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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.
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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.
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