AAR: 2015.1 Battle on the Mississippi

July 11th was the first ever Battle on the Mississippi Flames of War tournament at Deaf Records in LaCrosse Wisconsin. Bill, Chuck and I had been planning this for months and it was great to see it all come together.  It was a 1710 point midwar tournament with 3 rounds.

A huge thanks to Deaf Ear Records for hosting the tournament.

We had 9 tables set for the players, all themed for midwar actions. We want to extend a thank you to all those that brought terrain.

Table #1 Eastern Front

Table #2 Gala Sicily

Table #3 Mt Etna Sicily

Table #4 Second Battle of Alemein

Table #5 Kharkov City Fighting

Table #6 Fighting on the Stepps

Table #7 Kursk

Table #8 Kassering Pass

Table #9 Russian Winter

An important piece of any tournament is the prizes. For this we have both donations from local players as well as Battlefront to thank for our prize pool. We really do have to give a super huge thanks to Battlefront for donating prizes, especially for a first time tournament in the midwest!

We had 16 players in attendance all total. As two were younger players we put them into their own bracket. We had a good draw from Wisconsin as well as from Minnesota. The nice thing about LaCrosse is it is centrally located for those from Madison, the Twin Cities, Rochester, and Appleton/Green Bay. I think the furtherest player drove ~195 miles to attend.

Thank you to all the players that made it for the game. It was a great bunch and we were all happy things went smoothly. We hope everyone had a great time.

Everyone played 3 rounds through the course of the day. These were rolled for at the start of the day. The first was a Defensive battle with Hold the Line, next was a Fair Fight with Dust Up and last we had a Mobile Fight with Counter attack.

Round 1

• Matt Vach (Americans) vs John Dudkiewicz (Germans)
• Keith Gilmour (British) vs Mike Mathews (Germans)
• Eric Saterdahlen (Americans) vs Joe Abisz (Germans)
• Ben Aehl (Soviets) vs Rick Davis (Germans)
• Roy Hayes (Soviets) vs Bill Wojahn (Hungarians)
• John Stentz (Soviets) vs Tom Gall (Germans)
• Collin Chouinard (Americans) vs Pat Barkuloo (German)
• Ian (Americans) vs Damien (Germans)

Round 2

• John Stentz vs Bill Wojahn
• Collin Chouinard vs Joe Abisz
• Matt Vach vs Tom Gall
• Keith Gilmour vs Pat Barkuloo
• Ian vs Damien
• Ben Aehl vs Mike Mathews
• Eric Saterdahlen vs Rick Davis
• Roy Hayes vs John Dudkiewicz

Round 3

• Mike Mathews vs Tom Gall
• Ian vs Damien
• Joe Abisz vs Bill Wojahn
• Collin Chouinard vs Rick Davis
• Keith Gilmour vs Ben Aehl
• Matt Vach vs Pat Barkuloo
• Roy Hayes vs John Stentz
• Eric Saterdahlen vs John Dudkiewicz

Results

1. Keith Gilmour (18 points)
2. John Stentz  (18 points)
3. Eric Saterdahlen (14 points)
4. Roy Hayes (13 points)
5. Ben Aehl (12 points)
6. Joe Abisz (10 points)
7. Pat Barkuloo (10 points)
8. Rick Davis (10 points)
9. Collin Chouinard (8 points)
10. Mike Mathews (8 points)
11. Matt Vach (8 points)
12. Tom Gall (6 points)
13. John Dudkiewicz (3 points)
14. Bill Wojahn (3 points)

The dinosaur “traveling” trophy (for really bad die roll of the day) went to Joe Abisz.

Roy Hayes won the best painted with his Soviet army. This was by vote from all that attended.

Here’s Roys Soviets in action.

 

For the younger division, Damien was the winner, besting Ian in 2 of the 3.

Pat Barkuloo was recognized as the best sportsman of the tournament.

With that, thanks again to all that attended. If I spelled anything wrong, it’s my fault!  Thanks again to Chuck and Bill my fellow conspirators for getting the Battle on the Mississippi 2015.1 off the ground!

We hope to see you on August 29th at the same place, and same time for Battle on the Mississippi 2015.2!