paths of glory  

Updated 11/23/2010

Guns of August Pre-Con
2010 WBC Report
   

 2011 Status: pending 2011 GM commitment

Stefan Mecay, TX

2009-10 Champion

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Event History
1999    Donald Stone     36
2000    Peter Reese     52
2001    David Dockter     34
2002    Peter Reese     49
2003    Rob Hassard     40
2004    Nick Anner     39
2005    Tom Drueding     34
2006    Dave Dockter     48
2007    Stefan Mecay     35
2008    Riku Riekkinen     42
2009    Stefan Mecay     50
2010    Stefan Mecay     35

WAM Event History
2003    David Dockter     32
2004     Rob Hassard     11
2005    Marvin Birnbaum     16
2006     Tom Drueding     17
2007    Chris Byrd     17
2008    Tom Drueding     20
2009    Tom Drueding     12
2010     Tom Drueding     16

PBeM Event History
2001    Stefan Mecay     40
2005    Stephen Valkyser     68
2006    Tom Drueding     64
2009    Stefan Mecay     89
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Tom Drueding      MA     10    416
  2.  Stefan Mecay      TX     10    292
  3.  David Dockter     MN     10    274
  4.  Peter Reese       VA     09    240
  5.  Chris Byrd        CT     10    208
  6.  Rob Hassard       NJ     09    181
  7.  Marvin Birnbaum   NY     09    174
  8.  Nick Anner        NY     06    126
  9.  Jim Falling       MI     07    117
 10.  Stephan Valkyser  de     05     96
 11.  Riku Riekkinen    fn     09     78
 12.  Tom Gregorio      PA     10     54
 13.  Charlie Hickok    PA     10     39
 14.  Michael Dauer     TX     10     36
 15.  John Brown        VA     04     36
 16.  Bob Heinzmann     FL     05     30
 17.  James Pei         TX     04     30
 18.  Ken Gutermuth     TX     09     28
 19.  Steve Brooks      FL     08     25
 20.  Andy Friedmann    MA     10     24
 21.  Rick Byrens       CA     07     24
 22.  Josh Alexander    MI     04     24
 23.  Steve Worrel      NC     03     18
 24.  Michael Mitchell  GA     07     16
 25.  Ed McGran         WA     05     16
 26.  Mauro Gasbarroni  it     09     12
 27.  Mel Casselberry   PA     07     12
 28.  Pat Mirk          FL     05     12
 29.  John Emery        SC     00     12
 30.  Michael Johnson   MA     01     10
 31.  Don Stone         NC     99     10
 32.  Jay Meyers        CA     10      9
 33.  Tim Hall          UT     10      9
 34.  Andrew Maly       MD     00      9
 35.  Tim Miller        GA     07      8
 36.  Johnny Hasay      PA     10      6
 37.  Peter Gurneau     WI     09      6
 38.  Steve Parrish     VA     08      6
 39.  Lance Roberts     AK     06      6
 40.  Holger Janssen    de     05      6
 41.  Pete Rohn         IL     04      6
 42.  Hank Burkhalter   TN     02      6
 43.  Nick Firer        WI     00      6
 44.  Don Johnson       VA     99      6
 45.  Ric Manns         IN     01      5
 46.  Seth Gunar        NJ     08      4
 47.  Scott Moll        VA     07      4
 48.  Dennis Culhane    PA     99      4
 49.  Bill Pettus       NJ     09      3
 50.  Steve Huskey      KS     00      3
 51.  Joe DiCamillo     PA     99      3
 52.  Doug Austin       VA     06      3
 53.  Rob Winslow       NY     99      2
 54.  Paul Horvath      CA     00      1
 55.  Paul Abrahamse    MI     99      1

2010 Laurelists                                          Repeating Laurelists:

Michael Dauer, TX
2nd

Andy Friedmann, MA
3rd

Tom Gregorio, PA
4th

Tom Drueding, MA
5th

Chris Byrd, CT
6th

Past Winners

Peter Reese, VA
2000, 2002

Dave Dockter, MN
2001, 2006

Rob Hassard, NJ
2003

Nick Anner, NY
2004

Thomas Drueding, MA
2005

Stefan MeCay, TX
2007, 2009-10

Riku Riekkinen, Finland
2008
     

Chris Senhouse and Seth Gunar try their hand at the Great War.

Tom Gregorio and Johnny Hasay dig trenches.

The Opening Guns ...

The POG fraternity gathered early again on Sunday to kick off another WBC with 36 players in attendance - down 30% from 2009. Despite the decline in combatants, the new format seems to be popular and as a result the bids for the AP are close to 1 VP (half of the previous 2 VP average bid). An interesting development this year was that even though a number of the sharks were there, as always, no one actually won all three of the qualifying rounds. The result of this was that the the contestants qualifying for the elimination rounds had records of either 2-0-1 (automatic qualification this year) or 2-1. Sadly, one of the traditional highlights of the event, the rolloff of the 2-1 players to advance did not occur as we had just enough 2-1 records to fill the three elimination rounds. Even more unusual was that three of the four semi-finalist had never progressed that far before.

Nonetheless, the Final between Messrs Dauer and Mecay was a tense affair, although unlike some prior years it did not go down to the last turn.

It was a fairly normal opening with the CP pushing into the West. The AP countered with heavy pressure on Austria, pushing all the way into Budapest, but a couple of German armies arrived just in time to kick the Allies back. Italy was able to come in early and safely before the AH could set up. Because the CP had to respond to multiple fires, the AP was able to get to TW a couple ahead of the CP. However, the CP was able to get Tsar Takes Command off as the north was weakened by the AP sending all of the new Russian armies against the Austrians. With most of the Allied armies on the map and at TW, the AP started systematically pounding the Germans. The CP had one last shot which was a Von Below attack in Italy at 6a+1 to 5a. A retreat of 2 would have cut off two Italian armies and forced the AP to send FR/BR armies down to put out the fire, but a 1-6 combo in favor of the Italians meant no breaches. With the GER 17th/18th army card nowhere in sight, a relentless three-turn assault and several dead German armies allowed the Allies to force the VP's down to 0 at the end of T10.

And with his victory, defending champ Stefan Mecay continued his hegemony over the POG world with his third title in the past four years. Only the mighty Finn, Riku Riekkinen in 2008, has been able to thwart his command of POG land since his arrival on the scene in 2007. Is there another distant Paladin out there who can stop him in 2011?

A Canadian and Brit refight the "War to End All Wars" in Lancaster, PA as Geoff Allbutt and Peter Eldridge provide the combatants.

The reigning Caesar defended his POG title despite Michael Dauer's best efforts. The two Texans travelled a long way to meet in PA.

16 players participated in our 8th WAM PoG tournament, with a previous WAM and WBC PoG champ, Tom Drueding, walking away with another gold ring. 15 games were played.

As usual, we allowed gamers to try any of the PoG "family" of games (Barbarossa to Berlin, Triumph of Chaos, Shifting Sands or Pursuit of Glory) in the prelim rounds. And, we are happy to report that all were played in addition to the historical Paths of Glory variant we have recently begun using at WBC. There were an equal split of AP and CP victories in the early rounds among the 16 players.

The semi's included Drueding's CP matched up against Hall's AP and Hickok's CP vs Dockter's AP. In that game, Hickok's Army of Islam dug a very timely trench to save Turkey from a combined French Army of the Orient and Greek force. The CP seemed to be on the ropes the entire game, until the Treaty of Brest Litovsk was played on Turn 18 with only five Russian cities in the claws of the CP. That combined with three victory cities in the West, a push in Italy, Belgrade and a High Seas fleet brought the victory total to 11. Turn 20 witnessed a frantic AP attack in the west and the Italian border to pry one last VP loose, but to no avail. The game came down to one long shot attempt by Laurence of Arabia vs. Kemel in Medina on AP 6. Unlike history, the Turks had their big guns facing in the correct direction and the attack was successfully thwarted. However, Hickok indicated he was "fried" after the marathon game and would not be able to get in another game. The solution we arrived at was to have Dockter play Drueding in the Final; if Drueding won, the gold would be his. If Dockter won, there would be no WAM PoG champion in 2010.

Dockter played the CP with a bid of 0. An early push in the West resulted in the CP getting a trench in Calais and Cambrai verses a lonely AP trench in Ostend. In the Near East, the CP virtually ignored the front after a supply fiasco occurred around Gaza. The Near East eventually fell when the CP decided not to aggressively defend the front or bring Bulgaria into the war. Italy witnessed a number of critical battles at Bologna, with the three southern Italian victory cities eventually falling to the CP, but the AP retaining the Verona/Bologna magic trench line. The late game witnessed a see-saw fight in the East and West, with both sides holding on by the thinnest of gray/white/tan/red/blue margins. On Turn 17, the CP began to collapse in the West and the game was called in time for the late night March Madness tourney to begin. Mr. Drueding had won his third consecutive WAM title.

2010 WAM LAURELISTS

Charles Hickok, PA
2nd

David Dockter, MN
3rd

Jay Meyers, CA
4th

Johnny Hasay, PA
5th

Tim Hall, UT
6th

 GM      Peter Reese  [5th Year]   NA  
   preese4@cox,net   (NA)

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