axis & allies [Updated October 06]  

2006 WBC Report     

 2007 Status: pending 2007 GM commitment

Joe Powell, VA

2006 Champion

Offsite links:

 

Event History
1999    Kevin Keller     43
2000    Tim Rothenhoefer     43
2001    Patrick Mirk     41
2002    Phil Rennert     50
2003    Philip Shea     34
2004     Philip Shea     31
2005    Charles Michalek     19
2006    Joe Powell     28

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Philip Shea        VA    06    164
  2.  Joe Powell         VA    06    134
  3.  Kevin Keller       MD    06    128
  4.  Phil Rennert       MD    04     96
  5.  Pat Mirk           FL    05     90
  6.  Tim Rothenhoefer   MD    00     60
  7.  Brian Fitzpatrick  VA    03     54
  8.  Charles Michalek   NV    05     40
  9.  Jeff King          ME    02     36
 10.  Alfred Wong        IL    01     30
 11.  Andrew Murphy      PA    06     24
 12.  Greg Berry         VA    04     24
 13.  Don Tatum          MD    02     24
 14.  Phil Rollins       ME    00     24
 15.  John Sharp III     FL    00     18
 16.  Mike Terrana       GA    99     18
 17.  James D. Long      PA    06     12
 18.  Eric Lind          CA    03     12
 19.  Joe Collinson      MD    01     12
 20.  Barry Shoults      MI    99     12
 21.  Richard Beyma      MD    99      9
 22.  James H. Long      PA    05      8
 23.  David Rynkowski    NY    04      6
 24.  Russell Vane       VA    03      6
 25.  David Huss         NY    01      6
 26.  John Koski         MD    00      6
 27.  Rich Curtin        NY    99      6
 28.  Matt Tolman        UT    06      4
 29.  Kevin McCarthy     OH    99      3

2006 Laurelists

Andrew Murphy, PA
2nd

Philip Shea, VA
3rd

James D. Long, PA
4th

Kevin Keller, MD
5th

Matt Tolman, UT
6th


Past Winners

Kevin Keller, MD
1999

Tim Rothenhoefer, MD
2000

Patrick Mirk, FL
2001

Phil Rennert, MD
2002

Philip Shea, VA
2003-04

Las Vegas, NV
2005
       

At the start: Joe Powell (right) vs Tim Opinaldo in the first round.

 GM Craig Yope (left) is pressed into duty as an Eliminator in his own tournament.

 At the end: Joe Powell goes 5-0 in the Final match vs Andrew Murphy (right).

If at first you don't succeed ...

Joe Powell finally does it! Joe is known for his persistence. As a longtime member of the Avalon Hill Football Strategy league, his record was noteworthy for two very different seasons: going winless in his first year and for eventually coming as close to an undefeated season as anyone ever got.

After years of trying (and a few near misses), Joe won the 2006 tournament. His time spent reviewing the successful strategies of last year were rewarded with an undefeated run to the top. Taking a cue from last years' champ, Joe made sure he kept track of the all-important Victory Territories (VTs) while his games progressed. Proper late game planning was key to ensure that the necessary VTs were in reach and that, once taken, they could be held.

Day 1- Swiss Action:
The first day was a big improvement, with more players participating in the first round (24) than had played all last year (19). A total of 28 players eventually battled in 25 games during the swiss portion of the event.

The first round had a high percentage (67%) of concession games. After that, the second and third round games settled into a more predictable pattern of play - going the full four and a half hours and using the VT Scoring System to determine the winner.

This "tightening up" of the game play is a product of the advancement system in which the top four players move on to play in the Single Elimination (SE) play of the second day. By the third round there were five players with two wins plus another five with 1-1 records fighting for four precious slots in SE play.

I have three different player stories from the swiss rounds, that highlight the intense action to determine who moved on to SE play.

This is from Joe Powell about his first round game against newcomer Tim Opinaldo:

"On Turn 6, Germany fell. That led to Allied capture of the victory territory in Southern Europe on Turn 7.

However, the Axis still held many victory territories at the end of Turn 6. I knew that due to time limits Turn 7 would be the last turn.

During the Russian turn, I counted victory territories. Figuring out the rest of the turn for all the countries, I knew I needed to capture two territories. Much to my pleasant surprise, Tim evacuated Caucasus. Also, although I could attack Russia (Moscow), Tim did not reinforce Novosibirsk to the maximum extent. Tim was holding forces in Russia (Moscow) and even moving forces there from Caucasus.

During Germany's turn I captured Caucasus by amphibious assault from Egypt. During Japan's turn I captured Novosibirsk. Those two captures won the game with 13 victory territories.

At the end of the game Tim and I counted up the Victory Territories, the Axis had 13 and the Allies had 11.

After Russia's move on Turn 7 of the game, I thought I would win the game with 13 victory territories, believing I would capture Caucasus and Novosibirsk. I was very quiet about the game situation since I believed I could still win the game.

When we counted Victory Territories, Tim read off the territories as he and I both counted them up. Archangel was his 11th Victory Territory. Caucasus and Novosibirsk were my final two VTs that gave me 13 for the win.

On Turn 6 when Germany fell, I remembered that Charles Michalek had won games in 2005 on the basis of Victory Territories even though his IPC was lower. I knew the Victory Territories by memory derived from experience and practice, while I am not sure whether Tim knew the Victory Territories until we counted them at the end.

My second round game with Joe Morris had a similar result, with him capturing Germany on Turn 6. The game ended then due to time limits, but the Axis held 14 Victory Territories."

This is from Andrew Long about the most bizarre game of the event, his third round match against eventual runner-up Andrew Murphy:

"You're welcome to include my sad story. My stupid mistake determined which of four people faced my dad in the semi. About midway through our game, Murphy left his fleet off of Japan but had no ground troops defending. I destroyed his fleet with the U.S. and took over Japan. Britain took out the remaining Japanese naval force
sealing Japan's doom. However, that turn Germany, having held Africa the entire game, managed to take Russia and no allied troops could take it back.

Consequently, it was a huge U.S. vs. an even larger Germany. Germany definitely had the upper hand, though, being very well established on the largest land mass.

U.S. was trying to get back on the Asian mainland as soon as possible and threw all its resources for several turns into the Pacific theater. Meanwhile, Germany sent a transport down to take Brazil.

I saw it and knew that I must protect my East coast capital, but when my turn came I was playing fast to squeeze as many turns as possible into our game to give me more of a chance and I completely forgot about his German transport. Right after I completed my turn I realized what I'd done. A German tank and a man took my U.S. capital and the next turn took the West Coast and sealed the game and my chance at the semis.

The crazy thing is, if I had not lost the two U.S. VTs then I would have had more total VTs from all three games than the three people (including Murphy) who were tied for fourth place--even though I would have lost the game to Murphy. In addition, the fact that I lost those particular VTs gave Murphy the huge IPC boost he needed to outstrip the other two people he was tied with. However, I suppose it's for the best...I mean, patricide is not as accepted as it used to be."

This quick summary by Matt Tolman about his third round game against James D. Long succinctly describes the nature of the games played in the later rounds:

"My third game was a closely fought battle. In spite of a sneak attack by two German transports and a large number of planes that managed to take the UK capitol, the allies fought back and ended with a Victory Territory tie after 7 rounds of back and forth fighting. The IPC count was also close, which just goes to show that in a tight game every territory counts - not just the VTs - even on the last round of play."

As the sun was setting on the end of a long first day, I was furiously figuring out the tie-breakers to see which one, of three possible players, would fill the final SE slot.

The top two seeds - James D. Long and Joe Powell - both sported 3-0 records. Next came Philip Shea as the top player with a 2-1 record. Now to the log jam!

Former champ Kevin Keller, along with two newcomers, Andrew Murphy and Matt Tolman, posted 2-1 records and were all tied at 45 VTs. The next tie-breaker is which player had the greatest IPC percentage increase total from all three games.

As highlighted by the earlier stories, Andrew Murphy rode the wave of his final game against Andrew Long to grab the final spot in the SE play. Conversely, Matt Tolman not only lost his last game based on the second tie-breaker for determining a game (whichever side increased its IPC total) after having the game end in a VT tie, but that negative IPC result coupled with a narrow victory in the second round diminished his chances if he were to end up in a tie with others.

The moral of the story in this case is - Just win, baby! Well, yes, but more to the point is the fact that Matt Tolman needed just one more VT to win the game and ensure his place in the SE rounds with a 3-0 record and 46 VTs. To go with that, his opponent, James D. Long, even with an 11 VT loss, would still have made it into SE play as the top 2-1 player with 49 VTs. Such are the fortunes of war.

Kevin Keller was the victim of his third round defeat to the "Wandering A&A Hit Man" John Sharp III. J.S.III came out of the gate strong against the eventual eighth-place finisher Art Linse (2-1, 38 VTs) and then proceeded to disappear to play some game called Titan. Then he came waltzing back just in time to ruin Kevin's day! What might he have done had he played all three rounds?

Seventh place is a long fall, but that is where Andrew Long ended up after his fatal blunder in the game above. After the second round, he had been in second (2-0, 36 VTs), right behind his father (2-0, 38 VTs). Even a "good" loss of 10 VTs (instead of the eight he garnered in the third round) would not only have put him into the SE play but would also have knocked Andrew Murphy out. 9 VTs would have put him in the three-way tie at 45 VTs instead of Andrew Murphy, but the IPC percentages would still have been against him.

Day 2- Single Elimination Play:

The second day dawned on two semi-final matches of great interest. The first pitted the top seed James D. Long against the fourth seeded Andrew Murphy with the second game matching up two veteran campaigners, second seeded Joe Powell against third seeded Philip Shea.

In the first game, Andrew Murphy's Axis made some serious early headway and James D. Long's Allies were scrambling the rest of the game. They fought on valiantly with an eye on the other semi-final match to see whether he could scrape out a good enough game to get third place, but it became quite clear late in the round that the other game was too tight an affair for him to place any higher.

The second game had Philip Shea's Allies trying to crack Joe Powell's Axis hold. As time slipped away, the USSR slowly crumbled under the German onslaught. In the last round of play, the UK was tasked with the taking of multiple VTs to save the day for the Allies. Once the attack on Archangel failed, the game was over. Too much to do with too little resources.

These wins brought us to the final game between Joe Powell and Andrew Murphy. While waiting for Joe to come back from a restroom break before the beginning of the Final, Andrew asked me what side(s) had Joe played in his previous games. I informed him that Joe had played the Axis in all four previous games.

I then pulled out the info on Andrew as Joe returned to the table. Joe immediately turned to me and asked the same question concerning the side(s) played about Andrew. I laughed and related to him what had just transpired while he was away. Andrew also had been the Axis in all four previous games.

This set up an interesting quandary for both players. Do you stick with the side that got you there and risk giving away too much in the bid process, or do you step out of your comfort zone and play the non-preferred side with a large IPC bid.

The bid quickly got to Allies (+8) with Andrew having to decide whether to take it or counter with more to play the preferred Axis. He took the Allies (+8) and Joe later revealed that he would have jumped all over an Allies (+9) bid if it had come back to him.

That set the stage for a close game in which the IPC totals ended up being almost the same as the beginning of the game (Axis increased by 2), but once again Joe worked the board to gather up 14 VTs to Andrew's 10 VTs.

After 25+ hours of wargaming carnage, Joe Powell had reached WBC nirvana - his first Axis & Allies "wood" ... nay his first WBC wood period!

Once again, during each of the three rounds on the first day, I drew a name from the participants present and awarded a door prize. The first round winner was Don Tatum who chose to take Xeno's World at War 2004 Edition. The second round winner was James D. Long who picked up a copy of A&A D-Day. The third round prize - a copy of A&A Revised- went to Nick Pei, who had decided to hop into the event in the third round to finish off his day of gaming.

Thanks to all who participated and made the event what it is. I hope to see you all back next year and I hope you bring all your friends. (And don't stay up until 5 am, the morning of the event, like Alex Gregorio did and miss the first two rounds!!!!)

2006 Stats:

For statistical junkies, here is some of the data that I compiled. For other info, please contact me at the email address below.

Swiss Play Results-

Seed/Name	          W - L  Total VTs   Total % Increase
1) James D. Long      3-0      50        85.54
2) Joe Powell         3-0      46	       11.43
3) Philip Shea        2-1      48        89.89
4) Andrew Murphy      2-1      45       115.12
5) Kevin Keller       2-1      45        44.29
6) Matt Tolman        2-1      45        28.12
7) Andrew Long        2-1      44     (-) 6.25
8) Arthur Linse       2-1      38     (-)17.32
9) Dan Pasaric        1-2      32     (-) 6.09
10) John Sharp III    2-0      33        47.92
11) Tim Opinaldo      1-1      28        51.04
12) Marc Beauregard   0-2      15    (-) 44.20
13) Matt Daly         0-2      10    (-) 74.11
14) Don Tatum         1-0      16        21.43
15) Ty Hansen         1-0      15        35.71
16) Craig Yope        1-0      13     (-) 2.86
17) Dylan Routh       0-1      11         2.08
18) Keith Levy        0-1       9    (-) 25.04
19) Joe Morris        0-1       7         3.13
20) John Barringer    0-1       7    (-) 44.29
21) Frank Mestre      0-1       5    (-) 31.25
21) Joe Collinson     0-1       5    (-) 31.25
21) David Huss        0-1       5    (-) 31.25
21) Kevin Broh-Kahn   0-1       5    (-) 31.25
21) Nick Pei          0-1       5    (-) 31.25
26) Arthur Whitaker   0-1       5    (-) 42.86
26) Pat Mirk          0-1       5    (-) 42.86
26) Alex Gregorio     0-1       5    (-) 42.86	

Single Elimination Results-

Semi-final #1-
(4) Andrew Murphy [Axis] d. (1) James D. Long [Allies] by a score of 16 VTs (99 IPCs) to 8 VTs (67 IPCs) in 6r Rds with the Allies receiving a bid of 2 IPCs

Semi-final #2-
(2) Joe Powell [Axis] d. (3) Philip Shea [Allies] by a score of 16 VTs (85 IPCs) to 8 VTs (81 IPCs) in 5 Rds with the Allies receiving a bid of 8 IPCs

Final-
(2) Joe Powell [Axis] d. (4) Andrew Murphy [Allies] by a score of 14 VTs (72 IPCs) to 10 VTs (94 IPCs) in 5 Rds with the Allies receiving a bid of 8 IPCs

Full Tournament Stats-
Wins-               Wins By Concession-
Rd #-	Axis-	Allies-  Axis-   Allies-
   1)	9     3        5       3
   2)	3     4        0       1
   3)	4     2        2       1
     16     9        7       5
  SF)	2     0        0       0
   F)	1     0        0       0
     19     9        7       5

Record With Bids (W-L); Record With No Bid (W-L)-

Axis- Allies; Axis- Allies-

2 - 2 3 - 10 7 - 4 4 -7

Average Bid-

Axis- 4.25 IPCs Allies- 3.38 IPCs

Average Rounds Played-
Concession Games- 4.5 rds
Non-Concession Games- 5.9 rds

Quality Games Stats-
In what I term "Quality Games" (games that don't end in a concession), these are the applicable stats:

Total Games- 16
Axis Wins- 12
Allies Wins- 4
W-L
No Bid- 4 Axis (3-1) /Allies (1-3)
Axis Bid- 2 1-1
Allies Bid- 10 2-8

Average Axis Bid- 5.5 IPCs
Average Allies Bid- 3.6 IPCs

Average VTs/IPCs for an Axis win- 14.58/81.58
Average VTs/IPCs for an Allies win- 15.5/110

Average Rounds Played- 5.94 rds

 GM      Craig Yope  [2nd Year]   1313 Mayer Rd, Saint Clair, MI 48079  
    CraigYope@yahoo.com   810-367-3020

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