The Dog Days: Summer lies heavy for our boys fighting in the trenches. There are fewer of them, but they are neither dispirited nor cowed. For most of our POG brethren, their continued tournament participation rests on the outcome of match. Even the undefeated, however, are not complacent – it’s not going to be getting any easier. (As a reminder, we’re matching people with similar records.) This round will be longer than most to provide some extra time away from the front. For a lucky few, July will bring with it a trip to Pennsylvania where the faithful will push POG cardboard across paper maps – see you at WBC!
Round 2 Summary: Round 2 finished in fine form – the GMs did not have to do ANY adjudications which was a pleasant surprise. An unpleasant surprise, at least for CP players, was the fact that, when the dust settled, the AP had won 35 of 54 matches. We’re not sure what to make of that but if this trend holds, we’d expect bidding to climb for those wanting to play the AP.
Round 2 Numerical Recap:
- Average bid for an AP win: .89 VP
- Average bid for a CP win: .84
- Seventeen of the POG TOP TWENTY AREA rated players cut their way through the second round; the sharks are numerous and hungry in this event.
- 13 of 54 matches completed on turn 15 or later with six matches going the full 20.
Round 3 Highlights:
- The current round will run from June 16th to October 20th.
- We have 79 participants in 40 matches with Mike Dauer serving as an eliminator.
- The “A Pool”, those who have no losses, are in 12 matches while the “B Pool” has 28 matches. Matchups are here.
- There are 36 fallen comrades watching from the sidelines with 28 more to join them after this round is over.
- The average bid for the AP this round was 1.12 with two-thirds of the games featuring a bid of 1 VP for the AP.
- As of June 30th, ten games are still on turn 1. The average game has reached turn 3 and twelve games have reached or passed turn 6.
- Two out of 40 matches already complete.
Looking Back: July 1917
- Zeppelin Raids: Kaputt. The second daylight raid on London by Gotha bombers made clear that the menace from the air still existed even if gas filled behemoths could no longer roam English skies.
- Convoy implementation: This naval operational tactic marked the beginning of the end to the U-Boat threat.
- ANA: Lawrence captures Aqaba and the imagination of war-weary civilians back home. (It also helps O’Toole capture an Oscar nomination decades later but the merits of that are beyond the scope of this update.)
- Brusilov replaced by Kerensky- German and Austria-Hungary counterattack and make inroads into Galicia.
- Zimmerman resigns but too late – America is in the war.
July Puzzle: This month’s puzzle is about supply and attrition. At the end of Turn 8, depicted as red move “1” below, Lawrence leads the ANA into Aleppo. At the end of the next turn, he leads them on a daring dash to Diyarbakir, black move “2″. Assume that no other units beyond ANA do any moves or attacks. At the end of Lawrence’s daring dash on turn 9, what is the VP count swing in the Near East?
POG Seventh Edition: At this time a little over 300 pre-orders have been booked; meanwhile the development focus continues to be on the artwork. Those with concerns about the ahistorical German borders near France and Denmark can be assured that this will be addressed. Numerous place names will also be corrected; inhabitants of Stanislau and Debrecen will be happy as well as Turkish players from Adaparazi.
Looking Forward: July 2017
The POG tournament at WBC is less than a month away. If you happen to be near Seven Springs, Pennsylvania on the weekend starting July 22nd, you know what you need to be doing – POGing your brains out! Come join us in the Foggy Goggle – not too many tournaments feature their own private bars and mountainside views! It should be no surprise that the historical scenario will be the default scenario, the days of easy wins by crushing Italy early or Germany quickly yielding the lands west of the Rhine are long gone.
Regards,
Tom, Michael, Paul
Your POG GMs