we the people  

Updated 11/26/2010

 2010 WBC Report  

 2011 Status: pending 2011 GM commitment

Keith Wixson, NJ

2010 Champion

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Event History
1994    Andy Lewis      60
1995    Roger Taylor      56
1996    George Seary      54
1997    Thomas Drueding      40
1998    James Pei      40
1999    Marvin Birnbaum     32
2000    Brian Mountford     45
2001    Brian Mountford     32
2002    Marvin Birnbaum     54
2003    George Young     41
2004    John Poniske     43
2005    Chris Byrd     43
2006    George Young     45
2007    George Young     39
2008    Brian Mountford     38
2009    Marvin Birnbaum     34
2010    Keith Wixson     58

PBeM Event History
2004    Paul Gaberson      46
2008    Dan Leader     50

WAM Event History
2004    Michael Ussery      16
2005    Marvin Birnbaum       24
2006    James Pei     13
2007    James Pei     20
 Laurels

Rank  Name                From  Last  Total
  1.  George Young         VT    10    244
  2.  Marvin Birnbaum      NY    09    209
  3.  Paul Gaberson        PA    10    186
  4.  Brian Mountford      NY    09    179
  5.  James Pei            TX    08    118
  6.  Keith Wixson         NJ    10    108
  7.  John Poniske         PA    09     91
  8.  Dan Leader           MA    08     60
  9.  Joe Collinson        MD    08     52
 10.  Chris Byrd           CT    05     40
 11.  John Faella          RI    10     36
 12.  Bill Peeck           NY    08     36
 13.  George Seary         NY    06     36
 14.  Jim Gutt             AZ    04     36
 15.  Eric Kleist          MD    10     32
 16.  Pete Reese           VA    08     27
 17.  Roderick Lee         CA    07     24
 18.  Michael Pacheco      CA    04     24
 19.  Anthony Burke        NJ    00     24
 20.  Tom Drueding         MA    04     22
 21.  Michael Ussery       MD    04     20
 22.  Henry Rice           NM    09     18
 23.  Jim Fardette         ae    01     18
 24.  David Dockter        MN    02     16
 25.  David Tianen         WI    00     16
 26.  Pat Mirk             FL    03     15
 27.  Philip Burgin-Young  VT    08     12
 28.  Bruce Monnin         OH    08     12
 29.  Rob Taylor           MI    05     12
 30.  Paul Barrett         uk    04     12
 31.  Ken Gutermuth        TX    05      9
 32.  Jim Eliason          IA    05      8
 33.  Stuart Tucker        MD    04      8
 34.  Bruce Wigdor         NJ    02      8
 35.  Andy Lewis           DE    00      8
 36.  Randy MacInnis       NJ    10      6
 37.  Terry Coleman        CA    07      6
 38.  Seth Fine            WA    04      6
 39.  Joe Stenken          KY    03      5
 40.  Mark Yoshikawa       CA    06      4
 41.  Bryan Thompson       MD    04      4
 42.  Randall Borra        NY    00      4
 43.  Jim Falling          IL    99      4
 44.  Mike Mitchell        GA    05      3
 45.  Matthew Bacho        MD    04      2

2010 Laurelists                                             Repeating Laurelists:

George Young, VT
2nd

Paul Gaberson, PA
3rd

John Faella, RI
4th

Eric Kleist, MD
5th

Randall MacInnis, NJ
6th

Past Winners

Andy Lewis, DE
1994

Roger Taylor, VA
1995

George Seary, NY
1996

Thomas Drueding, PA
1997

James Pei, TX
1998

Marvin Birnbaum, NJ
1999, 2002, 2009

Brian Mountford, NY
2000-01, 2008

George Young, VT
2003, 2006, 2007

John Poniske, PA
2004

Chris Byrd, CT
2005

Mark Yoshikawa and Jon Lockwood chase each other around new England.

Paul Gaberson battles eventual champ Keith Wixson in the semi-finals.

An Evolving Revolution

Breaking ground as the first of what became a wildly successful genre of Card Driven Games, We The People is one of the longest continuously running national level wargame tournaments. Over the years WTP has attracted and held a loyal following, many of whom made it a point to participate in this, the final year in which the game will be the title event of the tournament. Beginning in 2011, having paid its penance in the transition year of 2010, Washington's War (WWR) will become the default game for this contest at WBC.

This year both coexisted and in a surprisingly smooth fashion. Eight contestants preferred to play WTP, but they were a strong contingent that stayed for multiple games, 22 of the total 78 games played. In contrast, the new Washington's War had 50 players, 25 of whom stayed for only one or two games; many coming primarily to have designer Mark Herman teach them the differences between the two games in person. There were also seven true tyros who had played neither game before but who were intrigued by the opportunity to learn about CDGs in our famous coached division and to leave WBC with new experiences. Two of these contestants, Dan Hoffman and Edward Rader, were playing in the full tournament pool by the second Swiss round and stayed through all four Swiss rounds and then played each other for fun and honor after that. It was a very tough call, but Dan Hoffman was awarded the tournament's annual Minuteman Militia Award as the top performing and most persistent novice.

Of the 56 games of Washington's War played, the Americans won 28 and the British 26. That's a swing of one game (and far more than one were close) to having this newly published title being perfectly balanced during its first year. Needless to say, Mark Herman, his development team and playtesters were ecstatic. There was no bidding for sides for Washington's War.

With such a large number of participants this year, four Swiss rounds were needed to fill out the quarter-final bracket in the Single Elimination portion of the tournament. Seven players had identical 3-1 records, so as previously announced, five were selected by lot to fill out the bracket. Unfortunately, two strong players, Joe Collinson with multiple laurels for top notch showings and Marvin Birnbaum, three-time defending champion, were the two scorned by Lady Luck and excluded. However, the brackets were filled with worthy competitors, and we enjoyed some very intense games. Eric Kleist, who preferred the default WTP version of the game, was defeated by three-time champion, George Young. Matthew Ellis, attending WBC from Cheshire UK for the first time, was taken out by John Faella. Gray beard CDW journeyman Bill Edwards was bested by Paul Gaberson, and long time WTP AGM Randall MacInnis fell to Keith Wixson.

The semi-final round found George Young facing John Faella. John is a grad student at University of Rhode Island and has been playing and continually improving in WTP since high school. We were thrilled to see him have a chance to knock off three-time champion George Young. In the end, however, experience and superior cards told the story and the youngster fell to defeat. Paul Gaberson opposed Keith Wixson in the other semi-final. Long time friends who have dueled in multiple CDG titles at WBC and the Winter Activation Meetings (WAM) for years met one more time mixing conservatism and opportunistic risk taking. In this case, it was Keith who got another chance to win his first WTP championship..., if he could only beat George Young.

Starting at 11 PM, the two titans dealt out the cards, with George taking the British. George was toying with the idea of using a British Southern strategy. When Keith boldly leveraged the use of a Battle Card to drive Howe out of Boston early in 1775, George took the opportunity to try that strategy. By the end of 1776, the British had five colonies well in hand. Anyone who has played George would easily recognize the situation. He had completely locked down GA, SC and NC with red PCs and had four generals with armies enjoying the protection from attrition provided by the Winter Attrition line. He continued to inexorably, deliberately and carefully advance the British armies in mutually supporting positions in an attempt to take Virginia. However, by this time, Keith had marched Washington down from the North to provide competent leadership and was symmetrically opposing George's inexorable advance. Sideshows and distractions were attempted and foiled by both sides as the British continued to edge forward. With the war ending in 1782, George was dealt a hand that could not be used to advance the British cause, four American events, one minor British event and two OPS-1 cards. Keith Wixson managed to seize the WBC We the People title for the first time after many years of contesting strongly for it!

We are nominating Paul Gaberson as the WBC Sportsman of the Year. For more than a decade, Paul has been one of the most genteel, knowledgeable, patient, unflustered, and fun to play opponents at WBC, WAM or BPA sponsored PBeM tournaments. He is always willing to help the GM or another player in anyway. He plays hard regardless of the situation, so even if he is out of the running, he gives his opponent a great game and the other players in the tournament know that he never gives out an unofficial bye. Paul accepts both good and bad luck with equal grace. In short, Paul Gaberson is the wargamer that you want your kids to use as a role model.

WTP offers additional prizes. Publisher GMT provided merchandise credit for each plaque winner. Dan Hoffman was presented with a copy of Thomas Fleming's Washington's Secret War as The Minuteman Militia Award. Vermonter George Young received a copy of Benedict Arnold's Navy by James Nelson, which chronicles the nearby Battle of Valcour Island as a consolation award. Both the champion Keith Wixson, and the John Paul Jones Sportsmanship award winner, Paul Gaberson received handsome copies of David McCullough's 1776: The Illustrated Edition which features period replicas of key documents, engravings, art, letters and maps.

From left to right, the World Boardgaming Championship We The People winners: Paul Gaberson, third place; first time winner Keith Wixson, and George Young, second place.
The top performing novice in the coached division, Dan Hoffman (L), receives The Minuteman Militia Award from GM Don Chappell who graciously funds extra prizes for his event.
 GM      Don Chappell [8th Year]  3604 Ruidoso Dr, Arlington, TX 76017 
  don.chappell@lmco.com   NA

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