Axis and Allies .org Forums: 2008 WBC A&A Tournament

2008 WBC Event AAR-

Day 1-
The first day saw 17 games played over the course of three rounds. With quality players matching up in the second and third rounds, consistent play was the watchword for all who wanted to advance to Single Elimination play the following day. A few of the event newcomers that won a first round match came to see that their Axis & Allies “education” wasn’t complete until they had the pleasure of playing some of the tournament veterans.

The third round pitted six combatants vying for the four spots in the semi-final round. Matt Tolman and Dan Pasaric joined previous event champs Patrick Mirk, Kevin Keller, Joe Powell, and Ty Hansen in the fight to continue on.

Actually, after the 2nd round of play, the fifth-ranked player Bob Starr (who had a very good chance to advance) decided to drop out of the tournament, reducing the possible contenders to the aforementioned six. This situation highlights the positives of the VT scoring system. It allows one to lose a game, albeit a close loss, and still have a good chance to advance.

In the third round games, Kevin Keller (1-1) needed to win against Matt Tolman (2-0) to move on. He did so in what would be a foreshadowing of events to come. His buddy Joe Powell (1-1) won his third round match but needed Kevin to lose so as to secure his place in the final four. Joe’s fate was sealed in the second round because of a bad loss at the hands of last year’s champ Ty Hansen. In the final determining game, Patrick Mirk handled Ty to gain the top seed for the SE rounds.

During the first day of the tournament, during each round, I draw out names of event participants and they receive prizes that were either donated by myself or by the Table Tactics game company. Below are the recipients for this year:

Promotional Prizes-
#1-               #2-               #3-
A&A Revised-            A&A Guadalcanal-         A&A Guadalcanal-
Al Hurda            Matt Tolman            Ty Hansen

Table Tactics-            Table Tactics-            Table Tactics-
Michael Corrigan          Dan Pasaric            Marc Murphy

The following chart is the player rankings based on the games from the first day’s preliminary rounds.

   Player Rankings
   Player #   W-L   TVTs   IPC % >
1   Patrick Mirk   3-0   47   52.58929
2   Matt Tolman   2-1   48   73.48214
3   Ty Hansen   2-1   45   34.82143
4   Kevin Keller   2-1   44   54.40476
5   Joe Powell   2-1   39   22.85714
6   Dan Pasaric   1-2   27   -44.8214
7   Marc Murphy   2-0   31   38.54167
8   Bob Starr   1-1   25   0.267857
9   Alex Gregorio   1-1   24   0
10   Steve Cole   1-1   23   -2.08333
11   Christopher Goodman    0-2   17   -72.8571
12   Peter Corrigan   0-1   9   -8.33333
13   Angus McDonald   0-1   8   -19.7917
14   Colum McCurdy   0-1   6   -38.5714
15   Adam Kozina   0-1   5   -29.1667
16   Michael Corrigan   0-1   5   -31.25
17   Al Hurda   0-1   5   -42.8571

The top four players (based on the rankings above) moved onto the Single-Elimination rounds of the second day.

Day 2-
After the dust settled, the match ups for the semis were set. No. 1 seed Patrick Mirk (3-0) against no. 4 seed Kevin Keller (2-1) in one game with no. 2 seed Matt Tolman (2-1) against no. 3 seed Ty Hansen (2-1) in the other.

SF #1-
Early German defeats in the Mediterranean theater forced Kevin (Axis) to gamble on a “Sea Lion” attack upon the UK Home Isles in Turn 2. Germany not only seized England with just one armor unit left, but also was able to withstand a weak UK attempt to retake the homeland.

At that point, Patrick (Allies) decided to concede.

SF #2-
The Western Allies (Ty) established a pipeline of troops through Norway to help the USSR on the Eastern Front. This move north allowed the Germans free reign in Africa. The US (Chinese troops) was actually able to take French Indochina because of the Japanese focus on taking India.

Bad dice for the Allies in Karelia S.S.R. caused the pipeline of troops to be seriously interrupted. The door was then opened for a German armor thrust to Moscow that succeeded. The Germans also took the Caucasus territory on the same turn. The UK then liberated Moscow from the clutches of the evil invaders.

In the Pacific, the Japanese finally initiated (and prevailed in) a large naval battle after the US had moved forward from Hawaii to take Wake Island.

The Soviet recaptured the Caucasus, stabilizing the Eastern Front against the Germans. But the Japanese started to finally push up through the China corridor, taking the center Allied VTs, and solidified the Axis’ (Matt) winning position.

The victories by Kevin Keller and Matt Tolman set up a finals rematch from the third round of the day before. Kevin won the first match as the Axis and then played the finals as the Allies.

Final-
The first round saw early dead zoning of territories on the Eastern Front by the Germans and Soviets. The Japanese sent fleet assets down to the Borneo to swat an early UK incursion. The UK and US mass their Atlantic navies off of Algeria in sea zone 12 and the US builds an IC in Sinkiang.

The USSR is active in the Soviet Far East and in China, clearly a concerted effort to support the US IC build. With the German Mediterranean fleet moving into sea zone 13, along with the majority of the Luftwaffe based in Western Europe, the UK is force to attack with air and naval forces of its own.

The USSR starts slowly pushing westward on the Eastern Front while the WA mass their combined fleet in sea zone 7.

The Japanese reclaim their Asian mainland holdings of Manchuria and Kwangtung from the Soviets. They have however lost French Indochina to US armor marauding forth from the Sinkiang IC.

The German Baltic Fleet dashed out to sea zone 3, on turn three, while the WA fleet was in the western Mediterranean. That set up a turn four, trans-Atlantic lunge to take Eastern Canada. In counter to that, the UK fleet enters the Baltic and takes Eastern Europe, cutting off a large German force in Karelia S.S.R.

Japan reinforces Manchuria but by doing so loses Kwangtung to the advancing US armor. The US Pacific fleet moves south to Australia putting it in a position to threaten the Indonesian VTs.

The USSR consolidated its Eastern Front forces in the West Russia territory thus setting up a massive battle when the Germans in Karelia decide to attack it. The Germans fall back after having taken the worst in that attack but they do clear out the UK forces in Eastern Europe in a separate attack.

The Japanese wipe out the rampaging US armor in China and then take India and Buryatia S.S.R. They also set up some blocking ships in the South Pacific to slow the US advance upon their island empire. The US blows through the blocking ships to take New Guinea in force.

The USSR took Ukraine S.S.R., West Russia, and Belorussia, along with the UK grabbing Norway and Eastern Europe. Japan counters by taking a long cruise to capture the Egyptian VT. The US then takes the VTs of Borneo and East Indies as the Japanese outer defensive ring crumbles.

In the final round, Soviet armor masses on the doorstep of Berlin and the US pushes up the gut to take the Philippines VT.

Kevin Keller ended up defeating Matt Tolman for a second time in the tournament. He is now a two-time champ with one win in each of the A&A editions- Second and Revised.

Tournament Stats-

      Axis Wins-     Allied Wins-
Round #1-     4 (1)     4 (1)

Round #2-     2 (1)       3 (0)

Round #3-     2 (0)       2 (1)

Semifinals-     2 (1)       0 (0)

Finals-        0 (0)       1 (0)
        --------     -------
Totals-        10 (3)       10 (2)

(*) - The number in parentheses is the number of concession wins that occurred in each instance.

            Axis      Allies
Average VTs in a Win-       16.6      16.1

Average IPCs in a Win-      89.8       116.7

Average Rounds in a Win-   5.3       6

Bidding-
      Axis Wins-   Allied Wins-
No Bid-           1           3

Axis Bid-     2           0

Allied Bid-     7           7

Average Axis Bid- 2 IPCs
Average Allies Bid- 5.5 IPCs

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

      Axis Wins-     Allied Wins-
Round #1-     3         3

Round #2-     1         3

Round #3-     2         1

Semifinals-     1         0

Finals-        0         1
        -----        -----
Totals-        7         8

            Axis      Allies
Average VTs in a Win-       15.57      15.38

Average IPCs in a Win-      85.43      114.38

Average Rounds in a Win-   5.86      6.25

Bidding-
      Axis Wins-   Allied Wins-
No Bid-           1        1

Axis Bid-     2        0

Allied Bid-     5        7

Average Axis Bid- 2 IPCs
Average Allies Bid- 5.67 IPCs

As always, I am thankful for the help and support of my assistant GMs, Kevin Keller and Joe Powell. They quietly keep things on an even keel and that helps make the event a pleasant experience for all.

I also thank all who participated in the event this year and I hope that all return for more fun next year!