bitter woods   

Updated Nov. 23, 2012

2012 WBC Report    

 2013 Status: pending 2013 GM commitment

Tom Gregorio, PA

2011-12 Champion

 

WBC Event History
1999    Phil Evans     19
2000    Randy Heller     16
2001    Rich Ogata     14
2002    Tom Gregorio     16
2003    Bob Ryan     17
2004    Bob Ryan     20
2005    Randy Heller     20
2006    Steve Likevich     21
2007    Tom Gregorio     21
2008    Tom Gregorio     22
2009     Tom Gregorio     26
2010    Bruno Sinigaglio     22
2011    Tom Gregorio     21
2012    Tom Gregorio     25

PBeM Event History
2000    Randy Heller     20
2001    Bob Ryan     27
2002    Tom Gregorio     25
2005    Phil Evans     27
2008    Bruno Sinigaglio     32
2011    Bruno Sinigaglio     23
2012    Bruno Sinigaglio     28

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Tom Gregorio       PA    12    293
  2.  Randy Heller       NH    12    227
  3.  Bruno Sinigaglio   AK    12    182
  4.  Bob Ryan           MI    09    128
  5.  Bill Morse         VA    12    111
  6.  Phil Evans         fr    05     94
  7.  Forrest Pafenberg  VA    12     89
  8.  Steve Likevich     OH    12     65
  9.  Marty Musella      VA    12     51
 10.  Mike Mitchell      GA    09     42
 11.  John Grant Jr      CT    01     35
 12.  Rich Ogata         VA    01     30
 13.  Mike Pacheco       CA    05     24
 14.  Ed Witkowski       VA    12     20
 15.  Mike Kaye          MD    11     18
 16.  Buddy Sinigaglio   CO    08     18
 17.  Dan Tierney        CA    05     18
 18.  Larry Hollern      TX    12     15
 19.  Lance Roberts      AK    11     15
 20.  Doug James         NC    06     15
 21.  Jeff Hacker        PA    10     12
 22.  Johnny Hasay       PA    11      9
 23.  Larry Meyers       AZ    11      9
 24.  Jeff Lange         ae    11      9
 25.  John Popiden       CA    04      9
 26.  Nick Frydas        uk    03      9
 27.  Kevin Hacker       PA    09      8
 28.  Jim Tracy          OH    05      7
 29.  Frank Sinigaglio   NJ    08      3
 30.  Rob Mull           CO    02      3
 31.  Chris Roginsky     PA    01      3
 32.  Paul Koenig        CA    00      3
 33.  Rob Beyma          MD    02      2

2012 Laurelists                                      Repeating Laurelists: 

Marty Musella, VA
2nd

Forrest Pafenberg, VA
3rd

Bill Morse, VA
4th

Bruno Sinigaglio, AK
5th

Ed Witkowski, VA
6th

Past Winners

Phil Evans, fr
1999

Randy Heller, MD
2000, 2005

Rich Ogata, VA
2001

Tom Gregorio, PA
2002, 2007-09, 2011-12

Bob Ryan, MI
2003-04

Steve Likevich, OH
2006

Bruno Sinigaglio, AK
2010
     

Johnny Hasay mugs with Marty Musella showing off his 50th anniversary Waterloo shirt.

Ed Witkowski and Charles Catania tussle in an unseasonably warm Ardennes winter offensive.

Roll the Panzers ...

This year's tournament suffered through a bout of the tropics as the temperature and humidity in the Lampeter taxed the stamina of players more accustomed to the frigid climes of the winter battle. The turnout was negatively affected by the elements, but still advanced 16 players to the second round.

In Round 2, favorites Tom Gregorio, Bruno Sinigaglio, Bill Morse and Forest Pafenberg triumphed over Frank Sinigaglio, Jeremy Osteen, Bob Bassin and Charley Catania, respectively. In more hotly contested games, Jonny Hasay prevailed over Kevin Hackers, Ed Witkowski survived vs Robert Frisby and Cory Wells bamboozled Roger Eastep. The best game of the round was a nail biter that went to the final die roll as LTC Marty Musella, USMC (r) defeated fourth highest AREA rated player Commander Randy Heller, USN (r).

In the quarterfinals, a second major upset shocked the field when the extremely unpredictable Forrest Pafenberg dumped top AREA rated player Bruno Sinigaglio. Paffy played flawlessly with the Krauts against Bruno in a replay of a doncon rivalry stretching back to the 70's. Marty Musella squeezed by Johnny Hasay, Tom Gregorio thumped Ed Witkowski and Bill Morse pounded an eliminator filling in for Cory Wells. It was a bitter sweet circumstance for Cory, as he had to bypass this Bitter Woods round in order to play a well publicized championship grudge match of "The Man from Uncle" against his nefarious nemesis Roger Eastep.

In one of the semifinal games, Forrest Pafenberg continued to display his unpredictability by getting totally crushed by Tom Gregorio in three turns. In the last round Paffy was flawless -- in this round Paffy was clueless. Paffy played the American side and attempted to hold forward -- almost certain death. It must be noted, that Paffy is famous for a Bulge 81 Final in which he killed no units on the 16AM Turn -- 1 chance in 802. Paffy also once killed 130 factors of Germans on one die roll in a Bitter Woods campaign game championship.

In the other semifinal, Marty Musella upset another shark as AREA's third-ranked Bill Morse lost. Bill's Germans rolled poorly on 16AM and most of Marty's Americans were able to escape entrapment. On 16PM Bill managed an exploitation breakout in the center with the 116/60 Panzer Grenadier, but Marty trapped the unit and it self-destructed on a self-surrounded counterattack. At Vianden and before Clervaux, Bill's Germans were stopped cold as neither bridge was rebuilt. In the 6th Panzer Army area, Peiper managed to get behind the American infantry and threaten Eupen, but alas, an unfortunate die roll prevented a German exploitation move into the victory point town. In the end, Bill was one victory point shy of a win.

The Final between Tom and Marty was anti-climactic and over in a few turns, as Marty's Americans used the same unsuccessful tactic tried by Paffy against Tom's Germans. Marty decided to hold forward to his regret. It was rumored that Marty was trying to disprove Einstein's definition of insanity. After this game, astute bystanders observed Bill Morse silently thinking that he would never hold forward as the Americans in his upcoming BPA PBeM DBW Tournament championship game vs. Bruno.

Congratulations are in order for Bitter Woods Board Master Tommy Gregorio who has now garnered six WBC Bitter Woods titles plus a PBeM version as well.

Bob Bassin plays the designer of the game, Randy Heller.

Frank Sinigaglio tussles with six-time champ Tom Gregorio.


 Play By Email 2012

The BPA PBeM Deluxe Bitter Woods Tournament featuring the play of the 16AM Offensive has ended with Bruno Sinigaglio's Germans defeating Bill Morse for his third consecutive PBeM Bitter Woods title. The tournament used a single elimination format with no byes. Players defeated in earlier rounds were employed as Eliminators to complete rounds with an uneven number of players to avoid byes and minimize the number of rounds required. A total of 31 games were played by the field of 28 entrants with the Germans winning 16.

The player pool was split by AREA rating. The 14 players with the higher AREA ratings in one pool were randomly paired versus the players with the lower ratings. As the winner, Bruno receives a BPA Plaque and a $50.00 gift certificate for a WBC vendor of choice. In addition, Charles Drozd, the highest achieving player in the lower half of the pool also receives a $50.00 gift certificate. Other laurel earners in order fro 3rd to 6th were: Tom Gregorio, Larry Hollern, Steve Likevich and Randy Heller.

 GM      Bruno Sinigaglio  [1st Year]  NA
    brunofjs@hotmail.com   NA

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