Stan Myszak vs one of the Lange clan.	Patriarch Jeff Lange vs Dennis Culhane.

hand-to-hand ...

After a year's absence - Conflict of Heroes returned to WBC. The heat was intense, and sweat dripped as they struggled in hand-to-hand combat on the steppes of mother Russia. Wait, that was just the Lampeter room when the AC failed, although in one heated semi-final it almost came to hand-to-hand combat for the win. COH being a fairly easy game to learn drew interest on the night before as several wood be contestants pushed some counters around and learned the system. It led to multiple folks buying the game (after the event - since the dealer room was not yet open), and to multiple occasions of father against son and brother against brother.

All in all, 16 players entered the fray and all persevered through three heats to determine the final four. Jeff Lange, who won COH at PREZCON, and Steve Huskey finished the heats with 3-0 records, and handed Dave Stiffler and Stan Myszak their lone losses. Nevertheless, VP tiebreakers advanced both with their 2-1 records to the semifinals with Dave besting Jeff, and Stan edging Steve by adjudication.

Dave's Germans opposed Stan in the Final's Storms of Steel scenario 14. It pit an entrenched Soviet Tank Company of 6th Guards Army vs a German Panzer platoon from Das Reich (nine German vs 17 Russian pieces). Several German tanks with infantry support oppose Russian anti-tank guns on each flank, with an anti-tank ditch in the center, and T34's in reserve. Dave had the initiative and destroyed an AT gun with his first impulse. This began a string of six straight hits for the Germans with the Russians replying with but one. The Russians used CAP points to favor their rolls, and the Germans responded by reducing the rolls with CAP. This would have important ramifications later in the match. As the first round came to a close - Dave's Germans had eliminated seven units while losing four. Stan was able to bring multiple tanks in close to begin Round 2 and began a series of close combat attacks that teetered back and forth. Although Dave did well with infantry pioneers laying smoke, his losses continued to mount. As we closed the second round, Dave had upped his lead to ten VP's, but in the process had lost seven VP's including most of his armor. As it was just a matter of time before he was overwhelmed, Dave conceded.

Stan was more familiar with the game having helped the designer with an English translation. That said, Dave did a great job on a game he learned while at WBC and came close to overcoming the Russian position at the start of the scenario. One lesson from the conflict was to save the CAP points that could have given the Germans many more actions in the first round, potentially preventing the T34's from closing the ground to close combat the Germans.

Another of the Lange lads takes on Dave Stiffler.	Chuck Yingling tussles with Mike Nagel.