Drueding Victorious in 2022: A Second WBC POG Championship for Tom
After a seventeen year hiatus, Tom Drueding claims his second WBC POG Championship. (His third counting his BPA PBEM win from 2006.) Just as important to the broader POG community, it was with great relief that the POG faithful reassembled in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania to compete in Paths of Glory after a two-year pandemic pause. There’s been a lot of Online POG played in the past few years but in-person play adds a whole new level of excitement and pressure.
Turnout was lighter than in previous years with seventeen participants emerging from their Covid bunkers to man the front lines at WBC. (Perhaps a reflection of the overall WBC turnout, something to keep an eye on next year.) We had a few ‘new’ players but a closer inspection revealed they were new to the POG tournament at WBC, not POG itself. (Yes, that’s you, Jim F., you’ve been playing this game for more than two decades!). As always, we had an international contingent in attendance, thanks for crossing the border, Erin, BB, and Peter!
One significant change from prior years was holding the POG event in the Winterberry venue, this was a large-capacity event room being used for the “Grognard Wargames”; POG seemed to be a natural fit. (The area in Foggy Goggle was no longer viable as it was turned into a boisterous “Ax Throwing” bar!) While the views may not have been as relaxing as the slopes seen from the Goggle, the accessibility and gaming environment was much more conducive to relaxing play.
The POG historical tournament scenario continues to be used with most bids being in the -1 to +1 range with the main determinant for bid being a cool-eyed assessment of your own strength as a particular side supplemented by what you think is your opponents favored side. Sixteen total games were played with the CP winning eight and the AP winning eight.
Opening Weekend Action: The schedule was the same as in previous years – a Saturday afternoon Mulligan round and then an official first round on Sunday morning. When we started our third round Sunday PM we had a perfect eight participants for the single elimination portion of the event which meant we were able to have the finals on Tuesday. A cursory glance of the participants revealed a very thick concentration of sharks so, as might be expected, the competition was high.
The Money Rounds: In the first semi-final match, Tom Drueding advanced past Richard Beyma with a strategy based on pounding the Austria-Hungarians. In the other semi-final, Alex Gregorio muscled his way past perennial champion Michael Dauer with some cleverness on turn 1; Alex ignored the OOS threat to Brussels when a German corps was deployed to Sedan. Because the CP didn’t have Race to the Sea, the AP was able to reopen the supply routes a few rounds later and the CP was subsequently denied Brussels and, ultimately, a win.
It’s been a long time since Alex beat Michael. One amusing anecdote fondly remembered was Michael, in the presence of Alex’s mom, proclaimed he was going to “CRUSH” her young son. Noticing the mortified look on her face, he quickly clarified that he’d do it “gently”. That only somewhat soothed her concerns. War is hell but a riled up mom is worse.
Finals Summary: Tom Drueding (AP) vs Alex Gregorio (CP)
In the finals, Alex’s CP used Entrench to buttress the AH by placing the trench in Budapest. He then drove into northern Russia, seemingly a clear path to take out Russia early. Unfortunately, Tom was able to keep the other fronts active and Alex was always forced to respond. Serbia was never cleared out and the French Army of the Orient was brought in at Salonika and led the AP drive into Constantinople and took out the Turks. The CP then had to struggle to finish off the Russians and clear the Balkans with endgame battles over Ploesti, Bucharest, and Odessa. When the dust settled, Tom’s AP took the win on Turn 20.
Post Tourney Musings
The final six placings, in order, were: Tom Drueding, Alex Gregorio, Richard Beyma, Michael Dauer, Nick Benedict, and David Bleau. (Welcome to the Sand Man club, David!). Someone asked me how POG seems to be so consistently a “Prize Level 6” event. While the intricacies of the formula are beyond my ken, at the end of the day a huge factor is the sheer number of hours players put into the game. In a typical year, the finalists can expect to have put in 30+ hours into the event, sometimes more if they lose their mulligan. There is no doubt the event can be somewhat of a marathon; losing early is sometimes a blessing as that mid-week POG ‘hangover’ after the multiday-POG-party can be a bruiser!
In addition to playing in the finals, Alex and Michael also ably served as GMs – thank you! We look forward to seeing you again in 2023: Please don’t hesitate to drop this GM a note in the off-season if you have any thoughts regarding the event, I’m always open to changes that will enhance the event with a key focus on making it more ‘accessible’ to newer players.
1.0 Tournament Format
This tournament will be a double elimination event. Players will be matched up with players with similar records but players with a different number of losses will be matched if necessary. The final two players will be matched in a winner-take-all match for the tournament championship.
Prizes: Fame, fortune, AREA points, and BPA Plaques and Laurels.
Late Starts & Eliminators: Late registering players may join in on the second round but they will be credited with a tournament loss, i.e., latecomers are effectively now in a single-elimination tournament. In the event of an odd number of players in a round, eliminators will be used to ensure that everyone gets to play. (Eliminators will be drawn from the ranks of tournament participants.)
2.0 Tournament Administration
The GM will be Tom Gregorio; Michael Dauer and Paul Hubbard will serve as assistant GMs.
Tom, Michael, and Paul will be individually assigned to games as moderators; the moderator is your first point of contact for any issues related to that game. The moderator has the right to escalate any issue to the other GMs. GM rulings are final. Participants need to alert Tom by February 1st of their interest, matches will commence on February 9th. The first two rounds will be approximately four months in duration with subsequent rounds being about three and a half months. All participants must be members of the BPA; it should be noted that $10 gets you access to all BPA sponsored PBEM events. The BPA membership page is here.
3.0 Playing the Match
All games will be played on ACTS in a match set up by the GMs. Please make sure you have a 
valid ACTS account established prior to your game starting. (www.warhorsesim.com) All dice will be ‘thrown’ using the ACTS interface. The historical scenario, as used at the World Boardgaming Championships, will be the default scenario. Unlike earlier tournaments, supply warnings are required for BPA IX. The GMT Deluxe Rules for POG (2018) are in effect.
- Players may agree, IN ADVANCE, to use a different scenario, modified rules, or go without supply warnings; any such agreements should be noted in the ACTS player log and the moderator alerted if a new ACTS game has to be created to accommodate the agreed upon scenario.
- Individuals are not required to exchange move files or VASSAL logs; the ACTS log is THE authoritative record of the game for all GM purposes.
- Players are strongly encouraged to NOT use anonymous ACTS accounts – please use your full name as this simplifies match setups for the moderators and helps your ACTS opponents who may have multiple games going on.
- VASSAL is strongly recommended as the PBEM platform. The POG 10.5 module is the latest; it works with the latest version of VASSAL and has numerous ease-of-play enhancements.
- If you want to play using the optional cards, and your opponent agrees, go here for information on a variant that was playtested at the 2016 World Boardgaming Championships.
4.0 Tournament Scenario: The historical scenario (Rule Section 5.7) is the default scenario. (The same scenario that has been used the last ten years for the BPA WBC and PBEM events.) Both players may consent to play a different scenario as long as they record their agreement in the log and their game conduct abides by all other event rules. (Example of the latter: Players may not decide that they can take six months to finish their match.)
4.1 Bidding for Sides
Bidding is conducted as per 5.6.1. Note – no negative bids are allowed. A random roll by the players will determine which side bids first once players confirm the scenario and rules. In recent organized competition using the WBC scenario, the average bid was around 1 for the AP. (Giving the CP 1 VP at the end of the game.) Please contact the moderator if you need assistance with changing the assigned sides in the ACTS game.
5.0 Reporting for Duty
The tournament has not yet started. Recruiting is ongoing with late entrants still obliged to finish their matches by the designated round end date. If you can’t find answers to your questions about the event on the POG Tourney FAQ page, please don’t hesitate to send your query to Tom.
