the russian campaign

Updated Nov. 16, 2015

2015 WBC Report

2016 Status: pending 2016 GM commitment

Gary Dickson, AZ

2015 Champion

Event History

1991 Rob Beyma 31
1992 Alan Frappier 26
1993 Ed O'Connor 20
1994 Jeff Martin 16
1995 Rob Beyma 16
1996 Tom Gregorio 20
1997 Gary Dickson 24
1998 Gary Dickson 27
1999 Gary Dickson 26
2000 Doug James 30
2001 Phil Evans 27
2002 Tom Gregorio 30
2003 Doug James 30
2004 Tom Gregorio 36
2005 Doug James 33
2006 Doug James 23
2007 Bert Schoose 34
2008 Doug James 27
2009 Doug James 39
2010 Bert Schoose 36
2011 John Ohlin 41
2012 Gary Dickson 31
2013 Bert Schoose 26
2014 Richard Beyma 24
2015 Gary Dickson 23

PBeM Event History
1999 Gary Dickson 19
2000 Gary Dickson 22
2001 Doug James 23
2002 Gary Dickson 44
2003 Tom Gregorio 40
2006 Doug James 34
2008 Tom Gregorio 31
2010 Gary Dickson 31
2012 Gary Dickson 24
2014 Ed O'Connor 30

Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Gary Dickson       AZ    15    491
  2.  Doug James         NC    14    390
  3.  Tom Gregorio       PA    15    366
  4.  Bert Schoose       IL    15    289
  5.  Alan Zasada        IL    15    111
  6.  Rob Beyma          MD    13     96
  7.  George Karahalios  IL    15     90
  8.  John Ohlin         FL    14     89
  9.  Ed O'Connor        NJ    14     87
 10.  Pat Flory          CT    14     85
 11.  Richard Beyma      VA    15     82
 12.  Phil Evans         VA    04     63
 13.  Jeff Martin        CT    10     48
 14.  Art Lupinacci      on    02     40
 15.  Tim Nielsen        VA    11     36
 16.  Joe Collinson      MD    04     36
 17.  Dave Ketchum       FL    04     36
 18.  Mike Pacheco       CA    10     32
 19.  Joe Angiolillo     CT    10     24
 20.  Gregory M. Smith   PA    12     22
 21.  Ari Kogut          TX    12     22
 22.  Michael Kaye       MD    12     20
 23.  John Malaska       NJ    14     16
 24.  Scott Abrams       CA    06     16
 25.  Forrest Pafenberg  VA    06     16
 26.  Allen Kaplan       NJ    05     16
 27.  Jim Eliason        IA    05     14
 28.  Mike Mishler       CA    14     13
 29.  Michael Trobaugh   IL    14     12
 30.  John Popiden       CA    07     12
 31.  Michael Mitchell   GA    06     12
 32.  Roy Walker         uk    08     10
 33.  Jeff Lange         ae    04     10
 34.  Brad Frisby        MD    01      8
 35.  John Bullis        WI    02      6
 36.  Rob McCracken      DE    05      5
 37.  John Ryan          FL    07      4
 38.  Alex Gregorio      PA    08      3
 39.  Larry Hollern      TX    08      3
 40.  Marty Musella      VA    99      3
2015 Laurelists Returning Laurelists: 2

Alan Zasada, IL
2nd

Bert Schoose, FL
3rd

Richard Beyma, VA
4th

Tom Gregorio, PA
5th

George Karahalios, IL
6th

Past Winners

Rob Beyma, MD
1991, 1995

Alan Frappier, CT
1992

Ed O'Connor, NJ
1993

Jeff Martin, CT
1994

Tom Gregorio, PA
'96, '02, '04

Gary Dickson, AZ
1997-1999, 2012, 2015

Doug James, NC
00, 03, 05-'06, 08-09

Phil Evans, VA
2001

Bert Schoose, FL
2007, 2010, 2013

John Ohlin, FL
2011

Michael Trobaugh and Alan Zasada

GM Gary Dickson fends off challenger Zasada in the Final.

New VC Debut to Play Balance Success ...

The 2015 tournament featured a new GM and a Victory Condition change: the Germans now need to conquer territory equal to the green line minus one small city, versus minus two in past years. Compared to last year, average bids dropped from 15.4 extra Russian replacements to 11.6, and Russian winning percentage dropped from 59.7% to 52.6%. The new scenario appears to be very closely balanced so far!

23 players competed in the free form “grognard style” tournament—the lowest number of the past decade. Friday evening was devoted to a challenge round. When the smoke cleared Gary Dickson, Alan Zasada, Richard Beyma, and Bert Schoose were left standing. Three past TRC champions with eight shields between them made for a strong gauntlet to run.

In the first semifinal, Gary got the Germans for a bid of +11 versus Bert. Gary’s devastating opening assault created an early advantage, but Bert defended skillfully and even managed to retake Kiev late in the game. However, Gary landed a sea invasion next to Rostov on Turn 3 which was quickly reinforced with panzers when Bert’s 2-1 counterattack failed. Bert was never able to retake the city and Gary emerged with a narrow victory.  The weather was clear/snow.

In the other bracket, Richard got the Germans for a bid of +10 against Alan. Richard started well but his 8-7 sea invasion failed, and, he lost a headquarters unit giving Alan a bonus point.  Richard was able to capture Stalino, Dnepropetrovsk, and Leningrad, but desperate battles raged at Bryansk and Kharkov. Ultimately Alan was able to hold both cities plus Kursk for a -3 Russian victory. The weather was light mud/light mud.

In the Final, Gary got the Germans for a bid of +5 against Alan. Alan’s opening defense was solid; several Russian units survived but were retreated to poor positions. Kiev fell on Turn 2, and a successful sea invasion opened the door to Sevastopol, which fell to a 4-1 Stuka on Turn 3. Gary slogged forward in the light mud weather, but was unable to close on key objectives due to Alan’s dogged defenses. Stalino, Leningrad, and Kursk eventually fell, but Bryansk and Kharkov held out, with the latter surviving several 1-1 attacks. On Turn 5, Alan needed to retake both Kursk and Stalino to pull out a win. The last die rolls held no Russian magic, and Gary claimed his fifth WBC TRC shield.

The new management thanks Tom Gregorio for his 15 years of service as GM of the tournament.

GM Gary Dickson [1st Year] NA
shauffie@aol.com NA

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