliminator, so the winner was determined by the other match, which went to Robbie Mitchell. If Steve had beaten the GM, one more round would have been needed to determine the winner.

Overall, feedback was positive: games could be completed quickly and high skill levels were rewarded. Players missed being able to play more games, though. As a result, next year’s tourna-ment will be Swiss Elimination, with groups of four players com-peting in a round-robin, with the top player from each group advanc-ing to a single-elimination playoff..

Can’t Stop (CNS)

When all the shouting, laughter and dice rolling was done, former wargamer Rob

Winslow came away with the coveted wood. It’s “former” because Rob had an epiphany while refusing to stop rolling dice as he went for the win. He used to think games like Wilderness War that take lots of skill were his forte. It was during the Can’t Stop tournament that Rob real-ized his true calling of rolling dice and putting markers on an octagonal board! He has vowed to practice all year and dares anyone to stop him from defending his title in 2008.

Fortunately, the game only takes about 20 minutes and is very easy to learn, or the GM would have had to turn away many of the players who arrived without copies; the tournament was short despite eight copies hauled out from Ohio. (While the Parker Brothers version is long out of print, Fantasy Flight has reprinted this Sid Sack-son design, and you can pick it up pretty cheap-ly.) To address the need for more games, players started rolling right away, even before the GM fin-ished registering everyone. This freed up boards as games finished and cut tournament time from three hours to two.

As in 2006, the tournament used “Slapshot seating,” which meant that every-one was able to sit with friends or join a group with fewer than four players and then start addictively rolling dice.

2007 ResultsRobbie Mitchell, VAM. Mattingly, PASteve Oksienik, NJO Dan Henry, ILO Robb Effinger, ONO M. Wojtaszczyk, NY

Tom McCorry, VA77 2002-2007

2007 ResultsRob Winslow, NYNick Page, ONO Jordan Flawd, PAO Lance Fogel, PAO Patrick Shea, VAO Nate Hoam, OH

Jeff Mullet, OH116 2005-2007

16 Century Events

Top LaurelistsPeter Putnam, MD 67Jeremy Spencer, NC 40Andrew Gerb, MD 38Rod Spade, PA 22Rich Meyer, MA 18Raphael Lehrer, MD 12Chris Trimmer, TX 12Tom DeMarco, NJ 12Christine Frattali, WA 12Tom Browne, PA 10 Josh Githens, SC

Top LaurelistsJosh Githens, SC 165Steve Katz, VA 144Tom Saal, MI 120Anthony Musella, VA 102Scott Sirianna, NY 80John Tighe, NJ 72Bill Beckman, SC 72Frank Sinigaglio, NJ 68Mike Stanley, OH 60Karl Henning, CT 50

Circus Maximus (CMS)

A single brave charioteer entered the Final with a medium chariot. He got so much attention

from the 11 heavy chariots that he had lost a horse by Turn 3. After that, it got ugly as heavies turned on heavies. Six teams had fewer than four animals left by race end. Three drivers had no chariots to ride as they tried the new sand surfing sport that’s all the rage in Rome these days...with fatal con-sequences. This trend seemed to be brought on by 34 missing wheel spokes...truly shoddy work-manship by the wheelwright guild. An investiga-tion is under way.

With all that carnage behind them, three chariots came out of the final turn with victory in their grasp. Nick Henning, with eight spokes missing, finally risked increasing speed above 13 and flipped. Josh Githens’ team straddled the fin-ish line with victory one space away. Experience served him well, and a failed attack by another chariot allowed them to evade over the finish line for the win. Meanwhile, Nick survived his body surfing lesson to finish second and Paul Bolduc evaded twice to cross the line for third. Josh was the only returning Laurelist, improving on his 2005 second-place finish that found him tied in distance over the finish line. He lost when his col-or was drawn after the winner.

In 2008, we’ll hold a demoli-tion derby heat played on a sin-gle-, double- or triple-wide track. The faint of heart need not enter.

Caylus (CYL)

None of the finalists were repeats from last year, indicating that either the field is com-

petitive or that the better players have moved on to other challenges. (We hope the former.) The Final started quickly, and at the scoring of the dungeon, Marc Berenbach and Rich Meyer were tied with 13, despite Marc not building a section in the castle. Chris Trimmer was third with 12, Alfred fourth with 10, and Andrew trailed the field with 9, but he was loading up on resources.

At the scoring of the walls, Rich had pushed into the lead with 39, followed by Andrew (34), Chris (31), Alfred (26), and Marc (25). As the game entered the later stages, Rich and Andrew began to invest more heavily in the castle, sepa-rating from the others with scores of 56 and 54, respectively, versus 38 for the other three. In the end, Andrew edged Rich 82-81, with Chris not far behind at 74. Marc and Alfred battled for the fourth and final wood spot, with Marc prevailing 61 to 54. Andrew went unbeaten in the tourney, winning in both heats, the Semi and the Final, for a truly dominating performance.

Building castle spaces was important, as the player with the most or second-most won 15 of the 17 games reporting building stats. Chris managed

to build 11 in his five-player Semi. The Final supported the castle strat-egy, with first- and second-place captured by the high castle builders (7 and 9 versus 4, 4, and 6).

2007 ResultsJosh Githens, SCNick Henning, CTPaul Bolduc, FLLane Hess, PAGerald Lientz, VAO K. Wojtaszczyk, NY

John Jacoby, VA95 1991-2007

2007 ResultsAndrew Gerb, MDRich Meyer, MAChris Trimmer, TXM. Berenbach, MAO Alfred Smith, NCO Peter Putnam, MD

Jeff Finkeldey, OH44 2006-2007

Andrew Gerb, MD

Century Events 17

Top LaurelistsTed Simmons, NJ 36Chris Trimmer, TX 30Lyman Moquin, DC 28Doug Smith, PA 20Thomas Browne, PA 19Peter Staab, PA 18Paul Skrabut, FL 16Steve Simmons, NJ 13Nick Palmer, UK 12Roger Whitney, FL 10

Top LaurelistsBill O’Neal, NY 52Tony Curtis, OK 30Jack Morrell, NY 24Andy Finkel, UK 18Brian Conlon, CT 16Allan Kaplan, NJ 12Rob March, CA 9Peter Stein, OH 8David Burkey, PA 6Jeff Cornett, FL 4 Chris Trimmer, TXBill O’Neal, NY

2007 ResultsChris Trimmer, TXDoug Smith, PANick Palmer, UKO Jim Castonguay, PAO Ted Simmons, NJO Lyman Moquin, DC

Steve Simmons, NJ17 2003-2007

2007 ResultsBill O’Neal, NYJack Morrell, NYBrian Conlon, CTO Allan Kaplan, NJO Peter Stein, OHO Jeff Cornett, FL

Andy Lewis, DE36 2006-2007

Die Macher (DIM)

The 2007 tournament began with four preliminary games (three 4-player and

one 5-player) on Monday, followed by a Tuesday morning Final. These preliminary games produced five winners, thanks to a first place tie between Chris Trimmer and Jim Castonguay. Join-ing them in the Final were Nick Palmer, defending champion Ted Simmons and Doug Smith.

The Final opened with a size 60 region. It proved to be the largest of the game. Eight Media Markers went into the region. Chris had three, Ted and Nick two, and Doug one. This gave Chris Media Control, which he used to change a public opinion card to match his platform and conflict with Ted’s. His maneuver enabled a coalition of himself and Doug to win the first region.

Chris targeted key regions, seized Media Con-trol and effectively deployed his Shadow Cabinet members. Single parties won three of the seven regions, and the rest went to coalitions. Chris and Doug won three regions. Nick and Jim won twice and Ted had a single region win. Three regions were won by a “Short Head”, including the region 7, where three parties all reached 50 votes. Chris won region 7 thanks to winning the turn order bid and choosing to move last. This gave Chris the final opportunity to move an opinion card to the National Board, which sealed his victory. Final standings were Chris 425, Doug 406, Nick 363, Jim 289, and Ted 271.

Commands & Colors (CCA)

A strong group of 36 players gathered for the first round to play Hippacritea from the

Truceless Wars scenario pack. For side selection, players bid the discards they were willing to give their opponent. The results were an even split, 27 wins for each side. The Roman player got most of the discards, with Carthage only picking them up in four games. Ten Roman players won without any extra discards. Sixteen players advanced to the second round to play Leptis. The average bid for the 22 games was 3.9 discards. This was a lopsided affair, 18-4 in favor of Carthage. Only the winner of each group of four advanced. In one group, three of the four players went 2-1. The tie-breaker was winning as the Romans.

The four semi-finalists played Raphia. They played the same opponent twice, once on each side. Brian Conlon faced Bill O’Neal, a repeat semi-finalist, and Jack Morrell faced Allan Kaplan. Both match-ups were decided when one player won both sides. Allen had brought his painted and mounted miniatures set, but he hadn’t prepared any of the figures for the first Expansion and lost when he had to play with blocks.

This set up a Final battle between two Roches-ter area players—Bill and Jack. Bill’s Ro-mans did very well at Magnesia, win-ning 7-1 and putting pressure on Jack. Bill trailed in the rematch, but managed to take the two required banners about halfway through the last match.

18 Century Events

Top LaurelistsBill Dyer, IL 120Phil Barcafer, PA 72Steve Koehler, NC 70Joe Abrams, CT 64Brad Johnson, IL 42Andrew Clark, AZ 40Jay Schlaffer, DC 40Glenn McMaster, ON 31A.M. Dilworth, NY 30Tony Burke, NJ 30

Top LaurelistsNick Benedict, CA 115Andy Marshall, MD 96Tom Pasko, CT 76Andy Bartalone, MD 60Alvaro Ugaz, VA 60Simon Bouton, UK 60Rick Desper, MD 56Tom Kobrin, NC 48Ric Manns, IN 48David Hood, NC 42

Nick Palmer, UK Bill Dyer, IL

2007 ResultsBill Dyer, ILBrad Johnson, ILJoe Abrams, CTO Phil Barcafer, PAO Rob Barnes, WVO G. McMaster, ON

Brad Johnson, IL28 1992-2007

2007 ResultsNick Palmer, UKRobert Vollman, ABR. Jacques, QCPaul Konka, MDO TJ Halberstadt, INO Dave Sidelinger, CT

Tom Pasko, CT25 1991-2007

Dune (DUN)

Rob Barnes, the only newcomer to the final round, drew his favorite, the Guild; 2005

champ Phil Barcafer drew the Emperor; 2003 champ Bill Dyer drew the Atreides; 1998 champ Brad Johnson drew the Bene Gesserit; Glenn Mc-Master drew the Fremen; and Joe Abrams drew the Harkonnen. (Incidentally, the last four com-prised the team Three Men and a Canadian, but they were already out of contention for the team plaque, so there was no conflict of interest.)

Almost immediately several battles erupted over spice blows. The Guild snapped up two strongholds in Turn 1, and the BG sent advisors to all corners of the planet. House Atreides and House Harkonnen allied in Turn 2 and almost im-mediately contended for the win, with the Harkon-nen pushing the Guild out of Tuek’s Sietch. The other factions were forced to ally and cooperate against the leaders to keep the game going. With the appearance of a critical worm in Turn 5, the At-reides abandoned a weakened Harkonnen ally and allied with the BG. The combination of the Voice and Prescience was a fearsome opponent, particu-larly with the various gaps in battle card owner-ship known by the Atreides. With relatively large treasuries, careful analysis, and a little luck, the BG and Atreides were able to take control of the requisite four strongholds and win a fairly short game. The Atreides held three of the four to take first place.

Diplomacy (DIP)

Overall play for the weekend displayed lots of cooperation and very little stabbing. In fact,

there was so little stabbing that the ‘Silver Shiv’ award had to be saved for 2008. Only one point separated first and second place, and the differ-ence between third through seventh added up to only eight points total.

Friday’s game 1 ended up as a 5-way [EFIRT], while game 2 ended up as a 4-way [EFIT]. That sec-ond game produced Nick Palmer’s Best England, Robert Vollman’s Best France, Romain Jacques’ Best Turkey and Gerry Fahrenthold’s Best Italy. As we were short a player, the GM held positions on both boards, with Game 1 being his official score for the tournament. The other six players were more than happy to make his life easy and booted the Austrian position from the board. Coopera-tion held strong on Saturday, as well, with another 5-way [EFGIT] finish.

Sunday’s first game ended as a 6-way [AE-GIRT]. The second ended as another 5-way [AEF-GR] that produced T.J. Halberstadt’s Best Germany and Paul Konrk’s Best Russia. End game draw dis-cussions were entertaining, as players pointed out the strengths in their positions. All surviving play-ers had to unanimously agree to the draw vote. Thus, discussions with weaker positions centered

on convincing them to agree to vote themselves out of the draw. One of the best ‘lines’ was: “You could cut the irony with a knife.”

Century Events 19

Eric Brosius, MARobb Effinger, ON

Top LaurelistsJim Yerkey, MD 110Tom Dunning, NY 92Richard Meyer, MA 82Steve Okonski, MD 70Donna Balkan, ON 61Eric Brosius, MA 50Harald Henning, CT 50Bill Navolis, PA 50Debbie Gutermuth, TX 45Paul Van Bloem, MD 40

Top LaurelistsJason Levine, NY 62Rob Flowers, MD 52Greg Thatcher, FL 50Charlie Kersten, OH 40Jay Fox, NJ 40Mark Guttag, VA 40Stu Hendrickson, VA 36David Buchholz, MI 32Robb Effinger, ON 30Anthony Burke, NJ 30

2007 ResultsEric Brosius, MADave Steiner, DEBill Duke, MDCliff Ackman, PAB. Eshleman, NCO D. Gutermuth, TX

Tom Dunning, NY62 1999-2007

2007 ResultsRobb Effinger, ONWinton Lemoine, CAMike Hazel, SCO Rich Meyer, MAO Mike Nickeloff, CAO Brian Kowal, WI

Rob Flowers, MD68 1999-2007

Empire Builder (EPB)

Attendance was up in 2007, but these players limited their games to Empire Builder with

Mexico, EuroRails, Lunar Rails, Iron Dragon, Empire Builder without Mexico and Assistant GM Bob Stribula’s development copy of Martian Rails. Mark Kennel earned the top seed in the Semi-Final by winning all three of his heats. Tom Dunning earned the second seed by winning both of the heats he entered. Inger Henning also won two heats and claimed third seed.

Nineteen winners and six alternates advanced to five-player Semi-Final games where many of the regular suspects got their comeuppance from newcomers. In the closest game, Cliff Ackman squeeked by former finalist Debbie Gutermuth 268 to 267. It was the second year in a row she missed the Final despite holding more than 250 in cash. For her efforts, she received 6th place Laurels.

The EuroRails Final itself was reminiscent of the 2005 championship, with the first player into Spain taking a commanding lead early in the game and never looking back. Eric had good cards almost the entire game. While delivering a Tourist to Valencia, he brought along a speculation Tourist. His gamble paid off when he proceeded to draw another Tour-ist to Valencia demand card. His karma faltered when the Tax Card caught him at 216, but a demand for Cork in Ruhr helped pay his tax loss and put him over at 260. The closest competitor finished a distant 105.

El Grande (ELG)

In a Final game that was almost all about scoring cards, former Laurelist Mike Hazel focused on

securing first place in regions and making gener-ous use of the Castillo. He placed several pieces on the board early, though his position was fairly con-centrated. Robb Effinger and Winton Lemoine also built up their board position, but they didn’t put as many pieces into the Castillo as Mike.

Robb started off the scoring on his first turn with a “Score the Region with the Most Cabal-leros.” He managed to manipulate the board to score twice, borrowing Rich Meyer’s home region, and jumping out to a lead that he would maintain for the duration. Robb played three scoring cards throughout the game, and he was so well posi-tioned that he often benefitted from other players’ scoring cards. In the end, he scored as many points from other players’ score cards as his own, and earned 56 points from scoring cards alone.

Though Mike and Winton dominated the main scoring rounds, they could not overcome the gap. Mike came close in Turn 8, when a scoring card allowed him to gain 23 points to Robb’s 6. Mike’s hopes were dashed the next turn, when the “Score the 6 and 7 regions” card came out. Since Rich no longer had his 13, Winton took control, gaining 15

points to Mike’s 1 and Robb’s 8. This secured first place for Robb, leaving Winton and Mike to battle it out for second. In the end, the two were tied, with Winton taking the tiebreaker.

20 Century Events

Top LaurelistsAaron Silverman, FL 44Doug Hoylman, MD 42Richard Irving, CA 32Randy Cox, SC 31Richard Meyer, MA 30Winton LeMoine, CA 28Pitt Crandelmire, MA 24Paul Bean, MA 20Sean McCulloch, OH 20Shantanu Saha, NY 20

Winton Lemoine, CA Bruce Reiff, OH

Top LaurelistsBruce Reiff, OH 197Bill Cleary, MD 90Ken Whitesell, MD 63Kevin Keller, MD 33Ray Stakenas II, MI 30Marvin Birnbaum, NY 24David Rynkowski, NY 24Paul O’Neil, MD 21Bert Schoose, IL 18Jason Levine, NY 18

2007 ResultsBruce Reiff, OHBert Schoose, ILJoe Powell, VAO Dave Denton, NYO Bill Cleary, MDO M. Birnbaum, NY

Nathaniel Hoam, OH35 1991-2007

2007 ResultsWinton Lemoine, CAEric Brosius, MAO Richard Irving, CAO Roderick Lee, CAO Ted Simmons, NJO Ed Kendrick, UK

Arthur Field, SC43 1993-2007

Football Strategy (FBS)

News Flash: Bruce Reiff lost the Final this year. Unfortunately, he also won. Confused? Be-

cause so many players entered on Wednesday, it was narrowed to the final four contenders only after midnight. Bill Cleary faced Bruce Reiff, while Kevin Keller faced Joe Powell. Bruce’s game came down to a field goal with 15 seconds left. At this point, it was so late that Kevin and Joe postponed their game till Friday. This posed a dilemma for Bruce, who would normally enter the second heat only if he lost the first. Since he couldn’t be sure of victory in the first, he entered the second heat and risked winning both!

On Thursday, Bert Schoose dispatched Mar-vin Birnbaum 23-16 to play Bruce for a spot in the Final game. It went to sudden death overtime. Bruce was able to find a wide open receiver, and a 44-yard pass ended the game. Bruce advanced to the Final, where he had the distinct possibility of facing himself. On Friday, the two longtime ad-versaries Kevin and Joe found time to play. Kevin jumped out to an early lead, but Joe’s kicker scored a field goal in the last minutes of the game to seal it. Joe advanced to play Bruce, knowing that if he defeated the Titan of the WBC Gridiron, he would have to play him again for the championship. He was spared that agony, because the final score was 27-17 in Bruce’s favor. Thus, since he was the winner of both heats, Bruce technically faced himself for the championship game.

Facts In Five (FI5)

All contestants played four puzzles, with categories drawn from history,

general knowledge, and sports, with a bit of geography thrown in for good measure. For the first puzzle, Leonard Omolecki led the pack with a score of 15 out of a possible 25, closely followed by Richard Irving and Winton Lemoine with 14 each. For Puzzle 2, English gamer Ed Kendrick knew every Gilbert & Sullivan operetta but didn’t know any Popular American magazines. Larry Lingle got all the Gettysburg Generals but none of the Men’s Olympic Alpine skiing gold medalists. Rod Lee and Rich Fetzer both scored 15, closely followed by Eric Brosius and Winton Lemoine, with 14 and 12, respectively. The high score dropped to 13 (Gordon Rodgers) for puzzle 3. The final puzzle had a bo-nus 6th category: Julie Andrews movies; Cities in Thurn & Taxis game or Swiss cantons; Jethro Tull albums; Books of the New Testament; First names of Gilmore Girl characters; and Images of people on Sgt. Pepper album cover. Richard Irving led the pack with a high score of 15. Once again, Winton came in tied for second with Lee, Simmons and Brosius. Top scores were Lemoine 46; Brosius 45; Irving 44; Simmons 42; Drozd 42; Rodgers 40 and Kendrick 37. Winton did not ‘win’ a single round,

but his two second place finishes and good showings on the other puzzles amassed enough consistent right an-swers to barely edge fierce competi-tors Eric Brosius and Richard Irving.

Century Events 21

Top LaurelistsJames Pei, VA 466David Dockter, MN 147Mark Giddings, NY 117Trevor Bender, CA 62Stefan Mecay, TX 60Mike Mitchell, GA 47Tim Miller, GA 40Nicholas Pei, CA 38Baron August, PA 36Peter Reese, VA 28

Formula De (FDE)

On the day before NASCAR’s Pocono 500, race fans came down state to catch the real action

at Lancaster’s famous “10th Anniversary” race course for the finale of the WBC Formula De sea-son. After 12 preliminary races in locations ranging from Bahrain to China to Watkins Glen, 10 finalists were ready to duke it out. At the pole was Beth-lehem, PA’s favorite son Lance Fogel as the only multiple-heat winner.

At the Virage Droopy curve in Lap 1, Kevin Hacker’s risk-taking didn’t pay off, and he became a grease stain on the wall. That curve also took out Chris Palermo. He lost control and flipped after hitting some debris that had been Kevin Hacker’s transmission. Nick Henning had better luck and earned the “Best use of a Mulligan” award when he rerolled a 23, which would have left him five spac-es shy of Rod Runner’s Turn, and got a 28. Lap 2 was where Lance Fogel made his move and pulled into the lead. Constant high speeds were taking their toll, though. Jason Levine’s engine caught fire, ending the two-time defending champ’s quest for a three-pete and then Nick Henning could not slow down enough to avoid becoming the final victim of the track. The last two turns saw the survivors assured of Laurels. Harrison Anderson’s strategy of safe driving kept him around when others be-came track debris. At the end, frequent laurelist Lance Fogel finally ended his drought in the Formula De finals.

For The People (FTP)

As always, the thought on everyone’s mind was would James Pei repeat yet again? James’

nemesis, David Dockter, was unable to find a VTC facility in Moscow, but other perennial contenders and a new crop of rookies vied for the chance to unseat Pei. The man of the hour ended up being Mark Giddings, perennially in the top four, who fought brilliantly to reach the Final.

Pei’s South captured Kentucky in 1861. Giddings proceeded to capture Columbus, Ga. During the post mortem, James said this force deep in Dixie was his biggest concern in the game. In classic Pei fighting style, he defended by attacking. James put pressure in the East that kept the initiative and the Union desperately, but successfully, defending the North and well-timed ironclad builds kept the Union naval forces at bay.

During Turn 5, a frustrated South sought refuge in the political game. James opened with Dixie, taking his SW over 110. Giddings had no effective response, and James got relief when Europe entered the fray with Foreign Intervention. The Union wasn’t finished. The following turn, Giddings ended with a Locomotive shortage followed by a Major Campaign. He made three desperate assaults to capture Richmond. The dice failed to support his effort, and when the

dust settled, Morgan’s Cavalry Brigade was the lone survivor. With the writing on the wall, Mark graciously conceded.

2007 ResultsLance Fogel, PAPatrick Maloney, PAJosh Githens, SCO David Albin, PAO H. Anderson, PAO Nick Henning, CT

Ilan Woll, CT60 2000-2007

2007 ResultsJames Pei, TXMark Giddings, NYTim Miller, GATom Thornsen, NYO Chris Byrd, CTO Bob Sohn, NJ

Mark Herman, MD30 1999-2007

Lance Fogel, PAJames Pei, TX

Top LaurelistsBarry Smith, NY 89Lance Fogel, PA 72Jason Levine, NY 60Robert Kircher, MA 38Roderick Lee, CA 36James Kendrick, UK 30Steve May, MD 30Keith Levy, MD 30Rob Runnicles, FL 24Patrick Maloney, PA 18

22 Century Events

Dan Lewis, DE

Gangsters (GSR)

Jeffrey Hacker moved to “The Head” of the class by collecting 10 joints around Chicago almost be-

fore anyone else noticed and putting an end to the record number of championships won with cash.

Turn 1 set the tone. Pat “El Jefe” Richardson seduced a Racketeer from Victor “The Waiter” Ho-gen. The Head proceeded to vamp El Jefe, followed by the Waiter vamping John “The Viper” Pack, and The Viper seducing one of El Jefe’s men. It was the Gangsters version of the Circle of Life, at least until Robocop mowed down El Jefe’s pair of Thugs. On Turn 2, The Head lost a single Thug to T.J. Hooker (Cop #7). On the next turn, Dirty Harry (Cop #9) riddled The Head’s Vamp with bullet holes and Kojak (Cop #6) took out another Thug. Despite the losses, The Head’s remaining thug collected enough funds to purchase cheap gin joints. On Turn 6, The Head was able to neutralize John Mc-Clane (Cop #8) with a bribe, and The Viper made a critical mistake and forgot to buy Astoria House. On Turn 7, The Viper again forgot to make the pur-chase. On Turn 8, The Head collected no money, but the other gangs realized that he was only two joints from victory. The Viper managed to shoot up one of The Head’s joints, but on Turn 9, The Head was able to pick up an eighth joint and a bunch of cash. On Turn 10, Robocop slayed The Head’s remaining Thug. On Turn 12, The Head was able to buy his tenth joint and recruit a full gang with money to spare.

Formula Motor Racing (FMR)

Qualifying for the Final for the second straight year, Katie McCorry and Brandon Bernard

were assured of back-to-back Laurels, but experi-ence couldn’t boost them over 10-year-old Danny Lewis, the youngest winner to ever claim victory in a Century event.

Katie took the points lead by winning Race 1, with Danny Lewis finishing second and John Speck taking third and fourth place. Two cars ended up out of the race—Chris LeFevre blew an engine and Katie spun out in her second car. (This was a trend for Katie.) Brandon scored big in Race 2, with a first and third, with Ed taking 2nd and 4th. In the third race, Danny had a first place finish, Katie’s only car took second, and Chris finally managed to get a few race points. It was halfway through and scores were tight: Katie 18, Brandon and Danny 16, Ed and John 12, and Chris 4.

In Race 4, Danny pulled ahead of Katie, but everyone except GM Chris still had a chance...at least until four teams lost cars in Race 5. Danny added to his lead, while Brandon overtook Katie’s score. In the final race, Ed finished first and second to claim second overall. Although one of Danny’s cars blew an engine, his lead proved insurmount-able. Katie kept her trend going by losing a fourth car to Spin Out, and she adjourned to study her

driver’s manual. The tally at the end was Danny 42, Ed 31, Brandon 28, Katie 23, John 20, and Chris 12.

2007 ResultsJeffrey Hacker, PAVictor Hogen. CAJohn Pack, COO Pat Richardson, VAO Nick Hanning, CTO John Kilbride, PA

John Pack, CO72 1992-2007

2007 ResultsDan Lewis, DEEd Bielcik, NJBrandon Bernard, NJO Katie McCorry, VAO John Speck, MDO Chris LeFevre, AZ

Chris LeFevre, AZ70 2001-2007

Jeffrey Hacker, PA

Top LaurelistsPitt Crandlemire, MA 132Nick Henning, CT 122John Pack, CO 86Nick Smith, UK 74Jim Castonguay, PA 54Mark Love , MD 53Jeffrey Hacker, PA 40Tom Richardson, VA 40Victor Hogen, CA 34Robert Buccheri, MD 32

Top LaurelistsLisa Gutermuth, TX 48Dan Lewis, DE 30Matt Evinger, PA 30Bill Place, PA 30Mike Stachowski, NY 30Debbie Gutermuth, TX 30Steve Cameron, PA 28Katie McCorry, VA 27Ron Wuerth, VA 27Brandon Bernard, PA 18