manoeuvre  

Updated 11/30/2008

2008 WBC Report  

   2009 Status: pending 2009 GM commitment

Chris Byrd, CT

2008 Champion

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Event History
2008    Chris Byrd     57
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Chris Byrd         CT    08     30
  2.  John Miklos        GA    08     18
  3.  Scott Moll         VA    08     12
  4.  Mark Giddings      NY    08      9
  5.  Marc Berenbach     MA    08      6
  6.  Bob Heinzmann      FL    08      3
2008 Laurelists

John Miklos, GA
2nd

Scott Moll, VA
3rd

Mark Giddings, NY
4th

Marc Berenbach, MA
5th

Bob Heinzmann, FL
6th


A monopoly can be a wonderful thing. Blessed with a protected timeslot opposite no other events, Maneuveur drew players from every spectrum. Here JR Tracy, Greg Thatcher, Scott Moll, and Terry Coleman cross paths not normally trod.

And then there were just two. John Miklos of Georgia battles Chris Byrd of Connecticut for the first championship of this new event. Chris won to improve his chances as a strong contender for the 2008 Casear Award.

Impressive Debut

The Manoeuvre tournament benefitted from an ideal schedule slot in being offered with little competition from other ongoing events on Tuesday morning. It was designed for both those looking to just try out the game and those looking to win it all. The mapboard was set for each round. The first round was an open affair with little terrain in the middle of the board and the later rounds offered new challenges with terrain. Since the game comes with eight different countries, the tournament was designed for the winner to show their skill with the game. The players were allowed to play one country twice throughout the tournament and all other countries no more than once. This allowed those looking to check out the game to just play Britain and France, the more straightforward countries, if they wanted.

The first round saw the players broken up into groups of four. Each player played everyone in their group. This guaranteed everyone at least three games. The top eight scores would advance to the elimination rounds. Points were awarded for the type of wins and losses with there being penalties for not completing the battle before the time limit. Not surprisingly, the French were the most played with a record of 27-14. Britain was next at 17-12 following by Russia 9-17, Prussia 9-9, Ottoman Empire 8-9, Spain 5-5, United States 2-4, and Austria 1-5.

Five 3-0 players advanced along with three 2-1 players to the single elimination portion. The country records of these eight players were France 9-0, Britain 5-0, Russia 3-0, Prussia 2-0, Austria and Spain 1-1, United States 0-1 and the Ottoman Empire was not used.

The Quarter Finals saw the following results:

Mark Giddings' US defeated Nathan Trent's Spain at nightfall 9-8

Scott Moll's Britain killed five of Bob Heinzmann's Austrians

Chris Byrd's Prussia defeated Marc Berenbach's Britain at nightfall 8-5

John Miklos' Britain killed 5 of Rob Winslow's Prussians

The semis saw Chris Byrd's Russians edge Scott Moll's Prussians 9-8 at nightfall while John Miklos' French killed 5 of Mark Gidding's Austrians.

The Final was a two-game match. In the first game Chris took the British vs John's French. John gained an early advantage in kills and was pushing down the open side of the board into British territory. The French losses came as they were inflicting steep losses on the British who always seemed to have the right card to restore those losses. As the momentum swung, the British started an incursion to isolate the French towns. The French, teetering on the verge of routing, gave ground rather than risk contact. In the end, night fell with a 12-5 British victory and a 4-2 loss lead going into Game 2 putting John's back up against the wall to really rout the enemy.

In the second game, John took the Russians in hopes of routing Chris' Austrians. The Austrians drew first blood as O'Reilly's cavalry chewed up the Russian Guard wrecking the column as it retreated frm the attack in the hills. The horses were very effective causing two pursuit losses. Orlov's Regiment went down next. The Russians are just timid on offense as they can't muster much firepower even when they do exert pressure (i.e.. low die rolls vs no good cards). The crushing of the Russian left was completed when Kexholm's Regiment fell to a three-pronged Austrian attack. A massive charge by the Russian 1st Cavalry overwhelmed the Austrian 4th Regiment and the mop-up of the fleeing troops destroyed the unit. Koursk died due to the relentless pushing of the Austrians and the fate of the Russians was sealed. John managed to prevent a rout, but did not have enough troops left to challenge. Chris won both games to be crowned the first WBC Manouevre champion. He went 7-0 while playing Britain twice, He didn't play either the Ottoman Empire or the United States.

 GM      Andy Lewis (1st Year)  NA  
    NA   NA

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