World Boardgaming Championships

Rome never looked so good!
World Boardgaming Championships
July 23-31, 2016
Seven Springs Mountain Resort, Seven Springs, PA
See the complete Event Previews at www.boardgamers.org/yearbkex16
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via Ski View Ave.
Game cache vehicles only
Registration
& Prizes
Stag
ge
Sta
Pass
Pizza Place: 800-452-2223 ex. 7635
Delivery charge to your table: $3
Fast Food
Window
Mtn. Perk
Pizz
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Kios l.
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Timber
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MAIN LODGE
Gingerbread
Dreams
Gra
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Aucti Ballro
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Su Foru
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Upper Parking Lot
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On
Bav.
Lounge
to Hotel
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2nd
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Bow
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Fox
CONVENTION CENTER
l
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to Ski
Lodge
La
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Ro
Den
horn
Matter ge
Loun
oom
R
Alpine
to Hotel
rms 300-399
E
Junior Events
Bear Trap
Fun Zone
Miniature Golf
Indoor Pool/
Hot Tub
to
Convention
Center
Foggy Brews
3rd
Foggy
Maple
Rathskeller
First Tracks
2nd
cks l
t Tra
Firs nter Poo
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C
e
Slop
SKI LODGE
2nd
Accessible
Entrance
Building
Entrance
Outdoor
Patio
1st
E
Adventure Center
(bike rentals)
Restrooms
Kid's Corner
Stairs
E
Elevator
Restaurant
Bar
Gaming
Seminars & Meetings
Juniors
Demonstrations &
Scheduled Open Gaming
P
Parking for Hotel guests after
unloading in front of tower.
Parking in front of Chalets is
reserved for Chalet guests only
E
Room
Emo’s
Pit
1st
Lower Parking Lot
Timberstone
Vendors
(Fri-Sun only)
Goggle
Outdoor
Pool
Registration
Vendors
Food & Beverage
P
Parking
2015 Team Tournament
Farewell
to the Host
78 teams vied for glory in 2015. Defy the Happy Handicapper’s odds to make the Top
25 in 2016. Subscribe to our free newsletter at http://lists.boardgamers.org/mailman/
listinfo/bpamail to go bracket busting in the Annual Team Tournament selection in the
week before WBC. Pick the winners and earn a free BPA membership. Jeff Cornett did.
The Paradise Hallway is
just a memory. Multiplayer games will have
their own room in 2016
as will Demonstrations
and Scheduled Open
Gaming.
120-1
76-1
32-1
18-1
240-1
Reiff 7 • Beard 8
Monnin 2 • Flawd 8
Page 2 • Vanderwal 4 CMelton 10 • TMelton 2 Beyma 7 • Dickson 7 Hochboim 5 • Scholl 10
Drummond12•McGregor4 J Rinko 9 • F Ranko 0 Freeman 0 • Gregorio 7 Senn 0 • Warszawski 4
54-1
37-1
5000-1
Carter 5 • Meader 0
Wyatt 3 • Boyle 10
37-1
36-1
Meyaard 8 • Henning 0 Cornett 1 • Crenshaw 0
KHenning 8 • Gemmel 0
Galullo 8 • Sudy 7
45-1
35-1
Guttag 0 • Moquin 0
Draker 7• M Smith 7
Buehler 0 • D’Tela 10
Emerick 3 • LeWinter 0
The Showroom
can return to
dinner theatre.
Open Gaming
in 2016 will not
provide “mood”
enhancing
lighting.
25-1
Charts? What
charts? Bring
your monster
games for
protracted setup
without fear of
disturbance at
Seven Springs.
120-1
600-1
LaDue 1 • Thompson 2 McCulloch 0 • Stein 0
Wojtaszczyk 6 • Riku 4 Mullet 9 • Gutermuth 4
J Pei 8 • Byrd 1
N Pei 0 • Kircher 4
43-1
KHarris 9 • BHarris 0
Bravo 0 • EHarris 3
Kaltman 2 • Horan 7
OFlynn 0 • Stribula 2
90-1
120-1
Murray 0 • KSmith 0
Corrado 0 • Lytle 9
Porterfield 3 • Yope 4
Rodrigues 0 • Irving 2
39-1
42-1
Youells 1 • Hansen 0
Moffit 8 • Thatcher 0 Wixson 8 • Birnbaum 0
McNay 10 • Trimmer 0 Freeman 2 • Flaxington 0 Coleman 1 • Wilson 0
170-1
130-1
400-1
SSaccenti 6 • ASaccenti 2 Schlosser 0 • Weaver 4
DSaccenti 0 • HSaccenti 0 Usner 4 • RMiller 0
110-1
Yee 0 • Boring 3
Dove 5 • Bacigalupo 0
110-1
Gleaton 0 • Beckman 8
Bateman 0 • Burtless 0
BDyer 0 • QDyer 0
Proctor 0 • JDyer 7
Say goodbye
to Lampeter
Swamp. The new
wargame digs
will be hosted
on two floors of
sunlit ski lodge
complete with
a panoramic
mountain view,
food court and
a bar.
Contents1
BPA
is an association of boardgame enthusiasts incorporated as a non-profit company
in the state of South Carolina for the express purpose of hosting the annual gaming
conference known as the World Boardgaming Championships, or WBC for short. It offers tournaments, vendors, an auction, demonstrations, seminars, open gaming, and Juniors programs. In
addition, for those who can’t get enough, we offer Play-by-Email-Tournaments. We love boardgaming competition—from wargames and Eurogames to racing, sports, and rail games, and we make no
apologies for it. It’s what we do. And we’ve done it better than anybody else by default for decades.
This yearbook documents BPA events of the previous year. Aside from the back cover, it does not
contain scheduling information for the upcoming convention. Schedules and event previews will
appear in a separate program and online at boardgamers.org. In fact, on our website, you’ll find more
pre- and post-event information than any place on the net—over 1,000 pages of it. It’s not very lucrative or cost effective, but we think it demonstrates our commitment to this hobby.
To help support BPA, take a moment to subscribe to our FREE e-mail newsletter via the website and continue to spread the good news about our association and its activities.
Credits
Convention Director: Don Greenwood
Webmaster & Publicity: Kaarin Engelmann
Board Chairman & Treasurer: Ken Gutermuth
Secretary: Bruce Monnin
Assistant Treasurer: Peter Stein
Incorporator: Scott Pfeiffer
BPA Logo: Mark Simonitch
Cover Art: Kurt Miller
Photography: Debbie Gutermuth, Charlie Kibler
PBeM Coordinator: Hank Burkhalter
Online Discussion Board: John Kranz
Kiosk Prints: Jeff Billings
Legal Counsel: Ralph Gleaton
Printing: Lost Battalion Games
Insurance: Phil Barcafer
Exclusive Show Vendor: Decision Games
Security: Ken Whitesell
Juniors Program Coodinator: Laurie Wojtaszczyk
Juniors Room Monitors: Joanna Melton,
Crystal Shipley
AREA Ratings: Glenn Petroski, Bruno Wolff
Team Handicaps: Stuart Tucker
Auction: Bruce Reiff, Ken Gutermuth, et al
Map Illustrator: Jason Long
Religious Services: Keith Hunsinger
Proof Reading: Bruce Monnin
Signs and Tech Support: Roy Gibson
Web Personal Scheduler: Steve Okonski
Team Logos: David Dockter, Kaarin Engelmann
Open Gaming Monitor: Legend Dan Hoffman
Library Coordinator: Keith Levy
Social Networks Answer Person: Scott Nerney
Registration Staff: Charlie Kibler, Judy Kibler,
Jessica Greenwood and Tara Greenwood
Sponsors: Alliance Distributors, Arcane
Wonders, Matt Calkins, Charles Catania,
David desJardins, James Doughan, Ken
Gutermuth, Rick Northey, Northstar Games,
Bruno Sinigaglio, and Jerald R. Tracy
Contents
Team Tournament Top 25..............Inside Front Cover
2015: Year in Review..................................................2
Century Events...........................................................3
Trial Events...............................................................57
Play-By-Email Champions......................................64
Past Heroes................................................................66
Board of Directors....................................................67
Team Champions.....................................................68
Hobby Service Award.............................................69
Caesar Award...........................................................70
Consul Award...........................................................71
GM of the Year..........................................................72
Sportsmanship Award.............................................73
Patrons.......................................................................74
Sandman Salute........................................................76
Farewell to the Host.....................Inside Back Cover
Map of Seven Springs.....................................Back Cover
1541 Redfield Rd., Bel Air, MD 21015-5739
www.boardgamers.org • [email protected]
August 3-9, 2015 • July 23-31, 2016
Seven Springs Mountain Resort, Seven Springs, PA
2
2015 was WBC’s Lancaster Swan Song. Our
tenth year in Dutch country set another attendance record despite, or perhaps due to, all the
concern over the coming venue change. Each
year in Lancaster saw steady attendance gains
despite infrastructure challenges and 2015 was
no exception with both fire and flood calamities
taken in stride. Players from over 50 states and
Canadian provinces plus a record 23 nations
met at the Host one last time. 24 events broke
100 with ten more topping 90 entrants. All 164
events achieved tournament status with fields
ranging from eight to the reigning attendance
champ Ticket to Ride and its 302 riders!
18 reigning champions defended their titles,
led by the Master, James Pei, who extended his
dominance in For The People to seven straight to
maintain his hold on WBC’s longest winning
streak. Curt Collins lost his status as the closest
pursuer when he failed to win his fifth consecutive Union Pacific title—finishing third. Peter
Gurneau and Eric Wrobel also fell off the pace,
failing to record their fourth consecutive title
in their respective specialties. Perennial 18XX
champ Bruce Beard thus became Pei’s closest
pursuer with his third straight 8XX title as he
built a second winning streak.
Among those of us with humbler ambitions, 37 claimed their first title of any kind.
110 earned their first laurels to claim contender
bonafides in the years to come. 14 gents managed to win two events each while Ewan McNay and newcomer Richard Boyes claimed
three. The female presence continued to grow
but their market share dropped as only Angela
Collinson (Adel Verpflichtet), Kate Fractal (Temporum), Stefany Speck (Pirate’s Cove) and Carol
Strock (Queen’s Gambit) were able to thwart all
the guys.
The Harry B’s—the best ringers laurels can
buy—made good on their 18-1 odds to win
the Team tournament, besting the Dice Loving
Canucks who took second with 22 points. With
the favorites having their way, it is perhaps
not surprising that the winner of the annual
Bracket Busting Contest was none other than
2014’s guest prognosticator Jeff Cornett. His six
correct picks tied Mark Love’s all-time record.
James Pei continued to amass laurels at a
prodigious rate with 186 more to become Caesar for the third time while raising his career
laurels to 2332. He continued to brandish For
the People as his weapon of choice—scoring
100 laurels in that title alone between his latest
2015: Year in Review
WBC and PBeM titles. A repeat win in Sekigahara and a pair of thirds in CDWs enabled
him to withstand the Euros-fuelled charge
of runner-up Sceadeau D’Tela. Ewan McNay
claimed Consul over the Mighty Finn, Riku
Riekkinen, with 120 laurels earned in Britannia, Ingenious and Robo Rally.
Relative newcomer Duncan McGregor continued a recent trend of new GMs winning
accolades for their organizational skills. The
rookie GM rode an impressive wave of 272 entrants for Splendor to impress the voters with
the ease with which he managed the generation of 165 games.
GM chores also determined our Sportsmanship winner. As the first alternate for the
Here I Stand Final, Justin Rice was offered a seat
by first-time qualifiers Ed and Matt Beach who
were needed elsewhere to GM a Junior event
that conflicted with the Final. Justin, however,
insisted that they both play and instead volunteered to run the Junior event himself to enable
them to do so.
In the continuing circle of life that marks
the evolution of winners and losers in WBC
events, 18 events set new attendance highs for
the past decade while 19 sunk to new lows. Attrition usually causes more losers than winners
inasmuch as new events start high and usually
lose entrants over time so being close to even
made 2015 a good year. The following record
attendance highs and lows over the past decade are limited to events with at least a threeyear track record.
Zenith: Those setting new highwater
marks for the last year years were: Saint Petersburg +27, Ra; The Dice Game +19, Castles of
Burgundy +18, Can’t Stop +16, Facts in Five +11,
Thurn & Taxis +10, Empire of the Sun +9, Yspahan
+8, Ace of Aces +6, Acquire +6, Alhambra +5, ; Battles of the American Revolution +5, Rail Baron +5,
Vegas Showdown +5, Advanced Civilization +4,
Merchant of Venus +3, Santa Fe Rails +2, Kremlin
+1, Formula Motor Racing +1.
Nadir: Those sinking to new lows for the
past decade were: Commands & Colors Napoleonics –1, Titan: The Arena –1, Victory in the
Pacific –1 Euphrates & Tigris –3, Princes of
Florence –3, Battle Cry –4, Gangsters –4, Here
I Stand –4, Sekigahara –4, Gettysburg –5, Small
World –6, Circus Maximus –7, Union Pacific –7,
Manoeuvre –8, Settlers of Catan –8, Le Havre
–10, Paths of Glory –10, Leaping Lemmings –11,
Puerto Rico –17.
Century Events
3
2015 Results
2015 Results
Kelly Czyryca, MD
Michael Wojke, PA
Ed Beach, MD
D. McGregor, on
O Etienne Evans, qc
O Ernie Czyryca, MD
Bruce Beard, MD
Peter Eldridge, uk
Glen Pearce, on
Anthony Lainesse, qc
Antero Kuusi, fi
Akihisa Tabei, jp
Nick Ferris, MD
Tom McCorry, VA
165  2011-15
Top Laurelists
Kelly Czyryca, MD
Kelly Czyryca, MD
Andrew Emerick, CT
David Platnick, VA
Matthew Beach, MD
Luann Stubbs, PA
Bill Zurn, CA
Dominic Blais, qc
Michael Wojke, PA
Karl Buchholz, MI
Dan Shmueli, NY
80
58
56
50
30
30
30
24
24
24
61  1991-2015
Top Laurelists
Bruce Beard, MD
Bruce Beard, MD
572
Jim McDanold, TN 120
Spencer Hamblen, MD 108
Jon Kwiatkowski, NC 104
Paul Hakken, NJ
103
Barrington Beavis, uk 90
Mark Neale, RI
72
Akihisa Tabei, jp
64
Peter Eldridge, uk
60
Anthony Lainesse, qc 54
Seven Wonders (7WS)
18XX (8XX)
With 165 participants, an expanding game
drought required far too many 5-player contests,
advancing 50 to the next round. From that quarterfinal of mostly 5-player contests, 22 advanced, including most runners-up plus a handful of thirds.
In a tournament first, 4-player semis advanced only
winners into the two-game Final. While most games
were 4-player, two were 3-player contests, with both
trios registering tighter scores than their foursome
counterparts.
Game 1 of the Final round started with a 6-player
matchup including cards from the Cities expansion
and its coin-killing, debt-inducing, battle-avoiding
mechanics. 2013 champ Kelly Czyryca dominated
the first game with an 11-point spread over Michael
Wojke, Duncan McGregor and Ed Beach.
In Game 2, players adopted Wonder boards
from expansions while playing the base set of cards.
Czyryca, playing the build-in-any-order Great Wall
wonder, continued to frustrate the opposition by
amassing a huge and unanswered military and science buildup. Wojke’s Alexandria specialized in Civ
cards for second, while Beach’s Petra wonder netted
him 17 points on top of decent military and commerce
progress (for third). McGregor’s Catan wonder and
its resource-trading power led him to
adopt a jack-of-all-trades approach that
only dented Czyryca’s science empire
slightly and cost him enough points to
finish fourth. Czyryca once again won
the table handily by a final score of 6151-50-49 to take his second 7WS shield.
The event added two games (1817,
18NY) and saw broad international representation at the top of the standings
board. 1830 continued to dominate with 14 plays,
followed by 1846 and 1862 (eight) and 1861 (five).
We had 26 qualifying winners (Bruce Beard, Anthony Lainesse, and Eric Brosius each won three).
Unfortunately for Bill Peeck, 25 of the 26 qualifiers
appeared for the semifinals and only the top 24 advanced to four 6-player games.
The semifinals used four different games (1830,
1880, 1862, and 1861) that each resulted in a decisive
win. The Final was 1830 and resulted in one of the
closest finishes of the tourney. Peter Eldridge gave
Bruce Beard all he could handle with the outcome in
doubt till the end. But the undisputed 8XX Master
had enough cash advantage to overcome Peter’s superior stock position to win 8958 to 8828 to claim his
tenth 8XX shield and third straight title. In an appropriate finish for the World Boardgaming Championships, the top six finishers came from five different countries (US, Britain, Canada (x2), Finland,
and Japan).
Despite the elimination of pre-cons and the
WBC going to a nine-day format at its new location,
we will retain the same three-day opening weekend format in 2016. Several new games have been
or will be published in time for the next convention
and will be considered in lieu of
the less popular current tournament titles: 18PA and 18Dixie,
1844/1854, and 1837 and 1867.
4
Century Events
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
Max Duboff, NJ
Riku Riekkinen, fi
Jeromey Martin, GA
O R. E. Woodham, TX
O Michael Kiefte, ns
O Roderick Lee, CA
Steve Packwood, MN
Jason Arvey, VA
L. VanDeGraaf, NJ
O Ben Carter, FL
O Tim Tu, NJ
O Jessica Shea, VA
Wade Campbell, on
Ron Clement, on
Jon Anderson, PA
Ken Rothstein, NY
Kevin Youells, PA
Roberto Fournier, MI
Bruno Sinigaglio, AK
Jon Lockwood, VA
Robert Frisby, VA
O Vince Meconi, DE
O Dick Boyes, WA
O Kevin Hacker, PA
Henry Richardson, VA
23  2014-2015
Top Laurelists
Max Duboff, NJ
Century Events5
Max Duboff, NJ
Jeromey Martin, GA
Riku Riekkinen, fi
R. Evan Woodham, TX
Tom Drueding, MA
Michael Kiefte, ns
Pat Richardson, VA
Roderick Lee, CA
Paul Sampson, OH
70
34
24
21
12
8
6
4
3
Cliff Ackman, PA
Kevin Youells, PA
Jon Lockwood, VA
99  1991-2015
47  1991-2015
24  1991-2015
Top Laurelists
Top Laurelists
Steve Packwood, MN
Justin Childs, FL
88
Joshua Cooper, MD
69
Matt Calkins, VA
60
Steve Packwood, MN 55
Steve Shambeda, PA 54
Gary Moss, MO
51
Jason Ley, WA
45
David Gantt, SC
44
Phil Bradley, IL
38
Laurie VanDeGraaf, NJ 34
Wade Campbell, on
Kevin Youells, PA
Doug Galullo, MD
Mads Lunau, dk
Shantanu Saha, NY
Joe Gundersen, IN
Christina Harley, VA
Eric Gundersen, NJ
Harald Henning, CT
Jon Anderson, PA
Ted Mullally, NJ
465
352
216
199
186
144
125
80
78
74
Top Laurelists
Bruno Sinigaglio, AK
Vince Meconi, DE
Jon Lockwood, VA
Bruno Sinigaglio, AK
Bert Schoose, IL
Ed Menzel, CA
John Popiden, CA
Randy Heller, MD
Lane Newbury, TX
Greg Smith, PA
Bill Morse, VA
254
226
209
156
118
108
81
48
44
39
1989: Dawn of Freedom (989)
Acquire (ACQ)
Advanced Civilization (ACV)
Afrika Korps (AFK)
Ending a three-year absence, the formidable
Finn, Riku Riekkinen, returned with another
CDW bullet in his bandolier. Already a title
holder in four of the most prestigious CDWs,
the question was, “Is it 1989’s turn to be struck
by ‘Riku lightning?” With five of last year’s six
laurelists returning to do battle again, it was not
going to be an easy road to the top.
After three rounds, only two players remained unbeaten: defending champ Max DuBoff
and Riku. Max faced the giant killer with the
Communists. On Turn 2, Poland scored. Riku
had the better position, but Max won the Power
Struggle because Riku had a terrible hand with
many dead cards. Seeing the handwriting on the
wall, Max gave up Power. Hungary also scored
in Turn 2, and Max improved his VPs by winning a fairly even Power Struggle. In Turn 3,
both players turned their attention to the Mid
Year countries. Riku expanded into Bulgaria
heavily, while Max got lucky with the dice and
used support checks to reduce Riku’s position in
Czechoslovakia. Although Riku took the Czech
church space in Turn 4, Max played Czech Scoring with five spaces to Riku’s one. Max was able
to Raise the Stakes and win the Power Struggle
with a Rally in the Square card, improving his
die rolls for Support Losses and VPs. Scoring for
Czechoslovakia put Max over the
20-VP threshold to conclude his
successful title defense against the
Scandinavian strongman.
Maybe it was nostalgia or just a scheduling
break. Whatever it was, our 25th tournament set
an attendance record. Journeymen, ex-champs
and newbies all flocked to one of the oldest games
in the WBC lineup.
Our 16 semifinalists recorded a win and another placement. Steve Shambeda headed the
qualifiers with three wins, but the 4th ranked laurelist again failed to win the big one and exited in
Round 2, still without a title. Dan Farrow held the
16th seed until the late arrival of a higher ranked
qualifier bumped him to the gallery with a sportsmanship nomination for his gracious withdrawal.
The finalists were Laurie Van deGraaf for the
second straight year; Steve Packwood, the 1993
champ; Jason Arvey, in his first Final; and newcomer Ben Carter. Ben had both the largest win
at 207% over the runner-up and the narrowest at
100.2%. Steve began by starting Imperial. Ben was
second and started the other high cost, Continental. Turn 6 brought the first merger, giving Jason
first dividend and Steve second. The next play,
Steve started Luxor and gained first place. Laurie’s
Continental then took over American, giving her
much needed cash for second dividend but Steve
had first. Steve then started American again on his
very next play. The game was short with only nine
mergers and Steve was in seven of
them. In the final reckoning, he
stood 140% over runner-up Arvey.
It was an impressive encore—even
if it was 22 years in the making.
Attendance was up again with four
games in each heat. Wade Campbell’s Babylon won by 138 over Roberto Fournier’s
Egyptians. Ron Clement’s Assyria topped Matt
Calkins’ Egyptians by 139. Kevin Youells’ Assyria
took a 53-point win over Eric Monte’s Africa. Jon
Anderson’s Thrace breezed to a 276-point win over
Warren Whitsitt’s Illyria and followed that with the
only double win of the heats and the largest win of
the week as his Illyria crushed David Rynkowski’s
Egypt by 560. Roberto Fournier recovered as his Africa edged 1994 champion Ken Rothstein’s Egypt by 39
points. Shantanu Saha reclaimed his customary seat
at the Final by guiding his Babylonians to a 300-point
win over Nathan Barhorst’s Assyrians. Steve Spisak
qualified for his second Final by guiding Babylon to
a 93-point win over Mindy Kyrkos’ Illyria.
The traditional random draw for positions
was modified by one trade (Babylon for Africa), as
the finalist rollcall became: Africa: Roberto, Iberia:
Ken, Illyria: Kevin, Thrace: Jon, Crete: Steve, Assyria: Ron, Babylon: Wade, and Egypt: Shantanu.
The lead changed hands several times in
the early going. Kevin led after the first round
of purchases, but soon was struck with Famine and Barbarian Hordes which cut him to
eight units and four cities—never to threaten
again. Ron led briefly the next
turn, followed by two turns of Jon
at the helm. However, it was really
Wade’s game most of the way as he
led for six of the last seven turns.
The 2015 playoffs hosted three
returning veterans with ten AFK
titles among them and one veteran
newcomer to this theatre. The first match paired
five-time champion Vince Meconi’s Germans versus
two-time champion Jon Lockwood. Jon’s defense
destroyed two Italian infantry divisions before being driven into Tobruch. Jon then fell back to the
defensive line in front of Ruweisat. Vince realized
he could not take Alexandria prior to the British
November reinforcements and launched the Holy
Hand Grenade (1-1 attack on Tobruch). His Attacker
Eliminated result advanced Jon to another Final.
The other semifinal paired Bruno Sinigaglio’s
British versus Robert Frisby—a veteran grognard
newly arrived from the closed Anzio front. Although able to slow Robert’s advance, the British took heavy losses, as Bruno grudgingly gave
ground all the way to Alexandria. In August 1942,
Bruno attacked out of Tobruch at 2-1 against an Italian division for a D Back 2. He followed that with
a 1-1 for another D back 2. By October, Robert was
forced to concede the grueling seven-hour match.
The Final was slated for the next morning. An
exhausted Bruno was in no shape for another marathon, and so his Germans drove for Tobruch. Jon saw
it coming and prepared his best defense for the inevitable Holy Hand Grenade vs Tobruch.
It came in July, with Bruno rolling a
D Elim and a mercifully quick concession for the grognard’s third AFK
title—some 18 years since his last one.
6
Century Events
7
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
Wade Campbell, on
John Coussis, IL
Ron Clement, on
O Steven Spisak, on
O Jeff Mullet, OH
O Roger Whitney, FL
Sceadeau D’Tela, NC
Haim Hochboim, il
M. McCormick, NC
Jon Senn, PA
Daren Schreier, PA
O Chris McCurry KY
Craig Melton, VA
Seth Kirchner, OH
B. Bernard, PA
Andy Gardner, VA
O John Rinko, VA
O Scott Smith, PA
David Meyaard, ID
Carolyn Strock, PA
Lisa Gutermuth, WA
D. Bohnenberger, PA
O Brad Sherwood, PA
O Frank Downing, NC
Winton Lemoine, CA
23  1996-2015
Top Laurelists
Wade Campbell, on
Century Events
Jeff Mullet, OH
Bill Crenshaw, VA
Ken Gutermuth, NC
Ewan McNay, CT
Harald Henning, CT
Carl Damcke, IL
Steve Simmons, NJ
Chris Byrd, CT
Mark Smith, KY
Kevin Sudy, VA
472
331
276
271
261
200
197
186
160
138
Rob Murray, NJ
Max Jamelli, PA
72  2008-2015
69  1996-2015
Top Laurelists
Top Laurelists
Sceadeau D’Tela, NC
Sceadeau D’Tela, NC 153
Eric Ho, NY
108
Mike Kaltman, PA
88
Ben Scholl, PA
75
Jon Senn, PA
74
Tedd Mullally, NJ
70
Cary Morris, NC
66
Haim Hochboim, il
58
Rob Kircher, RI
53
Eric Wrobel, MD
50
Criag Melton, VA
John Coussis, IL
Stephane Dorais, qc
Ken Rothstein, NY
Chris Storzillo, NJ
Brandon Bernard, PA
Andy Gardner, VA
Craig Melton, VA
Robert Sohn, PA
Bruce Bernard, PA
Tom Bissa, MI
DebbieGutermuth,NC
131
122
116
108
104
85
80
78
64
52
149  2004-2015
Top Laurelists
David Meyaard, ID
Vassili Kyrkos, NY
70
Luke Koleszar, VA
58
Nate Hoam, OH
54
David Meyaard, ID
48
Carolyn Strock, PA
42
Michael Wojke, PA
40
Alan Elkner, NJ
40
Bruce DuBoff, NJ
40
Dave Bohnenberger, PA 36
Richard Meyer, MA
34
Age of Renaissance (AOR)
Agricola (AGR)
Air Baron (ABN)
Alhambra (ALH)
With only five preliminary games
logged, only winners would advance.
Two-time champ Jeff Mullet qualified
as London with hot dice and a resounding 3693 score.
Wade Campbell took a 140% win with no ships. Steve
Spisak’s Venice, Mark Smith’s Barcelona with a close
102% win and a rare Hamburg victory by John Coussis completed the qualifications. However, an alternate
was required when Mark Smith opted for History of
the World instead—and won—thus verifying his decision. That got alternate Ron Clement into the mix to
complete the Canadian triumvirate with Spisak and
Campbell together in the Final. Oh Canada indeed!
The Canadians had breakfast and agreed that
it was every man for himself. Wade bid 3 for Barcelona, Ron 2 for Paris, Steve 1 for Venice, while the
Americans were saddled with Genoa and London
for free. By Turn 6 Paris had emerged as leader,
and was soon visited by Black Death, Alchemist
Gold, and Pirates/Vikings while being reduced to
three cities. If there is any evidence the Canadians
were not playing favorites this would be it. Nevertheless, Genoa and top ranked laurelist Jeff Mullet
would chaos out on Turn 7.
Turn 9 saw Wade’s Barcelona and Ron’s Paris
finish the advances. Venice would finish fourth
with 1575. Paris made a Silk run
but mired down by 500 misery took
third with 1991. London made a big
Wool score for 160, but his 50 points
of misery was the difference as his
2076 trailed Barcelona’s 2105.
The last Agricola tournament at Lancaster Host
exceeded expectations! In a year where the field
dropped 17% the skill level nonetheless raised the
bar over previous standards, probably due to increased popularity of the game due to iOS availability. 2015 also allowed fresh talent to strut their
stuff, as four of the previous semifinalists were not
present.
The Final drew three perennial contenders:
Sceadeau D’Tela, Haim Hochboim and Jon Senn
and an unknown, Micah McCormick. While Micah was a WBC fresh face, he is not a novice. He
earned a 63-point win in the heats which matched
Sceadeau for the highest overall score.
Sceadeau raced out to an early lead by maximizing his tempo and playing cards generating future
goodies. Jon built the first room in Round 6, but
Haim wasn’t worried, as his Head of the Family
allowed him to not only grow at his leisure, but he
continued to grow his family at a quick pace. Micah
played a strong Educator game and accumulated resources that led to scoring in the mid to late game. It
was hard to guess a victor at game’s end. When the
scores were all tallied, the nearly impossible result
was confirmed: All four players tied at 44! Tiebreakers reigned as Sceadeau claimed the win with a food
advantage. The fewest negative categories scored
(the third tiebreaker) was required to determine the
remaining order of finish. After
eight years of dominance without
victory, Sceadeau claimed his first
Agricola shield and fifth overall.
69 battled ever present calamities to claim the
last ABN title flown out of Lancaster. David Earls
thrived amidst the Preliminary calamities, winning both of his sorties.
The five semifinals were characterized by
work stoppages with ten strikes slowing progress. Craig Melton was first to land in just over
an hour with a market share of 280 and $53. He
was joined by Seth Kircher with 330/$34, John
Rinko’s 220/$110, Brandon Bernard’s 290/$51 and
Andy Gardner’s 260/$30.
A $6 bankroll launched the Final so the threat
of fare wars was ever present. The first Fare Wars
attack came on Turn 4 and proved successful. Attackers enjoyed a solid 75% success rate. Melton
ran six rolls to take Phoenix and Denver. Kircher
followed with seven wins in Detroit, New York,
and Washington. The dreaded fuel hike appeared
on Turn 10, forcing Rinko to downsize in Atlanta
while Gardner sold off interests in Miami. Bernard needed just three successful rolls to win on
Turn 12, but was stopped on his first attempt.
Melton took his shot a turn later, but was likewise denied. By Turn 14, the Turn Order was seen
as the key to victory, but Bernard, Melton and
Kircher failed one after another. Turn 15 arrived,
and again the contenders each failed clinching
attacks until Melton, going third,
won control of the Chicago hub to
push his market share to 320 with
$12 to spare to take his third WBC
title as our 15th ABN champ.
Alhambra set an attendance record with the
same two-heat format producing 37 winners despite Blair Morgen, Brandon Bernard, and Lisa
Gutermuth thinning the herd with double wins.
Dylan Quintana scored the largest margin of victory, a 60-point shellacking. Playing it closer to the
vest were four micro-winners relying on tie-breakers
(Adina Weiss, Andrew Sherwood, Lou Nguyen and
Matt Naughton). The biggest wall builder was Angela Collinson with 18 lengths. Three winners disdained wall length: Lynda Shea and Alex Henning
at eight lengths, and Allyson Thoma with nine.
There were 25 semifinal slots, but ten of our qualifiers chose not to advance, leaving only two to be cut.
Brad Sherwood’s one-point win over runner-up Frank
Downing, thus earned Frank sixth place laurels as a
consolation. The largest Round 2 score belonged to
Lisa Gutermuth (106) as she won her third straight.
David Meyaard enjoyed the largest margin of victory
in the Round with an 11-point win over Bryan Berkenstock. David Bohnenberger won with only five wall
lengths—the shortest wall in the tournament while
Carolyn Strock survived the last table to advance.
Bohnenberger—the lone repeating finalist—enjoyed the best start with ten points in the first round
but soon faded. Meyaard took the lead
with 33 points after two rounds and held
on to win going away with 91 points,
proving that the ELC champ had more
than just nimble fingers. He was followed by Strock’s 83, Gutermuth’s 74,
Bohnenberger’s 71 and Sherwood’s 63.
8
Century Events
9
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
Steven Spisak, on
Greg Thatcher, CA
Alex Bove, PA
O Ron Clement, on
O Haim Hochboim, il
O Eric Freeman, PA
Robert Kircher, RI
Justin Thompson, VA
Alex Lange, GA
Ron Glass, FL
O Andy Gardner, VA
O Jesse Boomer, KS
J. Fleckenstein, VA
E. Rodgers-Vargo, PA
O Dan Hoffman, NC
O John Emery, SC
O Andy Lewis, DE
O David Buchholz, MI
Michael Shea, CT
Jordan Shea, CT
O Haakon Monsen, no
O John Schoose, FL
O Bruce Monnin, OH
O Vasilli Kyrkos, NY
Greg Thatcher, CA
Ben Knight, MD
Steve Caler, OH
67  2003-2015
116  1998-2015
38  1991-2015
Top Laurelists
Steven Spisak, on
Century Events
Greg Thatcher, FL
133
Eric Freeman, PA
109
Alex Bove, PA
104
Arthur Field, SC
91
Haim Hochboim, il
73
Kevin Wojtaszczyk, NY73
Raphael Lehrer, MD 64
Nick Anner, NY
51
Aran Warszawski, il 48
Curt Collins II, PA
43
Top Laurelists
Top Laurelists
Robert Kircher, RI
John Coussis, IL
168
Roy Gibson, MD
100
Scott Buckwalter, MD 96
Rob Winslow, NY
95
Rob Eastman, NV
92
Patrick Mirk, FL
85
John Elliott, MD
84
Justin Thompson, VA 68
Bruce Young, SC
68
Bill Place, PA
64
Bruce Reiff, OH
34  1993-2015
James Fleckenstein, VA
Bill Edwards, VA
88
Daniel Hoffman, NC 66
Bruce Young, SC
44
Jim Fleckenstein, VA 42
James Doughan, PA 40
Steve Caler, OH
40
David Sidelinger, CT 40
Kaarin Engelmann, VA 35
John Conlon, OK
33
John Emery, SC
32
Top Laurelists
Michael Shea, CT
Bruce Reiff, OH
Ken Gutermuth, NC
Arthur Field, SC
Michael Shea, CT
John Schoose, FL
Andy Gardner, VA
Jon Lockwood, VA
George Sauer, OH
Steve Cuccaro, MD
Jeff Mullett, OH
90
62
50
44
42
40
34
34
32
30
Amun-Re (AMR)
Atlantic Storm (ACS)
Attack Sub (ATS)
Auction (AUC)
18 Preliminary winners, a number reduced
by six double wins, were unable to produce an
all-winners semifinal of 5-player games, so four
4-player games obliged the 16 qualifiers available
for Round 2.
Greg Thatcher earned the highest semifinal
score (45) while Alex Bove took a comfortable 4436 win over Aran Warszawski. The other games
saw Eric Freeman and Haim Hochboim edged
by Steve Spisak and Ron Clement, respectively.
Eric’s two-point loss gained sand laurels, while
Haim’s one-point defeat earned fifth.
Greg had a good money position heading into
the second round of the Final, but Alex’s decision
to push the sacrifice up to 2 (increasing points for
Ron who was the only person to have temples and
money for Steve who had the most farmers) gave
Steve almost the same amount. The second round
became a chess match of province selection. Ron
continued to covet the temple spaces while Steve
and Greg used monetary advantages to take the
larger pyramids. Greg took the Edu province with
a temple and two pyramids giving him a boost at
the end and an offset to Ron’s two temples in Damanhur. However, the money and points Steve
managed in the first round were enough to deny
Greg. The leaders tied with 42 points,
but Steve held the first tiebreaker (nine
pyramids to eight). Ron and Alex also
tied with 36 points. Alex needed two
tiebreakers (nine farmers and temples
to Ron’s seven) to take the bronze.
To qualify for the semis, you had to win
one of four heats. Anna Kiefte and John Coussis were taking no chances—having won three
each. Robert Kircher, on the other hand, won
just one, and that haltingly as he pondered
which event to enter next. Finally, he opted
for the last heat of ACS. It would turn out to
be a good decision. He soon followed his victory there with a second win in the semifinals.
That decision was looking even better
when he won Round 1 of the Final playing
the fate card against the convoy, and everyone
else discarded. At the halfway point, Robert
enjoyed a slight lead and a 7-card hand, but
2011 champ Justin Thompson had an 8-card
hand. Things slowed in the second half, with
only three of the last ten convoys seeing actual battles. Justin won the 18th convoy using
a wolf pack fated against SC 121 to tie Robert
at 24 while gaining a 9-card hand. The Allies
encountered no further opposition, but the
players still competed for the strongest Allied
escort points.
Robert won a 67% chance on one die roll
to win convoy #19, earning four VPs. Justin
called submarine for suit on convoy #20 and
played three Allied cards for a 67% chance
to win the convoy. He did but was rewarded
with only three VPs—giving Robert the title
by a single point. It was
Robert’s 16th WBC title
but his first ACS shield.
Four emerged unbeaten from the three
qualifying swiss rounds—young Eric
Rodgers-Vargo, Andy Lewis and a pair of
former champions: Dan Hoffman and John Emery.
Tiebreakers were used to resurrect Jim Fleckenstein, David Buchholz and previous champs Jim
Doughan and Steve Caler from the 2-1 ranks.
Emery remained unbeaten through four rounds
by dispatching the 2003 champ in Scenario E by sinking Caler’s Renegade. As the Quarterfinals continued,
Lewis met Fleckenstein’s British in Scenario A. Andy
sank Jim’s Swiftsure and got in two attack solutions on
Valiant, but missed both. Jim then sank the Skvortsov
with a fire 1 and Ivan Rogov with a fire 2 attack. In the
other quarterfinal matches, Doughan’s Renegade managed to survive into deck 2 of Scenario E, but was sunk
by Hoffman’s forces before it could escape. Buchholz
and Rodgers-Vargo played Scenario A with each losing a sub before Eric’s British prevailed.
Both semifinals reprised Scenario E. RodgersVargo continued his run by drawing a 0 on his first
escape attempt of the second deck to defeat Hoffman. The streak of the other unbeaten, Emery, came
to an end against Fleckenstein’s surface fleet—being
sunk by a third hit and thus guaranteeing a firsttime champion would emerge.
Eric, flush with five straight wins, took the British in Scenario A. A Final two-deck battle royal saw
both sides score a kill before Jim
emerged with his sixth WBC title
and first ATS shield after many
years of trying.
24 collectors responded to
the early opportunity of an extra heat on Sunday evening. The
Shea family began their domination with defending
champ Michael and son Jordan winning their tables.
Paul Klayder and Peter Staab acquired Final tickets
as did former champs John Schoose and Andy Gardner. The next two heats each drew four tables with
Bruce Reiff, Luke Koleszar, Sean McCulloch, Vassilli
Kyrkos, Bruce Monnin, Norwegian Haakon Monsen
and Lexi Shea gaining the last semi seats. Klayder
got an extra pillow on his for winning twice.
11 of the 14 qualifiers appeared and were divided between three tables. Two Sheas, and Gardner
prevailed with Schoose living to fight another day
as the closest runner-up.
Sunday morning dawned on the four finalists
vying for all the wooden marbles. Dad Shea had to
fall on the team sword to stop his son from winning
time and again. The last three cards in the special
value deck were three Rich Collectors that never
saw the light of day. The big break came late as Michael was selling and the “Everyone Inherits“ card
appeared. Haakon and John were out of luck as the
last two cards went to Michael and Jordan triggering
game end. Then, Michael bought back the three coins
he sold earlier. It was enough. He won with $6030,
followed by Jordan $4200, Haakon $2760
and John $1610. The defending champ
had successfully defended his title, won
his sixth WBC shield and become only
the third multiple winner of the event.
10
Century Events
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
Rob Seulowitz, NY
Dave Metzger, NY
Matt Calkins, VA
O Robert Cranshaw, RI
O Mike Kalktman, PA
O Tom Bissa, MI
Joe Gioia, NY
Chris Gioia, NY
Mike Gioia, NY
O John Shoemaker, PA
O Kevin Keller, MD
O Ty Hansen, DC
Karl Henning, DC
Pete Pollard, TN
R. Covington, MD
Paul Risner, FL
Brendan Coomes, OH
P. Livingston, DE
Tommy Miklos, GA
Rob Doane, OH
Mark Miklos, GA
Jim Tracy, OH
O Rod Coffey, MD
O John Vasilakos, VA
Dave Terry, MD
Mark Miklos, GA
65  1992-2015
39  1999-2015
Andrew Maly, TX
Joe Powell, VA
38  2010-2015
Top Laurelists
Rob Seulowitz, NY
Century Events11
Nick Henning, DC
Romain Jacques, qc
Andrew Maly, TX
Rob Seulowitz, NY
Matt Calkins, VA
Bill Zurn, CA
David Metzger, NY
Robert Cranshaw, RI
Michael Kaltman, PA
Greg Ziemba, MI
78
36
36
30
30
30
27
18
18
18
21  1999-2015
Top Laurelists
Top Laurelists
Joe Gioia, NY
Joe Powell, VA
210
Kevin Keller, MD
203
Ty Hansen, DC
196
Philip Shea, VA
192
Pat Mirk, FL
129
Phil Rennert, MD
96
Richard Beyma, MD 95
Andrew Murphy, PA 94
Joe Gioia, NY
72
Tim Rothenhoefer, MD 68
2015 Results
Karl Henning, DC
Paul Risner, FL
361
Richard Moyer, MN 156
Karl Henning, DC
120
William Rohrbeck, NH 106
Keith Hunsinger, OH 100
Bill Beckman, SC
90
Eric Stranger, OH
76
Steve Ambruzs, VA
60
Steve Sabatino, PA
60
Dan Dolan Sr, NJ
60
Automobile (AUT)
Axis & Allies (A&A)
B-17; Queen of the Skies (B17)
With one less heat, the fewer preliminary tables
meant that some would advance on cash. In Round
1, Greg Ziemba, Matt Calkins, Alistair Thach, Tony
Newton, Anthony Lainesse, Robert Cranshaw, Al
Hurda, and Tom Bissa all emerged victorious. Heat 2
took on the mid-70’s aspect, as smaller was in vogue.
David Stoy won his table handily. David Metzger,
Bruce Hodgins, and Jack Jung all rebounded from initial losses. Most impressive was Jack’s triumph as he
beat Pat Hussey on a rare tiebreaker procedure. Matt
Calkins again dominated the heats with a second win.
Tiebreaker wins are an endangered species in this
event but 2015 had two such sightings. In one, Greg
Schmittgens lost his semifinal to Rob Seulowitz, after
having an apparent dominating position on the board.
Matt Calkins again demonstrated his dominance, recording his third straight win. His protégé, Dave
Metzger, handled his table by a comfortable $420
while Robert Cranshaw won by $200.
Howard was the choice in the Final, Durant
and Chrysler were each chosen three times, and
the other roles twice. And then Turn 3 started, and
the pressure and decisions magnified. Probabilities
were calculated with each move. Fates hung on the
turn of the demand tiles. The game hinged on the
demand draw for luxury cars on the last turn. The
resulting “4” allowed all remaining luxury cars to
be sold, and yielded a spread of
only $180 between the top three.
Rob Seulowitz thus earned his
fourth WBC title­—his first since
the age of Successors.
It was the first time a father (Joe
Gioia) and his sons (Chris and Mike)
swept the plaques. With only 21 entrants, it was the third smallest field in 17 years.
Three former laurelists made it to the semifinals,
the aforementioned members of the Gioia family. John Shoemaker was the lone interloper, but
made his mark with a 4th place finish.
Mike was the top seed with a 3-0 record and
46 victory territories. He defeated John in the first
round with an income increase as the Allies of 5,
breaking the tie of 12 victory territories each. In
Round 2 he defeated Sam Packwood with a concession. Two-time champ Kevin Keller was his
third victim: 15-9.
Joe Gioia had finished second the previous two
years, but swept his sons in the playoffs to get the
brass ring, but not before tasting defeat in the Preliminaries. After topping two-time champ Joe Powell 15-9 in Round 2, he lost to Sam Packwood, 13 to
11. Despite the loss, he qualified for the semifinals
where he ruined Mike’s perfect slate. Japan had
rolled up to Novosibirsk, but the Russian riposte
retook it and later liberated Sinkiang. In the other
semifinal, Chris defeated Shoemaker. John had committed three Japanese carriers against the Americans
in the Atlantic to no avail.
Play balance was maintained
with 26 games being split between
the two sides. The average bid to
play the Allies was 3.86, down
from 2014’s 4.3 and 2013’s 5.0.
2015 marked the 24th year of B17 competition,
spanning 71 missions from August 1942 through
December 1943. Our first mission this year was
a repeat visit to Solingen, Germany on 1 December. While the 3rd Bomb Division aborted due
to weather, the First (B-17s) and Second (B-24s)
were led by Pathfinders to the target. The second
mission went to La Rochelle, France on 5 December. It featured the first escort by P-51 Mustangs
and was the start of OPERATION CROSSBOW,
the campaign against German V-1 sites. This raid
struck several V-1 targets, and included a longer
range attack on airfields in La Rochelle. The third
mission was to Emden, Germany on 11 December,
continuing the pressure on the German aircraft
industry. All 65 players once again flew all three
missions.
B-17 regularly awards a coveted sixth place
Sand Plaque. We had a tie for fifth between Brendan Coomes and Philip Livingston at 170. Tiebreakers had to be consulted giving Brendan the
nod. Thus, Philip “lost” out and earned the Sand
Plaque instead to become the newest member of
the Fez fraternity. Just missing Sand was Rose
Hitchings with a score of 169 for seventh place.
The 2015 winner became our second repeating champion in consecutive years. Karl Henning
claimed top wood at 178.5, following a winning
score of 176 last year. The last to
win B-17 in back to back years
was Kevin Coombs back in 199394 against a much smaller field.
Top Laurelists
Tommy Miklos, GA
Mark Miklos, GA
Bruno Sinigaglio, AK
Dale Long, NJ
John Vasilakos, VA
Jim Tracy, OH
Chris Easter, GA
Rob Doane, MD
Tommy Miklos, GA
David Stiffler, VA
Cliff Hansen, NM
278
144
125
109
102
88
71
59
50
48
Battles of the Am. Revolution (BAR)
BAR ended a decade in Lancaster with record
attendance. Six new players reinforced a field already bulging with returnees. 16 Mulligan Round
matches of Eutaw Springs yielded eight American
victories and two draws. A draw entitled the higher
Morale to advance. Eutaw Springs was again contested in Round 1 with seven reinforcements helping contest nine more qualifying games. This time
the British won three and drew four.
Round 2 was Guilford Courthouse with the British winning six of 11 contests. The remaining ten
worthies met at Germantown in a Round 3 5-hour
time slot. The Americans won three and drew two.
In each draw the Morale differential was a single
point. Rod Coffey’s Americans passed Chris Easter
11 to 10 while Rob Doane’s British bested John Vasilakos 13 to 12. The other survivors were Mark and
Tommy Miklos and Jim Tracy who defeated Bruno
Sinigaglio, Bill Morse and Jeff Lange respectively.
Doane’s Americans defeated Coffey in the
“Holding Action” scenario from Monmouth Courthouse by capturing Perrine Ridge in a “play-in”
game to determine the final four!
The Saratoga semifinals were split 1-1. Doane’s
British defeated Tracy and, in a father vs. son contest, Tommy’s Americans bested his dad in comefrom-behind fashion, by tying him late at 2 1/2 VPs
each. The stage was thus set for what
would become a 9-hour Final slugfest.
At the end Miklos’s Americans prevailed with 12 VPs and Morale of 14 to
7.5 British VPs and Morale of 1.
12
Century Events
13
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
Tom Gregorio, PA
Bill Morse, VA
Jeff Hacker, PA
Frank Sinigaglio, NJ
O Mike Mitchell, GA
O Johnny Hasay, PA
Greg Thatcher, CA
Eugene Hourany, CA
Rob Flowers, MD
O Sceadeau D’Tela, NC
O Rob Murray, NJ
O Paul Sampson, OH
B. Malcolmson, MN
Nels Thompson, NY
K. Wojtaszczyk, NY
Mark Gutfreund, KY
O K. Hammond, WA
O B. Passacantando, CT
Ewan McNay, NY
Chris Trimmer, TX
Sean McCulloch, OH
Ed O’Connor, NJ
O Barry Smith, NY
O Jim Jordan, MD
Edward Kendrick, uk
Nels Thompson, NY
Tom Gregorio, PA
25  1999-2015
40  2010-2015
Top Laurelists
Tom Gregorio, PA
Century Events
Tom Gregorio, PA
354
Randy Heller, NH
227
Bruno Sinigaglio, AK 182
Bill Morse, VA
175
Forrest Pafenberg, VA135
Bob Ryan, MI
128
Phil Evans, fr
94
Steve Likevich, OH
65
Marty Musella, VA
51
Mike Mitchell, GA
50
Top Laurelists
Greg Thatcher, CA
Bruce Hodgins, on
William Kendrick, uk
Paul Sampson, OH
Philip Shea, FL
Rob Flowers, MD
Daniel Speyer, NY
John Corrado, VA
Greg Thatcher, CA
Eugene Hourany, CA
Tom McCorry, VA
51
51
45
45
42
39
36
30
30
18
James Jordan, MD
32  1991-2015
27  1994-2015
Top Laurelists
Bob Malcolmson, MN
Don Greenwood, MD
Nels Thompson, NY
Andrew Cummins, uk
Michael Kaye, MD
Marvin Birnbaum, NY
Alan Applebaum, MA
Mark Gutfreund, KY
Jim Doughan, PA
Jim Eliason, IA
Bryan Eshleman, NC
Top Laurelists
404
372
316
249
215
204
187
187
185
169
Ewan McNay, NY
Ewan McNay, CT
James Jordan, MD
Nick Benedict, CA
Barry Smith, NY
Randy Schilb, MO
Rick Kirchner, KY
Mark Smith, KY
Scott Pfeiffer, SC
David Gantt, SC
Richard Curtin, NY
393
204
200
137
120
108
90
83
70
64
Bitter Woods (BWD)
Brass (BRS)
Breakout: Normandy (BKN)
Britannia (BRI)
No bidding occurred during the 39
preliminary games despite much concern
beforehand on this topic. Numerous sharp
openings were in vogue—specifically, attacking
14AC with 20 or 28 factors on the opening turn created some unique German opportunities. After a full
week of pushing cardboard, the traditional Grognard
evening challenge round was held. Top seeds Bill
Morse and Tom Gregorio were joined in the semifinals by Forrest Pafenberg and Jeff Hacker but neither
was able to deny the leaders.
Shortly after 5PM, the Final began. Tom’s Germans got off to a strong start using his usual opening. It was sufficient to build the bridges in front of
Clervaux and Vianden. Over the next three turns,
17AM through 18AM, the Germans didn’t get much
done. Peiper was ineffectual, Skorzeny wasn’t able to
sneak through an Allied ZOC and German attacks
near Stavelot were thrown back.
The turning point occurred on the 18PM turn.
Bill launched a high-odds counterattack to secure his
flank north of Malady, but neglected to account for
German artillery and was thrown back. This exposed
his secondary defensive line on the next German turn
and Tom immediately sent a probe forward that resulted in the capture of the Francorchamps dump.
Both players, now very groggy, were taken aback on
19PM when it became clear that the
Axis were going to garner a VP from
killing 18+ Allied units. Shortly after
1:15AM, Bill conceded when Tom
had secured four additional VPs.
17 preliminary games produced three double
winners—none of whom survived Round 2 where
11 qualifiers and five alternates converged to thin
the herd. When the survivors emerged, a mix of the
usual (and some new) suspects gathered around
the Final table. They were 2011 champion Rob
Flowers; 2012 laurelist Eugene Hourany; Sceadeau
D’Tela, living proof that neither alternate status
nor a name that defies phonetic spelling can keep
a good man down; and Greg “I don’t know what
I’m doing” Thatcher, whose air of bewilderment
that he was still in the running touched few hearts.
Hourany proceeded to execute a ruthlessly
efficient mills strategy to build and ship 3xMill-3
and a Mill-4 in the Canal phase, shipping two Mill4s in the Rail phase and adding ironworks before
exhausting his money. Flowers balanced coal, iron
and mills with heavy rail building while D’Tela
went for ports and shipyards. Meanwhile, the confused Thatcher drove his income up, eventually
building all his coal while making high-end ports
available to the other players. Coupled with a few
ironworks and a last-gasp shipyard, this approach
overtook Hourany to win. That innocent air of the
new champion will be harder to sell next year.
After six years of establishing the Brass tournament
to a small but stable following, your GM is handing the
reins to initial champion and longtime assistant GM Bruce Hodgins,
who will no doubt continue the tradition while combining liberal doses
of Canadian politeness and firmness.
Bob Malcomson bested the field for his first
Breakout title. He earned his laurels the hard way,
playing the statistically disadvantaged Allies
throughout. His opponents were all expert German
players: Scott Fenn, designer Don Greenwood,
Mark Gutfreund, Kevin Hammond, and Nels
Thompson—holders of nine WBC/PBeM titles.
Our dear friend, GM Andrew Cummins, passed
away in February, but was remembered fondly.
Marvin Birnbaum and Anthony Daw received the
first Andrew Cummins Award for creative play.
Marvin didn’t take any of the St. Mere Eglise bridges with his paras on the drop, but Anthony was unable to get any defenders into the area, and Marvin
cleared it during a daylight impulse.
In the semifinals, Kevin Wojtaszczyk took the Allies against Nels and immediately regretted it. Nels
was able to stuff St. Mere Eglise, and the 7th ended
on impulse 3. Defending champ Kevin Hammond lost
Caen to Malcolmson’s Allies on a coin flip roll that put
Bob in the Final. Nels, looking for his 5th title, took
the Germans, giving 30 supply to Bob’s so far triumphant Allies. Bob then completed a perfect 5-0 Allied
slate by clearing Gold Beach with a single unit on the
landing. Bretteville fell soon thereafter. Carentan and
Caen were contested on the 7th, as Bob’s perfect storm
continued. On the 8th, Tilly, Foret, Caumont, Isigny
and Catz fell to Bob’s controlled, aggressive juggernaut. Nels desperate
plays to recover during the overcast
9th failed, and he conceded the year
and the title to Bob in mid-game.
Blue had a great year, claiming half of the 12
preliminary games. The remainder were evenly
split between Green and Yellow.
Ewan McNay ended up competing with himself for high score honors. He racked a 286 in his
first heat and added a 288 in his second. Green
was tighter with Ron Clement’s 254 falling four
short of Bruce Blumentritt’s 258. Yellow went to Ed
O’Connor’s 247, six more than Barry Smith’s 241.
There were ten different qualifiers in the 12
games but with two defections to other endeavors,
we admitted four runners-up. And again, with just
three Round 2 games, a close second would be just
as beneficial as winning, since the best runner-up
would also advance. The semifinals, encouraged by
this advancement scheme, were closely contested.
Sean McCulloch and Ed O’Connor registered Yellow wins, and Red finally broke into the winner’s
circle under Randy Schilb! The runners-up, in order,
were Chris Trimmer, Ewan McNay and Barry Smith.
Randy had to depart so our finalists were winners
O’Connor and McCulloch, and runners-up Trimmer and McNay who instantly assumed the aura
of invincibility that comes with a second life—the
equivalent of playing with “house money”. The Final scores were 263 Red, 205 Green, 200 Yellow, and
193 Blue. Translating colors into players it came as
no surprise that the top two places
were held by the pair of ostensibly
eliminated semifinalists who were
granted a second chance. Ewan rode
his all the way to the 2015 consulship.
14
Century Events
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
Phil White, MD
Rob Murray, NJ
Hein Hundal, PA
O Mark Moore, PA
O Ryan Romanik, MI
O Andy Latto, MA
Joe Millovich, PA
Chad Martin, PA
Hope Millovich, PA
O Kevin Quirk, FL
O Dusty Usner, PA
O Henry Allen, FL
Nick Vayn, PA
Dominic Blais, qc
Jay Boring, MD
O C. Applegate, MD
O Steve LeWinter, NC
O Jon Senn, PA
S. Branchfield, NY
Andy Latto, MA
Peter Tu, NJ
O Pierre LeBoeuf, MD
O Bob Wicks Jr, CT
O Matthew Leader, MA
MaryEllenPowers,VA
Jennifer Visocnik, IL
245  2006-2015
Top Laurelists
Phil White, MD
Century Events15
Phil White, MD
Greg Zegalia, PA
Ben Collinson Jr, MD
Sceadeau D’Tela, NC
Jay Fox, NJ
Rob Drozd, IL
Elaine Pearson, NC
Danny Lewis, DE
Anne Norton, NJ
Rob Winslow, NY
30
30
30
30
30
30
30
30
30
20
Top Laurelists
Joe Millovich, PA
Joe Millovich, PA
Robbie Mitchell, VA
L. Dan Hoffman, MD
Arthur Wines, PA
Scott Buckwalter, MD
Olin Hentz, CT
Eric Monte, NY
Debbie Gutermuth, NC
Chad Martin, PA
Norman Rule, MD
78
69
59
48
42
36
33
33
30
30
Chris Gnech, PA
Barb Flaxington, NJ
161  2002-2015
50  2013-2015
80  2013-2015
Top Laurelists
Top Laurelists
Nick Vayn, PA
Nick Vayn, PA
49
Jay Boring, MD
46
Dominic Blais, qc
36
Keith Dent, NY
30
Robert St. Pierre, PA 18
Ted Simmons, IL
18
Christy Applegate, MD 12
Mikko Raimi, fi
12
Andrew Norgren, NY 9
Steve LeWinter, NC
8
Seann Branchfield, NY
Seann Branchfield, NY
Alistair Thach, TN
Rich Shipley, MD
Janet Ottey, PA
Andy Latto, MA
Colin Crook, PA
Peter Tu, NJ
Kate Fractal, MA
Josh Lanham, MD
Pierre LeBoeuf, MD
30
30
30
24
18
18
15
12
12
9
Can’t Stop (CNS)
Carcassonne (CAR)
Castles of Burgundy (COB)
Catan: Cities & Knights (C&K)
Can’t Stop is WBC’s raucous version of the
lottery. The nine previous tournaments had
produced only one returning laurelist—and
no repeaters. This year it produced two—Mark
Moore who placed third in 2012 and Andy Latto who was third last year and thus became the
first repeating laurelist ever when he claimed
sixth. But neither could turn their prior experience into a title.
The Final was a sight to behold, even more
so because of how short it was! Our winner,
Phil White, embraced the spirit of the game
and didn’t stop until capping a number. As
the fourth player, one might assume he was
at a disadvantage, but he didn’t show it as he
capped the 12s on his first turn. When it came
around to him again he used the other side
of the board, capping the 2s. Some comments
were made about needing the 7’s for perfect
symmetry, and when the dice returned to Phil
after Rob Murray, Hein Hundal, and Mark
Moore each failed in turn to catch our leader,
it seemed very likely he would achieve that
goal with a protracted run of the 7’s. Alas, he
busted on the last roll before topping the column—ending his blitzkrieg of three numbers
in as many turns.
But it was still his night. The 7’s
fell to his bid for perfect symmetry
on his next turn before any of his opponents could cap a single column—
giving him his third WBC title.
We continued use of participation points
rewarding multiple plays as the first tiebreaker
in determining advancement. Of the previous
15 multiple winners, only eventual champ Joe
Millovich was able to retain that status this year
as one of nine double winners. So seven players
would qualify with only one win. 47 such winners were now dependent on their participation
points. However, three qualifiers did not appear—providing seats for three alternates. The
last to make the cut had 15 tournament points.
All of those advancing with just one win had entered at least three heats. Nine players entered all
four heats and six of them reached the semifinals.
Chad Martin, Kevin Quirk, Hope and 2013
champ Joe Millovich won their semifinal matches
to advance to the Final where they were greeted
by a set of enlarged tiles courtesy of 2014 champ
Norman Rule. Their size fittingly reflected the
importance of the occasion and the uniqueness
of the match did not end there. Joe’s 83 points
would give him a 17-point margin of victory over
his sparring partner and vault him into first place
on the laurels list. But his wife was mired in a tie
even after application of two tiebreakers. Rather
than resort to a die roll to decide the matter, Chad
and Hope agreed to a head-tohead playoff. Chad won the deciding duel to claim second place. In
the future, any ties in the Final will
be broken by their rank following
the qualifying heats.
Silverlings were readily spent by the finalists with most of the black tiles bought. However, the three that would be most helpful at
the start did not appear until the last round.
Christy earned early shipping points and closed
smaller areas to take a strong lead that did not
erode until Round 4. Nick and Jay struggled in
Round 2 with tile placement and traded dice for
workers. Dominic, on the other hand, although
furthest behind at the outset was able to draw
ahead on boats and close areas to gain the most
by Round 4.
The scores at the start of Round 5 were Christy 151, Dominic 134, Jay 126, and Nick 105. Jay
unfortunately was unable to close a six building
area as the specific tiles he could use were not
available (Nick had gotten the duplicate building tile in the first round). Nick had the strongest
comeback, closing an eight building area and obtaining 28 more points by finishing a large single
animal zone. Dominic and Jay were able to score
the most end game bonus tiles (35 and 32 points
respectively, compared to Nick and Christy with
only 12 each). The score left Nick and Dominic
tied at 229, followed by Jay 207, and Christy 190.
The tie was broken using the German version of
the rules as indicated in the event description.
Nick had the most empty estate
spaces (seven versus five for
Dominic) and thereby was declared the victor and awarded his
first shield.
The junior year of C&K at WBC drew 50
unique players with a third of them playing multiple heats. Again, only a single win, or two seconds in the heats were required to advance to the
semifinals.
Pierre LeBouef, Andy Latto, Peter Tu, and
Seann Branchfield advanced to the Final. Pierre,
Andy and Peter started without Brick and Seann
began with neither Ore nor Wheat but he did have
a 2 for 1 Brick port. This lack of Brick slowed the
settling of the island, but allowed Seann to trade
for the resources he lacked. 2.5 hours later Seann
emerged as the winner of his first WBC shield
with 13 points including the Science Metro (4 pts),
a City (2 pts), four settlements (4 pts), the longest
road (2 pts) and the Constitution Political VP card.
Peter Tu lost his Political Metro to Pierre
with only seven dice rolls left in the game. Peter
dropped to eight points then but with only two
turns left to play he built a settlement, upgraded
it to a City and then built three roads attempting
to challenge Seann’s longest road. Had he not lost
his Metro to Pierre he might have won one dice
roll before Seann.
Surprisingly, no one ever played a single Merchant card. The Merchant remained on the Desert where it started throughout
play. The Inventor was played six
times with the greatest impact on
Peter who suffered a net loss of
two pips of Wheat and two pips
of Ore.
16
Century Events
17
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
Tony Musella, VA
Steven Sabatino, PA
John Tighe Sr, DE
Jennifer Brown, DE
Dan Dolan Jr, VT
O Joshua Githens, SC
Marty Sample, NH
Jordan Kehrer, PA
Peter Gurneau, WI
Stan Myszac, qc
Anthony Raimo, OH
O Ben Whitten, GA
Riku Riekkinen, fi
Greg Ottoman, TX
Bill O’Neal, NY
O Joe Harrison, KY
O Dan Dolan Jr, VT
O Carl Moon, NY
M. McCandless, LA
Dave Dentel, VA
Keith Ferguson, VA
O Kurt Mitchell, VA
O Steve Vondra, VA
O David Cross, VA
Jake Jacoby, VA
61  1991-2015
Top Laurelists
Tony Musella, VA
Century Events
Josh Githens, SC
317
Anthony Musella, VA 167
Frank Sinigaglio, NJ 152
Steve Katz, VA
144
Tom Saal, MI
120
Angela Collinson, MD116
Scott Sirianna, NY
97
John Tighe Jr, NJ
84
Bill Beckman, SC
72
Michael Lind, VA
60
Bryan Collars, SC
Andy Lewis, DE
53  2007-2015
42  2006-2015
Top Laurelists
Top Laurelists
Marty Sample, NH
Peter Gurneau, WI
182
Bob Heinzmann, FL 165
Marty Sample, NH
74
Bryan Collars, SC
72
Jordan Kehrer, PA
70
J. R. Tracy, NY
69
Michael Johnson, MA 52
Bob Jamelli, PA
48
Chris Byrd, CT
42
Anthony Raimo, OH 40
Riku Riekkinen, fi
Bill O’Neal, NY
Allen Kaplan, NJ
Riku Reikkinen, fi
Jack Morrell, NY
Tony Curtis, OK
Chad Mekash, NJ
Brian Conlon, CT
Joe Harrison, KY
Rick Young, NC
Greg Ottoman, TX
KevinMcPartland,MD
187
68
61
58
58
56
54
42
42
40
28  2008-2015
Top Laurelists
Mark McCandless, LA
David Cross, VA
Mark McCandless, LA
Nick Smith, uk
Rejean Tremblay, on
Steve Simmons, NJ
Keith Ferguson, VA
Daniel Pappas, MD
Charles Drozd, IL
Andy Lewis, DE
Steve Cameron, PA
80
74
40
39
33
32
32
30
20
18
Circus Maximus (CMS)
Combat Commander (CBC)
Commands & Colors Ancients (CCA)
Conquest of Paradise (CQP)
Colosseum traffic remained sparse due to the
reduced slate of races with but two heats. The 17
finalists that clogged the track in the seven-hour
cavalry charge of 2014 were now a distant memory. Just two heats were offered to reduce the field
and it worked all too well as the event drew its
smallest audience since 1994. With only ten preliminary races generated, the field was further
cut when two qualifiers failed to appear. This
resulted in only eight finalists. Consequently,
the larger Seven Springs colosseum has already
scheduled four heats and a semifinal for 2016.
With six heavies and only two lights, the faster
entries of Jennifer Brown and Nora Tuke were set
upon by the pack before the first turn with the ladies
being cut no slack from this less than chivalrous lot.
On Turn 4 John Tighe was blocked and burned 17
endurance while losing a full turn of movement. It
was open season on wheels. Frank Sinigaglio put
four damage on defending champ Githens’ wheels
while taking five hits himself. Unfazed by the first
attack, Frank attacked Tighe’s wheels with both
chariots suffering six damage. At a speed of 13, his
Goodyears collapsed relegating Frank to a quick
dirt bath. The curves were cruel. Tighe was jostled
at only one over, while Dolan sideslipped into Sabatino’s wheels for four damage.
Meanwhile, Tony Musella pulled ahead of
the wounded pack with Sabatino in close pursuit, but not
close enough to prevent Tony’s
first shield.
Four preliminary Swiss rounds saw three
players emerge from a field of 53 with perfect
4-0 records—reigning champion Peter Gurneau,
2014 runner-up Jordan Kehrer, and Martin Sample as this years top seed. Stan Myszak, whose
3-1 record was ranked highest of the 3-win competitors, joined them in the elimination rounds.
The semifinals introduced a new scenario and
map. In a rematch of the 2014 Final, Kehrer reversed fortunes vs defending champ Gurneau in
a tense game. In the other match, Sample’s attacking Germans faced a deep VP deficit, but when the
curtain came down he had killed via direct fire or
melee six of the seven Russian units, thus ending a
grueling 15 hours en route to his first Final.
Both players tweaked setups that had won
prior matches for a rerun of the fourth scenario. Kehrer’s Germans occupied a key VP
location worth 6 VP. A 10 Smoke marker protected his troops. However, it also prevented
him from responding to Sample’s move into
the other building hex as well as the street adjacent. After an exchange of Satchel Charges,
that drew the use of the Initiative Card several
times, Sample’s Russians stood as lone survivors in the VP hex. Recovering from the loss
of the critical VP hex as well as his best leader,
Kehrer clawed back but could
narrow his VP deficit to no less
than six before the second Time
Trigger ended the contest giving
Marty his second WBC title.
The first round consisted of three games of
Bagradas, with the best record in each 4-player
group advancing and the best runners-up filling the remaining slots to field 16. Carthage
held a slight advantage 31-26-5.
Round 2 was three rounds of Trebbia. Only
the winner of each pod would advance. Carthage won overall 16-8 although the four pods
offered very different balance views with Carthage going 4-2, 3-3, 3-3, and 6-0.
The semifinals were conducted as two-game
matches, playing both sides against the same
opponent. The battle was Sucro. In one bracket,
three-time champ Bill O’Neal faced the mighty
Finn, Riku Riekkinen. Riku took the first game
6-1 as the Sertorians and the second 6-2 as the
Romans to end any ideas of a fourth title in the
immediate offing. In the other bracket, Greg Ottoman eliminated defending champion Joe Harrison 6-5/6-4 as the Sertorians/Romans.
The battle for Round 4 was Mantinea. Greg
started the Final as the Spartans. He lost a general, costing him a close battle 5-6. Block casualties were 26-28. In the second game, Greg
took a 5-3 lead, but fortunes were reversed in
an instant when the Spartans bagged three
units in one turn to give Riku his sixth WBC
title. Even Riku was somewhat surprised by the sudden twist of fate.
So the reputation of the Mighty Finn
grows. Is another FTP giant killing
in the offing?
2015 saw CQP return to the Century despite
dropping a heat. A wide range of play styles was
on display. One game never saw an attack, while
another had “the most combat I’ve ever seen in
a CQP game”. We had what was certainly the
closest game in our history: a tie for not only first
place, but also third place as well—and only one
point behind the leaders! Meanwhile, defending champ Dave Cross won his heat by an overwhelming 10.5 points.
The semifinals consisted of three 4-player
games. Dave Dentel was the closest runner-up,
just a point and a half off the pace, so he earned
the fourth seat in the Final. Former champions
Keith Ferguson and Mark McCandless won their
games to return to Round 3. On the opposite side
of the experience spectrum was Kurt Mitchell who
learned the game before the first heat and made
the Final! Quick study! After choosing starting positions in seed order, the role read: Keith as Samoa,
Mark as Tonga, Kurt as Hiva, and Dave as Raiatea.
Exploring and discoveries predominated but
as the game neared its end, the claws came out.
Five attacks were launched by the four protagonists, but the decisive battle occurred when Tonga launched a massive attack on neutral Vanuatu.
So, we now have our first two-time champion:
Mark McCandless and his victorious Tongans!
He had won the very first
WBC tournament back in 2008
and now reigns again among
the palm trees.
18
Century Events
19
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
Keith Boone, MD
Steven LeWinter, NC
John Stevens, NY
O Amber Martin, PA
O Jay Boring, MD
O Paul Konka, MD
Anthony Lainesse, qc
C. Applegate, MD
Dennis Mishler, TX
O Kevin Emery, SC
O Rob Woodham, TX
O Bill Dickerson, NY
Dan Boyle, NY
Chad Weaver, PA
D. McGregor, on
Tim Tu, NJ
O Pat Richardson, VA
O Loc Nguyen, PA
Jacob Dyer, IL
Matt Fagan, NJ
Lee Proctor, IL
Stephane Dorais, qc
O Michael Powers, VA
O Carl Krosnick, PA
Dave Long, NC
Thomas Haver, OH
30  2011-2015
32 91-04, 06-08, 12-15
Top Laurelists
Top Laurelists
Keith Boone, MD
Century Events
Nick Benedict, CA
115
Andy Marshall, MD 96
Tom Pasko, CT
76
Christopher Lee, AZ 60
Scott Nedza, NV
60
David Rynkowski, NY 60
Andy Bartalone, MD 60
Alvaro Ugaz, VA
60
Simon Bouton, uk
60
Nick Palmer, uk
56
Anthony Laninesse, qc
Kevin Emery, SC
76
Robb Effinger, NJ
54
Dennis Mishler, GA 45
James Geronimo, NJ 43
Tom McCorry, VA
41
Anthony Lainesse, qc 30
August Thiesing, NJ 30
Christy Applegate, MD18
David Buchholz, MI 16
John Emery, SC
12
Nick Ferris, MD
Brad Johnson, IL
111  2009-2015
26  1992-2015
Top Laurelists
Dan Boyle, NY
Arthur Field, SC
Chad Weaver, PA
Mark Giddings, NY
Sceaudeau D’Tela, NC
Haim Hochboim, il
Dan Boyle, NY
Duncan McGregor, on
Brandon Bernard, PA
Randy Buehler, WA
Edward Fu, NY
90
84
56
52
50
40
40
40
40
40
Top Laurelists
Jacob Dyer, IL
Bill Dyer, IL
228
Glenn McMaster, on 115
Phil Barcafer, PA
93
Jacob Dyer, IL
92
Lee Proctor, IL
76
Joe Abrams, CT
70
Steve Koehler, NC
70
Matt Fagan, NJ
67
Jean-Francois Gagne, qc 63
Joe Harrison, KY
58
Diplomacy (DIP)
Dominant Species (DSP)
Dominion (DOM)
Dune (DUN)
The Diplomacy tournament is run as best two
rounds out of three. We used the “Carnage” scoring system and supplemented the plaques provided by WBC with seven Best Country awards
as well as doughnuts in the morning and pizza at
night. What more could you want?
On R1B1, Steve LeWinter took England to an
11-center board top aided by veteran Paul Konka,
who managed a 7-center second with France. John
Stevens bullied R1B2 with his Russia to a board
top. On R1B3 back-and-forth play saw veteran Rex
Martin and defending champion David Rynkowski square off with many new faces. Ultimately,
Keith Boone emerged to earn the top.
In Round 2, Jim Mason (Turkey) took advantage of open centers behind-the-line after a Western
Triple and jumped to a board top. Over on Board 2,
an alliance between Helen Powell (England), Tom
Good (France), and Amber Martin (Italy) lasted
nearly the entire game. On the third board, it was
the western alliance of Keith Boone (England) and
Trevor Schoenen (France) that won the day.
In Round 3, LeWinter (Austria) made the most
progress early, working with Italian ally Scott Fenn
to gain (and hold) an early lead. On Board 2, Amber (England) teamed up with Stevens (France) to
roll the board. Jay Boring (France) ran the show
on Board 3 from beginning-to-end with
ally Schoenen (Germany).
Boone edged LeWinter for the championship by a single center, with each
player taking two Best Country awards.
There were eight qualifiers and when two
opted for other adventures, the event proceeded
directly to the Final. Its second turn came close to
a mass extinction. The Scoring cards were Catastrophe, Blight, Disease, and Cold Snap leaving just
eight species cubes on five spaces! The birds were
wiped out by Blight, the amphibians and reptiles
were down to a single cube, while the last three
each retained a pair.
On Turn 3, the Arachnids depleted the only
seed just before Bill’s mammals speciation play on
seeds. It really put the hurt on the mammals, since
they had no other speciation action available. Dennis then played Instinct on himself to take Turn 4’s
wasteland action. And as a sun disk was going to
be in the Wasteland box, Christy’s reptiles looked
to lose four of the five suns available, as the glaciers would swallow them.
As we headed into Turn 6, Anthony’s arachnids held a slim four-point lead over Christy.
The key play came down to Robert, who held the
Glaciation for the turn. He had a choice between
Anthony’s forest or Kevin’s grassy wetland, and
when the wetland was frozen, things fell into
place for Anthony. After final scoring, and bid
adjustment, he became the 2015 champ with a
score of 109 for his second WBC title. Christy built
genuine bonafides as her Reptiles’ 101 points took
second ahead of Mishler’s 98,
Emery’s 94, Woodham’s 83, and
Dickerson’s 72 which nonetheless earned his first laurels.
After frequent inquires requesting expansions
to augment preliminary round play, the field was
presented with two options for earning their way
into the quarterfinals: playing ye olde base set, or
a mix of base and Prosperity cards. A dozen tables
took the more challenging course.
Those skilled 48 players who advanced to the
quarterfinals then faced more challenging sets from
the first four expansions: Intrigue and Seaside cards in
one game, then a much less commonly seen mashup of Alchemy and Prosperity. The latter set stumped
some players who couldn’t decide between big money and action-heavy strategies. The best 16 advanced
to a semifinal of middling expansions including the
despised Tournament card. From those matches
emerged perennial sharks Chad Weaver, Tim Tu, and
Duncan McGregor along with newcomer Dan Boyle.
Game 1 of the Finals introduced the Guilds
expansion to tournament play, and those players
who wanted to do well had to take advantage of the
“overpay” features of those cards. Weaver ultimately succeeded best in this strategy, using Doctors to
clean his deck and Stonemasons to fill it with flexible Nobles for the victory. In Game 2, rule-breaking
Embargo tokens populated the Silver and Gold piles
from the start, and mostly cheap cards meant players had to find alternate methods for enriching their
decks. Boyle latched onto the best way—loading up
on Fools Golds—and edged the other
three for the game and tournament
wins to earn his first shield …an impressive one.
The finalists selected their faction assignments in
order of qualification. Qualification round scoring was
simplified, although reduced points for default and
adjudicated wins will be considered in 2016. The average game lasted eight turns and 4.4 hours, with five of
nine games needing adjudication. To shorten play and
keep games dynamic, I will be considering reducing
the ability to block strongholds and limit away-fromtable negotiation time. We will also further boost the
Fremen with the following house rule: “The Fremen
may count their tokens at full strength for no cost in
ALL battles. Additionally, the Fremen may permit
their ally to do the same in their own battles.”
Division of wins by faction varied with Atreides,
BG, and Guild improving, Emperor holding steady,
and Harkonnen and Fremen plummeting. We saw
three separate solo wins, including a Guild default
win (adjudicated) by Carl Krosnick and an absolutely amazing set of two solo standard victories by Stephane Dorais! Best Faction plaques went to Bill Dyer
for Atreides; Phil Barcafer, BG; Ty Hansen, Emperor;
Joe Harrison, Fremen; Stephane Dorais, Guild; and
Steve Cuccaro, Harkonnen.
The Final saw huge amounts of precarious negotiation, battle, and alliance changes, but the Harkonnen/
BG alliance emerged as a dominant force in mid-game.
After Matt’s BG narrowly missed a great victory due to
an opposing Truthtrance, the Harkonnen/BG tried again in Turn 11, winning
Jake Dyer his second title with the
draw of a critical Shield card for the
fourth consecutive Dyer family win!
20
Century Events
21
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
S. D’Tela, NC
Henry Dove, MD
Eric Freeman, PA
O Andrew Emerick, CT
O Rob Murray, NJ
O Antony Saccenti, MD
Rob Flowers, MD
Yoel Weiss, NJ
K. Broh-Kahn, MD
O Pete Gathman, NJ
O Rebecca Hebner, CO
O Scott Fenn, MD
Jeff Jackson, MN
Alex Henning, PA
Ken Gutermuth, NC
M. McCandless, LA
Bob Stribula, PA
Deb Gutermuth, NC
Dennis Culhane, PA
Craig Yope, MI
Nicholas Frydas, uk
O James Doughan, PA
O Robert Hammond, on
O Tom Thornsen, NY
Andrew Emerick, CT
57  2011-2015
Top Laurelists
Sceadeau D’Tela, NC
Century Events
Sceadeau D’Tela, NC
Andrew Emerick, CT
Randy Buehler, WA
Cary Morris, NC
Sam Schell, NC
Robert Murray, NJ
Kyle Smith, PA
Henry Dove, MD
Elaine Pearson, NC
Robert Kircher, RI
Rob Flowers, MD
Bob Stribula, PA
65  1999-2015
62  1999-2015
Top Laurelists
72
65
50
34
30
24
24
18
18
14
Rob Flowers, MD
Rob Flowers, MD
139
Robb Effinger, on
108
Greg Thatcher, FL
95
Curt Collins II, PA
87
Geoff Pounder, on
73
Jason Levine, NY
62
Eric Freeman, PA
60
Jay Fox, OH
55
Yoel Weiss, NJ
54
Charlie Kersten, OH 40
Mark Herman, MD
32  2005-2015
Top Laurelists
Jeff Jackson, MN
Richard Meyer, MA 218
Dave Steiner, IN
151
Eric Brosius, MA
125
Harald Henning, CT 115
Ken Gutermuth, NC 113
Jim Yerkey, MD
110
Tom Dunning, NY
97
Debbie Gutermuth, NC 90
Mark Kennel, DE
84
Tedd Mullally, NJ
79
Top Laurelists
Dennis Culhane, PA
Dennis Culhane, PA 115
Antero Kuusi, fi
86
Mark Popofsky, DC
66
Bob Heinzmann, FL 48
Craig Yope, MI
45
Paul Gaberson, PA
42
Mark Hodgkinson, bh 30
Pablo Garcia, ch
28
John Chabonneau, NH 24
Steve Campbell, NH 16
Egizia (EGZ)
El Grande (ELG)
Empire Builder (EPB)
Empire of the Sun (EOS)
The bids reaffirmed that going earlier is
better than later, and were consistent in value
across the semis where Andrew Emerick won
in the first seat bidding 2, Sceadeau D’Tela won
from the third seat bidding .5 against a first
seat bid of 2.5. Henry Dove won from the second seat bidding 2 against the first seat bid of
3, and Eric Freeman took a tiebreaker win from
the first seat with a perfect bid of 2. Any larger
and Rob Murray would have taken his seat.
The bids increased in the Final with Eric buying first seat at 4.5 points, Henry second for 2
points, Andrew third for 1 point, and Sceadeau
accepting fourth to keep his points.
The flip revealed a +2 Sphinx card for Eric,
the free crew boosting permanent for Henry,
and a 3 stone quarry for Andrew. With nothing of note left, Sceadeau elected to slowboat
his way through the round, opting for quantity
over quality.
Ultimately, it paid off. Sceadeau’s score
of 104 won his fifth title without needing his
bid savings. Henry took second with 63 on the
board, plus 31 in final scoring, including six
and seven blocks in the pyramids and a column
complete, less his bid of 2 for 92. Eric had 91.5
with 73 on the board and 23 in final scoring, including four blocks in the column, black crew,
joker crew, and people reaching
the end of the farm track. His
bid of 4.5 cost second place. Andrew’s 88 trailed the pack.
The preliminary heats produced one triple
winner (Chris McCurry) and one double winner (Greg Thatcher). The highest winning score
was 118 points by Geoff Pounder; the lowest
was a 74 by Bryan Berkenstock. But none of
those worthies survived the semifinals as Yoel
Weiss, Kevin Broh-Kahn, Pete Gathman and Rebecca Hebner joined two-time champ Rob Flowers at the Final table.
The Final was relatively quiet until Turn 3,
when we turned the Score the Firsts card, which
can have a huge impact if your board position
is in transition. Rob managed to set the board
such that Yoel decided to execute the card, giving himself 22 points, Rob 17, Kevin 6, and the
rest zero. This created a gap between Yoel/Rob
and the pack of trailers that was never really
narrowed.
During the later turns, it became a Yoel and
Rob duel to gain on the other. Rob had a lead
of two points at the first check, and extended
it to six after the second scoring. Victory was
still potentially in reach for Yoel, but the action
cards and bidding began to favor the GM. Rob
secured the Veto near the beginning of the 8th
turn, and on the last turn was able to play his
13 card (which he had taken back earlier with a
special action), because no one else
had a 13 remaining to play. This allowed him to defend his home territory and seal his third ELG shield
and fifth overall.
30 preliminary games were logged on nine different maps. Mark Kennel and Jeff Jackson won
three, Bob Stribula and Eric Brosius two. The 25
winners were seeded into five semifinals played
on the newest Empire Builder map and the winners
advanced to a Eurorails Final. Debbie Gutermuth
did not advance further but finally won her sand
plaque by finishing sixth in a level 6 year!
Jeff Jackson drew first in the Final—going from
Iberia to Paris and the Ruhr. Alexandra Henning
built from Paris to Cardiff using the Portsmouth
ferry and to Milano. Ken Gutermuth began from
London to Bruxelles via the Ramsgate ferry and
north to Aberdeen. Mark McCandless started from
Holland via the Ruhr to Berlin. Bob Stribula connected the Ruhr to Frankfurt, to Paris, and towards
Spain. Ultimately, four linked to the most lucrative
region; Madrid. Mark built to Scandinavia and including trackage fees, gained a net €44M while Jeff,
using Mark’s track, earned €90M. Jeff pitched until he found high payout oranges and/or cork demands. He delivered six of these while the others
combined for seven. Ken tried desperately to find
a last minute bonanza with a flurry of pitches that
flooded the Ebro and Rhein Rivers while North Sea
Gales stalled the leader for a turn. However, Jeff’s
strategy ultimately won by a substantial margin.
He scored €285M in 12 deliveries followed by Alex €173M in 11 deliveries. Ken €136M in 10 deliveries. Mark
€107M in 13 deliveries and Bob €96M
in nine deliveries.
The 11th running of the EOS tournament saw
a record 32 players. As always, the 1943 scenario
continued to demonstrate balanced results. The
early rounds, with so many new players on hand,
were hard to judge, but once play progressed to
the more experienced survivors, the results were
evenly split. Three-time champ Dennis Culhane
met longtime challenger Craig Yope in the Final.
Dennis smacked the Commonwealth super
stack in Akyab with a nasty air raid that took
out five of six ground steps early in the first turn
and pretty much sealed Craig’s fate for the rest
of the game. He fought back to take four ports
in New Guinea and Rabaul by the end of Turn
2 but stumbled in his sequencing/planning early
in Turn 3 leaving Dennis with five cards to play
after he was done.
The early resolution of the CBI allowed him
to shift resources into the central Pacific. Only
his weak hand in the second turn allowed Craig
a glimmer of hope. A third turn return to ISR
killed any momentum the Allies had. When
Craig miscalculated his Biak amphibious assault
based on the use of Australian 12-12 units—not
realizing those units require two ASPs—he was
all but up the river without a paddle. A desperate attempt to get strategic agreement was met
with a quick counter of an ISR
card from the Japanese hand
drawing an early concession
and giving Dennis his fourth
EOS title.
22
Century Events
23
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
Steven Sabatino, PA
Wm. Kendrick, uk
Tim Evinger, PA
O Larry York, CA
O Bill Peeck, NY
O Evan Hitchings, DE
Craig Moffit, NJ
Brad Sherwood, PA
O Jeff Cornett, FL
O Eric Freeman, PA
O Robert Woodson, NV
O Aaron Fuegi, MA
Rich Meyer, MA
Roderick Lee, CA
Jim Eliason, IA
O Jason Arvey, VA
O Ted Drozd, IL
O Don Del Grande, CA
Bruce Reiff, OH
Ray Stakenas Sr, MI
O Kevin Keller, MD
O Joe Powell, VA
O R. Stakenas II, CA
O Wes Coates, MD
Matt Evinger, PA
Craig Moffit, NJ
John Corrado, VA
35  1991-2015
32  1999-2015
107  1993-2015
Top Laurelists
Steven Sabatino, PA
Century Events
Gordon Rodgers, PA
Matt Evinger, PA
Bill Peeck, NY
Rob Kilroy, PA
Tim Hitchings, DE
Evan Hitchings, DE
Mike Sincavage, VA
Blair Morgen, NJ
Mike Mitchell, GA
Robert Eastman, NV
96
78
71
66
63
50
48
36
36
33
Top Laurelists
Top Laurelists
Craig Moffitt, NJ
Jeff Cornett, FL
122
Craig Moffit, NJ
118
Aaron Fuegi, MA
84
Eric Freeman, PA
82
John Kilbride, PA
42
Ananda Gupta, MD
42
Chetan Radia, uk
40
Aran Warszawski, il 38
Rob Kilroy, PA
36
Patrick Shea, VA
34
Bert Schoose, IL
23  1991-2015
Rich Meyer, MA
Richard Meyer, MA 115
Richard Irving, CA
86
Paul Bean, MA
72
Jason Arvey, VA
61
Roderick Lee, CA
47
Mark Guttag, VA
45
Aaron Silverman, FL 44
Doug Hoylman, MD 42
Eric Brosius, MA
40
Ted Drozd, IL
38
Top Laurelists
Bruce Reiff, OH
Bruce Reiff, OH
304
Bill Cleary, MD
99
Joe Powell, VA
96
Ken Whitesell, MD
75
Ray Stakenas II, CA
72
Bert Schoose, IL
64
David Rynkowski, NY 63
Kevin Keller, MD
59
Paul O’Neil, MD
45
Dan Dolan, Jr, NJ
28
Enemy in Sight (EIS)
Euphrat & Tigris (E&T)
Facts in Five (FI5)
Football Strategy (FBS)
The Sunday Final was the last event ongoing as the Host shed gamers one last time.
Eight of ten qualifiers appeared so a long Final
was in the cards. Little did we know just how
long. The first hand pitched a shutout vs former champs Tim Evinger and Evan Hitchings
as a precursor of things to come.
Hand 2 hamstrung Steven Sabatino and
Rex Martin with the rest tallying a mere ten to
20 points. The CD stopped by to check on our
progress and after observing a few bloodless
turns went off to grab lunch. Rex again failed
to score in Hand 3 and was joined by Bill Peeck
and Larry York in the null column in the lowscoring affair.
Hand 4 picked up the pace as Evan took the
lead with 91 points, but the average score in the
race to 100 was still but 68. A rare fifth round
ensued as Don Greenwood returned and took
a nap at the next table awaiting the outcome of
his last event. He would be disappointed again.
Steven took the lead with 98, two points shy
of victory, stalked by Tim and Bill, both with
95. The game forged on to an unprecedented
sixth round. Finally, after four hours, the gods
smiled and enough points were scored with six
ships sunk and four captured to ‘end the pain
and suffering.’ In fact, four players passed the
required 100-point threshold,
but it was Steven Sabatino
who would take home his second WBC title.
Nine winners plus the best three
runners-up manned three semifinal
tables. In the first semifinal, two-time
champion Jeff Cornett (9-9-10-12) used balanced
scoring to squeak past another twice crowned
player (Eric Freeman; 7-10-10-11). Defending
champion Craig Moffitt (7-8-8-10) won on the
last turn of the second semi after Aaron Fuegi
(6-6-8-10) played a catastrophe in an agonizing end-game decision the previous turn. On
the last semi table, Brad Sherwood (8-8-9-12) as
the fourth dynasty nipped Bob Woodson (7-88-18). Eric’s score was within two hypothetical
treasures of the win and he advanced also as the
best runner-up to complete the finalists who occupied the first, second, fourth and 20th places
on the E&T Laurel list. Final Seating was Jeff 1st
(Archer), Eric 2nd (Bull), Craig 3rd (Lion), and
Brad 4th (Potter).
As the Final approached the end with its tile
bag dangerously low, Eric tried to improve his
lowest color by attacking Brad’s Trader with a
3-tile advantage. Brad again had enough tiles
to repulse the attack and ended Eric’s winning
chances. Play passed to Craig who built the
game’s fourth monument before swapping tiles
to end the game, just passing Brad for the lead.
In the final tally, Craig won with a score of 7-77-8 (six each black and blue plus
two treasures) to successfully defend his title. Brad had 6-8-9-10, Jeff
had 6-6-7-12, and Eric had 5-6-6-10.
FI5 broke triple digits for the first
time—not withstanding a seating capacity half of that. Round 1 was the easiest
with an average of 10.5 answers out of 25. Defending champ Jason Arvey took the early lead
with 20 answers; but Rich Meyer, Ted Drozd,
Glen Pearce, and Andrew Drummond were hot
on his heels with 19.
Round 2 lowered performance with only a
7.5 average score. Meyer took the lead with 17
correct, followed by Don Del Grande and Brian Barrish with 16. Round 3 proved to be the
toughest, averaging 6.5 answers. Meyer and
Roderick Lee tied for first with 14, Jason Arvey
and Brandon Bernard trailed with 13. Round
4 was easier, with 10 correct answers. Leading
the way was Jim Eliason with 22 and Thomas
Lind second at 21. Round 5 had a Lancaster Host
theme in celebration of the past decade. Familiarity with the Host rose the average score to 10
answers! Lisa Gutermuth, who virtually grew
up at the Host, led with 21 answers.
Having the highest score in Rounds 2 and 3,
and being the only player in the top six for every round, Rich Meyer amassed 82 points—an
8-point spread over runner-up Roderick Lee—
to win an event usually won by three
or less points. Roderick had a strong
4-point lead over Jim Eliason and
Jason Arvey. Ted Drozd at 68 points
and Don Del Grade at 66 rounded out
the laurelists.
Heat 1 opened with a flurry of nail
biters. Stuart Tucker edged Sean McCulloch 21-20. Kevin Keller beat Barry
Shoults 18-14. David Rynkowski and Marvin
Birnbaum took 6-point wins over Doug Galullo
and Wes Coates. The featured match had there
been seeds would have been past champions Bert
Schoose vs Paul O’Neill, but Bert won 31-6 in the
only rout. Thereafter, close scores were scarce
with perennial champ Reiff downing Tucker 2217, defending champ Powell 24-19 and Keller 2616 to secure the bracket.
Blowouts prevailed in the following heat. Wes
Coates, Joe Powell, Kevin Keller, Ray Stakenas,
Jr. and his father (Ray Sr.) all posted double digit
wins. The blowout trend continued in the second
round as both Rays and Wes racked double-digit
wins. Wes’ 27-17 win ended the title defense of
the defending champion. Kevin decided that
beating Bert once was so much fun that he’d do
it again, by a closer but still decisive 17-10 score.
The heat semifinals saw Kevin take down Wes in
a match of former AHFS League opponents while
the two Stakenas’ paired off. Father showed son
that experience still counts as he administered a
30-13 lesson. The afterglow of that joie de vie victory carried over to Ray’s bracket clinching win
over Kevin 26-18.
It was all for naught though as the
final victory proved elusive with the
Columbus bully using a 31-17 beatdown to take his 11th FBS shield.
24
Century Events
25
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
James Pei, VA
Nick Pei, CA
Michael Kunin, NY
Henry Russell, PA
O Daniel Leader, MA
O Gary Gonzalez, NY
Vien Bounma, NJ
Haakon Monsen, no
Scott Sirianna, NY
Dan Harthan, MN
O Jonathan Wyatt, PA
O Josh Coyle, VA
Brandon Bernard, PA
Lisa Gutermuth, VA
Jodi Folk, PA
Chris LeFevre, AZ
O James Pei, VA
O Drew Duboff, NJ
Richard Beyma, VA
Andy Davison, VA
Vince Meconi, DE
O Jim Tracy, OH
O Ed Menzel, CA
O Bob Jamelli, PA
Mark Herman, MD
33  1999-2015
Top Laurelists
James Pei, VA
Century Events
James Pei, VA
David Dockter, MN
Mark Giddings, NY
Bill Pettus, MD
Nick Pei, CA
Mike Mitchell, GA
Riku Reikkinen, fi
Tim Miller, GA
Trevor Bender, CA
Sean Dolbee, CA
862
244
151
114
108
93
68
68
62
60
Jason Levine, NY
Chris LeFevre, AZ
Vince Meconi, DE
78  2000-2015
90  2001-2015
24  1992-2015
Top Laurelists
Top Laurelists
Vien Bounma, NJ
Jason Levine, NY
160
Barry Smith, NY
125
Lance Fogel, PA
78
Roderick Lee, CA
61
Rejean Tremblay, on 52
Curt Collins II, PA
49
Vien Bounma, NJ
40
Alex Metzger, NY
40
Robert Kircher, MA
38
John Schoose, IL
34
Brandon Bernard, PA
Lisa Gutermuth, NC
Brandon Bernard, PA
Sarah Vasilakos, VA
John Speck, MD
Chris LeFevre, AZ
Faith Wobbeking, MD
Jim Fleckenstein, VA
Jordan Flawd, PA
Stefany Speck, MD
Forrest Speck, MD
96
72
61
46
42
42
40
33
30
30
Top Laurelists
Richard Beyma, VA
Ed Menzel, CA
291
Vincent Meconi, DE 194
Richard Beyma, VA 175
Ted Drozd, IL
132
Allen Kaplan, NJ
94
Jim Tracy, OH
93
Dave Zimmerman, PA 81
Gregory D. Smith, PA 69
Mike Pacheco, CA
66
Barry Shoults, MI
56
For The People (FTP)
Formula De (FDE)
Formula Motor Racing (FMR)
Gettysburg (GBG)
The oft repeated headline was that James Pei
won again—for the 15th time. It was a well attended event despite the continued dominance of
the Master who continued to allow the rest of us to
play in his sandbox. It was as always an ironman
tournament with players entering into a series of
exhausting campaign games. Stamina matters and
James is not beatable with less than your A game.
With usual punching bag foil David Dockter not
present, the Final became a true brother versus
brother affair with Nick Pei opposing his older sibling. 31 games were played with the Confederates
usually faring better than their historical counterparts. That trend continued when the Master won
the opening die roll for choice of sides.
With the arrival of Lee, the Rebels went on
the offensive on Turn 4 forming a second Army,
AOW. Union maneuvers into WV cut LOC to
AONV. AOW engaged AOP in a series of battles—
dislodging AOP from Frederick and took a shot at
DC, but failed. The turn ended with the first raid
in PA, but timely play of Nathaniel Lyn prevented
CSA from converting MO.
Turn 5 dawned on a pair of fatigued brothers so the Master decided to bludgeon his way to
DC. Lee attacked again and again, failing several
times. Nick played a Minor Campaign, trapping
and destroying AONV, but with the arrival of the
Carolina Express and Stonewall, AOW won a close battle
and broke through to DC—
forcing Nick’s resignation.
Formula De attendance rebounded in 2015
with three heats yielding 13 winners. No one
won more than once during the preliminaries so
tiebreakers were used to select ten finalists. Only
nine of those and none of the alternates appeared
so the Final on Nevada Ride took place with only
nine cars. The track itself was awarded as a prize
from Asmodee Games. The starting grid was
Vien Bounma at pole due to a first and second in
the heats followed by Glenn McMaster, Scott Sirianna, Josh Coyle, Haakon Monsen, Walt Collins,
Dan Harthan, Jonathan Wyatt, and John Schoose.
A combination of an unforgiving course
and none too conservative driving reduced the
field to three by the last corner. All three were
now down to their last engine and tire. There
would be no more redlining and anyone’s engine could blow as they left the last turn of Las
Vegas Way. It all came down to a 5th gear roll.
Haakon went first and rolled a 14. He knew
he was in trouble as both of the others could
pass him with a ceiling of 20. Vien‘s 15 wasn’t
enough to pass Haakon outright, but being in
the middle lane he was able to use an extra
space in the turn and place his car directly behind Haakon to slipstream to take the lead on
the homestretch. Scott needed a 17 or a 20 to
either slipstream or pass Vien. His 12 left him
in third. Vien thus took his
first WBC shield after the
most dramatic finish in recent years.
Three heats generated 24 preliminary games.
21 resulting qualifiers advanced to the semifinals
and were augmented by alternate runners-up
Brandon Bernard, Katie McCorry and Steve Caler.
Those semifinals were not kind to Katie as she lost
six cars. In the second race, Dacey Collinson tried
to accomplish a memorable worst to first maneuver. Starting in the tenth position she made it all
the way to second. Then those famous last words
were spoken, “I will do just one more roll”. Of
course, it failed and returned her car to last. In the
sixth race, James Pei—yes, Caesar himself—was
lucky enough to get the crash card. He played it
only to roll his own car. Lynn Ribeiro and Mark
Love knew that feeling also as all three mastered
the art of shooting themselves in the foot.
Jodi Folk, Chris LeFevre, Pei and Bernard won
their tables. Drew DuBoff and Lisa Gutermuth
also advanced as the closest runners-up with Lisa
besting Ribeiro by tiebreaker.
Only a 6-point margin separated first from
last, but the Final’s sixth race was nonetheless
quiet. The crash card was not seen. Drew took
out one of Pei’s cars with a spin-out while Lisa
attacked the leader—blowing Brandon’s engine.
Drew, no longer a target, finally got both of his
cars to finish—taking first and fourth. Brandon
did not score but was able to prevent his closest pursuers from overtaking him. He ended with 28
points to claim his seventh
WBC title.
Richard Beyma defeated newcomer
Andy Davison to earn his third GBG
shield with a 6-3 record throughout the
week. The London newcomer had a perfect 5-0
slate prior to his loss in the Final. Vince Meconi
was also unbeaten at 4-0 before suffering his only
loss in the playoffs to Beyma to finish third. Jim
Tracy clinched the last playoff spot and finished
with a 5-3 record in fourth. Defending champ Ed
Menzel failed to make the playoff rounds and
had to settle for fifth.
In the playoffs, #2 seeded Beyma made the
highest bid ever recorded for the Confederates,
16.5, but still forced a Turn 12 resignation from
Tracy. In the other bracket, Davison’s Federals beat Meconi, who had bid 8.0. In the finale,
Beyma’s Rebels, bidding 10.5, used their infantry
stacks to chew through Union units like armored
divisions. Davison survived until Turn 13, before
conceding his only loss of the week.
Beyma also took Best Confederate honors at 6-2.
Andy Davison and Ed Menzel shared 3-1 marks
for Best Union Player designations. The field of 24
entrants played a total of 34 games. Overall, the
South won 22 games. 33 games used the campaign
scenario. Only one game of the July 3 scenario was
played. In the campaign scenario, four games had
no bid, with the remaining 29 contests having Confederate bids ranging from 2.0 to
16.5. The average bid was 7.10 for
all games and 8.53 for the games
with a Confederate bid.
26
Century Events
27
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
Malcolm Smith, VA
Tom Good, NC
Rob Woodham, TX
O Steve Koleszar, VA
O Michael Sosa, DE
O Fred Bauer, VA
George Young, VT
Larry Luongo, NJ
James Pei, VA
Keith Wixson, NJ
K. Wojtaszczyk, NY
Chris Byrd, CT
Nick Benedict, CA
Paul McCarthy, NY
Matthew Beach, MD
Justin Morgan, VA
Ed Beach, MD
O Kirk Harris, NJ
Mark J. Smith, KY
Kevin Youells, PA
S. Scarangella, NY
Graeme Dandy, au
Ty Hansen, DC
Christina Harley, WA
Randall MacInnis, NJ
Top Laurelists
George Seary, NY
Lyman Moquin, DC
Malcolm Smith, VA
Rick Young, NC
Hank Burkhalter, GA
Fred Bauer, VA
Ric Manns, IN
Phil Barcafer, PA
Bruce Reiff, OH
Ron Draker, VA
219
205
138
108
87
69
68
53
51
36
Justin Rice, VA
Stuart Tucker, MD
17  2003-2015
Malcolm Smith, VA
Century Events
Top Laurelists
George Young, VT
James Pei, VA
Keith Wixson, NJ
Chris Byrd, CT
Jim Heenehan, PA
George Young, VT
Lyman Moquin, DC
Randall MacInnis, NJ
Steve Worrel, VA
Peter Reese, VA
Michael Sosa, DE
483
409
265
254
120
102
97
96
94
84
Don Del Grande, CA
38  2006-2015
52  1996-2015
45  1993-2015
Top Laurelists
Nick Benedict, CA
Jeff Burdett, NY
125
Justin Rice, VA
102
Nick Benedict, CA
94
Alan Sudy, VA
91
Dennis Mishler, TX
85
Kirk Harris, NJ
83
Mathieu Pare-Paquin, qc 72
Dave Cross, VA
72
Bryan Collars, SC
68
Larry Mull, NV
60
Top Laurelists
Mark J. Smith, KY
Harald Henning, CT 196
Kevin Youells, PA
138
Jeff King, OH
124
Joe Collinson, MD
108
Mark J. Smith, KY
96
Rolinda Collinson, MD 90
Jonas Borra, NY
84
Nathan Barhorst, MI 80
Henry Dove, MD
80
Gregory Kulp, NJ
74
Hammer of the Scots (HOS)
Hannibal (HRC)
Here I Stand (HIS)
History of the World (HWD)
The English started strong with a
5-3 advantage in the opening round.
The notable exception was the defeat
of defending champion, Malcolm Smith, who
fell to Steve Koleszar’s Scots. Round 2, weakened by several dropouts, only had six games.
The Scots came roaring back with five wins, and
added three out of five in the last round of Swiss
play, for 11 wins in 19 preliminary games. The
combination of a small field and winning defections left only one undefeated player, Koleszar,
advancing to the semifinals as a challenge to
the KGB’s lock on this event. Three 2 - 1 players advanced due to the number of nobles they
had saved in their lone loss and the number of
enemy nobles surviving their wins.
Winning bids were mostly zero or one for
the English, giving Edward I a late start in his
campaign. Players who bid 1 for the Scots, adding one block to the initial English levy, were
generally successful. There was only one bid of
2 for the Scots which Tom Good converted in
Round 2.
The medal rounds belonged to the Scots,
with Smith defeating Robert Woodham 12 - 2 in
one bracket and Good ending Koleszar’s streak
8 - 6 in the other, both on bids of Scots 1. Smith
then overcame his initial loss to retain his title for a third straight year
by the narrowest possible margin,
defeating Good on a tied noble count
of 7 - 7 because Wallace survived.
With three unbeaten players in the
final round, tiebreakers determined the
pairings with defending champ George
Young facing James Pei, while Larry Luongo
drew Andy Latto, the 3-1 player atop the once
beatens, to vie for second. 14 players vied in
Round 5 games that would determine the six
laurelists. Another 12 stuck around just for the
experience, yielding a record 91 games played.
Latto’s Hannibal failed five initiative rolls
and had to return over the Alps. Luongo’s Turn 7
play of Diplomacy followed by Numidia Revolts
gained an advantage that he drove home on Turn
8 for a 12-6 victory, becoming the first undefeated
player to be denied the title. At the top of the food
chain, Pei took Carthage for a bid of 2 PCs. Young
then fought off Syracusan and Macedonian alliances. The match came down to who drew the
Turn 9 Messenger Intercepted. Fate smiled on
Young who stole the Numidia Revolts card from
Pei’s last three cards, securing a 10-8 victory to
repeat as champion, the first successful title defense in 20 years. Young guided Rome to victory
in all five games.
Rome was victorious 52-39. Syracuse allied on
48 occasions and was sacked 22 times. Hannibal
died 33 deaths, but Carthage managed to salvage
three of those games. Eight times the
winning bidder chose Rome, usually for
zero, but once for three PCs. Carthage
was chosen 83 times with an average
bid of 1.8 and a maximum bid of 4.
It was good to be Protestant in the opening
heat: Luther’s boys were 4-0 in 6-player games
and Alan Sudy won the lone 5-player game with
an English-Protestant combination. The wins
were better distributed in Heat 2 - the Turks, English, Pope and Hapsburgs each taking one.
Nick Benedict crossed the auto-victory
threshold on Turn 3 of his semifinal with Matt
Beach and Paul McCarthy posting strong scores
of 25 with the English and French. Kirk Harris returned to the Final with a Turn 1 Hapsburg domination in a low-scoring contest. Justin Morgan’s
Protestants completed the semifinals with a Turn
3 24-point win over Ed Beach’s 23.
That set the Final with Benedict taking the
Hapsburgs first, Morgan the Ottomans, Harris
the Protestants, Matt Beach the Pope, McCarthy
the English and Ed Beach the French. Ed’s French
opened strong with Verrazano circumnavigating. The Pope activated Venice as an ally, and the
reformation struggled to spread. Benedict then
struck a deal with the Ottomans to war against
France. But Morgan’s Turks also dragged the
Pope into the conflict. Benedict took Milan from
the French and the Turks were shutout. Ed and
Nick then made a rough deal for peace. Turn 4
was primed for the Hapsburgs. With peace in
the east and west, Charles’ armies
declared war on Genoa for one VP,
and then captured three electorates
to push to 25 and deliver the title to
Benedict for his 11th WBC title.
Mark Smith managed to draw the Chinese
dynasties in each of the first four epochs—a 1
in 2401 probability—which put him into sixth
place after Epoch 2, and kept him there through
Epoch 6. Meanwhile, the lead changed hands
frequently, with four of the other five finalists—
Graeme Dandy, Kevin Youells, Christina Harley, and Stephen Scarangella—taking the lead
(and the pre-eminence chit that goes with it) at
one time or another. In the last Epoch, Youells
had Russia, played a Civil War, placed three
Armies—and watched as his opponent threw 5,
6, 6 to defeat all of them. Still, his five pre-eminence points was good enough to finish ahead
of the others—or at least it would have been
had Smith not been passed Britain. He turned in
a 71-point turn to take the lead, got the 6-point
pre-eminence marker, and after being in the
“sand” position at the start of the last turn, the
only sand he needed to worry about was if it
happened to be the color of the Centurion shirt
he gets for winning.
The other places were a close affair, with
Youells finishing second on 178 (behind
Smith’s 187), then Scarangella, Dandy, and
Hansen on 175, 174, and 173, respectively, with
Harley’s 161 earning the real sand. Scarangella’s third was notable not only for
being his first taste of laurels (and
wood), but because he had just
learned the game at the demo.
Fast learner.
28
Century Events
29
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
Ewan McNay, NY
David Metzger, NY
Adina Weiss, NJ
O Ben Carter, FL
O Yoel Weiss, NJ
O Shannon Keating, IN
Matt Leader, MA
Dale Long, NJ
Matthew Beach, MD
O Alexander Lange, GA
O Daniel Long, NJ
O Ted Bohaczuk, MD
Ron Draker, VA
Justin Thompson, VA
Michael Sosa, DE
O Bob Wooster, OH
O Tom Drueding, MA
O William Austin, VA
Tony Musella, VA
Pierre-Luc Ramier, qc
O Jeff Coyle, VA
O Larry Luongo, NJ
O RJ Gleaton, SC
O Brad Raszewski, MD
Max DuBoff, NJ
Brian Mongold, MD
95
 2001-02, 05-06, 08-15
Michael Sosa, DE
Rob Olsson, MD
20  2010-2015
127  2014-2015
139  2007-2015
Top Laurelists
Ewan McNay, NY
Century Events
Meghan Friedmann, MA
Joe Yaure, PA
Steven LeWinter, NC
Ewan McNay, NY
Jeff Mullet, OH
Jamie Tang, MD
Marcy Morelli, PA
Brittany Bernard, PA
Andy Latto, MA
Bruce Reiff, OH
57
50
42
30
30
30
30
30
30
25
Top Laurelists
Matt Leader, MA
Keith Levy, MD
Eli Zlotowski, CA
Jeff Senley, PA
Richard Fetzer, NY
David Rohde, NC
Matt Leader, MA
Andy Latto, MA
Dave Buchholz, MI
Bob Titran, NY
Steve Scott, CA
60
30
30
30
30
20
20
20
20
19
Top Laurelists
Ron Draker, VA
Justin Thompson, Va
Tom Drueding, MA
Ron Draker, VA
Willim Austin, VA
Fred Bauer, VA
Joe Harrison, KY
Malcolm Smith, VA
Alex Kraska, MD
Barry Eynon, CA
Bill Powers, VA
87
73
62
41
39
30
24
18
12
12
Top Laurelists
Tony Musella, VA
Tony Musella, VA
Gary Schaefers, PA
Pierre-Luc Ramier, qc
Andrew Doughan, PA
Jeff Coyle, VA
Chris Greenfield, NY
Larry Luongo, NJ
Scott Driessen, MD
RJ Gleaton, SC
Cal Doughan, PA
20
20
12
12
8
8
6
6
4
4
Ingenius (ING)
Ivanhoe (IVH)
Julius Caesar (JUC)
King of Tokyo (KOT)
The first heat had 18 4-player tables. Unfortunately, a game had to be adjudicated, but all the
others finished on time, and Ingenious will continue
in a one-hour slot. The Wednesday heat filled 24
tables and the Thursday start manned 17. The lowest winning preliminary score was ten, which did
the trick five times. At the other end of the scale, six
managed a perfect score of 18.
The three heats produced nine double winners led
by Juniors champion Aidan McNay who won three.
13 players finished with a win and a second, so their
margins of victory and defeat were calculated to produce 16 semifinal qualifiers. The Tiebreakers became
irrelevant, however, when exactly enough qualifiers
and alternates appeared to fill the 16 available slots.
Adina Weiss ingenioused three colors in a
single turn, eventually scoring a perfect 18 to win
over defending champion Meghan Friedmann. David Metzger bested 2012 champion Joe Yaure and
top-seeded Aidan McNay 15 - 14. Ewan McNay
narrowly missed a perfect score, finishing with 16
to Doug Galullo’s 14, and ending 2008 champion
Andy Latto’s day.
Ewan ingenioused purple and scored a couple
points in blue to take the overall lead on his last
turn of the Final. With the last play Adina blocked
Ben from getting red, leaving Ewan victorious
with 12 points. He ingenioused
two colors and scored 13 in the other three. David took second with
11, Adina third with 10, and Ben
fourth with eight.
Knights of repute were in short supply this
year. Ultimately, Dale Long, Alexander Lange,
Matthew Beach and Matthew Leader fought their
way into the Final. After the first four rounds,
Lange and Leader were tied at two chips each. Sir
Long got on the board in Round 5, our first purple
round, with an amazingly lucky knockdown scoring him a Maiden from Lange’s hand. He then
played a shield and threw his newly found maiden to clinch the first purple.
Sir Beach showed patience and played an early
card collecting strategy—not joining battle until
Round 6 where he took green as his first chip.
Nonetheless, by Round 9 the entire table was tied
at two chips each and back at square 1.
Hard fought rounds were typical thereafter
with high totals of 31-26 logged for red in Round
9. A Round 14 purple bout left two hands seriously depleted. Leader started the round by playing
a knockdown and quickly retreated. Beach withdrew from the start but Lange and Long continued in a battle dominated by action plays. Dodge,
outwit, outmaneuver, two ripostes and the shield
all were employed this hand. In the end, Long
forced Lange to withdraw with a maiden in play,
winning his second purple chip which he traded
for green. The Ivanhoe card showed
twice in Rounds 7 and 12, both times
emerging from our eventual champion’s hand. Finally, in Round 20,
Leader stunned Long to score a blue
chip and his first WBC shield.
Defending champion Ron Draker—a
contender in just about every block wargame
(and a designer of several of them!)—went
undefeated to retain his title. He successfully defended the Republic as Pompey all five times, so we
know what side he favors! The tournament special
rules allow Caesar to always move first at game start,
guaranteeing Rome as his—as occurred historically.
Despite this, the top four players favored Pompey,
winning 12 out of 14 of their games with an average
bid of 2.16. This gave Caesar extra levies so the current metagame heavily favors Pompey.
Ron took Pompey for a bid of 3 in the Final
vs the game’s designer giving Caesar three additional levy points on his first card play. Justin
immediately sent Caesar and a Legion to Greece,
as it is critical for Caesar to contest at least one of
those three victory points.
On Turn 3 Ron moved first and positioned his
fleet at Tarsus to block Caesar while his Alexandria forces (Cleopatra & 38th Legion) marched to
Jerusalem and Levied the catapult. Justin levied
Caesar back to full strength. Ron then used Mercury to attack Caesar at Antioch with Cleopatra.
Caesar had no retreat path and was killed! Pompey’s forces were able to retake Ephesus in the
next two turns and hold on for a 9-6
win. His navy played a major role,
repeatedly defeating Caesar’s fleet
and controlling the Mediterranean,
allowing it to threaten multiple areas
and reinforce battles.
Round 1 thinned a herd of 127 monsters to
20 when one survivor opted for sleep over glory.
That left four 5-player semifinal tables to determine four finalists.
Round 2 culled the fame seekers—only
claws would advance. Pierre-Luc Ramier continued to claw, with Timothy Hing and Haim
Hochboim achieving 11 fame before falling. At
Table 2, Larry Luongo struck quickly, although
David Buchholz managed 12 fame points. RJ
Gleaton’s 16 points was a problem for Tony Musella mired in third at Table 3 until he clawed
his way past both leaders. Jeff Coyle played both
options at Table 4, scoring 16 points before closing the tightest claw competition of the round
with only one life remaining.
Luongo as Cyberbunny was the first finalist
to fall as everyone lost three life to play of a High
Altitude Attack. Coyle’s Meka Dragon was next
to fall as Ramier’s Gigazaur dropped four points
of damage on Tokyo while Meka Dragon was defending it. Hearts and claws were rolled as the
last two monsters traded possession of Tokyo for
a chance to heal or to gain more victory points.
Musella had 16 points to Ramier’s nine when the
final blow came. With one point of life and Ramier’s Gigazaur in Tokyo, Musella opted for claws
rather than a chance to heal. It was
close, but fate loved the soon-to-be
crowned champ of the circus as he
ended his WBC drought with not
one, but two, titles.
30
Century Events
31
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
Steve Cuccaro, MD
Peter Staab, PA
A. Drummond, on
O Ray Stakenas II, CA
O James Alexander, OH
O Mark Mitchell, VA
Ken Horan, PA
Nick Page, nb
Daniel Speyer, NY
O Ron Clement, on
O Richard J. Shay, PA
O Mike Kaltman, PA
Cat Haverback, PA
Chris Greenfield, NY
Chris Erickson, NY
O Adina Weiss, NJ
O Steven LeWinter, NC
O M. Lague-Gomez, qc
Bruce Bernard, PA
David Seiler, PA
Ted Bohaczuk, MD
O Rob Kilroy, PA
O J. Ratanaprasatporn, PA
O Derek Landel, NJ
Steve Cuccaro, MD
Kenneth Horan, PA
43  1991-2015
21  2010-2015
Top Laurelists
Steve Cuccaro, MD
Century Events
Steve Cuccaro, MD
Peter Stein, OH
Lee Rodrigues, VA
Nick Smith, uk
Tom DeMarco, NJ
Tom McCorry, VA
Peter Staab, PA
John Keating, IN
Dave Dentel, VA
Marc Houde, VA
193
134
60
51
48
46
45
45
42
41
Ken Horan, PA
Ivan Lawson, MD
197  2000-2015
Top Laurelists
Top Laurelists
Nick Page, nb
114
Daniel Eppolito, NV 66
Ken Horan, PA
71
Daniel Speyer, NY
38
Nick Vayn, PA
36
Geoffrey Pounder, on 18
Nick Henning, DC
18
Mike Kaltman, PA
17
Paul Sampson, OH
12
David Duncan, PA
12
Jason Levine, NY
227  2003-2015
Cat Haverback, PA
Josh Githens, SC
90
Andrew Emerick, CT 58
Patrick Shea, VA
42
Daniel Hoffman, NC 36
Cat Haverback, PA
30
George Talbot, PA
30
Kevin Wojtaszczyk, NY 30
Richard M. Shay, MA 30
Bernard Beckerman, NY30
Kathy Kilroy, PA
30
Top Laurelists
Bruce Bernard, PA
Sean McCulloch, OH 76
Chris Entwistle, MD 70
Eric Hufford, PA
70
Rebecca Hebner, CO 68
Andy Latto, MA
61
David Meyaard, CT
48
Jared Scarborough, IL 48
Daniel Karp, MD
32
Bruce Bernard, PA
30
Cody Zimmerman, PA 30
Kremlin (KRM)
Le Havre (LHV)
Liar’s Dice (LID)
Lost Cities (LST)
Things were even crazier than usual
in Kremlin. Whether it was the game
where Nestor became party chief twice
or that Pete Staab won with a single point on the
end-game Party Chief, chuckles were frequent.
Oddest of all was the 4-player Final won by the
GM despite 11 qualifiers and alternates named
for a 6-player Final. Then no one came. Talk about
a purge! The GM awarded the top two no-shows
fifth and sixth and sat down to a 4-player Final.
On Turn 1, Andrew sent Nestor to the cure,
two candidates were purged, and an intrigue
card brought Nestor back to wave. The “KGB reveals dossier” card was played next, forcing Ray
to reveal five IP, which he did—four of them on
Defense Minister Niewitko. Steve then revealed
his control of Nestor and got the wave.
Turn 2 began with the traditional purge of
Foreign Minister Viktor. This failed, setting the
tone for the game, which had very few purges.
After Eatstumuch was Condemned to Siberia, the first roll of the health phase left Nestor
untouched. Unfortunately for Steve, there was
a Wrong Diagnosis, and Nestor was actually
dead. The Funeral Commission put Niewitko
in charge, and Ray shuffled the cabinet to put
Nikotin as KGB head and Satin as Defense Minister. And so it went until Turn 9 when a healthy
Viktor was nominated for Party
Chief and actually elected, giving
Steve his third wave and fourth
Kremlin title.
Two heats produced nine games and
three 3-player semifinals. Nick Page frequented his Marketplace and Colliery
and finished with an incredible 333 points to
win by 98. Dan Speyer also enjoyed a comfortable 76-point win. The lone intense semifinal
saw Ron Clement amass resources but with as
many as 12 loans at one point. He eventually
paid them off but not before Ken Horan overtook him to win by 25.
The battle for the all-important Colliery in
the Final was quickly won by Nick in Round 2.
He used the proceeds from the Joinery and the
sale of his Sawmill to buy his way down to it before his opponents had a chance to build it. Dan
countered by using the materials he gathered to
build the Wharf and an early wood ship.
Ken hoarded coal and grain and took advantage of an early build of the Cokery by Nick to
make 14 coke and 16 bread in subsequent turns.
He used the proceeds to buy the Shipping Line
and Ironworks. Dan was able to use the Steel
Mill first but only converted two iron—just
enough to build the first Steel Ship. Ken converted 10 iron soon thereafter and built the second one. However, It became obvious that Nick
could not be stopped from building or buying
the final two. The final score
was Ken 293, Nick 270, and
Dan 223. With his win, Ken became the third two-time champion of this event.
36 prevaricators progressed to the semifinals, having dismissed 191 of their brethren. The
six emerging from the second gauntlet had not a
LID laurel between them.
The Final’s bloodletting commenced early
with four dice lost in the first round. The bid
carousel stopped at 13 4’s by Steve. Chris declined to ride that horse further and his challenge dropped Steve to his last die before he
even settled into his chair. Steve called on the
next round so we were expecting possibly the
quickest exit ever, but Mathieu lost a die and
Steve settled back in his chair. In Round 3 Mathieu again put Steve in hot water with a bid
of 12-6’s and again Steve put his game on the
line and called, costing Mathieu another die.
Rounds 4 and 5 continued the trend with Steve
and Mathieu living dangerously and the rest
content to yield the floor to the two antagonists as Mathieu suffered one paper cut after
another. Mathieu’s bid of 6-stars was called yet
again by Steve who appeared to be looking for
a head start on some sack time. But Mathieu
lost again and retired in 6th place. Steve had
survived four consecutive challenges with but
a single die and downed an unbled opponent
to escape the cellar. Heady stuff.
The momentous duel now over,
it was time to let the others play. 14
more mundane rounds later, Cat
bluffed Chris successfully to win his
first WBC shield with a die to spare.
Although, they only needed two wins to advance to the elimination rounds, there were two
quadruple winners in the preliminaries—Claire
Brosius and Amy Powers, as well as five triple
winners—Rebecca Hebner, Lauren Bohaczuk,
Lexi Shea, Thomas Tu, and Mark Geary. Adina
Weiss (275) had the highest score followed by
Tim Packwood (257) who combined with Rachel
LaDue for the highest pair score of 438. Amy
Powers managed three scores over 200 and combined scores of 429 and 416 with Serena Lotreck
and William Hoch, respectively. The closest
contests were Adam Wojtaszczyk 147 vs Scott
Fenn 146, and Lynda Shea 86 vs Blair Morgen 85.
Charles Faella and Tessa Lytle provided the only
tie at 115 which Tessa won in a 4th hand.
41 players qualified for the SE rounds with
38 appearing. After the fourth Round, I adjusted
the brackets by advancing the three closest losers
(Bruce Bernard, John Ratanaprasatporn and Ted
Bohaczuk) and two of them used their second
life to advantage. In the Final, Bruce built up a
lead of 39 points that allowed him to play safe in
the third hand, but just barely. David scored 57
points—the most in one hand by either player,
but fell short by five—106 to 101. It was ironic
that, earlier that day, I had reminded Bruce about
the fourth Heat, which he attended
and thereby punched his ticket for
the elimination rounds. The patron
saint of second chances took him the
rest of the way.
32
Century Events
33
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
Scott Nerney, RI
Bruce Monnin, OH
O Wes Lewis, DE
O Johnny Wilson, IL
O Terry Coleman, CA
O Harry Flawd, PA
C. Kalmbacher, PA
Daniel Overland, MI
Jim Fardette, MD
O William Austin, VA
O Sam Edelston, CT
O Jeff Cornett, FL
Vassili Kyrkos, NY
Eyal Mozes, MD
Philip Shea, VA
Robert Barnes, NY
O Bill Crenshaw, VA
O M. McCandless, LA
F. Finkenbinder, MD
Mark Miklos, GA
Dave Stiffler, VA
O Dick Boyes, WA
O Gilbert Collins, on
O Randy Pippus, on
Terry Coleman, CA
Sam Edelston, CT
54  1992-2015
Bruce Monnin, OH 166
Marvin Birnbaum, NY118
Terry Coleman, CA 117
Ken Gutermuth, NC 104
Derek Landel, NY
96
Dennis Nicholson, NY 93
Harry Flawd, PA
81
John Coussis, IL
79
Debbie Gutermuth, NC 69
Peter Staab, PA
66
Chris Kalmbacher, PA
18  2013-2015
71  1991-2015
Top Laurelists
Joe Harrison, KY
142
Sam Edelston, CT
87
Robert Eastman, NV 68
Jonathan Miller, DC 57
John Skiba, NY
54
Steve Lollis, MD
54
Jarett Weintraub, NY 40
Eric Caron, qc
40
Johan Van Huyse, be 40
Gordon Rodgers, PA 36
David Stiffler, VA
Richard Irving, CA
58  2004-2015
Top Laurelists
Scott Nerney, RI
Century Events
Top Laurelists
Vassili Kyrkos, NY
Eric Wrobel, VA
Bill Crenshaw, VA
Vassili Kyrkos, NY
Eyal Mozes, MD
Luke Koleszar, VA
Joe Abrams, CT
Kathy Stroh, DE
Steve Dickson, CA
Debbie Otto, MO
Charles Hickok, PA
Top Laurelists
228
146
88
85
82
72
56
56
56
55
Fred Finkenbinder, MD
Dave Stiffler, VA
72
Fred Finkenbinder, MD 30
Gilbert Collins, on
24
Mark Miklos, GA
18
Rob Doane, MA
18
Randy Pippus, on
15
Keith MacFarland, NJ 12
Tom Drueding, MA
12
Dick Boyes, WA
9
Rod Coffey, MD
9
March Madness (MMS)
Memoir ‘44 (M44)
Merchant of Venus (MOV)
Mr. Madison’s War (MMW)
Johnny Wilson guided his number 2
seed Louisville squad to the Final Four
with wins over Keith, Sam, Danny, and
3-time champ Marvin Birnbaum to take top
honors in Heat 1. 2000 champ Bruce Monnin
met four-time champ Terry Coleman in the
regional Final and put an end to Terry’s triple
digit scores as he won Heat 2. Heat 3 was more
of the same, with Bruce beating all comers to
make another regional Final vs Wes Lewis—
son of the defending champ and out to make
a name for himself. And he did so to set up a
showdown in the Final Four with… Scott Nerney, who coached an offensive-heavy team to
win after win in Heat 4. Constantly pushing
the tempo, Scott took out the top seed, John
Shaheen, and perennial finalist Harry Flawd to
make his first Final Four.
The semifinal fittingly went into overtime. 99
points will win most games, but Wes’ reliance
on a tight man-to-man defense finally caught up
to him, with two fouls in the extra period. Scott
emerged with 105, putting him in the title game
vs Monnin—who ended Wilson’s run in the other bracket. Both teams had an ‘A’ scorer and B
defenses. Bruce tried to employ the Run & Gun
in the second half, but it didn’t work
the same magic as it had throughout the tourney for Scott. In the end,
Bruce’s Michigan squad couldn’t
keep up with Providence, and Scott
pulled away, 114-98.
Early rounds: A record-breaking Mulligan
round, with 42 players, got the event off to a good
start. The scenarios were Moyland Wood, Vaumicel
Manor, and Breakout to Lisyanka. But at Vaumicel
and Lisyanka, former champs Joe Harrison, Geoff
Heintzelman, and John Skiba, and most of the other perennial contenders, were eliminated.
Because several winners opted out after Round
2, only six players remained for Round 4: Suomussalmi. Jim Fardette swept Jeff Cornett, Daniel Overland
squeaked past William Austin, and Chris Kalmbacher won a split decision over Sam Edelston. That
left only three survivors for Round 5: Raseiniai. So,
John Skiba returned as an eliminator to avoid any
byes. On board 1, Overland’s Germans devastated
Kalmbacher’s tanks and took a 6-2 lead. However,
the Russians reduced the gap to 7-5. Board 2 appeared close until Skiba’s Germans went Behind
Enemy Lines against Fardette’s Russians, killing
a Cavalry and taking an objective for a 7-3 win. In
the board 2 rematch, Skiba’s Russians played several big cards and quickly won, 7-2. Meanwhile, on
board 1, Daniel’s Russians charged out of the woods
prematurely giving Chris’s Germans a 7-2 victory.
Chris and Daniel had been so focused on their
own match that they didn’t realize the eliminator
had won next door, and so by winning his match,
Chris had become the new WBC Memoir champion! Daniel and Jim both had
seven wins, but Daniel had 55
medals to Jim’s 53 to earn second place.
Discovery lagged in the preliminaries. Bill
Alderman and Rich Irving built spaceports in the
Inhabited Moon and then discovered there was a
free Open Port hiding in the system. We should
have looked behind that rock! D’uh! Failure to
look a little harder also had consequences when
a game had all six Telegates in play, a rare opportunity. Unfortunately, four went undiscovered!
Heat 3 was notable for the absence of three-time
defending champ Eric Wrobel who thereby abdicated his winning streak without a fight.
The semis started with only 20 of the 25 qualifiers in attendance—so five 4-player games were
employed. One yielded the closest game when
Kathy Stroh had $2957 in the race to $3000, yet finished fourth! Victory was hers had she managed a
10 with four dice on her last roll. Mark McCandless and Wade Fowble were both over $3000, but
lost to Bill Crenshaw. In the second semi, Phil Shea
beat Richard Irving in a Freighter race. Eyal Mozes
founded all three Clipper selling cultures in the
first four turns to win easily. Robert Barnes’ Yellow Drive won the Relic race against John Koski’s
Jump Start as his brother-in-law, Vassili Kyrkos,
took the last Final seat.
The Final was done in about 2.5 hours to speed
Bill off to his 40th anniversary dinner. Unfortunately, “Dollar Bill” was consistently $1
dollar short on too many purchases
and finished last! Vassili plundered
the three most lucrative systems to
win his first MOV shield!
11 new players joined the ranks to fight the
War of 1812, with two of them reaching the Final, ensuring that both the designer and developer would be absent for the first time, which we
viewed as a positive development. Gilbert Collins
was heard to say “The torch has been passed”! The
early highlights included Ed Castronova capturing Quebec; something we’ve never seen happen
before! Also, Randy Pippus’s Americans recreated
history by playing “Battle of New Orleans” after
the Treaty of Ghent to hold Plattsburg and defeat
Chris Byrd’s British. Lastly, Eric Guttag’s Brits won
on the last two cards, taking Lake Huron (with the
American fleet striking it’s colors) and then taking
Ft Erie for the win.
The semifinals had Mark Miklos beating defending champ Dave Stiffler by one VP despite failing to take Ft Malden five times. In the other bracket, Dick Boyes had been forced to play a number of
reaction cards, leaving Fred Finkenbinder with the
last three cards which he used to attack and overtake Boyes at the end of 1814.
Fred took the Americans in the Final which was
a wild affair. Both players were aggressive early and
often. The scene in the west was chaos with both
sides out of supply and cut off on more than one occasion. In the end Fred’s constant pressure enabled
him to find some weak links
in the British position and get
the VPs he needed to play the
Treaty of Ghent, winning by a
slim 21-15 margin.
34
Century Events
35
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
John Emery, SC
Michael Dauer, TX
Al Hurda, on
Gareth Williams, ma
Patrick Duffy, VA
O Brian Sutton, MD
Randy Buehler, WA
Andrew Emerick, CT
David Borton, PA
O Antero Kuusi, fi
O Mike Kaltman, PA
O Vien Bounma, NJ
Greg Tanner, AZ
Rod Coffey, MD
Alan Arvold, IL
O Art Dohrman, AL
O Marty Musella, NC
O Dick Boyes, WA
Michael Dauer, TX
Tom Gregorio, PA
Evan Woodham, TX
Nick Frydas, uk
Nick Benedict, CA
Alex Gregorio, PA
Gareth Williams, ma
45  2003-2015
John Emery, SC
258
Bruce Young, SC
256
Lane Hess, PA
157
Ed Rothenheber, MD 111
Francis Czawlytko, MD104
Henry Russell, PA
102
Melvin Casselberry, PA 99
Scott Moll, VA
80
Mike Casselberry, PA 60
David Gantt, SC
60
Anni Foasberg, NJ
Rick Northey, MA
Peter Gurneau, WI
53  2011-2015
28  1991-2015
24  1999-2015
Top Laurelists
Top Laurelists
John Emery, SC
Century Events
Randy Buehler, WA
Andrew Emerick, CT
Randy Buehler, WA
Antero Kuusi, fi
Mike Kaltman, PA
Rob Kircher, RI
Wade Fowble, MD
David Platnik, VA
Vien Bounma, NJ
David Borton, PA
Romaine Jacques, qc
114
48
39
24
24
18
18
15
12
12
Top Laurelists
Greg Tanner, AZ
Greg Tanner, AZ
188
Marty Musella, NC 176
Bert Schoose, IL
142
Bill Scott, VA
139
Chuck Leonard, PA 138
Rich Northey, MA
86
Alan Arvold, IL
69
Dave Giordano, NJ
47
Johnny Hasay, PA
33
Eduardo DeNucci, ag 26
Top Laurelists
Michael Dauer, TX
Stefan Mecay, TX
472
Tom Drueding, MA 428
David Dockter, MN 328
Peter Reese, VA
276
Marvin Birnbaum, NY 210
Chris Byrd, CT
208
Rob Hassard, NJ
181
Riku Riekkinen, fi
174
Nick Anner, NY
162
Michael Dauer, TX
126
The Napoleonic Wars (NW5)
Navegador (NVG)
PanzerBlitz (PZB)
Paths of Glory (POG)
It was not a good year for the Royal Navy
which fared poorly against aggressive French fleets
but the opening heat contained wins by all five
powers. By the third day Michael Dauer completed
the unprecedented feat of winning every heat.
The semis went France’s way, and the way of
seeding: everyone with first pick of sides won. 10
VP was not enough for John Emery on Wednesday
but it got the win when it counted and top seed
in the Final in a crushing victory. Michael Dauer
as Britain won his fourth straight game. Al Hurda
took a Turn 1 French win to book his seat in the Final. The last semi had French ambassador Gareth
Williams bring literally every minor into pact to
secure his berth.
Emery took France with first pick of the Final, followed by Williams Britain, the as-yet-unbeaten Dauer Russia, and Hurda Prussia. Patrick
Duffy qualifying as best runner-up semifinalist
inherited Austria.
Britain botched her early interception rolls to allow the French to concentrate in Brest, but declared
Mud once the Russians reached Vienna. Spain survived a 1/6 chance of conquest on Turn 2. John then
made his move, finessing his armies out of stack and
playing Scarce Forage to devastate the Austro-Russian
defenders. Prussia remained neutral in Turn 4 and
Spanish pressure forced the Brits to
evacuate. Hurda finally took Prussia
into the Imperial Camp but was unable to improve his position as Emery won his second NW5 shield.
The three heats yielded 17 winners, including
three double winners: Patrick Shea, Nicole Yuhase,
and Romain Jacques. Three opted not to advance,
however, allowing two alternates to fill four 4-player semifinal tables.
Mike Kaltman’s navigation tokens gave him an
advantage, but he still lost by six to Randy Buehler’s
factory/church strategy, which benefited from the
lack of competition for factories in semi 1. Andrew
Emerick bested Vien Bounma 99-94 in a much
lower scoring affair in the second semi. Antero
Kuusi and Tim Horne fought it out over colonies
in semi 3, splitting shipyards as they did, but somehow Antero finished ahead of Anthony Lainesse’s
uncontested factories! David Borton went the pure
exploration route in semi 4, with navigation tokens
and shipyards to win by over 30 points.
David and Randy opened the Final by sailing to
sugar and gold regions, respectively. Andrew built a
gold factory and Antero decided to start with workers.
While Antero continued sailing in the end game, and
made it as far as Macao, all the others descended on
the building market and bought out, first the churches
(David), then the shipyards (Randy) and finally the
factories (Andrew) to end play. The final scores were:
David: 89 (54 from churches), Randy: 100 (54 from
shipyards), Andrew: 97 (60 from factories), and Antero: 88 (49 from navigation tokens). Thus, Randy won his first
Navegador shield while claiming his 12th
WBC title—but his only one for 2015 in a
down year for the twice Caesar.
The Finnish war with Russia
was the centerpiece of the 2015
tournament. “Professor” Alan
Arvold provided ten situations and counters from
“Panssari Salama” for play ranging from the Winter
War of 1939-40 to the end of the war in 1944. Greg
Tanner, Alan Arvold, Rod Coffey and Art Dohrman
emerged from a field of 28 as the semifinalists.
Greg and Alan chose situation 45r. Alan sent his
Russian armored force across the open steppes and
surrounded Opustoschenia. Hidden in the SW side
of the town were several batteries of heavy self propelled artillery. As the Russians attempted to close
the pocket, concentrated direct fire from German
Wespes knocked out two companies of T34/85s and
decimated two companies of infantry, leaving the
German batteries unspotted, so the Russians could
not return fire. After six turns the Germans controlled five town hexes resulting in a decisive victory.
Situation 14 was contested by Art and Rod. Art
maneuvered his German armor to clear the town,
eliminating the Russian CP, and all five of the valuable recon units that stood and defended the CP but
by the end,the score was Russians 40 to Germans 31.
Situation 51r3 provided the Final. Repeated
close assaults, overruns, and direct fire stalled the
advance in the middle of the board. While this
did not appreciably weaken either force, time was
on the German side, they still
held Grebyosh, and Greg won
by a score of 17-10 to take his
fifth PZB title.
The event mirrored the attrition of
the war it portrayed. It appeared to
be 1918 with many missing faces in
the trenches as the field dropped to its lowest level. The three Swiss rounds yielded three
unbeatens (Tom Gregorio, Michael Dauer, and
Nick Frydas), and five 2-1 records. The top four
players went directly to semifinal play, while
the bottom four waged a lower brackets semifinal of their own for fifth and sixth place.
Tom Gregorio’s CP narrowly defeated Nick
Frydas in one semi while Michael Dauer dispatched Evan Woodham in the other bracket.
That left Tom and Michael in the title game.
Tom bid 0 for the AP and got them. All six playoff games were won by the CP.
Michael started with a Defend the Meuse
strategy where the CP takes and holds Brussels, Sedan, Metz, and Strasbourg, while taking
out the Russians in the East. Turns 6-13 saw
continued AP pressure as the AP ran the war
status up to 30 to bring the US into the war on
Turn 12! Allenby appeared in the near east and
took Damascus and Medina from the Turks.
The CP was now on the ropes. Turn 14 was the
turning point, as Michael played ‘Fall of the
Tsar’ and ‘Bolshevik Revolution’. The Russians
had to fall back and play for time, waiting for
a breakthrough in the West. Michael needed two VP to win and
was able to siege two VP forts at
games end on Turn 20.
36
Century Events
2015 Results
Harry Flawd, PA
Tim Dolan, NJ
Dale Long, NJ
O Dan Overland, MI
O Joe Yaure, PA
O Dan Long, NJ
Harry Flawd, PA
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
Matt Calkins, VA
Wooly Farrow V, PA
Jim Savarick, MD
Chris Gnech, PA
C. Kalmbacher, PA
O Steve Koleszar, VA
Doug Smith, PA
Eric Freeman, PA
Curt Collins II, PA
O Wade Campbell, on
O J. Oppenheim, VA
O A. Warszawski, il
Harry Flawd, PA
Jason Fisher, NC
104  2005-2015
Top Laurelists
Stefany Speck, MD
Stefany Speck, MD 110
John Elliott, MD
80
Brandon Bernard, PA 72
Tom Pavy, OH
69
Paul Weintraub, MD 51
Vincent Sinigaglio, NJ 50
Barrett Straub, MD
44
RJ Gleaton, SC
40
Chris Striker, PA
36
Jason Fisher, NC
32
Eric Brosius, MA
Kevin Broh-Kahn, MD
44  2001-2015
110  2004-2015
Top Laurelists
282
200
90
58
53
46
36
33
30
30
37
Stefany Speck, MD
Barrett Straub, MD
Abigail Elliott, MD
Allyson Thoma, MD
Nora Tuke, DE
O Brandon Bernard, PA
40  1993-2015
Harry Flawd, PA
Devin Flawd, PA
Jacob Hebner, CO
Bill O’Neal, NY
B. Passacantando, CT
Derek Landel, NJ
Mike Destro, NJ
Chad Gormly, MA
Tim Dolan, NJ
Mike James, MD
Century Events
Top Laurelists
Top Laurelists
Matt Calkins, VA
Jim Savarick, PA
269
Matt Calkins, VA
136
Eric Brosius, MA
103
Bill Crenshaw, VA
93
Kevin Garber, VA
90
Robert Woodson, NV 72
Richard Meyer, MA
72
Bill Murdock, NY
72
Wooly Farrow V, PA 60
Rob Murray, NJ
60
Doug Smith, PA
Rod Spade, PA
Eric Brosius, MA
Eric Freeman, PA
David Platnick, VA
L. Dan Hoffman, MD
Lyman Moquin, DC
Alex Bove, PA
Aran Warszawski, il
Doug Smith, PA
Brian Reynolds, MD
130
100
84
75
72
66
60
53
52
50
Paydirt (PDT)
Pirate’s Cove (PRC)
Power Grid (PGD)
Princes of Florence (POF)
Perennial champion Harry Flawd
held off the challenge of veterans and
youngsters alike to win both heats and
take the Super Bowl by default—giving him a
total of nine PDT titles.
Longtime Paydirt player but WBC newbie,
Dan Overland, would lead his Steelers into the
AFC title game. The opening round saw all but
two of the games finish with both teams within
hailing distance if only they could manage another TD. That included two OT games, where
Dan’s Steelers nipped veteran Bill Place’s
Browns 27-21, and Derek Landel’s Broncos
topped Sam Berk’s Bengals. Round 2 saw only
one game not finish within a single score. Joe
Yaure continued his mastery of the spread with
the Jets taking down 2002 champ Bill O’Neal
39-38, while Harry was getting all he could
handle from Dale Long’s Broncos, trailing 11-0
late in the third quarter, before two late TDs
won 14-11. Joe finally ran out of steam against
Dan 45-44 in an amazing game. The AFC title
game was then dominated by Patriot picks as
Harry coasted to a 48-25 win.
Harry took what was left in the NFC heat
—Tampa—the worst team in the set and played
the spread to beat Pounder’s Redskins 27-21 in
OT, converted a 28-point spread vs Dan Long’s
Packers 37-35 and used a 19-point
handicap to edge Tim Dolan’s
Cowboys 32-27 in the NFC title
game to take Sunday off.
One last time the seas of Marietta were plundered, this time under the command of new captain, Jason “Chainlink” Fisher. Across four heats
we recruited over 100 pirates with 41 voyages and
33 winners.
The Sunday morning semifinals drew heavy
fire from conflicting events and departures. Only
18 of the 33 qualifiers made it to the dock on time,
leaving seven slots in the semifinals to fill! Barrett Straub, Nora Tuke, Abigail Elliott, John Elliot,
Sam Shambeda, Steve Scott, and Ron Fisher all advanced without winning a heat. But with swag in
the offing, it was suddenly serious business, with
no mutinies and an average of 15 stones earned per
game. Abigail and Dalton Versak tied for first and
were forced to fight it out with Abigail emerging
triumphant. Stefany continued to keep the wind
gauge and advanced, reaching the Final for the
third straight year. Barrett advanced to the Final
and was gaining on the record of 20 stones with 16.
The Final was the deadliest game yet with a
total of 24 stones earned, averaging two players
sunk per turn. Ships were sabotaged. Secret weapons were deployed in the never-ending combat. At
the end of the last round there was a three-way tie
for first place. Everything came down to the Tavern cards, where Stefany emerged victorious; her
hat-trick performance of three straight wins earning her second PRC shield. Barrett
had to settle for second but added
six sinks to set a new record with
22 stones.
We broke triple digits for the ninth straight
year. The three heats produced 38 Preliminary
games and enough winners to staff the semifinals without alternates. Trash powered both
France and Italy in Heat 1 as four of the seven
winners on each map ended with the 30 trash
plant. Three of the five winners on the Benelux
map in Heat 2 finished with under ten electros,
and four were able to power their entire network. On the other map, Central Europe, low
starting plants paved the way for only one
victor did not start with the 3 or 4 plant. Despite powerful coal plants again showing their
prowess in Heat 3 with three of five winners
possessing the 36 plant, the 34 nuclear plant
helped three win in the UK. Trash powered
players to victory in Northern Europe with every winner having either the 24 or 30 plant.
In the semifinal coal reigned supreme in
the form of the 31 plant: half of the top players
ended with it powering six of their cities.
The Final began with everyone buying two
cities, followed by Matt Calkins buying the 25
for 33 electros and Chris Gnech getting the 24
at cost. After three nuclear plants were bought
in Turn 3, only Matt had no plant paying him
from the uranium mines. Competition for the
mines amongst the others would ultimately
win the day, as he maintained the
lead for all but the last turn when
he built his network from eight to
15 cities.
Only 19 players appeared for the semifinals, so we played three full 5-player and one
4-player game followed by a 4-player Final. In
the first full game, Curt Collins emerged on the
good side of a 55-55 tie, ending with 500 florins to Jeremy Oppenheim’s 200. Legend Dan
Hoffman and Jennifer Horan had gotten into a
bidding war over a Lake, ruining their chances.
Wade Campbell won with 64 PP—an impressive total with five players—and Eric Freeman
won the third full game. In the 4-player contest,
Doug Smith topped Aran Warszawski, 68-65.
Kenneth Horan finished third and predicted
that Doug’s recent experience in a 4-player
game would give him an edge in the next
round.
In the Final, Eric and Doug took Seats 1 and
4, respectively, at no cost. In Round 3, Wade
bought his first Jester at auction, leaving him
with just 100 florins and the misconception that
he could trade PP for florins. He was unable to
complete a Work, and with only 100 florins had
no way to get more. He could do nothing but
pass for the rest of the game.
Meanwhile, the other players suddenly
found themselves in a 3-player game. At the
end of Round 7, Eric was in the lead, but Curt
and Doug each had two Prestige
Cards. Doug scored both of his, but
Curt could only score one, giving
Doug the championship by a final
score of 67-62-57-0.
38
Century Events
2015 Results
Ben Scholl, PA
Thomas Lind, NJ
Etienne Evans, qc
Jessica Shea, VA
O Akim Munro, qc
O Alex Bove, PA
Richard Shay, MA
Top Laurelists
Ben Scholl, PA
240
173
112
100
96
75
70
66
64
63
2015 Results
2015 Results
Kara Felix, PA
Alex. Henning, PA
Sam Shambeda, PA
O Andrew Martin, PA
O Sara VanderWal, on
O David Seiler, PA
Top Laurelists
Alex Bove, PA
Tom Dunning, NY
Steve Scott, CA
Joe Jaskiewicz, MD
Winton LeMoine, CA
Blair Morgen, NJ
Richard Meyer, MA
Scott Fenn, MD
Ryan Romanik, MI
Janet Ottey, PA
2015 Results
Norm Newton, on
Chuck Foster, ID
Sue Lanham, MD
Ron Secunda, MD
John Henry, on
O Bill Peeck, NY
Scott Buckwalter, MD
171  2000-2015
Ryan Romanik, MI
39
Ryan Romanik, MI
K. Wojtaszczyk, NY
Steve Boone, MD
Chad Martin, PA
Ben Scholl, PA
O Barrett Straub, MD
Steve Scott, CA
116  2002-2015
David Platnick, NY
Barb Flaxington, NJ
Christian, Moffa, NJ
John Weber, MD
Arthur Field, SC
Ben Scholl, PA
Sceadeau D’Tela, NC
Luke Koleszar, VA
Bill Murdock, VA
Malinda Kyrkos, NY
Century Events
240
178
84
70
64
62
60
52
50
50
Chuck Foster, ID
179  2010-2015
54  1991-2015
Top Laurelists
Top Laurelists
Kara Felix, PA
Kara Felix, PA
40
Gordon Rodgers, PA 40
Curt Collins II, PA
33
Alexandra Henning, PA 32
Andrew Emerick, CT 30
Stephanie Kilroy, PA 30
Chester Lanham, MD 30
Sara VanderWal, on
26
Peggy Ng, NJ
24
Rod Davidson, AZ
20
Norm Newton, on
Ron Secunda, MD
136
Brian Conlon, CT
124
Mark McCandless, LA122
Steve Okonski, MD 120
Donna Balkan, ns
119
Chuck Foster, ID
90
Mike Zorrer, DE
85
Norm Newton, on
80
Mark Kennel, DE
80
Doug Galullo, FL
80
Puerto Rico (PRO)
Ra (RA!)
Ra: The Dice Game (RDG)
Rail Baron (RBN)
Although attendance set a new low it still
managed its 14th straight year in triple digits. After all these years, an in-game event still caused
a rules research furry: a Quarry is not a “face-up
plantation”. You can select a Quarry and then use
your Hacienda.
Wins by seat were divided 17-7-19-14 with
the second seat again getting no love. More seat
position bidding is encouraged to balance seat
advantages.
In broader terms, the winning strategies - where
identifiable—were defined as Shipping: 11 (only
one in the elimination rounds, but it was the Final),
Building: 26 (five in the elimination rounds), and
Mixed: 22 (two in the elimination rounds). Games
ended (when reported) because Colonists ran out:
34, Buildings completed: 17, Victory Points exhausted: 3. Six games had both buildings and colonists
vacated by the end of the last round. In one of those,
the Victory Points were also exhausted.
The Final drew no past champions. The big surprise was Jessica Shea, back after several years attending to real life. Family established, she returned
with a vengeance! Ben Scholl Crafted his way to victory, selecting Craftsman four times. It’s not a strategy for the faint-of-heart. Captaining three times
was enough with other players choosing it three
more times to outship the rest of the table. Thomas
Lind had a solid building strategy
going, but could not end the game
fast enough to keep his lead and
had to settle for second place.
The Monday night heat filled 20 tables and
tied our record for a single heat. The next three
starts drew 19, 10 and 15 tables. Those 64 games
generated 49 winners including 11 double and
two triple winners. To advance you only needed
to win your first heat and play in another heat.
However, we only needed three alternates to
fill the semifinals, which was easily our best
advancement showing. Barrett Straub, seeded
33rd, advanced and finished sixth. Every year
people complain how hard it is to advance if
you don’t win your first game. Keep playing
and try to win two of the later heats. This event
has yet to be run without using alternates so its
far from impossible.
Ben Scholl cruised to a 26-point semi win over
newcomer Nicole Yuhase who made an early impression in her first WBC. Kevin Wojtaszczyk
won his semi by 15 over Patrick Shea and by 19
over three-time champion Alex Bove. Chad Martin was seven better than 2011 champion Richard
Meyer. Newcomer Ryan Romanik won by seven
over the new Pirate captain, Jason Fisher. In the
closest semi, Steve Boone was four better than
Barrett Straub which earned the latter 6th place.
Two-time champ Steve Scott finished 14 back.
Romanik was not intimidated by his first
Final and held off prominent competitor Kevin Wojtaszczyk in Round
3 to claim the RA title and the first
of two shields he’d carry home from
his first WBC.
The RDG event grew bigger for the fifth
straight year. Peggy Ng, Peter Tu, Joe Millovich,
and Alyssa Morgen each won three preliminary
games. Only David Bohnenberger (77) and Lex
Jackson (76) scored over 70 points. 40% of the
qualifiers failed to appear, leaving 40 to advance.
Alexandra Henning, Andrew Martin, Kara Felix,
and Sam Shambeda survived two elimination
rounds to reach the Final.
The pace of the Final was slower than the 12turn average for the event with each player receiving 15 turns, averaging five dice rolls per epoch. Kara was able to roll multiple bonus points,
along with capturing the most pharaohs and led
the first epoch with 21 points. Sam suffered from
the loss of his destroyed civilizations and lack of
pharaohs, trailing with only 11 points. Epoch 2
lasted only 13 rolls. Sam benefited from the quick
ending and maxed the boats, flooding the Nile,
and switching to a pharaohs strategy. Kara lost a
point but still led with 20 points.
Andrew was hit by every disaster and finished Epoch 3 with 32 points. Sam flooded all 12
boats again and then maxed the pharaohs, scoring 42 points. Alexandra scored pharaohs for
five, flooded the Nile for seven, and pressed the
monuments to an impressive 17 points for a total
of 52. Meanwhile, Kara went all out in civilizations for ten points and monuments for 16, ignoring pharaohs and boats altogether for
53 points to win by one point.
Rail Baron enjoyed a renaissance with its largest field in 11 years. Everyone felt the loss of Paul
Van Bloem, a long-time assistant GM, who passed
away in the spring. An honorary award was given
in his memory for the highest net worth over three
games, which was won by Eyal Mozes. Mark McCandless won the staying-alive award for the least
amount of money and property ($87,000) at the
end of a game. As assistant GM, he oversaw the
bank and records for the Final.
Due to consistent play during the year and
the opportunity to play online (thanks to Steve
Okonski), the skill level has increased higher
than ever. There were 22 individual winners,
with only three double winners: Brian Smith, Bill
Peeck, and Chuck Foster.
Chuck Foster rolled boxcars on his way to
Pocatello from Houston and was able to snare
the coveted PA in the Final. He added the ATSF,
NP, L&N, CB&Q, and the RF&P on auction from
Ron Secunda. Chuck was the first to announce at
$150, and it looked like he would cruise to victory, but with his difficult Houston home, he
never got close. Norm Newton was able to reach
home in the Northeast as Chuck was rovered
by Ron, forcing Chuck to head to his alternate
destination. Norm’s network included the NYC,
B&M, SP, IC, and the CRI&P. Chuck was second
with $378.5, followed by
Sue Lanham ($239), Ron
Secunda ($124), and John
Henry ($116.5).
40
Century Events
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
Ewan McNay, NY
Kara Felix, PA
Curt Collins II, PA
Keith Boone, MD
Alex Henning, PA
O Craig Trader, VA
Gary Dickson, AZ
Alan Zasada, IL
Bert Schoose, FL
Richard Beyma, VA
O Tom Gregorio, PA
O Geo. Karaholios, IL
Cary Morris, NC
Chris Senhouse, MA
Randy Buehler, WA
Rob Murray, NJ
O Anne Norton, NJ
O Rick Miller, PA
Jeff Mullet, OH
Derek Glenn, KY
Rob Kircher, RI
Mark Kennel, DE
O Deb Gutermuth, NC
O Lexi Shea, CT
Marc Houde, VA
Gary Dickson, AZ
94  1999-2015
23  1991-2015
Top Laurelists
Ewan McNay, NY
Century Events41
Brad Johnson, IL
318
Alex Henning, PA
99
Ewan McNay, NY
98
Bill Navolis, MD
67
Keith Boone, MD
65
Mark Geary, OH
50
Jason Levine, NY
50
Jeff Finkeldey, OH
40
Scott Buckwalter, MD 40
Bill Dyer, IL
40
Gary Dickson, AZ
94  2004-2015
Top Laurelists
Top Laurelists
Top Laurelists
Gary Dickson, AZ
491
Doug James, NC
390
Tom Gregorio, PA
366
Bert Schoose, IL
289
Alan Zasada, IL
111
Rob Beyma, MD
96
George Karahalios, IL 90
John Ohlin, FL
89
Ed O’Connor, NJ
87
Pat Flory, CT
85
Lexi Shea, CT
Amy Rule, MD
142  2005-2015
Cary Morris, NC
Randy Buehler, WA 134
Anne Norton, NJ
106
Arthur Field, SC
102
Tom DeMarco, NJ
87
Cary Morris, NC
74
Vien Bounma, NJ
71
Chris Robbins, UT
52
Robert Kircher, RI
40
Robert Cranshaw, RI 40
Lewis Lin, WA
40
Jeff Mullet, OH
Jeff Mullet, OH
Bruce Reiff, OH
Rob Kircher, RI
Tom Browne, PA
Raphael Lehrer, MD
Jason Levine, NY
Andy Latto, MA
Greg Thatcher, CA
Bill Salvatore, MD
Mark Kennel, DE
152
104
85
69
46
38
30
30
30
27
Robo Rally (RRY)
Russian Campaign (TRC)
Saint Petersburg (SPG)
San Juan (SJN)
Many were the robots destroyed by falling
building debris as we made good our escape
from Lancaster. Out of the wreckage emerged
six to vie for the grand prize. Four of whom
were among the most recent visitors to the Final table.
After the overly long Final of 2014, I decided to make things a little easier. We used
all boards from the new Hasbro edition of Roborally. This worked really well. Each flag had
more than one person going for it at the same
time and the game was fun for all participants.
We also finished in just over three hours. The
new champion, Ewan McNay, made one of the
best programmed moves I have seen in some
time to get the win.
Sadly, seven-time champion Brad Johnson
was unable to attend this year due to medical
issues. We did however send along our best
wishes along with a group photo from Heat
3. The good news is that all went well on the
medical front and we can expect to see Brad
doing the Robo-dance again in 2016. On a final
note, I will only be at Seven Springs for part of
the week next year as my parents are flying the
whole family out to Hawaii for their 50th anniversary, which happens to fall
on July 23rd. As of right now,
it is looking like I will not arrive until Thursday. I know…
tough luck, but somebody has
to do the hula.
The tournament employed a VC change:
the Germans needed to achieve –1 from the
green line as opposed to the –2 of past years.
Consequently, average bids dropped from 15.4 extra
Russian replacements to 11.6, and Russian winning
percentage dropped from 59.7% to 52.6%.
The field for the free form “grognard style”
tournament was the smallest since 2006. Ultimately, Gary Dickson, Alan Zasada, Richard Beyma,
and Bert Schoose were left standing as the playoffs
began. In the semifinals, Gary’s Germans (+11 bid)
beat Bert thanks to a sea invasion next to Rostov
on Turn 3 that was quickly reinforced when Bert’s
2-1 counterattack failed. Alan’s Russians (+10 bid)
bested Richard when the latter’s 8-7 sea invasion
failed, losing a headquarters unit thereafter. Richard was able to capture Stalino, Dnepropetrovsk,
and Leningrad, but desperate battles failed to take
Bryansk and Kharkov.
In the Final, Gary got the Germans for a bid of
+5. Alan’s opening defense was solid; several Russian units survived but were retreated to poor positions. Kiev fell on Turn 2, and a successful sea invasion compromised Sevastopol, which fell to a 4-1
stuka on Turn 3. Gary slogged forward in the light
mud weather. Stalino, Leningrad, and Kursk fell,
but Bryansk and Kharkov held firm, with the latter
surviving several 1-1 attacks. On Turn 5,
Alan needed to retake both Kursk and
Stalino to pull out the win. Those attacks failed and Gary claimed his 5th
WBC TRC shield.
The last year in Lancaster was a banner year
for SPG which set an attendance record in its
farewell performance. The game has a reputation as being about trying to get a broken start—
an early Mistress of Ceremonies or Observatory.
However, the frequency with which the same
players advance would seem to put the lie to
that theory.
Rob Murray was the beneficiary of an early
Observatory, which he used to pick up an extra green worker. He later used it to acquire not
one, but two Mistresses. However, he was stuck
with a hand of expensive cards in the mid-game,
and unable to deploy them in a timely manner.
Cary Morris focused on building a steady
supply of blue victory point buildings as quickly as he could, and then played to hasten the
end of the game—before anyone could build
an overwhelming number of nobles. He saw
that he could actually gain two cards during
the green phase and cause the last blue to get
dealt, triggering the end a turn early. It wasn’t
clear whether this would give Cary the win, but
what was clear is that giving everyone an extra
turn would help others more than Cary so he
went for it. Only two points separated first from
third but Cary’s 51 points topped them. Had it
gone another round, it’s not clear
whether Randy or Chris would have
won, but Cary played an innovative
strategy extremely well to win his
fifth WBC title.
After four rounds, 28 qualifiers had amassed
three wins to enter the elimination rounds. This
field included three of the top four 2014 laurelists
and two previous champs. Four random byes were
drawn to create 32-slot brackets.
Three rounds later, Derek Glenn gained a decisive semifinal victory over Mark Kennel (45-29).
Mark tried a production strategy with Guild Hall.
However, Derek had a purple building strategy,
with early Carpenter, Library, and Chapel builds
along with City Hall and Palace that secured the
win. Meanwhile, in the other bracket, the semifinal
between Rob Kircher and defending champ Jeff
Mullet ended 42-42. Rob featured a strong production strategy, building Smithy first then racking up
ten production buildings and Guild Hall. Jeff built
purple buildings, including Carpenter, Quarry, Library, and Prefecture in succession for a formidable
engine. Jeff last built a Hero, gaining him eight
points (five points +1 for City Hall, +2 for Triumphal Arch), tying the game. Jeff advanced due to an
extra 6-cost building on the third tiebreaker.
Jeff rolled out a production strategy with an early
Smithy build in the Final. Derek had a first round
Prefecture build, but had to build multiple expensive
buildings just to keep pace. Jeff amassed nine production buildings, Guild Hall and 37 points. Derek ended
with only eight buildings including a
last-minute City Hall to augment an
early Palace. His 25 points fell far
short of preventing Jeff’s title defense
and third SJN shield!
42
Century Events
43
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
James Pei, VA
Dennis Mishler, TX
Alex Kraska, MD
Tom Drueding, MA
O B. Hanechak, MA
O Daniel Hoffman, NC
Ryan Romanik, MI
Robert St.Pierre, PA
Carolyn Strock, PA
Haim Hochboim, il
Mark Kennel, DE
Steve Maurer, PA
Dan Dolan Jr, VT
Adam Hurd, on
Michael Shea, CT
Holiday Saccenti, MD
O G. Thompson, NY
O Daniel Long, NJ
M. Aubuchon, PA
Kevin Keller, MD
Randy Needham, NJ
O Tim Mossman, MD
O Chris Long, PA
O Seth Kirchner, OH
Matt Calkins, VA
Rich Shipley, MD
32  2012-2015
94  1999-2015
Top Laurelists
James Pei, VA
Century Events
James Pei, VA
Daniel Hoffman, NC
Tom Drueding, MA
Lyman Moquin, DC
Dennis Mishler, TX
James DuBose, NY
Ewan McNay, NY
Rob Winslow, NY
Alex Kraska, MD
David Metzger, NY
88
84
40
28
24
24
24
24
16
16
Sean McCulloch, OH
Top Laurelists
Top Laurelists
Ryan Romanik, MI
Rob Kircher, RI
126
Brian Reynolds, MD 125
Rick Dutton, MD
114
John Min, NJ
108
Charlie Faella, RI
96
Tom Dunning, NY
87
Jeremy Osteen, MD
84
Matt Tolman, UT
84
Natasha Metzger, NY 72
Andrew Arconti, MD 66
Chris Long, PA
193  1993-2015
Dan Dolan Jr, VT
Derek Landel, NJ
Kaarin Engelmann, VA
Ken Gutermuth, NC
Dan Dolan Jr, VT
Josh Githens, SC
Yoel Weiss, NJ
Doug Galullo, FL
Danny Lewis, DE
Kristen LaDue, NY
Nicole Reiff, OH
81
66
54
51
50
48
46
40
40
40
33  1991-2015
Top Laurelists
Michael Aubuchon, PA
Scott Cornett, FL
166
Doug Schulz, MD
164
Kevin Keller, MD
161
Terry Schulz, PA
156
Tim Mossman, MD
89
Gerald Lientz, VA
81
Jimmy Fleckenstein, VA 78
Lane Newbury, TX
66
Michael Aubuchon, PA64
John Welage, OH
64
Sekigahara (SKG)
Settlers of Catan (SET)
Slapshot (SLS)
Speed Circuit (SCT)
Statistics can be deceiving. Although the field
was the smallest yet in the four-year history of
the event, the number of games played was the
highest. In 2015 66 matches were played and 15
winners took home a prize.
The Final featured Dennis Mishler versus
defending champion James Pei. Dennis began
aggressively, bidding 2 for Tokugawa and racing towards the front with his Date and Maeda
armies. James built Ishida forces at Kyoto. The first
serious clash happened when James’ Kyoto force
smashed the Fukushima contingent for 35 impact,
with perfect alignment of blocks and cards, completely eliminating the army. This led to an early
rout in the western region of the board.
If anything, this setback made Tokugawa play
even more aggressively. Now he had a card advantage, on account of those lost blocks, and he
pressed the attack at Gifu and at Aizu castle with
a suited Date army. It would take a remarkable
move to bring Tokugawa back from the dead, but
in Week 4 Dennis delivered it. A double march (end
of Turn 3, start of Turn 4) brought an army of eight
down the Nakasendo into Kyoto vs eight Ishida.
Tokugawa’s impact was spectacular, and only one
defending block survived. However, the comeback,
as remarkable as it was, failed to stem the tide. Pei
finished with a 5-0 record, defeating
in the process all but two of the laurel winners. One wonders if Caesar
has begun another streak to rival his
mastery of For the People.
Settlers got off to a fast start as the first game
finished just a half hour past the opening bell.
I want to thank everyone for the quick pace as
I did not have to adjudicate any games due to
time and only a couple lagged. Putting the time
limit warning on the scoresheet this time may
have helped.
Robert St. Pierre came into the semifinals
winning all three of his preliminary games. Everyone with two wins advanced and one person with a win and two seconds completed the
16 qualifiers. Robert won 10-7-6-6 to advance
with a perfect 4-0 slate. Joining him were Haim
Hochboim (10-7-5-5), Ryan Romanik (10-8-6-5),
and Carolyn Strock in the closest semifinal at
10-8-7-6.
The Final was a board with plentiful ore,
wheat, and sheep resulting in every development card being bought. Haim placed first and
had a good selection for roads and settlements.
Robert placed second and concentrated on
sheep and ports. Carolyn took both of the good
ore hexes and Ryan used the double placement
to secure ore and wheat. Haim built settlements
and gained the longest road, ending with eight
points. Robert produced many sheep to trade,
and Carolyn had the largest army as each garnered nine points. However,
Ryan used city upgrades and two
victory point cards to win his second shield of the week in his very
first WBC.
Following the exodus of the saner part of the
crowd for their bedtimes after having said their final
good-byes to the ice of the all too realistic Distelfink
Ballroom, the playoffs started and Dan Dolan’s energetic team rolled over Holiday Saccenti’s good
but subdued team, 3-1. In the other bracket, Michael
Shea had the better team until he bruised Adam
Hurd’s forward, giving Adam an upgrade into the
Superstar! After that lucky turn of events, Adam
won the series 3-2. Michael Shea’s team was still
good enough to edge Holiday for third in the consolation series, and then the Final began.
Both teams had bruisers, but Adam had the
Superstar. The first two games went to Adam,
but Dan got the better of the “bruiser wars,” improving his team enough to win the second two
games, tying the series at 2-2. Adam won Game
5, and Dan staved off elimination to take Game 6.
The superstar plaque would be decided in a seventh game. But even that wasn’t enough. It was
tied after regulation.
Somehow, Dan convinced Adam to go along
with the “Dolan Rule” of randomly choosing
players for overtime in Game 7 of the championship. The first cards came out …tie again!
Both players still decided to choose their cards
randomly. Then, in the second overtime, Dan’s
luck prevailed. He drew the high
card and took home the title with a
Forward 7,5,4 Defense 4,2* Goalie 7
team over Adam’s Forward 7,6,1 Defense 7,3* Goalie 10 squad.
33 drivers participated over three days in
three heats to qualify for the Final on day 4.
Mike Aubuchon, Chris Long and Randy Needham led the qualifiers with a pair of top finishes each. When one of the qualifiers failed to
post on Sunday, the Final field was reduced to
11 cars.
The last track was Singapore, a tight and unforgiving track that invited risky play—leading
to the early dismissal of much of the already
reduced field. The first lap saw Don Tatum
and Dennis Nicholson exhausting their wear
to maintain the lead, but it was all for naught.
Seth Kirchner passed them and took the lead
early in the second lap. Meanwhile, back in the
rear, Mike Aubuchon spent only two wear in
the first lap and lost no position doing it.
By the start of the third lap, Seth increased
his lead but spent all of his wear doing so. The
chase pack began to gain, and then the chaos
started. The next three turns claimed more
than a third of the field. Tatum and Robert
Kircher lost engines trying to push, while Galullo crashed in the fourth corner taking Nicholson out along with him. Suddenly, Kevin
Keller and Aubuchon were less than a turn
behind Seth with a lot fewer obstacles to pass.
Mike spent the last of his wear to pull away,
a full turn and a half ahead
of the rest of the field, to win
his first Speed Circuit championship.
44
Century Events
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
Pete Pollard, TN
Bill Thomson, TX
Chuck Leonard, PA
O Eric Stranger, OH
O Bob Osipov, VA
O Allen Kaplan, NJ
Carolyn Strock, PA
Larry Lingle, PA
Evan Cagwin, PA
O Chris Kizer, NC
O John Schoose, FL
O David Gubbay, TX
Jim Bell, MD
Mike Buccheri, MD
Mark Mitchell, VA
O Doug Porterfield, VA
O John Koski, NC
O K. MacFarland, NJ
R. Davidson, AZ
Scott Saccenti, MD
Haakon Monsen, no
Andrew Emerick, CT
Christopher Bert, PA
Eric Freeman, PA
Buddy Sinigaglio, ID
Pete Pollard, TN
Carolyn Strock, PA
Larry Lingle, PA
136
Brian Sutton, MD
117
Karl Henning, CT
66
John Schoose, IL
60
Bill Morse, VA
54
Carolyn Strock, PA
51
David Gubbay, TX
42
Tom Strock, PA
42
Alex Bell, MD
39
Buddy Sinigaglio, ID 37
Peter Staab, PA
188  2009-2015
50 1999-01, 2005-15
Top Laurelists
Top Laurelists
Pete Pollard, TN
283
Bill Thomson, TX
265
Andrew Cummins, uk 182
Eric Stranger, OH
134
David Bronkhorst, VA 86
Scott Bramley, NJ
84
Phil Grasha, PA
81
Mike Pacheco, CA
78
Chuck Leonard, PA
52
Michael Day, AZ
33
Michael Garton, VA
42  2002-2015
22  1991-2015
Pete Pollard, TN
Century Events45
Top Laurelists
Jim Bell, MD
Phillip White, MD
117
Seth Gunar, NJ
102
Jim Bell, MD
69
Ralph Gleaton, SC
48
Mike Buccheri, MD
42
Steve Caler, OH
42
Luke Koleszar, VA
42
Brian Mongold, MD 36
Mark Mitchell, VA
33
Bill Beckman, SC
30
Top Laurelists
Rodney Davidson, AZ
Dominic Blais, qc
120
Cary Morris, NC
118
Eric Freeman, PA
97
Rod Bacigalupo, MD 90
Scott Saccenti, MD
72
Rodney Davidson, AZ 60
Dan Eppolito, PA
58
Andrew Emerick, CT 42
Scott Fenn, MD
42
Cliff Ackman, PA
42
Squad Leader (SQL)
Star Wars; Queen’s Gambit (QGB)
Stock Car Racing (SCC)
Stone Age (STA)
22 squad leaders managed to log 41
games while mourning the loss of threetime champion Andrew Cummins whose
British flair and dry wit had always enlivened our
proceedings.
The first semifinal matched a pair of former
champs. Bill Thompson’s Germans defended a hill
vs Eric Stranger’s Russians in “Tooth & Nail”. It appeared that the Russians would win when they took
the victory locations on the hilltop, but German assault engineer reinforcements barely held on to end
Eric’s title defense. In the other bracket, Pete Pollard
and Chuck Leonard opted for the “Mogilev” scenario. It came down to the last dice roll with Pete’s
sole surviving squad securing the win.
The Final paired the event’s longest rivals for
yet another of their memorable title matches. The
“King of the Hill” scenario sent Bill’s German attack
against a Russian defense that returned fire on the
assault group and sent the southern thrust packing.
In the North, Bill’s troops advanced and engaged a
defender in the lone stone farm house. A two-turn
melee ensued and caused the remaining attackers
to pause for its resolution. By then, Bill realized that
he needed to continue his advance and skirt past
the hill to prevent the Russian reinforcements from
reaching the hill. His lone tank outran its infantry
support and met a squad defending
his approach. The Russians immobilized the panzer with a snake eyes
roll to dash any remaining German
hopes.
Only 11 of 16 qualifiers or alternates
appeared for the playoffs. Six former
champions participated with five advancing to the elimination rounds led by three-time
champ Lawrence Lingle who emerged from the
heats with three wins to earn a bye in the first
round. The five survivors joined Lingle in a threematch Round 2 wherein Evan Cagwin unremarkably dispatched Dave Gubbay as Anakin breezed
through the Starfighter swarm to shut down the
droids, Carol Strock used great shooting by the
Battle Droids and Droideka to clear the Palace and
“John” Schoose bowed again to his nemesis.
GM Buddy Sinigaglio stepped in as an eliminator for the semis. The possible round elimination
was made mute, however, as Carolyn, playing
Darth Maul, killed both Jedi in the Generator Core.
In the other bracket, Lingle eviscerated Cagwin.
The resulting title game paired Lingle vs the sister of the defending champion. In a turnabout of
Lingle’s last game, Carolyn, playing Darth Maul,
killed both Jedi in the Generator Core and six Palace Guards. The final touches were provided by
her Battle Droids as they picked off the rest of the
Palace Guards and Captain Panaka on the upper
floors of the Palace. Lingle, for his part, drove Anakin adjacent to the Federation Control Ship before
stalling next to a stack of Starfighters.
Carol, who had previously
trained her “little” brother to the title,
now became the first woman to run
the Queen’s Gambit gauntlet.
Three heats generated six qualifying 150lap shootouts with no pit stops. The qualifying
races ranged from nine to 12 turns with an average length of 11 plays per player. That meant
there wasn’t much time for those in the back to
move to the front to qualify for the big race. As
always, the Final was a very different animal
with more adversaries and laps with which to
work.
The 250-lap Final took place on a Tri-Oval
track for 24 cars with pit stops. It turned into a
16-turn marathon going over the allotted time
but everyone stuck it out to the very end. The
top five starting positions belonged to Shannon
Keating, Tom Bivens, Mark Mitchell, Eric Ritter
and Josh Githens in that order. Only Mitchell
remained in the lead pack throughout, finishing third. Bivens crashed on Turn 3 while leading the race and taking Githens out with him.
There were ten lead changes with Mitchell
the dominant force—either leading or challenging for nine turns. Jim Bell started in 17th
position and worked his way up to second on
Turn 10 before falling back to sixth on the next
turn. Bell hung back in sixth for the next four
turns letting the lead pack wear themselves
out. On the last turn Bell was well positioned to make his move, leap-frogging from sixth to first, with a little
help from the field, to take the checkered flag and his first SCC shield.
The preliminaries encompassed 71 4-player
games spread over three heats. There were seven
multiple winners led by Eugene Yee with three
while Cliff Ackman, Eric Engelmann, Paul Klayder,
Blair Morgen, Antony Saccenti and Kyle Smith each
won twice. Three draws were decided by tiebreakers while Haakon Monsen enjoyed the largest margin of victory with a 76-point spread. The top score
was achieved by Charles Faella with 223 points.
49 of the 63 qualifying winners appeared for
the quarterfinals which resulted in 13 games.
The top three runners-up by percentage in these
games also advanced to the semifinals. Rod Davidson, Andrew Emerick, Scott Saccenti and
Monsen advanced to the Final.
The Final ended quickly after just eight turns
with 12 cards stranded in the deck. Scott scored
94 on six buildings (72), card bonuses (19) and resources (3). Andrew had 80 points on four buildings (52), civilization bonus (10) and other card bonuses (18). Of the 16 civilization bonus cards in the
deck, only six were drawn keeping those points
very low. Haakon had 84 points on four buildings
(62), civilization bonus (4), other card bonuses (16)
and resources (2). Finally, Rod scored 40 points
while building three buildings but he had six tool
makers and seven tools, five hut builders to go
with his three buildings and three
farmers with two farms to give him
63 end game points and six additional resources for a total of 109 points
and his second WBC shield.
46
Century Events
47
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
Bill Beckman, SC
Terry Coleman, CA
Winton LeMoine, NV
O Bill Ashbaugh, NY
O Harry Flawd, PA
O John Vogel, OH
Joel Lytle, NY
Sceadeau D’Tela, NC
Kyle Smith, PA
Aran Warszawski, il
Alan Sudy, VA
Andrew Emerick, CT
Antero Kuusi, fi
Yoel Weiss, NJ
Jay Fox, NJ
Romain Jacques, qc
O Rich Meyer, MA
O Forrest Speck, MD
Max DuBoff, NJ
Alan Elkner, NJ
Eric Raymond, PA
Steven Alfieri, PA
Ben Carter, FL
Antony Saccenti, MD
Randy Buehler, WA
Bill Beckman, SC
66  2008-2015
38  1991-94, 96-15
Top Laurelists
Bill Beckman, SC
Century Events
Harry Flawd, PA
Rich Moyer, MN
Bill Beckman, SC
Terry Coleman, CA
Chris Palermo, NY
Jacob Hebner, CO
Mark Giddings, NY
Randy Cox, SC
Ken Samuel, VA
James Terry, NJ
Top Laurelists
174
174
152
120
47
46
40
28
28
27
Joel Lytle, NY
Randy Buehler, WA 182
Joel Lytle, NY
174
Jason Ley, WA
168
Sceadeau D’Tela, NC 78
Nick Henning, DC
60
Zvi Mowshowitz, NY 60
Aran Warszawski, il 58
Andrew Emerick, CT 54
Raphael Lehrer, CA
52
Alan Sudy, VA
32
Andy Latto, MA
Claire Brosius, MA
161  2006-2015
302  2004-2015
Top Laurelists
Antero Kuusi, fi
Andy Latto, MA
128
Anne Norton, NJ
75
Rob Kircher, RI
72
Kyle Smith, PA
66
Randy Buehler, WA
61
Aran Warszawski, il 54
Antero Kuusi, fi
50
Robert Murray, NJ
48
David Meyaard, NY 48
Amy Rule, MD
48
Top Laurelists
Max DuBoff, NJ
Alan Elkner, NJ
102
Jay Fox, NJ
84
Virginia Colin, VA
70
Eric Monte, NY
70
Steve Shambeda, PA 69
Henry Allen, FL
68
Max DuBoff, NJ
60
Hilary Haagen, VA
60
Anni Foasberg, NJ
60
Kyle Greenwood, HI 60
Superstar Baseball (SSB)
Through the Ages (AGE)
Thurn & Taxis (T&T)
Ticket to Ride (TTR)
The tournament saw 38 managers select teams and play a total of 90
games en route to the World Series.
Once again the playoff teams consisted of the
three heat winners and runners-up, plus two
wildcards. Because of a tie in the second heat,
only one wildcard team was selected. Heat
winners were Bill Beckman (95 Indians), Harry
Flawd (46 Red Sox), John Vogel (98 Padres)
and Bill Ashbaugh (66 Dodgers). The rest of the
playoff field included wild card James Terry
(98 Yankees), Mike Lam (71 Orioles), Winton
Lemoine (01 Diamondbacks), and defending
champ Terry Coleman (55 Yankees).
In Game 1 of the Series, the Yanks took a
4-0 lead on a solo homer by Hank Bauer, and
a 3-run shot by Joe Collins but the Tribe rallied for five and Indian pitching shut the Yanks
down, retiring the last 13 in a row as Cleveland
won 5-4. In Game 2, The Indians struck first to
take a 4-0 lead. The lead was short lived however as Collins and Bauer hit two-run homers
to tie the game 4-4. Lofton homered In the top
of the 9th to win the Series 5-4.
The Yanks were paced by Hank Bauer and
Joe Collins with two homers apiece. Cleveland
was led at the plate by Kenny Lofton’s six hits,
including two doubles and three
homeruns. He scored four times.
Eddie Murray was on base six
times, with three hits and drove in
three.
The one newcomer to the Final—
Kyle Smith—ran out to an early culture
lead thanks to Michaelangelo and Hanging Gardens. Just as Kyle was about to complete
St. Peter’s Basilica (by spending a food via Trade
Routes Agreement), however, the Rats showed
up and ate fully 10 food from Kyle’s board. The
other players lost 4, 5, and 2 food as well to some
very hungry rats. While Kyle lost the most food
(and tempo), it was actually Aran who suffered
the most as the event contributed to him never
quite being able to build a decent infrastructure.
The game quickly turned into a military
arms race, as high-level AGE games often do.
Sceadeau held the lead early (and got to 50
strength early in Age 3), but Joel kept pace. Kyle
was able to draw both Classic Army and Napoleon, which he used to defend his culture lead
until Ghandi appeared, and once that happened
no one had the military actions required to target him with a War.
In the end it was Joel who got to the maximum possible 60 strength, and then also completed a 27-point First Space Flight. Before Impacts Joel led Sceadeau and Kyle 89 - 77 - 62,
with Aran lagging behind at 37. Once the counting was done, Sceadeau only cut three points
off Joel’s pre-Impacts lead and we
had our third two-time champion:
Joel Lytle - 153, Sceadeau
d’Tela - 144, Kyle Smith - 113, and
Aran Warszawski - 96.
The T&T event grew in size for the sixth
straight year. The seven previous champions
emerged from the record field again to qualify
for the elimination rounds. 2011 champ Kyle
Smith won in all three heats to earn a bye to the
semifinals. Of the remaining 53 qualifiers, 45 appeared for the quarterfinals giving us a perfect
field of 15 3-player games. Next year we will use
byes rather than 3-player games to increase the
incentive to keep playing in future heats. Had
we done so this year, there would have been six
players with byes to the semifinals.
Bidding for seats in the quarterfinals was
very light with only three bids of a full point.
In no case did the bid affect an outcome. Bids
in the later rounds were also low, with three
players bidding .5 for first, and one bid of .5 for
each of third and fourth places. But winner Antero bid .5 for first in both his games so maybe
position makes a difference after all!
A tight Final revealed players very reluctant
to use the administrator. The board was cleared
of cards only twice. The first of these, on Turn
5, got Antero the often-sought-after Lodz card,
which proved useful, since by Turn 11, only the
Finn had a house in Lodz. This enabled him to
appropriately enough get the first world-traveler chit for six points, defeating Yoel by (after
adjusting for Antero’s .5 bid to play first) a .5
point margin, the narrowest
margin of victory in a title
game to date.
The naysayers said that topping 300 players
was just an anomaly caused by being part of the
Days of Wonder 2014 TTR World Championships.
Attendance would surely erode thereafter. I guess
they were right. The erosion has begun … the 2015
field dropped … by one. Ticket to Ride again exceeded 300 participants. A record-setting field of
208 in the first heat topped all previous starts. Is
400 out of reach? We’ll add a fourth heat in 2016
and see. The Jay’s Basement gaming group again
had a strong contingent in the playoffs with Brett
Fox earning the top seed with three wins. The
other triple qualifiers were Erin Griffin and Todd
Trahan. All three got byes into the semifinals to
limit the quarterfinals to 4-player games.
The Final was a quick 30-minute contest
with defending champ Alan Elkner defending
his title. There was a massive traffic jam in the
Northeast as the players fought to get into NY
and Boston (simulating real life!). Many flushes
of the cards put lots of wilds in the discard pile
for later use. So few tickets were taken that all
four players got the Globetrotter bonus for finishing three tickets. Max Duboff pulled out the
win with the largest route score and Longest
Train.
Special congratulations to young Antony Saccenti who won his first plaque in an adult tournament—a much coveted 6th place
sand plaque—making him a
new qualifier for the first Sandman Parade at Seven Springs!
48
Century Events
49
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
Arthur Wines, PA
Michael Pustilnik, NY
Jon Bluett, FL
Dan Strock, PA
Robert Masso, NY
O Rich Atwater, WA
Brian Sutton, MD
Aaron Fuegi, MA
Bruno Wolff, WI
O Michael Pustilnik, NY
O Akihisa Tabei, jp
O Arthur Wines, PA
Matt Calkins, VA
Steven Sabatino, PA
Kevin Burns, MA
O Donte Saccenti, MD
O Nick Kiswanto, NY
O Isaac Clizbe, VA
David Amidon, PA
Riku Riekkinen, fi
George Young, VT
Anthony Russo, MD
O Randy Pippus, on
O Chris. Crane, NY
Bruno Wolff, WI
Rich Atwater, WA
Greg Crowe, MD
George Young, VT
44  1991-2015
26  1994-2015
73  1997-2015
68  2006-2015
Top Laurelists
Top Laurelists
Arthur Wines, PA
Century Events
Dave Finberg, MA
289
Aaron Fuegi, MA
273
David des Jardines, CA 185
Dan Strock, PA
175
Rich Atwater, WA
174
Jason Ley, WA
151
Arthur Wines, NJ
144
Kevin Hillock, VA
130
Brian Sutton, MD
117
Michael Pustilnik, NY 113
Brian Sutton, MD
Aaron Fuegi, MA
283
David des Jardins, CA 179
Brian Sutton, MD
123
Dan Strock, PA
109
Jason Ley, WA
68
David Finberg, MA
57
Sean McCulloch, OH 57
Bruno Wolff, WI
50
Andrew Gross, WA
49
Michael Pustilnik, NY 42
Top Laurelists
Matt Calkins, VA
Matt Calkins, VA
Rebecca Hebner, CO
Alan Witte, NJ
Ewan McNay, NY
Harry Flawd, PA
Brendan Coomes, OH
Devon Miller, VA
Jordan Shea, CT
Joseph Sposito, NJ
Greg Crowe, MD
80
57
50
48
45
44
42
42
40
39
Top Laurelists
David Amidon, PA
Stefan Mecay, TX
428
Chris Withers, CA
161
Keith Wixson, NJ
143
Riku Riekkinen, fi
140
Chris Byrd, CT
122
Marvin Birnbaum, NY 108
Rick Young, NC
100
Randy Pippus, on
82
David Amidon, PA
68
Bill Edwards, VA
60
Titan (TTN)
Titan 2-Player (TT2)
Titan: The Arena (TTA)
Twilight Struggle (TWS)
The event rebounded with its best numbers
since 2007. Consequently, there was more pressure to earn or keep semifinal slots as the heats
drew to a close. 17 Thursday games ensued as
opposed to only eight in 2014.
The semifinals advanced Jon Bluett over
Isaac Fuegi, Kevin Hillock and Brady Achterberg in Game 1. Dan Strock won Game 2 over
defending champ Akihisa Tabei, Jason Ley and
David des Jardins. Art Wines emerged from
Game 3 over Rich Atwater, Dave Finberg and
Ed Rothenheber. Michael Pustilnik took the
last Final seat from Aaron Fuegi, Julie Ehlers
and Bob Masso.
Dan was first to fall in the Final courtesy of
Jon, but this allowed Art to start chasing down
smaller stacks. Several turns later Art rolled a 6
which let him tower teleport and control most of
the board. He was then able to get points, giving
him titan teleport and an archangel. A few turns
after that he was able to catch Jon’s titan stack
on the bottom. Jon saw the battle as hopeless, so
he left his titan out to minimize the number of
points Art received for eliminating him. Art was
able to catch Michael’s titan in the brush while
it still had only one hydra. He got hot with a
gargoyle and a cyclops to kill a griffon with only
one swing each. This allowed the
archangel to be summoned and the
archangel killed Michael’s titan in
two swings, giving Art his second
Titan shield.
In one semifinal, Michael Pustilnik decided
his best result would be if he attacked with his
6 titan, three trolls and a ranger with a summon
against Aaron Fuegi’s Angel, behemoth and
three cyclops. The attack did not go well. In the
other bracket, Bruno Wolff observed five opposing stacks recruiting hydras, so he took the
opportunity to attack Brian Sutton’s titan with
his two-behemoth, two-gorgon titan stack. Brian
had two hydras and a couple other creatures on
the defense, and both titans were 7 high. As expected, the hydras made the difference.
The Final was short but had plenty of drama.
There were only three battles and all were critical. The last took place in the hills defended by
three rangers and two minotaurs. Aaron’s 7 titan also had three ogres, two trolls and a cyclops
with an angel to summon. When only Aaron’s
unwounded titan was left, he advanced on a
hilltop ranger needing two hits and got them,
but the ranger was replaced by a ranger with
one hit, and Aaron failed to roll three dice of
5 or higher in riposte. The rangers had 12 dice,
and were able to get seven combined hits of 4 or
better, creating a mutual.
Brian returned to the 2-player championship
after a long hiatus. More than 15 years previously Brian had won three 2-player
titles in a five-year span. Aaron
continued his impressive streak of
eight consecutive trips to the semifinals with five resulting titles.
18 of 20 qualifiers advanced, so two
alternates were added to make four
5-player games. When one semi winner
declined further advancement, the next strongest
runner-up (two-time champ Matt Calkins) also
advanced and the patron saint of second chances
duly took notice.
The unloved Cyclops (except for Nick’s secret
bet) perished in the Final’s opening round almost
without a word. Thereafter, the silent alliances
formed: Kevin bet on Matt’s Troll and the Unicorn vice versa. Steven bet on Matt’s Hydra and
Donte’s Ranger. Though Nick supported Donte’s
Titan, the others managed to eliminate it. In the
third round, Nick decided to kill the Ranger,
who Kevin had adorned with a 2-point bet. In the
fourth round Matt played Head Referee on Dragon, revealing Kevin’s secret bet. This allowed
Matt to kill it, leaving his two first-round bets,
second-round and secret bet (Unicorn) still alive.
Negotiations now became more animated.
Matt’s visible 13 points were a major concern,
but all favored different creatures. When Kevin
played a low Hydra card, Steven even tried to bargain with Matt. When Matt rebuffed, Steven had
no choice but to reveal his secret bet on the Hydra,
play a card to save it, and attack the Unicorn. Matt
then simply played the Centaur (1) on the Warlock, killing it (and Donte’s secret
bet). Thus Matt won a 10-point victory with a near-perfect score of 18
to become the event’s only hat trick.
Even with balancing rules in effect, the game
play, as usual, favored the Russians who enjoyed
a 49 to 37 split. This was an improvement over previous margins. However, among the eight players
who tallied four or more wins, the US/USSR win
totals were virtually even.
After four rounds, four unbeaten players remained: David Amidon, Riku Riekkinen, Tony
Russo, and George Young. Riku’s Russians
downed 2014 runner-up, Tony in the first semifinal
by gaining a favorable position with multiple plays
of Red Scare and Decolonization, and won on the
last turn by playing Wargames. In the other bracket, David’s Russians also gained an early positional
advantage. All of George’s attempts to gain on the
VP shortfall were thwarted, with the Russians ending it again with Wargames on Turn 8.
Both players used unconventional tactics and
strategies in the Final, starting with Riku’s American setup. They spent much of Turn 2 fighting
over MidWar regions, all while the USSR had little
presence in the Mideast. The Space track never got
beyond Animal in Space, despite frequent Space
attempts from both sides. No wars were successful. The USSR hardly ever used the action round
one battleground coup opportunity and prevailed
despite not having Decol or DeStal ever happen. By Turn 9, the Russians even
captured Japan, allowing for USSR
domination. This eventually allowed
David to win through the play of
Wargames on Turn 9.
50
Century Events
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
Andrew Emerick, CT
Henry Dove, MD
Keith Dent, KY
O Blair Morgen, PA
O Loc Nguyen, PA
O Cary Morris, NC
Ed Kendrick, uk
Richard Irving, CA
Jeremy Billones, VA
O Bruce Young, SC
O Andrew Maly, TX
O Ken Whitesell, PA
Steve LeWinter, NC
Redie Smith, NC
Ben Scholl, PA
O Richard Boyes, WA
O Robert Kircher, RI
O Greg Thatcher, CA
Ed Paule, NJ
Ted Drozd, IL
Charles Drozd, IL
Tim Tow, WA
Andy Gardner, VA
Dan Blumentritt, TX
Chris Yaure, PA
Jim Burnett, TN
Eric Freeman, PA
Charles Drozd, IL
85  2014-2015
29  1991-2015
99  2008-2015
25  1991-2015
Top Laurelists
Andrew Emerick, CT
Century Events51
Keith Dent, KY
Andrew Emerick, CT
Henry Dove, MD
Randy Buehler, WA
Jefferson Meyer, MA
Sceadeau D’Tela, NC
Jon Senn, PA
Loc Nguyen, PA
Blair Morgen, PA
Daniel Farrow IV, PA
52
46
36
30
24
24
16
15
9
6
Top Laurelists
Ed Kendrick, uk
John Emery, SC
Bruce Young, SC
Ed Kendrick, uk
Ray Stakenas II, MI
Bruce Wigdor, NJ
Richard Irving, CA
Ray Stakenas Sr, MI
Jeff Spaner, MD
Paul Wright, PA
Ralph Gleaton, SC
Top Laurelists
227
186
130
118
112
84
74
52
52
48
Steve LeWinter, NC
Steve LeWinter, NC
Redie Smith, NC
Randy Buehler, WA
Doug Faust, NY
Eric Freeman, PA
Mike Kaltman, PA
Nick Page, on
Andrew Gerb, MD
Sceadeau D’Tela, NC
Cary Morris, NC
82
54
54
49
48
39
36
33
26
24
Top Laurelists
Ed Paule, NJ
Andy Gardner, VA
Dan Henry, IL
Ed Paule, NJ
Michael Kaye, MD
Ed Menzel, CA
Charles Drozd, IL
John Pack, CO
Darren Kilfara, uk
John Sharp, FL
Eric Freeman, CA
498
272
264
252
250
248
150
146
126
118
Tzolkin (TZK)
Up Front (UPF)
Vegas Showdown (VSD)
Victory in the Pacific (VIP)
Tzolk’in switched to three heats with a corresponding 39% attendance increase. Five players won twice: Cary Morris, Henry Dove, Geoff
Pounder, Dominic Blais, and Jay Boring. 23 others won a single heat. High score belonged to
Keith Dent with 146; Rob Flowers had the largest
margin of victory, 61. The average winning score
was 98.3. 16 of the top 20 seeds appeared for the
semifinal, thus requiring two wins or a win in the
first heat entered to advance.
The semifinals produced Henry Dove, Andrew Emerick, Keith Dent and Blair Morgen who
were seated in that order. At the end of the second
quarter Andrew advanced twice on the religion
tech track, turned in the skull he received from the
starting tiles, and took the bonus in all three temple
tracks. Andrew led Blair 32-12 early with the others
well behind. In the second half, Keith collected several monuments, Andrew sent two workers deep
into Chichen Itza and Blair focused on the temple
tracks, taking the top spots in red and green.
Throughout, Andrew and Henry had been
swapping start player. Keith took it on the
fourth to last round, then Henry took it back
on the third to last round and double-spun the
gears, hurting Keith and Blair who had used
nearly all of their workers. Henry then grabbed
a temple monument worth 16
points to him but that would have
been worth 28 to Andrew. Nonetheless, Andrew won easily by 17
points: 96-79-73-73.
After the casualties from five swiss rounds
had been removed, the only man still standing
with a perfect 5-0 slate was 2012 champ Richard
Irving who repeated his 2014 feat of navigating
the Swiss rounds unscathed. Joining Richard
in the playoffs with one loss were regulars Ken
Whitesell, Ed Kendrick, Andy Maly, Bruce and
George Young. The 8-man field was completed
by the two strongest of five 3-2 players, Jeremy
Billones and Ray Stakenas.
The quarterfinals yielded wins to Irving’s
American defenders vs Stakenas’ Japanese, Billones’
German defenders vs Maly’s Americans; and Kendrick’s Americans over Whitesell’s Germans in three
Scenario L games. In the battle of the Youngs, Bruce’s
Russians bested George’s Germans in Scenario “E”.
Irving returned to Outpost Line (L) in the semifinals as his Russian defenders bested Young’s
Germans in the best match of the event. Victory
depended on the last attack exhausting the deck before Bruce could land a riposte. In the other bracket,
Ed’s Germans broke Jeremy’s British in Scenario
“A”. That set the stage for a classic Final between
former champions. The players chose Scenario “E”.
Ed’s Germans attacked well to break Richard’s Russians early in the second deck and carry back his
third UPF shield across the pond as Richard showed
why he is considered one of the best by
falling just short in his only loss of the
tournament. Seven straight wins, impressive though it may be, is one short
when running the WBC UPF gauntlet.
The event drew its biggest field yet, barely
missing triple digits. The increased number of
preliminary games yielded five multiple winners
(Dominic Blais, Eugene Yee, Kevin Burns, Rob
Kircher, and Steve LeWinter).
2014 runner-up, Andrew Drummond, again
injected humor by wearing a leisure suit. It seemed
to work for him when he punched his ticket to the
semifinals again. Alas, that is where his sartorial
splendor ended, as his lounge act was short circuited by Rob Kircher. Redie Smith returned to the
Final for the first time since his 2012 title run with a
relatively comfortable 7-point win over John Corrado. Steve LeWinter made his third straight Final
in emphatic fashion by winning his semifinal by
the largest margin of any game in the entire tournament with a crushing 25-point win over Nick
Page. Newcomer Richard Boyes ended Mike Kaltman’s first title defense in the fourth semi. The last
semifinal yielded the closest game top to bottom (3
pts) as Ben Scholl used 40 points and a $9 money
tiebreaker to edge Greg Thatcher’s $1. The close
loss made Greg a bridesmaid once again as he repeated his 2014 sixth place finish. Eugene Yee (38
and $8), Jim Fry (38 and $1), and Randy Buehler
(37) rounded out the extremely tight finish.
Steve continued his dominance in the Final
with his fourth straight win. He
did so with no Restaurant tiles,
producing just the second recorded winning board to accomplish
this feat.
Despite the smallest field ever, 50
games were played. The IJN won 56%;
one of the most balanced win/loss records in recent history. Those games played
with the new “Menzel Option” were even
closer with a 53% Japanese edge. The change
further modifies the second edition rules by
limiting the Pearl Harbor raid to six carriers
and two air strikes.
After five swiss rounds, Ed Paule, Ted and
Charlie Drozd each had four wins. Tim Tow,
Andy Gardner, Daniel Blumentritt, Jim Eliason,
and Mark Smith completed the playoff field
with 3-2 records. The quarterfinals yielded no
upsets as the top two seeds recorded USN wins
over #8 Smith and #7 Eliason in four turns. #3
Paule’s IJN defeated #6 Blumentritt in seven
turns, while #4 Tow’s USN prevailed over #5
Gardner in a game that went the distance.
In the semi’s Ed bid 8.5 POC for the IJN vs.
Charlie and managed to stop every USN invasion. The game came down to an IJN LBA shot
vs. a USN Marine on Turn 7, securing the game
for Paule. In the other bracket Tow bid 3.5 POC
for the IJN vs. Ted but was forced to concede
after Turn 5.
Ted accepted Ed’s bid of 8.5 POC to play
the IJN in the Final but the 2014
runner-up would not be denied
this year and finished 7-1 with
the IJN to claim his second VIP
shield.
52
Century Events
53
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
2015 Results
Kirk Harris, NJ
Roger Whitney, FL
Matthew Beach, MD
David Kiefte, ns
Manuel Bravo, NJ
O Justin Rice, VA
Bob Hamel, CT
D. Nicholson, NY
Vince Meconi, DE
Bruce Monnin, OH
O Ben Gardner, VA
O Charles Drozd, IL
K. Wojtaszczyk, NY
Chris Trimmer, TX
Kevin Lewis, DC
O Mike Sosa, DE
O Chris Kizer, NC
O Sean Bryan, TN
Greg Hultgren, CA
Derek Landel, NJ
Derek Pulhamus, NY
O Marty Sample, NH
O Terry Coleman, CA
O Philip Yaure, PA
Ed Beach, MD
Top Laurelists
Kirk Harris, NJ
David Kiefte, ns
M. Pare-Paquin, qc
Roger Whitney, FL
Jim Stanard, NJ
Max DuBoff, NJ
Matthew Beach, MD
Chris Trimmer, TX
Ed Rothenheber, MD
Manuel Bravo, NJ
K. Wojtaszczyk, NY
Vince Meconi, DE
34  2013-2015
Kirk Harris, NJ
Century Events
80
65
55
30
30
30
20
20
20
10
Top Laurelists
Top Laurelists
Bob Hamel, CT
Jon. Lockwood, VA 207
Andy Gardner, VA 195
Dennis Nicholson, NY 177
Bruce Monnin, OH 176
Pat Richardson, FL 158
Vince Meconi, DE
156
Ed Menzel, CA
152
Ray Freeman, CA
133
Robert Drozd, IL
118
Darren Kilfara, uk
99
Bruce Monnin, OH
22  2006-2015
49  1991-2015
Kevin Wojtaszczyk, NY
K. Wojtaszczyk, NY
Chris Trimmer, TX
Chris Yaure, PA
Ty Hansen, DC
Andy Latto, MA
Phil Rennert, MD
Michael Sosa, FL
Jacob Hebner, CO
Jason Levine, NY
George Young, VT
195
133
72
60
40
30
26
24
24
24
22  2009-2015
Top Laurelists
Greg Hultgren, CA
Greg Hultgren, CA
Derek Landel, NJ
Terry Coleman, CA
Rob Winslow, NY
David Long, NC
Matthew Beach, MD
Philip Yaure, PA
Keith Hunsinger, OH
Lembit Tohver, on
Stan Myszak, qc
93
66
54
49
42
33
24
18
18
16
Virgin Queen (VGQ)
War at Sea (WAS)
War of the Ring (WOR)
Warriors of God (WOG)
The nine wins in the preliminaries
went to the Holy Roman (3), Protestant
(2), England (2), France (1), and Ottoman
(1) players.
In the first semifinal, Manuel Bravo pushed
England to 25 VP in just three turns. Kirk Harris, who had just missed a Spanish Gunpowder
Plot win in the 2014 Final, redeemed this strategy
in the second semifinal. The last semifinal was
won by Roger Whitney, who was able to steer the
Protestants to a win on VP.
The Final power selection was as follows: Bravo (HRE), Whitney (England), Harris (Protestant),
David Kiefte (Ottoman), Matthew Beach (France),
and Justin Rice (Spain). The French jumped out to
the lead after two turns (22 VP) using a series of
diplomatic deals to seal all five Valois marriages.
England was the next threat to win, falling only
one VP short on the third turn (after losing a VP
in a disastrous marriage). Suddenly, on the last
turn the Catholic religious defenses broke down.
France was trying to hold on with a low-card
Gouvernante de France strategy and Spain was
busy after two turns spent invading the HRE (due
to a diplomatic feud) and pursuing a Gunpowder
Plot in England. With nothing to hold down the
Protestant space count, Kirk raced to a Protestant
religious victory. After three previous
runner-up finishes in the HIS and VGQ
tournaments, Kirk Harris proved that
it is actually the fourth time that’s the
charm and took home his first shield.
A rising tide brought a reinforced field that
logged 86 games with the Allies winning half
against 37 losses and six ties. The favorite opening Allied move remained Barents on Turn 1.
The Best Axis Player was Bob Hamel (4-2-1) and
Vince Meconi earned Best Allied Player honors
(5-0). Greg Smith was our Sportsmanship nominee and Chet Makuch Rookie of the Year.
All seven playoff games featured 2.0 Allied
bids. In the quarterfinals, the top seeded Vince
Meconi (5-0) quickly dispatched #8 Ray Freeman’s Axis on the opening turn by sinking six
Axis ships while winning the opening battle for
the South Atlantic. #7 Bob Hamel’s Axis evened
the score for the Axis by maxing out vs. #2 Ben
Gardner. #4 Bruce Monnin’s Allies cruised to
a 7-POC victory over #5 Charlie Drozd who
lost his entire U-Boat fleet on Turn 1. #3 Dennis Nicholson’s Allies defeated #6 Rob Drozd.
Both of the ensuing semifinal margins were
four POC, but with opposite results: Hamel’s
Axis stopped Monnin, while Nicholson’s Allies
ended Meconi’s perfect day.
Hamel then defeated Nicholson in the closest Final the tournament has seen in 25 years.
Despite battles in the Barents on three of the first
four turns, the POC marker hovered near zero
all game. Bob’s Axis disabled Dennis’ convoy with the last die roll of
the game, preserving a tie. By rule,
a playoff tie is an Axis victory, giving Bob his first WAS shield.
The last quest for Middle Earth at the Lancaster Host moved to the second weekend of the
convention and benefited with 22 participants
and increased availability of eliminators in the
single elimination rounds. 23 games were played
with 15 Shadow wins (12 military, three corruption) and eight Free People wins (three military,
five ring dunks). Five of the Shadow military
victories occurred in the closing rounds. Three
dwarven rings was the most bid with many
games having zero bid.
The Final pit the usual suspects, past champs
Chris Trimmer as the FP with three Dwarven Rings
vs Kevin Wojtaszczyk’s SP. Some key card plays
pushed the action with Rage of Dunlendings mustering units to assault the Grey Havens and Horde
from the East to support DEW assaults. A Power
too Great had to be discarded with the red eye special tile card and a Day Without Dawn card so the
elven fortress could be captured. An epic Help Unlooked For battle of reinforced Dale units assaulting
the sieging Woodland forces came down to single
combat with one orc left standing. The Ents killed
Saruman but not before all of Rohan fell while the
Corsairs could not onslaught vs Aragorn in Dol
Amroth. Frodo reached Mordor as a pieced together force finally took Erebor and a final FP die attack
into Edoras ended in mutual destruction rather than costing Kevin
his tenth VP—thus giving Kevin’s
Shadow the military victory—and
he his fourth WOR shield.
Ten contested the Mulligan round with
Greg Hultgren, David Long, Terry Coleman, Peter Stein and Derek Landel earning Round 1 byes. Terry scored the sole English win
of the round. 16 battled in Round 1 including four
mulligan returnees. Michael Ussery, David Long,
Phillip Yaure, Marty Sample and Martin Villemaire
earned English wins while Paul Martz, Derek Pulhamus and Robert Woodson won with France.
Pulhamus and Sample won easy English victories in the quarterfinals, while Hultgren and Landel
won with the French. Landel required a tiebreaker
to edge Yaure. Landel had an easier time of it in the
semifinals as his English forced a Pulhamus concession in four turns.
Derek bid 3 to play the English in the Final vs
the defending champ. Greg’s French grabbed Normandy on Turn 1 to slow the traditional English
march on Paris. This succeeded in delaying the
siege of Paris until Turn 3. Derek used the initiative to launch two attacks much to his liking but the
French prevailed in both battles (an 11% possibility). This gave the French a modest leader advantage as they built their core and racked up over 20
VP. With a French auto victory appearing imminent, fate intervened. In the last five turns, French
leaders began dropping like flies. The English began to disassemble the French core,
which by the last turn was half its
prior size, though their VP lead remained intact till game end allowing
Greg to retain his title.
54
Century Events
2015 Results
2015 Results
Keith Wixson, NJ
M. Birnbaum, NY
James Pei, VA
O Dan Leader, MA
O John Faella, RI
O Andy Doughan, PA
Ray Clark, CT
Greg Smith, FL
Tim Miller, GA
Ed Menzel, CA
O Rob Beyma, VA
O Bert Schoose, FL
Keith Wixson, NJ
Keith Wixson
Top Laurelists
Ray Clark, CT
Richard Beyma, VA
Rob Beyma, MD
Marty Musella, NC
John Clarke, FL
Joe Beard, AZ
Ray Clark, CT
Bruno Sinigaglio, AK
Joe Angiolillo, FL
Tim Miller, GA
Pat Mirk, FL
2015 Results
Jeff Miller, PA
Nick Chepaitis, PA
Ron Glass, FL
O Rod Coffey, MD
O Tim Hitchings, DE
O Alexander Slate, MD
Top Laurelists
173
168
157
123
100
69
61
61
59
51
Tim Hitchings, DE
23  2002-2015
23  1991-2015
Top Laurelists
2015 Results
Keith Wixson, NJ
Doug E. Smith, PA
George Young, VT
O Grant LaDue, NY
O Michael Ussery, MD
O Paul Gaberson, PA
Keith Wixson, NJ
Marty Musella, NC
43  1994-2015
George Young, VT
338
James Pei, TX
317
Marvin Birnbaum, NY 295
Keith Wixson, NJ
230
Paul Gaberson, PA
198
Brian Mountford, NY 179
Dan Leader, MA
108
John Poniske, PA
91
Mike Mitchell, GA
65
David Rubin, NJ
60
Century Events55
Keith Wixson, NJ
James Pei, VA
Keith Wixson, NJ
Paul Gaberson, PA
George Young, VT
Ron Fedin, PA
Peter Reese, VA
John Buse, IL
Tom Drueding, MA
Grant LaDue, NY
Michael Ussery, MD
372
319
219
143
141
111
99
98
91
78
36  1991-2015
Top Laurelists
Jeff Miller, PA
William Rohrbeck, NH116
Tim Hitchings, DE
111
Ron Glass, FL
74
Jeff Miller, PA
60
Evan Hitchings, DE
60
Keith Hunsinger, OH 50
Dale Long, NJ
44
Arthur Davis, MI
41
George Deutsch, MD 31
Derek Whipple, WA 28
Washington’s War (WWR)
Waterloo (WAT)
Wilderness War (WNW)
Wooden Ships & Iron Men (WSM)
The tournament’s traditional “marathon”
format remained unchanged. Happily, attendance was up considerably with a 25% increase
over last year’s large downturn. There were four
rounds of Swiss play to select eight quarterfinalists to advance to the elimination rounds. The five
undefeated players after the first three rounds
(Wixson, Birnbaum, Pei, Leader and Mountford)
all received a bye in Round 4 and advanced automatically. There were four players with 3-1 records after Round 4 (Young, Faella and Doughan
advanced while Derek Landel was eliminated by
tiebreaker). Out of 62 games played, the Brits won
32, but in the elimination rounds the Americans
won four of seven.
Keith Wixson became the fourth three-time
champ in the event’s 22 year history by besting
Marvin Birnbaum to go 6-0 while winning three
games with each side.
The Final was more of a positional game and
a relatively bloodless affair, with all but one of the
few battles the result of a large British army stomping on a 1 or 2 strength American force. One of
the advantages of a British Mid-Atlantic/Southern
Strategy is that Washington can be made irrelevant,
and that was certainly the case in this game. There
was very little open space for the Americans in the South, and it was just too risky
to bring the Continental Army down to
fight it out. The Brits built up a considerable PC edge early and it was just too
much for the Americans to overcome.
We celebrated the bicentennial of the
battle of Waterloo with the most balanced
tournament ever as each side split 30 games
despite, or perhaps because of, the absence of the
“perennial” champions. Neither of the Beymas or
Joe Beard were a factor in 2015. With the pathway
open to the title, the four semifinalists were Ray
Clark, Tim Miller, Greg Smith, and Ed Menzel.
In semifinal #1, Ray Clark marshaled the PAA
vs. Tim Miller. Tim’s French campaign featured
aggressive and successful low-odds attacks on 16
June. However on 17 June, Tim’s luck vanished in
several exchanges against Ray’s doubled defenders, breaking the back of the French Army. Tim
quickly went into exile. Semifinal #2 had event
newcomer but WBC regular Greg Smith returning to the exploits of his youth as the French vs
Ed Menzel. Greg maneuvered Ed’s PAA off the
Quatre Bras heights early while an intense battle
of maneuver highlighted the 17th in the board
center. The 18th saw general offensives by both
armies with the French taking the field.
The Final was highlighted by Ray’s French
forcing the PAA off the Quatre Bras heights with
some lucky low odds attacks. On the 17th, they
outmaneuvered and outfought the Prussian Army
along the Dyle River while the British Army sat
idle near Nivelles. Greg could not react quickly enough to his flank being
turned and with the road to Brussels
open, he conceded—earning Ray his
first WAT shield.
The Mulligan format was again well received
with increased participation. The Tuesday Mulligan drew 16 players with four losers returning
the following morning to play in Round 1. The
French won 56% of the games played. There were
three unbeatens after three rounds; Keith Wixson,
George Young and the unseeded Doug Smith.
Smith lost to an Eliminator (LaDue) in Round 4,
turning the Wixson/Young game into a Final.
By late ’59 Young’s French position was critical. The British had places to score VPs (Ohio Forks,
Crown Point and Montreal), while the French had
none other than raids so Young marched Montcalm
into Amherst’s rear. With his supply line threatened,
Wixson had to send Amherst south to meet Montcalm as he entered New York. With Murray now free
to retake Ohio Forks and the lead, Young needed a
VP. He attacked Amherst at Poughkeepsie, losing
the second major battle of the game (VPs to BR1).
After getting a late successful raid, Young tried one
last low odds desperation attack by Montcalm on
Amherst but lost the second battle of Poughkeepsie
(VPs to BR2). Murray retook the Forks to bring VPs
to BR3. The final score was BR2 after accounting for
the one successful French raid for the year.
Wixson won his third WNW shield in a very
unusual game with two major battles
fought at Poughkeepsie. The keys
were Murray’s epic Fabian retreat
from the outskirts of Niagara to Virginia and the lost French VPs at Oswegatchie and HCN.
The event continued its grognard renaissance with 60 games logged on the
high seas. Alex Slate led the field in nail
biters. He earned a draw with Nick Chepaitis, each
player scoring 19 damage points, edged Andy Davison 44 to 42, and fought eventual champ Jeff
Miller to a draw when both ships struck simultaneously! Saturday’s Fleet Action was a showdown
inspired by the Battle of Minorca. Six players
began the battle. Two more entered as reinforcements. Best captain awards went to Alex Slate
(French) and Nick Chepaitis (British).
The semifinals offered player’s choices of American, British, or French frigates. The most anticipated match paired Ron Glass and Jeff Miller, who
faced each other in the two previous Finals with
Ron emerging triumphant both times. Jeff’s Yanks
reversed that trend this year, outfighting Ron’s
Brits, and denying Ron the hat trick. In the other
bracket, Rod Coffey met Nick Chepaitis in their
first playoff appearance. Both chose the British with
Nick ganging up on one of Rod’s ships for the win.
The finalists had very different backgrounds.
Nick was the youngest finalist ever. Jeff had
seen far more action, including 14 games during
the week while posting a record of 11-2-1. Unbeknownst to each other, both chose the Dutch
squadron of a 76, and 74 and
two 68 gun ships of the line, all
with crack crews for the Final.
Jeff prevailed by taking two of
Nick’s ships while losing one.
56
Century Events
2015 Results
Eric Thobaben, WI
Luis Garcia, ar
Chris Collins, MD
Steve Rossi, CA
Bob Kester, MA
Peter Brickwood, on
Randy Scheers, TX
20  92-00; 02-15
Top Laurelists
Eric Thobaben, WI
Jason Moore, NY
Paul Milne, MN
Eric Thoboben, WI
Randy Scheers, TX
Bruce Harper, bc
Jon Hogen, CA
Vic Hogen, CA
Kevin Milne, MN
Elihu Feustal, IN
Chris Goldfarb, OR
180
156
132
126
121
118
108
102
102
96
World at War (WAW)
The event had four games recreating WWII
in both theaters, and two games recreating it
only in Europe. Three of the two-theater games
began with starting positions that resulted from
playing the recently published Gathering Storm
which covers the pre-war period from 1935 to
1939+, and allows for ahistorical economic, military and naval development, diplomacy and aggression.
A few rules changes resulted from the convention games. The Western Allies can no longer pull the transports from the SW box. In compensation, they will always be able to use some
of the transports, even if all are inverted.
The US Election rules following a British
surrender are not often invoked, but this year
they were. It was decided that the game is more
interesting if no U.S. election is held if Britain
(or Russia) surrenders. U.S. re-entry is too slow
to affect the outcome of the game. To go along
with this change, British units can be built in
Canada following a British surrender (since
there is often no place to build them in Britain,
once Britain re-enters the war.)
One rule change arose from the classic WAW
global game, in which a British Task Force in the
Indian Ocean was used to protect supply to Singapore in Winter 1941. Use of any
units other than transports in the
Pacific theater IO box are prohibited on the DOW turn now, as part of
the Allied Unpreparedness rules.
THE LAST YEARBOOK
2016 is the start of a wondrous new age
for WBC with a nod to enhanced amenities and increased attractions for a wonderful annual family vacation at Seven
Springs Mountain Resort. However welcome this evolution may be, it does not
come without cost and one of the sacrifices
that makes it possible is the discontinuation of the printed yearbook.
While highly valued by a minority
of the membership, the Yearbook can no
longer be justified given the increased expense of subsidized lodging costs for our
new venue. A benchmark of required elite
membership levels required to continue
the book has not been met as of this printing, so in all probability this will be the last
WBC yearbook for the foreseeable future.
However, this will not be the end of
tournament reports. Our pre- and postcon event coverage will continue on our
website and will be augmented with the
continued makeover of the website with a
new look. The 2016 event previews are just
the first phase of a planned upgrade of our
extensive website and the archives which
record the evolution of its traditions. In a
move that is long overdue, we hope to enhance our internet presence by reducing
the time and effort devoted to print media.
The website has many advantages
over the printed page including, but not
limited to: cost of creation, distribution,
archiving, error correction, timeliness,
links to relevant information and greater
access to users worldwide. The web also
offers much greater depth of coverage and
convenience at a fraction of the cost of the
printed page. Consequently, we have decided at long last to concentrate our media
efforts and resources on our website.
WBC remains dedicated to providing
the best pre- and post-con event coverage
of any gaming convention. That will not
change. Only the medium by which we
bring that information to you will change
—and hopefully it will evolve at a faster
pace without the requirement for separate
editing, printing and mailing of a different
media format that is embraced by a lower
percentage of the membership with each
passing year.
2015 Trial Events
57
To read after-action reports, visit http://www.boardgamers.org/yearbook15/
1775: Rebellion (775)
Ace of Aces (AOA)
20  2014-2015
55  2004-2015
 Bruno Wolff, WI
O Brad Raszewski, MD
O Kevin Lewis, DC
O Chris Trimmer, TX
O Joe Yaure, PA
O Alexander Lange, GA
 Bill Burch, MD
O Bill Ashbaugh, NY
O Richard Irving, CA
O Doug Porterfield, VA
O Steve Boone, MD
O Ray Stakenas Jr, CA
Larry Lingle, PA
Dan Lawall, VA
Adel Verpflichtet (ADV)
Battle Cry
54  1991-2015
28  2001-2015
 Angela Collinson, MD
O Tom DeMarco, NJ
O David Meyaard, ID
O David Rynkowski, NY
O Philip Livingston, DE
O Deb Yaure, PA
 Joe Harrison, KY
O Mike Stanley, CA
O William Kendrick, uk
O Jeff Cornett, FL
O Alex Bell, MD
O Peter Stein, OH
Tom DeMarco, NJ
Peter Stein, OH
Battleline (BAT)
Brawling Battleships (BBS)
44  2001-2015
22 2004-’09, 2011, 2014-’15
 Jim Kramer, PA
O Lyman Moquin, DC
O Greg Staton, PA
O Michael Sosa, DE
O Samantha Berk, PA
O Gordon Rodgers, PA
 Jarett Weintraub, NY
O Pat Mirk, FL
O Huston Johnson, WV
O Thomas Melton, VA
O Jason Fisher, NC
O Dennis Blazey, OH
Sean McCulloch, OH
Jarett Weintraub, NY
Castles of M.K.Ludwig (CMK)
C&C: Napoleonics (CCN)
109  2015
23  2011-2015
 Joseph Marriott, NY
O Sceadeau D’Tela, NC
O Randy Buehler, WA
O Elaine Pearson, NC
O April Alfieri, PA
O Corey Davis, PA
 Jack Morrell, NY
O Allen Kaplan, NJ
O John Kirk, PA
O Andy Stapp, NJ
O Dan Dolan Jr, VT
O Mike Stanley, OH
John Corrado, VA
Chuck Stapp, NJ
58
2015 Trial Events
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2015 Trial Events
59
To read after-action reports, visit http://www.boardgamers.org/yearbook15/
Concordia (CNC)
Conflict of Heroes (COH)
Global Mogul (GBM)
Great Camp. ACW (GCA)
84  2014-2015
16  2009-2010, 2012-2015
16  2014-2015
19  1993-2015
 Robb Effinger, WA
O Duncan McGregor, on
O Gary Roberts, MI
O Dylan Quintana, PA
O Randy Buehler, WA
O Dominic Blais, qc
 Josh Coyle, VA
O Doug Smith, PA
O Eric Tolentino, PA
O Omar Chbaklo, ae
O Stan Myszak, qc
O Todd Carter, NJ
 Kevin Sudy, VA
O Eric Wrobel, MD
O Jonathan Winicki, CT
O Charlie Hickok, PA
O Bill Crenshaw, VA
O Daniel Hoffman, NC
 Justin Rice, VA
O Greg Tanner, AZ
O John O’Day, VA
O Mark Booth, VA
O Dave Cross, VA
O Thibault Nguyen, fr
Craig Reece, FL
Uwe Eickert, OH
Elchfest (ELC)
Evolution (EVL)
A House Divided (AHD)
The Hunters (HNT)
51  2001-2015
82  2015
20  1999-2003; 2010-2015
33  2014-2015
 Dave Meyaard, ID
O Dan Dolan Sr, NJ
O Brandon Bernard, PA
O Josh Githens, SC
O Scott A. Smith, PA
O Adina Weiss, NJ
 Pete Noteman, PA
O John Ratanaprasatporn, PA
O Kevin Hammond, WA
O Adam Oliner, MD
O Sceadeau D’Tela, NC
O Keith Abel, MI
 David Metzger, NY
O Steve Koleszar, VA
O Brad Raszewski, MD
O Steven Raszewski, MD
O Terry Coleman, CA
O Carl Adamec, NY
 Paul Risner, FL
O Ralph Gleaton, SC
O Bill Burtless, SC
O Ray Freeman, CA
O Bruce Monnin, OH
O Daniel Hoffman, NC
Alex Bell, MD
Luke Warren, DC
Bill Crenshaw, VA
Terry Coleman, CA
Ed Beach, MD
Gregory Smith, PA
Fire in the Lake (FIL)
Five Tribes (5TR)
Innovation (IOV)
Kanban: Auto. Rev (KAR)
34  2015
69  2015
48  2012-2015
18  2015
 Michael Redman, MN
O John Bateman, SC
O Nick Avtges, MA
O John Emery, SC
O Scott de Brestian, MI
O Bill Powers, VA
 Mike Huggins, PA
O Luke Koleszar, VA
O Bob Wicks Jr, CT
O Denise McKibbin, NC
O Jeff Strauch, on
O Michael Vaz, on
 Nick Page, on
O Geoff Pounder, on
O Elaine Pearson, NC
O Andy Latto, MA
O Chris Kizer, NC
O Jacob Wagner, CO
 Mike Kaltman, PA
O Don Brookins, PA
O Jarett Weintraub, NY
O Ed Gilliland, VA
O Robert Voisin, NY
O Laurie Voisin, NY
Eric Guttag, OH
Jason Levine, NY
Robb Effinger, on
Jason Levine, NY
Galaxy (GXY)
Galaxy Trucker (GXT)
Kaiser’s Pirates (KPR)
Koenig’s Fortr. Europe (KFE)
39  2000-2015
40  2012-2015
42  2007-2015
8  1991-2006, 2014-2015
 Michael Shea, CT
O Rebecca Hebner, CO
O Steve Shambeda, PA
O Max DuBoff, NJ
O Drew DuBoff, NJ
O Lauren Brown, DE
 Karl Henning, DC
O David des Jardins, CA
O Chris Kizer, NC
O Darin Schreier, GA
O Duncan McGregor, on
O Felicia Alfieri, PA
 Karl Buchholz, MI
O Stan Buck, MD
O John Elliott, MD
O David Buchholz, MI
O Bob Murray, MD
O Brandon Buchholz, MI
 Jim Eliason, IA
O Chris Godfrey, MA
O Robert Frisby, VA
O Randy Schilb, MO
O NA
O NA
Mark Mitchell, VA
David Finberg, MA
Tim Rogers, SC
Paul Koenig, CA
60
2015 Trial Events
To read after-action reports, visit http://www.boardgamers.org/yearbook15/
2015 Trial Events61
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Labyrinth (LBY)
Leaping Lemmings (LLM)
Naval War (NVW)
Pro Golf (PGF)
23  2011-2015
36  2011-2015
36  1992-2011, 2013-15
70  1994-2015
 David Kiefte, ns
O Evan Harris, MD
O Andy Latto, MA
O Daniel Hoffman, NC
O Philip Yaure, PA
O Greg Ottoman, TX
 Kirk Harris, NJ
O Bill Watkins, NJ
O Jeff Pattison, MD
O Judy Wobbeking, MD
O Eric Kleist, MD
O Tim Evinger, PA
 Bryan Eshleman, NC
O Randall MacInnis, GA
O Dave Cross, VA
O Bob Hamel, CT
O Alan Arvold, IL
O Mike Ussery, MD
 John Kilbride, PA
O Alex Bell, MD
O Jeff Jackson, MN
O Bryan Collars, SC
O Glen Pearce, on
O Tim Dolan, NJ
Jeff Finkeldey, OH
Rick Young, NC
James Kramer, PA
Bruce Monnin, OH
Lords of Waterdeep (LWD)
Mage Wars (MGW)
Race for the Galaxy (RFG)
Rattlebones (RTT)
124  2015
29  2015
88  2008-2015
53  2015
 Alistar Thach, TN
O Peter Tu, NJ
O Rick Kirchner, KY
O Michael Vaz, on
O Herbert Gratz, au
O William Bleier, PA
 Brad McCandless, LA
O Paul Toro, TX
O Chris Byrd, CT
O James Newsome, PA
O Christian Winicki, CT
O Frank Hastings, MD
 Richard Boyes, WA
O Chris Kizer, NC
O Matt Naughton, PA
O Rob Renaud, NY
O Aaron Fuegi, MA
O Michael Powers, VA
 Haakon Monson, no
O Nathan Cantwell, PA
O Michael Wojke, PA
O Frank Downing, NC
O Randy Buehler, WA
O Rob Kilroy, PA
Robert St. Pierre, PA
Tom Cannon, MD
Rob Renaud, NY
Andrew Drummond, on
Manifest Destiny (MFD)
Manoeuvre (MAN)
Republic of Rome (ROR)
Roll for the Galaxy (RGD)
23  2005-2015
24  2008-2015
19  1991-2010; 2014-2015
92  2015
 Kevin Sudy, VA
O Chris Trimmer, TX
O David Hood, NC
O Bill Crenshaw, VA
O Jeff Mullet, OH
O Harald Henning, CT
 Bjorn von Knorring, se
O Kevin Emery, SC
O Rob Buccheri, MD
O Chris Byrd, CT
O John Emery, SC
O Bill O’Neal, NY
 Llew Bardecki, nz
O Nick Benedict, CA
O Frank McNally, MA
O Lee Rodrigues, VA
O Paul Toro, TX
O Jeff Burdett, NY
 Richard Boyes, WA
O Richard J. Shay, PA
O Matt Naughton, PA
O Mary Ellen Powers, VA
O Eric Brosius, MA
O Iain McGraw, VA
Jeff Mullet, OH
Andy Lewis, DE
Frank McNally, MA
Jason Levine, NY
Medici (MED)
Monsters Menace A. (MMA)
Russia Besieged (RBS)
Russian Railroads (RRR)
92  1999-2015
35  1998-2015
18  2006-2012; 2015
75  2015
 Jefferson Meyer, MA
O Matt Thomsen, MA
O Edward Kendrick, uk
O Jeff Cornett, FL
O Eric Brosius, MA
O Fred Minard, PA
 John Rinko, VA
O Anna Rinko, VA
O James McKibbin, NC
O Sara Powers, VA
O Derek Landel, NJ
O Zarabeth Goddard, PA
 Jim Eliason, IA
O Martin Musella, VA
O Charlie Catania, MD
O Rob Beyma, MD
O Jim Tracy, PA
O Richard Beyma, VA
 Henry Dove, MD
O Riku Riekkinen, fi
O Redie Smith, NC
O Kieth Dent, IL
O Anne Norton, NJ
O Tom DeMarco
Jeff Cornett, FL
Mark Love, MD
Rob Beyma, MD
Tom DeMarco, NJ
62
2015 Trial Events
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2015 Trial Events
63
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Santa Fe Rails (SFR)
Sergeants Miniatures (SGM)
TransAmerica (TAM)
Twilight Imperium (TWI)
46  2003-2015
16  2012-2015
53  2004; 2006-2015
13  2009-2015
 Duncan McGregor, on
O Jeff Senley, PA
O Curt Collins II, PA
O Douglas Landon, FL
O Pat Mirk, FL
O Rob Kircher, RI
 Todd Trahan, VA
O August Thiesing, NJ
O Kevin Collins, VA
O Brandon Buchholz, MI
O Tom Keegan, PA
O Scott Smith, PA
 Bradley Raszewski, MD
O Chris Gnech, PA
O Christian Moffa, NJ
O Nick Smith, uk
O Matt Calkins, VA
O Lauren Bohaczuk, MD
 Michael Buccheri, MD
O Matt O’Connor, NJ
O Daniel Law, NY
O Peter Putnam, PA
O Peter Walsh, PA
O Seann Branchfield, NY
Dave Bohnenberger, PA
Michael Buccheri, MD
Rob Kircher, RI
Jeff Billings, MD
Small World (SMW)
Splendor (SPD)
Union Pacific (UNP)
Victory in Europe (VIE)
99  2013-2015
272  2015
23  2000-2015
22  2015
 Richard Boyes, WA
O Cody Zimmerman, PA
O Dave Blisard, MD
O Jordan Shea, CT
O Joe Kelleher, PA
O NA
 Andrew Drummond, on
O Michael Wojke, PA
O Michael Holmquist, PA
O Lance Ribeiro, NH
O Julia Carrigan, NJ
O Forrest Speck, MD
 Jefferson Meyer, MA
O Curt Collins II, PA
O Jim Mason, OK
O Brad Sherwood, PA
O Paul Bonday, CA
O Michael Shea, CT
 Michael Tan, CA
O Fred Bauer, VA
O Ted Drozd, IL
O Michael Hyland, ME
O Tom Good, NC
O Matthew Makuch, NJ
Madison Sites, CA
Duncan McGregor, on
Max Jamelli, PA
Ron Draker, VA
Star Wars Minis (SWM)
Storm Dien B. Phu (SOD)
War Stories (WAR)
Wellington (WLL)
31  2015
13  2015
10  2015
24  2006-2015
 Josh Githens, SC
O Buddy Sinigaglio, ID
O Vinny Sinigaglio, NJ
O Tim Howell, PA
O Bill Morse, VA
O Alex Gregorio, PA
 Patrick Mirk, FL
O Bryan Armor, VA
O John Vasilakos, VA
O Gary Phillips, FL
O Jeff Coyle, VA
O Greg Schmittgens, KS
 Michael Humphreys, NJ
O Brandon Young, NY
O Doug E. Smith, PA
O Rob Kircher, RI
O Mike Shea, CT
O NA
 Peter Reese, VA
O Patrick Duffy, VA
O Frank Morehouse, PA
O Emily Albert, NY
O Jesse Boomer, KS
O Craig Melton, VA
Frank Sinigaglio, NJ
Andrew Maly, TX
Dirk Knemeyer, OH
Patrick Duffy, VA
Temporum (TMP)
Tigers in the Mist (TIM)
Win, Place & Show (WPS)
Yspahan (YSP)
21  2015
17  2000-2013; 2015
27  1992-2015
75  2008-2015
 Kate Fractal, MA
O Joseph Kelleher, PA
O Peter Staab, PA
O Kyle Smith, PA
O Donna Bolkan, ns
O Curt Collins II, PA
 Tom Thornsen, NY
O Bryan Eshleman, NC
O Bob Hamel, CT
O Charles Drozd, IL
O Rick Young, NC
O David Wong, PA
 Stuart Tucker, MD
O Craig Fox, PA
O Jeff Finkeldey, OH
O Ken Gutermuth, NC
O Bruce Reiff, OH
O Mike Zorrer, OH
 Andy Latto, MA
O Haim Hochboim, il
O Eric Freeman, PA
O Chris Yaure, PA
O Paul Klayder, KS
O Rob Murray, NJ
Jeremy Billones, VA
Ray Freeman, CA
Jim Burnett, TN
Chris Yaure, PA
64
PBeM Champions
PBeM Champions65
Play-By-Email Tournaments
Event Results
Ted Drozd, IL
O
James Tracy, OH
O
Mike Pacheco, CA
O
Andy Choptiany, PA
O
Daniel Overland, MI
O
Allen Kaplan, NJ
BPA does not run PBeM tournaments; rather, we provide support for hobbyists
willing to host events. E-mail tournaments are counted the same as face-to-face
action in BPA’s prestigious Caesar competition, with Laurels based solely on size
of the field and the average face-to-face playing time.
Event Results
2008 K. Gutermuth, NC • 34
2009 Curt Collins II, PA • 40
2010 Tom DeMarco, NJ • 33
2013 John Pack, CO • 25
2014 Chris Yaure, PA • 29
33
John Pack, CO
Next event in progress
Event Results
Mads Lunau, dk
O
Ed Coderre, on
O
Jonas Lundqvist, se
O
Jose de la Fuente, es
O
Kevin Youells, PA
O
Joe Lux, NY
28
Vince Meconi, DE
Previous Winners
Chris Trimmer, TX
O
Aran Warszawski, il
O
Haakon Monsen, no
O
Greg Thatcher, CA
O
Derek Landel, NJ
O
Robert Hamel, CT
Event Results
Debbie Gutermuch, NC
O
Marvin Birnbaum, NY
O
Oliver Searles, WA
O
Aran Warszawski, il
O
thomas Browne, PA
O
Joe Yaure, PA
48
Bruce Monnin, OH
Previous Winners
2012 Mads Lunau, dk • 31
2013 Kevin Youells, PA • 28
2014 Mads Lunau, dk • 31
Event Results
Debbie Gutermuth, NC
O
Jennifer Visocnik, IL
O
Terry Coleman, CA
O
Dennis Nicholson, NY
O
Bruce Reiff, OH
O
Peter Staab, PA
Next event in progress
40
Kevin Youells, PA
Event Results
Steve Andriakos, TX
O
Daniel Leader, MA
O
Don Greenwood, MD
O
Henry James, PA
O
Dennis Nicholson, NY
O
Jason Albert, MN
32
Mark Gutfreund, KY
Event Results
Chris Lee, AZ
O
Steven LeWinter, NC
O
Jesus Zamora, AZ
O
Kevin Youells, PA
O
David Sherwood, AZ
O
Richard Prast, OH
35
Michael Day, AZ
52
Bruce Monnin, OH
Previous Winners
1999 Jim Doughan, PA • 34
2001 John Crabtree, CA • 36
2003 B. Passacantando, CT • 48
2004 D. Greenwood, MD • 47
2006 T. Dworschak, GA • 50
2011 D. Greenwood, MD • 38
2012 M. Gutfreund, KY • 36
2014 A. Cummins, uk • 30
Event Results
Ray Freeman, CA
O
Michael Day, AZ
O
James Kramer, Jr, PA
O
David Sherwood, AZ
O
John Lindley, TX
O
Greg D. Smith, PA
Next event in progress
28
John Pack, CO
Previous Winners
2014 Scott Nedza, NY • 28
Previous Winners
2006 Barry Shoults, MI • 26
2008 Vince Meconi, DE • 28
2011 Mike Pacheco, CA • 36
Previous Winners
2007 Jeffrey Martin, CT • 40
2008 Bruce Monnin, OH • 38
2009 A. Warszawski, il • 38
2010 D. Nicholson, NY • 42
2011 Bob Menzel, VT • 44
2012 Bruce Monnin, OH • 46
2013 Derek Landel, NJ • 49
2014 Robert Kircher, RI • 44
Next event in progress
Previous Winners
2010 L. Gutermuth, NC • 34
2011 D. Nicholson, NY • 41
2012 M. Yoshikawa, CA • 44
2013 D. Nicholson, NY • 48
2014 S. McCulloch, OH • 51
Next event in progress
Previous Winners
1999 N. Markevich, CA • 20
2001 Ed Menzel, CA • 32
2004 Rob Flowers, MD • 32
2007 Charles Drozd, IL • 35
2009 Joe Dragon, MI • 42
2011 Mike Ussery, MD • 28
2013 D. Blumentritt, TX • 39
Next event in progress
A Final Remembrance for Someone Lost in the Past Year
Next event in progress
A Final
Kevin died suddenly on Feb. 15, 2016. 2015 marked his most successful year at WBC, as he won both Manifest Destiny and Global Mogul
tournaments
to bring hisWe
total number
titlesPast
to seven.
His 510
Remembrance
of Those
Lost ofinBPAthe
Year
BPA laurels began to accumulate in 2001 with a 4th place finish in Age
of Renaissance - the first of 26 tournaments in which he was counted
Kevin
among the finalists—virtually all of them multi-player games. He is
Sudy
survived by his wife Yvonne and children, Katherine and Alan (a/k/a
1965-2016 A.J.) with whom he shared his gaming hobby.
66
Past Heroes
Board of Directors
A
Nick Ferris
2014 GM of the Year
Richard Beyma
2014 Consul
Tom Gregorio
2014 Sportsman
67
ll Boardgame Players Association (BPA)
members of record as of June 1, 2016, are
hereby notified of their right to vote for up to
three members to serve on the BPA Board of
Directors. Any BPA member may run for election as a Director. These individuals give their
time without recompense to ensure that WBC
continues on an even keel, representing all interests fairly. Candidates for the Board in 2016
include Bruno Sinigaglio, Joshua Githens,
Bruce Reiff, Grant LaDue, and Marcy Morelli.
All members have a vested interest in
the operation of BPA which can be exercised
through their vote for members to serve on
the Board in rotating three-year terms. When
contemplating their vote, members are urged
to consider that the BPA conducts most of its
business by email and needs Board members
who are able and willing to offer their time
and skills to the organization in a timely manner. Board members should be considered
more for their ability to contribute to the running of a successful company than for their
interest in any particular game or group.
You may vote for up to three candidates,
but only once per candidate. No votes will
be taken during the convention. This election
will be completed by mail and e-mail by July
15, so that the newly-elected Board may con2016 – 2018
Andy Lewis, DE
2016 – 2018
D. Greenwood, MD
vene to conduct business during WBC. The
three candidates receiving the most votes will
be elected. All members are urged to vote.
Failure to generate sufficient votes will invalidate the election and force the organization to
hold another with consequent expenses that
will be borne by the membership.
Note that all paying attendees of WBC—
other than one-day guests—are BPA members
with voting rights. Ballots will be available
only on the BPA website. The ballot includes a
brief statement by each nominee. Alternately,
members may e-mail their vote(s) to election@
boardgamers.org from an e-mail address
on file with BPA as their official e-mail
address. An electronic ballot is available at
boardgamers.org/forms/boardballot.shtml.
All members are invited to attend the
Annual Meeting of the BPA at 3 PM on
Tuesday, July 26, 2016, in the Grand Ballroom
of the Seven Springs Convention Center in
Seven Springs, PA. NOTE: This meeting will
take place during a break in the auction.
At that meeting, members will meet the
new Board and may make inquiries and
suggestions regarding the activities of the
association. This is your chance to influence
the decision-making process that drives WBC.
2016 – 2018
Ken Whitesell, PA
2014 – 2016
B. Sinigaglio, AK
2014 – 2016
Joshua Githens, SC
Now Playing 2014 Team Tournament winners:
Karl Henning, Jonathan Gemmel, Dave Meyaard, Nick Henning
2014 – 2016
And how can we have heroes without pillagers?
Bruce Reiff, OH
2015 – 2017
2015 – 2017
Bruce Monnin, OH Ken Gutermuth, NC
2015 – 2017
Stuart Tucker, MD
68
Team Champions
~ The Harry B’s ~
Bruce Reiff, OH
Bruce Beard, MD
Bruce Monnin, OH
Harry Flawd, PA
Football Strategy • 7
18XX • 8
War At Sea • 2
Paydirt • 8
D
espite record attendance, only 78 teams entered
the 25th Team Tournament in the smallest field
since 2007. The Harry B’s —the odds-on favorite at 18-1
and the best assortment of shameless ringers that laurels can buy, reigned supreme with three firsts and a
fourth. This came as no surprise since the trio of Reiff,
Beard and Flawd had won their respective events 30
times. The smart money has under achiever Monnin
with but four titles in his specialty being jettisoned
for more of a sure thing. In amassing their 25 points,
they spoiled the sophomore year of the talented Canadian quartet of Page, VanderWal, Drummond and
McGregor whose 22-point total would have won 20 of
the 25 previous races. Andrew Drummond paced the
120-1 underdog Dice Loving Canucks and led all scorers with a maximum score of 12 points for winning
Splendor in a field of 276. Having now finished sixth
and second in two tries, mayhap they should get more
respect from the handicapper. Both teams managed to
score with every player—a feat accomplished by only
one other team—the 11th place Iron Meeples.
A bigger overachiever claimed third as Team
Hyboria padded its 21-point score with three bonus points. Without a prior title between them, the
Melton and Franklin father-and-son teams managed two titles and a third to edge perennial contender Band of Fools by the entrants tiebreaker. The
32-1 grognard entry used a trio of 7-point wins to
remain in the Top Ten.
The U.S.-Israeli alliance of Philly Streets also
used three bonus points to claim fifth and was
led by Ben Scholl’s 10-point win in Puerto Rico. He
was backed by impressive laurel hauls by Israeli’s
Haim Hochboim and Aran Warszawski in Agricola
and Through the Ages.
However, the real long shot payoff was the newcomer Alham-Bros squad that logged in at 5000-1
odds with three bonus points behind Dan Boyle’s
Dominion win and laurel efforts by Ben Carter in
Ticket to Ride and Jon Wyatt in Formula De. That was
enough to claim sixth place over the next seven highly ranked teams who all came in under 54-1 odds.
Rounding out the best of the rest were the
defending champion 30.314 who could muster
barely half that score in their title defense. Perennial challengers Wood Bee Contenders, KGB and The
Siegelman took the last three spots in the Top Ten
with 15, 14 and 13 points respectively to provide
the answers to our Annual Bracket Busting contest.
Honorable Mention goes to the Harris family who
claimed 14th place for Athena & the 3 Spartans with
12 points against 600-1 odds.
Despite the upsets, it was a good year for the
favorites with seven teams ranked at 76-1 or better in the Top Ten. A notable exception was Nest of
Spies which finished 13th, and again ruined most
brackets in our annual Prediction contest. So, in a
more predictable year, it was not surprising that
our annual Prediction contest was won by Jeff Cornett—the dueling guest prognosticator of 2014—
who tied Mark Love’s all-time record with six
correct picks. Among the also-rans with 50% correct were James Pei, Riku Riekkinen and Andrew
Emerick—serious Caesar contenders all.
27 teams were again shut out—the same number as last year. The highest ranked team failing to
score was none other than the 2008 champion St.
Paul’s Rejects whose 46-1 odds proved to be a terrible investment. Fame is fleeting.
Only 27 of our 312 players, less than 9%, managed to successfully call their shots by winning
their selected event—six less than last year. 133
of our 164 events were employed. Dominion was
the most frequently chosen with nine entrants,
followed by Agricola with seven. The choice of going big or small remained an interesting contrast
with Jay’s Basement swinging for the fences with a
combined field of 893. In contrast, the AREA team
played small ball and failed to break 100 with a
combined field of 92. This time, “small ball” won
the battle with a 4-0 decision over the shutout Jay’s.
Hobby Service
69
WBC exists by the volunteer efforts of the crowd and volunteered to host Juniors
your fellow members—from the GMs that events to help support the hobby. He was
run the events to the support staff that does true to his word and is still at it 25 years
all the behind-the-scenes work to your un- later—the only person to have performed
paid elected Board of Directors. The CD is that thankless task 25 years running. But
your sole full-time employee. WBC draws then, there is no quit in this guy. This year
over 2,000 people—the vast majority of was also his 25th consecutive pursuit of the
whom will never give a second thought to Up Front title without success—but he’s still
participation in any way beyond their at- on his feet and back for another try—even
if his son has beat him to the grand
tendance. Less than 20% will take a
prize.
moment to vote in our elections.
Yet, those few manage to make it
By itself, that 25 years of
happen year after year.
service to our youth should
be enough for this award—
Our Hobby Service Award
and maybe sainthood too.
recognizes the efforts of the
But Ray Stakenas’s service
best with an annual moment
goes well beyond that. He
of recognition for their selfalso hosts Roman themed
less participation. Twelve
gaming sessions for a
Service nominees are nomihigh school group of Latin
nated annually. This year’s
students. And if that still
honoree has never served as
weren’t enough, he serves
a “GM” himself—but instead
as a true ambassador to our
served his time in the Junior’s
hobby—representing
the best
Room—where disputes are set- Ra
Sr
yS
tled at kneecap level. The Board
takenas, qualities of competition and
sportsmanship in every game he
votes by secret ballot, weighing their
votes according to their own individual plays. Ray Stakenas is a prized member of
values as to what constitutes the greatest the BPA extended family whose recognition
contribution, by ranking each nominee is long overdue.
from 12 (strongest) to 1 (weakest). Our winner scored 82 of a
possible 96 points
with three firsts
and two second
Past Winners
place votes and
2005 Stuart Tucker
no scores in the
2005 Kathy Stroh
bottom half of the
2005 Steve Okonski
poll. He bested
2005 Vince Meconi
2005 Mark McLaughlin
the runner-up by
2005 Ken Whitesell
14 points to win
2006 Keith Wixson
c o m f or t a bly—i f
one can be said to
2007 Bruno Sinigaglio
win comfortably
2008 Debbie Gutermuth
after waiting 25
2009 Alan Applebaum
years!
2010 David Dockter
I still recall the
2011 Scott Pfeiffer
original organiza2012 Keith Levy
tional meeting at
2013 Roy Gibson
the Penn Harris in
2014 Bruno Passacantando
1991 when this individual spoke to
70
Caesar Award
J
ames Pei repeated as Caesar to become
Rounding out the top six competitors
the third back-to-back BPA Top Gamer of for the year were Ewan McNay, Andrew
the year while adding 186 to his leading ca- Emerick, Kevin Youells and Riku Riekkinreer laurel total of 2,332. It was his third
en. Only six of last year’s Top 25 players
Top Dog performance which leads
managed to retain that billing led
the BPA laurels universe. His
by Pei, who alone of all BPA’s
33-laurel margin of victory over
Top Dogs, has managed to rerunner-up Sceadeau D’Tela
main in the Top 25 for each of
was tripled by a haul of 100
the last seven years. In fact,
laurels for his specialty For
you have to go back to 2006
The People where he once
to find the last time “The
again swept both the WBC
Master” did not place in the
event and its email counterTop 25. The others able to
part. Over the years, Pei has
retain their elite standing in
amassed a largely unchal2015 were Sceadeau D’Tela
lenged 862 laurels in all ver(fifth year in a row), George
sions of For The People compeYoung, Keith Dent, Karl Hentition—nearly 37% of his career
ning and Randy Buehler (sixth
totals. He added a repeat win in
year). Nearly half of this year’s
Jam Pei
es
Sekigahara and a pair of CDW thirds
crop had not appeared in the Top 25
in Hannibal and Washington’s War to guaranclass in the past seven years.
tee his third Caesar title.
Mini-con tournaments no longer played
Past Caesars
a role in the outcome but email tourna1999
Marvin
Birnbaum, NY 135
ments did, enabling James to bank a 60-lau2000 Ewan McNay, CT
120
rel head start before WBC began. Runner2001 Nick Benedict, CA
138
up Sceadeau D’Tela also benefitted from an
2002 Marvin Birnbaum, NY 146
email boost—with 8 laurels in Tzolk’in but
2003 Nick Benedict, CA
113
that bonus was dwarfed by the CDW mas2004 James Pei, VA
293
tery of Pei in his
2005 Arthur Field, SC
224
specialty. Even a
2006 Jeff Mullet, OH
166
pair of wins in Ag2007 Raphael Lehrer, MD 170
2008 Alex Bove, PA
159
ricola and Egizia
2009 Stefan Mecay, TX
295
backed by three
2010 Stefan Mecay, TX
182
other lesser scores
2011 Randy Buehler, WA
241
weren’t enough to
2012 Randy Buehler, WA
205
overcome Pei’s ini2013 Andrew Emerick, CT 177
tial PBeM advan2014 James Pei, VA
176
tage.
Consul Award
I
n keeping with our Roman theme, Con- tion of WBC to a full nine days in 2016 will
sul is awarded to the player earning the remove the concept of Pre-Cons and, thus,
most laurels in WBC week (Monday - Sun- make email tournaments the sole difference
between Caesar and Consul honors in
day) as opposed to the Caesar Award
the future.
that includes all our tournaments
in a given laurel year. In any year
The Mighty Finn, Riku
when the same player tops both
Riekkinen, finished second
totals, no Consul is named.
with 112 laurels—eight bePre-Con events are excluded
hind McNay. Three runnerfrom WBC totals for purup finishes in 1989, Rusposes of this award but the
sian Railroads and Twilight
growing number of such
Struggle cost him the title,
events that began in the Preas a victory in any of them
Con but could be won during
would have pushed him
WBC week were increasingly
over the Consul finish line.
blurring that distinction. ConAlas, such fish stories of the
sequently, with WBC abandonone that got away plague us
ing Pre-Cons in 2016 in favor of a
all eventually. Riku, no doubt,
Ew
y
nine-day WBC, 2015 will be the last
an McNa will have cause to regret a single
time that omission affects the scoring.
misstep or ill-fated die roll for years to
Ewan McNay vaulted over both of the
leaders in the Caesar contest to score annual
metagaming honors for the first time in earning the 2015 Consul award. Stripping away
PBeM and Pre-Con laurels left McNay in the
lead as all of his 120-laurel total was earned
during WBC week with a triple win in Ingenious, Britannia and Robo Rally. The transi-
2004
2006
2008
2009
2010
2012
2013
2014
Past Consuls
Devin Flawd, PA
Jeff Cornett, FL
Andy Latto, CT
Rich Moyer, MN
Bruce Reiff, OH
Nick Henning, DC
Ken Gutermuth, NC
Richard Beyma, VA
Sceadeau D’Tela, NC
Ewan McNay, 120
Andrew Emerick, CT
Kevin Youells, PA
Riku Riekkinen, fi
Riku Riekkinen, fi
153
120
115
114
112
112
- The 2015 Caesar Line of Succession -
71
111
134
129
100
151
133
108
128
Sceadeau D’Tela, NC
109
come. Sceadeau D’Tela, the Caesar runnerup, finished third—11 laurels behind—done
in by the forfeiture of 36 Pre-Con laurels for
a second place finish in Through the Ages. You
had to look all the way down to sixth to find
Caesar. James Pei was 18 laurels off the pace
and four behind relative newcomers Max
DuBoff and Ryan Romanik, who tied for
fourth. Completing the Top Ten were Wade
Campbell,
Matt
Calkins,
triple
winner Ricky Boyes, and Duncan
McGregor. All but
Calkins were relative WBC newcomers of varying
degrees.
Max DuBoff, NJ
106
Ryan Romanik, MI
106
- The 2015 Consul Line of Succession -
James Pei, 102
102
72
GM of the Year
W
r
D
e attract many Canadians who return years as the power behind the throne that
north with their fair share of wood. scores the eight Grognard events garnered
But 2015 was the first year one showed us four of the eight top votes. In all, the Groghow to run an event so well that he carried nard Free Format events logged 323 games
played, and Bill entered them all
home our Top GM award. Duncan
to print out twice daily standMcGregor is a recent convert to
ings. Close behind in third
our annual madness and enjoyed it so much, he decided
with 75 points and his second
to lend a hand.
straight HM performance
was John Corrado whose
It was his event submishumorously
delivered
sion that got Splendor on
Power Point presentation
the ballot—resulting in its
and well prepared trivia
election as the 7th highest
Trial event in the 2015 surpuzzles created another
Facts in Five attendance revey. Although prepared to
randomize tables, not even
cord as the event broke into
he was prepared for the poputriple digits with 107 entrants
un
larity of his new event—which
while escaping notice from the
o
can
eg
drew 272 entrants and 165 games
McGr Fire Marshal. John also performed
in three heats. Fortunatedouble duty by running
ly, Duncan was admiyet another triple-digit
Past Winners
rably supported by felattendance event with
1991 Russ Gifford, NE – ASL
low Canadians Andrew
the debut of Castles of
1992 Jim Burnett, TN – WPS
Drummond and Sara
Mad King Ludwig.
1993 Glenn Petroski, WI – VIP
VanderWal who pitched
The Michael Gar1994 John Ellmann, MD – MMS
in to help forge order out
ton - John McLaughlin
1995 Ken Lee, PA – GCA
of chaos. Overflow space
team earned 59 points
1996 David Terry, MD – B-17
1997 Will Wible, VA – ROR
was found and ad hoc
and took fourth place
1998 Bruce Monnin, OH – WAS
Quarterfinals were added
with their visually spec1999 Bruno Wolff, WI – TTN
without interfering with
tacular Stockcar Cham2000 Vince Meconi, DE – WAS
other events.
pionship Racing to the
2001 David Terry, MD – B17
Duncan thus became
delight of 50 drivers.
2002 John Jacoby, VA – CMS
the first rookie GM so
Their 14th appearance
2003 Chuck Foster, TX – EPB
honored. He won by a
netted one top vote
2004 John Coussis, IL – ACS
wide margin in amassing
and earned their third
2005 John Sharp, FL – VIP
87 points—just two shy
HM. Earning his first
2006 Don Chappell, TX – WTP
of Claire Brosius’ 2011
HM was George Young
2007 Ivan Lawson, MD – LST
record. Although he atwith 55 points as Twi2008 Tom McCorry, VA – CAR
tracted only one of eight
light Struggle rebound2009 Jim Jordan, MD – BRI
2010 Stuart Tucker, MD – HRC
top votes, he ranked no
ed nicely from a down
2011 Claire Brosius, MA – TTR
lower than third on any
year with 68 players
2012 Brad Johnson, MI – DUN
ballot with five seconds
for the six-round swiss
2013 Larry Lingle, PA – PRC
and two thirds completevent. Meanwhile, Ed
2014 N. Ferris, MD – DOM, 7WS
ing his score.
Beach improved his
Placing second and
bridesmaid status by
earning his second Honorable Mention tying the record for HMs at seven with 51
with 77 points was Bill Morse whose nine points for the third year of Virgin Queen.
Sportsmanship
73
The BPA membership elected Justin Rice Shooting oneself in the foot is always a sure
as its 2015 Sportsmanship winner in heavy fire vote getter.
voting with 381 members casting votes for
Garnering third place with nearly 14% of
15 candidates. Justin collected no less than the vote was Gordon Stewart for a decade of
21% of those votes for being nomimaintaining good cheer and a posinated in the Here I Stand event. As
tive attitude despite enduring the
the first alternate for the Final, he
daily challenges of navigating
was offered a replacement seat
the Host’s archaic handicap acby first-time qualifiers Ed and
cessibility issues and coming
Matt Beach. At least one of the
back for more each year.
father and son duo was needA couple of WBC regued to GM their Junior event
lars of long standing tied for
that conflicted with the Final.
4th as Gregory Schmittgens
Justin, however, insisted that
and Peter Staab each garthey both play and instead
nered 9% support. Greg is
volunteered to run the Junior
generally regarded as WBC’s
event himself to enable them
most consistent smile machine
to do so. Both events went off
as well as always being ready to
without a hitch and with a relend a hand teaching games and
cord number of junior participants
Jus
tin Rice doubling as a buttons and jerky
putting Justin to the test as he earned
dispenser. Peter’s claim to support this
his free lodging prize at the next WBC.
year was that he corrected misplaced markPlacing second with over 15% of the vote ers to his own detriment in Kremlin and volwas popular GMT spokesman Andy Lewis untarily conceded his seat in the Kanban Final
whose good intentions backfired when he to a late arriving finalist to earn not one—but
volunteered to run a teaching game for new two—GM nominations.
players of Roll For the Galaxy and did such
Grognard Greg Smith took sixth place with
a good job he managed to lose by a point. 5.7% of the vote to narrowly edge Fred Bauer
and Mark Love for the sand position. He had
volunteered to be the odd man out in all five
Past Winners
rounds of War At Sea to eliminate any need for
1992 Chuck Stapp, NJ
byes due to an odd number of players.
1993 Tiger Von Pagel, FL
1994 Rob Kilroy, PA
As always, it was a classy group and we
1995 Ian Lange, AE
salute all our nominees for being the real at1996 Jim Matt, MI
traction in our annual reunion.
1997
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
Ed Connery, NJ
Frank Sinigaglio, NJ
Robert Sacks, NY
Bret Hildebran, OH
Kaarin Engelmann, VA
James Jordan, MD
Steve Okonski, MD
Bruno Sinigaglio, AK
Phil Barcafer, PA
Rebecca Hebner, CO
Kaarin Engelmann, VA
Mark Yoshikawa, CA
John Emery, SC
Larry Lingle, PA
Peter Eldridge, uk
Emily Wu, NY
Tom Gregorio, PA
74
Patrons
BPA 2015 Patrons
BPA gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the following Sponsor,
Charter, and Tribune members. 2015 Patrons will be listed next year.
Sponsors ($500 contribution in 2015): Alliance Distributors, Arcane Wonders, Matt Calkins,
Charles Catania, David desJardins, James Doughan, Ken Gutermuth, Marbles, Rick Northey,
Northstar Games, Bruno Sinigaglio, Jerald R. Tracy
Charter Tribunes (maintained Charter status since 1999 and purchased a $100 membership in 2015):
Alan Arvold, Matthew Bacho, Ed Beach, Mark Booth, Daniel Broh-Kahn, David Brooks, Steve
Cameron, Rod Coffey, Terry Coleman, Gregory Courter, John Coussis, Tom DeMarco, Roger
Eastep, William Edwards, Jim Eliason, Kaarin Engelmann, Eric Eshleman, Matt Evinger, Matt
Fagan, Daniel Farrow IV, Paul Fletcher, Ray Freeman, Paul Gaberson, Fred Gosnell, Herbert
Gratz, Don Greenwood, Tom Gregorio, Johnny Hasay, Mark Herman, Charles Hickok, Marc
Houde, John Jacoby, Robert Jamelli, James Jordan, Allen Kaplan, Michael Kaye, Kevin Keller,
Pierre LeBoeuf, Roderick Lee, Jason Levine, Keith Levy, Jonathan Lockwood, Larry Lingle,
Mark Love, Thomas McCorry, Vince Meconi, David Metzger, Tim Miller, Bruce Monnin,
Theodore Mullally, Michael A. Mullins, Martin Musella, Steve Okonski, John Pack, James Pei,
Peter Pollard, Joseph Powell, Bruce Reiff, Paul Risner, Shantanu Saha, Gregory Schmittgens,
John Sharp, Bruno Sinigaglio, Peter Staab, Ray Stakenas, Michael Stanley, Peter Stein, Kathy
Stroh, Joel Tamburo, Roger Taylor, Bill Thomson, Stuart Tucker, Sean Vessey, Ken Whitesell,
Bruno Wolff, George Young, David Zimmerman
Charter Members (purchased $100 Charter membership in 1999 and maintained at least a
Sustaining Membership since): Cliff Ackman, Jeremy Billones, David Cross, Pat Duffy, Bill
Dyer, Harry Flawd III, Mark Guttag, Tim Hitchings, Brad Johnson, Edward Kendrick,
Ben Knight, Andy Lewis, Carrie Lewis, Mark Love, Ric Manns, Kevin McCarthy, Brian
Mountford, Forrest Pafenberg, Jeff Paull, Peter Perla, John Poniske Sr, Robert Seulowitz,
Robert Sohn, David Terry, Justin Thompson, Jim Vroom
Tribunes ($100 BPA membership in 2015): Carl Adamec, Jason Albert, Emily Allbert, Geoff
Allbert, Jon Anderson, Steve Andriakos, Joe Angiolillo, Bill Ashbaugh, Marco Asteriti, Rich
Atwater, Rodney Bacigalupo, Donna Balkan, Phil Barcafer, Nathan Barhorst, Scott Beall,
Bruce Beard, Barrington Beavis, Bill Beckman, Christian Beckman, Jack Beckman, Nicholas
Benedict, Samantha Berk, Bryan Berkenstock, Alyssa Bernard, Bruce Bernard, Richard
Beyma, Marvin Birnbaum, Bruce Blumentritt, Daniel Blumentritt, David Bohnenberger,
Jesse Boomer, Guillaume Bouilleux, Vien Bounma, Alex Bove, Richard Boyes, Ricky Boyes,
Nicola Bradford, Steven Bradford, Chase Bramwell, Manuel Bravo, Peter Brickwood, Kevin
Broh-Kahn, Trella Bromley, Claire Brosius, Eric Brosius, Sam Brosius, John Bryan, Sean
Bryan, Michael Buccheri, Randy Buehler, Jeff Burdett, Jessa Burdett, Jim Burnett, Kevin
Burns, Chris Byrd, Wade Campbell, Remy Carr, Talia Carr, Constance Carroll, Melvin
Casselberry, Basem Chabaklo, Omar Chabaklo, Don Chappell, Ray Clark, John Clarke, Ron
Clement, Wes Coates, Bryan Collars, Walt Collins, Otis Comorau, John Corrado, Robert
Cranshaw, Greg Crowe, Steve Cuccaro, Andrew Cummins, Sceadeau D’Tela, Michael
Dauer, Robert Davidson, Anthony Daw, James Day, David DeAcereto, Gordon Deane,
Francis de Bellefeuille, Leon Delgato, Don Del Grande, Dave Denton, Bill Dickerson, Gary
Dickson, York Dobyns, Arthur Dohrman, Joe Doughan, Henry Dove, Franklin Downing,
Greg Downing, Charles Drozd, Robert Drozd, Ted Drozd, Max DuBoff, James Dubose,
Chris Easter, Charles Eastman, David Edelstein, Sam Edelston, Robb Effinger, Peter
Eldridge, Christopher Ellis, Andrew Emerick, Eric Engelmann, Noah Engelmann, Jim
Fardette, Scott Fenn, Guy Ferraiolo, David Finberg, Jeff Finkeldey, Rob Flowers, Chuck
Foster, Roberto Fournier, Andy Friedmann, Nickolas Frydas, Doug Galullo, Andrew
Gardner, Ben Gardner, Pete Gathman, Mark Geary, Michael Gibbs, Roy Gibson, Mark
Giddings, Joseph Gioia, John Gitzen II, Ralph Gleaton, RJ Gleaton, Chris Greenfield,
Patrons
75
Tribunes (continued)
Alex Gregorio, James Griffith, David Gubbay, Peter Gurneau, Mark Gutfreund, Jeffery
Hacker, Kevin Hacker, Robert Hamel, Kevin Hammond, Brian Hanechak, Ty Hansen,
Bryan Harker, Victor Harpley, Kirk Harris, Evan Harris, Joe Harrison, Bronwen Heap,
Jeff Heidman, Harald Henning, John Henry, Eric Ho, Haim Hochboim, Bruce Hodgins,
Elissa Hoeger, Dan Hoffman, Lucas Holmquist, Michael Holmquist, Sophia Holmquist,
David Hood, Eugene Hourany, Ben Hull, Gregory Hultgren, Keith Hunsinger, Al Hurda,
Richard Irving, Max Jamelli, Andy Joy, Lawrence Juel, Jack Jung, William Kelley, Bobby
Kester, Joseph Kester, Robert Kester, Andrew Kiefte, David Kiefte, Michael Kiefte,
Robert Kircher, Rick Kirchner, Paul Klayder, Steve Koleszar, Paul Konka, James Kramer
Jr, Kurt Kramer, Aaron Krebs, Kelly Krebs, Kelly Krieble, Mikaela Kumlander, Antero
Kuusi, Malinda Kyrkos, Vassili Kyrkos, Morris Kyrollos, Owen Kyrollos, Grant LaDue,
Anthony Lainesse, Bob Laird, Colin Laird, Michael Lam, Derek Landel, Douglas Landon,
Alex Lange, Jeff Lange, Andy Latto, Daniel Lawall, Keith Layton, Daniel Leader, Winton
Lemoine, William Lentz, Chuck Leonard, Steven LeWinter, Kevin Lewis, Robert Lewis,
Jason Ley, Kathleen Lockwood, Matt Looby, Larry Luongo, Joel Lytle, Randall MacInnis,
Mark Maginity, Robert Malcomson, Jeromey Martin, Keith Martin-Smith, James Mason,
Dan Mathias, Mark McBride, Mark McCandless, Jim McCarthy, Robert McCracken, Frank
McNally, Ewan McNay, Ed Menzel, Scott Meyer, Mark Miklos, Jeff Miller, Allen Mink,
Dennis Mishler, Craig Moffit, Lyman Moquin, Justin Morgan, Wayne Morrison, Bill Morse,
Wayne Mucklow, Jeff Mullet, Stephen Munchak, Rob Murray, Anthony Musella, Stan
Myszak, Srivana Nara, Patrick Neary, Tony Newton, Thibault Nguyen, Ken Nied, John
Ohlin, Robert Olsson, Jeemy Oppenheim, Greg Ottoman, Sam Packwood, Steve Packwood,
Nick Page, Chris Palermo, Nick Palmer, Jeff Pattison, Linda Pattison, Elaine Pearson, Bill
Peeck, Nicholas Pei, Carmen Petruzelli, Roy Pettis, Peggy Pfeifer, Richard Phares, Randy
Pippus, Bill Place, Dave Platnick, Geoff Pounder, Derek Pulhamus, Edward Rader, PierreLuc Ramier, Brad Raszewski, Steve Raszewski, Ratanaprasatporn, John, Craig Reece, Pete
Reese, Rob Renaud, Henry Richardson, Pat Richardson, Riku Riekkinen, Michael Rinella,
John Riston, Eric Ritter, Tim Rogers, Steven Rossi, Allan Rothberg, Ed Rothenheber, Paul
Rubin, Henry Russell, Robert Ryan, David Rynkowski, Antony Saccenti, Donte Saccenti
, Holiday Saccenti, Scott Saccenti, Martin Sample, Paul Sampson, Michael Sana, Roberto
Sanchez, Jim Savarick, Ben Scholl, Bert Schoose, Mike Schultz, Chris Senhouse, Jeff Senley,
Lexi Shea, Lynda Shea, Michael Shea, Rich Shipley, John Shoemaker, Barry Shoults, Barry
Shutt, Buddy Sinigaglio, Frank Sinigaglio, Vincent Sinigaglio, Brian Smith, Gregory D.
Smith, Gregory M. Smith, Kyle Smith, Malcolm Smith, Mark J. Smith, Nick Smith, Herbert
Sparks, Daniel Speyer, Steve Spisak, Raymond Stakenas II, Stephen Stanton, Chuck Stapp,
John Stevens, David Stoy, Alan Sudy, Kevin Sudy, Brian Sutton, Carl Sykes, Akihisa Tabei,
Jamie Tang, Don Tatum, James Terry, August Thiesing, Ginger Thompson, Nels Thompson,
John Tighe Sr, Eric Tolentino, Tim Tow, James Tracy II, Craig Trader, Todd Treadway,
Chris Trimmer, Michael Ussery, Thomas Vickery, Jennifer Visocnik, Mark Visocnik, Bjorn
von Knorring, Nathan Wagner, Jacob Wagner, Patrick Walker, Charles B. Ward, Aran
Warchavski, Bill Watkins, Frederick Webb, Michael Webb, Ed Welsh, Jason White, Gareth
Williams, John Wilson, Johnny Wilson, Theresa Wilson, Keith Wixson, Kevin Wojtaszczyk,
David Wong, Robert E. Woodham, Robert Woodson, Chris Yaure, Joe Yaure, Phillip Yaure,
Chuck Yingling, Craig Yope, Mark Yoshikawa, Kevin Youells
Vendors: Academy Games, Against the Odds, Conquistador Games, Days of Wonder, Decision
Games, Fun to 11, GMT, Griggling Games, Harmony House Hobbies, Lost Battalion Games, Mayfair
Games, Multi-Man Publications, Paul Koenig Games, Rio Grande Games, Stronghold Games, Wargame
Zone, Worthington Publishing, Ye Old Toy Soldier Shop, Z-Man Games
For complete membership details refer to: http://www.boardgamers.org/bpaterms.htm
76
Sandman Salute
The Sandmen
gather at the
Good Spirits
Watering Hole.
Sandmen drink
to their courage.
I thought I had
destroyed the
negatives.
Grand Marshall Docktor leads
the Parade thru the Showroom
Euroweenies.
Not even a tree
can withstand the
Sandman Parade.