2006 WBC A&A Revised Tournament

[Yoper]

Here is the link to the event preview for the 2006 World Boardgaming Championships (WBC) A&A tournament:

http://www.boardgamers.org/yearbkex/a&apge.htm

I hope to see you there!

Craig A. Yope
WBC A&A Event GM

[djensen47]

What is WBC?

[Hiro]

World Boardgame Championship.

I cannot wait until it starts. It looks like a lot of fun.

[Yoper]

Besides a great tournament, I will also be raffling off a variety of prizes to participants.

For example, last year I gave away a copy of A&A Revised, a Xeno's World at War plus the W@W Expansion pack, and various Table Tactics plastic parts packages.

This year should be similar with the addition of my famous dice towers and maybe one or two other secret projects.

Craig

[squirecam]

If you want a nice alternative to Greg's tournament system, give this one a chance.

Feel free to slap the GM around a bit though...

Squirecam

[Yoper]

..........Feel free to slap the GM around a bit though...

Squirecam

Oh, you can try! :rolleyes:

I just wouldn't advise it. :eek:

Craig ;)

[Hiro]

Bump...If you get board bring some A&A minis and we can play that too

[squirecam]

Besides a great tournament, I will also be raffling off a variety of prizes to participants.

For example, last year I gave away a copy of A&A Revised, a Xeno's World at War plus the W@W Expansion pack, and various Table Tactics plastic parts packages.

This year should be similar with the addition of my {defective} dice towers and maybe one or two other secret projects.

Craig

Edited for accuracy. :)

Squirecam

[TrimChris]

What was the WBC A&A attendance last year?

[squirecam]

19-20 I think.

Squirecam

[Yoper]

There were 19 entrants in a year in which the convention changed venues (Baltimore metro area to Lancaster, PA) and in which I, as the first year GM, introduced play of the new version of the game.

We shall see what kind of increase the event can generate now that some of the variables have been smoothed out.

I hope that I can get at least 24 participants, but I would love to get around 32.

Unlike Greg Smorey's Origins and Gen Con Indy tournaments, which are 2-player teams, the WBC tourney is 1-on-1.

Craig

[Hiro]

I am tryin to bring at least 2 others.

[squirecam]

Just prepare yourself for the differences. Greg's system is more geared to getting a VC + IPC.

In Yoper's system, really it all comes down to VC. As long as you have a VC lead, you do not need to be ahead in IPC. Concentrate on these VC and you should do fine.

The reason why is there is only one allied VC in Africa (though I think there should be one in SA and one less in USSR). So the allies can lose Africa, but only lose the allied Egypt VC. Just focus on the rest.

Squirecam

[TrimChris]

I find the WBC ruleset more interesting so far.

[squirecam]

I find the WBC ruleset more interesting so far.

because???

Squirecam

[TrimChris]

With all of the victory locations, I see more of the map becomes a potential battlefield for other reasons then pure economic gain.

For a tournament game that will only go 5 or 6 rounds, you sometimes need a short term reason to visit certain map sections.

[Yoper]

Victory Territories (VTs), not Victory Cities (VCs).

Craig

[TrimChris]

PBCBM - Places Best Controlled by Me

[Yoper]

I just don't want someone to think that I am using the OotB VCs.

They suck!

Craig

[Yoper]

I have tried to get the link in my event preview changed from the LHTR (v1.2) pdf at the daak site to the LHTR (v1.3) pdf that is at Greg Smorey's site.

I thought that it was changed.

I now realized that the Smorey site is listed, but when you click on the link it takes you to the daak site.

I am working on this at this time. If you want the LHTR (v1.3) pdf you can get it at this link:

http://www.geocities.com/headlesshorseman2/LHTRupdatedmay2006.pdf

Craig

[Yoper]

The link at the WBC A&A Event Preview page has been fixed.

It will now take you to the LHTR (v1.3) pdf that is present at the Smorey Swamp site.

http://www.boardgamers.org/yearbkex/a&apge.htm

The time draws near!

Two weeks from today, the carnage will be in full swing!

I hope to see you there.

Craig

[Yoper]

One week!

Let the carnage begin!

Craig

[Hiro]

I cannot awit for the pain. I have been practicing and feel pretty good about playing 3 games.

[squirecam]

As my glorious title reign comes to a close, I can only say...

Yoper still sucks :)

Squirecam

[Yoper]

All the guys will miss you. :(

NOT!!!!!!!! :p

Your finals foe has A&A listed as his game for the team tournament.

I think that it is a pretty good bet that he will place in the event and get his team some points.

Craig

[TrimChris]

I'll be at the WBC, but probably not playing in the A&A tourney (well maybe I can squeeze in one game). Too many other games there I want to do.

But my roommate may pester me about this. Some guy named Craig Yope. Anyone ever hear of him? ;)

[Hiro]

But my roommate may perster me about this. Some guy named Craig Yope. Anyone ever hear of him? ;)

I am so srry about that, but we all cannot be idependently wealthy like greg. Travelign the world playing A&A and having wacky adventures.

[smo63]

I am so srry about that, but we all cannot be idependently wealthy like greg. Travelign the world playing A&A and having wacky adventures.

Did you mean Craig or Greg? If greg is correct...independently wealthy...must be speaking of someone else...

Peace,
GS:)

[Hiro]

Did you mean Craig or Greg? If greg is correct...independently wealthy...must be speaking of someone else...

Peace,
GS:)
Yeah, you. Do you not go to every major convention? While us little people can only go to 1 or 2 at the most. I am jsut jealous that is all. You get to see such a large group of players in different venues. Craig is a bum.

[squirecam]

Yeah, you. Do you not go to every major convention? While us little people can only go to 1 or 2 at the most. I am jsut jealous that is all. You get to see such a large group of players in different venues. Craig is a bum.

Greg is actually working at these conventions mind you. So yes he is there, but he has to deal with all of us. Not always easy.

I wish you forum-ites all the luck at the WBC. Be sure to annoy Yoper... just not too much. :)

Squirecam

And just for Yoper...

Still the "Real" WBC champion

[Hiro]

Yeah I know he is "working" but honestly what a great opportunity to meet all of us boards freaks. I am so excited I have been playing a lot of solo games as practice. 5 days away.

[smo63]

Thanks...oh, and on a personal note, unfourtunetly, I will NOT be at the WBC. Two major CON's as an Independant is more than my wife can handle. That is unless, GCSC is in the future?

Peace and Good Luck to all this week! See you next week!

GS:)

[Yoper]

I'll be at the WBC, but probably not playing in the A&A tourney (well maybe I can squeeze in one game). Too many other games there I want to do.

But my roommate may pester me about this. Some guy named Craig Yope. Anyone ever hear of him? ;)

Had I known, I wouldn't have allowed this to happen! :eek:

Now I have to live with TrimChris wittisisms all week. :confused:

Wish me luck! :(

Craig

[Yoper]

I know that it can be confusing, but:

Greg Smorey (smo63)- GM of the Origins and GCI A&A events

Craig Yope (Yoper)- GM of the WBC A&A event


One of these days I will get "the man" to come out to the WBC and play.

Until then we will soldier on without him.

Craig

[squirecam]

One of these days I will get "the man" to come out to the WBC and play.

Craig

Been there. Won it. No need to repeat. :)

Squirecam

[squirecam]

Hows the tournament going???

Squirecam

[Hiro]

I was 1-1 I almost won my first game, but it ccame down to 11-13 VT. I had Germany in T5 and was on my way west with 13 tanks to crush japan, but we ran out of time and I was unable to secure eygpt for the VT tie and the IPC win. I dominated my second game VT (17-7) and IPC. There was a lot of talk of you not being there to defend your title and they were disappointed. I believe someone cried, "won't someone please think about the children!" But it is a differenet crowd than GenCon. Yoper and I were talking about that. After the first round the field was roughly cut in half becasue no one wanted to continue playing after losing. I would have stayed for the 3rd round but my little brother was tired. I am as yoper put, one of those A&A freaks. Honestly I think it is a great scoring system and look forward to playing again next year. It makes for some great pacific battle, because I do not think you can play allies without building some fleet in the pacific and jumping to the island. Even if you are doing KGF, you have to at least try to curb the japanese from taking their fleet to India and africa.

Both times I was the allies with a bid of 0! No onw wanted to bid. I started out with a bid to play the axis of 7 each time, but no one took me up on it.

On my second game I did capture Japan on turn 5 and nearly lost Britain first round. He attacked with 2 guys and a lot of planes. I missed my first round of AA and all my defenders.

[squirecam]

Well, I enjoyed the WBC and all, but when Gencon is next week its hard to skip it, and going to both was impossible.

Glad to see your report though. How's TrimChris doing???

Squirecam

[Hiro]

I did not see him or did not introduce myself to any roman caesars. I forgot about he was going to be there.

[Yoper]

Still decompressing from a long six days of travel and gaming.

I will finish up processing the info concerning the event and will post it later this week.

Hiro had fun. Trim Chris had other events to play in and did quite well in them.

I actually won the History of the World event. Quite a surprise!

Craig

[TrimChris]

I just got back in town 4 hours ago. All kinds of airplane snafus coming back. I had to spend the night in Atlanta and take a later flight back to Dallas than I wanted today.

Anyway, the WBC was great! I'm already ready for next year.

I won my first HotW game and got to play in the final with Craig. There I was the lowly 5th place out of 6 players, but it was a relatively close game from 1st to 6th I think. And my HotW games there were only the second and third times I'd ever played the game! :eek:

I won 1st place in Goa, and took 2nd in War of the Ring. :D

I didn't get a chance to play any A&A, but I passed Craig's tourney several times and it looked like it clicked very well. Don't ask him about his first Acquire game though because his response would surely exceed the post length limit. :p

[smo63]

SO, who won the AA tournament. Who dethroned Squirecam without defending his title?

Inquiry minds what to know...

GS:)

[Yoper]

Long time WBC A&A veteran Joe Powell finally won the whole thing. He defeated WBC newcomer Andrew Murphy in the finals.

A full report will be coming soon.

Craig

[squirecam]

Congrats to Joe.

Squirecam

[Hiro]

That is the guy I lost too in the first round so now I do not feel as bad. Congrats Joe.

[Yoper]

Well, you were Squirecamed then.

Joe did his homework and was using what he learned from Squirecam's play last year.

Craig

[Hiro]

I was just happy playing now I must win next year's WBC A&A and other acronyms.

[TrimChris]

Well, you were Squirecamed then.

Joe did his homework and was using what he learned from Squirecam's play last year.

Craig

I believe that should have two M's. "Squirecammed".

[Yoper]

SHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Do you really think they would have noticed that if you hadn't said something?

Actually, I didn't notice it.

Must have been an unconscious/Freudian slip kind of thing.

Craig

[squirecam]

Yoper,

cant respond to your PM unless you delete some...

Squirecam

[Yoper]

It's cleansed!

Craig

[Yoper]

The event AAR will be posted here soon.

Craig

[Yoper]

Here it is in all it glory!

(It is broken up into three posts.)

************************************************** **********

Joe Powell finally does it!

After years of trying (and a few near misses), Joe Powell won the 2006 WBC Axis & Allies 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 great success, with more players participating in the first round (24) than had played all last year (19). A final total of 28 players battled in 25 games during the swiss portion of the event.

The first round of games 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 players (This year it was the top four.) move on to play in the Single Elimination (SE) play of the second day. By the third round of play there were five players with (2-0) records plus another five players with (1-1) records fighting for the four precious slots in SE play.

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

This is from Joe Powell about his first round game against newcomer Tim Opinaldo ("Hiro" here on the AH boards):

“On turn six, 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 was Axis) I counted victory territories. Figuring out the rest of the turn for all the countries, I knew I needed to capture 2 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 turn 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 after turn 6 due to time limits, but the Axis held 14 Victory Territories.”

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

“You're welcome to include my sad story from my game against Andrew Murphy. 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 *** 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 huger Germany. Germany definitely had the upper hand, though, being very well established on the huge world continent.

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. My stupid mistake determined which of the four of us made the semi-final round against my Dad.

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 played 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 dust was settling on the end of a long first day, I was furiously figuring out the tie-breakers to see which one, of the 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 insure 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 the 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 eight-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 get the opponent he wanted! What might he have done had he played all three rounds?

Seventh place is a long way down, but that is where Andrew Long ended up dropping to after his fatal blunder in the game mentioned earlier. After the second round of games, he had been the second-place player (2-0, 36 VTs), right behind his father (2-0, 38 VTs). Even a “good” loss of 10 VTs (instead of the 8 VTs 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 probably been against him.


Craig

[Yoper]

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 headway early on and James D. Long’s Allies were scrambling the rest of the game. Allies 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 squeeze in.

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 bathroom 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- Axis & Allies “wood”!

Once again, during each of the three round 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 make 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!!!!)


Craig

[Yoper]

Attached in the stat info in word.doc form for better viewing of the info.

************************************************** *******

2006 Stats:

For all the 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 8VTs (67 IPCs) in 6 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

Finals-
(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

[TrimChris]

Thanks for the write-up Craig. I'll have to give your VT version a go next time I play a local game.

I posted a Geeklist on Boardgamegeek a few weeks ago with my WBC experience.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/15924

[Yoper]

The official version (The convention director likes to play editor with everyones writeup. :( ) of the event AAR is up at this link:

http://www.boardgamers.org/yearbook/a&apge.htm

Tim Opinaldo is better know here on the AH boards as Hiro.

Craig