Jonathan Lockwood, VA

2012 Champion

Event History
1991		Bruce Monnin		20
1992		Tom Scarborough		23
1993		Bruce Monnin		28
1994		Phil Rennert		18
1995		Ray Freeman		33
1996		Steve Packwood		27
1997		Tim Hitchings		33
1998		Mike Kaye		32
1999		Ray Freeman		45
2000		Pat Richardson		42
2001		David Finberg		43
2002		Andy Gardner		51
2003		Ray Freeman		47
2004		Bruce Monnin		51
2005		Dennis Nicholson		55
2006		John Sharp		46
2007		Andy Gardner		44
2008		Jonathan Lockwood		50
2009		Pat Richardson		43
2010		Vince Meconi		46
2011		Steve Packwood		42
2012		Jonathan Lockwood		47

PBeM Event History
1999		Vince Meconi		22
2000		Ed Menzel		39
2001		Jonathan Lockwood		43
2004		Don Greenwood		44
2006		Andy Gardner		46
2008		Darren Kilfara		46
2010		Jonathan Lockwood		43
2012		Dennis Nicholson		50
2013		Timothy Tow		41

Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Andy Gardner       VA    12    179
  2.  Jonathan Lockwood  VA    12    175
  3.  Pat Richardson     FL    11    158
  4.  Ray Freeman        CA    04    133
  5.  Vince Meconi       DE    13    132
  6.  Ed Menzel          CA    13    128
  7.  Dennis Nicholson   NY    12    127
  8.  Darren Kilfara     uk    12     99
  9.  Bruce Monnin       OH    12     97
 10.  Ewan McNay         CT    10     80
 11.  Bruce Reiff        OH    10     71
 12.  Robert Drozd       IL    13     70
 13.  Don Greenwood      MD    12     70
 14.  Steve Packwood     MN    11     70
 15.  Michael Kaye       CA    10     64
 16.  Charlie Drozd      IL    12     60
 17.  Alan Applebaum     MA    10     52
 18.  David Finberg      MA    01     50
 19.  Tim Tow            WA    13     45
 20.  Rob Flowers        NC    06     44
 21.  John Sharp         FL    06     40
 22.  Jim Kramer         PA    12     38
 23.  Andy Choptiany     PA    11     32
 24.  Tim Hitchings      DE    04     30
 25.  Bill Thomson       TX    03     30
 26.  Greg Berry         VA    05     28
 27.  John Pack          CO    12     21
 28.  Glenn McMaster     on    06     19
 29.  Michael Ussery     MD    13     18
 30.  Chuck Stapp        NJ    09     18
 31.  John Elliott       MD    07     16
 32.  Rob Day            KS    06     16
 33.  Phil Rennert       MD    99     16
 34.  Jim Laws           WA    12     15
 35.  Joe Collinson      MD    03     15
 36.  Ron Dietz          OH    00     15
 37.  Mark Gutfreund     KY    06     12
 38.  John Strand        CO    03     10
 39.  Michael Knautz     WI    00     10
 40.  Phil Watkins       au    13      9
 41.  Karl Bodenheimer   MO    10      9
 42.  Mike Brophy        NC    06      8
 43.  Scott Beall        OR    08      5
 44.  Kevin Shewfelt     CA    04      5
 45.  Mike Bailey        VA    02      5
 46.  Dave Streamo       OH    00      5
 47.  Bryan Eshleman     NC    01      4
 48.  Bob Hamel          CT    99      4
 49.  Dan Henry          IL    01      3
 50.  Nick Markevich     CA    99      3
 51.  James Pei          TX    99      2
 52.  Sean McKenzie      AK    99      1

2012 Laurelists                                             Repeating Laurelists:
Jim Kramer, PA 2nd Charlie Drozd, IL 3rd Bruce Monnin, OH 4th Andy Gardner, VA 5th John Pack, CO 6th

Past Winners
Bruce Monnin, OH 1991, 1993, 2004 Phil Rennert, MD 1994 Ray Freeman, CA 1995, 1999, 2003 Steve Packwood, MN 1996, 2011 Tim Hitchings, DE 1997 Mike Kaye, CA 1998 Pat Richardson, FL 2000, 2009 David Finberg, MA 2001 Andy Gardner, VA 2002, 2007 Dennis Nicholson, NY 2005 John Sharp, FL 2006 Jonathan Lockwood, VA 2008, 2012 Vince Meconi, DE 2010

AC woes or not, Lampeter filled on Thursday morning. Bruce Monnin, our PBeM GM guru vs Ewan McNay  Mike Brophy and Mark Gutfreund  Joe Powell and John Shingara 47 Still in Convoy ... Running the table for the second time ... Jonathan Lockwood ran the table with eight wins to take his second WAS title. He had previously won the WBC crown in 2008 with an identical 8-0 mark, obviously preferring perfection to split decisions. He also made the playoffs for the fifth straight year, a new record. He beat Jim Kramer (6-2-0) in the Final. Charlie Drozd finished third at 5-1-1 and Bruce Monnin nabbed fourth with a 5-2 log. Andy Gardner (4-2), finished fifth and received a copy of the book Struggle for the Middle Sea: The Great Navies at War in the Mediterranean Theater 1940-1945, given to the highest finisher not winning a plaque. The remaining playoff contenders were John Pack, Ben Gardner and Ray Freeman at 3-3. At the conclusion of the Swiss round, automatic playoff qualifiers were: 1) Jonathan Lockwood, 48 VPs/5-0; 2) Charlie Drozd, 43 VPs, 4-0-1; 3) Bruce Monnin, 42 VPs & 4-1; 4) Andy Choptiany, 38 VPs/4-1; 5) Andy Gardner, 38 VPs, 4-1; and 6) Jim Kramer, 36 VPs & 4-1. John Pack, Ben Gardner, and Sean Druelinger tied for seventh place with identical 3-2 records and 32 Victory Points, but Sean withdrew due to family commitments. Andy Choptiany also withdrew due to a family emergency and Ray Freeman (3-2, 30 VPs) then won a schedule tiebreaker over Mike Kaye (3-1, 30 VPs) and defending champion Steve Packwood (3-2, 30 VPs) for the eighth playoff slot. In the quarterfinals, top seed Lockwood's Allies handled Ben Gardner, Monnin's Allies beat Pack, Drozd's Axis stopped Ray Freeman, and Kramer's Axis cruised past Andy Gardner's Allies. In the semifinals, Kramer's Axis maxed out against Monnin while Lockwood's Allies overcame Drozd. In the Final, Kramer took the Allies for a 2.5 bid. Jim deployed the Barents on 2 opening. It was a classic match in which the POC seldom strayed far from the 0 indicator. In fact, the match came down to the last die roll of Turn 8. Jim had seven ASW in the South Atlantic to remove Jonathan's seven U-boats, but could not come up with the great roll to do so -- taking out four but allowing the Axis to break control and deny the Allies 1 POC. With that result, the raw POC of Allies +2 became an adjusted POC after the bid of +0.5 Axis. It was our closest ever Final. 47 players entered and 85 total games were played; despite the engine room conditions in the Lampeter Room, both were the highest totals in four years. The favorite opening Allied strategy was again Barents on 1 by a wide margin; although no exact stats were compiled, it appeared that more Axis players were declining to sail on Turn 1and even Turn 2 if Allied deployments were not to their liking. One Axis player didn't sail until Turn 5! Kramer copped Best Axis Player with a 6-1 mark, while Lockwood nabbed Best Allied Player laurels at 5-0, the seventh time he has been so designated. David Anderson of Farmington Hills, MI took Rookie of the Year honors with a 3-2-0 record good for 14th place. Finally, John Welage was our sportsmanship nominee. In addition to being a long-time competitor, a real gentleman, and great opponent, he's always willing to be the odd man out if necessary. Play balance couldn't have been better as the Axis and Allies each won 42 contests with one tie. It is very likely that the marginally increased bids for the Allies contributed to that balance. 81 of the 85 games featured an Allied bid; the remaining four games had no bid. The average bid was 1.72 (all games) and 1.80 (games with a bid), both all time highs. Bids either changed the outcome or the scoring of 19 games, another all-time high. As always, putting on the tournament is a team effort. My thanks go to Assistant Gamemasters Rob Drozd, Ewan McNay, and John Sharp; John also provided the chess clocks. Also lending a hand were Charlie Drozd and Bob Hamel. John sharp adjusts the standings on the magnetized leader board after finishing his game. Jonathon Lockwood and James Kramer in the Final after finishing 7th & 8th in 2011.

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 Play By Email 2013

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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