Marty Musella puts a little extra gusto into his die roll vs Jim Eliason to no avail.	Rob Beyma regains his title vs Jim Eliason on the hot Lampeter steppes.

Eastern Front Marshals showed up Wednesday evening for their annual duel in the East. However, the climate this year was more like the jungle of Guadalcanal than the Steppes of Russia. A very noticeable missing Field Marshal was the game designer, Art Lupinacci, who did not attend the convention. The seven-turn scenario ending in May/June 1942 was played in the early rounds. The ten-turn scenario was used in the last two rounds. The average playing time was 4.2 hours. Sides were determined by mutual agreement or by bidding Victory Points with replacement points used as a tiebreaker. The average bid was 19.7 VPs in the 7-turn scenario and 27.7 in the 10-turn scenario. The Germans won most of the games played in the Mulligan Round and Round 1. The Russians won every game played after Round 1.

Wally Hnatiw, Charles Catania, Rob Beyma, Marty Musella and Jim Eliason, all advanced to Round 2. Two eligible winners dropped out to play other games, including defending champ Richard Beyma. Wally had a good opening attack against Rob but ran out of steam by the end of the year. Wally was one of the 1st edition playtesters who was making his first appearance in the tournament since 2006. We hope to see him back next year. Charlie had a fairly good 1941 offensive versus Jim but Jim's winter offensive heavily attritioned the German army. Doug Richards, playing as an eliminator, struggled against Marshal Musella's Russian defense and conceded before the end of the first year.

Three players remained for the semifinals: Marty, Jim, and Rob. This was the 2nd year in a row that Marty made the semifinals. Rather than give Rob a bye, Charlie agreed to play the eliminator role. In the first semifinal game, Jim bid 27 VPs to play the Russians. Marty had a very strong 1941 offensive in the south, capturing Kharkov and Kursk. In the north, Marty picked up Veliki-Luki and Smolensk. But Jim unleashed a very strong counteroffensive in late fall in the north and also flipped a couple of panzers near Kursk. The weather in the fall was Clear/Lt. Mud and Mud/Snow. With heavy losses and facing an all Snow turn, Marty conceded at the end of the year.

In the other semifinal game, Charlie and Rob agreed on sides and played with the default bid (28 VPs). Charlie's opening German attack eliminated 15 units, trapped one, and flipped four more. A 3-1 2nd impulse attack against Minsk cleared the city but the Germans were unable to advance. Charlie had specifically commented on being more aggressive with the Germans. On Turn 3, Charlie pushed five panzer corps up against two infantry armies in the forest in front of Moscow and attacked at 3-1 (-1). His aggressive strategy was rewarded with a '10' roll (DE). The panzers continued on to Moscow on 2nd Impulse and attacked the Russian capital at 4-1 (-1). Charlie then rolled another '10'. After Rob "shot" a few Marshals, the Russians counterattacked on both German flanks near Moscow and eliminated a panzer and a flipped panzer. At the beginning of Turn 4, Charlie found his panzers surrounded. The German infantry was still at Smolensk and Veliki-Luki. To avoid another Stalingrad, Charlie abandoned Moscow and broke out to the west. The weather in the fall was Clear/Lt. Mud and Lt. Mud/Snow. Facing a growing Russian army that was still holding Leningrad and Dnepropetrovsk, Charlie conceded at the end of 1941.

In the Final, both Jim and Rob wanted to play the Russians. After both players bid 28 VPs, Rob won the tiebreaker by giving away more Russian infantry replacements. The game itself was anti-climatic. Jim, a good player and a strong tournament player, seemed "out-of-sync". He only eliminated 15 units in the opening German attack and flipped two more. The Germans did not get much penetration in the north and did not reach Wilno. Several Russian units survived, especially in the south. A 2nd impulse attack on Odessa eliminated the Russian cavalry unit but did not take the city. On the Russian turn, a surviving 3-8 cavalry unit in the Odessa MD found a hole in the German line and captured Bucharest. The Russians defended Kiev, the Dnepr River, Dnepropetrovsk, and the Luga river. Delay units were also left in Minsk and Riga.

On Turn 2, Jim captured Riga, Minsk, Odessa, and eliminated a Russian stack in front of Kiev. A 3-1 2nd impulse attack on Kiev failed to take the city. Rob retreated in the north, reinforced Kiev, and defended Dnepropetrovsk heavily. Jim rolled Clear/Clear weather in SEP/OCT and advanced to Kursk, Bryansk, Smolensk, the river in front of Kalinin, and the Luga river. AGS panzers and some infantry failed to capture Dnepropetrovsk. During 2nd impulse, AGN (having flanked the Luga line) made a 4-1 attack and got a D3. The advanced panzers pulled back from Kursk and near Kalinin. The Russians counterattacked a panzer near Dnepropetrovsk at 3-1 but had to soak off with an infantry unit at 1-4. Two German infantry units were also attacked near Leningrad at 3-1. The panzer unit was eliminated along with the Russian infantry army but the German infantry near the Luga retreated with only a step loss.

Jim had played enough to tell where this game was going. Faced with a strong Russian army and a +1 weather DRM, he conceded at the beginning of Turn 4. Rob had regained the title -- making it six out of seven -- and keeping it in the family. I look forward to Art's (and Jim Tracy's) return next year along with the possibility of Richard playing the entire tournament.